Endregan's Journey Sketchbook _ paintfest 2005

**endregan** · July 25th, 2003, 03:30 PM

Well I have been wanting to start my own thread for this, got some materials for my birthday and am excited to be sketching. Much props to WildSpruceMoose (my brother) for use of his scanner.

Here is the beginning, can't scan every single thing I do but I'd like to share with you and hope to progress. Any comments and critiques welcome, I have a lot of room for improvement!

1stpage of my sketchbook

did a lot of bridgman studies as you can see...

An ode to an inspiration of mine, Jon Foster. playing with pen and ink on the side as well as pencils.

Thanks, Hope to have a good time.

**thomasaurus** · July 25th, 2003, 03:43 PM

keep working at it!

**endregan** · July 25th, 2003, 05:50 PM

thx for the encouragement

**Jeff Gran** · July 25th, 2003, 05:57 PM

cool man you finally got your own thread. :cool:
The bridgman studies look pretty good, but I would concentrate on getting cleaner lines...something I am also working on right now. Try to draw slower, that may help. Bridgman's style makes it look like he drew really fast all the time, but I have a feeling they took longer than it looks. Anyway, keep posting stuff, I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

The skeleton diagrams look particularly good to me, BTW.

:chug:

**endregan** · July 25th, 2003, 06:43 PM

yeah... thanks Jeff I guess I am getting sloppy with my linework. must keep practicing and perfecting. Guess I do gestural sketching a lot, then don't erase and leave it all looking blotchy. Thanks for the feedback I'll definitely work on it!

**antihero** · July 26th, 2003, 04:45 AM

hey endregan,

I agree with Jeff, that your linework needs some improvements (so does mine). I think it's easier to see where the mistakes happen when you draw in clear lines, because when you do very sketchy paintings it looks like "not too bad" and "nearly correct" even though there might be fundamental mistakes.
Except for that, your sketches look pretty good! i think your shading is allready better than mine...

The skeleton views (diagrams?) look pretty good to me also, i'm thinking about buying that bridgeman book...

Keep it up!

antihero

**endregan** · July 26th, 2003, 02:56 PM

thanks antihero. It will be like learning to draw all over again, because that is how i draw... Oh but have no fear Ill keep it up! Shading is a definite weak area of mine, but ill get to that soon enough! seeya around. maybe post some more sketches or dump some later maybe monday

**endregan** · July 28th, 2003, 09:18 PM

Did some more, sketching a lot more now and keeping in mind the tightness of the lines, however I do believe a sketch is a sketch still and must not always be pure lines...but thats beside the point I am keeping it and mind and love all of your feedback. I am trying more from my head after I do studies and I find I can draw better from it. It may take a while but Im prepared to draw and draw and draw...

.

Heres the next batch, about 10 images to give you an insight of what I have been up to. Any comments appreciated.

**antihero** · July 29th, 2003, 01:25 PM

and now... what's that?

Maybe you only posted the wrong pics...

The last one show some pretty good pictures, with very clear&clean strokes...

The anatomy Studies look good! maybe you could do some more studies about single parts of the body, not all at once, but maybe that's just me...

Serious, the recent stuff looks good. Excuse my ramble in here.

Go on!

antihero

**endregan** · July 29th, 2003, 01:50 PM

thanks anti

. lately i have been doing torso studies so this is why you see a lot of body. I am slowly working through anatomy, havent gotten to arms hands feet or legs really, but am still attempting every now and then. Im moving on to the lowerbody and different parts of the body as I go on and its great to put it all together.

It will take a lot more practice but I am enjoying this. Thanks for all the feedback. I'll be hoping to post some more scans today perhaps, and maybe some of my old digital paintings I haven't posted at CA for you to have a look

.

Thanks again anti for taking the time to comment !

Taking one step at a time,
Jack.

**endregan** · July 29th, 2003, 10:33 PM

Im back in action and got a few scans. Some old paintings done too. Some of these sketches I found turned out better if I spent longer. Was fun, learning more as I go.

Bridgman torso studies..

free sketching, trying out torso, some quick others more controlled..

more bridgman torso studies, some hatching on the side/shading practice

spent a while on these. found out the more i spent with the forms and values the better they were...all from head! Of course not perfect but is okay!

some crazy idea I had surrounded in random head sketches

practising angles of the head sort of. was fun to do a lot on one page, not all of them are perfect, perhaps a tad flat but they were quick and fun. bottom of the page is my fav.

not sure if ill get back to this serra angel painting, going back to sketching for values then i might try painting every now and then again..

Did these in Photoshop, worked out okay as it was my first digital paintings that I spent a while on. Did these for art class and opened up a new world of possibilities, the teacher was impressed and liked them. I know they aren't perfect but I like them

.

Thanks for stopping by and again any comments appreciated!

**Jeff Gran** · July 30th, 2003, 01:59 AM

good stuff man. I also find that it helps to switch back and forth between studies/copies and imagination drawings. You apply what you learn as you go. And I know what you mean about spending longer on a drawing...it seems obvious but you can't really draw without thinking. The more you think about what you're doing the better it is, and it usually takes longer because you get caught up in it. anyway, just rambling here...keep it up.

**jester** · July 30th, 2003, 03:06 AM

Hi Endregan, just want to tell you that your anatomy studies look really good - keep doing them until you feel confident about what you are doing.

As for your color works - try to read a bit about color theory.

Jester

**Fipse** · July 30th, 2003, 07:42 AM

As told above some good anatomy studies. Some of your no-ref bodies seem to me a bit out of line as if you´ve been going fast to the details and lose the coherence of the whole figure. Maybe it would be a good practise to use mannikin-figures like shown in the Loomis-books (and afaik Hogarth is using them, too) to get a better grip to overall anatomy and the movement of the body. I myself am using this mannikins all the time to check poses, movements and composition (not always successful but that´s another story

).

Keep your passion!

Fipse

**TheBlasianOne** · July 31st, 2003, 02:55 AM

I can tell that you're very committed to drawing, and drawing a lot. You've been studying Bridgeman I noticed so obviously you're on the right track. Studies and life drawings are a great way to get around blocks and plateaus, especially for myself. Good work, man.

Blasian

**metaphysiks** · July 31st, 2003, 03:13 AM

blasian is right. first and foremost you are showing the will to become a better artist. i believe that this is more important than having any "natural talent"
if you have no drive you have no motivation and without it you have no improvement. keep studying but remember to learn from brdigman rather than attempt to draw like him. he has such an appealing style it becomes very easy to teach yourself to draw like him rather than take the information in his sketches and learn to apply them to your own. keep up the good work and i cant wait for another update.
meta

**endregan** · August 1st, 2003, 01:48 PM

Thanks everyone so much for the encouragement and comments, I appreciate it very much! Sorry for not updating sooner, been organizing my room to fit a large table to do my art in. Been busy lately but I hope to dump some sketches every now and then as much I can. Below are replies to your comments and the next batch!!

jeff- I know what you mean too. Its great to study from reference, draw from life and such and then just use what we learnt and apply it from our heads on paper, and just go free with our minds. It's a great thing and I will be doing studies and then using my imagination, sort of evolving as I go with skill and then applying it!

jester- thanks for the kind words. I am not really focussing on colour right now as you can see, and they were about a month or more old - but they were attempts. I am hoping to study colour once I understand value better first... will be interesting to see the next time I paint!!

Fipse- thank you for taking the time to notice. I am not exactly perfect from memory yet but as I learn more and more the more things dont look right so I must erase and then fix it and such. The manikin studies sound good. I will make sure to double check and think about positions and keep drawing until i get it right. Will take a while and some time but Im up for it!

blasian - hehe thanks man. nice to know that what im learning has worked for others and lets me know I should just keep at it.

meta- Thank you, I have always been determined for what I love and I dont give up easy no matter what..

. I will keep in mind that his work is stylised and try and work on the forms rather his linework, but it does get hard sometimes...but I will surely do my best to at least be aware I am drawing his contours and style. Thanks for the advice.

Here we go!

Studies:

Randoms:

**metaphysiks** · August 2nd, 2003, 03:03 PM

good to see an update. i can see that you are still drawing from bridgman. when drawing from him ask yourself some questions. how does he draw this? what muscles does he show? How does he describe the forms and what volumes does he pay attention to? these questions will allow you to be aware of why these lines are put down instead of putting them there because he has put them there. this thinking will allow you to make more conscious decisions when you attempt to render the body. keep it up
meta

**Iiori** · August 2nd, 2003, 03:29 PM

Wow, I see alot of improvements especially with your torso studies from the begining to the end. Great job.

**OrangeCatNinja** · August 5th, 2003, 01:49 PM

i'm definetly seeing a lot of good improvement, i just got the bridgman book too!

looks good man! =)

**golgari** · August 5th, 2003, 02:40 PM

hey endregan...you're doing well

those studies look very good, and the poses in your last random sketches look pretty good, too. the main problem i see with your sketches are the proportions, i think. maybe pay a little bit more attention to these the next time. otherwise, just keep going!

**endregan** · August 5th, 2003, 09:30 PM

Thanks guys. Will be more sketches to come - have been really busy lately! will have more time to respond to comments. till later!

**tinyhands** · August 6th, 2003, 04:44 PM

those are some decent bridgman studies, but I think what your forgetting, or maybe just don't know, is that although bridgman is kind of a chaotic draughtsman, every line he's putting in his drawings are describing form. There describing where the musculature is inserting and how its strapping over the skeleton and bones. So alot of those lines are describing the directional flow of the muscles. One other thing, like alot of others said, slow down and do these studies real methodically. What I didn't see in any of your drawings, were the big shapes. Try starting out with big shapes and then work your way down to the smaller shapes. Just starting off randomly with line in a single point is alot harder. Its great that your taking and putting in the time to study them though. keep it up. Bridgman is really tough at first, but it gets easier.

**endregan** · August 6th, 2003, 09:41 PM

Thank you tinyhands so much!!! Will try for forms and gesture over line... and will and have been taking a heck of a lot more time then I used to. I know I have progressed slightly and will keep pushing to keep at it. we can never plateau we can always have the drive for something better, different, unique, or exact!!

Sorry my server is down right now....will be back up in a couple hours as they are moving servers over. Will have a new batch of sketches for you then. Thanks guys again

, been real busy !

**endregan** · August 7th, 2003, 09:59 AM

Next batch...got some in so be prepared!! Still sketching as much as I can even though Im really busy!

Thanks everyone for your input!

**WildSpruceMoose** · August 7th, 2003, 01:19 PM

Hey these look very familiar

Hehe I've scanned all these endregan and I've told you in real life, may as well embarass you infront of this art community, that each time I scan a new set they show more and more improvement. I'm slowly trying to do some anatomy of my own

These look great. I really loved the arm study, as I was putting that in I thought, damn that's nice.

**tinyhands** · August 7th, 2003, 01:21 PM

those are looking better endregan. One thing to remember also, which alot of people don't know, is that when bridgman taught at the art students league, he was drawing from a great distance away as well as above him. This was so everyone could see, because the class sizes were really large. So he was really erasing anything, so sometimes he'd be going over his own drawing to make a point of to specify what he was trying to teach. So often on alot of his drawings, there will be places that hes going over his own drawing. So when you do these, also try and edit so of the lines out too. Great job. Keep on doing them. If you want endregan, i can email you some of my old bridgman stuff, as i am in the process of getting a server. There kinda old but I think for where you at you could probably benefit, and probably get a better understanding of where you need to be taking these studies.

**golgari** · August 8th, 2003, 02:46 AM

the arm studies look pretty good.
your own stuff looks still somehow out of proportion...plus it's a little bit strangely twisted and partly flat. try thinking about breaking down the main masses of the body in simple shapes like boxes...like that, you'll both get a little bit more volumetric approach and it'll be easier to get them right in perspective...

**endregan** · August 13th, 2003, 12:19 PM

tinyhands: thanks for the comment! nice to know how bridgman did these i was always wondering

. sure email me [email protected] or link up your bridgman studies it would be appreciated!!

golgari: hmmm yeah my own stuff isnt from life so it isnt really perfect, but as i progress i assume i will slowly draw from my imagination with disciplinary form in mind. thanks for the tip

heres the next batch. been real busy but will try and fit in drawing a lot more !

randoms

**golgari** · August 13th, 2003, 02:28 PM

houah, that's _quite_ a batch. good studies (you posted one page two times, though?)
one thing i notice throughout most of your own figures is that they all have extremely strong neck-muscles, which makes them look over-muscely and clumsy - at least for my taste.
you might want to check that...