moonskittle's sketchies: updating daily and looking to grow

[moonskittles]

I picked this sketchbook back up after a couple years. Go to the next page to see much more recent stuff.


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I'm new here to Concept Art - I stumbled upon the site by accident looking for some drawing references on head angles. But I really am excited about posting sketches and getting critique! Yay!
I'm seventeen, and my name is Natasha. Most of what I do is semi-cartoony-illustration-watercolors. Recently I've been working on doing still life and life drawings to get more experience and be able to put more detail into my imaginative drawings.

The first picture below is of different elements on my bus ride today; the top piece is the back of a mirror and the bottom is the back of the seat in front of me. It's a bit rough, but I was drawing these on a bumpy moving bus, only having about five to fifteen minutes on each.

The second is of trees, obviously. They are the trees nearby where I wait for said buses.
(don't mind the face. )

And the third is my work for the first assignment on Concept Art 101 The chair is real while the shirt is my imaginative insert.

[moonskittles]

These are a few self portrait exercises. The first one failed terribly but was good practice.
The second two are the second assignment of Concept Art 101, being to draw yourself from a mirror and then add something to it that wasn't actually there.

[drd]

Perfect attitude and great base drawing skills. If you work hard on this you can become a whole crapload better.
I'm 15, great to see other young artists around CA.

First post yay

[moonskittles]

Yay! Thank you very much! ^.^

Okie dokie, update time!

Today I wanted to work more on people sketching, but the only person I was really able to get for a model at the time was myself. This didn't seem to present too much of a problem, but in the end it actually did.

The first one, of my feet, was fine. However, the last three had to be ended before I was actually finished for various reasons: the one with the propped leg was cutting off blood circulation to my foot, which became very uncomfortable after fifteen minutes. The second involved me standing, and I have never drawn while standing before and discovered it to be rather uncomfortable, especially when I couldn't move my legs or feet at all. And the last one ended up going till ten o'clock, and I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, so I was starving. I must say that it's a bit intimidating to post pictures involving yourself as the nude model.
Oh, and the one with me standing was done with a mirror, which is why my anklets suddenly switched to the other side. Not that I expect any of you to have noticed that.

[Peter Berkovski]

Hey moonskittlesvery nice Sb, i like your selfportrait studyes specialy last one i'm kid.
Keep it up

[TheDonut]

I like it! Your second portrait is my favourite. You're definately on the right track so keep it up

[Zombie_dla]

Your got talent that's for sure. Keep drawing and you'll get really good in no time. Your lins look clean most of the time but I would suggest you did some hairstudies - not that your hair awful, it got nice flow and density, but it looks like cloth in some pictures. I'm not very good at drawing hair so I might be wrong about this. Anyways, update often and you'll improve fast!

[drd]

Your got talent that's for sure. Keep drawing and you'll get really good in no time. Your lins look clean most of the time but I would suggest you did some hairstudies - not that your hair awful, it got nice flow and density, but it looks like cloth in some pictures. I'm not very good at drawing hair so I might be wrong about this. Anyways, update often and you'll improve fast!

Hah, yeah, even I don't know how to draw hair effectively...I mean, I know how (Just draw all of the strands) But I'd rather have a faster way to do it. =/

Still looking good. =)

[moonskittles]

lol. Do realize that in the last self portrait, it IS cloth; I've got a towel wrapped around my head, as I had just gotten out of the shower.
But I know that my hair in the others doesn't quite look right, either. I'll try practicing some hair then! ^.^ Thanks.

[Looped_Warrior]

What a great start to a sketchbook! Thanks for stopping by mine....

Must be quite nerve racking to be posting a nude self portrait huh? haha

Nice work on the SPs what kind of pencil are you using?

One comment/critique I have for you is that you should try adding more tone and value, so your self portraits have form instead of being simply line drawings... You started to do this in your second post but you need to push it further... dont get me wrong this is a GREAT start!

and just a quick note on hair... Hair has a very dark value, you have to add in highlights to give it the form that it needs...

Keep looking at everyone elses stuff... its all amazing, let it inspire you and your mind will soak it all up like a sponge... try to learn as much as you can from everyone on here, dont be afraid to ask questions...

keep up the studies... are you trying to make this into a daily sketchbook?

p.s. my drawing is a 2 min gesture of a girl sleeping on a table... i guess the way i blocked in her hair and hand kind of makes it look like a bunny man, but from now on ill only be able to think of it as that...

[moonskittles]

What a great start to a sketchbook! Thanks for stopping by mine....

Must be quite nerve racking to be posting a nude self portrait huh? haha

Nice work on the SPs what kind of pencil are you using?

One comment/critique I have for you is that you should try adding more tone and value, so your self portraits have form instead of being simply line drawings... You started to do this in your second post but you need to push it further... dont get me wrong this is a GREAT start!

and just a quick note on hair... Hair has a very dark value, you have to add in highlights to give it the form that it needs...

Keep looking at everyone elses stuff... its all amazing, let it inspire you and your mind will soak it all up like a sponge... try to learn as much as you can from everyone on here, dont be afraid to ask questions...

keep up the studies... are you trying to make this into a daily sketchbook?

p.s. my drawing is a 2 min gesture of a girl sleeping on a table... i guess the way i blocked in her hair and hand kind of makes it look like a bunny man, but from now on ill only be able to think of it as that...

Yay thank you!
Ahhh right! You're right about the hair; I realized that before but sort of semi-forgot it. In any case I'm already working on practicing hair now.

And the kind of pencil varies. The SPs I believe are mostly in mechanical, and my pictures of the outside world are done with this cheap, really hard and light pencil. Just ordinary writing pencils. I have drawing pencils, though. Hm. I guess I should use them. XD

And yes, I am trying to make this a daily SB. I wonder how long I can keep it up.

[moonskittles]

Here's an update for things I did later yesterday. I'll update again tonight with all the things I do today.

The first was a sketch of a girl on the bus, and of a dumpster. The dumpster drawing got cut off short because my bus came.
There's also a woman's feet that was waiting for the bus and one of the bus doors. I'm generally not too happy with any of the stuff I had done at that point.
Then I have an imaginative drawing in which I used a few references for hair, cheeks, etc. I realized that for the longset time I've drawn the face profile wrong; usually my nose is too large and the eyes too large and far back. I think the nose-cheek area on this one might be too long. What do you guys think?

[kovah]

I think you are doing really well, especially with the human studies. The still life however could do with a little more work. In some of them I can see where you have drawn what you think its there rather than what is there. Especially in the first two drawings. I had a teacher once that said you should look more at the thing you are drawing than the drawing itself.

[devbot]

hey im also young and just started out. youv got a talent base for sure just keep drawing.

i like the last picture.

[chiodo]

i really like the drawing for the second conceptart101 assignment. it's
got a nice dynamic flow of lines and shading. the hands are way too small, i
guess, but doesn't matter.. i like it.
nothing to say apart from that right now, just keep on rocking! you've got
a lot of potential to develop here..

[moonskittles]

Here's the rest of the things I did today, as promised.
The first was a hair/anatomy study done from a photo I found online.
The rest are sketches of things I encountered on the bus or waiting for it. Sorry about the wrinkle in the paper over the mailbox.

[Looped_Warrior]

Yay! Check out that hair! Thats what I was talking about woot! keep it up... at this pace youll be pro in no time.... but i would suggest slowing down you are making the rest of us look like slackers! haha

good work on the hair and the highlights, i kind of think that you picked that picture to practice hair

now just need some skin tones... people are hard to draw, but seems like you are getting the knack of it!

Its kind of really hard to tell the proportions of your profile, did you draw that from a picture or just from what you think/know what you look like?
I would suggest taking a picture for a reference and trying that out...

and in agreement with kovah, you should be looking at what it is that you are drawing 90 percent of the time and your actual drawing 10% of the time... only then will you know what is actually there...

[Zombie_dla]

Nice progress on the hair, looks really good now. Oh, and about the towel, I was refering to the portrait before that. Anyways good work, I'll be monitoring your progress.

ps. It's funny how many comments you can get for posting yourself in the nudes, maybe I should try that too

[Mat Kaminski]

You definitely seem to have a knack for anatomy! I especially like the last one, with the hair/anatomy study. That one looks amazing! Great value/contrast. You've even achieved hair texture with a pencil. Great job, keep up the good work there. As far as those exercises, keep going with those, I just started those myself lol. So hope to see more on that end.

As far as talking about your own work, try not to down yourself all the time... "...this is no good.","...my work here sucks.", etc. It just tends to bring down your confidence. And thus you start believing what you say. Overall it's just bad practice Understandably though, I'm not saying to not self-critique, just don't take it to the harsh level. Especially when you're getting praise

Oh, and here's another place to maybe get a couple lessons plus a good lesson on self-critique: Itch Studios

Good luck and keep drawing

[moonskittles]

@ Looped_Warrior: Yessum, I chose the picture of the bent-over girl especially for her hair. And my SPs are done using a mirror. I know that drawing from pictures is easier than from a mirror, but can you please explain any advantage I might have learning-wise in drawing from a picture instead? Or were you answering my question about the length of the nose on the one picture? If so, that was done from a mix of my own thoughts and some photo references for parts I wasn't sure on.
And please explain what you mean by "skin tones." Do you mean add more value, or add more color?

@ Zombie_dla: I figured you were referring to that one, but I wanted to be sure. And thank you very much.

@ Malakai: Thank you! I like that one, too. I'm trying to loosen myself up and not be afraid to add value and contrast to skin. And I suppose you're right about the self-insults. I sort of wanted to just be sure that everyone understood that I KNOW that particular piece is wrong. I'm usually quite proud of my artistic skill, although coming onto this site with all its fricking GENIUSES is a bit intimidating. And sankyuu for the link.


Yay! Uppy Uppy Update! Thursdays are tough on me to find time to draw and update, as I have very little time on them. I must get up at 7:30, leave at 8:27 for my bus, walk half a mile, get on the second bus at 9:15, work on my study course from 10 AM until 5 PM, then ride two buses to the learning center, tutor little kids on how to read until 7:20, walk a mile home, and make dinner, eat, clean, and do everything else required of daily living. But I managed! Yay! XD
I really like the one of the queeny lady. I was experimenting using a Q-tip to blend.
And I am quite aware that I've only drawn females, and only drawn profile and front faces. I CAN draw otherwise, and I will make a point to do so.

[Looped_Warrior]

Yay... updated....

Yes I was referring to the proportion of the nose to the face.... if you had a picture you would be able to get the correct proportion down... other than that you really shouldnt draw from pictures unless you have no other reference.

If possible always draw from life and work on your observation skills....
and yes by skin tones I mean value... keep pushing the value studies and really work the soft highlights made by the light on your skin...

Nice queeny lady... from ref? or imagination? looks really good i like the soft gradation of the values that you get from the q-tip.....use a really soft pencil like a 6b when you are blending so you can push the values as far as possible....

also nice gesture drawing... I would suggest doing as many of those as you possibly can so you get the right proportions and really express movement in a short period of time.... dont just draw the outline draw through the gesture let the energy flow through the pencil for a 30 sec to 1 min gesture... fill up a couple pages with them....

[moonskittles]

@ Looped_Warrior: The queen was from imagination. And the gesture drawing was actually sort of an accident; the man stood in the way of my stop sign! So I drew him to make him go away (as everyone moves as soon as I start drawing them) But thanks for the tips!

Ehhhh I sort of forgot the whole scan-and-update step yesterday. I drew, but I forgot to post it until shortly past midnight when I was lying there almost asleep in my bed.

IN ANY CASE. Here is the post. I forgot to bring drawing paper with me to the outside world, so excuse the lined paper. The boy with the strange ears is obviously from imagination. The foot is mine. I started drawing a facial SP, then got irritated about the fact that I looked so angry (which I can't see now when I look at the picture, but w/e), so I decided to draw my foot, which grew into a panties shot.

[Calis]

you got some good work here, keep at it like you're going right now and you'll improve very fast
i'm glad you didn't get sucked up in this whole anime trend in art, thats why i like these boards, you don't see too much of that here
anyways, keep adding lots of shadows to your drawings, lots of contrast to give it dimension
i can't see whethere you build your drawings here or just draw, but do that lol, build them up, start with stickfigures and so on, i'm sure you've heard the gist of it already
also try creating shadows with hatching and crosshatching, its good fun, quick, though it can be pretty difficult so go easy on it for now ;p

[ArtznCraphs]

Good start to this thing. Keep up the working from life, as it's the best thing you can do at your age.

Maybe use a softer/darker pencil and push the value contrast on your drawings. Don't be afraid to get bold, you can always correct/trace over/begin anew.

[drd]

Oh yeah, much better now. I can already see improvement.

=)

[moonskittles]

@ Calis: Hmm stickfigures. I've seen a few people do that int heir SBs. What I've taken to doing is sketching out the basic form and then adding details. I've done the stickfigure thing on occasion, usually when drawing from imagination and developing a pose. And I've been interested in crosshatching, but somehow intimidated by it. When I've tried it in the past it never looks right. Thanks for the tips!

@ ArtznCraphs: Yes, I've started pushing myself to add more and more value/contrast. Thanks for the tip.

@ Dan: Yay! Thank you!

Well, today's update consists of two incomplete pieces from photo refs. I'm aware I shouldn't do too much of that, but I don't have any boys to actually have sit still in real life and let me draw them, and I wasn't at all sure of the pose on the second one.

[Yacob]

Hey, this stuff looks really good. I can see improvement already, especially with your rendering.

[kovah]

I love funnyears boy, he looks great. And the queen pictures is nice also. The last one woman with a flute has a really nice variation in its line work. Getting better XD

[moonskittles]

@ Yacob: thank you! But what exactly is meant by rendering? I have heard this term around here but don't quite get what it means.

@ Kovah: Thank you ^.^ I like those ones too. What do you mean about the line variation? I almost see what you mean but not specifically, and I feel whatever you are complimenting might be an accident.

Woooooo update! Only two pieces this time, working with value/contrast and ink and crosshatching. I think my crosshatching looks weird. Someone help me, please.
Both of these are from imagination.

[Looped_Warrior]

Your cross hatching doesn't look "weird" its just that you have alot of space between the lines.... im a big fan of hatching... i really like tight lines to describe the form... keep it up!