Ampersand's Sketchbook

[Ampersand]

Hello everyone! I've been lurking about for a while, wondering whether to post or not - everyone's ever so good and I feel very childish. After acquainting myself with some of the 'Worst of CA' threads to get a good idea of how not to do things, I thought I may as well go for it and start a sketchbook.

Well, a little about me: I'm 17 years old, self-taught so far, and though I've been drawing since I was small it was only a year or so ago that I started to take it seriously. I still have so much to learn and hopefully this place will help me improve.

I would love to hear any feedback and critique you guys have.

[katsgod]

Welcome aboard

[Ampersand]

Thanks katsgod! I've just tried fixing my post, I'm not sure if the pictures loaded or not.

[ped454]

good stuff. i love the horse.

[Ampersand]

Thanks both.

A bit more from today and yesterday - hopefully the attachment manager will like me this time. I'm trying to study Loomis diagrams and photographs to help me draw people, but I'm finding it very hard to unlearn the cartoony way I've come to draw. It's very frustrating.

[Ampersand]

More sketchbook pages from today. The leg musculature, skeleton and eyes are referenced from Loomis' books.

Can't draw humans. *facepalm*

[shannowman]

Like the Quill Dragon and also the stange horse, he looks really sad! Do some more srange animal, your good at them.

[Ampersand]

I feel bad for not updating more, but my studies always take precedence over my art.

Hopefully in order - my shoe (since they seem to be popular still life subjects), various head doodles and my most recent finished picture. I need to do more studies, the human face confounds me.

[funfetus]

You're off to a really good start. I don't know what you were so shy about. Your figures and faces look good, but in a cartoony way. You might want to do more study on anatomy, and drawing from life. It looks like you're doing the anatomy study already, so just keep it up. That last picture is great -- way above the level of the rest of this sketchbook. I really like the subdued colors, and how effectively you've done the lighting, with the little highlights on the tip of her nose and everything. Keep it up!

[Ampersand]

Thanks very much funfetus! I'll definitely do more anatomy work. The cartoonish look is something I really want to undo if I can, but old habits die hard. I'll keep at it though.

[Ampersand]

Random heads drawn while waiting in a restaurant, no refs; some eyes and mouths from life (or mirror, such as it was - my face was aching like hell afterwards); also an unfinished ferret thingy, just for fun.

[sciboy]

Keep up the good work! Just as a tip, neutral poses and expressions are nice and all but you learn a lot more if you break up the monotony and try a wide variety. I have to work on that myself because it's so easy to see that I'm repeating the same lifeless patterns over and over again, don't do what I did and save yourself while you still can!

[Ampersand]

Thank you sciboy! Yeah, my poses are very static and 'safe' - I'll try to stretch myself more.

A couple of pages from today, no refs because I'm thick.

'When all else fails, MAKE PLENTY DRAGONS.'

[sciboy]

Good dynamics in that last one and loving the creatures! Here's some food for thought though, it feels like some of the anthropomorphic proportions are carrying over so I decided to quickly play around with her in GIMP.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3...thoughtzy6.jpg

Main points,
The head wasn't following the direction of the spine through the neck.
The legs were really stretched and spread apart (probably reminiscent from digitigrade anatomy), and appeared to be joining at the hip instead of further down nearer to the same level as the buttocks.
The pelvis was sitting too far forward and didn't echo the same position/depth the torso did.
The shoulder was sitting too far out, I figure you were exaggerating the perspective on the arms, but I wasn't sure.

Please don't trust what I say, look closely at the areas I pointed out in real life and reference and try to understand how it really is. I still have a loooonnggg way to go on my own figure drawing and so there's still plenty wrong with the example I provided. (especially with how I managed to kill all the action) Taking the initiative to do some research over points like this will help you get more out of it.

Hope some part of that is useful, I look forward to seeing more updates.

[Ampersand]

Thank you! I really appreciate it.

I've tried adjusting it to get all the random bendiness under control, hopefully it's better now. I also tried out some watercolours today - paints hate me and I haven't touched them for a few years, but I thought I may as well give it ago. Still terrible as I ever was.

[Ampersand]

Another update, sorry it's small. Pencil doodles and my first serious attempt at acrylics (don't mind the random blue smudgy part along the bottom - I ended up with an excess of paint and had to put it somewhere). Thanks to sciboy for his advice on paints.

I need to get more serious anatomy work done but I find studies and reference work really mind-numbing. Need to push myself. *wail*

[AmontilladoAg]

Very cool 8)

Love your creatures, and keep up those anatomy studies!

Cheers

[Ampersand]

Thank you!

Another update, sorry it took a while. First picture is me going to back to my roots a bit, so to speak - the earliest things I remember drawing were little foxes in aprons, carrying baskets of fruit. Too much Beatrix Potter, I swear.

And I finally found a good art shop in my area, I could have spent all day in there hugging the shelves. I got a few bits and pieces and thought I'd try my hand at acrylic painting again when I got back.

Mum just gave me a look and said she'd wanted me to do my 'fantasy thing' instead. Usually she's asking if I draw anything other than dragons and strange animal things. You just can't win with mums.

[Ampersand]

*looks mournfully at the date of the last post*

I've just liberated myself from the clutches of homework, hopefully I will update more often. In the meantime I've got some stuff to post, all of it not very good.

Some faces sketched in pen. I used photos in the TV guide for reference:



Sketchbook junk with messed-up 'natomy:



Which I then proceeded to butcher further with very cheap colouring:



Some colouring practise...the colours are not good, my monitor misled me.



An unfinished self-portrait doodle. It does actually look like me, so I guess I can give myself a point for that.



Character portrait thing, for the story I shall never get round to writing. Again my monitor misled me, but I checked on another and tried fixing it a little.



On the bright side, I've recently discovered how great it is to sketch in ballpoint. I got into it from being bored at work, and having nothing else at hand to doodle with.

[House Hatke]

Don't let the human face confound you! You're really starting to get the proportions and you should keep at it! Though you do draw some good animals and characters -Particularly the horse (though it's not a horse -what do you call that?)

[Ampersand]

Thank you! I've never invested much time into drawing people and have to catch up now. And I like to think of the horse thing as being an inverted hippogriff.

A few more faces drawn from magazines:



More character doodles:



Messed-up horse skeleton, using Ellenberger's 'An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists' as reference:

[AmontilladoAg]

Lookin' good

Like House Hatke said, keep at those faces!

You got some sweet coloring skillz, btw 8)

Cheers

PS. If you haven't already, check out Teigrob's sketchbook for some choice animal characters. Fun timez

[Ampersand]

Thanks for dropping by again. I really want to work on my colouring too, both the technique and the colour theory - I don't have a great grasp of colours or how to make nice painterly things.

I have had a look at Teigrob's sketchbook and enjoyed it very much! I haven't managed to get through all of it yet but I'll try.

[funfetus]

Great progress, &. Your animal characters are looking great, and your humans aren't half bad, either. Just keep studying the foundational stuff -- and I don't know if you're doing any life drawing, but it's SO important, and it helps SO much.

As for your painting -- it looks great, but I think it's time to step it up in terms of defining form and giving your stuff solidity. You mentioned copying Loomis stuff, so I'm assuming you have the Loomis e-books. If you don't have Creative Illustration, you can get it from here. That book has a lot of excellent material on using light and shadow to make stuff really read as solid, 3D forms. Read "The Form Principle" section in the foreword, and the chapter on value.

Keep it up!

[YihyoungLi]

Your creatures are very elegant. The big ears are awesome. Keep up the good work.

[Ampersand]

Thank you both.

Ooh, thanks for the link fetus! I'll definitely check out Creative Illustration. And I'm afraid I don't do that much life drawing at all - I know I should, but I'm sort of undecided on how to go about it. I'm not sure if there are classes near me, and I don't get much chance to just hang around and draw people. I suppose I could sit outside the local supermarket eyeballing passersby like the other dodgy kids.

More faces from today and yesterday, but without refs.

[Ampersand]

Small update. I did the colouring in OpenCanvas 4 for a bit of practise. It's so hard for me to colour without lineart, or over it - all the shaded parts turn out looking the same colour, and I always lose what the original colours were meant to be. I'm always at a loss where colouring's concerned, better keep working on it.

And my monitor seems to be dying, which is a bit of a pain in the backside.

[markey2d]

wow, you have got some really good stuff on here. you drawings of animals are amazing, which is why if i were you i would do alittle more of the figurative stuff, to improve that as well.
keep posting your doing good.

[toubab]

you got amazing skills with animal, i love it!

[Ampersand]

Thanks both.

I thought I'd try doing this week's CHOW, since the theme is right up my street. Most of these have already been posted in the thread over there, but I thought I'd put them in here too before things get too cobwebby.

Initial pencil sketch, since I find it quicker to sketch on paper than on the computer:



At first I messed about trying to ink the sketch, both digitally and on paper, then gave up and thought I'd try working without lines. The face, it burns!



Adding a background. My powers of foresight are so godly awesome I'd done everything on one layer, beginning with the character, so the background was a bit of a laugh. To make things even more fun, I also completely forgot the character was supposed to be tiny in relation to the background, and had to do most of it again.



The picture in its current state, post extensive plastic surgery.



Hopefully I can finish something decent in time for the deadline.