getting started with digital drawing!

[ajvenema]

hmm, i just noticed i hit page 6...finally!
tonight im gonna celebrate with another update, and lets hope i fill this page a bit faster

[ajvenema]

like promised, an update!
now i know i dont make the worst stuff, and i also know its far from perfect, so please dont hestitate to crit me, and give advices! i would be glad with them...

[ajvenema]

long time since i had this much fun at lifedrawing
tomorrow im gonna get some better and more pics!

[HunterKiller_]

Hey dude. Thanks for droppin' by my SB.

Got some good work happening here.
Big props for doing lots of drawing from life, that's so important.

Your lines are definitely getting better, although when you're using pencil to sketch the pose maniacs, your lines seems to get a bit scratchier.
Try doing the really short ones, under 30 seconds. Even though you won't get any pretty pictures, it will really help your line confidence.

Other exercises to improve line quality are blind contour drawings and drawing without lifting the pen from the paper.

Water colours are also looking good, but likewise, they look much better where you've used large bold strokes rather than short choppy ones.

Keep up the good work.

[Flipnastywebby]

on what hunterkiller said, you can use short strokes....google Peter DeSeve...this man can paint water colors in his sleep if he wanted and all he does is layer layer layer with short strokes. Line quality comes with practice. with your pencile just keep the line very light then when you have the gesture down then make your dark solid lines to make the form pop.

keep practicing, water colors take a lot of practice.

[Tigermilk]

Hey man, love it that you draw so much from life. That's totally awesome. I'm probably not the right person to crit regarding colors, because I suck at them so much, but I would be more careful using the dark blue kinda strokes next to the bright colors when painting with watercolors. like in this one - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1208562200
Perhaps you should go more with darker tones of the brighter colors.

Regarding the line quality it's really great, you know how to handle lines. You could give your self more time though maybe, like try working a bit longer on some of these.
But anyways great stuff, I'll be checking back for sure!

[ajvenema]

hmm, ill be replying soon, im in a hurry now, just a little strange something for now...

[tokotewhero]

hey thanks for stopping by. nice sketchbook youve got here. i like how you use pen(or is it indian ink?). which ive always found quite hard. seeming as how you cant plan the proportions of the figures. on the other hand you get some really nice distortions which makes some really interesting postures. nice! i was just thinking tho. perhaps when your working with pencil try planning in the big shapes first to get the proportions looking a little more correct. thats if its something your after. anyways nice work. keep it up.


oh and i love that last one. its got funk! heh

[ajvenema]

time for replies thanks a lot all, for the nice and useful comments!

Hunterkiller: thanks for the nice words, and thanks for the advices on watercolor and gesturing!

flipnasty: thanks for the addon on the watercolor comment ill be checking that dude soon!

tigermilk: thanks for dropping by again, and thanks for the comment on watercolors, im happy with every comment on that! ur probably right, ive got to watch that next time!

tokotewhero: its pen, i use ink as well, but most of the time its pen! i love it, i think it gives nice results for a chaotic person like me, i love to see what happens, and sometimes nice things happen about the blockin in, aargh, ur like the 100th person that says that, so its probably time to listen

and thanks about the comment on the last one, im not so confident about my drawing from imagination and i do it way too little, im really happy that u see something nice in it!


ok, update time again! since ive a camera its sooo much easier to update! did a lot of quick portraits lately...
and some pavement lifedrawing isnt really amazing, but it was fun to do so i decided to show u guys

[ajvenema]

hmm, i guess the key to improvement is hard work, so here ive got another load

[ajvenema]

this is a portrait i was working on tonight, decided i need to do one every night to improve my painting skills...took a bit too long to do every day, so i presume ive got to do it faster, think a bit more about my strokes, and keep it cleaner... anybody got some hints for me on this one? what colours should i add, how can i improve the brows and hair? since now those colors REALLY dont match with the rest...

[ajvenema]

another bunch!
more stuff from imagination this time...

[arttorney]

About the colors of the second to last post, there are some greens sometimes in skin shadow. Perhaps that could have helped the brow. Some warmer colors in the lighter sections (such as orange) might have helped the brow colors by a 3D creating sense due to color contrast.

[ajvenema]

thanks for the very useful post arttorney!

i found some pencilled modeldrawings, that has to do for now!

[humanNature6115]

Talent over flowing.

=================================
Sketchbook
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761

[ajvenema]

thanks humannature, i hope ur right

here are todays things: a watercolor thing from life, an acrylic thing(really need to do that more often) and a random thing from imagination

[Noë]

Hiya
Cool that you're going to be studying illustration with me . Here's a picture of me, since you were wondering who I was at the entrance exam.
I'm definitely liking what you're doing in this sketchbook. I like the lines you make while drawing in ink, and with pen. But when you draw with pencil you tend to get really scibbly. Something that might help is using a hard pencil to create some soft lines, and when you get the shape down the way you want it, you get a softer pencil for some bolder lines.
Something else I think might need work is your values while working with pencil: a lot of the values go to a same sort of grey in your drawings. I have a nice exercise for that: get a reference picture with some nice contrast (though not too much), and convert it to greyscale in Photoshop (adjustments -> mode -> greyscale). Then you click filters -> artistic -> cutout, and choose 5 or 7 levels. What this does is divide the image into patches of grey, so you have a good idea of where to put which grey. Then you create a tone ladder in pencil of 5 or 7 tones, going from really dark to really light, and you draw the tone there where it also shows in the reference image. Later on you can try this without the cutout filter, so you get more practice in finding the different values yourself. Adding dark/light contrast ususally really gives a drawing a nice punch.

Okay, so well that's all I have to say for now
I think you're really doing great, for the time you've been drawing seriously.
Seeyou in the next schoolyear ^^.

Groetjes,
Marleen.

[Jamesy]

Wow, there's lots of interesting stuff in here! I just started using ink and watercolor more so I can definitely relate to what you're doing! I like how everything is wonderfully messy and loose. You've improved quite a bit since page one, just keep it up!

[ajvenema]

noe/marleen: thanks for visiting, and the nice comments about pencilling! im struggling a bit with that, so its great to get some advice on it, ill be doing that photoshop thingy soon! i think i recognize you from the entrance exam, not sure though where u were sitting in that classroom

jamesy: thanks a lot! great that people like my messy-ness, cuz i cant really do it cleaner

ive got some more portraits today, and a 'painting'...

[John Mahoney]

Awesome drawings!!! Very bold and confident!

[DeJakhalz]

You really got a strong creative power, would love to see some less rough work.

[ajvenema]

thanks John! its great to hear that from an artist like you, i really like ur stuff!
Im at my job now, i was bored this morning and did some 30 sec gestures...
im not really sure what to think about those, on one side i think they suck, on the other hand i like it that they are a bit scratchy, cuz i AM a bit scratchy its also kind of an excersise for me to learn placing right lines and stuff.. I just dont know...
Well, here they are!

the others are just some stuff that i needed to make yesterday. i felt like using paint no matter what so i just made some stuff that came up in my head.

[ajvenema]

im not sure w her im gonna take this, if its even gonna be taken anywhere

[Benjamen Christ]

Very nice stuff free, open , and easy to read. you draw on everything, i love it!
thats for the SB crit

christ

[ChuanMing]

Dude, nice stuff around here!

[ajvenema]

both of you, thanks for the nice comments!

i thought, long time no pencilling so i grabbed my pencil and made 2 portraits...im not unhappy with them, but i think theyre still a bit flat, especially the girl...

[ajvenema]

more random crap from my sketchbook...

[invinciblewombat]

you have so much energy in your work it really makes it a pleasure to look at. i really enjoy the effective simplicity in the portraits in post 170. and this http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1209484137 would make the best valentines day card ever.

[ajvenema]

invinciblewombat; thanks a lot!

here are some of the results of yesterdys lifedrawing...

[ajvenema]

yoyo!
some other stuff today! angels i started serious and got carried to strange places sorry for the dark pictures, but they will do i think!