update 8/23

[Jamesy]

I'm an art student at the University of Oregon and I'm trying to switch to a digital art major (portfolio due at the end of the month!). I came upon this website last August and was completely blown away by the talent on here. It inspired me to start drawing more (A LOT more) and ever since I've been drawing nearly everyday.

I just bought a pen tablet a few days ago, and am learning how to use Photoshop and Painter. If I can figure out how to post things in this thread, hopefully some of you can give me a few pointers of how to do certain tasks. Right now, I have almost no clue what I'm doing!

[daestwen]

I think the reason they are too huge to post is that they are *literally* too big. The one you have here is too big to fit on my screen in one piece. :/

Find out what dpi your scanner is going at - it looks at least 300, if not more. To bring down the file size, make it a) a jpeg, and b) go to Image -> Image Size and flip the switch from 'pixels' to 'precent' and set it at around 25%, or so (depending on the original size) and that will cut it down pretty dramatically.

There's no need for us to see the sketches at such a huge resolution anyway - it only makes them tougher to look at. Keep in mind that the web only goes on 72 dpi.

[Jamesy]

So I just resized the images to 3x4. Yet when I went to post the images, they came out super huge again. I checked the saved images to see if they saved under the size, and it says they did. I'll try again later I guess.

Thanks daestwen for the advice. I actually scanned these at another location (because my scanner didn't come with all the necessary parts in order for it to work!), so when I scan something next time, I'll be sure to remember that.

[Mrianna]

You'll want to be sure you are resizing the pixel Dimensions, not the document size. Pixel Dimensions is for on screen, and document size is for printing.

If you are using photoshop though, an easy way to resize is to make sure resample image is clicked (bicubic should be up) and then change the document size to 72 DPI... it will automatically change your pixel dimensions as well.

[kanada514]

If Photoshop is not helping in resizing, just save those pics in your 'My images' folder. Then open them with Microsoft viewer. Choose image on the tool bar above and from the submenu, select, resize.
Then you'll see two sliders (one for horizontal dimensions and one for vertical dimensions)
Then you can either reduce by pixels width and height, or reduce by percentage.
Seing the size of your images here, you should go with 35%.
You'll should get a near full screen that way.

[Jamesy]

Thanks Mrianna and kanada, I feel like such a nubzor with computer applications.

Everything here is referenced from all over the place, so some of you might recognize some of this stuff.

[Jamesy]

Here's some charcoal drawings I did awhile ago. These will probably be the only charcoal drawings I'll ever post simply because I don't like using charcoal (although I should like it!).

[Carbono]

I love the female bodies studies man, at the moment i an doing them too! Your's are looking nice!

Keep it up man!

[Jamesy]

I didn't think I would post any of these, but there seems to be some issues from construction to rendering. There's some issues I'm probably over looking, so hopefully some one will have advice. Most of these sketches are a few months old, while some of them I did in the last few days.

I haven't had too much time to draw (well, independently anyway) lately due to a full schedule at school. I am taking a drawing course and a introductory painting course, so maybe I'll post some of those soon. I really have no clue how to paint yet, so those might be amusing/bad.

[Jamesy]

Um, my images didn't show up like they usually do. Did I do something different that I wasn't aware of?

[invinciblewombat]

very solid studies in here awesome work. i think the attachment bugs are being caused by the updates to the site these past few days.

[Jamesy]

This is probably a premature, cheap, bump-post since I've been meaning to take pictures of my recent life figures drawings. These are just some randoms in the last few weeks from my sketchbook. I haven't been able to sketch much on my own since I've been busy in school. But I suppose that's a lame excuse since I am taking both drawing AND painting (AND 2 digital art classes!).

I'll probably have another update soon once I stop being lazy and finally bring my camera to class.

[monsi]

excellent stuff! I love the portrait in the last post, and also the animal studies - especially the eagle - are great!

sweet, keep it up!

[thesadpencil]

nice stuff. your definitely off to a good start. really good linework and i especially like the eyes on the last one. only thing i can suggest is use more weighted line and also on the ones where value is used put more emphasis on your lights/darks. keep it up.

[Jamesy]

Nethus-OMGzorz, I was just at your sketchbook and I thought it was amazing! Hopefully doing more of these animal studies will help me be more creative when it comes time to make up my own beasts. I'll definitely keep posting since it's fueling my drive to get better.

theSadPencil-Yeah, I've been having issues with the whole light/dark contrast thing with a lot of my drawings, especially in longer studies. I think these last few studies I've been using 4b instead of the usually hb, but that doesn't really get to the root of the problem. I just need to take notice and push that side to my drawings more.

Okay, so I'm still too lazy to take my digital camera to the drawing/painting studio to take pictures of my life drawings (they're not really that impressive anyway, since I just started doing them a couple months ago). The first picture is a large self portrait (in charcoal-I know, I'm a liar) for drawing class. It's pretty obvious I drew it on a coragated cardboard surface and I have no clue how to fix large charcoal drawings. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to turn out, but I think that's because I'm still experimenting with different aspects of presenting things. Plus I still hate charcoal and evidently it hates me back. The second piece is a more embarrasing, humble piece as it is my first digital painting ever. I have no clue how to digitally paint, but after this quarter, hopefully I'll spend more time with it so I can get better.

[Jamesy]

Here's some life drawings from earlier today. I kinda suck when we have to do longer poses, or 45 minutes anyway. I don't know how to go about the time management yet. Plus the model was really far away for some odd reason (and everyone there seemed fine with it). I don't have too many doodlez this week because there's a lot of projects due this next week. Anyway, here's my cheap post of the day. c/c(der)

[Jamesy]

So I have a lot of stuff this week since I finally took my camera to class. Some of these life drawings are from today while others are from a few weeks ago. I have a couple paintings which are crap since I'm new to it. There's also some of this week's doodlez and attemps at digital painting in ps.

[monsi]

good stuff man, keep up the studies and drawings from life!

keep on posting

[Jamesy]

Nethus- Thanks, I'll probably post at least once a week now. If I had my own scanner, it would be more often.

So I have a lot more bridgeman sketches than the one seen here, but I think those will get repetitive so I'm only going to post one to remind myself down the road that I was still doing them at this time.

Today's life studies were somewhat frustrating since the lights are always on in every direction. It's really hard for me to spot the midtones and highlights. I guess I haven't trained my eyes enough yet to pick those up. These are enhanced with auto levels since they're super light drawings, so that's why they look a bit different from the other sketches.

When the weather gets better, I think I will start going out more and draw the buildings around campus to get a better sense of architecture and perspective, depths, etc. I have a couple here, one exterior and one interior, so hopefully these will increase in the spring/summer time.

I spent about 2 hours the other night on the digital painting. Man, I stink at digital painting! Anyone have any tips? I used the hard brush the whole time. What other brushes should I be using?

And of course there's the doodles. I should be more serious about drawing from imagination. The doodles here are totally referenced from the internet.

[Jamesy]

I'm became really gleeful when I saw a painting from earlier in the term and a painting a did yesterday. I just started painting this quarter and I think I've come a long way since then (I guess that happens when one starts from scratch). Anyway, the first painting is from earlier in the quarter and the second is from yesterday. Both are the same size and I spent roughly the same amount of time on them.

[Cupelli]

You have a nice sketch book here. I hope to see more soon.

[darkchild]

I want to begin by saying your life studies are top notch. Very nicely done. My favorite has got to be the charcoal drawing of the fabric. I know you said you don't like charcoal... well neither do I that's why my work is either digital or graphite. But charcoal has the ability to got the extra mile in darks and not have a shiny surface to it. You're doing more beneficial studies than I am. I'm all about photo refs which don't capture the finer points of a subject. You rendering is good, my one suggestion is to go a bit darker in your tone. That still is my weakness right now because I tend to leave my work pretty light. But a nice balance of contrast will definitely boost up any drawing that you may do. Again, very nice work I will be looking forward to seeing more!!

[Jamesy]

Cupelli-Thanks, I'll probably post more often now since I think I'm just clogging up space with a bunch of images with my once-a-week updates.

Darkchild-It's funny how people still refer back to that old drapery study I did a couple years back. I wasn't even serious about drawing at the time, I just drew whatever the assignments were in class. Yet for some odd reason I got myself to sit in front of that still life for 6 hours straight (longest I've ever spent on a piece). It still puzzles me as to why I didn't run with drawing from there. I think my studies now are too light because I tend to move from one study to the next without actually trying to finish things. I need to spend more time emphazing darker areas in the future.

These are more or less doodles/studies within the past few days. I actually drew some things from imagination this time, although I think it's still too embarrasing to show that side off. Sorry if these images are messy and clumped together, my sketchbook is on it's last leg and I'm trying to be as conservative as possible.

[Jamesy]

These are just some life drawings from last saturday. There won't be another session until the end of the month since it's the end of the quarter. Between then and there, hopefully I'll get a lot of anatomy studies done, that way I can work out my numerous current problems. The model had some crazy pony-tail going on, and I had a hard time visualizing the underlying structure beneath it. I guess that's my lame excuse for this week.

[Maledict]

VERY nice figure studies Jamesy. But I guess you suffer from the exact same figure drawing problem that I have, in that we always want to start drawings/sketches and never actually summon the wherewithal to finish them. Or maybe I'm just being a bit presumptuous

I love your female figures, very curvy and smooth. My figures are soewhat manly looking with tree trunk legs.

[Vyliss]

Edit: oops I didn't see that I replied already, anyway the post below is my proper response

[Vyliss]

I love all your studies, and the coloured ones are really good too. The thing with not finishing things, the only thing that has worked for me is enter competitions/volunteer for projects you find that interests you that sets a deadline then you HAVE to finish it. That's the only way I finish things now, if I just set something for myself, 99% of the time it will never get done.

[Soja]

Oh my god Jamesy!! Ur sketchbook is really really nice i think!
U doin lot's and that's what's important! Really love the drappery study u did! And keep doing those environment and perspective studies! Something i should do more too!! oh my good looking at ur sketchbook makes me feel like im a lazy bastard! Thanks a lot =)!!!
For ur life drawings. I really like them too! Some of them could use a bit more time for shading i think but ur feel for form is already pretty good!
Get a loomis book and work through it till the next life session. Try do understand what u drawing!!
Keep at it!!

[Quinn Simoes]

Nice work, great studies!

Quinn

[Maridius]

Soja has the idea! Until you get into the next live session, attack the Loomis lessons. I'm starting the 'Heads and Hands' so you won't see much more than, well, heads and hands, from me for awhile.

These are great studies! I'd love to see you polish a few of them. As far as hair getting in the way of structure, it's probably a good exercise to make up what you can't see based on knowing the bones/muscle underneath.