Ryan's Sketchbook

**r.mccabe** · November 13th, 2008, 12:49 AM

My first sketchbook (I bet those are some famous last artistic words). I don't want to bore people with the whole I wanna draw! speech so I won't. It does Kill me to see my own limitations though, improving is an addiction to me. I have no idea how often I'll update my book but I will try to pump out filler. I'm working on a BA in psychology and philosophy, and training as an artist. I love art and want to do what I love for a career but also want to train my mind critically.
I want help, I read all I can and have no inhibition for trying new things. I'm 20 as of nov. 22, I feel behind the top bracket for my age and my main goal is to close the gap. I need to do more gesture and anatomy pages. Anyway cheers, I'll get things uploaded soon.

**r.mccabe** · November 13th, 2008, 03:58 PM

30 min eye study

**r.mccabe** · November 13th, 2008, 05:04 PM

40 min photo copy

**Jazz** · November 13th, 2008, 05:17 PM

Hi there!! First off, let me assure you that you aren't "behind"! Everyone works on their own pace!! I should hope you're not behind, then that would mean I'm behind, too!

I'm 28 years old. Don't worry yourself about that, just take your time.

I want to know how you start a drawing! It looks like you're giving body to your paintings without a skeleton, so to speak. Before you go at the painting, make sure that you understand the forms that you need to colour.

For instance, the lovely girl beside the lovely fire. I see potential in that picture! Mmmm...makes me feel warm. ^_^ I think your choice of overall colours is a good one! However, the girl's proportions are off in some respects. Her legs seem really long in comparison to the rest of her body. He arms seem really short. One arm looks to be smaller than the other. I can't make out a hint of her cleavage, but I'm certain you tried to get the breasts showing a little. These are some issues to tackle, but not to rush through.

I don't know if that was a copy from reference like the latter pictures, but copying is still good practice! Also start looking at those body parts, maybe zeroing in on hands, face, torso (I need to practice what I preach MORE). There are some great online and hard-copy books that people have listed in the CA forums! ...I can't remember where everything is, but the Education section, the Reference/Inspiration section...well, you can find awesome stuff everywhere here!

You're one your way!! I won't pester you about colours, though I think it'll do you well to work on the basic form building while you have fun with colours! Good success!

**r.mccabe** · November 16th, 2008, 05:49 PM

Thanks JazzW definitely some good advice.

**r.mccabe** · November 29th, 2008, 03:35 PM

Trying to keep the ball rolling, I also keep a figure drawing sketch book that I will upload sometime.

Sweet smilies!

**r.mccabe** · November 29th, 2008, 06:10 PM

**r.mccabe** · December 2nd, 2008, 12:09 AM

**mairuku** · December 2nd, 2008, 12:50 AM

Go to the basics. I have to do the same thing, don't worry.
Pick up stuff like Bridgman's "Constructive Anatomy" and Hogarth's "Dynamic Anatomy" as well as other stuff (they can be found on scribd.com and archive.org). There's also loads of other free e-books which can help you in the references section of the forum.
I myself just ordered a hardcopy of Bridgman and Hogarth--they really help you understand things.
Study all the basics...lighting, colour, contrast, value, depth, blahblahblah

you'll get it!

**r.mccabe** · December 4th, 2008, 02:39 PM

Hey Mairuku, I do need to work more from the books. I have a ebook collection already, everything I could find. I'm so used to unstructured doodles its hard to stop

. Your sketchbooks looking great btw.

I finally got some of my sketches scanned, some of them embarrass me but I figure this will force me to look at my mistakes. Ah well with time everything comes.

Edit: tried to fix the sizes, apended shorter posts.

**r.mccabe** · December 6th, 2008, 02:49 PM

20 min in photoshop, toying with stroke economy and technique while I wait for my mr. noodles!

Edit: attachments are not working for me, I'll try again later.

**r.mccabe** · December 7th, 2008, 02:59 PM

some digi gesture

**r.mccabe** · December 7th, 2008, 04:03 PM

Elisha Cuthbert photo study, kinna ignored the face. . .

**r.mccabe** · December 8th, 2008, 03:57 PM

Sketches from this morning, didn't spend much time on them. Just trying to force myself to see and correct errors, not saying that these are perfect. Its hard going from looking at it myself as just sketches, to showing it and trying to critically correct it. I wish I had someone posing, guess I should pick up some life drawing classes. . . Tell me whatever comes to mind, I'd like to hear what is most apparent so I can work on it. The same with anything here.

**r.mccabe** · December 9th, 2008, 07:25 PM

Hey! some minute or two studies, most from photos, but two of them are not. Can you guess? hehe

Edit, removed the ref less ones

**r.mccabe** · December 9th, 2008, 11:05 PM

So I dont like the way my drawings look without reference, but its a skill I think I need more than copying references. Anyway these are all from reference. I bet I had everyone thinking that I couldn't draw huh? lol. Maybe not a good thing but it aint no thang.

05 hb mechanical pencil as always.

**r.mccabe** · December 10th, 2008, 01:10 AM

So I was doodling around and I got to this. Hopefully more work on it to come.

Updated

**r.mccabe** · December 16th, 2008, 01:46 AM

No ones checking me out... I just need to get better!

hour and thirty photo study, michelle ryan, unknown photographer.

**r.mccabe** · December 20th, 2008, 07:06 PM

Some more sketches. All of it is copying from instructive work or photos.

**r.mccabe** · December 22nd, 2008, 06:45 PM

On too legs.

**r.mccabe** · February 2nd, 2009, 02:44 PM

A study from the weekend. Still a WiP

**r.mccabe** · February 18th, 2009, 02:37 AM

Wow some of the sketches are bad. I"ll have to scan more recent doodles. I want to get rid of some of them, but I need to remember how wrong things can go.

Quick cg landscape. One cloud texture mapped to bump displace and colour (one between them). Did it to toy around a bit, maybe I can use it for something more finished.

**arttorney** · February 28th, 2009, 12:53 PM

I have taken my own prompting and come for a look. I kind of like this recent digi landscape. It's a good start.

The problem I see cropping up a lot with the figures is that you make the torso too long relative to the legs. Take a photo of some normal looking person and draw a line right down their center. Then put horizontal lines across that center line marking off the height of that person's head again and again. I admit there is a lot of human variability about how many heads tall somebody is but at least for the majority of us the waistline is going to fall a similar number of head lengths below the top of the head. When you know about how many that is you will be able to check your early lines to see if they conform to this formula before committing to your dark lines.