Not Deadman's sketchbook

[darkchild]

Hey there

Nice collection of studies already! There's not much more to say other than what's already been said. You seem to have a good grasp basics of anatomy drawing techniques. You should try experimenting with varying your line weights (thickness). I noticed you have done so with some of your work. The key to realistic anatomy studies would be a keen eye for details. Your gestures are good keep working on those. You will eventually be able to pop these out with no thought whatsoever Also remember, there is no such thing as no tone when it comes to anatomy studies. Even if a part looks blown out or "white" it still has a bit of tone to it. Just get a good crosshatching gradient going and build up the tones slowly, don't rush it. That was one of my main problems! A good use of tone will yield a good sense of depth and dimensionality to your work. It's something I've been struggling with for years... Don't let that scare you, I'm a really slow learner

Atleast you have access to a live model once a week. I've got access to none. All my stuff are referenced from photos which is not the best way but a good second choice!

Take care, and keep posting!

[jackpot_anjr90]

Can't say more than what's already been said. You're work is great and you're headed in the right direction as far as studies go. Keep drawing from observation and practicing you're anatomy and you're bound to improve a lot. Keep at it!

[doncam]

Thanks for dropping by my SB. I like your stuff, big improvement with your latest posts. About your scanning, I assume you are talking about the faintness of your posts. Do you have any software like Photoshop, that allows you to adjust the levels, I didn't think they were all that bad, and nobody else has made a comment, so I wouldn't stress about it. You're doing well.

[Suira]

hey man! nice progress, I see what you mean about frustration and all, cause i went trought the same some months ago ( and i'll probably go trough the same in the future) and well, it's kinda annoying but the only way to get rid of it it's just not giving a crap about it and relax, by relaxing you might notice that you're improving more than being stressed out and full of fear for not advancing. all this stuff i tell you is what helps me to keep on the way and it's what i feel helped me the best, it might be different for you thought.

about the scans....i use photoshop but you can use Picasa ( which is free and google downloadable) to reduce the amount of light on the scan, cause generally it takes out the renderings and reduces the line quality, in my case by just reducing a bit the enormious amount of light the drawing shows as in real life, more or less. hope it helps

cheers dude

[MacTire]

Nice studies Not Deadman! Good to see an improvement already! Keep up the good work!

[Eugie]

I see you're trying to keep your paper as clean as possible, instead try and doing the opposite. You know, just loosen up this may sound dumb but try not thinking for a change when you sketch these gestures and let it all out. Glad to see you're keeping up cya.

[Not_Deadman]

Update. Been drawing a bit, but too lazy to update. Ive promised myself to go to the art students league tomorrow to do life drawing and maybe sign up for a class. Comment and Critique please! Thank you!

1st, here is some reffed anatomy studies and posemaniacs stuff

[Not_Deadman]

And some stuff from imagination
Sorry for the limbless people lol, i really have to work on arms and how they connect to the torso and how they bend and twist. Stuff is mind boggling! Also I have a lot to study especially clothes, hands, arms and feet and faces

The last one is a pic i did on 11x17 paper a couple of weeks ago. It was inspired by Adam Hughes' Cover for the first issue, and also I wanted to play around with some simple perspective.
Tomorrow will be some life drawings, posemaniacs, and hopefully some decent imagination stuff. I also used reference for the pose


Comment and critique please! Thank you!

[Not_Deadman]

New stuff. Some stuff from imagination and life. I'm really disappointed with my life drawings. They're quite horrible and not even close to looking complete I dunno how to get any better other than doing them a lot .I just don't want to repeat the same mistakes tho. I have HUGE PROBLEMS with sitting and laying down poses. The foreshortening especially gets me. Please help! Thank you!

[Not_Deadman]

Small update. I didn't have much time to draw today Torsos and hips and noses from imagination/memory and a Michelangelo arm and leg study. Also some pose maniacs 30 seconds instead of 45... i felt quite daring today Help me out please, I don't feel so comfortable with imagination drawings. Is my structuring and proportions wrong? I feel like I'm overlooking something, and its driving me crazy! Can you guys point out what I need to fix/work on please? Thank you!

Also, for my studies, I feel like I take way to much time into them. I spent like 2 hours on the arm and leg drawings. Is that normal, or am I going to fast/slow? How long do you guys usually study for? Most of the time, I'm analyzing points (like relating points of the drawing to make sure my drawing and the reference are nearly the same) and also pointing out anatomy and shapes to myself. Should I be doing more?

Please help, I'm so lost right now, I don't feel like Im getting better, I might actually be getting worse. I look at other people's art, and I'm blown away by how much better they are than me. I want to be a professional so badly, and prove to my parents I can make money as an artist, but things aren't looking so bright for me...

[Eugie]

First of all DO NOT compare you art with others, that will get you nowhere fast. Art is subjective so there is no such thing as bad, that also means there is no such thing as good either, it is all in the opinion of the viewer. I could do paint overs, or point out what is wrong with your work but believe me it will not help as much as you think. I know you can tell what's wrong with your figures, even more so I know you can also find a solution to the problem. Pose in a mirror, ask your friend to pose, feel your body for landmarks, do anything to help yourself.

Generally, I think the biggest problem with using posemaniac or drawing from photo reference is that you don't have as much information about the subject as you would from real life. So of course I am going to say draw as much as possible from life as possible. Do not get lost in the detail of things without having a strong foundation. SLOW is FAST, the only reason why other amazing artists are able to draw let us say a figure in a couple minutes or seconds, is because they have pounded and drilled that same figure into their head millions of times. So no, 2 hours is not something you have to worry about, in fact anything over 2 hours is not something you have to worry about.

You have to enjoy what you're doing, and that includes the studies. Think of them as a challenge instead of assignment or work, get absorbed in them believe me you'll find it more exciting than you believe. Study bones! Bones are the foundation to the human body, without them we would all just be blobs, they are revealed all over the human body. For example; the human head, hands, elbows, knees, just feel around your body or just look. As for the imagination drawings, guess what you will always make mistakes. As will everybody else that draws completely from their imagination. The reason why other artists get it to work is because they can spot their mistakes and fix them, or they look at reference to see what's wrong. There is nothing wrong with using a reference, there's something wrong though with completely copying the reference and calling it your own.

Draw, draw, draw, draw when you're eating (you only need 1 hand to hold a sandwich), draw when you're watching tv (you really need to watch commercials?), draw whenever you go outside (when you're at restaurant lots of things to draw), breathe drawing. It's not when, what, or why you should draw. It is when you are caught in the moment and you feel the urge to draw, and you do not question it. If you are not making mistakes you are not challenging yourself and learning and that will stunt your growth. Well I am done with my breakfast so once again I am going to say ENJOY YOURSELF, otherwise this is not the career path for you.

[Not_Deadman]

Thanks Eugie, that makes sense.
I guess its time to man up and quit whining and just draw lol.

Here are some legs from memory and the rest are life drawings.
There was this one pose that was for 20 minutes, and I just COULD NOT get it. I tried to structure it but it looks really weird. I repeated it about 3 times until the pose was finished and still I couldn't get it.

[uph0]

Nice progress! I like the studies anatomy drawings especially. Just keep drawing and you will continue to improve. If you feel burnt out, maybe you could switch subjects for a bit, like drawing creatures/landscapes. or you could experiment with different media. Pen, marker is more freeing I think.

btw, thanks for commenting on my sb

[My57]

hey! just keep up with the studies and you'll make great progression as well. Its all about sticking to it.

[Not_Deadman]

Skulls for now, gonna try to some more skulls, draw some figures from imagination and some pose maniacs and upload them later tonight. My penciling looks so amateur T_T
As always, comment and critique

[Hamms]

Thanks for the comment. Keep up the studies, that dedication will pay off sooner or later (hopefully sooner though, eh?).

[Not_Deadman]

Damn... gotta get a new sketchbook, filled up my sketchbook to the brim! Here's a skull for now, its getting really late so I'll upload more tomorrow. I will also attempt a self portrait... here's hoping it comes out ok lol

Also, I'm thinking of starting to paint, where should I start?

[Not_Deadman]

some posemaniacs and quick stuff from imagination
comment and critique plz. thanks

[Fallenangel]

Cool sketchbook keep up with the anatomy studies and you"ll be great, but don't forget that art is about expressing yourself so sometimes just take your sketchbook and draw! draw whatever you see or want! (starships, people, sexy girls, animals, bizar monsters and etc.) or else you"ll quickly get tired of drawing only anatomy sketches.

anyways like i said, keep up the good job.

cheers.
Alex.

[Warforce17]

You defintly improved.
Your latest work are more convincing than your old ones so your studies paid off. I can´t really give helpful tips so I just wish you fun drawing.

mfg Warforce17

[Penny Bird]

Hi, thanks for posting on my SB. Your's is great, there's definitely an improvement from your first post. Keep with the anatomy studies; as you develop a better understanding of forms it'll be a lot easier to draw from imagination. I notice your drawings from imagination seem unbalanced, like they're about to topple over. I find it helpful to roughly draw the underlying bone structure, get the pose right, and then build up the forms over the top of it.

[hala]

I think you could benefit now from some really in depth studies--a lot of these are great, but the speed is very obvious and so accuracy is sacrificed. It'd be nice to see some fleshed out studies

[Not_Deadman]

@hala yeah, i have the problem with rushing things because Im afraid of overworking something, or working on something for a long time and not getting the picture done. Thanks for the reminder, ill try to put in more time in my drawings
@pennybird thanks, I've noticed that too lol. I'm going to try drawing a line straight down on my paper, then building up on the figure like you said. Thanks!
@warforce thanks! you don't know how much that means to me. people telling me im improving really helps me get going
@fallenangel Yeah I'm gonna try doing more varied stuff. All my friends say I draw too many girls... gonna try to stop, but I find them the most visually appealing lol

Here are some life drawings, then 4 pages of poses from a MJ live performance and the last 2 pictures are doodles from me imagination. I realize I am horrible at foreshortening and rendering >.< Gonna try to fix that lol.

[hala]

hehe you'll never know when to stop or when something is overworked if you don't ever try and make those mistakes.
Your whole sb is full of amazing progress, so don't ever give up, and don't get lazy, or i'll have to take out my bazooka gun and shoot you with rubber erasers
looking at your gesture drawings, I think you need to go a step back, and really simplify it into diagonals: draw a line that represents the curve of the spine, draw the slant of the shoulders, then the slant of hte hips, and go from there. take as much time. all you want to do at that point is get the movement of the form down---once you're able to recognize those slants and shifts of weight jsut by looking at the pose, then start drawing the full body again. It helped me a long time ago when i just couldn't get gesture studies down--I just simply could not do it, but that helped a lot.

I hope that helps some, You can do it!!!

[snootchy]

hey Not Deadman (<----interesting name) I like the amount of effort you're putting in and will definitely payoff over time. If we were giving things right off the bat, we wouldn't appreciate or value those things as much as working hard for those things and holds a much higher value so keep working progress is showing!

I really like this one a lot, because it has good construction, proportions, and cast shadows are nice, so big kudos on this one! I agree with hala in that when you're doing gestures try to use simple lines, it works for some people the bubbles and squares and I have nothing against them but I tend to think that if you keep doing it, the body will feel a bit disconnected, where when i see gestures, the lines are flowing from one into another.

as for constructive anatomy, i forget who but i remember one drawing teacher told me when drawing legs to think of both of them as once piece and focus on the big shape the stance. this has helped me greatly in looking at the overall shapes that exist within the body, and might help. i think a great exercise is to look at some ref pics and focus on the 2 large masses of the body, rib cage section and the lower half (hips and legs), keep them as 2 shapes and just block in the overall mass of the form. Then you can take a step further and try to break those forms down even further.

Keep at it, definitely coming along!!

SSG 69 ARTGASMIC FORCE
Mission: To push our skills to evolve to the point of giving you visual orgasm.
Eon l grenappels l snootchy l Peetaer l bleupencil

[SMILEFACE]

SHAZAM! YER studies are WICKED' an yer lines ROCK!

[Not_Deadman]

Hey guys, Im back, been on and off drawing... small update on my crappy camera phone... im really sorry... i cant get any better >.<
Would you guys be able to give me critics for this poster i've been working on? I've been told by my friends that the pants are weird, belly button is placed wrong, breasts are wrong and arms too short.... Im having a really hard time seeing this and I need MAJOR help >.<
Once again Im srry for the quality, its the only way i can upload it at the moment

[Not_Deadman]

Gestures, loomis study, and some torso drawings from imagination/no reference

[MattGamer]

good to see you're switching up the medium from pencil to ink. keep working on the ink, don't let it get you down. and when you feel comfortable with the ink, switch to something else (like watercolor, clay, or something foreign). always keeping yourself on edge and constantly learning, not getting stuck in a mindset. expanding your knowledge and teaching yourself how to master everything.

love love love the studies! these will help you SOO much. check out vilppu and how he teaches on drawing the human form. in gestures and such. really fun to watch his lectures and i'm sure you can find one of his books online someplace for free.

keep up the awesome art!

edit: here's a link to vilppu!

[Not_Deadman]

lots of pencil and ink stuff
posemaniacs, imagination stuff, photo studies and ppl from the dunkin donuts on campus... and there are 2 drawings from brokencow... that dude is awesome
srry for having everything everywhere, im just tryin to get into drawin more