Marius has to draw draw draw to improve improve improve UPDATED 15th APRIL

[Ekonk]

So, to sum things up:

Name: Marius
Age: 16
Location: The Netherlands

I ended up here because of this mofo, because of what he said in his FAQ over here. I believe his exact words were:

Go to www.conceptart.org/forums and start up a sketchbook thread in their forum. Let them tear you apart until you feel like crying, and then let them build you back up into someone you never thought you could be.

So here I am.


The Man from the Woods.

The master thief.

Design for the extraterrestial equivalent of a cow or gazelle. Its skull is sticking out of its head because it functions as an ear for the ultra-low frequencies it emits with the two ear-like "tubes" at either side of its face. It also does not have a mouth, but multiple grapple-like tongues which tear of bits of alien plant and bring that back to the hole from wich the tongue sprouts. The writing under it reads "Janus; Bos Echeai". Janus is the planet, and Bos Echeai is latin for cow from (the plain of) Echeaus.

Getting in a Clive Barker's Jericho mood here.

I think the guy at the bottom came out pretty good. "Geen zorgen, burger" means "Dont' worry, citizen".

I superheroe'd a teacher of mine, and the portrait part actually looked like him. Wow.

Generic mech.

Birdcage Face, Pyramid Heads less known brother.

Disclaimer: sloppy scanning is due to my lethal scanner, not to me.

Also, can anyone tell me how to scale these things down? They are like 3 times their RL size. :/

[AlexTooth]

Hey nice work... 16 doesn't seem that young though these days on here, sry!

Good start anyway!

I'd recommend get some anatomy study in, I think your characters will become a lot more believable. I think good ways to go about it is regular practice on www.posemaniacs.com - doing timed poses, I used to do like 2hours a day! ranging from pages of 10sec poses, to 30sec poses and 90sec poses etc. It's great practice to drill the proportions of the human into your head. Eventually you will be able to spot proportions out of place and stuff.

Also learning a practicing from free ebooks like Andrew Loomis - Figure drawing for all it's worth. And the books by George Bridgeman.

I'd definitely think about your line quality for your pencils, think about using different line thickness for different contours. Also accenuate line where you want the viewer to look. So, if you're drawing a face, make all the details, and contrast around the eyes, use softer lines in places where people don't need to look. Also, a popular style is thick heavier lines around the outside edges of your figure, and softer thinner lines on the inside details.

Good practice is drawing things from real life, tbh I am a noob, I've only been drawing 4months. But when I started I drew about 300 drawing from realy life in a few weeks. I think this was the best start I could take!

It's nice you're enthusiastic so young, wish I was! But remember if you want to get into the best art school you don't have THAT long to get very very good, so practice practice and you'll be cool then I dunno even if you want to go to art school lol.

Well anyway GL with your Art I hope it brings you joy throughout your life!

To answer your image size question, if you have photoshop or even photoshop elements or whatever. Import your scans, then go Image > Image Size and change the resolution. Other than that I can't help sry cos I suck at computers!

[Emil_J.]

Welcome to CA

AlexTooth just wrote a lot of what i was going to wright soo yea... life drawing is definitely a good way to practice - you could take a look around you local community and see if there are any classes. Ill be looking for some myself soon when the summer holiday start.

and remember regular updates so we can follow you progress!

[Ekonk]

Thanks you two.

@Alextooth: massive thanks for that awesome link, posemaniacs. That is maybe the single most useful site I've ever seen. And I indeed intend to go to art school, in fact I've already been there for a short workshop that was intended to show how that particular subject would be presented in class, and we had to get these easles (is that even a word?) and draw someone doing something random in 30 seconds. While doing that I realized how useful it was but I never did it afterwards because there simply are hardly any models to find in daily life. So this site is indeed awesome.

@Fumble: I'll update every possible day.

[Ekonk]

Righto, update.

45 seconds figure studies



Portraits from family members, respectively my granddad, uncle, and cousin.



And last but not least, a hunter from Half-Life 2 Episode 2. No reference, but I think I captured the vicious alien intelligence pretty well.



Also, does anyone know how to get the thumbnail displayed at the front of the thread to change into one of choice? Because the current one really sucks balls. :/

[Twan]

Good figure studies ^^
The portraits are good but a bit short.

[Ekonk]

Okay, small but colourful update today.



I'm entering DeviantART's contest about good versus evil. I mean, have you seen those prizes?

I'm going for a cartoony look here. And I switched the signature black and white things around.

So the idea here is that the angel (wings will be added later) is or is about to slaughter the defenceless, scared hordes of hell. The question this is supposed to raise is: "Who is the evil one here?"

[prrrszalony]

First of all you should try to draw from life. I've always recommended drawing matchboxes Its great and very basic exercise in drawing 3d objects.

copying old masters are also a great way to improve your skills

[Ekonk]

Update! Yesterday I was at school ALL FREAKING DAY, so when I came home I instantly put myself in front of the tv and started producing drool instead of scanning my sketches.

So here they are anyway.

-what the..?-fucking-attachement-manager- wait... - hold on a sec - damn thing somehow crashes all the time -

FIRST: OLD SNAKE - a commission by a friend.


SECONDLY: LIVE PARK ANIMAL STUDIES - disclaimer: some animals refused to sit still for more than five FUCKING seconds, so studies may be wildly incorrect.


AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST: SOME LOVECRAFTY GOODNESS FOR YOU ALL.

[krysjez]

You have some really interesting ideas here. And I love the guy's expression in the colored piece. The animal studies looking good too.

I think to change the thumbnail you just upload a new image into the first post with the attachment manager.

[8bit]

Dag vriend! I think you are developing a good style with that pencil, i like the lines you are using. And the figures have some personality for sure!

Success met alles!