Trisscar's Sketchbook

[Trisscar]

Oftentimes I've wondered if I should give up on this sketchbook and begin a new one. Looking back on it, some of my posts here are bloody embarrassing (not just the artwork, but my daft responses).

But you know what? Let this sketchbook stand as a testament of my growth not only as an artist, but as a person in general.

Mind you, I'll probably change this opening blurb again in the future

[B-Man]

Great, fresh meat! welcome! Now bring it man, so we can start picking you into peices!
kidding... sort of.
Post some pictures and I'll help in any way I can.
mahalo!

[Icedearth15876]

Hey welcome to CA, post some stuff so we can start helping you (Evil Grin).

[Trisscar]

I really hope this doesn't turn out ridiculously huge... Hell, I hope it just turns out!

This crazy bandit first appeared in a nightmare I had back in 2007. Unfortunately I didn't have the sense to do a sketch of him while he was still fresh in my memory, so this is the next best. He was part of my Artworks Project at university, where I drew a comic about him.

This was the first 'refined' sketch I did of him back in 2008. I'll upload all my concept drawings of him in my thread here, to allow people to see the character concept progress from 2008 to 2009.

Lastly, he has no name. I've just given him the title of 'The Freak'.

[Trisscar]

Thank you for the welcome, B-Man and Icedearth15876

Pick me to pieces all you like. I want to learn from my mistakes and then stitch myself together again

[Trisscar]

My tutor had told me that he felt that this was my strongest drawing of the Freak. I didn't particularly mean to draw him in a sort of manga style, that was really unintentional.

I wish I knew how to reduce my digital drawings properly so that the resolution wouldn't be so murdered

[Trisscar]

This was done using Sai. I was toying with the idea of giving my man a hat, since quite a few horror-type icons wear hats.

[Trisscar]

The Freak without his coat. I'd like to think that the belts hanging from his arms resemble the straps of a straight jacket.

I used Hellsing volume 3 as a reference for this pose.

[Trisscar]

I was just practising my cel-shading skills with all these drawings of him, especially with his leather suit. I don't really want it to look like it's been ironed smooth. I suppose it should look a bit crinkly. I had a look at the leather suits of the cenobites from Hellraiser to get some inspiration.

Again, I used Hellsing volume 3 as a reference for this pose.

[B-Man]

OK. Your knowlage in anatomy is poor and the proportions of the character change in every picture you draw. I would recomend that you just like everyone new to drawing starts with studys of the human body.
start practicing box figures. Its a great way to get a grip on basic chapes.
and also figure drawing. fill pages with small bodies in different poses.
Post your studies so its easyer for ppl to help explain where the pictures are going wrong. sometimes its hard to see.
now work hard

[Trisscar]

Agh! I didn't realise I was that bad

All right, I'll get to practising anatomy better, but I'd still like to post the rest of my current concept drawings of the Freak for now...

[Trisscar]

Ok, so my anatomy is bad, but still.... have a look at my stuff to see how the Freak progressed through the year.

I've been drawings for years, so this is so embarrassing.....

[Trisscar]

I drew this one after a friend told me that the previous alleyway one looked too colourful and cartoony. I had Freddy Krueger on the mind when I drew this one

[Trisscar]

This is my avatar! I drew his hat completely wrong here. It's supposed to be a trilby, but this looks like it should have fish-hooks in it.....

And, er, these are all the drawings I'm going to post of the Freak for now. I had planned to post everything I have of him, but I'd rather not embarrass myself further.....

[Dibujio::Guru]

Damn that guy looks pretty damn fly

Nice character and thanks for posting in my thread.:

[IanE]

This character has a nice idea behind it, but it's coming off really incomplete, and maybe it's just this last image you put up, but I'm really seeing Tony the Tiger mixed with Hellboy mixed with The Crow mixed with Freddy Krueger and that makes me reach 1 critique for you:

Refine.

Pick an idea, pick the best, most important aspects or criteria of it, and develop those flawlessly and let the style develop on its own. It seems like you've got too many ideas going on here, which isn't a bad thing to have too many ideas, it's just bad to try and apply them all without any true purpose for each one.

Let's see some more work now!

[Trisscar]

Gorilla@Attack: thank you for your kind words and it's a pleasure going through your sketchbook

IanE: (salute) Sir, yes Sir! But first I have to work on my anatomy as B-Man suggested.

And also... I almost burst out laughing at the Tony the Tiger comparison. I've had quite a few people liken him to Hellboy, Freddy Krueger, the Crow etc, but Tony the Tiger?!

I did try my best to draw him how he looked in my nightmare, but I'll try to refine him a lot more. As Foghorn Leghorn would say, 'It's back, Ah say it's back to the drawing board...'

Thank you very much for your feedback It's greatly appreciated.

[Trisscar]

I would've updated my sketchbook sooner, but I've been enduring jury duty for the past few days.

Practising postures and body structure with box figures.





All of these (except for the silly one) are taken from the book 'Figure Drawing without a Model'. What I aim to do next is to box-salamify images from magazines, newspapers and the like to get a better understanding of anatomy.

[My57]

k. If ya wanna make a comic or w.e. i would recommend a lot of anatomy studies and face studies. If you have a tablet work on painting with it as well. I would say that learning anatomy and faces is probably one of the most important things for comics (tied with doing environments). Unless you plan on doing a cartoonish comic thats filled with funny jokes and hilariousness. Like penny arcade. <- Which isn't a bad idea, but you gotta be funny.

scribd.com has a lot of anatomy books you can look at. Including stuff from hogarth and such...

[The7Artist7]

Hey - my internet is back from holiday lol

The work you have here is not a bad start at all - one really important thing you have is life and character in what you create (rather stiff and suffering from quite a bit of what I call 'jelly-joints' but interesting and engaging). I'm really liking the box figures!

Recommendations for now:

http://www.posemaniacs.com/

draw, draw, draw when practicing - quick roughs, simple stuff and small focussed studies, studies from life (any objects around you etc) anatomy study (carful not to just copy but learn)

+ work on some quality finished pieces - with these really put your all into it and outdo yourself (you will find you also learn a lot when doing this too)

Be the sponge - soak up all that art skill goodness

And remember - enjoy yourself at every opportunity with your art!

[Trisscar]

Okie doke, I'll try and do all that

'Jelly-joints'..... gotta add that to my vocabulary!

[Travis Smith]

For the type of structures you're using in those last few sketches I think it would be helpful to check out some books that review proportion. For example, right now you're drawing the head volume as a cube instead of a rectangular box shape. Many (most?) systems of proportion use the head as the basic measurement so having a solid understanding of the dimensions will be very important. I would elaborate but I don't have the proportion systems commited to memory yet and I don't want to give you inaccurate information.

If you like though I can suggest some books to you that I found very helpful.

Beyond merely drawing with volume boxes though I think you need to pick up a book on perspective. It's not enough that you draw these boxes, you need to draw these boxes in perspective with awareness of the eye line (or horizon line).

Finally, when drawing the boxes for the rib cage and pelvis don't hestitate to 'draw through'. I see that you were drawing through when the legs overlapped the other parts of the body, but you might also find it helpful to draw the faces of the box you can't see, especially once you start putting these in perspective.

[Trisscar]

Some more box-figure sketches. I know that some of them have pieces missing, but that's because I couldn't see every limb/the whole body. As my ole tutor used to say, 'If you can't see it, don't draw it,'.....





.... except when a wet fish is involved.....

Tb0ne: Thank you for the advice. Would you please tell me about the books you had in mind?

[Travis Smith]

As my ole tutor used to say, 'If you can't see it, don't draw it,'.....

.... except when a wet fish is involved.....

Tb0ne: Thank you for the advice. Would you please tell me about the books you had in mind?

Perspective Made Easy: A good overview of one and two point perspective.
Bridgeman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life : This book covers drawing the figure in perspective (especially heads), with rythm, proportion, and anatomy.
Dynamic Figure Drawing (Burne Hogarth): Discusses rythm, structure and offers theory on how to create the illusion forshortening.

Any book by Andrew Loomis would be great as well but they're currently out of print.

[Trisscar]

Perspective Made Easy: A good overview of one and two point perspective.
Bridgeman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life : This book covers drawing the figure in perspective (especially heads), with rythm, proportion, and anatomy.
Dynamic Figure Drawing (Burne Hogarth): Discusses rythm, structure and offers theory on how to create the illusion forshortening.

Any book by Andrew Loomis would be great as well but they're currently out of print.

Noted and appreciated. Thanks very much

Looks like I'm going to have to give my bookcase a serious overhaul!

[Trisscar]

I nearly forgot that I had this. It's just a little Rorschach fanart I did a few months back. While I was at university, when I was doing my comic about the Freak for my Artworks project, I spoke with a narrative construction tutor to help me with my script.

He told me that he thought my Freak character was similar to Rorschach from 'Watchmen'. At the time, I'd only heard the name a couple of times when the film was advertised on TV, so the tutor recommended that I buy the graphic novel. A day or two later, I paid my local Waterstones a little visit....



I know it's not the best, but I was quite pleased with how clean it looks. This was done with Sai.

[Trisscar]

This is the pencil work of one of the panels of my comic. Drawing environments was never my strongest point, and I'd really like to overcome that.

[Trisscar]

After IanE's comment about the Freak looking like Tony the Tiger, I just couldn't resist this....



Want some Frosties?

[Jesus Food]

lol u like darth maul or somethin?

[Trisscar]

lol u like darth maul or somethin?

Heh heh

It's just that my character 'The Freak' has those weird triangular markings on his face. As I saw him in a nightmare, he must have some Darth Maul-type qualities because of his face. I remember watching 'Star Wars Episode 1' quite a lot when it first came out

I've heard that dreams are just a manifestation of things you've seen throughout your day.... or week.... or month.... or lifetime.......