Trisscar's Sketchbook

[The7Artist7]

Dynamic Energy!! via perspective, colour, pose, etc and based usually on a superhero topic but I'm thinking I'll add other themes too

Kinda busy to get it sorted just yet but will start the next one as soon as I have time

[Trisscar]

This is my character from the game The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion, Tiria. I'm planning to make a comic based on one of the quests in the game with her as the main protagonist.

I've always had a bit of a problem drawing womens' faces. They usually end up, well, not looking like women Everytime I try to draw lips, the woman looks as if she's been punched in the mouth. That's another thing I need to work on.

I was thinking of colouring this digitally later, after I get an opinion on it. Or rather if I get an opinion on it.

[The7Artist7]

OK here's a quick 'paintover' and as it was difficult to see when over the top I've put them side by side. Wowzers yes I agree - you've pretty much drawn a dude! Think slender think delicate when drawing ladies - mine is not the best elven lady but study the differences. hope it helps - find ref and please stop using the box thingies for a while as I think they may be holding you back Try filling pages with 30second studies from posemaniacs - honestly I think it's that sort of practice you need now quick and quantity from good ref.

[majortom]

Hey man good work so far! I'd have to agree with The7Artist7, to make your figures more feminine you have to really think about what makes someone look like a female. Notice the forms and the gentle curves that are more apparent on a woman. I hope that helps!

[Novbert]

some nice studies here. Don't be affraid to draw different angles, hands and all kind of stuff out of your comfort zone. Just be sure you also study at least some basic muscle and skeletal structure. Sketching up the large masses as rectangular shapes is a good start, but arranging the muscles properly on those basic shapes is at least as important. Also try different approaches for blocking! Loomis, Bridgman and many others use different approaches - try them and find the best one for you!
I second The7Artist7 on suggestion of doing 30 sec posemaniacs studies. You can really learn a bunch from doing them.
Keep on sketchin'!

[Trisscar]

OK here's a quick 'paintover' and as it was difficult to see when over the top I've put them side by side. Wowzers yes I agree - you've pretty much drawn a dude!

D'OH! Ok, I'll try to wean off the box figures :salute:

to make your figures more feminine you have to really think about what makes someone look like a female.

It's kinda sickly ironic (or a better word than that) that I happen to be female myself. Except after years of fist-fighting with my older brother, I'm half built like a boy

But thanks, everyone, for the good advice

[Trisscar]

Some 30 second studies from Posemaniacs.





And what have I learned today by doing these studies? That I'm a pedantic little freak!!

[The7Artist7]

Ok! tis a start!

Do you know you can adjust the time to 90 seconds? I gave it a go today on the 90 sec one and came up with this page

there you go - you don't have to feel so bad huh!

[Trisscar]

Ok! tis a start!

Do you know you can adjust the time to 90 seconds?

Yeah, I did see that. Guess I should've started with them 90 second drawings and then move on to 30 seconds. However, here's another page of 30 seconders.

[Trisscar]

90 second studies this time. In the first one, you can see where I decided to screw doing the 30 second poses.

[The7Artist7]

Keep at it! also try breaking down the image into shapes - this is particularly useful with posemaniacs as they show the muscle groups and you can draw each main large muscle shape. Don't worry if you feel your first page-fulls are not that great - that's a good thing as you will learn and start to 'feel' the change. Once in a while stop and make a more detailed study - try to overlap shapes in the figure studies and flow with your lines.

Basically what I'm attempting to do is help you loosen up as you do have a great clean style already - this will be well complimented by more life and action with your lines

[Trisscar]

Basically what I'm attempting to do is help you loosen up as you do have a great clean style already - this will be well complimented by more life and action with your lines

Yeah, that's my main problem. I don't mean to be so pedantic with my drawings, but it's such a bad habit now that it's difficult to break out of.

And sometimes I feel like my style is too clean..... I look at other peoples' artwork and they have so much more detail in them.

[Trisscar]

[Trisscar]

I think I'm getting better..... at drawing arses.

Please excuse the patchy Photoshopping here and there.

[The7Artist7]

Good practice keep it up Triss! as you're doing 30/60/90sec pose studies try doing a non-timed one here and there too.

Also I'd like to see you draw a finished study of a realistic character now and then as well - practice looseness and characterful lines.

[Trisscar]

I forgot myself on the first drawing. It completely slipped my mind that I shouldn't be using the boxes to draw figures. I didn't do it for the second one and just tried a method that I picked up while I was doing the 90 second studies, however I've made her torso too short :/

[Trisscar]

Lookee what I found!



I did this back in 2007 as sketchbook fodder for my art class at university. I have a poster in my room of the shaolin 'Wheel of Life' show that I went to see a few years ago in Glasgow. It has five images of monks displaying five styles of kung fu: tiger, crane, eagle, snake and leopard. This one here is leopard.

Draw in its entirety with a fine pen. I always thought I had lost this image after I scanned it in two years ago. I'm glad I've still got it

[Trisscar]

Fanart of Adam Phillips' latest Brackenwood feature, 'The Last of the Dashkin'

Drawn and coloured in Sai, blur effect done in Photoshop.

Brackenwood and all its creatures are (c) of Adam Phillips.

[The7Artist7]

hey hey

Great to see some updates! Keep em coming

Studies looking good - maybe take one or two of them a bit further - try breaking up your posemaniacs studies with more finished stuff so you can see the progress you are making

The monk looks cool but is suffering from serious proportion oddities - if you still have the ref material it'd be cool to see you do another one or maybe just make a few studies from it (assuming it's photos you're working from??)

Cool Brackenwood fanart - only question what is 'Sai'???

Keep rockin -

[Trisscar]

Thanks!

I'll be able to focus a bit more on my drawing skills now, since I'm now out of a job

The monk drawing was from a poster that's still hanging up in my room, so yeah, I've still got the ref!

As for Sai, it's a Japanese art program you can download from the internet (obviously you can get an English version!). My friend Zooni on DeviantArt uses it almost all the time and she gave me a link of where to get it. It's kinda like Photoshop, only with more variety like different brushes, better pressure sensitivity, and you can turn the "page" around as you would a normal piece of paper and put it back the right way up easily too

[ceriously]

Hey. I really think posemaniacs is a great idea, but I think you might be being too careful with them. Your lines are sometimes scratchy and you seem to be avoiding the legs a lot of the time, or just not getting round to them. If you're still doing them, I think you should go down to something like 10 seconds. That really forces you to move your pen(cil) quickly. When I look back on my first posemaniacs pages, the 10 second ones are not great but I usually got the full figure down even if it was little more than a stickman. Once you've done some that quickly, when you move onto 30 seconds you should be able to get a much more detailed representation of the figure. I never used to simplify into shapes when I first did them. I just sort of followed the outline. It's only recently I've gotten into the whole shape anatomy thing, and though I think it's useful now to do posemaniacs applying that, I think doing gestures should be about movement first and foremost. I think it would be a good idea to loosen yourself up by just getting the 'feel' of the figure before fixing yourself down to accuracy.

...I also think it would be good to do them with a pen. I'm not sure if that /really/ makes any difference, I just feel like a pencil encourages a carefulness that doesn't really go with quick work like that.

Good luck.

[Trisscar]

ceriously: You're absolutely right when you say I'm being too careful. That's my main problem when I draw... my habit of being over-pedantic and a perfectionist. I've been like that for years now and I am trying so hard to break out of that habit

Thanks so much for your advice I'll try to be more loose.

[The7Artist7]

Draw Loose! Draw Loose! Draw Loose Trisscar - we know you can! <<read like cheerleader chant ...

Hahahaha! XD

Aww sorry to hear you out of a job - all the best and Utilise the time to sit down (or stand up if you prefer!) and DRAW!! practice Loose shapes ... force yourself to ignore the lack of control at the start ... back in the day our tutor at college had us draw holding the very end of a pencil / paintbrush away from the tip - she even had us painting using random bits of ripped cardboard!

Just go for it all out mad crazy rooooocccckkkkkkinggg looseness! use your careful perfectionist side for cleaning up an idea and adding details

Have fun and express action and character - plus give yourself plenty of space ... get a picture of what your after in your mind's eye first then let loose!

I'm excited to see how your style develops as you've got a very cool cartoonist illustrator vibe!

[The7Artist7]

Here you go - whipped up a quick example for you!

[Trisscar]

Thanks so much for the encouragement I truly appreciate it.

Actually, you know what? I'm going to make that my New Years' resolution. I resolve to draw loose and be more relaxed with my artwork. So there!

And also.... Happy Christmas or whatever it is you choose to celebrate!

[Trisscar]

A very Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you've all recovered from the Hogmany shenanigans and your hangover ain't too bad I greeted the New Year with an exploding barbecue. Don't ask.

Anyway, I'm going to start off this new year with a couple of new additions to my sketchbook! I was wondering whether or not I ought to post these here because I thought they weren't ConceptArt-worthy. They aren't, but then I'm more likely to receive some good critique on them here rather than on DeviantArt.





Now, I know what you're thinking: 'Oh crap, manga shit! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!' but hear me out!

This was a request picture for someone over on Fanart Central. I was more concerned with the background here than I was with the character. Especially that pond. I desperately need advice on how to draw water.




Another request for a Fanart Central user. I don't know why, but the last four requests I received there asked for me to draw specific characters in a field at night. No idea why.

[Trisscar]

Some more studies of the female body. I tried to do some shading on the bottom one, but it hasn't worked out very well




And I've also tried some 10 second studies. These poor creatures used to be human....





I've actually got a lot more pages of these studies, but they're just more or less the same as what's shown here.

[Trisscar]

I quite enjoyed using a pen on these ones. Nice and messy!






Here are my first attempts to refine my character 'The Freak'. Sorry about the different line qualities. I had drawn these in my A3 sketchbook and since my scanner can only take A4, I had to scan these in two parts.




The story behind those hands..... what I've got so far is that The Freak is a sort of prisoner in a realm like hell. On his first escape attempt, he was caught by the monstrous guardian of the realm who grabbed him by the back of his head and dragged him back in, its claws burning those marks on The Freaks' face.

What I want to achieve is something hideously deformed, rather like the fleshy lumps I saw when I watched the 'Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End' trailer on YouTube. Just gotta keep trying.

[The7Artist7]

Keep it up with the studies! (try doing a lot more studies from life too - try to find pics of normal people doing normal stuff and draw that too)

You need to pull away from the manga style whenever you don't need to draw it - learning realism will help your manga stuff too!

With the freak dude - I'm assuming he's a good guy trapped in a bad situation? Try aiming for a weathered, worn , damaged look ... but maintaining some hero factor.

As far as constructing his look - start with what you know is a constant as in his skull shape. Then add to that - think about how his skin/hair would try to mend around the wounds and or react/effect the rest of his head/face. Also try giving him a slightly more serious/heroic/long-suffering expression. Of course he seems he would always have that humorous glint in his eye!

[Trisscar]

You need to pull away from the manga style whenever you don't need to draw it - learning realism will help your manga stuff too!

Oh Christ, I hope you're just referring to the catgirl drawing. If not, I'm in trouble. I'm seriously not trying to draw in a manga style.

With the freak dude - I'm assuming he's a good guy trapped in a bad situation? Try aiming for a weathered, worn , damaged look ... but maintaining some hero factor.

About The Freak, I'm really still trying to develop his story, asking myself things like 'Who is he?' 'What is he?' 'Why is he here?' etc. He is the result of a nightmare I had a couple of years back. I've really got to start drawing up a mindmap or something....


Besides that, here's some nostalgia!



This is Stew Dapples from an old 80s puppet show called 'Terrahawks' (it's in a similar vein to 'Thunderbirds', even produced by the same guys). I got the boxset of 'Terrahawks' for Christmas and I recently watched the episode 'Cry UFO', where Stew was the only person to witness a spaceship fly over a roadside diner but nobody believed him. It was the only episode where the focus was put on a character who wasn't a Terrahawk or an alien. It's currently my favourite and Stew is my new favourite character. He's got such a goofy voice and is totally adorable! Unfortunately I've drawn his legs too short here. My excuse is that I've no idea how tall he is since you never usually see past a puppets' waist.



His hair is a pain in the butt to draw, with all that red and blue rinse through it.