I don't know what I'm doing here

**liquidjack** · October 9th, 2009, 11:39 PM

Dude, if you are going to post something like that make sure you put more luv into the work. Flesh it out and let's really see what you have. The pic looks like the normal basics of the beginning stages. More render you! (I should talk)

**zippy** · October 11th, 2009, 02:29 AM

Yeah, that was a pretty lazy attempt... I can't seem to wrap my head around color at all... when I try my values go to crap. Will keep trying though.

As a sidenote it's been two months now, and I really can't tell if I'm improving or not, yay me. Anyway, more junk.

Sketches and thumbnails.. trying to get ideas for stuff to "try" to color.

**zippy** · October 11th, 2009, 02:34 AM

Some quick bridgman and hogarth studies and a few sketches.

**kingkostas** · October 11th, 2009, 06:09 AM

You are improving so dont worry , just keep up.
Post 62 first one is very good but in general you used either soft edged brush or very low opacity one.And the result is some muddy effects.
One other good thing is that your sketches are becoming clear, with clear lines and such.The anatomy will come as long as you practice it.And i already see progress there.
Try to simplify it more(the body) to get a deeper understanding in Proportions.The color will be almost nothing when you train your values.A good grayscale rendering will show.
The last studies are nice, and the last head great.I like that you played and simplified the hand area.But ok thats a minor mass there.Because it needs simplify even for the fingers and such.i would not use flattened shapes for simplification.I think you need something more round.Imagine like you cut your arm with an axe and you remove the hand.Now if you look the arm's "edge"(the place that the hand has beed cut) in front view, what shape you see?It must be somehow an oval or circle i think.
Keep up

**liquidjack** · October 11th, 2009, 10:09 AM

Zocron hit a hard point. Good stuff I need to listen to as well. Dig the hand studies. The last render looks good. Looks like you got the pose right.

**Sylph** · October 11th, 2009, 11:07 AM

Love the guy in the straight-jacket

you're definitely showing improvement in a short time ^_^ Keep it up

**zippy** · October 11th, 2009, 08:55 PM

Thanks for the encouragment guys.

Kosta: Thanks for the tip on the hands and simplifyig the body more. I will work on that this week. I've actually done a fair number of value studies in photoshop, but when I try to add color it just goes to hell for some reason.

Liquid Jack: Thanks, I've been doing a lot of gesture drawing at work, couldn't really tell whether it was helping or not, but I do seem to be able to get the "basic pose" down without any trouble now. If only I could not suck at composition and color.

Sylph: Thanks, I like your acrylic you posted today also, I may try something like that this week just for fun.

Not much to post today, mostly just sat around and watched TV with my fiance. Started on this when she went out earlier... You can kinda see what I mean by my colors all going to hell.

**zippy** · October 13th, 2009, 10:51 PM

ultra lazy day... just some quick gesture sketches from head after work. I've been doodling at work on some small blank white paper... I've noticed my pencil drawings are turning out a lot more rendered even when sketching loose and fast... my anatomy is still very hit or miss though, hopefull I'll get more consistent in the next two months.

**zippy** · October 18th, 2009, 01:45 PM

More junk... I've been pretty lazy this week. Still need to work on balancing my figures so they don't lean... having more trouble with that than I should.

**zippy** · October 22nd, 2009, 07:45 PM

I've been really lazy about drawing this week.. been tired after work and trying to get stuff ready for my wedding. Here's just some doodles from my tiny little writing pad from work. These are just quick thumbnail sketches I do for practice when I get a chance. Also a few quick doodles in photoshop. Hopefully I'll have a little time this weekend before the honeymoon to get some pencil time in.

**Zorcron** · October 22nd, 2009, 07:58 PM

hey zippy ! its good to see you're keeping it up i really think you should start working with more simple ideas and shapes especially if you are moving in to color

still life is good because you can change the enviroment to how you see fit but i really think keeping it simple is better

if you are trying to learn about your color,value,form and perspective all at the same time with complicated ideas it just makes it that much harder

so yeah i think still life would be a good idea take some time to set it up how you want and play around with ideas

keep it coming. looking forward to much more

**zippy** · November 9th, 2009, 07:52 AM

Will try to buy some paint and work on still lifes next week. I'm really not too worried about moving into color, or even finished pieces really.

Anyway, I've been in Brazil for two weeks on my honeymoon so haven't had much time to draw. Here's some junk from the bits and pieces of time I was away from the wife or just relaxing. A page of faces, some quick 10 second gesture sketches of people in Atlanta airport, and some doodles.

**zippy** · April 7th, 2010, 07:27 PM

Been a long time since I posted here. I basically got really distracted with the honeymoon and crap and got lazy.. no excuses, I'm back to sketching and trying to improve. Here's a bunch of crap from the sketchbook and attempts to do "something" with a tablet (I suck even worse digital than I do with a pencil, woot.)

Trying to work on balancing my figures, light, and anatomy. Once I feel a bit more comfortable with basic forms and light I'll try to do more landscapes and play with color more. For some reason I'm super uncomfortable with color and with playing with the tablet at all really.