my sketchbook

[James Warren]

Hi everyone I've decided to start a sketchbook. I've been looking at some of the sketchbooks on this site and I am constantly blown away by them, really inspiring stuff.

I am very open to any sort of critiques or criticism, if there is something you see that is wrong with whatever I make I would really appreciate it if you would point it out to me.


Man... I have a long way to go!

[James Warren]

Here's a couple of sketches I did tonight. I've been really focusing on learning the human figure lately. What I'm gonna be working on for the next week or so at least is trying to see the figure in terms of it's basic components, (rib cage, pelvis, etc...), and then refining the contours and other forms from there. I got a few anatomy books so that has been pretty helpful in showing me the underlying forms, it's been really fascinating as well. I had no idea that the arm and shoulder blade are only connected to the rib cage by the collar bone in terms of the skeleton until recently.

One thing that is a pretty good study is drawing some of the girls on http://www.gracefulnudes.com/.

It's weird how after scanning my work and viewing it on the screen I see it in a completely different way. It's like I have different mental standards or something when I see things on a screen.

[latigid]

Hey James good start in here just keep drawing and studying and keep doing those still lifes look forward to seeing more

[Janos]

Hi there and welcome.

Some tips: I suggest to start with the basic shapes as soon as possible. getting them right in proportion is going to be the most important thing now. The studies you did here, aren't going to help you very much, though of course drawing is always good. The outlines are hindering you from really thinking about the form. I hop I made myself clear enough. Good Luck and I'll see you around.

Cheers

[James Warren]

Latigid: Thanks, there will definitely be more.

Janos: Thank you, I understand what you are saying and you probably just saved me a lot of time.

[James Warren]

I have been really struggling with this. Last night I was frustrated and I had no idea what I was doing. I'm starting to be able to see things more clearly now though. I need to start going to live drawing sessions. I found this today and that helped me out a lot, although I don't know how correct his method is or if there are better ones. I don't really know if it is better to just draw people a lot and develop a method naturally, or if I should use some method that already exists that would be better.

Are there some basic things to keep in mind no matter what? Are there some things that one must always be looking for?

The first image is a collection of the sketches I was working on last night, they are all horrendous but I'm learning so what can I do.

The second image was from tonight, and after I read the thing I linked to.

[James Warren]

More from today, I will study more tonight.

[James Warren]

I'm gonna do pages and pages of these tomorrow now that can visualize the limbs.

[Monkeydominator]

Wow, great to see you going at it! Really awesome!

Your anatomy is quite off in some places, especially the arms and legs. The hand is pretty big, check the size of your own in comaprison to your head to see what I mean!
The Loomis books are always a goldmine of propotional beauty. I'd say go through his 'Figure drawing for all it's worth' to get a real art-boost!

Keep working hard!

[James Warren]

thanks for the encouragement monkeydominator! Thanks for the tip about the hand too, I can see that I haven't been making them large enough.

[James Warren]

one more for today.

[AldoKatayanagi]

Try to make more confident lines. Don't do them in scratchy little segments.

[James Warren]

Thanks, I'll try to be more conscious of that from now on.

[James Warren]

More for tonight.

edit: holy shit, after looking at this in the morning I can see that I really need to work harder. It's still better than what I could do last week but its so far from where I want to be it's kind of insane. I will continue grinding through this stuff today.

[James Warren]

I've decided that today is going to be torso day. I am going try to draw the torso from a bunch of different angles until I feel proficient with it. I came to this decision after doing this sketch, it really burns me out when I try to learn all of the different body parts at the same time. I just need to focus on one section at a time.

[Icedearth15876]

Good work, you are definitely improving with more practice. But I have a comment on the first drawing, don't put lines where there is a reflection of light on the surface, take a kneaded eraser and use it to show a reflection of light, dim the shading a bit as you move toward the reflection of light to show this.

[James Warren]

thanks Icedearth15876. I should probably spend some more time drawing basic forms.

[Colourful-Gizmo]

I like the opening drawing using the white and your anatomy studies are coming along :] Keep em coming!

[James Warren]

Thanks Colourful-Gizmo I appreciate the encouragement.

Heres a study of Repin's Cossacks painting. Although I think I should stick to the basics before I move onto color or using the tablet even.

[James Warren]

I started sketching people from life now and I had a lot of fun doing that tonight. I made sketches of these people while they were on the streetcar. I can't rely on getting all of my figure drawing experience or knowledge from books or images, nothing really compares to real life. I find studying from books to be rather boring, although it does a good job at explaining the mechanics of the body so I'm not going to stop.

I am going to go to every possible open figure drawing session each week. I need to be as disciplined as a monk. And when I get home I will try to recreate the poses or images I saw without using any references, this should help me cement it into my mind, (I got that from reading a post by el coro).

When I get my next paycheck I'm going to buy a dis-articulated skeleton cast from a real skeleton, and I'm going to draw the bones one by one every night and learn where the muscles connect.

I seriously cannot tolerate being this bad anymore.

[James Warren]

I went to a figure drawing class at a local art school tonight and I had a pretty good time. I was kind of surprised to see that people weren't that much better than me, and I haven't taken any art classes whatsoever. A lot of what I saw was downright terrible to be honest. I must admit that that made me feel better about my progress, however I still acknowledge that I am nowhere near where I want to be.

There were several fluorescent lights everywhere so there were basically no cast shadows and I had to imagine most of the ones that I drew.

To anyone reading this crap: can you recommend any types of paper that are good for figure drawing, or charcoal that is good? I am also interested in getting into ink and wash stuff, so some recommendations there would be very appreciated.

[kitfox]

Hello,

thanks for stopping by my sketchbook! You really seem to have passion for learning, keep at it! I can see your lines getting better already and your figures are definitely going in the right direction. The figure tutorial you mentioned in your earlier post had some good book suggestions and you should definitely check some of those out.

-Kit

[James Warren]

Thanks Kit.

I just decided that I am going to stop posting things on this sketchbook for a while. I'm still going to keep working but I would rather keep my progress and sketches private at this point. Maybe I will return to it once I can actually draw or when I start coming up with concepts, but until that point I am just going to continue working at this stuff alone.