Another one stumbling through the world of art

[DeadManDancing]

Hey out there!

After centuries of lurking around I finally found the courage to make something that could somehow, with both eyes closed, called an artist out of my poor self.

I'm now 19 years old, live in Germany and most of my friends call me Tobey.

I liked to draw in my kindergarden-time as well as in the first 4 years of school. Since then i more or less stopped painting in my spare time (blame on me) and just enjoyed the common art lessons in school, which I missed the last two years.
Now, where almost 13 years of school and education did their work on me, my inner self broke the chains and kicked my butt back to learn to draw.

So here I am trying to find a little home at Conceptart.org

So for the first attempt some scans from the last week. Most of it Loomis studies - some pieces from mind and one with ref from a photo between the mess.

[krel]

Hey dude! Keep doing the Loomis. Will do you alot of good in the long run.

Looking forward to mooore. Keep postin!

[Spiderlok33]

Looks good i love that skull from the last post, first picture. I have yet to even begin with the human skull, though I am sitting here in Business math drawing from Bridgeman's book lol or Loomis, I printed them out so I can draw in class.

[DeadManDancing]

@krel: Thanks for the kind reply and yes, I think Loomis will form my skills, too. I am certain that some things about proportions already got caught by my brain, which is more like a sieve.
Stay tuned

@Spiderlok33: Nice deal I'm just trying to do anything from mind in some boring lessons. So I can see what's really learned maybe.
But Bridgeman is something I need to take a look at after Loomis...hmmm... well maybe^^


Update Time!

Damn,I'm frustrated I needed so long to post an update

But whatever. Did some Loomis yesterday, but they're just bad even for my proportions. Think I was too tired and not concentrated enough.
The second page is from today - just finished it and I'm more happy with it. Even added one bad head from imagination so that you see how happy I was
Oh and the lines are thicker because I need to search for my pencil sharpner^^

[krel]

Things are going very slowly at the beginning. I struggled to draw a single manekin or figure for the first weeks. It just takes so much concentration and it exhausts you quickly.
But take it slowly, try to get it right rather than hurrying just to be able to update.

Also I can recommend Brigdman if you get bored of Loomis. Tbh I find Loomis very hard to draw. His style is hard to copy and the slightest mistake makes things look very unbalanced and, well, shitty. But keep on doing it for a while!

If you want to mix up the Loomis/anatomy with something more "relaxed" you can try posemaniacs. Do the 60sec poses and try to capture the "flow" of the figure. Im still very very bad at this myself and I recommend starting with it early.
Also post your gesture drawings (posemaniacs) even if they look horrible. Becouse they probably will

One more thing to keep in mind at all times. Light and shade. Try to analyze and observe this always. I see you already have the idea right in some of your quick portraits. But think about it even when not drawing. Look at nature.

Keep going dude

[DeadManDancing]

Thanks krel, that kinda motivates me, that you had some struggling first too Today I was at a bookmerchant in our city - a really big bookmerchant in Germany or something like that. And they had nothing from bridgman. They'd even need around 6 weeks to order any and when they do so I'd be bound to buy it -.- So I'm first looking what is really in need for me.
Yes, and looking for light and shade was always something that keeps me busy sometimes so I have at least a little idea of that point.

Well, I took your advice and visited posemaniacs. Didn't know anything from that site since today^^

Let's see the update now.
I numerized all the figures on the paper to tell you what I did

First Paper:
1. Another Loomis I did at school - tried to shade it a bit to hide that the arms are in bad proportion to the rest.
2.Tried to do a figure from had with two gesture lines, but it ended up in an epic fail. Now the legs are more the problem than the arms^^
3.My first posemaniac I chose. Needed at most 5 min and then added the Spiderman-mask.

Second Paper:
1. & 2. Two chosen Things from Posemaniac. No.2 needed around 4min.
3. A random posemaniac also something around 4 or 5 min

[PrimaryVIVID]

You're getting there! Some advice that really helped me out when trying to do more realistic work was paying attention to the reflected light; its noticeably lighter than the shadows, but isn't quite pure white. Spend some more time blending your shadows too, to get that sense of form going.

I really love the way Loomis studies look. You've inspired me to try some on my own once I finish the project Im currently working on.

Keep drawing!

[krel]

I like those poses and Loomis. You seem to be able to see how shapes fit together much better than I did/do

But also try to do the very quick posemaniac sketches. There is something called 30sec drawing. Click it and choose 60sec. Now try to get the form and "flow", the gesture, as correct as possible in those 60 sec. Its a good idea to do this as warmup everyday.

When you get good at it, they will look somewhat like this random pic I found on google http://www.rhubarbzoo.com/Jeremy/Ske...oseManiacs.jpg

[DeadManDancing]

@PrimaryVIVID: Great that I inspired you and thank you for your tip. It will definitely an advantage when I start practising rendering.

@krel: Thank you for staying tuned and all that I took your advice and started to practise with posemaniacs some minutes because I just had a few and wanted to post the result immediately but my PC crushed. Now I'm home again.

So it's update time again. Thank you for all your motivating comments.

Did some 90 sec Posemaniacs and really failed with some poses^^ But I guess I learned at least a bit - even when I'm not quite sure what.
On the last scan is a Loomis study and a pose I did in over 90 seconds. Don't know the exact time.

[Twan]

the skulls are very good, the rendering also. I think you just have to train a lot by copy master drawing, refs, from life and also a lot from mind
keep it up

[BlackDelphin]

Hello there! And thank you very much for visiting my sketch book.

I think you have quite a good sketch book start yourself! And if you keep it up, you'll certainly get better!

I see you studying from loomis and doing posemaniacs as you go too. That is really good, but you should pay a lot more attention to your linework and proportions, these in particular. Don't rush it. And while loomis has a nice tidy way of drawing and explaining things, he himself doesn't go through those steps when drawing. If you think it will help you, by all means! Have a go at them! After all, if you draw, you can only get better!! There's no way you can get worse! But do have a look and try out bridgman and hogarth style too! In that order.

While i too think drawing from mind is important, first you have to knowthe information, before you can actually remember it, no?
So have a look at these books here in case you haven't already: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=131117 and good luck!

You can do it!!
You just gotta have more patience!

[DeadManDancing]

Twan: Yes you're right - I just have to keep practicing. Thanks for motivating me.

Blacky: Thank you very much for the tips and the link. I will practice what I like most. Think that's the best way to improve. But I don't know how to practice my linework. Realized that it's quite crappy but didn't know how to train that.

So everyone is asked too^^ Some advice to train linework?

Today I kinda took some advice from PrimaryVIVID's and Blacky's comment and did some rendering practice and afterwards 2 heads from mind. Later Added one hole puncher with ref and my own hand.
It's not much but I was just tired after wasting my day in the city buying presents for christmas. Christmas really changed somehow.

Oh, and the scan just sucks. Don't know what I did wrong. Used the same pencil, the same scanner and the same pc so i have no idea
Hope it doesn't bar someone from giving some advice

[sanakris]

Bold choice stepping out in the art world. Learning from loomis is an excellent choice. The gestures drawings and posemanics sure do add personality to the drawings. You should post some stuff from imagination sometime. Great job, and keep working at it.

[DeadManDancing]

sanakaris, thanks for dropping by Now, u mention it - I really did less from imagination. Just some pieces. Well guess what?
Today is everything from imagination^^
But the silly thing is - I just realized - that I did noses and some faces, which I didn't really practiced before.

Well here we go

[BlackDelphin]

Well to get better with lines i followed this book right here i found in that list: http://books.google.com/books?id=NdA...age&q=&f=false
And you shall certainly see some improvements if you do what it says, and don't skip, not slack!

Having good line work is very important, gives more confidence, helps my shading, rendering, well, with everything of course! If you have more confidence you get better results

And the scan in is not so bad, but i can't really tell the lines apart, thus i can't give accurate critique, sorry.

Pretty much goes to the last update, so try and make your updates less bright. If they are darker but i can see your lines it is better, plus it is less straining for the eyes.
Still, i could see quite a nice foreshortening applied to that figure on the right. Do a few more of those!! And then redraw it to see how much better you have become!

Good luck!

[DeadManDancing]

Thank you Blacky for staying tuned Had really no time to touch a pencil since this night All this christmas partys an so on.
Hmm your right, it's hard to tell my lines apart. Especially in the face I mainly did with the side edge of my pencil. So in one of my scans I tuned everything a bit darker. Hope it is better to give me some advice and tips

Oh yes and foreshortening will be a task to solve too :o So much to do - don't know where to start.

Well, I read the book you linked to page 14 and did some practice on linework. I plan to start with the lessons in the book tomorrow.
Second scann are some poses from posemaniacs I chose.
And everything in ink/fineliner - so everyone can see my lines and I wanted to test what you, Blacky, like so much about ink.

[DeadManDancing]

Well today was a day I can't rate Wanted to draw something but didn't really started. Then I made it to kick my ass and do some lines on a ruled paper just to practice my linework. But it's really exhausting. So I gave Loomis a turn but It felt like I didn't get anything to work and things became worse when I started to study the leg.
But after a break the leg study was better and I was motivated to do something from imagination so the day went well in the end

BTW I buyed a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch which will arrive in the next days. Looking forward to test it

And a Happy New Year tomorrow (well in Germany it's tomorrow)

[Dm7]

I can see that you have been working on anatomy and the beloved posemanics practice, good! Now keep it up but try to be more loose in your strokes, put more trust in your strokes (confidence). There's also neg space part at posemanics, I suggest you to try and learn how to draw the neg space and start from there, it'll help tremendously with your drawing accuracy. Try to see simple shapes in neg space and forget what you know of a human body. It doesn't exist, but negative space do! That way, you bypass mind's automatic response in "Hey I know this, it should be drawn that way". You don't want that.

Think abstractly!

Keep up your practice!

[Turbosnail]

Hey DeadManDancing!! Thanks for stopping by my SB!!
You've got a good start here and we can see your are putting in the practice. Keep working hard on your anatomical studies. It'll definitely pay off in the end!!

[krel]

Come on man, do more!

[DeadManDancing]

Hey guys,
I was just too lazy since the last update. My new Wacom arrived on Thursday 6th of January And the only thing I really did is a EOW.
So now there are the first colors in my SB.
Tomorrow I'll have to go to physical examination (army) but I think they don't want me^^ I have to many allergies and asthma. So there's much hope for me

Well I shouldn't talk. I just dump the EOW here and then answer tomorrow. I hope I have much time to draw tomorrow when I have to wait in the train and so on.

Thanks for your comments - they're kicking my lazy ass

[iven]

Wow, nice stuies I love Andrew Loomis too. Very good drawings,
there is another guy you should know who helped me too, it is
Villpu, he has very good stuff.

Oh by the way your icon is a real eye catcher, which software
did you use !?

Servus nach Deutschland von nem Badenser !

[Turbosnail]

Hey man!! Like the colours in your enviro... BUT.... wanna see more posts. Keep pushing yourself mate!!