exon's fruity perilous badass conquest

[Exon-Ion]

Greetings, fellow inhabitants of conceptart.org

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Amit, I'm 17 years old and I'm from the United Kingdom. I'm new here, well not exactly, I've been skulking around on this site for around 2-3 years never really thought seriously about creating my own sketchbook until now. This thread will act as my personal archive, with all of the ups and downs from the beginning of my journey right through the end. I really should have done this along time ago, but they no use to lament over lost time, it looks like I've got alot of time to atone.

During my time on this site, I've seen alot of work and dedication from professionals and self-taught artist alike, and it extremely inspiring. I to, would like to reach my dreams and goals. I always had a habit of making sketches and scraps, you know the usual stuff, like doodles and graffiti. I've only started taking art seriously over the past six months, drawing at home, drawing during lessons, drawing during bustrips, drawing during lunchbreaks, just whenever I can really.

Which pretty much explains my presence here, in time I hope to improve my craftmanship and also my imagination. I'll appreciate every critique, advice and comment that I'll recieve.
Thank you CA.

I'll try to update as often I can,
well, here I go.

Heres some pages of 30 second poses I did off posemaniacs, suffering from poor proportions. I've spent the summer going through the human body briefy, from the superfical muscle layer to the bone.



Also a value study I did, well it isn't exactly complete. Got to get out of the habit of blending/smudging, whatever you want to call that method it. My pencil rendering definitely needs way more practice.

[stormrider85]

great blending on the value study , i still cant get smooth blends like that with my pencil stuff, would love to see it finished good stuff

[Exon-Ion]

stormrider85, thanks, I still need to work on that, can't seem to get a smooth graduation without the aid of blending materials.

Well, heres some more 30 second poses and a few pages of value studies.

[stormrider85]

the values and blending on the last skull studies seem right, what pencils are you using because it looks like your using some light then something really dark, id suggest using some H pencils with even pressure then going from like a 4h to a 3-2h then layering over to get nice smoother blends.

keep the studies going

[Exon-Ion]

stormrider85, yeah your right, I used a 4B then jumped to 2B without varying the pressure, impatience got the better of me, and thanks for your tip, I'll try that.

Today's stuff, some more 30 sec's and pressing on with Bridgeman studies.

[Agarwaen]

Nice to see another 30-seconds-drawer
Thanks for commenting at my sketchbook
Great studies so far and great shading! I really like your drawing style.

[Scimok]

Very nice studies and gestures. The sheer number of them and how much you've improved over the course of them at capturing the forms speaks volumes to your dedication.

[Exon-Ion]

Agarwaen, When I started them, 30 second poses, they were quite a bore, but once you get going you just cant stop, and thanks.

Scimok, Thanks man, it really means a lot.

So I moved on to doing 60 second poses, much easier than those 30 secs, still struggling on capturing the form quickly, but eh', they were fun.


Some more anatomy studies

[Turbosnail]

Thanks for visiting my SB The Exon. Excellent effort with the posemaniacs sketches and the anatomy studies are coming along nicely. Keep pushing yourself my friend!!

[Jamie Romoser]

great start for your sketchbook dude
i started out with graffiti aswell, dont do much any more though
just keep at it man it all looks promising
looking forward to seeing your progression
have a good one
-Jamie

[Exon-Ion]

Turbosnail, Thanks my friend.

OmertA, Thanks for visting, I still do practice graffiti every now and then, Its a another completley different form of art, its another dimension of art in which I want to get fluent in too.

Haven't posted in a while, knee deep in school work and stuff.


It's not gona stop me though.

Some anatomy studies and stuff. Trying to focus on line quality.

[greyskill]

Cool stuff here. I see you are working hard. Keep it up.

Post some more Bridgman, you do some really nice studies of them.

Thanks for the post on my sketchbook, it's really appreciated.

[swulf]

One advice that may help you to make these studies more interesting.Try different pressure when you draw lines and not always the same thickness.Experiment with different kind of lines and different ways to draw a lines.Keep up with hard work.

[Exon-Ion]

greyskill, More Bridgman?, will do and thanks for visiting.

swulf, Thanks for the tips and the visit,

Some more 60 second poses and bridgman studies, a couple quick of life drawing done at school, need to more. You can see from from that they lack depth and form, gotto train my eye I found the experience way different from what I was used to, copying from photos and such.

And some scraps and faces I did during my school lunch break. My faces seriosly suck, even though these were reffed I find difficulty getting the features correct. I must work on that.

[Craz]

You must have the patience of an oak tree to upload all those posemaniacs.
They're really, really good, but your proportion is weak, and I think you really need to work on it. There's just a huge disparity between your knowledge/application of proportions and everything else.

[Christian223]

Excellent!. I have not seen things more imagination though, are all these drawings from reference?, try to draw from imagination to see what things you have not memorized. Drawing from imagination will be a test to see if the drawings from reference have achieved their purpose

Keep posting!.

[kingkostas]

Great.Damn how i love that value study you did.Its simply great.Btw with that hard work and all these studies you are gonna do really great very soon mate.
Keep this up and thnx for stopping by my sketchbook

[kingkostas]

Great.Damn how i love that value study you did.Its simply great.Btw with that hard work and all these studies you are gonna do really great very soon mate.
Keep this up and thnx for stopping by my sketchbook

[Exon-Ion]

kigkostas, Thanks for your kind words and visit.

Christian223, Your right, I'll get down to doing some refless pieces, thanks for bringing that thought to my attention.

Craz, Your completely right, I must admit I find it hard to get down the correct proportions of the human figure under that time. more practice needed I guess. I've just started reading Kimon Nicolaides' Natural Way To Draw. One line caught my attention.
In order to concentrate, one can act furiously over a short space of time or one can work with calm determination, quietly, over a long extended period.

Though I'm generally a slow worker, my art teachers mocks me for that, like he has for the past 2 and a half years.
I had finished my GCSE three days before the examiner was due in school, gives an idea of how slow I had worked for those 2 years, lol.
But I'm increasing speed with quality slowly so more practice needed I guess.


Anyway, I started the digital media a couple months back so I'm pretty much noob at this stuff. So just a quick blending study to familarise myself and a photo enviro study, impatience got the better of me with the foliage.

Started doing hands today, Giovanni Civardi studies done straight with a ballpoint pen. You'' see me doing more studies in pen, permanent ink, which will hopefully force me to make first time correct lines and strokes.

And some comic strips I've done as coursework for my AS Level course, reffed from comics, pencilled and inked with Micron pens.

[FightingSeraph]

Nice posemaniacs and anatomy studies, but I think that you should study perspective, composition, values, etc.

[Pixie Trick]

Wow! That's a lot of studies! I agree that more attention to proportions is in order. Also, something that was recently pointed out to me was my lack of values in creating a form, which would apply to you as well a bit. (ie. all lines and no shading) You've already mentioned how different life vs photos is. You learn a lot more per amount of time spent if you work from life. Keep it up and you will be beating our asses in no time!

edit: The comics look great!

[Spikings]

The amount of Posemaniac drawings are mindblowing, you're like a frickin' hurricane...especially jealour of you clean and accurate hand anatomy, it's one part of the body I want to improve upon most. You might want to loosen up when properly drawing your characters though, become as loose as you are with your PM practices to get a better feel for proportions and variances.

[Peetaer]

You're off to a fantastic start man! You're doing posemaniacs, Bridgman and other anatomy studies. Those three core exercises serve as an excellent foundation. A lot of beginners can often get WAY ahead of themselves and drive right into color and painting without having, at least, adequate drawing skills. You must be a good draftsman before you can really delve into the realm of painting (unless you want to do more abstract stuff).

Just keep going!!!

PS: It would be wise to include drawing from life (animate and inanimate objects) as part of your foundational exercises!!!

[Craz]

You're off to a fantastic start man! You're doing posemaniacs, Bridgman and other anatomy studies. Those three core exercises serve as an excellent foundation. A lot of beginners can often get WAY ahead of themselves and drive right into color and painting without having, at least, adequate drawing skills. You must be a good draftsman before you can really delve into the realm of painting (unless you want to do more abstract stuff).

Just keep going!!!

PS: It would be wise to include drawing from life (animate and inanimate objects) as part of your foundational exercises!!!

Seconded. I had this problem and still haven't fully shaken it.

Though I'm generally a slow worker, my art teachers mocks me for that, like he has for the past 2 and a half years.

Is that because you've been working on the same piece for those 2 and a half years?

Anyway, I started the digital media a couple months back so I'm pretty much noob at this stuff. So just a quick blending study to familarise myself and a photo enviro study, impatience got the better of me with the foliage.

I don't know if you need this advice, but I'm going to give it just in case.

1. What program are you using? (That obviously isn't advice, but it will decide some of the specific advice I give in the future.)
2. Blending will be aided by having a brush whose opacity level is sensitive to pressure (i.e. the more pressure, the more opaque the stroke). I'm going on the assumption that you have a drawing tablet.
3. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think it's necessary to have a traditional painting background. However, I do think it's necessary to get the foundations of painting down before you dive headlong into things. The only specific way I, with my limited knowledge, can think to do this is painting from life. Still lifes are great. Start with the big forms, values and areas of colour and work your way to detail. If you can find anyone who can tell you more on how to get comfortable with the foundations, that would be excellent. For now, though, I think still lifes are the best thing for you to do. Pick one, decisive light source, set up a variety of objects, remember Big to Small and paint.

Started doing hands today, Giovanni Civardi studies done straight with a ballpoint pen. You'' see me doing more studies in pen, permanent ink, which will hopefully force me to make first time correct lines and strokes.

These are great. Make sure you're really thinking and learning what's there and not just copying.

And some comic strips I've done as coursework for my AS Level course, reffed from comics, pencilled and inked with Micron pens.

"I have no home, your war destroyed it." As far as I can tell, the person saying this or the place they're saying it from is an amorphous heap. I'm not sure how it will look after its rendered, but it doesn't really matter that much. If the silhouette doesn't tell me what I'm looking at instantly, there's a problem to fix. If it's some sort of structure, I recommend pulling the viewpoint back to give us more information if you can. Of course, this place might be set up clearly in a previous panel and linked to this panel with an identifying visual code, in which case my comment would be baseless.

I hope I've been helpful and not rude... Sometimes it's hard to ride that line.
I'm subscribed, so you'll probably be seeing more of me. Have fun learning.

[Exon-Ion]

FightingSeraph, Perspective, composition, values? I'll gather some books and references and start on them right away, and thanks for the visit.

Pixie Trick, your right about the proportions and about the lack of value studies, I'll get some done real soon, thanks for the visit.

Spikings, Like hurricane I wish, , I find myself wasting far too much valuable time, I could get alot more done, thanks for the visit.

Peetaer, Thanks for the kind words, dude! I'll get some still life done for sure...

Craz, My art teacher almost mocks me on my speed on a daily basis, I guess it a kind of motivation. But I dunno, I just fail to keep concentration going for longer periods of time but rather in burst, well I shouldn't exactly rush art but then When I take my time with my art, I'm just....slow,lol.

I'm using CS3 at the moment occasionally Painter , I know lil bit about opacity blending and stuff and little more scouting here and there and with plently of practice I'll get the hand of it...I hope.

Don't have much comic booking experience, well not any actually, these were directly reffed, from some Star Wars comics I had, but I can see where your coming from.

Oh yeah, and thanks for subcribing, gives a me a morale boost, and in future posts, be as rude as you want to be. Its what'll make me stronger.



Long time, no update, internet was messing up, though it seems like its behaving, for the time being atleast. I took in what you guys said and decided to give those gestures a break for now. It seem like I was rushing those poses and failed to identifiy significant landmarks and correct proportions of the figure. So I started doing some more poses but with a longer timing frame. Feels alot more comfortable.

[Craz]

FightingSeraph, Perspective, composition, values? I'll gather some books and references and start on them right away, and thanks for the visit.

Jason Manley's Composition download is a great one to look into.

Craz, My art teacher almost mocks me on my speed on a daily basis, I guess it a kind of motivation. But I dunno, I just fail to keep concentration going for longer periods of time but rather in burst, well I shouldn't exactly rush art but then When I take my time with my art, I'm just....slow,lol.

I have the same problems with sustaining concentration. I find it hard to focus on one thing for very

Remember that the key to speed is not to rush or go quickly, but to be as economical with your moves as possible. How much can you say with one line? How few strokes can you describe that figure in? Plan your next move before you do it. That might seem like it will take longer, but it should actually improve your speed.

I'm using CS3 at the moment occasionally Painter , I know lil bit about opacity blending and stuff and little more scouting here and there and with plently of practice I'll get the hand of it...I hope.

You will.

Don't have much comic booking experience, well not any actually, these were directly reffed, from some Star Wars comics I had, but I can see where your coming from.

I'm interested to hear what you've learned from the experience.
(When you entered the copyright information to upload the images, you remembered to put the copyright holder of the comic you referenced, right?)

Long time, no update, internet was messing up, though it seems like its behaving, for the time being atleast. I took in what you guys said and decided to give those gestures a break for now. It seem like I was rushing those poses and failed to identifiy significant landmarks and correct proportions of the figure. So I started doing some more poses but with a longer timing frame. Feels alot more comfortable.

Even on these longer poses, begin with quick gesture. Get something energetic, then build up the accurate pose with it as a base. Don't let the energy of the pose leave your drawing.

[Call0ps]

nice to see so many studies =) sketching helps so much to keep your curiosity alive and you sir and doing it wonderfully. i would recommend to draw more from life if possible, theres more information than you brain can handle =p and those comic pages are just ace!! love them to death!
keep up the good work!

[Exon-Ion]

Craz, Thanks for the tips on speed keeping, I'll try to keep that in mind when I'm drawing. For the comic pieces I did learn quite abit about line weight and thickness when I was inking. The closer the object to the light, the thinner the lines, the further away the object the thicker the lines. It may sound odd, but I also feel as if my hand has gained more control over the user instrument, pencil, pen, etc, I dunno but its as if I can hold my wrist/hand more steadily then before when making those longer freehand hatches. I also find pencilling comic pieces a good way of practicing proportions, as their so much detail that a single mishap could just destroy the whole piece.

Call0ps, Thanks for the visit, dude! Your right about life studies, I gotto definitely put more time into doing them.


Some lame still life fruit studies I did in CS3, struggled with the apple, I guess I need to more apples. Paticularly enjoyed doing the banana, perhaps its because I like eating them...

[Jamie Romoser]

Great studies dude you have a really fresh Graff style
but it all looks promising fersher, You should construct your figures more before you lay down the hard lines
have a good one man
till next time
-Jamie

[Craz]

Good work on those studies. Think about setting up your subject before you start, though. Don't just plonk a piece of fruit down and start painting it. In particular, think about lighting the subject effectively. For now, use a single light source and set up a dark background (any kind of black fabric or construction paper will do) to surround your object. Place the light in a spot (consider strength of light and distance from the subject as well) that describes the form of your subject to you the best.

I'm away from home right now, so I didn't have much to improvise this with, but here's a visual demonstration. My camera's also crap for taking photos like this, as the user has very little control of exposure. Good lighting is made to look slightly worse because the camera can't handle lighting very well.
The picture on the left is what not to do. It's flat. If you drag a colour picker over it, you'll see that there's very little contrast. All you've really got is the shape of the banana, and it's not very well defined at that. It's a bit lighter than its background.
The one on the right is still not ideal, but it's a couple of steps in the right direction. The planes are better defined because the light source is deliberate and the contrast it creates is greater. The shape is more defined because there's a bigger difference in value between the subject and its surroundings.


It comes down to setting up the object and your viewpoint in a way that gives the most information about it.

EDIT: Try to get a light object on a dark background or a dark object on a light background.