Amarok's sketchbook --FUN SIZE

[Amarok]

24
self-taught
working at a job I hate to save up for art school
no talent but want to get better
criticism appreciated

[Magic Man]

Hi Amarok! Welcome to CA, I'm sure you'll find your groove quickly enough, and there's no such thing as too old! Some good studies there, watch the facial proportions and push the tonal range more.

Pop around and say hi in my SB some time =)

Cheers, D

[Amarok]

Thank you for the welcome and the advice! I definitely need to work on getting a bigger variety of tones. It's tough for me since I'm used to using real media, but in digital things I get caught up on using colors I already have down on the image because it's so much easier. I need to get a better grasp of digital art programs.

Another 1 hr. self-portrait, which turned out not-so-great:


Some basic plant forms:



Transplants from the first post so I can change my thread icon:

[Amarok]

Sketchbook drawings from observation. I'm sorry about the awful image quality; I had to give up my scanner when I moved to Japan and I haven't been able to find one here that isn't crazy expensive.

[Amarok]

Page of hands.

[Lakka]

Hey Amarok.

I like the way you are learning, just keep studying and experimenting, I'm sure you will get the vibe on

[Amarok]

A watercolor and a quick env. study.

[Amarok]

Another watercolor and a couple of pages of 30-second poses from posemaniacs, which I try to do every day as a warm-up when I draw.

[Onisan]

Great start I think you are on a really good way! Age does not matter, as long as you have passion for art you can reach your goal in no time

[magicpudding]

Age is no barrier to improvement. I can see a lot of good stuff in your SB so far. I like your watercolours and pencil sketches best. I can see your
individuality in them.

Congrats, and keep posting!

[Amarok]

Thank you--I know that age doesn't mean I can't still improve, but it's tough when everybody else has a big head start. I'm just going to keep trying my best and hoping that eventually it pays off.


today: shirt on a chair and a page from my 'fun' sketchbook. sorry about the awful anatomy; I shouldn't be allowed to draw in pen.

[Juki]

Hey Amarok, thanks for dropping by in my SB.

I agree that age doesn't matter, but however I feel it's important that you enjoy what you do.

I am 28 years old myself (I know, another foot in the grave) and I have been a kinda on/off artist my whole life, only recently have I gotten a desire to really improve my skills and I must say I have enjoyed the ride so far, eventhough I have just taken a few tiny steps so far.

Keep up the good work.

[magicpudding]

Lovely line quality in the last drawings you posted. I especially like the figures, full of imagination and your own personality. I like that. Keep posting!

Sketchbook

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=188585

[Amarok]

Busy week at work, no time to update!

A fish. I could never eat these things, but I've started picking them up at the store for drawing/painting practice.



A few pages from my sketchbook (my drawings from imagination are awful, sorry):

[Amarok]

Quick studies for today.

[Amarok]

Some sketchbook pages and another fish.

[ryan a.]

amarok....dude you buy fish to draw? thats gotta make your place wreak!

where you at in japan? im on kyushu

you sure do draw some large...appendages

you said you shouldnt be allowed to draw in pen, but thats exactly why you SHOULD be drawing in pen. it will build your confidence like no other. maybe try using only a pen for a month and see if anything changes. you could use a cheap one that will let you draw really light lines as well as dark, or you could get something like a high tech c which only gives one thickness. either ones fine, but the latter would definitely force you to think before you put down a line.

[Amarok]

Ryan--don't worry, my fish stay in the freezer when I'm not painting them. I'm in the kanto area here. And just doing my part in evening things out for the other side vs. the popular "ladies with inhumanly giant, backbreaking boobs." Let's be equally unrealistic for everyone! (in all seriousness, though, obv. I just like going all over the place with monster people, seeing as some of them don't even have heads!) Thanks for the pen suggestion--I don't think I could go for nothing but pen for a while, but I should definitely try using it more.

To even it out, ladies today, looking awful and flat from my crappy camera:

[Norris]

You can definitely see the improvement that your gesture sketches have given you ... why not try: http://www.posemaniacs.com/ its a REALLY useful site ...

Keep drawing and take care
Norris

[jskotte]

Some really great studies, specially that fish. You need to work a bit more on values. I don't believe anyone is too old for learning art, at least that's what I tell myself, since I just recently started as well (28years old). So my only advice is to enjoy art and all what it brings.

[cifgha]

Looking great already, I really dig your fishes, they have the slimy feeling to them a fish needs to have.

In you last drawing, I'd say the boobs of the woman are placed a bit to high and unless they are filled with implants, they tend to hang, even more in such a posture as that one.

[Amarok]

norris- I have posted drawings from posemaniacs and said that I use it every day, but I appreciate the attempt to help.
jskotte- Thank you for the criticism! I don't know what I should do to try to get better at values, but I will try my best to pay attention to them.
cifgha- You're totally right, thanks! Now that you've said it it seems so obvious.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can get better at values? I am trying to do some studies where I just block in the minimum number of values I can to try to get a better grasp of them, but I'm not sure it's the right way to go.


Value studies:


This one is pretty crappy--I'm definitely not used to trying to do this.


A little bit better.


Environments from some photos taken hiking a couple of weeks ago:





A posemaniacs page for today in pen and ink:

[Amarok]

Nothing exciting to say. But I'm still working hard! And still not friends with Photoshop.

[Amarok]

It's KNEE time! (no, dad, no!)


Studies from Gottfried


Testing what I learned--visually they probably don't make a lot of sense, but they were helpful for me!


Random page of studies


Quick environment study--still hate digital painting and know things would turn out 10 times better if I used real media instead, but I have to keep trying and get better with it!

[urmb]

Hey Aamorak. I appreciate you stopping by to check out my sketchbook. Don't worry about age. From what I've been seeing on CA, Gnomon, and many other places that feature top artists; They seem to continue to get better with age. I've also seen a few
learn a lot and accomplish there goals in a little over a year with persistence and dedication. Your off to a great start. Keep up the hard work, don't give up.

[Amarok]

urmb, thank you for the words of encouragement!


Today: more leg studies, plus one painter thing.

[gmc9987]

Hey, nice improvement on here. Good studies and a really, really nice sense of depth and color in that digital painting of the sunset. Keep it up, you've got a lot of improvement for only 1 month here.

[Amarok]

Just posting studies is boring, so today I'm including some stupid drawings to even things out.

[Amarok]

One more environment today (don't understand how to utilize photoshop brushes at all! So many of them and I don't know how to make any of them do anything I want) and more portrait practice.

[Amarok]

fun stuff from my sketchbooks, of varying quality... D:

will get back to doing digital studies once I get over my rage at PS locking up on me combined with my poor ability to remember to save...!