Re-learning to draw...

[elemile]

Hi there. I'm starting my sketchbook here.

I've been drawing since I was real little, but never took classes till last year.
I took an express (introductory, yet serious) course on sc. illustration, wich
I found to be actually fun and really useful; those were the first drawings I
made truly from the natural (I normally just did by memory, used photos or
even trace things down). Latter, I found this community; I began to realize
then, how -SHITTY- limited of a draughtsman I am. So now I'm gonna start
dumping some of those and other sketches I may do, hopping for some
of you guys to help by giving suggestions. I wanna do real better.

Thanks for your concern, from the very beginning. See you around.

[Martell.Joshua]

This stuff looks great. Is it all recent?

[elemile]

@Martell.Joshua

from summer-autumn of past year. thanks.

[elemile]

I'll dump some more.

These two are in big format, so I could just take pictures of them (with my cellphone...); those were the first (and last, till now) drawings from live nudes I ever made.





The next are from these days. The last one was made the kind of way I normally do: from imagination, without models... and it shows :-( As you may see, up to now, I've developped a sort of stylization that was fine at the beginning, but now is just turned formulaic and limitating. So I'd really like you guys to give me some advice in order to clean my style and developping truly academic realistic skills, like those many of you display.









Thanks.

[elemile]

Some kids' skteches, from photos, for a commission.
Traced shamelessly.

[Neyut]

Yo, you got a great shading style and sense for three-dimensionality, but I think you have to draw more gestures of the human, because the things you made out of imagine seems to be overhasted and not clearly thought about the anatomy and perspective

[cyqunea]

Amazing skills!

[elemile]

...Finished work:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=24301113

[Lagarto]

those animal sketches look impressive, keep up the good work!

[elemile]

Stuff for the last work.











Finished:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=25220321

[zy.]

All your studies are wonderful. However, the study of the moth and leaves/trees is really elegant. Reminds me of old plates from naturalist texts from 100 years ago. It illustrates something useful about the organisms, but is also really beautifully composed.

[elemile]

Finished:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=28178435
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=28203028
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=31345598

[elemile]

Some (mostly unused) groundwork for last job...



Finished:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=31481898

[elemile]

Color version here.

[nixe_dreamer]

Relearning? I think that you've finished learning! Your drawings are so beautiful!

[Rostas]

You have a very smooth and great line. It shows that you've worked a bit. Re-learning is a process we all go through. Keep em up.

[elemile]

@nixe_dreamer
@Rostas

Well, thank you very much. But, at the beginning of the thread, I was talking about drawing from the natural: to collapse a 3D/real input into a convincing 2D equivalent; that's what I meant by truly drawing and that's what I was allegedly going for.

In the end, however, I didn't. I do try to work much more on my structure, rendering, local values and profit from others' feedback; but all I really changed was working from imagination to rely almost entirely on reference photos now. It's a failure alright but not a big deal; what really matters to me, as I realized, is not the ability of drawing itself but the composition: the formal or semantic novelty that may (or not) arise from putting initially alien images together. So... Yeah. I pretty much gave up on drawing, by now.

[elemile]

Finished work here.

[Rostas]

Giving up isn't really a smart decision. I imagine you've worked a while to get where you are now. I've drawn for 5 straight years by now and my hunger to evolve is much stronger than ever. I would never think of giving up. Sure , I had some retarded pauses , because I have the habit of playing lots of games -_- which detriment the general flow of things.

Relying on reference is not necessarily a wrong way of doing things , but when you fall into these kinds of habits they tend to constrain you. " Break the standards " , at least in your own agenda. Create a new plethora of yourself. Rather than RE - LEARNING , RE - IMAGINE.

[elemile]

Finished here

[chevy28360]

Great pencil work! I'd say that if you are having trouble drawing from imagination, then the only thing for it is to build up some mileage doing it. You just have to not fall into the pitfall that alot of us do, which is to get discouraged when the first couple of drawings we do in a new mindset don't turn out like we would like. Just stay positive, realize that its a process, and keep at it until you get it! From the skill level you are showing, I bet you anything that with a little determination, you could easily bring your imaginative stuff up to the level of your referenced work. It will just take some more mileage. Keep it up man, and keep posting!