Aresa's Sketchbook

[Aresa]

Hiya everybody! I'm new here, but I often lurk around this place. I am 17 years old, love to draw, and I love all kinds of art. I'm interested in character designs and animation. I also love telling stories through my art and conveying emotions. I came here to get some helpful crits and to improve. I hope you all enjoy and I hope to learn from all of you! I'm excited yet scared...mostly excited!

Here's something to start off with!

[FightingSeraph]

An excellent first post if I do say so myself.

[Aresa]

An excellent first post if I do say so myself.

Oh wow! Thank you so much!

More stuff! Lots of studies and some of my personal work.

[redpandafire]

Wow your gesture and line quality are really darn good. o_O But parts of the anatomy leave a bit to be desired. Would love to see more of those types of study too!

[Aresa]

Thank you, redpandafire! I appreciate your comment. I see what you mean about my anatomy. I'm trying to get use to drawing people spot on and moving about. I'll try and draw some more studies to put up! Thanks again!

[adonato]

Yay for more character design/animation people! Yes the anatomy stuff will help lots along with life drawing, gestures....since its what they'll teach you in animation basics anyway.

Cool stuff, keep working at it, the expressions pages are fun )

[Aresa]

Thanks so much, Adonato! Yeah, I'm practicing anatomy sketches as we speak. I hope to improve!

Here's some more sketches. Forming the face with an eraser and charcoal and a hand drawing. Sorry for the poor quality camera shot for the face portrait. The drawing was too big. Maybe, I'll take a better shot soon.

[Nutella]

Keep moving, even if you fail at something. As long as you keep trying, you will eventually succeed.

With that in mind, I suggest practicing exactly what you want: anatomy. Everyone on the forum preaches Loomis and Bridgeman, so I would obviously recommend those. You can find free E-Books on the forum (just search the forum). I recently got "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Peck, "Drawing the Human Body" by Giovanni Civardi, and "Anatomy Lesson from the Great Masters" by Hale and Coyle. I've only had them for two days, but I've learned so much! I recommend going to a library nearby and checking those out, and if they have none of them, then atleast look in the Figure Drawing section and get some books. The reason I've got upwards of 5 books on my desk at once is because it's really helpful to see how the other authors depict the same thing. The only way to improve is to practice; nothing will hurt you unless you give up!

Oh, and I noticed you have the awesome skill of drawing feet! Feet are very similar to hands, they're just a bit longer and slimmer. Your hands seems a bit off to me. Like in the last post, the fingers were a bit scrawny and raggedy. That's why I suggest looking at some artistic anatomy books and drilling away until you've mastered the craft of anatomy. Every part of the body is expressive, but especially the hands. Because there's so much to learn, you've got no time to waste! I'm in the same boat as you; I want to learn, and I'm willing to work my butt off.

Hope to see more from you! Sorry if I sounded like a teacher in this post... I just really want to help.

[Aresa]

I really appreciate the critique, Nutella! Thank you so much for taking the time to write one. I do have a hard time with hands. Thank you for the book recommendations. I already started sketching hands in the Bridgeman books. I hope to post them soon.

[Aresa]

Hand drawings! I spent the whole day, yesterday, drawing hands from the Bridgeman books and part of today. What do you guys think? I'm going to draw some more later on today.

[the ANGRY filipino]

hi Aresa!
This is a nice start! You say you are 17? Then be thankful you found this place..CA is the breeding ground of future art monsters.
( too bad I found CA when i was 82 years old...hehehe)
Seriously though...in post#3..I like the cartoony girl character you did..and I even see a plush cow in there? Nice.
Advice for now is to draw everyday..believe me..its easy to say..but very hard to do.
And also..learn something everytime you draw. Observe as you draw...
Ok..that's it for now..I'll drop by again later!

[Aresa]

Hello, Angry Filipino! Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate it!

Yeah, I finally join CA because I wanted to improve. I'll do my best to draw everyday and update. Thank you so much for the advice!

Here's a small digital painting I did of an apple. I've done digital painting before, but never did anything "line less", I guess?

EDIT: I soften the edges a bit because I didn't like the hash edges that much.

[Aresa]

Arm studies for today!

Also, something more fun, I guess? Haha. Any photoshop tips?

[JoshDArtist]

awesomely good stuff in here! anatomy studies are good, do more from LIFE though... and keep crankin' out the good stuff!!!

[Aresa]

Thank you, JoshDArtist! I appreciate you stopping by.

More studies from life..gotcha! I'll try and do some soon!

[Nutella]

Hahaha I actually laughed out loud at your last post. How cuuuute!!! He's like a little fox swinging fire rods. The studies look beautiful.

Advice: Rather than drawing straight from the book, really observe how the hands are being constructed. I know with Bridgeman, it's super easy to get confused because he depicts everything with such energy and character. So make sure you understand the construction rather than simply drawing the picture that he's put in his book, because that'll only help you with observing. If you want to internalize those lessons, you've got to understand the structure beneath the drawing. I hope this makes sense! Everything looks really beautiful, and I really hope you stay at it.

[Aresa]

Hey, thank you so much, Nutella, for more advice!

So by understanding the construction, should I draw them in shapes first? I usually draw the shape of it first, then apply the details. Is that right, or do I need to change what I'm doing? Thanks again for helping me out!

[LAL]

Hey Aress,Nice works,keep up!let us fight together!

[Nutella]

That's exactly right Aresa! Go from simple to complex, and small to large. Add in detail as you go. Basically, jot down the shapes, then add in the knuckles and fingers and all that other good stuff.

You'll get your own learning pattern though, so if it works others ways, go with that!

[Aresa]

@LAL: Hello and thanks! We'll fight together!

@Nutella: Oh! Glad I'm doing it right. I'll do that. Start small, then big. Thanks!

Hey, sorry for the lack of updates. Drawing everyday is hard and when I don't draw enough, I pay the consequences. I'll have to push myself harder.

Some gesture drawing. Trying to get the hang of it. Still life of a Gatorade bottle, figure drawing, which looks a little awkward to me for some reason. I think it might be the body. The hand is messed up too. Finally, some character designs.

[Kamikazuh]

Thanks for dropping in my sketchbook.

Looking Goood!! Your hands and the latest gesture drawings are great. Can't really say more than keep studying!

[Aresa]

No problem, Kamikazuh! Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks! I will keep studying!

Gesture sketches and some of my own character sketches. I had fun drawing my own stuff for awhile. After reading some of the threads here, I felt so inspired to just sit down and draw.

[Aresa]

I want to be able to change my thumbnail every so often, so these are from the first post! Sorry about that!

[Katan]

Your characters' expressions are amazing! Very expressive. Can't wait to see more of your work; it's so fun looking

[Blindrat]

You have a lot of fun energy in your work and it definitely shows in your cartoons. Wonderful expressions, and designs. I also see improvements over time as you post your life studies.
In post #20 the bottle drawing, be careful with ellipses they're very tricky to do in perspective. A good way I've found to deal with them is by drawing squares, divide it into 4 parts and then drawing the ellipse within the square. Beyond that I can't think of anything else to help at the moment. Keep up the great work.

[Aresa]

@Katan: Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

@Blindrat: Thank you so much for the tip! I tried it out last night and it does help! Thanks!

More sketches and a colored piece. Any crit on the sketches before I try and color them?

[I Nide]

your cartoon sketches are cool ! keep it , go on !

[Aresa]

Thank you, I Nide! I appreciate it!

Here's another sketch that I colored. I was practicing coloring and different techniques.

[redpandafire]

I think the base colors work, would like to see some dark halftones, and highlights or something lol. As always, I gotta hand it to ya for having such natural linework. Keep up it up!

[Aresa]

Thanks, redpandafire! Yeah, I'll go add more to her. Thanks for the critique!