The thread in which I hope to become a better artist or TIWIHTBBA for short

[peppercake]

Hi, after seeing all the lovely artwork on conceptart and cgtalk, I've been inspired to start my own sketchbook thread. I'm not sure if i'm even artistically inclined but I quite like doing art at school, though we haven't done any figure drawing, so i thought i'd like to brush up my drawing skills and make digital painting later. I hope you'll help me on my journey by giving advice and critique. Um... after that long intro, I think I'll show you a few of the head drawings i did after looking at Rebecca Kimmel's drawing heads challenge on CG Talk.

So what do you think I need to improve one? I know i definitely need to improve on my shading, feauture placement and proportions (there's something wrong with the man's head shape). I'm not sure how to go about improving these though.

[peppercake]

Sorry for posting again, (I guess I'm a little impatient) but how exactly do you go around becoming good at drawing the human form? I mean, do you start just drawing from life or do you buy anatomy books and study from them? I would also like to know which anatomy books you think would be best for a sort of beginner like me

[GuruGaia]

We I am a beginner myself so I will just relay the information I gathered best I can. First yes and yes. Draw from life as much as possible and study from books. This way you learn to draw by seeing ad well as learn more about techniques or structure, depending on what book you get. I started with Bridgman (really cheap on amazon) but other names like Hogarth and Loomis (found here in pdf) seem to be the three most referred here and other sites. This is what I have gethered so far from my studies. Bridgman give a lot of direction and understanding towards structure and how the bodys masses connect and disperse from one another(sketchy), Hogarth is more of a understanding of general shapes and forms that make up the body not necessarily applying 100 percent acurate anatomy (he learning from imaginative drawing from what I understand so it can be bendy, rubbery) and Loomis was a student of Bridgman that takes the fundamentals of Bridgman and teaches from his own style with more detail, as well as more woman references.

My first anatomy book was drawing from life by Bridgman and it helped me out a lot with muscle systems and understanding the mechanics of the body. I got it from amazon for like 16 bucks I believe.

If I miss represented any of these artists I am sure someone will chime in, but check out those three and examples of there works (flip through the pages on the amazon peek inside option). Theres loads of this information found here on CA as well. Hope this helps from one hard working beginner to another.

P.S. I enjoyed your portraits, my only advice is to try and have less lines (more purpose behind each line) I'm working on that too, apparently this comes with time, or so they tell me.

[peppercake]

Thank's GuruGaia for taking the time to post, I think I'll try and buy one of Bridgman's books since you and others recommend it a lot. I'm not sure if i want to buy a burne hogarth book now because since as you said, he takes some liberties with anatomy, then i feel it would be better if i got the fundamentals down first before being more stylistic. Also thanks for the advice about doing anatomy and life drawing, which i've started and will post my results up when scanning it up doesn't seem like such a hassle
And about having more purpose with my lines, is there a kind of technique to that or do i have to keep practicing?

[EpicKey]

hi workin well i see..try doin these more bravely..what i mean express the line try to do em like strong lines..take a 8b pencil and feel try to feel it ,try to push these to more contrast and well observe do more copys now to improve your eyes..try to see and show all the right values..in time youll do it i just know it good luck

[peppercake]

I've done more art so far this summer than i've ever done in my life, probably shows how lazy I am. I've started doing some anatomy studies, still life and Loomis studies, though i definitely need to improve on my values and every part on anatomy

I apologize in advance for the random maths that appears on one of the doodle sheets

[peppercake]

Heres some more that i didn't add to the last post cos they're taking up space. I think i'll make these image sizes much smaller, sorry
I also did my first drawing of someone from life, my brother when he's asleep (i think the only time he stays still) My drawings look even more sketchier after i resized them grr

[peppercake]

I find doing still lifes quite calming

[peppercake]

hmm maybe i'll take photos of my artwork next time

[MyioDeSopsia]

I love those eyes and all the portraits. I think you've got a great start on values and the proportions. The attachments are a little on the large size, and I think it would be easier to view them if they were shrunk down to at least life size. It takes hard work to become a good artist, and I like the effort I see in your posts. You're going to be very good if you keep this up!
Also, don't get too perfectionist about the anatomy, take your time/patience in learning it. A good way to warm up for a bit is to do some 30 second (or so) figure sketches. I know this site http://www.posemaniacs.com/?pagename=thirtysecond provides an easy tool for doing that. After you warm up, you can do some more in depth figure studies for longer times.

[peppercake]

I decided to resize my images for easier viewing, so here they are again

[peppercake]

Thanks MyioDeSopsia I'll try out the posemaniacs 30 sec pose and I've also found out how to resize my images. I think i'll post some more stuff tomorrow or as soon as possible. I'm going on holiday soon (next week), so i wont be able to post for a while cos we don't have any internet. But I'll still try to practice anatomy and still life!

[peppercake]

hmm haven't posted for a bit, I'm feeling sooo lazy and uploading images on to my computer is tiring but i have done a few hand studies, 30 seconds gestures from posemaniacs and a short stint of drawing a flower tree/shrub/bush thing in my garden until it started raining
However i did get in a still life study, drawing my dad's shoe (badly). I think i'll start drawing my self potrait as seems to be the tradition on conceptart and also get some drawings done when i go to Ghana so i wont be posting till september!

[raminafshari]

hey girl , you are doing grate , i like your works , i think we both have to draw organized and with plan , i mean we should spend time to become master in something and then go for other other things and while trying other thing practice old things witch we have learned . i can see you are working so hard so keep on the good work .

[peppercake]

Thanks Raminafshari, although i replied to ur message a a little (a lot) late.
I've just been getting lazy and letting school work and lethargy get to me I'm back on track again, well sort of and I want to start small. I think I'd to try drawing at least for 1 hour a day. I do love to draw and though it takes me ages to even get myself to do it, once i start its really fun and therapeutic. Its the same with when i write, i guess im just epically lazy..
So anyway heres the drawings i did when i went on holiday (back in august), they're pretty bad though:

Included is a drawing of my sort of grandma, a sort of self potrait, some very quick guestures done when out driving, some sketches of my little cousins and a whole loada doodles

[peppercake]

I really haven't been drawing as much as i wanted to, maybe its fear of failure, not knowing exactly what studies to do or just plain laziness I don't know. Anyway heres a massive dump, imho I think I need to go back to the basics drawing spheres, cubes and all that. It would be great if someone gave me some tips on how to structure my studies because at the moment I think they are very chaotic.

Anyway, I started doing some work from Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Right side of the brain and here are some studies I've done. Oh and the full size drawings were done upside down and I darkened the lines on the drawing of the woman so my shadows are actually darker than they really are

[peppercake]

I've also got myself a mini sketch book in which I mainly do drawings from life as I go about (i was shy at first but now I've learnt to be kinda sneaky about it :p). It has drawings of people i tried to do in the car (didn't really work), some drawings from the imagination etc. I don't llike my progress though, I think that not drawing enough has taken me a step back. Anyway heres the mini sketches first page to the present:

[peppercake]

At this stage in my sketchbook, I started focusing more on drawing from life.
These pages were done at school when unusually for march we had a warm day so i sat on the lawn and tried to draw some people. I think I need to learn a good technique for gesture for drawing from life since i don't think i've really 'got' it.



heehee these were done in church which i find very boring imho, so drawing and writing make it so much more fun




These two were drawn at my desk first one is of a tin for maths instuments and the second one is of socks for some reason




The following pics were drawn at a musuem park when i went to family outing and learnt that i can't play badminton to save my life and can't draw people either. I can't seem to capture their movement properely.
The sixth page onwards are from going to the park and include me trying to draw a woman with an awesome reading/drawing? table:







Now i tried to do as close to a copy of a reference as i could. I hated how it turned out, the eyes are off and i think theres something wrong with the head though admittedly i only spent half an hour on it. ON the last picture i tried to do some folds from my tank top sort of from memory and imagination and the pic to the right is me trying to draw the bottom of my night dress with part of my legs aargh!




Heres a few drawings I did whiles out in the garden and a terrible guesture sketch.

[Kathraniel]

Hey your stuff's coming along nicely, I especially like this one http://attachments.conceptart.org/fo...1&d=1303591848
Just keep working at it, especially working on hands, but good so far

[Aresa]

Hello! Very good start so far! I see improvements in your last post. A good piece of advice I received was that take a good, long period of studying Loomis and then apply it to your life drawings. That way, what you studied is fresh in your mind. Also, try and use long strokes and not little strokes to draw. Loosen up, use your whole arm to draw, especially when it comes to gestures. I hope this helps a bit! Keep up the great work!

[peppercake]

man I really wish I updated more, people are probably bypassing me by now :o Anyway exams were over nearly a month ago and I'm trying to get myself back in the drawing mode now.
Thanks for the nice comment Kathraniel, though I haven't been working a hands as much as I could. Thanks as well Aresa, I'm going to start learning Loomis again as well as trying to start some perspective.

I've been trying to draw more gestures from photos and a few from life (they are a bitch to do), as well as trying to make my lines flow a little more (I think it's working). I'm so happy I've started to draw something (nearly) everyday, now lets keep up the momentum!

Some stuff from my mini sketchbook. I've finished the sketchbook now, I'm so sad, it was a nice one too






15 min master copy sketch of a michelangelo (I think)


Rubens mastercopy, I really hate it now.


30 sec gestures. I'm getting better at them, slowly but surely



60 sec. My best gestures, I think so far


Horrible self portrait


Some master copies of heads from Rebecca Kimmell's heads workshop over on cgtalk.

[peppercake]

I've been drawing but not as much as I could have. I really haven't posted as much as I could have. I wasn't going to post because my exams are soon but ah well time to kick my butt back into gear. Here are drawings from the last few weeks, mainly drawn in pen because I want toincrease my line confidence

Attachment 1723993

The hands are drawn in biro and are from pictures (sorry) as part of a drawing challenge on deviantart. I think theres a garlic I drew from life. There are also lip studies and drawing of people from my imagination.

Heres stuff I did today and yesterday:

I have two still lifes. I want to push myself to 'see' the forms but its hard going. There's also drawings from life of my dad and my attempt to draw from life at church with an ink pen and one measly drawing of girl from imagination. That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have more to show for tomorrow.