Too Stubborn To Stop

[Ryan Provenzano]

Hey man, I really think you have something brewing here. I don't know the best practice method out there, nor does anybody else, but there is one thing I can tell you. Always try to understand why you do some sort of exercise. The books give answers, and you can find answers all across conceptart.org. You should be content with an answer and believe in it. Confidence is really one of the biggest factors to drawing.

On the subject of drawing from life, I believe it's pretty important. Andrew Loomis: Successful Drawing is my current eye-opener. He talks about the fundamentals of drawing, but that is not restricted to the perspective that is also in the book. Drawing from life is one of the easiest ways for you to to portray some sort of message. Always try to find something interesting, whether it be the subject you are drawing or the composition. And of course, if you want to get into drawing from imagination, look into his first book called Fun with a Pencil. It is underrated but it is a great way to open up the creative pipes. Do not copy the drawings but try to do your own. Try finding some inspiration from any of the many mediums of entertainment if you have to.

Good luck man!

[dessinateurimpulsif]

Draw your construction lines for cups and other round objects, it will help you to have a better construction.

[ebi]

mosqueira - Wow, when I least expect it, but need it the most, I get a little encouragement ^_^ Thanks !

dessinateurimpulsif - While I do draw boxes etc. to draw ellipses, I never thought about looking for the vanishing point... but that's also the one thing that I have great difficulty with:/ Especially when drawing from life.
I'll try it out though!

Nexuun, I'm always asking myself "why am I doing so and so exercise" or telling myself "focus on X" or "look for s-curves" and things like that, but sometimes... it takes me a while to actually get it.
I'm saving up for "succesful drawing", but first I want to finish the head book and figure drawing book.
I'm organizing my room so I have a little corner for still life and such (my two desks have like an inch of free space right now, you dont want to imagine the rest of my room>_>) so hopefully you'll see more life drawing here soon

having my sister over for a couple of days, means no drawing these past few days :/
But I got my oil paints (and some snazzy kraft paper which I'll bind into 10 sketchbooks) so from tomorrow onwards, I'll have a ton of fun ^_^


just a doodle >_<
I'm wondering if I should add animals to my daily gesture session...

[ebi]

This is what I'm trying to draw from life today.



Quick 5 to 10 min. sketch, as a warm-up.



45 min. into the drawing.
I'm having a ton of trouble with the ellipses and I guess the proportions overall. I must've drawn the bowl over three times, and just now decided to just scrap it completely and start over again.

I read up on drawing foreshortened circles (I know there's another word for that, but my speech recognition does not recognize it, it turns it into:…) in Deborah Rockman's book "drawing essentials", and it all sounds nice and dandy, and I can sort of produce foreshortened circles on paper just like that, I know about vanishing points and such, but when I try to drawing from life it all just goes downhill.

My initial plan was to do half an hour per drawing, switching to a different object every time. But now, I think I'll just use all my time on one drawing trying to get it right as best as I can.


Once I've mastered this to the best of my ability, then I'll be able to do a painting.

I'm glad I created a little still life spot in my room. I used to just put some object on my desk – which has maybe 1 inch of free space – and it was really frustrating to draw and keep my concentration. But with this little reserved space, it's much more peaceful to draw

_________________

[ebi]

40 or so more minutes of drawing.
Bowl seems too flat (but I'm leaving it for now), glass too short (so I am going to adjust it).


another 60 or so minutes... progress?

[mdog]

Nice progress so far with the still life! I am liking how this is going. I can definitely see the improvement each time.

[ebi]

Thanks!

Well, this is the last one for today.


Another twenty or so minutes.

Eventhough it's not perfect (in fact I can see many flaws), I'm kind of proud of myself for sticking to it.
I have the attention span of a goldfish, so +/-3 hours on the same drawing is a little achievement for me.

Might change the lemons and bamboo a bit, still, but other than that, I'm leaving it as is and I'll start with the next still life tomorrow (the same as above from another angle). And I should add some studies from Loomis to my schedule too!

[mdog]

Nice! I think it's looking good. I think that even if you can see it's not perfect, it's a good idea to go ahead and finish it. You get a lot more practice that way, and you end up with more finished pieces. I'm looking forward to seeing how you work with the colours.

[ebi]

Yeah, I guess it's better to stick to it and make the most of it.

I keep telling myself: TODAY I will paint. But...then I end up drawing and lose track of time XD

next one,


30 minutes in. That lemon is WAY too big. And ellipses are still a nightmare.


...+/- 30 minutes later.


...+/- 30 minutes later.
That lemon sticking up is getting longer and longer...


about 15 minutes later.

Have to stop for today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more time to draw:/
I'll just do 1 life drawing a day and see how far I get with the time I have.

[ebi]

Today's view:





progress so far:

60 minutes


really starting to regret including that glass >:0
it's giving me so many problems!

I think after the 4th and last angle of this still life, I'll draw that glass seperately until I get it sort of right. It's bugging me SO MUCH.


30 min.

another 30 min.

not sure why I started adding shadows :/

that's it for today.

[Ryan Provenzano]

Wow man, I'm really liking the progress on the still-lifes. The line quality is very nice on some parts of the drawings. It looks like you are drawing planes which you are then using to draw an ellipse on to. Just keep thinking about the horizon(eye-level), that is one of the most important things for drawing the ellipse correctly. As the ellipse gets closer to the horizon line it will become much more thin.

[ebi]

Thanks, I'm starting to see that not everything in life has nice straight lines or smooth curves (never knew lemons were so bumpy and weird!).

And I finally see what you and dessinateurimpulsif mean re:ellipses.
I just need to figure out how to find the horizon in real life :/
I'm sure it's not rocket science but... it feels like it to me >_<


Decided to ditch the bowl and bamboo glass, it was starting to get cumbersome..
so as a new subject I chose:



and decided to paint it.


quick sketch (about 30 minutes)

paint result after 1.5 hours:



What I learned:
1. I need to read my Harold Speed book and "Oil painting for the serious beginner".
2. Mixing colours that are true to life is super hard.
3. I shouldn't rush my drawings just 'cause I want to paint.
4. I should choose just one simple object as a subject to paint. Not 4.
5. Pushing paint around with a palette knife is fun XD

UGH!

Will try again when I have the courage.

[SpaceJelly]

2. Mixing colours that are true to life is super hard.
3. I shouldn't rush my drawings just 'cause I want to paint.

2. Horribly, depressingly true. I remember my 1st time with oil paints (being made to paint a bloody Jesus on the cross) and being scarred by the experience. Scarred and slightly high off turpentine. The painting was all browns and reds . It got easier after a while. I haven't used oils in years. Kinda want to now.
3. I do this all the friggin time. It is hard to force yourself to relax and slow down. Try taking a few seconds out to slow your breathing, focus & chill. Sometimes helps me.

You can actually see the improvements in your still lifes, especially in the bamboo glass ones. It's pretty cool that you didn't just sack it off after a couple of tries and instead kept at it. The efforts will pay off. Patience is something that I really admire, probably because I lack it myself.

With the elipses have you tried doing a few practice sweeps in the air slightly above the paper before you lay down the pencil? I tend to find that helps. There is a great perspective tutorial on here if you haven't seen it already. My browser is cocking up big time tonight but I think this is it: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...13-Assignments Forgive me if you already know about it, but it helped demystify a few things for me. Elipses are still a bitch though

Keep up with the good work. I'll be interested to see where you develop from here.

[ebi]

I feel so much better after your post.
After my painting session, I googled "My first oil painting", and All I saw were these amazing paintings. So I felt like maybe there's just something wrong with me ^_-

But, it's good to know that there is still hope for me and I can improve… and that even professional/more advanced people started out just like me.

Ah! I completely forgot about Yoitsi’s tutorial!!
I started with that sometime ago, but I guess I got distracted. I guess it's a sign that I should get started on that again.

I'll try to do the "ghost" lines for drawing circles, actually I think I also saw that in a tutorial with a lot of exercises like that (for drawing straight lines, ellipses and stuff), so I'll look into that as well.

In fact, I probably should do more perspective studies in general.
I keep saying that, but I keep avoiding it >_< Even if it isn't really that hard if you keep practicing (just like how at first I tried to avoid drawing from life as much as I could, and now seems to turn into my favorite part of drawing).

Today I couldn't find any of my erasers, so here are some crappy head studies from Loomis for now.
Using two colors so I can to a rough sketch with one and then correct with the others seems to replace my eraser, so after I've done some homework I might return with some more studies like that (can guarantee him though, because it's getting late).


completely not understanding how Loomis' had construction works. (I understand it now though!...I think)

[ebi]

Last round for today...
Managed to find a piece of eraser



Doesn't make a difference though T_T

[SpaceJelly]

[QUOTE=ebi;3660224]
In fact, I probably should do more perspective studies in general.
I keep saying that, but I keep avoiding it >_< Even if it isn't really that hard if you keep practicing (just like how at first I tried to avoid drawing from life as much as I could, and now seems to turn into my favorite part of drawing).

[QUOTE]

That pretty much sounds like me. I've come back to perspective after avoiding it for ages. I think sometimes the longer you avoid something, the 'worse' it becomes in your head. I was getting to the point where I was scared of perspective. Which is silly, because I found out it's actually kina fun.

I'm glad my post cheered you up. Sometimes everything in art seems like an uphill struggle

Your Loomis studies aren't crappy either. You're obviously learning from 'em and it's good to see that you are making notes in where you were going wrong. I tend to find drawing without an eraser helps you avoid making the same mistakes over and over when practicing. Try mixing it up a bit. Or draw in ball point if you're feeling hardcore

[ebi]

You're so right!
I should just get it over with
So from today on I'll keep up with the Yoitisi tutorial, and then go through my perspective books.

I think once I'm a bit more familiar with these Loomis heads, I'll give fountain pens a go (kind of like a test to see if I really get it).

---------------------------------------

I've been having an RSI flare up (since Thursday), which I'm loosing a lot of sleep over...
So today I couldn't focus on ANYTHING, but here's some studies I did half asleep:




cubes... they're a mystery to me.



I'm off to bed now, hopefully I'll get a goodnight's sleep so I'll be less zombie tomorrow

[SpaceJelly]

Urgh, that sucks to hear you have RSI. I have it too & it's a bitch when it gets in the way of drawing, do you find it's worse in cold weather? You've done pretty well churning these out all considering. Well done. I hope it gets better soon. I wish I could offer better advice other than rest and avoid the keyboard

[ebi]

Ah, it sucks to hear you have it too:/ I hope it won't last too long though.
Have you tried triggerpoint therapy? It definitely helps and you can do it yourself

It does get worse when it's colder out. I always carry a pair of armwarmers around just in case ^_-



All I've managed to produce these days. At least it's from life :p

Gonna take a break from the computer! Will be back in a week or so!

[ebi]

Found out my local craft store started carrying notebooks with good quality craftpaper. Feels like I struck a goldmine lol.
I'm going back there soon to raid their stock before they stop selling them.

Got this one for a test drive... now I can use the big sheets I ordered some time ago for large drawings, and use this one to doodle in ^^
Been a while since my last drawing session, so just some quick no eraser life studies to break the ice again.

[ebi]

I feel like I'm back to square one. Or maybe it's 'cause my brain feels like spaghetti thanks to exam stress.

More studies. about 1 1/2 hours.


gestures. No clue what I'm doing.






I think it's time to pull out Loomis and some perspective books again ^_^

[ebi]

My gestures are so embarassing, this is the only page I dare post.



Going to attempt perspective again






Mandatory life drawing, that looks nothing like me XD

I swear the exam stress is making me even worse at drawing than I already am >:0
I guess it's 'cause I feel guilty and panicky when I'm not studying :/

[ebi]

stress is making me utterly useless. Drawing and studying-wise T_T

[SpaceJelly]

Have you tried triggerpoint therapy? It definitely helps and you can do it yourself

Oh reery? I have not heard of this. Google time. I've found that doing weights and strength building exercises in my back when my RSI isn't playing up helps as my problems stem from my neck & shoulders. But I really have to limit this when things are bad. That and trying to limit my time spent at a desk, which is bloody difficult when you work in an office. Thanks very much for the tip, I know what a bummer it can be having RSI when trying to improve with the art. I hope things get better for you soon.

Having said that your gestures/figure studies are improving. The proportions are more in line and the loomis ones look spot on. Good job with the perspective too, nice to see you are tackling that demon. I recently found this which I thought was cool for perspective practice. I've been trying to break some of the buildings & whatnot down into block shapes. Give it a try.

I like your thumb studies too, they look nice & chunky. I think you've hit on a good idea using them to warm up.

[ebi]

Ah, yes,
weight training. My last physiotherapist made me do weight training, but it ended up making my RSI worse
He made me use too heavy weights too fast.

I hope your situation will improve soon too.

Do you really think I'm improving? I keep feeling like I'm only going backwards. I guess I need to add more life drawing, but these days I spend like 5 to 6 hours just programming every day… My arms are completely shot, I can hardly study for the other subjects I have at school because I can't even write. >_<

Today I'm taking a break though.

I''m definitely going to try your tip on breaking down buildings into blocks!!

In any case, thanks for always giving me the little boost I need to get going again ^_^
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Bunch of stuff :/
Just slowly getting into the groove again.











Even with a grid, I completely suck.

[ebi]

After midnight drawing sesh.

No thinking, no erasers, no pencil to rub out... just my fountain pen and less than 5 minutes.

This is one of those few times where I really have fun with drawing without any goal in mind except to just draw (drawing for the sake of drawing...does that make sense? I'm someone who usually can't enjoy something unless it's useful/has a purpose etc.), so....
I'm sure some people will hate me for this ('cause of the crappy drawings I produce), but I'm going to do this more often ^_^

Just to let go every now and then.

Though... I could pay more attention to drawing arms >_>

[heheboy]

i think you should remember what you learned from book when you draw from mind.You improved lot from page 1

[ebi]

Thanks!
I know >_<, I try to apply what I learn but sometimes I forget...
though I never draw from my mind. ^_-
I always use either a picture (mostly when drawing people) or myself/objects around me.

[ebi]

Well, that was fun,
now back to doing studies.








15 pages of drawing left of chapter 1. Woot!

[ebi]

ice breaker (whenever I feel intimidated by a subject I just draw whatever I see in front of me without fussing over it... it always works to get me in the mood and makes me want to improve )


study before concluding it was ineffective whilst this sleepy


usually gestures wake me up... not today though.

not a whole lot to show today.
I was half asleep doing these.
I need squeeze in drawing during breakfast/lunch.

Tried to draw form... but not 100% sure I'm getting it yet