An overture

[LordLouis]

Update for today.

@Brandon: thanks!
@Kerah: No, actually I haven't- even though I've got the full range! I think I will try out more pencil variations upon practising portraits, seems to be the most useful for learning that- do you agree? I guess I will do Still life in pencil as well, as I h-a-t-e it in digital format. ~Hehe yes, I guess he is over it now, he must know that I shall be asking for more joints soon!

Okay, I watched 3 hours ctrl+paint videos today, did all the "homework" assignments on the website and thought I give my hated tablet another go.

With good spirits, I made a still life drawing:


And after that attempted the next one,

..which I aborted because, well, it just bored the SKULL OUT OF ME. Yes I want to learn light and form. No I don't want to spend an hour on a flippin still life with the overwhelming feeling that I am not learning anything /sigh.
I don't get it. I just hate painting- if something doesn't have lines, it's so floaty and dangerous to me >_>

Well anyway after getting seriously annoyed with the still life, I thought I'd draw figures from imagination, see how that goes after two weeks of figure drawing practice. I also drew a Serpent Guard from photo ref, and then tried to apply some Serpent Guard armour and render it- lol, me render. Failed, unexpectedly.


And then I attempted to draw, in some sort of semi-still life painting, to draw a shark-submarine-thing that I modelled this morning while watching ctrl+paint tutorials. I also added a version that is somewhat closer to what I had in mind- still looks like a digimon though.


It's SO going to be pencils again tomorrow _o_

[Little-Maiden]

You've got the same problem I had (and still do) which is to do really blurry digital studies. Try and be hard with your lines, use them to give form. Even if it turns out worse, doing the lines with a hard brush and not falling into a "smoothing" trap will help in the long run. Simple stuff to begin with, cubes, cylinders etc etc.

If you have to beat yourself up, then do so as a good motivator. Look at your drawings and hate them with all your guts, but turn that into a drive to do better and you will. If you get demotivated by doing badly you'll just stop drawing and get into a circular mindset of not putting effort into it.

Also in regards to your question in my SB, the thread where DAMJAN does enviroment tuition is in the community forums section. Unfortunately he's not taking on anyone new to teach, but you can still see his tutorials regarding perspective, rocks, brushes, and more useful things to know when doing enviros. Read up- and you'll sure learn a thing or two.

[LordLouis]

Update for today.

@Little Maiden: Hey, thanks for you comment. Yes you are absolutely right- it looks really blurry. I didn't see that on monday at all- at now it makes my eyes hurt! It's weird because the brush I used was a hard one- the marker sample from ctrl+paint, you know those? I had a look at DAMJAN's thread, and it is really helpful. In fact, the entire subforum is. I will be away for two weeks and not able to take my tablet, but at least I fav't the thread. Thank you very much!

Not, I didn't do anything yesterday (self-bashing and real-life interfrerence) so I dug in today, doing some eight hours of anatomy- I want to move on from the knee to the pelvis, so I thought I'd nail it. I did a life study from my bf's knee to apply my knowledge. Was is good about the Bammes book is that the following body parts (lower half) will require me to repeat drawing knees.

I also tried using the 6B additionally to my beloved 2B, but I am really struggling with it.

[Tawnos]

Was für ein kranker anatomy Fortschritt. Was hast du dafür gemacht, um so schnell so viel besser zu werden? Respekt! Zeig mir das!

[Valyavande]

Everytime I see such Bammes-studies I always want to buy the book. But it's so expensive (and I bought 3 books already in the last days...). Well, that doesn't matter. Your studies are looking good. I'm glad to see that there is coming a new aspect in your linework: you start to follow the forms more with the lines. Apply that even more to your lifedrawings and other studies. The beginning is there, you just need to go the way until the end. Remind that doing those drawings of Bammes is not just anatomy. It is a bit about pencil technique too.

And I need to agree to Tawnos: you made big a step forward! Very good!

[LordLouis]

Wow guys you are so encouraging, thank you!! I am off to Germany in a few hours, so I didn't have time to study today ( ) but I take my sketchbook with me Just wanted to leave a comment before leaving.


@Tawnos: Danke! Ich hab vor 3 Wochen angefangen es ernst zu nehmen- es hat klick gemacht- gemerkt wieviel ich lernen muss um gut zu werden- und ich habe mir geschworen nichts weiteres mehr zu zeichnen was mich stunden kostet, weil ich irgendwelche fundamentalen sachen nicht weiss. Daran solls nicht mehr scheitern! Ja dazu halt Loomis Buecher, Bridgman, Hogarth, Bammes (!), Gurney,... die Reihe
@Valyavande: I understand your hestitation, and well I *cough* aquired the book *cough* *cough* on different ways first to make sure it was really worth it, and then I bought it. I know what you mean regarding the price, but think of it this way: every time you decide against spending 79€, you buy a book for 10€ or 20€ instead. All that adds up to one big Bammes I can only recommend it, and I for one don't find the language difficult to read. It is a bit archaeic but nothing I wouldn't have covered in school. It is actually quite a lot of pencil technique I have found. Shading all the time really helps. Thank you very much!!

[Lightship69]

Hi there matey

I was just perusiing your sketchbook and did a double take on page 2 second post or panel and 5th image down, whilst scanning through and admiring your burgeoning mastery of the pencil I went past that and then came back I thought it was Iron Man in an easy chair until I looked again.

Please re do it and put Iron man in an easy chair for me with a cigarette and a beer it made me laugh until I realised I was being an idiot (again!!). It was like he was unwinding after a long day battering bad guys.

The other work is great very well done mate, I enjoyed the drawing on the magazines idea too.

Keep it up old chap and I look forward to more postings soon.

[LordLouis]

Long time no update, sorry for that- I was on holiday for two weeks, and I paused drawing for one week entirely. I know a deadly sin, but I just couldn't pick up a pencil anymore and needed a break. Well there I am, back again.

@Lightship: Iron man in an easy chair- I lol'd if I tell my bf he was mistaken for ironman, I think he'd be flattered! I shall work on your request as soon as I have mastered anatomy (lol,lol,lol...) ;P Thank you very much for your kind comment, very encouraging and I will indeed keep it up!

Update:
The first batch (on yellow paper) is all drawn from life, while on holiday. Drawing fish while they're moving is a pain I'm telling you.
Took me some attempts to figure out clouds, but after 30 mins or so it "clicked" and I realized that they're 3D forms defined by light and shadow. I have read this for a hundred times now but applying it seems more of a challenge.

After my drawing break I started sketching for COW, but gave up eventually because I couldn't implement the requirements.
I then moved on to drawing horses and pegasi, which I will continue to pursue after my anatomy phase.
And.. yep I feel dirty.. COLOUR. I didn't come up with the design, it's my desktop background for a while now and copyright is written down top left. It's a contest entry for CG contest "the journey begins". I discovered this piece a few years ago and fell in love with it. Check it out, it's beautiful.
It was a pencil sketch first, 10mins, and the day after I decided to slap some colours on top of it. Didn't really work.
Last batch, anatohmiee... bridgman and bammes combined, while waiting for my Rubins book to arrive.

Cheers!

[LordLouis]

Update for today.

It's not a lot of pages but a lot of work.
The first sheet with the chest and shoulder muscles took me 2 hours, after which my brain was so phased out that I went to the gym to get my head clear.
I also did some figure drawing (birds), 1minute and 5minutes, to study wings and movement for my pegasus project.

[LordLouis]

Early update for today.

It's still quite early over here, and I have been drawing a little to get 50 figure studies for this weeks Spartan Camp.

Those two I doodled while listening to/watching "Mood and Emotion" On Demand Stream by Jason Manley. I can concentrate best by drawing at the same time, don't know why. The first 2 are manikin studies, trying to apply some Bridgman to it.. The second one it experimenting with markers. (watch copyright notes!)



And here my first batch for Spartan camp. Got a lot of bodybuilder images etc, was really sick of drawing all these women, as I want to see whether I can apply my anatomical studies. And.. well I think the knees look good xD




And some portraits again. I tried to stick to 5 minutes each. I hadn't drawn portraits in an entire month and I need to keep up with it. I am actually quite happy with some of them!

[LordLouis]

Second update for today.
More figure studies for Spartan Camp.

And I feel ready to tackle value and form now, not just line and shape. While it is true that a lot of my figure drawings still look wonky, I experience less and less struggle with putting down the lines that I want to put down. A bit less of an obstacle so to speak, as if I could now concentrate on more than just straight and confident lines.

I did a page (30mins) of simple shapes, which bored the skull out of me, so I tried it on figures- which, well, went not so good for the smaller ones, but rendering the face was pretty interesting. It actually took me a while to see differences in value, because I focus so much on the lines.

Any comments are very much appreciated, if you have any tips, or disagree with my observations, please feel free to drop a hint.

[LordLouis]

Probably the last batch for today, finishing 50 gestures for Spartan Camp. With ink pen this time to work on line confidentiality.

[p sage]

You do very nice work

There's enough variety in the exercises and the other drawings that you're doing so that you'll learn a lot. I liked your idea of applying Bridgman to your mannekin studies.

[america220]

wow I love that last set of sketches. Very good for two minutes.

[forestdino]

Hi LL,

Thanks for taking a look at my sketchbook and the advice about the spartan camp. You've got some really nice studies here. Do you use anatomy books?

Danke,
Bill Blomstrom

[LordLouis]

Yay, Comments!

@p sage: Thank you very much, those are encouraging words that I really need^^ I read the idea of applying Bridgman to mannequins in a book (which I don’t recall at this point, sorry) as a very good procedure memorizing anatomy. I think it has a point. If I draw completely from imagination, I overload myself with tasks- perspective, form, shape, anatomy- not there yet. Cheers!
@america220: Thank you as well! I was surprised myself about that last sheet. Especially the man with the baby, suddenly it went really well- I guess I just got lucky
@forestdino: You are very welcome and thank you, too. I indeed use anatomy books. I own a copy of Gottfried Bammes’ “Die Gestalt des Menschen” as well as David K. Rubins “The Human Figure” alongside with Burne Hogarth and George Bridgman. The former two are good for realistic muscles and how they function; the latter two are good for the shape and form of the human body interacting in space. Together they work well for me.

Update for today (so far)

I said I was gonna tackle digital, so here I am.

First, I did some really really REALLY boring lighting studies, I cannot emphasise enough how BORING I find these. I felt I am wasting time and am not learning anything. So I thought whatever, try something I read on ctrl+paint, so-called “Value Sketching”.

I chose this photograph as a reference: http://vishstudio.deviantart.com/art...pell-157795328

And out came this:


It was SO FUN you cannot believe it. The first time in my life where digital was fun, when I didn’t want to hack my wacom into pieces and blame Adobe for my inabilities. I also saved WIPs of it to recall how I approached it for the first time, might be of use later.

It's far from perfect (issues especially with face, neck, arm) but hell I didn't believe I could pull this off. Thank you, CA.

[Lightship69]

Cor Blimey Guv!! youve been busy since I last looked !!

I like the anatomy studies, and the 3d forms, I have tried some of them too, Ye Gods what a pain I couldnt even draw a circle to start with, it was embarrassing.

All the best and keep up the good work.

P.S. love to Iron Man, and tell hime to take it easy! LOL

[Benjaminba]

Hey LordLouis, thanks for commenting on my sketchbook. I'm flattered that you would think I'm a TAD student, but I'm not. Took one class there (sketchbook class), though.

The latest digital figure drawing is very nice and a step up for you, I would say. You'll improve so fast with all the hard work you're putting. Doing a lot of drawing is good at this stage. Of course, as I'm sure you've heard said on the forums, less studies with a lot of thought behind them are better than many studies done just for the sake it. I think that might be why you found the study of the pyramid and ball so boring - you were doing it just because you saw someone recommend it and not because you knew what you had to practice. If that makes sense. I have to say overall you are doing very nice studies.

I do think you have some trouble with perspective and structure still. The two still life drawings at the top of the page are very wobbly. It also shows in all the faces you draw, where the features aren't placed with enough precision. So some faces turn out all right, while others just don't work. It's too random.

Not sure what to recommend... Perhaps it's enough to just remind yourself when you're drawing. Regardless, here are a few exercises you might want to try that I found useful (pencil on paper, no ruler allowed):

1. Draw 3 cubes in a one-point perspective. Use the same horizon line.
2. Draw 3 cubes in a two-point perspective. Make sure you don't place your vanishing points too close or the cube will look warped.
3. Draw 3 cubes in a three-point perspective.

4. Draw a couple cubes freehand. Don't draw the horizon line and don't use vanishing points. (see image)
5. Ball exercise. Draw circles, focus on making them as round as possible. Draw a vertical and horizontal plane inside the ball, then draw the three axes. Make sure there is a 90 degree angle between the axes. (see image)

Yeah, simple shapes. I know it seems boring. But I actually think doing just a few and getting a feel for it would be good for you. Here is an example of what it could look like. I can't draw circles on my tablet, so try to do better than me Following up with more simple still lifes would be good - just in pencil, don't have to focus too much on shading.

[NailBiterMR]

Thanks for popping by my sketchbook! : D Lots of awesome stuff over here. That recent study of the muscly dude is a step in the right direction.

I would agree with the above poster. Try to do some loooong studies in between those quick ones : ). The constant change will make your brain work harder and you will learn more : D.

Your definitely working hard keep going : )!

[shiNIN]

BEWARE: I wrote this mostly after looking at the 2nd page, I missed the third

I don't know why I never visit your SB... but now I'm here, even if I don't feel I can say useful stuff. Nice improvement from the start, it's good you practice different things
I like your goblins

It seems to me you draw a bit oversized mouths. Smiling faces are hard, your stuff reminded me I practically never practice them, I should do a big bunch (I tend to focus on something easier until I'm pleased and it takes forever. Not the best approach).
The shading should makes the head more 3d. You can shade other body parts better it seems, well, a roundish thigh is easier than the very complicated face, that's true, and I think there are more personal differences as well.
I don't know how to draw plants either, especially not with pencil but pros can do wonderful scenery pictures using different strokes And as Kerah says, softer pencils can be useful. Making a big dark fluffy brush with a harder pencil isn't very productive, for example

After seeing the 3rd too:
Beware the face symmetry (especially when the head is tilted) and that the gap between the eyes is usually one eye. Too close eyes usually looks weird and stupid. Even big eyed anime chars mostly have a one eye gap between their eyes
Spare eyelashes don't help realism. If it's not a totally girly girl or something, you don;t even need individual lashes but if you draw them, they should be more dense I think. I experienced faces don't really like lines, small or bigger. They are okay with shapes but clean thin lines makes them stylized.

I really wonder if my post with some of my chaotic thoughts has of any use for you, but I tried.

[Valyavande]

wow, you just need one hour for the digital value sketch? that's really fast! i think I would have need more time. And really looks like a big step forward. Glad to read that you had fun! There's nothing better than practising with fun. i hope we see more of those studies!

[LordLouis]

Chuuu, okay update from the last 2-3 weeks. I moved home and have been ill for some time, thus I couldn't study as much as I would have liked to.
Anyway.
I feel like I'm doing everything I can and yet not enough. I just don't improve. Pretty pissed.

@Lightship: Thank you! Yeah I have sheets over sheets full of circles, lines, ellipses, balls..
@Benjaminba: I thought you're a TAD student because you mention at some point in your sb that you have been talking to some famous artist who showed you some "super secret" stuff^^ Was the sketchourse TAD? Thank you for your comment, I will do more perspective studies, but I can only do so much.
@NailBiterMR: Thank you very much! Yeah I think you have a good point. I feel that working from photos is limiting me though, so I work from a mirror now for a lot of the time. In september, I start a 10 week figure drawing evening course. finally found something.
@shiNIN: Thanks a lot for your thoughs, I don't find them confusing. You were right with the faces, and I went to study the skull and measurements of the skull. Yeah I haven't really gotten around those magic pencil strokes lol!
@Valyavande: thank you so much, I am flattered planning to do more of the kind, yes.

And now to my update. It's messy as fuck so I tried getting some structure in. Chronological order for most of the stuff.

#1 Perspective fail, tried to do something for Chow wasteland marauder, aborted.





#2 Heads











#3 "life" (photo) studies, no improvement.



#4 Arms. Switched to A3 papre for most of the studies. The pen page is from memory. Don't know lower arm enough.









#5 Another attempt at ChoW, this time "eye-gouger" the Orc. Abandoned.






#6 Stuff from life, my boyfriend. The pen stuff is from when lying in bed next to him, so that was tricky.








#7 Trying to get into colour. It doesn't really look like I've been studying heads this week does it?

[Lucdehaan]

keep blasting! your going strong.
dont forget to try to understand wat you are drawing instead of drawing the same thing a bilion times!

keep it up

[Pedro Ferreira]

It's awesome the progress you have made since your first post.Keep on drawing faces! alot,imo the only way to draw nice facial features is too draw tons of them(I guess is like everything in drawing lulz ).
liking those arm sketches!
btw,try to clean your line(i have the same problem,grrr),I think you know what I mean
keep it up!

[LordLouis]

Yaay, comments!

@Lucdehaan: thank you! I am trying indeed; in fact I have come back to arms muscles today to fill in the gaps.
@pgf95: thank you very much, how very encouraging! Yeah I know the clean line issue, very annoying and I think it is going to be a problem for another while I just try to get more confident, I have already less strokes but still too messy. And my faces.. omg yes, just do as much as possible- cheers!

A little update on todays work; I haven't drawn much but learnt instead. I spent some time colouring my Hogarth book to match with the colours I had assigned arm muscles in my Rubins book, and I spent quite some time on it, picturizing the muscles- I then did some arms from memory, and I feel quite comfortable. yay.



Err yes, I actually tried acrylics xD In order to learn to see colours and to mix real-life, not digital colours. I mean I don't need to be told how crap this looks (it's the kitchen window with 3 cactus and a water can) but it was quite interesting. Ran out of white *facepalm*


And finally, some excercises on perspective from ctrl+paint. Just the start, but I have to solve my confusions on perspective while studying.

[bish0p2004]

Beautiful pencil studies! I'm also liking the color portraits on this page.

[LordLouis]

Yay a comment!
Thank you very much bish0p, I am planning to do some more this week- cheers!

Okay an update from this weekend; it does look like I have been lazy but those two A3 pages took me for-fucking-ever to do; my brain is fried now. Yesterday I coloured my Rubins book for two hours and started with som Ron Lemen studies. Then from memory, and then another sheet poses from Hogarth and trying to figure out the muscles myself- this was so hard. Some of it is wrong, some look wonky, but it really burnt those muscles in I am telling you.
Will do Figure drawings in order to apply some of the head, arm and leg studies I have done. Sorta scared :s

I think it's the first time I am using Hogarth, not copying.
Used pen after I got too messy with pencil again.




I watched 3 hours of Sketchbook Streaming Class just for that second sheet. WTF!

[Valyavande]

good looking studies again! May I ask which streaming class you watched for the latest sheet? I'm curious. And I wanna buy that Rubins book too! (haven't I already spend so much money into TAD-vids and an Intuos 4 I would do it right now. Maybe I should do it anyways)
I think even more now, that this sketchbook is going to be very interesting so, keep up the good work! No crits for the moment.

[hu-ha]

Crazy amount of studies! Keep up the good work but don't forget to have some fun with your drawings ;) I'm also learning from Hogarth, wishing You luck!

[dracken]

I think it's the first time I am using Hogarth, not copying.

Took me months to figure that you have to use a book, not just mindlessly copy stuff.

I think that attitude along with tons of study will result in great stuff. I like that you do color, digital but also study with the goold old ink pen and pencil. Good stuff, just keep going.