Pencil Pushing, a self-help sketchbook

[J@n!t]

Quigleyer: You're certainly not annoying, I enjoy the conversation and the opportunity to discuss what I'm working on. I've attached the original pony photo- I was leery of attempting this pose and one of the reasons is the weird head angle. I do see that in the wip I posted, the wrinkles in his neck and the rendering suggest that the pose is much more awkward than it already is in the photo.

I drew the pony again (part of the reason was because I want to be more prolific with my drawings and avoid treating each as though they are precious.) This time, I marked many points in the same manner as one would do a Bargue drawing and then drew the rest. It was interesting where my perception went off the map. Doing that made me notice that the ears on the first pony are HUGE. I already knew that the head was tilted the wrong way and my rendering caused some incorrect sculptural effects. Head-on is very difficult with a horse. The last drawing I did is looking better, I'll post it when more is done. Right now I'm missing a tortillion because my cat took it. He also left a crunched up niblet of conte crayon. Bad Kitty! I don't know why I ever took him in and fed him...

Thanks for the hand example. That makes more sense to look at it that way. I went through the page you linked last time and copied a bit of the construction sketches, but I don't think it's polite to go and post them on my own sketchbook. I have a Hogarth book, it might be the wrong one, though.

Thanks for taking the time, opinions, and advice

[J@n!t]

This pony is coming along better. I'm learning a lot of things by doing this, but it has to be finished some time! There are a few things that jump out at me which I'd like to improve before calling it quits. Trying to get better sculptural quality to the rendering. Since the initial drawings looked fine to me, I think it's the rendering that makes things misshapen or not like the photo.

[J@n!t]

I lied. Pony is not finished. Although it looks nearly the same as last time... Sigh.

Also started drawing some things on my desk.

[Aresa]

Awesome work here! The dedication is very strong and I find that great. Your studies are coming along very well and I'm liking your horse piece you are doing. I hope you continue that. Blending the white in the horse will help make that subtle highlight. I see much improvement! Keep it up!

[J@n!t]

Thanks Aresa! That pony is being the pain in my @ss! Yes, I need to work on making the highlighted side and the rest of the piece work together...

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Bought a kid's set of 12 oil pastels for about $2. Made a piece using the wacky pose-able hand sculpture my boyfriend gave me for xmas. Yes, he gave it to me with a glove on it...

[J@n!t]

A Frazetta copy, for my Drawing I class homework. I started community college (better something than nothing) about 2 weeks ago. Did a rough sketch with pencil and then attacked with gel pen.

[Bill]

Hi. NE Ohio? I'm staying in Toronto right now, but grew up in Warren, near Youngstown. The Frazetta copy worked out well.

[J@n!t]

Final pony and capybara gestures for Spartan Camp. The last ten are from imagination-- I never do that! I'm surprised they came out halfway decent.

[J@n!t]

Still life we started in Drawing I class. I don't know if I'll finish it, didn't have a lot of drawing time and the technique is more stylized than I'd like.

Charcoal study of my niece which I started last night. Gotta do more work so she doesn't look mean

The last is tonight's work from class. It's a little odd that we aren't given instruction, it's more like "draw this with that" and then we get some pointers if we ask for them. Reminds me of "art class" when I was a kid. It was more studio time than anything. I think if I continue with community college, I might just fish out the classes that transfer for bachelor degrees and work on art on my own. I dunno.

[J@n!t]

A real mixed bag here. Some from school, some quick study/gestures, some basic drawing from tutorials, and some from Barnstone Studios drawing course. Oh, and a watercolor sketch.

[J@n!t]

My first time doing some life drawing- yay! It was less stressful than I expected. Subject was clothed, though. We did 4 minute gestures, 3 20-minute poses, and a quick 10-minute head & shoulders.

[Lii-chan]

Wow, great stuff! I especially love the onion still-life on page 1, and your noses! Keep up the good work!

[KittyKaida]

Really nice studies, I loooove the warrior girl you did for your class, and hey, don't worry about community school, I have several friends that went to a.i. (and payed 100,000 bucks too!) and the teachers were crap! It all depends on the individual person, I think..

[J@n!t]

Lii-Chan: Thank you for the kind words

KittyKaida: I think you have a good point. I would be a whole lot more frustrated if I were paying more for the same thing! I'm trying to find the useful aspects of drawing in class (like drawing in front of other people, following someone else's parameters for a drawing, etc.) You are right that it depends on the individual. That is clear just by looking around at this site. Thanks for the comment.



This batch of uploads includes:
-Drawings on watercolor wash from school. The teachers main schtick is drawing with different materials, so okay. I didn't finish the art box drawing because... I dunno.
-20 minute charcoal drawing on newsprint. I have a front view also, but I'm afraid it will affect people's vision permanently if I post it here. Absolutely awful.
-Heads from Preston Blair's "Animation" book. I'm studying this not to learn animation, but for the action and expression and sense of motion so I can (ab)use it in my own drawings. It's quite enjoyable to practice.

[KittyKaida]

ooh, i love that book.. I think I drew almost every single thing in there when I got it for my 14th bday (i think) lol.. good times..

[Incinerated]

hey thanks for dropping by my sb, learning expressions from toons is a good stepping stone, but be sure to follow it up with more photo studies or life studies.

you're doing well

[Dannyphoto]

Very nice illustrations and sketches. I get the sense that you are one with life/still life drawing. Keep us posted with more and keep referencing

[MatthewHD]

Love the kettle picture and the toolbox with your latest post. I hope I get that comfortable drawing still-life eventually.

[J@n!t]

Incinerated: Good point, I need to make sure my action and expression is not "comic" when applied to regular drawings.

Dannyphoto: Thank you. I'm gonna keep on keepin' on.

MatthewHD: Thanks for the kind comment. Hahah, who says I'm comfortable? I didn't want to draw that kettle, but since it was set in front of me by the teacher, I did it anyway If I seem a little careless, please understand that I used to be the kind of perfectionist who agonized over every line. The results were stiff, awkward, and took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. This stuff is my therapy.

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New sketch dump. School stuff, some basic forms lit with my neat-o adjustable leds, preliminary sketches for a still life, gestures, and some pages from a comic portrait (retail caricature) book I am playing with. I didn't think I'd be as bad as I am at it, but I've been giving it hell. I will spare my viewers from having to look at the other 50 or so sketchbook pages that I filled with this nonsense. I even ran a brand new marker dry.

[J@n!t]

I had the opportunity to enter work done during the semester into my school's student art show, and my charcoal portrait below won one of 3 talent grants, which were the major awards given at the show. Feels good! I didn't trip and fall when crossing the stage, so that's 2 accomplishments in one




Have been filling sketchbooks with simple exercises; not sure if I should post them or not. Otherwise, here is a horsie I started last night in class. We have essentially finished our requirements, so now class is mostly studio time. There was a guest teacher last night who paints full time. He was very kind and showed us some beautiful work. AND he helped some people who were really struggling with their perspective drawings. It was pretty cool, as 2 ladies in particular really banged out some nice stuff after getting some good personalized attention.

[Velocity Kendall]

this seems like a real thing, perhaps some piece of horsy tack, but the more I stare at it the less i understand it :. i love it!
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1299560562

[J@n!t]

LMAO! So funny you say that. We were told to bring in our own stuff for a still life, so I had Mr. Hand, a horse brush, and one of my fancy western spurs. It is lit from below and to the side. I didn't finish it because it was so weird-- I'm glad you like it

[wooden mango]

Nice stuff! Your capibara sketches made me giggle.

[fernandoart]

Very nice SB man..., you can really see an improvement from the first page.., keep it up, you're giving the rest of us hope!

[J@n!t]

The latest on the horse (should have taken another picture before today) this is where I start to mess things up. We'll see if I can salvage it. I'm afraid of the other parts taking over the head-- my intention is for his face to have the most contrast and for the body to be secondary to it. Graphite is a lot harder than charcoal in that you can't shove things around. Makes me think I'm going to like painting in oils someday.

The other is a page from Preston Blair's Animation.

[J@n!t]

Tonight's progress on the horse.

It seems the shadow on the halter cheekpiece is either too dark or ends too abruptly, and the mane creates a large area that is too light. If anyone sees other areas that standout as "wrong", it would be great if you would let me know.

[Eric Young]

you're doing good, keep up the life studies and you'll keep improving.

[PLeon]

this is pretty good. Your animal studies really show dedication. Good work!

[J@n!t]

The Original [E] and PLeon: Thank you for your comments and thank you for visiting

I'd like to start painting this summer, possibly doing some plein air at the local arboretum. I'm just not ready to fork over the cash for supplies just yet, and I certainly won't be able to use oils indoors as my place is too small and the ventilation might not be good enough. Since I liked my kiddie oil pastels, I got a better set (still cheap) and started messing with those. Although oil pastel has been vilified on these forums, I kinda like them. I've seen some incredible animal portraits done with them as well, so I feel they are worth exploring. Did a little white vase to feel out the pastels, I know there are some errors.

Also included here is a caricature of my boyfriend. I'm thinking about doing these at the zoo this year, but I'm not getting the hang of it. All this learning to draw "through" things and feeling out construction has made it very hard to go back to such a 2D-ish method. Now, if I could "see" the 3 dimensional qualities without laying down the lines to indicate them, I'd be all set.

[MatthewHD]

Wow, those cartoon dog expressions you posted are really good. Keep it up and post more.