My Learning Sketchbook

[stezsen]

Hello, I'm new and just learned drawing seriously. My name is Yin. Hope I get improvements.
Thanks for comments, critiques, and help.

[TacoMeat]

Welcome to the CA forums. Great start so far. I'd suggest looking into Loomis and Bridgman books. They are great resources and they are also available free on the internet. Keep it coming.

[stezsen]

Thanks, TacoMeat.
Yea, I have a copy of Loomis book. Today I start study from it.
Hope any critics for improvement ^^

Life study





Study from loomis book

[TacoMeat]

You've been busy. Keep studying mate. They are looking good.

[Pervy]

Hiya stezsen, I can see your working super hard on loomis, and that's awesome! Your definitely on the right track.

Though I think you should focus on trying to keep your figures from slowly tilting over when you line them up. It's a pretty bad habit to have since it may mess up your proportions and give you a hard time drawing a character standing up correctly (let alone a group of people in perspective). lol this is something I still struggle with so I should know ahah. What I usually do is draw a straight line down before drawing them (Making sure its a vertical line of course) before drawing the figure.


Other than that I think if you keep it up you'll be on your way to getting way better in no time haha.

[stezsen]

Thanks, all.

I will try to keep my figures straight. Tilting is really my big enemy. Oh, can I use ruler or something else like that to help me keep the straight line? Someone told me not to use ruler. Is that right?

[Samszym]

You're off to a great start! It would be good to develop the skill to draw straight poses unaided, but I don't think there's a reason you can't use a ruler.

[stezsen]

Thanks, Vertical. Maybe I will try to use ruler tomorrow.

Today I do some studies again. Hope critics for improving

Life study

















Study from loomis book























I really try to draw a straight line. But I often failed when draw big figures ><.

[GuruGaia]

I am loving the dedication to Loomis. I can see you are headed in the right direction. Keep up with the studies and maybe you can try tilting your paper to compensate for the tilt of your drawings? Looking forward to seeing more.

[TacoMeat]

Improvements are becoming more and more visible. Your definitely on the right track.

[eeedward]

Nice studies~! The improvement is amazing!!

[stezsen]

Thanks for stopping by, all.

I've lost my ruler. But I tried to tilt my paper as GuruGaia suggested. Is my tilt problem getting better?

Studies in 2 last days

Life study - hand



Loomis study









Try to draw some body language from imagination to apply Loomis study. Do these picture show the expressions?

-Sad-


-Happy-


-Comfort-


-Grace-


-Protect (first) and Tired-


-Afraid-


-Curious-


-Angry (first) and Bored-


Try to draw more "finished" drawing


I found it's hard to draw the "landmarks" in any view point. I confused some detail especially in hands and legs. Maybe anatomy study can help my problem? I'll try the skeleton today.

Anyway, I have scanned Loomis book and often found words like "photographic drawing" or "drawing look photographic". What is that mean?

Thanks

[Pervy]

Stezsen, look at you go! Your improvement is really something! Your actually amping up my own intensity to get better since if you keep this up I'll be left int he dust ahah. So whatever you doing keep on doing it, and go even harder!

Judging from your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th image your figure still tend to tilt over but its definitely getting better. The anatomy studies definitely will help, and as for "photographic drawing" I'm not to sure.. but if I was to put 2 and 2 together I'd say its drawing from photographs or a drawing that looks like a reference been used? ^^;; probably better for someone else to answer that one.

[ladyknowles]

Great stuff! You're a very hard worker Watch the weight of the people in your studies, sometimes they're not standing up properly I have the same problem!

[stezsen]

Thanks, Pervi. Maybe I'll use pencil or pen instead of ruler. Those have a straight form too, I think.
Um... for photographic drawing, what should I do while drawing with photo reference or life study? Try to draw as similar as the references or something else?

Thanks, Ladyknowles. I don't think I'm a very hard worker . Actually I'm easily bored by an activity. So I must push myself when in high mood hehe.
Yes, the weight of people is very hard for me. I found one figure in 5th image that not standing properly, but I haven't found others ><
I must learn this more harder.

-- sorry for bad english, all

[kiwigarbage]

Hi there! Happy Holidays to you!

In your life drawings, try to imagine and draw the inner structure while you're still learning instead of jumping to the contours, it will help you understand how the body is shaped and how it moves.

Good luck

[Pervy]

Thanks, Pervi. Maybe I'll use pencil or pen instead of ruler. Those have a straight form too, I think.
Um... for photographic drawing, what should I do while drawing with photo reference or life study? Try to draw as similar as the references or something else?

lol I might not be exactly the best suited to answer this since I'm still very much learning myself, but I can tell you what I do personally when drawing from photo reference/life studies (For studying the human form to be more specific).

The first thing I do is find exactly want to focus on such as value/color/light, gestures, anatomy, proportions, or any mix of them. Personally, I find that when I mentally tell myself exactly what I'm looking to learn from drawing something, i tend to retain more vs just drawing a whole series of figures without a clear focus.

As for actually drawing the reference, it's kind of depends. Like if you really want to lean something like value/anatomy/proportions then you'll want to stick to trying to draw them closely as possible (Though I also believe you don't want to spend to much time on getting something exact, just as long as you know and understand it to the point you could apply it from imagination). But, if you already feel pretty confident about your understanding of those things then by all means you can try testing yourself and exaggerating forms or change positions of their body based off your own knowledge of applying what you already know.

Its like how caricature artists learns to draw exactly what they see and the structure behind it so that they can eventually move to exaggerating the different features of their model's face to their imagination.

Hopefully this helped a little, though keep in mind again I'm not exactly the best artist around lol, but this is what has been really working for me.

Keep pushing yourself Stezsen and keep go hard! =-= since I be watching from a distance..

[DSmith]

Hey there!
I like what you have going on here!Lots of studies and life drawings(the golden road to skills )
No crits yet,keep it up!

[stezsen]

Thanks a lot, all.

To kiwigarbage
Ok. I'll try that. I realize that I often copy line by line while do life studies.

To Pervy
I'll take your advice. I haven't feel confidence to exaggerate references, but that seems interesting. I always love caricature and wonder how to make that.
Ah, yes, I'll push myself hard.

Today I start the skeletons and muscles. It's really hard for me ><



















I did self portrait for life study.
I tried to draw ball, simple skull, and divide parts, but the lines are gone when I add shading



I've tilted my paper and used a pencil to keep my lines straight. Are they still tilting?

[ThomasM]

it looks like you are working hard with your studies - all these anatomy ones look great so all you need to do is carry on working hard!

merry christmas!

[stezsen]

Thanks, Thomas. Actually I didn't celebrate christmas. But, merry christmas to you ^^

I tempted by good films on TV today. So I only drew a little.

Loomis study. So hard ><









Comments and critics appreciated

[Talis]

hi there steszen! Welcome to CA and good to see your updates!

Since i`m new too and learning as well, my comment might not be of the same weight as the more experienced people around here do. Your anatomy sketches are definately nice, adn apart from your tilting problems. I think your drawings are more convincing if you consider weight and balance from the center of the body. I think it will add more drama to it.

That`s all i gotta say! the rest is nice, cool how you made sketches based on certain themes. The ballet one from "happy" theme gave me a hard and loud laugh :-)

Cheers!
talis

[Jiri92]

Hey man, I think you're doing really great! You seem to be having a really good understanding of anatomy

[Pervy]

Anatomy studies are looking awesome (And really like the self-portrait), though I thought i'd drop by and give you some advice from my one mistakes lol.

When you study anatomy be sure to also apply it to your figure drawings. In other words, don't just study anatomy strictly by doing only arm studies, then leg studies, chest, back, bones, hands, and so on exclusively, but instead always apply what you learn from books back into your full-figure drawings from both imagination and life/photos. Try to connect which muscles are where on a real human body vs the book (Also use yourself as reference lol).

^^: I would have advanced much further in drawing the figure if I knew this when I first started anatomy. Worst thing ever is when you do all the studies of the body parts but find out you can't draw the body as a whole.

[stezsen]

Thanks all.

To Talis
About weight problem, since Ladyknowles told me that issue, I read again the weight part in loomis book several times. But I haven't understand it. Then you told me about the center of the body and I got the clue. ^^
Thanks alot!
I paid more attention to weight when I stand or sit. And I think, I began understand what you all mean.

To Jiri92
Thanks, I just started to learn anatomy.

To Pervy
Thanks for your advice. That is what I want to do today.
Oh, must I draw all those muscles when practicing with life model or imagination? I tried twice, but my drawing became very messy, so I erased much of it ><. Maybe I did wrong.

I did life studies today.
Try to learn and apply weight to the figure. Also bones and muscles (though I erased much of them ><)











I tried to correct the weight of some of my drawings too.







Are those alright? Please tell me if my understanding about weight and anatomy is wrong. I need to know my mistakes. Sometimes I can't figure it out myself.

[Pervy]

Oh, must I draw all those muscles when practicing with life model or imagination? I tried twice, but my drawing became very messy, so I erased much of it ><. Maybe I did wrong.


Are those alright? Please tell me if my understanding about weight and anatomy is wrong. I need to know my mistakes. Sometimes I can't figure it out myself.

It's awesome that your working hard at balance, many new artist tend to neglect that I find. Once you start to really figure it out it'll be well worth the time for all your figure drawing.

As for drawing the muscles on life models/imagination, I think you'll have to take my advice with a grain of salt since I'm not exactly sure myself lol. But I think it really depends on your own understanding of it. I used to just draw them on my figures (and still do sometimes) just to understand where they all are and how they change when the body moves. But, I don't think its really necessary to draw them all all the time since I also believe knowing what muscles doesn't appear is just as important.

In other words, if your confident in where all the muscles are in your studies or imagination, then you don't' always need to draw them. Instead try to focus on what muscles to draw depending on different body types and how those muscles change with action. At least that's what I personally think ^^;

Also here's some general advice on balance that you may or may not already know lol. For a figure to look balance, it must have equal distribution of weight on both sides of it's body, or something to support the side with the most weight. So, notice when you stand and put your weight on one leg your whole hip moves so that the leg with the weight is closer to he center of the body since its the leg with the most weight (your foot will line up closer to your center). If you try to put the weight on one leg but don't move your hips you'll find yourself tipping over. lol hopefully that makes some sense. Balance is sometimes a big game of trying it yourself in a mirror and finding what makes you fall over.

[stezsen]

Happy New Year!!

Thanks, Pervy.

I tried to draw the muscles today . I didn't know it can be so fun. I enjoy it

For the balance, I noticed the things you said too. Now the hardest problem for me is to make a straight line of weight. I cheated with millimeter paper .
Hope tomorrow I can draw that "straight line" unaided.







I don't sure with the last drawing of bending figure. I tried that pose and found that my feet are on the center of body. So I think the center of weight is at the center of spine. Is that right?

Critics and comments appreciated

[CRYPT]

nice start bro keep practisinng

[krenx]

Now go for line quality. Hard for me to explain what it's all about. But I'm sure the internet has many examples of what that is.

[Just_Nonplussed]

Now go for line quality. Hard for me to explain what it's all about. But I'm sure the internet has many examples of what that is.

line quality is just a matter of confidence and understanding what you're drawing. anyway, he probably doesn't need to focus on line quality or finishing touch at the moment as he's still learning about weight and gravity. but it seems like bone structure can be improved to make the muscles more flexible.