NSFW (nudity)-Sketches by a mango

[wooden mango]

Thanks Zipfelzeus and Little Maiden!
For me, traditional media is so rewarding because for the most part, each mark you make is permanent and will effect the entire piece. It's profound and it also forces you to really focus on what you're doing. That being said, yes, it can be very messy and clean up can be a pain but if you ever get the chance I think you should try it. you may just like it.

anyway, finished Jean Reno piece. Going to go back to my studies this week and will also probably do some doodles which I haven't done in a while.

[Bleo]

Is wowing at your improvement. Especially your human stuff. With the jean Reno, you're really now showing off your knowledge with tone. This is a watercolour piece yes? I can tell you're improving. Do more stuff (: Looks pretty proportionate to me

[ThomasM]

great start to a sketchbook - Nothing to crit really because you seem aware of how to improve. Keep it up and looking forward to the progress

[Vaejoun]

Nice start and already improving a lot. Keep it up, try out different ways to approach a picture ...

I personally like to do some studys without lifting the pen from the paper, so that its just one line.

[shambok]

Very nice to people still working in traditional media! keep up the good work!

[wooden mango]

Thanks all! I really appreciate the encouragement.

@Bleo: It's india ink actually. The also have coloured india ink and acrylic inks. I actually like to use inks better because of their permanence. The colours don't lift when you add new layers. But that may not be something you want depending on teh style you go for.

So it's been a week or so since I posted anything, been moving around and starting back in summer school to finish my master's degree.

Here's a failed attempt at a Luchador. I think I need to do more gesture drawings and study more anatomy/perspective before I tackle something like this again. Reference.

and more skull studies, which I really love doing.

[PLeon]

I dig the skull studies, those are going towards the right direction. I agree with using ref for the Luchador. I'd suggest two things:

Look up "El Santo" or Blue Demon pictures and comics (which are technically, pictures with word balloons on them) Or if you feel adventurous, see if you can find the old El Santo movies subtitled. Not only would that help, cause he's wrestling for half the movies, but they are frakin' hilarious.

Also, one thing you could do is construct your sketch with blue or red lead. Go crazy with that building up your shapes and anatomy, then go over that with ink or pencil. It's also easy to erase the blue/red lines on Photoshop and leave your final lines clean. Something I picked up from animation. I'd also work with trying to get your line of action right.

You've come up a long way from the begging of the sketchbook in such a short time. Keep it up!

[shiNIN]

I saw what you did in CC... My humble little eye "minitutorial", I was all blush... I rarely go to CC nowadays, you others do such a good job and I need to draw myself...

That Luchandor photo ref is kinda hard I think... I think I'd approach that this and that way, flow lines, structure with simplified skeleton, whatnot. Draw it more than once or twice, it's hard to do it for the first time Maybe you figure out something if you do it more.

Nice animal skulls

[wooden mango]

@Pleon: Thanks so much! Yeah the ref I used is at a tricky perspective. But thanks for the tips, I've looked those up and they should be fun to use.

@shiNIN: You're right I should definitely try it again. I think if I did it again and focused on the construction and did it a couple times then it could totally work. Thanks!

And just a bunch of random crap. Mostly studies and figure drawings. One doodle from imagination and a contour drawing done without lifting my hand of the paper. I always end up putting the eyes on different levels XD

[Gobi]

hey, thank you for going around in my sketchbook^^
i like your anatomy studies and these animal skulls. they are pretty kewl!
but most, i have to say, that it is nice to see, that you got your own style. such a few more anatomy practise and it will work (such like me^^). i think bridgman would help, PoseManiacs or CharacterDesigns
keep it up!

[CLANLESS]

Hey! I like the elephant creature.

[vices]

looking good! keep it up

[Pezz]

Thanks for checkin my sketchbook out. Try to remember to explore and draw through your forms! I'm seeing a great deal of contour from you and as such I think your constructive anatomy is suffering a bit.

[Aresa]

The ink portrait looks fantastic! Great use of the medium. Your anatomy studies are coming along greatly as well. Keep up the nice work and you're improving!

[Jephyr X]

Hi and thanks for stopping by my sketchbook and commenting!

Congrats on starting a CA sketchbook this year. I like the bird skull studies and recommend doing lotza that kind of thing!

:thumbs-up:

[wooden mango]

@Gobi: Thanks so much for swinging by. I like to hear that people think I have a style since I often feel like i don't have one. I've actually switched from using posemaniacs to using pixelovely gesture drawing tool. It has real people so it's alot more useful.
@D.M. THanks! I actually intend to revise him one day once I have a bit more practice drawing animals and such.
@pezzle: hmm I'm actually a little confused by what you mean draw through my forms? I thought I have been doing that. It's probably less visible in my more indepth studies as I erase those marks but I leave them in on my gesture drawings. Do you mean I need to do it more aggressively?
@Aresa: thanks!
@ Jephyr: thanks! I actually intend to move on to doing some full skeletons aswell.

here are more gesture drawings. Plan top do some more rendered stuff this afternoon

[wooden mango]

just some more figure practice, this time costumed. I made some intentional changes to the mask. And clearly I was struggling with the hand as it is not really visible in the reference and I do not have the knowledge of hands yet to pull it off. I also found the arms problematic. Now I know what to practice next.

Reference here

EDIT: Just found another super useful gesture drawing tool called Drawing Script , this one has hands! Posting it here so I don't lose it.

[Caspia]

Your gesture drawings are really good practice, keep it up. Don't get disheartened by hands, eventually you'll become so irritated by them that you'll HAVE to find a method of drawing them.

I personally use a thin rectangle for the palm and circular segments for the fingers but I'm sure there's a way that works for you. Staring at the bones in the hand helped me at least. Understanding how they work under the skin helps with drawing them in a construction fashion...if that makes sense.

[Samszym]

Thanks a lot for the comment! I'm glad you found the tool helpful. I think you might be focusing too much on contour and overlap and all that constructiony finished drawing stuff in your gestures. You're finding the line of action and that's good, but then it looks like you start trying to copy the detail of the contour, but your stuck in "loose pencil mode" and you don't draw any detail. It almost looks like a mix of blind contour drawing and gesture.
Gesture is a preliminary step to a finished drawing or a study of action in the figure. The lines on the outside of the figure are not your concern, just try to find the forces and thrusts and directions of the figure. A gesture can be as simple as an oval head with a line for the spine, a line for the shoulder and hips, and four lines for the limbs. Really, that's all you need. Try to keep your gestures as simple as possible, and remember gesture doesn't need to have anything to do with contour at all. describe the detail and contour and anatomy and stuff after the gesture, not during it.
You should probably study individual body part's anatomy some more as well. You should be able to understand why the contour of your reference looks like it does, not just draw it.
Good luck, you're getting better and on the right track!

[Ba5u]

Thank you so much for the comment :3
Wow, those links are really cool, I'll use them for sure.
Don't think I'm gonna use posemaniacs any more, cause I like to draw real people a lot more.

Ba5u

[Jephyr X]

@ Jephyr: thanks! I actually intend to move on to doing some full skeletons aswell.

Yeah...for some reason I really like drawing birds and their skeletons are very cool.

Thanks for the gesture link!

[wooden mango]

@Caspia: Thanks caspia. I have been looking at some anatomy charts and I plan to do more drawings of just hands. But time is currently proving problematic. Stupid non-art school. >_< Thanks for the advice!
@Vertical: Thanks so much! This is actually really helpful. I Will keep that in mind in my next gesture drawings. I am probably also giving myself too much time (2 min).

So here are a couple of quick studies (and I mean really quick) at the top and then some random sketches at the bottom. As you can see I tried teh luchador again and it came out way better than last time but will probably do it again.

Am hoping to do some character design-for fun stuff soon. It's been a while

[PLeon]

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1306618818

Haha, hilarious

[Jessibelle]

heyy, this sketchbook is going great you're improving alot, these two in particular are looking brilliant... i like your focus on traditional media too, it's different from the usual. keep it all coming, especially that dedication to anatomy, it's paying off and i don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but studying loomis/bridgeman/hogarth etc would help tons, trust me.

[wooden mango]

@Pleon: Thanks! This is what happens when I get bored in my database management class
@Jessibelle: Thanks for the encouragement it means alot. I do have loomis and have purused it some, should probably go back to it soon. As for bridgemen, I don't know I see alot of people repeating what I am geussing are the drawings in the book and I'm not sure I understand how that helps. But I have been looking at some other books to like "like how to draw the clothed figure" forget who it's by.

Anyway 8 more pages left to my RL sketchbook! I'm pretty excited to move on to my next one.

here is some okapi studies I did from random photos on the internet. Hopefully sometime this year I will be moving to a place with a zoo so that I can study live animals.

and a drawing pf a dancer from a vintage photo found here

The left arm is tool long which annoys me. also I was going to do purple in the background with pencil crayon but really don't feel like I have time to do it on just a sketch. I'd rather save the time/effort for a more finished piece. Seeing as how I have so much schoolwork. But I did try a different technique than the one I used to use and I like the results.

Still trying to get more confident with lines and cleaner at hatching but I think it is /slowly/ getting there.

[wooden mango]

Fixed This picture

Still some issues but I'd like to think it's a /little/ less crappy

[Caspia]

It's a good update for that picture. The hand has more definite form to it now instead of just possibly being a hand.

[wooden mango]

@Caspia: thanks! I've actually been doing some practice on them/starring at my own.

so two attempts at doing linework straight in pen. obviously they aren't bang on accurate but I think they turned out okay considering. I especially like the goldfish on the top left corner.

[etui]

Great job on the sphynx! Those are my favourite cats. The fish are really nice too.

[wooden mango]

@etui: thanks. I used to think they looked absolutely ridiculous and now they've kind of grown on me.

normal I wait till I have a few more sketches before I update but I kinda like how this one turned out...also I am procrastinating Reference used