the thread in which rass learns to draw

[rass]

Hey people!
long story short:
*I drew (from imagination) a lot growing up
*slowed down a few years ago as I got into photography
*stopped completely somewhere between 2 and 3 years ago
*have recently decided to get back into it.

I was never a very strong observational drawer but I plan to change that with at least 3 drawings from life each week (aiming for everyday but don't want to over commit haha)

My aim for this sketchbook is to update at least twice a week, improve my observational drawing and learn a few different traditional mediums.

Feel free to tear everything I do apart piece by piece, I have quite the thick skin. I know how much time it takes to leave advice for somebody and I really appreciate anything that people can offer me on the path to enlightenment.

To start things off, I made a swatch page of my watercolour pencils following the advice of someone on youtube, it was a valuable exercise. I also did a (fairly poor) value chart of my sketching pencils while watching something terrible on TV.

Then I made the mistake of trying to do a banana still life using watercolour. I might stick with graphite/charcoal for a little while haha. It looks like a banana, but it doesn't look much like the banana I was looking at, nor does it look like it's sitting on anything. The banana didn't even taste good to add insult to injury. Also chucked in an exercise some friends and I do to pass time - friends draw random shapes in my sketchbook and I turn them into things, usually badly proportioned faces.
I will start putting up some observational drawings and studies from posemaniacs either today or tomorrow.
I promise less text from now on and more drawings, thanks for looking.

disclaimer: sorry for ruining your eyes/brain/day - I'll get there eventually.

[rass]

one more still life for today. An apple (from life) with coloured pencils. About 15 mins.

[Velocity Kendall]

i dont get the point of the pencil hb b 2b grid thing, looks boring to do and results in nothing...and forget the silly faces..
... thats a damn good banana, do more from life, thats good work...

[Jonathan C]

i dont get the point of the pencil hb b 2b grid thing, looks boring to do and results in nothing...and forget the silly faces..
... thats a damn good banana, do more from life, thats good work...

I gotta disagree. Practicing gradients helps later when studying value. and putting pencil to paper never hurts. but I do agree that's one good banannana! Anyway, keep it up rass!

[Velocity Kendall]

youre probably right... i take it back... although it looks boring as hell to do

[rass]

VK - it was boring to do haha. I did it so I would have a reference page to see how dark/light I can go with each of my pencils. I suppose it was also an excuse to render out something with pencils, having not done it for a while.
I get what you're saying about the silly faces too, it's not something that will help me grow - I should be studying anatomy. Then if I feel like doodling it would probably come a lot easier.

Jon C, I'll take your word on value - a quick look through your sb shows you have quite a handle on it. Makes me want to draw people as well, shame my gf won't sit still.

thanks people - more from life, less from scribbling

[ErikHolfelder]

Good start rass. Sounds like you know what to do, study study study. Make sure to grab some anatomy books and start slamming those (bridgman, peck, etc.) and definitely more from life.

Draw silly faces if you want though. Don't let hardcore studies ruin your fun and creativity. Just make sure to do a million studies as well.

Keep it up and you'll get there. Just don't stop!

[rass]

thanks eekolite
looking around the other SBs here makes me wish I found the place (and my enthusiasm) 10 years ago. I have the Peck atlas of human anatomy in my book wishlist, maybe next payday.

I did a loomis study, not the greatest. I had real trouble drawing from the computer screen (looking at the loomis book on scribd.com), anyone have any pointers on the easiest way to do that? I was just holding the sketchbook in front of me.

Things I know are wrong:
proportions! The gap in the pelvis, just below the '1', is too tall. There are probably more proportion errors, I'm sure I'll get better at it though.
linework: probably doesn't help that I used a blunt 2mm clutch pencil but the original had great, bold strokes that I just couldn't replicate. Ahh well. Next time.
also, I ran out of room, that's why it cuts off abruptly below the patella.

[Velocity Kendall]

yep i totally take that back too, why not draw silly faces? I dont know why I said that, (although I blame booze of course)... my bad!

[Dope Fiend]

Lookin good so far, not much to critique, just keep posting!

[rass]

don't sweat it VK, that's why I like this place and decided to start posting things here - honesty. If I posted those scribbles on my facebook I'd get a few friends going 'ooh' and 'aah' and a slightly inflated ego but for what? nothing. At least here you made me think 'is this worth my time?' and if not, what is? or how can I make it so? You helped me prioritize

[Velocity Kendall]

Ha cool. I crossed a line there though, telling someone what they should or shouldnt do based on my own taste, and rightly had bullshit called on me... keep up the good work.

[Elophant]

Nice to see someone using traditional media.

[rass]

thanks elophant, but don't worry - I have a wacom and can make your eyes bleed at any stage. I have no control whatsoever over digital haha. I have a huge collection of pencils and paints and stuff that I've accumulated over the years and it seems a shame not to use it all. Once I start to build up traditional drawing skills I might give digital another go, but for now the wacom will remain my photo retouching weapon of choice.

Decided to do a 'quick' photo study of this beautiful image by michael chandler. I made a right mess of it though, might try something a little easier next time. off the bat:

• stuff in her hair is not well rendered, if I even attempted to render it at all

• values are all over the place, hair is one flat plane

• eyes are wonky

• lips are also wonky

• I lost the feeling and expression of the original

feel free to add to the above or even suggest how to fix it.

tomorrow I'm going to do another still life, medium/subject undecided

[rass]

another watercolour still life, messed this one up more than the banana. edit: I think this is a teapot or a sugar bowl or something btw, it's my gf's and she isn't here for me to ask.
For one it is too green compared to it's real life counterpart and secondly... it just isn't very strong - too many brush strokes maybe. Shadow has too much green in it too.
AAAND it doesn't look like the right surface material - glossy ceramic
PROGRESS! not.

I think part of the problem is that I didn't do an underdrawing for this one (I did for the banana).

Might try acrylics for the next one, can't be any worse haha.

[rass]

aaand a silly monkey. This one's actually a couple of weeks old but it amuses me.

[rass]

so, whoever invented conte can fuck off haha.
I attempted a still life using it. Worst thing yet.
it's a black ceramic bowl or vase or something with a ridged pattern running diagonally around it in real life. In my observation it's a misshapen sphere which someone spilt grey onto . It's supposed to be a kind of flat metal decorative flower sticking out of it.

Conte, how does it work?
(edit, sorry for the iPhone pic, that thing wasn't going near my scanner)

[rass]

Well I was disillusioned with last post and couldn't go to bed knowing I'd ended the day with it, so I did another Loomis study.
About 25 minutes with a hb clutch (2mm lead).
The most glaring proportion issue (to me) is that the Humerus isn't long enough.
There are some weird issues going on the the ribs as well.

is there a proper way to go about studying anatomy like this? Is it easier to focus on one section of the body until I understand how it works then move onto another?

[smuli]

I like the charts you've done and bone studies are looking good. About doing studies in general, I think the most important things are to think about form rather than lines and remember to see what you've learned by trying to sketch whatever you've studied from head.

is there a proper way to go about studying anatomy like this? Is it easier to focus on one section of the body until I understand how it works then move onto another?

In my opinion everything's useful but before delving into bones and muscles, it'd be useful to get a basic conception of the proportions and a simplified figure in movement, like the Loomis mannequin. Don't know if you've done this already.

Anyway, good start! Keep it up!

[Caboodle]

Very nice start! It's also quite refreshing to see someone use real media. I wish I could do that more often, but I just don't have enough time... (Photoshop just isn't as timeconsuming...)

I especially like the watercolourstudies and gradient-charts! Looking forward to see more!

But two things: I see you go and give a lot of critique to each of your finished drawings/paintings. While it is a good thing to be critical and to reflect on your work, it can also be very disheartening.
For all the critique you can find for your pieces, try to find some things you think you did right, or think that have improved to your earlier work, or that you just like. You need to balance your inner critic with something more positive!
For instance: In the piece of the chinese/japanese woman, I really like your use of pencilstrokes, and the stark contrast between hair and the very thin and delicate lines on her dress.
I also like how you rendered her eyes. It catches a lot of the character of the original photo.

And secondly: I agree with smuli, the best way to learn the human figure is to first understand the body as a whole, and then to move on to more specific aspects. But it will be a lot easier for you if you first know all about proportions and the relationships of different parts to each other (like ribcage to hipbone).

Keep going!

[rass]

wow thanks so much guys! I love this place.
smuli - I've been doing some gesture studies from posemaniacs, about 10 a day, 45 sec poses. I'm not very proud of them but I might start putting some up tomorrow, this morning's were much better than yesterday's. Seeing loomis/bridgeman studies on so many other people's SBs made me feel like I should be doing the same. Everything in moderation.

Caboodle - I'll probably end up using digital at some point soon so I don't have to scan everything. I just love how tactile traditional media is (except conte, that stuff is too tactile). I hadn't thought of trying to find positives before man! Seems so simple, but it's probably why I bailed on art in the first place - join CA, realise I am on lvl 0.5, become super critical of everything I do, give up because it's too hard :/
From now on I will find 1 positive for every negative in each piece I do.

[rass]

updates!
some more silly faces, a butchered photo study and a watercolour still life of an apple. Apple took about 25 minutes I think? Then another 30 seconds when it was dry to put some darker tone around the shadow edge.

I've been doing posemaniacs every other day but my gestures are rubbish, I'll post something up when they are recognisable as human.

[ryan mcshane]

keep up the studies man! been lurking
i can't really crit the cartoons
but you can crit yourself good on that photo study, the next step is actually doing the fixes!
also spend more than 15 minutes, and just draw, analyze, fix, draw, analyze, fix, etc
keep at it brother!

[rass]

following ryanoir's advice I spent a bit longer on this one, about an hour.
A study after: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennethbarton/2415389744/
what I like:

• proportions seem ok
• there is a likeness

what I don't:

• I couldn't get her chest in with screwing something up
• I was in over my head trying to render that necklace so I panicked and cheated
• the scan... the whole image looks a lot smoother in my physical sketchbook.
• the hair, again, over my head trying to render it.

[Whyatt Thrash]

Good job mate! Like Ryanoir said, when you see the mistakes yourself, fix them! And try not to go into detail/shading too soon, before you're happy with the structure. That way you won't have to redo so much if you spot a glaring mistake.

Keep it up!