Zeezee's Journey from a Rookie - Crits welcomed

[zeezee1210]

Hi Guys,

So here it is.....my first ever post! Suppose I better introduce myself briefly and tell you my aim for this thread.

My name is Joe and I decided a month or so ago that one day I would love to be a concept artist and digital painter.
I've been hanging around reading the intro to CA thread and also MindCandyMan's Journey which has really inspired me and set me off to do a "rookie's journey (part 2!)"

I will be committing to at least one sketch and one bit of digital painting a day, which no matter how bad they are I'll be uploading to here.
On Wednesdays for the last 5 weeks I've been taking Life Drawing classes, so that day I'll upload all my sketches from the session.

Hope I can get anywhere close to the great support and constructive crits that MindCandyMan got and one day the skills he now has too :-) I'm very open to any comments and feedback you can give to help me improve.

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[zeezee1210]

Here's the rest I'll put up for this particular Life Drawing class:

All of these were 10 minute sketches done with these pastel pencils on brown paper, crit away lol

[Kill byte]

great looking drawings bro

[dirty_sox3]

the sketches look good! can't wait to see more

[zeezee1210]

...and here's this weeks results.

We were looking at tone this week as opposed the measuring the week before.
I don't feel very confident at all with tone as it never really seems to have enough depth to look real. MUST PRACTICE!!

15 Min drawing looking at model sat in a chair, I like the cushion and the chair itself but not so much the tone on the model. Always confused on how to make it look convincing, do I follow contours? smoothly blend? :-S


Another 15 min one, not really happy at all with the way this turned out but hey "everything gets posted":


For this we were given 30 mins and I feel a little better for it. Seems to have a little depth and the black background helps I think. Not too happy with the front breast though, looks very flat (think that's the heavy chalk use?):

[zeezee1210]

Thanks Kill byte and dirty_sox3, appreciate the encouragement.

I love the stuff in your sketchbooks.
You both have an amazing grasp of tone and from your imaginations too! Really inspiring.

Hopefully I can figure it out eventually, seem to be struggling with tone a lot.
Ah well practice, practice, practice I guess :-)

[Samszym]

Nice work! Once a day is a good goal, you're sure to improve. i think your use of white is what messes up your tone, I feel like the paper is a pretty light tone and white should only be used for spots of highlight. On that front breast you mentioned the white goes back into the armpit, on a spherical form like that white would just be a dot.

[Velocity Kendall]

really pretty drawings

[zeezee1210]

Not much today, been super busy. Here's just some sketches of a dragon and some manga-ish ones....promise to post a fair bit of digital painting and fresh sketches tomorrow after some quality sleep!

[zeezee1210]

Before I post some stuff I'll be doing today I thought I'd put up a schedule I just bashed together to see what you guys think? Do any of you have a structure to your learning? This one any good, any suggestions? Only really for drawing anatomy and people.

Weekly drawing schedule (bare minimum to be done, extra sketches or paintings on top are good too)

Mondays [HEADS]
- Sketch some front, side, back and 3/4 of skulls/primitives/skinned
- At least one or two taken a bit further on Photoshop

Tuesdays [ARMS&LEGS]
- Sketch various views and bends of legs both skeletal and skinned
- At least one or two taken a bit further on Photoshop

Wednesday [LIFE DRAWING]
- Practice some warm up sketches if time permits before class
- After class scan all images to sketchbook.

Thursday [HANDS&FEET]
- Basic proportioning practice and then various angles and postures
- At least one or two taken a bit further on Photoshop

Friday [TORSO]
- Multiple angles,bends and muscle studies
- At least one or two taken a bit further on Photoshop

Saturday [DYNAMIC POSES]
- Work through the dynamic drawing book by Michael Mattesi trying to focus on the flow and weight he gets in his figures

Sunday [FREE DAY+ANIMATION]
- Loads of free sketches from the imagination or whatever takes my fancy.
- Some sort of animation practice in a software package of my choice preferably 2D. Maybe rework through Animators Survival Kit.

[zeezee1210]

Decided to put a few things up I did today, but there will be more....Anybody know any decent tutorials/books to learn tone from?

Decided to really start concentrating on what I feel is my biggest weakness TONE! So first look at Giovanni Civardi's drawing book:


Here's a quick couple of sketches to keep up my learning of Anatomy (I think these are another example of why I need to work on tone):

[Samszym]

I never really used a drawing schedule before, but yours looks like it would work nicely. Loomis goes over tone starting on page 70 of successful figure drawing, maybe that would help.

[NeonDuck]

great start!

I see you're very organised, schedule and all. you have to realise that your main problem will be keeping up your motivation though, so I'd suggest simplifying your schedule so you don't end up feeling trapped by it.
when I started my schedule for the 1st year was very simple: draw for 1 hour every day, no matter what. i really had to force myself to sit down and draw on a lot of those days, but I stuck with it and now it's sort of become a habit. I feel odd if I don't draw.

it's also great that you're doing a life drawing class, they're great! but from what I can see you're not going to get a whole lot out of shading or digital practice yet - you'll need to build up your foundations first to understand how light and shadow work.

I'd recommend focusing on the 3-dimensional shapes (constructing things out of primitives, 'drawing through'), line quality, and gesture to bring out your poses a bit more. mike mattesi is great for lines and gesture, maybe have a look at andrew loomis' books for construction

most important: draw! every day! doesn't matter what, as long as you know what you're going to learn from it

best of luck!

[zeezee1210]

Vertical: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at the Loomis book.

NeonDuck: I think you're right, maybe simplifying both my schedule and the things I draw would help a lot. It's surprising how hard it is to actually sit down and draw more, but when I do I don't really want to stop. I think I'll choose at least a few hours every day. Thanks for the advice and encouragement :-)

My first ever digital sphere/painting!...


Got a little hooked with photoshop after the sphere and decided to play around with an alien I had sketched...

[aimeemcfarlane]

Great start. The figure drawings are very nice and have great lines. When working with tone you should try using the side of your pencil/charcoal/conte to fill larger areas. I think that shading a large area with a small tool gives a feeling of hesitancy. This also applies to painting.

[zeezee1210]

Thanks for the tips Aimee I'll definitely give them a try for my next post of sketches :-)

[Dope Fiend]

i agree with neon..don't feel the need to trap yourself with too much organization, just attempt to draw as much as possible..say an hour or two a day, but be conscious of what you're drawing, and attempt to explore a bit of everything while focusing on a specific thing..don't spread yourself to thin

and just keep pushing yourself when u get discouraged, which you will..post regularly, get inspired, and get back to work.

and do plenty of imagination, to stress your studies, generally helps more..and more quickly as well

cheers

[zeezee1210]

Thanks for the tips guys, I keep re-reading them and trying to apply them in my drawing.

Dope Fiend: Thanks for the advice I've decided to do what you're all saying and concentrate on at least a few hours everyday. At least until I've turned it into a strong habit and reach an average standard. What did you mean by imagination to stress your studies by the way?

Here's some warm up 1 min gesture drawings:



and some 2min gesture drawings:


plus a sketch that I did after playing some Mass Effect:


I can see certain things I like in the drawings and tonnes I don't but I get that's always gonna be the same :-/ Really enjoying just sitting down and drawing though :-) and the gesture stuff is fun and quick.

Will get some more stuff posted on here before today is out too....

[xiola]

Wow! Great start to your sketchbook, man!

Those first life drawings are really nicely done. You show form through primarily line and that's not easy! Also, those light/shadow studies are really great!

[zeezee1210]

Thanks for the encouragement Xiola, finding it a little hard in the motivation stakes at the moment and your comments help

Looooooooooooonnnng way to go....ah well I just got to keep going.

[xiola]

Aw, that's a shame... What's keeping you back, motivation-wise?

[zeezee1210]

I guess it's just sitting back and looking at what I've done and not being happy with it.....probably far too critical.

[donalfall]

Ah, Life Drawing classes.... (jealous). Good start! Those top few on brown paper with the measuring and what not are very good. I like your mangaish stuff too. The routine is very enviable, I'm impressed. Stick with it and you'll feel the improvement.

Keep on posting!

[xiola]

I hear you. It's been a long struggle for me with that. I'm particularly bad at taking compliments on my work because I can see all the flaws. That and sometimes I can be just plain old awkward. It helps to post it online, I've found, because you get real criticisms and helpful words, not just "It's PRETTY!"

I guess I haven't seen much of your work so far, but from what I can see from what you've posted, you've got an great start going. Don't get too hard on yourself, comparing yourself to others and stuff. That just digs you down deeper into your hole. You've got to make art and study because *YOU* enjoy doing those things and you want to improve. You have set yourself a highly regimented schedule to study, so this is clearly very important to you. Make yourself happy by doing something you love.

Here's some other advice, though you can take it or leave it, of course: I would advise staying clear of too much stylization too early on and this is coming from someone who began drawing because she loved manga and anime. Stylization comes after you've learned your stuff. You know the old saying "You can't break the rules until you know the rules."? It's like that. Plus, you're going to find that you have to *unlearn* a whoooole slew of awful habits that you've picked up from stylizing to early. Draw from life as much as possible. Look at how light hits, how shadows are created, look at reflections of colour and light from one object to another. Look around at the other sketchbooks posted here. I spent YEARS lurking before I ever had the balls to post anything here. I spent that time learning from others. Looking at how they build things, tone things, form things.

Wow, this got really long. Basically, chin up! You're only going to improve from here, and you're already doing well!

[zeezee1210]

Xiola: I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to make your comments and you certainly make a lot of sense. Completely agree about the not stylising too early, had never really thought about it much but will try and draw from life as much as possible to avoid it. Will take definitely your advice and try not to be so hard on myself.

Thanks again

[zeezee1210]

Sorry I missed a post yesterday, but I promise I did do some drawing. It's going alright actually I'm definitely sitting down and at least doing some drawing everyday which is an improvement Also if I don't manage to post on a particular day I'll just build up a pile of sketches for the next time I do post.

This one is some basic heads from Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy - I like some of his stuff and have taken on board your comments to simplify stuff (back to basics):


I don't really like these at all but everything get's posted right? They're drawn from Posemaniacs.com my real aim was to draw fast and be more confident in line work:



Better keep going...

[Kfeeras]

don't waste your time with rendering shadows and values, concentrate on the linework at this early stage. better do 5 linedrawings than one rendered. draw as much from life as possible. and no need to excuse to us when you miss a day, only excuse to yourself ;-) have fun

[zeezee1210]

Kfeeras: Thanks for the tips I think you're right I don't want to try and go too fast missing out good line work and failing at tone. Although I do find myself slipping off and trying it anyway lol *more line drawings! needed though.* Feel like I do have to excuse myself when I've not done something I said I would but you're right, I'll excuse myself this once.

Here's a study of Leonardo Da Vinci's skull drawing. It's not finished yet but I really like the way he adds tone through diagonal lines in the same direction. Plus skulls are cool!:


Time to crack on and get it finished then maybe another Da Vinci study?

[zeezee1210]

I've been a bit snowed under at the moment but the weekend will be bringing lots of drawing and uploading

[zeezee1210]

Ok so here goes putting up some of the sketches I did this weekend...

Took the skull from a previous post a little bit further, not totally finished but hey I'm sure I'll get around to it at some point:


I decided to sketch some stuff that was laying around so some cartoons, some manga, Jackie Chan, a computer mouse and a coffee cup:
(I might add that Jackie Chan himself wasn't just laying around my room...that would be both cool and weird.)





Here are some "coffee shop" sketches I did this weekend, boy is sketching hard in there. Everyone is moving so capturing someone accurately is REALLY hard. I think I need to get better at drawing faster? and It's also hard to do it without people looking at you thinking "is that weirdo drawing me?" Any tips?
Saying all that though I know I didn't have enough time to make them accurate but the likeness was kind of there and I found it fun




I'm beginning to really enjoy just sitting down and sketching now. I think it's because I'm starting to not be as critical before hand and thinking "just sit down and do it" when I start I'm fine I can't stop!