Kompound's sketchbook - my journey

[kompound]

Hi

I have just started drawing, but would love to get to a high level. I grew up on all the old school adventure games and have always admired the quirky / whimsical background art in the games like Monkey Island, Day of the tentacle etc. Yes the curly clouds!

I'm new to drawing so any help / tips / encouragement would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Star Eater]

I'll definitely be watching. Going to expect you to fill this up!

[kompound]

Here is a vase

Outline + press too hard = white lines

Is smudging to blend considered cheating, just felt really bad when doing it??

[Star Eater]

Well, I personally would not recommend it.

If you want to achieve fantastic results with blending pencils, you need a tortillon. They are available at all decent art stores and failing that, you can make one yourself.

How to make your own tortillon

For great looking blending, be sure to keep all the shading lines controlled and work in a gradient from light to dark with your pencil by adding pressure. Then blend with your tortillon. I can promise you, the results from tortillon blending are pretty exciting.

I use 6bs and 8bs to shade.

Nice sketch! Keep it up.

[thesadpencil]

keep up with all those studies. they will pay off in the future. simple way to think about it is the more your practice the better you will get

[Jansi]

Hello, darling!

I say - a really good start, and well done for doing it! Great to see already a variety of medium - pretty impressive, actually.
Second comment: the old Monkey Island was a-mazing!

Now for the drawings :-) I think smudging can be useful, but agree with the earlier comment. My own contribution to that is that you also need to try to visibly structure your drawings - confront that structure first (line, stand back, correct, repeat), until it's perfect, then lay down your darkest areas (just outline them roughly, if you like) and then begin to shade. That way you will be dealing with the whole process, staring it squarely in the eye (also, then your drawings won't lean to the right)

Keep up the good work!
Warmest wishes,

Ana

[JohnsonTing]

A very good start. Keep it up kompound!

[kompound]

Thank you everyone for your comments, I wish I saw this post before I went to my local art shop this morning! I would have got a tortillon. The biggest problem I have at the moment is finding things to draw? Do you think I should just try and jump straight into figure drawing or try to 'do a bit of everything?'

Here's one I just finished, I may try and paint it later. In the piece below I struggled and got a bit frustrated, I can 'see' the highlights, mid-tones and shadows quite clearly actually but I just can't get them onto paper, is this just a matter of practice? Maybe I'm just rushing it, not sure, it took me about 1 hour to do this. Also, NO finger blending took place this time.

It kinda looks like a horse coming out from a rock which is quite cool, although I didn't mean for that!

p.s. am I allowed to post the ref pictures here?

[kompound]

And here is the painted version, only my second painting on the Wacom bamboo. Are the nibs supposed to be wearing down like this... It's nearly gone already after 2 paintings!!?

[kompound]

Red pepper sketch from life. Probably the best drawing I have ever done lol

Problem I had with this one, I was shading with a 6B but when I went to remove some white for highlights etc it smeared like crazy. Is there some kind of super eraser I don't know about? There are a few areas where I wanted to remove some black but I couldn't so I left it as didn't want to ruin it.

I have 2 erasers, one is a kneaded eraser (putty?), which I have no idea how to use and the second is a plain eraser purchased in an art store, this is the one that smears.

[kmoeini]

Hi Kompound,

You are improving dramatically with each drawing! Excellent job on the pepper. I use a kneaded eraser myself. I take a small piece, and shape it into what I need to cut out the light shapes in my drawing.

[kompound]

Thanks kmoeini!!

Here is the pepper painted

[kompound]

Ok, I'm going to have a go at drawing Tony Montana from Scarface (picture below).

This is where it all goes horribly wrong... Either way it will be a good reference for when I re-draw again in a few months.

Watch this space.

[Star Eater]

Pacino has a great face to draw, look forward to seeing that.

[kompound]

hmm, think I'll stick to the fruit for now

Literally looks nothing like him! At least I had a go haha. Watch this space, I'll re-draw him one day!