Walking the Winding Road...Daily Sketches

[RedOwl]

Please go to last page for most recent work!

Hello everyone, My name is Natalie, and I'm walking the winding road of becoming a better artist. A little about me: I'm 21, a recent graduate with a BA in philosophy/minor in English. I've worked on a few game projects, but I still have a long way to go!

Last week I decided to draw for at least an hour every day. This thread will mainly be a place to dump those daily sketches (and hopefully get some feedback on how they're looking).

EDIT: put all the art in this post in post #3, so I can easily change the thumbnail.

[RedOwl]

A few more, mainly from yesterday, plus a series of conte still-lifes from last semester:

[RedOwl]

Sketching my cat today. I started from the top and went down - I think they got progressively better, ending up with the bottom right. I might do more of these tomorrow.

EDIT: added most of the things from the first post.

[RedOwl]

Some gesture sketches of my cats from today, plus a "finished" piece: an anime-style elf girl (Kairin, Animesuki's mascot).

It's hard drawing my cats - they move so often! But it's rewarding if I can just get the feel of the gesture correct.

[TrevorGuitar]

The very first picture is really appealing Natalie. I was drawn to your sketchbook from the forum from it, then I noticed you were the very same girl who commented on mine! Nice work!

[RedOwl]

Thanks, TrevorGuitar! I appreciate the comment.

[RedOwl]

A few things from today: a hand, plus the crank on an outdoor umbrella (random!). A few pages of gesture sketches (there were more...but they were all kind a bad, so...). And, sketches of my feet. I felt a little rusty today overall...perhaps tomorrow will be a better drawing day.

[RedOwl]

A couple face studies for today. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

I feel like the perspective was a little strange, on both of them (in some places more than others). Any C&C would be awesome!!

Reference pics are:Here and Here (first one on the left).

[Alex Eh]

Hey RedOwl, I think you are doing the right things in order to get better, drawing for at least 1 hour a day is a great habit to get into Love the drawings of your cat!

Take a look at andrew loomis' book on heads and his book on figures, you can find a pdf with a google search. I think it will help understanding some basic construction better. The girl in the refs is very pretty ill do some studies of her too.

[RedOwl]

Thanks for stopping by, NiaLain! And thanks for the comments. I'll definitely take a look at the Loomis book. By the way, there's a LOT more shots of that girl in the refs if you look at this page, and then select "photoset 020." Happy sketching!

[Alex Eh]

Aww your comment was so good in my sketchbook I wish I had something more indepth to say but I don't at this time D: I do like how the image your working on actually has a nice finished vibe to it, just keep working on your fundamentals is all I have to say.

Maybe start tossing in some painting into the mix, digital or what ever. A method my friend introduced me to while ago was the "poster study"
http://www.tonyryder.com/demo/value_..._slideshow.htm

Break what you see down into really basic patches of color and then move into the details.

Thanks for the link!

[RedOwl]

Here are a few things from the past 2 days: some more quick sketches of cats (30 seconds - 2 min) from life. Also, a few thumbnail ideas for the EOW this week. Not sure if I'll go anywhere with them, though. The second one is kind of hard to make out, but it's supposed to be a handful of makeshift shelters made of the scraps of a highly advanced civilization. In the foreground is a robot acting as a support for a beam, it's head cast aside and lying on the ground in front of it.

Any C&C would be awesome!

[Alex Eh]

Nice update. I feel the last two have the more potential of the three, you just need to figure out some more thumbnails though.

Think about varying the sizes of the shapes more, everything falling into a similar size with all three.

[RedOwl]

NiaLain: thanks for the feedback on the thumbnails. I'm probably not going to progress with that though - too many other things to think about.

Here are some more gesture drawings from today: animals from here: http://www.pixelovely.com/tools/index.html, people from posemaniacs.com. Animals were 2 minutes each, the people 1 minute each. Maybe I'm getting a little better at gesture drawings? Maybe??

hopefully I'll get some digital painting in later today...

[RedOwl]

Quick digital sketch (from photo). Trying to work out a good method for color. I'm not a big fan of this method. I think I'll try a different one next time.

[Alex Eh]

Keep up the painting studies! Color/value and stuff is so hard! With color you have so much to consider o_o
For quick gestures like that it's usually best to just focus on using very few lines to describe the feel and movement of things.

Anyways keep it up =)

[RedOwl]

Random shapes exercise, inspired by AustenFM. It's good to take a little break from observational work.

What's going on here? That's what I wanna know - lol. But in all seriousness, a few descriptions of the 2nd page...

1. anklet tool belt
2. grumpy flower guy
3. star/moon gal
4. goatee fellow
5. (upside down) loop-horn deer
6. 3-toed claw
7. (upside down) mismatched shoes and bells
8. snooty 17th-century wig guy
9. deep sea critter
10. swallow-ish bird?

Well, that was fun. Now, some studies...

[hala3227]

nice loose strokes.
but I think some are a little too hasty. maybe spend a little more time on some of them will help you analyze deeper and understand more :>

[RedOwl]

Hala, thanks for stopping by! Yep, sometimes I get messy - I've been working on being more careful (when appropriate).

Here's a page of quick car sketches from yesterday (gathering inspiration for my sci-fi project), and a longer still-life study from today.

[Masayasu]

Just wanted to say that I like your sketchbook so far. I think it is great that you are balancing real-life drawings with anime/manga. Cool studies as well... Well, take care, and keep posting!

[Rhubix]

Fun stuff, lots of variet!
I like your random shape game, those are always fun!

[RedOwl]

Masayasu: thanks! Yea, balance is important. And drawing from life is a great way to improve anime style stuff too, I've found.

Rhubix: thank you!

Here's a few more things from today: some perspective refreshers, a few heads/spheres Loomis style, and some sci-fi brainstorming. Hehe, I like the cute little bear cub head (even though I was trying to make a cat at the beginning. lol)

[Conniekat8]

Very nice work, keep it coming

[Alex Eh]

Nothing much to say here, just dropping off my support, keep up the good work

[RedOwl]

NiaLain: Thanks for stopping by!

Here's a few things from yesterday and today: two pages of gestures, and another sci-fi brainstorming sketch. Hmm, I definitely need to practice more circles in perspective...

C&C are greatly appreciated!

[RedOwl]

Here are a few gesture drawings of animals. I've been using pixelovely's drawing tools (here).

[RedOwl]

A color study for today. Took about 3-4 hours...and still not very good. Whew. I really need practice with color.

Oh, in case you're wondering what's wrong with her hair color, I intentionally changed it to a greenish black, because I thought the original was boring.

Comments are warmly welcomed!

[Alex Eh]

Well the hair in yours in nicer hah, black sucks. You did pretty good on the values! I think you could of pushed the lighter values a little more but I think the darks are great. Hmm I should do some drawing too, I think it's good that your mixing in both. Perhaps do some longer drawing studies? Not necessarily shading but just spending time on getting the construction really spot on. bah I disappeared for a few days looking forward to more from you.

[RedOwl]

NiaLain, thank you for the comment! You're right, I should definitely get some longer drawing studies under my belt soon...

Anyways, here are a few quick sketches from earlier - studies of some skyscrapers and other sci-fi-esque structures. I also did a compilation scene, but it was so bad I'm not gonna post it

[RedOwl]

Here is something I have been working on on and off for the past week. Couldn't show it until today because it was a surprise birthday gift for my husband.

Here's the image, and closeups of the cat girls (who are based on my actual cats). The girl and guy are loosely based on me and my husband. Really bad likenesses, though.

C&C are appreciated!