Ba5u's Sketchbook (learning to draw)

**Ba5u** · May 25th, 2011, 07:30 AM

Hey everyone,
I've been lurking around this website for ages and never had the heart to open up my own sketchbook.

I'm 21, from Switzerland and I finally want to become a better artist.
I've been drawing for about 6 years, but never did it really seriously. Now I want to change that and draw at least something every day.
My goal is to get into the only acadamy in switzerland in which you can study illustration.

I'm happy about every comment. Of course, critique is always welcome.
__________________

Here are some loomis studys I did yesterday.

Edit:
Uploaded an older picture of mine, just to have another thumbnail for the thread ^^

**Ba5u** · May 25th, 2011, 12:31 PM

Some stuff I did today.
First some more Loomis heads. Somehow I don't really get how to draw a head when it looks up or down, so I could need some help there :3

I also tried to do some 60 sec and 10 sec poses from posemaniacs. Didn't really go well

And I tried to do a livedrawing of my 'adenium obesum' (don't know the english name)

**Ba5u** · May 26th, 2011, 08:13 AM

Here are some Vilppu Studies I did today.
Don't really know if I'm doing it right o.o

**kmoeini** · May 26th, 2011, 08:21 AM

Hi Ba5u, this is a great start to your sketchbook. That last batch looks great!

**wooden mango** · May 26th, 2011, 08:30 AM

You're off to a great start! I see you are using posemaniacs, I started with that one too and now I've switched to Pixelovely and drawing script way better because they actually have real people.

Keep up the hard work!

**Ba5u** · May 26th, 2011, 11:35 AM

Here are some more studies I did today. This time from pixelovely, thanks to wooden mango.

**luxaeterna** · May 26th, 2011, 11:52 AM

Hallo Nachbarin! ^^ (wohne ganz nah an der Grenze)

Deine Zeichnungen haben schon richtig viel Potential, vorallem die letzten Life Studies sehen richtig gut aus. Da muss ich selbst noch kräftig üben, bevor ich so weit bin..

Hast du dir auch das Bridgman-Buch besorgt? Das finde extrem hilfreich.

LG

**Ba5u** · May 27th, 2011, 11:25 AM

Today, I was really motivated to draw ^^
I did a 1 hour session with pixelovely. For the 'fat angel' I had 30 min time and for the other 2 poses 10/5 min.
I really like how the angel turned out, though the scan doesn't look that great.

After that I tried to do a selfportrait, which didn't really come out that good...

And then I made my first photostudy. Was quite hard to do and I didn't know how to go on with it... Maybe I should have made everything smoother.

**Ba5u** · May 28th, 2011, 07:44 AM

And again some stuff from pixelovely. Another one hour session.
I need to improve a lot more, so I'll have to draw a lot more XD

I absolutely love to listen to Bobby Chiu while drawing, he's such a great motivation.

#1 One minute pose
Don't really like that one...

#2 Six min

#3 Ten min

#4 Twenty min
Really like how this one turned out. I'd actually have had 30 minutes time for this one, but was somehow scared to ruin it when adding shadows...

**Ba5u** · May 28th, 2011, 09:42 AM

My eyes are hurting x.x

I wanted to draw some animals XD
I think the horse and the bird turned out ok, but I don't like the tiger at all...

Then I didn't know what else to draw and just took an apple and started to study that :3
Does somebody have an idea what else I should study or work on?

Ba5u

**CakeFACE** · May 28th, 2011, 02:40 PM

Lovely work

Your work has really improved since your first post. Try doing some facial sketches, and don't be afraid to work for longer than 30 minutes

**Ba5u** · May 29th, 2011, 07:24 AM

@ CakeFACE: Thank you, I'll try :3

Here are some Loomis studies I did yesterday evening. Oh man, I slept the whole morning today, although I wanted to start drawing early >.<

Somehow I'm a bit scared that when I'm always doing studies, I don't learn how to apply them in my own work. I mean, of course I try to not just copy stuff, but to analyze it. But somehow I feel that I can't remember the studies when trying to draw a pose from imagination...
Someone got a tip there?

**Riley Stark** · May 29th, 2011, 01:42 PM

There's some good looking studies going on here. (Some of the figures in post #9 look particularly nice.) You can definitely see improvement as you scroll down this first page -- keep up the good work! ^_^

**Ba5u** · May 30th, 2011, 08:14 AM

Hey there!
Today it was really hard to start drawing, cause I don't know if I'm doing the whole thing right...
I want to improve as fast as possible, so that in a year I can go study illustration.

Working through Vilppus drawing manual:

**dan liimatta** · May 30th, 2011, 08:26 AM

"Somehow I'm a bit scared that when I'm always doing studies, I don't learn how to apply them in my own work. I mean, of course I try to not just copy stuff, but to analyze it. But somehow I feel that I can't remember the studies when trying to draw a pose from imagination..."

It takes time - and for me at least the first that comes is that I started to see what I did wrong - especially when I had done similar poses before in study. but as your memory/muscle-memory starts to build up it just slowly gets more accurate.

I'd to still life (I see you have some) as well to improve shading, eye to hand coordination and just quality of line when you don't have to care as much about the complexities of the human body.

Or when you still feel you can't hit the lines you want - trying to figure out anything else at the same time can be a pain.

Also just look at the quality of line from the early drawings to the later - it's vastly improved as you are coming to terms with how the muscles in your arm can work with you without just going spastic ~

Anyway keep working it - and feel free to ask if you have issues (I'm hardly drawing/painting royalty, but I'll help if I can).
shape well there.
Don't rush it - just keep doing studies and imaginative pieces and you'll see it being fused over time. patience is probably one of the more important talents when it comes to any craft

**Butterknife** · May 30th, 2011, 08:14 PM

Wowsers, I loved your vilppu sketches

. That guy impressed the hell out of me, and also inspired me to want to look into his drawing manual as well. I'd tried some practice with it too, and it looks like you're getting a lot better with your gesture sketches. They all looked so nice to me

.

And I also totally recognize what you mean about the Loomis charts, and not feeling like you can commit it all to memory.. I'd felt that way too, and I'm still nowhere near being able to fully comprehend proportion. But I feel like it all just starts to check in the more that you draw.. I would refer back to that chart sometimes when I drew a figure or something, then it started to stick in on it's own. The little parts to look for that stick out and keep your attention on the proportions.

And your sketches are clearly getting a lot better, that last update was crazily good to me

! It also looks like you're just putting in a ton of effort too, so keep up with it

. You'll definitely get into your illustration course if you keep up this kind of work ethic.

**Ba5u** · May 31st, 2011, 11:47 AM

@ dan liimatta:
Thank you so much for the comment!
My problem just is, that I don't really like to draw something from imagination, cause I know it will come out bad. Wrong attitude, I know ^^'
I should just start drawing something.
But somehow I can't really visualise ideas, I never know what pose to draw etc...

@Butterknife:
thanks for your kind words.
I'll definitely try to update as often as I do now :3
__________

More Vilppu studies. I actually skipped a chapter, cause I so don't like drawing boxes x.x

**Ba5u** · June 1st, 2011, 04:29 AM

Here's my first photostudy of a face.
Man, that was really hard x.x
I know it really is not that good, the colors are bad, the proportions are not right etc, but I learned a lot.
Used a movie screencap to do it, but I don't think someone's gonna recognize her, cause my study is not really accurate XD

**yogeshj25** · June 1st, 2011, 04:23 PM

hey Ba5u! congrats on the new sketchbook. I must tell you that you improved soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much in such a short time span! I love the effort your putting into your drawings! you got greatness coming ahead of you! Well we can already see it happening : D cheers!

**Ba5u** · June 2nd, 2011, 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by yogeshj25

hey Ba5u! congrats on the new sketchbook. I must tell you that you improved soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much in such a short time span! I love the effort your putting into your drawings! you got greatness coming ahead of you! Well we can already see it happening : D cheers!

you really think I improved?
thank you so much, that really motivates me :3

**Ba5u** · June 3rd, 2011, 03:13 PM

So sorry for not updating yesterday!
I had no time to scan any stuff, so here is it now.

My copy of Bridgman finally arrived, I did some studies but felt more comfortable with vilppu, so I did more of those. I think I'm gonna read Bridgman first, before starting to draw from it...

I also got the book: Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists
Just to also don't forget the fun drawing is :3
The two pages of my sketchbook are inspired by this book. I normally don't draw like that, but it was really fun to do ^^

**Ba5u** · June 5th, 2011, 07:47 AM

Man, I hate it when new computers don't accept old scanners >.<
So frustrating!
After about 4 hours of trying to make it work, I decided to install a different, much older scanner, which finally is working.

So here's the stuff from yesterday.
Please somebody kick my ass, so I'm a bit more motivated to draw! XD

**Ba5u** · June 6th, 2011, 12:14 PM

hmm, I don't really seem to improve x.x
I think I should do more from imagination, but that's so hard >.<

**Ba5u** · June 9th, 2011, 10:46 AM

Sorry for not posting the last two days. I had some health problems >.<

I finally tried out corel painter and i have to say that it's really great! But I have to get used to the interface first and will probably read some tutorials.

That here is my first try with it, inspired by andrew jones.
(hate the nose...)

**Ba5u** · November 8th, 2011, 09:47 AM

Finally something new

Thanks for taking a look!

**Ba5u** · November 10th, 2011, 12:28 PM

Trying to draw like Bob Kato, which is really fun xD
Hope, you like it!

Ba5u

**Ba5u** · November 17th, 2011, 10:29 AM

Yes, I'm back to drawing every day!
Here are some things I did the past few days.

The first two are some modelstudies which I really liked to draw.
The last sheet is something like a character study.
I had the idea to make a childrens book or some kind of little story with illustrations.
Cause I want to apply again at the artschool next year and have to prodcuce some showable things.
I would really be happy if someone could give me advice in what to study more

Ba5u

**Ba5u** · November 19th, 2011, 10:46 AM

Did a 30 min Session at:
http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php

**Ba5u** · November 19th, 2011, 12:01 PM

Something new again.
Tried to make a collage

Critique is very much appreciated ^^

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