bish0p2004's Sketchbook

[bish0p2004]

Thank you for checking out my sketchbook, prsnsweeney!

P Sage: Yeah, you're definitely right. I'm sketching it out again just to see if I can get it right this time. I think what turned me off of doing perspective on the original drawing was that I had watched Marshall Vandruffs Anatomy series and someone asked him about perspective lines. I'm not sure if it was the simple kind that you did, or the more complex grids, but he said something about it being over kill.

Looking back now, it may have just been the complex grid because Loomis does have this in his book.

Thanks again, man.

[bish0p2004]

Here's another landscape.

I think I'm getting better at capturing the depth...but the image still doesn't have that epic feeling that I'm going for. I would have liked to work on it some more, but it's more of a study than anything. Even more, I want to play with colors more in the future. One thing that's a recurring problem is putting details in mountains. Whenever I attempt this, it either comes out looking to messy, or too simple. I also think the buildings blend in with the background a little too much.

[bish0p2004]

Here are some quick sketches and doodles from this morning.

I realized yesterday that I haven't been sketching as much on my Wacom tablet and I'm still not as comfortable drawing on it as I am in my sketchbook. So, I'm going to try and do a few sketches in the morning, like I would my normal sketchbook.

I also haven't been focusing on figure drawing as much, or portraits as I've been doing a lot of landscape sketching...most of which are atrocious and I delete them when I get frustrated.

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Cool looking studies. Would like to see you do more facial studies though, could come in handy

-E

[bish0p2004]

Thanks for the response, mischievous.

You are definitely right and something I'm going to be doing.

[bish0p2004]

Here are some quick sketches from this morning. I did some facial studies last night while at work, and Bridgman was very useful. I did studies from some other books as well, but I think GB book was the best so far, which was surprising since his books haven't clicked with me yet (with the rest of the human body).

I only used his technique of drawing a cube, then the head inside of the cube once, but I love the way he draws the brow and connects the nose to it...very useful.

Also, a really quick landscape reference as I didn't have much time this morning....I really just wanted to play around with matching colors and figuring out how overcast skies affect the landscape colors. Like I said previously, my landscapes are crap (especially the quick ones), but I'm going to keep posting them just because.

Basically, what I'm trying to accomplish is something like this: http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...etch80Hill.jpg

It's by Andreas Rocha, and you can tell that by his brush strokes, he didn't spend very long on it, but it still looks really good. Every brush stroke seems like it serves a purpose. Any tips?

[Rafal Dorsz]

Hey.
I like how you're able to draw so many different kinds of faces. Mine would all look like one family.
I really like all the studies you have on previous pages. I especially liked the greyscale ones at first, but then there were some pretty awesome color studies too. There is quite a bit of a difference between those studies and your work from imagination, but I suppose if you just keep practicing, it'll get better too.
I don't think I saw paintings from life here, other than the one still life with a banana, and there's probably no better way to learn about color and light than by observing real stuff, so make sure you make time for some life paintings.
Great work so far, keep improving!

[prsnsweeney]

if you want the super epic scale on the enviros you have to use more hints at scale like more shrubery and tree shapes in the background or something and keep hitting the anatomy studies looking good so far i like the colore try to use more variation beteween warm and cool colors too

[thegrayslayer]

Some nice stuff coming through here - keep posting.

[bish0p2004]

Gildorek: Thank you and you are right about painting from life....I just haven't been doing enough of it. I draw from life everyday at work with pencil, but I rarely paint and work with color. I was actually thinking about the last night. I guess I've been procrastinating on it because I'd rather do it with traditional paints, but screw it...I'm going to start working on still-lifes and portraits more than imagination work for now.

prsnsweeney: Thank you again and thanks for the tips. I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding what you mean though when you say more variation between warm and cool colors though. Do you mean to just use more warms and more cool colors that match? I've been reading about color more often, but I guess not enough.

Thegrayslayer: Thank you for checking out my sketchbook!

Here's another self-portrait from this morning...I like it much better than my first attempt, but I did spend more time on it. I feel like it looks like me, but I don't know. I wanted to spend more time on it, working on the ears, the lips, the bathrobe, and removing the pencil marks, but I have to go to work...fucking work. I'll work on it some more....I knew something was off with my mouth and now I can see that I made it a little too big so I'll correct that tomorrow.

[CarmenJudy]

Nice work you have some good stuff in your sketchbook. Your portrait looks like a pretty good start. It might be interesting to see the photo you worked from for comparison. I also find likeness the most difficult thing to work out in a portrait. I think part of the improvement over your last portrait is the definition you put into the neck and the angel is more pleasing compositionally, in my opinion anyway.

[bish0p2004]

Carmenjudy: thanks for stopping by. I use a mirror for all of my self portraits so I don't have anything for comparison.

[prsnsweeney]

when i say variation between warm and cool i mean when you do a painting you tend do use colors from the color wheel that are all from the warm spectrum such as reds and yellows and magentas for example post 91, which looks really good but in the shadows of the mountains you could use some blues as well as the top edges of the sky. If you look at light when it bounces off of objects and hits other objects it reflects the color of the object the light is bouncing off of so when you have a yellow light hitting a green tree then your going to get some yellow green reflections with blue green shadows. Its not as simple as that theres a whole field of study that goes into but thats what im refering to when i say more variation of warm and cool colors. a good book on color is 'color and light' by james gurney its very helpfull. Nice job on the sp

[ji-li]

great sketchbook already can't wait to see more! Inspires me to keep on chugging so I can be better too!

[bish0p2004]

prsnsweeney: Thanks for that...makes a lot of sense. I tried to work on it some this morning by adding a little blue into the image, didn't come out the way I wanted, but I'll have to spend more time with it. I actually do have James Gurney's book on Color and Light, just haven't really sat down with it yet. Thanks again!

Ji-li: Thanks for checking out my sketchbook.

Well, people are telling me that the self portrait doesn't really look like me

It's mainly the eyes, so I'll have to work harder on getting them right in the future...I just need to keep practicing.

Anyways, here are a few sketches of my girlfriend from Monday (whose been generous enough to pose for me when I ask her to) and a few faces from imagination I worked on last night. The simple faces were done after looking at Jack Hamm's anatomy book where he uses a flat pencil to draw the faces. I tried to mimic that style, but I'm not satisfied with the outcome. I want to get better at drawing more loosely.

Also, a vase still life that I worked on this morning....that I'm not satisfied with either. The most difficult part is getting the damn symmetry correct and I failed miserably...but it's the start of a long learning process and it was fun.

[LadyAtuna]

You're awesome O___o
I like the still life

[bish0p2004]

LadyATuna: Thank you for checking out my SB!

Here are some gesture drawings from this morning. The first two are from ref and the last from imagination.

My figures have felt stiff, so I wanted to loosen up a little bit. I also learned that I was going about the basic structure the wrong way, so I want to train myself to start with the correct fundamentals.

Edit: And a really quick still life before work...I should have did this first, hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow.

[Gridur]

Great SB! Got some real goldies here! Don't have any critz at the moment, pretty fresh on CA.org again but I'll follow the thread and hopefully I'll be able to give you some good input in the future! Keep it up!

[demonaura666]

you make me wanna pactice more i love your studies they are wonderfully rendered

[bish0p2004]

Thank you Gridur and demonaura!

There's just not enough time in the day. I finally got around to attempting to paint a real sculpture from life. My mom has a collection of Thomas Blackshear sculptures and I want to paint them all.

This one is going to take some time, but I have to move the statue so that it doesn't break and it's going to be difficult getting it back to the way it was. If I can't get it back, then I'll just start a new one on my off days so I'll have the entire day.

The pose is not perfect, but the gesture studies have been helping a lot. The most difficult part so far has been her stomach. I've also been using a lot of brownish gray colors for my backgrounds, I'm going to have to break that habit.

[in2eternity]

Very nice SB here, I like how you progressing! Just continue to do such great work)

[bish0p2004]

in2eternity: thank you. haha I wish I could see the progression. I do feel more comfortable drawing digitally, and I can see the difference between the drawings that I've rushed through, and ones that I've spent time on; but as for skill, I don't see the progress yet. Maybe a few years from now I'll be able to tell.

Anyways, just my mini rant...thank you so much for checking out my sketchbook. I will return the favor.

[prsnsweeney]

i like the vase still life keep doin those studies

[wilkerson]

Hey thanks for your input in my thread. I think the studies are worthwhile, maybe do some more serious landscape studies too if you would like.
I don't know what else to say so keep on...

[bish0p2004]

Thanks, prsnsweeney.

Everything is looking crappy today, from the studies to my rendering style which I'm starting to hate.

The latest still life is proving to be quite difficult to render and I'm not sure what the problem is. I know it's a more complex study, but I was sure I would start getting it by now.

I'm missing something but I'm not sure what. Maybe I just really need to sit down and read James Gurney's Color and Light while coloring. It's very different studying color compared to studying the anatomy of an object as there doesn't seem to be a systematic approach (especially in Gurney's book) to it...but I guess that it's because it's a more complex subject.

In this still life, I forgot to add cool colors to the shadows, but that's because I didn't see any (like blue for instance) while looking at the statue. Is it something that's just there? I did go back and did a multiply layer of blue and red which made the rendering pop more, but still something is missing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated it.

Edit: I think I'm just going to go back to something simple for now like cups and bowls or something and in a 5 months to a year, revisit the statue.

[bish0p2004]

Here are two still life from yesterday and today. I didn't like the first one I did yesterday (the two onions), so I decided to redo it today, just using one onion instead. I like the outcome better....except the cloth I had covering the table, but my main focus was the onion. Looking at it on here, the onion doesn't feel like it's grounded...it seems to almost be floating, I think I the perspective of the shadow is off.

[Black Spot]

Lovely mix of studies in your SB. Keep them coming.

[bish0p2004]

Blackspot: Thank you for checking out my sketchbook

Here is another 40 minute speed painting from this morning before work, because I don't want to neglect imagination work.

I've always had trouble drawing and painting without having direction and just throwing colors down, then making something out of it. So, this was a bit of a test for me. I would like to spend more time on a similar drawing in the future.

[p sage]

Whoa, haven't been in here in a while. You're starting some tough studies, which is great.

The self portrait is well done... maybe find some highlights to pick out on the edge of your nose, the eyeball, your chin, part of the forehead, etc.

Think about firm/hard/soft/lost edges when you do these speedpaints. Hard edges are for hard forms; softer edges (like edges that aren't really there, aka "rounded" edges) should be done with softer brushes (usually). The rule of thumb (which can be broken sometimes) is to use brushes that conform to the edges like that.

The Windmill Principle by James Gurney (searchable on Google) is a great thing to study as well; it goes hand in hand with edgework.

Good work, and let's see the Apache Chief sometime soon? Thanks.

[prsnsweeney]

i like the direction the statue was headed in i think if you just study your subjuct and line up anchor points with other anchor points to make sure every thing is the right size and proportion and then just studie the object without worrying about actually painting just stare at it you might see things that you didnt see befor or negative shapes will pop out that you never noticed. I really like the onions a lot makes me want to do still lifes and i hate doing still lifes. keep up the hard work