David Keen's Sketchbook

[David Keen]

Hi guys,

I'm aiming for this to be my regular place to post a selection of sketches from what I'm doing at University and for personal projects. Any and all crits are welcome and suggestions for artists to look to for inspiration are always appreciated.

[Lux_Aeterna]

really pretty works, i love the light reflections in the first image and also your hand studies are pretty cool
what media did you use? it looks like ink to me but maybe it is pencilwork which just looks really strong ^^

[David Keen]

Hi Lux,

Thanks for the comments! Most of of those drawings are done in willow charcoal with a little charcoal pencil and conté here and there, but I do like to play with ink as well.

[David Keen]

I'm working on a portraiture project for my human figure class at Uni and have always heard that self portraits are a great way to improve. With this in mind I'll be trying to add a few of these with every post for a while. Some line quality has been lost on the pencil images which is a bummer, anyone have any recommendations for standard scanner settings for line work?

[adelenta]

Really great studies you have here. Man oh man you draw hands well and the portraits looking awesom too. Definitely looking forward to more works from you!

[David Keen]

@adelenta Thanks for the feedback! Hands have always been really tough for me so I'm trying to get a little more familiar with them, it's a slow burn.

These are some work I did for last week's Chow, the topic was a Japanese Mecha Pilot. Unfortunately I didn't get anywhere near finishing but still enjoyed mucking around with the concept.

Hopefully this week work and uni aren't going to dominate my world!

[David Keen]

I'm a little overdue for this update. Uni has been keeping me pretty busy and any spare time has been spent on the Chow topics.

Sorry for the poor quality of these photo's, all these pieces are between A2 and A0 paper size and so I'm forced to use crappy lighting and my phone camera.

Any crits are as usual more than welcome!



Referenced from Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life.


Referenced from David Finch's Dynamic Figure Drawing DVD


Referenced from Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life.




This one is in progress at the moment, I'll upload a finished image soon.








I'm working on this for Chow, the topic this week is an image inspired by a chess piece.
I hope I finally get one done in time!

[Thyname]

Cool stuff man. I dig your stuff where you use just enough lines/marks, instead of just making more. Your style works really well for your old dude.

Keep it up man
-e

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Man, Thanks for stopping by my SB. It's good to make connections with other artists and if we got nothing else out of TAD Explore than that is ok. I'm not sure if I should post my responses to your questions here or back in my SB so instead, I'll just comment on your work and we can keep the dialogue somewhat organized. I'm seeing some good work and progress here. What I find immediately apparent is your individual feet studies are very loose and gestural yet that same treatment hasn't yet found its way into your posted figure work. You state that you are working from reference and that might be the difference. If you can find a way to maintain the energy from your studies into your figure's, I think you will find the results quite successful. I need to do more figure studies too as one can NEVER do enough.
Look forward to talking to you some more.

Cheers!

[David Keen]

I fell off the grid for a little bit with uni work and staying up all hours of the night for TAD's Explore program, but I'll be around a lot more for the next few months. I'm trying to get my hands on a friends camera to take some photo's of my recent work so a massive update should be incoming. Until then below is my predictably late entry for last week's Chow. Thanks for visiting!

[MrFrenik]

Hey, Ebersol, great SB start so far. I've noticed that in your figure drawings you have a great amount of stylized lines that draw me in quite a bit. Really enjoying the sketches so far.

[Jesus Food]

yeah great start to this sb, really dig ur linework and faces man, keep it up

[David Keen]

I managed to borrow a camera to take a few photo's but am now starting to question whether the point and shoot is much better than my iPhone. Regardless, below are a few of the pieces I completed for uni this semester. Feedback is greatly appreciated!

@MrFrenik: Thanks for having a look at my sketchbook!

@Jesus Food: Thank you for the kind words. There's some great stuff in your sketchbook, from my quick glance the other day. Such a huge amount of growth since you started it! I'll be sure drop past your SB and post something more specific soon.

[Overtoom]

Wow nice works! I really like all your combinations with material. And those hands grabbing a robe in the first pose, just wow man. just wow.

I assume those whites are pastel, but they look very sharp. Do you have something like a pastelpencil or how do you get those lines so sharp and edgy?

[Damien Levs]

Thanks for stopping by my thread. I really appreciate it when someone of your caliber gives me some support. Your work is really solid and I find it inspiring. I'm going to be subscribing to your thread. You have a really confident line in your work and that's something that I wish to develop.

Thanks again and all the best!

[MrFrenik]

Thanks for the post to my SB, Ebersol! And I don't know what you're talking about, you uploaded quite a bit that last time! Ha. Great stuff as usual, love the figure drawing stuff, man, especially the most sketchy ones (for some reason the sketchy stuff always impresses me the much; I think it's the ability to say a lot with very little that I like). Keep it up, sir. And I've subscribed to keep up with you.

[David Keen]

I'm working on a couple of drawings to be printed onto tote bags, here are some working sketches and the final drawing.

@Overtoom: Thanks so much for having a look at my work! I've done just about all the whites in chalk pastel working with the edge, it's definitely a constant battle to keep a sharp line.

@Damien: It was my pleasure to stop past your SB, it's all coming fast and furious and I'm looking forward to seeing new works! Thanks for subscribing.

@MrFrenik: Thank you for the support, I really appreciate it! I like working with a little more sketchy as well, but the siren's call of meticulousness tends to catch me. Looking forward to seeing some more work from you soon.

@myboy: Thanks for stopping by, all the best.

[Alrap]

Awesome lines

[Wheeljack18]

Hey Man,
Things are coming along here with a lot more work since I last checked in. The figure work is looking good. No crits here except keep up the pace. As for your recent Chow, I'd say he looks unfinished. It's tough to balance other commitments and get the Chow done on time eh? Anyways the main thing that stands out to me in that it is unclear what the garment is that he is wearing on his shoulders. Perhaps you had something planned for that but right now it looks like it is meant to be some sort of cloak.
Good Stuff!

[David Keen]

I've been getting ready for the Christmas present rush by doing a few little drawings to give as gifts. For some reason my aunts like collecting chicken statues so I've knocked together a few watercolour sketches.

@Alrap: Thanks for having a look at my SB, I love lines.

@Wheeljack: Thanks mate! It is really tough to get Chow's done on time, I seem to have some kind of mental block that stops me from finishing them. You were dead on with your crit, I'll try to get back to it and finish everything off. I'm heading over to check in on your stuff now.

[MrFrenik]

Ha, you and I have the same idea for christmas presents. I'm doing portraits, check out my WIP to give some crits for me.

I like the color and sketchiness for the chickens. Hopefully you are going to go with water color for the final image.

[Wheeljack18]

Alright man, can you say Ch0w?
Red Commander
Design the Red Commander

DEADLINE: SUNDAY 11th December 2011, 9PM GMT+1
Check your timezone!

Galactic war ravages throughout the space. With superadvanced technology, humankind has ventured far beyond the borders of our galaxy and in doing so, provoked horrible alien races into war. United under one flag, the Galactic Soviet Union masses it's enormous fleets of battleships to fight and conquer the hostile aliens, victory at any cost. The supreme commander of the imperial starfleet, The Red Commander, is standin on the bridge of the most enormous starship of the entire fleet, gazing in to the far distance. With cold eyes he prepares to pull the final, and hopeless attack on the overpowering enemy forces, wishing to end the war with one swift strike.


The Guidelines:

Can only be male
Theme and era is Sci-Fi
Pay extra attention to the character design, keep in mind everything said in the description and use it in the design
He is a commander of GALACTIC SOVIET UNION fleet, keep that in mind


I think this one is going to be a fun and I'm going to give it a shot this week. Are you in?

[MrFrenik]

Hey, thanks for the kinds words, Ebersol. Look forward to hearing/seeing more stuff from you soon.

[marc_redd]

This is ALL RAD! your life sketches are sick!!!

[David Keen]

I've spent 3 days this week labouring on building site. This has both given me a great level of respect for those that do that job full time and sadly limited my drawing time. Despite having less time I'm determined to finish Chow this week so will be getting truly stuck into that over the weekend. Here is a small wip for Chow and a few other portrait sketches that I've been working on.

@marc_redd: Thanks for the kind words mate! I'm looking forward to checking out your work.

[liquorbleu]

Absolutely gorgeous line work. You really have a way with drawing hands.

[Wheeljack18]

Good Stuff man, Who's the guy in the portrait on the bottom? Some of the portraits are off anatomically, which can be corrected with proper construction. I suggest that you spend less time on modeling the forms and more on structure and placement. Have you checked out Andrew Loomis's Drawing the head and Hands yet? Working construction isn't so bad once your body gets used to it. THe main thing is for you to work safe. I can't tell you how many close calls and freaky injuries I've seen or heard about and from my experience, Safety is the first thing to go out the window when the boss has a schedule to keep.

OK, Red Commander. That's it!?! Lol. My first thought is, DARTH VADER without the helmet. The bald guy in a suit and cape is just so Iconic. The trick will be for you to make it yours. Don't be afraid to push the design more and hack out more thumbnails to help you to wrap your brain around the character and who he is. The uniform and look will come after.
Have you reffed any Russian stuff? A good source for Military Ref is Militaryphotos.net and in the forums they have a couple of threads dedicated to just Russian stuff.
That's it for now, I've also posted up my comps in my thread. TTYL.

[David Keen]

Here is a little update for my Ch0w entry this week, i'll be going all night to get this one finished.

@Wheeljack: The bottom portrait is an old Golden Age of Hollywood actor Allan Hale, he was in heap of films with Errol Flynn back in the day. I've been looking at grabbing some more Loomis books, I'll keep an eye out for them. Now that you made the Darth Vader call I can't un-see that! My love of Star Wars just bubbles to the forefront whenever sci-fi is brought up as a topic. Thanks again for the militaryphotos.com link, it's been a really big help for building up the uniform. I'm gonna smash out a few thumbnails now and work on my pose for a bit, I just prefer to look at the character design a bit first and then build the image after that stuff is a little more settled in my mind. I'm loving your work so far mate, I'll post some stuff in your thread tonight.

I ended up really enjoying the construction work but the safety aspect did make me a little wary. All the old hands take so many risks but didn't seem phased that I wasn't willing to do the same crazy stuff.

[David Keen]

Here's the direction my Ch0w entry is starting to head for the final and a few pre-lim thumbs.

[chesser]

Feast for the eyes. Thanks.




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