Sketchbook of the Young Man as an Artist

[Drex]

I've decided it's finally time I bore my soul to an artistic community. I'll start with a project I am handing in for 2D Design this week. Balance and unity studies with simple shapes. Once I get some sleep I shall upload today's perspective studies as well.

[Kiera]

Yes, please, show some more work - the two pictures you uploaded show a lot of potential for a kickass sketchbook thread.

[Drex]

Kiera: Thank you for the encouraging words! It means so much.

I hate to follow up the first post with some boring perspective studies, but hey, where would we be without perspective? I feel like the bottles one is pretty solid. The boxes need a little work but I had to finish part of it after class and I'm not entirely confident with my ability to improvise based on the horizon line alone yet.

Also added a small drawing I did in Alchemy to experiment with text design.

[Drex]

Wow. Right after I made those first few posts I proceeded to have a week so busy I had no energy to draw. I think I've made up for it with some of the work I did over the weekend and today. So without further ado, some recent sketches and a design project.

Taking a look at all these works, I personally notice that I probably need to start working on larger pieces over small, worthless sketches more. Oh no, effort!

[Drex]

Just a painting in gouache I did for school this time around. Can you tell I watched Hugo the night before I did the sketch?

This is probably the first real painting I've done in years. I'm not a huge fan of this paint. I feel like it dries too fast and it's a little too easy to add too much water and have to start mixing all over again. Now I'll have to do another painting in color in two weeks, I hope it goes better.

[Drex]

Digital painting experiments in Photoshop. The anatomy is pretty messed up but it was all from imagination. I neglected adding highlights unfortunately.

[zathraya]

Hey thanks for checking out my SB! Your tip will come in handy for sure. Thanks!

Yours is looking really nice. I love the simplness of most of these but the story for them comes across well. The perspective studies are going well I believe. I'd really love to see more paintings (like the one above as well) they look nice but there's not many of them. Keep it up!

[Drex]

zathraya: Thanks for checking out my SB and the feedback! I'm really happy to hear that I seem to be conveying the story of my pictures somewhat effectively. I've found this skill much harder and nebulous to hone than any of the mechanical aspects of drawing itself (but of course they help!) I agree I must paint more. I find I'm having a little trouble sticking it out for long lengths of time to finish things, probably from a lack of confidence. I'm working in my spare time to improve this and I think it's paying off.

An unfinished sketch/painting for now. Studying value is slowly showing me what the color in painting is really all about. I can also see I'm getting much better with composition. Art is so addictive; I love learning!

[Drex]

The art pen for the Intuos3 is definitely worth it. So much lighter, you can hold it at the end and use your arm to draw, even on a smaller active area. A scratchy drawing and a painting for design class will do for my post tonight. Sorry for the crappy cell phone photo of the painting, I forgot to make a scan before I handed it in. It looks a lot more even and less saturated in person.

[JakehC]

interesting stuff dude.

[Drex]

Aryeh: Thanks for stopping by!

First painting was a design assignment on color schemes. I wasn't thrilled with how dull the colors came out in reality, but I do like the composition. I think I'm making a lot of progress when it comes to palettes on my own as well.

I'm supposed to be doing sketches for my final but I'm so lost. It will be an accordion book to learn how to convey motion and sequence. I still have NO IDEA what I even want to make it about, oh dear.

[Drex]

Just a bunch of photoshop sketches tonight. Mostly abstract design sketches.

[zathraya]

Hey Drex! Wow I'm seeing improvement since I was last here. I really enjoy the fish thing from yesterday. The color choice is attractive and the style is really cool.

haha I like the boggle eyed statue, it's a nice touch. The shading on the side of the face however seems a bit too dark compared to the rest of the face. Even with a sharp light I don't believe it would be that dark... Kinda looks like hair/beard. But I really do love the personal touches and style of this.

As for the abstract stuff, I enjoy it but I'm not sure how to critique it really. Sorry about that.

Keep them coming! It'd be nice to see some still life's from you though. They would really help with the values and lighting in your work.

[Drex]

zathraya: Thanks for the comment. I actually forgot I had left that shading on the side of his face. It was a remnant of a version where he had extremely googly eyes and the shading was supposed to represent a welt on his face from getting slapped. I'm glad you pointed it out, I think I'll probably go back in and fix it so it's more presentable and readable.
I'm glad you like the abstract stuff, no worries about critique. I kind of just like warming up with this sort of thing so it's not a big deal if there isn't much to say about them. They are quite fun to look at in the midst of a lot of representational work I find.
Lastly, still lifes! I know, I need to put way more time into that. When I think about doing a refined drawing with most dry media I feel like a cat thinking about getting into the bath tub. I hope I muster the strength to tackle this area head on in the near future. I do actually have quite a few from my drawing class this semester in my art bag that I keep meaning to get on here, but there's still not nearly enough to support my imaginative work yet. Thanks again for the critique!

A few things tonight. The lettering in the last picture was basically just an unrelated word that I added to break up the vertical dominance of the composition. I'm not quite as thrilled with this picture as I think I should be still though.

[Drex]

One for today.

[Drex]

Still lifes from drawing class that I finally got around to photographing.

[Drex]

Just some quick sketches from life for today. All done with fountain pens.

[Drex]

The last two days of work.

[Drex]

Past three days of work. I feel like I'm a little off my game with the sketches from town. Time I switch up my materials probably.

[FinalDay]

I really like your scenery drawings. Looking forward to seeing more of them.

[Drex]

FinalDay: Thanks! I think you will find this new post particularly pleasing.

I'm posting a few real drawings and paintings today. I realize that sometimes I avoid my own artistic development by only creating the most low effort sketches and convincing myself that that's where I'm at. WELL, if you only ever make art from where you're at, how do you ever move forward? How do you ever go over there to magical great artist land where your favorite painters live? The only way to get there is to continuously challenge yourself, that's all the other artists did.

It reminds me of the chicken crossing the road. He did it to get to the other side. It's the only reason that counts in the end; why ever do anything if it's not to get you to some point in the distance?