My journey to becoming a better artist

[ja1307]

Forgot to add these to the last post, little rough sketch studies for the last centaur drawing, first did a quick gesture of the overall design then quick musculature studies for the torso did not really help need to spend longer at the preparation stage on reflection. But its all good learning.

[dierat]

I think that centaur drawing looks pretty cool so far. It also sounds like a great exercise in terms of anatomical study. Break out that Hampton and do some studies on another piece of paper where you try to work out the anatomy based on the pose in your drawing and the information in your books. When you're pretty sure you've got it just the way you want it, go back to the original drawing and sketch in the solution you've come up with. After that, you probably want to do the same for the horse's legs which are looking kinda weird.

Also, do more studies from life! That cup and saucer in post #51 is a great start, but watch your structure - the whole thing is leaning to the right. Get the structure down, then when you think you have it, hold the drawing up to a mirror and see if the symmetry checks out before moving into value.

Keep it up!

[ja1307]

Thanks Dierat thats some great advice about doing some hampton studies based upon the torso, would never have thought of it but it makes a lot of sense. I agree i do need to work on my structure a lot more too. I will keep plugging away.

[ja1307]

Decided to render so,me of the torso of the centaur, pic started getting very muddy and dirty so think I will call it done

[nor]

Good job man!Keep drawing and you will lvl up in no time.Good luck!

[ja1307]

Good job man!Keep drawing and you will lvl up in no time.Good luck!

cheers, just out of curiosity how do the levels work??

[ja1307]

Quick update, first 4 pages are some imaginary figures, was trying to capture action and movement and use stick figures to think through my ideas.

The next pic is a life drawing of a stapler

The last pic is a photo ref study of an archer, was trying to practice simplifying real life faces as well as study a bit of the arm and torso.

[ja1307]

A quick muscle study from the imagination got lost with the lower legs and forearms.

[ja1307]

My really poor attempt at drawing a clothed figure from my imagination, he is meant to be in some kind of medieval like warrior with a animal fur cloak.

I really suck at coming up with design ideas for clothes, not sure if it's because I have not explored this area enough, but I see people coming out with so much crazy looking amour ect and I feel very very shit.

Of course I know life drawing is key to understand materials and the way they interact with the body, but i am a bit lost when it comes to designing clothing especially with details and patterns ect.

Not sure if its best to copy lots of other designs, do lots of photo ref studies of period costumes to try and build up my own mental library when it comes to clothing, or pick and idea and try and get photo refs to design around.

Anyway just another area on my very long list of things I am pretty shit at. And i used to think I was good at drawing lol

[ja1307]

One more to post before bed. Was determined that I MUST pull something half decent from my mind before bed and this is the result. He is a dragon warrior (with no face whats new) armour is based around dragon design and hard boney armor plating, spikes on his arms are actually meant to be horn. I will be the first to say the out come is pretty generic, but was a good learning experiencing in terms of designing costume/ armour.

I am slowly learning that it's easier to think in big shapes and this allows for much more design freedom. I quickly run into trouble when I get too focused on contour and details too quickly.

[ja1307]

Just another quick update another quick character piece. Fairly pleased with this one although I know the anatomy is off in terms of proportions and the pose is also very stiff. Main focus was to design a Sci Fi/ Fantasy character and concentrate on the design aspect and get ideas down. Will be doing a lot more of these, they are def fun.

[Ghast]

keep doing those gestures, they'll help give your imaginative stuff more motion and flow. Also try thinking in terms of basic 3d shapes rather than outlines. Keep at it! Happy improving to you

[ja1307]

keep doing those gestures, they'll help give your imaginative stuff more motion and flow. Also try thinking in terms of basic 3d shapes rather than outlines. Keep at it! Happy improving to you

Cheers, yeah I know what you mean about the lack of movement in my work, just trying to go for safety at the mo. The gestures are tough but I see how they will pay off in the long run. just got my hands in the Glenn Vilppu DVD's awesome first lecture on gesture. It now beginning to make sense a bit more easier to watch some one demonstrate rather then just read about it makes a lot more sense to me this way.

In terms of 3d shapes i think I know what people mean although i am not 100% not sure how this would show in my work either. I try and use shapes to construct foundations then contour to add detail ect and out line specific areas if that makes sense.

[Ghast]

Ever draw an art manequin? Thats pretty much what most people mean by breaking down a form. Literally everything can be broken down into rectangular boxes and/or cylinders. So the limbs would be 2 cylinders/boxes with a ball at the joint. Then work in anatomy after the figure seems solid in terms of shapes. Always be thinking of things in terms of 3 dimensional objects in space rather than a bicep, tricep, forearms, etc

[ja1307]

Ever draw an art manequin? Thats pretty much what most people mean by breaking down a form. Literally everything can be broken down into rectangular boxes and/or cylinders. So the limbs would be 2 cylinders/boxes with a ball at the joint. Then work in anatomy after the figure seems solid in terms of shapes. Always be thinking of things in terms of 3 dimensional objects in space rather than a bicep, tricep, forearms, etc

Thanks that does make sense yes and is not something I have been doing. Think I have been jumping ahead of my self will focus mainly on this and banging out more gestures too.

[ja1307]

Two pages of studies

drapery studies too look at tension folds, can now see how sitting drawing people at coffee shops would be great for this study too.

Then some leg anatomy studies to remind myself of the major muscles in the quads and lower leg. Refed from Hampton and Hogarth.

[Aquaticdog]

Nice lovely clean lines! keep going!

[ja1307]

Been working on the human figure in 3d forms, had a quick look at Vilppu's approach and Hogarth's for creating a 3d manequin figures. Did a few copies. Now starting to do my own. My approach is to go on quickposes and draw the images only using shapes trying to identify the contours of the forms as well as the line of action withing the spine. I also need to start buckling down and working on portions.

The next stage will be to start drawing photos from quick poses using the 3d construction then contour lines and see if this helps improve my accuracy, the ultimate aim is to be able to start doing this from my own mind and using gesture as the primary basis for working out the poses.

[ja1307]

My first self portrait done from photo, going to be doing a lot more of these. Proportions are off. The distance between my upper lip and nose is too small, pus the eyes look miss aligned. The ears do too but this is the way the look in the pic. Fairly pleased with the outcome and the rendering.

[MonoOrder]

Good work on the self portrait. It can be annoying to tackle the same subject but do some more and keep improving on your mistakes.

I also like your drawing from imagination in post #70. Are you doing these 100% from your imagination?

[ja1307]

PerfectGet yeah i plan on doing a lot more of them as faeces are a major major weakness for me. Plus i do enjoy drawing faces when I get down to it. Imaginative pice was pretty much from my mind but based around my understanding of armour and the major design elements of dragons, scales, claws, teeth, horns ect just tried to reflect that on a armour template.

[Brave-New-World]

excellent work mate, lets see us both advance together, i can see already your understanding of gestures is slowly improving, which is great ^^ i assume you use posemaniacs.com?

on the first page i love your work on hands, which is something i need to work on too

ill be keeping my eye on your friend

[ja1307]

Brave-New-World I used to use posemanicas to start because thats what every one else was using but I ont really like those blobby figures. Looks odd to me. So now I use Quickposes a lot plus net pics, much better for finding pics of athletes, dancers, bodies in motion. Gesture id though for me forces you to be mega analytical which is good but also hard.

Yeah man lets do improve together be fun to see how far we both go be good to learn off each other too.

Hands are tough for me too and lets not even talk about feet but the way I see it i have a life time to get better so no rush.

I will be def keeping an eye on you too, will subscribe to your sketchbook.

[ja1307]

On reflection was not very happy with my first self portrait of the eve so wanted to do another, felt the first one was very rushed and messy with the rendering. Again used a photo this time one taken on my digital camera not my iphone so the values were much clearer and easier to pick out.

This update is in 3 stages to show my process partly to remind myself how to work and to get others advice and see if this a good work flow.

1 Construct basic oval head shape try and establish the major shapes of nose, moth eyes and lips and try and get the proportions and placement right.

2 Draw the contour and major details and try and establish the major values with basic rendering, not so hot at this stage all my strokes seem to produce the same tone.

3 Add value and detail working towards a finished drawing..have not finished this pic, spent roughly 2.5 hrs on it (man I am slow) and feel I have learned enough from this study, mostly patience when it comes to rendering.

[MonoOrder]

Nice 2nd self-portrait. Values are awesome as always but I think the proportions may be off (hard to tell w/o actual reference). The eyes should be closer to 1/2 down the face. Thanks for showing the process.

[Ghast]

Thats exactly what I was talking about in regards to basic shapes dude. Portrait isn't bad, but your getting there. My professor always tells us to look at portraits in terms of shadow shapes, specifically the shadow of the eye sockets, below the nose, on the upper lip, below the lower lip (that space between lower lip and where your chin begins to protrude), and below the chin. You'd be surprised but if you get good at drawing just those shapes you can get a likeness quite easily without going into tons of detail. But its good to start out with proportions too of course. Keep at it!

[ja1307]

PerefectGet thanks for the heads up about the eyes I really had not noticed and although the ref photo does slightly distort the proportions the eyes are further down then I have placed them so will def keep a check on that.

Ghast thnks for stopping by again and letting me know I am on the right track regarding the 3d models. I totaly understand what you mean about focusing on specific areas to create form and a likeness, I do get bogged down with too much detail and its somthing I want to try and change a bit.

[Cammor1]

Hey Mate Thanks for your comments on my sketchbook. Now I've had a chance to have nosey at yours. I started from the beginning of it and worked my way through. And I'm inspired by your enthusiasm and hard work. And it is very much showing in you later works improving by leaps and bounds! And you remind even an old bloke like me that the journey to artistic mastery is forever ongoing. A tip on drawing portraits (that is if you haven't discovered it yet) is to look at the image in the mirror. Any mis-alignments become obvious straight away. I use this all the time even for poses and foreshortening. Something the brain does when it get "too" focused on the image, is start to not see the errors. With pencil/graphite it easy to rub out and adjust. With acrylics I start out painting the under-study in lightly until it looks right, then I begin to strengthen the elements by increasing the tone of the paint. Anyway, keep working hard, the reward is worth it!

[ja1307]

Cammor1 thanks man ill use that tip in the future Its not something I have been doing so far.

[ja1307]

Not been able to do a whole heap this weekend have had a lot of crap to deal with. Another self portrait trying to simplify things. Using photos for asll these as i find it strange trying to look in the mirror and draw.