Clovie's Sketchbook :)

[Clovie]

Hi everyone!
I've finally worked up the courage to make an account and start a sketchbook here. : )

So...a little bit about myself I guess:
I'm 18, in my first year of university. I've been drawing for quite a while, but only very recently, (about a month ago) have I started doing this a bit more seriously: drawing every day, doing studies, trying to learn anatomy properly, etc.

Anyways, right now, I feel quite motivated (there are so many inspiring sketchbooks here!), but also like I'm in serious need of improvement and feedback. So hopefully, starting this sketchbook will help me practice more, and in better ways. : )

I guess I'll reserve this first post for the thread's icon.

Edit: I guess I'll use this as the icon for now...

[Clovie]

Here's the first batch, there's not much. I've decided to just put stuff I've done today.

I started with a bunch of 30-second and 1-minute gesture drawings from http://lovecastle.org/draw/. Then I did some studies from Bridgman's Life Drawing.

For the Bridgman studies, I tried to emulate his sketchy line quality...but I'm not sure if that's a good way to go. Should I instead focus more on being careful and accurate?

Another question: I see a lot of people doing digital photo studies. Do you keep switching from the window with the photo to the window with the program? Because that sounds kinda tedious. Or do you copy-paste the photo beside your painting...?

Edit: Argh, got a green dot on the last picture when I was resizing it and didn't save a back-up...

[Clovie]

Just did a quick self-portrait. I'm not very good at symmetry...

Sorry about the yellow-y photos, I don't have a scanner with me right now.

[Clovie]

Again, a few quick 30 second to 1 minute poses, some studies from Bridgman, and then I did my first digital study today with my scissors. : )

[fireblade]

Hi, Bridgman is a good place to start, I see a lot of people using his books.

Also regarding the digital painting, It's easier if you have two monitors

[blue skies]

Woo, digital studies! I need to do more of those. Meh... I need to to more of everything.
I just started my sketchbook today too, so, hi.

Also, I work on a tiny laptop with a tiny screen, so I know what you mean about reference not fitting very well. A good method I've recently adopted is to plop your reference straight into your image in another layer, then put a mask on it so that it doesn't take up alot of space, and you can easily pan it around to the part of the reference that you need to see.

[Clovie]

@fireblade: Oh I see...two monitors would be nice.
@blue skies: Hello. Thanks for the suggestion, I think I'll try that when I get tired of the objects on my desk. I'm trying to do more traditional media stuff right now though.

I switched to using a mechanical pencil today for parts of the studies. I tried drawing some poses from my head...they're kinda embarrassing, but I did promise myself I would post everything. :l

Did some 10 minute portrait/pose studies from http://lovecastle.org/draw/.

[Clovie]

I have a school assignment due on Thursday that I'm kinda screwed for because of procrastination, so I didn't have too much time to draw today...and I probably won't have too much for the next few days until Thursday's over.

So here are some 30s/60s gesture drawings a little bit of studies.
I think I'll make my non-gesture drawings a bit bigger from now on.

I don't have much variety here so far...and I really should. There are so many things I should do...so I'll write a to-do/goal list for what I want to get into my sketchbook (I'll probably start these after my assignment is finished though):

- more still lives
- environments
- more digital studies, including from photos
- studies in marker and pen
- more imaginative work
- perspective studies
- composition studies

Edit: added some more stuff on the to-do list.

[blue skies]

Looking good, especially that Bridgman stuff.
Heh. I have a running 'general art goals' list taped to my desk next to me.. it goes:
anatomy
environments (perspective)
colour studies
object studies
silhouettes
creatures
gesture drawing
life drawing

And some more specific stuff. It never ends, huh?

[Kaihartj]

Heyy! Good start! loving your body sketches! they got a lot of movement! very nice!!

[Clovie]

@blue skies: Thanks! And yeah...I wanted to add more stuff to that list immediately after I posted it. And even now, I still want to add more stuff...but I think I'll just leave the edit button alone for a while. >.<
At least it means we have things to work towards though...:')

@Cheezah: Thanks! That's nice to hear since I've been trying to get those action lines.

I tried to make up some poses from my imagination today. Since I'm not very creative with those, I just put down some random action lines and made up poses from those...not sure that worked so well though.

My university has a life-drawing club (which I'm so glad exists!) that meets every Tuesday, so I went to the session today and did some stuff in conte. Our model was reading a book half the time, it was kinda funny. xD
I'm not very good with conte...haven't yet figured out how to get those big smooth lines out of them, only thin little wimpy ones. It's nice to be able to work on such a big scale once in a while though.

[Clovie]

Had very little time to draw today, and even when I did, I felt so stressed that I couldn't draw very well.
I'm preparing for a late night up...finishing that assignment...

[Clovie]

Today was the last day of classes!
I celebrated by buying a banana from my dining hall and painting it. =D
I think when I paint still-life...one of my biggest problem is picking the exact right colours. I'm sometimes tempted to pick the colours (exaggerated ones) that I would usually use to paint. Also, I kinda failed on that little hairy thing that comes out of the banana stem.

Then I did my usual 30/60 second gesture poses and Bridgman studies. His drawings are really hard to understand sometimes...

Then I did a quick enviro study, my first one. Photo from http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130469. The colours are pretty off, I think mine are too saturated and don't have enough contrast.

[jablar]

I like the last one....
maybe you could try to add there some object of interest, like bird, building or something like that

[Clovie]

@jablar: Thanks! I agree, adding something like that might make it look more interesting.
Which reminds me...I should do more studies with things like those (birds, buildings, etc.) to build up my visual library, which is pretty empty right now.

I skipped the usual gesture drawings today and went straight for some 5 min poses in pen. Then Bridgman, which I kinda failed on today, then some 5 min faces. Tried to do a fourth one in pencil from my head, but it looks kinda creepy. :/
I least I got some pen work in today though.

[Clovie]

Sorry, I didn't really feel in the mood for drawing today.
I just did some 5 min faces...

[Clovie]

Bridgman felt too confusing today, so I switched and did some stuff from Loomis. That didn't feel too good either, so I resorted back to doing some quick gesture sketches. ><
I think I'll take a short break from studying anatomy (maybe a day or something) because I feel like it's not going too well right now...

On the bright side, I bought an apple to paint today, and I'm significantly more satisfied with that result than with my anatomy studies.

Oh, and happy Easter everyone!

[jablar]

the apple looks great, maybe the shadow iis not perfect... ?

[Clovie]

@jablar: Thanks! Well, of course, it's not perfect. But I'll try to do better next time.

This is the only thing I worked on today, a very preliminary sketch for the teen challenge of the week...hopefully, if I finish it on time...
The theme is "hunk of meat".
This took an embarrassing long length of time, especially getting the perspective right. ><

Many things to fix up...

[fireblade]

the perspective is still off. The problem is that the table the girl is sitting on is a lot higher than the benches. So it's making the mother look tiny.

[Clovie]

@fireblade: Oh I see...I thought the mother looked small. Thanks for the feedback!

Tuesday is life-drawing session day.

[Morningtea]

Really great SB!
Keep it up

[Clovie]

Morningtea: Thanks!

The only thing I worked on today.
I pushed the mom further back so hopefully she's the right size now...?

By the way, I usually don't like gorey stuff, so I'm kinda surprising myself by drawing something like this...o.o

[Clovie]

I really like cupcakes.
The cupcake's a little narrow though, so the proportions are kinda off. Also, I kinda BSed everything after the icing, because the icing was the part I cared about. ><...

And finally I'm back to Bridgman...then some 90 second poses.

Edit: And I probably won't be able to draw too much in the next while, because my final exams are coming up REALLY soon.

[Clovie]

Usual stuff and a page of non-proportional poses from my head.

I probably shouldn't have put so many things in that teen challenge picture when I knew I was gonna have finals soon...I hope I'll be able to finish it in time. The strokes will have to remain kinda rough.

[Morningtea]

Hey Clovie~
Really nice updates.I loved the cupcake and the pencils.
And about the last sketch, I think the mom is a bit far from the sink don't you think so?Look at her left arm, it's too stretched out.And another thing, the legs aren't fallowing the perspective.Her feet are on the same level.You should push the left foot back(inside the page).Just think of it as a box following the rules of perspective, and you'll have that sense of "something feels wrong".

And good luck on your exams.

Edit: Now that I'm looking at the sketch, I can see there's something wrong in general.
The counter far behind is not right.It should have shorter surface.
Another thing is the girl.You see, the angle of our vision is high, but the girl seems like she's on the horizon rather than below it.And the meat cakeis not following the perspective 2.It should show more of the surface and less sides.
I hope you don't mind me "chattering" here ^^"

[Clovie]

Morningtea: Yeah, you're right about those things, there are quite a lot of more perspective problems... I guess I should study perspective a bit more before diving into another full-blown picture. I don't think I'll be able to finish it for tomorrow actually, but I'll see if I can at least fix the perspective problems.

I don't mind the "chattering" at all. It's always nice to get feedback like that, so thanks! And thanks for the exam encouragement as well!

--
Just did some 90 second and 5 minute poses today with pen and marker, a fun combination.

[jablar]

pen and marker combination looks interesting, but I think that more useful could be trying to make croshatching with the pen, it will give you more experience and 3D feel
but it will take some more time...

[Clovie]

jablar: Ohhh, I actually haven't done cross-hatching for quite a while. I like to use single-stroke hatching (is that what it's called?) sometimes, but it'd be interesting to do the cross kind sometime. Thanks for the suggestion.

Not too much because of exams. I did do some perspective work though.
From this thread: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...84#post1485584 Very useful.

[Morningtea]

Great perspective studies!
And I really like the sketches in the post before~
Keep it up Clovie!