Me vs Anatomy (and other things)

[Januz]

Hi Everyone! Long time lurker here. This is my first post and first sketchbook. I've been drawing on and off for quite some time, but now I've finally decided to go 100% on it.
I'm trying to go over the basics as well as anatomy, hope you can help me!

Updates always on the last page

[Januz]

(Sorry about the bad scan quality by the way, I forgot to make darker lines )


(that convulted shape next to the pear is supposed to be an apple)






(gestures from posemaniacs.com)

[HederaHiberna]

This is so confusing. First I see some typical beginner's stuff and then BAM! you've got that plane and other neat works.

[kidult]

Good start here! just keep at it!

[Januz]

HederaHiberna - Thanks , I did study some of these some time ago. I'm refreshing some and also trying to go deeper on the basics.
kidult - Thanks!

Some more stuff:









Mental notes:
* My ellipses are still wonky
* I need to get my brushstrokes under control (damn anxiety)

[Januz]

Still trying to get a better grasp on painting

[Januz]

The last few days haven't been too productive, but here's more stuff

[Cloud-Yo!]

Hey! well done for starting your SB
like HederaHiberna there is some very diverse stuff on here...are the pencil sketches older than the digital stuff? some of the digital sketches show a much better grasp on value and form than the pencil ones...maybe its because you have better control of the settings of the digital brushes I dont know...but it looks good..I will point out that in your perspetive studies...keep in mind that 2 point persppective vanishing points will almost always (if not always...and someone can clarify it) be outside the image borders...when dealing with right angles...in fact by spacing them out, the one picture of the cube from below looks a lot better than the one of say...the cube receiving the shadow from the plane.

anyhow, it's great that you're putting all this work in, pencil to paper and studying your anatomy..you'll be sure to improve much that way!
keep it up!

[Januz]

Hey Claudio, thanks for stopping by!
The ships are from about 1 week before I started this SB. Everything else is from the day/s it was posted.
Thanks for the tip on perspective. I noticed on my enviro sketches above that almost all of them have the a vanishing point inside the image, which is not always the case. I got bored with perspective after a while, but I'll definatively get back to it

[Blue Gun]

Your sketchbook is off to a great start Januz. I really like those nose studies.

[Psychobuddy]

Just keep working, and do some face studies well you already are with the noses and stuff. But just watch your proportions and placement of the features in your portraits. Otherise good job keep it up.

[Januz]

Blue Gun, Thanks!
Psychobuddy Thanks for the comment, my target for this week is to do at least a full page of studies for each part of the face and then start working on complete faces

Eyes and lips for today. The eyes page includes some older stuff

[Januz]

Hair day, and a skull

[Fullmetal-Animator]

You deffinatly have a great flare for drawing from what I can see, and I like some of the figure studies.

As the others said, the proportions need to be tightend up but I feel that the whole tube and sphere approach to figure drawing is doing nothing your you, and I know from experience that it will hold you back. I think what could serve you a great benefit are observational excercises such as blind contour drawing, and semi-blind drawing so you become a lot less subconscience about what your doing. The shaky proportions may have to do with a sense of nervousness and a worry to get everything right, if that makes any sense. Blind drawing can open up new zones in your mind and help develop hand-eye co-ordination when drawing and can help build your confidence.

Why I'm bringing up the blind drawing is because it is more or less what life drawing instructors will have you doing for the first class or two, for the reasons mentioned. The more you do it, the more sensitive your eyes and hands become to what you're seeing and it makes life drawing a lot easier when you move into more gestural drawings and anatomical studies. Even when you begin to rely less on contour and more on rendering tonal values to build up an image, you'll feel a lot more confident with your hand-eye co-ordination.

So yeah, I'd look into any local art leagues or life drawing classes in your area as this will help your figure drawings out a lot more.
Good luck with your art and keep drawing!

[Fullmetal-Animator]

Sorry for the double post there. Stupid Firefox is at it again! xD

[Januz]

Fullmetal-Animator, thanks for the tip on blind contour drawing. I did a few of them for a while with objects, but didn't think it would help a lot in the long run so I dropped it.
I've started looking for life drawing classes, I'll add blind countour to everyday practice in the meantime

[Januz]

Ears today. Also, cleaning up the unholy mess I call a desk and getting a Rotring 300 2mm (feels so smooth).

[Psychobuddy]

Hey man, I know you're doing a page of studies of each part a day...but maybe, at the end of the day through in some other face parts from memory just so you don' loose it completely or burn yourself out...I know it can get pretty discouraging drawing the same thing over and over. Otherwise just keep it up, I've seen some improvement in your drawings since the last time I was here.

[Januz]

Psychobuddy, yeah drawing the same thing over and over gets kind of boring, but I was able to get a sense of structure from them. Now that I've done all the parts, I'll do whole faces. I may practice the head frame a bit more, since I'm sucking when it is in perspective.


No studies today



The scribbles at the bottom is just fooling around with a marker, trying to alien languages. I think the girl's head came out a bit too narrow, nose and proportions are also wonky -.-




Some enviro sketches




I've gone back to my castle enviro sketch, and I want to make into a full painting. I've fixed the composition a bit, worked on the road, the foreground, and remade the haunted castle. Not super happy about the design though.

[samthemule]

hey man, how are things?

looking good as far as i can tell!

thanks for your message and keep it up.

looking forward to seeing the castle in full, some people have said to me too that a good way to progress skill wise is to just try to get everything to as near complete as you can with your current skill set, and then push it with the next one (if you can, even do multiple versions of the same thing)

much encouragement from me dude, keep going!

[Januz]

samthemule, totally. I used to leave things unfinished and it never did me any good. We have to push as far as we can.

I've been doing practising blind contour drawing a lot, so not much to show.
Did some symmetry excercises. I've always had trouble drawing symmetric objects/faces.

Also, I'm hating faces so much right now -.-

[Januz]

Some poses from observation, some painting practice (now with colors!) and doodling in ballpoint pen

[Januz]

More practice

[telohs]

When drawing faces try to construct all the feature, check out Andrew Loomis or Michael Hampton for some construction tips.

When you know how the face is constructed it will be much easier to place the features ofg the face in the correct places.

[edit]

I've seen you've tried constructing in your first posts, carry that knowledge onto when you're drawing people from photographs or life.

[Januz]

telohs, hey thanks for stopping by. I've been trying to incorporate construction in the last 2 heads (the bottom ones), but I jumped to details too soon. I have Loomis' book on faces, and David Finch's videos. I'll look up
Michael Hampton.

Some clouds, still working on my brush strokes

[Januz]

More 5' enviro thumbs, figures and painting practice

[Januz]

Starting to work on arms and legs, more faces and some doodles

Tip: If you're using a leadholder (like the Rotring 300) don't use the integrated sharpener! It takes more time and leaves graphite dust on the inside of the button (which may then fall on your paper). Plus, if you accidentaly break the lead while sharpening, you'll be looking foward to several minutes of quality time trying to poke the graphite out of it (and making a mess of graphite dust everywhere).
It's best to have an external sharpener, unless you're on the road I guess.

[Caio Chagas]

It's good to have resources from awesome artists like David Finch. However, i think his videos are better for those who already know the structure of all muscles, as he only shows his approach in drawing, not defining every single bone or muscle. For me, it's like learning to paint with custom brushes before learning to use the default.

So, i think if you really want to master human anatomy, you should check "The Structure of Man" by Riven Phoenix. In these lessons, he will explain every single bone and muscle and show how to render it with pencil. If you draw together with him in every video, you should get a strong foundation in anatomy. So, that way you will find the Finch DVD way more useful, because he has "shortcuts" for many things.


By the way, keep posting, you're already getting better.

[Januz]

Hey, thanks for the comments. I'll finish going through the Finch DVDs now since I've already started with them, and I'll check Riven's videos then. The complete course does seem a more complete than what I'm doing right now. I've also ordered Atlas of the Human Anatomy for Artists by Peck. It should arrive in a couple of weeks (hopefully )

[Januz]

Progress on my type poster