Foundations (old)

[Viconia]

Lots of boring stuff is going to be in this SB. I need to practice the fundamentals.

[Viconia]

Some sketches/studies.

The last two are referenced from stock photos by SenshiStock.

[Cyberman]

Nice Start! Congrats on the new Sketchbook, may the pages fill up quickly

[Viconia]

Sean McClain - Thank you.

Some stuff from today. Last one is an unfinished pose... might finish drawing it tomorrow.

Stock credits:
1 - felixdeon
2 - senshistock
3 & 4 - diamoneyes / steinzupancic (model)

[razvanb08]

Awsome studies Viconia, keep it up !

[Viconia]

razvanb08 & annagsonish - Thank you both.

Unfinished master study. Ugh, I can't even begin with how embarassed/sad I am with how this is turning out but I keep telling myself I will NOT give up!

Hopefully I will finish this soon and it will actually turn out okay. We shall see... =/

[Viconia]

some value key studies...

[dierat]

Great studies in here so far! For your figurative studies, watch the proportions - some of them have some pretty small heads. For the master study, I think it helps if you sketch out the figures with lines first to help you create accurate shapes early on, then add the values on top (like in your figure studies). Building the image up in blobs of value may feel more painterly, but it can also allow proportional and symmetry issues to persist without being noticed. Anyway, keep up the good work and keep posting!

[Viconia]

dierat - Thank you for the advice! I always seem to get head proportions wrong, either making them too large or too small. Will be more careful from now on.

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Someone asked to see the previous studies alongside the originals so here they are all together.

Every time I look at the last one I just want to laugh because his face looks so derpy. Lmao.

[Umbravita]

You've got a lot of output here, can tell you're working hard. Keep it up!

I think it would help you to pay better attention to proportion and measurement. It can be quite tedious at first but definitely pays off, and soon it'll be second nature. Pay special attention to the angle at which lines slant, sometimes the difference between your line and an original can be minuscule but the difference looks stark later on. Notice how things are positioned in relation to one another. Look harder at your source, it looks as if you're not truly looking yet.

Post more soon! I hope you do, you've got a lot of skill and I'm eager to see how fast you improve.

[Natalia Soleil]

nice body studies, you capture the proportions well! i think using some textured brushes and going into detail here and there would really do the trick! Keep it up!

[Viconia]

Umbravita - Thank you for the input! You are right, I have always had trouble with proportion. I used to be a bit better
at it but in recent years I seem to have lost my patience. Will be more careful from now on.

Natalia Soleil - Thank you! Yes, I do tend to stray away from textured brushes... kind of have a fear of them at this
point because I can never seem to use them and make my pictures look right. I probably should practice using textured
brushes more often.

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Some stuff from today. Really just not feeling it at all, guh.

Last pic is from my head, which should explain the weird anatomy.

[Viconia]

I may not post a lot of updates in the next few days, just because I am not feeling too hot about my rendering skills.

Going to sit down and do some super basic rendering exercises for the next week or so. Hopefully that will help me iron
out some of the issues I've been having. After that I will most likely move on to still life paintings, just to nail everything in.

Here, have a sphere

[Umbravita]

Haha, yeah, I can understand impatience. It can be hard to slow down and enjoy the actual process when you just want it over and done, especially with studies, which can be so repetitive. I think it's something a lot of us have to learn.

That study up the top looks a lot better! Could use a little more sharpness in the highlights, but it's a lot closer to the reference than your other stuff is, and you had a lot of patience in rendering the patterns as well, which must have been tedious. Good sphere, too.

Feel better soon!

[Viconia]

Umbravita - Thank you! The reason why the last study is more accurate is because the movie still paintings were done
for an exercise where we were supposed to zoom the images out to like 15% (so, thumbnail size lol) and just try to
get the basic values down. Spent around 20 minutes on each one and never zoomed in. The last one, on the other
hand, was done in about 2-3 hours. I probably should have mentioned that in my post.

Here are a few things from the weekend just to show that I am alive. Still not happy with the rendering but hopefully 5 or
6 more days of doing these exercises will help.

Last drawing is just a stress relief doodle from my head. (the horns are way off, I know haha)

[Viconia]

Some Vanderpoel studies. Wasn't in the mood to do any rendering today.

[Duplicitious]

Hi there!
the spheres look super good

for the male crouching I think his right arm is too long and thin and some of the bone structure/muscle shapes have been lost

very cool looking movie studies as well

I'm not sure if you're trying more to focus on anatomy or gesture but I suggest that you target studies for them separately, if anatomy, more detail in your renders and longer time and if gesture, try going smaller and quicker and getting more basic form down
right now I feel like it's a mixture of both but not overly focused on either

awesome pencil eye studies! reminds me that I need to go do some body parts
the bulging eye skull made me smile

carry on!

[Viconia]

Duplicitious - Thank you for the feedback! You are correct, my figure studies have been a mix of both gesture and
mild rendering. As you said, I need to focus on doing one thing at a time before mixing both - I will start doing gestures
and rendering separately.

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I just want to apologize for the lack of updates lately. I felt like I needed to take a short break from art to clear my head.
Did a lot of cooking and reading, and it definitely helped me get refreshed.

Here's a little something from my head. I hope to get some more studies done in the next few days. Stay tuned!

[Viconia]

Couple more, and a reminder for myself. I need to stop getting so impatient.

[N0N]

I have the same problem and it was much worst in the past especially when I was studying haha I would want to RUSH through them and not absorb anything. It looks like you don't have that problem too bad because your stuff is turning out very nice, the eye studies/the armor value study/the portrait in #18(you definitely can tell that your studies are paying off) keep up the awesome work.

[FatMoStank]

wow those "Vanderpoel" studies are crisp - just keep drawing man !

[Umbravita]

HA, yeah, impatience is the worst. Art seems to be 90% tedium, I swear to god. Don't beat yourself up about it, though, patience comes with experience and all that. Keep practicing and eventually you'll build that tolerance up. At least, hopefully you will. XD

Those are some good figures. Keep it up.

[Viconia]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words!

Some drawings from this evening. I made a new pencil-esque brush in Photoshop and I wanted to try it out.

These might seem pretty plain but I actually spent approximately 1 hour on each. I know I said to slow down but
damn, maybe I am going a little too slow! lol

I've been trying to focus on squaring off forms but I am failing miserably. I've found that my natural tendency is to round
everything off, which in my opinion looks really tacky.

On a more positive note, I do feel like I am slowly improving. So, yay for that.

[N0N]

Hey I wouldn't sweat going too slow on studies especially if you have the time. In my opinion, as I'm slowly haha very slowly starting to figure things out myself, I feel that it may be better to time yourself less when you are studying and maybe more when you are applying those observations in your own artwork. If you are doing valuable research and getting alot out of it why limit that time? No one in the future is going to make deadlines for your studies besides an instructor. Then again what the hell do I know lol

Thanks for stopping by ma' sketch book and giving your advice on paint

[Viconia]

N0N - No problem at all, I'm sorry that I don't know more on the subject though. I like the idea of timing myself while
doing personal work rather than while doing studies. I might just have to try that sometime.

Here's just two sketches from imagination that I did over the last few days. Sorry I don't have more to post, I have been doing some
personal work that I'd rather not share. Oh yeah, and I totally avoided drawing her hand in the first one. I don't usually do that
but I just couldn't be bothered this time around.

Will hopefully have another update later tonight (or tomorrow) because at the moment I am working on more studies.

[r zanchetin]

"Slowly improving" is a massive understatement, your girls keep looking better and better and I dig the horned one. Draw on!

[Umbravita]

Don't worry about taking your time on something. As long as the process is serving you well.

Those are some good poses, I like your figures.

[Viconia]

r zanchetin & Umbravita - Thank you both for the support and encouragement!

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As promised, some studies from this evening. (except the first one, which was done last night)

I decided to keep my construction lines rather than erase them. Also tried speeding up. Overall I think these
turned out okay; they are more gestural than my usual stuff but I'm not so sure about their accuracy.

All images were reffed from kxhara @ deviantArt.

[AllyAlbon]

Last update looking really good. Love how you draw girls' lips.

[Umbravita]

I like seeing the construction lines.

Keep up the good work!