Tagachi's Sketchbook

[Tagachi]

Hello all,

My alias is Tagachi but you can call me Kevin as well.
I am an art major and I am just starting to grasp the concepts of art.

I have a couple of tablets, but I decided I would rather get good traditionally before I even touch them.

So this sketchbook will be a record of my progress as well as a form of other's feedback so I can improve.

My process of improving my artistic ability:
Learn, Want, Practice, Apply, Feedback; rinse and repeat.

So starting off here are some drawings in my sketchbook.
The latest one for this post is the nose studies.

PS: I am sorry for the terrible quality of the pictures. I have to rely on using my phone to take photos but for some reason I always acquire this blue tint.

[Tagachi]

And here is one charcoal still-life and one graphite still-life I did in my beginner drawing class 2 months back.

[nekofluffybutt]

I really love your stills. And the skull is gorgeous! Though I had some trouble looking at it. I think it was the lightening so the contrast was skewed. However upon looking a bit closer, a lot of the pictures have rather low contrast. I don't know what placing a high contrast would do or an added gray background would help it pop out??

I'm not good at critic but tl;dr : Add more contrast.

[Tagachi]

I really love your stills. And the skull is gorgeous! Though I had some trouble looking at it. I think it was the lightening so the contrast was skewed. However upon looking a bit closer, a lot of the pictures have rather low contrast. I don't know what placing a high contrast would do or an added gray background would help it pop out??

I'm not good at critic but tl;dr : Add more contrast.

I totally agree Nekofluffybutt. I have the hugest issue with contrast. I tend to stick around mid tones. So definitely my next drawings with be higher contrast.
It is funny you would mention that too, because I literally just posted to someone to work on their contrast.

[nekofluffybutt]

I totally agree Nekofluffybutt. I have the hugest issue with contrast. I tend to stick around mid tones. So definitely my next drawings with be higher contrast.
It is funny you would mention that too, because I literally just posted to someone to work on their contrast.

Awwww I see, yeah. I remember reading this and I think if you just added a thought of making it a bit darker, just for the lulz and see what happens. I also run into the problem of low contrast and been experimenting with it but definite give it a go!

[Randomeister]

Wow! Great stuff! Keep going on! Do you have a scanner though? It seems like the images are of bad quality--not the drawings though! I want to see more from you!

[ObscureMechanism]

Love the animals, eyes, noses, and still life stuff, man, beautiful. I see what you meant by troubles with contrast, the picture quality can also work against you in that respect, pieces sometimes look better through eyes, and not a lens. I would take a crack at some anatomy studies, too, they help out a bunch when drawing from imagination. Keep working and loving this and you will work your way up, we're in it together. Don't give up and I won't either, hope to see more out of you.

[Tagachi]

I am afraid you are all right. I feel as if my current versions of these have terrible photo quality and thus are not presented in the way I would like them.

@Obscure Thank you. I agree that I should do some anatomy studies. Question, in terms of doing studies; do I observe a certain body part, and draw it based on both what I see as well as the internal muscle knowledge that I have? I am not entirely sure how to effectively do a drawing study.

[rapxic]

good job on the noses and cloth studies. i would suggest ya read some andrew loomis books they're free on the net.

[Tagachi]

good job on the noses and cloth studies. i would suggest ya read some andrew loomis books they're free on the net.

Believe it or not I actually have read them haha. ALL of them. I even did some of the exercises but they turned out meh. Right now I feel like I have the hardest time accurately conveying value in a way where it is contrasting enough to create form and yet accurate enough to provide realism.

[ObscureMechanism]

You're doing fine, man. What I do, is study different muscle groups and focus on that area when you are learning about muscles and what they look like. You can't learn it all in one go, so just take small steps. Study the structure of bones also, and when it comes to proportion, you said you read the loomis books, like "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth", which presents the "heads" unit of measurement for proportionate limbs in respect to the rest of the body. I would use that unit of measurement, and also check out some Victor Perard's figure drawing book, I like his presentation better than Loomis'. Just keep up the good work, and don't ever give up. Do some more still lives, you will learn so much about value from them, try to get one light source on some nice objects and really just get in the zone, block out everything except the work and perhaps some music, it's fun when you do it that way for me.

[Tagachi]

Alright,

So after this exercise I realized how terrible I am with value gradation and the faces. So from now on untill I feel I have adequate talent in faces, I will be doing alot of face studies.

Here are some I did.
They are ehh; feel free to rip me a new one please. I really strive to better my skill.

Here are 2 of the references.
http://imgur.com/UU9pI,8jSZY


Quick Question Guys:
Is it better to to re-edit the drawings and try to fix them? Or should I just start a new?

[Tagachi]

Working on my first digital painting ever.
Following the Photoshop Rendering series from Ctrl Paint.

SUPER helpful and I definitely recommend it to anyone learning.

Still a work in progress:

Things I noticed: The top is WAYY to round. The handle proportions are a bit off as well.

[Tagachi]

Update:
Just finished that digital painting:

[idenzel]

i think one of you major strengths are your values, keep it up

[QPK]

Thanks for bringin some fresh eyes n checkin my sb out and droppin the words of wisdom

I like the female head studies, but the features: nose, eyes, mouth are a bit to big for the over all size of the skull. People got big heads ahahah. That said i think the most successful one is the female head in profile position

Also I agree with Denzel, you have a great sense of value, and the digi above looks great!!

[nekofluffybutt]

HOLY!!! DUDE YOUR digital one is insane! Yeah I agree the values are great! I'm guessing the camera really screwed it up for you. But that's amazing! Though i'm wondering I'm not good with shadows but some parts seem to not blend as well as others.