My first drawing in years! (Moved from FF)

[Mozdk]

Hey guys

I used to draw a tiny bit and enjoyed it a lot. But other interest and just being busy took it's place. Now I really feel like I wanna get back into it and learn and get better.

I will start off with only pencils and maybe painting in time. I have no plans to use photoshop.



If you have time take a look at my first drawing. I'd like some critique. I am very happy with it, but I feel a more practiced hand would have done a lot better. So if you can spot anything odd/wrong with it, I'd really like a few comments.

I am gonna start drawing faces soon, so any advice on that is appreciated. I am at first gonna try to draw as realistically as possible. I can start getting more creative when I actually feel like I "know how to draw".

I realize the image is not of the absolute best quality, and the lighting is not perfect because it's a photo, not a scan, but it's good enough for me for now. I did not look at a tree when drawing, but I did watch a youtube video for help and used his start branches at first and advice on the leaves (which I found to be the hardest part by far)

[Mozdk]

Please. I'd really appreciate some critique.

[Mozdk]

bump!

[Nemome]

Hey Mozdk!

You posted your piece in the "It's finally finished"-section of the forum.
This section isn't really meant to get critique. It's more for just showcasing your new artwork.

I suggest that you go to the "Sketchbook"-section. There you can make yourself a thread where you post your stuff from time to time.
People will also stop by in your sketchbook and hopefully post comments and critique.

Aaaaaaand if you're working on a totally new piece and you are totally stuck you can post the piece in the "Critique"-section.

I hope I could help you.

[Edit:] You might wanna take a look into this thread. It explains everything I wanted to tell, just better An introduction on where and how to show your work on CA

[romnickhudges]

I am not an expert though but I can appreciate art work. I love your drawing though it might need few clean up but the overall aesthetic looks very nice. Keep it up and please do share more if you still have drawings with you.

[Elwell]

moved

[Chris Sanders]

This looks like a made up tree, is it? i see a lot of pattens that look suggested. The lighting and cast shadows don't make a lot of sense. especially as there is no cast shadows on the free itself. from that angle those branches would be casting streaks across the tree itself, as well as the ground. a lot of beginners seem to think cast shadows only exist on the floor. Telling the truth trees are bloody difficult to draw. If you want to get better i would suggest rendering simple planar shapes and rendering fruit and more basic objects. there is a lot of complicated form changes in a tree, not to mention texture and opacity from the light passing through the leaves. Hope that helps.

This is a good place to study aswell - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=223686

[Mozdk]

This looks like a made up tree, is it? i see a lot of pattens that look suggested. The lighting and cast shadows don't make a lot of sense. especially as there is no cast shadows on the free itself. from that angle those branches would be casting streaks across the tree itself, as well as the ground. a lot of beginners seem to think cast shadows only exist on the floor. Telling the truth trees are bloody difficult to draw. If you want to get better i would suggest rendering simple planar shapes and rendering fruit and more basic objects. there is a lot of complicated form changes in a tree, not to mention texture and opacity from the light passing through the leaves. Hope that helps.

This is a good place to study aswell - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=223686

Yeah, it's made up. I do see there are some problems with the shadows. My brother noted that the first time he saw it. I'll be trying real trees as soon as the leaves are gone. Until then I have other drawing projects.

[Elwell]

I'll be trying real trees as soon as the leaves are gone.

Or, you could try drawing one with leaves...

[Mozdk]

Or, you could try drawing one with leaves...

I think that is still too complicated.

[Tim Murphy]

I think that is still too complicated.

No time to learn like the present.

[Chris Sanders]

I would suggest surgically attaching your pencil to your drawing hand and your sketchbook to your other hand. Figuratively speaking of course... depending on how hardcore you wanna get!

[vineris]

I think that is still too complicated.

If you think a real tree with no leaves on is any less complicated, you have never really seriously looked at one. Personally I prefer them leafy because you can draw the overall shape of the tree, and then break it down into smaller leafy clumps.

[Mozdk]

If you think a real tree with no leaves on is any less complicated, you have never really seriously looked at one. Personally I prefer them leafy because you can draw the overall shape of the tree, and then break it down into smaller leafy clumps.

You might be right, but if you look at the drawing you can probably see the leafy part is the part I am having the most trouble with atm.

What do YOU think of my drawing? Since it seems like you have some experience here.

[Elwell]

Have you drawn anything else in the past three weeks?

[Mozdk]

Have you drawn anything else in the past three weeks?

Yes. Trying to learn how to draw faces... Not even remotely worth posting yet. Still a lot I can learn on my own...

[Elwell]

You should start a thread in the Sketchbooks section. Everything is worth posting.

[jmw]

I suggest you spend your time drawing from life rather than imagining objects if your goal is to work on your technical skills. Going out to draw real trees will teach you so much more about how they really look (it's the same with anything else). Artists learn more about everything by studying how it looks in real life; color, lighting, texture, etc.) Your drawing looks very much like a made up tree: The trunk and branches are perfectly rounded and tapered in size as they grow vertically, it has the same general rhythm or curvy-ness from top to bottom, The groups of leaves perfectly frame the branches without ever overlapping. And try not to be afraid of fully leafed trees. Both leafy trees and bare trees have an overwhelming amount of detail, so much so that either way you're going to have to figure out a way to suggest that detail. So you're going to run into the same drawing predicaments if you wait to draw bare trees.