AK_Guerrero's Sketchbook

[Sleep.less]

Hey, thanks for taking a look at my stuff.
You've got some promissing stuff here. One thing you should work on is your sense of volume and line quality. You need more pencil mileage.
Good to see a lot of will to improve. Keep practicing.

[AK_Guerrero]

@Sleep.less Thanks for stopping by! I definitely need to learn more about line quality and volume. I've been trying to focus on making my lines continuous instead of just little strokes connecting like I usually do and also understanding the value of the line. Hopefully I'll just start seeing volume and form better as I continue to study.

Here's some stuff from the past couple of days.

Using a photo as reference, I tried to study some more about value and form. I need kick the habit of outlining everything and learn when it's best to have a darker line. Also, the shadows could use some more work, would probably be more detailed if I knew some anatomy. Oh well, have to learn the basics to understand complexity.


Some more value studies and gradients


Still life of three eggs. I need to practice on blending the shadows without making an area too dark or too light. Although, I did feel like I'm starting to understand more

[AK_Guerrero]

Here's some drawings from this week. I love drawing with pencil, but scanning them in makes the lines and value look way too light.


Hasty figure drawing and studying some negative space.



Practicing some line quality



Trying to better my measuring skills. Shadows are a little wonky and it also scanned in lighter than expected. Left is original scan and right is changed with levels. The original falls somewhere in between.

[w0rmy]

Great amount of sketches and definate progress visible

Even if you draw digitaly, try not to use "cheats" like automated forms. Better try to draw circles, squars and spheres from your hand itll be more fun and youll learn more.

Cheers

[kamikazel33t]

Hey thanks for the nice words over at my sketchbook. From what I can see you are doing all the right stuff so keep pushing! I've noticed that you mentioned you were trying to improve on line quality, I guess this has to do a lot with pencil mileage and perhaps sticking with a pen might discipline you to think of every line you draw. The rest when it comes to darkness and thickness also known as the "weight" of the line is pretty subjective(at least from what I've learnt) and you can use it to suggest many things like in overlaps or to suggest a shadowed area(if you are just using lines) and even different textures like the transition between skin and drapery for that matter.

[JonoKoi]

Great start to your sketchbook. I'm in my final year of high school too. Great to see you improve like this; You seem to be a very motivated person and that will make you better and better everyday.
I'm no expert but I learnt something the other day that has seen to help my sketches; watch your line weight heavy and light line weight can make an image look just that little bit more interesting and can help imply muscle mass. Maybe try to apply it to your anatomy figure sketches. Just to justify form a bit better. Hopefully I'm of help.
Keep it up.

[AK_Guerrero]

@w0rmy Thanks! I've been trying to stick to traditional just for the basics but slowly converting over to some digital. I agree that relying on automated forms isn't better than actually learning to draw those forms. The only way I can see doing that is if I need a complete and perfect sphere

@kami: No problem, hope it helped and/or encouraged! I do use a pen sometimes and it makes me think a little more before placing down the line, I just need to stop scribbling so much and focus on putting meaning into that line. And thanks for the tips, never really thought of using line weight as a transition

@Jonocoy: Thanks! It's always great to meet people around my age that are interested in art. Thanks for the tip, I've been trying to do things like darker lines in shadow areas and such but I just need to practice more to understand how to better use it. I seem to always start out light but go overboard when I try to darken something or make it more visable. Maybe it's the lighting in my room (or another excuse, we shall see )

Such a busy week! Most of the stuff I created was related to gesture or figure drawing in one way or another. Need to start "expanding my horizons" or something

So to start off, learning more about gesture, form/contour:



Actually tried to participate with the community and did the spartan challenge: 50 gestures (I was actually missing two gestures and didn't notice until it was too late ) and some shoulder studies.:

Here's the gestures:


And here's the studies. Starting to dabble some more into digital

[AdrienneRose]

I'm glad you joined in on the Spartan Camp! This last week's challenge is the second time I've participated, and I really look forward to it now. I can't wait to see your progression. I super loved your shoulder studies! Maybe I should try to draw my studies similarly, I like the way you used the whites and greys.

[AK_Guerrero]

@ AdrienneRose: Thanks, it was pretty fun. Somewhere I saw that putting in a little form light makes the picture pop a little more so I tried experimenting. Still have no idea what I'm doing with digital because I've only been working with traditional.

Oh my goodness.....Where has the time gone? Been busy with some school stuff and kept feeling bored until I noticed that I haven't been drawing at all! Time to get back on track.

Here's some stuff from the break. Most of this has been darkened due to how light it turns up on the scanner. Maybe the resolution on the scanner is set too high or maybe i should start using an actual camera...

I tend to use mechanical pencil because one's usually sitting by the desk, and as much as I like how it stays sharp I might try using a regular pencil or colored pencil more often. I usually get sharp, black lines where I want a soft but still darker line.

[AK_Guerrero]

Been experimenting with some things. Also need to find a better way to scan/take photos.

Tried taking photos but I need a bigger, better light in order to get a nice one


One of the perspective drawings I was practicing


Random bean shapes and some life drawing


HANDS!!! (and Mickey Mouse)

[Raymond Luk]

Dang Josh, just gotta say, your figures have gotten a lot better O_O

[AK_Guerrero]

@Ray: Thanks! Kind of exciting seeing how much has improved since I began.

I need to get back into drawing and uploading more.

Here's some stuff from the short break, still learning some value and having trouble trying to stop outlining things for some reason.
I'm starting to get into a rut in what to draw. I keep hearing to just draw anything and everything, but I seem to always just touch the surface of one subject and then move onto something else . I think I also need to start learning how to push values more and get out of my comfort zone.

*Disclaimer: I need to get a big light or something to make the photographs turn out better, so some of the values are skewed due to messing with the levels.

[AK_Guerrero]

Some stuff from last night




Edit: Last one for the night. Looked at my pen and thought, "I wonder if I can shade like a pencil with a pen". Needless to say, I enjoyed it.

[AK_Guerrero]

Was in town for most of the day today, but I did pick up some stuff from art supply store. Overall, I came out with a gray toned sketchbook, some black and white charcoal pencils, and a neutral gray copic marker. I absolutely have been enjoying all of it.

So with that said, I experimented a little bit, here's some results:

Copic:


Gray Toned Sketchbook:


Last Night. The last three are from a moleskine sketchbook I bought a while ago. While I do like the slimness of it, the pages are way to slick for my liking and i'll stick it in a bookshelf somewhere to be forgotten forever.... .

[AK_Guerrero]

Freehand perspective. Lines are still a bit wobbly and I tend to go over them more than once

[AK_Guerrero]

Still trying to wrap my head around perspective and form while trying to work on my freehand lines. Went into Photoshop (elements unfortunately) and messed around with some value. Also a doodle of a lady and the scissors on my desk.




Edit: Totally forgot about yesterdays stuff!

[AK_Guerrero]

I am actually trying to get more into drawing from life to better understand light and form. Happy how this turned out


Practicing some form and more values



Some stuff from school, trying to get into sketching from life more (even if I totally screw up their faces...)

[Mewball]

Great progress so far dude. Keep it up!

[Sleep.less]

I don't feel that much improvement in your latest pieces. Good drawings, but not 'better'.
As for the many figure drawings and gestures, I don't really see reason in doing the same thing tons of times in order to learn it. It only comes as mechanic muscle memory, like cramming for a test and then forgetting the stuff you've learned.
I'm an adept of the technique 'one but good'. Try doing one piece and study it like hell. Measure everything, lines, proportions, forms, light, values untill you get it right. Take a piece and really consider all these things and you'll see enlightenment.

You need to understand the core and essence of things, because if you only learn to draw a thing, you'll only know how to draw that, but if you learn a 'technique', you can draw anything using that.
Again, doing thousands of quick figure drawings on one page seems superficial to me. I consider quick gesture and figure drawings only as a means to 'loosen up' for a day of drawing than a study technique.

But, maybe you really feel like you've improved and I'm just talking nonsense. Either way, those were my two cents.
Keep drawing.

[AK_Guerrero]

@Mewball - Thanks

@sleep.less - I really do need to thank you for your opinion. Looking back on it now, I've just been wandering around and copying pictures hoping the information would stick. Now that I look back on it, this was a really dumb thing to do. I definitely need to start asking myself "why?" instead of just trying to make a replica. After reading your post, I've been trying to be more observant of the subject and figure out more on how it's affected by perspective, proportion, form, etc. So yea, thanks a bunch! I really needed that kick to snap out of the mindless mode and actually start thinking.



Ok, so after that, here's a taste of some things from the past days. I've been drawing more, it's just haven't scanned much.


One thing I need to definitely work on is my perspective, form, and lighting. So, what better way than from life? Also, one thing I've been experimenting with is redrawing the object from memory afterwards to see how much I've retained.


Some more form stuff and then imagination

[Raymond Luk]

I'm liking the study you did on the controller! :0
A bit off topic, but: bro, join our skype improvement group http://conceptart.org/forums/communi...ort-group.html

Quickly before CA goes to hell! if you've heard recent news, here's what happened
http://cryptcrawler.deviantart.com/j...ties-357909498
http://conceptart.org/forums/lounge/...royalties.html

So a lot of us are leaving CA

[AK_Guerrero]

Yea, I've been following that as well. It's a shame, from what I hear, this isn't the first time something controversial like this has happened on this site.

The group sounds like fun, I'll message and see if I can get added. Thanks!

[AK_Guerrero]

Not much happening today, been trying to make sure everything is turned in so I can have a stress free spring break. Of the stuff I have done, I've been really trying to stick to being observant and understand how everything works. I have felt like my understanding of form has been getting better lately.


While my dog took a nap on my bed, I thought I would try to do a few sketches. She kept flopping around, so I tried to make them quick


I wanted to try a study of an environment, so why not digital? I found the picture in the references sub-forum on the site and went with it. Even though the colors are off and I used my imagination to change some stuff around, I feel like it was a successful learning experience.