Delete This Thread Admins!!!

[Zebz]

* You might want to start at the bottom of the thread, I swear there's at least a little bit of improvment here! LoL *

Hey, everyone. Thanks for checkin' out my thread. I've been meaning to start one of these for a while and after spending most of the summer working on graphic design crap I've been neglecting my sketchbook. It's not difficult to notice that people who start these things ususally grow and I'm ready to head down that long road... yes, long it surely is. LoL I've been holding off on starting this thread because I wanted to get better before posting. But I figured this would be a great means of getting better so why wait? I hope it works!

So again, I thank you in advance for the help. I'm in dire need of an accountability system and I think this will help me. And now, on for my dump of crap. Take care everyone. I appreciate criticisms, helps, ideas, whippings, anything nourishing really. :yummy: Guide me and grow me into the artist I need to be! Yeah, that's enough with the ramble. Here's the post.

From Picz


unfinished crap


The upperleft is a sketch of my GF from life... rest jus' doodles


1st page of my new sketchbook... never do any sort of color so I tried some colored pencils. Haven't used those in a while.


Random sketches...






Trying to get back into the habit of doin' still lifes so here's a boot. Lost intensity halfway through as you'll see.


A few failed attempts at SPs.... something else I need to keep pluggin' at. The bottom one is a quick sketch of my friend Chris while he's watching TV.


And here starts the random doodles I do when I have free time in my cube at work. It doesn't happen often but it's the most fun I ever seem to have sketching. LoL All done with BIC pens. I don't know why but I love those pens so much. You get great value out of them. I feel more comfortable in the medium. I just seem more relaxed I think. I sort of feel out the image. Sometimes I really have some neat lookin' stuff come out of these doodles. Anyhow, here's a few. Nothin' big.








Thanks again for lookin'. Peace.

- Ryan

[liam.c]

hay thats great u started one and a nice introduction too
looks liek youve been working hard keep going !i think its really cool to see progress liek this ,ive got a million sketch books lying aroudn but never every look at them once finished lol but here i end up looking at the first posts and checking agenst pluss theres a ton of great artests here so its ncie to have soem response .
um i dnno waht to say im not verry good at being critical especialy over the internet i guess the only thing that stood out was that the cheek bones look really pronounced and from teh front it reminds me a bit of the old marvel style ... i think look at peopel and try to see the planes or surface and angle of the parts of the face and the angles that thay meet .. the surface form that might help a bit .. the skin kinda gets streatched from the hanging points off the bones and is supported undernetth by tissue .. so the creveses normaly arnt so pronounced
dnno if that helps looks liek your fiugures are looking good from the llittle sketch and looks liek you have been at it for a bit so jsut keep going and i cant wait to see your progress :hello!:

[liam.c]

looking back agean heres maby help on the cheek thing see wehre the cheek bone meets the ear start there and make a line to where the corner of the bottem of the chin and thats sorta how it hangs <its late im sicks hope im makeing some kiinda sense ,sorry if im not (>

[Zebz]

Liam - Thanks a ton for posting man! Yeah, I've always drawn but never really "seriously". So when I started about a year ago (and I've still slacked off quite a bit!) I started keeping sketchbooks and the progression thing, it's crazy. I'm still no where near happy with my skills. But when I look at where I used to be it's hard to stay upset for long. I'll get there in time.

And thanks for the cheek crit. I'll try and take that into account. I already have actually. I struggle with rendering. I always seem to over do it or get muddy with my value. I dunno. I need to rely on white space more or the light. I'm so freakin' tired. I'm rambling. LoL I should have an update tomorrow sometime so be lookin' for it! Thanks again for taking the time to post. Take care.

Ryan

[liam.c]

ayh keep going usualy after a year u say ok i can do it so looks liek your at a great spot
thats how i decided to start .. i said .. ok ill give my self 1 year and see if i can learn any thing ill do it every day for 8 hours a day <some times more > and if i dont get any better thats it ill stop .. and well i got better so kept going
jsut allways keep a pencil or pen in your pocket<and i do meen in your pocket not your car or any place else> .. well boath really <mechanical pencil so u dont have to worrie about sharping>and any time u sit or stop moving start sketching on any thing around
going good i have the free oc but i dont really know how it works :/ but shrue ill give it a try with ya

[Zebz]

Liam - Thanks for being the postin' in my thread. LoL It's nice that someone else is viewing these scrawls that I call drawings! Do you really draw for 8 hours a day? DANG. See... I really need to make this a habit. Read my post below and you'll see my struggle. Oh, and about the OC, it's no big deal. I'm new to it as well but it is good fun. My AIM is ZRSBNETZ. Hit me up sometime.

And now for the update. Yeah, it has been crap for drawing week in ZebzFree's sketchbook. I can't concentrate when I draw and you'll see it in some of these. I just took some of the better stuff and posted it. I didn't say any of it was good... just better then some of the other crap I managed to doodle out of my hand this week.

The thing is that I really don't do this enough. And now I'm pissed at myself because my skills have fallen from where they were months ago. I've been doing much more graphic design work and now my drawing abilitiy has gone down the tubes. And I'm lacking patience. I'm trying to draw some anatomy studies and I can't even copy the damn drawings from my anat. books. I can't stop being so damn fidgety! Drawing recently has just made me want to scream! ARGH! Well, rather then continue to whine about my frustration I'll just post the stuff I do have for you. Someone please give me some direction. LoL I might have more depending on how the rest of the night's drawing goes. We'll see.

Here we go. Remember there are some things you can never UN-see. You've been warned. LoL



Life drawing that grew dull.... lost patience... first example... lol


BIC pen doodle of... God knows what...


Abandoned Self Portrait... eyes are too small and close together I think. Otherwise it was movin' along nicely.




BIC Pen - More random doodles from work


Thanks for lookin'. Take care.

Ryan

[liam.c]

say i dont think your skills are falling off i think its improveing really . some times when you sketch for a bit then stop and start agean at first you feel lik eyou dont like the new stuff and think god last week i could draw x but now i cant :/ but its not really true .. thats jsut an expression of the feelign like you want to do better and thats a good thing .. you see ? hmm well heres a couple other things that i have seen watching people grow like this and my self for that matter ...
you know how some days you feel like damn .. thats nice and then next your like wtf i cant draw .. or maby its a couple days with a couple days of crap inbetween .. well thats the way it works .. but waht happens when you keep going is those spaces of furstration and crap become shorter and shorter .. and the good day sets become longer and longer <at this time you learn alot over a shorter period>... eventualy there comes point where good days are most of the time .. but! your not done yet
theres another hump to get over when you start being satifyed a bit ,when you start to really know waht your doing, you will at the same time platau a bit and this can be frustrating too ... done worrie though just keep going

heres a couple more things
draw shit thats fun for you ... never ever ever draw cuz you feel like you have to dont feel liek you have to do x .. imidiatly you will be contrary to it and will get board/frustrated easy ... for example if you set up a still life and its shit you dont care about you probly at this point lose intrest verry easy .. so do the still life but put shit in it that you enjoy or like .... insted of some boreing grandma still life with shoes and a combe and a vase .. go get you self a skull your old combat boots and a mirror and a giant zombi toy or some thing like this .. you see make it fun

when you sketch and are trying to learn take it one thing at a time for that day or waht ever pick some thing and try and see it all day .. weather it be imagioning perspective lines off every edge you see ,liek tryin to find the vanishing points in the real world .. then that day do your perspective work <note every thing else that stikes you as well and go back to that later >

if your doing studies on anatomy thats cool jsut make shure that you do some thign fun and apply it after .. like for example alot of people i see in here do 3 pages of neck studies or waht ever from bridgemans .. then go back to drawing as thay did compleetly ignoreing exactly wha tthay jsut studied ...so do the neck study then draw soem head and sholder pics of people or monsters or waht ever and apply waht you jsut studied you will get the most out of it this way

really once you figure out how to learn .. you can apply this to any subject .. since this art thing is mostly a solitary learning process you really must teach your self to learn after that every things much smoother ,,you see ?

and the last bit :there will come a time wehn you will start to see the world .. in a diffrent way .. most of your visual expreaence will involve seeing the world as art and all the ways that the world is represented though art as ... hmm how to put this exactly ... ok hows this .. you know that movie the matrix ? and the fella is sitting watching the computer screen and its all filld with symbols and such and the other fella says some thign like "wow how can you read that ,or some thing liek this .. and the siting fella says after a while he stops seeing the code and all he sees is girl ,barn ,sunnyday .... ect well its sorta like that not exactly .. but you wills start seeing the world for waht it is not jsut the symbols we attach to it .

so wehn you approch it dont jsut draw a "nose" or a "cheek" or "vomit" get in there and know waht those are
rember .. you cant eat the menu

keep going mate dnno of any of that helps you but id be happy to anser any questions you have and if i cant answer we can find out or find some one that can answer

[bizarre]

liam, i hope you don't mind.. but i totally disagree with you about the making art fun part.

if you start picking and choosing what you like to draw and what you don't, then pretty soon you'll start to get pigeonholed. you'll paint yourself into a corner. you'll start taking for granted that this is here and that is there, and pretty soon your observation skills will have dulled to the point where you end up drawing everything the same way... same light, same angle, whatever, just because you're used to it like that or you like it that way.

try, if you're going to draw from reference, try looking at the reference upside down. draw it upside down, too. should make a challenge for you.

but don't get caught up in making everything a challenge, or else you'll end up struggling with the most basic things, trying to learn everything again... so on and so forth.

[arghmisfit]

good stuff zeb

keep doing what ur doing and do more anatomy studies everyday, and u will improve loads!

[liam.c]

oh zeb hope i didtn confuse hehe was verry long post soory if did ... yah by saying make it fun i meen to say in any type of work you can pick things to keep it fun ... do yoyur studies. but dont leave it at that do some thing fun with it that you want to do durring or after .what im geting at is dont just do an anatomy studie and leave it at that .. try some thing that you want to do and apply what you just learnd .. you see ? hope that clairify .

it looks like its comeing along well too some real nice stuff in there

[nmcleod]

hey, some really great stuff here. i'd say the main thing i noticed that you need to work on a bit more are face studies and still lifes. i think you've gotta push yourself to finish these still lifes even when you hit that wall and it gets incredibly boring.
anyways, nice stuff. i'll come look again soon.
peace
-nate

[Zebz]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I knew that this sketchbook thread would help me a lot and it already has started to. Thanks for the uplifting comments. Ya'll are great.

Liam - Thanks, bro. I completely understand what you're saying. And you're right. I should always enjoy drawing regardless of the subject. I need to give myself some space and allow time for other doodles as well that are more fun, etc. I'll try and take some of those comments and make them a part of my new sketchbook "learning process". Draw some studies and then work them into work that I enjoy. We'll see how I do with that. Thanks again for the comments. You've been a big help this week. I have no one but myself to blame for my struggle though. I've neglected my drawing time a lot this summer and now I'm trying to pick up the slack. Eh, all in due time.

Bizzare - I agree but disagree. LoL I don't think Liam was really leaving out the challenges but I think with those challenges there must be some sort of fun involved. Or else it just turns into work. We all need an outlet. Thanks for commenting.

arghmisfit - Thanks for the comments. I'll keep on pushing. You do the same!

Well, I cleaned the crap out of my car today (that took 5 hours, yeah, deep clean) and then took my girlfriend out tonight so I didn't get much drawing in today. I might try and sketch around a bit before bed but it's already 1 AM sooooo.... here's a small update. Here's what I did manage off and on through out the day. I might keep playin' with some of it but I doubt it. Thanks again for the comments. Take care.


Oh, that big messed up face is from ref... sort of... I was watching Akira while doodlin' from a pic. Then got tired of it and started drawing other things that I left incomplete. I guess that's another thing to work on... finishing what I start. LoL

[liam.c]

yeah! nice man thats looking good ) face and the right well the whole thign really )i really like )keep going jsut make shure u allways have some ting to draw with in your pocket ) sneek in some sketches when you can )

and damn i hear ya about the 5 hour car cleening .. mines soo full of shit lol im afrade to open the passenger door hahaha for fear of drowning in trash lol the pop bottles have now crested over the seat hahahha

[liam.c]

hay !!! where are the updates!?!?!? get to work slacker

[Zebz]

Thanks for the kick in the butt, Liam. LoL I thought this week was going to be semi-productive but then I started dreaming of a 15" Powerbook G4. All thoughts and efforts were consumed by this lustful desire. LoL I'm still looking into it and hopefully I can snag one. Pricey bastards but man, they look oh, so sleek. I originally wanted the 17" but I figured it'd be too bulky to carry around to school and stuff. Any comments? I'm crazy excited about this computer. Eh, this is a sketchbook thread. On to that.

Like I said, not a lot out of me this week. Nothing really worth posting either besides this below. I'm trying to work up a portfolio so I can try and get into a few schools with decent art programs here in St. Louis. I'd really love to get a scholarship but I'm probably far off from that. So the first is a drawing I did of my girlfriend sleeping from life. And the second is a WIP of an ad for toothpaste or something. I had the idea a while ago and just recently started fleshing it out in Photoshop. I'm trying to show diversity. I figure I may not be able to draw for a living but the next best thing is graphic design so I'm trying to show some strong skills there. I'll post a completed version of this when I wrap it up. Maybe the concept will be better understood then. Until next time, I'm going to be drawing more often. Probably less sketching and more finished work since I need a crap load of work for this portfolio. So maybe not as much work but hopefully some higher quality work. We'll see. Thanks again for kickin' me in the balls.

- Ryan

[liam.c]

haha ! nice man verr much improvement .. some times you jsut have to let it gestate woot yah i want a new lap top too my old one soo godamn slow if trying to use painter or photoshop "

[AndreasM]

Hey! Thanks your your post in my thread It's time to return the favour. I haven't read all the replies, so sorry if I'm repeting things that have allready been said.

I really like your latest life drawing. It looks pretty concistant...You might want to add a general value, though, instead of a white backgreound. It will bring a lot more tone to the image, and the highlights will be more effective.

Your faces bothers me. Generally, you seem to draw the same face (your own?) all the time; they all have the same, strong features. (Then again, I'm not completely sure about wich one is a sp and whoose not...ooh the grammar ) You might want to check out Loomis' "Fun with a pencil". It covers some of the different variations of the many facial features.

Some advises on shading: Remember to wathch the direction of your strokes; find the planes and follow them. Start with light values and build up slowly. Dont be afraid if it looks crude. If you aren't satisfied with your study/drawing, analyze your mistakes. Look for eventual anatomy issues, problems with perspective, planes etc etc. If you can understand your mistakes, and know how to fix them, do it! Drawing the whole thing again might seem like a tedious task, but you will improve quicker.

Sorry...this is going to end a little harsh...
Your design piece scares me. Since the different elements are scattered all over the place, the 'piece' has no sense of direction. Also, you have choosen to use the four most boring colours ever (yellow, red, blue and green) at the same time. The colour theeme might fit the target audience, but then again...I'd suggest that you avoid combining theese colours. If you want to show off your strong designig skills, study compositions, make a set of thumbnails, do some layout scetches and then start concentrating on the finnished product. Don't get me wrong. I like the idea, but the execution should be better.

Good luck! With your portfolio.

[Zebz]

Whoa, did you guys think I died or what?! LoL I've just been super busy with school starting up and stuff. I'm trying to keep up on my own sketching stuff but my time just keeps getting sucked up by class work/projects, etc. So here's a bit of an update. Hopefully I can be more productive this semester then I was for this past month or so. I really need to do more studies. So hopefully you'll be able to see s'more of 'em.

Liam: Dude, I bought that Powerbook. That killed my drawing drive for weeks too. LoL It's so awesome, I just hate the price tag it stuck in my gut. But seriously, it's one sweet little piece of equipment.

NoFish: Thanks for the critz and comments! I'm always trying to improve my shading abilitiy and rendering is something I often slack on. I'll see if I can pick it up and kick into a higher gear. As for the faces, a few of those are SP's so yeah, you're bound to see a bit of me in there. I usually label them. But I've found that my faces are becoming more and more similar so I'm trying to avoid doing the norm when drawing them. I'll be sure to do some more face studies as well.

As for the toothpaste ad, well, it's not done. I think that might be what scared you! LoL It does look all over the place. I just don't have everything postioned, etc. As for color scheme, it's an ad for a "kids" toothpaste so of course the colors are going to be bright and all over. I'll consider some of what you said though. Reminds me, I need to finish this!

Now for the post:

Speaking of SPs, there's a brief crap of an SP! Plus random doodles during classes. I didn't include my pages of doodles from work in this post since their at work and I'd rather not post more useless crap. I mean, this is enough!


I have no understanding of anatomy. So I've sketched a bit from Burne Hograth. Just trying to keep it simple. I have plenty of time to get confused later.


More studies here. And even a bit of what you were talking about earlier Liam (drawing something to see what you've learned after you drew the study, etc.). I'm pretty happy with this. I'm going to keep workin' on my arms and then move on, etc. I'll take it one body part at a time.


Scanned a bit dark. Not finished crapping all over this page yet. The unfinished hooded guy is refed from a book on Egypt that I have.


Some stuff I'm workin' on for school. We have an assignment in Drawing for Graphics where we're creating illustrations for a dictionary. Lack of light source on this one. Blows. I hadn't used ink in a while. Didn't erase me pencil lines beneath befor ethe scan. My apologies.


More school stuff. Conte on big arse paper and drawn from life. It's a cow skull. This is a digital pic so it sucks and it's dark, sorry! This was supposed to be a line drawing but I got really caught up in the form and it sort of got "Value-y".


Same class. Same cowskull from life, conte. The skull is upside down here and we were told to zoom in on an area and draw it. so there's not much compositionaly here. Blazed through this one because the teacher wanted me to try something different and had to draw this drawing twice.


Thanks for stoppin' in! Critz and comments welcome! Take care.

-ry

[liam.c]

looking good man .. and big gratz ont hat powerbook ! now let me barrow it please

[Zebz]

Liam: Thanks, man. I'm really trying to find time to get more work done but there isn't much. I guess it helps if you don't have to work and go to school and all that stuff. At least the school work is art! And yes, the Powerbook is off the jive chain. Yep, I said it. And you can borrow it if your promise not to scratch her! She's my girl!

And now for an update of sorts. Not a lot of sketching going on lately, mostly school work and pen doodles in my notebooks. Won't bother posting those. But here's a page from my sketchbook and some ink drawings from school. The sketchbook page is just a little environment thing (I seldom do these so I'm trying to make myself) and a design for a project in my design class that I had to paint recently. We're exploring color and mixing color. I'm so afraid of color. I can barely draw and now their throwing this into the mix?! lol The pen drawings are more of the illustrations for the "drawings for the dictionary" assignment. My class seemed to like them. More to come. 4 done and I need 10 all togehter. Sheesh. Thanks for lookin'. I wonder why I don't get more posts? Is it all really that bad? LoL Maybe I shouldn't have asked!

[liam.c]

wow shit yah man you rockn thease looks liek your really likeing your new classes i think all looks good !

[Zebz]

Thanks Liam, I am havin' some fun. I just need to get that extra time for the personal stuff I'd like to practice/work on. Thanks for the encouragment.

[rodrigo!]

some good stuff there man, youre improveing

[Sok N. Wett]

Good shit bro, I came to pay respect and I got more than just that I got some eye openers. I'll be checking your thread for updates as well, take care.


-Sok

[imglue]

you seem to be getting better with the pencil, try and use least amount of line when forming out contour shapes, also keep you crosshatches consistent. use line quality in your praphite work, your pen stuff is pretty strong, id like to see you take that in a new direction.

keep it up

[liam.c]

oi !!! wehres the updates !!! get back to work you lazy pencil !

[maxetormer]

thanks for droping by
the progression is looking good so far
keep the updates coming!!

P. S. that face cave rules!!!!

[Zebz]

rodrigo: Thx, bro, I think I am. I mean, seriously, you've seen the way old stuff so you know how far I've come. When ever I get pissed about my progression I just go back and look where I was a year ago. Then all is well again. Apprecaite the post.

SoknWet: Thanks a ton for stoppin' by, man. I appreciate the props, I hope you'll be a regular here! I need people to put a fire under my arse. BTW, you've got some nice progression over at your thread too.

imglue: Ah, critz! Thank you so much! I agree, I depend on line way to much. Hopefully ouy'll find some better stuff coming with less line involved. It's just habit I think. I love that line. Agreed on the hatching too, something people are always commenting on. I think I often confuse hatching with the pencil strokes when shading so I get real liberal with it. I'll try to keep mindful about it. And yeah, I'm in a comfortable pen place that's hard to move from. It's my own little style I've developed over the years of playing with pens. My illustration teacher actually told me the same thing about moving in a new direction with it. I'll see what I can do there as well. Thanks again for stoppin' by. It means a lot.

liam: As usual, thanks for the continuous kick in the butt. I should have more for you by the time this weekend's over. Need to find a groove and stick with it. I think this computer takes up too much of my time. Eh. What doesn't. Thanks, man.

maxetormer: AH! The skull-cave! Someone commented! LoL I was so proud of that! I don't ever do environments but I had an idea for once and went with it and was pretty happy with how it developed. And it's inspired me to want to work on more stuff like that so I'm very glad you liked it! And thank you for stopping by! You know I've already told you how I really enjoy your work so you too, keep it up.

Thanks again to everyone for all the posts, very encouraging. This week has been killer midterm week so I don't have much as far as updates. I finished the pen drawings for my class but some of them are so half assed I won't bother posting them. I did actually work on a pen drawing for a class midterm as well using studies we did earlier in the semester (tree drawings) but I forgot to scan before I turned it in! So yeah, my time has been sucked away by studying and working on midterm crap. Not to mention the St. Louis Cardinals games that I've been sucked into watching. GO CARDS! LoL Eh, anyhow, here's a few things I managed to scan and have to share with ya'll.

Not much but an idea that I was messin' with. I'd like to work on a more finished piece using this idea or perhaps paint it up with Photoshop. We'll see if I can stop being lazy and do it.


A sketchy page of meaningless garble.


A finished pencil illustration for my Drawing for Graphic class. The ideas was to communicate a phrase without saying it, this was an easy one, "I hear a train a comin'." The class liked it so thought I'd toss it up here.


Thanks again for the posts! Critz and comments welcome. Take care.

~Ryan

[rodrigo!]

i like that last one man but i think the eyes came out really flat, like they look a bit too close together but mainly they look as if they are some holes in his face, i think you should render them more, after all the eyeball is a sphere.

[Zebz]

rodrigo: Yeah, it's not really realistic proportionally, it's cartoony and that's what I was sort of goin' for I guess. I don't know why I didn't render the eyes. It was more of a design decision if I remember correctly. The eyes are big and white in a dark area and they sort of draw the viewer's eye off the bat. Then I was hoping that I could pull their eye through the rest of the piece a certain way to towards the train... eh, maybe I should add some shades to 'em. Thanks for the crit!

Here's one more from tonights doodle session. I need to draw much faster. I'm slow and usually other things take my attention away from the sketches so that doesn't help. I'm often watching movies or something. BTW, you'll notice I came up with an idea for a Thunderdome concept, Popples! LoL I just came up with the idea tonight after I drew that animal thing and added that tail and it reminded me of that series. I'm excited to reconcept this character. I'll have to reread the Thunderdome rules tho. But the possibilities are endless. This will be a ton of fun!

All from my head except for the asian boy, from a photo. Bad drawing tho... must practice photo refs! Ack!

[Pichuerca]

Cool Stuff! you are improving so fast... keep it

[Zebz]

Pichuerca: Thanks a lot man. I don't know about this improving so fast stuff! LoL I'm trying but nearly as hard as I need to. Thanks for the post and I'll do my best to stay on the ball with these posts. I did some anatomy studies today so I'll have some effort to show in the next batch of sketches. Thanks again.

[Sok N. Wett]

Great stuff man, I see at least your keeping something up once in awhile...lol....I need to get crackalackin on mine.

[Zebz]

Wow, this is actually getting daily! LoL

SokNWet: Thanks man, I'm trying to post more. Now go get to work yourself!

Here's some leg/hip studies, I always have problems when it comes to this area of the figure so I thought some studies would do me some good. I think I'm going to try and do a page of just constructed figures because I have a hard time drawing the entire body, y'know? Eh. Hopefully I'll get some time in tomorrow. Here's those studies and a WIP of one of the sketches I posted earlier being painted up in PS. I have no idea what I'm doing as far as painting goes, let alone digital stuff. So I apologize for the ickiness. We'll chalk this up to learning tho. Comments and critz always welcome.

[rodrigo!]

nice work man! keep studying the waist and stuff it helps a lot in constructing the legs, so yea , keeeeeeeeep going ....daily

[Elastic]

Thanks for your comment
Really nice work, you seem quite relaxed in your style, therefore
I can't help thinking that you'd make good progress if you
studied the skull a bit more..your eyes are in general placed too high..
From side-view, -the guy next to the asian boy is a good example, the forhead should be bigger, the eyes a bit back and the "slope" between forhead and nose should be bigger, you also make the chin a bit too large and the neck too long sometimes..
the rest is really good, that's why I'm telling you, if you could "nail the head"
more convincing you would improve a lot I think.
your skull-cave is really good. And the asian boy is great
keep posting
Naja

[Zebz]

rodrigo: Thanks, man. I need to keep studying everything really. LoL I have so much work to do if I'm ever going to get as good as I want to. I'd like to start working on more finished pieces tho too. I have some ideas for some finished works but for some reason I never develop the ideas fully on paper. We'll see if I can get that done in the future as well so I can start communicating more through my art, etc.

Elastic: Thanks so much for the comments and critz! I'm glad I seem relaxed, I don't feel that way usually! I'm trying to lighten up and just enjoy the line and feel it out more. But I don't get the results I'd like either way. Anyhow, facial studies have never been a big issue for me, I've always drawn way to many heads. lol But I agree, I haven't studied the head in a long time and I've gotten a little lazy with structuring it, etc. I'll get on some studies of the head/neck area. Just for you! And I'm really glad you've liked some of my work. Always an encouragment to see that people actually see improvment as well. Thanks for the post!

[Zebz]

I don't have much to post but I'm trying to stay somewhat consistant. I started doing some head/skull studies as you'll see but I lost focus. I'm tired and wanna go to bed. LoL Tons of mistakes in these too. The second one is a sketch I did during art history and graphic production today. Loads of lectures today for some reason. I apologize for the crude notebook paper. I know that's a carnal sin around here! And sorry I don't have anything more dynamic. Hopefully the rest of the week will bring better stuff. I'm all wrapped up in the MLB playoffs too so that doesn't help. GO CARDS! I really hope we can pull this one out and win the series. Eh, we'll see. On with the crap...

[Burning Eyes]

Yeah Samurai!

[Zebz]

LoL Yes, burning, it's a samurai... or a pathetic attempt at one!

[liam.c]

"i put my pants on one leg at a time .. jUSTt liek you fellas .. except when i dO i make gold records ." lol ZEB!! BEST ICON EVER

[Zebz]

LoL Wasn't that skit funny as crap? I loved it and when I found this icon on the web I had to use it. It's too freakin' great. Nice to see someone else recognizes it. I didn't think anyone would know where it was from! Liam, that makes you oh so cool. 8) No posts on my work tho so that makes you a not so cool... vampire... ok, that was out of hand right there.

I have some sketches an stuff but I'm butt tired and don't feel like scanning. I'll have a healthy update this weekend tho. God willing. Thanx again for da' post.

[maxetormer]

Keep the studies up man
Those legs studies look solid i specialy
like the rendering of that pelvis.
I can see you are really pushing you self
You might want try to make some thumbnials with
gesture drawings to loosen up you strokes, I have tried
to do this kind of studies my self and it really helps to
improve the dinamics of the caracters.

Keep it up!!! I really enjoy waching yer development

[Zebz]

It's official... I'm still a SLACKER! I thought I'd be albe to crawl out of that. School is my excuse... and the World Series spanking the Cardinals recieve. Still recovering from that. LoL School continues to load me up. I've got painting and another drawing project due this week so maybe I'll upload those once I finish. I just haven't spent enough time sketching. I'm really in a drawing mood tho. I saw Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and The Grudge this week so there's tons of influence going on! I just to get it out! ARG... and I've gotta go to a Halloween party tonight... I want to draw! AHHH!!! I'll do my best to get more in this weekend/week. Sorry for being a loser.

maxetormer: Thanks again for the post! I'm glad you see improvment... I was seeing it and then I sort of dropped off. LoL I understand what you're saying about thumbnails too. I really struggle with those. I wish someone could help me thumbnail sketch better. Any ideas? I'll crank out some in my next batch. Thanks for the comments and critz. You're stuff is looking awesome as well!

And now comes the time where I squat down and dump... just two crappy doodle pages this week. The one with the big face at the top was an SP I started of myself while waiting for school to start in my car. Ran out of time so I finished it later and made it older lookin' and crazy. The light sources were messed up so that might explain some of the idd shadows, etc. These probably aren't even worth lookin at. Oh and the girl in the other one is my GF from life. Quick sketch tho. The bottom one is more accurate of course.

[geki]

I did some study on muscles, bones, anatomy...
It really helps, I just wanted to thank you for that advice
I really couldn't imagine that studying what if inside could help us to draw better what is outside.
Thanks a lot zebzfree

[Joeslucher]

Something I consistently notice in your drawings is size and placement of the ears are frequently off. I'd get out some photos and draw lines to find where they normally are. They're usually the same height as the distant between the top of the eyebrow and bottom of the nose.

[Sok N. Wett]

Dude you been slacking off for awhile.....lol I have done the same, but back on the boat I hope. Patiently waiting for more of your sweet drawings, and a side of kickass.

["ChEsTeR"]

Whoa!! Your drawings are so fun to look at. I'd be stoked to see some more of your drawing colored like your Skizatch one. Really cool thread.

-"I've been holding off on starting this thread because I wanted to get better before posting. But I figured this would be a great means of getting better so why wait?"

I think you just convinced me to start one

[Zebz]

Long time no see! LoL Sorry. I know I'm a freakin' loser for not keepin' up with this. School and other crap have sucked away my sketchbook time. Here's some stuff tho. I'm trying to stay with it more now. Goin' for a more "finished" look but I usually get distracted and can't finish anything. I'm a loser. I'm gonna try my best to be a winner. Promise. Critz and comments are more then welcome. End of ramble.

geki: Keep 'em up. They really will help. I need to do more. I need to memorize those suckers!

Joeslucher: Thanks for sayin' that, man. I went back and looked, sure enough. I've been trying to keep that in mind from here on out. I'm always checkin' out those ears. Thanks a ton.

SoknWet: Those portraits you've been rockin' lately are lookin' nice, bro. Keep up the work and thanks for postin'. I really need people stickin' their foot up my arse.

Chester: Whoa! I inspired someone to do something other then get the heck out of this thread?! LoL I'm glad you like my crap here. I'll try and get more color work out to you. I've got a nice colored pencil illustration I did for a class. I should get it back some time this week so be on the look out. I've got some Prismacolors now so I'm hopin' to be all over those. Thanks for the post. I'll be lookin' for your sketchbook!

On with the mutha frickin' crap!

Some Bic doodles from work.


I've been into Eastern art more than usual thanks to art history. I'd like to do a massive Buddha illustration. We'll see.


More sketchbook crap.


The left is an self portrait/study for a larger one. I'm gonna try and learn the planes of my own face first. I can't ever draw myself right. The right side is some wierd robot priest.


Started messin' with OC a bit more recently. Here's a couple of the batch of crap I've done in OC. The second one is with Hito (vaginal monster lol) and LightKirtar (noses an stuff). Mine is the stuff on the left and the chick head on the far right.



Large oversized school stuff. First one was a pastel and we were supposed to make one pumpkin more detailed and the others all blurry. From life. The second, also from life, is pastel and conte. The conte was to be in line alone and the pastel was to be full color. I was havin' problems so sort of tried a different approach to the pastels. Worked out kind neat. We'll see.



Thanks for lookin'. Comments and Critz are muy welcome.

- Ry

[liam.c]

hells yah !!! cheer zeb ! i was wondering were you went off too .. thought maby to make some gold records

[Zebz]

I was working on my hit single, "You're Ugly, But There's Nobody Cute Around" with my hit band Hatchback Love. We're really big in India right now and on the verge of hitting it big in Japan. I owe it all to the cowbell.

Who am I kidding? I stole that song quote from Strong Bad (Homestarrunner.com) and that makes me even more of a loser. Someday, Hatchback Love will be a reality!

It's late. Forgive me for more ramblings. Thanks for stoppin' in Liam. You rock my balls off, mate!

[rodrigo!]

nice work the pastels are lookin awesome so far , great stuff

about time u posted

[Zebz]

Rodrigo: Thanks for the encoragment man. I hate pastels. LoL I was banging those things around for days tryin' to get something outta them! They finally started to look like something once I got to the Pumpkins.

Another day, another post. Wow. I'm so busy right now with the end of the semester hitting and freelance projects up my anus. So I'd love to be sketching more (I'm so friggin' inspired too! ARG!) but can't find the time. I've gotta start workin' on a finished self portrait drawing for a class/final so I thought I'd work on analyzin' me head! It's been kind of tough but I'm really learning a ton more than I thoguht I would. I'm gonna keep up these studies for another page or so before I dive into the big dish.

I did have a couple problems tho and I wanted to see if someone would give me some help. How the heck do you people draw so well with an ink pen?! I'm talkin' not rendering but those "economy of line" type drawings. I tried some of that yesterday and totally went to crap. I couldn't get any confident lines right. Takes practice I guess. And if someone could give me some pointers on gestures I'd appreciate that too. I tried some of those after not doing them in a LONG time and those crapped out too. I'll be going out and trying to do some more so I'll be able to show you how that goes. On with the post. Sorry, I'm always such a blabber mouth.

Those head analysis beginings I mentioned...

Just some doodles... I want to try and draw the entire figure more. But I keep feelin' like I need a bigger sketchbook. Maybe once I finish this one off. I kind of like the dwarf guy. I might do a big ol' finished illustration using him or something like him. I really like drawing heavy/fat/thick people lately (note the Buddha earlier). I don't know why. Maybe I identify.

And finally some school stuff... These either scanned like crap or photoed that crap so sorry about that. I'm pretty happy with the first one. I think it shows some improvment over earlier stuff. Just the photo looks dumpy. Eh, oh well.




Comments and Critz welcome. Thanks all.

~Ryno

[Sok N. Wett]

Dude your really turning heads, those are excellent progress, well done mate. I'm loving what your doing, it's starting to pay off, your figures are better defined now, keep it up.

[o0Dave0o]

Wow, its amazing to see your skills develop through this thread! Im really likeing the direction you drawing is going! Your anatomy studies seem to be paying off. Your faces are really starting to shape up, yet I do notice that they all seem to have big lips...or maybe thats just me.

Well I look forward to updates and I hope that my sketchbook develops my skill as much as yours appears to have for you!

Cheers,
Dave

[rodrigo!]

your ink renderings are real nice

[Zebz]

Sok N Wet: I'm workin' on it, bro. Thanks for the encouraging words. It's nice to hear. I don't get too many posts on this thread. Sometimes I wonder why. So thanks, those words were just what I needed to hear! I've been excited about my art lately. I've got all these ideas and no time to output them! ARG! I've gotta grab hold of the vibe before it slips away!

o0Dave0o: Thanks for the post! Again, encouraging words! I'm starting to see some progression in my work too so it makes me want to keep pushing. It's always helpful when other people chip in start kickin' my butt as well! I'm with you on the lips. Mine are sorta big so I guess they show up everywhere. I'll try and make an effort to chill them out. Thanks again for the post! Come back whenever you'd like and do it again! LoL

rodrigo: Thanks... that tree drawing didn't turn out like I wanted it to but I got some neat textures out of the bark. Eh, maybe next time. Thanks for the post.

[maxetormer]

Your doing really good man, that rendering in sepia tones
are some fine pices of work, you are really working hard and
improving fast!! seriouly you hard work is really paying off keep
the updates coming dude!!!

Critics:

You are doing good by making the head studies,
but you are still makeing the eyes to almond shaped,
keep doing the prespective studies with spheres for the
eye balls, but pay more ateccion to the shape of the eyelids.

Keep it UP! your progess is going great so far,

and keep the updates coming too!!!

[Zebz]

maxetormer: Thanks a ton for the post, bro! And critz! WOO HOO! LoL

Yea, I was pretty happy with the conte drawing of the still lifez. It's amazing what you can do when you work hard at something and really try your best to accomplish it. Normally I don't put that sort of effort into my sketchbook but I'm going to try.

I'm hearing you on those eyes too. I've always struggled with them. I can't ever get them to look the way I want them to. I'll spend some time working on those especially. I appreciate the crit. Thank you SO much!

And yea, I feel like there's improvment. I don't always feel like that. But when I get a whiff of it I always feel more inspired to press on and keep working to get even better. Thanks again for the post, bro. I'll be lookin' for more of your stuff too! I should have another update tonight so stay tuned!

[hurricane]

nice pics !

the best advice i could think about is that you just keep on drawing, and trying to break your boundries alot... both style and imagination, try drawing stuff from another angle or not something you've drawn before..but most important is to just draw draw draw and look at your stuff and try to see what you dont like about it, see it? can you change it ? do that per image and you'll progress faster


cheers !