Erilaz's Sketchiness. Alphabet sketching. 15/02/09

[Erilaz]

Okay, this is hard. I've been viewing the sketchbook forum for quite a few months now, always awed at the amazing work people have contributed and the inspiring leaps of skill beginners and professionals have made through their time here. It's time I faced up to my fears of inadequacy and let you view my work, if only to be provoked further into making myself a better artist. So here goes:

This here's a pencil sketch (2H) of a lady I on the tram to work this morning. I like tram sketching because i've got about 5 minutes before my subject gets off! I need to work on stronger contrasts in my sketches, if only to get them to scan well!


A couple of pencil studies from last night. Most will recognise where the study of Norman Rockwell comes from, it's part of his famous self portrait. I love Rockwell!:


A study of michelangelo's libyan sibyl in PS:


Another PS study of Durer's feet:


I'm presently ripping into Loomis and doing studies of the masters on recommendation from my upcoming tutor. I'm about to start an intensive course on anatomy drawing, so hopefully you will see improvements in the coming weeks!

Thanks for visiting. Drill me!

[Rebeccak]

Martin,

Great to see your work here! Though...why not on my forum? Totally kidding, I hope this will be of great help to you and I'm sure we will see great things from you!

Cheers!

~Rebeccak

[Farvus]

Good start. It's nice to see someone's improvement from the beginning.

You could get stronger contrast for the "Lady in tram" by just leaving some parts untouched (I mean white). Softer pencil then 2H would be also better

Keep it up... of course.

[Egoartist]

That foot drawing is awesome Erilaz. I'll leave the indepth critique to the experts. But good to see you getting into this.
I hope I'll find the courage to start posting my sketches here soon.

[Art2]

Your drive to become a better artist is admirable, Martin.
I'm looking forward to your sketches.

[Erilaz]

Just another da vinci study for today. Pencil (2h and 2b):



Rebeccak : CGTalk will always be my first love rebecca, don't worry. Thanks for your continual support! I'm sure the workshop is going to be fascinating!
Farvus : Yes, you're right. 2H is a difficult medium to work with to get strong contrasts. I do prefer the good old 2B.
Queensoul Queenie, you're more than ready to post a sketchbook here! Thanks for the praise on the foot. It's one of the few i've been proud of recently!
Art2 : Thanks buddy. I'll try to please!
That fat kid : Thanks for stopping by! I've dropped into your thread and your work is going really well! I have to comment more on people's books. Curse you dial up connection! You're right about the softer pencils. I'll work them more. I've leant away from softs because I hate getting a smudgy book. And yes, I've DEFINATELY seen Wes9000's work. Most of them are printed up on my walls for inspiration!

[Azeira]

try to pay attention to proportion with your figures. if the head is big, make sure that the shoulders and the rest of the body are sized accordingly. otherwise, your just making cartoons.

Woodruff

[rollb82]

good studies, but i am with az in the realm of proportions. it is better to get everything in proportion than it is to be able to render it well in my books. if you have something that isn't proportionate but rendered well it looks like you were just in a rush, unless that is what you are trying to go for. keep up the work and practice on the proportions and construction of what you are drawing before getting too far into rendering it.

[CGMonkey]

I'll be subscribing to this thread, so you better start sharing some awesome sketchbook pages!

Looks good sofar! Goodluck mate!

[Erilaz]

Okay! Big update. I completed Rebecca Kimmel's workshop recently, so here's the results:
These studies are taken from "Artistic Anatomy" by Paul Richer and "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by the author Stephen Rogers Peck. Great books!

[Erilaz]

And a breakdown:

[Erilaz]

Links to higher res versions of some of these:

Bone structure Arm 01
Bone structure Arm 02
Bone structure Arm 03
Skull Front

Side Facial Overlay


Right Hand Palm

Side Torso Muscles
Back Torso Muscles
Right Foot

[m@.]

Hello Martin, those workshop studies are great ! that's some really solid work, I'm sure you learnt a lot there. I'll keep an eye on this thread, please keep posting!

[Erilaz]

Thanks m@! Always good to hear from you!


Here's a WIP Study of Bouguereau's Gabrielle:


I'm trying my best to see the colours and values without falling back to the horrendously awful method of colourpicking, which was my crutch for many years.

[bumskee]

Hey erilaz, lots of anatomy stuff! very detailed studies. hehe, I guess with mentler and rebecca around it's hard not to concentrate on those. WIp looks promising, keep it going mate! cheers

[Erilaz]

Hey, thanks Bumskee! Heh... anatomy can't be avoided around those two at all!
Some quick silhouettes during my lunch break (about 1-2mins on each):

[Erilaz]

More work on the lovely lady. So much to learn!:

[blkn]

improving quite nicely i'd say keep it up.

[m@.]

yup yup, keep it up!

[Erilaz]

Yay! She's looking a little less manly!

m@: Thanks buddy. Great to have your support!
blkn: Thanks! always good to hear i'm going forwards, not backwards!

[Erilaz]

Here's a page from my tram dailies. I get about a page out a day from travelling to and from work. Trams are difficult because passengers fidget, and get on and off frequently. I'm hoping this is going to help me to capture a pose or a face quickly over time (while building more foundation at home).

I blush now!

[crazy3dman]

Hey Erilaz - Just found your sketchbook. Great to see you here. And thanks a lot for stopping by my book every once in a while.

The anatomy studies and the portrait you're working on are really nice. Keep it up. I'll be back.

[Erilaz]

Thanks for stopping by crazy3dman! Always great to see you around!

A few classical studies over the weekend:

This one's a bit light because I was using 2H:


I'm quite happy with this one. Again, all 2H. I was going to redo the values in softer pencils, but then decided not to:

[Erilaz]

hey erilaz, those studies are all looking good, and the step by step makes it really interesting to see how you tightened things up.....good figure studies...don't be scared of feet, seems like no one draws them during the shorter poses...good work though, keep it coming!

the fat kid

Thanks for stopping by fat kid! Loving your sketchbook.
I agree about the feet thing, although to be honest many of the studies I took these from also don't have much feet to speak of!
I've really got to work on hands too!

[Erilaz]

Quicky for the cgtalk sketchathon (about 10 mins):

[Erilaz]

Now at some point in my sleep daze, I decided to have a good long study of Andrew Jones' stunning 1000 portrait series. Having all this reference made me feel like doing some modelling. Here's a rough start:



As you can see, there is very little resemblance to him (accentuated by the fact that I haven't started the ear). If anyone can point me to more images of Android, that would be a help!
Modelling specific people is always so much harder, because everyone knows the likeness.
I'll probably tweak the particulars in Zbrush.

[Erilaz]

More work on da man.
Shaping up okay, but still looking nothing like him!!


I'll get back to that sketching thing tonight!

[Erilaz]

An unfinished but stable self portrait (proportions about right). I'm going to try and get at least one of these done a week. Seems to be a damn good practice!
I'll need to get used to my own face... weird....

This ALMOST looks like me.

[Icey]

erilaz, i think you should leave the Photoshop for a moment because you're still on a beginning and the main thing is the pencil right now... You can't learn in Photoshop how to drow... nobody ever did that, but now i see Photoshop is being used for studys, for learning how to drow...

I belive in the old fashion way with the pencil, coal or grafite, and lot of work!

Can't wate for an update!

cheers!!

[Egoartist]

When you said self portrait, I swear i was almost expecting to see a tea cup! I wonder why? Icey's advise is sound. Heed it my friend.