Darksteel sketchbook

**Darksteel** · October 12th, 2006, 04:35 AM

Alright everyone, I havn't drawn in a long time.. so with that being said please be gentle in your "constructive critisisms(sp?)

here is some older art of mine in my portfolio.

**Darksteel** · October 12th, 2006, 04:38 AM

as you can see I do alot of imitation art (if that is what it is called) ive been away from this hobby of mine for way too long.. like 8 years too long.

my favorite things to draw really are robots, mechanoids, cyborgs, etc...etc. but my strengths I feel are comic art, im not so good with realistic art.

**Hyver** · October 12th, 2006, 06:54 AM

welcome to the sketchbook section

**Lee W** · October 12th, 2006, 07:31 AM

welcome to CA

I started art again about 1.5 to 2 months ago after 20 plus years. All I can say is draw something everyday and from life or refs as much as possible. A good anatomy book wouldn't hurt either

**Darksteel** · October 12th, 2006, 07:33 PM

thanks for the suggestion! yeah I got a sketch book. now to just sketch away!

Ive been wanting to get into dabbling with Adobe photoshop and stuff like that too. so much to do ... so little time

**darkchild** · October 12th, 2006, 08:02 PM

Welcome to CA. Spawn piece kicks ass! It's nice to see you start up a sketchbook. I hope you do get back into art and post some new stuff. So get crackin'

**Darksteel** · October 13th, 2006, 11:22 AM

Here are some more pics.. Ive gotten back into inking again (or rather attempting to do so)

I want to get into some coloring of my sketches.. but I dont have the time right now.. so this is what I got.
this last one with the dude in the trenchcoat I got from watching "Moonwalker"

anyone know any good programs to color scanned pics with? or are pastels or markers the way to go?

**gigglepixie** · October 13th, 2006, 02:06 PM

welcome to the sketchbooks! it's never too late

**darkchild** · October 13th, 2006, 05:26 PM

Hey after all this practice on inking, I think it would be beneficial to do some new drawings and warm up your technique again. Start with 1-5 minute doodles. Then if you get the time do some longer pieces. I going to say this before anyone else does (cause I know they will): Do some life drawings suck as human anatomy studies. Start with the male anatomy. The comic book stuff, while fun as it is (I know because that was part of my start into art), is not going to help you much in terms of getting believable characters. Even the comic artists had to study anatomy, like Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Todd Mcfarlane... all the way to Frank Frazetta and Simon Bisley. If you get the time, go to the Fine Arts section or do a search for the official life drawing thread and checkout some of the fine works. Plus definitely don't forget to do a search for Mentler. Alright enough of my babbling get to it!

**codenothing** · October 13th, 2006, 05:32 PM

FULGORE!!!! man that guy was awsome! loved me some Killer instinct back in the day...

anyways, My advice would be to avoid drawing stuff you think is cool. That sounds wierd, and awfully boring, but sitting down and doing a few months of elementary basics like simple still lifes, color wheels, gesture life drawings will do you a world of good when you come back to doing the stuff you enjoy doing.

keep at it! keep posting!

**Darksteel** · October 17th, 2006, 03:10 PM

well another fun filled week. I post this like its monday cause it feels like monday (even though its tuesday) I would have more pics up but I installed the prerelease version of Windows Vista (RC2) over the weekend and was busy getting all the kinks smoothed out.. still a few to work over but otherwise a very good OS, I would have to say its the best one microsoft had created.. its actually useful! LOL

Vista is a very graphically intesive OS, the colors and textures even just on the desktop are fabulous and what is nice is that there is very little memory used up in that process.. with just windows running and some back ground utilities Im only using up 30% of my 2gigs of ram.

and now onto the bad part, because its the prerelease version... my printer/scanner does not work with vista.. so thus no pictures.. I had a new one to scan but wasnt able to because of that.. I will hopefully resolve the issue or be hitting up a friends scanner.

hopefully more art to follow.

**jdeegz** · October 17th, 2006, 06:16 PM

only 30% ... haha ive only got 512 thats more than that! i need a new comp : (
going into ID next year, my parents better get some mulah! haha lets see some sketches!

**Darksteel** · October 18th, 2006, 02:49 PM

Ok, so I still dont have my printer issue resolved.. but instead I just used my wife's laptop to access the scanner and upload my pics.

here is an older one and a new one.. the rose is the older of the 2 sketches and I thought to ink it to see how that would turn out.

I had this interesting image in my mind for the "self creation" sketch.. and I though to attempt to draw it, I had to use alot of picture references for skeletal structure and muscle anatomy.. but I think I did alright for my 1st time drawing bones or exposed muscles, Im thinking of continueing a sort-of story line with this pic as this character pieces himself/herself (still havent though of the sex yet) together and becomes more human.. or cyborg (havent given much thought to that yet either)

I wanted to have a scene behind the subject that depicted a junk world where this person is finding pieces to improve/build upon itself. I got the idea from a piece drawn by an artist that i cannot remember.

Criticism is of course always welcome.. but please... be gentle

**darkchild** · October 19th, 2006, 09:58 PM

Yo dude. Keep on drawing. Try looking up Loomis for some great inspiration.

**Darksteel** · October 26th, 2006, 04:51 PM

Here is some more art. The 1st 2 are older pieces that I stumbled across. and the last one of the bell is a new one. I tried to use this advise and draw the 3rd one.

Originally Posted by codenothing

My advice would be to avoid drawing stuff you think is cool. That sounds wierd, and awfully boring, but sitting down and doing a few months of elementary basics like simple still lifes, color wheels, gesture life drawings will do you a world of good when you come back to doing the stuff you enjoy doing.
keep at it! keep posting!

So with that in mind I drew a Bell recovered from a sunken ship, the picture was in a national geographic magazine. I think I may have started alittle advanced for myself cause since the pic was in b/w there was a large amount of shading that I had to do for texture and I was drawing on White paper. Im almost tempted to use the same paper that Darkchild does to help with texture.. but I think thats cheating!

just kidding DC.

this last sketch I am full aware has no shadow on the bottom. I got alittle discouraged and stopped the pic. Im gonna move on to other stuff but thought I would post it just to show my progression along the way in this forum.

thats all for now.

**Darksteel** · November 8th, 2006, 02:49 PM

Quote from Forum daily message:

"Insomnia will melt your brain"

..... so true... so true

**Unbreakable** · November 8th, 2006, 07:40 PM

Hi there

Glad your drawing again. What I would like to recommend is the book Bridgman's Contructive Anatomy. Do a few drawings from this everyday and you will see the improvement in no time.

**Darksteel** · March 1st, 2007, 02:39 AM

well here is a new sketch. I know some people have suggested I draw stuff that will most likely give me better improvement over stuff I like to draw. but I figured whatever can help me get back "INTO" drawing cant be bad

unfortunately the sketch didnt scan so well.. so some lighter shading didnt show.

**darkchild** · March 1st, 2007, 04:14 PM

Very cool last post. The face is the best part of the whole piece. I can see the lighter shading just fine. Did you use one pencil or multiple grades? Nice work, I hope you continue to find the time to sketch and post here.

**Grim Reaper** · March 1st, 2007, 05:46 PM

Nice last post, good job on the jacket...Did you use reference? If not you should carry on with doing manga/anime stuff 'cos you've got a talent for that.

**Darksteel** · March 2nd, 2007, 04:10 AM

Darkchild: I used the same grade of pencil just different lead textures and did the whole "press softer or harder" to get my different grades, and thank you for the compliments

Grim Reaper: I used a reference from an anime called "Bleach," the guys name is Ichigo and he is the main character.. but I finished the drawing really quickly and had very few erases. Anime and comic art have always been my strongpoints. thank you for the compliments

**Darksteel** · March 7th, 2007, 06:11 AM

Alright here is another sketch.. one of my favorite game girls. most people like Chunli, but im a sucker for cammy

I found if I take a picture of my sketch and then download it to my comp it comes out alot clearer than scanning it.

**darkchild** · March 7th, 2007, 04:32 PM

Nice job with Cammy. You did an excellent job with the fingers on the right hand. To be honest I think you scanned pics are better. They're a lot clearer. Good job with the last two. Keep them coming!

**Darksteel** · March 8th, 2007, 03:33 AM

Another sketch.. trying to get more familiar with drawing before I start to sketch up my own stuff again. Im not pleased with how my sketches look after scanning them.. they lose alot of texture and shading, oh well Im just gonna have to tweak with my scanner more.

**darkchild** · March 9th, 2007, 02:04 PM

Nice one

That the ninja dude from MGS right? You might want to make that image bit smaller though. Not everyone has a big monitor to view the whole image. Everything looks good but I think the stomach area sticks out a bit too much though. His head is a bit warped as well. Did you use a straight edge for the sword? You've placed some nice heavy lines for the outline. Keep them coming!

**Darksteel** · March 9th, 2007, 05:07 PM

yeah It loaded up that way, im not sure how to make it smaller. per the pic his stomach pokes out, but I thought it looked wierd too. and yeah I messed up his head.

and the heavy lines? for some reason the pics I have chosen to mimic have heavy lines.. but I like em. thanks for your critique

**Darksteel** · October 18th, 2007, 09:46 PM

heres a new sketch. my other favorite anime girl

I finally figured out how to get my scanner to scan my sketches with almost the same level of detail as a camera.

**darkchild** · October 18th, 2007, 11:32 PM

Hey good to see you still draw once in a while

You like them furry anime characters, huh. Did you do this from ref? It looks fine, but a few anatomical proportion issues. But I was wondering if you have some time maybe try some real anatomy studies. If you practice life studies and apply it to your anime pieces you are sure to improve. I do hope you get some time to draw a bit more. I hope your ride is working better than the last update you gave me. Can you see full boost yet?

**Darksteel** · October 25th, 2007, 01:56 PM

Darkchild: thanks for the comments, yes it was from a reference. im sure anatomy would help my art overall, but alot of ANIME arent really that anatomically correct. so anatomy studies would only help so much.

anyways. heres another sketch, I thought I would try something freehand, after multiple erasures and some good ol' fashioned cursing, im done.. well as done as im gonna be

**SMILEFACE** · October 28th, 2007, 10:02 PM

All Yo Sketches R Bad A$$ (was That Deaths Head In Yo Earlier Post) Can't Wait To See Some Mo 8)

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