Thomas's Drawing challenge (update jan 26th)

[term8or]

I'm quite new to drawing and I've decided to bite the bullet, and not only draw every day, but post the results here...

There's no guarantee of quality. I'm going to post the bad and the good. Critiques, advice and comments are very much encouraged. Don't worry about hurting my feelings - I know I have a lot to learn.

p.s. I probably won't post every day... I'll save it up, and post one/twice a week.


Anyway, here's the first days drawing...

[KaiyoNoHime]

Great drawings of hands and feet, are you using your own as models? It looks good.

[term8or]

Great drawings of hands and feet, are you using your own as models? It looks good.

KaiyoNoHime First reply!Cool! Thanks - yeah, my own hands and feet. Mainly trying to divy them up into shapes.

[Arekkusu]

Yo dude, looking good, only advice i can think of, and its something I need to do as well, is to try and make your lines cleaner. Try to use a single stroke if you can..hope that makes sense

Oh and thanks for commenting in my sketchbook man!

Keep at it dude!

[Gleeson]

hey dude theres some good observation in those sketch's. I know you are trying to divy them up into shapes but like Arekkusu you should either go for a strict linear approach or you could try and draw the object ( hand foot whatever) from the inside out and break the shape down into 3D planes and not use ANY outlines and see what you can come up with. Its a fun exersize you come up with some pretty crazy drawings and its realy good for devloping your skills at observing and recording movement and expression

[term8or]

Cool! Two reply's!

Arekkusu: Thanks, man. I'll give it a try and report the results on tuesday.

Gleeson: Interesting challenge... do you mean drawing just the outline of the planes with line, or go the whole hog and just draw tonal shapes w/out line at all?

[Chr]

its hard to tell from the scans, but it seems you are using a hard pencil. you might try using a softer one too.

only using hard pencils have been bad for me I know.

[Arekkusu]

Yo man heres the link if your interested, deals with core shadows and stuff!
http://www.anticz.com/drawing1.htm
Catch you later, oh and looking forward to more of your updates

[term8or]

CHR Hm... strange scans... The drawings I did last update were all Mars Marker 9b (not graphite, but a colour pencil I was trying out) which is the softest pencil grade I've ever used...

The ones I'm uploading today are 2b graphite.

Arekkusu Thanks for the link, man! I've quickly scanned it, and I'll read it in more detail latter...

The last three days have been a bit "Blah" in terms of drawing... It just did not want to co-operate

[term8or]

drawings on sun... trying to concentrate on lines & some planes

[term8or]

Some more work on lines....

[Sanest]

Hey, the line studies are looking good. I'm not sure if its the quality of the pictures but the your lines aren't very clear. Try to be more confident in your linework and you will see the difference in quality.

I'm still trying to learn so I can't crit as much as the other artists on here but the best advice i can give you is draw everything and anything.

Anyway some nice variety of work, keep it up!

[term8or]

Sanest Thanks! Yeah, I guess my linework isn't as clear as I'd want it. I'm working on that area at the moment.

Don't worry that you're still trying to learn... if you see anything I can improve please tell me! I have a lot to learn myself...

[Lee W]

when you sketching, you can do it lightly initially to model the subject and when you feel the overall shape is correct, go over it with darker, heavier lines. Will be checking on your progress

[Arekkusu]

Yo man, awesome new stuff!

Those portraits are also nice man, especially the last one. Keep more of those coming man.

Keep at it bud.

[term8or]

Arekkusu: thanks

OldNoobie: Thanks. Sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a try...

Tried an anatomy study, and it was actually dry for half an hour, so I did six pages of chicken drawings (I spared you quite a lot of pages)... drawing chickens from life is very frustrating...

[term8or]

dry again! for fifteen minutes... so a quick outside biro sketch.

Edit: did more than I thought I would. in the pencil line drawings I'm trying out oldnewbies' tip.

[term8or]

... some more work on my lines, a few tonal studies, anatomy and some life drawing. The most challenging exercise I did today was the chicken drawing... which also came off least clear. Basically stare at a chicken for 1 minute, try to memorise the chicken, fail to draw the chicken. Oh joy.

[term8or]

A little preview of the work I'm doing today... trying to work on lines, in particular line thickness (in this case using the thickness of the line to denote shade or light side).

[max xiantu]

OldNoobie gave the best advice. Start lightly with basic shapes. Check back and forth from the drawing to the reference and make sure things look right. Patience is the key to your desire. If you see any discrepancies, fix them. This trains your eye. Don't consider anything finished until you no longer see any errors in your representation, then, that's where the crits come in and show you new things. Draw with a more slow, controlled line ... it will give you more time to see what you are developing.
Great start, you have the dedication, and I believe that's all you need :.

[Arekkusu]

yo man, I havent dissappeared lol. Good studies man keep up the hard work dude.

[Ackaroth]

Alot of this looks very similar to the stuff I had to do in Art 1 in highschool. Looks good, however. I too am trying to improve my skills, and some daily drawing would do me good.

[term8or]

I've been very sloppy about updating the sketchbook...life has intervened a lot. But I HAVE been drawing every day, for at least an hour, and I've recently set up a place for sight size drawing. The intention is to try to improve my accuracy...

This update is in reverse chronological order. Some of the exercises are speed exercises, others (like the shoe) are sight size and very slow for me (at least 2 hours). I'm trying to do one sight size drawing a day for a month.


Ackaroth Thanks, man. You've got to crawl before you can run

Arekkusu Thanks. Neither have I... but you wouldn't know it

max xiantu Yes. I agree. I need to slooow dooown... the sight size method is one of the ways I am doing that. plotting every point by eye, then checking every measurement at least twice SHOULD improve my eye, and that should make my lines more confident...eventually... but it is hard work

[Lee W]

the sketches are really coming along very well, would look better if there was more contrast. Try using softer leads in the range of 2b to 4b. i personally like to use 6b graphite for quick sketches and doodles and the harder leads or charcoal pencils for sketches with more details and tighter rendering.

[liquidjack]

Great improvement thus far. Keep at it. I think you should definitely get darker with your final render. I imagine you have already been critiqued on the lightness and lack of value contrast in past post. Keep plugging....you are improving.

[Lynn Yang]

Keep up the goodwork.

You should watch the pencil strokes when you're shading. Right now I see is blotches of dark and light values, and lots of induviual lines. Please try to smoothen the shading.

When you're shading, you should hold your pencil as if it was a butter knife that way it will produce light lines/ or dark lines if you put a lot of pressure on it. Also you should pick up your pencil and do indviaul stroke and layer it.

[k4pka]

When drawing from the life (and I am talking stictly the drawing stage, seeing the outline shapes and such) close one eye.

[term8or]

OldNoobie Thanks. For todays sketches I'm using 2b. I'll probably go shoping for art supplies after xmas, and I'll look up some 4b & 8b.

liquidjack Yesss... write to myself "must improve contrast" 500 times...

Lynn Yang Thanks for the feedback. I've been doing some practice shading that hasn't made it onto the thread yet, 'cause it's awful. I've tried out your advice and it's helping the practice studies. I must admit my crrent three problems with shading seem to be (in order of urgency): contrast, smoothness and edges. I'm also trying to work on suggesting detail rather than incorporating it... then again,I do like the "scribbly" style as well.

k4pka Thanks for that. I've been trying it out on some drawings, and not on others, and it does help me fix the main shapes. However, being scatterbrained, I keep on forgetting which eye I shut... a real problem with sight sized drawings which last hours...

Now, for todays update I'm posting some very quick studies that I'm doing at the moment because I've had a cold and not felt up to doing "proper" work. Just doing stuff to tide me over...

[Arekkusu]

Yo man,

nice update! Studys are looking good man!

Linework is looking clearer and more confident.

keep on rollin man!

Happy Xmas.

[term8or]

Arekkusu Thanks!

Last drawing of the year. Took about 2 1/2 hours on Bristol Smooth 2 ply with 2b 2mm clutch pencil.

I was trying to keep the edges soft in this drawing, and didn't use mechanical measuring (just by eye). As a consequence there are quite a few "inaccuracies" that I am aware of compared to the photograph I was referencing. Also, still not enough contrast, but hopefully the drawing is smoother.

Still, I think it shows some progress compared to what I was producing a few months ago.