Jazz' Junk Draw' (Practice Enviro update, Aug 6, 2011)

[Jazz]

Hi!! I FINALLY mustered the courage to make a sketchbook on here!! I'm Jasmine, but please do call me Jazz if ya like! It's so much easier! ^_^ I wrote in another thread of mine that I havent the time or energy (or inspiration) to draw very nice things. Well, nothing much has changed, except I HAVE been trying to draw more!

I really wish to improve, especially since I have some personal projects that I'm continuing with. See, I have stories and comics that I wish to create. I just can't seem to draw characters very well. I've lost the heart to do so. I used to REALLY suck at anatomy, but at one point I was into expressions and movement more than I am now. I was also into drawing full-bodied figures more often. Now, I'm surprised I can even draw a full head! I can't!

So, I'll show everyone where I've been and where I am! This first post just has a few sketches, some not so recent. I lost my will to draw for a while there. I did draw from reference though, a few times. One figure-drawing term helped out a lot.



I got into trying the self-portraits, though I have trouble making out detail. I still wanted to practice finding any detail that I could see. These two are from 2004 and 2005.


It's too bad I was too tired to shade that latest self-portrait. It was for a CA 101 assignment. But I could've done more to make myself look nifty. (well, my hair makes me look crazy, at least.)




I was bored at home, so I drew my foot and some wooden model poses.



Just some figure drawings. The second page of them is actually from a book. I wish I could take that class again.

[Jazz]

Here are more sketches. They don't have much to them, and so another thing I want to do overtime is really put more effort into making scenes and posing characters better.

I love to draw cartoony stuff, but I'd also love to get some realistic stuff down. Still, the cartoons themselves need work.












Forgot to show more sketches! My slippers...that's another thing I wish I shaded. Heh. I like the portraits more than I liked them before. Mind you, I have trouble with putting the face on right! Oh yes, I got the portrait refs from google.

[Jazz]

I'll have to show some fanart, but overtime I would play a bit with colour in Photoshop 6 (that's the latest that I have). I only have 3 to show right now because I think I'm happiest with those three. I have some other fanart that is coloured. Hardly anything original that's coloured, though. Minus the heads.

I'd make these types of pictures when I'm not happy. These three are mine.






These next two I tried pretty hard with. The first one, done a couple years ago, seems to get attention STILL. I mean, parts aren't right, but I really did try to colour it, though I was overtired. These two characters aren't mine.


I read a cool shading tutorial, and it mentioned when the body is lit from the sun or something, how the midtones have bright a red hue to them (from the blood). Well, I may have oversaturated the red, but I still liked the attempt. This shading was actually simpler than what I would try.


Lastly, I just tried copying from reference. It was difficult because of angles, but I got pretty close, I think! I'll have to try again.

[mentler]

wow <> you improve with every post!!!!!

[Jazz]

Thank you so much, mentler! I appreciate you looking! (Oy, those progress days are over at the moment though! I have to trudge along for now. o_o )

This week was far too hectic, so I didn't even get to do much. But I thought I'd show a little test I did for myself!

I was looking for lying (down) pictures when I came across one with a man lying on his back, his young son lying on top of him. So cute! Well, I tried drawing them at school, and it proved a tad difficult.



A couple days later I tried again. I drew the boy with a long head! Proportions were WAY off.



I tried AGAIN! Proportions are less off, that's cool! But I didn't try quite as hard with it.



I did this test because I was wondering why I had trouble drawing people lying on their sides. Obvious answer: I haven't done it enough. I HOPE that's the answer. I even compared drawing the boy's head while he's on his side, to drawing his head as if it's upright. Though I still messed up his head, I do like that the boy looks more his age on the right.



I'll have to keep practicing with the other angles and see if I can keep proportions correct.

Tonight, I just drew some guys jumping. Two different references, but it was good to get their movement in.

[Jazz]

I've been so busy, I only ever have time to do this once a week. No wonder it gets buried so deep. But YAY for favourites! Hee hee!

Thanks to everyone who's peeked in! I managed to do some progress on a study type picture in Photoshop 6. It's a little girl with LOTS of freckles: There she is originally!

I tried to get as much accuracy in as possible. Now, I shrunk these images to be the size that I was drawing at. 66.7%.

At first, I was having great trouble finding the shadows and highlights beneath her freckles. I'd deal with those lovely spots later.


I didn't really listen to myself about letting the freckles go. You can see here that I blotched in some places where they might be.


Didn't do much with this next progress, except I touched up the eyes. Probably something else I hadn't noticed, too.


That's the best I got so far. I removed those blotches and tried making larger strokes over some areas. I was driven mad looking at the eyes though. I just wanted to put SOMETHING in them!


I'm getting to a point where I wonder if this is me studying her face, or practicing accuracy. I tried drawing a face from imagination, and BOY did it look ugly! My goodness...oh, and not in the "supposed to be" way, either! More practice is in order, but I'm stuck as to what to do.

[Jazz]

I've had weeks of WORK!! So many assignments, makes me wanna die! I really didn't have time to do anything I enjoy! I only now had a good chance to sketch something nice. Or at least sort of nice.

I tried drawing my little microphone near my computer. Weird angle I was looking from, so that's why the angle is strange. But I still didn't tackle the perspective and angle well. I did like that I made the mic "stem" slender, though!



I then tried one of Seedling's C.A.101 challenges, where you needed to use the d20 dice (I used an online thingy). I got a 7, meaning I had to draw horns and spikes and stuff on something I made from imagination. I tried, making up a lighthouse on an island with some tiny birds. I thought I needed more spikes. But it's more than what I normally attempt.



I hope one day I can do this frequently enough so anyone peeking in can really see my efforts.

[Unbreakable]

Wow that last portrait is great! You have to finish it..I think you should added the ears or whatever she has around her face to start. Just keep messing with until you are satisfied. Keep up the good work!

[Jazz]

Thanks so much, Unbreakable! Yeah, I'm going to keep working on her! I'll actually TRY to finish her up! Baby steps. ^_^ And I'll try the ears and see how far I get.

[Jazz]

I'm feeling pretty down today. Not sure if I have a purpose and all (in life, in school, in career...whatever). I'm down with these drawings, too. I know they're not interesting, certainly forgettable. I wish I could change that, but my imagination is dull right now. Too much schoolwork, even though exams are all I have left to do.

So, here's what I did over these past weeks:

This was from some anatomy picture online.


So much for trying to draw from my imagination. I can look at something and draw it better.


More progress on the little girl. I've had to "move" things on her face. Still doing it.


I can't remember who's "tuting" in the big Photoshop Tutorials thread here, but they did a really cool colour blend thing. So I tried the same with some different colours to see how I would go about blending them together.


Mainly, I'd have to make a sort of linear path from one colour to the other (or one saturation to another or something). I still have work to do on that, but at least I got some smoother strokes.




There was also a lighting tutorial, though it was on another site. But I learned a bit about how lighting works with reflection and...other terms that I can't recall.


Ugh...hopefully I'll get that shadow one day. The pink burns!! >_<

Laterz.

[Jazz]

I thought I'd drop something else in here. I just started another practice to see how I do with colouring in Photoshop...again. I wanted to colour the human arm in this pic:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/techn...ing-browse.jpg



So this is just a start. First I blocked in colours, but then I started blending more and forgot to save the ugly blocked colours. We'll see what happens next.

PS: If anyone knows the answer to this: How do I change my thumbnail, for when someone is about to click on my thread? I have that hideous pencil sketch of my face and I don't like it.

[Jazz]

Soooo many exams... So much writing. -_- I'm starting to feel better though, as in I can draw more than I could with all the schoolwork. Now, if I get a summer job, hopefully it won't keep me from enjoying myself.

Here's more of the arm!



Mmmm...blending is a big problem. I have trouble keeping it simple.

[Chewster]

A lot of good progress here. The digital coloured pictures are particularly inspiring, I must say. Keep it up! You seem to be on the right track.

[Jazz]

Thanks a bunch, Chewster! I'll keep up the progress!

[Jazz]

Merg...the images are being weird for me...

I'm so glad to be done school for now!! But now I need to find a summer job. Bah...well, as long as it's different from what I've been toiling at the whole year, I'm fine!

So, I'm working on trying to do more stuff within the week. It's very hard for me. I need more energy to really DO more sketches! But for now, I'll keep at it as best I can. Here goes!


Today I drew my Dad sleeping! He was asleep for a decent amount of time, too! So I could have him in that pose for a while! Too bad I couldn't make his hand look better. I had to move it down significantly. Heh!


More practice on the little girl! I'm really smoothing things out for her, but I'm about finished playing with that one. I'm starting to mess things up.






I got some ladies sketched a bit. I bought a stopwatch so I could give myself 30 seconds, one minute and two minutes. I should've showed what I did in those time intervals, but I have the end products right here. Horrible, horrible end products! Well, maybe not SO horrible, but I was really rushing it.


Bought Tria markers the day before yesterday, and since I never really used them, I wanted to have a good grasp on them. They're the new ones, and the store actually had them. Whoo hoo!!

I actually need some help with markers, like when I should shade--before pencil drawing, after pencil, after inking--so they won't smear, blending technique, etc. If anyone has any suggestions or can direct me, please let me know!

And I could totally use anatomy help. I have many characters that I want to draw right now and I...NEED HELP! Please. -_-

[Jazz]

I didn't do too much this time around. I'm having a quarter-life crisis, as far as art is concerned. My style is dying.

Anyhoo, to get on track with preventing that from completely happening, here and there I work. I haven't done nearly enough.

Rocks in my yard.


This was nifty, playing with "wet edges", drawing with a Difference brush in Photoshop.


Swift doodle. But I'd been so inspired by WhisperWM's character, part of the name is "Red Poem". She's cool!


Some shading practice. I tried drawing Wrath (Full Metal Alchemist) in a more realistic sense. It was fun, but frustrating!

I was blocking in colour. It looked much worse than this. Layered the skin, face, eyes, hair and "top" in different levels.


I had fun with the hair! I LOVE doing hair!


The face looked too pale in contrast for my liking. I needed to change the shape and colour of his lips a bit, too.


Oh yeah, needed to work on the eye. The face was SO freakin' wide it wasn't right. Now, I fixed up both, and I made him a different nose because that other one made him look like some crazy woodpecker man.


I was trying to figure out what I did here. Yes! I put on some eye shine, and worked in a little better background. I also fixed up his shoulder a bit. Mind you, that face looks horrid! He's scary, but I could've done better. Haven't practiced in so long. Probably needed to add more shadow on HIS right...Jaw/chin.

[Chewster]

These new digitals are looking nice. I'd look into the contrasts in the hair, it seems a bit flattened out, colour-wise.

Otherwise, keep on rocking!

[Jazz]

Thank you, Chewster! Though I wanted the colours flat to make the hair dirty looking, I'll take your advice about the contrast, because I suck where contrast and lighting is concerned. Heh! I still don't really know how to cast light on solids of any sort. XD

[Unbreakable]

wow! great progress since i was last in here nice to see the hard work.

[Jazz]

Thank you, Unbreakable! I'll be keeping it up! ^_^

[scottmcd]

Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook. Yours is quite nice - I like the variety of different subjects: rocks, scissors, etc. Now you just need some paper in there and you can play a game. I also like the fact that you post progress on images so you can see how they improve.

Good luck with finding time to practice. My only practice time really is during lunch, but I usually get some drawing in then. Oh, and I like the little girl - do you have a finished (or as finished as you're going to make it) version that's different from the last one you posted?

[Jazz]

Scott: Ha ha! Remind me to draw paper one of these days! XD And you're welcome about the SB! It's nice seeing a bunch of different ones!

Thanks for the comments! I greatly appreciate them! I'm glad you like the progress pictures. I think it'll do me well to see them here, so I can be optimistic that I'm TRYING. Ha!

As for the little girl, I've only been doing little touches, that's why her latest progress is hardly noticeable. But, after my break from her, I'll continue possibly as far as adding slight details surrounding her face. Oh yes...and I probably should add the actual freckles she has! Just so hard working with them!

[brunopicinini]

post #3 is my favorite!!

you are making a lot of progress ... specially with the wacom, there is something really nice going with the pics ...

keep posting!
best regards

[Jazz]

Thank you so much, brunopicinini!! I'll keep going as best I can!

[Jazz]

I didn't know what to do with myself this week. I just did a bunch of sketching and one self-portrait (holding up my little board thing to draw on is pretty hard!). Then, tonight I worked on faces, learning from one of the Loomis books. I have so much work to do with faces!! Uggggh, how will my patience withstand it?? >_< But at least I got some practice done!

Action sketches






Self-portrait


Faces

[Arimus]

heyy jazz, thanks for dropping by my sketchbook again. Didn't get a chance to drop by yours the first time coz there wasn't a link in your signature before heh. Love the improvements in portraits.You're doing all the things i need to do! Keep it up, and maybe soon we'll see that comic of yours drawn in kick-ass art

Take care!

[Unbreakable]

Keep it up Jazz your doing good!

[Hurley]

Hello,

I can see big improvements! I realy like the portrait of the girl, very good job on that. Keep studying the loomis book, and the studies

Keep up the good work!

[Jazz]

Just responding for now! Ugh...gotta do up a website today. XD

Arimus, thanks a bunch!! Oooh, I knew that SB link would come in handy! I'll keep up with these studies! They're doing me a world of good!

Unbreakable, thanks so much! (And I'm glad you're following my progress!)

Hurley, hello!! Thanks very much for your comments! That loomis book is great! I think I'll be keeping up with it, indeed!

I might update earlier this week with a BUNCH of heads! XD

[alesoun]

Wow! From the moment that you started the digital portrait of the little girl you've come on in leaps and bounds. The way you've done that last self-portrait...... well, look back at your first attempts and see the difference yourself! Well done!