Crimson Daggers — Art forum

Photo study.
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Haven't updated in a while. Working as hard as i can trying to improve so heres some very recent stuff which i think accurately represents where i currently am.

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Hey man, great to see you're still at it, grinding and pushin' away!

Don't forget to upload some juicy sketchbook pages ;)

@Smrr Thanks! my sketchbooks are not pretty to look at a lot of experimentation

On that note ill try to draw from life more... and ill begin with my cat sleeping  and a personal piece
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Hey man! Been ages since I saw your stuff, you've improved loads! Good work : )

@JyonnyNovice Thanks!

Warhammer 40k fanart why not.
Need to do more studies cause  this is terrible!!!!!
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Quick update decided to work on my fundamentals ( never late to practice) and here is a gouache study.


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Dude, that gouache study kicks ass! Hope you're doing well man!

@Flow Thanks

Alright its been a while and ive been working on a lot of basic stuff and i think it might be paying off , but now i need to work on my stuff from imagination because i always treated creative work as a reward for doing studies which is not a good mindset, because drawing from imagination is also a skill that needs to be practiced,and i think it became some sort of a weird form of procrastination where painting halfway through a piece my mind would go "i rather do some studies after that the next piece will look better" so i would abandon the current piece and do that,repeat ad infinitum. ill try to post as frequently as possible.

And here are some highlights, no traditional stuff since i threw all of it out since it was bad.
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Alright i decided that i need to improve and have a portfolio that is good enough to get work. How im gonna do that? Simple i decided to do every bloodsport challenge back to back (not in order though),including the studies so thats bloodsport  4 to 16. Also im gonna upload literally every drawing i do in the day ( altough i need figure out a way to capture my pencil drawing better.) Because i got into a habit of producing half baked "sketches" which shouldnt be badly done sketches should be less complete but not incorrect or shitty looking. Also im gonna update my SB within 24 hours of each post, if i dont do that unless there is an legitimate reason for it please call me a worthless loser or any other name in this thread.Also ill post work in progress stuff and thumbnails and everything the goal is quality so if i post something sloppy (like im gonna do today) please call me out on it. And hopefully with crits from here and other places ill end up with a great portfolio and be a generally better artist.

TIME TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

tl;dr RULES of my sb from now on


- do every bloodsport back to back
-no more sloppy "sketches" if they are shitty sketches call me out on it
-have to  post WIP and other stuff i do in the day ( but not sloppy)
-if i dont update my sb within 24 hours of each post (unless a good reason is provided) call me an idiot
- post literally every drawing i do in the day regardless of quality

GOALS
-By the end of this have a portfolio that is ready for work
- improve my skecthes
-improve my imagination drawings
-improve the quality of my artwork overall (digital and traditional)

I. LIVING STATUES



So as the post name implies i picked bloodsport 11 as my first "living statues" so here are some studies and thumbnails i did yestarday ( they are shitty) the goat painting is WIP ill try to finish it today

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And some anatomy studies still not sure how to make pencils look good with the scanner
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Good luck with yo goals Hobitt-! Keep consistent and have a weekly check in with smaller goals that'll work into the bigger ones <3

Haha some of your rules contradict one another -- but whatever, I'll call you out when I see any sloppy sketches :D
Srsly.
No ego patting from me unless necessary
kek

I'll pop in every now and then to see how you're going

Go smartly hard, Hobitt- o/

(02-06-2016, 10:21 PM)smrr Wrote: [ -> ]Good luck with yo goals Hobitt-! Keep consistent and have a weekly check in with smaller goals that'll work into the bigger ones <3

Haha some of your rules contradict one another -- but whatever, I'll call you out when I see any sloppy sketches :D
Srsly.
No ego patting from me unless necessary
kek

I'll pop in every now and then to see how you're going

Go smartly hard, Hobitt- o/

Thanks! and i guess you are refering to the last rule to post anything regardless of quality the reason i put it in there is that if i get lazy or make a bad sketch ill post it anyway, i have to be responsible of every drawing i do and if i screw up i have to be honest and post it.

Great plan for making a portfolio, best of luck with it! I'll be checking in too : )

@Jyonny Thanks!

Alright i decided this probably will be the time ill update my sb since its right before sleep instead of morning so i wont waste energy.

I. LIVING STATUES


Alright first a small observation i need to work on my pen grip i tend to press down on it too hard you can see this struggle in the thumbnails so need to catch myself and stop.

Thumbnails im leaning towards 2,3,5 or 8 i  would appreciate some input. the story is its an ice statue around an abandoned colony in some frozen planet and the dude will discover it waking up.
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Alright the goat study i think im done with it i dont like the way it turned out i think i need to work on textures more? im not sure about this one.

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And now the embarrassing part tried to sketch some goat men for the statue idea ( WORK IN PROGRESS) and i really struggling with it drawing from imagination is hard! also same issues with pressing the pen bad habit and line weight need to work on that.
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I. LIVING STATUES


Still trying to control my pen pressure, but bad habits keep sneaking up on me
Alright decided to do some gesture today and ill probably keep doing them, also some anatomy studies to freshen up my memory ( although i have no idea how to scan my pencils they just don't pick up i guess my scanner is crap)

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Finished the goat-men drawings digital drawing is very difficult, but i think the best course will be to keep drawing over and over until i find an approach that will work so ill keep doing digital drawings. Tomorrow ill probably start designing them more statue like.


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Here are the two thumbnails i liked rendered them to see how they look and did another one in pencil tried using my phone instead of scanner not great either. I have a few more ideas to explore before i decide on a final some more thumbnails tomorrow perhaps purely digital who knows. Any crits or opinions are appreciated.

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And a study for the enviroment WORK IN PROGRESS
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I. LIVING STATUES


Did some timed gestures, haven't done those in years very hard ill do more!

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Did more thumbnails i like the second one ill probably stick with this one, input is welcome regardless.

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Did a lot of design for the statue and began the character one ( still trying to find my own approach to drawing im getting there). Looked at a lot of modern sculpture since making a classical sculpture for a sci fi setting doesn't seem right.

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The final design

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The character (WIP)

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And that study still trying to get it to finish

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I took a few minutes through your sketchbook, your commitment to going all the way through those Scott Robertson books is impressive. Good luck and have fun with that bloodsport man!

Hey man, great thumbnail for the living statue one, the final design looks ok but his arms feel really short, since he is already leaning forward, if he were to stand up it feels like his fingers would barely touch his hips.

I think you have the same problem as me where you can be really loose and intuitive with thumbnails but get too stiff when doing finished stuff. Something I tried recently that seems to work is to do the design-work like normal, ending up with a precise drawing but one that's quite stiff, then use that for reference and draw it again on a new page being quick and flowing with the lines - can breathe some life back into things. I tried doing it like that but tracing over the top but it didn't work for me, just ended up with the same stiffness but less accurate. Just an idea anyway, good luck ^_^

I. LIVING STATUES

@DQ_Nick Thanks for looking through my sb! yeah those perspective studies were fun to do altough i did go back and study some more perspectice stuff always want to gain more knowledge.

@JyonnyNovice Thanks for the suggestion defiantely something i was thinking about ecpecially for the final piece!

Today was a failure,mostly due to poor time managment and other distractions ill get into more indepth.

And when this happens ill try to analyze why and learn from it so..

Started with gestures those went fine.
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Then i decided to do a drawing from life since everyone should do it as often as they can! picked up a frog figurine and went for it.
 i think it failed on multiple levels bad proportion lay in ( slightly off) bad linedrawing which i tried to save with shading failed at that too.But most important i copied shape for shape, and that lead onto some thinking which became another problem a habit that sometimes ruins my productivity...
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And that habit is "paralysis via analysis" its when i try to understand something ( in this case how to get clean linework)
and i kept looking at pointless tutorials,brushes, software etc. zoomed in on good drawings and in the end i came to a conclussion which was in my head all along. DRAWING IS NOT ABOUT GOOD LINES ITS ABOUT CONVEYING A SENSE OF FORM AND MASS and gesture to a certain extent.Sadly i didint save all the attempts of  getting the "clean lines" but it was pointless anyway, and now that ive written it here ill try not to waste my time like this anymore. here is the finished ( not really) sketch.

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So How can i solve this problem? Simple. I will do what i should been doing all along constructing everything with basic geometric shapes ( cube sphere etc.) and use that as a basis for picture making instead of having an uncertain system of bits of construction and bits of copying shapes, ill start with shapes and move on to 2d shapes to get more details.
On the other hand im facing difficulty getting the same amount of accuracy when drawing with shapes ( mostly talking about life drawing) or when i construct a portrait it seems to be way off then. But i was assured i just need to practice it and it will get easier.And here i did a very quick ( 15 minute) sketch by constructing with only shapes and it seems even this rough it still has a sense of mass and form so i think im on the right path here so from now ill work this way.

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In conclusion
No more "paralysis via analysis"
Ill use basic forms as a basis to everything i do.

If im coming to the wrong ideas here please let me know, i went down these kind of rabitt holes before and came out with nothing so wouldnt want burn the wrong ideas (thats kind of subjective) into my head.

My personal opinion is that linework might be crucial for some styles of drawing, but you can do without it at all in other styles. Plus it depends on the way how your brain works. I'm kind of "line drawing person", I understand everything better with the help of lines, but I'm trying to challenge myself sometimes and start with big shapes.
I'm always excited to see thinking and analysis in people's work, though paralysis is obviously the dangerougs part of it :)