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tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-20-2020

Hey everyone, I'm returning to art after quite a long downtime. Right now I don't really know where I'm headed with my art but like most of you I'm trying to get better. I've never really posted my work online but I'm setting an ambitious goal for myself to post something at least once a day (mmmmm...ok maybe every other day or so) to avoid getting demotivated and giving up.

Since its been a while since I posted here, just wanted to say hi to everyone also :)

Here are some sketches I did from reference today for a character design concept of a native american warrior girl I plan to work on:


Thanks for looking and cheers until next time!

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-21-2020

Just some figure studies from today and yesterday, both from photo and frazetta. A lot are not much shaded as I was trying to focus on shape and proportion so look kinda boring.




RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - darktiste - 12-21-2020

It great that you don't seem to erase but i think you would get more energy in your drawing if you would do a light preliminary under drawing as a base and then draw over.Also good to see your playing with shading it gonna help you get more precise value.

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-22-2020

(12-21-2020, 12:45 PM)darktiste Wrote: It great that you don't seem to erase but i think you would get more energy in your drawing if you would do a light preliminary under drawing as a base and then draw over.Also good to see your playing with shading it gonna help you get more precise value.
Hey darktiste, thanks for the feedback! I agree that I need to get more of a dynamism into my poses, I'll try what you said and start with a premliminary gesture next time I do figure sketches. Right now I think I'm focusing too much on just the outlines (like these next few figures).





I also decided to try some drapery studies with some mixed results:




These first two I abandoned really quick as it wasn't looking good at all from the begining. I think I should have been more patient with these though.




This one I did a more careful block in and spent about 5hr or so building up the values. I don't think its that great. Looks three dimensional but not much like cloth. Here's the reference (I drew this from life). As you can see I changed quite a lot in my drawing, either due to mistakes or trying to make it read better.




Drapery is really hard for me to get realistic, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, if its the values the edges, or the proportions, etc. (I'm guessing all of the above). Anyone got any pointers?

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - darktiste - 12-22-2020

The issue i see with the drapery is omitting to put the bar to show why the fabric was being like that.By ommiting the bar you remove the indication of why there is tention in the fabric and why it can support it own weight.Now it look like you have wet the fabric and froze it outside and remove the bar afterward.Sometime the devil is in the detail.

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - Zorrentos - 12-22-2020

I think it's good that you are trying to become more organized in your studies, even posting your progress here every day. However, these subjects, such as how fabric works, can be quite hard to learn without putting a lot of thought into your studying.

I suggest that you try to read up on the subject. For example, Burne Hogarth has a great book called "dynamic wrinkles and drapery" that you can study from. Read it, then try to identify the different folds from life and take your time to really absorb the knowledge. In my own experience, this helped a lot more than trying to just randomly drawing it.

The same mindset and method of course applies to all subjects! Read about it, study it, and then apply it to your studies and personal work to better understand and solidify it.

Also, remember to always take a lot of notes and apply your studies to imaginative/personal work!

Good luck! Keep up the good work and keep posting! :)

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - Kaiko - 12-23-2020

I agree with Zorrentos! However I'd suggest the book "Pen and Ink" by Alphonso Dunn. It's an amazing ressource to get a well thoughtout and fast introduction to the basics of drawing and explains all the important fundamental concepts in an easy, lightweight way. It also helps to have an easier transition from studies to working from imagination. :)

Keep up with the hard work! I wish you the best of luck for your further path! :)

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-23-2020

(12-22-2020, 11:36 AM)darktiste Wrote: The issue i see with the drapery is omitting to put the bar to show why the fabric was being like that.By ommiting the bar you remove the indication of why there is tention in the fabric and why it can support it own weight.Now it look like you have wet the fabric and froze it outside and remove the bar afterward.Sometime the devil is in the detail.
Thanks darktiste, you're totally right of course, I noticed this half way throught the drawing and then thought it might be too late to fix this, but actually it wouldn't have been too hard to add it since its just a black bar. When I think about it that was the whole reason I put the cloth on the bar in the first place! When I just clumped it on the table my drawing utterly failed (that was one of the fail attempts I posted above).
(12-22-2020, 11:07 PM)Zorrentos Wrote: I think it's good that you are trying to become more organized in your studies, even posting your progress here every day. However, these subjects, such as how fabric works, can be quite hard to learn without putting a lot of thought into your studying.

I suggest that you try to read up on the subject. For example, Burne Hogarth has a great book called "dynamic wrinkles and drapery" that you can study from. Read it, then try to identify the different folds from life and take your time to really absorb the knowledge. In my own experience, this helped a lot more than trying to just randomly drawing it.

The same mindset and method of course applies to all subjects! Read about it, study it, and then apply it to your studies and personal work to better understand and solidify it.

Also, remember to always take a lot of notes and apply your studies to imaginative/personal work!

Good luck! Keep up the good work and keep posting! :)
Hey Zorrentos, thank you very much! Also you read my mind! After the first couple attempts I was so frustrated and just googled "how to draw drapery" and saw this article https://www.easydrawingtips.com/how-to-draw-cloth-folds-step-by-step-tutorial/. Its pretty basic but just the advice to shade around the form like it was a cylinder helped me a ton (I heard this before many times on youtube but had forgot it). I have read from Hogarth's book a few years ago but I found it puzzling when it talked about "torque" lines and so on. I remember the drawings were quite nice though (nice and clear to learn from) so maybe I should go back and look at it again. Yeah, I agree its good to have a purpose for studies, I'll try and think of character where drapery would be needed.
(12-23-2020, 04:27 AM)Kaiko Wrote: I agree with Zorrentos! However I'd suggest the book "Pen and Ink" by Alphonso Dunn. It's an amazing ressource to get a well thoughtout and fast introduction to the basics of drawing and explains all the important fundamental concepts in an easy, lightweight way. It also helps to have an easier transition from studies to working from imagination. :)

Keep up with the hard work! I wish you the best of luck for your further path! :)

Hi Kaiko, nice to meet you, and thanks for the comment! I've seen Alphonso Dunn's videos before and remember that his ballpoint pen stuff is pretty awesome. That's actually my favority medium kind of out of necessity since that's all I could work with when I was at work. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll try and take a look at his book.

Thank you all very much for the comments! Its super motivating since this is the first time I have tried to share my stuff online.

Some more figure/portrait studies. I tried to exercise my imagintative skils a bit by trying to stylize/exaggerate some of them, both the portrait and figures:








Few more ref studies for warrior girl:




And the roughs of the character. They're pretty rough, lot of broken anatomy and draw over of details that I couldn't make up my mind on:





One final character drawing, let me know what you guys think I'm open to any crits so feel free to tear it apart. I personally think I should have spent a bit more time on the line weight, maybe I'll do this tomorrow:




I might finalize the others in the next few days.

Btw do any of you know of Watts Atelier online and if this is a good resource for learning drawing online? Its quite pricey at $99 per month but he really seems like he knows what he's doing and his videos are really in depth for traditional art (I had tried it before for a month but didn't make too much progress because of real life stuff).

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - Artloader - 12-24-2020

Hi tchangchang - nice going in here :)

I like your drapery studies - it looks like you studied the forms really well.

On that last drapery study, I like how you've included reflected light - although I feel like you could have increased the intensity of the reflected light a little. Also maybe if you had toned in the background, it would have given the fully-lit sections of the cloth a bit more punch.

Anyway I've been collating drapery resources for myself over recent weeks and will paste them here in case they are of use to you:

http://www.beginnersschool.com/2015/05/04/fabric-and-drapery/

The Drawing Database
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmDRnLvCR1E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcnhhHXPXYU

Modern Day James
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1eR1rcPlHc&t=41s

Also regarding Watts Atelier - they are highly recommended - you may have heard of Proko? Well Watts is where Proko learned most of his art and I believe he still teaches there (as well as from his own website).

I can recommend watching Watts' free YouTube videos if you ever want to paint using traditional media - just watching how a master artist uses a brush can be so enlightening - check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zGnG1nnTPM

Hope at least some of this is useful but please ignore if it doesn't help :).

Keep it going dude!

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-24-2020

Hi Artloader, thank you very much for the comments and resources! The reflected light was stronger almost to the end but I was afraid it was too close to the lights so I tried to tone it down a bit. Maybe this was a bad call, I think I need to do more studies and experiment more. I will definitely take a look at the drapery resources that you posted, I still feel really unconfident with drapery so any help is very welcomed.

Of course I've heard of Proko :) And I've watched his anatomy video many, many times. Am seriously considering joining again with Watts. I think if I followed his lessons properly I would get a *very* good foundation in the fundamentals.

Today had to hit the road for some travels and so couldn't get as much studying done. However, did study a bit from Hogarth's drapery book and tried to copy his style for drawing clothing:




May not be able to get as much done the next few of days cause I'm visiting family. Happy holidays to all!

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-25-2020

Some more figure warm ups and some forays into drapery, some are from reference and some are from imagination, but all are quite bad ;). Drapery is just plain difficult, but I'll keep trying. I've been trying to take people's advice to read proper tutorials on how to draw drapery instead of just winging it. Some of the resource's are posted above by the awesome people above but I also wanted to post this website I found: https://www.gvaat.com/  It looks like it has many free tutorials on a bunch of different topics. The drapery one seemed to me very in depth and high quality.

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-26-2020

The usual figures and faces today and another character:

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - wld.89 - 12-26-2020

hey there ! very nice sketchbook you have ! tons of practice ! even though technically you're not at a pro level, i think you have a good sense of design ! Concerning your drawings, i'd suggest you dorian iten's video on accuracy and what to look for when you're drawing ! https://www.dorian-iten.com/accuracy it'll really help you get better at observation !! keep it up !

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-27-2020

Hi wld.89, thank you very much for the comment and tip! Whaddaya know? I just came over from your SB by coincidence and saw you mentioned Dorian's Accuracy guide and so I checked it out :). Judging by your level of figure drawings I will definitely take your advice and see what I can learn from him.

Also thanks for the positive feedback on my designs! I consider myself a character design newbie (until now I've a lot more focused on just figure and portrait drawing) so its very encouraging to hear positive feedback on my characters.

For today a bit more study of clothing and faces. I sure do love drawing faces, but perhaps because it is my comfort zone...

Clothing from ref:







Clothing from imagination (sorry, blurry):




Faces/figures from ref:










These pics are really hard to see because they are so light, maybe I need to up the contrast...

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - Kaiko - 12-28-2020

I enjoy your recent drapery studies very much! They look pretty nice!

Keep it up! :)

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-29-2020

Quote:Kaiko:
I enjoy your recent drapery studies very much! They look pretty nice!

Keep it up! :)



Thank you much Kaiko! This is something I am currently stuggling with so it nice to hear the work is paying off. Also I took your advice and checked out Pen and Ink by Alphonso Dunn, it was only $10 on Amazon for the Kindle edition. Currently trying to practice some basic textures/shading styles from it. Thanks for the tip!

Ah well, looks like the post everyday thing didn't last very long. 2-3 times a week may be more realistic. Might have to do even less when I find a job and have less free time, but I'll just have to do what I can.

Photo study that I stylized a bit:




original characters:







Tried shading around the forms of the faces istead of just one direction:







Practice with different ways of shading, following Pen and Ink book:




just regular cross hatching:




Edit: Removing attachments doesn't seem to work properly, I can't figure out how to remove the side-facing character. Anway, too tired to care now. G'night all :)

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - darktiste - 12-29-2020

Hi there one advise for you would be to reduce the noise there alot of thing going on that nice but it can also be confusing to look at.You need to have place for the eye to rest.You got nice pattern but sometime you gain to have simple design with big story over to much design and getting the story lost.
Also you seem to be drawing with a mechanical pen if i am right.I suggest a simple pencil for better control and a bolder outline so that when you take picture we can see your pattern alot better atm they are so thin they get lost in the white of the paper in my opinion.You can switch to the mechanical pen for when you want to do more precise pattern.With the pencil you will have a much easier flexibility to deal with your tone over a mechanical pen and you will be able to experiment with hatching of different type if you which to do so.

In regard to how your posting your work i got an other suggestion maybe you could take picture near a ajustable lamp if you have or if you can get one.If you can't afford that don't worry maybe if you want you can if you like to draw over your pencil sketch with a marker or ink pen for darker and bolder line for better visibility.

There also a concept in art call line weight i invite you to learn more about it i am sure you will get much better read utilizing this new concept .

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 12-30-2020

Thanks again for the feedback darktiste. I think you are right about the over-detailing. Now that I look back at the concepts, I think I should have focused on overall read, and interesting big shapes than just detailing inside the shapes with different patterns. Right now I'm using ball point pen (looks kind of like mechanical pencil in my photos) so yeah its defnitely has some draw backs: its takes a long time to put down heavy lines for good line weight and adding tone also takes a long time with hatching/cross-hatching. I will try to look at other media I can use like pencil or a thicker pen to get better results in the future for these drawings.

As for your second suggestion, I think I found another good solution which was using the flash on my phone camera. I don't know why I didn't think of it all this time but your suggestion to to use a desk lamp made me think of it for some reason.

I made a big decision to join with Watta Atelier online recently to get a more directed curriculum because I feel like I
don't make too much progress on my own and burn out quickly. I'm really exctied to get into it because Jeff Watts is a really amazing artist and teacher it seems like. Rip my wallet though, but I guess that the price I pay for a art education.

Some of figure drawings and form shadings following Watt's drawing fundamentals course:













A scary looking pencil sharpened the way Watts requires:




RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - darktiste - 12-30-2020

Good luck i am sure the support of such a well establish school will help you grow confident about the knowledge given to you.It perfectly normal to burn out even at early stage of an art journey as you absorb new information and develop your muscle in your hand.I recommend approching in short session but also to have longer session as you warm up during the day if you work more seriously toward meeting your art goal.

RE: tchangchang's sketchbook - tchangchang - 01-01-2021

Hi darktiste, I took your suggestion to try and do a bit of shading and line weight using a pencil for my characters and I think the end result was a lot better and easier to read. Thanks for the tip!

Also, regarding what said about Watts, I couldn't agree more: confidence is the key. When I'm practicing by myself I can easily burn out because I don't know if what I'm doing is worth while or if I'm doing it the right way. When I take lessons from an expert at least I know he/she know what they are talkng about and has taught many other students and knows how to get results so I can just have faith in the process and follow it without fretting too much (that it if I have the discipline...that's the hard part).

Anyway just some more fundamentals work with Watts shading forms:







Last character in the set, this time shaded and line weighted a bit: