Artloader - Sketchbook

[Artloader]

@imPhelikz: Thanks :).  Yeah I'm enjoying using pens - like you say - scary as hell but it really makes you think before you make a mark on the page.

@Miamelly: Hey thanks for dropping by :).  Yeah - you've spotted a big gap in my study strategy at the moment - not enough finished pieces - I'll be tackling that next month - thanks for the feedback.

@DQ_Nick: 'Sup!  Hey great crit on the proportions - appreciated - I will be more careful with that.  Yeah it keeps things fun to experiment with different study approaches :).

I scrapped the first pelvis model and started again from scratch modelling poly by poly instead of trying to start from a cylinder type mesh since I feel the poly by poly approach gave me better control over the shape:




This study task was supposed to be about learning the gluteal muscles and has taken a lot longer than I estimated because of the 3D modelling.  However I don't think it was a waste of time as I now feel confident that I understand the form of the pelvis - which used to scare the hell out of me whenever I used to think about drawing it.

The other thing is I've been staying up too late recently - gotta cut that back - it's starting to affect my health.

[ChrisDMiller]

Very nice improvements, Artloader. The CG Cookie studies seem to be helping a lot with the values. Also, your perspective studies are looking really good.

If I made one suggestion (and I'm sure others have mentioned it), it would probably be to add in a daily still life....just something simple.

Anyways, keep it up and look forward to seeing your progress!

[Artloader]

@ChrisDMiller:  Thanks for stopping by Chris - that sounds like a smart thing to do - I'll add that to my studies - thanks :).

Just come back off my beach holiday where I took a little sketchbook with me everywhere - a really useful and fun thing to do I found :).  It certainly gave me ample opportunity to do gesture sketching from real life!  I also did a few drawabox exercises:




Some figure sketches from photo references:




An anatomy application sketch:




A couple of gesture sketches where I tried to see the basic forms in the figures:

[JyonnyNovice]

wow awesome update! that gesture stuff is really activating! anatomy / form is looking sooo solid too ^_^ you should post up more of your people sketches! try to keep that practice up too, it really trains a lot of skills we don't use when drawing from reference (says the person who didn't do it in a few months >.<)

But wow, great progress from drawing just an hour or so a day and working as well! (it'd be great progress for someone drawing full time alone)

[Artloader]

@Jyonny: Hey thanks for stopping by dude and for the encouragement :).  I read an article the other day about breaking things down into simple forms when sketching and it kinda flicked a switch in my head:

http://thevirtualinstructor.com/how-to-draw-faster.html

Now I go around looking for the basic forms in things and thinking how to sketch them.  I've also started applying this to gestures.

Anyway - finished off some anatomy study I've been doing on the gluteal muscles:

[Artloader]

August is going to be the month where I start taking pieces to a more finished state.

Started working on a character concept, here's a mood board and a value study - not really sure what I'm doing with values yet so any critique would be much appreciated - thanks:

[Ricky Martinez]

great progress dude, good stuff. :)

[Pattison]

Nice gesture drawings, I like the top left one the most. It has a good balance of construction and energy. Have you seen Bodies in Motion?

[Artloader]

@Ricky:  Thanks for the encouragement dude :)

@Pattison:  Thanks for the kind words and also the tip-off for Bodies In Motion - I just bookmarked it :).

More experimenting with values for my Warrior Acolyte painting - which one looks best?

[JyonnyNovice]

I think they all could work, depends on the 'mood' of the piece. Sometimes it helps to choose an adjective to sum up what you want to paint, like 'hope' or 'opression' or whatever then choose a value pattern that feels close to that.

Maybe you're just doing this guy stood on his own in the spotlight? In that case the bright / close light might make strong shadows and such, so 2,3,5,11 or something works.

One painting tip I heard a while back was about choosing the 'exposure' for a piece, like on a camera you can set it to either crush the blacks and show detail in the lights, or burn out the lights and show detail in the darks. Our eyes work in a similar way where we don't really simultaeneously look at dark area and light area detail when we observe something. So playing that up in a painting can be really useful! you just have to decide from the beginning where you want to show more detail. Uh, I'm going off on a tangent a bit xD have to run but if that stuff is interesting for you I'll explain it more thoroughly next time!

[Artloader]

@Jyonny: Thanks - yeah that sounds like a great idea choosing an adjective :).  I'm going for "menacing" so perhaps I should go for darker values?  No. 3 was my favourite so far.

Great food for thought on the exposure thing - detail in the light or detail in the dark?  I shall ponder.  Maybe details in the dark would suit "menacing" more?

Anyway here are some pose studies for my Warrior Acolyte painting:

[Artloader]

Some drawabox exercises and a practice figure.  I've been trying to refine my process for figure drawing into something like:  gesture - construction - anatomy.  Still feels a bit clunky so I guess I just need to practice.

[miracoly]

Yo Artloader, you know what? You're such a consistent beast. I really admire that. You're progress is SO solid, just keep it going dude!!!

[Anton_Fort]

Hey, cool studies and gesture drawings! Keep it up. Though in the last piece I think you have some problems with the right arm. It's a 3/4 pose, so it won't be so much of the arm. Besides, great work. Your persistence is inspiring.

[Artloader]

@Miracoly:  Thanks for push dude :).

@Anton_Fort:  Good spot with the right arm - thanks for the feedback Anton - appreciated.  I was going for a particular pose where the shoulders are pushed forward slightly - but I have over done it on this!

I'm diving into my Warrior Acolyte painting - here's the line drawing:

[Artloader]

Fixed his right forearm and hand and blocked in the mid value based on value study no. 3 above.

[Artloader]

Some Drawabox exercises and my personal piece.

The proportions were bothering me so I went back and checked them against Loomis.  Turns out the chest was too high!  This led me to discovering the IWarp plugin - which I guess is like the Liquify feature in Paintshop?  It's great!  Every cloud has a silver lining!

[Artloader]

Trying to get more figure studies in as well as practice rendering a little:




And some more work on my personal piece:

[RaginBronko]

Inspiring sketchbook that 3d stuff looks so complicated hurts my brain.

[Artloader]

Inspiring sketchbook that 3d stuff looks so complicated hurts my brain.

Hey thanks for dropping by RaginBronko :).  The 3D stuff is done in Blender and there are tons of tutorials on it if you're interested - hit me with a PM :).

Some gestures from tonight - referenced:




And a sketch from imagination: