AfricanVoodoo's Sketchbook

[AfricanVoodoo]

Hi there AfricanVoodoo!

I've read some of your posts and I'm worried that you are stressing yourself too much over art! I agree with AngeliquevdMee that as long as you do the work, you'll get there! Even if you can't afford to spend 12 or 16 hours a day on drawing (I know my back hurts like hell when I do that), if you can draw for 2 or 4 - that is awesome too! Don't compare yourself with others because what you see can be just your assumption. You don't know how much each person spends on drawing, even if someone updates their sketchbook daily. And also, we all have ups and downs, everyone has a day without art! We are all just people who have the same goal - to do art professionally, but each of us takes a different path to get there.

As for your sketches - yes you need to work on fundamentals (don't we all!) and I think at this point, as long as you fill your sketchbook pages as often as you can you will start seeing progress soon. Maybe you could find some live figure drawing classes nearby? It would definitely help if you had a chance to draw the human body not only from books or photos.
Once you get your proportions right and you are able to feel the 3D form of a figure, you could start experimenting with different shapes and give your characters some unique features!

One more thing - When starting to draw a figure, try to see the big shapes first and sketch them out, then go into detail and muscle definition.

Hope this helps!

Thank you very much Alex for your comment!!

I'm... still not sure which fundamental I need to work on (might be form and proportions honestly) but I'll keep on going until I get some more feedback.

I live in Florida, which should be a perfect state to find some figure drawing classes but I might have to travel far to actually find a class like that (Miami? Tampa?). I dunno, I'm going to go draw before bedtime rolls around.

Thank you again!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo!

I need to start doing anatomy studies again, but not the ones where I get some static model. I want ones who are doing an action pose, and then I have to figure out where the major bones are, then the muscles. I guess that will be my exercise for this Saturday morning.

(Art): I HATE HATE HATE the right one, I still cannot do foreshortening (and I don't like the anatomy...). But I REALLY REALLY like the left one. Like.... this is probs my favorite page in my entire sketchbook (for now).


I was a little sick this week, to the point where I couldn't get out of bed... So I couldn't do any drawing until I got back into school. Back to the grind, I suppose.

(Art): This character would be fine if it wasn't his lazy right eye over there... sigh.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo! I'm back! (Not a week later)



Still feeling out of place in this site because I am not doing ultra realistic studies of skulls and apples, oh well, I'm getting there. I just need a summer vacation with little to no annoying people and then I can start doing that. For now, I'll stick to pencil drawings.

This week was not the best honestly (it sucked), so I... just wanted to draw. Sure I've BEEN doing that, but this was a time where I used drawing as a way to escape, which rarely happens to me...

(Art): A bunch of sketches and an unfinished armor design on the right. I noticed that I was trying to get better line work since that was what I wanted for a long time. You don't see it here but... I'm getting there.



Maybe when my life decides to not be so hard on me, I'll start doing more portraits and proportion studies of the face since I want to bush up on that. I might study Greek and Roman busts since I can see the merit with that.

(Art): More sketches. Not only do I want to find more shapes in my character designs, I also want to learn how to make a character voluminous. I want them to actually look like they have depth and 3d-ness, I'm not even close to that level of designing yet (I'm not even close to being decent at the fundamentals...)

People were recommending James McCullen, a man who did a figure drawing book that makes you think about the weight and volume of the figures you are trying to draw. It sounds nice and I am thinking about purchasing a book.



... I dunno. I'm getting back into my usual "oh no my art doesn't look good" phase. That phase usually follows with me looking at other people's art and studies then trying to do them myself... then I fail and I call it a day. I'm fumbling in the dark at this point... 

I just want to draw silly people and plants for a living... (just kidding.)

(Art): My friend was writing some story and I wanted to design some of the characters for him. I just went straight into the design, no thumbnails or anything. I will most likely redesign the characters with actual turnarounds... which is actually pretty foreign to me.

On the right is the golem this boy summons during battle. When it is done, I'll speak about it some more.

I guess it is time to study up on some McCullen because I REALLY feel like everything I draw is flat as fuck. 

Until next time, bye now!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo! Quickie today!

I changed my profile since I thought the old one didn't pop out as much as I would like it to. So I found some random toad on my computer and now it is my profile. It is green and bright and frogs are cool. 



Some rocks I decided to study up on in preparation for that golem design that I was doing. I was trying to look for more jagged rocks with little to no smooth sides like most of the rocks I found on Google. I should google "jagged rocks" next time... 
I should paint some rocks, seems pretty fun.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo! I'm back and I hate the first post of this sketchbook oh my lord...


Which is a good thing right? Right. 

This was a pretty fast week for me honestly. Which is great because my birthday is coming up really soon (2/14) and I am not letting these wack-ass children at my school bring me down when it is MY birthday. Hmph.

(Art): I dunno, I just wanted to draw some ogres. The one in the box was from an actual illustration, I liked the way the artist made the skull so I tried to replicate it. I'm pretty sure if you Google "ogres" you will find the design. It kind of inspired me to go and study skulls and anatomy again.... speaking of.


I started to get back into anatomy studies! Actually, now that I mention it, this is when I started to get back into studying in general. Sadly for this study, I worried too much about finishing the sketch instead of doing actual studies. When it comes to anatomy studies I wouldn't normally do these things, but I wanted to try it out to see if it can help! It reminded me to look carefully at the structure of the abs on the statue (Mine are too symmetrical, a trait that I surprisingly kept while doing this...)

I feel more comfortable just tackling certain muscle groups at a time. Right now, I am thinking about focusing on the serratus muscles since those are the only muscle groups on the torso I am scared to study right now.

(Art): Some statue I found on Google. Putting the two images back to back really helps with checking your work! The lats on the right side of the ref. image pops out more than mine which I should of noticed! Also the 45. abs on the bottom of the torso was tilted slightly, which means the torso was stretching on one side. My drawing had the 45. going vertically which means I glanced over the gesture of the pose.

No lie... this was fun! It was so cool knowing that I can (somewhat) reproduce this image while learning about the muscle groups at the same time. I'm going to do more of these!


(Art): Oh, and I'm done with that golem from the other post. Just like that character design with Garius, I jumped straight into this thing, no thumbnails are anything. I just wanted to create some fan art for my friend. He seems to enjoy this design but I am not that pleased because of the sporadic lighting. Ugh. Some of the rock's geometry could of been better too.

 So, Garius is a 17 year old boy who is one of the main characters in the story. His goal is to the join the Resistance, some underground ultramega organization of soldiers who go on missions and shit, and become their medic. Later in the story, he had a chance to meet up with the Resistance and he pretty much got ignored in favor of the other characters. He seems to be outspoken and quiet yet sympathetic and cautious.

He has this tattoo on his right arm called a "Rune". If you can link you soul with this tattoo, then you are able to control the elements and gain powers and stuff. Garius has an Earth Rune with makes him create shit like this. In the story... he rarely utilizes the Rune, which sucks.

Welp, that's all I got. See yall soon! Bye now!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo yall! It has been a week so I am still in the game!


So because I want to become a character designer, (and I will most likely be designing human characters) I need to start hitting all cylinders in terms of studying anatomy. Not only do I need to know the proper size and placement of these muscles, I want to know how light affects these muscles. It is time to delve into light and shadow with these studies cause I have to do them eventually.

(Art): A figure study of some buff person i dunno and some studies on where the pectorals are placed and how they stretch and move when the arms move. (I dunno how I would survive without Proko, speaking of, I should review his lesson on the pecs)



It's hard to go back and study a fundamental that you have been studying for so long. It makes me think that I am a master at this shit so I wouldn't have to do it. But a few designs later, I realize that I need to brush up on anatomy again. It's not so bad, I love learning more about the human anatomy and how it works.

(Art): Another figure, but I don't really like this one because the abs are wrong and the left deltoid is too short. Also, I mixed smooth shading and hatching very poorly here. It just looks too dirty for me. Oh well, just a study. There were notes on how shadows form near the intersection of the chest and deltoid, the planes of a chest, and bodybuilders.

That's it!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo!

(Art): Trying to figure out why the hell I can never get the serratus right.. ugh! Well, I learned that with skin on top, you can only see about 3-4 digits at a time on a lean model so I won't have to do some think about it too much.


(Art): A study of another marble torso. The gesture was wrong (again) but at least I got the hips right. More notes on the abs and hatching tips for myself.

Andrew studies on proportions should be on my list of things to do next time... (Also, new materials to use!!)

[kvSketch]

Hey there, great work. I think something I've noticed browsing through your sketchbook is you have a tendency to make the proportions of your subjects too wide. For your imagination work if that's how you like to draw, it's not as bad but in the studies its harming your accuracy. I have a tendency to do the same thing with faces. A approach you may want to consider, to get out of that habit, is making things thinner than you might have naturally done it. Keep up the good work :D.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Hey there, great work.  I think something I've noticed browsing through your sketchbook is you have a tendency to make the proportions of your subjects too wide.  For your imagination work if that's how you like to draw, it's not as bad but in the studies its harming your accuracy.  I have a tendency to do the same thing with faces. A approach you may want to consider, to get out of that habit, is making things thinner than you might have naturally done it. Keep up the good work :D.

Thank you!!

Now that mention it, I never noticed that. Thank you!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo! 

(Art): This is how I do my gestures. Even though some will tell me that I "mastered" figures (*cough* nope), I still want to improve more and more on it until I know I mastered it.
This is literally the only gesture study page I did that doesn't look convoluted...



(Art): Some figures from imagination and some big nose big dude.



(Art): Some owls I did for preparation on a project at my school. I really like owls.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo! I'm back!

I'm wondering... are art shows good to get my name out there? Would people shun me for only doing fantasy pencil character drawings? Ehh...

(Art): Bunch of sketching...



(Art): I wanted to draw some samurai... I honestly wanted to get used to drawing a lot of details because... I feel like it.



(Art): A character design I did for a friend. This was when I got the idea to go back to heads and face proportions. I... learned... so.... much. (I should redo this with the new information I learned...)

Critiques are HIGHLY appreciated, thank you!!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo!

This is a WIP of a character (sketches of this character is seen in the last post), that I am trying to work on. But oh my lord can someone give me some tips on how to do line art effectively? Do I only need a simple circular round brush or do I need to go fancy? (Also, some crits on the picture itself because I certainly need it.)

I am a complete beginner to digital art, let alone Photoshop so I hope I can get a lot of mileage in the medium as the years go by. 

Thank you!!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo!


I'm trying to figure out my way of studying. Because it feels like I am doing these weird indirect studies in my sketchbook lately, mainly because it is the fastest way to get mileage in my opinion (Also, I love to sketch). 

It makes me feel bad whenever I don't do focused studies (like 3 pages of arm anatomy or whatever), but then I remember that I don't give a shit and I'll do those kinds of studies when I actually feel like it.

(Art): I was trying to do an exercise from Sinix on YouTube, then I gave up then I did random pen drawings at the bottom.


 I really do not know where to start when it comes to digital painting. If someone told me to do a pencil portrait of somebody I'll gladly do it but then there is digital painting... sigh. I'm a beginner so of course I won't be so confident. I'll just have to plow my way through until I find the mystical temple I suppose. 

(Art): More sketches. I was doing these tiny figures and I like them a lot.

Maybe I should do Ctrl + Paint exercises that I see everyone doing since that seems to be the go to videos for beginning digital artists...

[AfricanVoodoo]

Alright... this is only going to be a text-based post because bitch I can, and it mixes things up on my sketchbook. I always liked speaking my mind while posting my art on websites since... I dunno, I really like doing that. DeviantArt and Tumblr are wonderful places for that. Twitter and Instagram does not... (If you can find my Introduction thread, then holy balls I talk a lot)

 Studying

A word that I fling around almost every damn time I come unto this website. 

It's only because 80% of the people on here do these ultra heavy studies and I get worried about my progress as an artist. Some people on here tell me not to worry but... it's hard not to.

 I should be thinking about what these other artist's lifestyles are since I think most of the people here don't go to high school for most of the day. So... me doing these quick sketches and not fully fleshed out studies is justified? I never liked thinking that way but I am not going to stress myself out over these things because it's ART. Art is supposed to heal and rejuvenate me.

Secondly, there is this stupid thought in my head that there is a linear way of doing my studies.

Me doing things differently from the norm is a pretty common thing in my life. I tie my shoes differently, I hold my pencil differently, I cope with annoying niggas differently (I'm sorry if that type of language is forbidden here), and I am still doing well in life right now. So what is going to be different about studying? Sure, there is a similar theme among my studies. I don't just copy the picture then move on. It doesn't help me remember anything about the thing that I am trying to study. I take notes and do a bunch of tiny drawings on the side to wrap my head around the subject. But I don't have to make everything look pretty pretty or do a study with a specific medium, these studies are for me... yet I forget that. I need to stop following other artist's methods if I know that it makes me uncomfortable.

Thirdly, I have seen a pretty recent stream by Sycra on his Sycralogical Podcasts and they bring up a very interesting topic on the topic of studying according to your major. I want to be a character designer. I want to make up or redesign any character that I want and give them charm and likability to them. On Sycra's stream, they talked about artists who pretty much are a slave to the fundamentals. Some artists say they want to do comics when they are professional but all you see them do is the fundamentals... and no comics. And because they slave over all the main fundamentals, they don't exactly focus on doing the comics part since doing comics has their own rules and fundamentals on their own like panel composition and placement.

It made me think because I have doing so much anatomy and proportion studies, I forgot that I wanted to create characters. So... even if I fuckin' stink at making characters, I will get the assistance I need to fully make a good character.

I just need to start creating characters.

[AlexShi]

I don't think that everybody here has the same way of studying, we are all different and while we try to follow some guidelines, in the end each of us chooses what works best for oneself.
I think you don't need to bother about detail like that and just go on the way you want to, it doesn't really matter how you do it as long as you get there.

And I agree that if you want to be a character concept artist then you should adjust your study plan to it and draw lots and lots of characters :) On a side note I listen to that podcast as well and as much as I love it, sometimes I feel like Sycra and the others overthink or overcomplicate some topics and focus too much on being disapproving about other people... Sorry, just wanted to get it out there.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Alex - I agree with you on studying, it's time for me to loosen up.
The podcast does get too philosophical at times but I feel like that was their intention. *shrugs*

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Yo yo yo!


For people who did not know, I am on Spring Break right now, which explains why I am so active on this website but on Monday it's back to a post every 20 years. My goal this week is to get as much mileage on digital art and Photoshop as quick as possible before the labor kicks in once again.

(Art): More dumb sketching, some from other comics because I like the expressions. This was the beginning of me trying to figure out how to do a simplified eye ball with a 0.5 pen (Also, I started to make my eyes smaller than usual.)


Making brushes for Photoshop was the most odd experience on this program. Well... instead of a normal round hard brush, I have to do a weird squiggly round shape with a couple of jags then put an intense blur on it and then change the brush dynamics then... boom. A brush for line-art. 

And it works!!

Credit to a man named Robert Marzullo on Youtube for giving me the idea to do these types of brushes. He is a comic book artist so he was giving a tutorial on how to make brushes for line art and it looks very cool. Of course I have to adjust my version of the brush in order to appeal to me.

I look at other artists like Borodante and Sinix who also uses slime-shaped brushes to do drawing and painting and they are doing well (I was also trying to imitate Sinix's brush). I guess normal circle are ultra boring, respectable I suppose.

(Art): Moooorrrreeeeee sketching. I tired to do some transformation kind of thing, I don't think I pulled it off well.

Time to go back on Photoshop.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Yo yo yo!





I'm still getting used to Photoshop! Trying to use my arm instead of my wrist since I am now sitting at a desk instead of on my bed. I am liking how the sketches are coming out but I still got to experiment with more custom brushes in order to find something I am 100% with. Being able to create your own brushes are SO helpful because the finite and stiff nature of FireAlpaca in terms of brushes was killing me...

(Art): Actual anatomy studies on digital media?!? I'm on a roll today if I do say so myself! I started using this website called SketchNab(?) and it is amazing!! It's a site where 3D artists post their work and it is AWESOME! People put their anatomy studies of muscles and skeletons so that means I can use them for my own benefit, yes? So I am finally set to embark on a journey of seeing 3D space and form without frying my brain!

[AfricanVoodoo]

Taking a break from the character line-art that I am trying to do. It has been an experience honestly. I have to change up my strategy for the next character because I made too much mistakes (not fully understanding the character, not finalizing my brushes, and the lack of planning ahead)

Next time, I should do a bunch of thumbnails of the same character in different poses. Choose one. Scan and crop that one thumbnail and enlarge it. Do a less shitty sketch on Photoshop, refine it more and more until I get the line art that I want. Now that I am using brushes that I like, I won't have to pause my progress on my piece just so I can make a new brush that fits the situation that I come across.   

That's the plan I suppose.

Art colleges

Talking about art colleges near artists usually heat up some debates if artists should go there. 

The art college that I am thinking about going to is SCAD Savanna in Georgia. I did not hear that much negative feedback towards the college so... might as well give it a try right? I even talked to a SCAD student via email and she mentions that Savanna is a historical and cultural landmark in the U.S., so there is most likely a bunch of statues and art surrounding me which helps with thinking up of dumb shit to put in my sketchbook.

I yearn to go to an art college because it helps with connecting with people and studios and famous artists. It will finally makes me connect with other aspiring artists instead of hobbyists at my high school. Relating with people who do things like me is soooo relaxing think about. Even though I am shy as a damn dog in the rain, meeting people is still... magical to me(?) New personalities, new drama, new people to smile at. It's just nice to talk to someone y'know, especially about stories and art.

Plus I heard they have these sleeping pods where you go inside, set a timer and sleep with whatever music surrounding you. Ya'll already know that after class I am going to fly into those things like Super-fucking-man.

1000-Studies Challenge

I've seen some people on here who are doing this challenge where you do 1000 studies of whatever. I mean... I am the king of doing small doodles on my sketchbook so I might try it out doing the summertime.  Looks fun and inspiring!

There was also a challenge that Holly Brown on Youtube is doing too called the "10-A Day" Challenge. Where you pick a topic then draw ten of those in your sketchbook everyday. It's a visual library kind of thing and that also looks like a very effective thing to do (especially as an upcoming character artist)

Back to the line-art I go.

[AfricanVoodoo]

Here just take it...


Still a work on progress but... I think it is going okay for now. The gun was being annoying because of all the Olympic-medal winning mental gymnastics I had to do (I tried to do it in perspective...). Then I found out that the straps were attached to the guns in actual military fashion so now I have to figure out how the straps are going to wrap around this dude's body while being attached to the gun on the back.

Oh and I gave up on the gun's perspective so now it is hidden behind his back. If... only I... PLANNED and SKETCHED!!

I'm actually very excited to see this thing done though.

Good night!

[Hozure]

I can relate with the frustration and consciously telling yourself not to compare to others. It's a really shitty thing along with doubting if you're passionate about what you're doing. Never really got over that demotivation factor, but the way I approach it is to stop giving a fuck and just suffer for the sake of improving. Part of the doubt comes from not being confident enough to draw what I want, but how much time do I waste being unproductive each day? Gotta kick myself in the ass and wake up from bed when its time to wake up, even if the bed is the god damn comfiest thing and I don't want to leave it.

That said I'd recommend you to do some more studies based on improving form. Line quality may be a bonus you pick up as you start to think about lighting (heavier strokes on the darker side(s)), and you can always work on line quality later in isolation. Line weight's like the icing on a cake.