Joseph's shiny new sketchbook

[JosephCow]

Some more figure sketches. I would like to get more into the structure and anatomy of my sketches, but I still just find the proportions difficult. Sigh! Every time we start a new figure drawing at the academy, I always have a really rough start. My eye is gradually improving, but i think I need to really hit the basics hard at home

[Zaulta]

Probably not much of help lol, but pretty insane how everything you make seems so soft and subtle. Also just curious and you don't have to answer, what specifically makes you unsatisfied with your figures at the academy?

[JosephCow]

sketches for 2 day.

(reposted with some little changes)

[JosephCow]

Probably not much of help lol, but pretty insane how everything you make seems so soft and subtle. Also just curious and you don't have to answer, what specifically makes you unsatisfied with your figures at the academy?

Thanks! I think it's not necessarily the end result that is anything bad. It's more the long and winding road I take to get there. I want to smooth out the process and learn to see the right proportions much easier. A lot of my drawings end up with some body part lookin the wrong size or something like that, and I don't notice till I reflect on it later. It's just like rrrgh I wish I could see it.

I'm hoping I can make some good improvements with shading as well, make it less hairy, stronger effect of form.

Sometimes I'm hard on myself when it really doesn't matter that much. But in order to improve you kind of have to make it matter, y'know?

[Dominicque]

You've learned to block out the figure and add shadow really nicely. Can't wait to see you develop this. I would love to something similar myself. It's pretty much only ateliers that teach these techniques isn't it, not art schools?

Well most art schools do have figure drawing. But even if they do it's mostly short poses between 10 minutes and an hour. So you'd never have nearly enough time to do anything besides sloppy work, even if the instruction were decent.

Yeah, it's not a lot. I feel with Fine Art there's not much instruction, so I'm glad I didn't pursue it to degree level. It would just feel like a waste of time. There's only one university in the UK that teaches anatomy and that's Oxford lol. Even that's not really atelier style. Don't know any in my town, if you live in a Capitol city you are pretty lucky in that respect. I really wish I would have chosen graphic design at A-Level, because at least I would have learn Photoshop.

[JosephCow]

You've learned to block out the figure and add shadow really nicely. Can't wait to see you develop this. I would love to something similar myself. It's pretty much only ateliers that teach these techniques isn't it, not art schools?

Well most art schools do have figure drawing. But even if they do it's mostly short poses between 10 minutes and an hour. So you'd never have nearly enough time to do anything besides sloppy work, even if the instruction were decent.

Yeah, it's not a lot. I feel with Fine Art there's not much instruction, so I'm glad I didn't pursue it to degree level. It would just feel like a waste of time. There's only one university in the UK that teaches anatomy and that's Oxford lol. Even that's not really atelier style. Don't know any in my town, if you live in a Capitol city you are pretty lucky in that respect. I really wish I would have chosen graphic design at A-Level, because at least I would have learn Photoshop.

What are you studying right now? (presuming you're in some degree program if not Graphic design)

[Dominicque]

You've learned to block out the figure and add shadow really nicely. Can't wait to see you develop this. I would love to something similar myself. It's pretty much only ateliers that teach these techniques isn't it, not art schools?

Well most art schools do have figure drawing. But even if they do it's mostly short poses between 10 minutes and an hour. So you'd never have nearly enough time to do anything besides sloppy work, even if the instruction were decent.

Yeah, it's not a lot. I feel with Fine Art there's not much instruction, so I'm glad I didn't pursue it to degree level. It would just feel like a waste of time. There's only one university in the UK that teaches anatomy and that's Oxford lol. Even that's not really atelier style. Don't know any in my town, if you live in a Capitol city you are pretty lucky in that respect. I really wish I would have chosen graphic design at A-Level, because at least I would have learn Photoshop.

What are you studying right now? (presuming you're in some degree program if not Graphic design)

Something completely unrelated in Linguistics with a Modern Language. This year was meant to be my Year Abroad, but I'm ground for obvious reasons. Though it would be a good time to get back into drawing and honing my skills via a sketchbook thread. I always wanted to know more about writing and language, and A-Level Art stressed me the hell out, and already felt like a waste of time. I definitely wasn't mentally ready for degree level art. I've thought about a masters in Illustration, but definitely want to find tutors and a program that teach me what I want to know, otherwise it would feel like a waste of money and I should just continue self-teaching. There's a local short-course in Graphic design I'm considering, though. Are you at a full-time atelier?

[JosephCow]

JosephCow


Something completely unrelated in Linguistics with a Modern Language. This year was meant to be my Year Abroad, but I'm ground for obvious reasons. Though it would be a good time to get back into drawing and honing my skills via a sketchbook thread. I always wanted to know more about writing and language, and A-Level Art stressed me the hell out, and already felt like a waste of time. I definitely wasn't mentally ready for degree level art. I've thought about a masters in Illustration, but definitely want to find tutors and a program that teach me what I want to know, otherwise it would feel like a waste of money and I should just continue self-teaching. There's a local short-course in Graphic design I'm considering, though. Are you at a full-time atelier?

Yeah I'm a full time student at Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art. I think you're smart to get a degree in something else. Art education is 90% a miss i would say. Like I'm sure there are some good degree programs out there somewhere? But how do you filter out the crap? Even for ateliers it's not a magic cure. There are some that are great, and there are some that are not so great to be honest.

[chubby_cat]

Really digging the latest drawings, Joseph! You can definitely feel a sense of form coming through in your drawings, and the simplification of the hand is nicely done. Proportions are always hard (especially when you add in foreshortened poses) but I think it's something that gets easier as you practice, so keep going with the studies and practice :)

[Zorrentos]

The last couple of pages of studies are excellent! I agree with chubby_cat that the simplification and form come through really well!

I have to agree with you when it comes to art degree as well. When I vent to art school back in the days, it was really more just to have time to draw. The education by itself was very poor, and in hindsight, I was not in a good state of mind to get the most out of it. I think if I could do it over and be that young again, I would just get a part-time job on the weekends, live with my parents, and self-study all week instead...

Then again ... It would have meant missing out on a lot of experiences with classmates and such ... No good answer to that question really! We all have to do what feels best! :)

[JosephCow]

The last couple of pages of studies are excellent! I agree with chubby_cat that the simplification and form come through really well!

I have to agree with you when it comes to art degree as well. When I vent to art school back in the days, it was really more just to have time to draw. The education by itself was very poor, and in hindsight, I was not in a good state of mind to get the most out of it. I think if I could do it over and be that young again, I would just get a part-time job on the weekends, live with my parents, and self-study all week instead...

Then again ... It would have meant missing out on a lot of experiences with classmates and such ... No good answer to that question really! We all have to do what feels best! :)

Thanks a lot. What kind of school did you go to?

I used to think the exact same thing, like dream of just buying books and materials and doing it myself, and how much money it would have saved. But I don't think it's true. I don't think study at home would have suited me, especially not at 18 when all my friends are moving out and going off to school. I would have just petered out. I really wanted to be a student, but I don't know if I would have done well in an atelier at that age either, so maybe in a way it turned out the best it could have. The instruction in college really was poor though, and if I could go back, I wouldn't have gone along with it.

[Zorrentos]

I vent to a regular Swedish art school (not an atelier) in 2012 - 2013. It was free education, so the overall quality of the classes and students was all over the place. We would have life drawing and painting still lifes one day and mix it with pottery, clay sculpting, and making prints other days. A lot of these classes felt like a complete waste of time, so sometimes I just stayed home and did studies by myself. Good old time with ca.org sketchbooks haha ...

If I could go back in time and do it over, I would have self-taught at home and just kept a part-time job on the weekends, but that's the nature of life. We often have to make mistakes to learn from them, and there is no do-over...

[JosephCow]

Zorrentos:

Haha yeah that sounds very confused. Like you'd never get good at any of those things if you do it that way. But i suppose they just want to expose you to stuff.

..

I think I'm going to start trying my hand at animation to train my form and anatomy drawing. When you just draw from a photo or even from life, it's easy to just copy an outline and then not know exactly what the form is doing, or when drawing from the imagination, to convince yourself you have drawn the correct angle of what you were going for. But this will force me to understand and express form with line drawing. It's a lot of work, and this is a rough start, but I think this might actually work.

[Zorrentos]

That's a really interesting practice! I never thought of animation in that way, but what you are saying makes sense!

Edit: If you want to dig deeper about animation, I recommend this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4...rTutorials

[JosephCow]

That's a really interesting practice! I never thought of animation in that way, but what you are saying makes sense!

Edit: If you want to dig deeper about animation, I recommend this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4...rTutorials

 Oh yeah i think I've seen that a long time ago! I'm planning on mostly using it to rotate stuff. But yeah the video makes me want to animate. He makes it looks so simple!

[Peter]

Great work man! :)

Love the subtlety of those figures. Feels really thoughtful if that makes any sense?

Funny that you are exploring animation. It was something I wanted to epxlore myself at some point for pretty much the same reasons as you stated. Not sure if you read manga but the guy who draws the One-Punch Man manga (not the original) has that great understanding of construction and form since his pages flow like an animation. Should check it out.

[JosephCow]

Great work man! :)

Love the subtlety of those figures. Feels really thoughtful if that makes any sense?

Funny that you are exploring animation. It was something I wanted to epxlore myself at some point for pretty much the same reasons as you stated. Not sure if you read manga but the guy who draws the One-Punch Man manga (not the original) has that great understanding of construction and form since his pages flow like an animation. Should check it out.

 I will check it out! I've definitely heard of One-Punch man but never read the manga. Idk how much I'll do with animation but it's not to hard to do simple stuff in Krita, now that I have the hang of it. I will at least do a couple turnarounds of body parts. It's an idea that has been kind of floating in my head for a while since I saw Sinix on youtube do it a couple times ages ago.

[JosephCow]

Thanks Mariyan!

Thought I'd do an update of some of the projects I am working on at school since I haven't really had the time or energy to do much digital stuff on the side as I was hoping to.

I have a figure drawing from life in charcoal that i have a few more days to finish, and a cast of Voltaire that i'm working on.

I'm pretty happy with the progress on the figure drawing, I'm hoping to have the anatomy of the back more strongly articulated by the end, but it's really hard to balance adding modeling in the lights without really overdoing it. A lot of charcoal drawing that actually have decent proportions and anatomy end up getting ruined by very dark and heavy modelling.

Also my phone camera is really bad. Maybe in some ways it's flattering because you can't really see what's going on.

[Zorrentos]

The two last pieces are looking amazing! I have always been impressed with artists who can produce these long, complex charcoal images because I absolutely do not have the patience to do so myself haha.

I don't really have a crit, so I'm just gonna say "Keep up the great job!"

[JosephCow]

Thanks Zorrentos!

Couple drawings from this week.
I wanted to push myself a little to make my pencil figure stronger and really do a firm outline. It really helps to express form to be clear, yet you don't want to lock down lines that are incorrect. I couldn't really figure out the right leg. It looks really flat and odd to me, I think the thigh could be a little small.

I think the portrait sketch looks pretty cool. Better than my last one of the same guy which was kind of awkward. It's very blurry though, beyond just the bad photo. So maybe my next one I will try a more hard linear approach to kind of push forward, since my portraits have been at kind of the same/consistent quality for a while.