Hard work + Determination = Growth

[Alexey Savchuk]

Hello Everyone!
My name is Alexey Savchuk. I am from Moscow, Russia.
Welcome to my sketchbook where I am going to post my everyday sketches, studies and WIP's personal projects, also will share a little history of my progress and discuss feelings and issues arising during the course of creating current projects and how to deal with them.
I hope it will be interesting for someone...
I will start with short history:
My journey of studying drawing at the beginning was a roller-coaster
I showed interest to drawing in mid-2010, just as one of the options of what I want to do with my life, and after about one and a half years, at the end of 2011 drawing eventually won me over and I fell in love with it...
Some of my sketches and studies mid-2010 - 2011














to be continued...

[Alexey Savchuk]

Let's Continue
In 2012 I decided to start actual studies and study drawing more seriously. Began to study primitives, perspective, the anatomy, composition and more other theory stuff, but progress seemed slow to me because I am also studied in the university... to much new information to handle and lack of practice really frustrated me at the time...
Some anatomy studies and sketches in 2012
















Here's the best in my opinion studies and sketches in 2011 – 2012




Also participated in the competition "Draw your Tali from Mass Effect" at the time nobody knows how did she look like

[Alexey Savchuk]

Finally in 2013, after getting a degree in the university (getting a diploma), I put together all my thoughts and decided to get serious about drawing by reducing all early interests to minimum, which over the years has accumulated a lot, and get rid of all things that prevented me to grow. It was not easy and definitely not fast, but by the end of mid-2013, I finally did it and moved forward and finally tried Digital Painting. I was surprised how hard it was with all software and hardware aspects, but to my amazement, i adapted to it pretty fast, thanks for 3D background which i experienced in 2009 - 2010
In the summer of 2013 i participated in several competitions
Here's the first examples of studying and painting in digital and also traditional studies and sketches
Traditional studies and sketches










Studying in digital


Painting in digital






to be continued...

[AngeliquevdMee]

There's already improvement here. Keep it coming! Your skeletons look good, but keep close attention to anatomy :) always good to build a solid foundation of all the fundamentals first. Good job!

[Alexey Savchuk]

AngeliquevdMee - thanks! It means a lot for me!
And.. Let's Continue
Second half of 2013 and part of 2014 I was absorbed by work which was nothing to do with art, just boring, repetitive and hardly stable, also I thought at that time that i can handle both painting and working...
I tried... but considering my skill level my progress seemed even slower than before and I felt like something that I want so bad, just been taken from me piece by piece.
I knew that if I continue in the same way eventually i will loose myself and I decided to quit job and start real hard work on painting. After couple of weeks i realized that i need to start online sketchbook to control my progress and be around like-minded people
I hope to meet good people and get some critique which hopefully helps me to grow faster
Here's some stuff that I did in all this period including recent
Traditional sketches and studies




Digital sketches and studies














I will post all my daily studies in chronological sequence and all projects that i can
I am serious about all of this and I will work hard!
But in case i lose in quantity or quality please kick me!
to be continued...

[Alexey Savchuk]

Here's current personal project that I am working on
Task: Create Amulet of Love and Amulet of Unity for one of the four tribes - Preachers of Unity
Amulet of Love
First direction before Task


Thumbnail from imagination


Amulet design, Setting up correct Perspective, Construction and Composition, Work on Values, Testing Colors


Study for project

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's morning anatomical pose study (Took me longer than expected)


Today's practice poses from imagination (I had a great time catching these poses from my imagination)

[Alexey Savchuk]

Rethink some stuff about project... at this point it's seems too busy
Since the main focus the amulet, I trying to simplify and think in more magical way


Now big things coming - Figuring out luminosity and trying to visualize it
Hope I can handle it...

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's morning anatomical pose study (tricky to catch properly)


Also decided to do on the daily basis color studies and of course try to do them for about an hour

[stroan]

Great work on the studies! Keep it up for sure, the progress is great to see - especially your poses :)

[Alexey Savchuk]

stroan - Thanks!
Today's morning anatomical pose study

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's 1h color study

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's morning anatomical pose study


Right now i working on putting together all my knowledge (theoretical stuff) about creating work from scratch and studying from reference, by analyzing all this knowledge in relationship with each other and apply it to work
I do this because while studying references i unwittingly tend to copying what i see instead of truly understanding it. When I creating my personal work all my knowledge remains inapplicable to practice because of that, which really annoys me! I want eradicate all my problems by always using a specific "pattern of knowledge" in studying and creating a personal projects.

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's morning anatomical pose study


Today's study of technically complex objects

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's study using a specific "pattern of knowledge"on which i worked yesterday
So far for me in terms of studying "pattern of knowledge" really working and I am happy for my studies now =)
Remains to try it in action on creating your own project, but in theory it should work as well as on studies
But for now I just need to keep studying for gaining confidence and developing the good habit of using "pattern of knowledge"
Here is the result (it took a lot of time) but eventually i learned so much and had a great time

[Alexey Savchuk]

Today's morning anatomical pose study


Today's study of technically complex objects

[Alexey Savchuk]

[Alexey Savchuk]

I found something that scrawled back in the middle 2013 just for fun from imagination... I remember how proud I was...
Listen until death comes


Now I am thinking about resurrecting my unfinished old project that i really like even right now
Here is first direction


Here is a second one

[Alexey Savchuk]

Also I found couple of good sites with 3D anatomy
Not perfect but for the development of spatial thinking quite good
Sometimes better to twirl in 3D certain bones (especially pelvis) or muscles than watch them in three projections
http://www.zygotebody.com
http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/
Hopefully to someone come in handy

[Alexey Savchuk]

I will try to do this kind of studies each day regardless of anything
1) Anatomy posing
2) Technically complex object
3) Quick landscape