StardustLarva's Visual Explorations

[Sean McCLain]

I see you like bugs :) keep at it!

[StardustLarva]

I'm going to try and get into the habit of updating daily if I can. For now, have some sketchbook stuff you didn't ask for:





Some metal studies.



A preliminary for an anatomy painting I plan to do of the stag beetle Lucanus cervus. Referenced from one of my photographs.

[StardustLarva]

Study of a beetle that I unfortunately don't know the species of. The colours didn't come out as intended, as they were much darker in the reference photo.

[AliceChopper]

Like the fact that you set yourself a very specific goal and working towards it.
The studies are getting better and better, and realy like the texture you give in your traditional drawings, but be careful though as far as I know Phil Hansen suffered permanent nerve damage for gripping the pen too tight. Just warm-up and have breaks every now and then.
Keep up the good work :)

[StardustLarva]

Thank you, AliceChopper. Yes, I do worry about that when stippling, I often have to take breaks so I don't get strain injuries, heh.



A study of my African pygmy hedgehog, Fluke.

[jeremygordon89]

Hey, thanks for your feedback on my thread!
You've got some pretty cool studies going on in here, and since they all seem to be similar in nature (at least on this page), I'll go ahead and give my two cents that might help you overall.

It looks right now like you could improve the structure of the things you're drawing by drawing through the forms and really thinking about the basic forms that these animals are built from. They just need a bit more structure I think;

and also don't be afraid to push your value range for more contrast. It looks as though you maybe are afraid to go too dark in places, or maybe not used to using really dark values. My suggestion would be this exercise: using only three values: near black, near white, and medium gray, try drawing your image with only those three values. It will force you to squint down and try to see the values for what they really are.

Hope that helps!

[The Aether Technician]

^this!

Take a look at how Scott Roberson draws-
[x] [x]
His methods are a bit technical, but it's a really great way to think about form in perspective. His book- "How To Draw" is pretty amazing if you want to get more into perspective.

Keep them studies commin'!

[StardustLarva]

Jeremy-Thank you, I have been told previously that these facets are what I need to work on, so I'm on it.

The Aether Technician-Funny you mention Scott Robertson, I actually ordered one of his books on drawing from the imagination last night. Still, thanks for the links.

I finished this piece this morning, but I don't really like it. It's probably not easy on the eyes. I did plot the perspective on this one though.

[The Aether Technician]

Have some redline-


hope this helps :)

[AliceChopper]

You already got pretty good advice and I can do nothing but to second that. Beware of the cat though :)

[StardustLarva]

Woah, thanks for the redlining, that's very helpful. I'll keep in mind what you've said. Hopefully my copy of that Robertson book will arrive soon so I can get to work with that. I think a fennec would work better in the composition rather than a giant cat though, hehe.



A work in progress of a scientific illustration I'm doing of the skull of the owl species Strix aluco. I plan to produce another drawing from a profile angle, which I will then label digitally. I took Meat's previous advice and tried to make the stippling a bit neater, with more precise dots without tails. Hopefully I achieved that here.

Also, I don't know if this is really valid to post here, but I've been messing around with more mixed media recently and produced some collage compositions. Here's one of them:

[StardustLarva]

I finished the aforementioned illustration earlier today.



Thoughts?

[AliceChopper]

Nice skull drawing , sweet rendering.
There is only one minor thing I want to say ( and that may be just a personal preference ) that the lighting situation above causes very strong shadows , while this is artisticly pleasing it makes the forms in the shadows quite hard to read. To make the forms read better maybe using a lighting scenario similar to Michelangelo uses in his drawings (in which he renders forms darker as they turning away from the viewer, as if the viewer is the source of light) can be handy.
Anyways enough ramblimgs already , keep up the good work mate :)

[StardustLarva]

Thank you, Alice. I agree with you that some of the features a lost a bit in the rendering. Given that this was intended as a scientific illustration, clearly showing all the components is important. Thanks for the advice, I'll see if I can sort out a lighting set up for when I'm working on scientific illustrations.

A couple more ink drawings.



This one is a psuedo-scientific illustration of a creature concept for a graphic novel/webcomic I'm planning. The species is covered in spiny appendages which it impales prey with and slowly absorbs through pores on each spine.



Illustration of a badger skull.

[StardustLarva]

Haven't been able to draw as much the past few of days due to current circumstances. Good news is that my copy of the How To Draw book by Scott Robertson arrived the other day, which I have been reading and practicing the exercises from. I have attached some of my (questionable) attempts at some of the early exercises from the book.



A lot of my lines look undefined as I was attempt to draw straight lines in one stroke, utilising my whole arm as opposed to just my wrist. I don't feel I'm quite grasping all of this, so any advice would be appreciated.



Also, here's a quick preliminary drawing I did for a series of abstracted drawings I plan to do based on the Taoist five elements theory. This drawing is for the element metal.

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey man! great start with the perspective stuff - there's the understanding of the concepts, and being able to draw them cleanly and accurately. Personally, my first time through the book I used a ruler so I didn't have to worry too much about clean lines and accurate placement, but that was my choice (pretty sure he recommends to do it all / mostly freehand?).

Some help with drawing straight lines with the whole arm:

1) do the peter han dynamic sketching 1 exercises (the straight line ones at least).
2) The exercises on page 15 of How to Draw. (There is a video that you can access with the password in the book or a smartphone where he demonstrates them as well). Start with points close together, short parallel lines, then gradually increase the distance / length over time.

Do that everyday for like 10 minutes or so, it really helps with all drawing - I do my best to do them everyday.

Another thing is how you hold your pen - depends on the person I think, but personally if I'm trying to draw from the arm I hold the pen with my forefinger and index finger on top, with the pen near vertical (with pencil the vertical part doesn't matter). I rest the side of my hand on the paper, lock my wrist and basically from fingers -> wrist -> elbow moves as one solid unit. Feels more stable that way and gives me nicer lines, but took a little getting used to.

Also, ellipses - the exercises on page 19, start doing those now! do them everyday! ellipses become sooo important later on in the book, by the time you get there you will want to be able to place them properly otherwise it's really frustrating! (coming from someone who reached that point and couldn't place a decent ellipse and had to stop studying it for a while!)
3)


Hope that's helpful! nice Tao drawing.

[StardustLarva]

Thank you for the advice, Jyonny! I'll keep all that in mind. I recall the book recommended drawing lines freehand, so I'll keep practicing that.

I finished the first in that series of drawings based on the Chinese five elements theory. The result is quite different from the preliminary I did, as you can see. I hate the texture of the graphite in this one-any tips on getter smoother textures with graphite?

[Jaik]

Nice skull studies. I think playing around with just plain geometry and practicing rendering cubes and cylinders would really help you at the moment. I know its boring but its worth it! I promise!

[The Aether Technician]

any tips on getter smoother textures with graphite?

You can use a cotton pad to smoodge the values around. Personally, I would work much smaller in graphite, especially if you're doing studies- its less of a hassle to get your values down quickly and correctly.

Nice skull studies. I think playing around with just plain geometry and practicing rendering cubes and cylinders would really help you at the moment. I know its boring but its worth it! I promise!

this this this

[StardustLarva]

Jaik-Thank you. Yes, I realise that is what I need to do.

The Aether Technician-I probably could do that, I recall my old art teacher telling me not to do that, but I don't think there's really a right or wrong way to do these things, so it's worth a shot.

Here's more sketches based from the Robertson book.





Also, studied some arthropods here, attempting to analyse and break down their forms into simpler shapes.