Bookend's Sketchbook

[Bookend]

I feel like I'm not producing enough good quality studies.  I don't want to produce many studies of poor quality, of course, but.. I feel so slow.  I have such a long, long way to go to understanding. :Grin:

Ah well.

So, here's some studies, some application.

[VoodooMama]

I think its ok to be slow. Maybe you can allow yourself to be slow on some studies, instead of worrying about time just make sure you really push forward on the likeness and rendering of the study, focus on the quality for this one. It could be a nice complement to the gesture drawings!

[Bookend]

Hey Voodoo Ma, thanks a lot for your kind words. I'll really take them to heart! I know that technique is more important than speed at this point. Speed will come.

I don't really have a lot to show at the moment, but I've still been drawing everyday. I have an hour to commute to work on the bus, so I draw people. It's pretty fun. My bus-people-drawings are looking a lot better than they used to, too, which is encouraging. And they seem to get better each time. Two hours everyday that I work, I get extra life drawing. Sweet.

I think that my pencil's too soft though, they look kind of cartoony because I couldn't really put a lot of detail in (4b). I think I will try 2 or 3b next time.

Wifey confirms that it's very improved. I'm more encouraged about my progress.

More to come tonight, possibly, or we'll have to wait 'til tomorrow. Still, I can't feel too bad about it. I did draw for 2 hours today.

Maybe I'll start recording my hours of drawing time, like the 10,000 hour rule sketchbook. It'd be neat to see.

So.. We'll start at 4 hours for today and yesterday.

[insbox]

Hi Bookend, man you did a lot of studies. btw this is just my teacher told to me, you don;t need to think 3d first just get simple 2d, silhouette and also its always good to think negative and positive space. (hope it can helps). btw thanks dude for helping with my drawing.

Cheers :D

[Adam Lina]

Hey good job with those anatomy studies. I see a little confusion around the forearm area of the skeleton. Theres a great app called Skely that Proko put out. It might help you figure out how the ulna and radius work. This video has a good animation of the bones and explanation of how the joints move.




Also Voodoo mama had a good point. I'd say you should do some more longer slow studies. Take 5-10 hours on a drawing and maybe stretch it out over a week or so. Doing longer efforts as well as quicker gestures will help you a lot.

[crackedskull]

Recording hours and setting goals can help a lot. Also you should get a precision marker and try doing some linedrawings ontop of graphite sketches.

[Bookend]

insbox: Thanks for the tips, man.  Every little bit helps.  And you're welcome! Hope it helped.

Adam Lina: Ah wow, that video was sorely needed.  That'll definitely help apply.  And Proko as always is a great choice when figuring stuff out.  I do quite long studies as well as these short ones, so hopefully that helps me build.  I couldn't even say what my longest study was.  Maybe the Nightmare study on page 2.  Took me maybe 50+ hours to complete.  

I can say that doing those 'master copies' at least helped me with observational skills.  My eyes are really great now.  I can copy just about anything.  Now it's time to learn imagination stuff.  I feel like I'm kind of backwards from everyone else.  It seems like everyone has all of these great imaginative pieces, but all I have are studies, lol.  I don't really want to try anything until I've applied everything adequately, y'know?  

crackedskull: Yeah, sounds good to me.  I'll try it and see if it helps at all.  Hmm...  Cool idea.  I generally either do graphite, or pen.  Haven't tried doing marker over pencil.  Should be an interesting experience.  Just gotta order some precision markers I guess.    Thanks for the tip!


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All right, so I don't really have anything to show at the moment.  I've been painting 4 or 5 hours on a gift I just started today.  I want it finished for Friday, my dad's birthday.  It's going pretty well, and it's actually really fun, too.  Too bad I can't show it.  Too personal, haha.

But, it's a lesson in colour.

I gotta question for you folks:  I've heard it's a really good idea to make short term deadlines that are relatively realistic and attainable.

I was thinking...  I'll master the anatomy of the arm and/or hand in a month.  What do you think?  Is that realistic and/or attainable?  If not, what do you think is?  3 months?  6 months?  A year?

I figure if I really work at it and focus on this particular aspect, applying to imaginative works and figuring it out, then a month should be no problem, right?  If I spend a few hours on it every day?

I wanted to write something like that in death line, but I tend to be kind of idealistic and/or unrealistic, haha.

I'm at 8 hours.


EDIT: Now at 12 hours. No sense in making a new post, since there's nothing really to show. I do have my first deathline, though-- 88 Hand/arm anatomy studies and 88 hand/arm application/imagination. If I get to 88 before 20th of September, I will try to get to 100! Wish me luck!

[Bookend]

14/10000

Right, finally have something to show.  

My deathline is off to a great start!  Although, my bones are kind of.. Melted.  In the wrong directions.  But, I'll get it!

This is what I've got so far.  Reference is Loomis.  At least I can identify these bones now, and where they are situated.  Probably going to do this until I nail it, then move onto musculature.  Will also do other studies.  It seems like the testing part is equally as important as studying, if not more so.  Here I have been, sitting in theory-world, when I should have been doing this, haha.

[Bookend]

A bit more before bed.

[crackedskull]

Nice to see you starting the 10000h goal, gonna be a long ride but a fun one :)

[Fedodika]

I think you can definitely memorize the major masses of the arm in a month; muscle, bones and stuff... If you're going for 10000 hours make sure to enjoy what your drawing along the way :)! Personally, drawing only anatomy seems a bit dry to me... What i'm saying is, pick something you like to draw, whether it be creatures, sexiii people, mechs, and find artist who draw that and copy the crap outta em :). Just my suggestion, 10000 hrs is a very long time, and though i'll probably reach that in about a year, I find it very important and useful to just enjoy it :)

Also, this book may help you a lot; I have a friend i'm mentoring and he really benefits from the philosophy in it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Natural-Way-Dr...0395530075

You can prob find a free PDF, but i found buying it physically made me more inclined to read it :)

[Bookend]

crackedskull: For sure!  

Fedodika: Honestly?  I love drawing and applying anatomy studies, so this isn't a problem!  But, doing anything repetitively can get boring, so it's good to change things up.  Good thing that I've been doing bus people drawings, doodles, and personal projects on the side, haha.  Some of the stuff I've done I haven't put up.

Also, I've read Nicolaides-- His techniques are particularly good for life drawing sessions!

As for the 10000 thing, it's just a casual thing I'm doing for fun-- Basically recording my hours to see how much I'm doing.  It's pretty fun.  I don't take it too seriously.

I will totally be doing more paintings of the figure and stuff when I'm able to put this stuff together, but at the moment, my work is the equivalent of child's doodles, haha.  I don't mind sharing them, but they're not really what I'm focusing on right now.

Thanks so much for the tips!
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16/10000

I noticed that the Deltoid looks like a bird's head with the arm position having the palm up.  That'll help to remember it, I figure.  And it's pretty fun.

[Bookend]

17/10000

MWA HAHAHAHAAAAAAAA

EDIT: Annnndd I lost two of my references. Oh well. They won't count, but at least I got practice!

[Bookend]

18/10000

MOAR ARM STUDIES.. RAH...

I think I got it pretty close.

Moving onto the arm musculature when the hand is flipped next.  

Lemme know if you guys think I'm overdoing it by doing the same kind of arm over and over, haha.  I'm already at 13 for the memory/imagination, lol.  I think I'm gonna hit 88 a lot faster than I thought, so I may have to re-evaluate my goals.

My work's probably gonna be a bit boring to look at for awhile, but this is a necessary stage in my development.

[Broadway]

Studies looking good! Awesome to see the hours ticking up :)

If you haven't seen this I have found it helpful for memorizing some shortcuts for the proportions of things before drawing out all the muscles/bone details:

http://www.proko.com/wp-content/uploads/...rt-800.jpg

I haven't spent a ton of time with it yet but I like it because it relates everything to 1 measurement (the width of the "ball" of the head); there aren't a lot of fractions and stuff to remember.

Since you asked for thoughts... IMO it might be helpful to do arms from different angles, especially 3/4 views and different arm poses... just because I think it's hard to get the the "real" 3D shape of the stuff in your head purely with orthos. Tracing muscle groups on top of model photos can help too, but maybe not so much with arms/hands since there are so many small muscles in there, tough to see under the skin... 

Keep up the good work!

[IrishWhiskey]

Hey Bookend! 

Great job on the studies so far. I like the idea of the birds head for the deltoid, could be a cool concept in a piece.
Nice to see your recording your time spent studying, i use the calender to mark off the days that i spend over an hour on art. When I'm doing good the Calender is like a trophy of my Success! but when i skip art for a few days the calender is judging me, ohhhh the shame!! "Don't look at me calender!!!!" 

Anyway keep up the good work!

*passes Bookend a shot of Whiskey*

[Vornag]

Studies are coming along nicely. Don't forget to apply them on a full body, though. Linework is looking better by the day.

If setting a deadline is the way you push yourself to work harder, go for it, just make the goals realistic and don't sweat it when you fail to reach it.

[Bookend]

Broadway: Thanks so much for the resource, man!  It reminds me to measure my proportions, and my next set of studies have really improved as a result of this.  I've started to change position of the arm from Loomis, so that's cool.  Also got my hands on a bunch of other anatomy books, so I will have more variety pretty soon, woot! 

IrishWhiskey: Yeah.  I absolutely encourage seeing animals and/or faces in what you're doing, it really helps to apply it to memory.  I'm discovering this awesome stuff in terms of goal setting and rewards...  I haven't tried the calendar thing, but maybe I will, haha.  Cheers man, a glass of Talisker for me, and a glass of the Irish brine for you, haha.

Vornag:  Thanks!  I'll try not to forget it.  I really wanna nail it first from a few angles before I do-- And this made me think that I should probably do the torso/head after the arms/hands instead of feet/legs.  I'll do those after the torso, probably...

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19/10000

Here's today's work.  Not a whole lot, but the wifey was very demanding today, haha.

[Cricketts]

Nice studies. Dont forget to analyze each study or you could end up mindlessly copying, which I do all the time.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Good work so far! I like your shoulder muscle birds, hahahaha. Like Cricketts said, study and analyze what you're referencing. Take notes, memorize the names of the main muscles, and take more time on each one. It's better to do less studies but learn more from each one than to just churn them out without putting much thought into them. Keep going!