To Cyan Sky

[Cyaneink]

thanks for comment smrr! My list isn't any particular order and those exclamation marks are there because I tend to avoid drawing humans and anything doing with anatomy. But I have noticed too, that anatomy need perspective understanding. without perspective figures and faces look flat like paper.

Here is my most recent study. I completely forgot to zoom out during drawing. And it shows really obviously in this study, details are ok-ish, but placement and relations are wrong. Right eye is also incorrect. Reference photo is from here.  Too tired to fix this today, I slept really poorly.




 
Something good lurking in future, from halfway March, I will have really easy schedule at school. Thursdays and Fridays will be off.  Only 6h school per week. Only bad news is, that my bachelors' thesis is still unfinished...

[Cyaneink]

Still fighting with eyes and noses. And tried lips too, and found then equally hard. I'm just too tired now to edit images nicely or run spellcheck.  


Tried to draw with pen, but failed with crosshatching.


And first try to perspective was way too extreme and failed. And those other eyes just look creepy.

[Cyaneink]

This is reason for why my Saturday was not so productive.  But I did learn something,  two colors, magenta and phatalo green make interesting color palette. And I got that artist confidence and moral boost, which I were after. And badass painting to hanging on my wall.

[Cyaneink]

Back to studying perspective and doing some ellipse and line practices. I finally got how the whole "draw from your elbow" should work. But with perspective, I need mileage, lot of mileage. I am ordering some really cheap fax paper for this mileage project. And because its roll format, I would be much easier to put my vanishing points down. Sadly(or not?) minimum ordering amount for those faxpaperrolls is 6. And one roll has 30 meter of paper (~100ft)...  so there is enough paper for loong  time. I may take short pause from digital drawing and focus basic for a while.



I tried to sketch perspective fast, just quessing where vanishingpoints should be.


Trying to understand cone of vision. After couple videos and tutorials, I'm even more confused whole thing.




Those smaller and really bad circle-ellipses where right before I got that elbow thing, others are after it.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Nice to see you still going at it! Don't give up, just study, study, study like crazy. Try to fill this sketchbook up as fast as possible with a ton of amazing studies. Have you seen Proko's videos on Youtube yet? He has a lot of anatomy videos, and his face ones are particularly nice. They're basically Loomis's method but explained really well. I recommend you check it out!

[neopatogen]

Yep! Proko's videos are great! Eclipses in perspective are tricky for me, too. Keep it up!

[John]

Hi Cyan! If I may comment, it looks like you have that habit of going over your lines repeatedly. Honestly speaking, I have that same habit and I've been trying to consciously correct it.

When I do studies like those, I try to aim for precision and avoid correcting a line with another by drawing on top of the existing line. If I fail at drawing the ellipse that I need, I draw a new one and try to get it right in one go.

Clean lines equal to better information. Unless it's a stylistic choice to go really rough..

[Cyaneink]

Thanks all for great comments! I tried Prokos tutorials and find them very helpful, especially those where he explains all the structure thing. I have anatomy books, but they don't help much when trying to study facial structure.
Here is my eye studies. Last one is without any reference. Sorry for blurry photo, I should buy a tripod for my camera.




 
I really don't want to say that overused excuse, that it's part of my style to go over lines over and over again. But at some degree it's. I use repeated line when sketching with pen. But everywhere else it's just really annoying habit of mine. I sometimes dig thru paper because of it... But here, good example from my old sketchbook (last year October) when I use it intentionally.



I listened podcast about self-studying today. I felt like I should really devote more time to study. Because now I haven't much of school, so I have ton of free time. And I'm wasting it to nothingness... But I don't believe for mindless studying and sacrificing sleep, eating and all other life just to study more hours. These years in university have taught me one thing very clearly, you learn much less and slower when you are lacking of sleep, food or anything else that you need for living. All study hours aren't equal. But still, it's easy to keep track on hours, so I start on this weekend and keep track on my drawing time.

I'm not sure if this thing is even understandable, I'm not good at English. But have to practice to become better at it.

And only 50 pages left in my traditional sketchbook, this little book have been really pain to fill up. Feels like there is no end. Just pages after pages... I think this have something like 300? pages in total. 3.4.2015 I started this... But I have several sketchbooks on going, but plan to finish all up and just keep one or two at same time.

[Janet]

Wonderful sketches and it sounds like you're very prolific, awesome! All the hard work of practicing will eventually pay off :)

[Cyaneink]

Thanks for your comment herkkusieni!


I started track my drawing/sketching/study time with app. And I was really shocked how little I actually draw. I just got 2h in 2 days. I was thinking that I get least 2h a day. Okay, I have had migraine mild and less mild in these two days, but that is hardly a excuse, because I started my wow sub again and... yea. I think I really need some kick or something. The Crimson Crucible seems interesting, but I afraid I haven't got a skills to participate.
And now what I have drew.
 
 

All of these is without reference. Upper left eye is drawn with Derwent graphitint, just with two colors (muted purple and blue). I really like these pencils, think I have to buy more of these. And other eyes are drawn with usual graphite, excluding lower right eye, which is drawn with watersolube graphite.
 


That little text next to eye translates to " Left lower part of eyelid is in too steep angle", which is problem with this eye. This was drawn with prokos tutorial. And then some noses, which I really hated to draw. Nightmare, I have to study some basics about light and shadow.


 
Text is again just my comments on drawings. Left side nose is really not so bright orange, its sanguine in real life. Eye and nose on right page was made without reference.
 
Next I should try draw eye in some other view and maybe pair. I tried pair earlier and failed miserably with shadows... I have How to Render by Scott Robertson book, but haven't yet read it. I feel like it's too advanced for me, because I haven't study how to draw book thoroughly.

[dodeqaa]

You've got some good amount of study going, keep an eye out for analyzing why things look "off" and experiment with solving them. If you find yourself repeating same actions over, its good time to stop and examine a little.

Keep at it Cyaneink!

[Cyaneink]

Thanks dodeqaa!

Really busy weeks with school and other things. But I'm steadily filling up my sketchbook. I was quite exited about cc, but... I haven't watch game of thrones ever or read any of books, and I kind of hate whole GoT thing... Some of these sketches was for CC ideas, but I'm not going to take part.

[Cyaneink]

I haven't posted anything for long time, but I have been drawing lot. I mean lots and lots of eyes, noses and lips. And human faces have started to look like humans, not potatoes. I filled my last sketchbook and started new one, this has a tan colored paper, which is really nice.
I'm not sure what I want to be, concept artist or illustrator? Or just artist? Anyway, I have a really huge motivation right now to improve my drawing skills. These are my latest sketches.
 
 
These are made from reference photo.
 

And this is from imagination.


Have to practice more drawing 3D form of faces, noses and eye size and placement.

[Cyaneink]

Ah, I'm back. I took break from concept art practise and went to explore other options. I participted to Inktober, started youtube channel and all social medias. I still really love traditional media, but I got weird feeling that I was missing something. Truth is, I still love games. And I noticed that way I draw humans is strongly influenced by that. And that got be back to track, I still want to be concept artist. I'm also graduating in spring, Master of science, mechanical engineering specialized in mechatronics. Which I feel may be advatange more in concept art, at least I can design very belivable sci-fi :D

But yeah, I have learn a lot! I have been focusing my practise to draw human face, but think I will shift it to life drawing, when I got this sketchbook filled up. Here is my most recent drawings.





I still have problems with eyes and things looking flat. Trying to use reference and just draw more and more. And as always, all critique is welcome.

[neopatogen]

Great to have you back! I suggest that you pay more attention to construction before rendering your faces. Proko has some good free vids that help me with making facial features and hair look more 3d. Maybe try some bargue facial features, he simplifies stuff real well. Going with straight lines first instead of jumping right into curves makes sence. Good luck and hope to see more!

[Cyaneink]

Thanks for telling about Bargue!  And I really should re-watch some prokos tutorials and really paying attention to 3D form.

And today I focused to drawing eyes. First I draw some kind of spread of different kind of eyes, trying varying pupil size etc. And then did some Bargue study. I usually do studies first in pencil and then ink them. That way I really get how the things should go. Also, this sketchbook that I am working now, is almost in end, so there may be little warping in images because this book have something like 250 pages and they are all warping and bulking, which make pages to curve. And my sentences really make no sense.

[Cyaneink]

I think made today the best decision for my future artist. I bought Cintiq 13HD. And I love it, it really was worth it. And to me, is was the thing that got me back to digital drawing, which is really important if I ever want to be concept artist. I drew 6h today and did some worksheet from cg cookie. I may buy they subscription, because I finally stopped playing World of Warcraft, till the next expansion comes...

But this time, I really hope to get some helpful critique. My forms has this metallic feel, which I wasn't going to. And somehow these feel really "digital" and "unreal". First set was done in one hour. And the next set in 4 hours. I can also link in original resolution if needed.

[neopatogen]

Hey Cyan! Scott Robertson writes a lot about  shading matte forms in his How to render book. 
Objects look metal because the value range on same planes is very high. In other words, there's too much contrast. The bounce light is also very strong. On some forms, it varies almost from white to black, it should be more subtle. Try making a paper cube, cylinder, maybe a ping pong ball, take your desk lamp, maybe put your object in a box to avoid ambient light, and observe.
As for the cast shadows, it does not seem like you know where the the ground plane is and like you haven't build your shadows but just guessed them.

If you want a more technical approach to controlling your values, check out Scott Robertson's How to render book.
I can suggest a tip from that book. It's "halfway to black" rule. First, make a scale from 1 to 10 if you haven't yet, almost all artists recommend having it, Daarken and Villppuu and Fluharty and many others. Here's mine.

 
Then, decide what is the true value of the object. Say, the cube is white, so it's 0. Paint the most lit surface with white. In this case, the value of the cast shadow shall be halfway to 10, that is 5. The value range of the other 2 surfases will be between 0 and 5 and depends on the angle of light falling on the surface
Here's some studies I practiced back in the day, no time for a paintover right now, but we could hang out in Crimson Hangouts and practice some day if you want.





This halfway to black rule applies to all forms, not. He's got a lot more info in his book on different forms, with explanations and examples. He also explains how to build cast shadows. I strongly recommend this book if you want to go in-depth and really understand how light and shadow works, there's also has a DVD for it.

[Cyaneink]

Huge thanks neopatogen! I have to admit, that I just guessed where drop shadows may be. I made same exercise again, keeping mind what you said. And got much better results, but I didn't do any drop shadows this time. I think technical approach will be my way to learn. I have How to Render book, but haven't study it yet, because I feel that  I should first go through the How to Draw book. I think I will be way too shy to Crimsons hangout :(
 


I have been really enjoying digital drawing, which is really good thing,  consider that I hated it before. I did portrait study, but somehow I started to rush it and then didn't even  finished it. Maybe, because I felt like my skills weren't high enough to complete it "properly."

But, I feel  lost with my studies and lack of focus. I tend to rush things, maybe I should learn to take breaks? Because sitting in front of computer with bad posture for 6h straight without single break isn't healthy. And clearly I'm not learning efficiently.
But more art, less talk.

[Cyaneink]

Last week I used my cintiq 15h, which I will now on keep as my weekly goal. For this week, I'm only 3h in, but I had some school work and social life attend to.

I started to go through How to Render book. Way I study is simple, I usually do quick drawings on some of the example pictures that are given and write notes. It is actually same way as I study in school, I do some example calculations and then write what is theory behind it and most important, what I noticed during the example. Here is my "study."



I also did some master study and I hate these. Even more than before. I had really nice sketch going on and then I started to add colors and everything went downhill. And as you can see, I just didn't finished this. Like I do with every digital piece, nothing gets finished.