Jh's Sketchbook! Study. Practice! APPLY!

[LongJh]

Lyraina - Yeah lol. Adapting other peoples' study methods are definitely helpful, especially in terms of giving yourself related assignments and exercises and letting you compare to the works other people have done to get a better guage of your abilities. Thanks for the advice on heads - proportions are my biggest weakness. I can never seem to get it right the first (or first few) times. I guess that's why we practice!

MrFrenik - Thanks! Starting it out was pretty tricky - I had no idea how to draw 3D objects without plotting a perspective first. This way of sketching really forces you to think about how forms wrap around each other.

Alright, so more stuff!

Head studies from photos. Still having trouble with initial proportions and rendering. Trying to avoid lifeless rendering and "plastic" skin. Having trouble whenever I paint the eyes, nose and lips (ok, so that sounds like the whole damn face), especially when starting straight with colour. Somehow they always seem to lack, I dunno, "weight"? Maybe one of my problems is that I lack texture in these faces, but somehow I feel that that's going into the details instead of focusing on the bigger picture (which are the proportions and value/colours of the face). Bleh.






And more dynamic sketching. Starting on some simple plants and fruits. I think fruits are good to start with because their simple in their forms, plus they have some interesting texture and look cool when "dissected". Plants are a bit trickier, especially when they have many overlapping leaves - the key is to really think simple shapes, and resisting the urge to redraw unnecessary lines. One of the things I want to work on is getting that really smooth, elegant linework consistently in my sketches - really difficult, mine always end up wobbly.