AfricanVoodoo's Sketchbook

[AfricanVoodoo]

(I forgot to say thank you guys for liking my pig sketches. Thank you! ;)
Yo yo yo



You know, I should clarify something that I mentioned last post about compliments. I appreciate compliments so much and I do not want to antagonize or devalue the act of complimenting someone. I don't want anyone to just keep a straight face or, god forbid, tell themselves that people are lying when they walk by and verbally say that you are doing a good job.

(Art): I did go on that website, Earthsworld, and did some warm-up sketches. I should choose more interesting faces next time. Still bad portraits though, even if it is in my style. I did notice that my eyes are way too close to each other (in general). And female faces are still an enigma to me...



(Art): I finally did study of ears! I told myself that I should do that but I was lazy. Now that I have done it, let... me... tell... you .... something!!!

This shit was easy. Like... yeah, an ear looks complicated but I found a pattern very quickly in all ears, which is uncharacteristic of me honestly. The only problem I have is the hole on the bottom part of the ear (earwax hole?). I am not sure where to accurately place that hole but other than that shit, the ear was pretty simple for me. Next time, I'll study the ear when the face is facing us and away from us.



(Art): More from that website. Stttiiiiiiillllllll not happy, I just need to do a thousand more and see if my brain can stop being a shithead and make some good faces now.



Oh... and I did an illustration.

(Art): That's correct, me. I did an illustration for a Youtuber named Arlo for his T-shirt design contest (I only did it for the publicity). To describe Arlo, he is a game reviewer who is a puppet. A literal puppet, and the puppetmaster is frighteningly good at the lip syncing. It was to the point where everyone forgot that Arlo was just a puppet, he felt so real. Oh and he's funny.

This piece was mimicking the European box art for Resident Evil 4, a game he played on his Let's Play channel. It was an interesting experience not going to lie! During the process of this piece, I think I finally told myself to make a "flip canvas horizontally" shortcut which really does help with finding mistakes!! I'm glad I started using this (although I forget to do this often...).

(EDIT): This image was originally squished for some reason. I fixed it though!!

(Art): A very rough turnaround of Arron from my last post. There will be one more on the far right, which will be the very back of the head. Ever since January, some of you guys told me that I need to start doing turnarounds because I will never grasp 3D space if I only draw one view of a character. Also, if I was going to be a character designer, I was going to do this sort of stuff anyways for animation or 3D modeling. It's essential!! Well, bam, I am now starting this...

And it's fucking easyhardkindasortamediumlevel.

With Photoshop, it is 100x times easier to make turnarounds, like I am not fucking joking I cannot believe I tried to do this shit traditionally. BUT, that does not mean that this shit is not difficult cause I still have to think about the facial proportions and I want them to be ultra precise. I like the side and 3/4 view but the front is killing me. I dunno, I am divided between normal American eye shape or an almost Asiatic looking eye so he can look more native in the book. I mean, the Asiatic eye looks good on the other views so.... UGH, it's 10:30 over here and I am not in the mood right now to think about this shit.

But somethings I might change/ notice with the design:

• Despite the author approving the design, specifically his hair and facial features, I might just lower the hair size. I'll keep the thick quiff (yeah, that's what they are called apparently), but Imma just shrink that a little bit so I can be certain that he is truly has short hair. 
  
• I noticed why he looked so handsome to some people. It has to be his hair style. Google "quiff men" and you will see what I mean. Quiffs are very popular among Americans and are associated with true male beauty (according to the (American) media). (It also could be his jaw shape, it's square shaped and that makes him stand closer to the beauty standard. Not in my watch, buster.)
  
• The hair line on the back view is off... I should fix that.
  
• In the final line art, I am going to lower the jawline action going on here. Once again, a normal human with normal fat on his normal good-looking dumb face.
  
• Also, this guy is a genius mechanic who is always in a garage building his mech suit. He is going to be covered in soot and oil and he should be dirty. They are also in a steampunk setting so... I have to make his hair look semi-decent instead of model perfect.
  

Impatience

  Alright. I mentioned this in my Introduction thread from eons ago, but I started drawing when I was in the 8th grade. Stick figures and simple comics honestly. Back then, I wanted to become a chef because I simply loved food. When I hit my 10th grade, I started to notice that I barely cook anything but I love to draw and to watch people drawing on Youtube like Sycra does. That was when I started to begin my art journey.

  Welp... it's been a year since I have started this journey but my lust for improvement is pretty extraneous. I get so anxious when my skills are not as good as I would like it to be. Like the art industry is a tornado coming to strike me at high speeds and I wasn't prepared. I know some youngsters like me go through this, but holy shit I really do expect to be 3/4 decent when I did not even draw for that long. That tornado is literally going to arrive in 2 - 3 years for me. When I found out this revelation, it was honestly a relief because I can finally stop thinking that I need to rush my studies and practice. In general, I always think my life is just a huge set of time limits and that is dumb and depressing at times so I need to quit doing that shit.  

Some artists can relate when they enter late in the art industry, they feel like they have little to no time to just slack off, they have to study and draw full time for 18 hours or something. I genuinely give out my condolences to these people, because they are forever stuck in the business side of art. They will forever see art as just a grueling training regiment where you are just on the edge of no-money-ville and unemployment. Well I mean, the unemployment part is something every artist has to go through but I digress. It's not even their own fault too (well, it depends on person to person), it just happens and they are just trying to make things work.

  So I should just try to appreciate the amount of time I put into drawing anyways and keep on going. I should keep on loving my sense of curiosity in different styles of drawing and illustration. I should keep on loving all the resources that I have in front of me. And I should keep on loving the amount of time I put into my work, because that is the only thing that is truly going to push me into doing better and better.