Craig's Sketchbook

[Craig Paton]

Been doing a ton of gestural and figure drawing over the past week or so. Here's a sample of some of the better ones I've made.

Hopefully I'm showing some improvement.

[JakeB]

Nice figure drawing man, really like the white on grey ones, you're showing the form pretty well considering they're loose. Keep it coming :)

Oh, and the last image, the one on the right is awesome. Kinda geometric? I dunno, but it looks great, like you simplified the form the exact right amount. Nice one :)

[Mr. Toodles]

aww yeah doing hard work, getting good results.

[Craig Paton]

First update in two weeks. Not been up to much, just continuing the figure studies, not exactly the most captivating of sketchbook material. Have been trying to employ some different methods of drawing the figure, and involving a bit of value study at the same time.

Here are some of the better studies of the past two weeks.






I've also been getting into the habit of stealing my Facebook friends profile pics and doing wee quick portraits of them. A bit creepy mayhaps, but fan.



Still getting a bit frustrated by my limited improvement, but I have begun to appreciate the importance of taking occasional breaks to allow myself to relax and enjoy my studying. Sickbrush's new daily art pill videos have been very helpful, as the last to have directly related to the issue of frustration and managing stress/burn out.

[Blewzen]

hey cool sketchbook, love those studies specially these last ones with no transfer brush and yes that art pill video of taking breaks by sickbrush was useful, keep working!

[vatteh]

Interesting use of hatching & values. I hope you post more.

[Craig Paton]

A few more figure studies from earlier today.

[Jaik]

wow i really like the way you are doing the shading on the post 2 up, really cool. Great and interesting figure studies. Keep up the good work.

[McKelvey]

Great studies, keep posting!

[anzhou]

Heya,

Great studies, those value studies are really working for you! The anatomy studies also seem to be working out :)

I did a paintover on your latest figure studies, hope it helps!

[Craig Paton]

Thanks guys. Cheers for the encouragement, and thank you for the paint over Anzhou. Always welcome. :)

Made a few more quick portrait paintings of some Facebook friends profile pics. This time I chose two artists from my friends list and tried to paint them in their own style. This is, fellow Dagger, Michael Doig and street artist Nick Cocozza.



Also, more figure studies. Wrestlers this time.

[Nylelevi]

Hey man, really nice work so far! And like you said, it is important to take breaks and enjoy your studies. It's the best way to learn when you're not frustrated about it.

[anzhou]

Heya :) good to see you keep up the steam!

And nice play on different styles too!

Keepa posting!

[kidult]

Good to see all these studies! You should try do some stuff from imagination after doing the studies to help you cement in the knowledge. Otherwise you end up getting really good at copying and not so good at figures from memory / imagination, which has been my own personal experience.

[Craig Paton]

Cheers again for the comments guys.

Hopefully be confident enough to post some more imaginary work shortly, planning on spending the next month on character concepts and imaginary landscapes.

Scanned in some of the better pencil figure studies from my sketchbook, these are a few weeks old now.

[Craig Paton]

Trying to get back into doing more imaginary stuff, after several weeks of studies. Intend on perhaps spending the next month or so working on character concepts and illustrations.

Still need a lot of work on refining and improving my imagination based work.

This is Kaladin Stormblessed from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive.

[Virid Rain]

What a niice sketchbook ! Will follow this and pick some exercice ideas ! 8)

[michaeldoig]

Awesome improvements sir, real solidness to your latest character update. Look forward to seeing your upcoming month!

[Craig Paton]

Cheers guys.

Here's some wips and my ref/ mood boards for Kaladin.

[TylerDonnelly]

Hey Craig, you have some really nice renderings here. I can't wait to see more! Keep up the great work!