SpectreX's sketches

[MrFrenik]

Hey, great start here, man. You're working on all the things you should be working on, and no matter how much you feel like you're not progressing, everytime you put your pencil to the page you are. It's funny you've mentioned your tastes being above your skill level. There's a good video of Ira Glass talking about this exact same thing on Youtube. I recommend watching it, as it's fairly motivational. Also, I'll suggest getting Scott Robertson's Basic Perspective Drawing DVD. It's a huge resource of perspective drawing techniques and theory and almost single-handedly taught me perspective. Yep, it's that good. Anyway, don't give up! You have plenty of people here willing to help and guide you and all it'll take for you to get better is to sit down and put the pencil to paper everyday.

[SpectreX]

Thanks both! Is a real motivation for me!

So the gameplan is to at least draw every day. Started this on monday and am still going on.
Only missed Tuesday because of my work.
Seeing as I do traditional it is not always possible to update every day (with the scanning and such) so I'll see how much I have and when it's too much I'll update.
If not, it's every 2 - 3 days :)

[SpectreX]

So another batch of studies. Mostly gestures, frames and lastly building on the frames.
The building is still a little off.

These are mostly carrictures because I'm following the Loomis book called 'Fun with a pencil'.
As soon as this one is finished I'll start 'Succesful drawing', also by loomis :)










I also did a little fun work but it went sour. Good thing is that I learned from it.
As soon as I started this I was copying instead of using it as a reference and building the forms piece by piece. By copying instead of referencing I quickly made alignment mistakes and such.

Such an easy mistake to make at the level I am. But I learned :)

[Warburton]

hey dude, this is a nice start to a sketchbook. It's always really tough at the start but keep heading the way you are and your sure to improve fairly quickly. When i first started i told myself 1 self portrait everyday, no matter what without fail. Even if i'd been working 14 hours a day and didn't get home to gone 11pm. Then if i had more time i'd focus on other stuff like loomis etc. Stay focused and never give up, even when the heart ache starts. If you concour that then the battles already won, it's just a matter of time ;)

keep it up man

[SpectreX]

Thank you Warburton!

Sadly I already failed. First day I made an excuse that I was too tired because of work. Second day another, and another.
But I can't hide it, no sense in lying to myself and trying to find excuses. There are none that are worthy. It's all my own fault. No blaming work, weather or whatever.
I have to face this and kick myself whenever an excuse start forming up.

Got 2 pages of study done, not the best amount.






On the other hand, I joined someone else in doing all the Bloodsports again starting from 1.
Hopefully this will help me improve and keep the excuses away.
For those interested in joining: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-3249.html

[DoubleThink]

Just try and get into a routine with your drawing. I start drawing immediately after dinner. The hardest part is starting ;-)

To answer your question, yes I do work in Belgium (in Bornem)

cya!

[Tygerson]

Hey, you slipped, then got back into practicing! Love all the little figures you've built--they have good energy to them.

One thing that helps me is recording the time I spent drawing. In the first page of my sketchbook, there are tally marks. A dot is 15 minutes, 4 dots is one tally (1 hour). I put the date I started the sketchbook so I can see the average time I've spent.

Also, all previous art time is carried over to the next book. It's in honor of the 10,000 hour rule--10,000 hours to become world class at any high level skill.

[SpectreX]

Thanks for the tips!
I do feel like I have trouble creating that routine of drawing everyday. Should make it a priority.

The thought has crossed my mind to keep track of the time spent drawing.
Have a fun little app that can help me with this on the phone (forgot the name and phone is not in reach, will update this when I have the name)

[MrFrenik]

The important thing when you slip is to maintain that sickening feeling in your gut that lets you know that you have to get back to work or else it'll get worse. That feeling has kept me going and I suspect will continue to keep me pushing and learning new things for a long time. It's good to start out with Loomis as you are. He's a great intro into construction and figure drawing. I suggest either supplementing or studying solely perspective at this point however. That will be the largest contributor to your becoming a better draftsman, I promise.

[SpectreX]

So, some more studies.
I feel like at nr 5 I sort of got it with the whole 'look at it in 3d'.

These are based on poses with manikins inside Loomis's fun with a pencil.






I tried animals after this but I can't get the same 3D view/feel making those sketches look really bad. Need more practice there. As with all in general.

Btw: I'm posting all of my sketches raw to remind me of failures and such.

[MarcSteinmann]

Hey buddy!

Looking good, glad your drawing!
Just a suggestion to get a bit more energy, flow and life into your figures.
Try Gesture drawing, Proko has a great video to explain and many more resources.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y

Can't wait to see more progress! Keep it up!

[SpectreX]

Thanks Marc!
Will have a look at that video!

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So a little character I'm having fun with.

I'm really trying to draw a bit slower (in the sense of thinking about each line I draw) and I also try to draw a lot bigger now instead of tiny little figures :p
Started with the basic frame and layered it up.
His clothing is already on it too so just fleshing out now, and the details :)

[Goht]

You have a good start to your sketches here. One thing I recommend is working strictly in pen or brush in your sketchbook for a while. I found it really help builds confidence over time, being unable to erase, and it really helped me loosen up personally, so when it comes to developing ideas the lines flow better because I trained myself to find the 'right' line as soon as possible.

[Madzia]

I'm really trying to draw a bit slower (in the sense of thinking about each line I draw) and I also try to draw a lot bigger now instead of tiny little figures :p

Great you're working on this, this is pretty important I remember this to be one of the big step in my work when I learned working big and carefully :) Good job, keep up!

[smrr]

Yesss!! Moar, moar pencil sketches!!
keep it up dood! :D

[SpectreX]

@Goht: That's an interesting idea. might start doing that for a while (will involve a lot of frustration though I think :p )

@Madzia: Thank you :)

@smrrfette: Thanks ^^ Need moar indeed!! MOAR!! :p

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And a little update on the little character. So I got the (final?) lines and it's time for some shading.
Scanning it now so I won't lose this version as shading isn't going so well yet :p




Might do some adjustments on his left leg as the pants are a little low I think. Will see :)

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And the shading (need to learn a lot more about light, reflections and so on)
Also pretty hard to do traditional shading.

[MrFrenik]

Great to see you keep going and pushing through everything, man. I still highly recommend you start perspective drawing. If you need any reference or help getting started, let me know, as I'm more than happy to help out!

[Inkling]

Nice efforts my friend keep at the studies. I'd suggest much more drawing from observation. Not that you should stop drawing from imagination but i think your at a stage where a large volume of drawing from observation will shoot your skills up. And remember that when your doing those to actually draw what you SEE, not what you think you see. A common mistake for EVERYONE is we stop looking and draw what we think we know. When i draw from observation i just think "Shape analysis" instead of say drawing an eye like i think it looks, i look at the models eye and just draw the shapes and shadow shapes in that. This is what i mean http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=490884 Look at the shapes section.

Hope that helps.

[SpectreX]

@MrFrenik: Thank you, I'm always open for suggestions on how to learn perspective :) As for actually learning it, I think I got the concept down in my head just a matter of practice, practice and practice now. After I finish this little character I'll start on perspective ;) It so happens to be the next chapter as well in the book.
Though I do think I need to diversify my studies more.

On that note, the 'Fun with a pencil' book is slowly coming to and end. After this I have a few more books of Loomis hanging around but I'll start diversifying more as to keep it all in level (sort of speak).

@Inkling: That looks hard :p So we basically need to try and see the 2d shapes inside the 3d object itself, or am I seeing it the wrong way?
Observational drawing is something I should do more indeed. Nothing beats drawing from life to learn and see the actual world.

So basically I'm going to try and diversify my studies in these 2 areas: anatomy and perspective.
The subject for each study will be different: observation, study books and imagination.

Composition will be next, when I have a decent handling on anatomy and perspective.
Color will be one of the last (when I start doing digital)

So I've been working on another character from Loomis (building not copying). I also looked for hands and feet but they are not yet in this book.

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And the 'finished' one. Can't wait to start the next book as these are more caricatures (though they do have a somewhat decent framework) and the next books is more reality.

[MrFrenik]

Anatomy and perspective are a good mix that'll keep you busy for a while; looking forward to you starting those chapters and working on those fundies.