Wardy's New Sketchbook :)

[Wardy]

MOAR figure studies!
Nomnomom.

[Wardy]

first sketchings :P

[Angel_Intheuk]

Great studies, and I really like your landscape studies, the lighting and perspective all look great. :)

[Wardy]

Thanks a lot man, will keep hacking at it! :D

[Amit Dutta]

Anatomy study Ward :) Dooo it. Beg, borrow or steal (preferably not) Villippu's dvd's on anatomy. They occasionally put you to sleep, but they seriously are the best. I guarantee you will improve just by watching them and there's not a lot of things you can say that for. Also studying anatomy will improve every other aspect of your painting because you have to work on line, rhythm, form, edge control, simplification, lighting, even atmospheric perspective.... it's all there man.

[PabloNotPicasso]

Hey Ward, digging your environment studies and anatomy work. Really just is a matter of putting in the hours with focused work. A quick bit of advice for environments, which I'm also trying to get the hang of myself: approach each one like you would any other subject. By which I mean there are certain constant elements that no matter how different two environments may look, both will contain. Think of it as how any two characters will always have a figure drawing with correct proportions underneath all the sci fi armor, barbarian rags, or anything. Anyway, for environments those constant elements are a clear focal point, a division of foreground, middle ground, background, and areas of contrasting value to generate interest. I recommend looking up James Paick's CGM workshop vids on Youtube for a better explanation of all this, but they certainly help with knowing what to do when you approach an environment, instead of jumping in and trying to figure things out as you go along. Hope this helps!

[Wardy]

sorry, only just checked this now im updating, thanks a lot for the advice guys! I was studying the Vilppu method, but i didnt go very in depth with it. will see if i can find it online or buy it, thanks monkeybread! been looking at a lot of loomis, and i think i now know the majority of the proportions, in terms of 'heads', but i definitely need to get anatomy sorted. thats the main thing that is holding me back with characters at the moment.
thanks Pablo, I havent seen his CGM workshop thing, just started watching them myself! Yeh i do understand all of those i think, but sometimes i dont employ the knowledge very well, so i need to work on that, thanks. I will have a look!
Will update this sketchbook with my latest disgraceful doodlings!! Cheers guys :D

---

Studies :)
Turner, Bierstadt, Savrasov.
Very loose, working super zoomed out so i only realise how crappy they look now! still the colour is there and ive learnt a hell of a lot for sure.

---

some general clouds confuddery

[Kaffer]

Yep, Pablo nailed it: set a focal point, which will be more rendered with more details, sharper edges etc., just like in the last one! That one's super nice IMO, awesome mood & composition!

[Wardy]

True, the stuff that I post here isnt in general finished, more like doodles.
http://rxw-conceptart.deviantart.com/ is where i post most my finished work just fyi :D The landscapes i have here are really pretty poor.
Thanks very much! I know there is a lot that i could have improved though :/ still there is always next time!

[Wardy]

Beg, borrow or steal (preferably not) Villippu's dvd's on anatomy.

Bro they are $325! I dont even have an income! Christ, its possible its available for download somewhere though.
If you know anyone who has them spare then please let me know :'(
Doing life drawing now by the way and learning a lot from it I think, though im looking forward to learning more proportion and foreshortening stuff.
Cheers for the recommendation in any case, i will see what i can do to get my hands on it :3

[Wardy]

dem dere thumbz.
yeah so forcing myself to do some character design and kinda loving it kinda hating it. and myself. hehe, i always find myself doing the same poses endlessly, so trying as hard as i can to mix it up. i seem to get stuck at the point of doing a proper sketch of it, it always looses its dynamism and seems forced which is irritating. i think i need to improve my legs (on paper, though will see what i can do at the gym...) because they always come out weird.
anyway, love to you all will keep struggling!!
the first attachment is just doodles, second one is a ninja mech kinda feel character, trying out different weapons and body shapes. yum.

[smrr]

Good work, Ward, keep pumping out the silhouettes!

My advice with silhouettes would be to remember that negative space is just as important as the positive space in the design (i.e. the black). Vary your shapes like a boss, always thinking about how that in turn affects the negative space <:

Keep grinding man o/

[Wardy]

great advice cheers will keep that in mind! :)

[Wardy]

Progress, finished up some of my favs and got my basic ideas down. now to colour!!

[meat]

Progress, finished up some of my favs and got my basic ideas down. now to colour!!

These four look very similar to each other, are they the same person? Their body shape, body language, and most of their costume look very similar to each other in the silhouette so far.

[Wardy]

yeah they do a bit i guess. not really the same person , just playing with body types a bit, second from right is more bulky, far right is pretty fat, first two very similar. meant to be the same kind of class if you see what i mean

[Wardy]

some more figure studies, around 5-10 min or so each, been trying to draw characters and realising how badly i suck at making poses.
Bottom left two were from imagination hence why they suck!

[Setah]

I really like your environments, Ward! Good job on all the studies, though (like said before) the basics could still use some practice. As for the gesture drawings, maybe try and vary the times a little bit? So 30 seconds for warmup sketches and then moving on to longer times? I find that doing that usually makes it a lot easier for me to do the longer poses.

[Wardy]

some poses from imagination, starting to improve slowly, especially figuring out what the hell to do with the legs.
sorry for the chicken-scratchy lines, it was a hell of a lot of trial and error. if i was going to continue with these i'd do a refinement layer or two on top.
@Setah, Thanks man! I may post some of the environs that i do on my DA page here just because the stuff i post in my sketchbook absolutely suck. I posted a few in my 'finished work', but i think i may keep my sketchbook just as my general stash of all the stuff i make rather than keeping them separate.
Great idea with the poses, i really hate doing quick ones but i know from life drawing that they are useful. Will keep struggling... Kinda starting to get a buzz out of doing characters, mostly because i know i suck at them so slowly improving is fun :)

---

realised i struggle a lot with the shape of legs, doing some muscle studies, more to come.
identified there are 3 main stripes of muscles that coil around the leg, which creates the bumpy bits, so learnt some fun facts.

---

focusing on main stripes and outline.

[Wardy]

Been very productive today! one of my few days off..
Practicing a new method of constructing figures, i really love it because it basically makes the method i was using before into 3D (probs makes no sense...).
Male and female.