Only a few poses today, I wasted a lot of time trying to block in shapes with color, like armor or sth and it not working. Yea, I have a feeling I'll be there one day, just not now I need to focus on lines for now. Mainly getting the nude anatomy down first with a good pose and stop trying to work the armor into the pose. Yea, build the design on the pose rather than let the pose build the design.
rough day drawing though, that's probably a good thing though, means the gears upstairs are turning. I definitely figure out more stuff that way.
I feel like I only have a few things left to figure out before I can forreal start on a portfolio.
1st being design. (color and composition)
2nd. is a refinement of anatomy, mainly legs and how they stand, and just making the anatomy more appealing. I think it might be a gestural thing because I think I'm okay with a few things in anatomy and quite weak at others. I think I'm worst at necks, legs connecting to the body right, and like where the bicep meets the forearm. That and feet, I'll never be good at feet. I think I'm good at hands, backs (strangely,) torsoes, and that's it mainly.
3rd is a bigger visual library of like armor and stuff
4th is like, making my faces look (more) attractive, like babydoll 4rlz and not whatever I'm doing.
5th make my art not so weird. Even though It's aimed at being realistic, I feel my art is stranger than abstract sometimes.
>1st being design. (color and composition)
>4th is like, making my faces look (more) attractive, like babydoll 4rlz and not whatever I'm doing.
>5th make my art not so weird. Even though It's aimed at being realistic, I feel my art is stranger >than abstract sometimes.
It's because you seem to draw without thinking. Your lines have no purpose, you just keep throwing them at a wall until something sticks. You need to be more deliberate with your mark making. Just training your muscle memory by punching out 20 rushed sketches is not helping you. You should take it slow, think of the purpose of every line and mark you make. Just look at your latest sketch/study. 90% of those lines don't need to exist. They serve absolutely no purpose other than making it look visually unappealing and cluttered. Simplify, be conscious of what you're trying to do, take it slow. I know you said that you're more of a "Quantity over quality" guy, but honestly that approach doesn't seem to be working out. Why not give "Quality over quantity" a try now?
Your sketchbook is one of the only sketchbooks I regularly check here, mainly because I really admire your work ethic and determination. But if something's not working out, change things up, you'll make more progress in a month than you made in the past few years if you just think over these things.
Looking forward to seeing some progress, good luck.
Jun: Hey I think you hit the nail on the head! Yep, I need to refine these things, and be slower. I remember a comment you left encouraging the "Think" mentality and I've definitely picked up on that as far as studying. My folder for the month has much less stuff in it than normally since I'm trying to take more time to actually learn things. I'm glad you come by the SB often, I update everyday so the peeps who are workin and survivin on bread and water got some little glint of hope to see :)
Here are some original characters in awkward poses. One thing I need to do is get a consistent like standing pose that isn't warped in some way. I like putting things in a tilted perspective, but It doesn't work with everything. You can probably see who my influences are becoming at this point, and I'm learning quickly from them, just need to keep on it, since it's fun and I enjoy their style; from the execution to the finish, everything about it!
<3 Keep going man, I definitely check here everyday.
You should look into starting fundamentals again. Mostly perspective and construction for now.
Starting and finishing www.drawabox.com will help a lot. Take it one thing at a time though, no need to read 5 different books and resources at a time. Don't try to take 4 steps while going up a staircase, you'll just stumble and fall.
See you around man! Looking forward to seeing some drawabox stuff. I'll provide my best feedback if you do post them here.
Jun: You know what dude, you're right. I went on that site, started doing the exercises, and what not because well, I need to. I was telling people I know, "someone told me to start over" and they thought it was funny, and well is because there's some truth to it. At this point I'm basically willing to try anything because everything has failed to get me anywhere or any sort of recognition.
It's painful how practical (they are) and how I undervalue the basic fundamentals. I just don't want to accept it I guess, that there is a "right" way to do something. And yea, I think the staircase analogy you made is very true, it's like I jump up four staircases then say, "look at me!" then loose balance and fall back down 6 staircases. Meanwhile, the robot on my right who just walks up them one step at a time is reaching his destination without impedance.
Or maybe it's like I said to my friend, It's like knowing a lot of songs on guitar but having terrible picking and left hand technique. (Which is something that actually happened to me IRL.) Some people will think you're good but no one really takes you seriously. No one important at least.
So here, I shall do all the exercises, watch all the videos and see what difference it makes. Cuz, I really don't know what else to do. cheers m8
These are the elipses, lines, and plane plotting things. I started the squares but got frustrated with the "easiest" part of making the 2 vanishing points, so I'll have those up tomorrow and maybe the organic forms thing. I feel like I kinda know a lot of this stuff but i really helps seeing someone lay it all out and acknowledging it's real. Whatever it takes!
I was worried you'd take it in this way. There's nothing wrong with "starting over", you don't suddenly lose all your skills and the visual library/muscle memory you've constructed through all these years.
It isn't something to be afraid or ashamed about. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. A lot of people never improve because they're too stubborn to accept that they made a mistake and didn't put time in fundamentals. It's fine. Do whatever it takes to get better.
And your guitar anecdote is perfect. You're just impressing people who don't know how to play the guitar, anyone remotely knowledgeable will tell that you're just faking it. It's superficial. Useless.
You need to spend time on your line control. They're very wobbly right now. You need to practice ghosting over the lines and thinking about drawing a straight line between two points before drawing it. Trust me, it'll take some time but you'll get it. Keep doing it, trust the process. Don't worry about results right now and take it slow. Focus on making clean lines. make 2 dots on a page and ghost over them a few times, visualize and make a quick line in a single sweep. (Your current lines look good, for a beginner, but you need to practice more.) Remember that being able to draw clean, straight lines is essential. You can't draw beautiful lines with a chipped and curved ruler. Make your ruler straight. Keep practicing, you'll develop the muscle memory in NO time, and drawing clean lines will be effortless.
Another exercise that needs work is the cone thing with ellipses in the middle. You need to visualize how the circle turns. Just get like a circular object, say a coin or a CD and hold it in front of you as far as you can with your left hand. Now look at it from your eye level. It should look like a straight line. Now slowly raise your hand and see how it turns in space and how it forms the ellipse. Keep raising it and see how the ellipse "opens" up. do the same for the other direction. MAKE NOTES, observe these tiny things and redo the exercise again. but this time visualize it in your head. Don't just do, think and do! NEVER stop thinking about what you're doing. I cannot stress this enough. Don't be a zombie when drawing, it's useless.
Good shit man, keep going. It'll take NO time and you'll get good real fast. Keep pushin'
Yeah- going back to the fundamentals of construction is something everyone needs to do from time to time. Never stop learning!
I wanted to do a quick paintover of that last painting- there are a few small things you could do to really elevate your work. In addition to learning construction, I would take a look at these videos by Shaddy Safadi- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NygkJEc3...8242dJtKDm
He talks about the importance of illustration style and brushwork.
First I'd like to personally thank you two for coming by at all; your help is pretty much all i have in the ether. It's so nice to actually have a clear goal as to what to move towards and what isn't stacking up
Jun: Thanks dude, i made sure to try and do tons of ghost line exercises today. I tried to like, leave a check mark after the line or an X to make sure I'm evaluating my work. So I also see what you're saying about the wobbliness. It's very apparent now and I literally never noticed it before. I also see what you mean by the funnels; Like I totally get the principle of it, I guess the example on Drawabox isn't the most amazing example of how it could possibly be executed, as they are nowhere near as mathematical and sophisticated as his other box work. I can however, see in my head what a perfect rendition of that exercise would look like, and it would be interesting to build up to that, basically machine like.
But I really do appreciate you stopping by, and me not being able to find any of your work gives you a sort of mysterious wisdom. Like you can see beyond things. What I'm saying is, I hope I won't disappoint you, and don't ever take any petty or negative things I say too seriously, I still have a lot of growing up to do/beta male loser baggage to lose.
The Aether Technician: THANKS DOOD! That shaddy Safadi guy is hilarious! Great vids too!
Nah, I'm nothing special. Just trying to help a fellow artist out. Seems you're still struggling with visualizing the circles. Here's a quick and rough demo.
You should do the 250 box challenge next. But remember to NOT RUSH and take it slow, try to make clean straight lines. If you fuck up a line, it's fine. Just abandon it, move on and redo the box again. Good luck man!
Jun: Thx man, I tried to do the challenge and I am figuring out a lot of things I never would have noticed before. I used to actually draw a lot of boxes and such, but just stacking them on top and not really caring how they looked. But now, since I know about the ghost technique and the concept of wobbly lines and "Bad" boxes, it adds a whole new dimension to this stuff
Drawing these I just see more and more things I can't do correctly. I can't even make a box look solid and like it could sit in space. The lines get all crooked or skewed or flat and crushed in. It looks terrible, I really cringe just looking at these it's embarassing. Draw a leg on it too long or too concave and the whole things gets off. It's really brutal haha.
So total all this stuff took about 8-10 hrs today, not sure. Really humbling experience, especially when you're kind of aware of how it should look and how you think you knew this stuff but you really don't. Then looking at my work before this and HOLY CRAP, mistakes are just now sooo clear and so obvious. It feels like I had a dirty skewed lens on my work before this month and now I have a much clearer lens. Still not the best lens, though, I'd have to draw a few more boxes for that ;)
The very foundation of all my work was built on a skewed idea of perspective and form, and thats why people don't like it. It's like, your eye subconsiously measures things/angles to let you know how much space it occupies, but when you throw a distortion on it, that is totally unintentional, things just really skewed and bizarre. Huh, It's kind of romantic to think what my work would have looked like would I have kept on my path beforehand. But the eye is pleased when it sees the measurements meet appropriately to the scene before it. It's very very subconscious, and shouldn't be a gamble. The people who nail it every time reap the rewards every single time.
Hoo hoo, well there it is the 250 box challange, all with ghost technique lines. That is a really interesting way of drawing lines btw. You kinda get in a cool swing after a while, even though my boxes don't appear to improve, my eye certainly did. I see all the little mistakes now, and what a box should look like, and man it's a lot more specific than what I had previously thought.
Nice dude, your lines are improving a lot. When I was struggling with boxes, I saw a few proko videos where he talks about structure and form and how to draw boxes, you should look them up and the 3-line technique that he teaches for drawing boxes. That should help a ton.
Jun: Thx man, I went and rewatched that vid he did on structure, and I think what you're referring to is the three line like Y shape technique or like a T. That shape can find the rest of the square. (Which I'll be practicing along with some cylinders tomorrow.
So went to do some more caricatures today, and one thing I REALLY hate about the south is how vein people are. Like if you're not 100% professional or presentable looking no one makes eye contact with you. Like last week, I made good money in just two hours because I had a nice shirt on but, NOOO not today, it was kinda cold so i wore a comfy jacket, that yeah, admittedly looked a little old, but you know, apparently that's hobo shit.
Anyways, really got fired up to push my caricatures some more, I just really wanna do that insane crazy shit that's extreme how it's pushed. I just really look at those caricatures and say, man I feel that energy inside of me, and like I just wanna scream at people and that's the way I could express it artistically. It's like an explosion of funny and anger and joy and all kindsa things. I studied some Joe Bluhm today, he's a bad mofo.
Street caricature is kinda different from studio caricature. For me I want to do more a heavily pushed cartoony thing, as opposed to the stuff you typically like see of presidents/celebs and stuff. But it's just for this week maybe, I don't wanna do this forever, but it'd be a good fun way to practice lines since it seems my inherent style is quite geared towards caricature.
I've been using this site for practice, and I remember Javier P shared it. It's EXCELLENT face recource because NOBODY looks like a model, they're almost all horribly unattractive but horribly interesting faces, and that's pretty much the people I see in town anyways :)
I like the idea that your sketchbook is like a story arc in some cartoon. You having no idea where to go in terms of your art, to suddenly seeing that answer by the help of some people is such a treat to read. I like sketchbooks like that, you speak out your mind instead of just saying a few words, leaving art, then leaving. It's like reading a biography.
I can relate with feeling uncomfortable about "starting over". For me, it's almost borderline patronizing to know that my basic techniques are shoddy and it needs work. It is hard to accept that we need to go back to the basics when we have already strayed so far from that level, but that is how things work I suppose. We can't afford to stay stagnant in our art like some people...
Welp, I hope you find a style that pleases you some day! Good luck!
Hey Fedo - it's awesome that you're boosting up your fundamentals - that's a great crit from Jun. I've been doing more fundamentals myself - constructing from simple forms - and I feel that it's really helping.
If you ever need some inspiration on fundamentals - google some of Peter Han's sketches. In case you didn't know - Draw A Box is based off Peter Han's teachings.
Keep it going mate!
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Voodoo: Muehehe thanks man, I mean, when it really boils down to it, the very core of what we're doing is drawing straight lines and boxes and stuff. And if I can't draw those things well, everything else is going to be skewed. Say I want to check the perspective of a drawing I made, and I draw a box around it, well if that box is skewed, my perception of the right perspective will also be skewed. After doing just a little of this, I see so many obvious mistakes in both my work and that of amateurs (like myself.)
I don't think of it as starting over, it's more like learning to (finally) play in time on a musical instrument after learning tons of songs and developing a rich library of information. You can impress people at a party, but putting it down on record isn't going to impress anyone important if you can't tap your foot to it. Oh and I looked at your stuff and I like you're putting down a lot of thoughts. Just keep drilling those basic exercises man. Try to take one drawing in one position and do it several times, just try to make it a little better each time. I think that gets you further than doing a ton of different ones.
Artloader: Yea I remember watching Han's work a few years ago and I thought, "well who can't figure this out? I mean he's just drawing circles." I really wished I would have took it seriously, but no I wanted to paint like the pros and have really vibrant values, textures and colors. And I think I learned a ton about that, but nobody really cares if the drawing isn't solid. It's something I've had to come to terms with over time, that I was presented with two paths of study, the painting, and the drawing, and I picked the less employable one to walk down for a very long period of time lel.
Sooo, did a bunch of cartoon studies today and about 160 cylinders, and you can really see how sloppy and skewed they are, but I'm really struggling and trying. I think I did a fine job on the lines connecting the cylinders but I and totally fudging the elipses on like one side, and drawing the axis lines are pretty sloppy too. Owell, Try to do some more right tomorrow!
also, some fox sketches for a commission. (Some are really skewed, so you can also see where I practiced creating the shape of the head in basic forms)
annnd I need to keep doing the CRAP outta these box and cylinder exercises. All these sheets are front and back, trying to cover them as much as I neatly can manage. (technically finished the 250 cylinder thing, need to do it again lol.) straight lines are getting much easier to draw, especially practicing with a nice charcoal pencil. Gettin some cool new markers tomorrow, Tombo dual tip. Big in the caricature world.
Shout out to Elgin SubwaySurfer Bolling for the great advice I've used over the years!
Yo, Fedodika. I think you're going to find this interview really interesting and relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Var92xzU_Y I recommend watching it all, but see 17:29 if you're out of time. Jun's advice is great, but remember one thing, mate - take everyone's advice with a grain of salt. Mine as well, and it's this - take your time with every brush stroke you make. Ask yourself - why am I drawing this line here instead of there? Is it making it better? And cheers! ;)
Dev: yea man, i remember watching that when it came out. He's spot on with everything, especially at that part. I got really damn good at swinging that golf club crazy man, like insane haha.
Got some nice new markers today (that i coincidentially didn't photograph any drawings of...) But they force me to really think about line placement, and I've also been using 6b graphite pencils and they also challenge my mark making, for the better I believe. But ultimately it's just more tedious work, and I'm getting better quick I think...
Also some more sketches for my commissioner, I'm happy with the personality in these, despite them being quick and the forms not being the best. Yea I know the teeth and mouth are flat and busted up anatomically, but I did them as more a design sketch.
