Zombie's Book of Sketches

[ZombieChinchilla]

Some poses and faces I did yesterday:









Did a short study of folds:



And anatomy:



And some Marvel fanart I did of Bucky and Natasha:

[ZombieChinchilla]

Hey there, Daggers. Long time no post.

Okay so get ready for some life ramblings. TL;DR version: getting myself motivated to draw has been getting harder to do recently, I'm in a big slump, it suuuucks.

But yeah, I kind of stopped posting here and then about a week later I slowly stopped drawing as much. There was like a two-day stretch there where I didn't draw a single thing. It's just been getting hard for me to do, which really scares me since I'm worried I'm succumbing to depression again. It was something I suffered from this past school year, which is honestly why I didn't improve as much in the past year as I would have liked. I don't know, having to force yourself to do something takes a lot of the enjoyment out, at least for me, so it doesn't make me want to do it as much. And if I do motivate myself to paint something, I get much more easily frustrated with it.

But anyways, I really want to get back into the swing of things, I was doing really good for a really long time. And I'll be moving back into school in just two weeks, and I really don't want for me to fall behind a lot like I did last year. So my goal will be to really amp it up with drawing all the time, even when I have schoolwork to do.

Okay, done. Whew.

I have a bunch of pages of sketches and studies I've done in the past two weeks, but instead of posting all of them and clogging my SB, here's all of them smooshed into one big image:




I'm not sure if seeing all these makes me feel better or worse lmao.

[Adam Lina]

Sometimes focusing on the outcome of your art can make you feel depressed and lose motivation. If you're searching for external rewards to make you happy, you'll always end up depressed when those things fizzle out as all things do. Just draw because you like to draw and dont worry about the end result.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Thanks for the response, Hypnagogic. It can just be hard to not focus on getting some kind of outcome with drawing, especially since I want so desperately to have it as a career. I know I need to get past it and work hard, and it will eventually happen if I improve the craft enough, but like I said, it can be hard.

But I actually did pretty good today. I got back into doing some gestures this morning, but then I got distracted with Bioshock Infinite. I finished the game and then proceeded to have a small existential crisis over it.









I sketched some Lutece fanart tonight. I need to work on a more cartoon style, I think.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Today was a more productive day. Did some arm and hand studies and some more Bioshock.















THIS GAME SERIES IS RUINING MY LIFE not really

[rafa zanchetin]

Haha, at least it has an ending, if it was a moba or mmo you'd be trapped forever!
On your studies, have you tried to copy some referenced faces? It seems your construction is a bit woobly.

And don't give in to art depression, you just gotta go through it. I still have them sometimes, then I just shut it and start listening to Gonna Fly Now. Trying haaaaard now, it's so hard now, trying hard now.

[pnate]

Yeah, keep going with those structure and anatomy studies! There is already a really nice improvement from your earlier pages, you are on a good track. It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes, but you are definitely moving. As long as you are moving, you are improving. Too cheesy? :) Keep fightin the good fight Zombie.

[ZombieChinchilla]

rafa- Hahaha, you got me there! I haven't traced any faces, no, is that what you mean? I know, construction and proportions is such a weakness of mine. Thanks!

pnate- Thanks! Knowing I'm improving is always a good motivator, I need to always think of that. :)

Have some sketches and a pretend book cover illustration.

[Tristan Berndt]

Those anatomy studies are looking good! More people should study the inner construction of the body because it dictates sooo much of what we see in the exterior pose. kudos to you for doing that!

The only thing I feel I should say is to try and study the plane construction of the head and face. Right now you're doing it very cartoony (and that's fine) but having studied the something like Bridgman will allow you to push stylised anatomy a lot further. Also, make sure to use reference! :)

[smrr]

Ooh so many studies @_@ makes me want to study my ass off!
Just wondering, when you draw hands and the human figure - do you think on terms of muscle to skin or from bones to muscles to skin? If you're thinking in terms of the first option, I feel you could really improve if you focus more on the latter.

Also, you head structures look great man :) I feel you have a good grasp on the overall form of the head, its just your facial features that are lacking a bit. If you're able to work on them, I feel more levelling up coming your way!

P.s. Happy birthday Zombieeeee! Hope you have a great one, ( \ ^ 3 ^)/

[ZombieChinchilla]

Tristan- Thanks! I'd definitely like to get more into learning the muscles, it's really interesting! And yes, the faces. Damn them! Hahaha I struggle with them a lot so I'll work on them more.
Smurf- Thanks for the birthday wish, dude!! And for the kind words, I vow to work more on the facial features, thank you kindly.

So I decided to post again after two whole months. Sad to say that with school starting up again, I haven't done as many studies on my own, although I have really increased my oil painting skills. Had to have gone up at least a level or two.








I also have some non-class work: a painting of Asami from LOK and some sketches from the world of Skyrim.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Ah man ah man ah man. Long time no see, Daggers. The struggle to be a busy college student.

More paintings~

[Adam Lina]

Those are all oils? They look lovely. I want to get into oil painting eventually. Did you practice painting in cheaper mediums first before moving into to oil?

[ZombieChinchilla]

Heyyy what's up, Daggers?? It's been far too long. Working hard doing school work (I am now an illustration major instead of painting!!) and trying really hard to do more personal work at the same time.

Here's some stuff I've been doing:



















I'm gonna have an artist's table at a local con in May...getting more and more nervous as the months pass, haha.

[Adam Lina]

Good to see you still working at it. Good luck with the con. What con is it?

[ZombieChinchilla]

Thanks, Adam! I'm going to have a table at the Sci Fi Valley Con in Altoona, Pennsylvania in May. This is the fourth year they've done it, and I've gone all previous years as a guest but not an exhibitor. Walking around last year I found myself thinking I was either in line or better than a few of the exhibiting artists there, so I decided to take the plunge and go for it this year. I also want to have a webcomic going by then so that I can hopefully advertise it there. Fingers crossed.

I also realize I never answered your question from November about my paintings, haha. Yes, everything posted in here was done in oil. I've used acrylics somewhat, but barely. Just some quick fruit still lifes during high school. Something about acrylics just doesn't mesh with me, so I don't use them if I can help it. I can understand not wanting to jump headfirst into oils since they're so expensive, but I did for the class I took last semester and I really enjoyed it. I've always been a fan of traditional mediums, though, and something about oil just really fits my art style.

Okay, here's some more stuff. I did these figure drawings a few nights ago after discovering Croquis Cafe. I highly recommend it if you can't do life drawing sessions, it's really the next best thing! They're 20 minute videos of models in real time. They're not pictures, the models are actually breathing and moving slightly while you draw them. Suuuper nice.

[ZombieChinchilla]

YEAHYEAHYEAHDYHAYEHA HEY DAGGERS.




^ Done with colored pencils!






^ Random character designs I'll probably never come back to.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Some figure drawings from my drawing class, and an acrylic painting of a seashell for scientific illustration.

The exercise for the figures was pretty interesting. For the first one, it was done in 30 minutes on a 18x24" pad. Then the next one was done on paper half that size, in half the time. Then again, have the size and half the time, up to the last one which was done in 1 minute and from memory rather than reference.

As someone who's been doing 30 second gestures for years, it wasn't too much of a challenge but it was pretty fun.

[ZombieChinchilla]

An update on the conch painting:


Some characters of mine:


Wonder Woman sketch:


And punk Sailor Scouts:

[Adam Lina]

I hope you dont mind that I red lined your drawing. Just a few things I though I could help with maybe.




Also I think you could benefit from learning the Reilly method of head drawing. You forms of the head look good but a better understanding of rhythms would bring your heads to the next level IMO. Hope this helps.