Help me become a Professional Artist

[KurtJeremy]

Finally , after almost a year of stalking around these forums ive decided to post my own sketchbook.

my name is jeremy kurt , i am 18 yrs old . i plan on becoming the best artist as i could be 2-3 years from now. ive been drawing since i was a child heavily influenced by anime and cartoons , copying them and making my own comics into stapled pieces of paper.
but ever since high school started i suddenly , for some reason, stop at drawing and lost interest into it. just recently Q2 of 2013 i was constantly thinking on what to do with my life, what i wanna be. and decided that i want to be a pro artist. and here i am grinding and struggling day and night trying to improve myself.
even though it gets frustrating , my golden rule that i build upon is .
"if you want it youll get it"
and i really want this. and its just awesome to have these kinds of forum and the internet to meet like minded artists who are motivated to help other aspiring artists.
hope i didnt bore you guys, but seriously lets get started kicking butts today!

here are my digital studies using sketchbook pro for the android , i dont have a tablet for my pc yet to use photoshop. and im struggling with blending stuff because most of the tutorials i watch uses photoshop







trad stuffs

[KurtJeremy]

some more old studies....
sorry for the quality

[vicluna]

I like your sketch book, keep going, draw from life more, take your sketchbook pro out and try to draw whats around. More still lives, master copies, do gesture drawings - http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-t...e-drawing/ Watch your values, start off using 5 steps instead of the 10 in your value scale but try and use the blackest blacks and whitest whites, if that makes sense. Just keep going you'll be a pro in no time.

[Ji-Li]

Not bad of a start! But definitely work on more studies and you can reach professional level! :)
Keep going and good luck! :D

[gchong]

My advice on blending? Forget about it and start getting yourself acquainted with the hard brush. It's going to make you uncomfortable and uneasy, but be patient and try painting and doing your studies with 3 values.

[KurtJeremy]

@vicluna thank you! ive only been trying to do those lately , the studies you suggests.
so i got a question. do i have anything to keep in mind whilst doing studies ? or should i just copy mindlessly? or to be specific. do you have a method going about studying? about the values. i cant really push my values out cause im using a 2b 0.5mm mech pencil. so yeah but im trying to improve my values.

@ji li thanks man! youre sketchbook is awesome as well. you'll be pro before i become pro ! :)

@gchong i understand. but really, ive been trying to learn painting on sketchbook pro on my note 10.1 for awhile now, i still dont have a solid workflow in painting. when that happens i get crazy! i do think i have OCD or something ! haha anyway thanks for the tip. but surely you can give me an advice on brushwork and smooth blending :)

update!!! im going trad for the mean time , im also going to get an intuos next month.

bunch o still life and portrait practice

[Zachary McLean]

Nice portrait sketches! Keep working at it. It's nice to see young artists on here like myself striving to become pro. I need to do more studies!

[KurtJeremy]

studies for these week, im totally stuck atm on what to focus on , im certainly not going to stop on the figure though.

this week i just switch on several mediums and failing. well it happens.


any tips on using charcoal? specifically on using it for shading?

also i badly need a critique on my gesture drawings. i have one thats fully rendered , the one with the portrait of the little girl thats as far as how i can be on rendering the human figure from a photo , if you find anything wrong with it please do say so. i dont have anyone else T.T


cubes a thon - trying to draw cubes as if it was rotating. need to review my perspective

[Eraiasu]

Great amount of work! Just keep it up! :)

[LongJh]

Sup Jeremy. Nice work so far - great dedication!

Now! As far as I can see, what I can suggest to you is to slow things down a little. based on your studies and sketches in general - it feels like you're rushing it, take it slow and steady and try and really understand each step you are doing. For example the way you did your apple study is a good start!

As far as drawing/rendering technique (particularly with charcoal), I'd recommend you watch Stan Prokopenko's youtube tutorials? (You may probably have seen them before) He literally helps you step by step with drawing, gestures and shading. Follow each tutorial carefully (multiple times if necessary!) and I'm sure you'll do great drawings in no time.

[KurtJeremy]

week 3 ? i think
been a harsh work for me was very unsure on what to study and having 2nd doubts if i can really get back to the stride of drawing . my workspace as you may have known is an abomination . every 30 minutes of drawing my back and shoulders starts to hurt .

my studies are
mixed really, i thought of doing master studies but atm i can only do it on pencil.
also watching MCIII livestream about composition stills and trying to get around photoshop, im using only a mouse and navigating through photoshop with it is also a pain.
wich brings me to another problem, my drawing hand. im starting to feel a tingling sensation whenever i put down a mark. ive had this before and its coming back with a vengeance.

@longjh heya! thanks for visiting my sketchbook! youre right ! howd you know!? haha im an impatient artist and im trying to change that. its just that i really want to have a result within the day that i feel accomplished and get a pretty picture out of it.
yep i know stan prokopopenko , ive watch his videos like ya know ritually , especially the gesture vid. i still need a clear step in shading a drawing . even though he has a tut for that its hard to follow because he goes through it so briefly !

@eraisu ill keep it up as long as you keep it up mate! cheers! :)

Perspectivo IRL and still life in progress



michael hampton anatomy (much more comfortable doing these) *from imagination







a crappy mucha study , its originally a painting , and i dont think i didnt get much in terms of shading. the foreshortening though on her left hand (our right) was interesting.
anyone can suggest a master in graphite or charcoal?


the amazingly crappy doodles are done by my left hand so yeah at least i got that as an excuse XD

[will123will]

Hey thanks a lot for the sketchbook visit :). Your doing really well so far, especially love the sketchbook pro studies, I tried doing some stuff on that and failed badly haha :). Regarding your question on time, it tends to vary a lot but I generally like to aim for about 2 hours or less on a study but that really does depend on a lot of variables as different things can take longer to paint. Shading wise, I try (emphasis on try) to block in the biggest, most obvious value changes right away, then when I feel they are accurate I start to work on the smaller, less obvious ones. A way to make this easier is to squint, because the light gets diffused in your eyelashes and makes texture less obvious so you can just focus on the overall impression of light. Best book I've read on this is Richard Schmidts (hope I didn't get that wrong) Alla Prima, Everything I Know About Painting.
Hope that helped haha and keep up the awesome work :). Oh and also, try and make sure you are understanding how stuff is working from a physics point of view, like how the light is reacting with the material, it will help a ton with imagination stuff :).

Will

[Samszym]

Hey, thanks for the comment!!

Nice studies and everything, I think you've got a great mindset here, keep plugging away like this and you'll get to pro level for sure! Do you have any access to a scanner? it would be a lot nicer to scan in anything you spent more than half an hour on so we can get a better look, if you're looking for critique on it.
Your pencil technique's looking nice, you're not nailing the perspective and directions on boxes/forms you draw yet but it seems like you're confident enough to draw a single line without needing to correct it or fuss over it, which is really good!
Get a good book on perspective if you can and study how everything recedes from you, then you'll start to see that there is only one very specific line you can possibly make to make your boxes work. I think the most important thing to remember when you're drawing to create is that some things are closer to you, and some are further away, and the further things will get smaller. It seems simple and obvious but it's really easy to draw a little detail or line that doesn't correctly follow those rules, and suddenly your drawing just doesn't work.

since you asked, here are some figure drawing masters you might want to look at and do studies from http://francisvallejoinspiration.blogspot.com/

best of luck improving!

[KurtJeremy]

@samzym thanks very much for commenting!
its actually been awhile since ive done perspective studies , maybe i need to get back to relearning it.
i actually used a scanner , a crappy scanner , but i tried amplifying the contrast abit so that it would be clearer , it seems that it doesnt work quite well. also thank you for the link , just what i needed the most!

in a matter of time now though, im gonna get my tablet but in the mean time ,
master studies using a MOUSE on ps. yeah its hardcore alright !




not learning anything in terms of brushwork , i do learn color and how they simplify forms with values , i wish i could do more but my carpal tunnel syndrome is starting to stop me from doing so

[Samszym]

master studies using a MOUSE on ps. yeah its hardcore alright !

Gah I remember before I got a tablet, mouse painting is such an awful experience D:
it might be better to just use the lasso and gradient tool for these studies, leave hand-painting out of the equation until you get a tool you can actually control.

It would be best to do these studies traditionally with paints if you're at all able to, that gives you much more control than a tablet or mouse and mixing colors yourself teaches you tons more than just picking them in photoshop.

Oh ya, have you checked if there are any life drawing sessions that go on in your area? it would be worth going if there are any, life drawing is a huge help.

[Cyprinus]

You already got some nice studies here and you're definitely going into the right direction! I totally agree with Samszym as well, if you have the chance to go to life drawing, you should take it. I don't want to miss it anymore and I think it already helped me a lot in many different areas (:

Actually I saw your post in Eduardo's sketchbook where you asked for some good Manga Tutorials or Manga to read. I'm a huge Manga-enthusiast and so I almost felt obligated to answer, so please forgive me my intrusion, haha. Anyway, it always also depends on the genre you like to read, but I can totally recommend Inoue Takehiko (I'm reading his works Vagabond and Real) because of his amazing artwork (which is not the typical Manga-artwork) and his skills ins storytelling as well. Works by Takeshi Obata are also often really worth a read (Death Note, Bakuman...)...I guess I could go on forever (;

In terms of Tutorials, I think there are maybe a lot around on deviantArt as well, and there's a whole book series on "How to draw Manga". However, I really enjoyed to read the books by Scott McCloud like "Understanding Comics" and "Making Comics".

Keep it up! (:

[KurtJeremy]

WOOOOW its been a long time coming ! im back !
i didnt go anywhere , but this whole month has been really depressing for me and im just too demotivated to draw, i think its normal though to feel like this sometimes when youre pursuing something thats not easy to accomplish.

ill be trying to post again weekly though.










pls critique as hard as you can , im currently practicing figures right now from prokos figure drawing course, what can you guys recommend to me who doesnt have any figure drawing classes to go to?

[KurtJeremy]

updateeeeeeeeeeee

[Samszym]

Yo, drawings are looking nice! I can't think of many helpful crits, just keep grinding and leveling up the skills!
When you're cross hatching try not to make the lines go near 90 degrees to each other, that flattens out the form a lot. Go across the form or with it. Hope to see some longer figure studies soon, make sure you clearly separate the light side from the shadow side

[missimoinsane]

Hey!

Your sketchbook is looking great thus far. A tip might be to upload smaller images though.. as it makes viewing a longer process if you have to click view each image separate because it's appearing too big in your sketchbook!!

That said. You're really making great waves and process..!

I really like the batman stuff and generally your head anatomy is looking great!! So well done you.

I also like your colour, perhaps try doing more colour studies... your sketchbook is seeming very black and white..!! I'd love too see more colour over the next few pages!!

I look forward to seeing more from you :)

~mii