JyonnyNovice - from Novice to Master!

[Adrian]

Certainly improving , you go man ! :)

[JyonnyNovice]

Hypnagogic Woa thanks man! Frank Frazetta's stuff is incredible! I've seen some of these before but never knew who did it! I'll definitely study him! You're right too, cross hatching is really minimal in comics, although it depends on the artist. I guess I approach it from a pencil drawing point of view which is the wrong way - I'm studying 'The art of comic book inking' which seems like the Loomis of comic book inks. Just practising all the feathering exercises at the moment. I'll have a look through Alphonso's channel too. Cheers mate!

Busy B Thanks for the comment my friend! I know that stuff in theory, but managing to remember it and apply it while drawing gestures is the next thing...! Always good to be reminded of this stuff so thank you : )

Adrian Thanks a lot! Thanks for checking out my sketchbook too ^^


I've been studying shadows a little - in preparation for more ink training. Made the setups in cinema 4d, not sure if it's totally true to life but it has reflected light and ambient occlusion set. Used various medium - water & ink, graphite, charcoal.



Some doodling around with biro and ink and some fiddling in photoshop.



Practising feathering techniques from 'The Art of Comic Book Inking' - the author says that when you start to get a handle on these then you're ready to start inking. I'm gonna just practise these til I get to that point, and focus my other drawing time on studying anatomy etc.

[StardustLarva]

Great start with the 3D shapes!

[JyonnyNovice]

Stardust Thanks mate!


My watercolour set arrived yesterday, first attempt:



I can't use brush ink since the ink I have isn't waterproof, but I think the technical pen looks better in this kind of drawing anyway.


Some texture practice from Alphonso Dunn:




Trying to apply his texture instruction in a drawing (i.e. a texture is a pattern that has variations and shows changes in value):



My freehand perspective stuff still has a terrible lean on it, (I've already skewed the image above and it's still leaning). When I'm drawing it feels like I've lined everything up ok but then when scanning it I can see this awful lean to the right. Have to work on that somehow...

[StardustLarva]

Hello again, Jyonny. Not a bad start with the watercolour set, though I think you should have made more of an attempt to integrate a darker hue of the blue for the shadow of the boat rather than the brown. Good control of tones you've demonstrated here though.

[JyonnyNovice]

Stardust Thanks for keeping on checking back here man, I really appreciate it! You're right with your comments of course, its yet another new medium for me so I need to practice and read and experiment a bit before my control is enough to make considered choices like placing different values of colours... (I don't know how to make a darker value even... I believe mixing stuff with black is the wrong choice - use a darker pigment I guess?) Anyway thanks again for your comments : )


Anatomy study from the past few days:













I'm going through the complete Hampton approach from gesture through to adding perspective so far. I'm kind of tired of not being able to draw a decent figure after about 8 months consistent study - I'm thinking about just putting my head down and getting through Hampton as quickly as I can.


Some figures from imagination, from an Alphonso Dunn tutorial - it's a really fun approach; make a simple shape (4 - 6 sided or something) then slowly carve it up until a character pops out. Putting that restriction of a shape really let me loosen up and feel out the character and the limbs and stuff. It's a really nice way to work!



Added a tree and a few details into my house drawing (just practising texturing with this one).

[StardustLarva]

Very nice work with the anatomy stuff! In terms of the textures in your other drawings, you should try and focus on creating them more with the impressions of tone than just lines. It tends to make them pop out a bit more.

[JyonnyNovice]

Stardust Cheers man, I don't quite follow though, can you link me an example of what you mean?

[StardustLarva]

Oh, sorry. What I meant was something a bit like this:

http://0.tqn.com/d/drawsketch/1/S/t/K/brickstipple1.JPG

Basically, instead of using hard lines (which is not such a bad thing), you could make them pop out a bit more by using tones instead of lines to imply the form of the subjects you're working with, for instance a brick wall. You've already done this a bit with that perspective drawing you did of the house, as you used varying densities of sequenced lines to imply values on the roof of the house.

Hope I've made this a bit clearer. Sorry if I'm not that good at explaining these things, haha.

[JyonnyNovice]

Stardust Yea I get you now, broken lines and stuff - my stuff does tend to be line heavy but I'm gradually breaking out of needing to define everything with a solid line, I'm working on it!


I've been drawing like normal, a few hours a day but have fallen out of the habit of scanning and posting absolutely everything I draw - not sure how useful it is for me or how interesting it is for anyone looking here. I'm doing anatomy studies which I'll post up when I've finished my current set of practices, for now some digital gestures:

[Jaik]

Nice job man, so much improvement. I like some of that dynamic sketching stuff going on.

With the perspective hut, move your vanishing points a bit further away (or draw smaller)and you will get rid of a lot of the distortion you are facing in your recent sketches.

Keep up the good work man. Looking good!

[Adrian]

I've been drawing like normal, a few hours a day but have fallen out of the habit of scanning and posting absolutely everything I draw - not sure how useful it is for me or how interesting it is for anyone looking here.

Had the same feeling in the past 3 days or so ... I guess having everything put here one after the other is a better way to see your progress ... like you know ... on the same page. So yeah ... you can think of it like that. It also helps others to see what it takes to get where they want to get.

[JyonnyNovice]

Jaik Cheers Jaik! I need to get around to nailing the perspective technique for drawing with vanishing points off the page, or print out some grids to use, cause the distortion does tend to ruin things.

Adrian That's a good point, it might be helpful for a total beginner to see the process - although when I was a total beginner I looked at Noah Bradley's thread on CA and not sure if it really helped me much~ I didn't really know what I was looking at or looking for. Also it takes a lot of time scanning and cropping everything (even just doing photos). Plus I miss a few days and have a stack of pages to do, so I procrastinate and don't post for ages! I find I need to set myself goals with this kind of thing, if I just do it as and when it never happens - when I was scanning and posting everything everyday I believe I was drawing more too, but then life changes week to week - it's no problem. I just found your sketchbook, been meaning to post up some comments~ I'll make sure I do soon!


Some quick stuff from today; digital gestures and ball point doodles:

[JonHop]

Good stuff dude, I feel you on the not scanning and posting things then getting more and more and putting it off I only just recently got round to scanning some sketchbook work and posting it. However I have a lot of gesture sketches and such that i've never posted just due to it taking time and I felt there wasn't much need really or i thought they sucked lol Your line confidence keeps getting better each time I drop by. Also really nice job on the hut and hard work on the anatomy studies, keep it up!

[JyonnyNovice]

JonHop Cheers dude, yea I really feel things are clicking now, creativity is coming since I'm not battling with the technique as much anymore - dynamic sketching exercises and Hampton construction exercises and perspective practice has just opened up this whole realm of possibilities!


I've been learning how to ink with brush and crow quill pen, and have developed some kind of repetitive strain injury in my hand - holding the brush too tight, too tense in my hand with the pen or some other such bad form. It's not especially painful if I type but if I use the mouse too much, hold a pen and draw or hold a playstation controller it starts to throb within 30 seconds or so. Gonna rest if for a couple days then go to the GP if it isn't better. So won't be any updates for a little - the old me would've just kept drawing and probably f****ed up my hand; the new me is being responsible and taking some time out. I'll still be around and posting comments and stuff.

[Adam Lina]

That sucks about your hand. I was getting pain from using a mouse too so I switched the mouse pad to my left side which helps keep my drawing hand fresh. But yea sometimes you over do it and need to let your hand rest for a day or two. I've had to stop for almost a whole week recently. The tough part is losing all the momentum you build from drawing everyday makes it hard to get back into the swing of things.

[RenatoCaria]

Hello mr. Jyonny, so we meet again.. I gotta tell you that the drawing of the house with the texture is really awesome man you did a really good job! with the trainning you've been doing, seems like you keep getting more and more comfortable with forms in perspective :)

Its also great to see you tackling figure drawing, in which you got a little more difficulty but you'll see that in no time you be just as awesome in that as you are in perspective :D

Sorry to hear about you hand dude, hope it gets better man! cheers!

[JyonnyNovice]

Hypnagogic That's a good idea, I'm trying to switch to using my left hand for a lot of things now, especially mouse (although it feels weird and I keep reaching with my right hand automatically). I'm trying to keep the habit going so I don't lose that momentum - instead of drawing I'm watching youtube tutorials or collecting reference, at least a little bit, so it's not so hard to get back into it when I'm better. Although it has been nice to just read or watch a movie in the evening instead of always drawing!

Renato Thanks so much man! Means a lot when someone says my stuff looks awesome : ) Figure drawing is the thing I've studied the longest and also the thing I have most difficulty with - I guess that's just the nature of drawing the human body though! I'll keep going!


I figured I could do some painting even with my bad hand since that's pretty gentle, so experimenting and practising with my water colours a bit more:




From bird watching book - a Blue Tit.


Painting study (lost the artist name). BTW that's supposed to be a tyre swing on the tree, I've been told it looks like a noose.


Recently discovered Gonzalo Carcamo and his book: Modelo Viva, Natureza Morta. Want to try and mimic his style of illustration. (i.e. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EwRAym6ZGdg/Uq...osicao.jpg)

Most of the stuff I post on here is rushed, since I'm always trying to fit stuff in around my 2 year old, these paintings are the same, I'm gonna try and do another one this afternoon and take my time and do it carefully.

Hand is kinda throbbing today from painting yesterday, so today will just do one painting instead of three.

[JyonnyNovice]

Today's painting; trying this line and wash style, I really like it cause it's so loose and quick to draw then the painting you don't have to be accurate and you can let the paint bleed and stuff. I went a little heavy with the blue shadows in the foreground - it's because my first wash was a bit too dark, so to get some atmospheric perspective I had to darken the front elements more than I'd liked. I'm pretty happy with it though for a first try.



The village of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England - drawing referenced from photo, colours from imagination.

[Richie]

Hi Jyonny, welcome back, hope the hand is on the mend, have you tried wrapping tape around the pencil like david fitch does in this video: http://www.dfinchartist.com/drawing-dyna...heros.html
or maybe try out how Proko hold his pencil this way heavy handed pressing breaks the lead so you soon learn a lighter touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMC0Cx3Uk84