Denikina's Improvement Sketchbook

[denikina]

Hi, everybody :) Joining to give myself some more reasons to learn practice and improve. I started moer serious drawing last year and since I have to improve a looot of things I'll be posting my studies and works here.

Don't hesitate to unleash your full feedback on me - I want to learn as much as I can.

Some studies for the beginning:






And some human beings (most of those let me understand how many anatomy mistakes I made):








+ metal study:

[Toxicpanda]

Oh wow, that hand studies are looking amazing!
I like your first landscape and colors. Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward seeing more from you.

[rmd]

I agree, those hand studies are amazing! Did you do those faces really fast? Right now it feels like you could have spent more time with the shading?

Those snowy mountains look like they could use more value and atmospheric perspective! Your focal point, Im assuming, is the mountain's area in the middle. But the eye tends to focus on the darker areas. Also, it would be a lot more amazing to ramp up the reflections in the water :)

Dem armor studies, WOW. Especially that shiny body on the right. Exceptional level of detail too! Hope I helped somewhat! Please, more!

[denikina]

Yes, thank you very much!

rmd - Faces not really fast, but yes, I think I should pay more attention to shading.
- Mountains - I tried to keep this study quick. It's about 40 minutes, so I probably skipped few things, but you're right.

I'll try to apply your advice to the next studies :)

[iamorim]

Good start. I also started more serious drawing last year ^^

The first painting is digital or tradicional? Hands! Keep posting

[Samszym]

shoot, this good with only a year of serious drawing under your belt? You're gonna be ok with that kinda dedication :D

is any of this work from imagination/memory, or are you only drawing from observation? Do you know what kind of art you want to do for your career?

cool work, keep posting :D

[denikina]

@Samszym - Thank you, I'm all red and flattered. This are only studies, but I draw from imagination, yes. I just didn't want to put ALL my works here to flood you :)
I really like concept art, and most of my finished private works are characters/environments +few props. But I kind of hate them now and see how much I need to improve. Sooo, I really look forward to next challenge here. :)

After holiday I will put some imagination works from past few days - this thread needs more pics. :D

Feel free to skip that part - some more particular personal explanation and my fairytale story
[EDIT] Also, I did draw before in my life, but it was nothing like what I do now. I had drawing classes at school, but never paid attention or treated it seriously. I knew almost nothing about anatomy, and absolutely 0% about value, colours or light. I thought I was going to be a graphic designer. I did a personal sketch per month or three and was always utterly disappointed with the quality. Then I stopped almost completely till I met some new drawing friends, who made me changed my mind. I decided my life sucks without art, quit my job and started for real, from the very beginning. The End. :3

[denikina]

I've been bit too idle for my liking these last few days.
I'm hoping to reschedule my day for the better and work a bit more. First thing is to start getting up earlier and that's probably the hardest part.

I'm also doing the digital work too rarely. Then I get this creeping feeling every time, when I get back to it, that I can't do it anymore. I beat that with drawing humans - no fear of that anymore, so from now on my little goal is to do digital work/sketch/study daily. Even the smallest one.

Anyway, the drawings:

Couple imagination sketches as promised :)



One page of imagination, one of studies



My muscles study routine and some mindles imagination sketches at the end of the day



30/60 sec poses



~2 min poses + some observations form work



Muscles study routine



Piece that started as a quick imagination sketch and I decided to give it few late night hours

---

Good start. I also started more serious drawing last year ^^

The first painting is digital or tradicional? Hands! Keep posting

I'm sorry, I missed your post. The first one is digital. I rarely do anything traditionally painted. Fingers crossed for you too!

[denikina]

Late night WIP study from Pierluigi Maco's photography. Drawing as the best remedy for bad mood. :3

I'm too lazy to scan today's sketches, so I'll put them here tomorrow :D

[Farvus]

Hey. Great studies. I like the first image with the blue houses. Good use of texture.

Regarding doing work rarely... It gets easier when you make habit of doing a little bit every day. Also you need to remember to do something fun every time making studies feels tedious.

Keep it up :).

[Jaik]

Nice work! Some really good studies in here. That last study looks like the pupils may be different sizes, which gives it a really unsettling look, but it might also be the specular in the eye. Really like a lot of your figurative sketches. Nothing left to do but to keep doing what you are doing. Cool stuff :)

[denikina]

@Farvus - Thank you! Yes, drawing every day is a must, but sometimes I get distracted and practice too little, especially during the weekends, when it's warm lazy and...you have to clean up the flat sometimes :)

@Jaik - Thank you for the tip! It was late and later I realised one eye is completely wrong. Hope I fixed it right this time :)


The new thing is, I fixed my routine once again. This time it goes hourly and it's more specific, so I waste less time on wondering what to do.

And here we go. Last week in images:


Daily practice sketches in boards




Some personal thumbs and designs:



Character design thumbs for Fallout:Lonestar group. Give us some love, we need it :)




Painting study after Arthur Wesley Dow (also quite failed - but I leared a lot):



Fixed and finished portrait study:



Started and unfinished todays still life WIP:




Personal weekly summary: more digital, more still life and light practice, more drawing&painting :)

[Samszym]

Studies looking good man! seems like you're managing your time and goals well, rock on!!!

[Kaffer]

Study amount and quality both very nice! \m/

[crackedskull]

Welcome to daggers :D
You got some really kickass stuff already, great start.
Keep posting more, its fun to look at your stuff.

[denikina]

@Samszym, Kaffer, crackedskull - Thanks, guys! I'll try to keep my drawing condition at this level and improve it ;)

This week was a better in terms of organisation, though I had to admit the amount of things to take care of during the weekend stopped me from drawing completely, which made me quite sad.
Well maybe this week I'll keep it 7/7.

First of, the usual warm up/pose traditional sketches. I changed pencils and got a bit more fluent at getting values better.



Muscle studies routine - trying to include muscles I learned earlier. I feel some improvement. :)



Part of my sketchdump - some ideas mixed in my head into something nice and I'm thinking of developing it into a bigger piece in free time. For the time - some savage elf girl and alien anatomy.



Finished still study:



Unfinished WIP Old Master study - Bouguereau. It seems there has to be at least one unfinished work here every week....



Aaand some studies and thumbs for the Crimson Arena - Grimm's tale poster:





3 or 4?


Personal weekly summary: I need to do more studies - to get faster with them and, definitely, more personal work. New schedule seems to work fine, I just need to adjust myself a bit more to it. I thought I might be tired by the daily amount of work, but surprisingly it's just the opposite.

[Blewzen]

Really neat studies man, I need to follow my schedule more tightly D:

[denikina]

I need to stop socially dying for a long time periods.

Here's some more recent stuff:

Concept art for characters from Fallout:Lonestar mod:





Sketch and studies:

[denikina]

Just a tiny update this time. Last week was more about work and learning and less about own artwork, but I should have more of them next time :)

[denikina]

Uh, another micro update, sadly.