Come In & Leave a Word - I'll do the same

[0ziRi5]

Hello Daggers!

Thanks for visiting my thread. I really like to draw and its been some time I started to take it seriously. It would be great and very appreciated to get some feedback and advices from you awesome artists around.

Thank you,

Tomas

So here are some of my latest pictures:

[StardustLarva]

Hi there, welcome to Crimson Daggers. Very solid work here, particularly with your figures. It'd be interesting to see you flesh them out more.

[Wardy]

wow great life drawing man, really nice. keep going!

[Adam Lina]

Those foreshortened nude ladies are especially well drawn. It seems like you're weaker at drawing from imagination while you're observation skills are very sharp. Try drawing from memory after you draw from reference so you can work on balancing that out. I should take my own advice though XD

[0ziRi5]

So M. Hampton's Design and Invention stuff. Gonna study some muscles :) Comments are welcome as always. Will post next tomorrow.


@StardustLava: Thank you. Im working on muscles right now :)

@Wardy: Thx man.

@Hypnagogic_Haze: Not really sure about that. I dont do much imaginative work for now, cos im not satisfied with my fundamental skills. And I feel like it slowing me down.

[JyonnyNovice]

Hi! Welcome to Crimson Daggers! I love your figure drawing, really pleasing to the eye! Especially the first three and the nude after the portraits. I really like how you draw the hairstyles on the portraits too.

I'm just starting out in figure drawing - I'd love to hear your kind of 'history in figure drawing'; I'm trying to set myself some specific goals to learn this art and would love to hear your story in figure drawing.

Keep it up Tomas!

Jonny

[0ziRi5]

Hello Jonny i would be glad to help you, but still i just did a babysteps in drawing. I checked your SB and you are doing pretty much the same things I was doing last summer. I would say that two things which helped me most are:

1.Perspective - little bit more understanding that everything has its volume and the craft drawing 3d shapes on 2d surface. These helped me big big time: http://www.marshallart.com/other/shop/videos/index.php

2.Life drawing classes - because photos are already flattened out and in many of them there is really hard to find some volume. Also photographers like to use front lightning, which is much harder to capture in drawing. As Loomis said "We love shadows :)". I also learned about measuring with angles in life drawing classes which helped me big time with proportions. At first its slow and tidious process but I think it is very important essential. You get faster in time also, so dont worry.


Maybe let me desribe you my process now:

1. I find interesting reference, with good pose ( could be kontrapost or even dynamic pose, but i would start with standing figures)

2. i draw head, chest and pelvis (in this fase only as an egg shapes) and estimate overal height and width of figure. Mosty I use head as a meassuring unit. The go with center line (spine) and check symetry.

3. The i draw limbs and check propotions and realtions with horizontals and verticals (loomis has also page about this). After that i have solid outline of a figure and basic perspective thanks to checst and pelvis orientations.

4. then i flesh out. (now im studing muscles to be able to do that well)

5. then shading where im very bad for now. but i try to do shadow mapping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWErCqnYC0Q

6. youre done :)


Also i learned thing or two about proper mindset. Now im trying to be the most precise I can and dont rush anywhere. More work doesnt mean better quality and art is a quality discipline :) Also if you rush from one badly drawn thing to another you carry on you mistakes, so not improving that much.

Hope it helps a little. Sorry for repsponding that late, my internet is not working today (im on phone). Anyways come back later I did some anatomy studies you might be interested in. Ill upload them as i have proper connection.

Be well.
Tomas

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Some more Hamptons stuff.

[0ziRi5]

Back with some more progress, im kinda out of motivation lately, dont know what happened. What are you guys doing in this situation? Do you push it and try to break into or do you lay off for a while and wait for new energy?

[Adam Lina]

On losing motivation I try to fight through it. I feel like if I dont get at least some drawing in everyday it will be easy to slip back into complacency. You might be losing motivation because you're not challenging yourself enough. You mentioned not being good at adding values. Then you should do a ton of value studies. Also experimenting with new mediums can be a nice kick start for motivation. Or work on making a finished piece that you put everything you've learned into it. And just out of curiosity, what kind of art career are you planning on going for? Illustration? concept art?

[KurtJeremy]

heya ,i see some good amount of anatomy stuff in here. wich brings me to your motivation problem, i have it too currently believe it or not, and what i think is the cause of it is youre doing the same stuff again and again ( anatomy , figure portraits) and what i would like to suggest is to go through some other subject matters and draw them like the way you draw human figures. also draw stuff from artists you really admire, mimic them and "steal" some techniques from them. not only will you learn its also a ton of fun getting a good result if you worked hard on it.

its really easy to learn from other artists than doing them yourself from a reference. and i think thats why its demotivating doing it. so try to mix it up and dont get stuck on just one thing. to prevent yourself feeling stale and bored.

[AngeliquevdMee]

Good stuff here! Most of the time lack of motivation means that your brain is tired from doing and seeing the same thing over and over and over again. Maybe try working on giving your figures clothes for example, or even drawing animal figures can help.

[0ziRi5]

Thanks for tips guys, im sure you`re right. I switched to painting and trying values. So very noob level again. haha. I still not overcomed motivation problems, but at least I did something. Gonna fight it :) What are your favorite values exercises? What should be my focus in values? Thank you all :)


PS: I really like my new skull :P

[Lyraina]

Hi and welcome!
On losing motivation ... it really depends on the situation, why you are not motivated... you'll have to find out what works best for you and when. If it's just some kind of "duh, sleeping and procrastinating is nicer than working", you'll just have to force yourself or you'll never get anywhere :P But it is also important not to burn yourself out, so taking breaks, and allowing yourself to do something not painting related now and then without feeling bad is really important, too! What often helps me if I feel overwhelmed or too emotionally down to stick to my study schedule, is just paint or draw... whatever. Comfort zone stuff, paint whatever comes to my mind, experimenting without thinking about improvement or studying. Like that, I will still have done something 'useful' I can feel good about, but without pressure :)
Other than that, what was already mentioned is true as well - switching to another area of study can be really helpful as well. In the end you'll have to figure out what works best for you in which situation :)

About your studies: nice apple! :D If you're going to paint something like fruit I'd suggest you do it from life though - you'll learn more and can eat it afterwards :P

Keep it up! :)

[0ziRi5]

So im back, and i overcomed the motivation problem. :) Its reallt cool to see that in time perspective. It wasnt first time, but its always hard to overcome. This time helped to change topic for more challenging one and step out from comfort zone, also it was connected with raising my ambitiouns (or maybe realising that now is the time to raise the level up)... So anyways I started doing some Value studies, and they are giving me hard times :) Looking forward to tomorrow to continue with work.