Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah Staying Awake

[Mayenla]

Great progress Vicianus! Love the value rendering on the self portrait.

I love reading all your thoughts along the way too. A few posts up you wrote about getting over your fear of failure, and I have to say bravo! It's something I've only recently started dealing with myself... I would not draw out of fear that what I would try to make wouldn't live up to my expectations, which would lead to me not drawing at all. Recently however, when I started drawing after a hiatus, I'm approaching my art much more open minded, trying not to hold myself to impossible standards and understanding that failure is part of learning.

A bit of a ramble but it's nice to see others overcoming similar fears :)

[Adam Lina]

That self portrait looks beautiful. This is just personal preference but I would blow out some edges here and there to add more visual interest. You could design some kind of background if only abstract brush work to create more lost and found edges along the silhouette. You're killin' it though, girl. Also I just saw your post before where you mention going to lectures with Marshal Vandruff, Nathan Fowkes and Kim Jung Gi. Argh! So jealous! Any cool insights you care to share from it?

[Vicianus]

@Mayenla
Thank you! Haha, I'm glad my rambling can interest someone. I'm glad to hear that you're able to approach art with more of an open mind!!! I definitely like to think that the worst mark you can make is none at all. Everything else, you can learn from. c:

@Adam Lina
Thank you so much, man! Haha, yeah, for sure. I want to try doing a bunch more portraits, so we'll see how those go. c: Once I'm more comfortable rendering dimension and texture clearly, I'll probably play with fancier tricks a little more.

HMMMM as for insights... well, it was mostly the same good advice you'll get from any good artist.
Jung Gi Kim - If you haven't I totally suggest watching THIS! This isn't the lecture I was at, but in many ways I think this video is more informative. It was cool to see him in person, though. One of the coolest things I learned at the lecture was probably that Jung Gi Kim is kind of lazy (not on any average person scale, though.) He can't focus well, so his working style is probably a product of not wanting to do all the under construction/wanting an immediate result. Watching him do those MASSIVE beautiful wall drawings definitely made me think he's a guy with sharp focus, but really I think he's a really funny guy with clarity on visual expression. He drew batman taking a shit.

Marshall Vandruff - The big one from Marshall was to do simplified, 3-tone value studies from compositional masters like Howard Pyle. 90% of what he lectured about was what you will learn about composition/design from Creative Illustration0 by Andrew Loomis - which is a book he heavily recommended along with Picture This by Molly Bang. As I'm sure all of you know, design is one of the hardest subjects to learn about because its heavily subjective and various processes are kind of poorly documented. If you haven't, read Creative Illustration because for realsies, that book is eye opening!! I'm learning so much from it myself; it's basically 2D art bible in everything that it covers. And it has a pretty decent section on design.

Nathan Fowkes - To be totally honest, I almost passed out during this lecture. Nathan Fowkes is talented and all, but the lecture was over all pretty basic and boring. This was "Visual Storytelling," and the big takeaway from this one is to always focus on clarity. If you want to be a good character designer, someone should be able to look at your character illustration and instantly tell what kind of person they are, who they are in contrast to their friends/enemies/environment, whatever. Except where it is explicitly necessary for miscommunication, you should always choose the visually clearest route. As artists, that's what we're really designing. Visual clarity, to express a thought.

I doubt that was extremely insightful for you guys...
oh! Wait! I just remembered the best tip. This was from Marshall Vandruff's lecture.
Art, and design, at it's core, is simply the design of contrasts. Contrasting marks, contrasting ideas, etc. Comparisons are the core of communication - "a pebble is like a small rock," "That man looks like a woman," etc. and our brains rely quite a bit on comparing things in order to understand it. If you want to make playful, funny, insightful, clear artwork... base it on visual contrast and comparisons! I think a lot of artists try to avoid the playful part of their brain that says one thing is like another because it feels childish - we tend to try to go towards more subtleties. We edit ourselves while drawing and say, "oh, that looks too much like a square, so I'm going to make it look less square so people won't think it's a square," but we end up with shapes/images that aren't really squares, but they aren't really anything specific, either. It's way better to be clear and silly than ambiguous.

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Ok! So I've been saying I'll draw more animals for a while now, but I never seem to get around to it. =v= Before I dropped out of college (did I mention that I left art school before now...? Well, I did.) the Animal Drawing class was one of the few left with a unique curriculum that I felt would really benefit me from taking. So, a friend who is currently in the class is passing on the weekly assignments to me and I'm following along.

This week was 5 animal "Breakdowns" to compare the similarities in anatomy. These are ugly and I'm not posting them HAHA

And then 10 drawings of the "Animal of the Week" from photo! This week is Camels.


I know there's also a big component for life drawing, so I'm gonna get a zoo membership and go draw animals from life occasionally, too. (Whenever my friend does it.) There's also creature design and stuff -- I'm just gonna follow along for all of it, basically.

Speaking of life drawing, free life drawing at the local art school starts TOMORROW evening and I'm so stoked!!! \m/ Aw yeee life drawing. Unf unf unf. I've been waiting two weeks for it to start up. I have some pretty ambitious life drawing goals, so I really want to hit it hard.

[Fedodika]

Lol I know what you mean about fowkes! i was taking his self taught on schoolism and about pulled my hair out for how long he was talking about a restaurant he used to eat greasy hamburgers at >.>

On and on about irrelevant stories trying to make some storybook point about composition, but owell to each his own. Hey thanks for reccomending that loomis book, i need to read that one! and i'll probably try to do some 3 value studies as well.

You're camels up there are cute, and have solid structure as usual :) I also like the rendering on your SP, Kinda reminds me of that super tight one craig patton did a while back in november i think. I also like your earring and you have a cute nose :>

[Vicianus]

@Fedo
Thank you so much!! I'm really happy when you mention the solid structure, because that's a big thing I'm trying to push in my work as it is the foundation for the work that I really respect. ;v;
Also thanks for your compliments HAHAHAHA you don't think my other nose was better? ;P

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EDIT: Oh, I got a couple more things to drop here.

I'm getting feedback from a friend of mine who's more of a creature artist as I do the animals drawing stuff. She linked to me the recommended reading for the Animal Drawing class, which is HERE! for anyone interested in some reading!

And one of my favorite teachers, Josh Reed, just published a book on figure drawing. CLICK! He has some great simple breakdowns of the figure, more simple than Bridgman. I consider what I learned in his classes to be the foundation of how I approach figure stuff, in terms of building blocks and rendering stuff. :o He also has a lot of free figure/foundational stuff on the website linked (Drawsh.) It's a resource I always recommend to anyone needing guidance for fundamentals. He'll even crit your figure stuff if you send it to him.

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OK so I just got back from figure drawing!! I always find figure to be so energizing. I apologize for the poor photo quality.

2 minutes:


5 minutes:


10 minutes:



15 minutes:


20 minutes:



I've been really upset the last couple days about art stuff, so I'm going to work on making art an extremely positive space for myself by always phrasing what I say about it in a positive manner, even when I'm feeling negative. I want to be really energized and excited about art even when it isn't going how I want; especially because art has often been a very emotionally tumultuous aspect for me -- extremes of love and hate, always.

With that said... I'm really excited that even after a couple month break from doing figure drawing, I was able to pick right back up at the level of what I consider to be my best executed figures to date from the end of spring! It's a good jumping off point, a place to build off of and make many improvements from here on out. :)

Here's a drawing I did of Young Pearl yesterday:

[Vicianus]

Hay hay.

It's become clear to me that if I want to accomplish my goals, I need to be working on my figures in a more significant way.
I'm gonna try to do at least 12 photoreferenced figures a day, in addition to the 2 hour figure sesh on friday + a figure render or two a week and muscle memorization. I don't really have a perfect system LOL just as an idea of what I'm wanting to hit.

Here's figures from today:


Here's something I started for CHOW:

[RottenPocket]

Fantastic studies, and in your stylized character designs a great use of your skills. Much impressed.

[Vicianus]

@RottenPocket
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! n_n

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WHEW! I'm back! Ahahaha. When I got up to do my figures yesterday, I accidentally started reading One piece... and well, like 120 chapters later my day was pretty wasted. THANK GOD I hit a boring part, so I made up for the ones I missed and did the ones for today as well. UvU

Figures for yesterday -


Figures for today -


Dean Cornwell Study (Charcoal) -

Original


It's pretty funny to me how much harder dudes are for me than girls. Ahahaha! Worry not, though, I have a plan of attack!

I finally figured out what I want to really tackle in terms of human anatomy studies. I want to make human anatomy a habit, and a deep intrinsic knowledge.
I am going to keep doing 12 figure sketches like this every day, with equal amounts of male and female. I'll either do it day by day or 6x6, depending on how I'm feeling. :O These are intended to help me practice gesture/moving the figure in space/drawing humans as a habit/posing/etc. Good place to practice.
I want to start every day with a master study of a male figure as a warm-up, so I can get a grasp on how other artists create an appealing male figure and perhaps speed up the process for myself!
Then, throughout the week I want to do 3 photo referenced buff figures where I break down and draw out every muscle on the figure.
Finally, once a week I want to take one of the three photos I did a breakdown on, and do a lit form study on it to practice rendering/how the anatomy shows itself on the surface.
I want to complete all of this every week before Friday at 5:30 pm my time, when I will go to the two hours of free life drawing and try to apply what I've been studying there. :O

Once a week I would also like to take a small section of musculature and learn its attachments and actions as though I was studying for a test. Combine everything I learn into the smaller figure studies so that they improve in quality and correctness.

This is a lot of stuff...! I am confident that if I manage my time and sanity well, I can do this much + my other drawing goals. I'm coming to a point in my life where I want to make learning human anatomy and executing fundamental basics an absolute priority in my life.

I've also been wanting to do some traditional painting to practice master copies/learn more about color mixing and stuff so I broke out the oils and tried some paint blending exercises:


The incident I have these oils from was over two years ago and was a TOTAL disaster so it's safe to say I have no reasonable oil experience except that I'm wanting to try it now. ^u^ So, more on that later! (Who knows how much later)

[maggie]

Those figure are looking very nice!

[Vicianus]

@Maggie
Thank you so much!! ;v;

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Hahahha holy shit, this post is gonna take a minute to put together. SLOPPY PHOTOS!
For the last week, I just got hit by this MASSIVE, horrible depression. I barely left bed for three days straight. It was like high school all over again. Anyway, this is what I've completed since the last post!

Figures:




Musculature study - Neck:


Ecorche (LOL):


Master studies + photo stuff:


UHH YEAH then I got a new sketchbook, and some blue colored pencils to sketch with which has got to be my favorite medium *o* I dunno, somehow sketching seems more fun in this medium. So then, here's some stuff from this week...

Master copies:


Some ecorche I started (scrap):


Figure Drawing (Finally, a girl model! Hahaha):


Facial musculature study:


Expression/Gesture Study (I fucking love Kung Fu Panda):


Cassowary Animal Drawing:


Imagination Drawings:


Uhhh.... yeah *V* Sorry, I know these images are unbelievably crappy. All of them are legible if you click to the larger size, I promise, so if you're interested in actually seeing them instead of looking at a blurry blob, GO FOR IT!

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK...
Animal Drawing: Okayyy so last week I was supposed to go do animal life drawing, I haven't gotten a zoo membership yet (whoops) and because I was so out of it I really didn't accomplish much anyway, uhh so I'm gonna try and hit that this week.
Also, the first creature design project is this week. Doing preliminary sketches for a fish/lizard/amphibian hybrid creature! I'm doing some photo studies for it right now, and I'll have some design stuff later. :o A render will be done the following week.

I'm working towards making a comic this week. Everyone keeps telling me I need to just... go for it and start, and they're right! So my main goal for this week is to make a nice, short comic. WISH ME LUCK!

Continue working on expressions, gesture, and construction. I have Kung Fu Panda 2 loaded up right now *O*

My figure goals are more or less the same. I feel like I should do more ecorche stuff, though. Focusing on Rubens as my master of choice \m/

[Adam Lina]

Awesome update as always, Stephany! I feel you're pain of getting depressed and not getting much done. Some times you gotta just let yourself feel the depression so it can fade. If you're distracting yourself in order avoid feeling shitty, you'll just feel more shitty for longer. But the comic sounds like a great idea! They're a lot of fun and reeeeeally good practice. I did a little comic(dont look at it, its horrible haha) and I found myself drawing all sorts of things I normally would never draw. Im thinking of starting another comic here soon once Amits environment course is over.

[Bookend]

Really like the grayscale values here. I envy your pencil work so much. I don't know why mine is so messy and unstructured, but I hope I get to your point.

Keep working hard and doing your best!

[Fedodika]

Goodness your draws are good! Just slap some cell colors on it already! I like capt booty btw ;) "I give free rides" heheheh

i wish i could draws like that...

[Vicianus]

@Adam Lina
Thanks, man! Haha yeah, I'm a sucker for avoiding emotions so it catches up with me all at once usually. '''OTL
And HAHA no, I've seen your comic! It was awesome pssh, definitely make more!! I look forward to seeing what you do n__n

@Bookend
Thank you! I was looking through your sketchbook, the anatomy sketches you do have lots of good structure. As long as you apply what you're learning in those studies and maintain the draw-through structures on your other sketches, they'll always look solid. c: There's little lineweight tricks that help to make it feel constructed, too, like darkening it at the connection + bottom. It's stuff that comes naturally when you're working from reference, but really sells imaginative work!

@Fedo
Aww thanks man!! ;A; HAHAHA you really like paintings, don't you? I'm gonna do at least one big illustration project next month, so you'll get some full color then 8'D I'm a big fan of monochromatic stuff though, clearly.
You'll get there!! Just push construction drawing along with your paintings to get the solidity in there. :o

Your guys' encouragement really means a lot to me -- there's nothing that makes me feel like drawing more than a positive reaction to my work! Haha, it might seem silly but that's the kind of thing that really makes me want to push forward and improve.

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OOF here's some more art \m/


Picking up these again!
OH MY GOD WRESTLING DIVAS.... and blue collar boys <333 mmmmmmmm *O*

Master study -


gesture/expression -


(I ended up mostly watching Kung Fu Panda 2 instead of drawing it....)

Animal Studies for Creature Design -


Everything but the central figure here is imaginative figure -


It's not perfect, but I'm getting much closer to the result that I want!!
Also I'm feeling MUCH more comfortable drawing boys!! After I started drawing some body types that are more "my speed" I got way more into it.

I was having a crisis for a moment today worrying that I'm going to die alone, but I decided that I'm okay with that as long as my art can be super badass. And that made me feel much better.
Plus, now that I can draw boys I can draw my own boyfriends. BWAHAHAHHAHAHA

[Vicianus]

Here's a FACEBOOK POST about Jun Gi Kim's thought process while sketching.

[JavierP]

Hi Vicianus,
Your figure work is excellent! Your drawings have a great solidity to them. I also like that your traditional work and digital work maintain the same level of quality. There are proportional issues, but it seems like less of a problem to me. Your figures definitely have a sense of being drawn by you, and that sets them apart nicely. Keep up the great work.

[lurch]

love your sketchbook, i hate that i don't have something more useful to say than that, but stay positive, you're smashing it!

shame that chow piece didn't make it all the way, like the feel you had with that one.

[Vicianus]

@JavierP
Thank you so much!!! ;A; And also thanks for the clarification, too. I really appreciate the encouragement! <3

@Lurch
Ahh thank you so much! n_n Even stuff like this really cheers me on! (Though I'm happy for any crits you might have, too...!)
Yeah, I got kind of tired of it faster than I expected, so it ended as a scrap. I have a "back-of-my-head" intention to do every chow as they pop up, I really wanted to do the cave dick one LOL but agh. Anyway, one of these days I'll do a full design.

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WHOO friday figure dump

Photoref - I did these by hand today because my tablet's been pissing me off, and I have to pay more attention to my proportions if I do it in pencil because I can't just resize the parts I missed (which I was doing a lot.)


Life Drawing -


I keep trying to do proportion problem solving on longer pose pieces, starting with a part and just going and it SO isn't working for me... I just end up with the same problems I always have LOL. I imagine maybe in five years I'll have this stuff ingrained enough in me that I could do something like that, but I really need to focus more on the structure and proportion stuff I've been studying and using it even in "composed" "pretty" pieces LOL because the drawings I'm doing in a shorter time are WAY better than the other ones I'm trying to do... >O<

Self portrait sketch study for a charcoal piece I'm gonna try to do for a contest in the next couple days -


PIG STUDIES -


Imaginative Art -


I did a little Micheal Hampton, just the armature tho so nothing to see! :o I flipped through his book and I was like OH MY GOD, THIS IS INCREDIBLE. JUST WHAT I NEED. I love his breakdowns, just looking at it has helped me solidify ideas I've been trying to beat into my head! I'm gonna go thru the whole book, I'm only on the first couple pages of "gesture" for the moment.

Uhhh painting the pig head... wowww I'm mega rusty with painting... or more like, I haven't learned enough about it since I haven't studied it at all >w<!; I know how to render forms, I feel like I can pick colors well and sell the forms but as a lot of people have pointed out my treatment always ends up "soft..." I know where & how to put harder edges now but besides that, I'm struggling with knowing how to get a really nice finish on it, areas of slightly higher detail and maintaining the right sizes on those details... I dunno, when I was doing the head I felt like I nailed the stuff I'm good at right away and then I was flopping around trying to learn a little more about doing a better finish and it just went NOWHERE looool it just looks exactly the same.
So I want to practice painting more, maybe do some general focused material studies... and if anyone has any reading/video suggestions for high-finish digital painting process, I would really appreciate it! I'm honestly lost on where to look.

[Fedodika]

hmm i would highly reccomend if you're stwuggling with digital painting to not fret about it too much because your drafstmanship will pull it through, as Feng Zhu once said, "Yea, the rendering can be absolute trash, and if the drawings good, no one really cares."

But! all that said, i would reccomend you watch this or the first ten minutes (dave small beastman) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV_oxs-EFw8

Also these videos by verehin really showed me so many techniques
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkzrofmGGjU

I know he has a terrible taste in music (jk) but really make it through the whole vid and you'll learn so much about how to start, render, and finish a piece. And i watched them several times, and man they reaeaaaaally helped even though they're no voiceover

I've watched plenty of videos on painting and those are the only ones i've really got anything out of...

Also these
http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2015/04/...edges.html
http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/12/...today.html

And also watch the vids entitled "critcast" they talk a lot of about painting and portfolio development
https://www.youtube.com/user/Bugmeyer/se...y=critcast

[lurch]

nice update, looking forward to seeing how you progress with the Michael Hampton book, I'm seriously thinking about getting a copy for when I start on the figure.