[PAINTING] Learning How to Design

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey man, I think it's often the case that we don't meet expected goals because when we plan them we don't take into account exactly what goes into it and how long everything takes, and the need for breaks and rest and time to think and such - I always used to get hard on myself about that but recently I realised the above stuff and just accept it (as long as I am making the most of my time, and not screwing around on youtube, if it takes all day to do a drawing when I wanted to do 5 then that's ok!)

Also, I really don't like doing that stuff in photoshop either, with the constant undo's and inability to do a nice smooth, slow, controlled line. Great job for sticking with it and getting those done!

[miracoly]

Thanks for the words Jonny, it helped! The last two days I thought a lot about things like mileage, structure and discipline. After a recent session I got kinda frustrated, so some mental work was required. I think I realigned myself quite successfully. Maybe I will share some of my thoughts in sort of essay type of post, but we'll see :)

For this week I'll stay with insects as my subject matter. For my dynamic sketching I allowed myself to add fish (diversity wins). The next big goal is to level up my digital line art. I'll work a lot on that as well.

Goals:

- 1 x Set of Insects
- 1 x Set Volume Building (H2D)
- 3 x Sets Dynamic Sketching (Insects, Arachnids, Fish)

Today I submitted my portfolio for the university. Took some photos in between. Stuff looks quite rad printed in a bigger format.

See you the next days!

[yangdaniel027]

Totally jealous of your design sketches :) keep going man

[Artloader]

Hey good luck with your university application dude!  Your work does indeed look quite totally rad printed out on big paper like that!

[Eyliana]

That looks great! Good luck with your application :)

[miracoly]

Thanks all! Will keep you posted about the state of things.

Just a quick update, I spent a lot of time in ps the last days to improve my linework. Tried to "sketch" my DTs a bit more, really feels more natural that way, especially since the subject matter is organic.

The second one is a WIP shot of a reactor type of thing. Got some tips from Joe Peterson on mechanical design and then just went into ps and tried some of his approaches, like adding/interpolating forms, substraction, splitting etc. Maybe I'll continue it, maybe not :D

A lot of things are happening at the moment, so I'll see how frequently I'll be able to post.

Feedback appreciated!

Cheers!

[miracoly]

So I drew some mammals for my dynamic sketching the other day and I noticed that I really lack "organic fundamentals". I struggled really hard to imagine the organic volume, I also had a hard time to capture motion and proportion. Then I started researching how I can do better. I found a guy named Jonathan Kuo and he does some awesome animal drawing, he also recommended a book by Joe Weatherly, The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Animals. After some investigation I learned that concepts like Line of Action, Gesture, Motion, Masses and Structure (which I'm already partly familiar with due to Prokos figure fundamentals) play a huge part in animal drawing as well. Those similarities are great for my learning process. Basically I can apply all the stuff I learn through Proko to my dynamic sketching as well. Its so refreshing to really learn again. I feel like the last weeks were more about mileage and just practice, didn't felt like I - learned - new stuff. 

I just identified the next huge building block of my fundamentals: Capturing organic form in perspective. Feels good to mix up the practice and learn something I avoided for a long time. I think it will push my work to a great extend.

Will post a page of my sketchbook and also two pages of gestures. Those gesture are the latest ones and the first which are almost showable. I think some are bad and some are more decent. I could definitely exaggerate the action more. 

ANY COMMENTS ON THE GESTURES HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!! (100% Novice)

Thanks all!

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey man! Great to see you getting into gesture, its my favourite part of drawing, and probably the area I'm strongest in (although that's not saying much XD) so hit me up anytime you want crits on them. Since its your first set I won't say too much, but you got a good sense of the spine arching on the first page bottom middle and the guy with his knees drawn up next to him feels pretty solid.

There's tons of ways to approach gesture and its good to try them all to see which suits you best, so when I talk about technique its only the way 'I' do it, and not the best or only way. Also, it depends as well on how much you want to get into the human figure and anatomy since the strength of gesture often relies on little anatomy shorthand and simplification. What I'd suggest though, to help train your eye, is to do a set of 30 second gestures where you draw just the line of action, one line, that follows the most important part of the pose (in your opinion). It could follow the spine fro top of head then down to a foot but it could also go from one hand to the other, depends on the pose and what you want to make the main idea of it. After those 30 sec poses (spend up to 10 min or so) do a set of two minute ones putting down the line of action then adding masses to it (spherical or boxy shapes for head ribcage torso and cylinders for arms and legs). That's the way I approach mine anyway. I made some notes on some basic gesture stuff in my sketchbook a little while ago http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-4...ge-29.html post #576

I found if I set aside that 20 mins or so per day and did them consistently they got better without me really realising it. Good luck!

[Artloader]

Hey Miracoly - nice start with the gestures.  I can recommend Jonny's post on gestures - it's really useful to get someone else's insight on these.

I've also done a bit of research myself and found the following resources to be very useful:

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-1197.html
http://artists.pixelovely.com/gesture-ba...of-action/
http://www.ctrlpaint.com/videos/quick-po...-sketching
Proko: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y

Personally I've found that practicing gestures has made my figures more realistic and fluid.  I think it has something to do with studying so many figures - you gradually start to get a feeling for what looks natural.

Good luck with it and keep up the great work mate!

[miracoly]

Thanks Jyonny!! You're helping me a lot! Maybe we could do some hangouts/paintovers as soon as I accumulate a bunch of gesture drawings? Would love to have your input!

Also thanks Artloader! Great ressources, liked the ctrlpaint video.

TODAY: HORSES!!!

Man, I love Horses :D Such elegant animals. I started the day as always with human gestures, but I decided to do also some animal ones, as you may guessed: horses.

I'm quite happy with the movement on some of those, some things about gesture definitely clicked for me today. Feedback always appreciated!

And: A little WIP Snapshot of a Master Study I'm working on. Another Horse. Been doing the study for the foundation program. The Process is quite interesting. I started with defining the gamut on a color wheel, then made swatches by myself followed by a quick thumbnail study and now the full study. And I have to say I enjoy digital painting A LOT. Feels so good. Still finding my process and brushes but overall I'm quite happy, definitely having A LOT of fun.

Stay tuned!

[JyonnyNovice]

awesome horses! your animal gestures and forms look really great! for sure we can do a hangout / crit session, add me on skype 'jyonnynovice' username.

[miracoly]

Sent you an invite Jyonny!

Quick update: Two of the Bill Anton Studies I was working on the last days. Really enjoyed the first one because I could focus on the strokes and my brush economy. Also started using the Mixer Brush, getting some good results with that.

I really want to share my animal drawing of the last weeks, but scanning/photographing is such a pain. Maybe I can convince myself to do that in the next few days!

See ya

[miracoly]

Quick Update:

- Finished CC5 a week ago. (WIP Thread: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-7719.html)





- Currently dedicating myself to a one month figure course. 
- Got accepted for the industrial design program
- Also working on a brief for a personal side project. (Focus on vehicle design and perspective)

Pretty happy at the moment, definitely getting stuff done.


CCCya all!!

[VSTOLL]

Really cool sketches you have! I was planning to make more dynamic sketches, speacially of mechanic and insect and your SB really inspired me to do it :D

I'm also a Industrial Design student, but I believe that it's pretty different here, I don't really draw for college which is a pity, but I'm learning a lot in terms of producing and how things works, and I think that adds a lot to design thinking for the entertainment industry.

[miracoly]

Thanks VSTOLL! You have a very nice SB yourself, got hooked and viewed every single page, nice work!

I hope that I learn a lot about designing with a purpose. Thats a area I have to improve SO MUCH. Also nice to have other people around to get feedback and stuffs.

Here is the brief I defined for my side project (I'll complement the Architecture & Packaging section as I'm doing all the studies):



GOAL:

Design a Jeep used by NASA on space expeditions to escort convoys.


AESTHETICS:

Make NASA as the engineer recognizable. Should look like its advanced in technology. Should look not too sinister.


CONSTRUCTION and PERFORMANCE:

Should incorporate advanced engineering concepts (Think B-class Hubless Wheels for example). Light vehicle, powered by solar energy. Seating Capacity: two


PACKAGING & ARCHITECTURE Definitions:

• Solar Panels
  
• Bumpers
  
• Doors + Handle
  
• (Engine)
  
• Lights
  
• Graphic Panels
  
• Taillights
  
• Tires (Hubless Wheels)
  
• Windows
  

And here are some studies I squeezed in after my figure practice:

[JasonHasGrace]

Wow I'm very inspired by this ,makes me want to work my ass off :D

[miracoly]

Thanks Dude, JUST DO IT!!! :D

[miracoly]

Hey errrbody!!

Quick snapshot of my figure drawing efforts (some stuff from todays session). Working through Mr. Prokopenkos premium course (thanks neopatogen for pointing me in that direction). Currently focusing on 30s/2m gestures and the bean. I'm glad I'm finally working on my figure drawing, definitely needs lots and lots of work.

So far I really enjoy the process, besides getting better with figure drawing I'm also developing a more conscious learning process. Figure drawing kinda forces me to think a lot about things and analyze my problems much harder since I'm a lot weaker with this.

Day 4/20.

[miracoly]

Welcome to the ZOO!

Stayed up very late today and somehow felt compelled to finally scan some things from my animal drawing adventures. Just managed to scan through part of my gesture practice. Maybe I'll have another night where I scan the construction stuff. But its not that exciting tbh.

Trying a lot of different mediums and styles as suggested by Joe Weatherly in his book about animal drawing.

[miracoly]

Hey all!

Began kicking off my days with a quick 30-45 mins warmup vehicle quicksketch. Feels good to break up the routine. Maybe will post these daily, maybe not. :D