The Conquest of Space

[Mechanizoid]

I worked on this some more. I can definitely see some areas where things line up okay, but there are a bunch of areas where they don't. I made the butt-shape too wide (at least, it was a butt in the original painting, LOL). Gotta keep practicing!

[Mechanizoid]

Did another abstract shape study, this time from a Titian master painting. Whoever can guess which one it is gets a cookie. :D I think I'm getting a bit better at getting the proportions and shapes correct, but my lines are fussy and horrible. Gotta work on my line quality!

[alexdanila]

Those abstract shape studies are turning out quite nice, keep it up and you'll become a negative space master. Thanks for the visit on my sketchbook.

[Broadway]

Looking good! The black/white study thing seems like a pretty great way to figure out how things are "actually" shaped, rather than how your brain may think they're shaped. Keep it up!

[Rhasdra]

I've never seen this approach before! Looks like a very good exercise on abstract shapes and value composition!

I will suggest you always frame your studies (when you're studying from an image). Make your studies within a frame, a rectangle (I don't know if I made myself clear). That will help you analyse how the original author structured the balance within whites and blacks, how he thought of the flow aand on top of that it'll help you see even better some size relationships between the elements of the images.

Even when you're creating your own images.. Starting within a frame will free you from a lot of pain (:

[Mechanizoid]

alexdanila Thanks man, that's what I'm aiming to do with these. It's purely seeing proportions and positive and negative shapes, no form at all. Then I'm gonna apply this to drawing for observation.

broadway Thanks! Yes, this is definitely a good way to trick your brain to break things down into shapes and see them correctly. Since there isn't a thing to draw, your brain can't be misled by assumptions about the subject matter. :)

Rhasdra I picked up this exercise from a Noah Bradley video I linked too above. It was definitely interesting to try out! Then I saw some guys online saying Noah Bradley sucks and he's a n00b who just marketed himself so I started worrying that maybe I shouldn't be doing using his tutorial? But it has helped me a bit so I've kept doing it.

Oh, I never thought of that, framing my studies sounds like a great idea! I'll try that, it will certainly help me see the negative shapes a bit more. And it will be important for composition too. Thanks for the advice!

Well, guys, I'm working on a third abstract shape study from another Franz Hals. :) I didn't use a frame on this one like Rhasdra suggested 'cause I already started it without it, but I might try that on my next one.

EDIT: Now that I look at this I see that I've totally messed up that head shape, LOL. Gotta make a few adjustments!

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey man, I think it's a great exercise and approach - don't worry if people talk badly of Noah Bradley, if you can see the logic behind what he's asking you to do then go for it. At any rate he's still much more accomplished as an artist than us, even if the marketing stuff is true, so we can still benefit from his wisdom : )

Maybe you do already but it could be useful to make notes about things you realise or patterns you find when doing these studies, so that it sinks in more thoroughly and can be used with more understanding when you apply it to your observational work. Sometimes you can't think of something to write but when you start writing all these other realisations come up that you wouldn't have seen before. Keep going ^^

[Mechanizoid]

Hey Johnny, thanks for dropping by my SB!

Hey man, I think it's a great exercise and approach - don't worry if people talk badly of Noah Bradley, if you can see the logic behind what he's asking you to do then go for it. At any rate he's still much more accomplished as an artist than us, even if the marketing stuff is true, so we can still benefit from his wisdom : )

Aw man a bunch of them were just talking trash I think, some people are jealous and haters gonna hate. I think Noah has his weaknesses (as do we all) but we can learn something from everybody. I think what really bothered me was that the commentators implied that anyone who felt they could learn something from that f*cking n00b Noah is below n00b and not even a worthy candidate of sentient life. LMAO At least that was the vibe that came off the discussion. Maybe part of this comes from just getting better and seeing the flaws in people you used to think of as uber art gods.

I felt I learned something from this exercise. It is of course an entirely 2d way to approach drawing, but if you want to get better at seeing proportions and shapes correctly that's what it does. And I know the original idea is from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, LOL. It is a nice confidence boost to draw this weird upside down abstracted thing and then flip it over and realize you got pretty accurate to the original master painting. :P

Maybe you do already but it could be useful to make notes about things you realise or patterns you find when doing these studies, so that it sinks in more thoroughly and can be used with more understanding when you apply it to your observational work. Sometimes you can't think of something to write but when you start writing all these other realisations come up that you wouldn't have seen before. Keep going ^^

That's a great idea, actually, I should start doing that! Dynamic Sketching (the main art curriculum I'm following right now) specifies that I will take notes of what I learned after dynamically sketching plants, animals, toasters, tanks or whatever else I'm drawing. The idea is that I'll better retain that information in my visual library (note-taking is proven to improve memory retention). And I am! :-) Fixed that f*cked up head shape, it looks better now.

[Mechanizoid]

Hey Sketchsoph,
I agree with you regarding this technique, the only reason I did it was because I got a bit frustrated doing the Dynamic Sketching 'cause I was afraid of drawing from observation. I felt that if I drew from something in front of me, I would get it wrong. I used the abstracted blobs thing like training wheels, but honestly I think I've gone as far as the method allows now.

This Betty Edward's technique is definitely pure observational drawing ONLY, and drastically limited by copying from a 2d thing. I'm going practice from still life to train my eye further.

Think about it. If you want to draw shapes and forms from imagination, Noah`s tutorial doesn`t help at all. It doesn`t teach you essential fundamentals such as perspective, anatomy and so on.

Instead, I would suggest the following:

- focus on your fundamentals
- practice straight lines, boxes etc...
- stick to your dynamic sketching excercises

I really like your organic form intersection excercises - keep pushing!

Definitely! Since I want to draw mechamonsters those fundamentals are critical. Also, I dislike purely observational 2d methods of thinking, useful as these techniques can be for nailing correct proportions and so forth. So back to Dynamic Sketching. :D

[miracoly]

Man I can't wait to see some more dynamic sketching goodness, you still following the drawabox curriculum?

Keep it up!

[Mechanizoid]

God I'm such a lazy fuck. >_< LOL Anyway here's the work I'm doing for my Oxygen Deprivation Deathline. I lost one page of ellipse practice and I got to finish one last batch of organic boxes, so I'll update this in a bit.

[Amit Dutta]

Nice sold work dude. Gotta ask though. Is there a reason you've drawn all the ellipses wrong in the ones where you've  used the squares in perspective to bound them? You seem to always be using one of the diagonals of the square as the major axis for every ellipse, rather than using the centre points of the sides of the square to draw the ellipse?  It seems intentional so just wondering.  
You seem to be doing closer to fig 15 and not 16+17 below.

[Artloader]

Nice studies man - good to see you knuckling down. Did you do those free hand - your lines are impressively straight if you did!

Keep going dude!

[Mechanizoid]

Hey Amit and Artloader, thanks for the encouragement!

Amit

Gotta ask though. Is there a reason you've drawn all the ellipses wrong in the ones where you've used the squares in perspective to bound them? You seem to always be using one of the diagonals of the square as the major axis for every ellipse, rather than using the centre points of the sides of the square to draw the ellipse? It seems intentional so just wondering.

Yes, it is intentional, and I know the ellipses are positioned wrong. In this exercise I was just trying to get used to the mechanical skills of drawing, not the perspective rules. Uncomfortable doesn't expect us to know how to put ellipses in perspective, so he just wants us to fit a nice, even ellipse in the plane. http://drawabox.com/lesson/1/selfcritiqu...ses-uneven

Yeah, I need to practice placing ellipses in perspective! I don't really know how to do it properly. I have a Scott Robertson DVD that talks about it, but I can use all the help I can get. Do you know any good resources on this? Where did that little diagram come from? It is quite helpful.

Artloader

Did you do those free hand - your lines are impressively straight if you did!

Yes, all the lines except for the boxes with the lines plotted all the way back to the VPs are done entirely freehand. That was just for the exercise. Usually I practice plotting perspective grids freehand, like Scott Robertson shows in his perspective DVD. But I'm not really that straight–yesterday my arm was pretty shaky and I had trouble ghosting the lines properly. I'm aiming to brush up on that today. :-)

It's not that hard to learn how to do this. I ghost my lines like Scott Robertson teaches us to do. The rest comes down to using your whole arm and practicing. https://youtu.be/C3lApsNmdwM

[Amit Dutta]

Ok fair enough. Dunno just googled to find a suitable example. :)
Scott robertson's how to draw book is probably the most thorough step by step on most things to do with perspective. Really goes in depth, might be a steep curve if you are trying to chug through it all at once, but definitely a great resource
Ernest Nortling's perspective made easy is a public domain (I think?) book that covers many but not all of the same techniques as the how to draw book, so if you are short on cash, and lack the moral deficiency required to pirate stuff, give it a go :)
Loomis Creative Illustration has a good section on perspective,mostly for figures.

[Lapatschka]

Wow - even though I can't give you any critique since I'm learning the fundamentals myself, I have to say that your progress and, mostly, your efforts are inspiring. Thank you for that and - keep pushing!

[Mechanizoid]

Another Draw a Box dump!

Amit Man I want that book. :-) Right now I'm working through his perspective form drawing DVD, and he does cover putting ellipses in perspective in some depth. I actually have Norling's book in physical form on my shelf, it's a good one! Not as in depth or explanatory as Perspective for Comic Book Artists, but it does introduce things in a nice, not-to-technical way.

BTW, you may call me Captain Blondebeard, Amit. :D

Lapatschka Hey giiiirl, thanks for dropping by my humble SB! I'm gonna keep on pushing. :-) Wanna make all sorts of progress. And feel free to share any thought or crits you have, it helps to have outside opinion!

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Okaaaaay, here's my stuff. First those bits of lesson 1 I didn't get up before.


I'm sick of sucking balls at ellipses, so I'm practicing them every day. Here's a recent practice sheet:


And now, the first two-thirds of Lesson 2:
















I find textures quite difficult. Gotta keep practicing those!

[Amit Dutta]

At some point when you graduate to studies of 3D objects might I suggest chess pieces? ;)

[Mechanizoid]

At some point when you graduate to studies of 3D objects might I suggest chess pieces? ;)

LOL Oh you, Amit. :D

In honor of this, I shall one day draw a bunch of giant aliens playing chess using unfortunate astronauts as the pieces. Each move results in a fight to the death. XD

[Mechanizoid]

Here's my final Lesson 2 stuff. Behold cylinders and cones lewdly penetrating boxes and spheres. See blobs flopping over each other and rubbing against each other in the throes of mutual stimulation. Disgusting!! D:











I was happy with how the organic blob intersection turned out! I think my contour lines are definitely wrapping around the forms. This one is a fun and relaxing exercise. :3