Hello there kind people.
Time to start posting here.
Besides all the books i have for reference, found a good series on YouTube, that puts some things into a new perspective for me, as far as anatomy goes. -> "The Drawing Database"
Only things i edit, are usually the lighting levels of the image, to make them more easy to view.
It looks like you pay a lot of attention to making things look 3D. It's a good idea. Nice variety of noses, too.
Out of curiosity, how soft were the pencils you used for those sketches? 6B-7B? It looks like there are parts where you laid the graphite on really thick to get good blacks, so I was thinking you might find it easier to use softer pencils, or even charcoal pencils. If not, please disregard!
@Pubic Enemy All charcoal. Mostly use graphite, but, recently i bought a set from Faber-Castell. They have an awesome feel to them. Search "Pitt Charcoal Set 24" if you want to see about the one i am talking about. The Conte Paris, that a lot of pro draftsmen, i saw(eg. Watts Academy, Proko), use is harder to come by here. The charcoal pencils have nearly the same feel to those, and as annoying to sharpen(only manual "classical" sharpening --cutter/exacto/razor-blade -- because it breaks easily with the standard pencil sharpener).
@chubby_cat Thanks! Really enjoy all the creatives in this forum. Will do!
Welcome Thomas!
Nice start to your sketchbook.
Don't forget to put the parts of a face together and draw a whole face/head.
I started a long time ago like this and had a hard time to construct the actuall face, I was good at parts like eyes and nose but not as a whole thing. Keep posting!
@Shuty Thank you for the suggestion. Actually was doing that, but, went back to "the basics" so to say, mainly because i had a tendency to flatten the features. Watched you on DeviantArt.
Next up, ears. Also, going through the "Framed" books by "Marcos Mateu-Mestre". Lot of fun stuff there. One thing i didn't think i would see, is having a condensed anatomy section to it(In the second perspective book).
Hey Thomas, good start. I particularly like your perspective drawing with the modern looking house. I don’t blame you wanting to stick with the basics, but it can start to slog really quick if it’s all you draw. I’d enjoy seeing you combine your studies into something adventurous. Cheers! It can all be overwhelming though, so I get if you stick with your studies for now.
@kvSketch: Yes, you have a point. Sometimes, my mind starts to protest regarding this. Brain-fart images incoming below. These are from the past month, overall. One thing, that i find incredibly funny, is, that i learned leg anatomy quite recently, and i am still quite unsure about it. Perfectionism is a killer i tell you.
(07-23-2020, 05:13 AM)kvSketch Wrote: Hey Thomas, good start. I particularly like your perspective drawing with the modern looking house. I don’t blame you wanting to stick with the basics, but it can start to slog really quick if it’s all you draw. I’d enjoy seeing you combine your studies into something adventurous. Cheers! It can all be overwhelming though, so I get if you stick with your studies for now
The border-guard, is the latest one, from this set.
I am doing digital too, but, avoiding Photoshop like it is the plague. Not a fan of the cc set-up. - Currently learning several paid, coupled with free, options, and mixing-matching them, to maybe work out a semi-ok fork-flow, that can give decent results. Will work on some, when i get really fed-up with grayscale drawing, and post it here.
Clip Studio Paint
Corel Painter 2020 - Got 2019 in a recent Humble Bundle dirt cheap, and decided to upgrade at a discount.
ArtRage Krita Gimp
Try to apply the concept found here by drawing simple line and alternating the quality of your line making also not the degre of inclination for each mark if possible to give yourself some room to replicate those type of mark making.
(08-24-2020, 02:18 AM)darktiste Wrote: Try to apply the concept found here by drawing simple line and alternating the quality of your line making also not the degre of inclination for each mark if possible to give yourself some room to replicate those type of mark making.
Thank you for the image, will pay attention to "how" i put down those marks. Didn't think of this one, so worth giving it a shot and practice it. Also, i am, unfortunately, aware of the issue. I think, at least, that you are referring to what i see. More below, to have some context, coupled with the windy paths of being "self thought" .
I see you have found my "Achilles Heel", so to say. Yes. I am inconsistent. Over the years, had a lot of different resources, and tutorials, showing me a lot of different approaches to doing the same thing, and it shows. Just an abridged timeline of where i was learning from, can be read below - not excuses, just so you know i am aware of it, also a bit of a tutorial review, to occupy the other millions out there on the internet already - :
1. First learned drawing proper observational drawings was from the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".
Advantage: Fell in love with drawing, and used a lot of concepts, without being aware of them.
Disadvantage: Observational only. The "Theory" part needs to be taken with a grain of salt, of course. Good to explain the basic idea tough.
2. You will dismiss his name, because he is considered bad among forums users(especially conceptart.org had a beef with him, if i remember correctly), but, first time i learned the human proportions, and anatomy, was from the old tutorials of Riven Phoenix.
Advantage: The "for dummies", and drill-like re-draw, approach made me learn a lot about the standard artistic proportions, to which i am still instinctively falling back to, today.
Disadvantage: Stiff as hell. - didn't know about gesture concepts at all, back then, tough -
3. Andrew Loomis, and Vilppu. This is where i realized why my drawings were stiff. After this, i trail off into a lot of directions and online resources.
To cut the wall of text short, i have a constant internal conflict, between the extremely gestural and structural because of this, and it shows. When i can commit, in some of the cases, from the sketches, it can be seen, i think. At least a bit of increase in quality is visible. When not, well...Easter Island statue approach to drawing. Also, i have a bad habit of increasing drawing speed to ridiculous speeds. I wish i was joking, but, i think this is due to the sped-up tutorials seen on Youtube. I slow down deliberately, although, when i forget myself, i still realize later "wait, this isn't a 30 second gesture drawing, slow the $$@@ down!!!!".
Well to answers in short term a balanced approch would be gestural at first and than the structure on top.You can do a few gestural sketch to establish proportion and posing and with structure you than refine what you planned in your gestural sketch.You also need to be aware you don't use the same grip will doing gesture vs structure.For gesture you would use the first grip and for structure you would use a mix of the second hand grip and the third one.
As far as what you used to be your art guide i think you had a pretty similar path to mine the drawing on the right side of the brain as some really interesting concept to deprogram yourself from symbolism drawing and go toward observational drawing which is a must to anyone who want to be a minimum serious about is drawing.
Right now i would say study vilppu for is gestural approch and complement with the structural approch find in loomis.
One thing i would need to point out is you probably don't understand clearly the stage of your drawing from start to finish or to be more precise you jump from one stage to the other but you come back to previous stage.Take this with a big grain of salt but i would diagnose you have what i would call the i want to render to fast syndrome.To avoid this you can avoid laying value and work in line only.Remember that if your drawing look like nothing it not what matter it where your going with it that count of course avoid being sloppy is going to be important you can't be sloppy all the ways to the end but you have more room for it in the beginning so take advantage of that stage to problem solve as much as possible.
@darktiste You raise some very valid points in this regard. I do have a tendency to got for the "get results" approach as they say, unfortunately.
I might have been influenced, way too much, by the approach of artists i am not even near to skill-wise. (Karl Kopinski anyone? )
Alright, will try to make it so that i have clear "delimiting" points between each phase of the drawing, or at least something i can go with as to know when i am at least 90% finished with the step. Will go with baking the cake, and not starting with the cherry on top of it first.
Now where did i put the damned recipe. I should stop writing metaphorical posts while hungry.
I think what this drawing leak is the understanding of your medium for example are you aware of the granularity of your paper it ''Softness''does it absorb your medium easyly or do you have to press hard to leave a mark?.Are you aware that pencil have different grade of graphite that are softer or harder?It a good thing to test your tool on a piece of paper before drawing and to try to apply different pressure to create different kind of mark try to buy different type of paper and try your different tool on them even the erase should be tested.This will help you find material that you feel confortable working with but that can also do the job your asking those tool to do for you don't want to be fighting with your material or tool against one an other you want an harmony.
I think here the issue is your dark are still not as dark as they could be there still alot of uneveness in that make your result look ''blurry'' and less contrasted overall.
(09-16-2020, 02:14 AM)darktiste Wrote: I think what this drawing leak is the understanding of your medium for example are you aware of the granularity of your paper it ''Softness''does it absorb your medium easyly or do you have to press hard to leave a mark?.Are you aware that pencil have different grade of graphite that are softer or harder?It a good thing to test your tool on a piece of paper before drawing and to try to apply different pressure to create different kind of mark try to buy different type of paper and try your different tool on them even the erase.This will help you find material that you feel confortable working with but that can also do the job your asking those tool to do you don't want to be fighting with your material or tool against one an other you want an harmony.
I think here the issue is your dark are still not as dark as they could be there still alot of uneveness in that make your result look ''blurry'' and less contrasted overall.
Hello there. Excuse the delay. I read the replies, and it made me realize, that i have a lot of dodgy knowledge, when it comes to the basics. To be more clear, i think i didn't even know they were the basics, as they are not the focus of a lot of the tutorials out there. Back to the basics, more or less. Won't stop with creating stuff. Thank you for pointing out things, i didn't even realize were a problem. Opened my eyes, to be more attentive about it.
This represents some my problems. My biggest issue from this point is lack of mileage, i think. I realized, only at the end, that the legs are badly off. Also, making the sketch precise, before diving in, might help greatly.
You might be able to hit a nail on a board.But if you don't have consistency and a process you work without understanding what you need to hit next i don't know if you flow my train of thought here.
I don't have much to had there plenty of resource to be found out there but without the understanding of what are the fundamental it like searching for word you don't even know so here i am give you a lil favor and direct you toward people who have already explain it to a more professional level that i probably could myself so here a playlist that should help you have a better understand of what the fundamental are.
Good variety of nose shapes. It's really good you are drawing images from imagination. You just need too focus on your line, values and anatomy to take your artwork the next level. Your characters look quite stiff. Practicing gestures should help loosening up your characters. Interested to see where you'll go.
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