Strelok's Art Diary

[Strelok_2012]

Hello and welcome to my sketchbook, here I will post studies, practice and bits of art I am working on.



I'll share my progress thus far as a footnote.










This is the earliest recorded image of my sketchbook, taken sometime in June, 2022. At the time I was interested in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

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The first recorded gestures I did digitally. These were done as part of Marc Brunet's Term 1 assignments. Dated 08/05/2023.



And my recent gestures look something like this:






30s ^






1m ^






2m^

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During my free time I'll do half-studies and drawings from imagination. Mostly work on my fictional humanoids.













Both of these were done over the course of several 15-minute breaks I have at work. Studying a figure from reference.



































All of these were also done during the 15 minute breaks I had at work. Each took several breaks, none are finished xD.








Last two I did at my computer with a display tablet.

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With all that said and done, I'll be posting more of my studies and stuff here. I also post on the Cubebrush forums.



Critique is welcome but not necessary, I mostly self-critique. As a result, my progress is slow and inconsistent.

[Jephyr]

Hi and welcome to CD.

That's pretty cool your studying w Marc Brunet.

I've always sucked at quick gestures and yours look pretty good

Hope to see more from you

[Strelok_2012]

Continuing my daily practice, though they really are just warm-ups before I start drawing for real.

Unfortunately, I barely have time to draw so by the time I finish these warm-ups I only have like, 10-15 minutes to do study or draw for fun .



I do 20 minutes of warm-up with 22 poses. 30s > 1m > 2m.






30s ^






1m ^






2m ^

I'm considering doing longer poses, so 20-40 minutes of 1-5 minute poses.

[Strelok_2012]

Final cloth study before I move onto the next unit. I've done two more which I'll show at the end




Ref:




I try not to focus too much on the details and keep things simple so I can get it done quickly.

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Er, looks like the file name for one of the refs was too long, so it'll be posted in whatever order I uploaded them in. They should also be on the bottom of the post(?)

Regardless, I went a bit overboard with them and rendered them to the best of my ability. Next time I'll stick to more sketchy studies and leave rendered ones as a separate thing. Quantity over quality.

The next unit is Color and Light, which means more rendering .

P.S. If you're wondering what curriculum I'm following, I'm following Radiorunner's Curriculum for the Solo Artist. It's available for free on the internet, just search up Radiorunner curriculum.

[Strelok_2012]

Quick studies of cast shadows using still life and Scott Robertson's "How to Render" book.




I'm looking into digital painting and actually doing it is hard! (Like anything new)
From what I've seen you need to think in shapes rather than lines which is different to how I normally approach my art.

[Strelok_2012]

Continuing my studies of light, did a quick 3-value study of simple still lifes. Also a quick shoulder anatomy study because they still give me trouble.









A more "finished" figure drawing based on what I learned from Proko's figure drawing course.
I'm still not 100% sure on how to get to that crisp lineart pros make. Specifically how to show anatomical detail with only lines (or 2 tone).

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Did a bit more work on my fictional humanoids race. I ended up going down a rabbit hole on how eyes work and the various shapes of pupils that exist. I came up with an idea for a multi-layered Iris to allow for a dynamic pupil shape. An individual of this race could control the expansion and contraction of each iris layer and thus alter their vision to better suit their needs. I'm thinking of making it even more dynamic by making the iris work a bit like a camera aperture.

[JosephCow]

I was just looking at the cast shadow part of How to Render coincidentally. I'm kinda stuck on the sphere cast shadows tbh. The other objects seem fairly straightforward.

For the figure drawings, honestly I think making the nice lines just comes from drawing over your sketch, giving more emphasis to important parts, and less to the parts we don't really need to see. Your drawings might look nicer with a bigger brush and more pen pressure, so we can see more of your hand in it, rather than very thin, even pencil lines.

[Strelok_2012]

Starting a new unit, Perspective IV.






Can't say I'm a fan of the exercises but they are necessary.

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Started another "For fun" piece, no reference to start then just pulling in necessary stuff as needed.






I changed stuff from the initial sketch since it felt a bit stiff. The current challenge is to try to add detail so it looks a bit more interesting.

[Strelok_2012]

I was just looking at the cast shadow part of How to Render coincidentally. I'm kinda stuck on the sphere cast shadows tbh. The other objects seem fairly straightforward.

For the figure drawings, honestly I think making the nice lines just comes from drawing over your sketch, giving more emphasis to important parts, and less to the parts we don't really need to see. Your drawings might look nicer with a bigger brush and more pen pressure, so we can see more of your hand in it, rather than very thin, even pencil lines.

I'll give bigger brushes a try, thanks for the advice. As for sphere cast shadows, its not too hard. Depending on whether you have a area light (like the sun) or a spotlight (like a lamp) you'd use a slightly different method. Overall you're just mapping shadows with lines.

[cgmythology]

Nice studies here, really dig how you emphasize structure and form for your figure work, that's definitely the way to go. Keep it up!

[Strelok_2012]

The perspective exercise was harder than I thought so I made it easier.









I feel more comfortable now with Scott Robertson's techniques now though.

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I went ahead and did some sketching traditionally as well, it feels a bit better than doing things digitally.





Both done at work during break. The Alligator arm and human forearm were reference studies while the rest are from imagination.
Honestly, the breaks are the best part of my job.

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Continuation of the dragoness I was working on:




Looking at it now I severely underestimated my lineart skills, though I still have a long way to go.

[Strelok_2012]

I forgot to post here after going on vacation for a week but I'm still here, even if I don't post as often as I'd like.

This is going to be a bit of a dump and I'll go through it quickly. I've done a couple assignments as well as some personal fun-studies and drawings.








These are just simplifications of the legs and feet, I struggled with proportions for the leg bones and getting the shapes right for the feet.

Next up are muscle studies.









The butt muscles as well as a more personal take on the assignment. This took a bit longer because I had to research tail muscles and vertebrae to get a better grasp on how things looked and worked.







Couldn't help myself and added in a tail, sometimes I just see it in my head and its perfect and I put it down on the canvas.





The inner leg muscles or adductors. Still had some slight issues with proportions.





A copy of another artist's work to try and understand their process and the tools they used. I actually started this a while ago and finished it today after getting a bit more experience. Though its technically not finished yet (when is it ever? ) as there are small details and other bits I missed or messed up on. For now I'll deem it finished and leave it as a mile marker on my artistic journey. One day I might revisit it.




These are imagination sketches done on the train, not much but I figured I might as well start keeping a sketchbook.





These are sketches and practices I did while on vacation, there's one more that I can't upload due to the file size limit but I'll get it in tomorrow. Last image is actually another artist's character that I drew from memory.

On a side note my scanner over-exposes the sketches and graphite scans badly .

I've tried my phone camera but it dims the overall photo so its hard to make out details, which means I might have to invest in a proper camera or find another method to digitalize my sketchbook sketches.

[Strelok_2012]

9 months later...

I'm still alive, just kinda forgot about posting here. Frankly, generating a forum post takes quite a bit of time in itself, time I could spend drawing and painting.

Regardless, here's a small sample of what I've been doing in my free time:

Sketch Book:







Digital:





Been all over the place as you can see. I think after my software engineering course and depending on how I go with my Software Engineer probatory period I might pick up a more rigid course with proper assignments.