Daft Sketches

[Daft Sketch]

Hi guys! 

I’m 31 years old, from Stockholm. I used to hang out over at CA back in the day, wanted nothing more in the world than to become a concept artist. Life didn't pan out that way, but recently I’ve started drawing a bit again and when I suddenly found CD I guess I missed the community. So I thought I’d start posting a little bit, see where it goes. It’s a nice distraction from reality and I always like to learn and get better. 

I'd say my weakest point is structure and anatomy. I guess I'm ok with values, at least I have a pretty solid theoretical understanding of it, but definitely lack the practice.

I don’t have a digital set up so it’s generally going to be analog stuff and specifically drawings. Love pencil. 

First off a couple of life drawings and then some stuff from imagination. The idea for the crash site was taken from the generator I found on here. I used a simple sphere-shape for the ship, I get very overwhelmed when the shapes get too complicated. For instance, designing complicated suites and armor and things like that gets me nauseous. What a concept artist right ;D Building simple shapes from the ground up is probably the way to go though. 

Sorry about the large image sizes, I tried making them smaller in PS but the webpage makes it larger anyway when I post. Anyone knows what's going on here? 















Funny how an umbrella apparantly is hard for me to draw.. 

[Mutley]

Hi Rambler. Great start to your sketchbook!

Your shadows and shape volumes are really well observed but I think you could push the range of values you use on your pencil studies - add more contrast to the shadows to emphasise forms and use softer pencils for these.

For perspective exercises I've been working through the Drawabox.com lessons which are about teaching 3D thinking for shapes, so you might find that helps with complicated costume and armour designs. Also I'd recommend doing some studies of armour and costumes from photos and film stills - face that challenge head on!

[Zorrentos]

Welcome to the forums! It's great to see another swede over here!

Your drawings are quite good! I especially like your sense of gesture and proportion in your drawings! I would suggest that you try to be a bit more careful with your cross-hatching tho.

Right now, it's quite messy, and it does not seem to follow the form very carefully. It leads to you losing some of the sense of volume and shape (you do a better job with this in your artwork with the burning capsule).

Keep up the good work and keep posting!

[Daft Sketch]

Mutley: Hey! Thank you for pointing out drawabox to me, I'm slowly starting to do the exercises. :)

Regarding the value range, you're absolutely right. I'm only now starting to organize my values more properly and I'm going to buy better pencils and use different ones.

Zorrentos: Hej! Thank you! Yeah you're right about that, I've always been quite lazy with my hatching sadly.. I start following the shapes and then I start thinking about something else and lose the focus haha Need to lay down proper foundations and habits. I think also regarding the life drawings I search around way too much with my lines and then they are still there when I start to hatch, looks messy, need to get basic structure in quickly and get more decisive with my lines.

Kul att du är svensk också! Skål!

Here are some sketches from the week. I'm starting to understand how important perspective is for like.. everything. I've paid so much attention to values and light before but perspective is even, arguably, more important. Or at least for my own progress right now. 
The last one is a quick life drawing again. Playing around with basic shapes before putting down lines, but fucked up the foreshortening of the legs, probably because I neglected perspective and what I generally set out to do.
Also, apologies for horrifying horse anatomy ;D It started out as a weird fantasy creature and then sort of turned into a horse i guess.. 

[Zorrentos]

Cool new drawings! Are the figures all from imagination or are you also studying from photos?

I like the last life drawing! It's great that you experiment with different mediums! Keep it up! :)

[Daft Sketch]

Thank you Zorrentos!

The figures are all from imagination. For the horse I had to use photo ref for head and legs a little bit though. 
Cool! I might try a little more mixed media stuff in the future. :) 

Got my hands on a book called "Anatomy for sculptors" recently, I can't begin to explain how good it is. Anatomy has always been incredibly complicated for me with all the bones, muscles and tendons and what not and I could never find a book that makes a good job of explaining it. Always too many words and strange explanations, I can never understand it. THIS book however has almost NO words at all, just explains everything mostly in incredibly clear pictures. My anatomy has become better from just looking through it, I haven't even started making studies. 

Anyway, bought some new stuff! Sketchbooks and pencils. 
Here's a quick monday sketch, no ref. Turned out a roided up McLovin


I'm still having a very tough time getting these images smaller. I don't even know how to explain it but no matter what size I make it in PS (800 x 578 pixels or the double och triple) when I make a post here the forum either cuts the quality or blows it up bigger or both. Anyone relating to this or know what I'm talking about? I dunno, it's driving me crazy. Maybe I'm insane heh

[Mutley]

The scary horse anatomy is actually good, it's just the short neck that adds the element of horror!

There's a real solidity to your sketches especially the anatomy of the torso's and arms which is really well observed. The life drawing study with the ink surrounding the figure works really well because of the added contrast and it'd be cool to see a more complete drawing in that style.

[Daft Sketch]

Mutley: Thank you! I like the way you put it, with the short neck and added horror element, didn't think about that, it was just my shitty proportions. :)  
I appreciate that, makes me inspired to do more. 

Ok! I think I cracked the problem by putting a sort of passepartout around the whole shabam, looks better. 
Anyway, here's a bit of bullshit and some studies. 

[Zorrentos]

The studies are looking great! Can't wait to see you apply them to your work!

[Daft Sketch]

Zorrentos: Hey! Thank you! I'm definitely looking forward to implementing observations from my studies into my imaginative work. :) 

I haven't posted anything in a while because I lost access to my previous scanner. The idea of posting with iphone pictures felt uninspiring, but then I thought what the heck so here we go.. 

I've formulated a working program that mixes studies from reference with longer sort of project based illustrations. At least that's the plan. I was listening to the Draftsmen podcast with Proko and Marshall Vandruff, can highly recommend, and Marshall talked about the idea of learning through projects. I really like that concept and I am going to approach my learning with that as a centre. Might seem obvious but I haven't really had a strategic plan before. Anyways here are some sketches and studies (boxes and life drawings) and in the spirit of the previously mentioned idea - a WIP illustration of two dudes fighting off some type of snake priestess. Was looking at Frazetta's work and felt inspired. 

[Mutley]

Everything you draw looks solid and physically present. Even the box exercises with the shading. Good stuff!

[Zorrentos]

The project-based learning approach is a great way to learn! I'm using it myself for my project!

The pencil illustration of the medusa you are doing is looking quite good, but I can't really tell that she is fighting. I suggest that you try to make a lot of thumbnails and really think before starting big pieces like that. Try to keep in mind how to communicate with your viewer (after all, you can't be there to explain what is going on in the image). Communication and readability are one of the most important skills in illustration.

[RottenPocket]

I agree with Zorrentos,

Even just adapting the head tilt and expression to be more menacing will translate like she's rearing up for a strike. 


And just be careful neglecting areas like the foreground character's hand. The fingers appear very 2D and poorly placed, when you wouldn't really see them from this angle - while the arm itself is well rendered, maybe from a reference.

[Daft Sketch]

Mutley: Thank you, that's very kind of you!

Zorrentos: Awesome! Yeah it definitely seems to be a universally good approach when it comes to learning. 
Really really great advice! I've always been sort of obsessed with technical excellence (still am) so story telling has definitely taken a back seat for me. It's like I've felt my technical level is not deserving of a great story yet, which is obviously absurd, but probably part of why I quit years ago. Anyway, I'm going to think about this more in the future, good concrete tips about the thumbnails, thanks. 

RottenPocket: Thank you! Great observations! I refurbished both the hand (it was horrible when I saw it through your eyes!) and the face of the medusa. (Or whatever she is heh) Think it informed the situation at least better than before, thanks. No reference for the arm by the way, I just really suck at hands hah! 

Okay, so here it is, the finished piece in all it's crooked glory. Lots of things wrong about this one, but it was a good check up to see where I am atm and fun to see something through. Looking forward to making the next one!

[cgmythology]

The snake lady came out great, excellent use of values here - you're shading in particular is very impressive, keep it up!

[Daft Sketch]

cgmythology: Thank you! Glad to hear you say that, much of my energy goes into values. Should probably focus on other areas too ;D 

Here's a little update! Found a scanner. These are just some studies and a few sketches while trying to figure out what my next motif will be. I find that drawing with your entire arm (using your shoulder) is very good for blocking out bigger shapes. Makes for better line quality. 

Definitely struggling with faces, going to start making SPs. 

[Zorrentos]

It's great that you are producing so much art! Right now, between illustrations, you may want to focus on building as much mileage as possible! Fill up a lot of sketchbooks with life drawings, studies, and imaginary pieces!

I also like that you are experimenting with different mediums! Those ballpoint sketches are quite nice!

[cgmythology]

Nice update, again really impressed with your shading, always looks very professional. Keep going!

[RottenPocket]

I'm quite liking your ballpoint drawing over the pencil here. The pencil is very soft and blurred, where the ballpoint was more deliberate in defining shapes.

You might like to use negative space a bit more to avoid the round/softness of the pencil. If you have one of the eraser pens - or the battery powered rotating eraser, you can work into the pencil using eraser to sculpt the form a bit more. Break up the thick blurred lines around faces, highlight cheekbones without overcompensating with the shading. Just a thought.

*Edited to add I've even cut up an eraser and held bits with a pair of tweezers to get some really fine detail in sketches.

[Ben Nissen]

Great sketches, you seem to have a good flow going on so far. I agree with RottenPocket, with your pencils they seem to be too soft and need a bit more structure to the drawing. I would look at Bridgman and how he constructs his linework, then with that as a base drawing, render on top of that and make sure to keep an eye on maintaining your shadows. Keep up the good work, and can't wait to see more!