IronSkeleton's sketches

[IronSkeleton09]

Hey, this is my first real sketch finished I think I ever done, the rest are either unfinished or just practicing, and I would like to know what I could do better with this character. I will try to post daily or every 2 days.

[IronSkeleton09]

Some sketches and doodles

[IronSkeleton09]

I think I'm doing something wrong but I can't tell what it is

[Mutley]

Hi IronSkeleton. Your figures have a good sense of weight to them, they feel like they're actually standing on solid ground and they look convincingly three dimensional. I don't think you're doing anything wrong, you just need to build up a better understanding of anatomy and posing.

I would recommend starting with lots of studies from photos and observation in real life and to read up on gesture drawing if you don't already know how it works. Try and do some very quick studies (1 minute or even 30 seconds - 10+ drawings one after the other), some slightly longer ones (5 minutes) and longer again (10-15 minutes). When working from photos try to use a mix of subjects that match your final goal (maybe stills or promo images from super hero or martial arts films going by what you've already posted?) and figures at rest or in motion from other sources (sports, fashion, dancing etc).

Apply the same idea to your drawings from imagination. Again: 1 minute very quick drawings, some 5 minutes, some 10-15 minutes.

You can learn more from doing lots of quick studies than spending lots of time on one figure and once you've gone through a few sessions of drawing like this you can step back, take stock and see what's working for you and what you feel you need to concentrate on to improve.

Hope these suggestions help, keep at it!

[cgmythology]

Solid updates, really enjoy your gesture work specifically. Keep practicing!

[IronSkeleton09]

Thank you for the kind words and for giving me a good idea to how I should practice. If you don't mind Mutley, I saw some of your work and I think it's amazing but I was wondering what courses did you take on anatomy?

[IronSkeleton09]

Tried to draw foreshortening from Marc Brunet. It could of been better.

[Mutley]

Thank you for the kind words and for giving me a good idea to how I should practice. If you don't mind Mutley, I saw some of your work and I think it's amazing but I was wondering what courses did you take on anatomy?

Nice construction work too on that last post!

I've never done any specific anatomy courses but I've done a lot of life drawing over the years, lots of studies and sketches from photos and real life and I've read a lot of reference books. I also spent a lot of time trying to put it all in to practice drawing (mostly terrible!) comics.

The books that helped me the most were Figure Drawing For All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis and Figure Drawing - Design and Invention by Michael Hampton. These two are good because they go really in depth in terms of how to actually draw, building up figures, draw figures in short hand etc - a lot of other artistic anatomy books lean more towards reference or example drawings, they don't really teach you. The books aren't always easy to get hold of and can be expensive when you do find them but you might be able to find PDFs online if you look around.

[Zorrentos]

Nice work! Foreshortening is quite a hard subject, but you seem to be studying it effectively!

[Osya]

Hello! I don't know what your goals are in drawing, you probably want to learn how to draw poses and shapes well. In this case, it is very good to draw short sketches every day for 2 and 5 minutes, at least an hour a day, regularity is very important. And also to achieve the best results and understanding you need to study the base (cubes, layers, cylinders) in parallel in order to better understand the shape. Every part of the human body can be begged for a basic figure (arms, legs - cylinders, even each muscle has its own shape). So do not neglect the base and progress will not take long. Keep it up!

[IronSkeleton09]

My goal is to improve as much as I can in creating characters so I can work as an concept artist or even work in animation. The thing is, right now I don't do something specific other than looking for as many things I can improve in my art. Also thank you again for the kind words!

[Zorrentos]

The latest perspective studies look quite good, but a bit rushed. I suggest you really take your time and study each subject very carefully. It's good to produce a lot of artworks in a short time, but for complex subjects such as perspective, you probably want to sit down and carefully analyze your studies in order to make them count.

[darktiste]

I suggest warming up exercise or simply drawing more because as you draw you build up muscle memory and confidence.You can then start to make more deliberate mark.The common habit that hurt student is they don't realize how timid they draw the result end up with what is caracteristically called ''chicken scratch'' basically small overlapping line instad of fluid and confident line.If you want i can suggest you a few drawing exercise to build confidence in your lin making skill.

[IronSkeleton09]

Yes please! I'm used to working as fast as I can, because I'm trying to learn as fast as possible, but something I noticed while drawing is that I never got as much line confidence as I should have, only drawing diagonal lines correctly, while straight lines really wobbly. About perspective I think is a subject that is harder for me to comprehend then foreshortening, so maybe I will try getting better at foreshortening first but I will still draw some one point perspective from time to time, like today!
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[darktiste]

Those are more purely line focus exercise but you can do basic geometric form like cube they are great to pratice line also speiclally if you draw them as if there are see throught.Least intuitive of all those exercise is the grid exercise where you try to draw parallel line and try to make consistent square will doing so this is a good exercise to learn to visually estimate distance.You can also do doddle on the side of page anywhere you go and have free time just to get some extra practice done but also to build your confidence daily.

Making line isn't necessarly about speed but deliberate control of your speed.Go to slow and it will be wobbly go to fast and your line will curve there a way to get better line by using different part of your arm to create different type of mark.

[IronSkeleton09]

Hey, sorry for the radio silence there were a lot things happening, either way I got back to drawing and I tried these drawing exercises, which are really good, but the problem I have is with holding my tablet pen. Is it just something I get used to, cause holding the pen for the gesture style is the one I have most problems with.

[Zorrentos]

Yes please! I'm used to working as fast as I can, because I'm trying to learn as fast as possible

That is not an effective way of learning IMO. You need to carefully analyze and apply your studies to really make the most of them. Ive been studying art for 10 years, and a lot of it was wasted because I wasn't properly analyzing and applying my studies. 

It's a marathon! Not a race! Take your time!

[IronSkeleton09]

I understand, but the thing is, I started drawing late and I always think about how I should catch up, but at the same time I keep telling myself to slow down, so there is this conflict in me about drawing as much and as fast as I can. But I will reflect and try to keep a better pace when it comes to drawing. Thank you for telling me. I will try harder but smarter.

[darktiste]

You don't need to make mark perfect but if you want your drawing to be cleaner you need to understand when to go soft and when to go hard.By hard and soft i am talking about value.Have you heard about the ghosting technique?

[IronSkeleton09]

This hand is rushed but I really find it hard to draw on pc like I draw in real life. And no, I'm not familiar with  this ghosting technique.