A humble sketchbook

[yopek881]

Hey, I'm 27, I don't have much experience in the field of (digital) art, I would like to get into the industry at some point. My main goal for now is to become much more consistent, as it is something that leads to the most meaningful results. Here are some short studies (from refs) from today. Looking forward to meet cool people here!

[JosephCow]

these sketches look really promising! nice to have you on board

[Zorrentos]

Not a bad start! Consistency is key to solid art improvements, so make sure you continue to draw and upload your works! It's only when you look back over a long period of time that you can see your progress!

[yopek881]

Thank you for your warm welcome! Here are more figures, and a quick sketch of a face. So here's a question that you might have an answer for:

I want to tackle my weaknesses and one of them is that I never learned how to properly draw. I drew this quick sketch to showcase where I am at now, the issue is that I don't know how to make sketches that look good. I have a hard time with capturing likeness as well, in the past my sketching phase was very messy, ugly, it was just something to skim over and go into painting asap, which by itself is not a bad approach, as painting will be a separate entity pretty much all the time.

I just wonder how I could improve my sketching, where it could look decent with simple lines, I'm also afraid I'm jumping too much into the symbol drawing territory, because I focus more on shapes than forms, ideally you want to nail them both of course.

[Jephyr]

Thank you for your warm welcome! Here are more figures, and a quick sketch of a face. So here's a question that you might have an answer for:

I want to tackle my weaknesses and one of them is that I never learned how to properly draw. I drew this quick sketch to showcase where I am at now, the issue is that I don't know how to make sketches that look good. I have a hard time with capturing likeness as well, in the past my sketching phase was very messy, ugly, it was just something to skim over and go into painting asap, which by itself is not a bad approach, as painting will be a separate entity pretty much all the time.

I just wonder how I could improve my sketching, where it could look decent with simple lines, I'm also afraid I'm jumping too much into the symbol drawing territory, because I focus more on shapes than forms, ideally you want to nail them both of course.

Hi - I join in welcoming you.

From what I see so far you have already a pretty good eye — in that your figure studies look fairly proportioned and that last portrait is well done.

My first thought for you is that you try experimenting with different brushes.  It appears you are using a hard edge brush without any tablet pressure sensitivity — which means you'll have uniform line weight giving your images a look as though they're done with a ink pen.

I don't have time to go into detail — but there are tons of tutorials on-line — or you could ask a friend who has a bit more experience to help you with that.

My other thought about improving — as Zorrentos wrote — there is no short-cut.   Every serious improvement I've made represents equally serious time working at it.  Sometimes it seemed like I was barely making progress — and then suddenly I'd feel a huge leap!

As you do the work — it also helps to seek out drawing tutorials, art lessons, anatomy classes and videos — same with digital painting. Look at and study other artwork you like — AND allow yourself to have fun as you roll up your shirt sleeves and just keep at it — YOU WILL IMPROVE.

You already have a good start — so be encouraged that you're already on your way.  Posing here (and other sites) will help keep you motivated — and sometimes you get very valuable advice and suggestions.

One last thought — I learned a ton from keeping a real-world sketchbook (and still do).  For me there was something about using pencils that was just easier to do — and those efforts translate directly over to the digital world.

Hope these thought help you.  Looking forward to seeing you grow....

[JosephCow]

It looks like these sketches are just done in a few minutes (is that the number 5 on them) I don't think I would have anything much better in 5 minutes to be honest. It's really about being able to develop it further, that's where correcting the proportions and constructing the forms comes in. So don't worry too much about it, just keep practicing and learning. If you wanted to make your sketch phase look better, take a 5 minute sketch and reduce the opacity, and just slow down and try to draw over it with the best possible lines to say the same thing but in a simpler and more effective way. Just by taking a closer look at what you've done you will naturally improve it with a second pass.

[darktiste]

If you want to avoid symbolistic drawing draw the subject from all side rely on simple geometric underlay to be use as a way to calm yourself before you start and extrapolate further with the knowledge of the proportion in mind.Don't draw a drawing of a picture but draw from the knowledge of knowing and visualisation.Use reference and build memory of the subject over time.We all wish it was simply as easy as remembering symbol but symbol are flat they are limitting the way you can draw the subject.Here what i suggest visualize the symbol of a flower now forget the flower and imagine a cube the cube represent a 3d space.Now deconstruct every petal to it most basic 2d shape you get a cercle now visualize those circle morphing into petal they are still flat but now are like petal no long circle.Visualize the leaf symbol now imagine it as a flexible sheet of paper cut the excess and add some thickness to the leaf.Now imagine the stem of the flower it not more than a collection of cylinder intersecting one and other if you think about it.All those object are 2d a cylinder is made of 2 circle and a flat plane if you didn't know. A cone? 1 Circle and flat plane.A sphere is just a large number of curve plane.The problem isn't necessarly how to become good at simplification of complex subject but it the translation of those complex object into proper perspective respecting proportion.

What you are doing right now is approximation if you don't understand proportion. A sketch can be as messy as you want it to be but the draw back is you might loose clarity and if you don't clean a little bit one viewer might assume something you didn't intended.

If someone say you can't draw will they refer to a sketch please never take it personally maybe right now all you can do it sketch and that fine you will eventually go beyond sketching and you perhaps already beyond that.

[yopek881]

Thanks for the advice, from now on I'll post stuff in bulk, so that there's more to judge, it's still not much but I'll be increasing the output over time. For now, just trying to understand anatomy, starting with something simplified.

[darktiste]

Also one other thing to avoid drawing in 2d symbol is to draw your big shape(head,torso,etc) as if you they are transparent. When drawing the body avoid line that are straight unless you want to go for a more stylize look.

I included a turn around of a more stylize approch but the reason why i am sharing is to make you aware of what is called landmark those are point you can use to measure in space.

The other image is to make you aware of that if you master the second step the third step will be mostly a breeze because it more or less just understanding how shape overlap how they compress or strech.It much harder to capture the delicate nature of light on the body than it is to do suggest with line.So i suggest you learn with line first because it easier this way to think of the body in term of unit(head,torso, etc) shading is time consuming so i suggest instead of drawing full body in shading to draw organic shape which you can than shade.Of course you have to draw the body one day or an other but it a good jumping board exercise.

[yopek881]

Gotchu darktiste

[JosephCow]

Really nice colors on that painting, dude. I think hair might be one of the things the hard round brush isn't that effective at. But, you are getting some nice color harmonies.

[yopek881]

Thank you @JosephCow

I think I should post a weekly summary rather than every other day, so I'll do that from now on. I'm struggling quite a lot in many ways but hopefully with bigger mileage I'll be able to feel more comfortable about the process of drawing and painting.

I also want to add that the reason I'm using the hard round brush is that it's also used by one of the artists I really like, and they utilize it greatly with any material, so I want to learn to do that as well, even if it's more difficult.