Back to the basics

[calebartist]

So it's time. It's been a bit difficult for me to get back into art,. Art means a lot to me, it got me through foster care and many difficult times in my life, and I've dealt with arthritis and carpal tunnel before I even had any real success as an artist. For a while, I did work with 3D doing architectural work for people but that was something I was never passionate about.

Anyways, for me, art was the most fun to learn on conceptart.org, so Crimson Daggers seems like the next best step. I'm very rusty, and I will need to learn new things, as well as re-learn many others, but I hope to find the artist I'm meant to become along the way. Anyways thanks for coming to check out my sketchbook. Well, regardless of everything else, it's something I love doing, and lately, I feel like I love art again, and that's a great thing.

I plan on sharing everything I can here, from my successes to my failures, my mistakes, etc. because that's how we learn, and maybe even reach mastery one day, I've always believed I had very little talent, but when you're truly passionate about something I believe you can grow through effort and hard work. Feel free to give me advice, critiques etc that's what I'm here for. I hope to contribute to this Sketchbook for many years to come. And hopefully contributing to this will motivate me to keep going, and to draw even more.

Here's some sketches, studies, etc.

-Caleb 


 

[calebartist]

Rough thumbnails and stick man adventures (just loose imaginative sketches)

[calebartist]

Just a rough pencil study, as well as a doodle from this morning and some Zbrush practice. + some very rough pen studies before work.

Got a long road ahead of me, but every journey begins with a single step.

[darktiste]

I am not good with introduction speech.Let just get to the part about what i think you could do to get some rust off or move from what you are normally doing.

Why not try a good old graphite pencil seem like you would get a bit of appreciation for capturing value it a lot harder with just a mechanical pencil which cannot achieve a gradient of value without breaking all the time outside of hatching or doing a great deal of smudging.What i think is really important to address is value else we don't develop were fundamental skill which is obsercation

You are not achieving alot of the darker value that would create a more polish look in your traditional work but you are not alone let be clear it a typical common issue among many artist they just don't commit to a finish look they quit to earlier because to finish an artwork you need a good deal of value control.But that for different reason it either them being shy on the pencil or it just that they don't have a good grasp of a full value range or even know to what it refer .They cannot understand how be gentle with the tool or forceful when necessary.It important not to be scared to break a few graphite pencil but it not require to achieve great value.

Here a little challenge for you if you are up to it according to the first rectangle of each row draw the same value 4x in the subsquent additional rectangle.Print as many of this page as you feel is necessary until you feel like you can capture the value of the first rectangle of each row.What is the goal at the end is for you to hit to darker value much more often moving on when the project demand it.

Obviously it hard to judge your value skill if you post alot of W.I.P what would be preferable is to post your best piece or to be more precise your most finish piece first to establish your level of competence.

[calebartist]

Yeah that's true, I haven't actually drawn for years until recently, and was primarily a digital artist so especially my traditional drawings and sketches are a bit rough atm. I have a bunch of finished old work from years ago, but as I'm trying to learn I'd rather wait til I finish a piece again before I post any finished work. 

I'll get some more drawing pencils when I can and do the value exercises as well! for now it's just what I have on me. thanks man , and I'll keep that in mind with the values as well. It's easier for me to achieve the correct values and colors digitally but I'm currently lacking the traditional tools department.

for traditional I'm also thinking of pen and ink/brush pen because it may be easier on my hands (arthritis and all) i appreciate you coming by my sketchbook and commenting on my post. I checked out yours as well and you had some insane progress over the years! 

have a good one,


-Caleb

[darktiste]

I don't know how bad your carpal tunnel is but it might also have to do with holding the tool to strongly.What you can do if you have trouble with pressure sensitivity is to get a few differnt grade of graphite pencil some will make darker mark more easly than other by having a range of 3 to 5 different grade you can achieve a gradiant without putting alot of pressure on the pencil.You could also play around with marker they don't build value the same way it a bit like doing paint you build up the color by going over rather then pressing down.

[calebartist]

Just a rough concept painting from this evening, still needs a ton of work tho. and definitely darktiste I think if I get some normal graphite pencils it'd be easier. One thing I definitely don't want to do is study things without applying them so going to keep it up with these as well.

For some reason it's actually harder painting in just greyscale again haha, mainly because I usually would paint in full color from the start, but it's good to re learn and focus on my values


 and finally a knight concept sketch. Honestly never been the best with characters or figure drawing (focused on painting environments more) but it's a good skill to learn.

[calebartist]

Some progress on this guy

[darktiste]

I feel like is left arm as to much of a bent it doesn't seem to mirror the arm guard and mobility on the left i will wait to see if that was just a feeling or not.

[calebartist]

Darktiste- Yeah probably, still not the best with figures, it's likely off.

Some progress, though may call it quits for now til I've practiced a bit more and learned more anatomy & stuff.

[calebartist]

some recent 30 minute speedpaints. Not to try to encourage speed, just to make sure I stay in the daily habit and to keep me motivated. I have some assignments I'm working on for a class that I'll post later

[calebartist]

Just some experiments, studies, sketches and practice, as well as rough sketchbook stuff. I think I finally have an idea on a set style for my work, but it's just about getting my skill level up to there the moment.

[calebartist]

Started a course, might as well start posting again to keep me motivated.