Lurch's Sketchbook

[Bookend]

Nice work on that barn! Gotta love symmetry and straight lines, haha. Keep up the good work!

[Cricketts]

Nice start. Great job on the gestures.

[lurch]

Thanks Bookend, Crickets, I'm slowly plugging away at it!

Chow stuff today, studies for the figure and hair, then shameless photoshop mashing of those studies and my previous sketches.

If I manage a final, it will be a lot less lineart/cartoony hopefully, but it'll be a lot of ref.

[lurch]

gestures n things.

some plant lay ins from the drawabox exercises. loads more to do.

[lurch]

chow wips.

started it in greyscale because I was having a hard time working in colour, now I'm struggling with the water!

was thinking I might give here a slightly bluer, zombie in the moonlight feel, not sure yet.

[lurch]

chow progress, still lots wrong but this might end up as the final image now.

originally i tried to light it as though the moonlight was in front of her, to her right slightly, then I thought it would be better if the moon was in the background but I don't have the skill to relight it now!

also spent a lot of time trying different skin colours for her, trying to make her look more alluring, more dead, more ghostly etc!

[Bookend]

Oooo, loving the way you're developing this Rusalka. Great dynamic water and everything, really fun! My only suggestion would be that if you want to get a more realistic look to your water, you may want to do some fun water studies and see what it looks like when it's splashing or doing a whirlpool effect.

For example: https://www.google.com/search?q=water+wh...er+twister

Love the colour scheme, though, really cool!

Also, awesome studies! Greatgreatgreat! Don't stop now!

[lurch]

Thanks Bookend - how is it that when I googled for whirlpools and twisters, it didn't occur to me to search for both together!?

Sadly I'm not around tomorrow, so I've just had to post her up in the final thread.

Thanks for the link too, I might do some studies from those just for the experience though, the water has been bugging me the whole way through.

So here's the final, hardly any changes since the last really, just tidying up, small changes to her face and stumbling across layers that seemed to have no effect on the image!




I had another couple of pieces in my head for this chow, the first one was a character that moves towards you when there are puddles, so after heavy rains it might rise up out of them and get nearer and nearer and scare the crap out of you.

The second one was more comical, and was a fat lady who's husband drowned her in the bath tub because he hated it when she sang in the bath, so she'd be this evil fat monster, splashing about and singing, with maybe a loofa for a mic and a rubber duck or something.

they only made it this far!

damn her face is bad, even for a sketch.

[CTrow]

Really liking your Rusalka  she feels very powerful! I also like the concept, really cool.

one thing I will say though is the value range on the character seems a little small to me. There isn't really and strong darks or lights on the character  but I dunno... take what I say with a pinch of salt, im not that great with critiquing others work.   awesome work though!

[Bookend]

Hhahaaha XD Omg.. I wish you went with the fat lady. What a great interpretation of the myth! Yes!

Also, don't be afraid to push the Rusalka past the final-- It's all about the learning experience, right? But, only if you're not sick of it by then, lol. I wish I'd have given you that link before. Sorry I was too late! lol.

Anyway, keep up the great work. That sketch is too awesome

[lurch]

I swear i just posted this reply, I'm now para that it's ended up on some random thread...

thanks both for the feedback.

CTrow - you're right about the values, I kinda thought I was being brave with my shadows but I def held back a bit, I'll take that onto the next one or maybe revise this when I can face coming back to it! thanks.

having said that - it does look a bit bleached out, I posted from my PC, looked OK, then just checked it on another machine and it's way light.

that and I missed the massive grey bar down the side because I bumped a layer over without realising!

So I just tweaked the levels on the character a litte and reposted, thanks.

Bookend - Hahaha, glad you like that one, I might develop it into a full piece because I never really finish much off, and it's something I gotta start doing.

No worries about the link - at least you found the images! lol.

So here she is now, hopefully there aren't any more glaring errors like big grey bars on one side.

[lurch]

bits and bobs from the yesterday and today.

I need to stop mucking around and do focused studying.













this looked fine on my machine, wierd in the post, not sure how I sort that out, the colours look all screwed up.

[lurch]

more bits...trying to answer some perspective questions that have been bugging me.










sketching on the train.





i did some photoshop face as well but no one ever need see that!

[lurch]

I'm suddenly unable to draw anything...tried some gestures, just can't see em.

tried some faces instead, similar problem.

first one is from ref but i changed it a bit, the girl, i just can't get right.

not sure what I'm getting out of photo studies atm tho, feels like it's just copying, keeping my eye in but that's all, like I'm noticing things, like 'ah, so that would curve that way at this angle', does that make it worthwhile?

last one is from imagination, which i think is quite obvious! haha.

[Agerkvist]

Good work on those figure drawings. You use very few lines but manage to capture the pose quite well I think. Keep going man!

[JavierP]

Hi Lurch,
Thanks for the kind words in my sketchbook. To answer your question: 

edit - I've asked this in other sketchbooks too, I'm always curious how people develop their style, like - did you just keep drawing figures/faces traditionally and then make an effor to stylize once you felt confident with the forms?

Yes, it takes a lot of drawing (many different things) to develop a look that resonates the most with oneself. What's also important though, is that all that drawing helps you to create an approach to image-making that you can rely on to make successful images on a consistent basis. When you have YOUR system of drawing internalized, it allows you to focus more on the other aspects of what you are trying to create, i.e. design, story, mood etc. Not knowing how to actually draw something should never be a problem when you are creating an image. If it is a problem, then that means there is a need for development in your approach to drawing/painting in general.
The purpose of studying from life and photographs is to teach yourself how things look and behave in reality. When observing objects in either photos or reality, its important to make yourself imagine the forms as three-dimensional entities. Draw through the objects; imagine the sides that you can't see and how they occupy space. Think about how perspective and viewpoint affect ALL aspects of what we see in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Just copying details won't really teach you anything. In fact the photo already captured more accurate details than you probably could have anyway, so try to avoid replication as an end goal. Try to be accurate of course, but focus more on solid drawing with an understanding of form, perspective and value as the major emphases. 
Keep up your current pace of study and you will definitely see the benefits in no time. Hope this helped in some way.

[lurch]

Hi Lurch,
Thanks for the kind words in my sketchbook. To answer your question: 

edit - I've asked this in other sketchbooks too, I'm always curious how people develop their style, like - did you just keep drawing figures/faces traditionally and then make an effor to stylize once you felt confident with the forms?

Yes, it takes a lot of drawing (many different things) to develop a look that resonates the most with oneself. What's also important though, is that all that drawing helps you to create an approach to image-making that you can rely on to make successful images on a consistent basis. When you have YOUR system of drawing internalized, it allows you to focus more on the other aspects of what you are trying to create, i.e. design, story, mood etc. Not knowing how to actually draw something should never be a problem when you are creating an image. If it is a problem, then that means there is a need for development in your approach to drawing/painting in general.
The purpose of studying from life and photographs is to teach yourself how things look and behave in reality. When observing objects in either photos or reality, its important to make yourself imagine the forms as three-dimensional entities. Draw through the objects; imagine the sides that you can't see and how they occupy space. Think about how perspective and viewpoint affect ALL aspects of what we see in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Just copying details won't really teach you anything. In fact the photo already captured more accurate details than you probably could have anyway, so try to avoid replication as an end goal. Try to be accurate of course, but focus more on solid drawing with an understanding of form, perspective and value as the major emphases. 
Keep up your current pace of study and you will definitely see the benefits in no time. Hope this helped in some way.

Thanks JavierP, that's actually a massive help, appareciate you taking the time to respond so fully.

On the strength of this, I've anbandoned my current photo study, which really was turning into 'get it looking like the photo' rather than any useful observation, I can see plenty to correct, but no gain other than a nice copy once I'm done.

I've bounced myself back to perspective stuff again as I have gaps to fill in there.

gonna plug away at this, throw in some rooms from life, some studies of other peoples work and hopefully I can get a grasp on it, at the moment I'm struggling between everything with a ruler, and a nice, fun drawing.


Thanks again for the advice.

[Cricketts]

Really great studies. Lovin all the perspective work and the train sketch is very nice.

[Bookend]

Really awesome studies and work! You are lifting yourself up, and with that effort and consistency, you can only improve! So, keep pushing!

[lurch]

Thanks for the encouragement Cricketts, Bookend, it's been slow progress lately so it's much appreciated!

Some more perspective stuff, really struggling with getting good views together and making stuff the right shape so it doesn't distort.

Might do some studies based on other peoples work, and maybe some broad, just building and room shape stuff.

The random fat girl studies were for my other rusalka idea, i couldn't help but have a look at it.

The room study is a disaster I know, but it was meant to be a fast, get everything down then redraw in perspective study, I just realised I hadn't grasped it well enough to do it yet!