Bats Sketchbook

[Squidbat]

A finish work and a WIP

[Squidbat]

I have so much stuff I have to work on with my art that I sometimes feel lost.



Some WIPs of something new I'm working on:

[Squidbat]

Kinda hit a bit of a slump. Any feedback would be nice.







Contour is fun.

[Squidbat]

So I went to look without posting again. This will stop now. lol

Here is my arts UvU



^^ That started my passion for drawing odd creatures, and monsters. I drew a whole lot of these, even made them into adoptables which you'll see shortly.









A rough comic page for a future comic I'd like to do.







A thing I was working on that I gave up on. I still need to work on my anatomy and figure. Badly.


MOLA MOLA!!!



I need to add a texture to this to give it the grimmy feel I want it to have.












I also started doing commissions!!! I got my very first commission 2 weeks ago. :3







It was my first one so I kinda had to figure out how to best give the commissioner what would make her happiest :3

So I sent her 3 rough creature designs - she had a palette and reference she wanted me to use. The design was for a set of twin OCs who were super cute. Hahaha.

She like the 1st one best, and the last image in this set was the finished product!

She seemed very happy with it, and I’m gald. It was very fun to do. I hope it was worth the 2.50 for her!!!!! :3

http://squidbat.deviantart.com/art/Critt...-368901724

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I honestly hope it looks like I'm improving. I have been drawing daily, but have been doing less studies. I've been posting daily to DA, and tumblr as I finish work.

I'm going to do more work toward being able to draw humans better, so I can do more of the art I wanna do!!

[Squidbat]

[Squidbat]

I'm so bad at updating my sketchbook. I'm sorry!!! I draw and upload everyday to my tumblr (squidbat.tumblr.com) and always end up neglecting this.






















I named her Stella. She looks like a Stella.





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I NEED TO GET BETTER. UGH

[Toxicpanda]

Hey Bats,
I just checked out some of your sketches here and I see that you are working hard at the start- thats really good.
But something I noticed is that you are afraid of bigger brush strokes, longer lines and kinda restricting yourself to create some shapes. Do some basics like painting huge lines one next to each other and try making them as much straight as you can , also some circles. Use bigger brush for it and don't feel bad if you can't paint straight line or perfect circle- work on them until you can. After that you can move on to some other shapes like triangles, cubes etc. Because human body can be drawn from geometric point of view( i see that you already started with it).
Also- some material studies like stones,grass,water,metal,glass etc :)
And remember- always have fun with whatever you are doing,and don't feel bad about anything- one day you will look back and be proud of your progress :)
Enjoy your stay here.

[Patrick Gaumond]

Hey there, just looked through your sketchbook (incoming wall of text)

You're not as bad as you think you are at drawing, and from the first post until the most recent one here I think you've improved a good bit. Day to day, you probably won't feel like you're improving at all. You might even feel like you're stepping backwards. But You really only notice how much has changed when you look back at something from way way back when you started. Just keep at it, you'll get better without realizing it :D

I can also vouch for what Toxicpanda said. I sometimes like to draw a full page of circles and ellipses of different sizes and then strike lines through them. I sucked SO MUCH when I first did them, probably for a good few months of doing them, but now I can do straight lines pretty well and my circles and curves still suck but they are way better than they used to be. Those skills will carry over to your drawings as well. Try to make nice fluid lines in as few strokes as you can. It really makes drawing a lot more enjoyable. I know its tricky on a tablet, but trust me, just try it out, it will work out if you keep on training your hand and your arm to do it.

Do you do any traditional art? Maybe doing some charcoal studies or pencil studies might complement your digital skills as well

Don't be discouraged if you can't draw people from imagination, its really, really tricky. Not something you just magically acquire. It takes a long, long time and lots of studying to be able to do it. I can only recommend you to read some anatomy books on faces and bodies and stuff (I'm so original!). Maybe try some Loomis or even Hogarthe if you're feeling brave :P Also keep drawing from reference too, but don't half-ass it. I find it way more beneficial to stick with a drawing for a long time trying to solve as many issues with it as I can than to abandon it a quarter of the way through. What do you learn by abandoning your work? Not much.

On that note, I see you're a bit frustrated with drawing from photos and stuff. Have you ever read "Drawing on the Right side of the brain"? If you haven't, I HIGHLY recommend it! Apparently theres also a video of it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctkRwRDdajo

I haven't watched it all so I cant say if its as good as the book, but check it out regardless. Essentially, its all about drawing what you SEE rather than what you know. It helped me out a ton, and many many other artists as well. I think you will like it too :)

Anyways I hope some of that was helpful. If anything be proud that you're pushing hard to get better. That's worth way more than "talent" :)

PS. Your profile pic is too cute :3

[Ignatz]

Hi Squidbat. As Toxicpanda said, the amount of work you're putting in is commendable but your way of studying is a little erratic. You're trying to draw some quite complex images when I think you need to focus on your fundamentals. I don't know if your familiar with CTRL+Paint (http://ctrlpaint.com) but it's got lots of good (free) videos that cover the basics of digital painting and beyond in a structured way. I recommend working through the videos in sequence to give yourself a good grounding. That doesn't mean you can't still draw other stuff though, after all, we only get better by doing more challenging stuff and having fun doing it is important. There is definite improvement in this thread. Keep at it.

[Buber]

Hello Squidbat,

Adding my opinion in with the other artists here (gonna TRY to make it short). You're certainly working hard and improving bit by bit. If I could make a few suggestions based on my learning:

1) Don't write negative notes on your art. It's hard to get better when you're denouncing all of your work. and hard for us to take it serious.
2) Practice with more traditional media (pens, pencils, charcoal). The tablet adds a lot of disconnect, which can contribute to those "hairy lines". Lines are the boundaries of different forms, so if you have too many lines, it's harder to define a shape, which means it's harder to tell the viewer what you were trying to do.
3) Practice Cones, Spheres, Cubes (Fundamental volumes). In class, lunch, waiting for friends, I'd just draw boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes. Then spheres and spheres and spheres. Then cylinders and cylinders and cylinders. All in different perspectives. They have simple rules and don't take a lot of hard thinking, so it's easy to squeeze out a hundred or so per day.
4) Look at good art. I love studying good paintings and good drawings at my local museum. If you have a museum close by, I'd go there as often as possible and look at as many things as possible for as long as possible. It can be hard to know what you're looking for, but as your fundamentals increase, you'll understand every piece more and more in terms of it's technical execution. And looking at all the art increases in your visual library.
5) Draw your figures from life. This is the trickiest thing to teach, as it's easy to mindlessly copy the figure. But if you've been reading the Vilppu literature, you should be cognizant of his procedure. Also, books by Loomis, Hogarth, and Hampton I know are all good. Draw at zoos, cafe's, taking a class or two at a community college, friends, whoever (people are in high supply now-a-days).

Most importantly is to never stop. Sometimes I make work that isn't good. Sometimes I make work I really like. But the most important thing is to beat down the discouragement and keep making work. If you really ever get stuck, you gotta look at your work and ask, "what am I doing wrong?" and finding the answer to that question is top priority. Figuring out why our pictures aren't working is what makes us artists instead of lumberjacks with pencils.

I'll never have all the answers, but I hope you found something worth adding to your collection of information.

cheers,

R. Buber
PS- Failed on making this short, didn't I? :P