SamSzymSketch

[Forrestimel]

Dude those horse sketches are pretty sexy and you can totally see the improvement it made in that last Ponyta sketch. Now paint it and satisfy my needs!

[Samszym]

I know in my heart I have the power to sketch a ponyta with better shape design >:O
but ya I should probably just stop sketching by tomorrow and use the drawing I'm the most happy with, I've been delaying way too long.

SO! Here's a photo of my new, still very messy but quite awesome, STUDIO SPACE IN DA BASEMENT!


I also went to the zoo yesterday, so here are the better half of the sketches from my trip!

I had a blast drawing from life like this, but looking at the drawings I made after the fact, I realized a lot of them were total poop. (didn't even bother scanning them) Mostly the gestures of humans from life were the problem. So I better get out and draw people some more! I also think next time I go life sketching I'll try to focus on doing more really pushed gesture and some characters, plus a few more longer, meticulously constructed drawings.

Here's a random digital portrait and another frikken ponyta.

[Samszym]

herp derp pokemon and anime fanart...
More original serious things are needed :|
I didn;t know how to make fire that matched the way the horses were drawn, this came out odd. Glad to be done with it though!

[OtherMuzz]

Oh man i'm in love with this sb. The sketchy stuff has sooooo much character!

[Samszym]

Thanks othermuzz, super glad to hear it! It's really important to me that my work has appeal and character :O

portrait study I did on a whim, probably 2 hours or longer? I haven't been painting much but I've got to start doing more things with light and form or I'll lose everything I learned from my classes D:


I've been doing a bunch of gestures and life sketches and stuff too but don't feel like scanning them atm XD probably gonna be in next post!

[Warburton]

Really interesting work you've got here man and great personality. And those pencils are all sexy as fuck, they make me drool abit ;p
If the golden boys still existed you would be up there as a contender, so much work dude, just make sure you keep at it, you've already progressed a long way, it's really inspiring <3

[MonoOrder]

Thanks you Sam for posting about your experiences at TAD and sorry for not responding sooner! It's great to hear that you're happy with TAD and the teachers there. I know what you mean about what you put in is what you get out of it. I've taken a few classes online outside of TAD and it's easy to see who are the students are that make the most out of the material.

You've got such a broad range of style from cartoony to realism that I'm jealous. I'm interested in seeing which direction you go and how you will develop your own style!

[Samszym]

Thanks war and Mono!!! Your comments brightened up my day :D
I don't really think my range of styles is something to be proud/jealous of, I just don't know what I want my work to look like and I don't think I have the patience for representational realism >_> good thing I want to go into cartoons! (not that that's an excuse not to draw and paint realistically, I'll totally study that way)
Sooooo here's a bunch of doodles and pokemon. still no finished or very original work. ugh.
I've sort of been adventuring around where I live with some friends, so I haven't had mush time for anything but observational sketches, buit I can;t really make that kind of excuse if I expect to get commissions >:|

There's a couple interior sketches in there, definitely gonna do more of those to practice perspective/backgrounds/clean lines

[OtherMuzz]

Nice update :).

One thing that is weir-ding me out about your finished and coloured lineart is that the line thickness in a lot of ways doesn't seem to follow any patterns. They should follow a logical reason for it, like depth, or size of the form ect.

I'd also see you do some work on how you do cartoony and realistic eyes, a lot of them are just dot's and i fee you could do something a fair bit cooler.

[Samszym]

Excellent advice Muzz! I've been stressing about my lines actually, I know a variance in line quality looks better but I'm clueless where to make them thicker and where thinner. In the Magneton piece my thought was making the lines thicker in the shadows, but if you didn't notice it didn't work out. I suppose I'll study some ink and printmaking masters, I'm thinking Mucha and Booth and Gibson, if anyone has some other lovely lineartists for me to study throw them in a comment! please!!!
And as for the eyes, fair point indeed! I can't even use the "but it's my styyyle" excuse here because I really just stole the dot eyes from Adventure Time. I'll experiment away!

I've been practicing that memory drawing exercise I've been seeing, fantastic way to test how much information you're actually absorbing from studies. I shall suffer no more mindless copying on my part!

[Sargatanas]

These are all incredible. Not sure what else to say. Keep it coming.

[Samszym]

Appreciate the compliment Sargatanas!!!

Sort of took the weekend off, here's some stuff mainly from today. Got a good warm up and some drawing in, then spent a couple hours listening to the commentary of a movie (12 Monkeys) and drawing some of the gestures and scene cuts. The resulting drawings are not fit for human consumption, but I think it's a good way to learn a bit about cinematography. Also went to the local life drawing session, and I had some good some bad drawings.


oh, and here's a rough wip of an animation for the next pokemon.


TTFN folks!
(oh btw if you have any tips for doing those lasso landscapes I'd love to hear em, totally lost)

[Raedrob]

Really inspirational stuff you've got here!
When I first picked up drawing I went straight to digital, so I have the opposite
problem many tend to have (my abilities worsen noticeably as I go over to pencil and paper).
I'm so used to all the conveniences from the digital medium, but a physical sketchbook is
definitely easier to just bring with you and use on the go.
You're tempting me to dust the sketchbook I have and start using it more regularly. =)

[Samszym]

Do it drawing on location rocks!!!

Sorry to not follow my word, I found out my family's going to visit some family this week to celebrate the 4th of July so there shall be no daily updates, but I'll definitely do that starting next Monday!
happy 4th Americans! Here are some unrelated doodles

[Andantonius]

Holy crap, you are one prolific son of a gun. :P

Really nice sketches and studies in here, you're doing a ton of work and it shows. Plus you're actually taking the time to get outside and draw people and things, that's a huge thing a lot of artists miss (myself included). The memory drawings are a great exercise as well.

I think one thing I'm hungry to see more of in your drawings is a purposeful balance of curves and straight lines. You're doing it well in some areas, especially you're more stylized drawings, but I feel like some of the life drawings are suffering from a little bit of wobblyline. Not that wobblyline is always a bad thing, but when it's frequent enough it starts to become like a poet slurring their words because they're not quite sure of the pronunciation. So I think it might be helpful to try and be a little more convicted with your strokes, spend a few seconds thinking and then put down one confident mark exactly where it needs to be. I think this'll help both your line quality and the structural solidity of your drawings.

Also in response to "(oh btw if you have any tips for doing those lasso landscapes I'd love to hear em, totally lost)", I actually did a bunch of those a while back ([Link]) and what I found most helpful was to work with a good amount of layers. So I'd usually work background to foreground; start with a sky gradient, add clouds if they're there, add the main elements, add elements in front and behind main element, add a bit of detail and soft edges for looks, and all of those things would be on their own layer (Maybe two or three layers with clipping masks if they have multiple colors). The nice thing about the lasso tool studies is they force you to make a decision about exactly where something ends and the next begins, good practice for sure. Also good for studying value and color.

Great work! Happy 4th, can't wait to see more!

[DoubleThink]

Love, love, love your sketches!
more please

[Yarrnick]

you sir, draw some mean lines >:D I love your cartoons and your anatomy studies are good enough for me to study over them haha. When I see your color studies I see thats still a point to work, but thats just a matter of time.

keep on grinding :D

[smrr]

Hey man!

Your sketchbook is absolutely wonderful!
I feel I've learned lots just by looking through it :D the progress you've made is unbelievable and my goodness I'm in love with this:

Here's a random digital portrait and another frikken ponyta.
[URL=http://s652.photobucket.com/user/wingkitsune/media/portraitthing_zps77c1d5c1.jpg.html]

Dat use of colour!

But seriously, your drawings have so much character and life to them!
I really don't know what else to say 'cept - keep kicking ass! I'm looking forward to checking out more!

[Samszym]

Jon> prolific? Coming from you that is one heck of a compliment! I've spent far too much of my life in my room, glad I've started to get out more! Excellent advice about the lines! I remember getting the same critique from Ron months ago, looks like it didn't stick. Gotta make sure it does this time! And much thanks for the advice and tips on the lasso studies, I did the first one all on one layer. what a mess DX

DoubleThink> So glad you like my stuff :D You got it! Doing more original work is a priority

Yarrnick> Thanks a lot bro! Ya, color;'s not something I've put much work or thought into, gotta make some time to pore over Gurney's color and light this month.

smrffette> Thanks so much for the compliment :D


Soo, just got back from a 4 day vacation, and I spent all of it reading, swimming, and playing m pokemon. Not the most productive of times, but I'm recharged and ready to get back to work! Started the day a few hours late today and got distracted pretty often, all I got around to was gesture drawing and some memory studies, which take me way too long! I think i should start timing myself on them. I think they're a great exercise though. My drawings look so timid and generic next to Imaishi's designs, and I'm learning a lot seeing and thinking about why.


oh, plus a wip on that run cycle and a quick speedapint, done using a custom brush that I made by typing "hard work" in comic sans and turning on scattering and dual brush.

[HiddenMyst]

Pokemoanz?! I approve!

Impressive amount of work! I saw you say something about you feel bad for not drawing enough at all. I know that feeling. I think like that all the time, though I think it's healthier to start thinking in terms of progress and quality rather than quantity of images.

Of course, progress is a natural result of just getting out there and starting to work your ass off. However, I think there will be times when it's better to slow down and take a step back to let things sink in. A lot of progress can be made in contemplation and going in-depth into an area. Sometimes only a few but well-thought studies can bring on more progress than a handful of drawings.

Also, let studies take time! you wrote that your gesture studies and memory drawing took way too long, and you make it sound like a bad thing. It isn't! It's time well spent. It's really important to give yourself time to look at things and understand them. It's not only about doing a drawing. You shouldn't be rushing with everything you do just to have it done. That's careless and a bad way of studying.

We analyze in depth and thoroughly, and if that also equals slowly, then let it be. You will find that after a while, your perception has been sharpened and you'll more quickly find what you're looking for in the study. The figure that took 1hour to just sketch up might now take 20minutes to sketch up as accurately.

A good analogy is learning to play an instrument. When you first start playing guitar your fingers aren't coordinated and they can hardly pick out notes on the strings, let alone hold a chord. The muscles haven't been worked and the dexterity is awful. You have to start really slowly. I mean really, baby steps. Playing one single not as good as you can, until it rings clearly without other fingers touching the string and killing the sound, or without the finger holding to lightly on the string killing the sound.
Just this simple thing might take hours spread out over days or weeks before the muscles have been worked properly and the right dexterity has been developed. The same goes for drawing.

Your muscles is your perception, and the notes and the chords are the fundamentals that you're studying. Draw accurately. In the beginning this also means slowly. In time it will start to speed up. And with the right work, one day you'll be able to shred out solos as if it were nothing.

p.s Lol at that running dodrio! that's so awesome! love it :D please, more pokemons!