SamSzymSketch

[Samszym]

Heyo Daggers! Thanks for checking out my sketchbook!

Here's a little background: I was somewhat active in this group under the name vertical until roughly a year ago when I started being a student in TAD. I've learned a lot from the program, but thanks to my good pal Forrest Imel I've recently realized that without doing personal work to apply what I'm learning I won't be able to improve very much. So here I am, ready to start participating in the group challenges, making some friends, pushing my limits, and working my ass off!

I want to work in the animation industry. My end goal is to work as a storyboard artist for an animation studio, ideally on an awesome TV show like Adventure Time or Gravity Falls (though working on features would rock as well) and maybe make my own T.V. show, but that's far and away. Here and now, my main focus is on improving my skills. I need to get better at everything, but right now the subjects I care about improving most are my shape design, composition, perspective/construction, storytelling, and my work ethic.

My secondary goal is starting to earn some money, so I'll start building a portfolio for freelance illustration, and possibly one for storyboarding and a demo reel for animation.


And I might as well say, my tertiary goal is to lose some weight! I was sort of fit in high school, but I've always been overweight and now's as good a time as any to change that, starting with improving my diet and running more. So I guess I'll be posting that progress here too! (at the time of writing I'm 6'1" and about 250 pounds)


Okay, thanks for your interest to anyone who actually read all that. on to the pictures! Mostly homework, with some sketches and doodles. Next update I'll have a WIP of a personal piece I'm working on.


and here's a link to a little jump animation I've done: http://youtu.be/8gBFTbT5dnU

I really appreciate any comments you got, be they greetings or a crits or advice or a challenge to a children's card game. Thanks again for taking a look at my work, Seeya 'round daggers!

[ando_commando]

love your style man. I really like the Machop picture.

[Forrestimel]

who's this Sam Szymanshkzyaiii person? Man he is awful, just terrible, the worst artist ever. EVER!...

But now in all seriousness I'm glad you posted some of your sketches cuz I've been wanting to see those and they look super good :D Now post more!

[Samszym]

Okay, here's some stuff. One of these is a comp study for an illustration I've been putting off for a loong time. Mostly because I've been busy. But now that I have time for it I really have no excuse not to do it, and I'm finding myself somehow scared to get into it. I realize how stupid this is, but I guess I'm scared it won't be as good as I want it to be. Of course, if I'm scared of something like that I'll never improve, so I just have to force myself to start getting things done! There's no room for laziness or fear if I want to be a professional!

[Samszym]

Oh hey guys! Been a while.
My semester at TAD will be over this month, I'm gonna have more time for personal stuff, and I'll definitely try to get into regular updates. I'm going to teach myself storytelling with some books I got, and studying animal drawing, and improving my construction like crazy. I might also start learning French, I'm thinking about applying to Gobelins in the future.

Here's a ginormous dump of studies and doodles and homework and pictures. Thanks for looking!

I know the composition looks imbalanced in the spaceship hanger picture, I should mention there's going to be a logo in the top right.

If you've got any crits or suggestions, or any comments you want to make or if you want to say hi feel free, I'll be sure to respond as quick as I can, I'm here to make friends! :D

[Chavreaper]

I'm here to say hi! and also i like your style =D

[hannesD]

thx for your feedback, lookign through your sketchbook was really inspiring
really like your figures

[Samszym]

Collecting all the stuff I've done during the week is a really nice way to gauge what I've been doing and see what I need more of. More drawing from imagination!!!



here's a watercolor and ink thing I did for the draw-every-pokemon challenge I've been doing on tumblr. It's a fun medium! I really have to start making regular non-fanart pictures though, it's really dumb that only major personal work I'm doing isn't from my own head.

texture practice from light and form class

and a whole bunch of stuff from figure drawing class

A master copy I'm, doing for media class. When I started out oils were extremely aggravating and painful. After a few days they've become mildly annoying and sort of fun and educational. Not satisfied with my study, but now I know what I'm doing a little more, and the next one will be better!

not nearly enough gestures and doodles

and some work from this week's life drawing session! If you don't have a life drawing session to go to I recommend you find one and start going if you can, they're great for socializing, and drawing from the live model is much nicer than working from photos. (also oh man it is really hard to draw faces at a 90 degree turn like this)
I was rather proud of this drawing, so naturally my scanner decided to eat her face.

and lastly, an assignment I've been working on the last couple of weeks for animation class.

K, that's all for now! If you got any comments or suggestions or critiques or if you just want to say hi don't hesitate to post, I'd love to know what you have to say!
Thanks friends! rock rock on!

[Samszym]

Stuff from yesterday. Been too long since I did a photo study like this. And faces are still hard to draw.

[Budgie]

shiiiiit this is looking good. seriously, if you're anatomy drawings were food, it'd be as good as bacon.
anyway, I'd suggest you do some 60 sec gestures, try to get the energy in the drawings and apply your anatomy studies in a short period of time. you've probably already done tons of these, but doing some more is never bad.
maybe with this site, in class mode? http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-t...e-drawing/
cya!

[Samszym]

Bacon!?! This is far and away the highest compliment to my art I have ever received.

Thanks, I usually do at least a couple pages of gestures first thing in my art-day from that site and quickposes.com (but if that's not obvious then hot dang I'd better start paying more attention to them.) I used to use lovecastle before it got taken down, it was the best! siigh.

Here's some life drawings and imagination doodles and stuff. Still not getting as much done as I think I should be. I'm getting distracted by all the stupid cool stuff on the internet, and not making enough of my own! Agh!

So here's some stuff. The dragon and sorceress doodles made me realize 1: I need to pay more attention to perspective and 2: I want to start studying historical fashion and animal anatomy, I think my stuff would be much cooler if I could make it more well informed
drew a baby today, daawwww

[Samszym]

K, weekly retrospective time. More imagination drawing, more studies, way more faces and expressions from imagination.
And oh yes, more finished pieces definitely. Next week is finals, after that I will dedicate myself to building up an illustration Portfolio, improving my construction/perspective, learning animal anatomy, doing some ink master copies, learnign how to draw backgrounds, getting better at drawing characters and telling stories, systematically going through a bunch of my art books I haven;t given enough time to, and making tons of pictures! WOOOOO
<a href="http://s652.photobucket.com/user/wingkitsune/media/SCAN0133_zpse14b4706.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu243/wingkitsune/SCAN0133_zpse14b4706.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo SCAN0133_zpse14b4706.jpg"/></a><a href="http://s652.photobucket.com/user/wingkitsune/media/SCAN0141_zps666a0f30.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu243/wingkitsune/SCAN0141_zps666a0f30.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo SCAN0141_zps666a0f30.jpg"/></a><a href="http://s652.photobucket.com/user/wingkitsune/media/SCAN0143_zps3fccb260.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu243/wingkitsune/SCAN0143_zps3fccb260.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo SCAN0143_zps3fccb260.jpg"/></a><a href="http://s652.photobucket.com/user/wingkitsune/media/SCAN0144_zps075b1442.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu243/wingkitsune/SCAN0144_zps075b1442.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo SCAN0144_zps075b1442.jpg"/></a><a href="http://s652.photobucket.com/user/wingkitsune/media/SCAN0147_zps25f9bf81.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu243/wingkitsune/SCAN0147_zps25f9bf81.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo SCAN0147_zps25f9bf81.jpg"/></a>

[Forrestimel]

dude that geodude turned out so fucking cool! seriously i love it :O And your form is definitely improving.

[Samszym]

This was kind of an off day @_@ had a dentist appointment and looked at a new house (my family's planning on moving) and thought a lot about what direction I want to take my art during the break, and I watched some awesome cartoons!
The Steven Universe Pilot is out now, watch it if you have a pure heart.
seeing this was pretty awesome, it's very much the kind of show I'd like to work on! I think it;s helped give me some focus, I've got to aim my guns at learning storyboarding!
plus developing an illustration portfolio and expanding my mental library and stuuuuuuff. I think I'll have to write out a list of priorities..

I shant make an artless sketchbook post, Here's some fanart and doodles and stuff!

[Samszym]

Woo! my second semester of TAD is over, and I sure did learn a lot! It's time for a break from the internet and distractions, so this weekend I'm going to be going to stay with some family, and probably drawing the heck out of my Preston Blair book and maybe studying some animal anatomy, and working on some thumbs for illustrations. Got to start building up a portfolio!!!

When I get back Monday I'm gonna start killing it, this summer break shall not be wasted! Definitely want to tighten up my construction and get together a portfolio of illustration, plus I want to work on my animation and learn to do landscapes. maybe start doing some plein air painting! Woo!

[MonoOrder]

You've got a nice diverse set of images in this sketchbook. I'm especially digging the pokemon stuff. The poses and ideas are a lot more creative than a lot of the fan art I've seen and it's awesome that you are using them to study like in the paras image!

Also it would be neat to hear more about your experience at TAD! What program are you in and how are you enjoying the classes? I love reading about people's experiences with their education.

[Samszym]

Thanks for the comment Mono! Glad you like the pokemon, I think I'll try to do them more frequently. I was making one a day a while ago, they'd probably be a nice addition to my daily warm up! And I'd be happy to tell you more about TAD.

I just finished up my first year at the school, and I've been very happy with my education! My teachers are all extremely talented and knowledgeable. Some are better teachers, but everyone really knows their stuff and shows genuine interest in your improvement if you put the effort in, and all my classmates have been (Save for the handful who dropped out after the work got heavy) There's a saying I heard a couple times in my first semester, "It's easy to GET into TAD. It's hard to STAY in."
I'm currently in the foundations program and I'll be going into my last semester of that after the current Summer Break. After that students start their programs. I'm interested in the animation program, which at the moment is just a collection of elective courses, so what I do after this semester depends of if the program's established or not. (if not I'm considering trying to get into Gobelins, but that's another story) Our classes so far have focused on perspective, drawing the figure from observation, learning the anatomy of the human body (skeleton first, then muscles) and a lot of emphasis on good composition/picture making. I get enough assignments (and they're mostly good and fun assignments) to learn what the teachers lecture about, but the saying "you get out of art school what you put into it" is completely true, even for great art schools like TAD. I wish I had taken more time to do lots of personal work and studies to further apply what I was learning and to build up a portfolio. (and that's what I'll be devoting this summer to by golly!) So far I've only had a couple classes which I considered to have a heavy workload.
I thought of an analogy a while ago, TAD has been like the TM floor in the huge mall in Goldenrod City in pokemon for me. It's been like my trainer, introducing me to a lot of fancy, powerful new moves from TMs. Meanwhile other pokemon are actually out in the wild getting into fights and leveling up. Now I feel more equipped to fight and level up with the skills and knowledge I've acquired, but I need to take charge and get into some big fights and apply it!

Well. enough of that hoo-ha. Time for some pictures! I'm been working on Preston Blair studies and drawing more from imagination. Looking over these drawings again I really need to be paying more attention to perspective and construction and shape design and eveeerything. More hitting the books! and more finished stuff augh!


I'd like to take this moment to promote a really really cool game demo I've been playing called Undertale! It seems like a normal indie RPG, but if you get into it you'll find it has a lot of clever satire and really thoughtful battle mechanics, plus a very interesting story and a killer soundtrack! It takes less than an hour to play through the whole thing once (but you'll probably want to run through again), so if you're looking for a quick distraction I suggest checking it out! I bring it up, because I've been doing a ton of fanart doodles for it, and here they are XD

[Samszym]

Colored and shaded that Medieval age Finn sketch!

[Samszym]

oh man when does this get to the second page it's starting to take forever to load!

Sorry I missed an update, my little sis graduated :D Don't feel like scanning all my stuff, and there's not much to see anyway, so here's some recent digitals




A couple things I have learned: first, I am not drawing NEARLY enough gosh darn it all!!!
second, I think I need to start being more conscious of style. I realized working on the golem-tortoise thing that the way I was going about it just didn't look good to me, I started with lines as if it were a cartoon but then started painting it in a somewhat rendery way, and I think it wound up somewhere between cartoony and realistic, but lacking all the zanyness and extremeness of cartoons and the subtlety and detail realism can have.
Definitely want to go more cartoony, not completely sure how to work on that. Just draw cartoons more I suppose XD

ha. Well, thanks for reading folks!

[Samszym]

Heyoo! I'm thinking about taking a break from the internet for a week or so, seeing all the awesome work everyone's making is sort of intimidating O_O I think I might be getting too scared of making bad art to make any meaningful art at all, which is...really stupid. And boring!

So, here's some random doodles, studies after Ingres, ponyta and horse/animal anatomy sketches, and some stuff for an illustration with a griffin that I've been horrified to start for some reason.