My Sketchbook! :P

[wulfr]

Hey, so these are the things that I've been doing lately, I feel that one of my strongest points is the drawing, but I know almost nothing about values, color, composition etc. I'm feeling kinda lost now, I cannot do paint a drawing with values from my head, but Im doing value studies every day of the human figure, hoping that I'll be better soon :P


So here's my sketchbook

[StardustLarva]

Hey there, welcome to Crimson Daggers. I must say that I really like the quality of your traditional drawings, they have a very smooth, solid feel to them. Keep posting!

[redd858]

Nice stuff yeh line works looks good to me but I am not expert of course,

practicing values from figures maybe abit to advanced if you struggle I would recommend
doing greyscales still life any thing you want even take few different fruits and pot or bottle you know simple objects and get a lamp so you a single light source and get some nice cast shadows etc
you can all so do colour ones when you can comfortable I know this sounds boring or basic but if will help a ton I promise ,also there a youtuber and also crimson daggers member called istrebrak she as some cool free tutorials on youtube and ones about values lighting etc helped some much and theres cool practice where do simple object values paintings from imagination, shes also covers a lot of the basic colour etc,
For composition I heard often recommend that black and white 20 to 30 old master studys about the size of playing card so you don't focus on details but main shapes and try keep to 3 or 4 values only it will teach you how the masters used simple shapes and values to make composition read well, also practicing thumbnail compositions from imagination take an idea and knock out 10 or more different arrangements.
Like I say I am no expert but just some stuff to consider hope it helps
keep it up the good work!

[wulfr]

Hey there, welcome to Crimson Daggers. I must say that I really like the quality of your traditional drawings, they have a very smooth, solid feel to them. Keep posting!

Hey, thank you very much for your positive comment!!! I've never had the gutts to expose my drawings like this, put since I think now its the only way I'll improve and I wanna do it daily! :P I love traditional drawing!

[redd858]

sorry
I meant to put 20 to 30 minutes on the old master studys and also you can do simple colour ones not focusing on details but main shapes colours etc , but greyscales 3 to 4 values will help with seeing compositions most.

[Patrick Gaumond]

Think back to when you first started drawing. You probably weren't very good at it, even less so from your head.

It's the same thing with literally every other aspect of art. Study it from life or from another artist (photography, illustration, master work, book/tutorial etc) and then soon after use that knowledge either in a full portfolio piece or just as a sketch, otherwise it will take much longer to assimilate the knowledge and make it instinctual. Another good way to study is to write down what you notice about colour, about value and about composition from your studies. You can copy mindlessly all day, but the information solidifies when you externalize it in writing, and then you can always refer back to it later. Both to see how you were thinking on a particular day and to refresh your memory on what you were observing and thought was good information.

From what i see here you have a good eye/understanding of how to observe value and colour, for the most part. The thing is, if you do too many works from observation without applying it it becomes lost knowledge, and your imaginative work suffers as a consequence. You develop an expectation for a certain quality that you then can't quite meet in your own work.

[wulfr]

sorry
I meant to put 20 to 30 minutes on the old master studys and also you can do simple colour ones not focusing on details but main shapes colours etc , but greyscales 3 to 4 values will help with seeing compositions most.

Hey, thank you for the advice! Yeah I used to do color thumbnails and composition thumbnails but every time I try to do a piece of my own, it seemed that I didnt study at all x_x It really bugs me, but yeah, this is it, the trick is never giving up :P

---

Think back to when you first started drawing. You probably weren't very good at it, even less so from your head.

It's the same thing with literally every other aspect of art. Study it from life or from another artist (photography, illustration, master work, book/tutorial etc) and then soon after use that knowledge either in a full portfolio piece or just as a sketch, otherwise it will take much longer to assimilate the knowledge and make it instinctual. Another good way to study is to write down what you notice about colour, about value and about composition from your studies. You can copy mindlessly all day, but the information solidifies when you externalize it in writing, and then you can always refer back to it later. Both to see how you were thinking on a particular day and to refresh your memory on what you were observing and thought was good information.

From what i see here you have a good eye/understanding of how to observe value and colour, for the most part. The thing is, if you do too many works from observation without applying it it becomes lost knowledge, and your imaginative work suffers as a consequence. You develop an expectation for a certain quality that you then can't quite meet in your own work.

Yeah, that last paragraph says it all, when I work from imagination I tend to do linework (no color, no value, probably because I dont feel confortable), I only do studies.. Must change that :P

[Minksy]

If you can break down the values you study from, then it should also be applicable to your own work. :) I think what Richard mentioned about taking notes will definitely help you out. Or if notes are not your thing, try to set a rule for yourself: after each study (or a batch of studies) do a piece from imagination where you apply everything you learned from your studies. Would love to see how things work out, keep it up!

[wulfr]

Hey thanks for all the tips Minsky! So.. today I experimented a lot and watched a lot of tutorials too, trying to understand this stuff, to apply it. (doing studies is easy compared to the imagination work :S or maybe Im trying to understand all at once)

the first image are studies from refs the rest is from my head

[wulfr]

First still life ever, enjoyed it a lot :)

[Adam Lina]

Ugh, you're so good. God damn it! Welcome to the forum :)

[wulfr]

Ugh, you're so good. God damn it! Welcome to the forum :)

Hey thanks! :P

I need some help with this little sketch Im doing now, the guy's being lit by a street light, I dont know If this feels kinda real or kinda cartoonish with this colors :S still very noob at this.. and this is a very rough sketch in a very early stage, but I dont feel confortable moving foward if this feels not right :/