Butterknife's Sketchbook
#1
Rainbow 
Hey there, I'm a total noob when it comes to drawing and I have been trying to improve for a long time. I've always admired this place, but have been too scared to post here. I feel like I don't have a lot of direction in terms of how to get to where I want to be, I thought maybe if I put up some things I might be able to get some advice on areas I could improve.

I'd ultimately love to be able to do digital paintings, but I feel like I have to be at a certain skill level with drawing before I attempt to try painting(maybe I am completely misinformed). So I haven't tried. Anyway, thanks a lot for looking! :)








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#2
Okay, my first update. I followed Ctrl paint's contour drawing lesson. The homework was to draw 10 objects as contour line drawings.. I tried, and I think I didn't do it properly. It took me forever to do though. I also did my first digital painting haha.

I'll keep following and doing ctrl paint's lessons, and hope it helps.










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#3
I've been following the ctrl+paint lessons still. Trying to start using my tablet more for drawing. Some of the drawings were totally out of focus when I scanned them, welp. PEACE BE TO YOU.








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#4
Hey Butterknife, Good job on the still life drawings your doing, definitely seeing some improvement, keep those up.

Quote:I'd ultimately love to be able to do digital paintings, but I feel like I have to be at a certain skill level with drawing before I attempt to try painting

You don't have to be at a certain skill level with drawing before going digital, but I highly recommend getting comfortable with drawing before you do. I really wasn't very good at drawing, and I dove right into digital painting and I feel like I've suffered a little more then I should have when I was learning to paint (My drawing ability is still lacking). It's pretty tough learning how to use photoshop and draw at the same time, especially with using a tablet where your drawing at one place and looking at another.

My advice is to keep working hard on your drawing skills for awhile, Keep up with your studies and also don't forget about imaginative stuff. It wouldn't hurt to mess around in the digital painting program your using and sketch about from time to time to learn the basics of it.

Sketchbook ▲  Website ▲ TwitterArtStation ▲ Twitch ▲


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#5
@Jonesoda- Thanks a whole bunch for your comment(my first haha)! I made the switch to digital, just because a lot of the lessons I'm following are photoshop based, I guess. The imagination suggestion is a good one as well, because I have zero practice with it. I have barely any practice painting as well, a couple of crappy college lessons and that has been the basis of my knowledge.

So I've done some more ctrlpaint lessons, and I did another digital painting. A lot of it is carp. I also don't understand why he asked to fit in caricature in the lessons before he teaches you how to properly draw the human head. But I did it anyway.

Lesson- Draw an object from multiple imagined angles.



Lesson- Draw an object + add imagined details. This was not great for me. I was having a lot of trouble with the brush tool, it was very hard to draw fluid lines, so it came out as a disaster.



Lesson -Draw 3 caricatures.. Lol. I have never done this before, don't kill me.



Lesson -Draw a still-life.

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#6
That still life is looking pretty good. Try adding enough background and surrounding stuff to imply your light sources and horizon. Even a really quickly done table and wall or whatever will make it easier to judge colors because white tends to trick you. It also makes perspective problems more apparent.

There's probably some truth to what Jones said about drawing with traditional media first and I've seen that advice a few times on drawing forums, but a couple years from now I don't think it'll make much difference if you did studies in Photoshop versus a few more weeks of pencil sketches. Your work might look worse for it in the short term but as long as you're gaining knowledge who cares.

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#7
@mdbauman - You are one zillion percent correct.. I kept skipping out on background details for no really good reason. A still-life should probably capture all of that information lol, and it would actually help me shape the object and light source properly. I didn't even think of the light source really, just the details I was getting. The next time I make one, I'm going to take all of that information into account for sure. Thanks a lot for that comment :), helps me out a lot.

The next lesson is to draw something you're bad at 100 times, I chose faces. I've been spending about 10 minutes on each.. Sometimes more if I forget to pay attention to the time, sometimes a little less. I had given up on the andrew loomis head structure for a long time, with the circle/half-circle thing, and that really screwed up proportions for me. I have a really really hard time with eyes and foreshortening on lips. Any tips for drawing the face better would be great :D!










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#8
try to do different size of eye and add emotion to give personality to the character maybe do some hair study if you feel like you need to
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#9
Awesome start to your sketchbook!!

You're going to go places if you just keep consistent, I can see it already.

Smart idea to keep to the basics before you dive into the realm of painting.

Studying from life is magical.
I suggest you always keep your eyes wide open from here on in when you look around you. Try to understand how light interacts with objects and different materials etc.
Question everything, be like a child - always curious :)

I look forward to updates, I'ma be a creeper, sorry! Haha


sketchbook | pg 52

I'll be back - it's an odyssey, after all
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#10
Keep it up, hard work will get you everywhere :)
As others have already said study from life, also there is a book that helped me,
"Keys to drawing- Dodson Bert"
It tackles the issues of observational drawing.

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#11
Wow.. Thank you guys so much for the repies. Really cheers me up.

@darkiste - I've been trying to pay attention to what you said. Trying to draw people with emotion, or varying eye sizes.. I don't know what I'm getting stuck with. I keep drawing eyes that are like consistently the same shape. They all look TOO big.

@smrrfette - Thank you 1 million for the kind words.. Appreciate it. I'm trying to keep consistent, but these faces are becoming a pain haha. I want to do more life drawing, and I feel like I need a much better handle on basic shapes. I'm also barely aware of lighting, I really want to get beyond line drawings.

@crackedskull - Fank you sir, I am definitely going to check out Keys to drawing. I seem to be having A LOT of trouble with observation right now. It is like my hand just goes on autopilot sometimes.

So, I'm at about 40/100 with these faces. I am having a ginormous problem with eyes, and lips.. Making both eyes a consistent shape is so hard for me right now. Lips.. I just have no clue what I'm doing wrong there. I also can't seem to draw a lot of these in a reasonable amount of time, so it is taking me awhile. I wish I could get these down in less than 10 minutes, but sometimes I spend 30.






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#12
41-60, mrawrgh.. This is taking me a long time, I'm trying to go in increments of 20. I might wait to just post 40 together this next time.










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