That's a lot of work here man ! you you put the values on those faces and figure drawing that's awesome !
As a critique (If i may), I wanted to say tthat some of your imagination sketches (like the vikingish warrior long-armed guy) look quite stiff in their pose, but your last sketches like the angel doodle are going very well sooo... guess you're already working on that ? (yeah sorry I don't have a lot to say haha...) But very cool job !
Vicianus, I just post almost everything I draw which it makes it seem like I work hard I think :D I honestly probably only average about 10 hours a week of artwork. I make it a point to always at least do some drawing or at the very least make plans of what to study and brain storm/ research art related things. The compliments on my work ethic feel nice though I'll admit. Im sure many of you guys work harder on one piece than I do on a million little quick sketches. Im just in love with quick sketches I guess. Im finding my passion for longer works now though.
And thank you for the links. I knew I should have done some searching for some tutorials on balance but I was just too stubborn or lazy to. Im glad you can see some improvement on my balance since I cant hah! I'll just keep working at it and hope for the best. Many thanks for your crit. You really cut right through to my weakest spot I think. I was sort of ignoring it and thinking if I just keep doing what I was doing it would work itself out without directly addressing the problem.
Tien, thanks for the crit, man! Thats also a major weak spot for me. The viking and angel were both actually referenced though. The viking is a Frank Frazetta painting and the angels from this art book I got
I find though after I draw for a few hours I warm up and my drawings get more fluid. So it just shows that most of the time I only make it passed an hour or an hour and a half of drawing for the day and dont get to that sweet spot of flowiness often enough.
Did some dog anatomy. And I got a Ergotron LX monitor arm mount for my yiynova monitor. Now I can position the monitor over my keyboard at a perfect angel for drawing without having to hold the monitor or ghetto rig it. Im loving my new set up. I feel so pro-fesh-inaaal. I can finally do digital stuff comfortably!
Heres some of the gouache I've been doing. The bottom figure was done at the figure drawing group. It took about 2 and a half hours. And I've started work on a short comic. I hope to have the roughs done by tonight or tomorrow. I'll post the pages as I refine the drawings more.
I'm already seeing improvement in your balance, the torsos don't feel so cumbersome and the posing in the legs would believably support the figures, good job! Keep it up! The life drawing you posted also looks quite nice, good work.
Heres the first 2 pages of this dumb comic I started. The roughs ended up taking longer than expected and the "inking" process is slow going but I think its good practice. Im not really planning on doing comics but this idea just came to me and I ran with it. So why the hell not?
Hey, Adam! Keep rocking it. Not much to say as far as critique; just maintain your momentum and try to apply more of your studies into your personal work.
If you don't mind me asking, what do you aspire to be artistically?
MAN you have done a TON of work! It's absolutely admirable! I can see the improvement all the way through. I'm gonna hold you up as inspiration for my own improvement!
Critique wise, the only thing I am wondering is that I see a lot of your work with a very thin pencil or pen outline and I'm just wondering if you have ever tried drawing really large with a very thick instrument like a brush pen or a charcoal stick or anything like that? I know for me it really helps me to understand form when I am drawing very large and using the charcoal to suggest planes- rather than drawing a complete contour. Also, have you ever heard of Anthony Ryder? He has an interesting method of drawing which includes enveloping the figure and then drawing down to it. http://www.tonyryder.com/a-book.htm It seems like you are attempting every way of drawing which is an incredibly smart thing to do, so I thought I'd mention it.
Thanks Manny! Im not completely sure at this point. I'd say illustration but long term I want to work for myself through kickstarters, patreons, youtube channels, print sales, private commission work ect. But thats a long off dream. I see that no matter what company I get a job from I'll always have to work on something thats not my true passion. I've heard from so many pros to do work that you love and thats what kind of work people will pay you to do.
I still have to learn value and painting before I need to even worry about all that though. I dont even know what kind of art Im like the most. I really love realistic paintings and all different styles of cartoony stuff. I lean away from the more concepty type of stuff like Fang Zu does but I still appreciate it. I've only really been practicing daily for a little over a year so its too early to make any decisions on what direction fits me. I plan in another year or so I'll start working on a professional portfolio.
Thats wonderful to hear Jeanne! All I could ever hope is to inspire others. Thank you for the crit too. I've been hearing from a few people that I need to try to draw more like a painter and break out of my purely line based approach. Im really trying! It takes baby steps though...
I recently started over on the How to Draw book. I went to the mall and sketched the food court first which got my perspective gears turning. And I feel I had a really good night of life drawing later that night. Its weird how drawing boxes helps improve drawing people in some indirect sort of way. Also I got some crummy sketches I did at work and while killing time. And a few "design studies". They're really just copies of drawings that I liked. So if you see a design that looks a lot better than the other ones thats probably what that is.
hey man! great drawings as always, that guy from the life drawing looks suspiciously like your self portrait a while back... ;)
Great that you started How to Draw again, like you said it influences other drawing in subtle and amazing ways. If you get little bits of spare time at work, one thing I've seen other artists do is to construct a careful drawing of the room (or city street or wherever you happen to be), then when those lines are locked in, whenever someone sits down or stands somewhere catch a quick gesture of them, flesh out details when you can and eventually you have a room full of people. It's a good way to pass the time and get some perspective & figure drawing practice in together.
Hey thanks Jyonny! I was planning to try that thing with placing people in the perspective drawing when I drew at the food court but Im still pretty new at environments. Im still getting over the awkwardness I feel being that lone guy drawing stuff and trying not to be noticed. If only I had a cloak of invisibility...
And no the life drawings are not me haha! I've dialed back my stach since I did those self portraits last year. I dont think I could stand still for 20 minutes at a time either. Especially with a room full of people staring at my junk XD
Thank you desirulz! I'll keep on keeping on, dont you worry ;)
I like how you're doing the comic, it looks like it's teaching a lot, maybe i should try that sometime :). Though mine would just be koalas looking at cute girls walking underneath the trees, not a great concept on paper... hehe your character reminds me of something jonesoda might come up with though less creepy
But gaah heads bro they're hard to get right, but i found the best way to approach em is the same way you're doin it right now, just poundin through it. Eventually the eyes start lining up better and proportions sort themselves out, they will get better ineviatably just as your figures have.
You do pretty well on the faces in the full figure drawings, just keep doin em and it'll bring it all together. I look forward to seeing more progress.
Thanks for the comment Fedo! Pretty much all I do when I sketch from imagination or when Im sketching in public is faces. Im trying to branch out and do different stuff but I'll keep coming back to it. Some of those face sketches look pretty awful I'll admit but when I really sit down and try hard I think faces are one of my stronger areas to be honest.
And I highly recommend comics to anyone trying to improve their drawing. It gets you drawing all sorts of things you wouldnt normally draw. Plus it builds your creative muscles in all sorts of ways. I was messing around with the idea of comics for a long time but what finally got me to just do it, was the decision that Im not trying to create some amazing comic right out of the gate. If its your first comic its most certainly not going to be really good or mind blowing. You just have to do it and have fun! I think that goes for everything in art though. People pressure themselves to come up with their magnum opus their first couple tries and it just doesnt work that way.
I did this study of a Stephen Gammel illustration. Its from the book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Im going to do a bunch of composition thumbs of his stuff later tonight. Then tomorrow I'll try to apply it all to an original.
Well I fell behind on my plan and only just got my thumb nails done. The application part will have to come later this week. And this weeks life drawings were a struggle. I almost left early after the first 20 minute pose. Im still having trouble with making my standing poses not look like they're going to fall over. At least the reclining pose wasnt as hard this time. Having to draw faces laying horizontal without being able to rotate the page has been kicking my ass.
