my skertchbork

[ruthwood]

I guess it wouldn't hurt to make a sketchbook thread now 

Here's a lot of random stuff I made in the past few weeks.



extra thoughts:

• Lots of self portraits here, which I usually don't do so often.
  
• I wanna practice doodling more/drawing "faster", and in ink. If I really take my time and keep erasing/fixing/erasing/fixing, I can put together something I'm satisfied with. However, I'm not so good at churning out expressive faces/poses at a brisk pace or elegant quality. I think it'd also make my more ambitious pieces more lively and less time-consuming.
  
• I've been going for an anime style, but I wanna practice more realism going forward. Sketching and painting from life more would be beneficial
  
• On top of that, I wanna actually start studying anatomy, but it's difficult to tell where exactly I should begin. I'm afraid I'll start at the wrong spot lol
  

rena ryuugu from higurashi when they cry



rika furude from higurashi when they cry



the next 3 i made for a fashion/costume party i attended. wanted to draw the full outfit before buying the pieces and it was pretty fun



i went with the middle

[cgmythology]

Great studies here! I really dig the dynamic perspective of your latest post, you nailed it!

[one_two]

Nice start man! I see a lot of potential in your sketches. Keep the drawing vibe going!

[ruthwood]

Great studies here!  I really dig the dynamic perspective of your latest post, you nailed it!

Nice start man! I see a lot of potential in your sketches. Keep the drawing vibe going!

thank you guys :> means a lot to me

i've been drawing some faces and people, and getting accustomed to drawing in pen and not being afraid to draw full bodies in clothing with pen/in general. i need to draw more though... not enough studying/illustrations. gotta adjust my routine

i also saw "look back" in theatres last night and absolutely adored it. highly recommend it if it showing near you!







tried to do something like one shoulder shrugging to the side, but i had trouble constructing it. 





i did a self portrait earlier back to test painting more realistically and felt unsatisfied, but it gave me clarity on my weak points, mainly my limited range of values and lack of anatomy knowledge. also some facial features aren't sized correctly, so the likeness is off



later, i made this for my mom for her birthday. i think it turned out better (the likeness is there), but there's parts of it that still feel weak that are harder to put my finger on? might have to do w values again. i know the hair was an issue for sure. overall i need to do more life/observational drawing. might start using my old acrylics soon.

[Dominicque]

Good idea using 3-D pose models to practice lighting (ref)! I know people recommend 3-D models, but I always get so confused and frustrated at their non-ease of use. It makes me ragequit. Do you just spend time learning the program or just use presets?

I googled 'Look back' and it gave me a theatre show, I guess you mean the anime? It looks super sweet, I don't know if it has a wide release in the UK, but I'll look out when it comes to streaming.

Despite the 'flaws' you've listed as areas you need to work on, you portrait is very consistent and I like the muted palette, the style choice seem very 'spring'. The only critique I'd add is the hair strokes seem 'choppy' if your hair is in layers, you could try and delineate the different shapes within your hair.

Regarding the portrait for your mum, good on your for still completing it, and not letting the spotting of weak elements hold you back! For your next portrait really take your time and focus on the structure of the head, remember cheeks, noses and eyes are 3-D and at a 3/4 face angle there would be projection and your piece lacks depth.
Try and slow down and analyse a study.

Hope that helps and welcome to the Crimson Dagger forum!

[ruthwood]

Do you just spend time learning the program or just use presets?

I stuck to presets for the program I was using, though I think I've gotten pretty familiar with how to pose the model myself.

Thanks for the pointers! I definitely lost the three dimensionality/depth of the face during the portrait, and the hair thing didn't even cross my mind.

[Dominicque]

Do you just spend time learning the program or just use presets?

I stuck to presets for the program I was using, though I think I've gotten pretty familiar with how to pose the model myself.

Thanks for the pointers! I definitely lost the three dimensionality/depth of the face during the portrait, and the hair thing didn't even cross my mind.

I have CSP and I'm still not too sure how to pose the doll, but it at least seems easier than some online ones I've come across. No problem!

[ruthwood]

got swept up in life things, kinda just been lurking here and there again 
i have been drawing though! (not as much as i wish...) so here's some stuff. all feedback is welcome 

these three images show my first time using charcoal. it was really difficult and i didnt like it lol. i dont think i spent more than 15 minutes on each reference







(the cyndaquil plushie turned out nice though...)

ballpoint pen for these. <15 mins each



skulls, hands, legs studies













and a couple digitally painted portraits. i'm getting better at expanding my value range 





definitely should paint some full bodies sometime, and probably do some traditional since i have acrylics anyway. restricting myself to just the head is restricting.

[ruthwood]

Wow, you really cranked out the volume on those gestures, and it shows! I like the flow of them. I may need to really focus on it often.

Also, I like your self-portrait. Will definitely do some too.

thank you!! :D i struggled with gesture for a long time so i'm happy that i've started to understand the "rhythms" more. still want to improve there more too

[Dominicque]

Haha, I think charcoal is one of my least favourite medium, especially as someone that wants precision (straight away) its messy and the texture makes me CRINGE something fierce. :X You did a good job with the clothes, tho. Especially like the girl at the bottom with the boots.
That girl's hair reminds me of the singer Aurora, you might want to look at her for how to depict shawdows on white/very light coloured hair. I'm not sure if the style you want to cultivate includes so many hard edge transitions, if not I'd work on smoother blending.
I used to believe in 'getting out of your comfortzone', but art should still be fun and not be so taxing that you feel completely burnt now. I think it's best to instead 'expand your comfort zone'. I think it's a good idea to try a full body pic. You could always ref images or do a study to make you feel more attune to the idea.

[Existent]

looks amazing for start
its really hard to do such sketch without fixing drawn

[Jephyr]

Yeah — a SB here is a good idea to track your progress and level up.

It's good to see you mixing in studies along with your artwork.

No crits for now — just to keep posing

[cgmythology]

Great dedication! Keep tackling the basics, these should help you improve with the more complex character drawings too. I would do some value studies as well for your digital paintings, keep things simple and may use limited colors or grayscale to keep the focus on values. Keep it up, admire your dedication!

[ruthwood]

Hi y'all. I went on a vacation w/ family recently to celebrate my grandma's birthday overseas and kinda lost the routine I had -.- Took me a while to get things going again but I had a lot of time to think and stuff so that was nice

The good thing though is that I also started community college, and so now I'm getting formally taught how to draw. (yay) Going on that sudden vacation made things pretty hectic, but I've been hanging in there. Will post some of the pieces I did so far in a sec

Thanks everyone who left comments 

Haha, I think charcoal is one of my least favourite medium, especially as someone that wants precision (straight away) its messy and the texture makes me CRINGE something fierce. :X You did a good job with the clothes, tho. Especially like the girl at the bottom with the boots.
That girl's hair reminds me of the singer Aurora, you might want to look at her for how to depict shawdows on white/very light coloured hair. I'm not sure if the style you want to cultivate includes so many hard edge transitions, if not I'd work on smoother blending.
I used to believe in 'getting out of your comfortzone', but art should still be fun and not be so taxing that you feel completely burnt now. I think it's best to instead 'expand your comfort zone'. I think it's a good idea to try a full body pic. You could always ref images or do a study to make you feel more attune to the idea.

I'm getting better at charcoal now that I've played with it a bit more in school! It is quite messy

Yeah about the blending, I was struggling to make my mind on whether to go for hard or smooth edges. I still wanna experiment and see if I can find a good middle ground that doesn't look too unrefined.

I should definitely go for full body studies.

looks amazing for start
its really hard to do such sketch without fixing drawn

Yeah — a SB here is a good idea to track your progress and level up.
It's good to see you mixing in studies along with your artwork. 
No crits for now — just to keep posing

Thanks guys :) I haven't done any gestures in a while so definitely gotta get to that

Great dedication!  Keep tackling the basics, these should help you improve with the more complex character drawings too.  I would do some value studies as well for your digital paintings, keep things simple and may use limited colors or grayscale to keep the focus on values.  Keep it up, admire your dedication!

I'll make sure to get on those studies and keep it simple! One of my biggest enemies is overcomplicating the process...

[ruthwood]

shoe. charcoal on bristol
i considered capturing the bumpy texture and tried for a sec and immediately said NOPE 







origami shapes. graphite on bristol
i was surprised how difficult it felt to use graphite after getting used to charcoal





i drew two pinecones for class recently too but didn't take pics b4 submitting. will upload once i get them back.

these two below were for digital media, a self portrait and a painting of a house. i think this portrait improves a bit from my previous ones. i don't practice drawing settings/environments nearly enough so it was a refreshing experience!





old january drawings of some characters that were on my mind (arcuied, asa mitaka, teto kasane, reimu hakurei)





did these a few days ago as warmup. left one was w/o reference



i'm far from feeling confident enough to make a full blown comic, but i wanted to give CSP's comic settings a whirl so i made this super quickly haha

[Dominicque]

Haha yes it is hard when professional artists made it seem effortless, that sketchy, but still refinded style. I'd say one of those styles is Yoshinaka Amano. His looks meticulously tight, but gracefully loose. Like, how bro? Anyway, yeah it's great you want to explore!

Love the origami, would be super cool for a colour study. The colours are still monochromatic, so you'd still be focusing on values, but on tones of one colour. In fact, I'll love to try it myself.   

I commend you for creating finished illustrations in a digital media, as I keep stop-starting. (But, I'll go back to it, I swear!   ) How many layers did you use for those three characters? And, for trying out the Clip comic function. I don't even know how to turn it on, like most things Clip, tbh.

[darktiste]

I personally believe it best to avoid hosting your image to other website and learning to use the uploading feature and it limit.(You kind of have to know to to reduce the size of some file sometime) but the trade of is we will be to enjoy your image as long as this website exist i seen many sketchbook where the artist are great but the sketchbook become almost unbearable to look at because of how many image are missing it pain me to see it get lost just because they trusted those external website. At the end of the day it might seem convenient but it often come with unforeseen consequence.

If you need more detail on how this uploding from your device work you can check this post made by a fellow daggers https://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-9128.html

[cgmythology]

Nice updates! Really dig the charcoal study, very well done. For your colored pieces I would start off with a darker midtone as values seem to light currently. Keep it going!

[Jephyr]

Heya, thanks for stoppin' by my way. The shoe charcoal looks very good and I love your 'happy' self portrait. Made me smile too