JyonnyNovice - from Novice to Master!

[Jaik]

I agree with iCi, look at the width and the length of shapes, some of your figures are a bit broken, because of how thin and bent some of the shapes are. Proko is a good guiy to look up on youtube if you havent already. Keep up the good work though with the work ethic you have going here you will improve ten fold in no time!

[JyonnyNovice]

iCi & Jaik - Thanks for the feedback guys, my too-thin torso / broken figures have been bugging me for some time, thought they'd just get better if I kept practising; I took your advice with today's gestures and focused on shapes, it felt a lot better - more deliberate and not just getting the odd figure right by chance. Thanks again!

JonHop - Good to see you again my friend! Thanks for the comment and the link, going to go watch it after this. Honestly, these days I am getting my enjoyment from gesture drawings, I really get in the zone, I wanna push them and make them more artistic and visually pleasing. The pace is pretty frenetic though when doing those, it has been a little while since I just sat and drew something taking a lot of time and care over it. BTW when we gonna meet up and go sketching? : )


Today was a great day for drawing, I spent practically the whole day studying and drawing - I even got to the point where I felt I'd drawn too much and had to stop for a while. Tons done; met my study goals and got some gestures in too.

Anatomy first, more pelvis study; these are just my own notes, trying to find better ways than just drawing a thing over and over to get it in my head - making this step by step has been a great help:



Then began with colour study; I'm really excited to be getting into this stuff:





Finally some 2 minute gestures, focusing on shapes more than detail:

[JyonnyNovice]

Life drawing class today, my first attempt at drawing in charcoal on big paper 'figure drawing style' using overhand pencil technique. While I was drawing I felt it was rubbish, then it felt amazing, then when I got home and looked I settled for a thumbs up 'ok'. Pretty happy that I can do all the right lines and motions with the overhand pencil; it felt so strange and unstable at first but now I really enjoy it.

These were 2 min -> 5min -> 10min -> 20min -> 45min poses









These are photos, not scans, they do look better on the paper - my camera ends up getting blurred as it goes towards the edges of the drawings (I have it zoomed out fully already) and I had to use the flash 'cause it was dark outside already.

The life drawing session is a challenge though - there are 3 ceiling lights above the model then lamps set up either side of them - it's really hard to define shadows and to know why it's shadowed there.

[Adam Lina]

If you really want to learn color you should get James Gurney's book Color and Light. I think you might be confusing yourself and wasting time with focusing on primary colors and tertiary colors. In reality any 3 colors that form a triangle on the traditional color wheel can be primary colors. Like yellow, cyan and magenta can be used to mix any color you want the same as using red,green and blue. I think most people would recommend you start with doing a lot of value studies before jumping to colors anyways.

[JyonnyNovice]

@Adam That's interesting, I didn't know that about colour mixing triangles. I don't think it's a waste of time though - I need a starting point - and by doing that stuff I'm learning the colour wheel, names of colours and where they are in relation to each other. I looked at James Gurney's book before but it seems too heavy for me now; plus its about painting with paint instead of digitally so a lot of the stuff in there might not apply - like mixing colours just doesn't work the same digitally, two complements don't produce grey, blue and yellow don't produce green etc. (as you know). I dunno, this is all brand new to me, I'm just starting small, I don't reckon any of it can be a waste. I've done enough value studies to have a good understanding, I feel I'm ready to go in colour.


I did some gestures and a bit of figure drawing today but it just wasn't happening, everything looked like trash and I started to get frustrated, then it started to look even worse so I just stopped. I might have that eye / hand discrepancy Sycra was talking about! I'll try again tomorrow!

[JyonnyNovice]

Some squirrels; first one was starting to look ok then I added the grey background, lost the definition in the fur and tried to fix it by defining the fur better - trashed it.

Tried to draw the same squirrel again today, tried to define the fur from the beginning but didn't like it so I stopped. Maybe I could've pushed it some more but I wasn't up for it.

Confidence is at an all time low, gonna try some doodles from imagination to see if I can start to get it back.

[JyonnyNovice]

Some doodles to try and clear the mind and restore confidence:

[JonHop]

Hey dude, I can already see improvement in your mark making, a lot more confident and less scratchy. What you're going through at this moment is probably the part where you start to level up if you keep pushing yourself. It's not always about drawing to get better sometimes just taking time and looking at a painting and really looking at it analysing, thinking 'how do they achieve X and Y effect' can help you to improve.

Also about when we will go sketching we'll have to set it up soon, let me know the hours you work etc and ill let you know mine (which usually change cause i work retail but i usually have every wednesday off).

Don't let where you are now and where you want to be get you down, that final goal always moves further away as you progress, enjoy where you are and know that the more mileage you put in the more you will progress and you can do it at your own pace and enjoy what you are making at the level you are at :)

[JyonnyNovice]

You're a good bloke Mr. Hopkins! Sage wisdom as always :) It's all about the journey!

Part of my problem is I draw very little from imagination, so when I get out my paper and think 'what shall I draw' my mind is blank and I get that low feeling of 'I cant draw anything!'. So I've resolved to draw more from imagination; every time I do a drawing I'll draw it again or similar from memory later or the next day or something to try and build my visual library. I'll try to do that with the life drawing poses, animal sketches and any other random objects I draw from life / photos.

Thanks again!

My work's kinda finished for the summer (bloody teachers eh?) so I'm really flexible. Maybe we set something up for next Wednesday? We can organise with PM.

[KurtJeremy]

i liked how you summed up linrans tutorial . i got a hard time understanding it because of walls of it having walls of text. now its much more clearer.

about your gestures. try to look for "plumb lines" so you can align the features from other features.
as much as possible relate parts into other parts so you could draw them accurate. keep doing this and it would become second nature.

[clockodile]

Keep at the drawing from imagination to back up your studies. The lines on those organic forms in particular are looking more steady - and the way you used them as a platform for your figures is an interesting idea! I've not seen it done before but it seems like a good way of developing comprehension of 3D space, as well as using what you learnt from Loomis.

One suggestion for imaginative works is try to draw right through the forms, as if you are sketching a wireframe. You are already doing well with the contours though. :)

You mentioned Sycra's hand versus eye video in an earlier post too (I'm presuming it is this one) - I really liked it myself because it helped me feel a lot better about, well, feeling bad about my work I suppose, because seeing my errors indicated steps in the right direction. When it came out, I wasn't aware of it, but it is similar to something called the 'Four Stages of Competance' in psychology. It relates to artists a lot, and in practise feels more like a continuum, so Sycra's take on it with the graph works well.

You seem to have a really good outlook regarding your studies though, so keep it up! It is hard pushing into imaginative work after doing a bunch of studies, but it will get easier.

[JyonnyNovice]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys!

@Foxfire I'm glad my notes were useful, thanks for the tips too - I need to train myself to align things properly!

@Clockodile Thanks for the link and all the encouragement - I like to know what my brain is doing behind the scenes, it definitely helps to be able to interpret our feelings, frustrations and elations! I will have a go at the wireform-like approach, and yes it was that video; Sycra's got a great way of verbalising that kind of stuff.



Been drawing various things over the last few days, here is most of it:

Tried drawing my failed squirrel from memory, this 10 minute sketch looks better than the first two from reference - guess I was over thinking the first two


Manga mannikin doodles from imagination


Been studying clothing / fabric folds since it's something I've wanted to do for ages - I'll scan the whole set of notes when it's finished, for now just quick photos








A few gestures / short time figures using compressed charcoal - I'm starting to really love this medium, it was really hard at first but I'm getting the hang of it now

[JyonnyNovice]

Life drawing class today. I used compressed charcoal and (I think it's called) vine charcoal (like drawing with a burnt match). The vine charcoal was really nice to use, really dark lines, couldn't work out how to shade with it though.

2 min poses


5 min poses




10 min poses





20 min pose


45 min pose - right arm is too long, left leg looks too long as well

[Richie]

Hi Jyonny, thanks for the comment on my sketchbook/
Your last 45min life drawing has come out really well. Checked out the rest of your thread one thing that will help with your studies from books such as Loomis is to overlay your drawing over the original, and trace off the difference, it painful to do but I think its helping me out.

[JyonnyNovice]

@Richie Thanks man, thanks for the tip too, I've got Loomis in PDF form since it's a free download, I'll give that a go, probably most useful if I try to copy any of his detailed figure drawings. Did you try any Bargue drawings? I have some of the pages but the concept sounds kind of excruciating to me, copying those pictures without the slightest variation - I guess I don't see how it's a better way to learn from than what most of us do (i.e. do studies and self-check / critique, do more studies and things start to improve). I'd definitely try it out if it's got merits of its own.


A lot of drawing done today - my parents in law are visiting for a few weeks so I'm pretty much off the hook with supervising the little one (plus she doesn't want to play with me now they're around - they give her too many treats <.<)

Some figure drawing from imagination / memory - trying to remember the life drawing poses I've seen recently and tried to add in and record the kind of important details that gave the pose life.


Started a new sketchbook to focus on head / face / portraits / etc. Did the first few pages of Loomis Head & Hands
- it made me realise how bad my circles are, I thought I was ok since I do practice them regularly - I guess when you draw 20 circles and 5 are spot on that's satisfying but when you try to draw one and only have a 25% chance to get it right it's frustrating! (need to get my circles up to 75% success rate!)








And finally some gestures using this (vine?) charcoal - it says 'willow charcoal' on the box. I really enjoy using it, it leaves marks like a felt tip (unforgiving and dark) but you can use an edge or the flattened bit or the broad side of a broken bit to make different kind of lines / tone.

2 min poses





10 min pose

[Cruptic]

Hi Jyonny, it's been a while! :D Really cool to see you pushing your figure drawing to the next level! Espacially the head is something that needs a ton of practice to get it kinda right and I have to work on this a lot, too. It's awesome to see that we're going through the same phase there altough you seem to be better focused than me! :)
Your fold drawings are very nice, watch out not to exaggerate I tend to do that and then I mess up the drawing and end up trashing it :D
Keep it up!

[JyonnyNovice]

@Cruptic Thanks man, I don't feel so focused though! I've neglected all my perspective skills, gonna have to start How to Draw from the beginning again (which is fine, it'll be fun still) and colour and anatomy studies have dropped off a bit - been building up to writing up some kind of study timetable so I can keep practising each of the skill areas at least once a week. I'll get round to it someday! For now I just go and work on whatever I feel like on any day. You're right about the folds, less is more!

Speaking of colour, felt like finishing off this little colour experiment I've been working on. Just experimenting with colour palettes in a composition (line drawing isn't anything special, just wanted something quick and simple to play with)




And a quick head in photoshop, it looks pretty gross, just practising my tablet skill really, it's nice to draw heads digitally like this and just gently sculpt them into the right shape.

[JyonnyNovice]

Drawing from imagination today - I was tired and didn't want to get into any study so just did this, started off on the figure page feeling frustrated but when I'd loosened up I felt quite inspired by some of the little poses. Foreshortening of limbs is getting a little easier to visualise too. Went for the wireframe approach as Clockodile suggested, although you can't really see the construction lines anymore.

[JyonnyNovice]

Wrote up a study timetable for myself, since I've been working on a few different skill areas I don't want to neglect any of these fundamentals.

Will aim to do at least one of each of the weekly goals each week, that leaves two days to play with in case I need to work late or look after the little lady or something. If I don't manage all 5 it's no big deal, I'll just start with whatever I missed the following week.

Daily goals I'll do everyday (obviously...) but the weekly goals take priority. Unless I'm dead tired in which case I'll relax with one of the daily goals.

I'll tick them off each week, hopefully this will ensure I'm creating the most value with my studies.

It's just a bit of text at the end of the day though, so if I'm on a roll with one particular study area I can ignore the timetable and continue with it the next day.

WEEKLY (do one session of these every week)

- Anatomy
- Heads
- Perspective
- Colour / value
- Extra (anything of particular interest i.e drapery, manga, animals, etc.)

DAILY (aim to do at least one of these daily, gestures / imagination most important ones)

- Gestures
- Imagination
- Draw from life (human / non-human / organic / inorganic)
- Exercises (lines, circles / ellipse, texture, shapes / contours etc.)

[JyonnyNovice]

First day of my new study plan, decided to make Thursday the first day of the week for me, so weekends can be fun instead of a 'pressure' to complete my study goals.

Anatomy today; still working on the pelvis. I'm taking my time over this but I think this and the scapula will be the most difficult ones to master from any angle; should go much quicker through the other joints and bones.

I did a mixture of drawing from reference, drawing from memory, drawing a different angle while looking at reference and drawing it on top of model poses from quickposes.com








For my daily goal I drew from imagination; wasn't concerned about proportion or pose really just wanted to make everything look like it was part of the same scene, with a common horizon line and ground plane. It came out not too bad, considering my last attempt at a 3D scene with characters.

Somehow whenever I draw that horizon line and a couple grid lines, my ability to draw figures drops to about 10%. Will persevere with this! When I get the hang of it it will be a great milestone.