Jaik's Sketches & Thoughts

[Jaik]

Today is a still life, update on my CoW which I am no longer happy with, i really need to practice values more.. 20min enviro reffed and a self portrait, which took 2 hrs.. 2 hrs of staring at yourself in a mirror = hell... was at a wierd angle so things are kind of funny lookin, or maybe thats just my face...

[Jaik]

Had 10min before work to do some thumbs, then spent the night making one an actual design, perspectives off on the head view, but values arent too bad this time.

[isra-ac]

Hey, I like the rendering of the last little creature, the lighting's well painting and the colors are nice, keep going! :)

[Jaik]

Thanks for the encouragement Isra, I'll get there one day.. I hope...
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Didnt get a chance to update yesterday because I headed into the city to go look at an art school. Julian Ashtons looks very cool, very classic, I think I will do a few classes there over the next couple of months.

So I did a fair bit of perspective and some anatomy on the 3rd, and spent some time drawing in the city while I was there, drawing outside is rather fun :3

[Jaik]

Not a heap, did a fair few pages of some freehand ellipse practice but not worth the time to upload, did the same amount of straight line practice, but I'll only upload one, I think my lines have gotten straighter and more accurate, but not 100% sure lol. Also did perspective and value practice in photoshop, as well as some thumbs before work, nothing that struck my eye.

[lake]

I feel like the "straight line studies" should also be teaching you to really commit to your pencil strokes, instead of "chicken scratching" around. Try to bring this skill into your freehand drawings out of your head and you'll see improvement much quicker, I believe.

[Jaik]

Lake Thanks for visiting. Thats been my goal for a while, but when I sit down to do a piece I always get distracted by the other things like value and form and forget about my linework. I will try harder at it now though :) Thanks!

Really concentrated on values today, did some worksheet i found on the internet, then some cubes.
Did 1 still life over about 1.5hrs then tried another didn't get it done so I will finish it at the same time tomorrow.

Thanks for viewing :3

[Jaik]

Sigh pathetic attempt today.. didnt do much.

[Jaik]

Again not much, sorry about the lack of content..
Feet from life too, I'm struggling with the elongated version, just looks like a bunch of bumps on a line, any help with this would be appreciated.

[Ursula Dorada]

Hey there Jaik.
Mind if I drop you a line of advice?

I was reading this book here: http://www.amazon.com/John-Howe-Fantasy-...510&sr=8-1, the author actually suggested something that, to me, made a lot of sense.
Use a slightly softer pencil (he suggests a 4B one), and be more gentle of each line. He says you should not hold your pencil to draw the same way you hold to write. Be looser, be gentle, feel the paper under your pencil - softly enough you can actually erase with a kneaded eraser with ease.

I've tried it, and I loved it. I hold the pencil away from the tip, almost as if it was a brush, and I use much more of the elbow to draw than I used to.
After that, when I have all my big shapes in place, very softly, I hold the pencil more tightly and make a few clean lines to tighten up the sketch.

Sorry for the intrusion, and I hope this little advice is helpful :) Your lines are certainly evolving, but they do look a bit stiff still.

[Jaik]

SulaMoon: Thanks heaps for dropping by, and thankyou even more for the advice. I'm often scared of soft pencils (anything over a 2B is extraordinarily soft to me), I always smudge it and it ends up looking like a grey value-less mess.. BUT I havent tried it a while, and will do so now.. well not right now because I want to go to bed.. but soon!
Just a question, and I'll post it on your sketchbook thread as well because I doubt you will check in here again soon, but after you block in the shapes with the 4B do you then change to a harder pencil to do the tighter lines? Or is it all in 4B? Anyway, thanks for visiting and I will definitely check out that book :)

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anyway, for today... sigh

[Jaik]

Went into the city today so i didnt draw as much as I wanted to, got a quick couple of sketches in, went to the library found a book on Christian architecture, think im going to study that for a bit to practice perspective.

[mdbauman]

About your pencil question. Obviously there are lots of different approaches, but what I often do and what I think Sula is suggesting is to just use the softer pencil for everything, and get light values by either just being really gentle or hatching lightly.

[Jaik]

mbdauman Hmm okay i think i shal try doing that next time i do some pencil sketches, thanks :D
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Today I tried to practice more complicated perspective, it failed in a big heap because i forgot which lines were which :3 and then I did a simple half house with bricks..

Thanks for looking

[Ursula Dorada]

Hey Jaik!
I saw your question! Sorry for the delay.

That's a personal matter I guess. I like to use the 4B for everything, but really, I have a 2B and a mechanical pencil handy just in case :) For loose sketches, just 4B will do, but I do like harder leads for tightening stuff up.

[Jaik]

Ah thanks for getting back to me Sulamoon, ok, thats interesting I shall have to experiment a bit :D Thanks again for the advice

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Today I did perspective from Loomis' Successful Drawing, should be good for teaching myself the stuff I need to make the next leap.
Then I got bored and tried my hand at comic/cartoon stuff, a scene from a documentary I watched (only half done). It's surprisingly hard to distil features from an animal into a simplified form

[Jaik]

More perspective and a late night scribble coz i couldnt sleep

[Jaik]

Perspective drawing from a picture, I think I need to find more simplified scenes.. this one killed me and I couldnt finish it due to lack of knowledge.. and I did it too small lol



Perspective drawing of a castle thing I want to put into an enviro soon, might polish it up a bit still

[Jaik]

Struggling with rocks, oh so struggling... and with values..
Ahwell

[Jaik]

Hello all,

Today I spent most of my time on this bloody study trying to get it right, still didnt get it right, but its the furthest I have pushed a study.

And I am designing a Tattoo for a friend, so i did some compositional thumbs and some characters with the sort of style he was after, waiting to hear back :)