Peter's Sketchbook

[Peter]

Apologies for not posting in so long, didn't realize it had been over a month since my last update (I'll try and not go so long again). I started a new job (non art related) which is quite physically demanding so it just took me abit to get use to it. I also started attending life drawing again last week since I can now afford it but I was so rusty at it since I hadn't been in so long, but I will start posting those starting next week (it wasn't on this week because of Easter), I'd post my drawings from last week but they are so abysmal and I know for a fact that I can do so much better.

I've still been doing work since my last update. I finally finished the leg anatomy studies from Goldfinger's book and afterwards I kinda felt worn out from just focusing on anatomy lately that I decided to take a break from it and work on something else. From my life drawing class last week I felt my values were really bad so I decided to sped a couple of hours (I think somewhere between 2-3 hours) on a single still life drawing to help improve my values which I had slot of fun doing, I'm gonna start and make it apart of my regular routine. 

It had been quite awhile since I last did some perspective practice so I thought I would go back to it and see what I can remember (apologies for the bad photo quality, all the pencil lines were drawn lightly) so I just did some cubes in 1-point and 2-point and just messing around with the vp. And over the last few days it wasn't intentional but I developed a simple scene that I drew of cubes in 2-point into a city scene which I kinda got engrossed in haha and from that drawing I took some tracing paper and boxed some areas off, just messing around with composition. I want to work more on this scene more, not sure if I want to try and paint it or take it into photoshop but I want to add more to it, my original idea was to have a a gigantic person or thing in the scene but I dunno. If I knew i was going to develop this drawing I would have measured the buildings properly, for this one I just eyeballed the building sizes and windows from a rough estimate. Apologies for the long post but any crit welcome. :)































Some gestures from imagination.




Still Life


Perspective 

[Peter]

Update since I last posted. Worked more on my previous idea of the city, changed the windows in the back building because I didn't like how they looked and began to explore what it was that I wanted to put into the city. Played around with a few different idea, people floating, weird objects to name a few but felt they were rather cliche so I went back to my original idea of having some big figures in the scene. I've decided that I want to try and ink it by hand and then scan and add colour in photoshop (limited palette) with the outcome being that it would be screen printed, just need to order a lightbox so I can trace the design onto some bristol board.

I have also been going to a life drawing class once a week which has been fun but it has made me well aware that my figure drawing skills are still shit for a lack of a better word haha, I've also noticed that I am a rather slow drawer since I hardly get anything down in a 5 minute drawing so that's something I need to work on aswell my gesture and anatomy. I attended a portrait class last Friday (it's only once a month though which is a shame, will have to try and find a weekly session), again had fun but noticed the same issues as I did with my life drawings.

Apart from that I've been working on my rendering skills so I did a self portrait and some drawings from life of a skull. That's all for now, I'm going to try and start posting once a week on a Friday since between practicing and my job I don't have time during the week to post, again any feed back would be much appreciated :)

p.s. I've been meaning to get an ellipse guide set for some time now, finally found a website here in the UK where I can get the alvin ellipse guides but I am unsure on whether to get the small or large set, I imagine I would get both sets at some point but wasn't sure which set (small or large) to start with. Just wondering if anyone here owns them could help, I'm only drawing on A3 paper, sometimes A2 so I was thinking the small set would be better?









Life Drawing class from last week












Life Drawing class from yesterday












Portrait Class






Self Portrait: Need to work on my eye construction

[Peter]

Apologies for not posting Friday or Saturday. had to go to bed early on Friday as I was in work Saturday and I had to stay longer to help out because one of the other workers didn't show up and I ended up being too tired to do any work when I got home. :(

I've been struggling the past few days, feeling like I haven't been progressing at all but in fact somehow going backwards instead, kept on making mistakes and re drawing things over and over again and still messing up. Normally at the start of the day I'll have a list of things that I want to get done that day but get frustrated with myself when I only manage to accomplish half the things in that list and just getting angry with myself for not getting alot done in a day even though I had been working all day long. - gonna stop here with my little rant because you've heard this a million times before.

Foe the past few weeks I've felt like I haven't really been pushing myself as hard as I should and I feel like I've sort of been wandering around aimlessly so starting tomorrow I was planning on following Dave Rapoza's weekly schedule the best I can, perhaps change some things. I've been worrying lately about all the things that I still need to learn such as colour, value, perspective, actually doing finished illustrations etc and I was thinking that perhaps it is best to just focus on one area at a time until I am confident in it and then move onto the next, e.g. focus on figure drawing now because that is my weakest area and once I feel comfortable with drawing figures from reference and imagination then move onto perspective and then start constructing scenes for final illustrations? (would like to know what people think about this if possible.)

Anyway enough about that, here's what I've done from last Wednesday to Friday. I wanted to try redrawing the same pose a few times instead of just doing one and moving on so abit of that, some 5 minute gestures since from my life drawing class I feel like that is something I needed to work on, some anatomy studies from Loomis drawing the same thing a few times while referring to the reference and then a few times from my head to see how much I could remember, then making corrections in orange. And lastly some portrait paintings that I started but got annoyed at since I struggled so much with getting the drawing right (re drew each head a good 5-6 times and still wasn't happy) but I plan on trying them again next week. 

Apologies for the lengthy wall of text, had alot to get off my chest and since I only post once a week I tend to have alot to say anyway haha.

[Artloader]

Great work here Peter, I love your pencil renderings, how you identify the shadow shapes, which is something see a lot in the atelier style teachings that I've studied.  I find that it's  a fast and effective way of    conveying a sense of form.

Keep it going fella!

[Peter]

Artloader - Thanks for dropping by :) I really like how ateliers map their shadow shapes and just like you I find it to be a great way to show form.

Last week I got abit carried away and mainly focused on arm anatomy from Loomis's figure drawing book, drawing it quite a few times while using the reference and then drawing it alot from memory and then correcting any mistakes. Apart from that I purchased the torso anatomy course from Proko as I had heard good things about his courses and wanted to try it myself so I attempted a anatomy trace over which was the focus of the first video and yeah, definitely need alot of work haha. Lastly some figure drawings from my life drawing class from yesterday.

For now my plan is to follow along with Prokos' torso anatomy course as it seems well structured and comes with assignments with each section and I work alot better when I follow a set plan. I am also planning on giving the Watts Atelier Online a go at the start of June as again it appears to be very well structured with recommended assignments. 

Again any crits would be most welcome. :)

[Peter]

Apologies for not posting in so long, I fell out of the routine of posting weekly but I'm back. Since I last updated I started the Watts Atelier online program and I've been taking my time with the fundamentals and head drawing sections, I plan to sort out a routine so that I can cover all the drawing sections in a week. I also attended some exhibitions and I've got another one I'm going to this Saturday aswell which I'm looking forward to. 

Here's a big dump of work  (not all of it) that I've done since last updating, as I said it's mainly fundamentals stuff and head construction along with work from my weekly life drawing class from the last few weeks. Any feedback would be much appreciated. :)

P.s. Sorry about the potato image quality, I really need to work on fixing that.

[Peter]

I keep letting all my work build up before posting and I end up spending a good few hours taking and editing photos for posting, really need to get into the habit of posting more. Anyway here's some work from the last 2 weeks, I've mostly been working on my fundamental shapes and head drawing following the course outline on the Watts Atelier Online which I still plan to stick to for the foreseeable future. Mostly been working from life, drawing from building blocks that I bought awhile ago aswell as a skull and the memorized planes of the head model that I got last week (plan on getting the original head in a few months) and some cast drawings.

Also did some head drawings from photo ref taking the drawings to the lay in stage, I still have some consistency issues with the model looking different in every drawing but hopefully that will get better with time. My facial features could do with improvement, especially my eyes so I was going to order a plaster cast of David's eye tomorrow and eventually get the rest of the features in the next few months.

Lastly some skeleton manikins from some of Jeff's drawings aswell as from photo ref (need to work on the differences between the male and female skeleton manikin) and some life drawing from last week. 

Staring from next week I'm going to try and force myself to post everyday (apart from weekends), as usual any feedback would be much appreciated :)   

[Peter]

Update for today, work that I did in my life drawing class. Decided to practice skeleton mannequinization (based on the Loomis method) from the live model since it's something I haven't done before and had alot of fun with. Still struggling with crouched poses and bent over poses because I dont have a clue how the ribcage looks at those angles, aswell as how the pelvis positions itself, and lastly a few head studies based of Alex Ross sketches.

[Peter]

Today I focused on fundamental shapes and trying to memorize the simple planes of the head, I was hoping to get alot more done (I wanted to draw some objects from life aswell as trying to draw the planes of the head from memory) but I seem to over estimate how much I can get done before work... sigh :( When I wake up tomorrow I'm going to attempt drawing the planes of the head from memory since I didn't get time to today, some skull drawing from life trying to memorize that aswell and something else which i'm not sure about yet. 

I've also noticed going through my sketchbook how alot of my drawings seem to differ greatly e.g. drawing the head planes from a profile view I notice that each of my attempts in one day seem to differ whether it be nose length or neck width etc. I'm guessing that is just my untrained eyes, which will get better with time?

[Peter]

Apologies for not posting yesterday, I was way too tired after work, tried pushing through and attempted some more work but had to stop after 30 minutes and went to bed haha. Anyway here's an update for today and yesterday, Some Memorized planes of the head from memory, some skull drawings from life and some heads from imagination which took me way too long (like the better half of the day) but I guess it's because it's been awhile since I've done it. Really need to incorporate it more into my practice aswell as working on the facial features, I really need to work on my eyes. Any feedback would be much appreciated. 

[Peter]

So today I continued to focus on improving my head drawing skills, I was originally planning on working on my figure drawing skills which I really need to get back to, I've just been so focused on improving my head drawing skills haha. There's so much I need to learn that it's hard to fit it all into one week. 

To start I did some memorized planes and skull drawing from memory, didn't get the chance to move onto the 3/4 view as i felt that I was taking too long on them and still had stuff I wanted to get done so if I have time tomorrow I'll do them. Had a go at a self portrait, just taking it to the block in stage. My first attempt was shocking bad but I've included it anyway, honestly don't know what happened there so I had another go at it and the second attempt turned out so much better which I was pleased with, still need to work on improving my eyes.

From Memory



Self Portrait Attempt 1



Self Portrait Attempt 2

[Peter]

Didn't get a chance on the weekend to finish off the 3/4 of the skull and memorized planes from memory unfortunately and didn't have enough time today either so it will be the first thing for me to do tomorrow morning. I did however go to my life drawing class today, I was quite light with my pencil marks with some of my drawings so apologies if some of them are hard to make out.

I need to start working through the figure drawing section of Watts Online since atm my life drawing class is usually the only time of the week that I tackle the figure so I'll start that this week. :)








For the longer pose I re drew the head as I wasn't happy with my first attempt. I feel like I drew the head too large the second time around but not sure.

[Peter]

Apologies for not posting daily for the last few days, I've injured my elbow so I wasn't able to get that much done so I thought I'd compile a few days and post all at once. Did the same as I usually do during a week, had a go at drawing the head planes and skull from 3/4 view from memory, some fundamental shapes, this time rather than changing the arrangements of objects I decided to keep the arrangement the same and draw it from different angles.

Some heads from photo ref that I did a really bad job on and a painting of the asaro head from life since I haven't done any painting in forever. I'm annoyed that I wasn't able to get to any figure work like I wanted to today or yesterday but my elbow is not being very forgiving. I think next week I'm going to spend more time tackling the figure, hopefully my elbow should be fine by then but I've got a day of work tomorrow which involves alot of lifting so atm it is not looking good. :( 












Drawing



Finished painting



A closeish view I had of the head when painting it

[Peter]

I usually post after work but for the past week I've either done more drawing after work and been too tired to post, or went to bed early because I was too tired so I've done a group post today for the past week. Same as usual this week, some life drawing although the model didn't turn up so we ended up drawing each other but I got off early to get more pencils and to do some more work at home before going to my job.

I also got myself a plaster cast of David's eye so I spent some time drawing that to help me when it comes to drawing eyes. I didn't have any time today to get anything done as I had to take care of some things but I should have some time tomorrow to get some work done so I will post then.

[Peter]

Quick update for today. Some figure abstraction from photo ref since I didn't get a chance yesterday, I'm going to spend some time tomorrow doing some more from the Watts handouts and attempt some from other photo ref and see how I get on.

[Peter]

Update for the last 2 days. Drawings from my plaster cast from straight, 3/4, and profile view, trying to remember how the eye looks from those angles and some facial anatomy from Goldfinger. Some life drawing aswell, I struggled with the 5 and 15 minute poses and I'm not happy with how they turned out, especially the 15 minute ones. I'm struggling with the hip placement and the foreshortening of the leg bones so I'll need to study the skeleton.

I'm going to start the figure quick sketching videos on the Watts website to help me improve on my quick sketches. Lastly a 1.5 hour pose which I was quite pleased with. I was pleased with how the head turned out and felt like my time studying the skull and planes of the head is actually paying off :). 

For now I'm going to start posting my work the following day in the morning and see how that works for me because last week I was posting in the evening  after work but for the last few days I've been doing more work when I get in and being too tired afterwards to post.

[Peter]

Update for the last few days. Been watching quite a few of the Watts Atelier videos so that has eaten into alot of my drawing time but nevertheless I still got some work done. Firstly is a page of free hand basic forms in perspective from imagination, Since I've been drawing them from life for the last couple of weeks I thought I'd try it from imagination and see how good I could do. 

Got abit bored of just drawing the skull and memorized asaro head so I thought I'd have some fun and draw some heads from imagination....it did not go so well haha, I really need to work on improving my features. And lastly I started working through the figure drawing videos. I kinda skipped ahead and started with the Reilly abstraction method as I was hoping I could start utilizing it in my life drawing class to help me improve my quick sketching. For starters I drew the figure abstraction over the reference photos provided and then I did the same but over some of Jeff's quick sketches, and lastly I copied some of the trace overs to help me remember it.

[Peter]

I've fallen behind abit on updating my sketchbook, I either come home form work and do more work and go straight to bed, or i tell myself I'll post in the morning but when the time comes I decide to work instead because updating my sketchbook will take time out of my drawing time haha (I really need a better system). As usual stuff from the last few days.

Life drawing from my usual class, I tried using the Reilly abstraction method this week and I can definitely see that it is a much better system for figure drawing, I felt my 15 min drawing was much better this week (although I think the arms are too long), my 5 min drawings not so much but  I just need to get the practice in. My 1.5 hour pose didn't go too well, I feel like some of the proportions are off, and I did a terrible job of the head.


More drawing from my asaro head, trying to memorize how it looks from different angles, more cast drawing, again trying to memorize how the eye looks from different angles and lastly some basic objects, drawn individually and combined. And to put into practice what I've been trying to memorize, I'm gonna spend some time on Saturday re-drawing them from memory. I've got another page I was working on today but didn't get time to finish so I'll finish it tomorrow morning and post then.

Again any feedback would be much appreciated. :) 

[Peter]

The page I was finishing off yesterday morning took me alot longer than I had thought (the asaro head), since I was drawing it from new angles I kept making mistakes or had to adjust lines. Apart form that I only got some more figure abstractions done in the same way as before, tracing over photo using the abstraction guide and then copying the tracing to help me remember it. I can see I've made a few mistakes such as making some lines more straight then they are and made a bad mistake on the pose with the foreshortened arm which I edited with red lines to show that I drew them too short. 

I've been drawing some heads from imagination today but didn't get a chance to finish them, had to help a friend out which took way longer than I thought so my plan is to finish them tomorrow, a long with some memory drawing. 

[Peter]

Apologies for lack of updates, I've fallen behind this week on work and haven't gotten as much done as I would of liked so I thought I'd do a group post for the last few days. I didn't go to my usual life drawing class this week due to the horrendous weather so I haven't got my usual figure work to show.

I did some drawings from memory of some of this things I did last week such as the asaro head from various angles and the Reilly abstraction. This evening I'm gonna compare these drawings to the ones made last week and analyze were I made mistakes so I know what to work on. Apart from that I drew some objects from imagination and some eyes from reference which I have included. I watched Proko's video regarding the eyes and did a study of his drawing in the top right and applied the information fro his video.

I'm going to do more work now and post again later in the evening.