head digging

[ztazen]

Hey Guys!
I’m a 19 years old newbie. Even though it's been some years that I started drawing, I never really had the courage to push up my skills to the next level, and eliminate the fears and frustrations that kept me lurking around for so many years.
Today, by creating this thread I think I already made a big step forward, and I’ll keep going toward my objectives by posting on a regular basis here.
And please whatever you like what you see or not, just say something. I need your comments !

let's begin with some of this week's stuff, all non ref 2 to 5min stuff.
Edit: I changed the thumbnail pic.

[ztazen]

last night's mecha.

[Flipnastywebby]

I like you mecha!
keep pushing your work


Slainte!

[throtailer]

Really nice figures/anatomy. A bit too rushy

[ProceedWithCaution]

Not a bad start at all!

With the mecha-what I see is a little rule I found to be helpful...

Always make sure the point of balance-which ever foot it is that holds the most weight of your subject-never steps outside of the the same shoulder. Try this with yourself...stand, put the weight on one foot and lean to the side or back outside of where your shoulder would line up-You'll fall.

If I had access to something to illustrate this, I would!

Keep it up-there's alot of possibilities I see in your work.

[FourTonMantis]

looks good but why are your first figures the exact same as the one in this thread?


http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74245

edit: ok does anyone else see this? i think something might be going awry with my browser...

[jedininjaman]

Do some quick line sketches to improve line quality and try to have strong specific lines rather than a lot of loose messy ones...
But keep it up, keep drawing and you will succeed faster than you think, so ya keep it up :)

[ztazen]

Flipnastywebby, thanks man. I will!

Throtailer, thanks! Those are some of the first non-ref figures I did that actually have a human form, all the Thanks goes to Bridgman books.

Lirce, thank you! Yeah the mecha is indeed off balance :S .

ProceedWithCaution, thanks for the tip. I’ll keep it mind from now on (I would try it if I wasn’t too lazy to get off my chair):wink: .

BigZam, the exact same? Either it’s joke, or you just need some sleep.

Jedininjaman, thanks for the advice :) ! “Quick lines” and “specific lines” are two distinct principles for me, but I’m working on associating them.

And some more! Rondom heads, some gestures and a sketch i could develop sometime :

[FourTonMantis]

ztazen i'm sorry my browser was messing with me and translating your drawing to that other thread for some reason.

[Flipnastywebby]

Thanks for checking out my sketch book :pirate:

I like your recent posts, nice movement and structure


Slainte!

[AmiimA]

The proportions on the head.. seem to be a bit longer than is natural.. not sure if you do some of this intentionally or what...
it would also be nice to see the gestures giving some indication of the feeet as well.. just to give a better understanding of the blance in the pose.
but otherwise uhh keep it up..

[ztazen]

Flipnastywebby: I like your stuff so I’ll be checking it regularly. Thanks for your feedback too!

AmiimA: yes it’s intentional in most cases, but I have no idea why I do it.
For the feet, the purpose of those gestures was just to illustrate movement so I didn’t care about it. But don’t think I’m afraid of drawing them or something... :^^;:
Thanks for the crits!

Some new stuff:
A hardcore 8hours painting/values/face/drapery/motivation study. And a refinement of the green screamer (can’t believe I did it a week ago:$). Still without any reference but I did a lot of face studies lately, I hope you'll notice the difference :).
C&c are welcome !

[Iudex]

it's nice to see such fresh stuff, keep it up

[ztazen]

Thanks Iudex !

boring studies :

[ztazen]

I just got 19 officially Monday :D.
Too bad, now I have no hope to be called a prodigy someday :nohope: !!
Shiet...I’m getting old, I really gotta get some skills before it's too late.
Just wondering, is it possible to be a 20 yrs prodigy?

Some doodles :bashful:...:nohope:

[Anurizm]

looking good, keep those gestures up and start doing some life drawings :)

[ztazen]

Thanks Anurizm. actually i'm doing some life drawings on paper, but I don't have a scanner to show them. I'll try and paint something from life as soon as i have the time ;) .

Still Playing around .

[ztazen]

I don't like this pic that much but i had some fun doing it though.
What d'ya think ?

[ztazen]

I've been doing some random character designs to see where my weak points are. I ended up with this :frustrated: :

[ztazen]

Some studies. The first from bridgman's book, second from shepard's and The last one is non-ref.

[ztazen]

Nothing worth showing today :( ...
Except some crap: A very speed painting of a detail from my window view (does it count like a life painting ?) and some armor studies (i'll post more of them later).

[Pigeonkill]

Keep up those studies I notice a lot of bridgemen going on. I notice a lot of your male draws are top heavy, and the torso a bit too condense. Practice drawing children and old folk to mix things mix. That's a nice polish rendering of the purple flying creature, the folds in the skin are nice/

[ztazen]

Pigeonkill: Yeah the anatomy it’s not only too condense but also “wrong” :S, and the worse is that I’m aware of that, witch make it even more frustrating. But I’m working on it :wink:.
Thanks for your reply man.
(And go update your sketchbook instead of bumping other's ones :) !)

Still practicing values, the last one is from ref:

[ztazen]

Ok, some nudies from photos, and an ogre doodle :) :

[ztazen]

I have been profiting from the last summer sunrays, so i didn't drew as much as i should have.
Just the usual crap :

[ztazen]

Digital doodles :

[ztazen]

still trying to improve my character designs skills:

[ztazen]

The first one is from ref, the others are from head after viewing hurricane's sketchbook :).

[ztazen]

I should really start doing serious studies instead of those useless doodles :

[ztazen]

Nothing special.

[ztazen]

cool, i'm already on my second page :D . I hope i will someday be able to write in my first post: "go to the last page to see better art", because for the moment i can't see any progress.

[ztazen]

Today’s Photoshop sketches, I did a lot more on paper but I unfortunately don't have access to a scanner right now:

[razz]

Hey Ztazen.

I see you're really working on what you were speaking about in my thread. I have told myself some time ago now that there's just no way to get better at drawing from imagination than drawing from imagination! Studies and all that stuff just add to it, but one has to get comfortable at puting ideas on the paper from his head, not from ref.

Some of those little character designs look nice. I didn't come to the part of dressing up my characters, haha. I'm only doing imaginational gestures now which has helped me to get into imaginational drawing much more. You know, starting with the simple stuff and progressing with time once I get a little more comfortable.

Will be looking how you'll progress.

[ztazen]

Hi Razz! Thanks for dropping by ;).
I see you're really working on what you were speaking about in my thread.
The crappy doodles? Well in fact those are supposed to be the decent ones hehe :D.
Let me show what I mean by ugly!
All those were done in an MS Paint like program, which has a very fluid pen tool, and is also less intimidating than other softs:

[ztazen]

Now here is the last sketch after some hours in photoshop.
c&c are more than welcome !

[razz]

Haha, Ztazen, I didn't mean that those sketches are crap. What I meant was they're fast ideas put down on paper. And these crappy sketch examples you've posted I think are maybe too fast. In my opinion a sketch shouldn't be so that only the artist that drew it understand what is there. Even if it is a very rough/fast sketch it should still be readable and understandable to others. Now I don't know how do you approach these, but when I do fast sketches I try to think of the linework a lot and I find no need to put ten lines where one can do the job.
But that's just me, every one of us draws how he finds it the best for him to draw.
If you haven't seen Min's (Bumskee) thread in here, be sure to do so. His linework (and everything else really) blows me away.

[ztazen]

I agree with you Razz, in fact those aren’t even meant to be shown to others. As i said it’s only for the purpose of dusting off the creativity machinery. So I try to only concentrate on putting ideas out of my head, and since I don’t have a clear vision of what I want to create, I just put down lines and shapes and try to get something out of that chaos (helped by my still poor visual library).
I think that line work is very essential too (bumskee’s art is the perfect example of expressive lines), but it can be worked later. But If there is a way to put down ideas with clean lines from the first try then I would really like someone to help me to figure it out.

Now some poor studies i did while watching TV.

[ztazen]

Furniture studies, and some late night crap i'm too lazy to develop.

[ztazen]

Too busy, too indecisive. Here is what i got so far :

[ztazen]

today's sketch. I need to study some armours before i can finish it :

[ztazen]

This post is dedicated to the pen that made realise that I can actually draw from my head, and gave me so many pages of joy before it expired mysteriously (it was a refillable roller tip pen) a week ago.
Over the course of this summer I must have maid more than hundred of pages of doodling, most of it is crap, but it gave me enough confidence to break the addiction to reference and really rely on my imagination to have satisfaction from drawing.
And I had a hell of fun drawing with it everywhere I went (car, beach, hotel…etc).
I will never forget you :(.







…until I buy a new one.
here are some doodles(from head and life), i'll post some more later.