Serpian gets mentored!

[Serpian]

EDITED AND MORE ELEGANT FIRST POST

Yay! Mentors! Thanks joelhinxman and Fedezz that you are willing to help me out!

PRESENTATION
I'm Serpian, a pretty silly screen name I invented in my early teens for computer gaming. It just stuck. I'm 18 years old, 19 in November, I live at my parents in Vasa, Finland. Check it up in Google Maps and you'll find out it's in the part of the world we call EUROPE. Short term goals is a good portfolio, as I'll be applying to different art scholls come spring. At the moment I work part time at a kindergarten and try to draw the rest of the time. But as self discipline isn't my strongest side, most of that time goes to surfing these forums. That's not to say time spent on CA.org isn't time well spent. It was actually this site that got me thinking of a career in art at all. Long term goals/dream job... Well the usual.. Work as some kind of concept artist or illustrator. Although fine arts and exhibitions interest me as well, I really see myself doing some kind of work where I'm employed in one way or another. But you never know how life turns out do you. To avoid making this a rant I'll get on with the work.

Joel asked me to do some still lifes just to get this thing started, but as I haven't had any time (COW100, COW100, COW100....), I'll post some pretty recent ones.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/0923-arb3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/0918-life1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1007-s04.jpg

Also some quick small heads from life...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1007-life.jpg

[joelhinxman]

awsome.
now for step 2. do it agin. :)
this time do only one object. like befor pick something simple. this time try to make sure its all or mostly one color. something matte would be best. you can pick just a bottle or vase but if ya do spary paint it white so everything is one even tone. that vase with the flowery pattern looks like it would be good but leave out the pattern. pencil is ok but if ya can get it use charcoal.

first when drawing the shape make sure you measure alot. look at the object then draw a line look agin then draw another line. every time you draw a line look at the object. when drawing from life try a get in the habbit of doing this.
when ya measure alot look for how things line up (easyer to do when your drawing a little more complicated object) like the where the handle meets the pot the is on the same vertical as the edge of the base of the pot look for things like that.

dont worry about any detail this time just the shape then the shadows. take your time on the shadow start with blocking in the big areas then refine them. dont worry about blending your line and smuging stuff around just keep the lines ruff. dont worry about drawing what the object sits on either just put in the shadow it casts on that object

oh and dont worry about toneing in the background or anything like that just leave it blank for this one.

[Serpian]

For the record, if I at any time say things like "I'll update in a couple of days", it probably means a week. So keep those whips cracking if I slack!

Here are some short (about 15min each) studies of a very interesting subject: a water boiler! Pretty small, in pencil. I'll do something in charcoal as well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1910-life05.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1910-life04.jpg

And as a bonus, some recent still lifes in charcoal and charcoal and white pastel:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1910-life03.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1910-life02.jpg

[fedezz]

Ok, I finally made it here :P

Still lives are great exercises for understanding volume and values. It will help you a lot when doing studies or drawing more complex stuff, in fact, Bridgman studies are a great way to use what you've learned about basic 3d shapes.

Soooooo, for my part of the mentoring, I'll focus on drawing confidence and looseness. The exercise is simple: do as many studies as you can using only a non erasable linear tool (fine liner, pen and ink, brushpen, whichever you like and feel more comfortable with) without pencil underdrawing or anything.
Draw simple stuff so the subject matter is not an added difficulty: objects from life, Bridgman studies, architectural stuff, etc.
These doesn't have to be masterpieces, they're more an exercise to help you gain confidence, looseness and force you to think about every mark you make instead of relying on the "I'll fix that later" method. Keep them simple, don't render them, just hatch a bit if you need to describe some areas some more.
After doing some amount of these studies you'll notice that rendering with a pencil gets considerably easier and more accurate.

[Serpian]

Just a few ballpoint negative space excercises, will do more. I'm going supply-questing tomorrow, so I'll have a new juicy drawing pen since I dropped my last one and split its tip! More still lifes coming as well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1024-stol.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1024-lampa1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1024-lampa2.jpg

[fedezz]

Awesome, exactly the kinda thing I was thinking about.
Line quality is looking great, strokes are looking confident, which was the purpose of the exercise.

Ballpoint pen is a great medium, you can get some really nice value variations and shadings, thus getting the best of the two worlds (linear and value). An example of a killer ballpoint pen drawing by James Jean:
225013

Keep 'em coming!

[chaosrocks]

would it be possible to share the wealth? you seem to have two mentors. there are so many people looking forf them. perhaps you could make this a one on one relationship? or take another mentee into the mix? there are so many people who want mentors....share the love? please?

[Serpian]

I guess that since this mentorship is going on inside this thread, there could be another mentee or two that could be posting his practices, and that it wouldn't just be mentor-mentee feedback going on, but everyone would 'share the love' all around... This depends on the mentors of course. Anyone interested in joining could PM them or post in this thread, I guess...

[sound of silence]

Hi, I'd be very glad if i could join this thread, because i admire both of you mentors (your sketchbooks are HUGE inspiration to me).

Here is some of my work (i'll put it on CA asap): http://www.tsofa.com/viewtopic.php?t=2038

I still dont have a specific goal in my life, but its going to be art for sure. So i'd like to learn basics, figure drawing and sometime even digital painting.

If it is possible for me to join this thread, please let me know (and sorry for bad english).

[joelhinxman]

sorry i havent replied sooner moved and dont have internet of me own right now.

those still lifes look good. gona do a few more but this time take a long time to do it. use charcoal agin if ya can. dont worry about any white pastel just yet just the charcoal is fine. this time try to make it at least and hour even if you think your done in like 20min force yourself to go the whole hour. the more you look at your object the more you see in it. still focus mostly on light and shadow dont worry about any colors or designs on the image. oh and do it big if ya can. makes it hard to scan but try to do atleast one on a big sheet of newsprint or other paper.

as far as adding more mentieeeeees ill mentor anyone who asks me so i dont mind getting a few more people in on the fun.

[Serpian]

Man, sorry I've let this thread die a bit, I could blame COWs and other stuff, but it's just plain lazyness. I'll do a small post with a charcoal still life WIP and some studies from the mirror....

This is about one hour in on it. I did it on the wring kind of paper, because of its grain it's hard to do any details. But I'll work more on it tomorrow!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1112-still.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1112-arm2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1112-arm1.jpg

[Serpian]

Okay, I worked more on the still life. About 45-60 mins more. I've also done some bridgman stuff, but I'll update with that when I've got a batch...

I learnt a lot from this. After the first session I would normally have been satisfied with the result and call it finished. Now I forced myself to continue although i had no idea of what to do next... But I just started on the drapery and the rest came on its own. I could probably have gone even further but I think it's time to move on, and maybe the next one will be even better!

Most important lesson learned: You can't get details in charcoal of you use big grain paper!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1115-stilleben.jpg

[Serpian]

Pelvis studies. Some bridgman in there.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1115-d04.jpg

And a lot of doodles. I tried practicing clean lines with my pen, but it's hard! Any particular exercise you recommend?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1115-d06.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1115-d01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1115-d07.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1115-d03.jpg

And soundofsilence, I guess this means you're in! Just start posting and I'm sure mentors will be starting giving crits and tasks!

[joelhinxman]

yay that looks great. yea look like you used water color paper or something. this time try a toned paper or lay down a layer of charcol on your paper first. then get a cloth and whipe away your lights (if you layed down a layer of charcol). another still life would be good but if ya want to get a picture of a figure to draw that would be fine too. this time try to spend like 2 hrs on it. also hard charcol will help you get better detail but its best to do most of it in soft charcol first then save the detail for last.

[Serpian]

Yes, it was water colour paper, and while the texture was really interesting to draw on with charcoal, it probably isn't the best choice for a detailed drawing...

Here's a WIP of my next still life. I didn't remember to look at the time so I don't know how long I've been working on it. I quickly noticed that this paper didn't allow for very dark tones, when I tried to lay down dark values I just wiped off the previous layer. So this far into the process I've sealed it and this will enable me to make it much darker. Here's also a photo of my setup if that could help you critiquing my process...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1122-lifewip.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1122-liferef.jpg

[Serpian]

Ok, I worked more on the still life. Tell me if I can do anything more, otherwise it's finished. Didn't coun't the time, but in total it's probably about two hours or more...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/1129-life.jpg

[joelhinxman]

looks good. theres a few things in the perspective of the drawing that are a little off like the book top and the top of the jar are at differant angels then the rest of the object. that kinda thing is there the measureing comes in. cant feorget to measure. its also alot easyer to get the perspective of objects if you just think of them as shapes. like a book is just a cube or some squares and jar just a rectangel and some circles. when ya measure try to ignore what the object your trying to draw is and just think about makeing sure the lines are going at the right angels to the other lines and stuff like that.

most the reason i keep haveing ya do this over and over is because when ya do it and the longer ya take to do a single drawing the more ya start to see in the object your drawing. and as time goes by and ya work on still lives and life drawing and stuff ya begin to see detail and veriations in shadow on objects that you never saw befor. your mind tends to weed out all that extra stuff at first so ya got to train it to stop doing that.

try doing a cuple agin without the backgrounds just the object. put in its cast shadow but leave what its sitting on and whats behind it out. that way when you spend a long time on a single object youll be constintrateing on seeing the details in the object and not getting lost in the stuff around it.

[Serpian]

This thread died a while ago. I think that's because it failed to be much different from my sketchbook - a place for me to dump studies and sketches and getting constructive criticism. And no offense to my mentors, you have given excellent comments, but I guess I sorta thought it was unneccesary to have two threads with the same content.

But have hope! I have something for you to actually guide me in! My second still life attempt in oils! And if it turns out to be good enough, I'll put it in my school application portfolio. And THAT is a thing I need guidance in. I'm gonna be applying to different places soon, and I need a solid portfolio, and I've never done one before.

By the way, soundofsilence, you in?

First the sketch, then how far I'm now, and then the ref.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/0116-life1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/0122-life01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/real_Serpian/0116-life2.jpg