Desireing to improve (Need crit)

[phoenicorn]

A sketch based on the pictures in "anatomy for fantasy artists" by Glenn Fabry.
picture used is shown at bottom left. Any constructive criticism is welcome. Basically ready to be slaughtered. More will come!::anime:

[phoenicorn]

From the same sourse as the previous pic (anatomy for fantasy artists). Please leave contsructive critisism.

[phoenicorn]

My first sketch club drawing, and first live model. Please leave constructive Critisism. Thanks for viewing.:mod:

[fantasyartist]

That first drawing is looking nice but the legs have very little definition to them. The second one looks very flat. You need more practice drawing and shading basic forms (cubes, cylinders, boxes)in perspective from diffrent angles. Once you have this down try breaking the figure down in these simple volumes and watch carefully how they fit one into the other. Remember that the figure is 3dimensional so each part need to clearly occupy it's own space. Also when drawing heads/faces, note that the eyes are in the center of the head. Keep up the hard work!

[Augmenton]

I agree with fantasyartist, you need to push your values more. It's good that you are trying anatomy studies, it's the way to go, just make sure you also parctice pure value. As of right now you have mainly one or two values in your work, three is usualy considered the acceptable minimum, but the more the better. However, the only way to get better is to keep on drawing and keep on posting 'em here. (ok, you don't need to post them here to get better, but...)

[phoenicorn]

My latest piece. From the same book mentioned before. I really need help with hands, any tips would be appreciated. Thanks for looking. Hope to upload more soon. I will be studying hands so more than likely you will see some hands next.

[Augmenton]

Well, I can't really give you any tips on what books to look at, I never got around to finding any for myself. However, just remember the basic shapes that go into a hand. For instance, I generally think of the palm and back as a rectangle or square, and the fingers are just cylinders. Another smart option would be to study the bone structure, then use that knowledge to break it down into a simple line skeleton. Lastly, just keep drawing them, pick out places that you have trouble with and focus on them. Don't know if that helps, but I tried!

[phoenicorn]

Just me messing with multiple tone values. People kept saying I should study this so I did. The hands will be coming soon.
Thanks for you time.

[aussiedeza]

Great mate you obviously prepared to do some studies which is a good start i would suggest to learn about 1,2 and 3 point perspective and draw a bunch of boxes correctly and try and do like 5 mins at least before you go off and sketch anything else and keep doing that untill you are able to sketch a box in any rotation you want, i can telll from your drawings you need to learn and understand how create form on a 2d piece of paper and box is the best place to start.. keep it up!! also get your self an anatomy book and start learning the skeleton its really easy to tell an artist who doesn't understand the structure of what they are drawing and it makes everything so much easier once you know it.good luck

[phoenicorn]

Hi, it's that time of the week, the time where I post todays sketch club drawing. I ran out of time on the clothing and i think the shading on the face could have been better. To be honest I dont think the hair went well either but it was an improvment on last weeks sketch. Any advice on technique or general improvments are always read and very much aprechated. thanks for the time.

[Azalin]

very nice drawings, the only thing missing is more depth so i would recommend practicing a lot what Fantasyartist said.
there´s also this book (Basic Figure Drawing) from Vilppu wich is every good to understand the volumes and how to construct the human figure, get it and do every exercise you see there, it has helped me a lot, and i´m not even finished with the whole book.
keep up the good work.

[amarryth]

Hey, I just stumbled upon your sketchbook. Comparing the first post to the last post.. I definitely see improvement. Don't concern yourself so much with the shading and making the hair look real at this point. Just looking at the two Sketch Group portraits you did, it seems like you paid alot more attention to what you were seeing as far as the relationships & space between different parts of the face. The way we think things should be vs. how they appear is so different and as you continue with your drawing this will become more and more evident. One big thing that stood out for me was the placement of the eyes, portrait #2 was 10000x better. Just focus on your proportions.. No one's going to care if you render hair and skin with photo-quality if things are in the wrong place. Keep working, it looks like you're making great progress!

[phoenicorn]

Well heres an attempt at drawing myself. Ugly I know but still if you could hold your lunch down just long enough to leave some constructive critisism I would be greatful. Note this is also in the self portrait section. Thanks for the time

[phoenicorn]

Had some spare time so I drew alot.The first 1 is of an alien (I was just mucking about not realy basing it on anything) second is of a statue I have

[phoenicorn]

Yes I have finaly done what I said I would do last week. Finaly made a decent attempt at hand. Please tell me how to improve other than use your hand for reference as this is based on my hand. Thanks for the crit and I will post more soon.

[phoenicorn]

Incase you have not guessed this is my second hand drawing. Please crit. Thanks for the time:carnifex:

[Pinky1]

hey I think it very good just add more tone
like ur messing with shading
otherwise nice stuff

[phoenicorn]

First the bad news. Due to reasons out of my control I was not able to go to my sketch club yesturday and was not able to get much drawing done.
Good news, today I got off my sorry ass and did some drawing (although I did not feel like drawing). Anyway without further adue my latest mess about with shading.

[Arrowhead]

Hey man cool stuff, but something I noticed on the 2nd hand drawing, is that the thumb looks alot like a Big Toe.
Ive stared at it for a little while now and cant exactly pin point why though, and its totally possible its just me that thinks so, but id look at the position of the nail. Its whats causing this I think.
Keep it alive man, cool stuff.

[HAJiME]

I feel like you'd have some real fun with something dark, messy and heavy (medium wise).

Some reall rough charcol... or something.

[phoenicorn]

Yesturday I was a little distracted so various parts were off. I still want the critique so feel free to slaughter. Thanks for your time.

[phoenicorn]

First off sorry for the break (feeling ill combine with very busy). Secondly i really need crit for this one as I want to improve on this. If you would be so kind as to slaughter my work I would be very greatful. The picture is of a model in my sketch group. well hope to upload more stuff soon. Later.

[phoenicorn]

Well I decided to colour the previous sketch in photoshop

[kidult]

Nice colour work on the last on. Good to see all the studies - keep at em the more U do the more U will improve. Try look for some loomis and bridgeman books for hands and anatomy. Your own hand is a great model - just do it from all angles and try differant poses. Try copy hands from the master painters too - there anatomy was usually spot on.
Then lastly pay attention to your light source - define it in the beginning and stick with it. Will help to give form and shape to your drawings.

Hope too see more stuff soon!

[Wilkins]

thanks for the reply, i love these pictures, especially the... 4th one, it looks like an orc and plus that face is really distinguishable. i like it but im still workin on my critisism skills lol.

[phoenicorn]

Sorry for not posting for what seems like an etternity. Been ill and it has been a struggle to draw. Anyway I have a new art dump so with out further to do here we go. Second to last is yoda from starwars and the last piece is for DSG (the cyclops uniped). Thanks for your time and sorry for the poor quality of my sketches. I will be working on my technique. See you next dump.

[BustinFlaps]

Nice stuff. As you scroll down, it seems your drawings get better and better. While mine just SUCK. Oh well. :)

[phoenicorn]

well I finaly finished my assignments so i had some time to draw but guess what? I got challenged to use different media so and got set some rules (like time limits). most of the work was done in chalk and/or charcoal and the longest i spent on any piece was 2 hours (for the sketch and the white jugs) most of the time I just had 10 - 20 mins. before any one asks no I will not be finishing them these were just my pic of my best practices of the time i worked. As usual all crit is welcome but please keep in mind that on average I had a time limit of a few mins and most of the media I have never used this way. thanks for your time.
p.s. the 1 Charcoal pic has slight nudity

[ditchman]

looks like you had fun with that charcoal, your studies are defiantly improving.
try to hold your hand in various positions when studying it, put some drama into your gestures and the end result will be more interesting to look at.

[emptyvessel]

See that you've attempted various mediums, i wish i have the level of interest and motivation like you do. you should try drawing figures in basic forms for a change. firstly, it doesn't pressurise you into wanting to achieve a 'prefect' sketch and secondly, it trains you to draw fast and visualise better...but try to do that with references instead of pulling them out of your imagination...keep it up man!

[phoenicorn]

this is in honour of a triple celebration. last sunday was my birthday making me 21 (but still act like a 7 year old). the second celebration is I have finally finished my games development course, and the final celebration is the fact that i got a DDM (distinction distinction mertit. second highest possible grade). I got some compressed charcoals so i tried to do another self portrait. this came out better than the previous. also being as i have completed my course I should be posting more regular. Please leave crit and I'll try to get more up asap.

[phoenicorn]

Soz for spamming but just had to comment woot i got to second page

[shiNIN]

happy birthday then :)
thanks for visiting my SB, though "nice start" is a phrase is something I don't value very much, it's too uninformative and I saw it everywhere... but thanks anyway :) and I've posted my first drawings in 5 chunks and you wrote just after the first one, it's unfortunate ;)

your last pic: it's neater than your previous stuff, but it's still a bit stiff. the right eye (left in the picture) needs more definition (especially the bottom eyelid) and the other is a tiny bit too close to the nose. eyes are very important, hold much of the expression, they especially need to be good :)

[phoenicorn]

my first sketch in a while and i decided to do some studies on arms legs and general proportions. my head don't feel in the right place at the moment and i made the same mistake i always make. I am not sure what it is so any help would be great. one half of the body is male the other is meant to be female. the study was from anatomy for fantasy artists

[phoenicorn]

well i was doing studies for arms and legs and theres nothing of those i particularly want to show and my mind wandered to my fav book (anatomy for fantasy artists) and i drew one of the wolfs. I figure it is good enough to show so here it is. I may do a colour version but I am a bit busy with a holiday planed soon. I will try to get more up before I leave.

[phoenicorn]

coloured wip as promised

[drewfarr]

The anatomy studies in post 34 look great! Youre definitely improving.

The wolf is looking nice so far, but it needs a lot of contrast(the lighting is super flat at the moment). Looking forward to updates!

[Dannelf]

Alot of improvement here! :) I would suggest that you do some lifestudies to get a hang of things shape and form!
Keep your imaginative work up also! :D Want to see more!
Keep your pen sharp dude!

[ExtraSythe]

Nice work, i like the contrast although for me it could stand to be a little darker pencil, i love how you show and define muscles and what not. thanx for the commet earlier lol

[phoenicorn]

Hi all. I'm back from my holiday feeling more refreshed. the following drawings are from the book "drawing and painting the undead" by Keith Thompson. I only had that book on me and i decided to do some of the zombie posses as well as some of the drawing projects in the book so with out any further delay and in no particular order. Feel free to post constructive crit, praises, love letters, bills, or anything you feel like. I will submit more asap. Later all

[donalfall]

Hey dude. There's a measurable improvement between todays bits and the stuff from july 2nd, so that's great! The "...undead" and "... fantasy artists" are good books, and thorough. You need to make sure you study them hard and copy them as accurately as you can. You're not quite there yet.

You also gotta go looking for the Loomis books. I'm sure that others have or will say this to you. There's plenty of links on the forum to get them as downloads, search for loomis and .pdf. Keep on going, practise hard. If you want to try some shaded work, like in "shade.jpg" you should at least try keeping the outline very light while darkening in the shaded areas. It's good practise for working on your tones. Keep it up!

[phoenicorn]

Hay all, I've been busy all day on this piece. Slightly better than my previous colour attempts. any improvements on technique will be very much appreciated

[phoenicorn]

I created this in about 30mins. Please tell me what you think

[phoenicorn]

I have been attempting Loomis then attempting posemaniac.com. Here are the results expect improvment over the next few weeks as i will be posting more regularly in the hope of more crit and advice. Thank you for your time.

[Dannelf]

Hey dude! Nice to see you're working well!
My first advice to you would be that you work on getting the hang of things proportions. As an example we can take the most recent drawing of the man. The arms is waay to big and the head is to small.
That's why I suggested you to begin with drawing things from life at first, before you go ahead.
Though I think you have good feeling for balance in your figures, and expressions of the face is great!

Keep things coming! I smell the potential in you! :)

[donalfall]

Oh, your studies are here as well. Ah well, I put a crit in on your other book. Although, just looking at your sketchbook makes me think of an extra point - you're pretty unusual for a beginner in that your pencil pieces are usually quite confident - you don't make too many scratchy, hesitant lines when you're exploring your shapes. That is cool. Try and keep that confidence. But then some of your painted pieces are a bit muddy, as if you're not sure how to apply the colour to the shapes. Try and bring over the same feeling of knowing what you want the final piece to be that you have in your sketches. :)

How was that for critting? :D

[phoenicorn]

latest study

[Kurjuus]

Hey, nice start with the colors, though I agree with what donafall said.
I only can say that you should keep on drawing, an eye for proportion will come naturally with time if you jsut keep studying. Ofc you can speed up every process by concentrating on what you want to achieve but then again you should consider that to much concentration on too many things at once won't help your learning. For those loomis studies it's best if you go for proportion since it's what they're ment for. Studies from life should rather have the 3d form as the main point of interest no matter wheter you'll shade the linework or not you should get a feeling for the thing you draw as a whole. You should btw be aware of perspective when you do that.

Keep up the nice work :)

[the ANGRY filipino]

hi phoenicorn!
one suggestion I have is to do your anatomy studies slowly.
Dont rush them, you'll learn a lot faster.
Keep in mind proportion, muscle shape, bone structure
when you are studying anatomy. Pretty soon, they will
all connect and make sense as you draw.

But I am no expert, I'm just sharing with you what goes on in my head
when I am doing anatomy studies..

to see how a real pro does anatomy, search for Mentler's thread here on CA.

[phoenicorn]

I'm back with new stuff to show off. The first picture is a bat I found on the internet (sorry but I cant remember the URL) the rest apart form the one face is personal scribbles and studies. Credit is given to the original artist of the one face. Enjoy.

[phoenicorn]

Yeah so I could not sleep last night (technically this morning). So I drew some stuff from the book "Drawing the undead". The second Ink is the cover of the first evanescence album. All Crit is welcome so slaughter away.

[the ANGRY filipino]

Keep going at it!
And watch out for skewing, where one side is tilted higher than the other,
especially with the eyes ( I have the same problem myself).

[phoenicorn]

So I have been uber busy with my new art course and not had much time to draw for pleasure. well today I took some time out from doing assignments (and sleeping) to draw this owl. Please crit and give some advice on drawing fur/ feathers. thanks for the time. (p.s. I may do a coloured version)

[phoenicorn]

well I had afew minutes to mess around with colour so as said the coloured owl plus a pic of my dog I drew afew days ago

[the ANGRY filipino]

Hi Phoenicorn!

Nice looking owl!

keep on burning that pencil lead!

[phoenicorn]

my college work.

[S.C.P]

Hi there Phoenicorn !
Thanks for dropping by my Sketchbook..it was gettin lonely in there lol:oneye:
I looked from your first page to present and you are making good progress ,keep drawing ! All the Best.

[phoenicorn]

I have been working on an assignment for college today and produced this for my digital art section. I hope to get it for the most part finished tomorrow

[phoenicorn]

inspired by my world of warcraft mouse mat

[Dannelf]

The owl in post 54 is super! :) Just keep up as you do! I like all your coloured stuff! 59 is good as well! To draw from reference is a very fast way to improve.

Longing for more stuff! :)

Dan

[phoenicorn]

well I finally got off my arse and uploaded the college project so here's the monster.
o yeah 3rd page. still something exciting for me

[phoenicorn]

So I found this awesom picture/ Screneshot off ninja gaiden2 so I decided to draw it. Done compleatly in photoshop and I am still working on it. I feel like crap today so I may continue tomorrow.

[phoenicorn]

Back again. Phoenicorns back tell a friend.
Ok enough quoting slim shady. Well I am back from the brink of death (damn you man flu) So I know have the energy to post some work up on this site again.
on a personal note I can't believe how much work I had to catch up on at college. I mean seriously nobody told me the uni application was due in the Friday (yesterday). Managed to get it all sorted out though.

Well that is enough moaning. Figured I'd start off this new post with anatomy studies. Yep it's an old CA favorite Andrew Loomis
*personal note* when did the image upload thing change. Hope I got everything correct

[Stevan]

Practice drawing shapes. On some drawing of yours; hands , torso or some other body parts don't have appropriate shape. Maybe you should first work with pen and charcoal on practicing basic shape (as many said) , try to realisticly copy what you see, take your time don't hurry, point is to sharpen you r eye so you can very identically transfer what you see to paper. That's all i have to say, sorry my english.

PS
Oh ,and one more thing ...just keep drawing and drawing.....

[zelda_geek]

I second that, keep doing the anatomy studies and practice basic shape. Look for big forms and take your time.

Good luck and Merry Christmas:)

[phoenicorn]

Well here we are again. It's that time to show what i have been working on recently. The last 2 images are inspired from imaginefx. I forget which issue. so just to recap the ideas were not mine I just used them to train.

[phoenicorn]

My first picture of 2009. I Saw this advert in one of my mags and drew in that style (Kindo' vector stuff) the second pic was me adding shading to it to see what it would look like. The writing on the sides are personal notes.

[Untouched24]

Hey, nice work in here. Keep up the studies and keep mixing it up with the fun imaginative stuff. Also, I would maybe try to do a few experiments and while drawing something new, start it out with some basic shapes (circles or whatever) to really feel out the form that is making up what you're drawing, and see if that makes them seem a little less flat.
Keep it up!

[phoenicorn]

Well I'm back again with a new 2 new pictures. I am currently getting help from the nice people on Imagine FX so I think I have improved a wee bit. the second picture is based on Dante from devil may cry

[phoenicorn]

No Idea why I'm doing DMC again but here is the box cover for DMC 3

[fenixx]

Hey. Nice SB.

I really suggest you do more Anatomy studies, with basic forms and structure. Use loomis. They are really going to help add more realism in your figures.

Keep drawing :)

[Creatinity]

go with quick studies and do a lot of them...
dont try to go to far yet...one step at a time...
take a loomis book, read it, draw it, over and over...it will come...

[AlexTooth]

WELL hello there :-)

Cool sketchbook dude, and you got into art school, so soon you will be slaying us all with your new found skillz and ownism (is that a word?)

Thanks for looking at my sketchies =) Nice seeing someone I kinda know hehe, this place is pretty mental, scary stuff, and awesome at the same time.

Your Dante's rockin'!

Seeya in the daily sketchie wotsit!

Wanted to try some of these hehe

:punkgirl: :lifedrawing: :ninja++: :angel: :frustrated: :pirate:

[rorke]

Have you read Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. I think it would help you at this stage quite a bit.

[the ANGRY filipino]

hey phoenicorn, post#61 looks very promising! love to see you push that some more...it's got such a nice mood to it!

[phoenicorn]

angry you are such an inspiration to me and I will so take your advice on the style. thank your for all you support I will become a stronger artist and repay the favour some how and some day man.

[batcustard]

I think you should probably start doing gestures from real life, posemaniacs or watever is a little bit of a nice way to get warmed up before doing some real drawing but it is by no means a good way to understand anatomy or the human form. Alot of your work is reading as a little flat. I think thats because you might be working under the assumtion that shading can give an object thickness. This is incorrect.
Allthough it can help, rendering an object in greyscale is meant to be the equivelent of polishing said object (when speaking strictly in formal terms) I have seen oilpainters map thier perspective ten feet in either direction off of a painting. (putting red string on tacks) to make sure thier base drawing was solid before putting down even a stroke of paint.

On a seperate note entirely, generally speaking, I find that a place like this would probably be almost counter productive during the early stages of drawing. You are going to get a million opinions from a million directions, to try and take all of this advice at once has to be brainsplitting? So in spite of the fact that I feel the need to dispense advice, let me say: do what feels right. I see so many people let themselves start using other people as a crutch in thier work. I am an animation student, and I watch a good seven (really talented) students try too hard to please professors and fellow students. These people, people who have legitimate potential are not failing because of a lack of advice, but of an abundence. Allowing your identity, your needs and your enthusiasm to be hijacked by more experienced artists is almost always a bad idea, because at the end of the day man, its just you.

You are the only one who matters when you are producing work, if it doesn't make you smile, whats the point.

while we are on the subject of taking advice: don't draw from photos if you can help it, its generally frowned upon. When you are trapped in a room with a wacom tablet, drawing the ruins of mohenjo daro or some shit then fine. But you are doing pencil drawings, why aren't you drawing from life or from your head?

Coffee break alice is awesome.

[phoenicorn]

Well I ain't posted anything here in a while (aside from my anatomy page)
My art tutor made me do research on Pollack (I think thats how you spell his name) any who. I hate his work so my tutor decided to make me draw and aply his style to my style so with out further dilay

[phoenicorn]

based on a picture by Armano

[illumisis]

You're really coming along! I especially like the last two pieces. Very cool.

One thing I noticed is that you do the same thing that I do when shading. You contrast the light and darks a lot so it sometimes gives your faces and muscles a more "metallic" texture rather than a skin texture (unless that's what you're shooting for). What I'm doing to work on that is to just outline where the shadows are, and only fill those. Perhaps doing that would help you too-- that way also, it's easier to fill out the form without only relying on shading alone.

[phoenicorn]

after getting over a nasty bug I figured it is time to show off what I have been up to the past while.
Enjoy!

[the ANGRY filipino]

good to have you back man!
I'm liking the Amano inspired work...the onion though looks a bit muddy ( its a problem I have in my digital colored works as well...)
Don't disappear for long and keep posting ok?

[phoenicorn]

water colours as instructed by Paul Talbot

[phoenicorn]

I have finally learnt one of my greatest difficulties (besides anatomy) blending. Below are 2 spheres i used for practice

[phoenicorn]

this is a wip for my FMP based on mental health. The first area is depression. crit is encouraged as I can document it in my fmp to get a higher grade

[phoenicorn]

again for my FMP (final major project)
based on the Idea of obsesive compulsive disorder

[Vatsel]

one thing ive noticed in your works is that you dont clearly define a light source.
shading and highlighting everything isn't good, try to do studies of basic shapes, look where the light and shadow are on the form.

Brewin

[phoenicorn]

Hancock DVD Cover
Hand drawn in ink first and coloured in photoshop