the broken mirror // AUG9 [+MUCH]

[DAVEZILLA]

!!DAVEY!!
My name's David, and I'm 16years old! I've narrowed my interests for college down to art and music, good enough for now.

I'll update this thread any day that I've been busy drawing.
Critiques would be lovely :asskisser: : Be as rough as you can, that's the way I like it.




http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/MedicationX/Sketchbook/Picture010-1.jpghttp://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/MedicationX/Sketchbook/Picture013.jpg

[GentleFood3]

be forewarned, I am currently inebriated. that said: It's great you're putting in effort at a young age. I'm not sure what's in Drawing on the Right Side, but you should spend time doing anatomy studies, drawing the skeleton and then placing muscles on top of that framework. It would greatly benefit your portraits. RIght now you're kind of drawing symbols of the facial features and putting them on a rather shaky foundation. If you knew the basics of the skull's construction and the layout of the facial muscles, it would be a lot easier to draw a convincing face. Andrew Loomis' books are great for simple head construction. Check out Bridgman too.

also, I like this guy's method of construction. http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com/ http://bp1.blogger.com/_pbZw476tEsE/Rz0E0G9udoI/AAAAAAAAAgA/tLq4Ro0DW2w/s1600-h/mark-value_page.jpg

[DAVEZILLA]

Lol~ inebriated as in wasted? any comment is a good comment!
I'll definitely look into anatomy studies, thanks for making me aware.
Andrew Loomus is on my checklist now. I'll check out a book from the library if I can.

[Jacob Kobryn]

Your stuff isn't bad man. It's certainly better than the "top" artists at my high school. I am 15 as well. Check out the friend links at the bottom of my sig. All but Mista Delish are 16 or under. There's actually a lot of young and talented people on this site. Most of us sort of connect together well.

[Nibras]

Hey there nice stuff :P.
Another young artist am 13 lawl so same age kind of thing.
Theres already some improvment from the first portrait to the last very good you seemed to really understand it after the 5th portrait.
Keep it up and keep posting would love to see more

[DAVEZILLA]

It's nice to know that the younger artists form a connection. It'll be nice to have some artists at my same level to collab. with! I'll check out the sketchbooks in your sig.

Thanks for your comments Jake and nebo.

EDIT// How do I change the little picture to the left of the topic title? I definitely don't want that self portrait as my avatar.

[HAJiME]

God I could have never drawn people like that at 15... I still can't. Hahaha.

Get a grip on what tools do the job best. Try some more detailed, smaller, precise drawings if you're going to use pencil. Right now you have these HUUUGE free flowing scrawlings across the page!

Move away from bloody pencils is all I say. Bloody horrible things, they are. :P

Try your hand at some bulky, messy materials. Right now you're being very "scribbly" with a precise drawing tool. That's no good! You need something which will work with your scribbly lines by being uncontrollable and less specific.

People telling you to draw more anatomy is all very well, but I didn't get to try life drawing in education till I was 17. That said, observe and draw how things move. Maybe focus on your hands or something, as you're drawing..? It would be a start. Hands are great because you can see everything going to work under them. All the bones, tendons and the skin over the top.

Thanks for the comment on my doodlebook.

[DAVEZILLA]

Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree, after all of what you said.
I LOVE watercolor and acrylics, so Ill start to add a little more life to my drawings.

I can never give up my delicious smelling wooden pencil though :)

[HAJiME]

Did you work out how to change the avatar for your sketchbook...? I can't find details on how to anywhere. :S

[DAVEZILLA]

Nope. A minute ago I just went through and added a picture, then re-uploaded all of my drawings so they'd come after it. It didn't work though.

I'll just wait until I have more sketches, so I can edit out the first post.

[Grafguy]

awesome uve decided "work really hard in art for a really super long time."
I can only encourrage it :)
drawn alot from real life, make studys, download anatomy books,..

[DAVEZILLA]

Ya know, I've been told to get anatomy books and to do studies by so many people, so I'll just have to start doing them alongside my regular drawings.

[Azalin]

Hi there, nice to hear you want to dedicate so much energy into doing art. I think to start working with anatomy its very good to get a hold of the "structure of man DVD" its really simplifies anatomy and makes it fun to learn. it best thing to do ist work in parallel with the anatomy books also, youll learn tons.
just never give up and you´ll get where you want to.

[DAVEZILLA]

Thanks, arky. They don't have that DVD at my library, and I'm not prepared to pay 40 bucks for it.
I'll try to find a cheapo copy on ebay or something. If you had to suggest an anatomy book that was friendly to the person who's never studied anatomy or figure drawing before, what book would you get?

[DAVEZILLA]

Mm'kay. I wanted to draw INCREDIBLY much this weekend, but something about actually drawing just didn't work out for me. I felt like, holy crap, if I don't produce something atleast okay, then I'm going to be really frustrated.

As you can tell, I drew shit today.

Any advice on how to be able to "see" again? I could do it fine a week ago!
I've tried blind contour drawing, drawing upside down... Nothing seems to work.

P.S.: both are me trying to draw my left hand. The first one turned out allright, and I got super frustrated so I just... took it out on the paper. The second one: I tried drawing my thumb, and it was so frustrating! so i just colored over it with some random scrawny super hero.

[pantless_wanderer]

Any advice on how to be able to "see" again? I could do it fine a week ago!

If you could do it before, rest assured that you'll be able to do it again. Thats just a bad phase :)

I've gone through several of those 'WTF-I-just-can't-draw-shit-today' phases myself, sometimes lasting more than a week, and I know how frustrating they can be; but they all come and go... and the best of all is that most often than not, you'll come out of those bad phases better than you where before. I can't explain why, but thats usually how it goes with me. Maybe it has something to do with the unusual struggle you have to go through during those bad phases to produce good results that helps to consolidate that information on your head. Or maybe I'm just pulling stuff out of my ass... honestly don't know.

The most important thing during a bad phase is to control frustration, or else it will hurt your concentration, thus making an already bad situation even worse. Focus is the key... or at least part of it... sometimes we just need some inspiration. Other times, like in the last bad phase I've gone through, it's just lack of sleep :P

[DAVEZILLA]

You have no idea how reasurring your words have been! Omgoodness... maybe I just need to de-stress. Drawing is such a mental thing, so maybe stress has something to do with it! :)

anyways, thank you so much for the words of wisdom.

[Lair Radical]

Hey, thanks for the super-duper compliment!

Ahhh don't worry, everyone goes through that! It can be pretty discouraging, but it sounds like you have the dedication to pull through. I try to find a balance between not slacking off but also not expecting too much from myself :)

I've heard good things about How to Draw on the Right Side of the Brain but never looked into it myself. You're work is looking quite good - two years ago I was drawing complete crap. Definitely check out Bridgeman, Hogarth and Loomis.

[Jason Scanlon]

Yeah, don't sweat it. You are doing great so far. These "blocks" are no fun, i guess my advice would be to either work through it or take a break. Either way, you can relax; you'll be okay. I like the Bridgman take on anatomy and i'll always second a Loomis recommendation. I dont think the Loomis books are in print, but you can download them in a .zip here (http://acid.noobgrinder.com/Loomis/). You're ahead of the game, so to speak. Now its only a matter of not letting it catch up to you. Thanks for checking out my book.

[DAVEZILLA]

Thanks, both of you.
Arkos just sent me a link to the Pose Maniacs site. I don't know if either of you have ever heard of it, but it seems like it'd go great paralleled with anatomy/figure drawing studies.

Anyways, I'm going to be drawing a bit today. Me and my friend are doing a little experiment with drawing hands. Today will be my last hand for awhile :P

[DAVEZILLA]

Here's a work in progress. I did this is an hour. I'll finish it tomorrow (the shading and coloring).

Thank you gods on mount Olympus for giving me the ability to draw again!

Oh, and do the index finger and ring finger look right?

[each image is the same sketch, I just can't tell which is better quality]

[Matthew Forte]

Your index finger and ring finger look fine, my problem is with the thumb, it looks strange, possibly too thin at the bottom? You're coming along nicely, keep it up.

[Retronym]

Hey man, cool to see a fellow 15 year old. I really am digging the linework in this latest hand, and you're establishing the planes nicely. Keep studying!

[DAVEZILLA]

Matt: thanks man! I see what you're talking about with the thumb. i thought the thumb actually looked like a big toe, but when relating it with the other fingers, the proportions are correct, which is super weird.

Retro: thanks dude. :) nice to meet another 15 year old. we'll have to keep in touch.

[The7Artist7]

Hey - firstly, Thanks for commenting on my sketchbook :D

Nice stuff - as I've said elsewhere 'life' in art is what I regard as the most important thing - and you got it - nice one :)

Although 'artist's block' is horrible to experience (especially when you're dying to draw something!) it's totally normal and your best bet is to stop what ever is being difficult to draw and either draw something that you always find super fun or if it's a bad case of 'block' just walk away - do something else. I once had artist's block for about 10 tens straight during a really big important commission :nohope: - I just had to put the work on hold as what I was drawing just wasn't matching with what I'd already done - nightmare!:^^;:

Anyways lol - I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of showing a few changes I would recommend to your hand pic - I'm no uber-pro but hope it helps!

[DAVEZILLA]

You've helped so much! It's funny, because today I had art class and asked for some help on the hand that you scribbled all over (which I truly appreciate). And we found out basically the same stuff you have on there!
I show the finished product tonight after I'm done shading! Thanks a ton dude- I especially appreciate the advice about walking away during an artist block. It's nice to know that this happens to everyone else :)

[Slechtvalk]

Hay Dave,

I see you already know which textbooks you need, so what I have to add is this:

Learn different ways of drawing. Dont go by just what one person says. If its too hard to draw a certian way then thats not the right way for you. Theres tons of approaches so just keep learning. The more techniques you learn the more you can combine to make your own or come up with your own. Basically take different approaches and find what suits you best. Practice and refine. You already are off to a great start.

Don't try to eliminate your mistakes... work on making them work for you.

Don't Fight Line... Use It

A bad drawing is evidence that you are trying something new.
Whether you try to get better or not is up to you.

Getting better is not in the end result its in the trying.
When your looking at a bad drawing and still have the
will to get better at that moment you are overcoming defeat;
a stumbling block which most would giveup.
The will to contine is getting better, and you not only
passed that stumbling block but passed a mediocre artist.

Also this little video helps out too:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QhF4fBetN4Y

Thanks for the sketchup visit
:scribble:

[The7Artist7]

You're more than welcome :^^: I look forward to seeing more of your stuff dude :yum:

[Muzz 2k7]

Some very interesting stuff here, Love the facial expressions, By the way I'll look into the nose and eye alterations; Maybe if you could explain where the eye's should be a little more. Please xD

[fragmentedchimp]

Very good start man, mirrors do wonders to your artsy skills, theyre brilliant. reflections teach you soooo much. more more !

[jordyskateboardy]

Hey,

Thnks for bumping my sb. Nice potraits. You do really need to watch on how big you make ur noses and pupils. Just do a lot of shit from ref and get the proportions down n shit.
Keep it up man.

[DAVEZILLA]

Ahh, dude: I so agree. I seem to have a habit of making my right eye (the last thing I draw) huge. It's a habit I need to break. And my nose is similar to that size, but I know what you mean :)

I'll work on facial proportions and drawing from ref.'s more!

Thanks for the comments everyone.

[ sorry I haven't updated. I've been bogged down with essays and reflections the last few days :( ]

[Nibras]

Cool cool, nice too see more updates can't wait for more

[drd]

Nice, guy! Thanks for posting in my sketchbook by the way.


You're doing great for your age (my age?) I love the sketchbooks of all the 13-19s on this website, it gives me a great frame of reference to where I should be.

Keep going!

[drd]

Thanks for the post in my sb!

I don't deserve the praise; but anyways, this summer I feel sort of like that; like drawing just isn't appealing to me right now. I've found that painting doesn't really give me that effect.
If you want to make amazing works, you've got to look at amazing works; whenever I look through the work of painters like Kanevsky, Richard Schmid, Jeffrey Watts. What's great about their work is they make it look so easy, because of the directness with which they paint, and that's what makes me want to go paint. Of course I'm always disappointed in the end =). But the important thing was that I painted at all. For drawing, I know that Wes Burt always makes me want to sketch. I find drawing harder to be inspired to do. Hmmm...

Have a great summer as well!

[SkyTheArtist]

Woah, I am seriously impressed. If only I had started being serious about my work that early...

Take pride in yourself for having such a strong interest in art so early! :D You'll turn out great even before you're legal! LOL. Keep on workin' hard, my friend.

[DAVEZILLA]

@lilnebo: your wish came true today! :)

@drd: I've been checkin' out some wonderful artists on youtube and some random galleries online. You ought to check out Art Adventures. It's a great youtube series.

@SkyTheArtist: Thanks! Comment in your sketchbook~ :P

Here's some stuff from the past 2 months that I've done. Most of them are terrible, a few are decent. These are pretty much doodles that I got into because I felt like I should do something in my sketchbook. I've been thinking of ideas of stuff I can be drawing, and I hope I'll be able to update if I get to any of it.

[DAVEZILLA]

And here are two projects I did for my concentration. Obviously they were rushed (I did them in 2 days... I'm such a procrastinator!)
"We Love Mother Nature" << Obviously sarcastic
"When Trash Becomes Treasure"

And the collage I did a really long time ago, but I thought I mine as well post it up. I found out that I had a knack for collages :) [ It's 2 collages that are related, and one piece as a whole]. It's called "When Dreams become Reality".


Oh btw, can you tell that I LOVE WATERCOLORS? I'm trying to do a little work with ink so I can get used to them too. It just seems like the two would be a great combo.

[Nibras]

Good to see you've been practising
now i wanna see you hit those books!
come on come on
studies :P
but remeber keep it fun
don't burn yourself out
now keep going
oh and thanks for the super nice comments :)

[Harsh]

Nice efforts. Try to use what you have learned in your pencil works and paper sculptures in your waters and inks. Build the shapes, maintain your perspective and use the tones to show distance. But most of all, keep at it! :)

[xbizarrex]

keep practice...

[DAVEZILLA]

@lilenebo - It's funny you say that cause I actually got myself a $1 copy of Bridgeman's Drawing from life. I'm doing several sketches today of some interesting poses, I'll add the page later tonight.

@Harsh - That's not a bad idea. Sometimes I try to go for deep meaning, so it'd help even more if the media of my finished pieces was sporadic. It'd make the viewer really take a gander, ya know?

@bizarre - I totally agree.

Here's one from yesterday. Just a boring bat sketch from an awesome National Geographic magazine. Will be updating again tonight with proportion study.

[~Faust~]

Damn kid, how can YOU look up to me? Your stuff is so full of soul and motion, it's fricking amazing! Love this one for example: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=420302&stc=1&d=1216924599
I have no fucking clue what is on that picture but the colors and movemen are great! Keep experimenting and being so alive, with time you'll be an aesome drawftsman, just don't loose your flow

Now you have it, I'm subscribed to this.

[DAVEZILLA]

This is just a study I finished right when I woke up this morning. These were all taken from Bridgeman's book. I'm going to be doing a ton more! I'll update tonight with another page.

[DAVEZILLA]

@Faust- Thanks man! That's probably the nicest thing I've been told :) I'll keep working with colors as I sketch, so I'll get a little of both worlds.

Allright, I drew up a storm today: and I ENJOYED it! I thought this morning, why should I practice doing full body shots before I know how to put the body together? So I've decided to start from head to toe and work my way down as I see fit. Eventually I'll be able to do a Mr. PotatoHead and draw an entire figure for practice instead of just a part.

I have noticed that I'm already getting more comfortable drawing the figure; that's after just drawing it once or twice... I'm lovin' this reward after practicing! :)
[Oh, and sorry about the lighting. I didn't notice it until just now.]

[Bushido]

Keep that entusiasm !

Dedicate some more time to your studies and not pressure to much the pencil, if you wanna get more dark change the pencil type :) (HB to B or wathever)

Sorry for my English :bashful:

[Nallen]

Hey Dave,
I am impressed with your work young fellow.
Doing copies of G. Bridgman will really help you with the anatomical stuff. Think about how the muscles work on the body, what they do, Bridgman is good at illustrating this.

Some general good advice: get the proportions of big shapes first before worrying too much about the details of anything.

Also: look at finding mistakes as a good thing. Don't get depressed about noticing them, finding them is the hard part, fixing them is just a matter of redrawing something.

keep at it, and enjoy!

[BadGeometry]

Wanted to stop in and thank you for dropping by my sketchbook. :)
---
Keep drilling those Bridgman sketches man. Looking at your first images you show some real potential.

One thing I was going to suggest was not to rush the shading so much, though judging from your latest images, you're improving in the regard.

Keep practicing man.

[Jasonwclark]

I'm digging these last few entries. The fruit bat and the skulls especially

Thanks for sharing

[antwan711]

hey dude'ster, thanks for the acknowledgement and suggestions.

haha, I really enjoy the personality and humor your bring to a lot to your work. the "LOL myspace shot" cracked me up. I think someone already mentioned that some of these seem rushed (the shading anyway..), and thats true to me too, but then again I'm a fan of the spontanaiety.

keep up the good work.. you gotz talent, sir :)

oh yeah, and it was cool that I got the anatomy book suggestions I was looking through while browsing through your thread.

[DAVEZILLA]

@Bushido: Using my graphite pencils seems like such a hassle for no reason at all. But I should start getting used to them.

@Nallan: Your advice about learning the proportions of shapes before anything else is so true. I started doing proportion of the face in perspective, and I can't comprehend it. So I'll just stick with it until I get it.

@Geo.: Yeah, I tend to get fidgety after I've finished drawing the outlines and little details; I can get pretty carried away when shading (it's always the most rewarding part of drawing).

@Jason: Thanks! I'm gonna be drawing more from National Geographic, so drop in and check it out sometime.

@antwan: ^.^ I'm just glad I could help. Thanks a ton~ I try to make my studies atleast a bit interesting: and not for you guys either. I just feel the need to add a bit of life to the skulls, ya know?

Nothing glamorous today.
I attempted to do the facial proportions IN PERSPECTIVE, which I thought was going to be a piece a' cake, but it definitely wasn't. I still can't wrap my mind around it, but I think perspective is just one of those things that takes time to comprehend. ADVICE WOULD BE HELPFUL.
I also did a mini-color chart, because I've NEVER done one, and I need to stop guessing how to make the colors I want. When I paint, I probably waste more time guessing and checking than I do painting.

I think I'm finally going through that transitional period between realizing that I'm good at art and I want to be an artist, and actually being an artist. I'm finally stepping out of my ignorant shoes and really trying to learn and practice HOW to improve, rather than just waiting for it to happen on its own.

Damn, I'm a talker. Here's the pic.'s:

[D@niel]

Nice SB, Lots of studies and as much life drawing as possible and you are A 4 away:)

[shiNIN]

I can't tell you anything new... just like the others. I like your enthusiasm, your humor, keep up with the studies, you're promising :) most of the faces in the first post (I assume they're self portraits) has good expressions and life, despite the anatomical flaws and it's very important :)

[Cris_]

It's always good to see people trying hard to develop their skills!:D it is really stimulating ;)
I just want to say good luck ;) I'll be watching you ;) because,maybe,someday both of us will be real artists hehehe :muscle:
Ah and btw, I really like your bat sketch!maybe you should try to finish it someday?:)

[DAVEZILLA]

Thanks to those who commented.

Sorry I was inactive for almost a week I think. I've been contemplating lately, but in the past few days I've gotten myself all back together again by discipline :)

Here's four days worth of stuff I've done in my sketchbook. Most of the stuff are studies for a project I'm doing about a book I read for my English class (The PoisonWood Bible [it's a wonderful book by the way]).

I've been working on shading and sketching details after blocking in shapes.

[Radio24]

this SB is coming along well! I now everyones saying it, but ANAtomy!!!
also, Structure of Man is awesome and well worth the $.
I just looked at the website, the whole video series used to be available free for download at low quality. And the Dvd's used to be 30 instead of 45.... oh well. I still suggest it, and you might find some of the previews useful
http://inventiontocompletehumanbeing.blogspot.com/#__utma=1.4596498011200940500.1218052190.121805219 0.1218052190.1&__utmb=1.1.10.1218052190&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1218052190.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(orga nic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=structure%20of%20man&__utmv=-&__utmk=140567474

[DAVEZILLA]

@Radio24: Thanks a ton. I'm checkin' out the site right now. I guess I'll start watchin' these videos! Check in later for updates.

[Radio24]

Plannin' on it. make sure to check out Loomis's online material. His books are quite rare, hard to come by. For this reason most of his books are free online in pdf form. Speaking of that, I need to get a hold of those pdfs myself....

[DAVEZILLA]

Alright, so my reaction to the videos you sent me: amazing. I thought it was going to be some stupid instructional video, but it's very hands on, and I caught myself pausing it on almost every instruction so I could follow along in my sketchbook.

It seems like such a simple way to map out the proportions of the body! It's so awesome...

Anyways, here's 2 things I did today. Notice how I have three images of the painting, because the logo is awesome.

[DAVEZILLA]

Interesting enough, something in my brain is understanding proportion! :)

Here's stuff from the last few days.

HUGE FAN OF THE OLYMPICS BTW! :0


Help would be appreciated with all of the proportions. Everything was from my head; you know how that can be.

[drd]

You're doing better than me right now; If we gauge the talent of artists on their future success, at this point you've got me beat, because I haven't been doing much of any drawing recently (shame)

But you've actually been doing something. And really, that's all you need.


Keep it up

[BubbaGump]

Yo. You need to hit the books on the anatomy. Your creative side will be all the better for it once you have the fundamentals down. There's a lot of anatomy errors. Anyway, just keep drawing. Find time everyday to doodle, do a life study, etc.

[luismbf]

Dude try to get this book :
"Drawing with the right side of the brain"
I think i may help you more than hitting anatomy books so early.
Anyway it's your call! DRAW :)

[Ephelea]

Actually, hitting both will help tremendously (even for the veteran artist!) Honestly, studies- no matter what you study! will help.

I recommend (aside bad spelling!) :

Drawing from life (Clint brown, Cheryl McLean)
Dynamic figure drawing (or any Burne Hogarth books!)
Drawing from the Right side of the brain

Or if you're a broke student (like most of us :P) you can step into a borders/book store and just open up some of the 'anatomy/ anatomy for ____ artist.'

But I really recommend the Hogarth books :)

Great work here. You are indeed very creative, and with work could be a force to be reckoned with XD

Goodluck!

[jatherip]

nice watercolours, but like already mentioned: get a book about anatomy!!!