Towards Improvement

[Canonstrapt]

I'm deathly afraid of joining this site.

I've been drawing for a long time. I've drawn inspiration from a lot of places, in most cases the wrong places. I've gotten better with time, but more and more I'm seeing a flatline in my improvement. I keep drawing the same old characters in the same old style with the same boring pose and every time I look at what I've done more of me than I'd like is ashamed.

I know this site is harsh. Nevertheless, I look around and see things nothing short of jaw-dropping posted in nearly every thread I look at. I know I want to improve, and I hope that this place will help, because I need improvement in just about everything I can think of.

This seems like the right place to get started. This is the sketchbook part of the forum, so I guess it's appropriate that I post a few drawings, something to give people an idea of where I am and where I need to go.

I've picked out a few of the images I put significant effort into. This is, at the moment, the best of what I have to offer. Please, offer any insight you have.

[Muwwi]

Hello and welcome to CA!

I'm pretty much in the same situation as you are. Frustraded with my own work and graving for improvement. And there is only one medicine for that and it is to draw, draw and draw.

But I can see you are going to the right direction. I like your linework, espesially in the second picture. I would love to see some colored work from you.

Keep posting.

[Sketchie]

I too was in need of improvement & this is the best site you could have chose in my opinion. People here are helpful. More helpful than I have ever seen on any other forums of the same subject.

Check out the Studies forum on this site. There's alot of inspriation in there I find. The Mentoring groups are good too.

Your first posted images are very good. You can sketch alot better than myself. But I would advise printing off your scanned images & try putting in some more shading to give a sense depth. Use a softer pencil, maybe 2b orgo as far as a 6b.

I am at the moment trying to improve my shading by using copies of original work. Just so I dont ruin the first sketch that I am happy with.

Welcome to CA, Have fun & keep on sketching.

[Canonstrapt]

But I would advise printing off your scanned images & try putting in some more shading to give a sense depth. Use a softer pencil, maybe 2b orgo as far as a 6b.

I like the idea or printing off copies of my images and shading them, but I only have number 2 and 3 pencils (no real art pencils). Would you suggest I go ahead and try to shade with those anyway, or go out and buy a box of varying-hardness art-pencils first?

To Muwwi, yeah, I'd love to see some colored artwork from myself too. Unfortunately I have yet to produce anything colored that I'm proud of. I just don't have a sense for color. I can pull it off with Pixel Art just fine (I do a lot of pixel art, but I'll leave that for the folks at PixelJoint to critique), but when it comes to full drawings, I just have problems.

I have a tablet and whatnot, but I'm not used to using it, and PSP7 has terrible tablet support. Not to mention it lacks brushes. It's a great program, but a little bare compared to a lot of new ones.

My biggest points of contention are color, perspective, architecture, backgrounds and dynamics. So, nearly everything, really.

I guess the first step is to try a little bit of everything and post it here, right?

[TASmith]

nice work! I like the wizard most. The second one seems to have some perspective/foreshortening issues, but it's got some great anatomy and detail.

[Bones Weep Tedium]

What is PSP7?

I like your drawings, and the few that you posted seemed quite diverse. I think that the first thing you should look into is getting some soft pencils (I use a 2B and a 6B) and start using tone. After that you have to start using colour. You dont have to become a fantastic painter overnight, with a million fancy brushes and textures etc (though you're in the right place to learn that if you wanted to (http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm)). But even block colour would be a good start.