Mpdpsy's Sketchbook

[mpdpsy]

* (a little intro update, as of July 02, 2010)

Hi guys, this place is still a well of inspiration, so many people working hard to achieve a dream which is awesome. I'm grateful for this place, time and time again when I feel like it's not going anywhere I just look at the sketchbooks here and the incredible progress a lot of people has made and it rejuvenates my spirits. I've been out of school for a little more than a year now. I used to take art classes at the community college here, but I finished the art program there about a year ago. I'm gonna be attending an art school here in the coming fall though, so I'm just trying to improve as much as I can, well that's always been the goal. I'm focusing hard on fundamentals, just trying to understand form, value, anatomy, all the good stuff. Any critiques at all are encouraged, I've discovered after studying alone for a year, the hardest part is looking for areas to focus, and improve on, and usually I discover after days, weeks, or even months of frustration...maybe that's how it's naturally supposed to be? I dunno, but any advice is greatly appreciated :)

[mpdpsy]

ok....got sidetracked! with classes and such, so didn't have time to update, but I'm done with the classes at the community college now. I plan to take about a year off from school to focus solely on getting better, practicing drawing and painting on my own. I suck a bit less now, but I still suck nonetheless. I'm gonna post a lot of older sketches from the last 2 years, up until the newer sketches, and I want to update daily from now on, any comments, advice, would but much appreciated thank you!

Older sketches from 07-08:

[vardoburrito]

[I'm 27, and I've wondered around for 8 years. That was
8 years too long. If it's in the heart we should just go for it.]

A lot of anatomys which always helps.
I'm currently hovering around values and colour. Composition and
perspectives :P.

[I've only just accepted the value of real life studies. I'm starting with still
lifes. An apple won't run away, except in my tummy]

Keep up the studies mate.

[Not_Deadman]

Cool stuff! I really like how the pictures got better as I went through the thread. Keep up the good work!

[mpdpsy]

More recent sketches from 08-up to present time, after this I want, or will try to update daily of any current artworks:

[mpdpsy]

Paintings from the past 2 semesters:

[mpdpsy]

Some small oil paintings from this week:

[Elidee]

Your figure drawings and anatomical studies are going great! This is exactly the kind of work I need to be doing, and seeing this progress is a great motivator.

Keep it up!

[mpdpsy]

well, turns out I had more stuff to do for class this week, but now I'm done for real with everything, so I'll officially start my self-taught/practice journey thing this Monday. But here's a small update for a last in class still life oil painting:

[mpdpsy]

These are studies/drawings done from this Monday until today. Originally I had planned out a list of things to do each day, but it was harder to follow the schedule than I thought! I ended up spending 4 days just for the 1 day schedule....but I think I'm getting better at keeping at it. My schedule was:

- Posemaniacs Gestures (1 hour)
- Study/Practice Loomis/Bridgeman/Villppu about 20 pages (2 hours)
- Draw portrait (1 hour)
- Draw from life (1 hour)
- Paint (2 hours)

So far, I finished the first 4, haven't done the painting yet, I'm going to do value studies with the oil paint today, then start the "day 2" schedule, which is a repeat of the above list.

[mpdpsy]

So the past few days I realized it's better to focus on one area per day, because I get more out of it, rather than trying to rush doing the different things I set for myself on the list. So these are studies done from Loomis' Fun With a Pencil, I think I learned a lot on how to draw a head from these, and I also started a value study with oil earlier, and will focus more on that next:

[LisandroG]

I see youre working on heads, here is some advice : something that was invaluable to me in learning how to draw heads was to sculpt a small replica of a human skull. Whether you draw it or sculpt it, make sure you put good amount of time into studying that. Also for your figure drawings, I recommend when you start to first approximate the locations of the core : skull, spine, and pelvis

keep up the good work

[mpdpsy]

I decided to take time off before transferring because I wanted to rebuild my portfolio piece by piece. This is the first piece I'll include in my portfolio, it's a still life I worked on the past few days with charcoal:

[mpdpsy]

I got caught up doing these Loomis studies the past two weeks, they took a lot longer than I wanted to, in large part because of slacking tendencies taking over..ugh...but I think I learned quite a bit about constructing the figure from these:

[RedSquirrel]

Christ thems is a lot of studies, nice work. Remember to post some stuff from your imagination too, thats one of the best bits!

[mpdpsy]

I wanted to test out if any of my studies did any good for my imaginative drawings, and I think they did! which is a relief, because it would've been a waste of a shitload of time if they didn't, they still need a lot of work, but I can picture the action of the figure in my head, and construct it carefully on paper a lot better than before where I would just haphazardly draw by trial and error:

(*edit - images too big)

[papervampire]

it's fun to watch you improve from the first post! keep it up!

[Dethklaus]

Man, your work is AWESOME. You put a lot of effort into understanding the human figure/face, and it really shows!
I agree with what was said before, though. If you have anything you've drawn purely from imagination, we'd love to see.

[mpdpsy]

RedSquirrel, papervampire, Dethklaus, thanks for taking the time to stop by my sb, helps me keep my motivation up! :)


Here's a couple of figure doodlings from this morning...I gotta learn my anatomies next and principles of form, gonna do another still life with charcoal later today for my second portfolio piece:

[mpdpsy]

I couldn't focus on the charcoal still life, so I decided to do another quick figure doodling, this time I tried to vary the line weights more to indicate form, but I still have a lot of trouble with it, I gotta study the old master's drawings next:

[mpdpsy]

Been doing studies on master drawings lately, it's fun to see how they create form, still learning it , will continue doing these...: last one's from a photo.

[Eiki]

Oh my god:
That is 20 (thread)pages work at one page!!!

There are very nice studies, you are doing great, and you'll do even greater with working that much :)
Thanks for that motivation! Have to do more, more more more

[mpdpsy]

man, I haven't updated cuz I've been too lazy to scan my studies. To be honest they're getting tiresome, but I know I have to do them, I can feel myself understanding what I'm drawing in terms of structure a lot more. Especially now that I'm starting to study Vilppu more seriously now, anyways, here are more studies, I know I should explore stuff from my imagination a lot more, I plan to...I just need to get my drawing basics down pat. I also did some self portraits...just line drawing though, I will explore value studies after I'm done with the Vilppu exercises:

[mpdpsy]

More Vilppu studies, and a couple of portraits of my friends:

[mpdpsy]

A couple of figure sketches out of my head, I wanted to see how these studies have helped me in visualizing figures and drawing them without reference, I still have a lot of trouble with them....gonna continue with Vilppu studies:

[mpdpsy]

I've been continuing my studies with Vilppu and Loomis, and for some reason even though Vilppu's exercises have been very helpful, I find I click better with Loomis. His way seems to enable me to envision the structure of the human figure better. Not gonna post the studies from those because there's too many lol.

Anyways, today I tried to draw myself in the mirror, man it's tough, because I had to pose, memorize, then put down my wooden staff thing, draw, and repeat, got a bit frustrated so the sketch is very rough:

[mpdpsy]

Tried to push the drawing from yesterday a little further, and also a self-portrait I just did this morning:

[mpdpsy]

My second self-figure drawing with mirror, it's easier second time around, trying to learn how to render better:

[mpdpsy]

Self portrait for today:

[mpdpsy]

My 3rd self-figure sketch from mirror, rouugh sketch, but I think I got the gesture, and proportions down pretty good, I think I'll do a long, more finished, and bigger one soon:

[PoO-kiE]

wow, like another post said i really loved seeing your work progress as they went on :) keep it up :)
something im trying to do at the moment with own own pencil studies is add more contrast, i feel yours could benefit from that to some of them seem a little light and i think they could be even better :) although it might just be how they look on the screen :/ if so, my apologies

keep it up !!:)

[mpdpsy]

PoO-kiE : no man you're totally right, I still struggle tremendously with line weights, and values, something I constantly tackle with, thanks for looking!

[mpdpsy]

Did a Loomis head study, gotta do more of these, I still need a hell of a lot more practice working with value, and planes, and everything else:

[mpdpsy]

Now studying Vanderpoel!, man his drawings are amazing, must study him extensively!:

[mpdpsy]

I wanted to exercise drawing from imagination a bit, haven't done so in a while...ended up with this gladiator look a like warrior kind of dude, I actually kind of liked the stance, but I still have a lot of trouble putting clothing, armors, whatever on the figure...I think I'll practice imaginary drawing once a day, along with my studies from now on, I may develop this further once I get my rendering/painting skills leveled up further:

[scorpion007]

Nice dude! You have improved tremendously since your '07/'08 sketches.

And you seem to know exactly what you should be doing (Loomis, "Drawing on Right Side of Brain", etc) All great books.

[Ink Fish]

love your studies so far. maybe try charcoal or softer pencils to work in deeper values. i'd also recommend more eye studies. you seem to be a bit foggy on them compared to the rest of the face.

[mpdpsy]

d-funct: thanks for the suggestion! I decided to use pastel pencils, and it made it a whole lot easier to create volume.

The first image is drawn from imagination, the same gladiator, warrior dude but in a different stance. The other ones are studies of William L. Maughan's Drawing the Head:

[mpdpsy]

A couple more studies of Maughan's heads, ugh, I think the forms get lost in some parts, gotta focus more on the large planes next time:

[mpdpsy]

Another head study, man I'm really falling behind with my self-portraits, gonna try to apply what I learned from these studies to do work on those next, I think I'm getting the hang of the planes of the head more now:

[mpdpsy]

More head studies, I need to do more of these the more I do them, the more I understand shading structure bit by bit:

[mpdpsy]

Went back to doing figure studies, some are from posemaniacs, one of them from a photo, one from Henry Yan's book, and another by Jeffrey Watts. I had a hard time with charcoal, still messy, looks super crappy compared to the original drawing uugh, must do more studies on lightings on objects I think that'll make it easier.

I also did another drawing from imagination, my friend and I did an exercise where we told each other what to draw, I had to draw a "robot ninja":

[mpdpsy]

More studies of Henry Yan's figures, man I'm just amazed how quickly he did his sketches, it took me like ten times longer, and they still suck compared to his, gonna do more:

[mpdpsy]

Another study of Henry Yan's figure sketches:

[mpdpsy]

A couple more Henry Yan's...I'm unhappy with these, I still have a hard time reproducing the correct value relationships...I guess I just gotta look more carefully :/ :

[mpdpsy]

Hoo man haven't updated in a while, but I have been continuing with my studies...I felt I still needed to strengthen my drawing skills, so I did a bunch of photo studies of figures and portraits...I tried to employ the Reilley Method of shading with the figures..but I think it doesn't work as the photos didn't have strong contrast in lighting, or maybe I just don't understand it enough yet.
Also I've been working on a couple charcoal still life pieces to put in my portfolio:

[Aryeh]

very nice work, keep at it bro

[Tony00]

More head studies, I need to do more of these the more I do them, the more I understand shading structure bit by bit:

are you using Strathmore, velvet gray paper? doesn't look like ...

your proportions are most of time accurate ;)

[mpdpsy]

lolbbq : thanks man!

Tony00 : thanks, I'm getting the hang of it...now that I double check those head studies, some are too long haha. I used Borden & Riley Kraft pad because it was much cheaper than the Strathmore, and still somewhat worked as a middle tonal background.

I've been working on more portfolio pieces, the last few have been self portraits that I posted in my SP thread. This one is a full body self-portrait that I just finished, I still have so much trouble with value :( I gotta make more studies, but I gotta apply to transfer soon so gotta complete my portfolio pieces, so gotta make do with the skills I have now:

[mpdpsy]

Did two more self figure drawings today, I think I'm getting accustomed to the planes of the body, but I gotta hit Vanderpoel after this extra hardcore:

[Dahami]

Congratulations on creating art that does not suck. You have some really nice figure studies and faces. Your online presentation could benefit from a better means of scanning the images, however. Also, I still wouldn't pay for your art, so if you want to make a living at it, keep going and try applying what you've learned through all these studies to some interesting concept design or some such. Great job with all this. You certainly have stamina.

[mpdpsy]

Dahami : Thanks!, yeah I agree with you I'm still leagues and leagues away from making art that people would pay for, and yeah my sketchbook is seriously lacking in the conceptual department, gotta work on that..but first I wish to nail my foundations down pat first.

I've been feeling like I haven't progressed much, if at all this past couple of months, like I'm stuck in a rut. I think the reason being is that I haven't kept up my studies as consistently as I did before, as a result the information I learned slowly dissipated away...But! looking at the Finally Finished threads, and some of the awesome sketchbooks around here, as well as listening to some Bobby Chiu has reignited my desire to improve. Thinking back, even though I did a lot of studies there was something missing in that I didn't do any memory drawings, of what I studied.

Anyways this time around I decided to focus my studies into small increments, and study that intensely until I truly understand it, to start off I did 100 eye studies from Loomis, Bridgman, Vanderpoel and others. The next step is to apply what I learned from these studies to draw from photos and from life, after that, is the last step which is to draw eyes from imagination, as this will sharpen my memory drawings...then repeat with another area, I plan to do nose after, but for now it's eyes..:

[mpdpsy]

Just a small update, I did a pathetic amount of studies today..but I decided to post up stuff daily so it forces me to become more consistent, no matter how little:

[mpdpsy]

ahh..so much for updating the next day, o well, as long as I never stop right. I was ruminating the past few days and I realized I can't just focus intensely on one thing, cuz there's a danger of losing the big picture..and...it's boring! So I decided to set several activites per day from studying anatomy, to self-portrait, to doing a master study drawing, to studying painting and colors, and lastly to exercise imaginative doodles, anyways here's the start of that schedule, (the face is the start for a Sargent portrait study I'm gonna work on):

[mpdpsy]

Didn't manage to do as much as I wanted to...but better than nothing I suppose, moving to noses..:

[mpdpsy]

Did studies of the mouth now and did some junk doodles, man my imagination needs some ironing out, I had a block because I've done studies too long without doing something creative :( , the advices various people gave in the previous posts were right, gotta practice imaginative stuff as well:

[mpdpsy]

Ears and the beginning of a figure study from Strength Training book..wish I could draw faster, just gotta practice more I guess:

[mpdpsy]

Woke up so late today, did very little, but I'll try do double the amount tomorrow:

[mpdpsy]

Just more studies and practice stuff:

[mpdpsy]

I think I was going through a burnt out phase, needed to just take a break, relax etc, anyways more studies, gestures etc. plus I finally started doing color charts, something I've been meaning to do but never started for the past several months...it'll probably take about 2 weeks to finish, I have 13 colors. hopefully I can be more consistent with updates:

[Luckers]

Whoa... This sketchbook kicks me right up on my feet, just what I needed!
It's very inspirational seeing your progress, hard work and dedication in this sketchbook!
You're really good with pencils I have to say :D
Maybe you would like to try working with Photoshop or Painter, though?
I don't know what you're intrested in learning most.
But it's Something I sure would like to see from you :)

Keep up the great work!

[mpdpsy]

Luckers : Thanks man!, yeah I'm very interested in trying out both Photoshop and Painter, but I can't afford the Wacom right now :(, I'll be practicing with oil instead.

I did some exercises with drawing the combination of the sphere and cube from imagination that Vilppu recommends, and some 3 min. gestures, also I finished 3 more of the color charts:

[mpdpsy]

The first 3 are 3 min. gestures from last time, next 4 are 15 min. figure sketches, some Vilppu exercises, then many more 3 min. gestures, and I finished all the color charts..they're not perfect, but nonetheless I learned a lot about what colors my palette is capable of producing, ..now on to actually practicing painting..:

[mpdpsy]

More 3 min. gestures, and a teapot still life sketch. I also worked on 2 Bargue plates, they're really good exercise I gotta say in becoming patient, and ultra sensitive to your medium, so I used graphite for the foot, and oil for the arm. I think one of big big problems I have with oil is simply getting used to handling it, so this was good practice I think, I'll probably go back to them each day as I seem to find something wrong on places I didn't see before:

[mpdpsy]

10, 3 min gestures as usual, and a couple 15-20 min. figure sketches. I worked a bit further on the Bargue arm painting study, and also on a teapot still life. Also I started a portrait study of a pin up painting done by Gil Elvgren:

[mpdpsy]

10 3 min. gestures, a Bammes figure shading study. Worked further on the portrait study of the pinup..lol it looks so off, I think I'll scrape it and start over tomorrow.., also started another Bargue copy, the drawing is off in many places, but I think I'm getting more adept at using oil bit by bit, just gotta keep at it:

[mpdpsy]

I did a pitiful amount the past few days :/ , but here's a mix of 3 min. gestures, neck, figure, and portrait studies:

[mpdpsy]

some more studies:

[mpdpsy]

I did a bunch of figure studies, these are from Human Figure in Motion by Muybridge, it was helpful in observing how humans move/natural poses, instead of the "posed" look I've been drawing w/ gestures.

After I draw them from observation, I then draw them from memory/imagination to see how much I remember, this is the tough part, but it's been so helpful in actually understanding and retaining what I studied...I didn't do this in the past thinking the information will retain itself...it doesn't ugh I feel so dumb, it felt like all the studies I did the past several months just dissipated and I'm starting from scratch...but I just gotta trudge on! I'm working on a still life painting now for a change of pace.

[mpdpsy]

Did a few figure studies, and also did the still life painting, oil painting is hard, I suck, I gotta practice a lot more...:

[mpdpsy]

Figure studies, the first 10 are studies of Vilppu's and the last 10 are from imagination, and also another oil still life:

[CUKIERass]

Whoow! your amount of dedication and work makes me fell ashamed! Got to study hard myself. Really inspirational - Thnx and show us some more!!

[Kabu]

nice drawings :)
good improvement since your first post in the sb
are you still interested in forming a sketchgroup?
i am doing anatomy too
and now im going to post my studies regulary :)

[Kabu]

I've never been in one, too ;) yeah i think thats it.
lets say we post our drawings every day, is that ok for you?

a suggestion for the anatomy:
i think it is better if you learn one part of the body at a time and if you can draw it without ref you go on to the next one (thats what i am trying at the moment). drawing the whole body is good for getting a feeling for the proportions. i did that for a while, too ;) i think later if you can draw all parts of the body without ref then you can start drawing the whole body in motion

i hope you understand what i mean ;) let me know what you think

[mpdpsy]

CUKIERass: Thanks man!

Kabu: hey thanks for the suggestion! and I agree, that's a great idea, breaking it into small chunks and memorizing each part. I think though it's still beneficial to practice drawing the whole figure in motion at the same time, for the sake of getting the feel of the proportions and rhythm as a second nature as well.

I gotta learn to focus better, but here's some figure studies,one from Vilppu, w/ Henry Yan's I wanted to study his line qualities, also the structure of the shoulder area w/ Bammes, then an overview of the major muscles with the study from Strength Training book:

[Imaginary]

Jebus! So many studies, definite improvement just on this page alone. =D

I find myself giving this advice often and really not following it myself but do more from head, applying what you learn is very important, makes your visual library grow. Keep up the leveling!

[p sage]

Jebus, indeed. Jebus and boobies, too.

Nice shoulder girdle study. Is that from Bammes? Looks solid.

Seems like you're doing the right things; you're right about capturing the whole before working on segments. My instructor's drilling that into my head. LOL.

[mpdpsy]

Imaginary: you're totally right, I haven't done nearly enough stuff from my head, just studies these past months, I gotta start doing something just for fun.

p sage: Yep, it's from Bammes lots of useful diagrams in that one. Capturing the whole..haha reminds me of my painting teacher back at the community college, he would grill into us to work "big to small" always, and it's good advice :)

some figures with and w/o reference, and an oil still life, I need to level up my eyes, I observe and observe but I still can't quite capture the right values or colors, -sigh- just gotta practice more I guess:

[Kabu]

i always try to compare the values to pure black and pure white... that helped me getting better values
and practicing helps of course :)

[mpdpsy]

Did further studies on torso area, some figures, and a couple oil still lifes, I gotta do a lot more studies on values w/ still lifes:

[mpdpsy]

Took a break from anatomy studies focusing more on a couple of oil still lifes, plus a couple of Gibson girls studies:

[Twan]

Awesome study man. Where do you find your anatomies refs?
however I see no stuff from imagination, do it, it's the most important
cheer up!

[lhazar]

Man, after doing a quick review of your whole sketchbook, just a word comes to mind: DEDICATION.

I tip my hat in earnest at your effort. :D

If anything, try posting some of your "carefree" or "out-of-classic-art-education" sketches sometime ;)

[Armonah]

This is really, very impressive. The progress and the hard work you've made in the last... less than 2 years are astounding, and the quality of your paintings and sketches is top notch.
Though I agree with Twan and Ihazar that it's pretty much all practise, and I'm really curious to see what you could create if you would apply all that skill and knowledge to a concept, if you know what I mean :)

[mpdpsy]

Twan: thanks man, I find my anatomy refs from photos I find online mostly, and also have this book called Human Figure in Motion, it's great for observing how people move. You're right I need to start doing imaginative stuff.

lhazar: thank you, I feel like I'm not as dedicated as I should be, there are some people here who has an insane amount of output each day, really puts me to shame, yeah I agree as well I need some more carefree sketches, maybe I should put aside a day to just do that.

Armonah: thank you, I've improved, but I feel like I'm not improving fast enough I know I still have a looooong way to go, can be discouraging sometimes, and yeah I agree that I need to start applying all this studies to do something creative.

hmm...I see a pattern here hehehe, yeah you guys are absolutely right, I question myself a lot of times, it's like I do these rigid studies, and I gotta loosen up and just draw shit like when I was a kid, I think I keep putting it off, even though people have been telling me to do it because of insecurity pure and simple, everytime I wanna do something just for fun and it doesn't turn out the way I want it to I get discouraged and go back to my studies. I gotta change my approach to this....

but in the meantime here are more studies, focusing on faces, trying to memorize the planes of the head, the armored dude with the gun I drew when listening to the Chillstream (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/patrickmcwh) , we had to draw something related to Metroid...wasn't really familiar with it, only that it has an armored character in it, mine's lame but it's a start lol, exercising my imagination for once. Also some Sargent studies and some oil still lifes:

[QueenWorm]

Great progress!!! I love the anatomy studies practice!! It's great that you recorded every stage of the improvement!!
What books or reference you took to learn anatomy? I should spend more time on anatomy too after seeing your progress~

[Twan]

all these heads look really good ! the structure too
I think you should try different tools to draw, try charcoal maybe
cheer up!

[Armonah]

It's pretty much a curse of this profession that things will never truly turn out the way you want them to, and that at some point you have to bring yourself to stop working on a piece, or hand in an "unfinished" piece when reaching a deadline. But that doesn't mean it's bad though :)
Of course you study to get better, but isn't it ironic in a way that you also study because you're afraid to move outside of that comfort zone? I think you'd do great if you (for instance) joined a contest or challenge, not only because it'd also improve your artistic skills, but it also gives you a way to measure your skills with that of other artists, and maybe a self-esteem boost. (And you might win something!)

Of course if you want to study you should just keep doing that, 'cause that helps you improve your skills as well, in the way you want to. I also hope this comment wasn't uncalled for :>

Take care.

[mpdpsy]

ah so sorry fellow SSGs, I totally fail at updates huh, I haven't been slacking though, some recent studies and did a Bargue copy, this thing kicked my butt, after working on it a few hours everyday the past couple of months, it's still not perfect...but I learned a lot anyways I think:

[mpdpsy]

a couple of practice w/ portraits from photos:

[mpdpsy]

more practice with drawing portraits from photos:

[Pixie Trick]

Dedication is the word for sure. :)

[Twan]

damn man, this totally works, i thought you have let it done but no way, i'm flabbergasted guy, keep it up!

[mpdpsy]

more portrait practice, all photo ref. any critiques appreciated thank you!

[mpdpsy]

eeh the last portrait sketch really bothered me, made many little minor adjustments with placement of features and proportions, looks more right now I think:

[lhazar]

Nice practise mr Mpdpsy! :) As for your last portrai. The second one indeed looks more feasible. would it be possible to see the original ref?

[Twan]

this is the quality i want my portraits to look!
the thing is you draw only traditionnal and fine art, try to do some stuff from mind, some digital paintings and start use a lot of colors
keep it up, you'll be a killer !

[mpdpsy]

lhazar & Twan: thanks for the support guys! lhazar,I'm not sure if I can post up the ref, it's from a book with a bunch of old Hollywood glamour portraits . Twan, I don't have a Wacom :( , but colors yes...soon gonna be delving into that, as well as practicing with stuff out of my head. But for now, gonna focus on heads until I understand it some more, I feel like I'm still shaky with it. I went back to Loomis past couple of weeks, and the last 3 heads are w/o ref., I still have trouble with specific forms/anatomy of the head, value, basic forms, I think I gotta study the skull closer...

[Twan]

wow, wow, wow, your portrait are perfect! Are the last from mind ?
go on anatomy now, do stuff you can't do, portraits are wonderfull, no reason to work on it.
by the way, you can do color stuff with traditionnals tools ( pastels are fine, watercolors, acrylics or even oils ) but plan to bought a tablet ( bamboo are cheap if money is your issue), you won't regret!

[mpdpsy]

Twan : Thanks Twan, I very much appreciate the tips. mm..a bamboo, what are the major differences to an Intuos, which one do you have? Also I'll move on to color, but I'm still so shaky with value, so I'm gonna focus on that for now...soon though soon!..I hope.

I did skulls and Sargent studies, any critiques on these would be appreciated! I'm so slow when doing studies because I become obsessed with getting them right, gives me a headache, especially with portrait studies when I can't get the exact likeness down:

[Aaron Fung]

Mpdpsy

I recognize those last few portraits!

Sargent, what a draftsman.

I'm so slow when doing studies because I become obsessed with getting them right, gives me a headache, especially with portrait studies when I can't get the exact likeness down:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that is precisely how you are supposed to be doing studies.

Nice studies. Nice sketchbook.

[Max Challie]

Woah very good! IMO, you're ready to play with paint. :)