The Disenchanted Forest (some nudity, updated occaisonally)

[Flay]

I've started a couple of these here, but they always seem to fall apart. I won't say that I'll keep up a routine of daily drawings because I know there's no way I'll keep it, but I'll try and keep updates regular.

[Flay]

Here's a celebrity portrait to start us off. It should be fairly obvious who it is. ;)

I want to shade this, but unfortunately shading isn't my strong suit. I'll get some practice and maybe I'll come back to it one day.

[Flay]

Gonna try and work on my shading, since it's probably my weakest point.

[Flay]

04/11/2008

Decided to try out some perspective tonight. Any problems?

-reference (http://img356.imageshack.us/my.php?image=causticstockthecastlegagc7.jpg)-

[Flay]

06/11/2008

Update on the perspective drawing, but still not finished. Detailing takes a long time, and I'm kind of tired tonight, so I might finish it tomorrow. I'm well aware there are some glaring inaccuracies, but nothing that I can be bothered going over to fix. :P

[Flay]

11/11/2008

Been away from a scanner for a few days. Lets get back in to the swing of things with a quick christmas card design. I'm going to have a go inking this digitally, but does anyone have any comments before I do?

[Flay]

I've started the inking process, but I'm not too sure about the eyes, nose and snow. Here's what I've got so far. I'm worried about the eyes loosing their detail and the snow looking like black blobs. Any suggestions on how I should avoid this? I tried using a smaller brush, but then the thinner lines are overpowered by the thick linework of the deer's outline.

[Equality72521]

id suggest using a variety of line weight on the deer, one for the antlers, one for the body, one for the eyes, etc. also, the snow looks like the deer is farting ;) as for the other stuff, real nice perspective drawings. So you say you have a problem shading? its a hard thing to accomplish. One way to help learn is to make a value chart, ranging from black to white, roughly 5-7 values, then apply them to the drawing. really push your darks to make the image pop off from the page, keep it up!!

[Flay]

I tried redoing it with different line widths for different parts of the deer, but it just didn't look right (however, I do still plan to use a thinner width for the eyes and nose). I have to do something to distinguish the deer from the snow; I'm thinking that instead of doing an outline I'll fill in the snowflakes with a lighter shade of grey.

Thanks for your input. :)

[Flay]

14/11/2008

Okay, time for some updates.

I've tried to get some line width variation on the deer, and also finished off the perspective drawing of the castle. I'm not happy with the snow in the deer image though; it's too faint.

[Flay]

14/11/2008

Another quick sketch for today. I plan to refine this.

[Flay]

18/11/2008

Some exercises in looseness today. Some proportion problems, but then again, that wasn't the point.

[Flay]

19/11/2008

Quick sketch for tonight. Will have to finish it tomorrow 'cause I've got an early start in the morning.

[Flay]

20/11/2008

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Flay]

21/11/2008

Shading didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped. Still got a lot to learn. I'm going to draw up some gradients and see if they can help me improve my shading.

[Flay]

23/11/2008

Today's sketchpage was more about identifying my problems, so that I can tackle them. I'm going to start trying to shade some simpler shapes (it'd help if anyone could link me to some reference pictures) and gradually move on to more complex objects.

[Flay]

23/11/2008

What I've learned from this:


The light source isn't the only factor one must consider when shading; reflected lighting must also be taken in to account.
Shadows on irregular surfaces should generally be drawn so that the grain of the pencil follows the surface of the object.
Line weight can affect the appearance of light and shadow; darker lines where shadows are darker and lighter ones where there are highlights can improve the look of shading.

[Flay]

25/11/2008

Shading is difficult when you're trying to work in a gradual gradient change over such a small area. It'd probably be best if I start off with larger objects and move on from there.

[Flay]

27/11/2008

Although I'll probably do some more work on this tonight, I just wanted to create a record of what I've done so far, in case I screw it up in the process. I've learnt a lot from this drawing, and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of shading.

[Flay]

28/11/2008

A quick update. I tried toning down the darks a bit, but the paper just ended up in a mess, so I guess I'll keep it as is. The torso area isn't entirely finished yet, so it's not completely accurate.

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Good overall work here, just keep at it, and don't be affraid to test out things that are outside your comfortzone:)

-E

[Flay]

1/12/2008

Hooray! A comment! :^^:

Here's today's sketchiness.

[Flay]

2/12/2008

Lucky I decided to scan this before I shaded it, because the shading... didn't go down so well.

[Flay]

4/12/2008

Blah. didn't know what to draw today so I just copied another Loomis diagram.

[Flay]

6/12/2008

I thought I'd do some studies for a challenge on a different set of forums, and a quick doodle to see what I'd learned. But now I'm thinking I should stick with the fundamentals of art before I go on to drawing from imagination.

[Flay]

7/12/2008

Today's drawing practice was a few pages of these. Even simple things like this could use a lot of improvement.

[Flay]

8/12/2008

An experiment with line weights, although the differences are really too subtle to notice.

[Flay]

10/12/2008

Trying to get the hang of drawing the figure in perspective. I did a couple of pages and this was the best one. :(

[Flay]

11/12/2008

Okay, I think it's high time I inject this thread with a little less godawful-ness. I plan on practicing my shading on this, but here's the lines for tonight.

[Flay]

12/12/2008

Update. Still not great, but better than my first attempts at shading.

[Flay]

13/12/2008

Thanks for the links. Here's a final update on the skull. The teeth were a bitch, had to redo them several times.

[Radon_]

damn good shit

love the castle

[Flay]

Thanks muchly, :)

15/12/2008

An update on the christmas card (nearly done) and a Loomis diagram.

[Flay]

16/12/2008

New project.

[Flay]

17/12/2008

Update. Having trouble with the legs but I'll get there.

[Flay]

18/12/2008

*sigh* I just can't seem to draw today. I couldn't get the shading right on the figure's legs and I attempted another perspective drawing which failed miserably. I restarted the latter at least five times and couldn't get it right.

Oh well, you can't correct mistakes you've never made. :[

Oh, and I got my HSC (higher school certificate) results back yesterday, and my UAI (university admissions index) today. My results were...


Ancient History - 90
English - 86
English Extension 1 - 42 (out of 50)
Mathematics - 89
Mathematics Extension 1 - 43 (out of 50)
Visual Arts - 89

My UAI is 92.30, which is okay, but still not enough to get me in to the course I wanted. :( Thankfully I may get some extra points, so I haven't lost hope yet.

[Flay]

19/12/2008

Quickie before bed.

*yawn* I'll fix up the problems and get started on the shading tomorrow.

EDIT: Wow, I didn't realise just how bad the right eye-socket was.

[Flay]

21/12/2008

Ugh, must've spent three hours making Christmas cards today. At least it's out of the way.

So, here are some drawings.

[Flay]

23/12/2008

Today, rather, was spent making gingerbread houses.

Oh, and here are some anatomy studies.

[Flay]

27/12/2008

Note to self: shading rush-jobs do not work!

[Flay]

28/12/2008

Another nude which took way too long to draw. I'll start shading tomorrow.

[Flay]

Been away for a little while. Here's some (but not all) of the drawings I've been doing lately. Boring. Same-old same-old. I know.

One page of guestures (not very good), two pages of anatomy studies and something unfinished that I won't name at the moment, I want to see if anyone can guess what it is.

[walnut]

You've got okay studies, but could you post some darker pictures? I can hardly see the lines on these.

[Flay]

In the future I'll make sure to toy around with the darkness/contrast before I post the images.

But it looks like that won't be happening for a while, since my scanner just broke.

Crap. >:|