Maduera's Sketchbook - with the will to improve..lots!

[Maduera]

Hello all! Very much intimidated by many, many great artists here...i still want to try my best and join you all.

A tiny note about me:

Like many here i stumbled upon CA.org (around a month ago)and was completely blown away. This place is full of incredible artists, and for the first days i couldn't help but spend hours browsing through different sketchbooks.
It had such a huge impact on me that i actually picked up a pencil after 10 years of not drawing at all. From around '96 to '98/99 i was very much into comic books and started "copying" those. Not as in tracing those images but having actual art from artist i admire as my reference. Altho i loved it i didn't have the feeling as if i would develope at all, plus starting to work fulltime made me quit drawing. Since then i have been an art director in advertisement agencies, working creatively but never in the way of drawing/painting. I never realised how much i missed drawing until i got inspired again. So i guess i have to thank CA.org and all of you with your wonderfull sketchbooks for making me realize what i missed!

So now, about 3 or 4 weeks ago i started to occasionally draw, bought a wacom intuos 3 (which i love!!!) and got into painting digitally, which i never done before. This time tho i really want to start and learn from scratch. Trying to avoid copying other peoples art and develope my own style. It's going to be a looong and hard way ahead of me, but i am willing to take it. Obviously i need to learn all the basics, and would love people to guide me here and there.

To let you have a little insight on what i was doing 10 years ago i will start this with samples from back then:

Sketch...obviously refernced from J.S. Campbell:

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/4364/campbellgirldz7.jpg

The only color image i did. Penciled, inked and colored with crayons. Referenced of a "Spawn" comic book cover by McFarlane:

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/5420/spawnzs9.jpg

And one of the VERY few photo referenced penciles i did:

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/6722/lennyyh5.jpg

I did more ofc, but all in all this 3 samples kinda summon up why i never felt like developing...because i copied! I reallize that NOW, unfortunately didn't really realize it back then. I guess the hardest part was that i started with this copying and got to a point where i was quiet good at it, but never had the real basics, so whenever i started something on my own it looked horrible, which discouraged me. On the other hand i never meant to be a human copying machine...

So now i'm a beginner again. Willing to learn from scratch, and hopefully one day get to a point where it feels like i'm doing "my thing". Long story short, here's what i did the last 2 or 3 weeks:

Sketches from photo reference/anatomy book:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3545/sumokidcv1.jpg

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/2968/nood1jr0.jpg

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/1346/scetch001qi2.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/7820/scetch002qh1.jpg

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/8358/scetchbig1gv4.jpg


And the first humble efforts with my new wacom:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7532/eyestudyxg5.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2341/evadr0.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2476/eva2hl5.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9025/lucyfg3.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/5733/diverxl4.jpg

And the most recent, my CHOW entry:

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9202/chow133maduerafinalde0.jpg


Feeling very awkward now, but meh everyone has to
start somewhere i guess. I really want to work on getting better,
a reason why i started this sketchbook...to maybe one day see
a real development.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to have a peek on this,
i will try and update as much as i can or time allows me to.
Thanks again for the inspiration and cheers all!

-Mad

[FightingSeraph]

Damn, that is some impressive stuff you have here.

[Clochette]

Hi! And a big welcome! :)
Your drawings are nice! I especially like the comics on the first page. Great lines! And your Lucy Liu portrait looks like it will be awesome! It's Lucy Liu right?

[Maduera]

FightingSeraph: Thanks a lot! Really aprecciated!

Clochette: Thanks for the warm welcome! Really glad you took the time to drop by my sketchbook! Indeed it is Lucy Liu, tho i won't finish her now (or maye never) because i realised i really have to start with the basics first and then i can have a go at painting. My desasterous dragon dentist kinda tought me to take a couple of steps back.

Sooo i've been on the train, visiting my parents, thought it would be a
nice opportunity to draw a bit...boy was i wrong. My already not so good line
got completely messed up, from all the shaking and jumping i actually got
literally sick from watching the lines, and had to stop after one page only.
-___-

Anyways, here are some awesomely bad sketches scanned with the awesomely bad scanner of my parents. First some Bridgman studies and then two pages of my very first 60 sec poses ever. God this is so incredibly hard, this really showed me how bad i am. I really need to do lots and lots more of those, helps me to start concentrating on loose lines and the form only and stop trying to place every line perfectly. Was trying to do the same with Bridgman studies, concentrating more on getting it done roughly and fast then trying to copy every single line that mr bridgman put on the paper.

Cheers and next update soonish i hope
-Mad

[Gerre]

You're not bad at all, you've got some really nice stuff in here.
About the 60 sec poses: you shouldn't expect every sketch to be a work of art (that's why they are called studies ;) ),
it's for practicing anatomy and proportions. You should make lots of em and you will certainly improve.
Keep it up! :D

[headlessAdi]

hey dude.........great work....love the chow entry.......
i would love to see you post more....
stop by my SB and crit the shit outtof it..........
keep your good work coming .....
-Adi

[Jasper Flick]

Posemaniacs is fun. Those drawings really make you think about drawing speed. Just keep doing them, yes the 30s ones, and I'm sure you'll catch on fast. The potential is there for sure! :)

[Grafguy]

nice start, the sketches from ref look promising
try doin some colorstudies from ref, it will help u picking colors and get the values right.

keep it up ;)

[Maduera]

Gerre: Thanks a lot for the complimet! And yes you're perfectly right...just seeing how bad my line/proportions gets under timepressure is devastating! Well i guess it'll improve with time!

headlessAdi: Hey! thanks for stopping by, will drop by your SB as soon as my head is a bit clearer! Thanks for visiting my SB! --- Aand AH! So you're the one who likes my chow entry!?!?! ;)

Jasper Flick: OMG! 30 sec? You gotta be kidding me! ;p You're right tho. I just started with 60 sec poses, will try to do 30s, 60s and 90s every day. I just hope it'll improve soonish...such a pain to watch this outcomes atm. Thanks for the compliment!

Grafguy Thanks! I thought of rather take a few steps back and start with sketching anatomy etc for a while now. Will play around with PS for values and stuff but for the start rather B&W. -___-

I catched a cold (grrrrr), couldn't do as much as i wanted to, but hey atleast i did something! Found a great PS file with skulls in different perspectives. Done one so far with a tiny bit of value study. Then off to http://civilwarphotos.net/ for some wonderfull weird face references.

Thanks all for stopping by, will update soonish!
-Mad

[Maduera]

Time for updates!

I'm at a friends house now, and he got no scanner at all. :( Sorry for the really bad cell phone pics . : /

A page of doodles for the warmup, feet and hands study and my Bilbo Baggins. ;)

Cheers all
-Mad

[Gerre]

those hands and feet studies look really great. I like the skull too.
keep it up!