Smashed Sketchbook

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Starting a sketchbook seems to be a good way of motivating myself.

I recently started studying anatomy having been continuously frustrated with my intolerably horrible, unobserved figures, so anatomy studies are probably most of what I'll throw on here for a while. I feel I'm still in the early stages of learning how to represent the human figure and not even remotely clued up about how to add shadows or perspective but that's my next venture.

I suppose it's normal but everything I seem to draw frustrates me with an aspect that just screams "amature" back at me. The fact that I am indeed inexperienced in the art of drawing probably weighs heavily on this effect but my problem is I'm not quite sure what aspects are actuall shouting at me...

I take criticism well so please feel free to tear, rip, laugh, shout or mock. I'd rather learn something well by difficult means instead of something rubbish, easily.

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[Gorski]

hello smashed pumpkin,

do you have any pencil sketches?

how long have you been drawing digitally ?

also frustration is part of the course.try to get used to working outside your comfort zone,be persistent and eager to learn and in time you will improve

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

I'll dig out some of my old pencil sketches and scan them in, but they're mostly from school and art colledge a couple of years ago, unfortunately (or fortunately more like) most of my figure drawing is A1 size so I can't really scan them in, I'll attempt a few photos with my new camera though.

I've been digitally drawing for years to tell the truth but not using a drawing tablet. I bought myself a tablet about 6 months ago but after the initial burst of enthusiasm it sadly got pushed to one side until yesterday infact.

I've always loved drawing since I was very young and I would say I'm fairly good at it, just vastly lacking direction and drive. As for digital drawing I feel some what lost, the depth (more like abyss) of photoshop is scaring me so I've pretty much stuch with a standard brush and pretty much done nothing but vary the opacity.

Here's another quick one I just did, I'm trying to rotate things in my head but I'm not too sure.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

A few more I did today...

I've been looking at Loomis' drawings and have tried to learn his mannikin, it seems to help a lot when trying to pose a figure.

I'm working primarily from imagination at the moment which is probably not good but I'll work on that.

[Gorski]

my advice to you would be to try to work on reference and after your familiar with shapes and forms from which you can then start to create

also i would suggest you try to improve more on your hand drawn skills before you go digital..it will make it much easier for you...i hope this is helpful...

bye.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Thanks for the advice Gorski, do you mean I should improve on my hand drawn skills due to the sketyness of my drawings? Because I think the reason for that is because I'm still getting the hang of this drawing tablet lark, it doesn't quite have the friction of paper and ofcourse I'm not looking at my hand as I draw, rather the screen. But ofcourse me hand drawing skills are pretty poor anyway and nothing quite beats drawing with pencil and paper so I'll deffinately get some drawn.

Next term I intend to draw from life as often as my time permits so hopefully that will help me too.

Haha, I must say I have been having a lot of fun with Loomis' mannikin, here's a couple more I've done this afternoon....

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Another torso, this one "clavically" challenged,with a horrible attempt at a face and the good old super hero pose!.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Here are some pretty ugly pencil sketches I did last night, I hate it when I draw something while I'm tired and think it's ok only to wake up the next day and laugh.... ah well.

[ashess]

hey pumpkin; I think this is a fine start really. biggest problem seems to be hips and legs. they get a little short and thin.
hmm I also see your looking for ways to shade to express debth. a good exercise I found is to try a few drawings with diameter lines.. like your cutting a piece from the model every times and draw that line, then the next slice. it helps understand the 3rd dimention's aspects; that will make shading following the shape easier. err.. hope I'm not speaking gibberish now. good luck& keep it up!

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Ashess, thanks for the advice. I've noticed that about the hips and legs, they seem to just taper away into nothing. I think I understand what you mean a bout drawing diameter lines, do you mean to draw lines which would in essence cut the body into cross sections, which as a result will help me realise the volume of the shapes? I'll have to try that in future and I'll deffinately start drawing more from observation.

This picture shows exactly how not to deal with my leg drawing problem! :D

[ashess]

hihi funny picture ^^ ye it cuts way right before the hips there.
and that's what I mean with the diameter lines yes ^^

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Spent all day travelling from Witshire to Manchester but just found time for a quick slap up of my hand, trying to get this shading lark to work.

[DaStreets]

Loving the studies, keep up the work. Stop by my page and drop a comment if u can, thanks a lot

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Another quick hand-job :)

Spent a bit more time on this but I'm not too sure about the outcome. I don't think I quite had the right form before I started shading it. I wish I could do it without relying the linedrawing to hold it together.

[Adrian Wilkins]

Hey THANKS ALOT for stoping by I really appreciate every single post!! would be glad to se you drop by once in a while

those studies just keep em up dood keep them going!!

like take alook at this:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67096&page=78

from page one to end look at theat progress!

and just stick too it, keep practicing I'll keep on stopping by to see if you're still keeping it going

and if you need motivation than listen to Bobby Chiu's Videopodcast on Youtube

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=uJowNFmuul8&feature=channel

it helped me to get out of that comfort zone!!

[Adrian Wilkins]

ah thanks for the link man haven't seen it yet!!!

btw!! I'm missing some UPDaTES HERE!! :D

[JailHouseRock2]

Hay Smashed Pumpkin, nice start here mate.
Good to see your already studying anatomy, which books are you studying?

Good line work as well,

kepp up the good work


matt

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Hygami, you're welcome. My updates might be a bit sparse for the next week or so because I have a deadline approaching for university which is taking up most of my time, but here's a bit of a poor excuse of my daily drawing but oh well, I need to work on my hips, haha.

JailHousRock, thanks a lot for the encouragment! I've been looking at a lot of Loomis' drawings to learn the parts of anatomy which matter in terms of drawing but I was also using a text book that my brother has for his sports therapy course, the detail is a bit crazy but it's still very interesting I can't remeber what the title is off the top of my head but I'll find out. I've also ordered myself a copy of Constructive Anatomy and The Human Machine by Bridgman.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

couple more attempts at fattening my hips.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Crap level of completion but I've got loads of uni work to do so it'll have to suffice...

Deffinately some issues with this chaps anatomy

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Hurray! My Bridgman books arrived but once again only had about 30mins of free time for some doodles.

Not sure what the verticle and horizontal lines on the middle sketch are from but I think it was something to do with cutting the first pic off the background layer and pasting it onto a clear layer without getting rid of the white background.... meh.

[Brashen]

Looking really good dude, Still a lot of work ahead of you but you're getting there mate. Keep at it and thanks for stopping by the old SB

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Dsg#1473

[Kagemusha22]

Nice start, let's see some slightly more developed drawings of figures. Have you got any Life drawings that you've done? (If you have the time might be worth just going to a few sessions, to polish your drawing skills on the spot) All the best. :wink:

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Here's a batch of some quick figure drawings. God bless posemaniacs!

I've finally got the time to get back into training my drawing skills seriously so this will be the first update of many, regular ones. If it's not there will be hell to pay.

I hope at some point I might see my meager drawing skills improve....

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[Smashed_Pumpkin]

*blows the dust off this sketchbook*

Havn't been the most comitted of artists to this poor thing but I thought I'd throw a few of the sketches I'm doing for my university project on here.

I've been making alchemy scribbles and then pulling out characters, specifically villainous characters.
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I thought I'd throw this in here too...
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=856558&d=1260968092

[jason_maranto]

Some tips for where you are on the journey;

Working in 3D you understand how everything is made up of simple geometric forms -- the trick is to place those forms in space in the correct place at the correct size... Looking at your work I would say that it would benefit you greatly to take much more time with that part of the process and not worry about muscles or bones until your proportions and placements are more spot on.

The muscles and bones are largely irrelevant to drawing a good figure and focusing on them excessively is the undoing of many students -- focus on shapes, negative and positive... get those right and the rest will follow.

Make sure to rotate your reference and drawing often so you can re-evaluate your placement of the shapes. Don't move on from re-evaluating shapes until you are sure you've got it right.

Best,
Jason.