Spork891's (sort of) Daily Progress

[spork891]

Well, I decided to just go ahead and resurrect the old thread, since it has a lot of my old stuff in it.

What I'm currently working on: Trying to develop a shading technique, trying to get my perspective right, planning on doing some more work out of Loomis as soon as I get a spare moment.

-----------------------

I'll be drawing daily, but uploading only... maybe semi-daily. I'm an engineering student trying to teach myself to draw one day at a time.

-Jas

(I look so sad, it was before finals after all.)

http://spork891.com///selfportraittwo.jpg
Most recent SP (Early August):

http://www.spork891.com/selfportraitfi-ve.jpg

[-The Swift-]

this is good work, the only critism is that the face seems a little elongated and the neck a little long, otherwise it's good work. i've just started my own daily sketchbook, look out for me.

[spork891]

Been working on self-portraits lately. I have heard it is a common practice to do these daily. Might not be the right strategy for me, I usually only have time for one semi-complete drawing a day at the most!!

-Jas

This one is a little better than yesterday's in some ways as the proportions are more correct... but on the other hand it looks less like me.

http://www.spork891.com/selfportraitthree.jpg

This is a gesture drawing I did from a photo reference online

http://spork891.com///Musclechickgesture.jpg

and this is something out of an ad- magazine (Ralph Lauren Ad)

http://spork891.com/unfinished%20copy.jpg

[garg]

wow.. I love the detail and texturing on her! awesome

[spork891]

Read about half way through a Loomis book last night, pointed out a few things I have been missing, it was late so I was only able to practice on a few heads. Still seems like I can't draw the skull from *any* angle y'know?

http://spork891.com/skills1.jpg
http://spork891.com/skills4.jpg
http://spork891.com/skills7.jpg

Server isn't workin at the moment, but eventually eh?

[obid619]

i like sporks....:) haha. I can't draw noses very well too, can n e 1 help me outs? please respond in my forum due to me loosin track of where I post stuff :p

[PeggyChung]

hey spork891, your drawings are looking fine. hmm if you want to find out on how to do head angles u should check out this link by kchen (drool) http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1432 andhttp://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=573 hmm im not sure of the 2nd one, but i know the first one shows angles of faces by using cylinders, it also answers ur question obid619 on noses.:fruit:

[spork891]

Thanks you two for stopping by!

Now that Xmas is over I can post some things I have been working on. I have been doing a lot of mediocre stuff lately trying to relearn how to draw a few things. First here is something I just finished.

-Jas

http://spork891.com///FHM

This is a ref from an FHM magazine I had on hand. This morning I went a little crazy and started slashing references out of every magazine I own. :bash:

[spork891]

Haven't posted for a couple of days because I haven't really been drawing much, the reason is that I promised to do this and I really didn't want to since it's pretty cheesy. I vowed not to draw anything else until I got this done since I promised it would be done a *year!!* ago.

In spite of my lack of interest I managed to make it look pretty decent IMO. (It's of course very cartoony, not going for realism here.)

C&C welcome of course as it always will be.

-Jas

http://spork891.com/Lumberjacksurferonbed.jpg

[spork891]

Maybe it's ridiculous to do this since this is a "daily" sketchbook.

But here is all of the random doodling and sketching I have been doing aside from my more detailed stuff.

One thing I'm beginning to notice is that I am far more inclined to just sit there and doodle from imagination than to draw from life... I think I'm going to have to push myself a little more often. At least once a day. ;-)

Actually come to think of it some of these are from the other night when I read an entire Loomis book cover to cover.

-Jas


http://www.spork891.com/skills2.jpg http://www.spork891.com/skills3.jpg http://www.spork891.com/skills5.jpg http://www.spork891.com/skills6.jpg [IMG]

And that is all.

[spork891]

Had a last minute push of energy and decided to resume work on my self portraits. :-)

http://www.spork891.com/selfportraitfour.jpg

Done with my new prismas and brush pens.

[-The Swift-]

sorry spork, i can't see any of your work! might just be me!

[spork891]

Hehe, I hope so... well actually now I can't see anything either, probably server troubles.

[spork891]

Nothing new to post today, there is a drawing I promised a friend that I need to finish and then it's on to my bargue drawing.... *shudder*

[spork891]

[Edit: Forgot to mention that a ref was used for this, apologies.]

I agreed to do this drawing of "Obelisk the Tormentor" (Yu Gi Oh character) a couple of weeks ago, and I finally just hunkered down and did it... I don't even like Yu-Gi-Oh...

Well it's for a good cause, my buddie's nephew will be thrilled! :beam:

Well here it is. Now I'm going to get started on that Bargue, really!

I'm not terribly happy with the drawing myself, as far as technical skill goes it demonstrates a lack of it, there are too many mistakes to name really.

C&C welcome and appreciated.

-Jas


http://spork891.com///yugioh.jpg

[endregan]

awesome love your prisma work


good imagination!

keep it going

[AndreasM]

There are some great scetches here. The Upper part of the ralph lauren scetch was solid, but overall, it has some anatomy problems. (Where is the ribcage?) You also seem to rely alot on your line, wich is pretty hard in my opinion. Try drawing loose, get a grasp of the basic shapes, and then draw the outline. Some anatomy studies will allways help. (Hope this made sense...)

As Endragan says, keep it going:)

[spork891]

I totally agree with everything you said, I'm doing a few exercises to try and loosen up!

[rhemrev]

Hey spork, you've got some very nice art inhere! I love the shaded one, you really nailed that one. As far as figure drawing goes, just keep at it, you'll eventually get it.....one small advice would be to keep in mind the overal flow or line of the human body, instead of looking at each bodypart as a seperate thing, try to first get whole body pose on paper in just a couple of lines, and then go in and adddetail......doing quick 1 minute sketches of people around you would help developing this skill...:)

Keep posting,

-Edwin

[-The Swift-]

love the self portraits, sketches are really great too, keep it up!:)

[spork891]

Ugh, here is where I am on the blasted bargue drawing, I feel like all the lines on it are wrong and I'm considering giving up the ghost.

http://spork891.com/bargue03%20-%20lines%20darkened.jpg

(I have darkened the lines on my half for more clarity in PS)

[spork891]

Well, here I am. Back from a long break not only from posting, but from drawing. Now, however, I am ready to work again. I ended up junking the bargue, I don't have that kind of patience.

Here are some things I have done in the past month or so.

[B]I picture of a stylized demon type guy:
http://www.spork891.com/jasondemon.jpg

An attempt at a portrait from a source drawn from one of my sister's girly magazines.
http://www.spork891.com/sunglasses.jpg

Another self portrait, trying to get back into that groove too:
http://www.spork891.com/selfportraitfi-ve.jpg

Funny looking gremlin guy with confusing anatomy:
http://www.spork891.com/greelou.jpg

As always, any crits and comments are most welcome.

[spork891]

Now, here's a task, can you help save this poor image? I suck at shading with pencil but it's a skill I'm going to have to acquire. I think I'm going to quit drawing humans for a bit and draw something more simple, like a ball or something, till I get this down.

http://www.spork891.com/nude01.jpg

I'm still ver much in the process of refining this, but hell, I think it's going south on me.

[MisterJC]

thanks for your comment on my thread =D

hmmm.... you are probably doing this, but... when i shade, i learned that things turn out better if you do it in levels, lightest first, then progressivly darker.

also, know where your light sources are so that you can know where to put the shadows if the reference is kinda stetchy.

for your last drawing, use a blending stub, or even your finger (which might work better) to even out the shadow gradiations. Don't go darker than you need to. the shadow on the left arm and the armpit seem a little too dark compared to the rest of the drawing.

Her left breast seems too small... :er:

it's comming along pretty well tho. don't scrap it! when things get hard, you learn the most.

one thing i do, since i don't really know too much about shadow and anatomy is to constantly refer to the reference and work a section at a time, like go for the face, then the chest, then legs and so on... it helps to concetrate on certain things once you have the basic outlines in place.

[spork891]

All points well taken, especially about certain shadows being too dark.

And yes, I've been told before to work from light to dark, but I'm stubborn about that, I REALLY REALLY like to lay in those dark values, probably more than is healthy...!

[MisterJC]

FOR THE LOVE OF SPORK! LAY OFF THE DARK! it's addicting... i know...

do what i did, use the step program to get you off nice and easy.

if your using a b pencil, go to an f or an h... so you CAN'T lay it dark.... then again, you run the risk of digging into your paper for that hit of dark. :$

[MisterJC]

how's that system working out for you? any better than before???

hmmm. for those graphite sticks... i don't really use em, because... im afraid :$

but i should really try experimenting with em...

[spork891]

I just bought an anatomy book by Joseph Sheppard, it's quite good, anyone heard of it? I thought I might give a shot at drawing stuff out of it. :confident:

ARM
http://www.spork891.com/armfrontsupine.jpg

LEG
http://www.spork891.com/legturnedout.jpg

MUSCLEGUY
http://www.spork891.com/muscleguy.jpg

[spork891]

Well, I took and redid the shading on this figure, studied anatomy of hands and fixed them, worked out the hair and face, did some blending, worked from light to dark etc.... and here is the resultant:

http://www.spork891.com/bejeweled.jpg

I am actually quite pleased with the result, all the more so because I thought that it was too "cold" to work on, I proved myself wrong.

[MisterJC]

i must say... nice job =D

the hands and hair are done very well.

but the one thing that bothers me is her face... her right side looks a little odd. i think that its because it looks like the jaw streaches out more than it should... =T

again, nice job. its got a certain somthing to it which means you put some of yourself into it. :^^:

[spork891]

God, I am frustrated right now. I'm trying to work on basic skills, but wow, I forgot how unschooled I am somehow. Bought an anatomy book and figured I would copy some things out of it as well
Anyway, here are a few things I have done:

http://www.spork891.com/ribcagewithmeat.jpg
http://www.spork891.com/ribcage.jpg
http://www.spork891.com/lobster.jpg
http://www.spork891.com/leaves.jpg
http://www.spork891.com/junk.jpg

Thanks for stopping in

[spork891]

There was one sketch I did last night that I thought was really awesome, but I can't find it now (Please don't ask how I lost it). So anyway here are a few things I have done in the past few days.

A vase of flowers I have in my room, I couldn't bring myself to finish it! I was taking far too long...
http://www.spork891.com/vase.jpg

::EDIT:: Accidentally reposted old drawings out of anatomy book, looking for new ones...

Misc
http://www.spork891.com/lobster.jpg http://www.spork891.com/doll.jpghttp://www.spork891.com/breath.jpg

[spork891]

I decided Friday to try a new graphite erasure dealy

the result
http://www.spork891.com/flowershirt.jpg

I feel as though I largely got over my reliance on line to describe form in this drawing, but let me know what you think. I'll return it to WIP status if you say otherwise.

I also did a few minor sketches and gestures today, but hardly worth posting.

[rollb82]

I think the earaser technique worked, have you done oil pick out before?

[spork891]

I've never even put oil to canvas before actually. What is "pick out?"
:wink:

[rollb82]

ok, oil pick out is something i have never really tried i just know the basics of it. Step one draw an image. step two fix the image with crystal clear. Step 3 create a thin oil wash that you coat the drawing with (note that the painting should be on gessoed board) . Step 4 pic out areas that you want to have ligther with a kneeded eraser.

[spork891]

Just did some scratching on paper yesterday, had fun and I feel like I learned a few things since I last drew from memory. Kind of cartoony I know... I like cartoony.

http://www.spork891.com/tiltedangle.jpghttp://www.spork891.com/sketchy1.jpghttp://www.spork891.com/sketchy2.jpg

-Jas

[rollb82]

The sketches are pretty rad and there is no problem with them being cartoony at all, they are sketches. you can tell that you are just having fun with them so i think there is no reason that anyone should say anything about them being drawn that way. I like ther exagerattions in the chins and noses of the profile drawings, especially the woman. I kind of want to pick her up and put her in a bow and shoot her out like an arrow because that nose is great.

[spork891]

Perhaps I'll do just that. :teeth:

[spork891]

I've been out and about doing really really quick stuff. None of it good IMO but hell at least I'm trying. Most of these are from today, I just rode my bike around town and stopped periodically when I saw a group of people, some are from the park, some are from the docks, one is at a coffeeshop, etc.


http://www.spork891.com/viticulture.jpg http://www.spork891.com/swingin.jpg http://www.spork891.com/playgroundequipment.jpg http://www.spork891.com/playground.jpg http://www.spork891.com/icecreamdude.jpg http://www.spork891.com/flowerbox.jpg http://www.spork891.com/conversing.jpg http://www.spork891.com/coffeeshop.jpg http://www.spork891.com/cdplayerkira.jpg http://www.spork891.com/boatatkennedy.jpg

[spork891]

Continuing with the whole working from life thing I decided to draw some things with a little more detail:
http://www.spork891.com/lamplight.jpg http://www.spork891.com/tree02.jpg

Improvement? Hard to tell yet, but I'll just keep working.

[spork891]

More roughs from the bowling alley.

http://spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-gesture-bowling01.jpg http://spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-gesture-bowling02.jpg http://spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-gesture-bowling03.jpg http://spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-misc-bowling04.jpg

[spork891]

Trying to get those creative juices flowing, I've done a lot of practice with anatomy from imagination. Here goes.
http://www.spork891.com/img/figures/soares-figures-armsout.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/figures/soares-figures-cyborgdude.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/figures/soares-figures-wickedsick.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/figures/soares-people-commanderfalc.jpg

[MisterJC]

Your life studies are very nice. especially the trees. I like those alot =D

For your stuff from memory, there are slight perspective and placement problems. Mainly the breasts, the nipples are often slightly off and the breasts are a little off also, for the first one, they are too far apart and the second one, they are a little too high.

The last guy has a chopped off skull going on.

Your bowling ally gestures are lookin good.

[spork891]

Thank you for crits... when you say chopped skull I assume you mean I made the mistake of thinning the back of his head too much?? Damn that mistake. :}

[buzzz3d]

I really like this one (http://www.spork891.com/flowershirt.jpg)
Keep at it!

[spork891]

Thank you both for stopping in! I did a little more work from life and a little more anatomy stuff from imagination. I think I'm going to cool the imagination stuff for a while and study some real anatomy again because I still have problems readily apparent from work below. Working from life has benefitted me greatly. My favorite thing in this post is the thumbnail self portrait with me getting hit with a bat. :dead:

http://www.spork891.com/img/soares-figures-leanforward.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/soares-figures-linebacker.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/soares-gesture-brandonpool.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/soares-sketch-clothingstore.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/soares-sketch-umbrella.jpg

[lowpolymatt]

I decided Friday to try a new graphite erasure dealy

the result
http://www.spork891.com/flowershirt.jpg

I feel as though I largely got over my reliance on line to describe form in this drawing, but let me know what you think. I'll return it to WIP status if you say otherwise.

I also did a few minor sketches and gestures today, but hardly worth posting.

This pic is fantastic Spork....really great piece youve done here, you should be proud!

:star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
Matt

[spork891]

Thank you for stopping by! I am most proud of it. This sketchbook has been inactive for a couple of weeks due to the fact that I am relocating to San Luis Obispo to attend Calpoly (Electrical Engineering).

[MisterJC]

hey

good luck in college.

and that erasure study is nice... i gotta do a few more of those, they are fun. :D

[spork891]

I've moved recently and I'm trying to get settled. I really don't have anything good to post but here is literally everything I have drawn since last post. Electrical Engineering takes a lot of time... :[

http://www.spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-gesture-frenchfryman.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-stillife-window02.jpghttp://www.spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-environment-artandde.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-environment-fireston.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-gesture-beachdayone.jpg http://www.spork891.com/img/roughs/soares-gesture-foot.jpg

[MisterJC]

heh... nice sketches i really like the beach one.... because of the boats... yes... the boats.. :x

[spork891]

Oops, forgot to draw for about 6 months... guess that can happen sometimes when you start out at Cal Poly and you're an EE major.

Well, I'm happy to resurrect this thread with some new stuff. I'm going to start posting everything, no matter how crappy it is, so great ready to s-c-r-o-l-l

-Jason

http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook01.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook02.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook03.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook04.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook05.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook06.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook07.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook08.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook09.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook10.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook11.jpg

[spork891]

Well, I've been doing a lot of homework lately so's I haven't had time to devote specifically to drawing.

However, as usual a few things showed up in the margins. I came to a realization about shading: It's different depending upon the environment. In an environment with a lot of ambient light, most objects show very subtle shading. Even reflective objects have small, dim speculars in said environment. I'm going to start working on that a bit, see if I can solidify the idea in my mind.

I'm generally pretty frustrated. I threw away about 5 or 6 attempts at drawing a Mustang GT... every time it turned out pathetic. I try and start with the biggest shapes and then work in the details... but I can't get the shape right for the life of me. Anyway, maybe I'll post those abominations later.

One final note, the human nose continues to confound me. It's sort of like a ball shape, but it can also be described using triangle shapes... however neither one seems to be working for me. I suppose studying Loomis a bit more will help with this.

-Jason

http://spork891.com/img/newwave/doodle01.jpg
http://spork891.com/img/newwave/doodle02.jpg

[spork891]

Always trying to get a couple of things in a day. I don't feel like I'm learning very much, although I cranked out the vampire chick in almost no time. Overall, the drawing lacks three dimensionality. The third dimension only seems to come through in a couple of isolated areas of the drawing. On a slight up note, the proportions aren't nearly as grossly wrong as I used to do... (They are still wrong)

The shoulders are too wide and too large, the rib cage is probably too bulky too... I even underemphasized them when I was doing the construction lines. I need to focus, FOCUS PEOPLE! And the waist is probably a bit too long and skinny. I'm trimming things down though! Slowly...

-J

http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook12.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook13.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook14.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook15.jpg

[spork891]

Well, here's today's miniscule amount of work. I'm amazed I even had time to do this. I got really confused while I was drawing this robot arm. It actually started out really crappy when I was getting caught up in the details, but then I had a little eureka moment and drew in the basic shapes... I sort of had to get MORE basic than what I thought basic was. Really really basic! Hell, I didn't even have to get things particularly correct, just start with some idea of where stuff went and how big it was.

Then I proceeded to screw up the details. I had to go to electric machinery lab so I didn't get to finish.

http://www.spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook16.jpg
http://www.spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook17.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/ref01.JPG

[Dan1989]

Dude, there is alot of good progress in your thread! Keep drawing the planes of the head, you should draw them over and over until you can contruct them from memory. Don't forget to become comfortable with building the basic sphere and divisions of the head. Most important tip I can give you is don't try to rush things, there aren't any shortcuts in art, the harder you work, the more results you will see, and the more you master the basics, the better you will be at drawing anything. Keep up the good work! :teeth:

[spork891]

Thank you so much for stopping in. A little encouragement really goes a long way.

Haha! Yeah that's me, always trying to rush things. Especially with learning, bad habit. Can't really cut corners when it comes to getting things into your brain.

Drew more heads today, getting comfortable with the whole head-planes thing. Guess I never thought of the human head as a set of planes. The brow line still seems to get me in the 3/4 perspective though... can't quite figure out the angle it is supposed to make with the cheekbones, and another thing, the chin, which way it is supposed to tilt... probably depends on who you're drawing. I should relax, take a breath! Here is what I did today.

http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook18.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook19.jpg http://spork891.com/img/newwave/newbook20.jpg

Like I said, getting more comfortable with the stuff, Loomis is helping. I might go up a page or two and see where that gets me.

[crazy3dman]

There is definite improvement from the beginning of the sketchbook to the most recent drawings. Glad to see you've started drawing again. Keep it up. :)

[spork891]

Thank you for stopping in! I feel guilty for being lazy about drawing in the past days. I am learning about AC motors and generators, Bode plots, etc in school and learning it all takes so much time...

I'll be posting doodles from the margins some time soon! I have a little stack accumulating.

[Sara-San]

Finally got time to look through your sketchbook
I noticed you do really really well when you have a reference, but when you go without you tend to get proportions wrong (making shoulders on females more manly, torso's shorter)
So, it's possible that it may be a good exercise for you to get pictures of things and stylize them into what you want to do with your cartoon style. That way, you can distort them how you like, but you have an idea of what it should generally look like.
www.gettyimages.com is a site that I use quite a bit. it's a free search for pictures and it's very diverse.

[spork891]

I totally know what you mean! Lately I have tried hard to uneremphasize the shoulders so that my women don't look like linebackers, and I've met with some success. For some reason they still get really buff sometimes if I'm not careful! I'm sure I just need to keep "drilling" with actual references.

Thank you for the resource.

-J