The Sketchbook of Blizzard5291

[Blizzard5291]

Hello, everyone! I've known about CA.org for a while and have kind of been lurking around. I've really been meaning to start one of these, so here goes! I'm open to any criticism, anything to help me improve. :)

[Blizzard5291]

Here are some more. These are all pretty recent and all also done in paintchat. No references.

[Blizzard5291]

This is a sketch from my sketchbook that I scanned in to color in photoshop. I need the practice. I'll post the WIP of the photoshop version soon.

[Blizzard5291]

Here's a picture that I did in shi-painter oekaki. It's at this Polish oekaki, which is kind of funny because I'm not Polish. It's a really good board, though. As usual, no reference used.

[Blizzard5291]

Another session in paintchat got me this:

[Blizzard5291]

Hello, CA! I haven't updated this thing is a while, but I've still been drawing. Here are a bunch of things I've done lately. All were done on paintchat, most were done without references, and some were done from pictures from google or from magazines. It is probably obvious which are which. Any comments and advice would be appreciated. :D I definitely need to use this thing more often.

[shamandalie]

Hey there, thanks for dropping by my sketchie. I see improvement, especially the portrait of the man.
Some of your digital paints are fuzzy, use a harder brush when painting. :)
Drop by bumskee's thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107217) for help, it has helped me alot.

Keep it up ya? :D

[Blizzard5291]

Hey, so I got a new macbook pro to help get me ready for college in the fall and so now I have a computer that can actually handle Photoshop. WOO! lol So, since I've gotten it, I've been mostly doing things in that program.

I used a photo reference for the Sara Bareilles picture. The self portraits were done by using webcam shots.

[Blizzard5291]

Oh I forgot to mention that the self portraits probably took around 15-30 minutes each. The Sara Bareilles picture took a few hours.

[Blizzard5291]

It's been a while. Here's a bunch of stuff I've been doing in photoshop. Some are from reference, a lot are from imagination. The orange was from life. Then I ate it. A few of these are unfinished, too.

The first one was done in August, the last was done last night, and then there's everything in between.

I always welcome any criticism/tips/comments. :)

[Blizzard5291]

And here's a self portrait I did a while ago. Photoshop.

[Blizzard5291]

Here's a page from my sketchbook of faces done from photo references found in various places.

Sorry for the bad quality of the image. I took the picture with my webcam.

[Blizzard5291]

Here are two more face studies from photo reference, one in pencil, and one in photoshop.

[Blizzard5291]

Here's a painting I did of Ingrid Michaelson from reference. I was experimenting with colors a little bit.

I love her music.

[neovirtu]

Wow, you've done alot, and you're getting better - I think you have a good grasp on greyscales, I'm doing that too, I guess, start experimenting with different brushes, some work looks a bit muddy -

this image stood out for me: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=905391&stc=1&d=1266099416


and I feel this is your strongest - this is nice, : http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=933591&stc=1&d=1268921544

I'd love to be able to sketch like that! I'll be keeping my eyes peeled é_é

[Blizzard5291]

Thank you so much for the encouraging comment, and the advice! Yes, I've been working a lot in grayscale, but I've been trying to move more and more into color. I'll keep working on it!

[neovirtu]

Thank you so much for the encouraging comment, and the advice! Yes, I've been working a lot in grayscale, but I've been trying to move more and more into color. I'll keep working on it!


No problem, colour is a never-ending study, I think your use of colours is fine, but I think you shouldn't used too much saturated colours, try going a bit more de-saturated and mix it up a bit, only go saturated if it's dark/shadow, the darker it gets, the more saturated a colour should be, or so I have noticed in my recent studies. Good luck!

[Blizzard5291]

I colored that sketch just for fun. Just popped the picture of the sketch in photoshop, added a few multiply layers, and went crazy.

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

This is a good start. I'd be careful not to lean too heavily on the digital though, it's important to keep drawing on pen and paper to develop your individual methods. Just a thought.

Keep posting though!

[Blizzard5291]

This is a good start. I'd be careful not to lean too heavily on the digital though, it's important to keep drawing on pen and paper to develop your individual methods. Just a thought.

Keep posting though!

Thank you very much for the comment. I do work in my sketchbook a bit these days, but it's a bit of a hassle to post sketchbook pages online. However, I could definitely use more practice with traditional. I'll try to make that happen.

On that note, here's some more digital art! :P

It's mostly unfinished doodles, but maybe I'll work on them more someday and then I'll be able to post the progress!

All are from my imagination, except for the last one. It is from a photo reference that someone posted on tumblr.

[Nkristian]

tricky name mister blizzard :D Anyway nice portraits my favorite is the girl with the glasses.

[vatteh]

Its cool to see how focused you are on portraits. I'm the same way, as much as I am recommended to try new areas, I always come back to portraits. I'm just so linear. There is a lot of work here, especially on your amount of rough sketches, which is good. Quantity allows you to go through many faces to enhance your library. But like me you got some symmetry issues, but those look like they will be easily overcome.

[Jamie Romoser]

nice sketchbook you have going here
should do some more master studies and still lifes :sungod:
have a good one
-Jamie

[Blizzard5291]

Nkirstian - Thank you! That girl is Ingrid Michaelson, by the way. She's a fantastic musician.

Vatteh - Thanks! Yeah sometimes things are very asymmetrical and I don't see it at all until I leave the picture alone for a while and come back to it. My eyes tend to become numb to flaws pretty easily. Flipping the canvas helps, I think, and I've been doing more of it lately.

OmertA - Thank you for stopping by! Master studies and still lifes sound like a great idea. I hope to have more time to do these types of things in the near future.

[Demo]

A great amount of work and progress Is showing. Just keep working you seem to be figuring everything out. If I could offer any type of help it would be some of your earlier faces Seemed to be a bit flat this could be from building the eyes, nose and mouth off the same line but i think you worked that one out. Keep a close eye On your turned faces too :)
Good luck keep it up!

[ModestMouse]

nice sketchbook the selena gomez portrait is awsome especially the sara bareilles one along with every other portrait you did, i dont really know what to critique considering i can not do faces for crap

[Blizzard5291]

Demo - Yes, thank you for the comment! Looking back at some of my images, I can't believe that I didn't notice some of the asymmetry in the face! Some eyes are tilted and different shapes and different sizes and at a different height in the face. They look like monsters! Haha. I know I still have a lot to work on in this, but I can tell I'm at least improving, thank goodness.

ModestMouse - Thank you so much for the compliment! I just checked out your sketchbook and you should give yourself more credit! Don't stop practicing.

[Abrodos]

Those studies from life are really nice! For a more realistic approach, try to use linework as a definer of shapes, not just areas. Think in 3d, and use the light gradations to express that tridimensionality. The orange still-life has come out quite good in this terms. Keep at it, you're on the right path!

[Blizzard5291]

Abrodos - Thanks! I'm not quite sure what you mean about the lines defining shapes instead of areas. Can you explain that more?

I'm streaming right now, trying my hand at another life study. You can watch if you'd like. I would really love input!

http://www.livestream.com/blizzsartstream/

[Blizzard5291]

Here's the still life I did on stream. I wish I could have spent more time on it, but it was getting dark and I had a concert to go to. Regardless, I'm pretty happy with it.

[Blizzard5291]

I had a dream last night about how I've been neglecting my sketch book here! So I figured I should at least post something, even though I've been very busy. I just finished my spring class, so maybe I'll be able to work more on art now.

Anyways here's a rather quick doodle I did in paint chat while drawing with my friend. It's been a while since I've used paint chat. After lately only using Photoshop, it was a bit difficult to get used to the simple tools.

[Blizzard5291]

Here are some poses from my imagination that I did in photoshop. I tried to keep them loose and natural since most of my attempts at drawing full figures are rigid and awkward.

[Nenad]

Hi there. Your works are great, was enjoying watching them. Now, there's one in paticular that caught my attention as a bit incorrect. Post #20, image 7, that girl, proportions seem a bit wrong, head looks too big in relation to the rest of the body. Or maybe you did it on purpose, i don't know. Anyway, as I said, your works are excellent. Keep up!

[Blizzard5291]

Hi there. Your works are great, was enjoying watching them. Now, there's one in paticular that caught my attention as a bit incorrect. Post #20, image 7, that girl, proportions seem a bit wrong, head looks too big in relation to the rest of the body. Or maybe you did it on purpose, i don't know. Anyway, as I said, your works are excellent. Keep up!

Thank you very much for pointing that out to me, Nenad! I absolutely did not make her head huge on purpose. Hahaha

Training my eye to see mistakes is an ongoing process as I learn more about proportions and anatomy. Getting mistakes like that pointed out helps a lot, especially since a lot of times I don't notice them myself.

Thanks for the encouragement :)

[Blizzard5291]

Have some horrible webcam pictures of my sketchbook! :D

Better than nothing, I suppose. Too bad I don't have a scanner. In face, too bad I don't have even a digital camera haha.

You can kind of see it, right?

[Blizzard5291]

Well here's a close-up of that dwarf guy I drew, since I like him. You can see him a little better. His name is Bogsats

[ThomasM]

Hey man thanks for the comment, I like your sketchbook too, and you are obviously working really hard. I would comment that your portraits are great at the moment, but one thing that really stands out is the eyes. This is a really common thing that loads of people do when starting out (I do it myself) which is to draw the eyes larger than they actually are in proportion to the rest of the facial features and face. They should be rarely more than the width of the base of the nose remember. and the centre should be in line (roughly) with the edges of the mouth. If you remember these two things then it really helps to keep them trimmed down to size. Too big eyes create a sort of cartoonish effect even when you don't attempt to create it. I read through some of the other posts and I didn't seee anyone else comment this.

Keep up all the hard work!

[Blizzard5291]

Thanks a lot, ThomasM! I'm glad you pointed that out. I'll be sure to pay more attention to this in the future.

[Blizzard5291]

I started Loomis' Figure Drawing For All It's Worth. Here's what I did last night. So lop-sided haha. I'll have to copy this diagram several times before I really get it.

Once again, I hope the webcam photo is good enough. This time I threw it in photoshop and quickly adjusted the levels. I hope that helps. I should really buy a digital camera...

[vatteh]

That's a nice portrait for a quick sketch in post 31. Nice use of skin tones. I would say that the edges are a bit too soft, but that's probably due to the fact that it was a quickie, or that it was done in paint chat. And keep on the Loomis studies, I'm doing them too and I think I'm seeing some payoff.

[jeremygordon89]

Good progress you're making! I would like to see more refined work and imaginative work too eventually, but you're doing great! Keep up the hard work and you're going to go far.

[Blizzard5291]

Okay, so I got a new camera (Nikon Coolpix L22) so I took some better pictures of some sketchbook pages I already posted, and some new ones. I bought Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life the other day, and the page before the portrait of the guy is from that. The first figure is from the book, and then the next few are from my imagination trying to use the same method. Then I did some more anatomy things from the book. The last before the close-up of Bogsats and the sorceress is a portrait of a friend named Max. He was visiting from Germany, so I thought it would be nice to draw a picture of him. It's from a photo reference. When I gave it to him, he folded it up and put it in his wallet. Haha whatever he can do what he wants with it.

:D I hope you can see my sketches better with this new camera. I need to play around with it some more to work out how to use all of the settings.

[Blizzard5291]

Here's some sketchbook pages that start with my moleskin with the most recent and go back in time (to about a couple months ago), and then my large sketchbook. The last three digital ones were done in paint chat.

[C.Abarca]

: D

post more soooooon :3 (btw love the 2nd one, you should continue with it)

[Blizzard5291]

Oh I kind of forgot some details:

-The hand from the first image is from Bridgman

-The second image is from a photo reference (of a girl...)

-The third image is a sketch of my friend while we were out for ice cream. I made her do a weird arm pose.

-The fifth one is from when that same friend and I went to the mall and sketched people while they were eating in the food court.

-The rest from imagination, I believe.

[Lizzybeth]

I think you use too many lines. In you're drawings (and your paintings too actually) you don't exhibit very strong mark making. For the most part they seem uncertain, vague, and searching, and very much afraid to take a chance. (Please, none of this isn't meant to be insulting at all so I hope they way I write doesn't make it come off as such...). You seem to be very much stuck on delineating the form through outline and an uncertain sketchy quality of many lines rather than drawing through the form and working gesturally to capture the essence of a form. I think letting yourself draw without looking back and without regret would help you. Don't worry about lines going the the head or body, use them to construct the figure from the feeling up and the incidental lines will ultimately recede. What I'm talking about can be seen here (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1033564&stc=1&d=1280885445). Your figures here are held in by these calculated lines and ultimately come out stiff and static. Then look to the far left. That little crouched over dude has more life than the other two characters. It's not just due to a more active pose, it's mostly due to a much bolder use and confidence of line. I'd like to see more of that. Now I'm not saying to go cartoony and lose construction, just the opposite. I want to see confident lines which contrast straight to curved and build life through a combination of gesture and refinement to sculpt the figure out of the page.

enough babbling about lines... Another thing I noticed in your portraits is that, as others have said, you should watch the angles, alignments, and proportional relationships of those oh so subtle facial features. One thing that no one seemed to point out though is that in your faces the mouths often fall flat, especially when viewed at 3/4. You typically draw them recessed too far or directly below the nose. The human mouth actually sticks out with somewhat of a muzzle. In constructing the face Vilppu described it as half an orange, which basically fit between the base of the nose and the beginning of the chin with the mouth following the protruding curve of the half sphere. A lot of people miss this in their drawings but it's one of those small but powerful things which can really subtract from (if overlooked) or add to (if executed properly) the sense of dimension in the face.

Back on the topic of line, or more generally mark making, pay attention to the way you put pencil to paper, and the way you drag it across. Your pressure and marks are very much similar, varying it can help give rhythm, a spark of life, and plain old visual interest. More importantly though, I think you should watch out for the direction of your lines in shading. When you shade with a pencil you have a tendency to use very flat uniform marks in your hatching. They do layer to create appropriate value structures, BUT they don't follow the form. They don't curve over it or contrast in direction to signal shifting planes in 3d space. The effect of layering hatching in a manner primarily indiscriminate to 3 dimensional form has a very flattening effect. It is, for example, very noticeable in this drawing (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1033555&stc=1&d=1280884767), particularly in the neck and forehead where the direction of the lines do very little to describe the form. The chin however looks quite nice because you contrast the direction of lines used in your hatching to suggest the different planes of the chin as they exist and relate to one another in space (as well as conveying value information at the same time). A similar case can be seen in this painting (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=905377&stc=1&d=1266099135) as well where the mark making on the forehead and neck inadequately describe the form. The lines of the neck of straight and too far reaching, flattening out the neck into an odd shape. This could be remedied by suggesting more the the front plane of the neck by including more of the right side in shadow or by curving the lines of the lighter marks to suggest the roundness of the neck.

Closely related to this is general observation that your paintings tend to be muddy. This does not come just from using one brush but also from softening too much between value shapes/transitions, not varying your mark making, and most of all a perceived lack of a focal point/focal contrast. This is probably a poor term to describe it, but what I mean is that everything takes on the same degree of "muddiness" and it is because everything is of the same degree that it appears even more muddy. If you gave parts of your paintings more refinement and also contrasted blurriness more, having some areas stand sharply against each other while having other fade off and blend into each other I think it would give your painting more visual interest as well as a heightened sense of depth (in terms of viewing). This (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=748697&stc=1&d=1249957020), for me, is your strongest painting. The drawing and values are pretty good, so they don't distract from the painting. The nose and mouth are clearly defined, while the ears fade off as a lesser important detail. They are adequately hinted at but you don't waste your effort talking about something that bears no importance. In this way too you manage to achieve a sort of atmospheric perspective in this portrait, which, even when subtle, is clearly felt. The marks around you too are interesting and contrast with the other marks in the piece and imbue the work with it's own sense of energy and life.

Lastly, I think your values/color use isn't bad, but you could definitely develop it further. You values would work better if they exhibited stronger demarcations between light and shadow mass. I don't mean high contrast, just solid value masses, they do a drawing good! Also you color could be pushed more. A lot of your stuff tends to be monotone and subdued, and it looks like you're painting that way because you haven't really tried to paint any other way and that this way is perceived as what is "safe" (going back to the way you draw). With color look for the subtle changes in temperature and color influence, you really have to fight to see them, and them push them in your work. Look for how hues and tones shift subtly in light and work to capture that! A few other things using this still life (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=957667&stc=1&d=1271554215) and an example. Don't use gray! Don't use brown for that matter either! This is something my color teacher would get onto the whole class for - and it's really hard not to do. Instead of picking out that gray you've got to look for the color influences in those shades and paint that. Gray and brown will suck the life right out and anything and dull it all down. Mix complements and you'll be amazed at what you can achieve optically. Even white is not white. It is pink or purple or green or yellow. Look closely, very closely. Color is a rich but very very subtle beast.

Finally I would really really really recommend tracking down a copy of Gruppe on Color at your local library or seeing if you could do an inter-library loan with a university that has it (it's out of print now and a bit pricy to buy...). It is an amazing book on observing and painting color. It is done by a landscape painter but everything is absolutely applicable to portrait painting and Gruppe explains things in a very understandable and to the point way. He talks about various things and then shows a great many examples of his paintings, and with everyone is a commentary which turns each one into an immediate mini lesson. Since you seem to like painting so much I think you'll really get a lot out of this book.

Wow that was a lot... I tend to get going on these things... hope some of it helps, and keep it up! You're doing some nice things.

[PNate]

It's always cool seeing the improvement in people's stuff (which is definitely happening here). Keep up the studies and keep moving forward :)

[Blizzard5291]

Lizzybeth: Wow, thank you so much for that post! You gave me so many great points to work on, many of which I haven't thought about. I'm sure I'll come back to your post many times as a reminder of things to work on.

PNate: Thank you for the encouragement!

Here's a portrait thing I did in Photoshop. No reference.

[Blizzard5291]

I did some studies from Loomis and Cornwell at the Sketchoholic session today. I didn't submit them in time, though, but it was still fun.

[Blizzard5291]

Hey guys, long time no update! I've been busy with classes and the usual. Luckily, I made the smart decision to supplement my bio major classes with a figure drawing class for non-art-majors. Here's the fruits of that so far.

[Blizzard5291]

Continued...

[Blizzard5291]

Here's the most recent one. I still need to finish the skeleton in the background. You can kind of see it in this picture. Silly assignments...

[wasabi89]

Hey man

Nice studies on your sketchie. Seems you gaining more confidence on your lines. Your flow on some pieces are coming more and more wicked. Keep it up with the hard work !

Cheers

[Blizzard5291]

Here are more figure drawings from my class. The yellowish one was supposed to incorporate a type of camouflage, and I chose to try and emulate Gustav Klimt, especially in his painting Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The blueish one was our first attempt at using multiple colors. We were to choose three cool colors and one warm color and use them.

[Blizzard5291]

These are the last drawings I did for my figure drawing class. The very last one was our Final. I'm really glad I chose to take that class. I learned a ton. It's amazing to look back at some of the very first drawings I did for the class and compare them to ones I did toward the end.

[jNeumann]

Hey!
Great little book you have here, figure drawings look great. You can definitely see improvement throughout them. Keep at it!

[Kungfoowiz]

Yip, those classes seem to be helping. Keep up the good work. =)

[Jai Kamat]

great persistence and effort! I can definitely see your skills getting SHARP, oh so SHARP

keep it up!

[Blizzard5291]

JNeumann - I'm glad you can see improvement in my sketchbook! It's good to know that I'm moving forward. It's sometimes hard to see that for your own work.

Kungfoowiz - Yes I'm very glad that I took that class. Now I just have to keep it up. There's a free figure drawing session every week that I'm going to try to go to this coming term. It will be nice to be able to draw without worrying about a grade.

Ixius - Thanks so much for the encouragement! I need some every so often. And thank you for the inspiration from your sketchbook. Whenever I feel unmotivated, I look at your work and it makes me want to do studies like crazy.

I did some Bridgeman studies in my sketchbook. The last page is from imagination, except the self portrait in the top left corner. Then some doodles in paint chat. I need to watch the length of the thighs in some of these, huh? Then I did some doodles in photoshop. The last one is a photo study of an old portrait of Julia Roberts. I need to get back into digital after that semester of almost all traditional figure drawing.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Kungfoowiz]

Awesome work, I think that's some of your best figure drawing work so far, from the Bridgman book. Remember those shapes, they are too cool. =)

Really liked this face too, have fun! =)
http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1133150&stc=1&d=1293830468

[Parsakoira]

your gals are really cute, well executed! keep up! cheers!

[Blizzard5291]

Kungfoowiz - Thanks! Yes, I really like doing those Bridgeman studies. Hopefully I'll still have time to do studies now that classes are starting up again.

Parsakoira - Thank you so much for the encouragement!

Here's some doodles I did in paint chat.

[Kungfoowiz]

Nice one bro.. the lashes strokes look good, you could put some into her ears.. lol.. K have fun. =)

[Blizzard5291]

Here's a something I did in shi-painter (the same program as paintchat). I used a reference and then deviated pretty far from it with colors and light. I need to learn how to draw ears.

[Blizzard5291]

Here's another one, once again with some reference to a photo, in paintchat.

[Blizzard5291]

Hey guys! I've been super busy lately, but I've still found some time to squeeze in some drawing every so often. I went to Saturday life draw sessions a couple times. I definitely need to do that as much as possible. It's a blast.

[Vertical]

You've got a lot of really nice work here! I especially like the hand in the last image. Remember when you're drawing faces that if you measure the distance from the top of the hair to the chin the eyes are usually in the middle.

[Thyname]

your doing all of the right exercises. Keep it up.

Here are a few tips that helped me a ton with my figure drawing from life
-Look Twice. Draw Once.
-Draw as big as possible.
-Pick up something that can make a variety of marks. Take a stick of charcoal for example. I can think of at least 7 marks it can make... not including varying pressure on each of the marks


Keep working it

-Evan

[Blizzard5291]

Here's some recent drawings. The second one is my gorgeous and hilarious friend Haley. Then there are some drawings from today's figure drawing session. And finally a sketch in paintchat influenced/inspired by Steve Kim <3

[Blizzard5291]

I am pretty bummed about Amy Winehouse passing away.