Sketchbook (Update 1/3/10) (Nudity)

[rth2art]

New stuff is at the end

Hey, welcome to the sketchbook.

I am trying to get better so all crits, comments, pointers, etc appreciated and needed. Specifically I want to create more believable characters/creatures but need help in anatomy, form, and value. I also want to move into environments and full compositions but will move into those slower. I am working on troubled areas but crits are always nice. May draw my attention to a problem I did not see.

I should be updating every week so this should be fairly active.

I'll work on resizing images so they don't come out massive also. Thanks to all who will take out time to help me get better.
Let's Begin!

[Venial]

Hi yes you have to fill out copyright stuff first. That's how it is now. Try starting studying from life. Start with simple objects you can put on your desk infront of you and build up from there. I have just started out and I have painted some fruit. I feel this helps develop your eye for colour, values, perspective and everything basically. Start simple. Keep it up :)

[rth2art]

Venial- I really do need to start drawing from reference again, thanks for the reminder.

The apple, cup, and banana are old ones that were done from observation. The face and phone (ref. phone) were done tonight.

As always C&C appreciated

I promise that I will work on resizing my images

[Venial]

These arn't too bad. However try to use more than one shade/colour of blue, or whatever colour you are using for more realism.

They are tending to look a little flat. The phone is your strongest out of these, but also try to lose your sketch lines ( depending on what style you want to achieve )

And you're right about not painting on a white background, so thanks for that. Which leads me to advise you on not using pure white for highlights. Use the colour. Here is an example i did for you, hope it helps >>>>

Keep doing studies mainly, but no reason you cant break free and do your thing sometimes. Primarily studt tho ;) keep it goin.

[rth2art]

Venial, thanks for the tip.

I've had a pretty busy couple of days, but it's time to get some more work done.

This is another photoshop sketch with reference. Maybe some time I will take a snapshot or two of my sketchbook, for now this was done yesternight. I should update again tonight, until then all crits are welcome.

[rth2art]

A few more sketches for the day. Mixed reference and non reference.

[rth2art]

Been a little hectic... I will post more.

WIP

[rth2art]

4/24/09

[rth2art]

5/1/09 a new month

Second is a WIP

[rth2art]

Crits so far...
requests?

[rth2art]

a little more work. some WIP's.

[rth2art]

been a few weeks, time to shake the dust off and get back to work!

[rth2art]

6/10/09

[rth2art]

6/15/09 WIP C&C welcome

[rth2art]

feel like I should put up something...... anything......

[rth2art]

So I'm trying to experiment with marker sketching. I like the concept of building up the image with varying opacities and layers, reminds me of painting in photoshop. Obviously I'm not very good at it yet, so any tips would be appreciated. The second is an update on a WIP, it is still a WIP, any thoughts?

[rth2art]

7/5

For anybody watching, here is a quick update

[rth2art]

7/11/09

[rth2art]

I've had problems with getting my scanner to scan images in without them being too light. These still aren't perfect but they are a lot better now that I've messed with the brightness/contrast settings a little.

Hopefully this means I will post a lot more since I have been trying to do more pencil work. Gotta build up those foundations!

With the outdoor one I was trying to work on showing scenery without using tons of detail, so the figure is just a quick rough. Let me know what you think.

[AztcFireFlower]

Hi rth2art,
Thought I'd answer your question here.
Alot of the master works I find on line. just google it and look for large jpgs. which I think you've been doing. Also try Art Renewal Center, and this site:
http://www.wga.hu/
There are really good quality images that let you see detail in both locations.
See in terms of shape and organization of forms.

Also, keep up the drawing practice, I will add in reference to drawing faces, think in terms of bone structure, not features. Other wise the surface stuff floats on top. Bone is the anchor to the surface detail.

[brainiachound]

hi rth2art,
Overall your on the right track and working at it so keep it up! I agree that focusing on your pencil skills is a good direction to go in first. I might suggest a couple of books (apologies if you know this already) that I have liked for a long time:
"Bridgeman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life" and "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist". I need to ref them more regularly myself but they have helped me alot over time. Look forward to seeing more.

[rth2art]

AztcFireFlower- Thanks for the quick reply. The wga site looks exactly like what I've been looking for! Especially with the ability to zoom in and out of the works, it's great. I used to draw skulls out of a book, (I should buy a skull replica sometime, was not a book on skulls, was a book on 'horror' type art) but have not done that in a while. May help to construct the skulls before I make the actual head, then I actually have to think more about not just how it should look but how it actually is constructed. I'll try to get some studies done to give you something to mull over and hopefully have them up around the weekend.

Brainiachound- I actually have the Atlas anatomy book on order from amazon but it was coming with a burn hogarth book that they still haven't received to ship to me yet. I was not sure whether to get a hogarth, loomis, or bridgman book. Loomis was way too expensive, and while I had heard of both hogarth and bridgman, a friend of mine has the hogarth anatomy book and liked it so I went with that, but if you recommend this bridgman book then I'll switch it in place of the hogarth for now (especially since they still don't have the hogarth but the bridgman is in stock so they can send the order already!!). I'll keep some practice up and look forward to seeing more from you as well.

sorry if I am long winded :{

[brainiachound]

...and that's usually dangerous but it made my commute to the day job more interesting, anyway.

Glad to hear the books are on the way...if your experience is like mine they will aid you immeasurably! Anywho...I got to thinking I might help you with something a little more tangible than "your on the right track" or whatever I said...anyway, Aztec's comment on bone structure got me thinking and I realized what I typically DO NOT see in your work: structural development. I always start everything I draw with its underlying "skeletal structure" (or some facsimile there of)...whatever it might be. Please allow me to indulge myself in an animated GIF that kind of goes in the steps you could take ;-) (and forgive me if you already do this...but I don't see it in your linework of the sketches...tomorrow I'll see about blocking an mass on this stick figure if you like...also this only A way to do it and is not necessarily the RIGHT way...its just my way ;)

...and you can see that GIF in my SB (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164986) where I will continue to work on it...it occurred to me how wrong it was to draw in your sketch book...sorry :bashful:

[rth2art]

BraniacHound- There is no problem with you posting corections or whatever in my sketchbook. It doesn't bother me, especially when it is helpful. I just got the books in so hopefully we'll start to see some improvement.

There has been wedding stuff going on this week so I will hopefully get more work posted middle of next week or so.

As always, crits and comments welcome.

[brainiachound]

cool beans! Like the latest stuff...keep it up!

[rth2art]

Hey. Here are a few pages from my sketchbook. Sorry for the poor quality, scanner is not the best.

I realized I was doing a lot of heads and will be trying to add some more variety in their. Hang in there, it will get better.

RTH II

[brainiachound]

hey rth,
Just a quick redline on one of your skulls. Skulls and heads are good, btw, imho...I like the hatch lines you did behind it, I would just make them consistent and appear to pass behind the object of interest...hatch lines are a nice way to define negative space -they are also easy and relaxing to draw ;) the main thing is the cranium is drooping, so I fixed that. One thing I consciously remind myself to do is to look more at what I am drawing, as opposed to the drawing itself when drawing from life or ref...when from imagination I think("look") thru my minds eye what I want to draw more than the drawing itself...or I try to anyway =D Hope that helps and keep it up!
~brain-

[rth2art]

I did not realize it but now that you point it out the back skull is hanging ridiculously. Did not even cross my mind when I was drawing it. I have a marker work I want to post soon but it is just too big for my scanner, and my scanner does not pick up the gradations that well. Maybe if I get desperate enough I will take a picture of the picture and post it, but I really don't want to dilute it through too many transfers, I am not working with the newest technology here.
Thanks for the tips, I will have some more stuff scanned in after a couple of days.

[rth2art]

Here is a quick little drop. A few studies and sketches. I decided to take a page from brainiac's sketchbook and do a ref. digital painting. This is some initial color layout. Let me know what you think. RTHII

[Zorcron]

on the right track !!! your posts are showing work ethic which is the first key to any skill in life = )

i would say stay off the color for a little while longer and break out the charcoal ,get used to drawing with your whole arm as well , not just the wrist you get a lot more energy with line and stroke this way

keep up the fight !

[brainiachound]

I like your taste in references ;) Good work, keep it up!!!

[rth2art]

Sorry it took so long to update!! Guess i have been trying to stay away from my scanner. I may need to sketch a bit darker, my scans always come in light. No photoshop stuff this time. Will have more of that coming soon along with more scans. Sorry for the poor image quality.

[rth2art]

Here are a few sketches. A few studies and then some trying to use my head. Let me know what you think.

[rth2art]

Hello Again. Some more sketches, mostly from observation. Trying to learn more about the muscles and mechanics of the arms, so any pointers or observations there would be helpful. As always, all criticism is appreciated. Hopefully I will start getting some digital paints on these pages soon. The hair, oh the hair...

[arestocrat]

the muscle and bone structures look pretty accurate. But it seems you got some problems with rendering stuff out, so just keep up practicing (esp. rendering and perspective) ;)

[AztcFireFlower]

Always good to practice. I would suggest looking up Andrew Loomis for head construction and proportions. Anatomy is great, now to add simple lay-in practice.
As you study Loomis and also Bridgeman, you'll see how much they can draw great figures with simple line, minimal rendering.

[rth2art]

arestocrat- thanks for the comment. Nailed it, rendering and perspective are some of my monsters right now. Will keep practicing, hopefully I can find some figures to draw from life sometime.

AztcFireFlower- Thanks for the advice. I have some bridgeman, loomis, and (?)Peck (atlas of human anatomy for artist). I have been reading them but need to do more of their excercises. I will get on top of them and try to bang out a decent amount of pages of excersises for you (and also for me).

Really thanks for the posts. It does help with motivation thinking that somebody may be watching.
Here are a few sketchbook pages (that scanned in dark enough). I keep promising the digital paint but have been finding it hard to push the time to keep working on them. The time change really f-ed me up. From now on I will try to format my images so they are wider but the post wont be as long, so hopefully that will help with viewing.
Warning, teapot scanned in crazily. I will try and make this week art soup, so enjoy your dinner :yum:

[rth2art]

Here is a quick little update. Started as a black/white sketch in photoshop. Obtained values in black/white and added color as an overlay. The hair definately needed more love, but I felt that it was time to move on to another portrait study. Been stuck on this one trying to find time to do the hair. I feel like this piece needs work, but I learned some stuff from it and am ready to try another. Critique away, lay into me. (next one I will have to nix the background so that it is not white, kind of harsh on the eyes)

[Arne Meyer]

hello rth2art
It´s nice to see that you don´t give up and show a lot of effort to become a better artist.
You do the same stuff I did 1-2 years ago when I began to train my art skills.
Even some references of your studies are the same :)
I guess the best thing I can tell you is to keep up drawing and painting, the most will come by itself.
The only thing you really have to remember is to reflect what you have done.
Only by visualising the differrences between your finished study and the reference you will be able to improve fast and minimize flaws, otherwise it is possible that you do flaws over and over again in your study routine.
Good luck with your training!

[rth2art]

Arne Meyer- Thank you for the kind words and encouragement.

Here are some studies and sketching I have done. Some of these are just me sketching trying to use some of Bridgemans' techniques, but most are from his book(s). Hopefully this layout makes for smoother viewing.
As always, let me know what you think.

[brainiachound]

glad to see your still at it! good show. I particularly like the parrot...VERY nice work. later!

[rth2art]

Brain- the parrots name is Adolfo, and he lives on a reference photo. Thanks for the comment.

Some more studies, sketches, and some life drawing. The dog tends to like to sleep, so he is a pretty good model. Trying to work more... work into my routine. Should start getting more of a variety of work in the next few weeks. That is a goal.

All crits and comments appreciated.

[rth2art]

A quick little mid week update. Some sketches.

[OfflineOnline]

Nice sketchbook, I can definently see you improving as you go, keep up the good work ^____^

For the portrait of the lady you did, the eye closest to the "camera" could be bigger in my opinion, cuz' it looks smaller then the one facing away. And the hair could problbly have a more flowy feel to it, but yeah it looks pretty good though! ^___^ (sorry I'm not really that good at giving critiques ^^;)

[rth2art]

OfflineOnline- yeah that makes sense with the eye. I thought the back one seemed bigger but it appeared to be the right size. I guess making the front one bigger would lessen the impact of the back. Didn't think about it at the time, thanks.

Here are some more sketches. I am pretty sure I hate hands. I am going to try and fit in more photoshop sketching (though there is none in this post). So hopefully we will be getting some good updates soon.

ArmorVenue.com and characterdesigns.com are two cool sites I found that i did not know about. So, there you go for those who have not stumbled across them. Check out the character designs photosets.

[rth2art]

Quick little update. Hectic couple of days but christmas shopping is DONE!! Have a couple digi paints i am working on so hopefully get those up soon. Until then, here are some sketches. My ears are open...

[brainiachound]

I like the tenta-monster and the way you rendered the shading...same for the lady posing next to it. Keep it up!

[rth2art]

Sorry I have not updated recently. Here are some more sketches. Full time job plus rendered sketches = time is F-ed until I get better.

Thanks for the comment brain, I have been trying to incorporate rendered drawings as that will probably be helpful.

Some of my own stuff, some bridgeman, some from ImagineFX, and some poses from CharacterDesigns.com. Their photosets and event photos are real cool.

[rth2art]

Here is another group of sketches plus a digi sketch. oh boy, aren't I just getting all special. the group of portraits are from artist profiles in ImagineFX, some poses and sketches are made up (including the alice in wonderland esqu centipede), a couple of ref caterpillars, and some poses & costumes from CharacterDesigns.com.

Apple was a little under an hour, I was experimenting with dry media in the middle for a little too long and it was not working out. Looked to canvasee, tried to fix that. Will give this another try sometime.

All critiques and comments welcome. Let me have it.:yum:

[rth2art]

So, half of the sketches I could not post because my scanner brought them in too light... so that is fun. The ones that did come in are also pretty light. My apologies on that and I will try to get the scanner back to semi decent working condition soon.

The paintings were trying to experiment with color a little. Scanned in face sketches from a bridgeman book and tried painting on them. Did not like the first one that much, so I tried to use minimal colors in the second. Now that I look at them again, there are some huge value/shading issues but at least I feel I have learned something for the next time I try. Oh, and I like the first one better than the second now. Color continues to be oh... so... fun... man am i tired.

p.s. need to work on more rendered studies......

[rth2art]

Here are some more sketches. I have a lot of trouble whenever I try to draw from imagination, so I think I am going to undertake reading/drawing all of my bridgeman and loomis book. I have been looking at them a little bit now and then, but I think I need to prioritize them in hopes to grasp a better understanding of figure structure and construction.

Sketches are mostly from character designs with a couple of my own (including the altered stock picture). Have been using ink pens as I find it a little relaxing to put a mark down and it is there. Unlike with pencil where you can erase to chisel away a form then build it back up, when sketching with ink I have to work with what I lay down and it is comforting to just be working with what I put down, not trying to get a form perfect like with pencil, but just trying to get everything across.

Anyway, all crits, comments, or tips appreciated. p.s. I have to paint more!!