Sketching my way to a better drawing

[surfandsnow]

Hello, my names Tim, I am 21 and Ive been into art for a few years now. It started when I ran across a 3d app called blender. I was inspired and amazed by the art created with this application and decided to give it a try. I had fun with the program, but nothing I made was original. So I decided to put 3d on hold and learn to draw so I could design and create original work. That was about two years ago, and although Ive gotten a lot better since then, I am always looking to improve.

I guess Ill start out by posting old work for a little while and then post new stuff as it comes. Thanks for stopping by.

Edit: moved pics to second post to keep the first one neat.


Critique appreciated. comments, paintovers, whatever, if you think you see a weakness just say something so I can work on it. Thank you.

[surfandsnow]

This pretty much does it for the old stuff.
I am thinking about looking at some of the community activities soon.

[surfandsnow]

life drawing + life painting(digi) + figures from imagination

I am happy with how accurate the life drawing turned out, there was a problem with the perspective(the planes of the tape dispenser and handle were skewed) but I was able to fix it with some minor alterations to the handle.

I was all over the place with the digital life studies, but they were fun and I intend to do lots more properly.

I also sketched out a few figures in different poses.

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[surfandsnow]

For a change I spent a little more time rendering something and I am starting to get a little more comfortable navigating space and rendering lighting.

I am having trouble rendering the clothing on the figures and I know the faces are going to be difficult, so if you have any suggestions I'd be glad to hear it.


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[surfandsnow]

A quick sketch for color practice and a DSG entry. I am starting to get a little more comfortable with perspective and modeling with light, I really need to work on loosening things up, line work, and of course color and composition.

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[jefflarose]

nice work so far like your environments

[jeremyg0rd0n]

I think it looks like you have improved since the first post, so really just keep practicing every single day that you can. Try to practice for at least three or four hours a day (or more). If you haven't already, I suggest picking up the book Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life. It's a great book for learning anatomy.

[surfandsnow]

jefflarose- Thanks, I really need to do more enviros though I dont do them that often and I need work on larger perspective.

jeremyg0rd0n- The first post was old stuff(2-5 months) so its a bit of a false jump, but its still progress. Also I have already been through bridgman and it is good stuff.

right now I am working through Bammes book on anatomy. Its long and a bit tedious at times, but its very good. I just finished the units on the lower half of the body and I did this as a review of the legs. I screwed up the adductor muscles a little bit because they connect to the femur, and they go a little bit to straight down, but it works. No reference used.

[Zorcron]

i really like the digis from life ,
perhaps some still life would be in order

work larger on big paper to
get some gesture line practice (use your whole arm ! )
those anatomy studys are looking great

keep up the good work ! hope there is much more to come

[surfandsnow]

Zorcron: I definitely do need to use up the more of the page on a single drawing, but i am use to using my whole arm. thank you for the suggestion.

The Dsg was a crappy flying pizza delivery vehicle. its definitly missing some things, but I think it works. I especially like how the reflections came out.

The rest are life studies for the molten core workshop, http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159509 .

[dwardo]

oooo sns ... Thank you so much for the help, much much appreciated. :teeth:

I love your bone constructions.
And all the studies look solid.
#4 laybacks look cute, in a sculpty kind of way. :hehe.
Are you doing some basic 3D as well? Those leggo likes could spark off another obsession.

#5b, is that a floating house with it's own ... power gen?

[surfandsnow]

@dwardo - your welcome, It seamed like a good excuse to practice the leg anyway. I use Bammes for the bones, but the forms are simple enough once you understand the shape of the bone and how it works. Where I am at with 3d depends on what you call basic, but I am probably around the intermediate level.
http://surfandsnow.deviantart.com/art/zbrush-Head-Sculpts-105519557
http://surfandsnow.deviantart.com/art/Phone-turntable-84002650
http://surfandsnow.deviantart.com/art/Shiny-New-Phone-74914766
The house thing was a DSG that was a wagon the size of a small house being pulled by horses.


A speed paint, some variations, and a finished scene.

[halfgeek]

It looks like you have a great eye for mechanical and architectural design. I'd love to see more.

I also really like the bell ringer! Awesome stuff.

[surfandsnow]

halfgeek: thank you, I really do need to work on organic things more though, and its actually not a bell but a cap to put out candles with.

I tried doing some self portraits with some especially stupid facial expressions. They average out to around 30 minutes a piece. used a mirror.

I also started sketching within a 3d program called blender, the 3d grid makes perspective a lot easier. A version or two ago they added a tool called the grease pencil that lets you sketch in the program, its a crude tool but its still fun, and if I feel like it I can screen shot or save a grid and open it up in photoshop.

Blender is a free open source program.The latest versions require installation of python 2.6 along with the program but their are zipped versions of version 2.48 and below that dont require installation.

If you want to try it for sketching.
http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.48a/
file "blender-2.48a-windows.zip" The grease pencil is under "View" the quick start guide should handle the rest.
The main website.
http://www.blender.org/

[NewGuy22]

Hey!
Thanks for the comment on my sketchbook! It actually really helped because I was confused about the contour. So this is good...going to try to do some more today...suppose to do a whole page of them before moving on to more gestures - for my nicoliades assignments. ^^

Awesome sketchbook..I have never heard of blender..but after reading ur sketchbook i have seen shorts that were in blender that i really liked...but didnt know it was blender. =).

I love the facial expressions...very clean looking =0) . Soon, i tell myself, soon i will be close to that... lol

Well take care..going to try upload some more stuff.

later

[surfandsnow]

NewGuy22: your welcome, with how much you practice, it wont take long for you to improve, you just need to understand the terms.

ok this time I just have some practice from photo references and a couple speed paints. The photo reference work is some front and profile drawings derived from a pictures and a couple of different views of a ram. The speed paints just started out from a random arrangement of values that you develop as you go until you see something. I am going to try to update my sketch book a little more often, I draw everyday I just need to upload more.

[surfandsnow]

Some more work constructing objects from reference. I am going to try to practice this a lot more so I can refine my perspective skills. I would like to get to the point where I could open a reference and construct something accurately using the reference in under a half hour or so. I think I am going to try doing this with faces soon.

[surfandsnow]

ok, to start off with I have some posermaniacs practice. I tried to draw the hands using singe strokes instead of sketching and I was surprised how well it worked. Next I sketched some silhouettes both from the regular figures and the negative space version, I was working on seeing the larger masses. Finally I did some horrendously bad sketches on the 90sec mode.

The next image starts with drawings of a manikin from life to work on perspective & proportions, I am trying to do 2 a day. Next I have a bunch of skull sketches using reference and finally a sketch of my stove from memory.

The stove thing was actually just a warm up that I happened to like so I saved it, and between that and the hands I think my line work and control is getting a lot better. I usually warm up with a variety of exercises for a variety of skills, and I think its definitely helping my line work.

I am not going to post the same routine exercises that often, just every now and then as a bench mark. Also I talked to another user http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=161616 , about starting a ssg or something like it so it looks like I am going to be working with her and another user http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2351876 working on figure drawing and stuff, so hopefully I will finally get some where with figures.

[surfandsnow]

ok, I just got a still life table set up. Its pretty nice, its right next to the computer table, I have a clamped flexible light I can mount from many different positions and a drop cloth that I can prop up as backing for a simple background. I started of with some simple life paintings of some food and a jug of drink mix. The food is a avocado, onion, and garlic and I wanted to work on translucency, so I put a jug of drink mix in front of the light.

I spent a pretty good amount of time on them, but the results are good so I dont mind. I painted them in greyscale first and colorised it after. I am planning on trying to do a still life of the week in which I pick a theme for the still life and of course do at least one a week.

[surfandsnow]

ok so for this one I figured I'd share some of my warm up exercises in case they are of use to anyone, but also to see if anyone could suggest any more, or point something out.

After the exercises I have a sketch and a self portrait with a mirror.

Linework

The first exercise is a simple dexterity/line exercise in which I draw a random array of dots and then connect them with a straight line. I eyeball the invisible line formed by the two dots and place my cursor on a point on that invisible line beyond one of the two dots, I fade the line in and fade it out. I try harder to keep the line straight rather than curving the line to connect with the second dot. I also try to look ahead to where I am drawing too rather than just staring at the cursor.

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Angles

For the second exercise I zoom out and take the grid I created with the line work exercises and I copy it by drawing lines that are parallel. This is called triangulation. I originally learned the exercise as a method of copying, but angles are also important for perspective so the exercise can still help for drawing from the imagination.

I dont focus on proportion at all, as long as the lines are parallel the grid will be the same even if its a different scale(thats why this exercise is for angles), scale is established once the first triangle is complete.

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Scale

The basic idea of any of the scale exercises is to establish a single "key" shape to define scale and then compare and draw everything at the scale of that key shape. The exercise can be made harder by having multiple key shapes to compare against and also by defining a specific location to draw a shape like defining a circle center so you have to control scale and location. I always compare against the original key shape.

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Ellipses

The first six ellipses are just examples of the various basic rhythms you cans use to draw a ellipse, they mostly effect how you move you arm. The next one down, is basically where I start with two circles and then in one continuous stroke I slowly flatten the circle to a ellipse centered in the middle trying to keep the ellipses from getting distorted.

For the next one I start by drawing a line, then I draw a buch of dots, some on the line some off the line. The dots on the line represent the center of a ellipse and the dots off the line mark the widest point of a ellipse. So basically I have to draw the ellipse in a specific spot and in the case of the dots off the line, at a specific scale too. Its important to note that the dots off the line have to be at a 90 degree angle to the line to form the axis of a ellipse (look at the one at the bottom right).


Warning: complex perspective information.

The final exercise works on keeping the ellipses planar and at a certain scale, its sort of like one of the earlier scale exercises put into perspective. This is also very good for finding angles in perspective because I start by finding the axies of the ellipse which are formed at its widest points(these two lines are always at 90 degrees to one another), these two axies give me a base to draw two more lines through the center and then I have eight evenly spaced points on the ellipse that I can use as a location to draw smaller ellipses.

I draw the first ellipse in the center, because I can use the axies of the large ellipse and also because its easier to tell if their coplanar (the smaller ellipse should be equidistant from similar points the bigger ellipse, I couldnt do this if I drew it somewhere else, the ellipse will not be coplanar if it is too circular or too flat).

Once I finish the ellipse in the center I draw the remaining eight making sure that they all share the same axis as the big one and making sure they all lie in the same plane.

Theirs a lot of complicated information in the last exercise, so I couldnt explain everything, but I think it will be useful just to see. I hope I didnt confuse anyone.

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Perspective

Finally I practice some perspective by sketching planes and or cubes, I sketch each one relative to the one next to it.


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[Streetz]

Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook and giving me some great links. Your stuff seems to coming along real nicely. Your digital still lifes look spot on. I tend to have some trouble adding color when I paint in greyscale. Any advice? You seem to have an Industrial design feel in your sketches. Keep at it man. I look forward to seeing your progress.

[surfandsnow]

Streetz: your welcome and thank you. anyway about the coloring grayscale, I use a colorize layer. The more accurate you get the values the easier the coloring is, so value is the most important thing (Ive even used color to check the values a few times). I start out fairly desaterated and use saturated colors sparingly. I usually use the most saturated colors in the mid tone where light and shadow meet. Finally I am pretty big on color temperature and I gently shift the hue between light and shadow, and I use saturated and desaturated colors as well as hue to make regions warm or cool. most of the important stuff should happen in light, after all thats where the eye goes first, the rest is a lot of little things that have to do with material properties and circumstances that can raise and lower saturation.

not to much this time just a couple of sketches and a material study, for the material study I rendered the line art. Theres a value thread in the community mentoring section that I am going to post the line art in here http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=165667 .

[vayne108]

Wow, thank you! your work is wonderful. Anyways I came by to say thanks for all the helpful critiques you have given me on my SB. I do have to say that the last one you gave me went a little over my head. However, I did get the small vs the whole thing. But now that I look at your sketchbook I see how focused and profressal you are. I will make it a goal to be focused like you!!!

[surfandsnow]

vayne108: your welcome and thank you. I try to help when I can.

ok mostly Ive been trying to keep up with poser maniacs practice(one digital sheet daily), so my studies are a little bit scattered right now and I am working on all kinds of different things.

to start off with I have a still life study on translucency, it was tricky, but I think it came out ok and I learned a few things. Next I have a figure study from my imagination and finally, a full self portrait from life with the aid of a mirror.

[bigus_dickus]

lots of really good concept thumbnails. keep at it.

[Rolo]

Wow. Some of your stuff looks really real.
You're very structured and articulate! I very much enjoy that! I want to see more! Pretty pretty pretty good perspective too!

[surfandsnow]

bigus_dickus:thank you, and hopefully for me good concept thumbnails will make for good concept art.

Rolo: Thank you, the real stuff your referring too was painted from life on the table next to my computer. Perspective is definitely my strength.


ok so I finally have a figure painting from my imagination that dosent suck. It started out as a simple anatomy sketch and I turned it into a finished piece, I have no idea how long it took me, but I am fairly happy with the results. the left sholder is resting too high on the arm rest and I had problems with the left knee, and the hands could use some work, but its one step closer to better art. I didnt use any refrences.

Next I have a couple of life speed paints. I have a habit of nit picking every little thing, so I set a timer for 1 hour and made sure id finish in time. I am quite pleased with the results, each glass jar was completed in 1 hour.

Finally I have some skeletal copies from a free program called bonelab. The program is free, all they want is a email address, the program dosnt exactly require installation, I installed it on a old computer and then copied the program folder to my flash drive and I can run it off of that. you might be able to install it directly to a flash drive. If you want to give it a try the link is below.
http://www.nextd.com/downloads.asp

[surfandsnow]

well I read a article on form a few days ago and although their wasent anything completely new, I think something 'clicked' and I understood the concept a little bit more. Sometimes it takes a few readings of the same concept to start to get it.

Basically I arrived at the idea to try to separate light and shadow with a single continuous line as much as possible. I was already aware of separating light and shadow, but I think that this helps to solidify the concept. It also reminds me of the blind contour exercise, and how defining the shadow area with a minimal amount of lines can help maintain a solid form.

I warmed up with some simple basic form exercises, where I defined the shadows on the individual forms and then tried to connect them into one solid mass. After that I tried to paint a figure from my imagination. Keeping the values distinct, and separating light and shadow made it much easier to sculpt with the light, not just the major planes but the little ones too. Its going pretty well I still need to finish it though, I also dropped in some quick color.

Heres the article just in case anyone was interested. http://www.nasonart.com/writing/fixlerlessons.html

[Fumble]

I really like your anatomy studies and still life's. The colored ones look really good you should do some more :)

[midknight523]

cool studies

[surfandsnow]

Fumble: Thank you, more it is. Nice sketchbook by the way.

midknight523: Thank you, I try to practice things in a variety of ways.

To start out with I tried the "mental rotation" exercise with a face, and it was difficult to say the least. I used the cutout filter on the face to see what shapes the light formed and the planes that created those shapes. It was a failure, but I at least got some sort of likeness though.

After visiting fumbles sketchbook I remembered its been a while since Ive done any photocopies, especially in color, so I tried a few. I dont like posting copies without the reference, but I dont like posting other peoples photos at full resolution either, so I am going to post the reference at a fraction of the copies resolution.

Finally I have a color still life. Its been a while since Ive gone straight to color, I definitely need to work on color a little bit more.

I know Ive learned a lot of things by looking at other peoples sketchbooks so I figure when I learn something new I could share it as well. one thing that Ive been doing for a while is checking the values by using a layer of all black set to color. That may not be that uncommon, but what Ive discovered recently is that a posterize adjustment layer is a great way to quickly check lighting. The posterize layer is also a great way to check the major shapes/planes when doing copies and can be used to check the warmness or coolness of the colors as well.

[surfandsnow]

To start out with I finished a old character sketch, sort of a mad scientist thing.
Next I finished up that torso-head painting, I am done with it, but any suggestions are welcome. After that I have some environmental thumbnail sketches. I am planning on rendering out at least a few of them. Finally a quick painting of a air freshener from life. More photo studies coming.

[surfandsnow]

I have a portrait from my imagination, I usually do line based photo work with graphite, its hard to compete with the value control of digital. Then I have a couple photoshop sketches from my imagination. After that I have some life paints a quick one of a converter jack on the table and another one of a supplement bottle in color. It took forever because I am still getting use to color. Finally I have a quick photo study, I think I shifted the hue towards yellow a little too much and over saturated the red in the clouds, but I dont think its that bad.

[surfandsnow]

To start out with I tried some water soluble graphite on a reffed portrait of a girl. They work pretty good for laying in value, but they dont really erase well. Next I have a old sketch of some armor, I might paint it later, but I dont exactly know what to do for the head or the legs.

Next I have some quick life sketches, I am trying to work on color by doing lots of quick lay ins to get a feel for how color works in terms of a quick read. I am going to try to mix these quick studies with longer, more detailed studies.

Finally I have a hogarthian manikin multilimb from life, I am hoping that seeing other areas where the limbs could reside will help increase my sense of proportions in perspective and I can also use it to work on my line art to make sure the limbs read. I am also thinking of trying to do a turn around rotation of the manikin with a similar goal of seeing and keeping proportions consistent in perspective.

Any crit or suggestions welcome.

[Sirkenneth]

Sweet sketchbook man! Keep posting. Those still life paints will work wonders for you!

[link_choi]

=O Hi, surfandsnow, your pwnage of form, perspective and light effects is beautiful to look at.

[Vatsel]

Hey there, great studies! keep em up!

Try to watch some of the proportions though, some anatomy studies won't hurt ;)

Love the still life's.

[surfandsnow]

Sirkenneth: Thanks, and yes more life painting always.

link_choi: Thanks. pwnage you say, my perspective is slowly getting good and my forms are ok, but I think I may be a long ways off from pwnage though.

brewin: thank you. Right now I am finishing up a marathon of pose manics to burn in the proportions, but I think I need to draw from my manikin more though, I only draw from it about once a week.

As for the anatomy studies, Ive been putting off a bone- muscle-skin build up of the torso for a long time now, so I'll try to get on that. I am almost finished working through the bulk of bammes anatomy book, I still have the head and neck to go, 47 pages of a larger sketchbook(11*14) front and back for 94 pages of anatomy illustrations. I also tried doing more full page copies as Zorcron had suggested. I would post them but I dont feel like scanning them in, and there all copies anyway(translating the muscle names with a basic 2d anatomy guide was pretty tedious too, but I like the way he goes over anatomy).

I am also looking at a new anatomy book right now, its called Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier Second Edition. Its not meant for artists exactly, but it shows all the muscles in various perspective and positions and shows all the connection points on the bones and all of the names. So far I like it and I think it seams like a pretty good follow up book to bammes because it goes over the functionality of the muscles and shows how they would look in different perspective. I also think working on drawing the complex interweaving muscles is a good opportunity to work on line work since its difficult to make sure separate muscles read properly.

TLDR - The anatomy book I am working on.
Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier Second Edition
will get started on a torso study soon.

--

Scattered studies as always, starting off with a photopaint portrait of a girl. I need to work on skin tones and color, a lot.

Next I have a couple random character sketches. I definitely need to work on gesture a lot more.

[surfandsnow]

About a week or so ago I decided I wanted to try to do a 1000 30 sec gestures from pose maniacs. I was originally planning on doing them all at once and I didnt want to run the risk of burning in bad habits so I played around with a few different ways of practicing.

The best new way I found to practice was a sort of raw triangulation of the landmarks. I basically just looked for the landmarks on the figure, compared their location to each other and painted them in as dots on the canvas and them connected them with lines before moving on(I left the lines out on one of the figures).

I was so happy to come up with this exercise because it is useful to me in so many ways. For one thing I use point-to-point a lot in my imaginative drawing, so its not to much of a jump. I think that looking at the location and spacial relationships of the points helps a lot to help see things like foreshortening and perspective lines. It was also a good reminder about how I can use the orientation of landmarks to show the figure in different perspective and gesture of the figure. The triangulation is also a good warm up for life or photo drawing.

Next I tried some practiced with bridgmans 3 masses. I tried to get the orientation of the masses correct to one another as well as their proportions. I also tried to add some gesture to the masses. I payed a lot attention to getting the center line right at the end.

I also practiced some basic contours. For me I think these helped to compare one side of the figure to the other to make sure they matched up and also to help with the overall proportions of the figure.

Finally I have some plain old figures, I usually use jack hamms triangles for the limbs.

Combined with the daily 90 sec figures I been doing almost daily since late july I should have close to 2000 gestures now, but I still have a long way to go. If I am doing anything wrong or if you have anything to add, just let me know, I know Ive learned a lot just from reading other peoples comments.

[Bartovan]

Great sketchbook, man! I like a lot of the exercises you are doing (I should try some of them myselfà. You heve some great results with your digital paintings as well. Keep going!

[Jacket-Buttons]

Yea you are learning a lot since the last time I saw you.

By the way, my computer is working again finally if you got my pm so we can finish discussing etc. So much has been posted since I last got to talk to you, damn you move along fast.

[surfandsnow]

Bartovan: thanks man, Ive actually looked at your sketchbook a couple times, small forum eh, haven't commented yet though. I am basically trying to learn everything I can and so far it seams like its paying off.

Jacket-Buttons: yeah computer problems always suck, everyone has their horror story, good to hear its working ok now though. I got your PM I took my time getting around to responding. I'll PM you about what kind of 3d project you have in mind.

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ok so I am up to my usual old tricks again, and Ive found yet even more new fantastic ways to practice.

To start off with I got the idea that if I chop a 3d model in half, I can draw the mirrored half and then mirror the model to check my drawing. I also get a nice bounding box based on the full model as a perspective guide. It turns out I was underestimating the effects of rotational foreshortening. The other thing that really helped is that I block in the planes of the face so that I can draw the symmetrical shapes better, so I also get practice with the planes of the face.


The first model is a crappy old model of mine that I made from reference(I usually draw mirrors of the good models though :) ), You may recognize the next model as the zbrush startup head. The best part is that since the goal is symmetry it really dosent matter if the models accurate, since your mirroring the information presented. I also found tons of free models online, its not exactly easy to prep them for mirroring but their there in I need them. I can also do lots of other things like mirror or array entire models or key off models for scale like cars, whole new world of drawing.
The next couple images are some quick paint from rendered 3d references. I have a file set up with a bunch of 3d models off the internet and a real nice lighting and camera set up using yafray so that the renders include bounced light. It takes maybe 5 minutes to set up a render so I can do them whenever I feel like it.

Next I have a quick face paint from my imagination, it took about 2 hours. I think I made a bit to round and smooth.
Finally I drew some manikins, so I could get some life drawing practice in.

-----------
I didnt want to tease anyone with a method of practice they could do themselves so I made a couple blend files with mirror ready models that are ready to go so that you dont have to know anything about the program

As I mentioned in a earlier post version 2.48 of blender does not require instillation http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2324798&postcount=14 , so you can try it without worry. All you have to do is start up blender and open the blend file in the zip and its ready for practicing. The alt key rotates the view, the shift key pans, etc, you can figure out all the little stuff.

The last file I included is a simple render set up with a couple digital manikins and a head that you can mess around with if you want. I use yafray for my renders ( which is a separate install) so it wont render the same as some of the paints I did above because yafray renders reflected light a lot better than blenders internal renderer , but its something to mess around with anyway.

none of the models in the files are mine, but they are all freely available, I just did the prep work on them. I really hope you try it, its a great way to practice, happy drawing :)

[Vatsel]

Hey man good stuff, studies are coming along well keep at em!
On that chick's face, she looks a bit too "glossy" like her face is more of a sphere - define the planes of her face more, plus the highlight on her nose is too long, watch out for overdoing those.

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/tuts/colorident.jpg

[surfandsnow]

Mark Vatsel: Thank you!!!!!!, your absolutely right, I fell into the trap of over blending, I sort of knew it, but I was a bit apprehensive of trying to fix it, but I read your comment and decided to give it another go. The values didnt match the planes I defined with the line art, and the posterize adjustment layer made it obvious the planes where over rounded. I think the second one is much better, Thank you.


As mentioned above I gave another go at the previous head, I tried to play around with cast shadows a bit more, and I played around with the check bones a little bit. I also threw in some of the notes I used to fix it if they help.

Next I tried a exercise that walid recommend in the value thread in the mentoring section. I played around with a posterize adjustment layer so I could see the shapes of the dominate values. I think the exercise helps with separating light and shadow as well seeing the shapes of value formed by planes and how minor changes of the shapes in key areas can effect how something looks. I followed it up with a couple black and with sketches from my imagination.

Next I have a character paint, something a little more futuristic and spacey, just dont look at the face for too long or youll hurt your eyes.

Finally I have a life drawing and life painting.

Ive switched up my daily routine from poser maniacs to 3d mirrors. I try to draw the object at 3 different levels every time I rotate the view, first a orthographic view, then a view of the whole object then a partial view of the object. I think I figured out a way to use it to help practice cast shadows to. I am also trying to get a "digital cast painting" of a rendered object at least every couple days.

[andres333]

Keep practicing structure like the ones above
Nice painting

[surfandsnow]

andres333: always do, and thank you.

been busy, I am trying to focus on faces right now, with sketches from photos, thumbnails from magazines, mirrored 3d heads, heads from imagination, pretty much everything I can think of. Doing the 3d mirrors has helped me work with planes in perspective a lot. After I am 'done' with heads I plan on moving on to value, edges, and form using silhouettes.

To start off with I have some faces from my imagination using what I practiced with the 3d mirrors, drawing in the planes and checking against each other for symmetry and also checking against the contour. I also tried to work on the line work too.

Next I have a life painting of a cheap Halloween skull.

Finally I have some rendered silhouettes.

[midknight523]

really liking that skull

[surfandsnow]

midknight523: thank you.

ok, first off I have a life paint of a camera(theirs irony their), about 1hr1/2. Then I have some life drawings of that skull, I tried doing one a day, but its a little hard to stick too.

next I did some quick thumbs from a magazine, mostly to work on color.

I wanted to work on masses shapes and color a little bit more so I tried doing some paintings without any prelim line work. A sort of sci fi sunset, I am reasonably happy with, another one where I was trying to work on skin tones and I noticed they were a little red so I tried to have some fun with it, the eyes are horrible.

Finally I tried working on skin tones by rendering silhouettes in color, you may recognize the tubes from Hannes sketchbook.

[surfandsnow]

I finished a portrait from my imagination, took forever. The eyes are way too big, but it could be worse.

Next I have some more silhouettes to work on proportion and gesture.

Finally I have a quick scene I made in maya today to get back into 3d a little.

[surfandsnow]

I just got a bunch of figure drawing/anatomy books off amazon, so right now I am reviewing anatomy. I like bridgman for simplification of the masses, peck for his annotated notes and detailed well labeled illustrations and vanderpool for his planes and simplified illustrations that do a good job of separating light and shadow in order to show what things would look like on a average person.

wasn't wild about peck at first because the book is poorly organized, but I really like the comments on the simplified illustrations right after the detailed anatomy illustrations.
-

Did some quick thumb nails to try to illustrate things from some different angles. Next I tried a life paint of that skull in strong lighting to work on separating light and shadow, quit early because the details would have taken forever. Did a bunch of thumbs from photos to work on color as well and to try to get a quick read. Next I have some color thumbs without ref working on the same things as the reffed ones, would probably help if I tried some implementation from the photo studies.

Did some more torso copies from a program called bone lab. Some vilpu inspired gestures. Then some life painting of various limbs and finally some anatomy sketches without reference.

C&C welcome

[Danny_K]

really nice studies I like it, just keep going, go through Loomis drawing the head and hands book it will help you a lot.

[dwardo]

Nice studies and updates SnS, and thank you very much for the pointers, you're
always helpful mate and I really appreciate it.

Checking values - I use a layer of white, on hue layer blending, but I'm really curious if you think grey would work out better? (I've no clue with digital values, I just know my eyes still aren't used to them. Digital or trad. o.0)

The glass studies are nice, and the skintones render I've never seen before. They look
like candy, or perhaps I'm just hungry. Both.

I like the lighting on DailySpeedPaint 0012.

[Parsakoira]

Hi! I like the studies a lot, but some lack proper values, and look a bit flat. But at this rate, youre gonna kick ass very soon. Keep at it!

[surfandsnow]

Danny_K:Thanks, yea its been awhile since Ive done any work from loomises book, worked through about a third of it and then tapered off, but I'll try to pick it up again, especially since I use the loomis head so often.

dwardo:Thank you, all the layer blending modes work the same in the way, in that a layer of all gray,white or black will reduce the color layers below it to grayscale, the most important part to note is that it incorporates the inherit value of hue, unlike desaturate under image adjustments.

Parsakoira: Thanks, sometimes I use diffuse or AO lighting on quick sketches because I only have to find the crevices where light gets blocked out, that would at least explain some peaces, but I am definitely more used to working with line so its not surprising that my values aren't the greatest.
Having read your comment earlier I tried to work on value/masses a little more for this update.

For starters I rendered out a sketch with as many different light sources as possible.
Next I render out some silhouettes of a digital manikin and then tried filling them in with light, working on cast shadows space, etc.
Finally I rendered some of the other silhouettes I had painted a while back.

[surfandsnow]

ok, right now I think I have reached a decent level for drawing, so I am going to try placing more focus on painting for a while to get more used to working with shapes values and colors and such.

Ive been trying to do some daily figure sketching from refs with quick value lay-ins from a couple sites, they took about 20-40 mins each.

I also just finished some eye studies that I started a long tome ago for the molten core workshop. There all from ref, I labeled which ones are old and which ones are new with red lines.

Next I have some paintings, a removed eyeball, that I wanted to give a shiny wet look(and failed). A sort of dark and grungy hallway, couldnt figure what to do with the end, went with a weird red light thing.

A cold cloudy desolate field, with paths leading into the abyss. Finally a wip of a ballerina on stage.

[surfandsnow]

want to try to get some more life painting in for the next round, maybe some more anatomy studies too. Also made a timer in flash to make timed studies easier.

Some arm and torso studies from imagination.
A couple life paints.
Quickie photo face studies
quick speed paint.

[surfandsnow]

right now I am trying to go straight to paint with no line work to work on shapes, values masses, etc and I have to say Parsakoira was definitely right my values are pretty sketchy and I am have trouble painting without lines, but I am working on it though.

trying to do self portraits from life more often,
I should probably try a better expression though, something less sinister.
They average a little under 2 hrs a piece

next some more life work, folds colors, form etc. trying to work on improving my edges too.

Next I have a portrait from my imagination, tried pushing the color a good bit.

Finally some cube heads to work on perspective of the face, warm up etc.

[surfandsnow]

I have some more photo studies, little more time on the landscapes especially the last one and the heads were around 20 minutes.

A cloth study from life

a self portrait thats hopefully a little less scary. I think I have a habit of wrapping the eyebrows around to the inside of the eye cavity and that combined with muddy colors made them look really bad, but I am working on it anyway. The self portraits are pretty difficult, which is probably good because that means its something I need to work on, but hopefully it will get easier after a while.

[DiR3Kt]

Hi I really like how you are using the basic forms to create your picture. It gives you your own style.

Your sketchbook is a great source of information because you explain your process. Thank you so much for sharing!!

[Zazerzs]

thanks for the inking tips, been redoing all my lines :)

and nice sketchbook you have going on.

[surfandsnow]

DiR3Kt: thank you and your welcome. I try to provide as much information as possible. The way I figure even if any of its wrong it will be easier to correct and critique because somethings been explicitly stated rather than being ambiguous.

Zazerzs: your welcome and thank you. I try to help when I can, and nice sketchbook yourself ;)

still working on painting mostly
some head and character sketches.

life stuff
self portrait
quick ribbon still life
longer study of a shoe

[surfandsnow]

primary current goal: painting, rendering, shapes, values.

I still suck at eyes so I am tried doig a ton of sketches from ref.
I tried sketching a couple characters, hopefully I'll finish them later on.
Trying to practice combining value composition with some light rendering/readability, a couple are loosely based on ref.

[surfandsnow]

same old same old, slowly starting to get more comfortable with paint, trying to keep up with drawing to. I think I am going to focus on character design next.

Head sketch from imagination with quick value wash.
snow/night scene.
some animals from memory while watching tv.
some life sketches, trying to combine some structure of measuring with gesture
of a blind contour(not done blind of course), some paint sketches.
A self portrait, little under 2 hrs, it was late...

[surfandsnow]

-life sketches remotes/cameras to work on detail, structure and repetition(buttons)
-another sheet of eyes from ref, on the right side I tried deriving a couple profile and others view of the ref eye
-some landscapes while watching a nature show(memory)
-some heads in profile from imagination
-some rendered anatomy from imagination, need to work on some different poses, their starting to get repetitive.
- a clown portrait from imagination fairly happy with it, its a little messed up in places but it was a nice chance to mess with local values rendering design etc

[surfandsnow]

-life stuff, some outlines to work on measuring and outlines(I also think that practicing with outlines will translate smoothly to silhouettes used in painting), some sketchy paints, some curvy stuff to work on perspective, repetition etc.

-A painting of my eye from life that I copied and altered with some variations

-some anatomy sketches

-another clown painting, messing with some repetition in design

[surfandsnow]

no much to show, little slow at the moment. I am looking at some of the community activities, thinking about switching my goal/focus in the next few weeks.

some life sketches
some photo studies
head practice
enviros from imagination

[surfandsnow]

-life painting of one of the casts I got recently( http://philippefaraut.com/store/reference-casts.html )
-one off the dsgs, got part of the theme wrong
-some kchen studies

[surfandsnow]

little disorganized right now, but I am doing something everyday, I think I am going to start doing master studies since I havent done any yet, mabey try to finish one a week. I am going to start out the master studies a little rougher at first and then get a little more precise later on.

- life study
-sargent master study
-character design/value schemes

[surfandsnow]

finishing another sargent study

-life stuff
-self portrait
-photo study
-some attempts at painting

[Metal Fingers]

Nice studies man, your edge control is getting really good, and all the work is inspiring. Keep it up.