Planetstar's sketchbook

[Planetstar]

After years of not doing art, I'm starting again. Critiques, suggestions, tips, whatever you want to call them are all very welcome. The more feedback the better. I'm hoping to become a competent artist at some point in life. I mostly enjoy doing landscapes and abstract drawings.

[Planetstar]

...............

[Macido]

atmosphere is a beautiful thing on its own.
Keep pumping these out and mabey develop a few. work in some foreground items.

[Planetstar]

Screw landscapes for now. I joined a figure drawing course at a local art centre and discovered the joys of drawing human beings. I also made a huge leap forward in understanding how to draw. I never understood measuring, checking proportions, checking what lines up horizontally and vertically and so on. Once I grasped the idea, whole new doors opened for me. Something so simple and yet so important, it has dramatically improved my drawing.

Attached is my first proper portrait ever. I used a charcoal brush in photoshop, as I've mostly worked with charcoal in the course. All the little details are off, but I think it's mostly alright. I'll trying doing one portrait a day for at least the next few weeks.

[Planetstar]

Some of the things I've done since I last posted. Oh yeah, I obviously haven't kept to the one-face-a-day routine, but I do have fun speed painting landscapes and such.


Here's something I've worked on for a long time, I just can't seem to finish it. It started off as a small waterfall and it just keeps on growing and changing. I add stuff, delete stuff, change stuff and I just can't seem to stick to a design. I also need to stretch out the canvas and add in little details and then colour it in, so this is going to take forever.

Some very quick speeds:

Some of these look a lot worse on my other monitor (especially the last speed, it lacks a lot of colour). Any good way to find out which one (or both) is wrongly calibrated?

[lennon]

Great stuff. Try to post more full figures, and heads from different povs than front and side. It's a sketchbook, perhaps more doodles could help us get to know your technique better. Keep posting.

[Planetstar]

Thanks for the comment lennon, I'll try and update my sketchbook more often with whatever it is I draw, whether it looks crap or not.

I'll post some pics of my real sketchbook from the figure drawing classes soon. I've also started working through Hogarth's Dynamic Figure Drawing. I'll try doing a page or two every day, drawing every example in the book. Working with charcoal on that, as shading is so much easier than with pencil.

I like to sketch faces I see on TV or on youtube videos. The images are usually still long enough to get something worthwhile down. I keep a small sketchbook with me when I go out, but I usually don't draw anyone on the bus because I feel like I'm invading on their privacy

Here's some random stuff I've done recently and not-so-recently.

Oh yea, I really need to figure out which monitor is wrongly calibrated.

[Planetstar]

Some stuff I did today. I know the details are off in the portrait (the right side especially), but I'd rather do another portrait than spend time fixing them.

[Planetstar]

Here's some stuff that exists in the physical realm. Sorry about the strong flash btw.

1) First drawing of first figure-drawing class. So basically my first drawing of a real nude figure.

2) First portrait.

3) 2-min or 1-min sketches from last year.

4) Did this pretty soon after my first portrait. Took a book cover, pencils from H-9B and worked for about an hour.

5) A more recent figure, took about an hour, maybe. I don't really like working with pencils all that much, it's quite tedious. Once I get a better hang of it I'm sure I'll enjoy it more.

6) I used one of those brushlike pens. They're quite fun to use, actually. I get much more of a comic-book look.

7) Recent work, all done with charcoal. The first on the left was a 20-minute pose. The portraits range from 10-ish minutes to an hour. The rest are 2-min or 1-min poses.

8 and 9) These are from Hogarth's book and I've done them in just the last few days.

[Planetstar]

Some figures and a few speeds:

[Planetstar]

Some stuff

[Planetstar]

Haven't updated for a while, and I really haven't done much since the last update. Been too busy with real life. Luckily I had the figure drawing course for three hours every week, so at least I kept up my drawing skills. The course is over now, but luckily real life is getting a lot less crowded now that summer (and the holiday that comes with it) approaches. So hopefully I'll be updating on a more regular basis soon. I can't spend all the summer days trapped at home in front of my monitor, so I'll probably start sketching people outdoors.

Attached are two studies, both are in charcoal (had to put weights on 'em when I took the picture, they insisted on curling up). Also a cityscape I started working on the other day.

...

The attachments don't seem to be working for me right now, so I'll put on em on Imageshack too.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7651/realfemale.jpg
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5940/realfemale2.jpg
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2388/speednoircity.jpg

Edit: Now it's working again, heh.