Starting over again....

[Lunarmoth]

Hello all,

I have been lurking for a month and decided to bite the bullet and post. For that matter, bite the bullet and draw something. I stopped drawing 20 years ago to raise children, and have just picked it up again. My son directed me to this site when I talked about joining a community. I know he comes here to look at sketch books and is on Deviant Art.

I know I am rusty and would appreciate any and all crits. Be brutal. I can take it....gulp. My son handed me a set of tutorials by Riven Phoenix, and I am going to pick up a book on anatomy. I am pretty sure that would be a good place to start. Anyway, thank you to any who are kind enough to look at my sketchbook.

[Michαλis Vareλiαs]

Hello there, your line drawings are quite interesting I especially love the raccoon and the pig. Your art style is fluent and calm, though you could work a bit your dark tones with less white areas and more contrast. Keep it up!

[NicG]

Very nice! I agree increasing the contrast in your values will really help you move to the next level. I had the same problem because I was always worried about erasing but once you let go of that your work will become more dynamic. Welcome to CA & keep drawing!!!!

[Dr.Blindsy]

The two above me have hit it on the head.

If you don't have some, a nice (even cheap) set of "drafting pencils" can do a world of difference, since its such a broad range of lead thickness... I have a set of Staedtler drafting pencils. There's only about 10 in the set, but I get a pretty good range, and since I'm cheap, so are they haha... they work well though. :)

Just like my art teachers used to tell me "Never be afraid to go darker" ... However, your lines are solid and you look like you have a pretty good grasp on life drawing and the lighter tones on the spectrum :)

Cheers! And keep posting

[adammelo]

Work on your spectrum of dark - light like said above to intensify the "Drama", very good stuff though, love your kitty :)


Sketch back if youd like...

[Lunarmoth]

Thank you all for taking the time to post on my sketchbook. I am sneaking a moment on lunchbreak to respond. I will go to your sketchbooks today.

MichaAis - I appreciate the compliment very much. Some of the shadowing got lost in the scanning, so I will go darker definitely to make up for it next time.

NicG - I do worry about things getting muddy as I erase. Will have to work on getting a little more confidence...and to not erase :)

Dr. Blindsy - I have a set of five sketching pencils from Cheap Joe's. I have been staying in the middle range. My grandmother told me to use just the 8B. Darker has always been a problem of mine.

Adammelo - Thank you for the compliment. I was thinking of a frog next so will have some work to catch the shininess.

[NicG]

It's ok to erase and a good eraser goes a long ways. It used to really upset me if I screwed up on a drawing I was working on and couldn't fix it but I have found that often when I have to completely start over, first it's a lot easier the second time and also it usually comes out a lot better. Don't worry about screwing up, it's frustrating but you will learn from it.

[dierat]

I love the pig! Keep drawing, you'll get there.

One suggestion I have at this point is that it could be very helpful for you to draw smaller and faster. If you're doing one large drawing per page, maybe do 4 smaller ones per page for every large drawing (I'm thinking 4x6" value sketches). Use light pencils first and sketch out your forms, then go in with medium pencils and lay in your general value. Then go in with some dark pencils and try to push the range of values. Find the lightest areas in the object or photo that you're drawing and make sure those are the lightest areas in your drawing. Find the darkest darks, and make sure those are the darkest darks. Pay attention to the lines that describe the forms but also pay attention to the value describing the forms. You'll need to both to produce a realistic reproduction of a 3-dimensional object. Rotate between working from photos, working from life, working from anatomy books, and working from your imagination.

Keep posting!

[Lunarmoth]

Dierat - Thank you so much for the help. I am taking a bit of time to study figure drawing. My son pointed me in the direction of "Fun With a Pencil," Andrew Loomis, and I am starting there. Will definitely work on smaller drawings, as sometimes it feels like it's hard to see the forest for all the trees. I will try mapping out the dark and light areas as well. I checked your sketchbook out and thought your paintings were lovely.

[illustrateth]

Nice! I totally understand the children thing. . . having a baby was the biggest crash course in time management I ever had.

You're animals actually have really cute expressions. I feel like the pig is winking at me, and the raccoon looks very surprised.

You might find it helpful to lightly lay out everything with basic shapes first, and then fill in all the details. It is SO helpful for getting all the proportions right and the details in the right place.

[Lunarmoth]

Coming back to CA, I did a little reading on the wiki, and discovered that I have made a blunder. My drawings came from photos, and I didn't give credit. The cat came from stock photo's at http://icanhascheezburger.com/ The other animals came from Google image.

For future reference...do you need to leave links so that people can find the pic themselves, or just a mention? I certainly don't want to be a content thief.

I am just about ready to start practicing again, so maybe some still life objects from around the house this time, heh.

[Leonor]

Welcome!

The previous commenters make good points, but I wouldn't worry so much with the rendering aspect. It's also important, but it's structure you want to get a good grasp of. Learn how to see things in 3D volumes and learn what they are made of.

You know of Loomis (http://fineart.sk/photo-references/andrew-loomis-anatomy-books) yet?

As for your last question, I don't usually link to photos, unless I want a comment on likeness.