starshptroopr sketchbook

[starshptroopr]

a new sketchbook.

really love this site and all of your art.

CRITIQUES ARE WELCOME.

I'm 25. Last November I decided to quit grad school to pursue my dream of being an artist. This is my journey.

thanks for looking.

UPDATE

Got tired of the conceptart.org interface, so now all my stuff is over at flickr. www.flickr.com/doodlecave

[starshptroopr]

more stuff from this week.

[starshptroopr]

sketches from anatomy for the artist by john raynes.

[starshptroopr]

First week of October

[adammelo]

Love the sketchwork and the watercolors keep it up!

[starshptroopr]

Thanks Adammelo.

More stuff from this week. Haven't been drawing as much as I need to be, but I am going to pick it up today from here on out. Just ordered Figure Drawing: Design and Invention. It looked pretty good.

Was working on my first portfolio piece, which I'll post later. It's not as good as I would like it to be, but it's my first one. We'll see if it makes the final cut. :)

[starshptroopr]

My first two pieces! Just getting over the mental block of starting my portfolio. I feel like I need better range, better darks. I wanted the angel piece to be a mass of different values that, put together, form the angel statues. But it seems a tad undefined. They're molded out of this orange/brown clay and I had trouble trying to visualize the planes.

The chair wasn't as hard to draw, but again I think I need more range and the computer tower behind it is weak.

Oh well. We'll see if they make the final cut. 10 - 15 pieces right? :)

[starshptroopr]

Today in figure drawing we learned about mass gestures and we worked with vine charcoal. I like the vine charcoal but it smudges so easily that I have to go back and draw the right side of my paper over and over! I'm working on the gesture lately, trying to get it to look natural and have "weight." I have huge issues with the torso, especially if it's twisted.

I had semi-finished piece I was pretty happy with but I didn't get a chance to scan it. I'll post it next week when I get it back.

**I saw a sketchblog on here that blew my mind. It was titled Journey of an Absolute Rookie by MindCandyMan. I feel like I'm on page 4 of his journey. I've got a longs ways to go.

inspirational stuff.

Ok, more drawing tonight.

[starshptroopr]

some more practice. still waiting for my book. :-/

[starshptroopr]

One more watercolor sketch before i go to bed. I went to europe over the summer with my wife and this is from a photo I took of Queen Victoria's Memorial in London. I will be sketching photographs from the trip.

Someday I'd like to be a watercolorist. For now I'm focused on drawing.

[starshptroopr]

Went to Barnes and Noble and tried to sketch a few people. After awhile I think they noticed I was looking at them and they moved. :/

My book came in-- Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton. Great so far. It has a methodical approach to building a good gesture drawing and constructing the figure. If I can nail the gestures, that's a big step for my art portfolio.

In the meantime, draw draw draw and perspective perspective perspective. Gonna try to apply what I've learned from the book to my figures from now on.

Til then here are a few sketches and notes from the weekend.

[starshptroopr]

pic from florence. bleh. last gestures for the night. tired and frustrated.

[Irishdrunk]

You have some great still lifes. Just keep trying new things! (and those gestures need some work ;) )

[a la bapsi]

your work is lovely. I'll see you at art center. :D

Remember that a finished drawing doesn't have to only be a rendering of something from life--give them a little bit of illustration or concept art. they always love having a taste of what you want to do with your degree or what you want to specialize in while at art center. Shows direction and moxy.
Good luck. :]

[Konstruktion]

Hey, nice stuff! You seem dedicated and interested for sure. This (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=779928&stc=1&d=1253153479) and this (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=779925&stc=1&d=1253153462) one are great.. and yeah ain't Kassan wicked!

[starshptroopr]

irish - thanks man. these gestures do need work. it looks so effortless and graceful when the pros do it. for me they are anything but!

bapsi - thanks for the encouragement. art center would be a dream school. i'm working hard to put a portfolio together and the pressure/anxiety is killing me. when they say they want a concep/illustration piece, what exactly do they mean? I was thinking of taking a random article from the New Yorker or the newspaper and illustrating something for it.

konstruction - ah you recognized the kassan rip off! I love his oil portraits just as much as i love casey baugh's paintings. And of course I ripped off Henry Yan too. Might as well copy from the best eh?

//================================================== =

some sketches from today and two figure drawings from last week. models legs are...short. i think that's how they really are, though.

[Sirkenneth]

Keep up the life drawing-that stuff will pay off 200%. You need to keep working on those gestures-but that will come as you draw more. It looks like you are having fun when you draw and that is very important. Way to go! Keep posting!

[Frittzell(Image)]

Some really fantastic work in here! But i would like to see you work a little bit more from your imagination.

[Grunden]

wow man, so much cool stuff to get through, great studies of places people and things.
i like the watercolours up the top.
keep posting. maybe put up some more things that arent as quick, you're quick stuff is great so something more polished would be even more impressive.

[starshptroopr]

thanks guys. i dont think you want to see the stuff from imagination. it is terrible at this point. not worth the pixels they're displayed on.

as for the watercolors... watercolorists don't get much exposure on this site do they? hehe. I like to flip through the Splash Book Series for inspiration.

And of course.. yes.. my gestures need work. I'm on it!

//==================

some gestures and watercolor exercises from various artists i copied (lovett, silverman, dewey). they're at least a few months old.

[starshptroopr]

didn't draw much today. so very tired.

[a la bapsi]

something like that would do just fine.

[starshptroopr]

more pages from the sketchbook. will work on a few finished pieces this week.

btw, there must be a better way to upload a batch of photos. filling out these fields one by one is nonsense.

[starshptroopr]

more notes.

[starshptroopr]

some more sketching at borders. my other sketches are in the car. probably not gonna get them.

[LtPlissken]

Lots of good sketches. You are doing good cause you have lots of studies from life. I like especially these drawings:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=779939&stc=1&d=1253153614

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=808333&stc=1&d=1256112936

[Funkmachine]

Great work!! I like your life sketch style. Beautiful!!!

[starshptroopr]

thanks guys.

well i totally blew this whole weekend in terms of drawing. i did bust out my wacom tablet and tried some gestures. disgustingly bad though.

[starshptroopr]

i need more life drawing.

figuring out how to construct the body. it's all way off. :/

[starshptroopr]

I'm starting to practice drapery because I want at least one piece in my portfolio.

This is so bad I'm embarassed to put it up. But rules are rules.

I laid out the planes in graphite. Then I went over the whole thing with vine charcoal to get a midtone and it completely covered my graphite lines. Oops. I tried to guess but god it just looks awful.

I will also say that I basically wasted two entire charcoal pencils because they kept breaking on me when I sharpened them. I gave up and tried to draw with the broken fragments. Generals Charcoal pencils... ugh. Today's Lesson: DO NOT DRAW WHEN YOU'RE FLUSTERED. Or better yet. Do not get flustered when you draw.

[starshptroopr]

A figure from last week. 20 minute pose.

A glass vase from two weeks ago. I hate it but I had the camera out so I took a pic.

And my Ovation guitar. I'm trying to add some "finished pieces" to my collection of sketches. Frustrating, but it must be done!

[Dr poPcoRN]

some of your pictures show alot more control and expression than some of your others :) keep showing us more! good start!

[starshptroopr]

true true. my drawings always end up stiff and i'm working on loosening up without being too messy.

more sketches at the bookstore. crappy gestures from photos and magazines. argh.

gonna start another piece tonight.

[Peetaer]

Last November I decided to quit grad school to pursue my dream of being an artist.

Fuck yeah...

Rock on dude!

[starshptroopr]

:)

Some stuff from today's class and a sketch in photoshop from... a year ago? Definitely late 2008.

First time I've used toned paper with charcoal and white pastel. It was fun but I rushed it and the values are all off. Along with the proportions. Hah.

[starshptroopr]

Just some more doodles at Borders. Couldn't get a seat until nearly closing time, so I browsed the books. Gonna pick up Blood Meridian.

[majortom]

Hey man nice SB so far.. your quick studies are really working, it seems like you like to make decisions quickly. That's a great gift (especially since I have the opposite problem haha) I'd be careful with your legs though, I've noticed they tend to be a problem area for you. Try to make sure to not make them too short or symmetrical. Be sure to feel when the different curves of the legs begin, to help keep the flow of the overall figure going through the feet. Hope that helps :D

[starshptroopr]

thanks for the tip. i will definitely pay more attention to the subtle curves of the leg.

another page in the sketchbook. the soldier was a quick copy from the cover art of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

The feet belong to my wife. She curls her toes when she reads.

[starshptroopr]

a lazy drawing. from photograph.

[starshptroopr]

I finished my moleskin (finally) and bought a Canson sketchbook, bigger paper that's soft and white and comes with more pages. I like it so far. The only drawback is that it's too big to scan, so I'll have to take pictures from now on and that means longer delays between uploads.

These were my last pages of the the moleskine, mostly done at starbucks as we waited for a dinner reservation.

[starshptroopr]

Some figure drawing from this week. Man I'm really frustrated. I want to turn in my portfolio in late January but I'm running out of time and my figure drawing just sucks.

Argh.

I think my gestures are getting a little bit better.

And here's some stuff from my new sketchbook.

[starshptroopr]

Been over a month? Ok so mostly stuff from my sketchbook. Drawing a lot of people at Barnes and Noble Cafe. Drew from life, photographs, did watercolor exercises, all in all an unfocused month of drawing...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2575/4154627521_6c0c91400d.jpg

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