Mac Con sketchbook

[Mac Con]

Hi I would just like to say that there is a lot of potential I can see from peoples work on this site I’ve been doing art all my life though I didn’t study till I was 20 years old I have learned a lot but there’s always a lot more to learn. Looking at peoples work using Photoshop has inspired me and I would love to learn more about it

[Mac Con]

These pieces are mostly drawing in monochrome which I would like to developed into works on Photoshop

[Mac Con]

A lot of these life poses were done when I was at college that was at least 5 years ago but it’s like riding a bike it all comes back to you I think it’s safe to say am back with a vengeance I applied for university and hope to be hearing back from them soon to weather I got in to my course which was computer 3D animation if not there’s always next year but I became a member to this site to get real advice from real inspiring artists so keep it coming

[PermaN00b]

Is most of this done with graphite? the values have a very soft feel to them, i like it. the anatomy looks really good as well. keep it up!

[Mac Con]

thanks for having a look at my work too answer your question yes it's all pencil work I’ve posted so far am very comfortable working in this medium trying to do some Photoshop stuff at the moment but I just learning and not too good hope to hear your comments towards my cartoon sketches that I will post soon just work from my head

This is a first for me give comments/advice please

[Mac Con]

I don’t take reference or have research in front of me and I now that looks pretty obvious with the way it looks but it’s all about having fun for me when drawing cartoons now I have been schooled in the way of always doing research and development before a finished peace but like most artists I just can’t help but pick up a pencil and start drawing one thing I would like to work on is not making my drawings look so static

[PermaN00b]

Mac Con I like the cartoons you posted. you have a pretty good style starting to take shape in them. it's somewhere between realistic and almost like a charicature. the perspective on the top one seems a bit strange. it's hard for me to tell where you want me to focus in the drawing. adding a sense of movement to your drawings is very hard. i am not able to do it myself yet. but i will say that usually when i see it done well by other artists it seems as if line quality and weight have an effect. bold, sweeping, loose lines feel very dynamic when i look at them. so maybe try to loosen up your line work a bit and it may help get your drawings moving for you.

[Dav_W]

hey there! (:

i like your cartoons, i think that their very original (: maybe you could try to add a more values to it so that it creates more depth and also the illusion of form

im not sure whether you're going to stick with that style or what, but to me i think to move into realistic stuff, your proportions have to be very good. you just have to keep on checking and checking, oh and dont be afraid to use reference, no two art pieces are similar (:

and lastly, losen up your strokes, your anatomy stuff is pretty good, however you may want to try to vary the thickness of your lines to add more depth to the drawing

keep practicing! (:

[seagulls]

The graphite studies look really good, especially the proportion, shading and lines. Keep posting your progress.

[Mac Con]

Still Life Work

[Mac Con]

This picture was done in the space of 20 min people around me were excited by the result please give me your comments

[LtPlissken]

Good start. Draw everyday and post more of your work.

[Amanda Kate]

Hello there!
You have a lot of nicely developed work here, I enjoyed looking at your figure drawings and still life ones also. I agree with what has been mentioned about the cartoon like pictures, more focus and working on creating a sense of movement would be helpful.
Keep up the drawing. :)

[Mitze]

Love your still lifes and life drawings keep them coming.

[MoKhi]

Great looking building sketches. Keep it up.

[Mac Con]

thanx to all

[Novbert]

Hi man! Thanks for stopping by my sketchbook. It's a bit hard to give advice based on such a little amount of images you have in your SB but I'll try.
You mention again and again that you want to give a try to Photoshop. I'd say that you should stop planning and jump right into it. Photoshop is not the most complex drawing app you can find on the market. In fact one can learn it pretty fast - even without spending hours on reading tutorials - just by clicking around. Of course you can find books called Photoshop bible, and a wast amount of tutorials on the net, but before reading anything about it, TRY IT! You know, the problem with planning to draw in photoshop is that while you're doing this, you don't actually draw - you're just rationalizin why you don't draw in phosohop ;)

(once I read that - as a first excercise - a teacher asked his students to take a picture and try to reproduce it in photoshop as good as they can. The point of this assignment was only to make the students "get their feet wet" in photoshop; to play around and try things. Maybe you should also try this first.)

On the other hand tools aren't that important. Photoshop and pencil are just different tools. One is better for certain things than the other but using one or another won't make you a better (or worse) artist.

About your pics: I'm not a real expert of environments and still lifes, but I'd say that most of your non-figurative drawings suffer from the same issue: You don't draw what you see, but what you think you see. You see grass, so you start to scribble it strand-by strand. You see a fan and you start to outline every part of it - though it's not what you see. What you see is shades and highlights, gradients and patterns. Try to draw what you see and not what you think you see. Sounds pretty weird and really hard to achieve but you have to try.

Another common problem is the lack of confidence in shading. Graphite is a tricky material as it's erasable. You might think that you can do any messed up shading cause you can erase it later. Big no-no. I'd say that you should give a try to other, unerasable material (or do graphite drawings without an eraser at hand). Don't think or anything fancy, a usual ballpoint pen is fine. You'll see you have to use a whole different method when you don't have the opportunity to remove lines.

About figures: Your figurative stuff is coming along nicely. But you should also learn to draw the human figure from imagination. Loomis has some freely avaliable books on figure, head and head drawing and imho those are the best ones to start with. You can find them here (http://www.fineart.sk/index.php?cat=1).

I'd also suggest that you should do studies. Finished pics are also important but you should do speedy drawings also focusing only on shading/pose/anatomy/anything you want to learn about.

And draw something every day. that's the best way to improve.
:yayca:

[Mac Con]

I will start by using a photograph on Photoshop it should be a good start I am using a tablet and I can’t seem to work comfortably with it I need to invest in one of those wacom tablets

Your comments and advice regarding the figurative and landscape drawing are great and i can see it from your perspective. The difficulty that I would have to would be applying it to landscapes and real life drawings. My lines are definitive due to constant changing of the scene. Wind may blow grass and clouds therefore changing the tones and depth of objects. So drawings can end up being more structural due to the ever changing environment.
When studying fine art at college you are often encourage and taught to allow your lines to be more free flowing. I will take your advice to evolve my sketches where i can, to the direction of illustration.

[Amanda Kate]

Where's the updates? :(

[Mac Con]

Thanks Amanda for coming back and I will post more as soon as possible, been preoccupied with other matters lately been waiting to hear word back from university to whether or not I’ve been excepted and the news finally arrived I got in yahoo to me but now I’ve got to choose between Computer Games (Art and Animation) or 3D Computer Animation there is nothing different in what you learn between the two courses it must be how you approach the lesions looking for some advice from people in the industry today so here’s hoping I think I like the look of 3D Computer Animation because I think there will be more job opportunities but Computer Games (Art and Animation) was my first chose


p.s your life work is coming along nicely and your chose of colours on the three paintings are very well brought together they look bold and distinctive like the partitions of a church window

[Mac Con]

]Thanks Amanda for coming back and I will post more as soon as possible, been preoccupied with other matters lately been waiting to hear word back from university to whether or not I’ve been excepted and the news finally arrived I got in yahoo to me but now I’ve got to choose between Computer Games (Art and Animation) or 3D Computer Animation there is nothing different in what you learn between the two courses it must be how you approach the lesions looking for some advice from people in the industry today so here’s hoping I think I like the look of 3D Computer Animation because I think there will be more job opportunities but Computer Games (Art and Animation) was my first chose

P.S Posted some observational work landscapes of my local glen it’s bloody cold out there

[Mac Con]

Doing a little development trying to come up with some ideas to a finished peace but going nowhere you never know it might come in use down the line

[CornMan]

Thanks for stopping by my SB!

Figured I could take a look in yours and wow, great studies man. Anatomy's looking great. Keep it up!

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Mac Con, great studies! Keep pounding those life and anatomy studies, the more the merrier right!

[miycko]

Those life studies look great dude :D keep it up man :)

[Mac Con]

CornMan
Thanks for the kind words
Jussi Tarvainen
And like wise for yourself the more the merrier keep at that study work
miycko
Yes I am the dude mister thanks for the comment going to check your deviantArt

[spaztastic]

Your still life's and life drawing's are very good, I would suggest some bridgeman and Loomis if you haven't already tried them. The WIKI here has a buttload of awesome links, and I would also like to mention that the fine arts section has some wonderful threads as well, All of these are helpful in the pursuit to bettering your artistic skill. Oh the photoshop section of the forums has some great advice, and tips and tutorials as well. I can't wait to see you post some more updates, I apologize for this not being a very constructive critique. But I am in one of those blaze lazy moods as of late.

[MoKhi]

I like your new updates Mac, especially that torso with the rope around it. I just have one complaint. Your not updating enough!

Keep working hard, ok?

[Mac Con]

yes this is my first attemped at oils what a pain it is to but the plus side is that you feel like a proper artist can't say I like this peace but showing the bad with the good is all part of the game sorry about this image my scanner is only A4 the painting is A2 and the pencil sketch is A4

[Mac Con]

Sketches from old portfolios

[MoKhi]

Make sure you pay attention to mass and form while your shading. You don't need to be as heavy handed in places. Try using a variety of line weights.

Also, update more.