Nick's sketchbook, hopefully updated weekly... hopefully

[ngross83]

Well, I got myself a new schedule at work that leaves a lot of downtime to study so I figured I should start looking for feedback on my stuff.

EDIT: Moved picture uploads from this post to the next.

[Luckers]

Hey there, and welcome to CA!
You've got a lot of studies for sure! Good job, and keep it up!
Anyway, I would love to see your try at colours. (and photoshop?) or anything painted in real life, maybe?

I'll stop by again soon! :)

[ngross83]

So, I managed to not sleep during the day like I should be...
Here's a hyena study instead. Trying to work on the fur texture.

The first hyena is from a photo, and is actually from page 51 in my first sketchbook.


(And... font change to denote edit.)
As one specific question regarding gesture drawing, is there any technique to doing this stuff or is it a matter of just scribbling until it's more comfortable? I've been trying to draw a couple of lines to get the flow of the pose, angle of shoulders and hips, then the squiggly that connects them to indicate the spine, but I wanted to know if there's a better way to do this.

The general abundance of gnolls is because of a joke made to my roommate about there being an "epic gnoll battle" on my desk within a few weeks of starting the new shift.

And... figures from posemaniacs, anatomy stuff a mix of Hogarth and Bridgman. The two actual hyena drawings were from photo-reference. MMA guy getting punched in the face and the shoulder on the same page are from mmaphotography. (My hand hurts from scanning all these... )

[ngross83]

So, I've done better than weekly so far... Few pages drawn last night and the hyena sketch has been updated. (Happened to be the last thing I'd touched, so it was on those pages too.)

Nothing in color yet, though I really should do some Photoshop painting.

Posemaniacs, Bridgman and Hogarth.

[ngross83]

And... last night's works. Bridgman, Blair and Posemaniacs.

[ngross83]

And... the rest of my sketches for this week. Some gnoll faces using techniques covered in Blair studies... noses and ears. Little charcoal for the posemaniacs sketches too.

[ngross83]

Posemaniacs and Hogarth.

Some charcoal/white pencil thrown in just to change it up.

[ngross83]

Ok... few more pages of sketches.

Arms from Bridgman and Hogarth, then a page of goofing off.

The stern looking older fellow in the last post was drawn from a photo of a stone bust, so we're getting pretty far removed from an actual portrait, but I found the lighting interesting. He's got some issues with proportion that I'm sure of, but feel free to crit.

[Syle]

Really good looking studies Nick. An inspiration for me!

Keep doing what you're doing. Where do the majority of your interests lie?

[ngross83]

Thanks for the props.

My interests are mostly in digital sculpting, but being able to actually draw a character out before hand seems like it could be quite useful... So, this is a classic case of working on the weaknesses.

[cgaddict]

Lots of studies here, very inspirational. No critiques on my part, just wanted to show my support - keep at it!

[prsnsweeney]

hey nice gesture studies its looking good thanks for stopping by my sb

[ngross83]

Some more pages from my sketchbook. Haven't been feeling so hot so not that much...

I do need to figure out charcoal... clearly it doesn't work that great when mixed with graphite, looks WAY too dark and out of place. Maybe the smoothish paper in the sketchbook just isn't playing nice? I dunno.

The old man drawing is from another photo of the same bust as the previous. I know that it's out of proportion, ear is too far forward and in turn the rest of his head is too far forward. (Bad brain, take time to measure more!)

[Icedearth15876]

Great work so far, your pose studies are very well done as are some of the other drawings in here. Keep up the good work

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Dedicated studies! I like it!

[ngross83]

Ok... and a few more pages for this week.

Lips and various anatomy studies from Bridgman... bunny sketches from life. (Got a ceramic bunny just for this.)
Gnoll guy, random floating arm and shiny-ish ball on black are imagination...

So... nothing too special this week but it's there.

[ngross83]

Wow, a month already?

The cookie dragon was reffed from somewhere, I'm actually not sure where at the moment...

Whole bunch of gnoll head studies to try to figure out my fencer a bit better. (He will be done at some point!)

The alien looking thing that I tagged as Metamesh was from the Pixolator forums, user Metamesh. (Logically.)

Then the goat senator... clearly tagged. (He'll be seeing some more love tonight I think.)

[DeeStar]

some lovely studies in here, very motivational

[ngross83]

Well, finished the goaty fellow anyhow. Not too much else for drawing arts.

[ngross83]

And... Gotta post this fellow. Been too long.

Based this a bit off a Jordu Schell sculpture. (I did a Google search for Demon mask and it was on the first page...)

Ended up looking like one of the brutes from Halo, but I'm fine with that.

Sculpey and airbrush.

[ngross83]

Well, I've not posted here in forever, had some stuff to sort through... BUT! I have been continuing with studies.

Digital painting from a frame of Cowboys and Aliens. Lots of measuring and lots of guesswork. I know of several issues where I didn't measure properly or have a tone off, but I'm moving on to other studies. ~10 hours total.