JK's sketchbook ><

[ancientdrake]

For the latest updates skip to the last page please.

[Aromatic-pie]

/slap ancient

Where are the colors? >.<

/facepalm

Delta out.

[ancientdrake]

Right, here be the colours. Some people see it in a kind of blueish tint, cold colours. But it really isn't... does anyone see it? And of course all constructive crits welcome. Thanks

[ancientdrake]

End of uni, so had tons of stuff to do, plus now having some trouble with student finance not wanting to lend me money for the first year so am a bit worn out from that but hopefully will have more time and energy to get back to painting again.
Anyway, here's something I'm working on atmmnt, I think she's kind of done (colouring will come at the end), now I just need to figure out a background. Was thinking of a city in ruins and a river between her and the city, she could be in a destroyed building or something.

[ancientdrake]

Right so after some hours I got the background in I think... just need to colour it now.

[ancientdrake]

Right, so changed a few textures and added some colour, off to something new again. (I know it's not much of a sketch but when I start something I can't stop working for hours on it ><)

[jskotte]

Hi Ancientdrake, thanks for stopping by my SB and thanks for the nice words :)
You're off to a good start here, like the top image. Your character in the bottom one looks good, but be careful about painting one part (character or something else) separately first and then adding something else, I have seen many examples of people rendering nice parts of images, but it ends up looking like several different images stitched together because the lighting isn't consistent. Yours look okay, but just a thing to think about.

PS. Can I ask why the illustration part of Uni is a disappointment?

[ancientdrake]

No problem Jskotte ^_^
Finally some critique! Thank you. Yeah I was afraid it might end up like that as well and I still do see the character-background thing, I'll try to keep it in mind, started working on some videos from "The Structure of Man" (even thou a lot of people don't seem to like it) and will do the same with Vilppu's videos plus gonna try to go through the Loomis books. (This is gonna take a loooong time..)

And as far as the uni goes, well I don't really want to whine, but it's just not illustration at all. I mean they haven't taught us ANYTHING yet from the illustration course, nothing, the only good thing in the uni is that they made a live drawing class available to us from a different module (and my course teachers didn't even know anything about it, it's just sad..and it was supposed to be the uni of the year or something..uni of the year my ass..)

[ancientdrake]

Right, so haven't done much digital "sketches" lately cause of work and blablabla (althou i do draw from time to time in work into my sketchbook ><) but here is something I've been working on for a couple of days (on and off). Think the b/w version is nearly done or done, I'll see tomorrow if I cba ><

[ancientdrake]

Finished version I think.

[Mr. Smile]

Hey there. Really great start to your sketchbook.
To serve my opinion of the post #3: personally I think that the picture is too desaturated, (talking mainly about skintones). The reason for this is probably that the original is B&W. The colors appear flat, especially in the face area. To be honest, I wouldn´t normally notice, but I´m solving skintone problems in my paintings right now. Otherwise I like the sense of movement.

I´m seriosly in love with the leather in #4#5 and #6. Makes me wanna do something like that.

Last two posts are really nice too. Groovy.

Well, thats it, see you around and good luck!

[ancientdrake]

Working on this now.

[ancientdrake]

Right, here's the b/w and color version, I just can't seem to get the right skin tone onto her, always comes out weird whether it's on overlay or color.

[ancientdrake]

Right, so here's another one, wasn't sure really if I should add the glowing thingy creature or not as it kind of takes the viewers focus out of the girl. Bah >< Here's the BW, colour and colour with wisp thing.

[jkeener]

Hi, you are doing some nice things here, keep it up!

I would recommend doing some studies of fabric as the clothes on your figures are flattening them a bit. Took at some old master drawings to see how they handled it. You should notice that they always allude to the forms under the fabric (weather on or not they would be visible in the real world) this helps to keep the figure rounded. Also look at where the fabric bunches and falls...anatomy will help there too.

[ancientdrake]

Thanks for the critique man! Yeah, cloths aren't my strongest point, thanks for the tip, will do! I do try to form the cloths somehow, but always get lost in the end, it does get a bit frustrating ><

[ancientdrake]

Well haven't really done much of late... keep getting distracted by things.. lastly it was SC II ><
Anyway, this is what I have, tried colouring with just straight off colours, but I think b/w for me atmmnt is still the best option in learning. But hey, at least I didn't spend hours and hours on these works ><

[ancientdrake]

Right, so something new. I thought she needed some background and the first thing that came to my head was tango and some LasVegaish kind of light behind her... so yeah... ><

[ancientdrake]

And something new again.
Parasite Eve

[ancientdrake]

Umm right so for about last 5 days been working on this, it's a tribute to 3 soldiers who escaped communism from (back in the day) Czechoslovakia, now Czech republic. (a two tailed white lion is one of the symbols and also a symbol of the highest state award, which they didn't get. yet) Anyway here it is.

[ancientdrake]

Umm, dunno how to put "nudity" now in the topic...althou I think there's nothing wrong with seeing a nude human body...not like people will go mental because they suffer childhood dramas..anyway, decided to do a nude study, tried a different approach again. And the button is there cause I felt like she should be pressing something, call it an esthetical design ><

[ancientdrake]

Next.

[ancientdrake]

Aaand another study.

[ancientdrake]

While listening to some smooth jazz/lounge/space music ^_^

[ancientdrake]

And something new again (is it written steam punk or steampunk... ><)

[calisto-lynn]

awesome work!!

[ancientdrake]

Thanks Calisto ^_^
Here's something new again. Wasn't sure about the background really, was just messing about ><

[ancientdrake]

I really enjoyed doing this one, especially the background (even thou it's quite not polished, but I think it suits the picture)

[ancientdrake]

A bit of fantasy there.

[CesarNostradamus]

oow
Some of these look really good

[ancientdrake]

Thanks man, althou they are all from a ref. I try my best.

[raminafshari]

WOW ... this angel drawing is very very interesting . you have done this character very good , i see have been work on lights very good . keep drawing .

[ancientdrake]

Thanks man, it's a fairy actually but that's beside the point >< .

[ancientdrake]

Tried to make something faster, more of a loose brush, wanna learn how to do it, think it's really good for concepting and such. (Plus my ref. had a really sucky resolution ><)

[ancientdrake]

Random.

[ancientdrake]

Ah, haven't been able to get to digital art, changed courses recently to fine art, so doing mainly traditional at uni and home, quite a bit of life drawing as well. Anyway, here's something at least, using watercolours atmnt so..

[ancientdrake]

again something

[Jaunay]

Oh wow, great contrast with the last piece the colours area really striking, you've got some great skills with colouring and shading, but some things that seem odd about the piece are the composition and where the piece meets in the middle. I see that the girls are fighting against eachother or even combining thier powers but it just seems a little flat when it could be so dynamic. Great work overall though, and great progress too. Just take a step back and plan your pieces out more before you start painting. :D

[ancientdrake]

Hey Jaunay, thanks for the reply and feedback! I think you may be right, this has really changed through out, as it started as almost something completely else >_<. Hopefully with more practice it'll get better... >_<

[ancientdrake]

Had a lot of work for uni, so did mostly traditional stuff but working on a digital piece just as you probs. read this.
1. A figure study I did with watercolours, I went into watercolour and oil painting in my uni studio space(it's actually just this little corner but it makes me feel better when I say studio space..). Which can be seen on pic. 2.

2. Some of my finished and unfinished work on display for grading.. or something related to that..

3. This is a close up of the upper pic on the wall in the studio. It's from a 30min life drawing.

4. A work in progress drawing/painting that I'm kind of doing for a friend.. like she's my muse 8) <3 .. A little bit Alfons Mucha thing.

5. The last one is a water colour sketch I did, just testing things out. Recorded it as well. speedpaint -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOxrz0HTVXo if anyone wants to see. (I hope you like Gold Panda)

Peace out.

[ancientdrake]

Here's the digital.

[ancientdrake]

There.

[ancientdrake]

Some more.

[ancientdrake]

About 3 hour "sketch".

[ancientdrake]

Was just sketching around and having something different. No ref. this time.

[ancientdrake]

Partial ref.

[ancientdrake]

Trying out something new.

[Rhubix]

I think your in fine shape over all with the figure in terms of proportion and posing. I think a little bit of fine tuning could go a long way. Sometimes your wrists / elbows / ankles look a little ambiguous. The over all shape is right but they're lacking specificity.
If you get the peticulars of the skeleton in place it will really polish up your figures :D.

P.S I love your funky water colour piece. You can never have too much funk :D

[ancientdrake]

Yeah, I have noticed that. Lately I have been trying to extensively learn how muscles and skeleton locks with each other, I'm getting a little bit of grasp with it, but still haven't found examples/tutorials that I would completely understand how it looks and works and most importantly, how to actually draw it and render it. I'm a special boy! :D

And yeah, there can never be enough of funk. :evilmustache:

[ancientdrake]

Some practice with shading and sculpting here. I must say I really don't like going from b/w to colour. I just don't find the colours in the end as pleasing as if I do it from base. Or I just suck too much ><.

[ancientdrake]

So between practicing I stumbled on this track (enjoyable long mixes he has) http://soundcloud.com/mr-scruff/mr-scruff-vs-kirsty-almeida-pickled-spider-1 and decided to make something to it, just for the kicks. The main part of the song that connects with the picture imho is at 0:45

[ancientdrake]

So while I was studying up on anatomy and practicing, I got bored of it. So decided to draw something without a ref. for a bit. It started out as a duckman btw.

[ancientdrake]

Not many new digital sketches, just an update on the previous one, but I did record one sketch thou. If anyone wants to see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJTqxLdNX8

[ancientdrake]

A photo out of my sketchbook. 2 days old...not like you couldn't see it. But the arms...the arms... ><

[ancientdrake]

So got back from my little holiday, and realised (once again) how much I fell behind, so I set up a little structure that I will hopefully follow a bit. Yesterday's start. I keep having the biggest problems with the shape of the arms.... now that I look at it, it's all a little bit off..well off we go do some more!

[ancientdrake]

Today's update. Will post what I drew in the sketchbook tomorrow when I take a pic of it. Too lazy now.

[ancientdrake]

From yesterday's sketchbook.

[ancientdrake]

Today's update

[lohes]

Keep up the hard work on those studies, it's paying off :)

[ancientdrake]

Another update. Haven't done much today...

[ancientdrake]

Update for yesterday.

[ancientdrake]

From yesterday.

[ancientdrake]

Update for today.

[ancientdrake]

Update for yesterday.. got distracted by Bastion. No regrets.

[ancientdrake]

Today.

[ancientdrake]

Didn't get much done today...

[ancientdrake]

Ran out of an A4 sketchbook, going to A3, at least I can move my hand better.

[ancientdrake]

This is for yesterday.

[j-ace]

Incredible techniques and characters. Keep it up.

[ancientdrake]

Thanks! Today's update.

[ancientdrake]

Just some sketching today from a caffe.

[ancientdrake]

Today.

[ancientdrake]

And some more.

[ancientdrake]

A little bit more.

[ancientdrake]

My net was out since yesterday, this is for yesterday, not much, but at least something..

[ancientdrake]

For yesterday and today.

[ancientdrake]

Today. Finally starting to understand the arm. A bit :D.

[ancientdrake]

Today.

[glaudarien]

Hi there, thanks for the comment on my SB. You had a great start to your sketchbook here, its good to see that your back and on track again. Your studies are looking good but i some of the proportions are dodgy in quite a few, mostly the length of the arms and the size of the head. It can be good practice to do a few fully body gestures / mannikens - only simple lines / forms but focusing purely on the proportions so that when you come to putting all of the muscles / bones together you won't be let down by dis-proportioned body parts. Keep it up! :)

[ancientdrake]

Hey there, thanks for stopping by as well. Thanks for the tip, I've noticed that as well and it's been bothering me quite a bit, will work on that. For the meantime, here's today's stuff.

[ancientdrake]

Not much today. Got held up at the caffe doing instagram. Pretty good that.

[ancientdrake]

Today.

[ancientdrake]

...I got a feeling I'm not progressing at all..frustrating a bit...but maybe it's still too soon.. :<

[ancientdrake]

For today and yesterday. I wish I could just upload them as a group..

[ancientdrake]

Today. Took a time off on weekend, but still read up and watched quite a lot on the subject.

[ancientdrake]

Yeah...

[ancientdrake]

For yesterday and today.

[ancientdrake]

Not much today :(

[ancientdrake]

Aaand today.

[ancientdrake]

Not much today. Hopefully, next week will pick off again.

[ancientdrake]

For yesterday and today.

[ancientdrake]

Today.

[ancientdrake]

Today. Decided to get back to ps again, finally a bit more fun..but a bit unused to ><..

[ancientdrake]

Right, so today I decided to do some exercises (1 and 2) from The Peer Project Vol. 2 by Idiot_Apathy, proved to be pretty fun and interesting, def. gonna continue on tomorrow. Quite a surprise on the second exercise when trying to match color and just pure b/w value.

[ancientdrake]

Today. Think this was one of my first real life studies. The egg that is.

[ancientdrake]

Aaaand today.

[ancientdrake]

So useless today... uni started..but not really an excuse...plus this super weird lighting on that bong.

edit: (pressed the post too quickly..)

[ancientdrake]

Done this today. Tried to not zoom at all...must resist.. also done a few quicker studies but discarded those right after I was done...

[ancientdrake]

So this is for today. First gestures are 30 secs, later on it was a minute but I was getting way too sloppy and annoyed. Third took about 2.5h, but just 1h out of that was sketching it all over again about 2-3x....also left some of the guidelines there, in case.. (hmmm I think the highlights should actually be a bit more brighter perhaps..)

[ancientdrake]

For yesterday and today....the first pic is just horrible..lol...

[ancientdrake]

Finished up on yesterday's and then a bit more.

[ancientdrake]

So here's some sketches from my little notebook and something I've been working on a bit.

[ancientdrake]

Some sketches and a movie study. Survival Style 5+. Did another bigger sketch but that's back in the studio..

[ancientdrake]

Not much today..been watching the new Zeitgeist and some news etc. But a little bit of work from the uni. and my current working space if anyone is interested.

[ancientdrake]

Cha. Finished. Tried a bit of colouring there.

[Voodoo_Mama]

hey! nice studies!
those gestures are looking nice.
I would say to keep working on the anatomy studies, sometimes your characters have some proportion problems.
Keep it up!

[ancientdrake]

Heya, thanks for the tip, I couldn't agree with you more, will try to work on that.

And life drawing begun today again so got some pics from today's.
(The first one is from the other day when I was bored in the library...)

[ancientdrake]

So some more life drawing today, 2 times a week, too bad it's not more. Also some leg position studies.

[ancientdrake]

Just a little update for today. Wanted to paint something a bit more finished but got stuck on this sketch so long now, like 3 hours and it's just so bad! #@$%$#& hands.... ARGH! Going to bed .. ><

[ancientdrake]

A little progress on the painting. Using no pressure opacity, quite different...plus a little bit of sketching.

[ancientdrake]

Not much over the weekend. Just this.

[ancientdrake]

I was just doodling on the first one while "invigilating" the cash register at the uni gallery. The rest is life drawing.

[KT]

Isn't bammes anatomy book great? Now they just need to release the other one in english too! I like your recent figure studies, theres a good sense of weight in them. For your shading and values, I'd suggest getting something basic and white and studying that under a strong direct light maybe. By the way, what university to you go to?

[ancientdrake]

Yeah man, it sure is and thanks, guess it's slowly starting to pick up. I'll try to get something white and do it on that.. saw a polyester head today at life drawing..... >:)

Anyway, today's life drawing (A3 paper xO) with a bit of a continuation on the painting.

[Sebastian Wagner]

woow huge amount of stuff. You are doing a lot and will get better and better. Just keep posting and working hard mate!

[ancientdrake]

Thanks man! Kind of feel bad now that I haven't posted anything in such a "long" time. A little bit now at least here.

[ancientdrake]

Some 30 secs poses and another update on paint.

[ancientdrake]

Cha. A little bit more today. First were small watercolour/pencil sketches in a pub and a cafe. Was advised to do them for my uni. so might as well post them here. And of course life drawing today. Some poses still prove to be difficult, especially the dead on front and back.

[Dave'sWarmInsides]

Hello good sir. Thank you for the support and stopping by! I enjoyed watching your sketchbooks, and the last posts with traditional techniques also. Have you tried using color paper (such as grey or brown paper) and white and black (or brown) color pencils? this is an example: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5DbjihoZpwk/TSiJZwRauSI/AAAAAAAAAq8/ojN3HG95ROQ/s1600/chicapelo_topost.jpg
It's a very nice technique and you work bringing up lights and shadows only. Hope you like it and maybe try it ;)

[ancientdrake]

Stupid internet stopped working yesterday, so this is for yesterday and today. Some is life drawing, some sketches some even from imagination... so shit still thou...gotta practice more!

[ancientdrake]

moore

[Egg0]

Nice studies, practicing it's how you gonna get better and better (all of us), so, keep the practice and you're eventually gonna see improvement

[ancientdrake]

Thanks Egg0, will try and do my best.
Was on a trip today so got some photo refs. but manage to pull a bit of 30 sec to a few min. poses.

[Vertical]

Really nice gestures! You might want to try to make up some of your own poses after doing a round of gestures, try to apply what you learned from analyzing the poses. Keep up the good work!

[ancientdrake]

Hey man, thanks for stopping by. Yeah, will try to do that, I actually a little bit in my next batch of pics.
Anyway, it's some life drawing again and some blind contour drawing etc.

[ancientdrake]

And for today's life drawing. A2 is an interesting size.

[ancientdrake]

So some more practice today + I decided to try and sketch without any ref. The second last pic I started to colour as well, was listening to this while making it, for like 4.5 hours... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-TwFpwUg9M

[ancientdrake]

Today.

[ancientdrake]

I think it might be done.

[ancientdrake]

Weekend. And a bit of progress on the chick.

[ancientdrake]

Yesterday and today.

[ancientdrake]

Decided to finish this up.

[ancientdrake]

Been a few days since I posted anything, just couldn't get around to it, but finally today!

On a side note. I could really use a multiple upload manager...

[Voodoo_Mama]

Great studies! those life draiwngs and gestures are looking good.
I see a big improvement. Specially in the painting of the woman in post 132. O: It's beautiful, there's a good use of value edges and color! Keep it up! :D

[ancientdrake]

So I think it's been long enough since I put anything into the sketchbook so a few shots from my recent studies/drawings. Plus a digital painting and a few variations. Btw, Painter is really cool, not that it has been done in Painter.

[ancientdrake]

Some of my recent sketches. (In the vicinity of a few weeks).
First some sketches and "concepts" and then life drawing.