curt's tranquillity (updated jan.9)

[isair]

Ello pals, me new here! coph.. coph... :bashful: I love this forum. So many talented artists and the people here are 'grool'. <3
Well, I'm not really new. I've been a lurker many many moons ago. It was here that I found so many inspiration and warmth to keep drawing. So many great artist around and people are trying their best to help each other improve. So many great pieces to enjoy and study.
I should have started sharing me crappies for years despite of me hesitation. I have no formal education in art and it was too crappy a thing could be. But it's really hard to fight a battle all on me own. I see people around are nice and helpful, so I cough up me courage and start this thread. Hope to find some friends and share some priceless comments. Still hesitating now :nohope: , but the hell to it, I'm part of this forum and I want to contribute as a member. ;)
Please throw at me everything you've got and as hard as possilble. Any C&C are highly appreciated. :bashful:
Sorry for being winded, but I'm a million happy now to post at last.
Oh, I have a question. How to start drawing from imagination and without reference? I've be working mostly with reference and donno how to start creating ... like monsters and knights etc... I tried several times but it comes out even crappier than ever!! Please if any people can help me out on this?

Thanks.
curt - which buddies usually call me (''Isair'' is from Black Isle's Icewind Dale II :bashful: )


Well, here is my first ticket. I have the book series "learning from the great masters", and I'm going to study those one by one. Mostly it took me one to two hours, 2B mechanical pencil on normal sketchbook. I think I should pay more attention to my line arrangement. And me appology for my input if confusing, I'm not native English speaking.


http://img5.exs.cx/img5/5535/h02_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/5682/h03_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/2737/h04_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/5306/h05_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/599/h06_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/9975/h07_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/3386/h08_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/2652/h09_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/1553/h10_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/9894/h11_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/7789/h12_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/5691/h13_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/9138/h14_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/4908/h15_resize.jpg
http://img5.exs.cx/img5/3308/h16_resize.jpg http://img5.exs.cx/img5/4568/h17_resize.jpg

[dusty imp]

Hey, welcome to the sketchbook madness.
Your studies are very nice, i don't see any glaring problems anywhere.
As for drawing without reference and making stuff up...
It takes work.
It seems that you may have became too reliant on working from reference and now have trouble working from your head. There is now easy way around it, just learning to work with minimized amount of reference. I use refrence only when i feel that i've found some patter in my work (such as similar facila structures) that needs to be eliminated, so i go and look at some faces, draw few of them (not copy them, just glance at them while drawing), and expand my visual vocabulary that way until the problem is gone. Also it depends on what you want to draw. Some people have no problem doodling stuff out their head that doesn't exist, like prostate sunrise's monsters, because it's just their thing. Try doodling more and see what stuff you tend to come up with. Keep it up!

[isair]

thanks Yutani for your suggestion
Yes I'm too reliant on refrence study. I copied too many but draw too little. It becomes a curse now that I cannot draw on my own. Well my plan need to be shift. I'll try to split half the time drawing from my head while the other half do the study and more life study instead of copying. I hope that the curse can be removed and I really start drawing with my head (I'll bash it if the goddamn head doesn't work >:D )
I don't have art courses to attend to, and I guess its all on my own. Well it's really great to have you people around to help me out. Thanks again.
:)

BTW. The hosting site I used last time has extremely little quota. Does anyone know any good free hosting site around? :bashful:

[Xaya]

Well done copies, good linework and form-following lineshading.

Yes it is quite hard to start working without references... drawing characters and so on.

There a some basic things in my opinion you can begin with or which are necessary.
Anatomic knowledge! You did some great drawings of anatomically fundations
but do you know how they work together?
Where are the muscles under the skins, and how the skeleton structure looks like?
I don´t thing you are beginner with this case but to build up creatures
it is not so bad to know how bodies work.
To start up drawings u can follow the sentence: from basic to detail.
Working with primitives to fix the volume and proportions is a good start.
And finally just draw!
Can´t wait to see some stuff...

Xaya

PS: i use www.tripod.lycos.co.uk for upload my work...

[isair]

thanks xaya for the feedback. yes anatomy, that what these copies for, though i know it wont tell me how bone and muscle mechanism on the run. I try to accomplish basic anatomy knowledge and refine my linework from master study. It has its limits as you mentioned, i dont know how the organism works. the tutor on the book recommend everyone have a set of real bones handy, oh hell thats impossible for me unless i pull out my own :nohope: but anyway, i should find other ways to work it out (well i mean the knowledge heh).
thanks for the suggestion and keep turned
:bashful:

[ejwize]

Hey Isair,
I like your classic style drawings.

A couple thoughts about drawing from your head...

A lot of the time when I sit down to draw, I have no idea what the subject will be. I will start by just making knots of lines and sweeping arcs very lightly on the page. Sometimes I'll start to see something (most of the time letting weird accidents help guide me along is alot more interesting than if I sat down intending to draw something very specific). If I don't start seeing something, I erase out a part and work more light lines in. Usually by this point, I see something and I can't help but start trying to bring the form out of the lines.

I think Yutani's point about just glancing at reference for structural information without actually copying it is a good one. It's a good intermediate step if your goal is to start working without reference altogether. (Although, I think you should probably always work with reference if you're working on something you want to turn into a finished piece - if you're just sketching and just want to challenge yourself or you're lazy like me then maybe not, but reference helps!) So something you can do is pick up a national geographic, find something interesting and then without copying it exactly try to incorporate design elements and structure into your drawing.

The last thing is, if you see something you don't like in your drawing, fix it. Erase half the drawing you've been working on for the last hour if something is structurally off. Get it right! You have to be willing and able to solve all the problems you already DO see in your drawings before people can really help you with anything new.

Keep it up!!!!

[isair]

hi ejwize
you have very interesting way of working things out. as you mentioned, i always see things within some marble patterns. and the same one always turns out to be different whenever i see them. quite an interesting coherence as your way of creation. i think i might work those out. thanks for the inspiration.
i want to work only by head because i have adopted a really bad habit of shape copying while study. i want to do that in order to get rid of it. damn hard for me.
well, you've pointed out one thing i rarely do - to fix errors. yes, i definitely should have done that. thanks for the advise.
nice to have you around. expacting your new works also. cya

[isair]

i took 2 of these too lightly ::nohope::
http://onfinite.com/libraries/198945/642.jpg

http://onfinite.com/libraries/198946/0bb.jpg

[flex mathews]

nice work, i love the classical anatomy. really great stuff.

[Daunting]

Too cool man. I bet you'd do fine from the mind. Just try with humans from the mind and use all the stuff you've learned from life drawings and then try to go kind of wild with the humans and try other things with em. Then pretty much got yourself a creature. I know easier said than done but heh takes time.

[isair]

Thanks flex, it's cool to have you drop by. I love your work.
Daunting, thanks for the encouragement. But well, I did too little from me head.
I guess I should dig more into basic study to be more confident of the structure and anatomy. Me mind always blacks out while doing from memory. I'd try focus more on me drawing than the reference now. Hope it helps to be less and less reliance on the reference and finally reach my goal.

Now it's dump time :D OM studies mixed with photo study.
Me should keep focus on me paper more!! damn it!!
Thanks all for your time by dropping by.

http://onfinite.com/libraries/230093/0c9.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/230103/d53.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/230104/602.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/230105/91f.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/230106/d39.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/230107/505.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/230108/f1f.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/230109/934.jpg

[isair]

wow, this is madness. one day the thread was at the bottom of page 2
tiny update 2pces not too satisfied, but i learned a lot from it :nohope:
http://onfinite.com/libraries/234229/73b.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/234230/29f.jpg

[isair]

update a bit for now. me decided to do 100 master study before going anywhere further :nohope: me quit me job now, so it wont take long :nohope:
http://onfinite.com/libraries/247361/2a2.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/247362/dcd.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/247363/a72.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/247365/bed.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/247366/84d.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/247368/6b0.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/247369/41b.jpg http://onfinite.com/libraries/247371/a44.jpg

[isair]

hahahhh, its funny, can't help
the last guy was envy the other 2 or something ;)

[isair]

some dull ref. studies.. still cant work with mind only.. trying.. failing.. me dumbass :nohope:
http://onfinite.com/libraries/276396/855.jpg

[warlock1234]

nice reference studies isiar...if i'm not mistaken a few of those are actually da Vinci, no?....but in all i must say...smart way to start on a journey to understanding anatomy at a higher level...keep up the great work and don't quit.. :wink: ...it takes a long time to work just from mind..comes with a long period of practice...and sorry about your job...just keep your head up and know there's work somewhere... :dur: