Dom's Sketchbook

[D0M]

hey
BETTER STUFF AT THE BOTTOM
im dom, im 15, and this is my first post. didnt really know where to put it so i stuck it here ;P

lets start with some of the more recent things :teeth:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/krenshar.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/osirisnew.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/scaryfloatingthing.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/soldierbugink.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/halo.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/androidguy.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/xhai.jpg

well, thats about all my recent ones. i really want to develop my pencil work and lighting so any comment/critique/insult will help, hehe. thanks

Dom

[Fallen]

Hey Dom! Welcome :teeth: !
I think it would be a good idea to maybe use darker shades and mixing it with your light one in order to improve your lighting.

Anyhow hope to see more :D

[D0M]

thanks for such a quick reply :) yeah, i try to compare my pencil sketches with skilled artists and i always notice my way too light lighting, i try going darker in the "dark" areas but it seems like that area sticks way out, and draws the focus from the overall figure to the darkness, if that makes sense :P any tips on a more even "flow" from bright light to darkness?

[schowalye]

welcome first
i'm with fallen with darker shades. i think your pieces are at the edge to be finished, and especially ready for some darker outlining (also some inlines).
waiting for more..

[Fallen]

My tip is to...Well imagine your inking your drawing and just retrace it. Afterwards, when you finish "inking" you'll feel that the pale colors stand out so you'll end up darkening those (instinctively). Either way, you're drawings kind of look like sketches because of the paleness. You can also try using 4HB or a darker font if needed. I can't wait too see the results :confident !

[D0M]

thanks for the tip, ill try it out tonight and get it up asap :teeth:

[D0M]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/halodarkened.jpg here it is, one of the pictures i posted before, but imporved, thanks for the tip Fallen

[Bald Muffin]

Welcome! ^^
Yup, I must say, the picture looks a lot better (and visible) after it's darkened. Great start, keep posting!

[D0M]

here are some doodles i was doing last night...the piece was going to be a study of eyes, noses, lips, ears...but it was really late... i really liked the eye i sketched, so i decided to post it
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/doodles.jpg
close up of the eye
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/eye.jpg

thanks

Dom

[legacy]

like the others said. you definitely need to use a range of shading to get more depth in your drawings. It seems as though you are just too afraid to take the plunge and make darker lines in your drawings - something I used to have a problem with as well. So when I told someone that they asked why - in which I replied "well what if I mess up, and it gets to dark, i wont be able to erase it".

He told me something that I shall tell you . .

"You don't need to erase. You have the pencil and the paper still, just draw it again silly."

:)

[D0M]

thanks legacy, i think its just that, when i draw something i think is good im afraid to ruin it, but im going out to buy some darker lead, to force myself to draw darker :)

[mull77]

Your stuff shows promise and i agree with what everyone's said about not being afraid to 'ruin' a piece by some extra shading, but i really think you need to start drawing from life - looking at the way the body fits together and the way light works on it.

If you do it now, byt he time this sketchbook reaches it's third page you'll have seen a massive improvement.

keep posting!

[D0M]

hi mull :)

thanks for the advice. i messed around with figures to work on proportions and stuff, sorry for the messy set up of the page :P
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/figures-1.jpg
next drawing will probably a tree or a snowboarder, haha


keep posting guys, i need the help! thanks

Dom

(ps, just got PS 7 but no wacom tablet, meaning i cant digitally paint yet, hehe)

[Ryan DeMita]

Hey there and welcome to the forum. I am new as well. I think your sketches have some serious potention and its very good that you're getting involved at a young age. Keep sketching, expecially focus on figure drawings. Keep up the good work man! Cya 8)

[That fat kid]

hey Dom, definitely take legacy's advice, it struck me as very true....good start on the figures, just keep drawing and improvement will follow no matter what...

the fat kid

[D0M]

Ryan - thanks man, im starting now because i wanna persue art as a career (particularly concept/storyboard art)

Fat Kid - thank you, i've already seen imporvement by drawing darker, and my figures? well, thats a different story :bashful: i guess by starting at the bottom, the only way is up hehe

well, anyways, the first is my hand study, i didnt really have a ref, besides my own hand. the next one is nothin really, i just got Photoshop 7 but i use a mouse for color. this was my first (and hopefully not last) attempt at the dreaded PS >:D

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/handstudy-1.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/snowboarderphotoshop-firstattempt.jpg

[D0M]

hey guys

i did this in Real Life class, looking into some girl's makeup mirror. yeah, its supposed to be a self portrait. its not, because i didnt capture the facial structure at all. ill just call it a portrait of my lack of drawing skills :) anyways, tear it up...before i do, haha

thanks
Dom

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/myfirstselfportraitiguess.jpg

[D0M]

heres some sketches i did over the weekend. comments/critiques/insults much appreciated :)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/secondselfportrait-cyborg.jpg
hes my second self portrait ever. it still doesnt look like me (and not just because of the android look to it :P) but it looks more like me than the last one :teeth:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/questingbeast.jpg
hes a sketch i did after looking through a sketchbook of mine when i was 12 years old (about 3 years ago, maybe more) and found this, a sketch of some mythological guy (see bottom) its amazing i know :P but i decided it needed to be redrawn. also allowed me to see how much i've developed (or how little :^^: )
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/questingbeast-12yearold.jpg
tear 'em up, i need the comments

thanks,

Dom

[ngnorden]

sup dom

thnx for the comment in sb, I dig your wolf spirit and that floating thing :P keep it up!

[D0M]

thanks ngnorden!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/handstudycolorpencil.jpg

quick hand study, i dont like it

[D0M]

im looking at my drawings and the way my drawings look on the computer and....i think my scanner sucks...

[D0M]

i posted this in the critique center. i figured i post it here too :D let me know what you think, im not finished, but ifeel im close

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/sandwarrior.jpg

[styler]

looks good so far but goggles could use shading and you could also push your darks a little bit more but it's pretty close.

[gmags]

Last sketch is looking good DOM. Just keep at it youngster. :P

[jermainevl]

What styler said before me: get some more dark tones on them! Just use more contrast and your pieces will look better.

When you're doing a portrait use some method of measuring the proportions. For instance use eyes to measure, like: the head is aproximately 5 eyes wide, or the mouth is 1.7 or something 'eyes' from the eye. It will really help get things in proportion. Furthermore a lot of observation helps ofcourse.
I'll go to the Critiques Center for that last image of yours.
Oh and try not to smudge: it tends to make things look dirty on graphite. You had better just shade with short pencil-lines. (I learned the hard way)

Keep it up and try to draw things from life more!
Cheers!

[D0M]

styler - thanks, i was gunna put a reflection of a scene in there (ended up not, hehe)

gmags- thank you, i feel its one of my best but i always fall short of my expectations :teeth: might be that way for everyone. oh, and yeah, im young but i've wanted to be a concept artist since i was 13. gotta start sometime :tihi:

jermainevl - really, thanks, it's that kind of advice i need. see more in the critique place :^^:

here it is, revised but somethings wierd with my scanner or Photobucket, made it crazy small both times i tried scanning it.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/sandwarriorrevised.jpg

[D0M]

crit it here, crit in the critique center. crit it :teeth: http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/jarhead.jpg

[sone_one]

hey :)

the overall proportions are done really well.
but the eyes are almost double the size they should be .. well at least x1.5 ;)
on the mouth ... it seems a big wide too but possible. the biggest problem here imo is the dark almost black line above his lips on the right.
and the goggles are draging the whole picture down... id advise you to look at some ref for it. thats a design matter.

keep going man, youre on the right track.

[D0M]

sone, thank you, I will work on those friggin eyes! i can also see why the goggles would be a problem. that was the aspect of the sketch i least cared about and look what happens :teeth: back to the drawing board...

[Gumbies Assasin]

you can draw soldiers wicked good

[D0M]

thanks man :D

[D0M]

i drew this for my little sister...figure i'd post it :teeth:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/harrypotter.jpg

critique it please 8)

[MattGamer]

Hay thanks for the sweet comment! Yeah man, your art looks like mine when I was your age, but you are more persistant and already know what you want in the future. As for me, when I was your age I didn't really think art was going to be my carear and so I just drew for fun. That's what you should do too. Right now is like the best time for you to build up your art basics. What I mean by this is get all the facts memorized and down (example: bone names, muscle names, etc). If I did this way back when I was 15, I'd have more belief in myself to use my art in a carear.
Now I know I will have to study extremely hard to become pro in a few years time.
For a very good guideline and compass for your art check out Andrew Loomis' stuff here: www.saveloomis.org - I'm going through the books and am trying to learn from these books as much as possible. They are amazing and teach me more than anything I can learn on my own!

If you need any help in anything just ask!

[D0M]

Matt, those look like great books! the only real classes ive had for art was my high school drawing class i took last year. I really just doodled on crap before. I had to do a project on what job i wanted to persue in a career prep class. i chose illustrator. after that i got alittle more focused( this forum helping a lot). As with the facts and names, hopefully Honors Biology should help :)

Thanks for the post man

Dom

[MattGamer]

Yeah man! I took a few art classes in high school and should have been more dedicated. But still love the learning process. Everyday we're learning and that's the coolest part, you never can learn enough stuff! If you think you've mastered art with a pencil, then there's scuplting and modeling, and after you've mastered that there's like so many other forms of art that I still want to dab or work in!

Yes, I wish I found this forum way back when. I knew about PencilJack back in the day, but never really used it because I didnt want to become a comic artist.

Keep up the posts, and most of all keep up the practice!! When you miss a day of practicing, forget about it and practice today! ;)

[D0M]

got a Wacom tablet....finally. here the very first attempt using the "Painting Digitally with PS" thread as a guide....
oh yeah,no ref, sorta just looked at everyone elses :teeth:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/secondwithwacomcopy.jpg

[MattGamer]

What Wacom tablet did you go with? Looks pretty sweet for your first time man! Keep up the practice. Some tools in Photoshop are kind of hard to learn at first but once you use them over and over again you'll get used to it.

Tip1: Use many shortcuts. If you have Photoshop CS, you can customize the shortcuts.

Tip2: Turn on the NUMLOCK key and use the 1 through 0 to change the Opacity to get hundreds of differents of shades to aid you in painting. (one of my personal fav shortcuts in photoshop being that i dont have a really good wacom tablet).
As I said, looking good. Remember to always practice reality before fantasy. Draw thing around you all the time. Keep a sketch pad around with you all the time, even if people look at you weird. Have fun with it!

[D0M]

matt, thanks for the opacity trick! i got a Graphire tablet, and i'm using photoshop 7.0

ok, heres my second attempt at the wacom, its not reality (been doing some real life sketches though, in my scetchbook (as in, wont scan, and i dont want to tear them out))

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/gavintooelfycopy.jpg
haven't posted lately, school during the week, snowboarding every saturday, leaving sunday for some R&R.

i still suck at the digital painting thing, and i think its, not only my artistic skill, but my unfamiliarity with photoshop. ok, sugestions needed, mostly with the painting aspect, the sketch beneath sucks, i know this already :teeth:

[jermainevl]

Hey dude,
I wouldn't worry much about photoshop, you'll get the hang of it. But try to focus more on actual drawing first. A good coloured work with bad drawing will still not be a very good piece, because the drawing is the basis.

That last soldier you did is very good! Better then the previous one in my opinion. I see you kept in mind the critique about darker shading and that is very nice to see, and i think you'll agree that it looks better because of it. You are heading towards the right direction.

Keep observing, keep drawing and keep improving!
Cheers!

[D0M]

hi!

I haven't posted here in awhile! my scanner's not working, but i got ahold of a crappy digital camera, so sorry for the poor quality.

older stuff, not from life (obviously, haha)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/pirate.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/minotaur.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/girlwithknife.jpg

experimenting with watercolor/marker/pen
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/icingdeath.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/bird.jpg

hand studies (two of a bunch)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/handstudy2.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/handstudy1.jpg

a couple days a go i got Figure Drawing for All It's Worth...simply amazing. I went crazy and drew for, like, 3 hours every night.

practicing motion
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/arrowtomug.jpg

loomis mannikin...not my best but my favorite (i got tons of these, but im not gonna post them all.)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d11/djbenfatta/loomisholy.jpg

welp, i hope you can see past the quality of the pictures, and critique away! thanks for all you guys' help already here at :yayca:


Dom

[zao75231]

hey man, thanks for you comments. I like what you got going on here, love the water colors and that one drawing that haves "So Tired"-that one is funny haha. Some tips on drawing your characters is to maybe start off with a gesture first, haveing a line of action and a dynamic look to it. Your going to enjoy that bridgeman book, you'll be pro in no time ^_^

[D0M]

Thanks zao (friggin good band by the way, i love the song "breath of the black muse")
I've been really trying to get that "hey, i'm moving" look. Always comes out like its rigid, but hopefully Loomis will help me with that.

I'm gunna hold off with my newer stuff. I'm gunna see if i can scan my pictures at my school, hopefully with better results than the camera.

thanks

Dom

[Pixeldragoon]

Hand watercolors are very nice. Keep those up.