monsterfeets detachable eyeballs

[monsterfeets]

'Lo. I am finally starting up a sketchobok thread after about 2 years of visiting this lovely message board and never saying a word. ;D A bit of info about me. I'm Beth, from Spring Hill, KS. 21 yrs old. Been drawing since I was oh, 10 or something. I started to take art seriously sometime in highschool. Before that I was more of a writer. I enjoy drawing monsters, most of all. And weird things. And monsters. My biggest inspirations are Salvador Dali, Dr. Seuss, Sidney Sime, Edward Gorey and Algernon Blackwood (okay he's not an artist but he's a huge inspiration). As much as I like whimsically illustrative stuff, I'd like to be able to draw *well* and my goal is the concept art/storyboard/animation/art direction area.

I seem to be stuck at a point where a lot of the time, I just can't figure out what the heck to DO with an idea (which I have a million of all day long). Like, I can think of a hundred different ways to draw it but I can't think of which way is 'the best' and I've become way too much of a perfectionist. I never get ANYTHING done because of this. And it's incredibly frustrating. I hope that posting here will both help the art block and help me improve in areas I need to. I know I need to work on anatomy, the human form, perspective and 'volume' i guess. My figures always seem kind of flat. But you guys would know better. I have art online at http://werecarrot.deviantart.com as well as http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com <- my website. So feel free to browse there too.

Here's some recent-ish sketchings

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/albums/sketchbook/monsterism.jpg
monsters, sketched in Painter I think

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/513-2/ratty.jpg
quick open canvas painting of my late rat, Zelda.

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/919-3/2005_9_25_222.jpg
OC doodles of faces/skulls.

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/albums/sketchbook/radford_p2.jpg
imagination :P

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/1060-3/simon016.jpg
Some relatively crappy skeletons and such. i have more of these SOMEWHERE i just need to find them.

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/2004-3/wip_hauntedwolf.jpg
i was messing around with gouche which is weird. This is a scene from a dream I had. Not finished or anything. Just an 'idea'

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/2005-2/wip_gricedoors2.jpg
a WIP of a monster guy and his seven doors of death D: ... well not really they are just regular magic interdimensional doors

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/2019-3/monsterthumb.jpg
random monster and a drawing of my thumb because my fingernail polish made a weird design when it chipped off.

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/1327-3/mattdamon.jpg
my cat, Muffins aka Matt Damon (yes I call him that)

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/559-2/wip_neighboorhood1.jpg
speedpainty WIP of rooftops. Trying to capture a weird atmosphere.

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3328-2/pageodeer_001.jpg
Page o' Deer


well thats all for now. What I would really like is just some tips on what I need to work on in general, what my weak points are, my strong points and what to focus on. That would be grand. Thank you kindly.

[spacemanchris]

Very nice work, why'd you wait so long to start posting? :)

I really like your creatures, I see the Suess in your work, and I also see a lot of Jim Henson dark crystal stuff as well. You're creatures have a cool feeling to them.

The proportions of your skeletons are good, but their pose is sort of boring. Pure profile or pure front view are never terribly interesting. Have you ever tried doing gesture drawings? A good way for doing figure drawing, to get yourself to loosen up, is to try and capture the essence and movement of a pose in 15 second. sometimes painting with something flowing like ink can be good, maybe have a friend pose for you, draw them in 15 seconds, have them change, draw again, etc. When those start feeling better (maybe do like 25) do some 30 sec ones, and then 1 min, etc. The speed work helps you to understand the form more specific accuracy comes later.

Your animals are awesome, I love the creature and your thumb picture the most. Your cat is pretty good too. The deer are very nice as well, the legs look a little strange at the shoulder though. It seems to thin here and maybe connecting too high up.

Great work, keep posting, I look forward to seeing more stuff.

-Chris

[asoir]

Good Deer sketches, also nice catchy thread name ;)

[monsterfeets]

Spacemanchris: Thanks! :) I don't know why I waited so long, I suppose I felt intimidated by all the super talented people here. I decided to give it a try becuase I think I will get a lot better constructive feedback here than at other art communities.

I love Jim Henson, (especially Labyrinth) i'm sure he's managed to sneak into my artwork on more than one occasion.

I will try and get someone to sit still long enough to pose for me. Everyone in my house thinks its weird when I want to sit and draw them XD The cat even thinks its weird. I sat around drawing him tonight and after a while he got pissed and jumped on my sketchbook and just laid there:

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/albums/Concept/muffins_sketchbook_001_s.sized.jpg
Hah.

Here are the sketches of him, they aren't that great but they were really fast and i'm really not used to drawing things that move yet
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3311-2/themothership_sketches.jpg

and here are some more from the past couple days

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3313-2/gestures_1.jpg
I tried to make some interesting poses. Most of these are from imagination

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3314-2/020306_02.jpg
here are some um. body parts. that's my foot and hand, everything else was from photos except the eyeball on the bottom

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3315-2/020306_01.jpg
more from imagination. a monster-demon thing, a dragon, some kind of satyr or something. I have no idea what he's doing XD

http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3312-2/sketch_november.jpg
more stuff from imagination, these are all critters and things from a story universe i'm developing.


Asoir: thanks for stopping by :) I think I would like having detachable eyeballs. (or rather, re-attachable. i could probably detach mine if i tried)


I am going to try to do some anatomy studies and hopefully drawing some figures from life. I want to try some different real media too since I mostly work in digital. I decided to go to community college this Summer and then try for some scholarships for art colleges in the next year or two. It's really my only option since I can't get a loan at the moment but it'll probably be better this way anyway ;P

[Matt Smith]

You have some nice sketches. I would like to see more anatomy sketches and work on your proportions too. In one of you hand sketches, the thumb was looking enourmous compared to the rest of the hand. I am not sure how you start out sketching, but try blocking in basic shapes first then go for more refinement. Good luck and keep on posting.

[Silveraxe]

you seem pretty good with animal sketches...
try to work more on figures ;)

[monsterfeets]

Alright, I haven't been keeping up on this thread, but I HAVE been drawing. I'm going to try and make a point to update this more regularly. The internet is just very distracting :c

Here's some recent sketches (from yesterday and the night before) The digital stuff was done in Open Canvas or Art Rage.

Painting from Photo Ref. 2 hours (was aiming for 1.5 but alas.) It has a lot of problems but I'm trying not to be such a perfectionist.
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3670-1/springarcher_2hours.jpg


Skulls and um. Back of neck.
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3704-2/simon_skulls.jpg


Gestures
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3707-2/simon_gestures01.jpg


Gestures? Don't know if these count. They were like 1-2 mins each.
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3717-2/simon_gestures02.jpg


Horrible crappy face muscles X3 I'm going to focus on the face and head at the moment. Will move on to other parts of the body later.
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3699-1/face_muscle_study_1.jpg


Skulls from memory (no ref). Pls ignore the one on the right.
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3668-1/skulls_noref.jpg


A deer. Eating some grass.
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3697-1/deer_nom.jpg


A WIP of a tigermonster thing with a person. (I actually finished this already but I'm putting it here anyway because I think I need a monster in all my posts)
http://gallery.darkdarkroom.com/d/3653-2/wip_loltigers.jpg


My darn links aren't working in my previous posts. will try and fix that ...