SCad Grad Progress Thread

[Jeff Gran]

Hello, everyone. I have been lurking here for a while now, and I finally decided to post some of my work. I just graduated from SCAD (3D major) and I feel like I've neglected my 2d skills way too much. I've been drawing every day for a few weeks now, off and on before that. Mostly I'm trying to learn anatomy, and to try to draw more volumetrically. Most of the time I end up drawing front and profile faces, very flat looking. Here are some of the better sketches I've done lately. I will post more as I draw it in hopes of finding some guidance here.


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/cheetahs.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/android-ish.jpg



http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/creature.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/creature-2.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/jimbo.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/joe's-feet.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/knight-and-archer.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/muscleback.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/robot.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/spacesuits.jpg

I think I do pretty well when drawing from life or with other reference, but when I try to draw from imagination I get very frustrated.

Oh, and it almost goes without saying, but I was inspired to do this my the amazing feats of MindcandyMan and Android, proving that there really IS time enough in every day to draw.

Jeff

[endregan]

your hands and feet are really good. you might want to practice face drawing to get proportions down and all i can say is draw draw draw. this is what im currently learning. the more you do the better! keep it up! :)

[Jeff Gran]

thanks for the encouragement endregan.

here is a SP I just did from a picture. I sketched it out first and then painted by grabbing colors from the photo in PS. Is that cheating?

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-6-28-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

Here is what I did today and yesterday.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sequence.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/toadman.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/veralius.jpg

Jeff

[Jeff Gran]

Well here is what I drew today. Man, I have to start using pen more because the ones in pencil don't show up well in the digital pictures. maybe I just need better lighting. Anyway, I wanted to start concentrating on actually putting clothing on my figures... and details and accessories. I always just draw nudes and musclemen. Anyway:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/costumes.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/dudeinashirt.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/highheels.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

Here are some more sketches that I did today. I was thinking maybe I should have made this thread in the sketchbook section...that's basically what it is, just my sketchbook online. anyway...see you tomorrow.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/annalise.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/horseandcats.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/bighand.jpg

Comments highly welcome.

[Jeff Gran]

Here's another self portrait I did. I tried to emulate Androids rushed-looking, odd colored style on some of his SPODs. I think maybe I should have sketched it first, but this time I tried just painting from the beginning and picking all my own colors.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-6-30-03.jpg

[amphex]

Your stuff is looking good, keep it up.
And for the SP, it generally isnt reccomended to "grab colors"..next time try it from life!

[Jeff Gran]

hey, thanks a lot for commenting amphex. Ya, I figured as much... that portrait came out too good, too easily. And I don't think I learned much from it. Today I did one with no reference, and only one color (basically greyscale but more fun).

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-7-1-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

here's the DSG I did today. It's the first one I've done because I'm usually afraid mine will suck. So I was right. Maybe more thought in the design would help. I tried to make it look like you're lookin up at him from below and the light is coming from above.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DSG-7-01-03.jpg


Oh, and I found a life drawing session in my hometown every tues and thurs. YAY! finally. So I'll be posting what I draw there as well, either late tonight or tomorrow.

[Jeff Gran]

Life Drawing:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_01.jpg
Started with 2 minute poses. hmm. warmup

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_02.jpg
2. getting better, still 2 minutes

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_03.jpg
3. I think i must have drawn the breasts without really looking at the shape of the curve.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_04.jpg
4. argh. 2 for the left, 5 for the right. I have a chronic problem of making the femur too short. no, she wasn't a midget.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_05.jpg
5. 5min. I had trouble with this pose so I started again and did it real fast, on the right.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_06.jpg
6 10 mins. very interesting pose to draw.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_07.jpg
7 the paper is 11x14 and the scanner is 8x11.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_09.jpg
8. some kid let me borrow some charcoal so I shaded this one with it after the pencil sketch. it turned out to be my favorite for the night.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA01_08.jpg
9. fell apart here. my proportions are off. she turned out looking old but she was young and very skinny. I think the legs are too long and the tummy to wide.



I would love to hear suggestions on what to concentrate on next time. Thanks for looking and reading.

[jester]

I think I do pretty well when drawing from life or with other reference, but when I try to draw from imagination I get very frustrated

:D welcome to the club! :D

As for your life drawings - check out my sketchbook (in the Daily Sketchbbok section) and see how even a short amount of lessons can lead to progress: just carry on!

:)

Jester

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks for the encouragement, Jester! You have really improved since the beginning of your thread.

Here is my DSG for today: "Arrival". wow look at me I did an environment. I think the sense of space works OK, but I don't like the colors that much...too saturated maybe. It took about 40 minutes.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DSG-7-02-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

And my sketchbook page today:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketchbook-7-2-03.jpg

I was pretty pleased with how this dragon head came out. It looks like it occupies space. I think the perspective is off on the right eye...not sure.

[Jeff Gran]

Here is my self portrait for today. Painted from a picture in photoshop, but I forced myself not to use the eyedropper for the colors...

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-7-3-03.jpg

[endregan]

wow your progression so far is really good! like the sp u recently did. it is really good. keep it up bud :D

[jester]

Jeff, the dragon head is really nice - the eye that troubles you is a tiny bit too small IMO. Good job on the sp - you achieved a great depth in the eye area. The nose looks a bit weird on the top right edge.

Jester

[Jeff Gran]

Here are sketches from the 3rd.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch1-7-3-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch2-7-3-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch3-7-3-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

here's a sketch painting I did while trying out some new brushes I downloaded for PS. I was thinking about MCM's new magic card (undead warchief) while I was doing it. Maybe I should add a headdress or something and finish it off for that... I kinda like how it's looking so far.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/decay.jpg

[StephenC]

mr . gran i share your pain. We all have to work thru it together to conquer the world with our art.

[antihero]

hi Jeff,

Congrats on that Dragon head. It looks really great maybe except the eye, that you've mentoined. Also your last Selfportrait looks pretty good around the eyes! Just keep on drawing! You've allready posted a lot of stuff and practice will not only help drawing from imagination.

antihero

PS: What about some basic proportion studies? if once learned it would help alot when drawing from imagination...

[Jeff Gran]

thanks for the comments Stephen and antihero. I've been discouraged lately, but I guess I just get impatient sometimes and wish I was improving faster. It's good to hear from other artists that have been through this... I don't have any friends that are artists.

Good idea about the proportional studies. I ordered the complete bridgman book online the other day, so I can't wait to start drawing out of that. I do have a loomis book on my HD, so I'll do some studies from that and post later today.

[Jeff Gran]

SPOD:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-7-6-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

So here are my sketches from the last two days. first are some proportion studies/copies after Loomis, and then some attempts at figures from imagination.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch7-6-3.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch7-6-2.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch7-6-6.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch7-6-4.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch7-6-5.jpg

[antihero]

Those Proportion Sketches look quite good for a first attempt. I think it's good that you ordered that bridgeman book. You've surely heard a lot about Loomis, in the good and the bad way. The longer i do some other than Loomis Studies i agree with the people criticizing him. His Method gives a good sense for the action and how it gets caught in a drawing, but his anatomy teachnings are... banal i think.
Seems like i'm missing the topic... sorry for that. The selfportrait looks also nice. The two cheeks look very different in their form, but maybe that's you... or me :)
As in your last Selfportrait the color choice for the skin is pretty good. Keep on it, because patience and practice will not only improve your drawing from imagination!

antihero

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks for commenting, antihero. actually it's not my first attempt at proportion studies... but I do think I could still use some practice. Those dang femurs...always too short (see pic for today). The more I look at that last SP the more wonky it looks. One iris is huge compared to the other, the nose is offcenter I think, and ya, the cheeks don't quite look the same. I should map it out better before I start painting next time.




http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-7-03.jpg
Check it out everyone I did some character designs. I'm proud even if they're kinda generic. I can see I need some work on drapery. For the robot I was trying to base the pieces off of anatomy.

[Jeff Gran]

My newest self-portriat. This one I drew from the mirror, with only one lamp on, above and to the right. It was fun. It's a pretty good likeness, but not perfect. People who I showed it to said I got the eyes right but the jaw and nose are a little off.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-7-7-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

Life drawing today. These guys were cool, they posed fighting each other (but I came late so I missed most of those because they were the gestures). I was satisfied tonight with my proportions for the most part, I just need to get faster so I can spend more time on the shading I think...

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA02_06.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA02_05.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA02_04.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA02_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA02_02.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA02_01.jpg

[antihero]

Those last ones look pretty good! In the fourth one, the shading is also pretty good. Keep up those sketches!

The latest SPOD shows a good proportion and a nice shading as well... You're doing good!

antihero

[golgari]

i like that last coloured self-portrait a lot. although there are quite some flaws (like that iris for example, you mentioned it already), you managed to maintain a great depth. it feels pretty 3-dimensional...
those loomis-sketches are pretty good, too. you are able to get them into shapes pretty well. when i tried to get myself loose from the front-and-side-sight which is given by loomis in his book, i had big problems, since i just wasn't able to put it into "real" 3d-space. you're doing good, though.
the character designs you did afterwards look a little bit flat again, though. maybe try to not to put them in full front sight, but try drawing them in a kind of 3/4 sight? yeah, i know, it's easy to say that but it's incredible hard to do this ;)
your lifedrawings improved, too...keep going! :)

[Jeff Gran]

thanks guys. no updates for a couple of days because I'm going on a 4 day backpacking trip to Yosemite. I should return with plenty of nature studies, though.

[endregan]

looking forward to it jeff!

[Jeff Gran]

Here are some sketches I wasn't able to post before I left. The first page is from the Bridgman book, and the rest are from imagination. The last was drawn on the car ride through Yosemite, inspired by the hills we were passing, but not really drawn from life because things were moving by too fast.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-9-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-10-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-10-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-10-03c.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-10-03d.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

And here are the studies I did on our trip. I didn't get as much drawing in as I had hoped, I was exhausted by the time we finished hiking each day. We went 33 miles in 3 days. Anyway:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/yosemite-1.jpg

quick sketch where we stopped to eat lunch. In case you can't tell, rock formation at the top with a river flowing by at the bottom, trees on the side.


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/yosemite-2.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/yosemite-3.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/yosemite-4.jpg
a tree trunk in our campsite. I was trying to get the pattern of the bark accurately, but it's hard with a pen to set down the values without obscuring the shapes.

[golgari]

hey jeff...
the bridgman studies look good
are they from bridgman's complete guide to drawing from life? maybe i really have to consider getting that one, too
the ones from imagination still look a bit flawed here and there (especially the first one - don't know if you did that on purpose, but the body is pretty short in comparison to the head...). the landscape-inspired sketch looks a little too generic, i'd say (one hill after another, one tree after another...).
the sketches from your hitchhiking tour look very good, though. especially the first one (although i didn't really see a river in there...but the rock is done nicely!) and the last (good work on the texture of the trunk...)

[antihero]

I like the recent stuff a lot!

The Bridgeman Sketches look good and those Sketches from your hiking trip also... As golgari said, the first one you did on the car ride looks like a mix of life drawing and imagination... :) but those last sketches from your tour show that you sure are able to draw _what you see_... :)

Anyway, keep this up!

antihero

[Jeff Gran]

Golgari: Yes, I got the complete guide, it's confusing to me in many ways, but the guy obviously knew his stuff. It's a huge book and it only cost my $12. So I think it's a good value. It has a lot of detailed anatomy information.

Antihero: thank you, I agree that when I sit and concentrate I can usually draw what I see pretty well. I just wish I could make stuff up better.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-13-03a.jpg
I took Golgari's advice and tried to do that wizard guy in a less flat view. I drew the body first and then drew the cloth over it.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-13-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-14-03.jpg

[golgari]

the wizard, at least to me, looks a lot better now! more lively...
only his head is still a little off. i'd say you drew the right eye a little too high in relation to the left eye...i'm not sure, though. his forehead is too low, too, i think...the eyes are usually in the middle of the heighth of the head...
that next sketch is good. another bridgman study?
the last page has that flat look again...especially the faces really lack volume...and the head of that woman (in the dress) looks very, very off...

[Jeff Gran]

golgari: that sketch wasn't from bridgman it was from my head, but thanks for the mistake! yes, the last page shows what a bad art day looks like.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-15-03.jpg
from imagination

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-15-03b.jpg
bad day that day.

[Jeff Gran]

Life drawing session on tuesday:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA03_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA03_02.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA03_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA03_04.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA03_05.jpg

I decided to warm up with a pen and then moved to pencil. I got frustrated and left early.

[Jeff Gran]

drew my hand and then tried some orcs and stuff from imagination. I'm starting to like using pen better than pencils, maybe just because it's faster and it makes my concentrate on making the right mark the first time.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-16-03.jpg

[golgari]

those sketches from imagination look good. there are some minor flaws like the foreshortened hand and the head in the lower left, but they have a very 3dimensional quality. good direction...the head doesn't look too bad, either, only a little wide. and you didn't detail the eyes at all...why? if you had added a little depth in the area around the eyes and shaded the inner of the eyes properly, i'm sure the picture would've looked a lot more alive!
those life drawings are quite good, too. especially the pen ones. you're quite skilled with the pen.
maybe next time you do something with the pencil, try using it like a pen first, make longer lines...don't know, just a thought, maybe it works out...

[jester]

Jeff, your life drawings show great potential and look great. Perhaps instead of leaving early try a different medium. I can really recommend Conté pencils for life drawing (thank you ever so much, I.was.ink, for this advice!), try the "real ones", called Conté a Paris 17something in 2B, also buy a white chalk pencil of the same brand and work on recycled brown or grey paper. Use the white for the highlights and the black for shadows - and you'll be amazed at how easy it can be!

I like your goblins, they look funny! Remind me of the Games Workshop ones.

Jester

[Jeff Gran]

golgari, you are right. I should try just as hard with a pencil to make a good clean line. I will try to work on that.

Jester, thank you for the encouragement. You have a good idea there, trying a different medium. I actually have black and white conte pencils of that same type, that I haven't used yet. I have done drawings on toned paper with black and white before and you are right, it is easy and fun. You get to draw whatever you see, instead of starting out with the highlights already there. Also, good eye on the orcs - I used to play Warhammer a lot and I have a full Orcs and Goblins army, so I probably had some unconscious influence from that.

I tried to do a portriat of this robed dude I've been drawing. I guess the next step is to get some reference for the drapery.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-17-03b.jpg

then I drew another orc and I liked him so much I drew a background around him. I really like this drawing, it made my day.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-17-03a.jpg

[jester]

Hey, Jeff, fellow Warhammer table top gamer! :)

I have a full Dwarf army... and still many unpainted models. We've been playing quite a lot when the 3rd edition was state of the art. I lost interest during the 4th edition... it was all too much relying on big bully monsters and dwarves not being the fastest runners had no real chance. But I like my models still a lot and keep them in a glass cabinet in my living room. BTW, Fipse (also posting here) has a full Orc and Goblin army, too! :D

Your orc looks quite good, but you should study leg anatomy and feet!

Jester

[golgari]

oh my god, warhammer... ;)
i wanted to play it, too, some years ago, but it's just so fucking expensive ...
hrhr, i remember someone telling me, warhammer was the ultimate hobby - because if you're doing warhammer, you haven't got any other hobbies - you can't afford it ;)
i had the darkelf-armybook, though. it was worth it for the artwork ;)

concerning your sketches...
yeah, i think studying a bit drapery is a good idea, but i'd also advice you not to turn away from the face so fast. the face is more important than the surrounding, since we're so used to looking at faces that every little wrong detail grabs our attention, more than it would in the same case for example a robe...take a closer look at the eyes! they look off...the right, for example is too high, the left is too big...
the orc looks nice, the background too. the way he's holding his shield is a little strange (normally you've got it up your arm, don't you?) and that small axe for that big, bad orc looks like a toy...but the rest is nice. better job on the face here, too!

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks for the comments golgari and jester. Yes, warhammer is fun but expensive. I also have a lot of unpainted and half-painted models. I wish I still had the time to play.

So I did a bunch of studies and stuff.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-18-03a.jpg
Bridgman.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-18-03b.jpg
no ref.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-18-03c.jpg
no ref.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-18-03d.jpg
Don't mind this one...just some 'visual rambling' and experimenting with the pen.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-19-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-19-03b.jpg
2 from bridgman


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-20-03a.jpg
no ref.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-20-03b.jpg
imagination. bad.

[golgari]

the studies look good. it's also good to see that you also seem to think of the 3dimensionality of the stuff you're drawing. i think it's pretty important to do that when you really want to understand it and not just trace it off of the book. those drawings without reference that keep close to bridgman also are quite good. a little bit strange here and there, but nothing which really catches my eye.
the last page is not that good, yeah...but then again, drawing from imagination is damn hard. and the bodies have good elements...just check the heads, they're a little too...comic-like?

[Jeff Gran]

A couple of drawings I did from imagination yesterday. The big one I was trying to make an old dude with wrinkles and stuff. It's hard without ref. Also, I started that drawing with the nose and I think it's my least favorite part...funny how that happens.

Life drawing tonight so more to come.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-21-03.jpg

[golgari]

i feel with you, i'm myself struggling hard with drawing faces without a reference. maybe you should have shaded more in the area around the nose and the lips, in order to emphasize the three-dimensionality of these parts.
i like your strokes in this sketch alot, though: you used withered, fainting lines to show the high age of the man, which i think works out really well!

that...uhm...creature looks promising, too. don't know if you made this intentionally, since it's a fantasy creature, but for a normal human his legs would be waaaay to short and the left lower arm looks a little thin...

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks for always commenting, golgari. :cool:
I dont know what I was thinking with that other dude. Just started with the mouth wide open and doodled the rest of it as I went. Very strange looking, I agree.



Here are some of the life drawings I did last night. I didn't get a chance to get any toned paper like I wanted to, but hopefully next week I will.


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_02.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_04.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_05.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_06.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_07.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA04_08.jpg

Do I post too many images?

[golgari]

hrhr. too many images? no no, it's all about drawing. draw, draw, draw! ;)
i like those life studies. especially the first pages, the pen sketches look very good. only make sure that you're not just tracing the outlines, but also think of the volume while sketching it. you seem to be doing fine concerning that as far as i can say, though. concerning those pencil sketches...hmm, maybe try working on getting a little more of a flowing line. the shading's quite good, i'd say.

[Jeff Gran]

Ya, that's right. I need to concentrate on a better pencil line. Sometimes I catch myself just kinda shaking my hand around while I draw...like I'm hoping the contour will magically come out with all the detail I want that way. Examples in today's as well. I will try to concentrate on this but it is hard. Maybe I should start doing multiple passes on a drawing...simple shapes and volumes and then contours over that. I usually try to do this but I switch to detail without sketch without noticing it. Babbling now.


So I played with some costume ideas for this orc I'm working on. (I made him in 3d, just the body so far(click if interested (http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14974)).

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-23-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-23-03b.jpg


OOoh, action poses. :)
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-23-03c.jpg

[golgari]

oh, that 3d-model looks good. i wish i could do that, too. is it hard to learn?

your first sketchpage is a little screwed up, anatomically.
the second does look very good, though. i like the first outfit a lot. good shading!
the action poses are convincing, too. you managed to have a better line quality here! don't know about the pose itself, though. seems like he's just about to smash his OWN head because he didn't whip his morning star down from above, but did the opposite, and now it's continuing it's course...towards his head ;)

[Jeff Gran]

Hey golgari, 3d isn't too hard to learn--if you have the right teacher, which I was extremely lucky to have. It takes a while to get used to the tools and interface and everything but once you do it's like sculpting with digital clay. It's fun. Something is definitely wrong with that action scene I did, but it was fun to draw and I've never done anything like that before...I think I should try more.

From yesterday: tried to do some faces and stuff, influenced by Stephen's pages full of them, but mine isn't as full. Got frustrated with it.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-24-03.jpg

Today. started out with a proportion sketch(from memory) to get warmed up. I think the legs are too short (always, dangit). Then doodled some more ideas for this character I'm working on.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-25-03.jpg

[antihero]

Although there are still some mistakes in the last drawings, i can definitely see a lot of improvement... :eek:

those orcish sketches look pretty good! did you draw em out of imagination?
the upper one on the second orc page looks just great! i wish i had that shading skill... :)

Definitely keep this up, you're improving!

antihero

[golgari]

hmm, maybe i should try getting into 3d. did you take classes for that? or how did you learn it?

those last sketches look somehow anatomically flawed. in your first head, the forehead is not tall enough, and concerning the others -- pay attention to the "fleeing-forehead"-effect. that's something i struggle with, too. the forehead often "comes back to the front", it's often not that far away that fast. you've got some good faces, too, though - the face left above the *gasp*-one for example...
also, nice to see you tried to convey different emotions. i did that a while ago, too. i think it's quite a good exercise.
the upper part of the man on the second page looks very good. his legs seem a bit short to me, though. again, this is also a fault i too seem to make very often - i tend to shorten the legs. keep in mind that the legs usually are half of the whole figure! the character on the right of that page looks veeery broad. but the second sketch of him has a very voluminous character, which is nice.
also, on all those sketches, your line quality has gotten MUCH better!

[endregan]

that last page is really cool, except you already know about the guys legs. the helmets and bodies are coming along nicely :)

[Jeff Gran]

antihero: yes those were out of imagination. I had fun doing them, glad you like them too.

golgari: now that you mention it, I see what you're saying about the forehead, I have a tendency to make it too sloped away from the brow line. I'll keep that in mind. And yes, I was concentrating on clean lines that day, thanks for noticing.

endregan: thanks buddy.

Here's sketches from yesterday and today:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-26-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-27-03a.jpg

and here are some studies I did from "Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters" that I checked out from the library. It's a great collection of drawings. It looks like it will help a lot in learning to apply anatomy knowlege to the figure, but it's a lot of information very very fast, so it will take a while to absorb.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-27-03b.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-27-03c.jpg

[jester]

Hey Jeff, good anatomy studies - do more!

Jester

[golgari]

yeah, those anatomy studies look good indeed.
i like the leg of your first sketch, too. the upper part is a little bit screwed up, though - anatomically....

[Jeff Gran]

:mumble: they all suck.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_04.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_05.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_06.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_07.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_08.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA05_09.jpg

well I guess a few are ok but I wish they were better.

[endregan]

hey jeff these are really good. I like a lot of them!! My advice is just spend a little more time on some, be quick on others, you know dont get too confined to motoring these just have a feel then test it out. keep it up man

[J Bradford]

Jeff, I also went to SCAD.. I'm glad to see you are concentrating on your 2D.. it defenetely helps out anyone's 3D (any beyond).. 2 fold. Your improvement is very apparent.. keep it up!!

-James

[jester]

Hey Jeff, don't be so hard on yourself, they don't suck all (ok, some of them aren't that good), they are quite normal steps on the long road to professionality.

My suggestions are: Take your time. Try to find the "single flowing line" that expresses the pose or movement and emphasize that. Erase those searching squiggly lines and voilá! your sketches will look a hell of a lot better!

Jester

[golgari]

they have their flaws here and there, but they are good, generally. your main problem is still the fuzzy line, i'd say. the pen ones look better than the pencil ones, since you're pushed towards using a more flowing line, but even here you still have a little bit of a fuzzy line. try to get it flowing, maybe like jester said by searching and using the gesture line. or maybe just try to be more confident in your strokes. i know that when i'm unsure of whether i'll get it right, i tend not to use such a flowing line, since i'm always checking back...but i guess it's a good idea to just stroke a confident line....if you see it's wrong later, you can after all still erase it...

[Jeff Gran]

thank you everyone for your support.

JBradford, thanks man. I just wish I would have thought of doing this while I was still in school. I was all about 3d. I wish I would have taken to heart the thousand or so people that told me that drawing mattered.

Endregan, I don't understand that sentence but thank you anyway.

Jester, thanks for the advice and encouragement. The road to professionality is long indeed.

Golgari, thank you for your input as always. I will try to work on my line quality more.

Here is what I've been doing the last couple of days. working on perspective and some studies from the Masters book.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-30-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-7-31-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-1-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-1-03b.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-2-03.jpg

[endregan]

i like the leg you did. the shading is nicely done. your figure is getting better :). good work

[golgari]

you're getting along nicely. better strokes this time again.
those reference drawings look good. just remember to think of the volume also (or rather, especially!) when doing drawings from reference, not only when you try to construct things out of your mind. maybe try drawing some figures in motion. yours look a little stiff...

[Jeff Gran]

Well I have been busy. This will be the first post where I actually felt improvement as I drew these. I started drawing the planes of the face and it got me thinking more about perspective and 3 dimensions. I drew some from bridgman and then some from my head. Then I started trying other things in perspective. Hope you like:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-3-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-3-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-3-03c.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-4-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-5-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-5-03b.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

And here are the life drawings I did tonight. Most of these felt good...except the last one. I guess I got cocky and thought I didn't have to try as hard on that one. In the guesture poses I was trying to put the masses in perspective to help me with that when I'm drawing from imagination...I still can't visualize the body in terms of planes very well.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_02.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_04.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_05.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_06.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA06_07.jpg

[digitalgannon]

Hey saw your stuff, i too am a SCAD grad, 2 months ago. I am trying to get into the Concept art BIZ myself, and find it challenging and fun to come up with original material. I have always found that keeping a book of just pictures, drawings and images you like in a scrap book, or stapled together. When you start drawing and are stuck pull out the book and refrence from the images you collected, picking the best quailites you liked, then elaborate on them. If your in Savannah GA still reply back i'd love to meet up with you and see your stuff.

[jester]

Jeff, you're getting there in leaps! Keep going! :clapping1

Jester

[golgari]

yeah, i can also see some improvement there. the first page is really good - you can clearly see the volume and the shapes of the head. the humans you did afterwards look promising, too. keep in mind to apply your perspective to everything - for example the legs of that riding lizard are pretty flat. maybe it's a good idea to also make smaller boxes for individual body parts instead of just one big box if you're feeling uncomfortable with the volume of a smaller shape... i like that fighting sketch, although the characters who are fighting seem a bit stiff. think of how the characters move.... if you are thrusting a sword towards (or into) an enemy, how would you move? how would your right arm move, how your left? you'd want to put power in that thrust - keep that in mind! i like the idea to look over the shoulders of watchers. their faces look good, too.
the first two life-drawing pages look pretty good too. the others, although more detailled don't please me that much since you're loosing the sense of volume a little bit here.
the lying one is great though! the others...hmm. try to not keep such a big difference between the stroke quality of the outlines and the shading inside. i mean, don't get me wrong, the line quality of the outlines is not bad (actually, considering your older posts, it is really an improvement to your fizzy-line-style). it's just that it doesn't really fit in with the shading, thus creating a bit the feeling of flatness. maybe also the value of the outlines is too dark in comparison to the shading...

[endregan]

wow love your recent life drawings!!! Really have shown improvement..would like to see more :).

great job jeff

[Jeff Gran]

digitalgannon (nice name by the way, fellow zelda fan): thanks for the advice and encouragement. I'm back home in California now, so too late to meet up for real. but I'll be seeing you around the boards.

golgari: thanks for taking the time for a detailed commentary. hehe, there's so much to think about...volume, perspective, value, contrast, etc. It all adds up to gestalt. I'll get there some day. :)

endregan and jester: thanks



Well fellas I have been slacking off a bit lately. I made sure I drew something every day but the last few days it was like one bad sketch...no excuse really except that I'm caught up in the 3d stuff I'm working on lately. I've joined a UT2003 mod team called Soul Keeper. anyway, here are the only presentable sketches I did:



http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-6-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-6-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-7-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

and here are the life drawings from tonight.


2 min:
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_02.jpg


5min:
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_03.jpg

10
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_04.jpg

20
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_05.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_06.jpg


15 min.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA07_07.jpg

[golgari]

hrmm, your tower looks screwed up, but i guess it wasn't you goal to get that perfectly right, right? the guard in front of it looks good. the way he moves perfectly reminds me of how guards are supposed to be moving.
the orc also looks good, especially that thorn on his side. and your last figure is really nice, too. reminds me of a greek statue. his hands are much too large though.

it's amazing to see how the lifedrawings get more detailled with more minutes =)
the first 2min-one looks proportionally screwed up, but the second one is good. actually, considering you only had 2 minutes it is very good!
the 20 minute-ones look pretty good, too.
i'd advice you not to pay so much attention to the outlines, and try to more try grasp the volume, like you seemed to do in the second 20min-one. that one's really good...

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks, Golgari. You're right, I always concentrate on the outline quite a bit in those life-drawings. And the shading usually gets cut short because I'm trying to get the outline proportioned right...I don't know a better way to do it, except draw faster. I'm working on it... :)

Here's a concept drawing of a gate to a barbarian village that I spent all day 2 days so far. I taped it down and taped down more paper on either side so I could draw to vanishing points and make sure it was all correct perspective. Man I hope I can get faster at this... also it took long because I was "building" it as I was drawing it, so I ended up erasing a lot when I added new parts in front of others. anyway...
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/gate-concept.jpg

[endregan]

your life drawings are coming along nicely. i really like the values and forms you have given them!

hehe that barbarian village is pretty cool! the skull on the door looks odd but the structure of the building works well like that.

[golgari]

hey, that barbarian village looks really cool.
i know EXACTLY what you mean with getting faster at that. that's bothering me all the time, too, when i try to get down things really well in perspective, and even when i try to figure out poses for figures (since i often have to think so hard of how a certain pose looks like). but if you take a look at the pros around here - they certainly seem to manage it to make up all those things quite fast, so why shouldn't we too? of course we need the exercise for that, though ;)
endregan has a point with the skull there. it looks too flat. the whole drawing has a wonderful volume, since you constructed it really well, but you didn't pay much attention to giving the skull any volume. other than that, the village rocks =)

[jester]

Very nice job on that barbarian village. I especially like how you managed to fit in the figure in perspective (even the feet look right!). I also don't mind that "flat skull" I just see it as being painted onto the door. Even if it was a hell of a lot of work - perspective seems to be your thing, man. :)

Jester

[Jeff Gran]

thanks for replying. now that I look, you guys are right. that skull is flat (maybe I'm only good at simple shapes in perspective so far...). also, incase you wondered, it was supposed to be a deer skull, that's why it's a strange shape. didn't use ref though. I want to finish that drawing...I taped it back down but I haven't worked more on it yet...I want to shade it and all...I...will...do...it........


here is a sketch i did from ref yesterday.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-19-03.jpg
Came out pretty good i think. Kinda reminds me of lungbugs style for some reason.


I went to life drawing tonight, and did some sketches I really liked. It's late, though, so I'll post them tomorrow morning.

[antihero]

checking back and... :eek:

I can only give it back man...

http://www.circum.ch/div/img/radar-intro.jpg

That village looks damn cool and your perspective drawing definitely rocks hard!
Next time, maybe try minding how a barbarian village would look like. Try to point out what makes... well what turns the village-fort into a barbarian village.
However, your Life-drawings are pretty good as well and that last sketch looks nice. Her face looks a bit strange but that might just be me (or the reference... ;) ).

Can't say anythin else but "go on!" you're improving!

antihero

[golgari]

her face was the first thing that struck me, too.
the body looks pretty good, although a bit flat the more it goes towards the edge of the paper...don't forget to shade at least a little bit even there. otherwise it doesn't look like rounded shapes, because the "edge" is too hard...you know what i mean? what bothers me the most is how it is connected with the neck. are you sure the neck really looks like that? also, the eyes look a little big.
but then again, antihero might be right and you just used a very strange reference ;)

[Jeff Gran]

antihero: LOL. Thanks. :)

golgari: you're right, the neck is the worst part of that drawing. well it was a quick one and I maybe didn't pay enough attention to it...

Here are the life drawings. hehe, you know how you like something you draw, and then you look again a day later and you can't remember why you liked it? ya...

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_02.jpg


this one a guy sitting next to me said I "captured it nicely" :)
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_04.jpg


best shading for the night
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_05.jpg


bad proportion. drew it with a super sharp HB pencil...didn't like it.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_06.jpg


she was blocking my view of the other guy
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_07.jpg


this one I decided to take a different approach...to not worry about getting every detail perfect but just to get the shapes in the right place. It was refreshing. I drew the lines with confidence because I didn't care if it wasnt' perfect, as long as I had the right angles. then I had more time so I went back over with the side of the pencil and added some very basic tones over it. Kinda "stylised" if I may say so myself. It made me feel like a real "artist".
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA08_08.jpg

[golgari]

i like the last 3 sketches best.
especially the guy sitting there with the hands on the stick is great. his face looks a little too small - or the neck too long, but the body looks fine. very volume-ish, although it's nearly only outlines. very good. also, your line quality is simply great! transfer that to your other drawings! :D
the head of the big woman looks very good. here, you didn't put many details in the body though, and the strokes are a bit more fizzly. did you take less time for this one?
what i don't like about the last one is the very hard outlines. they are not at all related to your shading, therefore killing a bit the expression of the shading - which is, by the way, wonderful. especially around the chest area. i think that method of working very freely is pretty good. you should do this more often, with a light pencil, before you start to go into details. after all, you still can erase the stuff later if you see that it's not really good. (okay, this method's maybe a bit time-consuming. so maybe it's not perfect for 2minute-drawings). i don't really have any advices here. maybe try to get the outlines and the shapes/ shades a little bit more harmonic?

[Jeff Gran]

Golgari, ya, what you're saying makes good sense. The outlines don't relate to the shading. So I should concentrate on my line weight, using it to my advantage. Some people can convey volume and space with no shading at all, just line weight...wouldn't that be nice. I remember Loomis (I think?) saying "if you've never thought much about a line, know that it is so complicated a thing that you can worry about it for the rest of your days" or something like that. I'm beginning to understand what he meant.

Here's a bunch of Bridgman studies and some other stuff I drew lately.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-20-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-20-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-21-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-21-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-21-03c.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-22-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-22-03b.jpg

[antihero]

Man what's going on here?

Those studies look great Jeff! Drawing in perspective, shading... the first page kicks ass!
your heads looks beatiful as well! Is this also Bridgman stuff?

Well and then... those.... ghost-men or whatever flying-arounds.... Man that's awfull! Good anatomy and great poses too!

I should have waited with the progression-pic till now... :)
Well, all i can say is: go on! (was it necessary to say that? :) )

antihero

[endregan]

wow your latest have really blown me over :). your poses are dynamic and very good keep at it!

[golgari]

yeah, the last posting's definately a very good one :)
the studies look great. also props to your line. now that you're keeping an eye on that, it is really good. also, one doesn't have the feeling that the line's seperated from the shading - good work!
the "ghost" picture is awesome. the poses are so dynamic, and you managed really well to get them all right in perspective...(especially the one with the ball...his head - wow :) )
you're definately heading into the right direction - go on :D

[Jeff Gran]

wow, thanks guys. I was hoping you all would like that "ghost" pic. it was wierd, I just had an image of the guy with the ball in my head so I had to draw it, then I just tried to fill up the rest of the page with other cool poses...man wouldn't it be fun to fly around? heh.

antihero: ya the first four pages are all bridgmans. also LOL! (I'm pretty sure you meant to say awesome, which is like good and great and cool, instead of awful, which is like terrible and horrible and bad.. :D )

endregan, thanks man, glad you like.


Here's Art:

These are all from ref, just searching with google for interesting poses I could draw.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-22-03c.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-22-03d.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-22-03e.jpg


So I went biking around Stanford University campus today (right by my house) with the intention of finding some cool buildings to practice my perspective and architectural drawing, but stumbled upon a Rodin sculpture garden, so I ended up mostly drawing his sculptures. first building is the art museum that also has some of his work inside.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-23-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-23-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-23-03c.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-23-03d.jpg

[golgari]

hey, good work. i especially like the rodin sketches - you captured the expression of the thinker very nicely.
just keep in mind to keep an eye on your lines - don't fall back. also maybe try to sharpen you pencil a little bit more often. another thing which maybe is worth to take a look at are the contrasts. all the drawings have a small tendency to "grey out" a bit - having much "middle greys" and little highlights and deep darks. go extreme! make the darkest part really black and the lightest completely white. that'll make your drawing much more intense & plastic.

[endregan]

hey jeff... that is awesome you stumbled upon such a chance. take advantage of it.. go back again!! :) these are awesome sketches.

i agree with golgari to push the values more...something i need to do too :)

[Jeff Gran]

golgari, hehe good call. My pencil was getting so dull i was down to the wood, but I had forgotten my sharpener so I made do with what I had.

Endregen, thanks, ya I definitely plan to go back, there's a whole bunch more sculptures I didn't draw yet, and they're all interesting. and doing the same one again from a different angle would be just as interesting. so ya, I'll take advantage of that.

From my head (bad):
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-24-03a.jpg

from a pic in the newspaper (pretty good):
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-24-03b.jpg

from life (need more practice):

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-25-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-25-03b.jpg

I was thinking I should pick up that Guptil book about pen and ink drawing. And also thinking I should learn about using nibs and all that jazz, I'm just using a regular pen...

[jester]

Jeff, yes, pick up that Guptill book, it's excellent! As for the tools: nibs and all that jazz are great, but for learning pen and ink techniques it isn't necessary to bother yourself with handling them: Normal fine liners (like sakura pigma mikrons,copic fine liners etc.) do the same job.

Your muscle guy from mind isn't that bad - the body looks quite good actually, but the head and face are distorted.

Spend a bit more time on your envireonment sketches and they'll look great!

Jester

[golgari]

hey jeff.
that pic from the newspaper looks pretty good, only too loose in some areas, especially in the lower ones. i'm not so much a fan of working with such broad & lose pencil strokes, but that's just taste, and the upper part of the picture looks okay to me - the lower part looks a little too loose, though. i guess you just weren't motivated anymore when you drew that? ;)
the first environment sketch looks a little strange indeed.
i'd say it looks a little perspectively screwed up.
the second environment sketch is really nice though. i also had to think of guptil's book immediately when i saw that sketch. i'll have to get that one day, too....but for now, i think i've got enough books - and i've hardly the time to get through them ;)

[endregan]

ooo great studies if you keep this up youll be there in no time ;)

i especially like how youre making yourself do environment studies and such, its a great practice and this reminds me i should do some too but havent hehe :)

[Jeff Gran]

Jester: Thanks for the advice. funny story about that face. I was lying on the bed drawing and thought it looked good, then I sat upright and realized I had been drawing in a foreshortened sketchbook so it was all stretched out. but I did the body anyway. I just didn't like the drawing because it's so rough.

golgari, the bottom of that picture was all these complicated folds of all the fabric and the saddle they were sitting on, and I am not good at drapery folds so I just rushed it and tried to make it still read... I'll work on my drapery.

endregan, thanks, glad you noticed. :) I definitely have to force myself to do these environment sketches, they're difficult for me. I think jester's right, I just need to spend more time on each.



So now I've put my job search on hiatus and am taking two drawing classes at SJSU. The one teacher that was recommended to me is awesome. John Clapp. johnclapp.com. He studied at Art Center when it was in its prime. Quote from the first day: "Artistic genius is really just a high capacity for enthusiasm. The harder you work, the better you will be." And he kept talking about drawing every day and "pencil milage". This class is gonna rock.


So here's the latest:


pretty proud of this one, I think it's the best I've done from imagination to date.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/dudewithasword.jpg

some people in class:
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-26-03a.jpg

tree
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-26-03b.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

And here's life drawings from tonight:


2 mins
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_02.jpg


5 min (started the second one over)
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_03.jpg


10 mins
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_04.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_05.jpg


20 mins
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_06.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_07.jpg


15 mins
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_08.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA09_09.jpg

Ok, well, I think I'm just TOO proud of a couple of these drawings. Somebody shoot me down.

next day: well it never fails. I'm not so proud any more. But I'm definitely getting more confident with these. crits are appreciated of course.

[Jeff Gran]

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/hangingheadcreature.jpg

[golgari]

hey jeff, that's a nice dump! :)
that guy out of your memory looks still a little bit stiff and somehow bulky, so that's why i still like these flying-around-guys better (that's also a nicer composition you had there), but you're right, it's a nice sketch. the leg muscles look pretty good, although a bit too broad for my taste.
the life studies look good, too. the short ones are lacking proportion and relations (maybe you should do a really fast light sketch that's clearing out these things with pencil first and then go over it again and look at the contours?), but the longer ones are pretty good, especially the very last one. good work on the faces on all of those longer ones!
concerning that last monster... what bothers me about it is that its head is connected to its body over the top - it doesn't have a neck at all! don't know if you wanted it to be this way, but personally, i find it not so fitting. would have maybe been better if you'd given him a very flexible neck that'd go down behind his neck...you know what i mean? so that the head actually has a contour line on top...

[Jeff Gran]

Hmm, ya I guess I just liked that one because it was a lot cleaner looking than the 'spirits'. If only I'd grabbed a pencil that day instead of a pen. heh.

Thanks for the compliment about the faces, I was definitely feeling good about those, and for once they kinda resemble the people's real faces.

on the monster, I was looking at a picture of a hunchback monster (ice elemental by metaphisiks I believe) and wondered what it would look like if something was so hunched over that the spine came in from the top instead of the bottom of the skull, so I drew this. then I kinda liked it so I shaded it. anyway.

First assignment for my new class: draw a self-portrait! 18x24 with charcoal. (this is cropped so the actual size of the drawing is about 9x12). I think the only problem is the left eye is slightly misplaced.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-8-27-03.jpg

[jester]

The self portrait looks awesome! Only your right ear bothers me.

Jester

[golgari]

hey jeff, that self portrait looks pretty good.
only the eyes seem a bit out of proportion in relation to the rest of the face, but other than that it's quite good.
if you want to deepen this further, maybe a next step would be to go more into details by taking a closer look at the nose (does the bridge from eye to nose really look like that on your face?) and maybe try to not smudge so much.
but it's great the way it is, too.

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks, jester. Ya, you're right, I didn't put much detail into the ears.

Thanks golgari. something is definitely not right with the nose/eye area, but I can't put my finger on it. I measured and the eyes are too far apart by standard measurements...


sketches of classmates during lecture:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-28-03.jpg

this one is a BLIND drawing, from class. well, semi-blind. we were allowed to look but only to place our pen at the start of the next line, then not allowed to look while drawing. And we were to draw as SLOW as possible. This took 30 mins. It's a pretty good resemblance of the guy I was drawing.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-8-28-03a.jpg

and here's a bunch of 2 min studies from life in my other class (I did more, these are the better ones). Kinda boring I know, but I was proud of my line quality and non-scratchyness on the most part. I think that blind stuff helped.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-8-28-03c.jpghttp://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-8-28-03b.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-8-28-03d.jpghttp://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-8-28-03e.jpg

and a five min one, kinda liked this one (did more of these as well)
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-8-28-03f.jpg

[golgari]

hey jeff...
that semi-blind contour drawing looks great, considering it's semi-blind.
but the poses afterwards look even better. i think the blind drawing helped immensely, too. the line quality is much better than before here. and you managed to grasp some poses really good. i love that guy with both of his arms behind his head while looking up!
the last one looses on it's line quality again, but that's probably because you used pencil. it's more tempting to make fuzzy lines with the pencil, i don't really know why, but it definately is. anyway, the pose is nice and i think the line quality shows at least some improvement. maybe try thinking of the "flow of the line" all the time when you're making lines on the inside of of the contour, for example when shading or marking shades. take a look at the left leg of the guy (the one he's putting his weight on), the lower edge. i think it would have been better if you had tried to shade this in the same way the line of the leg goes instead of doing vertical strokes. you probably didn't put much attention on this when you tried to lay down a shadow-sketch, but i thought i'd mention it nonetheless...

[endregan]

hey jeffy your evolving as you go!!! love your life drawing and you are dedicated to it. it has certainly helped you out...keep with it!!!

[Jeff Gran]

thanks for the crits, golgari. On that pencil comment, yes it is more tempting to be fuzzy with a pencil. And the funny thing is that after all these twos and fives, we did a 20 min pose and I got about as much done on it as that last 5 min one. Like my mind closed up because I thought I had so much more time to be accurate. and on that shading issue, I hear ya, I'll concentrate on the flow of the surface for shading. those lines on his back leg, though are just misses at the correct edge line of the leg. didn't have my eraser out. heh.

endregen, thanks, ya I'm feeling more and more dedicated as I go. Teacher says one page in the sketchbook each day, but I've been doing that since I started this thread, so when Lung Bug said he started doing 5 per day I thought, I could do that. So today I did six so far, and I feel like keeping going.

images:

semi-semi blind self portrait. I tried to look down as little as possible. then I took a marker to it for better or worse. I think I'm going to get some more markers of different values, I only have the one.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-8-29-03.jpg

from life and pic ref, and one (the face in bottom left) from DVD. more of those to come.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-29-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-29-03b.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-29-03c.jpg

[endregan]

nice yeah dvd drawing is fun and you get to watch a movie :).

those photo ref pics look good too and your sp is getting good but since its only the one value it doesn't pop out as much, good stuff though

[golgari]

yeah, the self portrait looks good. it's a bit bulky and all, but considering it's semi-blind it looks pretty good. especially the ears. i like that woman on the second page, too. the other guy (or whatever it is) on that page looks very strange though. so do the following animals. the human after that looks good again, though.
the pen looks good, your lines are much more clear than when using a pencil. however, the depth of your objects is harmed by this a little, i think. you have a tendency not to emphasize depth all too much, and with the pen, this is even more so. i noticed this when looking at the animals, they seem pretty flat.
maybe doing some "boxing" exercises now and then wouldn't be the worst idea (you know, like, building boxes in perspective around the parts of your subject in order to make oneself clear what the volume should be like).
anyway, your humans are not bad, and probably you just need a bit of a feeling on animal-bodies in order to make them more believable. just keep pushin' on =)

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks guys. Man I been drawing so much I had to choose what to and what not to post.


some water thing I saw in stanford. Hoping stuff like this will help me with robotic concepts.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-30-03a.jpg


went back to the Rodin sculpture garden
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-30-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-30-03c.jpg

drapery study from life
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-30-03d.jpg


drawing my hands and feet. trying for clean lines, no backtracking.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-31-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-31-03b.jpg


more drapery from life
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-31-03c.jpg

photo ref.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-8-31-03d.jpg


And two experimental SPs I did today. Painted the background with guache. contours on both were in uniball pen. first is all prismacolor pencils, second is black and white conte with red prismacolor.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-8-31-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-8-31-03b.jpg

[golgari]

hell yeah!
this is really good stuff. one can see definite progress here!
that water thing looks great. very nice capturing of the shapes and such!
but so does the rest. the stroking on the rodin-prayer-statue is very rough and the martyr's hands and feet look strange, but the contrast is nice. hm. did you stroke that broad on purpose or did you just not have a sharpener at hand?
the upper hand of your linehanddrawing is off, but the others look great. i love that foreshortened one in the left middle.
such clean lines! and you seem to have understood which lines are important in order to emphasize the hand's specific shape and volume...
concerning your self-portrait-experiments...
i like the first one better concerning the lines of the head, but i like the second one better concerning the technique. on the first one the colours are so chaotic, they're too many, they seem to "bite" each other a little bit. the second one is better. but there the back of the head seems a little bit too small in the are around the neck. don't know...
calls for a third one! =)
maybe try not to use so many colours next time, and i don't know if you know anything about colour theory? if so, maybe try to find some harmonic colours. if not, try to google for "colour theory", you should find quite a lot easy beginner-guides to colour theory. it's not that hard and it doesn't take long to get some basics on that. it's worth it...

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks golgari. the problem with the Rodin garden is there's not benches in front of most of the statues, and the ground is rocks, so it's very uncomfortable to sit there and sketch, so I end up rushing things. Plus the statues have strange reflective qualities and complicated surfaces making lots of little areas of slightly different colors....

absolutely right about too many colors on that first SP. I thought that as I did it... one of the reasons I did another one. So I did another today, I like it better.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-01-03.jpg

and sketches while watching/pausing LOTR: Fellowship on DVD.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-01-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-01-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-01-03c.jpg


and my hand and my lamp
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-01-03d.jpg

[pandawhipped]

cool colors on the last one jeff! Hey those sculptures...are they from that garden with the HUGE gate made of peoples bodies? That thing is so amazing. I used to live over by stanford (sorta...i was borderline santa clara/sunnyvale) and that just brought back memories. Good times, good times :)

[endregan]

really nicely done sp's jeff..

you are getting great. life drawing is helping you a lot too.

I love your work its awesome!

keep it up man

[Jeff Gran]

panda: yep, that's the one. The "Gates of Hell" by Auguste Rodin. I haven't tried drawing it yet...it's just too awe-inspiring (well, too complicated ;) ).

Endregen, thanks, glad you like my stuff.


Here is a small selection of what I've been drawing the last week or so. Been so busy drawing that I haven't had time to scan anything till now. 5 pages a day is tough.


bridgman
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-03-03a.jpg

michelangelo
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-03-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-04-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-04-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-05-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-06-03a.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-06-03b.jpg

horse's skull from animal anatomy book.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-06-03c.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-07-03a.jpg

a little skull keychain my friend had:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-07-03b.jpg

Some life drawings, 2, 5 and 10 minute poses.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM01_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM01_02.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM01_03.jpg

and a couple of SPs. got some more markers, and tried my hand at marker rendering. THe other is black, white, and sanguine conte pencils.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-06-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-07-03.jpg

[endregan]

awesome i like your sps they are coming along well.

you and i both ahve been busy!!

hard to find time to do everything i once did in the summer...

speaking of which i should get off the computer :P

[antihero]

Hey Jeff,

the latest stuff looks really good! i especially like the michelangelo one and the bridgman studies, ah well and the ink (isn't it ink?) tree, and the rodin-sculpture and... well i could go on like this. It's especially nice to see that you cover (or at least try to) the whole bandwidth of drawing, starting with studies, going on to life-drawings, doing sketches, sp's etc. That is really great and i have to draw more like this as well.

Keep it up bud!

antihero

[Jeff Gran]

thanks endregen. :)

thanks, antihero. You're right. I'm trying to take as much in as I can at this point. My teachers say drawing from life is the best practice, so I'm drawing everything I can from life, putting concept work on hold for now.

Here's a sketch while on break between classes.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-09-03.jpg

Here's some of the life drawings I did today.

2 min
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA10_01.jpg
5min
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA10_02.jpg

10 min. Particularly proud of this one. I nailed the face. looks just like her.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA10_03.jpg

20s
the face is a pretty good likeness on this one too.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA10_04.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA10_05.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA10_06.jpg

[jester]

Jeff, you're a power-house! It's amazing how MUCH you are drawing.

I esp. like your line drawings, which come out very well. The horse skull study is also neat. You should spend more thoughts on how to draw the faces when doing your life drawings, though. Self portrait in marker is quite nice but I think you shouldn't mix Conté charcoal and sanguine - looks weird somehow, just like a native indian face...

Keep up the good work, it' always inspiring to see how hard you are working to improve!

Jester

[endregan]

beautiful i like your 2nd life study the best.... i enjoy seeing your progress keep it up buddy.

p,s, thanks for the SP paintover i will try it..

[Jeff Gran]

Wow, thanks Jester, that's the first time anyone has called me inspiring. it's knowing that people here are going to be looking at my work that pushes me to improve, so thank you.

Endregan, no prob. Just trying to help my fellow aspirers out.

more life studies.


these are from class, on 18x24 paper. had to photograph them, so they lost some quality and detail...
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-9-01-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-9-09-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-9-09-03b.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-9-09-03c.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-9-09-03d.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/class-9-11-03a.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

sketchbook from the SJSU illustration club's biweekly
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM02_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM02_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM02_03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM02_04.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

sketches and SP.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-10-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-11-03.jpg

[J.Mac]

hey Jeff those hands are good stuff i like them alot :D you are improving every time. you might of already said this before, but what school are you attending and what are you going for if you don't mind?

-Jesse

[Jeff Gran]

Thanks, J. I'm attending classes at San Jose State University in California right now. I already graduated BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, in computer art. So I might just be here for the semester and then move on, I don't know yet. I'm taking a figure drawing class and "Intro to Animation/Illustration" for learning to draw better.

[golgari]

holy crap! quite a lot of stuff you managed to produce while i was away. 5 pages a day...whouh, you've got my respect! =)
but it pays off, it really does. your line quality improved rapidly, and so did your visual awareness. the faces of your lifedrawing models are sooo much better than they were at the start, and the drawings are so much more fluent now. you still have that tendency to seperate line and shading too much, but it's barely visible anymore - you're definately on the right way.

[Jeff Gran]

been very busy lately. not much time for drawing and even less for scanning and surfing. five pages a day is out the window now that I have a job AND classes. here's stuff from the last week or two, not quite in chronological order.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-12-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-14-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-15-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-23-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-23-03b.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA11_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA11_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA11_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-13-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-18-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-23-03.jpg

[endregan]

hey jeff. i see your quite going at it. I think your life drawing is getting more confident, same with your linework.

i know what you mean by keeping up, i can barely find the time, I am always busy with something!

Thanks for keeping us all posted..

:)

[golgari]

like endregan already said: that linework looks pretty good to me. at least when you're using the pencil. varying the lineweight really adds to your pictures - that's why i particularly like your newest life drawings. the lines with the pen strangely seem not so confident (although one's usually more confident with their linework when using a pen? strange...). maybe it's because you're using it too much like a pencil. i think i do that fault, too, so i don't really know where's the main difference when using pen or pencil, but i think it _is_ different...

[Jeff Gran]

Updates.

my knee sticking up above my sketchbook, and some freeze frames from Gladiator.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-27-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-27-03b.jpg

The model and I were both waiting for class to start
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-9-30-03.jpg

Life drawing session in Palo Alto. I was practicing starting out with a quick gesture to help with proportion
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA12_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA12_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA12_03.jpg

started a new sketchbook, filled up the old one. SO I got one of these recycled paper ones. It's fun but I don't like how this one turned out. (after Rodin)
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-04-03.jpg

and some SPs.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-9-27-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-10-04-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-10-06-03.jpg

[antihero]

Wow Jeff!
You've got some good things going.
Your colored self-portraits look very nice! Thanks for sharing those last ones. You keep me motivated to update my own thread soon again.
I can't really give good advice because i barely know how it is to draw in a class with models, to me those last ones look pretty good.
EDIT: The colored selfportraits all lool very nice! Did you read my pm?

However, the most important thing is to keep at it. And that's what your obviously try to do... so go on!

antihero

[MindCandyMan]

There's no rip off here man...we're all just learning ;) You definitely are drawing a lot and that is fantastic...love the self portraits. One thing I have noticed in your drawings though is that there are a lot of misplaced and unnecessary lines...what I mean is that I think you need to think a bit more before putting the pencil to paper. Take things slow...especially when doing self portraits and stuff like that because you always have the reference there whenever you want so you can take as long as you wish. Check out this bargue drawing thread I think it would greatly enhance your abilities...bargue drawing teaching you control and precision...check it out.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12104

[AmishCommy]

SCAD is evil and Full of de Poo!!!

So sorry you were suckerd by its lies. Have fun paying your loans.

[endregan]

whoa youre sps and lifedrawing shows your progress :). nice stuff

and amish dont comment if you dont have anything good to say.

im sure you feel alienated oh no loans blah blah they suck....
Thats YOUR opinion, thats fine and keep it that way! How rude of you

[AmishCommy]

dude it's just a simple fact that SCAD is full of de Poo!!!

[Iiori]

Oh wow, its been to long. I really like the SPs. The life drawings look good too. Did you like doing the bone ones? They came out really well.

[Jeff Gran]

Yes it has been long. Thanks for the replies. Amish, I got out of SCAD what I thought I wanted at the time. It was easy to slide through the program there, but it was just as easy to seek out the best teachers and work hard. I learned 3D there, and now I'm working in the 3D industry. But endregan is right, constructive comments are most appreciated.

IIori, thanks. Yes, I liked doing the bone studies. I was really interested in how similar animals' skeletons are to ours, and wanted to study them.

Here's some recent stuff:

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA13_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA14_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM03_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM03_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM04_01.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-08-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-11-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-14-03.jpg

Rodin stuff. We've been learning about tone in class, so I'm working on this 3 tone technique, using the paper as one.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-25-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-25-03.jpg

[MindCandyMan]

Jeff you have progressed so much...wow! Look at these images...you should be totally proud of how far you have come. There is one thing that I think I could help with...considering I have the same problem. The lines that you are putting down are reading as lines rather than as a value. I would suggest using a much lighter touch when shading the next time....really try to match the exact value that you see on the model. Find the darkest dark...under an arm...or somewhere where no light is getting to and don't go past that darkest dark...keep everything consistent. But try using a much lighter touch and building up the values a lot slower...one stray line or one little patch of white...etc...can make it look like it's a mess of lines not a value. I see a more consistent value on the lion skull than all the others. At any rate I hope that helps in some way...great porgress keep it up!

[AmishCommy]

man people just get too hostile over my hate for SCAD. Well I really do hate the SCAD establishment. If it was a better school we'd both be better artists. I think that SCAD should have made everyone in that school take as much life drawing as pocible. and I wish my schedule would have been more flexible to take other classes i didnt get to.

as for my time at SCAD, it was awesome. I made great friends. Some of which you might know. Mike Ambrogi, Aviv Arad, Monkeyboy.

I'm sorry if you don't like my style of criticism, which I had not expressed yet in your thread, but i don't believe in pointing out the good things when everyone else has already done so. I go strait for what's wrong. What's wrong with your life drawings is that you need more of it. You need to learn how to control your hand-eye coordination. keep it up, you're sure to get better.

[antihero]

The value Work is awesome (or awful? ;) ) man!

The fourth page from above really kicks my ass. Good Proportions as well.
Well and the Rodin stuff is great as well, these drawings show how important lifedrawing is...

You're doing fine Jeff! Go ahead!

antihero

[Jeff Gran]

MCM, thank you, I am proud of how far I've come but as always I want to go farther. I am still drawing as much as I can, just not posting as much, since I don't much downtime. You're points about my shading and stuff are dead on and duly noted.

amish- I'm not sure that anyone here is being hostile. To tell you the truth, I agree with you that SCAD could do a lot more for it's students. But it's not the school that makes the artist. Look at El Coro's stuff on these boards. He never went to school for art.

constructive comments are most appreciated.


What's wrong with your life drawings is that you need more of it. You need to learn how to control your hand-eye coordination. keep it up, you're sure to get better.

Yep, that's what I meant, thank you.

Antihero, thanks bro as always. Don't worry that banner's still coming.

A couple of homework assignments for my illustration class:


This one is 18x24, took 5 hours and was the culmination of our linework/proportion 'unit'. Lost a bit of detail in some places, like the eyebrows and hair.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-10-10-03.jpg

and now working in tone. "squinting is the answer to everything" -John Clapp

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-10-22-03.jpg

[AmishCommy]

who'd you take the illustration class with?

[Jeff Gran]

I'm taking it now (Intro to the Illustration/Animation major), at San Jose State University here in California, with John Clapp, who studied at Art Center 12+ years ago.

[Jeff Gran]

More art.


went to the zoo but people were in the way.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-26-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-10-27-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA15_01.jpg


started thinking about "cross contours"
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM05_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM05_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM05_03.jpg
and some master copies
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-11-02-03.jpg

[Jeff Gran]

I was lucky enough to get to go to Washington D.C. over the weekend and spent all day drawing in the museums and around the Mall. The Natural History Museum had a brand new exhibit of 274 stuffed specimens (real hides) in natural poses. Tons of kids were there identifying the animals over and over again to their parents. They had full, real skeletons of almost as many animals in another part. I wish I had had more time. Anyway, here's that and some life drawings.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM06_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM06_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SHM06_03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-11-03-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-11-4-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-11-5-03.jpg

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-NationalGallery.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Degas.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Animalsa.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Animalsb.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Animalsc.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Bisonskel.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Trex.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Castle.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/DC-Capitol.jpg

[antihero]

awesome Jeff!

Simply awesome...
Keep it going!

antihero

PS: sorry, no crit.

[jester]

Good progress, Jeff. Seems like you had a gorgeous day in Washington.

Jester

[Anto]

great sketches jeff
you really lucked out on the animal exhibit in the museum - wish i could have been there too!

no crits from me simply based on the sheer volume of studies you are producing - im sure whatever may need correcting will be figured out considering you do so many!
keep it up :chug:

[MindCandyMan]

Inspiring jeff...keep it goin!!

[endregan]

Good variety of subjects, something that tells me I must check out other areas perhaps myself.

Very awesome man just keep trucking!

[Ahkahna]

I'm a sequential major at scad (running into my junior year here soon).

I'm lovin' all of your progress, you're picking up pretty quick :) How many life drawing classes have you taken as of now? I've wanted to take more but I'd like to know of some professors that students appreciate. I've already taken 1 & 2, any good choices?

I wanted to do 3d, but I have not the patience for it. Sequential was my next best bet :}

As for the school making the art, it's the students willingness to push themselves rather than the school. I've never believed in that kind of nonsense. And, last time I checked, 'pocible' was spelled 'possible', we also have english classes aside from being an art institution. No offense Amish. I'm not your typical "I love scad!! *heartheart* I must stand up for my college!*squeel*", but I do at least appreciate the crap that professors put up with when dealing with flak from whining students. I don't particularly enjoy certain aspects of scad, but I don't exactly hate the place either, even with the mass amounts of BS I've dealt with within the past two years I've been here.

Back to the art, I want to see more :D!!!

---
oh yeah: I've been on loans ever since I've been here and will be paying my life away knowing that at least I accomplished something the rest of my family failed to do themselves. I'd rather get an education than not.

I am done. If someone in particular wishes to continue this, I'd be glad to take an e-mail ;}

[davi]

worry about line less in your life drawings, get materials like conte and charcoal and concentrate on getting down the shapes and values of the figure, if you do use line make sure it's not a bold black outline.

[AmishCommy]

Ahkahna - spelling is not something i'm good at. i never took the english classes at scad seriously. and i had a real good time at scad but i got disallusioned at the middle of my junior year. the main reason i'm pissed at scad was that the year i gradumakated, bob and dave and mark and the rest of the sequential profs decided not to do editors day, and i was realy looking forward to that. there were also lots of reason too that i don't need to go into.

i bet your favorite prof is bob.

[Jeff Gran]

Thank you to everyone who replied. I'm glad you guys liked those as much as I did. Jester, you're right, I had a gorgeous day in DC, even though it was raining. So here is what I've been drawing since then. Mostly boring life drawings. Trying to reintroduce myself with my imagination.

Ahnkahna, I looked at your site. You've got some pretty good stuff. Stuff I wish I could draw. Honestly, if you want more life drawing, and if you have the time, just take II over again with a different professor. Pendarvis is good I've heard, and I had Manni Aha-Hererra, who was very cool. The sequential guy (bob something?) that teaches "head, hands and feet", which might have changed it's name, is a genius I've heard. Never had him either though. Good luck.

Davi, good crit, you're right. I gotta stop outlining. Thanks.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA16_01.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA16_02.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA16_03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA16_04.jpg


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-11-22-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-11-23-03a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-11-23-03b.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-11-28-03.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-12-3-03.jpg


A sketch I did in honor of one of my co-workers. The caption is "you got the software?" I decided to throw some lighting on there in photoshop.
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-12-4-03orig.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-12-4-03.jpg

[endregan]

hey man those are good life drawings. youve come far! keep at it...i see your life drawing doing very well.

makes me want to find a life drawing class and take it no matter how far i have to (get my mom to) drive.

Good progress!

[MindCandyMan]

Very good progress jeff...wow look at all these drawings! I love the last figure drawing on the brown paper...keep it up man!

[Jeff Gran]

Here I am, still alive (barely). I had a good few weeks off from everthing that required responsibility. Then I paid the price (was hospitalized overnight for dehydration), now it's back to the old grind. Drawing feels rusty now, need to get oil back in my joints.

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-1-08-04a.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-1-08-04b.jpg
pausing "Blue Planet" on my ReplayTV. That thing rocks for drawing stuff.


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-1-10-04.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-1-18-04.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/sketch-1-20-04.jpg
Getting my imagination flowing at work, while waiting for renders and such.


http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/SP-1-11-04.jpg
me

http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA-1-20-04A.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA-1-20-04B.jpg
http://jboy.menlofarms.net/sketchbook/PA-1-20-04C.jpg
Life drawing tonight, first time in about a month.

[MindCandyMan]

These look great...I'm glad you are ok!

[ATOMICsizePENCIL]

Originally posted by MindCandyMan
One thing I have noticed in your drawings though is that there are a lot of misplaced and unnecessary lines...what I mean is that I think you need to think a bit more before putting the pencil to paper. Take things slow.


Mindcandyman makes an obvious point about placing your lines, but keep in mind there is a lot to be said for hard, sharp, fast lines, placed in eagerness and intuition. An instructor i had for the same class here in BC, canada, (figure drawing as a an intro to animation/illustration) emphasized bold and confident work.

One end of the stick is expressive, the other is subtle .

work the chi, and use them both.

*begins to hum as if in trance*
MMMMMMMM-HMMMMM-mMMMMMMM

[Jeff Gran]

thanks for the comments, guys. You know, it's funny: I keep trying not to outline too much, but every time I catch myself doing it I stop it, but instead I start scribbling really fast, like gesture drawing kind of. Somehow that helps me get into more of a 3d mindset as opposed to 2d, but it makes me more messy and less acurrate sometimes. So I think I do need to concentrate on slowing down my volumetric observations and putting them down more meaningfully. So thanks for the wakeup, wazzo.

bio, I live in menlo park, work and go to school in san jose, and those life drawings were from the tuesday night sessions in palo alto.

MCM, thanks man. Nice to know you still check up on me once in a while. You know you're becoming one of the greats of CA, right? :)

:chug:

[MindCandyMan]

MCM, thanks man. Nice to know you still check up on me once in a while. You know you're becoming one of the greats of CA, right?


I've got such a long way before I can even touch andrew...foster...manley...etc... But I'd have to say people like yourself are the greats of CA...struggling through all the bad times to get to the goals you have set! Bravo!

[maxetormer]

hi youv got a a nice place going
on here :D
i got inspired to do more on
my onwn :D