Milan's sketchbook

[MilanDM]

hello there everyone. i came around this forum a while back on the advice of someone i met on another art website. and i got some wicked advice that time around and I’ve been intending on making a sketchbook here for ages but never really got around to it. but here i am.

anyways, i tend to work mainly with pencil and sometimes with ink (so far sharpies are the best i have.) i want to learn to draw well enough to get into Nova Scotia Collage of Art and Design, and I’m sure this is one of the places I’ll be able to get the critique necessary for that.

Anyways, here's some practice peaces i was doing
The first one is practice drawing the torso using a painting as reference.
The second is a few attempts at drawing my own hand.

[Christian223]

Hi and welcome to CA´s sketchbook forum, i hope you learn a lot.
I can tell you to resize your sketches with photoshop, they are too big. Also try practicing making fluid one stroke lines and avoid scribbling, making one line of thousand of little lines gives an ugly effect. I can aslo recommend you to search for andrew loomis books and study that, just keep at it and youll get your objectives, many good lucks!.

[MilanDM]

sorry about the size. i fixed that, thanks for the critique.

[MilanDM]

okay this is it for today, here's another pencil drawing from another painting.

i focused on makeing cleaner lines this time. I’ll keep working on that.

[Zarett]

Hey Milan,

You're going in the right direction with the hand studies! Some things that I would suggest would be:

Try doing some contour drawings - following the edges of the form you're drawing, not constructing it but drawing it how it looks to you - with only one line. You can do this without looking at the paper you're drawing on (blind contour) or just normal. Practicing with this will clean up your lines, because there won't be very many of them!

Also draw people around your house, in class (if you're taking any), on the bus, draw your pets, etc. Go to museums and draw sculptures... figuring out volume and shading and why what shadows go where is a lot easier working from life than working from paintings.

Keep it up!

[MilanDM]

okay so here was an attempt at some contour drawing, the first is of my dog. i filled in the space afterwards because of the temptation, not sure if that's a bad thing...

the second is of (top) a photo of a friend (the face is like that cause i had an idea for a piece and well... this sort of became a note of sorts) and (bottom) my hand, there's allot wrong with both the drawings on this page just so you know i don't think there special or anything lol.

Also i filled these two in as well (obviously). but for all three i did the outlines first.

so I’m going to do most posts on a weekly bases (Saturday or Sunday probably) from now on, with the odd post randomly. i just need to make a schedule for this so that i don't slack off.

[MilanDM]

All right so the past few days I got some time in on my real life sketchbook.

I’m trying to fill it up over the next little while with as much drawings/doodles/concepts as I can, as i will be submitting it as "Early work" for my collage/university portfolio when the time comes.

So the first two pages are (left) random doodles and some unfinished contour things and (Right) a concept for a character that is in its very early ages.

The last two are just some contour drawings i did on a walk, as well as a drawing of a tree and a broken stump.

it's all i've done the past few days. so...

[MilanDM]

so I haven’t been doing much art lately other then some scribbles and cartoons, which isn't much of practice.
Anyways I took some time out and did a quick sketch in ink, which from what I understand is a good exorcize to try out now and again.

I’m looking for a place where i can draw a live model, cause my family's always on the move and it's hard to find someone standing still for more then two seconds. so hopeful I can get some drawings of that sort up in the next while.

So here are the references.
ref. 1 (http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/cms/2004/large/Tegan_Sara_2_-_Farm_Aid_2004_-_lg.6562116.jpg)
ref. 2 (http://www.fotojenyk.com/images/2005.07.14_TEGAN_AND_SARA.jpg)

EDIT: just drew the head of wolverine referenced fromhere (http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=890&sessionid=71c2f6faa5be3b92a8bed6da9597b989).
and the image is uploaded

[MilanDM]

here's a quick and crappy update.

i tried sketching at the mall yesterday but i'm extremely shy and got all fudgy when i was looking around. thus crapy drawings of people and random lines from objects.

the stack of faces is off of paintings and out of imagination.

EDIT: here's a peace i did today. only took about 30 min. so far. I'm intending to practice CG colouring with it.

i realize i haven't been concentrating on making nice clean lines since i became lazy with my contour drawings. but I'll concentrait harder on that again. (it's currently badly scanned I'll repost a better scan tomorrow)

[MilanDM]

okay so more hand work. a better scan of the drawing i had posted in the last post.

And since this is conceptart.org i figure if i posted the procedure i use to make concept art it'd be a good idea. so my brother asked me to draw up a space ship based off of a snapping turtle, and the page consists of some drawings of the animal (it's head) and then some other drawings that i edited to look more spacecraft-ish.
(and just for clarification, all those circles have to do with the game he's modeling the craft for. he's doing this as a member of the games forums which is why i'm doing the concept for it.)

i'll keep posting more on this little project as i get farther in it.

[MilanDM]

Okay so I haven’t been keeping this or anything else Internet related, up for the past little while do to stress. But I’m going to get back into this again.

So here are two peaces.
The first was some drawings i did referencing a magazine, the other is a caricature of myself that i did for my website. and i practiced with some computer colouring since i have a new monitor that actually has a decent brightness to it.

[Raja]

I would recommend to be cleaner when stroking. I know it's sketching, but with all those scribbled lines you have just gives it an ugly effect. Also, some of your hand drawings need some anatomy adjustments. Some look unnaturally enlarged. Also, almost all of your sketches have extremely harsh outlines making it look...odd.

Just basically try to be cleaner on your sketching strokes and don't make it look like chicken scratch unless you plan to erase those lines very well later on. Smooten and soften the hard outlines later on as your drawing starts to become more finished and the outlines are no longer required.

Just keep practicing! You're doing well.

[MilanDM]

thanks Raja, I’ve been keeping an eye on my lines and keeping erasing the messes i make more often.

here's quick update. some sketches i made at the skate park today. i need to draw more I’ve been slacking off, so i was thinking I’ll use the local kids ignorance to expertise and give them some free drawings via carbon copies. interesting idea no?
anyways here's the update

[MilanDM]

well it's been a while since I've posted here. I'm not sure how much Time I'll have to keep this up. but I sketch almost daily, It's the time it takes to scan the stuff I do that kills me.
So I'll try and post some of my sketch pages once or twice a week... here's two pages with some good and bad sketches. tell me what you think :)

[Jaytea]

The guy with the headphones looks pretty cool. :] Why don't you try some more head studies so that you can draw more from imagination; here's a link to Loomis's guide: http://www.scribd.com/doc/240339/Andrew-Loomis-Drawing-Heads

maybe try daily posemaniacs while you're at it, to help with more natural posing. Looking forward to seeing more!

[MilanDM]

EDIT: I did 56, 30-second Posemaniacs. and a Posemaniac of the day. Thanks for the suggestions Jaytea.

the 30-sec. drawings were each done on a 506 by 506 square and then placed on a larger image afterward... there's nothing special about the size, it was just set to that for some reason and I rolled with it.

----- EDIT fin. -----

I'm still trying to find time to get into this sketchbook again. But home business and work are getting in the way of posting :(

here's an inked sketch of a random character (blatantly DieBuster inspired) with some lazy photoshop colouring.

I've never been the best at inking so crit. on that is a plus.

[MilanDM]

here's some more posemaniac study.

this time 45-seconds per image, a posemaniac of the day, and a random posemaniac I drew from just because.

I'm trying to get my lines smoother, also sooner or later I'll do some XX-second posemaniac sketching with pencil because I think that would be a good thing. also I love pencil... anyways, that's all for today.

---------------
EDIT: Just doodled up a random landscape.

C&C always welcome. :D butcher me if you will!

[MilanDM]

Speed painting of a creepy little girl...

not sure about the limbs. will probably work on them some more.

[MilanDM]

here's today's batch of 30 second posemaniacs, and a little doodle of a sci-fi biker chick.

[MilanDM]

I've been drawing more in my real sketchbook. but I don't have time to scan things. so here's today's Daily posemaniac. just one sketch.

[MilanDM]

Some 30 - second posemaniacs. and a random cliche superhero referenced with posemaniac.

[jeremygordon89]

It's good to see that you're drawing from life (your hand) and studying from masters (torso from a painting) and posemaniacs is good too. I would recommend continuing to study a lot from life (still life and cast drawings, drawing from daily scenes, your hands, etc.) and I would suggest studying from masters every day. Also, you should study anatomy books and do bridgman and hogarth studies. Also check out Andrew Loomis books. Keep it up!

[Dorkthrone]

I would definitely do more studies like you do now. You will definitely get better if you continue doing these.

[Ardescoere]

I think that they are right, studies are the way to go. But with studies do quick pose ones, so as few lines as possible to convey the emotion. And then do more in depth studies, work with values and colour theory as well. It's so important to build a good base. And make sure you do it every day (I know, I know, my sketchbook is not updated every day but that's because my scanner hates me lol)

[crossmirage]

Hi Milan! It's great that you're doing lots of studies. I think there are some problems with proportion in some figures that could use fixing, so studying how body parts relate to each other in terms of size would be good. Riven Phoenix on YouTube has some great tutorials on that.

Hope to see more from you soon!

[MilanDM]

thanks guys.

Jeremy - I've been drawing my hands every night for the past couple days and I'm going to continue that. I just haven't been able to scan the images in, I'll try for that today if I can. I checked out Loomis last night and I was surprised that I actually learned something new, I've been so used to every book I read re-hashing everything the last one told me with nothing new. Also I should do more anatomy studies, I haven't in ages. I've got a great book for it called Anatomy for the Artist. really in depth, just images of each part from various angles.

Ninjacat - That's what I'm hoping fore :)

Ardescoere - great ideas. I've been trying to capture those 30 second sketching to completely, I don't know why I didn't think to use gesture drawing. and I've been lazy on the every day thing until recently, I like to blame my family business but it's no excuse lol :P. I love colour theory, I'll try to fit some colour theory work in in the next while.

crossmirage - thanks, I'll check those out. It's always good to hear the same subject from another viewpoint, at least that's what I tell myself, haha. Would you mind pointing out the pieces where the proportion was off? or is it all of them? lol. (I know creepy girl has issues, I don't really like her anymore because of this.)

[Ardescoere]

I think it has something to do with shadows as well as proportion... an example of this.. a lot of the time if you're just doing a line drawing of a face it looks kind of strange until you add some shadows and depth to it. Not all the time, clearly, but I find that.

Edit: I didn't mean you as in you but as in everyone :S

[MilanDM]

here's a couple scans from my sketchbook.

I was away from my tablet the past few days so all I could do was Actual pencil work (GASP) actually some of these pages have artwork from over the past week and a half so...

There are some observation drawings from the bus that I do whenever I'm on there. I'm telling you, the bus is the best place to draw, it just adds so much creep factor to what you're doing. haha... j.k.

the second upload has a not so successful attempt at from memory drawing after reading through some loomis books. I was amazed that I actually learned something from that book, I haven't actually learned anything new (from a book) in ages.

I'll do some gesture drawings later on, probably when I get home from work tonight.

[Ardescoere]

Hey Milan,

I like the latest hand drawings, I definitely see improvement there.

Do you have more perspective drawings to show us?

[danlucas]

Good start man, you are going in the right direction. I like what I see so far. lets see more.

[Dorkthrone]

You're headed in the right direction, especially with the perspective drawing.

[Jazz]

Hey, Milan! I'm sorry I took so long to come to your SB. :)

First off, what a coincidence! I'm at NSCAD right now, myself. :D It. Is. TOUGH. But I'm really enjoying the classes. Are you there now? Maybe you and I can meet once in a while and go life-drawing through Halifax. :D

Anyway, well everyone's said it--the practices you're doing now will pay off. Definitely, so keep up the good work! Handle these different aspects with care, don't just do everything at once and overwhelm yourself. :)

I see a great improvement with the figure drawing and perspective drawings. The figure (your last post with pics) has some proportion issues at spots like the armpits, but a beautiful gesture that I think you've brough out. :D

Careful with perspective, use a ruler too because some of the windows on the right side look off in positioning to each other.

Okay, I think that's it. Gotta run, but you just keep it up! You're doing well so far. :)

[jeremygordon89]

Hands start out being really difficult, so it's great to see some hand studies; just keep drawing hands (and check out Bridgman's book on hands too).
You're on the right track, just keep drawing. I'd like to see those gesture drawings too

[crossmirage]

Hi again Milan, like Jeremy said, don't give up on those hands! They are hard to draw at first but simplifying shapes will help a lot. Separate them, chop them up - whatever makes them easier to understand.

ps. I have no idea what took me so long on the proportions thing. Anyway, it's not so much about the proportions as the appearance of flatness in some your figures. I did a quick redline of the superhero guy, I hope you don't mind.

As previously mentioned, simplify the muscles into basic shapes. Clothes will follow the contours of these muscles. Not sure if this is entirely accurate though so perhaps someone with better knowledge of anatomy can redline my redline :P

[MilanDM]

thanks for the redlines Cross, they really help.

Jazz, that's actually an outdated statement. I've since decided against going to NSCAD (at least for now) I've since been accepted to the Center of art and technology, starting in the summer of next year.

but It would still be cool to do life drawings through Halifax with a fellow artist. I work allot right now but PM me and maybe our schedule's can match up somehow.

I'm definitely drawing hands still. Whenever I draw comics hands always come into play somewhere... (I draw allot of comics, since you probably didn't know that.)...

here's those gesture drawings (14 of them), and some character drawings for the comic I'm currently working on. I kinda botched the old ladies face, a little bit on here but I'm tired and have a flue and don't want to fix it... :I Laziness is no excuse I know...

[danlucas]

I suggest doing more drawing with pencil and paper. You should get your hand eye coordination up to par with a lots of pencil studies and anatomy studies. Study the human body in depth, take time on each drawing, try to understand how each part of the body works, and the structure underneath the skin what the muscles do.

[jordyskateboardy]

Heya, You're on a good road. Just keep following it. In your digi studies your lines tend to be very bold. Be sure to lower your diameter. Will not allow you only to make more mistakes which you can correct more easily but will also tend to look more elegant. Keep it up!

[Ardescoere]

Hey Milan!

I'm liking the updates and looking forward to seeing more.

Your skills are definitely improving. I'm noticing you seem more confident with a pencil on paper than with digital. Which since this weekend was my first attempt working with a tablet in photoshop, I have to tell you I totally get it. Most are saying get more confident with paper and pencil, but I also think you should keep practicing basic techniques in photoshop. I was following Bumskee's thread Digital Paining in PS # 2
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107217

It is helping me... Before my apple looked like a turd. Now it just looks like a badly done apple haha.

But maybe give those a shot. They are really helping me. And it would be fun to talk to someone in our sketchbook about those exercises!

[MilanDM]

Dan: I'll try and scan more of my pencil work in. I'm always working with pencil, I just find the scanning tedious.

Jordy: Thanks, I'll definitely start using a smaller brush size.

Ardescoere: thank, :) I checked out that link. It looks great I'll start today or tomorrow, depending on how this flue makes me feel.

[Ardescoere]

Hope you're feeling better!

[jeremygordon89]

I'd like to see more anatomy studies, and pencil work would be cool to see too, I agree. Good gestures and faces, let's see more!
I think you should also try drawing a lot of life studies and figure drawings, if I didn't already mention this haha

[MilanDM]

sorry for the lack of activity, I've been working on a comic lately and I slacked on my sketchbook.

so here some 30 sec. and a daily posemaniacs sketches.
as well as two pages from my sketchbook.
the first is half observation half imagination - top to bottom (respectively)
the second one is also half-half, but still it's pretty obvious what's from imagination and what isn't.

[Dorkthrone]

I would keep at the studies. They are doing you good.

[Ardescoere]

Hey Milan,

I'm liking the studies. I'd like to see more though! The only thing I think is maybe you could try to do loomis and bridgeman studies. I started last week before I got busy and I saw some improvement pretty quick. It's hugely helpful. And normalyl I'm too stubborn to do stuff like that!

[jeremygordon89]

Try sizing down some of your images ( I don't like to scroll sideways lol )
I also think that the studies are helping, though I think you could make
more efficient use of your pages and draw more on them.
I would also like to see bridgman/loomis/hogarth studies

[Jazz]

Good to see you practicing with anatomy! I agree with the others about the studies, but to elaborate on Loomis, do check out his "Drawing the Head and Hands" book (there should be a link somewhere around here). It's pretty easy to comprehend, and it's so helpful for drawing the head in different angles and such. I've read other books from him, but I keep remembering that one!

I also agree about filling your page. Though I still have that problem, myself, it's worthwhile to practice and practice. :D

[MilanDM]

Alright, so here's two more pages from my RL sketchbook. I drew from imagination some heads in different direction so you can all critique what's wrong in each one. and then I'll start working through Loomis' head and hands.

as I've already known I have issues drawing upwards looking heads. I can never get the chin right and the face ends up looking two dimensional.

I gotta run though. I'll check everyone else sketchbooks out tonight.

[jeremygordon89]

Good going man, I think Loomis will really help you out. Bridgman and Hogarth (and tutorials you can find on deviantart) will also help you understand head construction and anatomy.
So here's my shot at critiquing your heads:
From the profile view, you need to make the cranial mass (the back of the skull) bigger. I'll link you to a basic tutorial that shows a good way to construct the head, because it's harder to explain in words.
You should also check out tutorials on drawing eyes, lips, noses, etc. Study the planes of the head to understand how it turns and that would also help you very much. Some of your heads do look decent though, so you should understand it in no time if you keep at it.
Here's a simple look at how to construct the head: http://timflanagan.deviantart.com/art/Basic-Head-Tutorial-Layout-18002862
And here's a bit on head perspective: http://yuumei.deviantart.com/art/Head-Perspective-Chart-111580222
Hope that helps!

[MilanDM]

sorry I haven't posted all week. I've been seting my computer up and I still don't have the scanner hooked up or any of my programs. (if you're wondering I've been using my brothers computer while mine was broken.)

will post late tonight or, if not that, tomorrow.

[Ardescoere]

Hey Milan,

Looking forward to more! Keep 'em coming :D

[MilanDM]

a quick update. I'll try to post more this week.

[MilanDM]

this is the bottom half of the page I posted above. I worked on some head with Loomis.

are my cheekbones to prominent do you think? I don't really mind them I just think they might be... to prominent lol.

[jeremygordon89]

The cheek bones could be a little less prominent; study from photo reference of faces to understand better, but obviously some people will have prominent cheekbones. On average though, they wouldn't be so prominent probably. Nice update, that's a pretty good thumb too.

[Dorkthrone]

I think you could make the cheekbones less prominent.

[MilanDM]

some from imagination drawing I've done over the past week.

[Jazz]

Hey, Milan! Sorry that I couldn't respond to you earlier!

From that last post, looks like you were having some fun there! Good stuff, keep enjoying yourself! Also, start to incorporate more of what you're learning into those fun things! Little bits at a time. :D

I can't see that "second part" of a picture you made. :( I'd like to so I can give my two cents. ;)

[MilanDM]

I can't see that "second part" of a picture you made. :( I'd like to so I can give my two cents. ;)

jog my memory, D: I don't know what you're talking about.

I'll try to post some stuff tonight when I get back from work.

[Ardescoere]

I'd like tos ee more of your studies. I see some improvement already and would like to see more!

[Kasei]

I'm digging these life/figure studies. Keep those up! I can already see the improvements they've made in your sketches from the imagination.

The only crit I have is to watch your proportion on some of these. I'm not sure what your drawing methods are, but it almost seems like in some of your drawings you try to get too detailed too quickly. I would suggest lightly sketching out the form of the entire figure first and then stepping back and looking at it to make sure everything is where you want it before going in and adding details like clothes and facial features. Keep drawing and keep posting!

[MilanDM]

hey Kasei.

if you're talking about that really wonky face with the horrible proportions, then that was intentional. otherwise I agree, there are allot of proportion issues I need to deal with, and thanks for the critique

here's the latest page in my sketchbook. more faces, but my lines are still kind of sloppy.
the two faces with stars next to them are from photo references (I Googled "Tegan and Sara sainthood". it's my fave band and their new album title lol.)

[MilanDM]

some drawing from Rembrandt

and a figure drawing from imagination.

[jeremygordon89]

I'd like to see a lot more anatomy studies, as well as figure drawings from ref, and then memory drawings of those figures. Keep it up

[Dorkthrone]

I would look at the proportions on your last figure drawing a little bit. Something about the figure's neck seems off.

[Jazz]

Hey, Milan! Hope all is well with you! How are studies going? :D

[crossmirage]

Hi again Milan :) It's great to see you doing studies. Keep at it!

I get the impression that you're relying a lot on line instead of form though, so try doing this: with a medium of your choice, make random blobs on paper and try to make a drawing off those blobs. I think it's a great exercise in form.

[Ardescoere]

Hey Milan,

I think cross is right. Also, master studies help a lot. I've been doing quite a few and I think it's improving my quality of work.

[Jazz]

Milan, hope all is going well with you! Hope we'll see you again soon. :D