60 days of hawtness

[pitabread]

Virgin poster here.

I've been a lurker here for awhile and have to say, I'm a bit intimidated by registering an posting here. You're all so damned good and I aspire to be as good as the rest of you one day (I hope).

Anyway, I've been sketching off and on for the last 5 years... more off than on I'm afraid. I'm still a bit rough and definitely need to work on... well, everything really. But especially figure drawing.

So I had this idea. I have this Victoria Secrets clothing catalogue from my reference collection (and yes, it is actually clothes :P). After flipping through and realizing the volume of photos in there, I decided to draw a lot of them. I figure it would be good for figure drawing, but also clothing reference, too (something I really am not that good at at all). And hey, the world could use more pics of hot chicks. :P

I settled on one sketch a day for the next 60 days. My only rule is that I have to do at least one sketch a day, and a min of 20 minutes on a sketch. If I feel like developing a sketch further I will, but for those days when I'm burnt out or too busy, at least I can knock something out in relatively little time.

I'm posting here because I want a way to stay motivated to do this, and also for any feedback artists here can give. I look up to a lot of you, so I'm hoping you can help me! :D

One last thing, I have no scanner, so I'm taking pics with my digital camera. So they might not be of the greatest quality. If I get a scanner in the near future, I'll rescan everything.

Here we go. Day 1:

[archipelago]

good idea! dont forget to draw the whole figure though, dont skimp out on the feet!

I can almost guarantee that you will have improved a great deal by the end of the 60 days!

[pitabread]

Thanks archipelago. Regarding the feet, the ref pic actually cut off at that point. That's about the only downside of this particular catalogue. Although, I suppose I could try in future to sketch in any missing pieces. Will be a challenge, but I guess that's what I'm doing this for. :D

[pitabread]

Day numbah 2... Not particularly happy with this one. I was tired and wasn't in much of a drawing mood today, so I did this one quickly (~20 mins). At the very least I did it, so that's something I suppose...

[pitabread]

Bleh, I think I'm actually getting worse... Mind you, with a bunch of other stuff on my mind stressing me out, I'm finding it hard to "get into" drawing. Probably reflective of what I'm producing right now. Oh well.

[Gunther409]

Not every painting is going to be as great as the last one, and that's not always a bad thing. Sometimes screwing up allows you to learn, besides what fun would life be if you didn't scerw up every once in a while? (damn my love of subtle jokes)

Anyway as for crits to your work I think you just need to tighten it up a little bit and start adding some more details into your work. Also don't avoid doing the hands and feet, that kinda falls into that whole don't be afraid to screw up bit. Her shoulders look a bit blocky as well, remember that women should have an hour glass figure while men have more of an upside-down triangle shape to em'.

[pitabread]

Yeah, I've thought I should tighten up my sketching, but I've always drawn with a fast 'n loose style. To be honest, I don't really know how to tighten it up. Maybe I'll experiment with some lighter pencils (I usually use a 2B).

And I'm hoping of these days I'll be a bit more relaxed and spend more time doing a properly detailed and shaded sketch instead of these very fast ones. I just haven't been able to slip into "the zone" lately.

[pitabread]

Spent longer this time. Did a couple thumbnails first, before the main sketch...

[Gunther409]

That's at least four times better than your last one, bravo! There are still crits, but none of them are about "tightening up" just anatomical things. Like her neck is a little to long and her head is a bit to compact. Her arms are a bit narrow at the elbows even though she is in a sweater, making it a bit harder to tell, I'd still say somethings a-miss. but much better.

[pitabread]

Thanks Gunther. Yeah, I see what you mean about the anatomy. I was a bit "off" on this one overall, I think. Next time I'll pay closer attention to proper proportions.

Also, I noticed her facial features were off, so I went back to the sketch and tried to correct things a bit. I think I made it marginally better, although her features still seem off.

Whatever, I'm calling this one done and I'll try to do better tomorrow...

[TheBeast]

nice work, but the face seems to have no emotion, maybe you should work out the face from different directions, to get a better handling whit that?


great:
da Beast

sB:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1244096#post1244096

[Banshax]

Cool Idea. by doing a regular scetch you should feel at ease and eliminate pressure to perform miracles, there is always a tomorrow if things go .. different :]
I like the broad strokes you use for drawing hands

[pitabread]

Blarg... Couldn't get into at it all today. Ended up redrawing her face about half a dozen times and it still looks like crap... And I tried to draw her hands, too, but again, I just couldn't get it. So I left them as roughed in blocks.

Late, tired, frustrated... time for bed.

[pitabread]

These are from the last couple of days. Been very busy, but I still managed to squeeze in some drawing time, although these were admittedly rushed.

I was still having problems with facial features, hence these women are "faceless".

[pitabread]

Probably would've spent more time on this one if I hadn't been feeling ill today. I think my week of sleep deprevation has caught up to me... :dead:

Hopefully feeling better tomorrow and can put more effort into the next one.

[pitabread]

Btw, any tips or advice at this point would be greatly appreciated. :)

[pitabread]

Another day, another sketch...

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Today's quick sketch... 10 days gone, 50 to go. :dead:

[pitabread]

Quick sketch...

[NightVision]

Hai,

nice objective, and kudos to keeping it up !

I do however think that you should give yourself a bit more time to warm-up.

I tend to see as everything bad I produce in the first hour of drawing as warm-up (usually it's just a few minutes to 15 minutes thankfully) and that takes away a lot of stress of 'getting it right'.
Warm-up can also be just lines & circles for a few minutes: just focus on making nice lines, it's relaxing if you just let the pencil flow (hold it far enough from the tip).

Also, if you happen to have books like bridgman, loomis or hale, they have sections on breaking the body in blocks, so you could try that sometime for the catalogue pics, it helps to analyse what you're drawing, instead of just copying.

In general I think it's a good idea to not practice in the same way all the time, so I'd love to see some more block-ins or focus on details, for instance just hands for 1 day.

Your best drawings are the ones where you relax and/or take some more time to get it right !

Keep it up, I'm gonna check back to see the progress :) !

[pitabread]

Thanks for the encouragment NightVision! There have been a few days already when I thought about throwing in the towel, but I just gritted my teeth and worked through it. I really don't want to quit now!

Most days I try to warm up (although I don't always have time). I am sketching other things and usually just do a page 'o doodles before sketching these figures. Sometimes, though, I end up working on entirely different sketches and by the time I get to these figures, I'm kinda tired and try to get it done quickly (i.e. the last couple days).

I also do try to break the figure down into components to understand the form, although that's not always obvious in the final pic after I clean up.

Here's yesterday's and today's pics. Yesterday was just blah. Not a good day, not relaxed. Today was better. I left it looking a bit "sketchier" than normal, since I think it's more interesting that way. Couldn't get her right hand, though, and it was partially cut off in the reference anyway.

[pitabread]

Did something a little different today. Practiced a couple portrait sketches of the woman from Day 1. Didn't turn out so great...

[pitabread]

Started out trying to sketch a different pic, got insanely frustrated, then scribbled out this one instead... I'm starting to think I need to develop a less impatient sketching process.

[Act.Appalled]

Good start. I would have to say there is already some improvements since day 1.
Couple tips/words of advice. Don't always feel like you need to produce a masterpiece. Don't Feel like you need to catch up. Just learn and soak up as much information as you can from each piece you draw.

DON'T get frustrated over one drawing, and learn to slow down.

I would also recommend getting yourself an anatomy book to start off. Bridgeman, Loomis are a great place to start.

Start with solid contruction, and drawing through the form, and then work in details and features. Without the construction, the details will never look quite right...

Keep at it! Dont give up =)

[pitabread]

Thanks Act.Appalled. Glad to know there is some improvement.

I dunno why I was so frustrated yesterday. Just one of those days, I guess. Some days things seem to flow, other days it's a struggle...

One thing I've been trying to do is focus more on form and gesture and less on contour. However, old habits are hard to break. I tried a new approach to drawing todays pic, trying to focus more on form and gesture -- hence the thicker lines and much sketchier look.

[Banshax]

Keep it up, this stuff takes time to make sense. Dont burn out, have fun as well! :]

[pitabread]

Thanks Banshax. I'm trying to keep upbeat about this. I think I've been a bit more motivated lately, as a few of the early days I was a bit overwelmed with end-of-the-year school stuff. I've still got exams coming up, so we'll see how it goes.

[pitabread]

Yet another sketch... Oddly all I could think about was Mario while drawing this because of the weird trance music that was playing on Digitally Imported. Some DJ sure loved their Mario samples...

[pitabread]

I had zero motivation to draw yesterday. None at all. I wasn't even stressed or anything. I've done a lot of sketching over the last week and a half and think I was just burnt out. So this sketch was done very quickly and literally while in bed before falling asleep.

[pitabread]

Another hurried (20 min) late-night sketch. 20 pics down, 40 to go.

[pitabread]

Thanks lirce. You're right the nose is too blocky in that pic. She did have a bony nose, but I think I overdid it.

Yet another quick sketch last night. In the middle of exams right now, so it may be another week before I can start spending more time focused on sketching.

[pitabread]

Ugh. Not only am I in the middle of exams, stressed out and sleep deprived, but I've been pretty sick, too. The quality lately reflects that.

[pitabread]

A bit of an overdue update. I've kept drawing, but was heavily distracted by exams. The quality of these drawings isn't so hot as both exam stress and being sick made it very difficult to slip into "drawing mode".

Because my art skills had gone AWOL during this time, for 4 days I did very loose gesture sketches of various figures. These were actually pretty fun and it was nice to step back and focus just on overall gesture without worrying about any details. I may do more of this in the future.

And sorry about the crappy photos of these. The gesture pics in particular were very lightly drawn and difficult to photograph.