From zero to... we'll see :D

[Alicja]

Hi!

I'll do my best to publish my pathetic doodles here from time to time...
Feel free to critique the sh*t out of them please!
I'd love not to suck at drawing by the end of 2014's summer vacation.
I don't know if it's possible, but I'll try :3
Right now I'm making a list of how-to-draw books, which I'll most likely be able to buy in February when I'm on my trip to Ireland. Max three... Books in English are like 7x more expensive then those in my language... But those suck, so I prefer to pay more. xD I heard that Loomis and Hampton are good. If you have any recomendations, I will be very happy to hear them! ^^

(this is not an old work, uploaded here so that it can be my thumbnail xD)

[Alicja]

Struggling to draw glass!



And here's a pony with a retarded face:

[Alicja]

Happy New year ~~!

Today I did some apple study:


Yum, bell peppers :3

[Minella]

You're off to a good start! I really like the apples Can't wait to see more stuff~

[Alicja]

Thanks, Minella! ^^

Yesteday I ordered 5 lead holders for 2mm leads. I found them online for less about 5zł (less than 2 dollars?) each! *super happy*
Drawing with a 5cm long pencils and having to sharpen them once in a few minutes was starting to get on my nerves...
I'm planning on buying 2H, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B leads. In addition to that, I'd still carry my 0,5mm mechanical HB pencil, for quick sketches.
Is that a good set for a beginner?

Some of my today's drawings (I didn't have much time :<):

Exercises from my friend's book:


Doodles:


Quick sketches of roses and birds (with the help of Google Images xD):






My hands again:


And that's it for today... On the weekend I'll make sure to draw more.

[thejamesbanks]

Make sure to keep pushing your values (making your darks, darker and your 'whites' brighter) and it'll help your objects 'pop' a little more. If you're working exclusively in pencils, kneadable erasers are great for incorporating highlights.
Keep it up!

[Alicja]

Yeah, my drawings are a kinda dull-looking. I'm trying to push the values, but I tend to be a little "shy" with my pencil... xD
Here I focused on it, and it turned out weird (next time I'll try harder! done with a hb pencil):


Playing with colored pencils:


I also tried to draw a self-portrait but failed T_T

[Alicja]

Today I painted for three ours! ^^ Now I'm gonna do some figure study.

Still life I painted today (the brown dotted thingy is unfinished):


Trying to learn how to use colored pencils. Failing miserabely! They just don't listen to me >.<

[Alicja]

[npg]

Good stuff. Really like the apples and the bell peppers.

[Alicja]

Thank, I'm glad you like it! ^^

Paintings I did this week:

Based on another painting:


From life:


I've been practicing figure drawing too, but for now it's just stick figures...

[Alicja]

Jinx from LOL:

[Alicja]

[Alicja]

[fatman274]

Good idea sticking with the fundamentals. Still life's are a great exercise for learning. This last one is really good. Pushing the values as mentioned above has paid off I think and I love the energetic sketchy line quality. Rock on..

[Alicja]

Thanks! ^^
Right now I'm regularly doing still lifes and simple gesture drawings. I can't wait to see improvement!

Today I tried sketching on a bigger format (B2):


Regular drawing on A3. One glass lost it's life during the process (rip):


I tried to paint the lake picture from above again, but this time with soft pastels:


This week I went to the library and got some albums of animals and herbs. I'll make sure to upload some of my drawing based on them, as well as my figure drawing practice.

[Alicja]

[Alicja]

My dog, from life! ^^


Eyes from imagination:



A quick study:


A... thing oO




Portrait of my 2-year-old cousin, from life (wildly runnin round the kitchen) and photo references.


From a photo:


Horsey from a photo:


Kitty from a photo:


Bunny:


Still lifes:

[Alicja]

Today I played with my tablet. We hate each other with passion, but I managed to draw some quick sketches from reference before going on a rampagne from irritation xD
Don't get me wrong, the quality of the drawings is my lack of skill's fault... But, the device is still, well, shitty.
It's called Pentagram Designer and the internet seems to have never heard much about it before. I bought it a few years ago.
I would probably stick with it until becoming at least decent at drawing if not the fact that the nib of the stylus is gradually disappearing and there are no replacement ones. You have to buy the whole damn thing (I mean the stylus) again. Awesome.
So, I'm thinking about upgrading. Intuos (the old bamboo) Medium looks nice, plus I can get it at a student discount, and with a nice software... Sounds cool to me. Gotta think it through.

(If someone wonders why I'm writing all this when nobody gives a F anyway, I'll tell you that in a few years I wanna go to the first page of my SB and know what was happening at that time xD)

So, I'm back from my winter vacation in Ireland. Was pretty fun, except a few dramas between me and my aunty lol.
It turned out that my granny has taken up painting and I had a chance to help her finish one! ^^

Sheep from life are hard to draw. As hell.

Now that I'm back it's time for school and... art classes!
I visit an art student once a week now (three hours every week, and it only costs me 5$/h!). We paint and draw still lifes and I get LOTS of advice. Before I've been to a group art class, but it was nowhere as good. (Hence, it was with a qualified teacher...)

It is decided now. My favourite pencils are: 2B and 8B. I carry the first one everywhere now, even though I finished my a5 sketchbook and I look awkward carrying around my home-use a3 one lol. Gotta visit the art store soon (poor wallet) TwT

Any feedback on my doodles would be sooo nice. Especially critiques. I can take it lol. Mix me with mud, as we say in my country

[Alicja]

From a photo reference:


"Is this the face of mercy?" xD It sucks, but I'm very happy with it anyway. After so many fails I'm finally not *too* embarassed to upload this one lol.

I set myself a deadline. Until summer vacation I have to:
- finish studying Loomis' "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth" and "Drawing the Head and the Hands"
- draw 250 hands and 250 feet
- draw 1000 gesture drawings
- draw/paint 50 portraits in pencil/grayscale
- simply draw [min. 2 hours a day + once a week 3 hours in a class (where we do still lifes)]

Mission impossible lol. But I'll try and see how much I can do.
During summer I will have lots of time and the weather will be sweet, so I will probably start studying perspective and landscapes (along with figure drawing/portrait/still life practice).

Generally, I want to stop sucking at drawing in around 6 months and become decent in give or take 4 years. Good, I would say 7.
Yes, I love making well planned plans ._. My biggest hobby before drawing was language learning (now taking a break because I was kinda overdoing it and my head used to hurt all the time xD), and I can't help but aproach art as a neverending study lol.

[Alicja]

The face is too light and undefined... I should have pushed the values more. I always forget to, and it's like the most important thing! >.<
Yep, I overblended this one... It was supposed to be done quick so I just blocked in the colour and started smearing it to make it look more neat - turned out pretty muddy, but next time I'll have more time to finish just with brushes.
In the morning I'm going to an art class for 3h and after coming back I'll do another one.
And then I'll have to tidy my room and study for the history test (kill me)

I kinda prefer the previous picture I uplouded, but this one is an improvement too.
Here you can see my first attempt at grayscale photo study (done today too xD)

Gosh, it's awefull xD

[Carro]

I like your studies! You're working hard!
I think you're progressing, I can really see something going on in your stile life studies!
Work on your lines, they're kind of scratchy x3

And about the portraits, yes, you should have pushed your values. Work on the proportions ^^ One tip I can give you is to flip it to the other side, then you will see what's off. And try to do a study, but flip the reference upside down, you will then focus more on how something looks.

[Alicja]

Thank you, Carro! ^^
Yeah, my lines are kind of messy... I'm trying to improve them, I don't know if I'm approaching it right tho.
Besides regular drawing, I fill lots of my sketchbook's pages with quick sketches of circles, squares etc, trying to make them as neat as possible.

I'll try your tips, thanks once again!

[Alicja]

Portrait (from a photo) of my art teacher:


Doodles:


A book pile:


Finished horsey:


For my cousin's birthday, a skylander:


A failed still life painting:


A child's bottle:


Things:


Gestures:

[Whyatt Thrash]

You really need to practice your eye and your basic shapes.

- Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right side of the brain"; Get it, study it, love it.

Then move on to the Loomis books and Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy, but I think Edwards should go first in your case. You need to practice what it is you're seeing and what is is you're NOT seeing but still drawing anyways. You need to train your eye and untrain your brain.

Keep it up, trooper!

[Alicja]

Hi Whyatt Thrash, thanks for commenting in my sketchbook! ^^
I had a chance to read some chapters of this book during this year's winter vacation in Ireland (it belonged to my great aunt). I remember some bits and pieces about negative space, blind drawing, contour drawing, not drawing with symbols, and that the before and after sample drawings were really good. I think I saw a workbook at Eason, too. I wanted to buy it, but... A Polish book: 25 zl (5 euro), a book in the west: 25 euro -.-
If I knew somebody would recommend it to me later tho...
I'll try searching for it.
With Loomis there's no problem as I have the PDFs.
As for now, I'll try practicing with what I remember from it. ^^

[Alicja]

Things I uploaded in my critique thread but not here:
Me (using a mirror):


Some quick photo studies:





New stuff:

Redraw from a previous study, a lil more similar to the photo (the previous one looks nothing like it T_T):


My eyes&mouth (using a mirror):


Unfinished me, using a mirror, a lot more similar than the last self portrait xD:

[Lakka]

Hey, nice progress here. I think you should take some different looks at working with digital. Your pencil drawings look nice, but the same "ease" does not show in the workflow you have for digital. You have some nicely rendered pencil drawings, but I feel for digis you should try to begin working with bigger brushes, making larger planes, and working on frmo that.

Keep it up!

[Alicja]

Hi Lakka, thanks for commenting! ^^
I'm not really focused on digital right now; I play with my tablet from time to time, but I'd rather get more familiar with traditional media before moving onto more serious digital stuff… I'll remember the tip about working with bigger brushes, thank you. ^^

I tried painting in PS today just out of boredom, without ref xD:

I learnt that there are other ways to blend right after I was finished with killing myself&the pic with the smudge tool. -.-

Finished the drawing from before:

[Alicja]

I was getting annoyed by the fact that I couldn't (well, still can't really xD) draw a single cube without making it look like it's been kicked real bad, so this morning I watched some videos on YT about perspective and decided to give it a try.

I hate rulers so I just did it freehand, I hope that's ok (in the videos they were using rulers .-.).

A quick uptade on my life: I mentioned earlier about the life drawing classes that I wished so badly to attend… I called them and guess what.
15 years old is too young to draw human bodies. I've to call them again in three years. Like hell I will lol.
I searched some more and couldn't find anything… Until I saw an advert of an art course starting on March 18!
It starts with the fundamentals of drawing and ends with some more adcanced techniques of acrylic painting. In the meantime you learn about the human anatomy, perspective, get to know different drawing media like pastels and charcoal, and there are life drawing classes too! Main topics are still lifes and the nude. Sounds good to me.
It's hella expensive (I'm gonna sell my PS3. I will ;_, but it's the only place that will let a 16 enroll (I'm 15 but oh come on, they won't see a difference ;"D).
Eight hours a week, 18 March -> 1 June. Can't wait!