Sanby - Sheridan Portfolio stuff, I need Help!

[Sanby]

Ok, here is my sketchbook, following in the footsteps of the all so mighty MindCandyMan. He has inspired me to take initiative and learn how to draw/paint. I will sketch at least one sketch everyday and hopefully more. I will always post them here, no matter how bad I think they are. Please tear them apart, as it's the only way I will learn. I look forward to reading comments about the sketches so that I can move forward wit my ability. I have officialy started this daily ritual as of Oct. 4, 2004. So, here are my first sketches.

This is a doodle I did in english class. I was working on perspective. It was really light, so I amped up the contrast, it is acctually drawn with a pencil. BTW, this was done before Oct. 4



A tank I drew while hanging out with some friends. Done in pen, again, working on perspective.



Another tank, done in my sketchbook. Working on perspective. Damn scanner cut off the top and bottom though, O well.



These are the first sketches in my daily routine, done on Oct 4.


Sanby

[liam.c]

cool mate keep going do it every day no matter waht !

[Sanby]

liam.c : thanks for the reply and encouragement.

Ok, here are todays sketches.

This first one I did realy quickly to see if I could get the shape down fast (1-2 minutes)


These are some more hands. I enjoy drawing hands even though they are very difficult, I'm not sure why. I started drawing the hand on the right, a little too close to the edge, that is why it is cut off, it wasn't the scanner. The other thing is a pot that a plant is in.


I have a few questions also. Such as:

What are some good books to get a hold of?

This is a wierd one. When I draw, the pencil always get dull so quickly so I end up with really fat and furry lines. What do you guys to do to prevent this?

I am intersted in 3D modeling and animation, that is why I want to get a solid foundation in drawing/painting. I am in grade 11, so I need to start looking to the future. I am thinking I would like to go to sheridan, but I am not sure exactly how to go about it. I saw another thread about something similar. If I take art fundies in my first year (years?) then I don't need a portfolio to get in? Then I can build one and move on to more advanced stuff, or the 3D thing? Anyway info would help, thanks.

And, as always, please comment and give me some tips.


Sanby

[Sanby]

My internet went down yesterday so I couldn't post. So, here is yesterdays and today sketches.

For some reason, every time I scan and image in, I feel it looks less impressive then the actual drawing. Anyone else find this?


These are from 10/6/04. Two hans, and a sheriffs badge (I do know how to spell sheriff, but I ended up with not enough room, so I just left it)


This is from today, 10/7/04. It's a gameboy colour. I want to continue on this, bu I didn't have anything but my mechanical pencil, and it is a pain in the ass to try and shade with.


I would love some comments and critique, to know what you think, and so I can improve.

Also, if people could answer some of the questions from the previous post that would be awesome.

Lastly, I bought "Drawing on the right side of the brain yesterday", and so far it looks great. I haven't had a chance to try any of the exercises cause of school stuff, but I hope to do some this weekend. And, I will for sure post the results.

Sanby

[liam.c]

good choice on the book ... every one i know that has acutly done the exersizes has progressed verry quickly ! so make shure you do them work on those basic shaps and perspective <i know kinda boreing but doesnt take long > and grab up an anatomy book ... do studys from that as thay are then try it your self with soem thing fun with waht you just learned for me ,i find that works pretty well

[Sanby]

Yesterday I was gonna post, but it got very late, and I needed to get up early. So, again I am posting two days worth of sketches.

This is a drawing of my hand. It is the first little exercise in "Drawing on the Right side of the Brain" It is a vefore picture, so that once I have finished the book, I can look back and judge my progress.


This also is from the first exercise of "before pictures" It is a portrait from memory.


Lastly, this is a self-portrait, still from the first exercise.


BTW, what is a mech sharpener. Someone on the forum said they were good, but I don't know what it is.

Sanby

[Grizz]

(((((Hey Sanby. One thing you can do to keep you pencil sharp is to just keep a sharpener handy. whenever your lead starts getting low just shapen it. I prefer to use drafting/ mechanicle pencils. you never have to shapen them. I find a 0.5 drafting pencil is really good for drawing. And thanks for checking out my stuff, and wising me up to my display prob.)))

liam.c : thanks for the reply and encouragement.

Ok, here are todays sketches.

This first one I did realy quickly to see if I could get the shape down fast (1-2 minutes)


These are some more hands. I enjoy drawing hands even though they are very difficult, I'm not sure why. I started drawing the hand on the right, a little too close to the edge, that is why it is cut off, it wasn't the scanner. The other thing is a pot that a plant is in.


I have a few questions also. Such as:

What are some good books to get a hold of?

This is a wierd one. When I draw, the pencil always get dull so quickly so I end up with really fat and furry lines. What do you guys to do to prevent this?
I am intersted in 3D modeling and animation, that is why I want to get a solid foundation in drawing/painting. I am in grade 11, so I need to start looking to the future. I am thinking I would like to go to sheridan, but I am not sure exactly how to go about it. I saw another thread about something similar. If I take art fundies in my first year (years?) then I don't need a portfolio to get in? Then I can build one and move on to more advanced stuff, or the 3D thing? Anyway info would help, thanks.

And, as always, please comment and give me some tips.


Sanby

[Sanby]

Grizz: Thanks for the tip. I do tend to keep a sharpener with me when I sketch. I have also fond a snadpaper pad that I keep with me as well.

Anyway, I suck at updating. I haven't posted any stuff for way to long. I am going to try and get in the habit again of doing it daily. Here goes.

These are gestures out of a comic book, which someone suggested to do. It really is wicked. Within ten minutes I could see an improvement. I started using more flowing, long strokes. My confidence increased, and it really helpd me to just let things flow, rather then to be really exact and have crappy line quality.


Out of an ad I found. It's not done, meh



So I went ot a Barenaked ladies concert last tuesday, the 21st. We went out to a restaurant first and their I sketched my brother, he was sitting beside me.


After that, we went to the concert hall, and their was this guy standing outside. So, when we got to our seats, I tried to sketch him from memory.


Lastly, here is something inspired by Rowan, cause I love his sketchbook stuff.


Sanby

[thirdeye]

Hey Sanby,

Don't worry about replying late - I know what you mean - my school and work are also keeping me busy.

About your question - I'm - lets say- intermediate in the anatomy study so I can't really give you one good way of learning it. I can only tell you my approach.

Some time ago when I started learning anatomy I just learned the basics - about general muscle shapes etc. I tried applying it to my drawings and it kinda worked fine for me for some time. But later I noticed that I do most of the anatomy intuitive - without really knowing what is happening there. I thought about it and decided that it no longer satisfies me. So I'm learning anatomy from the begining. First: I decided to take small steps - I study one region of human body at a time to keep myself focused. I started with arms. Don't really know why, I know that I maybe should begin with the head or something else, but arms came first. I gathered as much materials about arms - books (Loomis, some polish books, some spanish e-books I found on the internet), photos and anatomy drawings for medical students (all found on the internet) photos of athlets and fitness models. Anything I could find on the internet and I considered worthy went right into a special folder on my hard drive. This way I have now a huge library of anatomy refs. I started drawing - first the bones. Arms are pretty easy - only three bones to remember so i also incorporated othre surrounding bones like scapula and clavicle - because they're linked. Than I started adding some muscles etc. And so on

You're a begginer so try to learn more about proportions of the human body first - than go to details.

What is more important for artist is not to know all the names and details but to know how it works. I dont need to know the names of the muscles that turn the forearm but I have to know how they look like, where they are and how will they behave etc. If you want to draw good human/animal figures from your head than you'll definitely need to know this.

About remembering - don't worry that it's not soaking in immediately - because it just won't - you need a lot of practice to learn anatomy. You have to draw it at least couple of times to remember. Remember to think when you're drawing not just draw to make it look like in the picture but remember and try to understand.



Recent stuff - it's getting better - I can still see progress - the linework is improving a lot although you still need to work on shading. I don't know - maybe it your scanner's fault that these are very light. If that's the case - try increasing contrast after scanning. If not - don't be afraid to use darker values. I'm assuming you're using HB or 2B - you can really get more darks out of them

That's all from me - sorry to write that much - but you asked it

[Sanby]

Here is a quick one before I go to bed. I've stayed up too late as it is, playing Half-Life2. I drew this last night out of the bridgeman book. I decided a rest from drawing arms was a good idea.



Sanby

[Sanby]

K, another update and 2 questions.

I found that during a school project where we had to sketch buggs out of magazines, I found a lot of inspiration for robots. Anyway, the bugs were what I was supposed to be drawing but I got a little off track.


Also from the same project. This time, I was on track though. Neither are finished.


Now, on to the questions.

1. Not very important, but I am interested to know. I generally sketch with the same 2B pencil, and I go through it pretty damn quick from sharpening it so often. How long does it take you to finish a pencil?

2. K, now on to a bit more serious stuff. My art teacher is going to take a bunch of us downtown to go for a three hour life drawing session. Apparently these sessions happen every weekend, and you can get in for about $10. I am really excited to go, but I have never done any figure drawing before. How should I approach it, and do you have and tips for me to keep in mind.

Sanby

[thirdeye]

Nice stuff,

I can see that you are a rookie but i'm already seeing some good things. There's still bunch of things for you to work on like anatomy and values.
The only advice I have for you though is to work daily - it's the most important thing for a beginner to draw daily. Whenever you have time. Even 10 minutes of drawing on a bus is better than not drawing at all.

Keep it up. Draw every day. Work some more on shading and spend a bit more time on your drawings - f.e. do some lineworks and than finish one. Don't care about the pencils and paper - this are only the tools, they use up, get destroyed, lost and loads of other stuff - but what you never loose is what you've learned with them. Play with them.

Try using mechanical pencils maybe.

My tips for figure drawing would be - don't concentrate on details too soon, try to draw the overall form first - get the proportions good than do some shading etc. Learning anatomy always helps.

[grudge]

Hi Sanby
I am really impressed with how much progress you have made since oct 4th.
About that pencil question you asked, 0.5mm pencils never need sharpening but personally I do not like to use them. To keep a pencil sharp, I just keep sharpening it,as annoying as that is. Or depending on the pencil type you can keep rotating it and working on its most pointed part/dull part. I do use a 2.00 mm lead holder and I can go through 1 in 2 days if I use a pencil a lot. Maybe try a ball point pen now and again? They never seem to run out of ink.
About the teddy bear shading question, I guess I would try out small patches of what ever his fur looks like on some other peice of paper, and then try to copy whatever light pattern I like from life. Fur texture I find rather difficult so I often test a lot if I don't feel confident and even then sometimes it is a failure.
Godluck with the life drawing session!

[Craig Houghton]

1. Not very important, but I am interested to know. I generally sketch with the same 2B pencil, and I go through it pretty damn quick from sharpening it so often. How long does it take you to finish a pencil?

2B's go, fast. I kill 2Bs without even using them as my main pencil. If you try and keep them sharp they go in no time flat.

If I'm home and have everything on hand, I do an initial sketch with a 4H wood or a .03mm H mechanical, then I draw over it with an HB, and then I use a 2B for the darks. I alternate back and forth, but my point is that I only break out the 2B when necessary.

2. K, now on to a bit more serious stuff. My art teacher is going to take a bunch of us downtown to go for a three hour life drawing session. Apparently these sessions happen every weekend, and you can get in for about $10. I am really excited to go, but I have never done any figure drawing before. How should I approach it, and do you have and tips for me to keep in mind.

For a while I attended a local 6$ per session life drawing thingy. They've since stopped the program, but as soon as they get going I'll be right back there. It's a fantastic experience. I definitely recommend bringing a minimum of tools and just trying to get the basic forms and values down. Personally, I like using a middle ground to dark grey paper along with a dark and a light valued pastel. Alternately you could just use a pencil. It's more an excercise in seeing. Oh, and the weirdest thing is.. it gets quiet. I've heard this from others as well. All you can usually hear is the sound of pencils (or whatever) on paper. It's a bit weird in that way.

Have fun, learn, and post the results!

-Craig

[Sanby]

thirdeye: I have not been as consistent as I would like to been when it comes to drawing daily I am getting better, but I still need to work on it. Thanks for the advice though, I am going to start carrying alittle sketch book with me everywhere so if there is a moment, I can draw. Thanks also for the advice on figure drawing. It is going to come in handy big time when I go.

grudge: Thanks for the reply. It looks like I am going to have to stock up on pencils : ) also, I guess I will try working on the teddy bear again. I'll have to play around.

Craig Houghton: I am going to try what you said. Mainly, I always sketch with the same pencil, but I'll brake out some of the others now. Thanks for the info on the life-drawing session. I am not sure what to expect, so I good heads up and some info is great. At least now I won't freak out when everybody gets all quiet. I haven't really drawn with anything but a pencil, but I ahve seen many many figre drawings done in pastel or charcoal. Maybe I'll get both and give them both a go to see how I like them

Thanks for the replies. I don't have any picture right now, but I will later.

I do have a few more questions.

I ahve noticed on some drawings, that the initial quick sketch was done in blue and then the good part was done in regular pencil. Are these special technical blue pencils, or just pencil crayons?

Also, that Bridgeman book is great, but I find it hard to differentiate between different muscles. What book would I find a good outline of all the muscles in? Loomis?

Sanby

[PeggyChung]

Hey Sanby, you made a lot a progress since your first post. A suggestion is to work on your line work instead of linework + shading. Shading gets in the way, its like the 2nd level, how can you do that if you cannot conquer the 1st level (linework) first? what you could work on is line weight to indicate the shadows. for example a ball- darker at the bottom of the ball and very light at the top where the light hits the ball. What I do like though is that i notice that your current drawings are not fuzzy like your first ones, that shows confidence.

a suggestion for preparing for your life drawing class is learning proportions and if you look at that loomis site he has a grid for it. Trust me, it makes A HUGE DIFFERENCE. For your first time, i would say not to get caught up in drawing the face, more of getting the whole picture. You want the legs to look as if it can support the body- again loomis has pages and pages on this stuff.

Hmm on learning anatomy, I dont really recommend bridgeman, his stuff is advanced in my opinion. All i can say is make sure you know your muscles and dont cheat out of it by learning his massing of muscles way. Its fine if you know the muscles first but dont jump straight into just massing muscles. Further more, try not to just copy, you can get pix of arms and try to draw the muscles in with a pen. personally i study from jeno barscays book then i go back to look at bridgemans. trying to draw different poses of the arm/whatever from your imagination with the knowlege you have of the muscle placement will make a difference.

On your pencil thing, what i do is i just use regular HB pencils- I bought a huge pack of them, like 6 boxes of 12 pencils each. its less than 5 bucks and its been lasting me. KNow that these are just sketches and studies so no need to go fancy .But i did buy a staedler brand pack of 16 pencils ranging from 6h-8b for more of final artwork type things.

goodluck and I hope some of this jabbering helped

[Sanby]

Thanks for the response LadyLioness.

I took your post to heart and tried to work on what you suggested. I grabbed my gas mask and started to draw it with no intention of shading it. I tried to work on nice smooth lines, but I still find it very hard. I also am having huge difficulties with drawing round stuff, such as the filters on the mask. Any tip son how to improve on this?

BTW, this is only half done, the left filter and the little breathing thing on the front aren't complete. I kind gave up on them. I know that's bad, but I just couldn't get the elipses right. I am going to go back and try it again soon.


Thanks to a thread I found were someone posted a link to download loomis's books, I now have started on how to draw heads. I know you said to not focus on the head, but I have seen this study done by so many people so many times that I really wanted to try. I am going to move onto the body real soon though. For now, here is my start with the head study. Can people give me feedback about how to improve on these?



And yes, your jabbering did help

Sanby

[fidelio]

Hi, I just joined this forum and can't see any of the artwork. I used to visit this site some time ago and there used to be tons of stuff. Where is it?

[Sanby]

I am sorry, I am not sure why you can't see any artwork, everything is working fine for me.

bRyaN:, Thanks dude for the all the tips on the books to buy, this is exactly what I wanted. I am going to go right now and search for them. BTW, on that website, the articles I should be looking at are the articles in the magazine right? i.e. Vilppu Drawing Online: Gesture

Sanby

[bRyaN]

Yea the magazines....

He has many many many lessons and i recommend all of them....i printed them all up and take them everywhere i go...

Also check out my sketch book, cause i had the same problem drawing eyes for a while so i focused a page on eyes...
i

[Sanby]

K, a quick sketch before I go play some cs. This has been half done for weeks now, and so I finally decided to sit down and finish it.



Sanby

[fidelio]

All OK. Got the images to display. I am using the new browser Firefox and there was this one thing in the preferences. Gee, got to put my glasses on to look at all this cool stuff!!!

[thirdeye]

Sanby,

Glad to see that you're making progress - small steps but still

I'd like to throw in my two cents on the topics you are having trouble with - anatomy and drawing circles/elipses.

Two completly different problems - but one simple solution - practice.

Circles and elipses are not hard to learn or understand. Only way to do that is by practice - you'd probably have to draw hundreds of them before your hand remembers it. What you have to do - draw a square and then inscribe a circle inside. With elipses - draw a square in pespective and do a similar thing. Draw small one and big ones - after making about 500 - you'll see the effects

Anatomy - harder than circles but also do-able This is what you do - as someone already said - draw draw draw - everything - from books from photos from life - do not only draw so it looks similar to reality - but also try to understand. F.e. muscles - you won't learn by only drawing from pictures - you have to study it - to understand its structure, insertion points its reactions. This is the way to draw them from your head in the future. See mentler's sketchbook also About the SP's - look at android's daily SP thread - he said that eyes are the most important part of a good portrait - and he always starts with them.

Hope this helps - Keep up the good work

PS. If you need some graphic help with the elipses - just send me a PM i'll prepare something

[Sanby]

Ok,

thirdeye: Thanks for the huge reply. Sorry I didn't reply sooner, but I have been bogged down with school stuff the last few days. I finally have the chance to post again. I just re-read your post after a few days, and I am going to try and work on the circles on the weekend. As far as anatomy goes, I was just thinking this morning while drawing out of Loomis's figure drawing book that I am not sure if any of what I am doing is soaking in. I am drawing, but I am not sure how much of it I am acctualy remembering. I think some of it is slowly being internalized, because when I draw people from my head, that are starting to look like people. How would you suggest "studying" the anatomy? I find it hard to look at all the muscle names a bone names and associate those with anything, so it their a more visual way of doing it?

Anyway, since I haven't posted for a while here is a big dump of stuff.

Loomis hand and eye, and my own eye


Some doodles that I did while at my sisters dance performance thing


HAd serious lack of inspiration this day, and didn't know what to draw. When that happens I turn to my Bridgeman book, and I just sketch out of their. I find it inspirational, because I like the way he concetrates on form and exagerating it.


Stuff from the last two days at lunch out of Loomis' figure drawing


More loomis, kind crooked, but I get the theory behind it


LAstly, a SP from today. I haven't been succesful in my one per day, but I still have done a bunch. Those fucking eyes are still drving me crazy tho.


Sanby

[Sanby]

Ok, I had a very productive day today, I was drawing a lot and it was tonnes of fun, so without out further bla bla her are the pictures.

this is acctually from a few days ago. Some arms with ref, and then the start of an actualy creature thing. It was kewl because it was the first time that I could acctually come up with something and put it on paper from my head, it was really exciting. It is inspired big time by thirdeye.





Arms studies and then a very muscular arm with ref. Thanks again for the arms stuf Thirdeye.


Question: Can anyone give me tips on posing figures. Anything at all, that you think might help. I am trying to use Loomis' simpler manakin, but I find it hard to get posed right.

Sanby

[Sanby]

No one has any comments for me?

Sanby

[Sanby]

Quick image dump, I'll talk later. All unfinished, not going to finish or gesture.



Sanby

[Sanby]

An attempt at rendering this guy. I really need to stretch the values further.


And, this is the start of something new I am going to try. I am going to come up with atleast one idea everyday, i.e. chracter, environment, w/e. It may just be a scribble, and I am not worried about it being anatomically correct, it is just to get the creativity going. Sometimes I feel like I have a lack of ideas, so it is more of an inpriational kind of exercise, for creativity.


PLEASE REPLY!!!!


Sanby

[hurricane]

hi !

its looking good, keep on practising !

one thing to think about, try to give your form extra shapes, not bigger lines, more roundness in the shades, the latest head you posted tells me that you need to figure out more how to draw a "3d" shape, and not to shade a piece of paper if you understand what im trying to explain... compare it to the gasmask renderstudy... that one has alot of form and shape, you need to copy that way of thinking and viewing as you did there into your imagination...


i'll stop rambling now


cheers, and draw draw !

[Sanby]

K, this guys face rendered. I am pretty happy with this, I didn't use any reference. Only thing that bugs me is a the filter on the side arghh, o well



Sanby