Journey of an Absolute Rookie: Paintings and Sketches

[MindCandyMan]

Just putting this first image in to update my sketchbook thumbnail

[killing.people]

huge imporvements, cant wait for your sketches, try to keep all your stuff in one thread homie, that way we can see your progress easier,
keep it up - its up to you now.

-killing

[Dark_Crystal]

http://www.teamgt.com/ft-tutes.htm
http://www.anticz.com/drawing1.htm

If you haven't already read these tutorials you should.
I found them to be really usefull.

http://www.geocities.com/david_malc/cubes.txt

This is how my cubes turned after reading them



[edit]damn url's[/edit]

[MindCandyMan]

__________________________
September 21st




___________________________



***Below is for everyone who hasn't seen my previous posts***
__________________________________________________ ________
Hi Everyone,
If you didn't see my last post(s) on www.conceptart.org then I will bring you up to speed. Basically I have been inspired by the art produced and the work ethic of Jon Foster, Andrew Jones, Jason Manley, and my brother "Smeagol71" (among many others) and have decided to learn how to paint (primarily digitally). I am starting from rock bottom and I am going to paint at least one painting and do at least one sketch every day...probably two on the weekends. The order you see them in is the order that I am painting and/or sketching them...every day starting on 9/15/02. I am bearing my soul to everyone. I will post everything I do...whether it is awful or not. Most of the paintings and sketches, in the beginning, are going to look like crap but hopefully over the days/weeks/months/years they will start to get better. I have no formal art training but have signed up for classes this semester. I have a passion to paint and welcome any encouragement or critique that you want to give. Any feedback you want to give me you can leave in the threads I or just email me.
Thanks


September 22nd

Hi All,
Thanks for the encouragement and help killing.people and Dark_Crystal. I am going to read those tutorials tomorrow Dark_Crystal...it's kind of late tonight and I am just going to get one painting in...but wow they look really informative...btw...your cubes look awesome (did you do them in photoshop?) At any rate here are some sketches that I posted the other day...tell me what you think of them...any criticism is welcome...first is a candle that I sketched while sitting on my toilet (not using it at the time hehe) and the other was just a wooden spoon sitting on a stack of white papers.

Attachment 90147

Attachment 90146

Also I just painted this one right now...it's late at night and I am definitely having problems keeping my head up...but tell me what you think...

Attachment 90148

***Below is for everyone who hasn't seen my previous posts***
__________________________________________________ ________
Hi Everyone,
If you didn't see my last post(s) on www.conceptart.org then I will bring you up to speed. Basically I have been inspired by the art produced and the work ethic of Jon Foster, Andrew Jones, Jason Manley, and my brother "Smeagol71" (among many others) and have decided to learn how to paint (primarily digitally). I am starting from rock bottom and I am going to paint at least one painting and do at least one sketch every day...probably two on the weekends. The order you see them in is the order that I am painting and/or sketching them...every day starting on 9/15/02. I am bearing my soul to everyone. I will post everything I do...whether it is awful or not. Most of the paintings and sketches, in the beginning, are going to look like crap but hopefully over the days/weeks/months/years they will start to get better. I have no formal art training but have signed up for classes this semester. I have a passion to paint and welcome any encouragement or critique that you want to give. Any feedback you want to give me you can leave in the threads I or just email me.
Thanks

[MindCandyMan]

Hi All,
I got my wacom intuos 2 9 x 12 tablet last night!!!! Man it is awesome...but I have a shaky hand...I sketched out a cup and tried to shade it...this is the first thing I did with my wacom...it didn't work to well...hehe...but here it is:

Attachment 90540

Here are 3 more sketches I did as well...tell me what you think...I'm just trying to draw objects as they are. Also...do you guys use templates a lot?...is that sort of cheating? Anyways here they are...also I think I am starting to understand the perspective idea...I am going to buy a few of the recommended books on it...this is so much fun.

Attachment 90541

Attachment 90542

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[gekitsu]

hey mcm
i have a tip for the cylindrical hollow objects you are painting:

the shadowline on the outside works pretty well. it's like a vertical on the outer surface.
the inner shadow line, though you draw at a strange angle. so it looks like it is a bit concave on top but not like a jar orr anything like that.
try to get the inner shadowline like a vertical on the surface, too. just the inner surface, not the outer one.

hope that made sense

[Death.By.Pencil]

your energy is inspiring and improvement is great. keep on going

[MindCandyMan]

September 24th
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Death.By.Pencil - Thanks so much for the encouragement I really appreciate it.

Gekitsu - Thanks for always giving me tips and encouraging me. It helps so much...I am still painting Gekitsu cubes hehe.

You guys help keep me going. I was up really late last night doing homework (of course after I painted and sketched hehe) so it's good to get encouragment to keep going...especially now since I can't really draw anything cool hehe...just household items...etc. Well last night I tried but both my painting and my sketch came out really crappy. I still finished them though and will try again tomorrow night. Hopefully things will get better hehe...I am fumbling through painter's interface at this point so it makes it hard for me...but I will learn it eventually.

Ok here is painting number 11...I was trying to get the shading to fall on the second cube...I realized after I finished that the front of the blue cube should be way darker than it is...cause it would be in shadow...it turned out really really crappy but here it is (I definitely took a step back last night hehe):

Attachment 90544

Here are two sketches I did last night as well...the first one was of this bowl that had these spiral divets in it...I had no idea how to draw that...I tried but it looks really bad. The second picture is just a cube that I purposefully did really quick in like 1-2 minutes to just try to learn light, perspective, etc...

Attachment 90545

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[MindCandyMan]

September 25th
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Hey Everybody...Once again thanks for the constant encouragement I am just moving along here...staying up late and drawing and painting hehe. I love my new wacom...I picked up painter 7 too which is awesome. I am really loving it. Last night I really wanted to focus on getting the concept down for perspective. I really want to nail that down because I feel like (I'm assuming) that if I don't nail that down now then I will pay for it later. At any rate here is the sketch I did last night and I am going to paint it...I want to take my time on this painting so I painted part of it...I am gonna finish it tonight...check these out...I guess I had dali on the mind...weird huh.

Attachment 90547

And I am going to try to paint it...

Attachment 90548

[Dark_Crystal]

nice work, The perspective looks much better in these.
Maybe you could try ruling the perspective lines?

Cool idea with the ground melting as well

[MindCandyMan]

September 26th
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Dark_Crystal - Thanks so much for the feedback...I thought I had the perspective lines right when I started drawing but I messed them up hehe...but I just completed the drawing anyways. I will definitely use a ruler next time. Hey can anyone help me understand how to calculate the shadows...I am having a really hard time understanding it for some reason. I went to that website on perspective but I am still having trouble understanding what lines and from where to draw them...thanks.


Well here is last nights work...I am still working on finishing the painting of that double cube picture...it isn't turning out the greatest but I just want to finish it...we'll see how it turns out.

This first one was sort of an experiment with strokes...I wanted to see how different strokes would change the conception of how the foliage looked.

Attachment 90549

This was just a sphere for practice and to try to achieve the "apogee" effect.

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This was an apple that I did last night...I was using the seegmiller tutorial on his website as a reference but I didn't do it exactly as he said...but close.

Attachment 90551

[MindCandyMan]

September 27th
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Hi All,
I have to post these early...I am shooting a short scene for submission to the contest "project greenlight" tonight so I will be busy for like 7-8 hours (will be up all night hehe). So I wanted to post early (early in my time zone at least). Thanks for all the constant encouragement everybody...you keep me going. I am having a blast drawing and painting all this stuff. Ok don't make me cry... At any rate here is my new drawing and "painting"...I did them totally in painter...sketch and all. The original sketch was from a reference sketch in a drawing book that I bought.

Attachment 90554

I tried painting into this one...didn't work out at all...Oh well...gotta try right.

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[NoonThirty]

Hey MindCandyMan, I just wanted to say that I think it's absolutely great what you're doing here. I wish more people were willing to pursue a goal with the kind of courage and positive attitude you obviously have.

I can scarcely believe you've only been doing this since September 15th. And with no formal training! Maybe you don't realize it, since you're posting on this board so full of skilled artists and you haven't been able to compare your work to other beginners, but you've reached a point in two weeks that it takes most people months or even years to reach.

I do have a little general advice for you:

Try not to dismiss your own work. I think it's counterproductive. I mean, of course you should evaluate your stuff as honestly as you can, and identify problems to work on, but don't be reductive. Try not to say "this sucks" or "I was trying to do thus-and-so, but totally botched it." Even in a piece that doesn't accomplish what you intended, you should be able to find a few things you did well. Look for those things and remind yourself of them when you're self-critiquing. No drawing is a complete train wreck. Hope this helps!

Keep posting! I think I speak for a lot of beginners and intermediate artists (and perhaps even some of the pros?) when I say that your progress has an inspiring effect on others.


Noon:30

[gekitsu]

i feel he won't stop practising until he ownz us all
i wish i had that energy...

[killing.people]

such engery and passion for drawing you have!
-Change the Light Source and you need a new shadow-



you must define the shadows vanishing point, and the lights vanishing point.

the light's vanishing point is the source or center of the light. you must realize that in real life not all light has a center that it radiates from, with perspective they try to generalize the concepts - for an easier way to apply measurement to a picture as well as to make it simpler to understand. in this image it shows a box in to point pespective. it shows the lights origin and its base/position. think of it like a spot light.

the shadow's vanishing point defines the distance of the spotlight - or its placement on the ground. this point marks how far left and right the light is and how far forward and back the spot light is being placed. if it where the sun it would be all the way back as far as you could see - on the horizon line.

the light's vanishing point[/i] defines how tall your spot light is.

when drawing a casted shadow think of the light's vanishing point as your eye - you are filling the areas the light can see with light. think about where the shadow will start (the edge of the object), and where the edge will be projected (whatever is blocking the straight path/beam of light.)

now i think you should have more practice in perspective drawing and get used to perspective drawing all together before you jump into shadows, but if you want to lurk with in the shadows try it with one point perspective to keep it simple.

well i gave it a try and yeah! it is crazy hard, its not even fun.
i will try another in the future and try to make it more readable.

what a pain that was! goood luck!

i hear this is a good book:
perspective made easy: by ernest norling

-kill

[Dark_Crystal]

again, great work Noon Thirty said it all.
as for shadows in perspective the only thing I can say is have a go. It definitely took me several goes before I began to understand it, and I still having problems using it.

[MindCandyMan]

Hi All,
I gotta post this quickly...I am editing some footage my crew and I shot last night for project greenlight. I will post some quick drawings I did throughout the weekend...I have been drawing and painting everyday and I just wanted to let everyone know that I read all your responses and I will reply in detail tomorrow. Here are some scanned in images (I will post my paintings, etc... from the weekend tomorrow).

This first one was done in 5 minutes...I wanted to stretch that part of my brain.

Attachment 90556

This one was done in about 45 seconds of a man sitting on a side rail thing at the train station. I will post more later...thanks.

Attachment 90557

[killing.people]

great job, i love the guy chillin on the railing that looks like quality study. your positive enthusiasim is contaigious.

-killing

[MindCandyMan]

September 29th
__________________

WOW---ok first off I am floored by the positive responses I have been getting.

Noon 30 - Wow thanks so much for that encouragement. It is great to have someone around to encourage you because I can only draw silly things like cubes and trees right now to learn the basics so it can be a little frustrating...and you are right about seeing the amazing artists on here hehe...although I will say that I am the type of person who sees someone with a whole bunch of skill and it just drives me harder till I can attain their level. And there is always someone better so that's what keeps me going. Also...that is definitely a good call on not "busting on your own material". You are right...I shouldn't minimize it. I should learn from it but not dog it. Again thanks so much for the encouragement...3 weeks and still going strong haha.

Gekitsu - Thanks for the ever constant encouragment. I am your student and your cubes have taught me well hehe ... and you are exactly right...I am going to practice till I own Jon Foster, and till Justin Sweet says, "Man that guy is good". That is...unless my hands get chopped off or something. That's up to God though. Hehe...thanks again for the encouragement.

Killing.People - Wow thanks so much for going the extra mile and helping me out...I know it's a pain to get the links for all those pictures and stuff like that but I want you to know that it is helping TREMENDOUSLY...I am really benefiting from your input. BTW...I love the portrait that you have as your avatar right now...the colors are awesome. Thanks again.

Dark_Crystal - Thanks for always keeping up with me and for dropping me tips. It's also good to know that someone else struggles with perspective as well. Thanks for all your encouragement.

...sorry for the delayed posting...I have been editing a short film together for days on end...man I am beat...but of course I found time for drawing and painting hehe. I bought a bunch of new supplies too today so I can have more options when sketching (2b-8b, etc...). Here is a medicine bottle that I painted on my wacom in painter 7...I will post more tomorrow as well.

[MindCandyMan]

September 30th
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Hey Everybody...just wanted to post these sketches up...I wanted to do more of that "quick sketching technique" to try to learn what shapes make up everything and also to quickly look at the light and just try to duplicate it. The first one was in the subway while I was waiting for a train (my wife was sitting in front of me) I don't know how long it took me...probably like 15 minutes maybe less I can't remember...the second one was done in literally like 30 seconds...The guy was a little husky that's why the shapes look like that and he was reading the paper. I am just gonna leave my medicine bottle painting up cause that's only been posted for a little while.

Attachment 92110

Attachment 92111

***Below is for everyone who hasn't seen my previous posts***
__________________________________________________
________
Hi Everyone,
If you didn't see my last post(s) on www.conceptart.org then I will bring you up to speed. Basically I have been inspired by the art produced and the work ethic of Jon Foster, Andrew Jones, Jason Manley, and my brother "Smeagol71" (among many others) and have decided to learn how to paint (primarily digitally). I am starting from rock bottom and I am going to paint at least one painting and do at least one sketch every day...probably two on the weekends. The order you see them in is the order that I am painting and/or sketching them...every day starting on 9/15/02. I am bearing my soul to everyone. I will post everything I do...whether it is awful or not. Most of the paintings and sketches, in the beginning, are going to look like crap but hopefully over the days/weeks/months/years they will start to get better. I have no formal art training but have signed up for classes this semester. I have a passion to paint and welcome any encouragement or critique that you want to give. Any feedback you want to give me you can leave in the threads I or just email me.
Thanks

[franz]

Hey, I'm in a similar situation (beginner, but very eager to learn) and I'd love to see your images.. only they won't load

[MindCandyMan]

October 1st
_______________

Franz: Hey thanks for checking out my images...sorry they weren't loading for you. I have them uploaded to an image hosting website and for some reason that website goes down for like 15-30 minutes on some days. I think they might be restarting the server or something. Everything was working for me when I logged on this morning so I guess everything is ok now. You can try back again and hopefully they will be working when you log on. Sorry about that.


Hey Everybody...got a couple from last night...one was a sketch of a tree stump and the other was a flower that I did in painter 7. I tried to follow the script in painter 7 for the flower but it went way too fast...so I kind of did my own thing...hope you like it.

Attachment 92112

Attachment 92113

***Below is for everyone who hasn't seen my previous posts***
__________________________________________________
________
Hi Everyone,
If you didn't see my last post(s) on www.conceptart.org then I will bring you up to speed. Basically I have been inspired by the art produced and the work ethic of Jon Foster, Andrew Jones, Jason Manley, and my brother "Smeagol71" (among many others) and have decided to learn how to paint (primarily digitally). I am starting from rock bottom and I am going to paint at least one painting and do at least one sketch every day...probably two on the weekends. The order you see them in is the order that I am painting and/or sketching them...every day starting on 9/15/02. I am bearing my soul to everyone. I will post everything I do...whether it is awful or not. Most of the paintings and sketches, in the beginning, are going to look like crap but hopefully over the days/weeks/months/years they will start to get better. I have no formal art training but have signed up for classes this semester. I have a passion to paint and welcome any encouragement or critique that you want to give. Any feedback you want to give me you can leave in the threads I or just email me.
Thanks

[cmortier2002]

Great, now I want also to learn drawing ... :mad:

Ok, you've convince me, I will learn ...

[MindCandyMan]

October 2nd
_________________

cmortier2002 - That's great...definitely start learning to draw/paint and just go out with boldness. I would definitely push yourself in the beginning hard as well because, I don't know if you are like me but I like to see results. So I keep pushing myself until I see results. I have already seen some improvement for me and it has just been 2 1/2-3 weeks of me drawing and painting. But the key is doing it everyday I think...no matter what time of day or not I make sure to do a painting and a drawing every day. Andrew Jones inspired me to do that with his portrait posts. So yeah definitely start doing it and post your work up and you and I can compare notes. :nod:

Pretty soon hopefully we will evolved into full fledge Conceptartorgians....and we can kick the poo out of pooeaters. :evilbat:

Ok Everybody...here is my latest drawing...I was having problems transferring my painting files from last night to my zip disk...I am gonna post them when I get home but I will post my sketch now...it's of a squirrel in two position I used a reference sketch when I did this. Here ya go:

[Oblio]

Me beginer too.
Some day we will kick big butt!

Oblio

[cmortier2002]

I just buy a graphic tablet... and started drawing with it, and see that I really need practice... anyway, this is not a Wacom tablet...

I don't beleive it, I can finaly draw a circle, it was impossible with a mouse...

[MindCandyMan]

October 3rd
____________________

Oblio - Thanks so much for your encouragment. That is absolutely right! Someday we will kick major butt! And the harder we work...the sooner we will get there! :clapping2

cmortier2002 - That's awesome that you have a tablet! I know what you mean...it is the greatest thing when you don't have to draw with your mouse anymore heheh...luckily I only had to draw with my mouse for a little while before I got one...but on the other hand...my brother paints a lot with his mouse and he does really good...but he definitely prefers a stylus and a wacom tablet. Keep it going! Keep practicing.

Alright here is the painting and sketch from yesterday...I revisited that medicine bottle theme cause I wanted to try it again cause it was fun...my sketch was of my hand (Yes I'm married and I'm only 22 hehe...my wife is awesome). Hope you like 'em.

Attachment 92117

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[NoonThirty]

It's clear from these pieces that you've kept your momentum going.

Good color choices on the ink bottle. The cool/warm contrast really makes it pop.

Hands are really complex forms, so they can be tricky. You've done a good job of keeping the proportions in line. A couple of things to look for in the future: If you look closely, I think you'll see that the knuckles on the back of the hand don't have wrinkles on them the way the knuckles on the fingers do. Those first knuckles are defined by rather subtle tent-like shapes of tendons running over bones. (Hope this makes sense.)

In my experience, beginners seem to want to put the first knuckles way up where the fingers separate. You've avoided that, which is good. But I think they should probably be even a little farther down from where you have them. On my hands, anyway, the webbing where the fingers separate is a good 1/3 or more along the first phalanges.

I did a little excercise a while back where I traced the outline of my hand on the paper as if I were making a kindergarten turkey cutout (remember those?) and then made myself render the tones inside without using any further line. I found it very helpful. (I'd post it if only I had a scanner.)

I hope this helps. Great work as always, MCM. Stick with it!


Noon:30

[cmortier2002]

MindCandyMan : Thanks for the encouragements.

I've tryed to paint a tree with my new tablet, here is what i've done with it:

[MindCandyMan]

October 4th
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Noon:30 - Hey Thanks for the constant encouragement man. I really appreciate it! It helps to get tips too because I am not in an art program yet so I have to just learn from you guys or from my brother. It's funny cause I actual did that "Thanksgiving Turkey outline" as well. I didn't have enough time to add the shading but hey great minds think alike right hehe. You are absolutely right about the webbing going up further...definitely. I need to pay closer attention!!!! hehe. Good tip about the knuckles too...it's funny cause you look at your hand and you think you "see" it...but your brain isn't trained to see things like an artist...that's a process I guess...and I am not stopping hehe.

cmortier - Thanks for posting your stuff man!!!! That's great that you are putting your nose to the grind and drawing with your tablet...here are the tips I would give you.

Draw the same exact tree that you posted this time. Don't draw the landscape or the sky or clouds or anything like that. Just draw the tree. Don't put any leaves on the tree either. Draw the tree and make some branches coming off of the top. When you draw the tree pick a light source...say it's coming from the right side of the tree...the right side of the tree will be a lighter brown than the left side of the tree because the right side is in direct line of the sun. Try to define the light and dark areas. Also I would practice drawing with a pencil as well. To paint well one needs to be able to draw well. Try to think about it not in terms of "where do I draw the lines that make this tree"...think about it in terms of ...where is there a lack of light...I should make that area darker...and in nature...nothing is usually Black and then pure white...light reflects off of everything and everywhere...capturing the way light works is the key to everything. Hope that helps...I would post some stuff in some other forums with experienced artists as well and get their feedback cause I am new like you! Thanks for posting...keep up the hard work! Here are some links that might help with visualizing the idea of that tree. The first one is just so you can see the leaves...look at the leaves...see the black mingled in there...and the whiter highlights...if you want to do leaves study that and see if you can emulate it.

http://ww4.bhg.com/default.sph/garde...arch_html___29

http://homepage.mac.com/jguzy/trees/bogayTreeA.html



Well for my "digital imaging" class...photoshop, illustrator, etc... my teacher announced that this weekend we have to do 3 self portraits! I got scared to say the least hehe. Oh man..."I couldn't even draw squirrels last night how can I draw myself"....I thought to myself. Well here's my 22nd drawing and first self portrait ever.