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Sketches, Studies, and Stuff

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Posts

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Yesterday and Today's stuff:
    396599_mabelma_30-31dec.jpg

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Today's studies:
    397638_mabelma_1-6-2015.jpg

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Your rectangles are trapezoids on that last page, I assume its unintentional because the cylinder is also strangely slanted. Getting down the shape you intend is going to be a really important step. I also suggest mixing in some objects into your studies. Try drawing things on your desk, get the forms right, the shading right.

  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    Some of your drawings are so light that they're almost impossible to see. Maybe try scanning these with lower contrast/brightness, or lower the contrast/brightness in when you fix them (if you fix them afterwards)?

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Today's studies:
    398307_mabelma_more-studies-and-shit.png

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Those keys and nail clipper actually look pretty solid. Hard to say, it's pretty small, but that seems like the right path forward. The steps you are taking might feel painfully small right now, but I think you are already starting to see some improvement in areas. Keep analyzing your own work, taking notes is great! It helps you think, and help you look back on your mindset.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Yesterday and Today:
    398905_mabelma_1-12-2015.jpg

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Today:
    399937_mabelma_1-18-2015.jpg

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    The cactus in the pot is a bit wobbly. Pots, Vases, and bottles are way more difficult that people imagine, but they are great for practicing those ellipses. If you want to watch the sort of practice you are doing at work (or alternatively, be in awe of the fact that scott robertson might be a robot), check out this video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaZmwHU7vZo

    I do suggest getting his books, if you haven't, because his break down of the truly basic skills are really hard to find. He basically teaches good draftsmanship, which not alot of art classes and tutorials ever get into.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/b2c7d9d85f0ad1da07c1566da2942015
    http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/b8ab47b57084685e4ef1cda68ed882ca
    A couple of days of daily animating. Would appreciate your feedback.
    Challenges and Suggestions are welcome.

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    everything is moving to fast to really crit, but your walk cycles all look super janky. the morphs aren't too bad, but probably too fast to consume.

    Animation is an art of patience and tedium, a lot of the time. If you want to do exercises I suggest focusing your efforts on one really good walk cycle or bouncing object.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Working on a self-portrait. Would appreciate your feedback on it so far.0anv9xc9p9m6.jpg

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Hey!

    You've been working. That hand is looking more thought out and solid than the previous few pages of work, and that awesome.

    The pinky looks to be in an odd position. the palm of the hand seems like its receding quite a bit in space. It sort of suggests that the pinky resides very low on the hand, or is too crumpled. I cant seem to get my hand in that position with my phone. Overall, nice to see improvements in your forms!

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    edited June 2016
    Really happy you think that. Did some more work on it.
    xa4ffqyksfuv.jpg
    cqlsowhrmwv3.jpg
    smslgqtdfv4a.jpg

    I see what you mean about the pinky.

    Apologies for the huge pictures.

    Mabelma on
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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Close to moving on to the next thing:
    13321859_1567540746873843_5835320922614390969_n.jpg?oh=79bef454983080be408168e60ee35e8a&oe=5809E350

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Moving onto something else:
    13346569_1568082753486309_2639770423861175501_n.jpg?oh=c1a9230adad4d5b4faef441010479ab5&oe=57CC2420

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  • FlayFlay Registered User regular
    You're clearly putting in a lot of work, it shows!

    Rather than modelling all of the tones on whatever you're drawing at once, try simplifying them to their most basic form using only midtones, THEN adding a pass of darker tones and a pass of lighter tones.

    Here's an example of simplifying shadows

    39ca0ab35c5c6404896335a8b373a2c1.jpg

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Thank you tons for that, I have I think one more session of work on the Homer statue, so I'm definitely going to try doing that. Really appreciate the feedback and the words of encouragement.
    eumq4y9pftxv.jpg

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Going to be calling it done soon, but here's today's update. I tried what you said @Flay and it helped tons but it made me realize that my initial sketch was wrong in the placement of the head and the left side of Homer is a mess.
    13339602_1568903463404238_4717341765358859469_n.jpg?oh=da60452b95539df0f8e037a067a6976a&oe=57C40E21&__gda__=1477211807_692b5e59c32ab3abaa69e4abd43a0673

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  • LampLamp Registered User regular
    Good to see you're still at it. Anyway, some advice. You say you tried to simplify the shadows as Flay suggested, but you didn't go nearly far enough. Simplify them a lot, lot, LOT more. Squint, it'll help you separate the light from shadow.

    d89mg8uql2m6.jpg

    Block in the shadow shape as a flat graphic pattern, then go in and add some darker shadows where needed. Then finally you can add some highlights (maybe use some chalk since you're sketching on paper.) At that point you can also brush in a little bit of bounce light into the shadow -- a LITTLE bit. And pay attention to edge quality: shadows on rounded forms are soft, but cast shadows have hard edges. Squint, and simplify!

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Thank you tons for your feedback and the paint over @Lamp I did another still life, this time I tried doing what you mentioned, and I think it helped me a lot to sit down and work on one aspect of the shading at a time. Anyways, here's that:
    z1a19a4po3j5.jpg

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  • LampLamp Registered User regular
    edited June 2016
    Good effort, but you're still about 10,000 percent too concerned with drawing all the little details when you should be paying attention to the BIG forms.

    You've done studies of basic forms like spheres and cylinders. They're right here on this very page in fact, up there ^^^ .You know why you were doing those? Because those principles of light (form shadows, highlight, bounce light, cast shadows) are the same elements that you're going to apply to drawing EVERYTHING. Squint at your little cartoon figure as hard as you can so that all the little details of the face and clothes are lost. See those big forms? Draw those, FIRST, and don't even think about moving onto details until they are super, super solid. When you squint at your figure, you can see that the shadow side is a big dark shape, and the light side is a big light shape. So why in your drawing, is the value of the shadow side just about equal to the value of the light side? Squint! Then draw.

    I recognize that you're drawing with pencil, so getting big, smooth gradients isn't going to come as quickly as I can get it with a Photoshop brush. But if you really want to get your studies right and learn something from them, then you just need to put in the time. If it takes you four days to properly shade the sphere, then fine. Take four days. Cranking out quick studies that lack observation isn't going to help you grow in the long run at all.

    egcjydofy944.jpg

    Lamp on
  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Latest study:
    13418822_1570569909904260_3256491480911701436_n.jpg?oh=ea0d771dd0f7a625f576f8d60e17a162&oe=580F8E1B&__gda__=1477271321_31d18f7e75b9c62a36c2ea5247403958

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    It seems like you might be trying to turn your objects in space as you draw them (assuming that you are taking pictures that are relatively accurate to where you are sitting.) Try to, at first, make drawings that are relatively 1 to 1 with what you are seeing.

    Consider using all the tools at your disposal to your advantage. Take a picture of the object at the angle you plan to draw it at, draw guides on that.

    xdinqkcr28io.png

    Since you are trying to increase your accuracy, carefully measuring is very important. Homers face appears to be turned on the figure, but you are drawing him strait on in both parts. In real life, you can use your pencil to see these relationships as you look at the object:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzDGO0LssEM

    You can see that my little homer doodle is not incredibly accurate, I'm lacking for out of the box draftsmanship myself, even with guides. That aside, I can still get major forms down relatively quickly (that is about a 3 minute drawing). These exercises help you work on that ability. If I were to sit and observe the homer figure for 20 hours, the idea is to make your brain work very, very hard at seeing it accurately. The more you do it, the easier it is to apply the process to the next thing you try to draw.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    My latest study. Tried to apply everything that's been said so far.
    qienu6xuiyj4.jpg
    13445524_1571400223154562_3013377461542604286_n.jpg?oh=d393a2f2625240c6f00425f0de9f40f4&oe=57D7FC23&__gda__=1474265371_cd705550b0d6179534cc96557e8b70f1

    As a side note, I'm not sure the pictures from my phone are showing the lighting right, because from where I was sitting I could see a ton more variation of lights and darks.

    Have some time, check out my blog
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    You'll need to trust your eye over photos when it comes to light, it takes a lot of work to make a photo accurate. I think the structural guides helped you, but the final mug drawing seems wider, and the difficulty of foreshortening the handle seems to have messed with its shape. Try and take pictures art the exact angle you plan to draw them, it'll make your life easier.

    Overall I think that's a step forward though. Getting these boring 2d shapes right is a trial, but I think you're going to be really happy with the improvement you see if you stick with it. Hopefully some of our older critiques are also starting to make sense as you gain these new skills.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Starting a new study and I finished the initial 1-1 sketch, I want to get this one as right as possible so I figured I'd post these as I go along. Right now I think the most trouble I'm having with this one is the light, I'm not sure if I got the shadows right. The highlights are pretty obvious but the core shadows are giving me some trouble.

    9yhrugsanboh.jpg

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Go Slower. Less messy.

    Your guides are really thick, and that causes some of your measurements to be less precise. You may not have much confident in your strokes right now, but at least try and clean up as you go. No reason for that top rim of the glass, for instance, to be so messy. Keeping your initial sketches relatively clean will help you clarify and eliminate problems from the beginning.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Sketching:
    1ouu98f8iqkk.jpg

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Working on a portrait:
    8zr24pahxjyz.jpg

    wip1.jpg 158.4K
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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    wip 2ctqerd7k5xxs.png
    47dvkqgnlg2z.jpg

    wip2.jpg 482.2K
    wip.png 468.7K
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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Are you using photoshop? How big is this actual image that you are working on?

    You aren't doing a bad job but the rendering is very distracting right now. You are working from a photo with not-the-greatest lighting, but everything feels to harsh when it comes to the shading

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    @Iruka thanks for the feedback. Yes, I'm using photoshop.
    What would you recommend I do regarding the shading? Would more blending help this? Or should I try something else?

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  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Yeah, you want to soften everything. I don't have time to get super into it, you have all these choppy strokes everywhere which is very distracting, I would also go all in and eliminate your lines, try to match the values of your reference to describe the form.
    huwzxhtgx1j3.jpg

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Thank you very much for you feedback and your paintover @Iruka, going to be working on fixing up the things you mentioned later today. In the meantime I made a warm-up template of what I usually do everyday before I start drawing. I want to get better and faster digitally so I figured I could use this for that. Feel free to use it or pick it apart, my ultimate goal is to make a sheet with all sorts of exercises to help me get better daily while still being relatively simple to do daily without feeling burned out.

    I saw some light studies another user did, but I don't feel comfortable enough to make a part for light yet, as I don't think I've master that aspect enough yet. Also posting today's warm-up using the sheet.The ideas or exersices in this sheet are not mine, I got them from makingcomics.com [url=""][/url]
    jw14j2nzjmxt.jpg
    lo0n6mko6332.jpg

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Worked further on the portrait, having a ton of difficulty with the part that's "transparent", but I'm starting to understand the importance of softening.I had forgotten to answer before, the final portrait will be 14in*17in
    8r26du3hyyno.jpg

    wip3.jpg 458.5K
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  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    Much improved! I would probably indicate the chain on that necklace some. I thought grandma had a sick chest tattoo for a second.

  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    Thanks for the feedback, @Sublimus definitely going to go in and do that later today. In the meantime I expanded upon my warm-up sheet. I also wanted to post today's sheet. (I don't plan on posting it everyday, but I think seeing as the new addition is something I particularly struggle with, it might be good to post.)
    0zzaybzcpm3h.jpg
    qr4g61346xk3.jpg

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  • MabelmaMabelma Registered User regular
    An update on the portrait:5v5kia7mtsjr.jpg

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