I have been around as a lurker for a while, posted a few things in doodle thread, and figured I start one of these things. Took to heart a lot of the advice around here (draw from life etc) so here I go.
I guess my whole point for posting up here is to improve. I would like to go to school for sequential or concept art. I've doodled my whole life, margin art on homework, drawing funny pictures about coworkers, never really tried to get better. So here I am
Inspirations (in no particular order):Shaun HealeyGenndy TartakovskyTsutomu NiheiDan PaladinALSO Bill WattersonGiannis Milono?
You can't really tell but theres a lot of graphite all over these. I tend to get a rough shape and go around the picture lightly erasing the image as I go and refine it. crits welcome
Kawasaki ZX6R WIP
Reference
My M4 WIP
My Backpack
I started this one, went off to the latrine, and someone had moved my bag, and I never quite got it back to a position I was satisfied with, so I called it quits.
EDIT: what can I do to keep the paper from being so light? You can't see some of the lines very well after scanning them
Posts
Progress
All I have left are the wheel areas and the liscence plate holder on the back. At this point I got so much graphite on the paper that Its hard to do any type of shading or w/e... it just makes a mess
And to be fair, it is the perspective of the photograph that I'm going off of
Here's a couple of examples of you should look for in a reference photo:
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs7/i/2005/162/7/2/Motorcycle_by_PavSys.jpg
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/photogallerys/Honda_CB350_4_5.jpg
http://www.product-reviews.net/wp-content/userimages/2007/08/triumph-motorcycles.jpg
Here's a WIP from last night, a stack of broken bunks outside my room. Took like 45 minutes before it got dark and I couldn't see anymore. Sorry for the crazy high contrast, the scan makes the graphite so light, its so much darker on paper.
Hands
I suck at shading and blending. Suggestions?
Try drawing your lines in longer strokes, instead of sitting making one long line out of several small nudgy lines. Try drawing longer, thinner and lighter lines and vary the thickness in them too. Use your whole hand too, then you'll make some lovely curved forms.
IDK If I did a very good job of using longer lines. Sketches from today.
www.stplmstr.deviantart.com
OMG! No wae!!!
I played around with the scanning software for a bit and found where to darken the image and uploaded moar contrasty versions for your viewing pleasure.
Also moar sketches
moar dewdles
Definitely not using computer paper. Though I think I'll stay away from it now that you've put that out there.
blehh.... I'm bored
the doodle on the left looks like way more fun than the drawing on the right. Had it been refined a bit more i think id would've been a better drawing. The linework is way more interesting on that one.
You know, I thought so too, but the one on the left I whipped out in seconds, and I have no idea what I did differently Suggestions?
Last night ...
Edit: So i did some sketches this morning in pen and dry erase marker. I have a different (line variation, confident lines) when Im not using pencil. I'm not really grasping the concept of line variation with pencil...
Please help
some crappy dewdles
all of these faces have structure issues, especially top center.
I always hear about people who draw well that drawing is "like writing" to them, that form and structure is like spelling a word.
I have a long way to go
This is a problem i seriously struggled with for a long time. The difference between what i sketched and what i considered to be a finished drawing was too big. My sketches had more fun and energy than my "real drawings".
What helped me was realising that there shouldn't be a big difference between sketches and drawing. That it wasn't necessary to sketch, pencil and ink like some kind of marvel comics factory to have your stuff look good. I now try to refine drawings instead of copying them for the sake of it.
Only copy your drawings when you want to improve them since trying to transfer/ copy them usually just makes them worse (for me, at least).
Another thing that really helped me loosen up my drawings is switching to bigger paper (i now only sketch on A3 -> The freedom!!) and a regular 2b / 4b pencil instead of a scratchy 0.2 hb2 mechanical pencil. DOn't know if this works for everyone, but i know it helped me improve.
edit: and about the line variation with pencil: i found i was happier with my regular wooden pencils (2B or 4B) and sharpening them with a knife instead of a sharpener to get some character in there. Again, this may not neccessarily be universal advice, but it was a big step for me and i had a comparable problem.
www.stplmstr.deviantart.com
and this is some of the trash I was talking about. Was doing studies of the loomis head bizness. Also, I think figured out where the design of Slave One came from.
(that kid is WAY too excited about baseball...)
Having fun sketching from film noir references.
Nice quote.
Success.
Also why?
Some moar stuff. Haven't drawn in over a week. Need to find some inspiration.
doodles
So I did these last night, and after about an hour, looked back at what I did and realized I don't know shit. I can't shade, I have no line variation, and I can't draw a goddamn circle
Need feedback pluz, and help
That sphere in the middle looks pretty good to me. I'm afraid my feedback would be pretty useless since I'm at about the same skill level if not less so, but my best advice is to keep at it. I think the quality that is most useful to an artist is not creativity, rock-steady-hands or 20/20 vision, but rather perseverance... good 'ole fashioned stick-to-it'veness. It's not an easy quality to develop, but it is essential.
What helps me sometimes when I'm feeling down is to browse MindCandyMan's Journey of an Absolute Rookie it's inspiring to watch him go from an absolute rookie to an absolute master.
Also sometimes I'll browse Deviant Art to look up people's improvement memes and see that even great artists have to start somewhere.
Then after you're done browsing...
Draw. Keep drawing. And never stop drawing!
Thats the mindset I had when I left the states, one drawing AT LEAST a day. I've been keeping up with that (other than a few busy days) I guess I just need to keep doing that. It sucks so hard when you want to make some big elaborate illustration and youre stuck making goddamn circles and cubes X(((