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Ninjai doesn't react well to bulletsch (nsfw)
ninjai
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey guys, haven't been around much, have drawn even less frequently. Got me an office job now with lots of downtime so I'll be doodling every now and again and I'll post it here for feedbacks. Still struggling with the whole "confident lines" thing.
These are all guys from the class I had to take as well as my impression of them :P
These are some dicky doodles I did the other day. I couldn't get good pictures of them...
[edit] I recut the first one so that it reads right... i hope...
These are all guys from the class I had to take as well as my impression of them :P
These are some dicky doodles I did the other day. I couldn't get good pictures of them...
[edit] I recut the first one so that it reads right... i hope...
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The sequential art is hard for me to read. I can't appreciate much at the small size, but from what I can tell the visual hierarchy is a bit unnatural.
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
Yeah the sequential stuff was drawn because I happened to have paper and I ran out of space so I made do with whatever happened.
Here's some stuff I did today.
More farcry 2 playing I guess... This was just before I posted my "I'm bored" in chat.
IDK if you can read it... there really has to be a better way of doing this.
Also I am bad at comicking
The best thing to do would be to tape the loose pages to a wall and get two lights on them. Even with a crappy camera and desk lamps, the photos will come out better. With the sketch book it will be a little harder, but you can put it on a flat surface and shoot from directly above it.
Yes. This is how I recall the events in [chat]
Is the image quality any better?
Edit
Fuck I've regressed quite a bit as an artist... Either that or im just lazy
I can still get the basic form of the body if I do the forms before the drawing, but that always leads to sloppy messes. I guess I'll start there.
Any other feedback would be nice.
the "mike" one looks fucked up like the van goh self portrait. idk why it turned out like that
edit: I think I'm missing one, but its out in the car....
fuck it
MADNESS!? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS!?
Here's some other stuff. And thanks Mustang
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
Here's another guy. Old dude smoking cigar
I took this photo like 20 times and every time it got blurrier... idk what the deal is. I'll try to retake it tomorrow.
Anyway, I really like the playfulness of your stuff, very fun and not afraid to be cheesy.
So I finally got so fed up with my lead breaking that I just went out to our local art store and bought a lead holder. I'm liking it so far. I did the comic down there with it.
The cap is a sharpener
The guy there was talking to me about blue pencil and bristol paper, markers n shit. I don't think I'm ready for all that yet. I still need to draw good :C
This is about a guy that never stops talking.
I don't know if you guys remember pineappleherb but I love that guys stuff, and I want to do LIKE THAT. He's been a huge inspiration to me in the past.
Question: Drawing from life, in person say... on that first one I posted up there... (several attempts at writing this sentence...)
I don't really know how to word that. I guess what I'm saying is I'm bad at drawing people or things when they've moved... am I missing something.
The best thing would be to switch up the short sketching of people with longer, pointed figure studies. If you have a friend you can actually ask to sit still, that may do. If you cant do that, try going at it after you've done some studying in anatomy books, and go into it with a goal ( "I'm going to study the planes of the face") For the most part, accept that you will probably only get a minute or two with a standing person, or maybe 5 minutes with a sitting, reading person, and take advantage of the time.
This is my favorite airport activity, so I've got strategies, haha.
I haven't had a chance to get down to the studio that does the figure drawing sessions in a while (a. money, b. new job/still getting used to schedule. Today I work from 4 am til 11, then going back in from 7pm til 2 am loolololololololol o_o)
So here's some more stuff.
Actual conversation... that happened. (sorry for the blurry)
I did this one to illustrate how a human form can be made using basic shapes.
I found this!
pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php
It cycles through photos of men/women, nude/clothed, and lets you set a time limit as to how long you want to spend per photo. (there are also timed lessons, set up like studio's with breaks thrown in, as well as animal photos with the same type of time parameters, though I haven't tried any of those yet)So far these are some of the 2 minute studies I've done using that website.
It's also my first time drawing foliage.
This is as far as I got before my meter ran out.
I learned a good lesson about being comfortable when you draw. I was not comfortable. And got eaten by bugs the whole time.
By my count that's at least 23 minutes.
Or maybe a 3DS!
I'm not sure I understand the intent of this suggestion. I have been under the impression from things I've seen all over this forum that unless you have a practical skill to begin with, color and medium just get in the way (specifically digital)...
Smokin a cigar, drawing other people who were smoking cigars.
from the top left, Max, Russ, Kieth, Steve, Dave
goddamn lopsided ears
I'm at that point where I don't even know how to communicate areas that I'm struggling in because I'm out of my depth. I can just keep doing gestures and faces and stuff, but to what end I don't know.
Out @ rendezvous again, having a cigar and a drink. My very cute redhead friend joined us this time.
Again, terrible lighting. It was very hard to see...
I showed this to the barhop, she's an oil painter, pretty good, and she seconded what Godfather said about starting up with some color, maybe pastels or something...
I don't know jack shit about any of that.
I'm not even very good with pencil... just look at that up there!
30 second gestures
Combo 1-5 minutes
10 minutes
Holy shit. I did that.
For this I drew out the shadow shapes that were there along with darker shadow shapes. I filled them in and at the end of the 30 minutes I blended everything together and did some cleaning up. I could have kept cleaning this thing for another 20 minutes but I cut myself off and posted what I had.
There are a few benefits to working in other mediums that may benefit your learning process. Color is a beast on its own, but paint can be used for monochromatic purposes. Its great if you are learning to build up form with light, and has a totally different feel if you haven't ventured into it before. I watch some time lapse videos of people painting to help guide you.
wait whadda?
Thanks iruka. The reason I haven't done painting much is cost of supplies and my unfamiliarity with them. I walk down the aisles and have no idea what im looking at or looking for.
Plus it's a mess...
You can but a small set of Utrecht Paints for low costs. Remember you dont have to have every color on the wall for painting. Pallets can just White, Black, yellow ochre, A few shades of Umber, blue and red, Maybe 7 or 8 tubes in all. You could probably get by with even less for experimenting.
A thing from Girlchan In Paradise, a hilarious animated series parodying shitty anime. (episodes 2 and 3 are fucking hilarious)
Drawing today I guess if you want to call it a drawing.
1. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR WARMUP GESTURES!!!
2. Perspective is haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard.
3. Dudes are haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard.
4. I have no idea how to use these.
5. You can spend literally forever on a drawing and make no progress. (see photo #2)
I don't know if this is good or not. I spent forever rendering the dudes arm and felt like I made no progress.
photoreference
Yeah, I kinda do that. I get compliments at open mic's and from friends that play music that I'm great at guitar, or from other people who have done art for a long time and the see the stuff I did the other day and say I'm good at it... I take the compliment, but I really don't agree with it at all because I come on here and see ikage, bacon, iruka, fug, tam and the like all doing fantastic shit that I can't even comprehend where I'm at. And that's just a sub-forum on a niche website, we aren't even talking about Bob Ross.
The same applies for everything else at the same time though. In a conversation about women today, we were talking about women you meet at bars or in public wherever, and I mentioned that the competition is better looking than I am and probably better dressed and this guy says "you must have a fucking terrible self-image." Said I dress well and look just fine... The issue is I do, and I don't know if that's a bad thing. To me I'm just being honest with myself.
It's like if you tune into the auditions for American Idol back in the day and you would see these fucking hacks audition that actually believed that they could win, yet they had no idea what they were doing and sounded like shit. Is it worth it to me to improve my self-image if it isn't accurate?
edit: I've even had people come to me infuriated and offended that I view my talents so poorly because they can't do what I do and they've struggled at it for years... I don't want to upset them, but it's a side-effect.
Charcoal Rendering Tutorial
Here is some insight my world of charcoal rendering. Below is the reference photo, a good study for light and shadow. I will discuss how I draw it, step by step.
Quite predictably, I start with a simple line drawing. I make sure to keep the penciling very light though, so it does not interfere with the delicate charcoal work to be put down. Usually, I make it even lighter than this, but have darkened it for your benefit. You can always lighten it with a kneaded eraser, which by dabbing and rolling on the surface, will remove excess graphite (I generally don't bother with that). It looks a little odd, because I have outlined every single area of shadow. This is to be a road map for filling in the important shades and gradients.
Next, I take my stick of compressed charcoal, and pick any pitch-black area, and just fill it in. This serves 2 purposes: to color an area that needs it, but maybe more importantly, gives me a nice patch of dark charcoal to use like a painter would use a palette. More on that later. Compressed charcoal is the stuff that gives you such nice darks. You may be saying "I have all this vine charcoal. What should I do with it?" Take it and flush it down the toilet. There is no use for it here. Not with these methods, at least. It is just far too malleable, and does not carry any weight.
For most of the drawing, these are really the only things you'll need. Compressed charcoal pencil and some tortillions. I personally like the small ones, but that's just me.
Now, like I was getting at earlier, swoosh the thing around on the patch of charcoal, picking some up. Like getting paint on a brush. This is what you'll be "coloring" with.
See? Just smudge it onto the page, and it comes off nicely. This gives you an incredible amount of control over tone. You can try a variety of stroke-types too. I generally just do lots of little swirls.
To get even finer tones, take a completely clean tortillion, and work with the charcoal you just put down. Blend it into the white, for some very light tones.
And of course you'll need an eraser. If you don't have one of these clickable erasers, you must follow my instructions very carefully. Take your right hand, and extend it away from your body. Now briskly slap it across your face. Get one of these! They're cool. They last a long time, and you can sharpen them, or cut with an exacto to get a nice sharp edge. Now, a lot of people complain that you cant erase compressed charcoal. Well, you can if you apply it the way I've just shown. Comes off real nice. And you can cut nice marks into your shades, like very thin lines of white for individual hairs reflecting light, etc.
I should note that it is convenient to keep three different torti's on hand, one dark, one medium, and one almost new. After use, the dark one becomes worn out, the medium one becomes dark, and the light one becomes medium. You grab another off the pile for a new light one. It is the cycle of life.
Ok, I begin applying this to the features, filling in my line work, but more importantly, still observing the reference like hell, to make sure I get the tones right.
Another conventional problem with compressed has been that it is tough to do very light, subtle work. If you do it this way, the problem is just the opposite. Fine detailed light work is easy, but keeping things dark enough can be a problem. Because as you keep working the surface, the more charcoal gets spread around and diluted, and the lighter it gets. So now and then, you'll have to go around and darken up the darkest darks. That is, in part, what the pencil is for. (obviously it's also for really fine dark lines, like eyelashes, etc.)
Keep applying more tone, making sure the RELATIVE tones are correct. Your grays should look right in relation to others you've put down already, and not necessarily relative to the white of the page. (the white is left there for only the most shocking lights).
Continue darkening.
I find myself working on the right side details, and as I am left handed, need a paper to keep from smudging. You'll note that in the beginning I filled a big black area on the RIGHT side, for this very reason. Also, the oil from your hands and fingers can have a seriously detrimental effect on your ability to later control the tones on those areas. Just try to remember that if you are ever inclined to smudge with fingers (which I never do, for this type of work at least).
Keep chugging away at the face...
Mostly done the face here. There is really not much more to do. A lot of it is trivial, like filling in the pitch blacks on the suit and the background (which can be very dangerous to all the work you've just done. Caution is advised.)
Here is the finished product. I simply filled in the background with some rough dark patches. A slightly less formal tone than was used with the features, I think makes for a nice playful composition. And note, like I said earlier, doing this is very dangerous, rubbing all that soot so close to your precious delicate rendering. I just hope you have the sense God gave geese to blow the excess dust AWAY from your drawing.
And here is a blowup of the detail.
And here's one more that I thought was cool. It was the first shot I took, where I left the flash on accidentally. It highlights the difference between the two charcoal instruments I used, both the pencil, and the bare stick. Now, both are forms of compressed charcoal. But the pencil uses a harder kind, so it forms a better firm point. Thus it is reflective and has reflected the flash back at us, both for an interesting effect, and to educate you on the difference in quality. It gave me a very cool idea, that you could utilize the different types of charcoal to achieve pitch black effects from most angles, but when the light hits it right, shows us hidden textures, or other picture elements.