Drawing? Drawing.

Red_Arremer

Hey AC!

Art has become a chore the past few years, and I really want to have fun with it again and explore.

My favorite artist are Yoji Shinkawa, Ron Garney, Yusuke Nakano, Zdislaw Beksinski, Marko Djurdjevic, Albrecht Durer, Gustave Dore, Yoshitaka Amano...

My goals are to draw every day, and to have a finished piece every two weeks starting on the 31st. I'm bad at finishing things. I generally don't unless I'm doing it for someone else.

Right now I'm having trouble place figures in space and environments/scenes.














Currently listening to: Pine Away by Superdrag

MagicToaster

Welcome back! These are much better than what I could do.

Red_Arremer

Thanks. I'm trying to work on everything, but I'm also kind of in the dumps about the quality of my work. I'm having this terrible feeling of "it's too late to get better" and worrying about time constraints, other options, etcetera. I'm trying to draw every day and make it a part of my schedule because although I want to be an illustrator, if I think about the long term I get anxiety and doubts. If I think about today, I can have fun and improve on yesterday. My main goal right now is just learning how to create a scene/environments with figures, and above all to regain the sense of fun and creation and possibilities I had in high school in regards to drawing.

Iruka

Outside of having influences, are you seeking any outside instruction? We have a section of the forum you probably want to look at: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/categories/art-assignments-and-resources

These arent bad, if you keep hacking at it you'll move forward, but I think if you feel like you are in a rut it's a good time to think about grabbing some video courses. Focusing on your basics is hard, and I find having instruction gives you some motivation to drill down on it. I would look into Scott Robertsons books (how to draw/how to render) and think about doing some of the AC enrichments: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/196641/enrichment-directory#latest

Red_Arremer

Thanks Iruka! It's funny you mention that, because i just bought Scott Robertson's "How to Draw Environments and Objects from Imagination" (I think that's the title) and I was working on understanding the cone of vision yesterday. I'm finding it takes at least two books/sources to wrap my head around something, and Gwen White's "Perspective" book generally just does not have enough explanation and examples for me. I'm definitely going to try out the AC enrichments and assignments too. I'm also planning to take the Watts Atelier courses online, but I won't be able to do them until I find a job because of the monthly fee. Next sketchdump is Sunday.

Red_Arremer

I drew every day this week, so I'm happy about that, although I hate virtually everything I drew, so I'll have to work on that aspect. One of the things I'm frustrated with is my use of multiple sketchy lines to find one correct one, so that's something I'm going to focus on this week. Sorry for the fuzzy photos, I'll have to have more light next time.








blue pencil/ballpoint pen exercise from John Paul Lowe's "Foundations of Comic Book Art"



Value thumbnails

Red_Arremer

Worked on a project to draw my room. Started with a layout on grid paper, then a perspective grid I made in photoshop, a quick kind of crappy drawing based on that, and then took some time the next day making a more detailed and correct-ish blue pencil drawing. Penciled over it and scanned it, turned it into a blue line using photoshop, and inked it using a nib pen and ink. It was a fun process I used from "Foundations in Comic Book Art," but I definitely messed up a lot and learned from it. I practiced inking a little bit with one of my older drawings. Kind of disappointed with the results and missing a few days, but it's good inspiration to keep going. I want to try something else with pen and ink next.

Red_Arremer

Been working on this the past 3 weeks, which is 2 weeks longer than I wanted it to take. I learned a lot though, and it's good practice and inspiration to work at a more efficient, faster clip. I need a bigger scanner.

Red_Arremer

Hey. Had some depression issues but didn't stop drawing. Here are some finished pieces gals and dudes. Hope you like. I'm going to work on some Bridgeman/Loomis/Hogarth tomorrow.

Red_Arremer

Did these wedging/locking/overlapping figures from Bridgman. I can get into a bad habit of being really messy when I sketch figures because I'm thinking "I'm just trying to get it down and get a feel for it" and suddenly an hour in I'm like "most of these look like shit." A lot of it too is because I don't sketch enough. I tried finding what Bridgman was demonstrating in pics of models and it was pretty good practice. I also notice a lot of my stuff is really stiff on the first or second pass, and it's not until I draw something for the third time where it really starts to look right.

Red_Arremer

This week's work. Crit me up. I'm happy with what I got done but I need to do a lot more in a week. After seeing some of Flay's proko practices I checked some vids out. I'm really impressed by the quality of everything and I'm going to make my way through the figure drawing course. I had a lot of trouble with drawing the foreshortened spine and masses, and didn't insert the lumbar into the sacrum in a lot of studies. The male figure I did before looking at any of the spine videos, and the female I did after practicing on the spine for 2 days; her hips are a little wide but I felt like it came together easier than the male. I still don't feel like I have a great grasp on the spine and the masses, but it's slightly better. All of my marks are really sketchy and messy right now, especially stuff drawn on the tablet, which I've just started getting used to, and I'm focusing on cleaning it up.

I'm trying to do some enrichments/assignments and I definitely need a lot of work on color theory. The color study thumbnails were really fun to do and surprisingly relaxing once I got into the flow of it. I did color pick from my reference photos; is that frowned upon? I tried eyeballing a few of them and they ended up being wildly different than what they actually were. I'll try again after a few more color studies.

Red_Arremer

More art. Crits appreciated!

Red_Arremer

More works and sketches! As always crits appreciated. Up to about 20 hours a week now but it's not consistent and I'm not producing a lot of finished stuff, mostly just proko practice and single object still life sketch. Just started the Watt's Drawing classes and planning on getting the proko anatomy courses when I have the money. Sorry for the bad quality in some of the images; I messed up editing their resolution.

Iruka

Hey Red.

I think that you are showing improvements. Its hard to crit sketches, but from post one in this thread to now, you can see some solid steps forward. carving out that time can be real hard, so I commend you for even doing that. Commitment goes a long way, and its not the easiest thing to just do.

Keep at it, man.

Red_Arremer

Thanks Iruka! Those words mean a lot. I'll keep on trucking.