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Sgt Carl's Sketch Book Project: Day 3 and 4

Sgt CarlSgt Carl Registered User regular
edited February 2010 in Artist's Corner
I think it may have been in a thread here, but I recently saw someone suggesting to carry a sketch pad and draw in it with a ball point pen for practice. I decided to try this. My goal is to fill one page a day with pen sketches of things that I see (mostly at school). I'm kind of looking forward to comparing the first pages with the last. There are 80 in this pad and I'll use front and back so it should last through the semester for me. Anyways, I'm gonna try to update daily for crits, suggestion and such. That should keep up my motivation. So, without further ado, here is page 1!

Sketchp1001.jpg
I started trying to draw with just a single line. I don't know why but I really like the trash bin...



Also, while I'm here. I have been continuing to try to learn OC as well as coloring. Here is some basic colors on a pic I'm working on. I gotta add lots of detials and figure out how to color chain mail. I know yall have a lot of good crits so please, tear it up.

SaracenColor1.jpg

Sgt Carl on

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    NibCromNibCrom Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    When coloring, try putting your ink layer about the color layer and set it to multiply. It will greatly clean up your edges. Many of your lines are slow and shaky. Work on building long, confident lines. That should become easier the more you practice. Stick to your drawing goal! We even have a draw every day thread that I'm guessing you could join. Or at least use it for motivation.

    NibCrom on
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    Sgt CarlSgt Carl Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    NibCrom wrote: »
    When coloring, try putting your ink layer about the color layer and set it to multiply. It will greatly clean up your edges. Many of your lines are slow and shaky. Work on building long, confident lines. That should become easier the more you practice. Stick to your drawing goal! We even have a draw every day thread that I'm guessing you could join. Or at least use it for motivation.

    Well, I hate to ask when I know there are tutorials (I'm trying to look through them when I have time) but, to be honest, I don't even know what is meant by "set it to multiply". Perhaps you could direct me to the appropriate tutorial. I really do appreciate the input.

    Sgt Carl on
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    NibCromNibCrom Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    It's in the layers palette:

    layersmultiply.jpg

    In the drop down box, where it says "Normal", change that to multiply. It's the fourth option in CS4.

    NibCrom on
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    Sgt CarlSgt Carl Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Okay. I don't have CS4, but I'm gonna go check it out.

    Well, day two. I was almost too embarrassed to post this, but the anonymity of the interwebs has given me the courage. I have found it's much harder for me when I don't have an eraser... I also tend to drift off into doodles rather than using the sketch diary for what I had originally intended (i.e. cartoon m4)

    Sketchdiaryday2001.jpg

    Sgt Carl on
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    Sgt CarlSgt Carl Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I'm behind on my sketch diary. Only got half a page but i'll make up for it and post to pages tomorrow.

    I spent a little time working on this today. I'm gonna try to figure out how to fix up lines and other issues using OC. I think I will cut off the bottom and maybe some on the right and try to make sure the horizon isnt right in the middle of the picture.
    CrusaderFixedPers001.jpg

    Sgt Carl on
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    MaximasXXZMaximasXXZ Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Your sketch book endeavor is a fantastic thing, don't get lazy with it!

    I dunno how long you've been at the whole art thing, but the usual advice can be applied here; i.e., keep drawing from life, study anatomy and form and all that happy horse-shit. Immediately I notice your artwork feels very stiff, the characters drawn lack any real finesse with a pencil (or pen).

    Looking at your sketches, it seems like you focus a lot on contours and outlines. Try moving away from this, focus on form and fullness. Draw the shape and gesture of the object more-so than the contours of it.

    Also, in your OC image, all of the outlines are the same size. This ruins any illusion of depth. Typically, outlines closest to the viewer will be thicker than outlines in the distance. Increasing the size of the outlines on the dude and the foreground will make him stand out much better than he is.

    MaximasXXZ on
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    PSN: MaximasXXZ XBOX Live: SneakyMcSnipe
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    Sgt CarlSgt Carl Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Here's the next couple days. This is proving to be harder to keep up with thtan I thought. I'm a day behind.

    Sketchday3001.jpgSketchday4001.jpg


    in other news, I bought like 50 dollars of art stuff in the last few days. Thats more than I think I have spent total in my life I think. We'll see what I can do with some fancy pencils, some french curves, a book on anatomy and one on perspective.

    Sgt Carl on
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    SF_DhalsimSF_Dhalsim Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Yea this is actually a really awesome thing to do to make yourself really good at well, everything.

    Did this as a pet project with a raod trip with some friends and basically did the same thing but filled up two pads with "Important" things that happened through out the trip, from our left back hubcap falling off to just awesome scenes through out the trip.

    But I urge you to keep it up. It'll be awesome in the end I promise.

    SF_Dhalsim on
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    SC2: XxKhrushchev.539
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    rootroot Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    it's cool that you're scanning and posting your stuff, man. it's also really neat to see like even now you've got this inclination toward specific period/subject matter that is going to manifest as a very interesting artistic voice as your work develops.

    when you scan, though - and this is a gotcha that people sometimes run into when they're importing artwork - try scanning your drawings as grayscale, and then downsampling them inside your graphics application, whichever your graphics application happens to be. that'll smooth out the jaggies and do some natural antialiasing that will make your lineart a little more slick-looking.

    root on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    a webcomic you might read
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