I started drawing when I was in elementary school, and it was one of my biggest past times. About 4 years ago I began to drift away from it until a couple weeks ago when I watched Strip Search when I felt something that inspired me to come back to it again. I've been trying to re-learn the basics for about two weeks now. This is piece, below is the first pencil sketch that I felt confident enough about to show anyone.
As of right now, I'm limited in my material to pencils, and paper (as well as a black pen for inking). I'm drawing on lined paper at the moment because my sketch book is still a little too intimidating. I would really appreciate any advice or critiques, but I'm a novice when it comes to digital drawing and I've only ever taken an basic art 101 class, so bear with me if I don't understand some terminology immediately.
While I stepped away from art for several years, I hadn't stopped working creatively. This piece is a pencil sketch of the main character from one of my projects that I started working on in 2011.
Tell us what your goals as an artist are.
I want to learn to be able to be able to consistently draw, ink and color persons, objects and environments to a degree that I can create comics based on stories and universe I have created in writing. I eventually want to learn to draw, then fully create works on a digital drawing pad.
How long have you been practicing this form of art?
Overall, I have been drawing since early elementary school, but I have only picked it up again in the last two weeks after several years of being away from it.
Who are some artists or styles that you admire who you strive to be like in your own work?
Brandon Graham ("Multiple Warheads"), Adam Warren ("Empowered"), Hirohiko Araki ("Jojo's Bizarre Adventures"), Micheal Allred ("I Zombie").
Posts
First off, I know that drawing comes with a certain level of discomfort. Its awesome that you are posting, and you're going to have to keep pushing yourself to not let mental hang ups get in the way of moving forward. Remember that everyone starts somewhere. There is nothing particularly sacred about a sketchbook. Personally, I buy spiral bound strathmore sketchbooks. They are super cheap, they are unassuming, and I can rip out pages. I think of sketchbooks as a place to think, and I'm just as likely to write down a phone number or other bullshit notes in them as I am to draw.
Try to work on getting into a space where you can draw in a sketchbook, mostly to work on the notion that your drawings are not worthy. You should know that the mental negativity is a common malady of the artist, but its something that should be worked at. Its a dangerous cycle and you don't want to keep tripping yourself up on it.
As for the drawings themselves, they are really simple. They show that you figured out a sort of symbol of the figure that you can present, but Its hard to really know what your knowledge is with these two drawings.
So I just made this post in another dudes thread, but I think it also applies to you:
Try some exercises, and we'll be able to really help you!
Anyway, cant wait to see what you bring to the table! Buy a sketchbook and keep at it.
Thanks! That's a good idea.
I'm going to ink and color this today, then begin working on the enrichment activities that MOD Iruka showed me. Thanks again!
Now to work on those enrichment exercises!
These were done free hand. Any critiques or advice is welcome.
The photo was taken a hour or so after the sketch was done (and I just realized that I didn't shade the inside of the cup).
I have these two posts over in Mabelma's thread that sort of apply to you:
Thats alot of information in there, But what is super important to take away is that studies are not about the end result. You want to spend time on them looking at the object, and you really want to be saying to yourself in the moment "Does this look like the cup on the table in front of me?"
Does the cup on the table have a dark rim? Does the cup on the table have an elliptical highlight on it? Am I covering the same value range as the cup on the table? Why is the light hitting it that way? How can I shade with my pencils to better enable me to render this cup?
In the end, what you aren't trying to do is get a perfect drawing of a cup, you are trying to learn how you would make a perfect drawing of a cup. You are training your brain to look at every object and understand the information that it needs to translate it to paper. Once you can do that without even thinking about it, you'll understand enough about light and form to apply that technical knowledge to imagined subjects.
If you really want to improve in turbo mode, I suggest looking at the types of studies getting done in the Noahs art camp thread: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/178745/noah-s-art-camp-ac-group-of-supreme-organization/p1
I realize studies aren't always as fun as doing the stuff that you are doing, but you just probably aren't going to get much in the way of comments on these. You are sort of "doing your thing" in a way that we cannot be at all helpful with. They are heavily stylized, and fairly simplistic. Other than telling you if we find them cool or not cool, there isn't much to say. When you post a still life, its much easier for us to see whats going on. The same thing goes for master studies. It will take time, but you'll start to see the benefits.
So if you really want to get the most out of your thread, keep at the studies, and keep posting those.
Hi dude. I've quoted some of Iruka's text as I think it's really relevant and, not wanting to be rude, you seem to be ignoring it. Most of the pictures you've done are the sort that most people will look at and just sort of shrug.
Have a look at some of the artists work you mentioned in your OP. The characters in a lot of them show a lot of form and structure, you get a real sense in some of them of the person being a three dimensional object. That's not going to come across in an outline like you're doing. Maybe that's just the style you want to do or maybe you're drawing that style to hide a lack of knowledge, but people on the forum can't tell if you keep drawing the same style.
Keep drawing, it's good you're still at it after a few weeks! But some more focused studies would be good to see.