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Rank's sketchdump - two new pieces p10
Rankenphile
Passersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
Passersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
So, in preparation for going to art school, I'm dusting off my pencils and sketchbook and shaking loose these old bones that have been collecting dust and getting soft working in the digital realm for going on eleven years now, with very, very rare forays back into the analog world of actually drawing something. I'm required, starting back in April and continuing on until I start school in September, to take a 100-sheet sketchbook and fill it, front and back, with four drawings per page, unless otherwise specified in my textbook. The book in question is the excellent Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which I definitely recommend to folks.
Now, I've been around and dropping advice on folks here and there, but my own mechanical abilities have been a bit lacking and so I feel it is long overdue that I put up or shut up. To complete my assignment, I'm doing a minimum of seven drawings, from live observation only, every single day until I start school. No 2D sources, just things I can see - again, unless specified to do otherwise by my textbook. I've been working on this for the past couple months and have already noticed a lot of progress as I get my chops back and start learning shit again, and hope to keep this thread updated with my progress as I go, right up until I start school again.
Now, before I expose my entire goddamn sketchbook, be warned - I'm doing all of this shit without any formal training whatsoever. I took some art classes in high school, which were a joke (here kids, play with, um, an airbrush for a bit, I'll be out smoking if you need anything), but other than that, I've mostly been doodling.
Most of these drawings are rough and quick. That's a lot of my point, teaching myself to do shit fast, and learn to capture basic detail, form, value, etc. These aren't masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. Also, the photos suck ass, I'm aware, these were done quickly today on a park bench in mixed light with a mediocre point and click camera. I'm not shooting for portfolio pieces here, dudes, just recording progress.
So. That said, here's the goods, the bads, and the uglies.
(spoilered to prevent jumpy-page syndrome as it loads a buttload of pictures)
first attempt - drawing faces in a crowd waiting for max brooks to come out on stage and lecture us on proper zombie survival tactics.
four drawings straight from the textbook, as a point of reference to compare progress later - a self portrait, a picture of someone from memory, my hand and my foot.
quick sketches sitting in my grandparents' house
more quickies
line work and exercises from the textbook.
handwriting samples and copying drawings upside down, to learn to separate what you see from what you perceive.
another upside down, a exercise bike seat, a terrible sketch of my cat before he fucked off and went somewhere else, and an attempt to recreate the most iconic sketch from childhood I could recall, as instructed by the book.
line practice (following the lines and cracks in my hand without looking at the paper) and a couple from observation - my hand and my shoe.
quickies, including a malformed sketch of my wife. she's a goddamn trooper, she's constantly posing for me to draw, and is a goddamn great sport about all this.
value study of my hand
and again. both done using a frame and tracing the outline from my vantagepoint, then transferring the tracing to paper, then copying value using an eraser and soft pencil on pre-shaded areas.
quickies - a sandman action figure, a corner of my parents' house, a tree and some skater kid that held still for about two minutes
people in a restaurant
more drawings in a restaurant. my proportion is fucking abysmal still at this point
nice value studies
quick sketches done at a family reunion
more of the same
aaaand more of the same
yup. more from the reunion, then a negative-space study on the chair
I cheated on these. rainy as hell outside, I was tired, I used the 90-second random poses web page for these, felt stupid for doing so later, and haven't cheated like this since.
a candlestick and my wife asleep
I like that one of my wife sleeping here, and my foot came out okay. Others - a small shelf in my living room and my cat asleep on his tower. The only time the little bastards will pose for me.
two assignments from the book, and two shitty sketches of things I could see from the couch.
more meh
aaand more meh
still more meh. I was losing enthusiasm at this point.
some sketches from local parks. I like the little roof spire thing, I've done a few more at that same park, it's got great old decaying barns and stuff. It was actually once a fully functioning farm for a completely self-sufficient mental hospital that was closed in the 60s, and now is a public park. Neat stories about that place, but for another time.
three more from the park, then a value and texture study of a big crack in a sandstone boulder at a local beach
two more from that beach/park - a negative space study, then two friends of mine sitting next to an amazing waterfall we found. That was a fun day. Also, two more of my wife.
more shit I could see from the couch. All meh.
quickies from a picnic.
same picnic.
I draw from the couch a lot, when the weather is bad or it is dark already. I work full-time 8 am to 5 pm, so my drawing windows are limited.
more from that park with the barns and shit.
some toys at a friend's house and a gravestone - I've found that graveyards are nice, well-tended and quiet places to draw landscape and interesting non-organic shapes, and nobody ever fucks with you in a graveyard.
more graveyard stuff.
my poor wife...
she's a goddamned trooper
another one of her asleep, and a couple studies from the high school. Funny thing about this? I never did jack shit for homework when I attended the school, but now I go there to get homework done for a different school. Whatever, it seemed funny at the time.
mundane objects. Actually sort of like these.
getting a little better at proportion, but still, I haven't really managed to get a grasp on capturing likeness
why the long face? Actually, it's hard to tell in this shot, but the second picture of her turned out really neat, and something about it strikes me every time I look at it. Also, here's some shit from another fucking park.
aaaaand more parks and exercises in making my wife look droopy and weird.
stuff at my friend's house
a corner of his living room, a malformed self portrait, and a couple things from my comfy-ass couch.
her asleep, me in a mirror, a soda bottle and her at the computer looking manish apparently
the can of fixative there actually turned out pretty decent. the rest? I was fucking tired
woah there crooked eyes.
the one of the salt shaker and the one of my cat turned out okay... getting better at focusing on what I see rather than what I think I see, and translating that into drawings.
my messy closet, my cat holding kinda still, me making a dumb face and my wife talking on the phone
decent sketches of mundane items, except the barbecue is all sorts of wonky and misshapen
sorry babe
stuff from the zoo. I was laughed at by some friends for drawing a statue of a lion while at the zoo, but fuck off it was the only one that would hold still
man those faces what the hell? also a sleeping wallaby and another one that wouldn't fucking hold still whoops
two emus, a tree and a bear cave
man, komodo dragons are awesome.
the gorilla is a fucking massive creature that is difficult to draw when the zoo is about to close.
alright, here is where I got to the part of the textbook that fucking slapped me upside the head and said "here's how human heads are goddamn proportioned, now stop rushing and start fucking taking measurements. set a basic unit and use it." and voila progress quick.
my cats are awesome.
the top right is the first drawing of my wife I actually like, and it almost looks like her. The one of me was from a reflection in the window, and I actually did manage to capture my cat's likeness here a bit. He smiles like that when he snuggles with his favorite pillow.
the picture doesn't do much good here, but the sketch of the barn at the top right is actually really awesome. I used a mechanical pencil, took my time to get good clean lines to build the shape, and then used a mix of hatching and solid shading to get a really nice result.
and the rest of last night's drawings. a sprig of sage, another mundane, and a picture of my wife and my cat.
I'll probably post more about once a week or so, as I don't really have my own camera to use and I had to borrow one from work to get these. I'd love some feedback or tips on what/where to draw, whatever, but I'm more just posting this shit to record progress. These were done over the course of two months, I have about two and a half to go before I actually start school, and I'm excited by the prospect. Just seeing what I've done so far has me really encouraged to see what happens once I've got some actual training going.
Now, I've been around and dropping advice on folks here and there, but my own mechanical abilities have been a bit lacking and so I feel it is long overdue that I put up or shut up. To complete my assignment, I'm doing a minimum of seven drawings, from live observation only, every single day until I start school. No 2D sources, just things I can see - again, unless specified to do otherwise by my textbook. I've been working on this for the past couple months and have already noticed a lot of progress as I get my chops back and start learning shit again, and hope to keep this thread updated with my progress as I go, right up until I start school again.
Now, before I expose my entire goddamn sketchbook, be warned - I'm doing all of this shit without any formal training whatsoever. I took some art classes in high school, which were a joke (here kids, play with, um, an airbrush for a bit, I'll be out smoking if you need anything), but other than that, I've mostly been doodling.
Most of these drawings are rough and quick. That's a lot of my point, teaching myself to do shit fast, and learn to capture basic detail, form, value, etc. These aren't masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. Also, the photos suck ass, I'm aware, these were done quickly today on a park bench in mixed light with a mediocre point and click camera. I'm not shooting for portfolio pieces here, dudes, just recording progress.
So. That said, here's the goods, the bads, and the uglies.
(spoilered to prevent jumpy-page syndrome as it loads a buttload of pictures)
first attempt - drawing faces in a crowd waiting for max brooks to come out on stage and lecture us on proper zombie survival tactics.
four drawings straight from the textbook, as a point of reference to compare progress later - a self portrait, a picture of someone from memory, my hand and my foot.
quick sketches sitting in my grandparents' house
more quickies
line work and exercises from the textbook.
handwriting samples and copying drawings upside down, to learn to separate what you see from what you perceive.
another upside down, a exercise bike seat, a terrible sketch of my cat before he fucked off and went somewhere else, and an attempt to recreate the most iconic sketch from childhood I could recall, as instructed by the book.
line practice (following the lines and cracks in my hand without looking at the paper) and a couple from observation - my hand and my shoe.
quickies, including a malformed sketch of my wife. she's a goddamn trooper, she's constantly posing for me to draw, and is a goddamn great sport about all this.
value study of my hand
and again. both done using a frame and tracing the outline from my vantagepoint, then transferring the tracing to paper, then copying value using an eraser and soft pencil on pre-shaded areas.
quickies - a sandman action figure, a corner of my parents' house, a tree and some skater kid that held still for about two minutes
people in a restaurant
more drawings in a restaurant. my proportion is fucking abysmal still at this point
nice value studies
quick sketches done at a family reunion
more of the same
aaaand more of the same
yup. more from the reunion, then a negative-space study on the chair
I cheated on these. rainy as hell outside, I was tired, I used the 90-second random poses web page for these, felt stupid for doing so later, and haven't cheated like this since.
a candlestick and my wife asleep
I like that one of my wife sleeping here, and my foot came out okay. Others - a small shelf in my living room and my cat asleep on his tower. The only time the little bastards will pose for me.
two assignments from the book, and two shitty sketches of things I could see from the couch.
more meh
aaand more meh
still more meh. I was losing enthusiasm at this point.
some sketches from local parks. I like the little roof spire thing, I've done a few more at that same park, it's got great old decaying barns and stuff. It was actually once a fully functioning farm for a completely self-sufficient mental hospital that was closed in the 60s, and now is a public park. Neat stories about that place, but for another time.
three more from the park, then a value and texture study of a big crack in a sandstone boulder at a local beach
two more from that beach/park - a negative space study, then two friends of mine sitting next to an amazing waterfall we found. That was a fun day. Also, two more of my wife.
more shit I could see from the couch. All meh.
quickies from a picnic.
same picnic.
I draw from the couch a lot, when the weather is bad or it is dark already. I work full-time 8 am to 5 pm, so my drawing windows are limited.
more from that park with the barns and shit.
some toys at a friend's house and a gravestone - I've found that graveyards are nice, well-tended and quiet places to draw landscape and interesting non-organic shapes, and nobody ever fucks with you in a graveyard.
more graveyard stuff.
my poor wife...
she's a goddamned trooper
another one of her asleep, and a couple studies from the high school. Funny thing about this? I never did jack shit for homework when I attended the school, but now I go there to get homework done for a different school. Whatever, it seemed funny at the time.
mundane objects. Actually sort of like these.
getting a little better at proportion, but still, I haven't really managed to get a grasp on capturing likeness
why the long face? Actually, it's hard to tell in this shot, but the second picture of her turned out really neat, and something about it strikes me every time I look at it. Also, here's some shit from another fucking park.
aaaaand more parks and exercises in making my wife look droopy and weird.
stuff at my friend's house
a corner of his living room, a malformed self portrait, and a couple things from my comfy-ass couch.
her asleep, me in a mirror, a soda bottle and her at the computer looking manish apparently
the can of fixative there actually turned out pretty decent. the rest? I was fucking tired
woah there crooked eyes.
the one of the salt shaker and the one of my cat turned out okay... getting better at focusing on what I see rather than what I think I see, and translating that into drawings.
my messy closet, my cat holding kinda still, me making a dumb face and my wife talking on the phone
decent sketches of mundane items, except the barbecue is all sorts of wonky and misshapen
sorry babe
stuff from the zoo. I was laughed at by some friends for drawing a statue of a lion while at the zoo, but fuck off it was the only one that would hold still
man those faces what the hell? also a sleeping wallaby and another one that wouldn't fucking hold still whoops
two emus, a tree and a bear cave
man, komodo dragons are awesome.
the gorilla is a fucking massive creature that is difficult to draw when the zoo is about to close.
alright, here is where I got to the part of the textbook that fucking slapped me upside the head and said "here's how human heads are goddamn proportioned, now stop rushing and start fucking taking measurements. set a basic unit and use it." and voila progress quick.
my cats are awesome.
the top right is the first drawing of my wife I actually like, and it almost looks like her. The one of me was from a reflection in the window, and I actually did manage to capture my cat's likeness here a bit. He smiles like that when he snuggles with his favorite pillow.
the picture doesn't do much good here, but the sketch of the barn at the top right is actually really awesome. I used a mechanical pencil, took my time to get good clean lines to build the shape, and then used a mix of hatching and solid shading to get a really nice result.
and the rest of last night's drawings. a sprig of sage, another mundane, and a picture of my wife and my cat.
I'll probably post more about once a week or so, as I don't really have my own camera to use and I had to borrow one from work to get these. I'd love some feedback or tips on what/where to draw, whatever, but I'm more just posting this shit to record progress. These were done over the course of two months, I have about two and a half to go before I actually start school, and I'm excited by the prospect. Just seeing what I've done so far has me really encouraged to see what happens once I've got some actual training going.
Rankenphile on
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i would be interested to see what you could do with some charcoal, which might force you to focus completely on values instead of any lines at all. what i notice on some of the more realistic drawings is that you tend to put an outline on them - habit if you're used to doing cartoons, i do it too!
lots to say but i'll come back later when i am more awake!
Total improvement from top of this page to the bottom. Thinking stuff all the way down, but have forgotten it by the time I got here. Ha ha.
Um, it'd be cool to see some more full bodied humans. Like head to toe? Just try to fit it in there in those little boxes, even if it's just someone walking past you, try to capture that split second even if it's only like, a 30 second drawing.
Upside down drawings looked really nice too. More fabric studies too, but your shiny objects are really nice.
So keep at it.
I would suggest once in a while taking the entire page to do one drawing, and put a lot of effort into it - plan proportions, do a thumbnail sketch, work up from a skeleton, etc. Take your time and look carefully and it should come out great.
Go back to the zoo, and draw more barns.
I noticed that your graveyard monuments and cans are kinda curvy; try taking a second, as above, to sketch out the general proportions of the image, including the objects around it for scale. It might feel redundant, but the extra planning will pay off in the realism of your image.
I definitely admire your dedication. I've never had the tenacity to go through these types of exercises outside of school. Good luck to you and keep us updated on your progress.
sketchyblargh / Steam! / Tumblr Prime
One note though, you do know they make smaller sketchbooks, right? :P But since you have a big one, dont be affraid to take the time and draw something full scale every few pages/days. Seeing your drawings larger help you to see the mistakes easier, and will help you learn faster.
Im so happy to see someone doing this right. Please keep this up!
Yeah, I'm aware the monuments came out a bit curvy, but I'm just now starting to get the hang of not being lazy and actually sighting in my subjects with the edge of my pencil and then transferring the readings by hand. I do need to do more full-body stuff, but that's tough when my subject is usually my wife and she's most often sitting at her laptop about six feet away from me and I only have the tiny quarter page to work from.
I'm frustrated drawing trees and stuff, they're not real compelling subjects and are a pain in the fucking ass to get to look right, as they're basically patterned randomized organic textures with complicated light schemes, but they tend to be the most accessible things to draw at the local parks. I try to go to places like the zoo and stuff whenever I can, but god damn I've got my hands full, what with working full time, planning a wedding (christ, that is only like four weeks away) and still trying to do things like eat and sleep.
One way or the other, though, I'll get through it. I just yesterday crossed the point where I've completed a third of the sketchbook. Still a long ways to go, and a lot of improvement to make. I'm really, really, really looking forward to quitting my job and getting back into school, though. I can't wait to get back into that environment and really challenge myself. I've already noticed a huge improvement on my doodlings, I've done a few while at work waiting on my slow-ass computer to render video, and they look night and day better than the cartoony, distorted drawings I used to do. It had gotten to the point where my doodles were just exercises in drawing the same few shapes with slight variation, and now I'm drawing pretty realistic little sketches just from using remembered techniques, shapes and logic of shape and light.
The portrait on the top right is the best in the thread.
Good job!
This is actually really inspiring!
Awesome work by the way. I look forward to the day where I get to play a game you had some creative design wit.
Also, you make me feel lazy.
and this exercise isn't about having pleasing compositions. It's about practice, practice, practice. Hell, many of the drawings I have aren't pleasing to the eye at all, but that's not the point. If I can make really cool looking drawings, so much the better, but this is all about learning technique and practicing those methods, not making masterpieces in any sense of the word.
I'm still on pace at 7 drawings per day. This weekend I fell a little behind, only getting five done Friday and six Saturday (damn Spore Creature Creator) but I powered through and managed to get ten done yesterday. I might be able to borrow a camera again tonight, I'll try to post some more work as soon as I get a chance.
and you and me both, dude.
get a sketchbook and just give yourself a quota - 4 drawings every day. Keep a timer on you (I carry a little digital kitchen timer) and force yourself to do them in 15 minutes each. You can find an hour a day to draw, even if it is just an hour before bed.
I'm finding one of the biggest things about this is that it forces me to be more creative with what I draw, and to do things that I may have drawn before, whereas normally I'd just say "I don't feel like drawing that again" and find something more fun to do.
On a lighter note, I should have the entire month of August to get ready so that's still over 100 drawings (assuming four a day).
the lodge at a local park, a stump, a crappy tree, and a lookout on top of a hill.
a leaf (turned out nice), a plastic tree from Heroscape or whatever, some troll dude from Heroscape, and a rootbeer bottle. I like how the troll came out, a whole lot.
a quickie of this dude sitting at a table across from me. Did it real fast because I didn't want him to think I was some weirdo. Also a chainsaw carving at another park, an xbox controller and my hand holding my sketchbook. How meta.
a house, a weeping willow tree, a stand of trees at a park and a corner of my parents' kitchen.
this turned out blurry as hell, which sucks, because the self-portrait turned out awesome for a quick sketch (25 minutes or so). Also, a ring I wear a bunch, the corner of my brother's kitchen and a gravestone.
a sloppy one at the cemetery, a decent barn, my wife reading and a cool picture of looking through a barn just as the sun was going down.
Another barn and some decent pictures of my wife, sorta.
More wife. First her butt, then her top. A soda can, sans the labeling (trying to recreate the reflection, did a decent job). Also, my awesome little drawing stool - I fucking love this thing. $4 at the sportsmen's outlet, slips into my backpack and I can set up and draw anywhere I go.
bad drawing of the missus, a decent cat, a better picture of a dessert bowl, and another bad picture of the wife.
glass of milk, shoes, a knit blanket that turned out looking like guts, and a pack of smokes.
some mundane objects, a quick hand study, a cat littler bucket and a nice texture/value study of my backpack.
bad picture of my wife, decent picture of my wife and a decent hand pic.
Again, I'm noticing a lot of progress, but know I still have a long, long way to go. When I take my time to get proportion right and take measurements, I get a lot better result, and that's really helpful. Also, I'm noticing my shading is getting stronger - I'm able to recognize and reproduce better, more accurate shadowing, like on the last sketch of my hand - I'm able to build crest shadows and reflected light in shadow to get a much stronger result.
Thoughts? Feedback?
I'm sort of at a loss in some respects as to what to really focus on, but at this point I think I'm best off just keeping my head down and my hands busy and seeing what happens.
I can see that happening in some of your earlier work, where you just let your brain finish the piece, with less than favorable results. You're getting better for sure, but the biggest way to improve is to be aware of it.
I'm going to try to update tonight, if I remember to grab the camera before I leave. I've had a couple really nice pieces this week. A number of others that came out meh but I'm definitely noticing steady improvement.
Also, have you tried going through Kimon Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw? It's fairly similar to Betty Edwards' material, except super-hardcore, pretty much. It might help you along the way to your goals a bit better, seeing as how you're going to be a serious art student soon. If you've got plenty of time each day to draw (like three hours), you could pick it up from the library and give it a shot.
I'll keep an eye out for that book, but right now between working full time, trying to get through my daily allotment of drawings, planning a wedding and trying to take care of my house, my fiancee and everything else, my hands are pretty damn full. Once I get the wedding done with, hopefully shit will calm down a bit.
I REALLY like that tree in the top left, idk why. It's just really well done in my opinion. That and it makes the guy on the bottom look like he has antlers.
Hiking Essentials
Okay, update time. Not a huge amount of pictures, so I'll leave them out of spoilers for now.
A rerun from last page, except the bottom right hand drawing is new.
More mundanes.
more bad pictures of my wife, a quick plant drawing and another hand.
A decent barn that I had to stop before I could finish and some lousy roughs.
some more lousy pictures of the wife, and a really nice self portrait, and yet another hand.
a better shot of the self portrait, since I liked it so much. Hopefully this shows a bit more detail.
Some mundane still lifes from my parents' house. The top left is terrible, it's a garden hose winder thing, and it came out all fucked, but I was rushed as it was almost dinner time. THe others turned out okay.
this is more like it. More mundanes (the bottom left is a really bad picture of a plastic bag full of dirt - it was a terrible choice of subject. Why draw something that is shapeless to begin with?). The bottom right is a cap for a water bottle and it turned out pretty smooth.
quick shots. My cat, asleep (until he moved), my knee and foot against a blanket, my wife asleep, yet another hand study.
another shitty wife drawing - man, I don't know how she puts up with me. Her face is far too scrunched up, and stretched vertically while smooshed horizontally. urgh. However, the hand study and the two still lifes below it really were encouraging. I've taken better detail shots of the bottom two, below, to show them off because they really feel like progress.
these make me feel a lot more encouraged to keep plowing through this assignment.
mundanes again. The top right is part of a statue of a rooster at my mother's place. She has tons of chicken stuff all over the house. She collects roosters. Yes, that's right, I said it - my mother can't get enough cocks. *sigh* Anyway, the statue sketch is unfinished because I was racing the remaining daylight and it won.
a shitty self portrait and some roughs. The nail polish one turned out okay.
GOD WHY DO ALL MY DRAWINGS OF MY WIFE MAKE HER LOOK DROOPY AND HUGE AND MANNISH?!? Her face is lousy, but her clothes and body turned out good. Also, that stapler image - I'll get to that in a minute.
More mundanes. Really getting happier with my ability to convey simple objects.
Decent quick pencil self portrait, but my eyes kept giving me shit so I abandoned it and moved on. I like this hand study on the bottom right a lot.
Fire is awesome. A few points on each of these drawings turned out pretty encouraging. The lighter, in particular, works well, but it is a pretty simple item to convey.
and the last of what I've done so far. Another of my mother's cocks, her porch, my wife falling asleep at the computer and a quick hand job.
Okay, now, remember that stapler picture?
side-by-side of two drawings, done exactly one month apart, entirely by accident. Not exactly "holy crap, Rank, you're ready to go into the Stapler Drawing Business!", but it certainly shows progress.
I've actually fallen behind my pace of 7 every day this past week, just due to the fact that I've been working like crazy at my job, plus trying to get these wedding plans taken care of. I'm going back to the zoo in a couple weeks, and i'm sure I'll have a deficit to make up then, as the days are only getting more hectic, but I'm making a point of getting at least a few done every day, if not the full seven.
as always, thoughts and crits and suggestions are very appreciated.
Something I noticed is that you draw certain elements larger than others, in order of their importance, visual appeal, or based on their perceived difficulty. This can be seen especially in your self portrait. The eye is largest, the nose next, and the mouth is incredibly tiny compared to the rest of the facial features.
Believe it or not, this phenomenon is actually quite common, and is another one of those things that will get better as you become aware of it. Keep posting, and keep up the good work. I can actually see from piece to piece that you are becoming better.
With that said, I know it wouldn't be for the assignment, but it might be a good idea to take an hour or two every few days or once a week or whatever and just really observe something and take your time on it getting the proportions right, measuring points relative to eachother and seeing all the subtle values.
These are also really good. Have you looked into doing life drawing sessions with a model or doing gestures?
so yeah, kinda :P
and yeah, once I get through this assignment and all the other hellishly stressful things this summer, I'm sure I'll have a lot more time to do precisely that.
sorry.
Because of the wedding, finding a new place to live and an unfortunate incident where I threw my back out and was surfing the couch for a week, I went a few days without getting any progress done, and have had intermittent issues getting back into the full swing of things, but right now I'm at a point where my daily quota has swollen from seven a day to over ten. I'm cranking through them best I can, and have noticed a real slip in progress when I took a break, which gives me even more motivation to keep at this and work hard - plus the fact that I'm starting school in about three weeks - but I'm back in this with renewed effort and will be posting more photos as soon as I can get access to a camera.
Quick question, i've not read every comment so forgive me if it's been asked already, but do you build up the sketch with rough light lines as a foundation first before diving into the final sketch? i'm just curious as it's kind of hard to see the detail in these photos, and if you don't already i'd advise you to start, it really helped me when i learnt about breaking down the form of an object or person into rough simple shapes and masses and blocking in with those before refining those shapes into a finished sketch.
Keep up the good work and best of luck once your course starts!
Peace.
Pfft, if my dedication were half what it should be for this program I'm about to enter, I wouldn't have fallen so far behind. Getting out of the work environment, moving to a new area and actually entering the school environment where I'm doing this all day long should help, so that I don't have the "I'm at work, I can't draw, I'm at home I don't want to work" situation. A lot of the time, I find that the biggest problem I have in staying motivated is due to location. If I'm out on an expedition finding shit to draw, I'll plow through stuff. But when I get home, christ, I'm so good at self-distraction. If I'm in an environment that I trael to with the express purpose of getting work done, I'll get work done, but coming home for me has always been a signal that "work's done, time to do home things". This may come as a problem in a few weeks when homework becomes a very real part of my life, but I'm going to be living across the street from the school, literally, so I'll be able to go there and do homework. Again, physical separation. Shit, right now I'm self-distracting myself again by dicking around on the computer. Grrrrr
I try to, sometimes, but I find myself having a hard time sizing things correctly - I tend to start creating a shape, when it is something complex like a human face or something, but get bogged down playing with detail - I find I tend to start with the eyes first and work my way out, which is a terrible practice to stay in, but I'm having a hard time breaking out of it. I'm working on it, though, and I'm sure getting in a classroom environment where I can draw objects a little further away from me than across the couch would help in me working on capturing that aspect, as I'm better able to take in the negative space. Working on a full-size sheet of paper, rather than a measly quarter of one, would make a big difference, too.
thanks for the encouragement, guys. Now I really gotta get back to drawing
edit: oh shit, now my landlord just called right as I was about to hit submit and she wants to bring people through my apartment tomorrow afternoon and the place is a fucking wreck, now I gotta spend all day cleaning and packing and argh I'm never going to get caught back up.