my sketches

[limion]

c'mon people, i know i'm not michelangelo but there must be something that can be said about these pic's...

[djtrousdale]

A notebook artist, like so many of us. Great job with those!

#1 - Good design! Try shading it.
#2 - Probably your best one. A background would make it even better.
#3 - Like the detail. Hard to seperate the horse from the rider though.
#4 - One arm stands out... Try darkening the rest of him.
#5 - The one in the middle looks like he has no legs. Is it snakelike or something?
#6 - Heh, clever. He could be the subject of The Comic Strip (see the Daily Sketch forum here).

Keep at it! :)

[VinceB]

how old are you? :shrug:

[Ilikesoup]

now i know these aren't top quality scans or drawings, but any comments and critiques would be greatly apreciated.

I'm not giving you a hard time, just some advice --
Use the img tags to post images rather than giving links. I prefer to see your pictures laid out for me, ready to see and critique. With links, I have to open them one at a time, then resize it so I can see it in detail.

As for your pics --
Practice gesture, hands and perspective.
Specifically, drawing #4 needs a better pose. Robots are soulless machines, but they become interesting when we give them human personalities. The way he holds a weapon, hunched shoulders, the way he walks are all ways to show what he's doing and why. If your robot has no soul, no amount of detail will make him interesting. My suggestion is to practice gesture drawing. Find some good reference pics of people in interesting poses. Study what gives them the attitude and try to capture that.

Hands are a great way indicator of a character's attitude. Watch somebody who "talks with their hands" and learn how to read what their gestures mean. Try to incorporate that in your drawings and make the hands large enough that they attract attention even if they're larger than usual. You tend to draw yours small.

Lastly, vehicles like in your first pic will look more imposing from the right perspective. Learn about one and two point perspective and experiment as much as you can. As for your pic, the wheels from that POV appear that they're bent at a 45-degree angle.

Practice drawing every day if you can and keep browsing the Choice gallery here to see how others approach their subjects. I hope that helps.

[limion]

thanks guys. i am 20 ( i know it looks like drawings of a 12 year old, but they are the best i could find 3+) )

the reason the second picture is the best is because it's almost identical to the one of feng zhu (a professional), which i used to practice. i'll try to work on poses and stuff. the middle one is supposed to be a slug-like character (done for a fun comp (quick max 1 hour sketch)).
as for the robot/fighter in pic nr4 it started out as just a drawing of the gun, i kinda added the soldier later and wasn't sure how it would turn out, that's why he looks like he's a statue. thanks for all the tips, i'll keep them in mind.


thanks again for the replies.

[limion]

hi there. is anybody interested in taking on/aiding a noob in this stuff. by that i mean, like show me where good tutorials are( i know there's a thread on this subject), comment and give suggestions on my "works". maybe give like assingments that could be helpfull to learn new things.

i know this may sound demanding and time consuming, but it mean this not as a full-time mentor kinda thing. just someone that frequently helps/comments where it's necessary.
this may seem a bit weird especially on a forum like this, but i noticed it's a hard for a noob (on other forum's as well) to get people to look at your work and give usefull comments.

i would also like to thank the people that did reply to my earlier posts.

[Ilikesoup]

I'm sorry, grasshopper, but this path you must travel alone. :sad:

Actually, the Daily Sketch (check the DSG link in my sig) is great practice. Anybody can participate and there are plenty of kind souls to give you feedback on your post. A new topic is posted each day and you can interpret the subject any way you like. Many there are regulars so you'll get to know people quickly.

Other than that carry a sketchbook with you as often as possible and draw scenes that interest you. Or carry a disposable (or digital) camera, snap pictures from different points of view and sketch from the more interesting ones.

[Matellis]

my suggestion would be to not draw on lined paper:)
other than that keep up the work

[limion]

thanks for the advice. i don't always draw on lined paper (that's just what i usually have in the neighbourhood). i'll try to get into the daily sketch thing.

[csgirl]

Ya, I second the suggestion to join the daily sketch group. It really is a great place to get regular practice and feed back on your stuff.

[CuppoJava]

Yea,
there's not much you can do but practice and practice...
When I went to art school, all we did was just pump out pictures one after the other. Seriously, twenty minutes per picture finished or not finished, move on to another. Use the least amount of lines to define the shape.

After, a year of that, 3 pics an hour, 6 hours a day. You'll get it. All of the good drawers here went through it.

-Cuppo

[limion]

i see, but there must be some tutorials or stuff to learn diffent styles of drawing. i mean like the realistic type where just about everything is given shape with shadows and you can't see any lines, or comic type or ... . Or does this also just come with practice?

[limion]

@Hexaditidom (member.php?u=159622): the 3d picture is supposed to be a kind of 2 headed dragon bot. but it's half destroyed so you can see the inside of it. i know that effect failed a bit, but i tried to show this by adding a broken shield to his back (right under the neck) and breastplate of which you can see how it is attached. the new version would have a complete armour and wouldn't show the interior design.

[Ilikesoup]

i see, but there must be some tutorials or stuff to learn diffent styles of drawing. i mean like the realistic type where just about everything is given shape with shadows and you can't see any lines, or comic type or ... . Or does this also just come with practice?

Here's a thread Stahlberg provided -- http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=226083
It's got lots of good lessons. Definitely study the Loomis books and check out the link about shading.

I'm 35 and I still have much to learn about drawing well. I try to draw as often as I can, and have a fairly consistent approach to starting a picture. The more I learn (from reading, experimenting, viewing other art) the more my approach evolves. So yes, most of it comes with practice.

As for lines versus shading, it's more a way of seeing objects. If you look at a person's face you're not really seeing lines but you can simplify the borders of light and dark areas into lines. I think most comic book (or comic strip) artists prefer to use outlines because of the limitations of print -- black and white printing won't show grayscale shading and 4-color printing shows up best when solid fill colors are used.

Even if you're drawing fantasy and sci-fi, practice drawing from life. Make mental (or written) notes about clouds, the way light reflects off metal, glass, leaves, fabric. All of drawing is taking what you see in a 3 dimensional world and translating it to a 2 dimensional surface. If you are creating things that aren't there, the way to make them appear real is to apply the same rules to your drawings as you would use with real objects. There's so much to learn -- it's more of a lifelong journey rather than a day trip. I only say that so you know what you're getting yourself into. :)

[limion]

i know i won't learn everything there is to know in a week, i just want to be able to make a fairly descent sketch so that it doesn't look like it's done by a small kid 3+))
i have no intention of becoming a profesionnal, just good enough so that my drawings can be enjoyable by other and represent a 100% what i mean (which isn't always the case right now.)
thanks for the tips.

[limion]

here are some new sketches of mine. just for fun. some C&C is always welcome.
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=75740
here's the inked version:
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=75739

(http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=75741)

[djtrousdale]

Nice, would make a good video game character :)

[limion]

thanks, wasn't sure about the hands though. it is an exagerated drawing style, but these are really symplistic hands. so i'm glad you like it.

[limion]

the result of some free time today. feel free to give some C&C.
hightower:
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=75837

sk8ter boy:
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=75838

enjoy!

[djtrousdale]

You're doing great, but I suggest you really work on that "hightower"! I think it would look great if you spent more time detailing it.

[Trane619]

Also I noticed that the figure standing at the doorway looks flat with the shadow shaded in.

Perhaps you should add some tone to the figure.

[limion]

thnx for the advice, i'll work on the details on hightower. don't know what you mean with adding tone to the other drawing. is it like adding shadows? or adding different colors?

edit: i have a question too, does the tower on the creature seem weird to you guys? i think the perspective is a bit off, but don't really know, so if anyone could give some feedback that would be great!

[limion]

here's the detailing of hightower. i'm not sure on the perspective of the tower and the spikes on the lower arm though.

http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=75870&stc=1

[StylusMonkey]

I'd seriously suggest you go to this thread:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=226083

[limion]

because of the perspective, or just the overall bad drawing??:)

[StylusMonkey]

because of the perspective, or just the overall bad drawing??:)

I heavily suggest it for anyone who is somewhat serious about their art.

[limion]

i looked over some of those links. guess loomis would be the best option. but can you learn to draw from just theorie explanations, without some examples (which is how the loomis books seem to me). i could be wrong off course.

[StylusMonkey]

go to www.saveloomis.org (http://www.saveloomis.org) there is lots of writing, but I suggest you read them.

[limion]

sir yes sir! :) i guess i'll have to put in some effort. oh well, what else is a vacation good for?

[limion]

here are some new drawings. the second one is more for the pose, the body is a lot streched and such, but like i said it was more for the 'scene'. the third is inspired by the great escher.
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=76409

second one:
http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=76410

and the one inspired by escher:

http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=76411

hope you enjoy them, and please feel free to gice some crits.

[limion]

let's see if anyone is interested now.

[limion]

and my first real perspective drawing. hope it's ok. C&C always welcome.

http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=76746&stc=1

[djtrousdale]

Yay! MC Escher is my favorite artist :D

I recently did one where I drew my hand, then I drew my other hand drawing that hand, then I thought about scanning it and creating two colored hands drawing the hands but that would just be too confusing :shrug:

Limion, maybe you'd like the join the daily sketch forum?

[limion]

well yeah i would, but i'm not sure i'll find the time to draw one each day. but i'll try to do some if the subject sounds appealing to me.

[mauss]

Limion, I like your drawings so far. They remind me of my stuff when I first started out. I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for as far as advice, but I have a couple suggestions that helped me out tremendously and are more on the practical side instead of theory.


First, get used to starting out very light. Draw a figurative pose first with an incredibly light touch. This can just be a stick figure basically. The purpose is the provide a skeleton on which to build your drawing. But make it expressive. The more curve you have to the spine and limbs, the more exciting the pose. In fact, a good exercise for you at this point is to just do bunches of these without doing the final drawing on top. Create a library of poses you can use. Feel free to copy them from comics, other drawings, etc... You can learn a lot about drawing by trying to imitate other artists. And teaching your hand to differ the pressure of the pencil will help in the long run with any technique.

Second, it's hard to tell on my computer, but it looks like you are doing what I call "hairy" lines. This is where you draw a line by making lots of little strokes. Drawing is about the expression of line. Hairy lines only have one expression. This might be confusing, but try drawing complete strokes. An example would be to draw one line for the length of the inside of the arm. Start light and build strokes on top of each other until you get the expression you want. This is a difficult idea to put into practice when you first start out. But it really is one of the basic building blocks to expressive drawing. And it builds confidence in your ability as well as trains your hand to put on paper what's in your mind.

If you practice these two things every time you sketch, you will notice a great improvement in a short while. Your drawings will look more like art and it gets easier over time. Of course the key is practice. It may seem like an eternity, but in a year you will be much better.

Keep at it, and let me know if you have any questions about what I have suggested. I am just starting to really get into computer drawing so I don't have anything to show. But I will try to post some examples to clarify if you like.

[limion]

thanks for the advice. i would like to see some examples if you have any. as a matter of fact i did make some stickdrawings a while back, i'll see if i can find them. thanks again.

[mauss]

Limion, here are rough examples of what I was talking about. The first pic is using the skeleton to determine action.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4135/actioncopy2zh.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=actioncopy2zh.jpg)

This second pic demonstrates the hairy line vs. expressive line. Don't be afraid to keep making lines on top of others to get the feeling your looking for.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5473/hairywho9bh.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hairywho9bh.jpg)

Hope this helps some.

[limion]

yes it does especially the second one. now i know what you mean. 3+)) thanks for the help.

[limion]

i tried to use less "hairy" lines in this one. not much action going on since it's just a concept; hope you guys enjoy it.

btw: why do my pictures always show as links? i use the insert image button every time.

http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=77321&stc=1

[Ilikesoup]

Limion - Not sure why yours only appears as a link. :shrug:
I tried it myself and had the same result (I've edited my post since then).
My guess is that your web host doesn't allow you to link images to another site like this one.

[limion]

yeah, that's probably it then. well, at least i can post 'em.

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