PollyBoffin's Sketchbook Thread

#1

After browsing around aimlessly on CGTalk, and stumbling over great articles and tutorials, I’ve decided to do something I’ve never really done before; start practicing copying photos. After I’ve done this for a while, we’ll see if I’ve gotten bored of it (which usually happens) or if I’ll move on and do some of the things that have been suggested/recommended to newbies. I know I need to do it, all I have to do is keep motivated and that will be an issue (I know myself after all).

Here are two sketches I’ve done today together with their references.

Great. I managed to swap their places when I put the references together on the same page. Oh, well. Not much to do, can’t be bothered to change. :stuck_out_tongue:

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention that since I suck so much at copying from photos, pictures, you name it, I’ve used the grid function and will keep doing so until I feel confident enough to copy without using it.

#2

Another sketch is done. This one took way too much time, cause I had too much fun shading it. XD

I got the stock photo from Deviant Art; [u][http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=stock+dog&offset=552#/d2zjoz0](http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=stock+dog&offset=552#/d2zjoz0)

[/u]

#3

And another doggie sketch is done! This one took me waaay to long to finish, and ended up looking much too much like a finished pencil work or something. It’s done in CS3 with a size 2 pixels brush, and at one point I thought my hand would fall off.

This doggie was a challenge in many ways, but mostly 'cause I’ve never tried to copy a long haired dog before. It was fun and frustrating. The most difficult part though was the mouth! I’m never drawing a dog with its mouth open again I think. o_O

All in all, I think it’s pretty okay. The stock photo (the reference that is) came from Jaded-Nightand, here is the picture in question; Dog Stock 242

#4

Yet another dog, but more line arty this time. This one has very short fur, and is also a slim but muscular dog, making a lot of the muscles and sinews visible. I plan on making a grayscale painting of her later on as a value practice, because the lighting is soft and she’s tricolor, which should give me some interesting (impossible) challenges. I’m still using my trusted grid. Have a feeling it’s going to take some time before I can lose it.

The reference is from Jaded-Nighton DeviantArt and here’s the picture I’ve used, Dog Stock 203

#5

I’ve now been forbidden to use a grid for a while by my “teacher” (a really nice and talented girl that’s actually giving me constructive criticism, and she has helped me a lot already) so there will be some serious quality dropping on my other sketches (except those I decide I want to make as good as I can, and if I can’t do that without a grid to aid me, a grid it’ll be).

After reading articles on how to improve one’s drawing skills, I decided to follow at least one of the suggestions, and that was to draw a self portrait. I’ll make another one later on, but this is it. It was actually fun to do, and it went pretty smooth and fast to draw (it’s just a sketch after all, and I mostly tried to capture ME so to speak). No comments about my looks, okay?

And, most importantly, NO GRID! :smiley:

#6

I decided to make my avatar based on the second picture in this thread. I just love the way the dog’s left eye appear to almost glow, so that’s what I’m going to have. But since it’s boring to paint just one eye, I decided to make a close-up of both eyes.

To work on me using the wrong part of my brain, I drew the sketch upside down, and after colouring it (turned the right way) for a while, I felt I started focusing on the wrong things again, so I flipped it again. I’m now painting it upside down and I think it actually works better, since I get more focused on the actual shape of things. Oh, and no grid this time either. ^^

I’m not happy with the fur… I think it’s okay above the eye, but it look too flat everywhere else, so I’ll have to work on that. I know I skipped making a value practice before starting with colour, but this is just an exception and I’ll try to be a good girl in the future.

Any crits are welcome. :smiley:

#7

Aaand it’s done! :smiley:

I’m actually satisfied with this (yeah, there are some things that could be better, but I consider it done), especially the eyes.

Now I need to ponder about if I’m practicing the right things, or if I’m just running in circles…

Dang, forgot to put a link in to the original picture. The stock photo is from Jaded-Night on DeviantArt, and here is the original picture, Beauty

EDIT: Made a snazzy “frame”. :stuck_out_tongue:

#8

I’ve started on my first value practice and I’ve no idea if I’m going about this right or not. I think I really need to do many value practices, because I’ve no understanding of colour and how they relate to one-another in a picture. So value practice and see what I can dig up about colour theory.

I’ve just started and tried to get some different values into the picture, I tried to find the brightest and darkest places (the black areas on the dog are not highlighted yet, so they do look very flat compared to the rest) and just do the…what do you guys call it? Blocking? I don’t even know if that’s what I’m doing.

Anyway, WIP, hunting dog, value practice:

#9

Just another WIP of the doggie. It takes forever 'cause I do other things all the time (did you know that there’s a TV-series that’s a continuation of How to Train Your Dragon? There is, and I like it). ^^

#10

Your drawings are really good. I really love the way your dog in post #3 came out. Can’t wait to see more :thumbsup:

#11

So, I’ve gotten a commission from a friend that I’ll do later on, but I thought it might be fun to sketch a little something now,and then go back and see if I’ve improved any.

The commission is; a powerful demon lady (sort of succubus) in a forest of fir trees. At first it was supposed to be manga style, but I thought it might be difficult to draw/paint an ass-kicking succubus in this particular style, since manga girls tend to be more cute so I changed it (with permission of course).

Before I do any more serious sketches of the picture, I need to practice drawing humans, particularly women, and landscapes.

These pictures were just me trying to figure out the design of the horns and since the first one (the one without any references used) got so butt-ugly - not to mention a guy, I had to draw another one as well. I looked at pictures of generally considered attractive women (Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Jessica Alba, Tyra Banks) to get an idea of some of the facial features they shared, and I think it turned out much better than the first try - it looks like a she at least.

I really look forward to see if I’ll make any progress after I’ve practiced drawing women for a while. :smiley:

I don’t know if “enjoy” is the correct term to use, but here they are anyway:

Aww, thanks for the nice comment. I have a long way to go though as I’ve proved with my sketches of my demon lady. :wink:

#12

And more sketches!

I’ve started drawing female faces now, using references naturally. I made this sketch without using a grid (it was extremely hard, I’m much better at drawing animals), but I flip the canvas upside down, made the images face each other, anything I could think of to help me, but I still don’t know if I got it right.

Here’s the sketch:


And here’s the reference, taken from DeviantArt, Rowena Braids.
I chose this picture because, well, she’s darn good looking and it’s fun to draw/paint attractive looking people. :smiley:

Fixed this one as well using two guidelines. Much better now I think.

#13

Next etchy-sketchy!

This girl was much more difficult to sketch and I don’t know if I managed to capture her features correctly, if the proportions are accurate, etc. Crits highly appreciated. Done in CS3, no grid used (and I really missed it this time!).

Stock photo can be found here, Laura spring stock 3

And here’s my sketch:

Her face feels too long… I need to fix it before I make a value practice out of her.

Okay, I think I’ve fixed the biggest issues. I realized that I’m not good enough at drawing people without some sort of aid, so I added two guidelines to see what went wrong. I seems I had placed one of the eyes completely bonkers and the mouth was slightly misplaced. I’ll use these guidelines at the end of sketching sessions of the portraits, until I feel confident enough and have developed my “artistic eye”.

It looks better now, not as unhappy with it anymore. :smiley:

#14

Here’s the third sketch, a younger woman this time. I used guidelines at the end of drawing it (when I’ve stared myself blind and couldn’t find what was wrong with it), so it look okay now. I definitely need to practice doing this, so more sketches to come! :smiley:

Reference from kkjeanne and you can find the photo here, stock 09.

Done in CS3.

#15

Last sketch for today. This one was very tricky to do (maybe I’m getting tired?) and I think the model ended up looking more like a drag queen than a real woman… I’ll see if I can fix it later on. I think I’ll paint this one.

Reference from DeviantArt, and you can find the image used here, stock photo from january.

Done in CS3.

#16

Next lady sketch is done. I decided to try do some full body sketches and not just portraits. I’m satisfied with the outcome of this sketch (but I had to use three guidelines to pull it off :frowning: ), and I’ve realized that I’m extremely…weak, when it comes to proportions and angles, especially in the face. I must practice my butt off to get close to my goal. I mean, I knew that I needed to practice a lot, but I didn’t realize exactly how bad it was. :stuck_out_tongue:

Gorgeous stock photo this time, from DeviantArt, `Faestock, and this is the reference used, snow3.

Since I like this picture so much, I’ll do either a value practice or a painting practice out of it (and I’m going to simplify that dress so friggin much you’ll barely be able to recognize it XD ).

#17

And I’m here again! But this time with a value practice/ WIP. On this picture I decided to do the value practice from start, so no lineart/sketch on this one, and no guidelines. I’m hoping doing some pictures like this may aid me in my quest for developing my eye for proportions and angles, among other things.

So far, it’s very fun painting this picture, but I know the tune will change when I start focusing on the details. XD

Stock photo from DeviantArt, NastiaOsipovaStock, and here’s the reference, 78.

Any input is appreciated!

#18

:thumbsup:

You got skills!

Seeing you draw like this makes me want to practice more and more!

#19

That’s very kind of you to say and I’m glad that I can inspire someone to practice too. :smiley:

#20

Just a quick update to the lady in the pond before it’s time to go to bed. It’s time to start on the details I think (and time to get frustrated). I still think it’s fun to paint this picture, and I hope this positive feeling will last. Still no guidelines used so I feel really good about myself. :smiley: