Hey all, I’ve been trolling for a year or so, but never participated…I figure it’s about time. I’m a web designer who, at 28, suddenly wanted to draw. I’m still not sure why, but it’s fun, so I don’t care at the moment.
I’ve been trying to learn slowly over the last year, and finally have the time to give some good daily attention to drawing.
Most of these are in the last two to three months, though the first few are much older. I’ll do my best to be chronological.
7/8/09
The three down the right are from a single set of photos
I finally decided to draw a face…
And this is the most recent
Ok, that was a TON of catch up. I promise not to throw up more than 2 or 3 at a time from now on.
I’m starting to favor charcoal pencils, and most everything is on newsprint, because I got 2 100-sheet 18x24 pads for a steal. I’ll be using them for a while. I’ve been using photos, because it’s impossible to find a life session when I’m available. The two books I’ve been using are Figure Drawing Workshop (Kraayvanger) and Drawing the Head & Figure (Jack Hamm).
I feel like I’ve been improving a lot as I try new techniques and media. Any ideas you have would be great! I’m finally trying to work on hands and faces, so they will be showing up more often in my posts.
Thanks, I’m looking forward to learning!
Hi there, and welcome here! good thing that you started the thread, looking good so far.
You seem not to have a big issues with this studies, they are looking just fine. Maybe you could try to change a little the subject from while to while, for me at least is a good way to keep the motivation…maybe some animals, old people, lanscapes.
Other thing that could work great with your drawings is to start to add lights with white pencils, or pastels or whatever you could use. You´re letting pass the oportunity to play with all the range from white to black. Maybe is that the photos are too dark, but even if the paper is white, some time using a eraser to bring the lights up can give a much more volumetric results.
Cheers, keep the good work.
Thanks for the feedback, JM!
I’ve mixed in some other subjects, but so far I’ve been drawing for fun (and drawing women is much more fun for me). I’m at a point where I’m starting to branch out, so my sketches will be more varied.
I’ve thought about getting a white pastel or something for highlights. These are almost all newsprint, and I don’t have a scanner, so they look a bit darker than they are…using the eraser for highlights (which I do from time to time) only goes so far.
Thanks again.
Some faces I worked on yesterday…the one on the left was no ref with a crayon (blue-violet Crayola). The second was from a photo (included below)
ref: le dos by andrea-h
Charcoal on newsprint…50 min
I’m realizing that I need to pay more attention to the subtleties of the pose. The ref model is leaning, not quite relaxed, but definitely looser than the straight and tall posture I drew. It didn’t click until I looked at them right next to each other. More work to do…
And here are two drawings of my family, both black crayon on butcher paper. The first is from a photo of me and my (now 3-year-old) son at disney world. He helped with the eyes.
These are my kids. I’m trying to figure out why the drawings don’t read quite right…the 3-year-old looks 5 or 6, and the 1 year old looks 3…
Hi there!
28 is a fine age to start drawing, so don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re too old etc…
(I started at 33 and I’m loving it 100x more than when I started)
I think your sketches and drawings could benefit from applying a couple of “tricks”. Some people say tricks are for losers but that’s just not true… tricks are tools.
[ul]
[li]economic linework: It’s great to “search for the right stroke” by drawing a over an existing stroke, however, you should do it either very light or without touching the paper. Now all your figures have multiple lines at each curve or form edge you are trying to depict. I’m guessing that in terms of time, you are looking at your paper a lot longer than at your reference. Make it a goal to reverse that. A great way to practice this is to "observe 3 seconds, then draw 1 line (make some imaginary strokes first!)[/li][li]lineweight: Think about the light source(s). You can suggest light and shadow by drawing the unlit edges darker and the lit ones lighter. This takes a lot of practice to master, but in the end, it will make your drawings read so much better.[/li][/ul]
Kids are very hard to draw. I always draw my kids too old as well, but I’m getting better at it thanks to drawing them from life. Proportions of children are totally different than those of adults. It may be useful to you to do some digging there (google is your friend there!)
Anyway, great start! Looking forward to follow your progress 
Thanks Johan, those are great suggestions. I’ve been trying to cut down on the number of strokes, but my hand moves faster than my brain most of the time.
Here’s some stuff from the last week:
From photos:
From Bridgman:
Here’s what I’ve scanned in the last week. Trying to take Johan’s advice: look more at the ref than my paper, and fewer strokes.
This one is a guy (and half a teapot) I saw at Borders
Very good!
Love the feet in that pinup (yes, you may call me a weirdo lol)
Keep doing this, it takes a while to really get the ball rolling but you’re doing fab!
Hi Skeetch,
How are you finding those two books? I’ve just started learning to draw the anatomy. I ordered a couple of books the other day. I went for The Artist’s Complete Guide to Figure Drawing by Anthony Ryder and, Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators by Mike Mattesi. I haven’t had time to look at them yet as they only arrived yesterday. I’ve also booked some life drawing evening classes which will start at the end of this month, looking forward to those.
I like what you’ve posted so far, looking forward to seeing you progress. I started up a sketchbook thread the other day and will be posting my progress too.
Keep up the good work!
Johan,
Thanks! I like the feet, too…no judgment here.
I switched to mechanical pencil for these more recent drawings and it really changes my stroke and my confidence in my line. It’s making me focus more on each line, which is good.
Psy,
I like Kraayvanger’s approach a lot, but it’s not as technical as Hamm or Bridgman. There’s a lot about flow and shape and line that I wasn’t finding other places, but there’s not as much depth in the technical anatomy stuff. Hamm is much more thorough, but I haven’t spent as much time in it, yet.
Here’s the digital inking of the pinup. I cheated on the left hand…I couldn’t get it right, so I traced.
They sound like good books, I was thinking of getting Hamm next. I’ve started reading the Ryder book, really like it so far.
Nice line work! Are you going to colour it too?
I probably won’t do colors…It seems a bit far afield of what I’m trying to learn now. One day, though.
These are sketches from my first life drawing session. I could definitely see the difficulty posed by turning 3d into 2d. It was fun, though. As always, any critique will be appreciated!
I’ve been drawing quite a bit more over the last two weeks. Going to that life session really set some things in motion. I’ve done more digital drawing also. Here’s a quick run down of the good stuff (all from photos, unless I say otherwise):
Some of these are photo, some life…can you tell which?
Last Sunday’s life session. Tried to improve my foreshortening…didn’t succeed:
Same Session:
Thursday’s session, 5 minute poses:
One 7 minute, one 10 minute:
And last, but not least:
I know that was a ton…I’ll post more often. Thanks in advance for you feedback!
I’ve been lazy and not scanning my stuff…
Life Session 3/6, Lea Andrah, best model ever…this drawing doesn’t look like her much at all.
From 3/13…a better likeness of this weeks model
There were other drawings from the sessions, but they’re too big to scan…I’ll get pictures of them later. They’re better than these, just take my word for it.
A few quickies from photos:
And this one in Painter 11:
