Sketchbook: The Panda Pad

#1

1.) Introduction:

Welcome!

I’m a beginner and self-taught artist! I have only highschool training and gobs of enthusiasm to fuel my adventures! I’ve never had any art instruction except for help from this wonderful forum and others much like it! I hope my stay here at CGTalk will open up new ideas and doors for my future in the arts! Please enjoy the illustrations in this sketch thread!

Thanks,
Chua

2.) Latest Work:

3.) Earliest Work:

Below is just a repost of all the images I worked on since February 2010:

Gesture Study:

#2

Cast study:

First time Photoshop:

Random studies:

#3

Even if our situations are similar (i am also new and i don’t have any art instruction) your works are far better than mine. keep working because you are definitely on the right way. :slight_smile:

#4

Followed your gesture thread to here. You have some great works and your gestures are not looking too bad at the moment. Your way ahead of me anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

From what you have said I would say try and think less about the contour of the 2d shape your seeing and instead think about blocks and how they fit into each other in 3D space. Also if you haven’t already check out Vilppu’s wonderful video on gesture :slight_smile:

Keep going and I am sure Robert is going to say something infinitely more useful than I have :slight_smile:

#5

You’re off to a great start! Your longer studies look particularly good.

#6

@Whirlwind123: That gives me a crazy image of spinning curvy lines in 3d space. Awesome! I will search for that video! Thanks.

@Tasp: Thanks! I’m hoping to move away from the beginner stages at some point lol.

#7

you have really a nice hand and good skills: self teaching is a hard but gratifying way. keep the good work up!

#8

@AbuAmir and @Cisc0: The kind encouragement means alot to me! I’m feeling alot better about my work thanks to the anonymous and kind comments of fellow artists over the internet. =)

I will be studying human anatomy in deep details over the next while. I need to figure out the inner workings of the body instead of just blocking them in and guessing at the angles. I hope this challenge will be as fun to figure out as value study was!

#9

My first detailed anatomy study! I thought I’d totally fail, but im actually okay with my results. Yeah I don;'t like to pat myself on the back, especially in front of people, but this time I’m not ashamed of what I drew!



#10

Great start for a sketchbook man! I like the gesture studies. Some of your drawings seem a bit flat sometimes: you might give some more attention to the construction of the shapes. Keep going!

#11

@batte812: Thanks! I tried to take your advice about the flatness and push the shadows harder. I don’t know if the result is convincing enough, but I hope you come back to comment again! :smiley:

I felt i did not draw nearly as much as I wanted because I became fixated at the beautiful cast shadows in the photographs I used as reference. But time ticked away and i had to stop drawing. =( I spent too much time shading that damn first drawing!



#12

Your anatomy studies are quite amazing. Also, given what you’ve accomplished so far you can definitely draw hands. Like anything else you just have to sit down and practice it!

#13

Excellent sketchbook! The mass/form rendering in your more recent posts is much better :slight_smile:

Do you mostly draw from photos/drawings, or are some of these from life too? Keep it up, I really like this thread!

#14

@Tasp: thanks for the encouragement. :slight_smile:

@jabuhrer: I draw from photos. I dont have enough money to go to school or hire a life model or setup a studio… argh.

Anyhoo… Today’s torso study felt really shameful. My pencil motion was stiff and rigid and I couldn’t get any confidence in my line until about 10 minutes before it was over. What a day…


#15

I admire your dedication to draw on a daily basis.Cheers!

#16

@AbuAmir: Some days its hard to find the motivation to draw. Sometimes I feel I’m going nowhere, just running on and on forever with no end in sight. My art has improved since I started drawing (almost) daily, but my mood has been drifting downwards cuz I don’t know where its taking me. Maybe its not taking me anywhere, maybe I’m not studying the right things for the field I want to go in. Who knows, I’m not guided by a teacher or a curriculum, its all very much instinct for me.

#17

RedPandaFire- I’m pretty much teaching myself at this point. I go to a life drawing class occasionally but the monitor doesn’t provide much in the way of instruction. I feel like I can relate to what you are talking about in your last post specifically about where it’s taking you and how you are progressing. Here is what I’ve been doing and what has helped me-

If you are worried about where it is taking you: The first thing to think about is why you are drawing. You should draw because you like it, you find it challenging, rewarding and/or cathartic. I draw because it helps me unwind and because I like the challenges it presents me with whenever I try to draw something new or more complex. Also as someone with an overactive imagination it’s fun to try and pull those random thoughts out of the air and put them down on paper.

If you have an end goal in mind that involves creating art the internet and your local schools, be they high schools or colleges (not going to assume, I have no idea how old you are), can provide a wealth of information on what you should be studying. Look into the field you want to pursue, find out what people in that field usually have in the way of degrees. Then, research those degrees, find what courses are required and try to mimic those studies in your own time. The other forums can provide a wealth of information on the subject as well if you spend some time sifting through them.

About your progress- I used to play organized sports and still am very active. However in all the years of practicing the same motions, moves and training I have noticed something that most other athletes (and even artists) can confirm. It is impossible to steadily progress at a set rate. No matter how much you practice, or how good you innately are, you will hit points where it’s like running into a wall. You will feel like you are treading water, stuck in the same spot and not able to get better. This is in fact not the case, what is happening is your skills have hit a plateau. Everything you were learning has added up to this newer bigger level of skill that you are now trying to attain. In order to make that next move up and start improving you need to keep pushing with what you’ve been doing, keep challenging yourself and eventually you will wake up one day and realize that suddenly you are getting better again. The best analogy I’ve been able to come up with is that your conscious mind has progressed so far so quickly that your subconscious hasn’t been able to keep up. The time you feel you aren’t getting better is the time when your subconscious is cementing those skills into place and making them second nature. It is in my opinion the most important time to maintain regular practice.

All in all don’t get discouraged! Keep practicing and keep challenging yourself and you will get better.

#18

I agree 100% with Tasp’s very insightful and thought provoking comment. Particularly the thoughts on conscious vs. subconscious. With that in mind, the only thing I would add is that I’ve found that many times my “plateau” periods (the times when I am discouraged because I feel like I am spinning my wheels and not progressing), many times I look back at those periods and realize that I was actually in the middle of a very consistent, productive phase where I was cranking out a lot of solid stuff. At the time, you may not feel like you’re improving at the rate that you were before, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t producing quality work and participating in a vital learning process.

I’m 27 years old, I went through art school and I’ve worked in the “industry” for almost 5 years now…so I’ve been through the cycle of inspiration-> productivity-> good results-> burn out-> depression-> repeat many many times. Heck, that’s why I’m here. I work as a 3D artist, I was getting burned out twiddling knobs on the computer all the time (again) and I decided to rebuild my atrophied drawing muscles and get into painting. Anyway, Tasp is right - don’t get discouraged, just keep going the best you can. A small break here and there can be good for you, just be wary of the slippery slope that can lead to getting out of practice. It’s hard to come back…trust me.

Sometimes I feel I’m going nowhere.

As long as you’re creating artwork, you’re never “going nowhere.” The only way to go nowhere is to quit. Oh, by the way…has anyone ever read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?” The whole point of that book is basically what we’re talking about here: how to hold on to that spark that makes you pick up the pencil in the first place, and how to not get “stuck.” How to maintain satisfaction. It’s a good read. The gist of it is: if you are armed with the technical knowledge to solve problems that come up, but also the flexibility and creativity to carry you when technical knowledge isn’t enough, then you’ll be able to get out of your own way and allow yourself to go as far as you can go. But you gotta go through the rough times…not around them, and certainly don’t stop or slow down in front of them. Anyway, sorry for rambling, heh, just thinking out loud. This is something that we all deal with from time to time.

Your last post was awesome, by the way.

#19

@Tasp and @jabuhrer: You two turned my entire day around. I can hardly express myself in words right now, so I’ll do it by drawing after work tonight. I love to draw and I love to learn to draw, so theres no point in my slowing down now! Thanks again guys!

#20

Female torso study tonight. Little over an hour. Had a lot of fun but at the same time there was a torrent of thinking going on in my head. Weird how I’m able to think about three things at the same time, but i can barely balance a full coffee mug.