Sketchbook Thread of batavia

#1

Hello, here’s my sketchbook thread.
About me: I’m a college student (non-art major) and have always been a casual artist. I mainly sketch and doodle, however (never really finishing a piece, painting or whatnot). Like a lot of people here I’ve always liked to draw, and the earliest memories I have are when I drew things as a little kid, but recently I haven’t done much of art, so I’m trying to get the habit back.
I just discovered the great thing that is the graphics tablet :slight_smile: I’m using one at my school’s comp. lab as I don’t have one myself yet.

One question to anyone here: What’s the best way to save in photoshop (pardon me if it’s in a faq or something >_>), in terms of keeping good quality, small size, for large resolution drawings?

Here’s a quick first sketch:

#2

Here’s Durer’s eye from his self portrait

#3

Here’s a badass hippo skull. Got too lazy in the end though…

2q9ylwi.jpg756x696

#4

I really like the hippo skull. You have very good sketches :slight_smile:
As for the question, I think png files are better,personally.

#5

Thanks.
I’ll post some more drawings up as the week starts; at home I don’t have access to a scanner or a tablet >_>

#6

batavia,

Welcome! I think I somehow missed your thread >.< - some nice starts here, I hope to see you continue to develop your work. :slight_smile:

What’s the best way to save in photoshop (pardon me if it’s in a faq or something >_>), in terms of keeping good quality, small size, for large resolution drawings?

Do you mean saving for posting to the web? In PS, you can File > Save For Web (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S on a PC) and then set the percentage of quality from 100 percent downward - as you change the quality percentage, you can see that the file size changes accordingly in the lower left of the window.

Let me know if that’s what you were asking about. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

-Rebeccak

#7

Hi batavia!.. welcome to the club! nice sketches!!.. anxious to see more!

#8

Thanks, Rebecca and Anand.

Rebecca, I used your suggestion to save the file. What settings do you use, personallly? I saved mine as jpeg with max quality. The 24 PNG seems a bit too high in terms of file size.
Oh one more thing, what settings do you use when creating a new file in photoshop? I’m not too sure about the resolution and color bits

Here are more sketches, this time of the hand.

2dhctna.jpg750x750

#9

I’ve been spending time on looking at the anatomy of the hand. The hardest problem for me so far is the thumb; not the thumb itself but the part where it connects the rest of the hand. Getting the wrong angle even just a bit will skew the whole drawing.

#10

batavia,

I generally create most of my images at print resolution - for example, if I want to create an image that I want to be the standard notebook paper size and printable, I will create an image that is:

8.5 inches x 11 inches at 300 dpi.

However, I can create an image at 8.5 inches x 11 inches at 72 dpi if I don’t want to print it.

I recommend, if you have the room on your computer, to create most of your images at 300 dpi and a reasonable size in terms of inches so that if you ever want to print something for a portfolio, you can. You never know when you might create a print worthy image. :slight_smile: Bear in mind that the larger in terms of inches and resolution your image, the more detail you will be able to create since you will be able to zoom in and out of your image over a much broader range.

If you know that something is just for practice, then you can create the image at whatever size in terms of inches and at 72 dpi. Just bear in mind that you can scale down in terms of size, but not up. For example, if you changed your 8.5 inches x 11 inches at 72 dpi to 8.5 inches x 11 inches at 300 dpi, your image would become fuzzy. So if you start a Workshop piece, for example, be sure to work at print resolution and at a size in terms of inches that will be comfortably viewable by someone looking at it when printed.

In terms of saving for web, I generally save my images at 100% quality jpgs, but a friend recommends saving them at around 70% (a good balance between file size and clarity).

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

#11

Thanks Rebecca.

Here’s another drawing, and it’s based on Michelangelo’s sketch. I disliked it more as I went along…something is wrong with it…it doesn’t look coherent in some way, in terms of the shading/lighting.

I don’t mind the proportions as much; I didn’t try to exactly copy the exact angles and likeness. Doing that I think detracts from understanding the form and feel. So I think it’s the cross-hatching and lines that make it look ‘wrong’. I’ve been trying to improve my shading, which can look messy at times (look at the butt area). And the lines to me also don’t look as strong and defined, so maybe that’s another thing.

#12

Michelangelo’s drawings are, in my opinion, the hardest to copy, because there is very little that is ‘wrong’ in them - every mark in his existing drawings supports the whole, so anything shy of that looks wrong - trust me, I’ve tried and failed numerous times to copy Michelangelo’s drawings, they’re really impossible I think to match. :slight_smile: But what’s great about that though is that you always have something to learn from his drawings. I think the problem you’ll find in copying Michelangelo’s works is that you can’t make casual marks - or things will look wrong. Look carefully at his drawings, and notice how each mark serves to support the overall idea of the whole drawing. It’s an exceedingly tough act to follow, but it’s a rich and incomparable learning experience.

#13

True, Rebecca. Next time maybe I’ll focus more on other things like the general anatomy in the drawing instead of subtleties in texture/lighting.
Here’s another doodle…
Hmm tomorrow (hopefully, if there’s motivation :p) I’ll do one of those 50 sketches in 50 minutes thing…

#14

Here are some sketches based on some master works. My aim was to see the forms, not really the perfect anatomy.


#15

Some others…

#16

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