Sketchbook: Trancerobot

trancerobot

Hi, I like this sketchbook idea.

My current problem can be summed up nicely by this poem:

Epitaph of an Unfortunate Artist - Robert Graves

He found a formula for drawing comic rabbits:
This formula for drawing comic rabbits paid,
So in the end he could not change the tragic habits
This formula for drawing comic rabbits made.

I'm used to drawing creatures, so much so that I can draw one up without a second thought. I really like creating creatures, and it doesn't matter what you want - lines, shaded, sculpted, 3D - I can do it all. But ask me to draw a pretty woman... oh then I'm in trouble.

I seek to change that. Please be brutal in your critique. I love honesty no matter how blunt.

edit: As I progress, I will turn the really bad images into links. You can still view them if you must, but at least they won't be the first thing you see.

---

The three concept drawings below are of a planned game character named Felicia Mason. The first two were done on a tablet, and the last in pencil. I find that it is easier to draw on actual paper than it is with the tablet.

http://arkavision.com/share/Felicia-Mason.jpg

EmAr

Hey, it's good to see you started a sketchbook thread.

For the first one, it's better to start with a naked figure and make sure it looks fine at a rough level of detail. This can help you avoid the leg problem in this drawing. Her left leg is much fatter than her right one. You may benefit from enhancing yur anatomy knowledge too.

trancerobot

Yeah, I saw that too EmAr. I think it's that bad because I tried to rush it. When I take my time I do a better job. As far as books is concerned - for anatomy I have Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, and I have a PDF of Andrew Loomis's Figure Drawing for All It's Worth. If I had consulted those books it would have turned out better.

Here's a front and side concept drawing for the character. I'll do the body next.

http://arkavision.com/share/Felicia-Mason-concept-4.jpg

marlfox8

are you gonna leave the eyes all cartoony like that?

wake

She does suffer a bit from sausage arms and cankles, but that's easily correctable. Are you going for a slightly anime style? My main caveat for that direction is that when you're first learning anatomy it's better to just draw what you see and keep with realistic figures and proportions. Jumping straight into stylization can stunt your efforts.

That being said, you've got a handsome start, particularly that first closeup. Are you familiar with Range Murata and Last Exile? Murata seems like his figure work would be right up your alley, so give it a look. Otherwise, I'd just spend more time doing sketches of the full figure from 3/4's perspective-- you typically want to hold off on the orthos until you've really hammered down your concept.

marlfox8

i agree with wake on the anime stuff

trancerobot

wake wrote: »

Jumping straight into stylization can stunt your efforts.

Wups. I'll see what I can do about that tonight.

That being said, you've got a handsome start, particularly that first closeup. Are you familiar with Range Murata and Last Exile? Murata seems like his figure work would be right up your alley, so give it a look. Otherwise, I'd just spend more time doing sketches of the full figure from 3/4's perspective-- you typically want to hold off on the orthos until you've really hammered down your concept.

I do enjoy doing 3/4 perspective views... but the reason I pushed out a close-up so early is that I wanted something to start modeling with. I guess I should be patient or perhaps model some random practice stuff until this character is ready.

I'm not at all familiar with Murata, but I'll google that and check it out.

trancerobot

I scaled the eyes down a bit and did some other things. Currently trying to paint it all in realistically just to see if I can. I'm using photographs as a guide.

http://arkavision.com/share/Felicia-Mason-concept-5-3.jpg

trancerobot

I fixed a few things and finished what I started.

trancerobot

Here's a military jeep. Nothing that existed - just made up. It's part of the same project involving the character above.

http://arkavision.com/share/militaryJeep.jpg

trancerobot

Oh god what an abortion that jeep was. Link-afying it now..

Anyway, here is something new.

trancerobot

Practicing values:

trancerobot

I'm taking Figure Drawing this semester, so here is some class work.

5 minute lady


15 minute lady


My hand

onionhead_o

get quicker, less feathery lines and be more confident with ur pencil(or wutever medium u use)strokes. hope this helps. im not a very good artist but these tips helped me.

BCos

I'll second onionhead_o 's comment. You've got great style and a definite grasp on forms, profile, plane changes ect, but there's a alot of fuzz on your strokes, almost like you weren't sure if your stroke was gonna go where it needed to so you chipped away at it bit by bit until you got your lines. this applies to the figure sketches primarily. the hand looks solid and confident, strong strokes. get that on those figure sketches and it'll be a thing of (greater) beauty.

An old professor of mine once gave me the advice:

"Know your point A and your point B, and where you want the line to go in between. don't look at the tip of your pencil, as you draw, stay focused on point B, and trust your hand and intuition to cross the gap for you and get you there with a solid, confident stroke."


now that wording is probably a little skewed from memory, but it has stuck with me and for some reason i thought it appropriate. Hope that helps. great proportions and profiles in the figure sketches by the way, now just shave some of the peach fuzz away



Love the epitaph by the way.

wake

You're 80% of the way there on the hand; you're linework is great but there are some small structural issues with the shape of the hand itself. The base of the palm is jutting too far out from the wrist, and the distal phalanges (fingertips) are a little oddly shaped, particularly the thumb which tapers too much.

As for the rest of the work, BCos and onionhead are correct in that you need to focus on making bolder, more confident lines when drawing. It's harder at first, but it'll speed up your work a lot once you get the hang of it and and your lines/curves will be smoother and cleaner.

Keep posting.

trancerobot

wake wrote: »

You're 80% of the way there on the hand; you're linework is great but there are some small structural issues with the shape of the hand itself. The base of the palm is jutting too far out from the wrist, and the distal phalanges (fingertips) are a little oddly shaped, particularly the thumb which tapers too much.

As for the rest of the work, BCos and onionhead are correct in that you need to focus on making bolder, more confident lines when drawing. It's harder at first, but it'll speed up your work a lot once you get the hang of it and and your lines/curves will be smoother and cleaner.

Keep posting.

I had 5 and later 15 minutes, and our instructor told us not to worry about making perfect lines. The hand is cleaner because it was homework, and thus I had more time.

I'm not at the point where I could duplicate the figure drawing just as cleanly as the hand but in 5 minutes, and I don't know when I will ever be, but I'll keep trying. As always, thanks for your crits.

trancerobot

I apologize in advance for the quality of these pictures, they were taken in low light and 'fixed' after the fact. All of these drawings were done in Figure Drawing class, in 15 or 20 minute stints. The longer sessions will be coming in a few weeks, and this is the same model from before. For some of these, we were told to draw the 'sighting lines' and leave them in, which are lines that represent the position of our sighting sticks when we use them.









And here's a drawing of my foot.

woody_294

Nice. Some great shapes in there I guess I'm a little behind you in my studies!

trancerobot

woody_294 wrote: »

Nice. Some great shapes in there I guess I'm a little behind you in my studies!

Thanks Woody. It really helps to have a figure drawing class, and well... an actual figure. We've been using the same model since the beginning, and she's a good specimen too - representing the average 30-something healthy female. She's no super model, but her lines are very real, there's no makeup, and what you see is what you get. I'd say she's the ideal figure drawing model.

Yesterday we were tasked with drawing the skeleton, from a full-size skeleton model we have. I did most of it, but I will need to finish at home using my anatomy book. I'm quite proud of it... there's an odd expressive quality to the skeleton that I've never noticed before. Can't wait to post it here.

trancerobot

Just a couple doodles..





And I guess I should post that skeleton...

trancerobot

I decided to model one of my doodles, here it is so far.

trancerobot

Got pulled away somehow. The guilt of not doing anything in so long forced me to do something.

trancerobot

Wingless Dragon

trancerobot

Here is a sketch of a level I will soon attempt to make. The top drawing is the third floor, followed by the second. The bottom drawing is the first floor. This level is part of a larger FPS game project and is meant to represent a laboratory building. You start out in a holding cell on the top and make your way out the rear exit on the bottom floor. I have paid special attention toward making the level worth exploring, and there will also be multiple ways of finishing it, as well as plenty of secret areas to find (though only one is seen in this initial schematic, I will try to fit more in if I can).

trancerobot

Since everyone's makin' space pillars I thought I'd give it a shot too.

trancerobot

Here's the conclusion to that space pillar. Also learned I did it the hard way and should have done it like this...




Anyway, on to something completely different! A woman! - my first. Lots of stuff still left to do, and lots of learning (mainly of zBrush), but I feel like I'm on the right track at least.

trancerobot

The day before Thanksgiving I corrected the proportions a bit. There’s more info on that on the zBrush forum.

trancerobot

trancerobot

Meh

trancerobot

Meh again... getting faster though. Took about an hour. No reference for either.

trancerobot

Here's another. I used a few references this time.

trancerobot

Nobody likes the freezing cold of winter.

trancerobot

I'm not dead!

trancerobot

New post! I know it's been a while.



"Mu" was a character thought up by a friend and designed by me as part of a practice project for a nascent online team that I'm a part of. It's gone through a few revisions, and this is were it ended up before we decided to halt the project. I'll probably develop it further eventually.