Sketchbook: Alismuffin

Alismuffin

Ok so here's the deal. I suck at drawing and painting. Despite my passion always lying in the field of art, I have never been able to develop much in skill.

But I REALLY want to be able to put my thoughts into conceptual paintings. My lack of skill has been an obstacle of mine in many fields, especially the development of characters, storyboards and concept paintings/drawing.
I am also somewhat of a perfectionist, meaning I don't finish many pieces at all and I start over a good many times.

But I'm sick of lacking and want to get better so I have decided to start a scrapbook here in which I will force myself to post a piece of work everyday.
I believe this will pressure me into pushing myself hard enough to overcome the obstacles that I am struggling to get over.

If you want to help me out I would be EXTREMELY grateful for any criticism, pointers or recommended exercises that will help me improve my skills!

And with that I will begin working on my first piece!

Jessica Dinh

Someone gave me a really awesome piece of advice lately concerning creativity blocks, and that is you can only put out as much as you receive. So if you're ever stuck designing a particular something, the only way to move forward is to stop trying to design, put everything down, and just research. Just read, copy references, try to pick them apart, find out how it works, etc, and when you've done that you can go back to designing and it should flow from there.

I used to just look at reference and start designing from there, but since that advice I feel I have been moving forward and actually learning in terms of concepting. I hope you may find it helpful too

Good luck!

Alismuffin

Thanks for the advice Jessica! I will definitely be doing a lot of copying and strill life drawing ^^

Anyways. Day One: PanPan


And heres the reference image:

Oranghe

Make sure that what you are studying is useful to you, you need to be paying attention to the information your copying to reuse later, do a study then do your own image to see what you have learn't taken in and keep trying. If you want to try a character try your best to do it, even just trying to work it out will help you then do a study with what you struggle on the most then try again that way you know for sure your learning what you need the most!

Good luck

Alismuffin

Hey Oranghe! thanks for the great advice. I really appreciate it. I decided that my current area of focus will be on interiors as my current project is full of interiors and is in need of concepts asap. today I did a few inter "or study sketches. I learnt a great death about interior space, but I still have a lot to learn! Here are My sketches and references:

Day 2 - Interiors

Joseph Silverman

Hey, cool to see you jumped over here and started posting! You need to pay some more basic attention to perspective -- you'll immediately see a big boost in your drawing ability if you get that down. The surfaces in the first (kitchen) interior are an especially noticable culprit of bad perspective -- they're all pretty much flat planes, but they're pointing all over the place.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/home/2011/8/4/perspective-drawing-isnt-scary.html

keep it up!

Alismuffin

Hey SupRore!! Yeah man this forum is great!
Thanks so much for you're post! The link you sent me was helpful. Ive been watching tutorials from there all day!

I took a break from interiors and tried to draw something different:

Day 3 - Portrait

Alismuffin

Clearly I am having a lot of trouble with interiors >..<!

Anyways thanks for the support and here is Day Four:

Day 4 - Kitchen

Futzy

You seem to not be looking at the reference. You're drawing what your mind identifies there but not what your eyes are actually seeing, resulting in symbols and drawing non-existent or incorrect data. Spend just as much time looking at the reference as you do at your painting for each stroke you do

ErikNilsson

Looking good man but I agree with Futzy, you need to really look at your references. Great job though, you will be a master in no time

gillmeister74

It looks like you are trying to draw those straight lines by yourself. In photoshop, if you make one point with your brush or pencil, hold shift and then click another point, you will make a straight line. I think that'd be really helpful for you with these room sketches

Alismuffin

Hey Futzy and Erik! Yeah I realise now that that is part of why I have been so unsuccessful in drwaing. I have had trouble drawing what I see with my eyes as opposed to drawing what I see with my mind. I am now paying a lot more attention to this so thanks guys!

Hey gillmeister! Thanks for the tip.

And unfortunately for day five, I have to post a W.I.P because my brother needs to use the tablet. Ill finish this off when I can!

Day 5 - Work In Progress

DEElekgolo

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/

Alismuffin

SupRore linked me to that site before, but thanks anyway! It is a great site

Jessica Dinh

When you are studying from still life and reference photos, it's probably better to choose ones with simpler lighting. Like start with a very simple still life setup that has one light source and a plain cloth for backdrop.

Having busy backgrounds and lots of bounce lighting (like you have in your kitchen references) or blown-out lighting (like in the panda reference) will not help you when you are trying to learn basic rendering, lighting, and material definition. But you are drawing a lot, that is good!

Alismuffin

Thanks for the advice Jessica ^^
I'll definitely take that into account when I practice rendering

Anyways Day six was very unsuccessful. I got really inspired by a whole heap of Feng Zhu videos, then drew for AGEEES. But didn't really produce anything worth showing. So for Day Six's image, it will have to be a silhouette I did (I ruined it when I added in the details and volume)

Day 6: Silhouette

Alismuffin

Ok so it's been a week and I have learnt a reasonable amount. I still have a long way to go however! Thanks to everyone for the help and support!

Day 7: Elephant warrior



Mood Board:

Alismuffin

Day 8: penguin

Krillatron

Hey there! Your work certainly seems to be progressing, however your elephant warrior is slightly off balance? It feels like he's falling forwards due to the implied weight of the head/trunk not being counteracted by the rest of the body. If he were to be bending his knees slightly (as in the bottom right reference image) I think he'd feel more 'solid' as the weighting would feel more realistic. Hope that helps!

Also, the penguin is adorable, I love the colour change of the water from vast, deep sea to the inlaid area immediately behind the penguin, reinforcing the idea of the shallower water.

Alismuffin

Hi Krillatron!
Yeah I am dissatisfied with my elephant warrior in regards to anatomy in general >.< hanks for the tip! It definitely does help
I have decided to do a lot of drawing studies to improve my unde3rstanding of everything so as I can draw better
I'm glad that you can see an improvement in my work! I really am pushing myself to get better!

Thanks for your feedback and criticsm! Much appreciated!

I'm starting off day 9 with animal studies. Here's the first for today:

Krillatron

You might find this site useful for quick animal figure studies:

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/animalanatomy.php

I personally find it invaluable for improving my proportions in regards to both humans and animals, though it's easier to use if you have dual monitors.

Keep up the good work though, the tiger's looking good! I like the work you put into the colour differences between the bulk of the ribcage and the more shaded region of the legs.

Alismuffin

Thanks for the link! That's a great site!

Luckily for me my monitor is big enough t split in half without worrying about losing too much drawing space ^^

Thanks man!

Alismuffin

Day 9 continued - More animal studies (These were quick ones using the website Krillatron gave me. The time ranges from 30seconds to 10 minutes)

Alismuffin

I got into Maya and Mudbox today. Had a lot of fun, but having trouble learning UV unwrapping

Anyway here's my quick unfinished models:

Day 10 - Mouse head

Alismuffin

Day 10 - Female anatomy studies



And Mouse Base Mesh

Alismuffin

Day 11 - More Mouse Work

Alismuffin

Day12 - Still Mouse

oskarreftel

Your progress is looking great!

Looking at your stuff inspires me to work harder!

Alismuffin

Thanks a lot oskarreftel!

Didn't get a chance to do much today, so heres a male pose study:

Day 12 - Male Pose

Alismuffin

Day 13 - Female Paint Study

Alismuffin

Day 14 - Played with ZBrush

Alismuffin

Day 15 - Mouse Pirate Village WIP

Alismuffin

Here's something I did earlier this year (A hybrid of painted and photomanipulated)

Alismuffin

Been rather busy so havent had much time to spend on my drawings lately :c

Day 16 - Hobbit Hole

Alismuffin

Hey guys! I was inactive for about a week because I was on holiday. I brought along a laptop and drawing tablet so here's a dump of what I did:
(I didnt draw everyday because I was having a holiday, but I did take the effort to get some stuff drawn)

Day 17 -Frog thing


Day 18 - My baby Brother


Day 19 - Sky Farm Map Concept


Day 19 - Sky Farm Concept 01


Day 20 - Sky Farm Concept 02

UltraLrod

Very nice. Getting inspire from you to make my own sketchbook on here. Good luck to you on this. Keep it up.

Alismuffin

Thank you c:
Yeah make a sketchbook bro!

Alismuffin

Day 21 - Beach


Just a quickie!

Alismuffin

Day 21 - Female Anatomy Study


Also tying to think using the pencil as opposed to stopping, thnking then drawing. Pretty bad atm, but:
Day 21 - Character concept

Alismuffin

Was out all day twice in a row so had no time to draw :c

Heres todays!

Day 22 - Inventor Concept

Oranghe

a good way to help your image is to draw single bold strokes, you can sketch out your idea then tone down the opacity in photoshop and try to use less strokes to get the information across this makes for more confident line drawing and will really help clean up your image and teach you how to express the same information but with allot less noise.

Don't rush, take your time with things and keep drawing the more you do and the more you make yourself finish the more things will begin to settle.

Also always define a light source before you start this really helps give believability and life to your images and helps with rendering also.

I'm really pleased to see a good mix of characters and environments here and i think your on a good base to sky rocket ahead! keep going

Alismuffin

Thanks a lot for the tips Oranghe! I will definitely be taking your advice into account next time I start a drawing ^^

Thanks! I like variety ^^


Day 23 - Male anatomy study

Alismuffin

Day 24 - Male Study

Alismuffin

This is a painting Im doing for my girlfriend. Inspired by Monet and still a work in progress. 3 hours spent on it thus far

Day 26 - Japanese Gardens W.I.P

Oranghe

sure she will love it! such a nice thing to do

Alismuffin

Thanks c:

Alismuffin

I worked on it for another 3 hours or so

Day 27 - Japanese Garden

Alismuffin

Day 27 - Female Face Study

Alismuffin

Was out most of yesterday so did this crap drawing

Day 28 - Sackboy

Alismuffin

Day 29 - Character Concept

Royzy

Your drawing and painting has shown stacks of improvement over this thread, your values are getting pretty good, particularly in days 24 & 29. There is a really big difference in the quality of the skin on Day 24 compared to your previous work. Also aside from some uncertain lighting, Day 29 has a good punch to it (like it is coming off the canvas in 3 dimensions).

Keep going because you are improving fast. Have you got a sketchbook thread over at Conceptart.org as well? I found it to be a brilliant place for improving 2D / life drawing / concept art. Also it is constantly active with people. I need to start maintaining my thread over there again (as well as here).