Sketchbook: LongJh
Hello, Polycount!
So uh, new guy here! Well, actually I've lurking for quite some time in this forum, and finally decided to make this is my first post. My name's Junhong, 20 years old, from Singapore. And I'm hoping to hone my drawing and design skills right here in this sketchbook.
I was fortunate enough to go a digital media design school, where they taught drawing, colour theory, 3D, animation, etc. Halfway through I got hooked onto digital painting and concept art all the while doing 3D stuff for school projects (I specialized in game art and design, which focused a lot of 3D and production). So when I graduated my portfolio works were just all over the place - I had digital paintings here and 3D environments there and all sorts of random stuff.
I still want to do concept art and design. So after graduation I tried to work on some digital paintings.
And well, all I found out was that my skills were seriously lacking and that it was pointless to do all these paintings if I didn't even get the basics of drawing, anatomy, light and colour right. I did some practicing by myself for awhile but I found it was difficult (and boring) doing it alone. Also it was quite hard to judge my work for myself and to see what are the aspects that I need to improve on. So I decided it was time to stop lurking around and to get some serious help!
So that's why I decided make a sketchbook post here in polycount. You guys were a great help when I was doing 3D, and the community here is amazing. I know this is mostly a 3D-oriented forum, but I hope you guys will be willing to guide me along. And any critiques, tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Aaand so, here's the stuff I did recently. I started with a bunch of studies figure studies from photographs, movies and even game screenshots lol. And also a bunch of 30 second poses. They all came out.. well, not so good. But I'll keep practicing!
I'll do my best to update as often as I can. Though in my current situation, I'm afraid I can only post during the weekends as the rest of the time I'll be away from home. But I won't be giving up!
Thank you for your patience!
So uh, new guy here! Well, actually I've lurking for quite some time in this forum, and finally decided to make this is my first post. My name's Junhong, 20 years old, from Singapore. And I'm hoping to hone my drawing and design skills right here in this sketchbook.
I was fortunate enough to go a digital media design school, where they taught drawing, colour theory, 3D, animation, etc. Halfway through I got hooked onto digital painting and concept art all the while doing 3D stuff for school projects (I specialized in game art and design, which focused a lot of 3D and production). So when I graduated my portfolio works were just all over the place - I had digital paintings here and 3D environments there and all sorts of random stuff.
I still want to do concept art and design. So after graduation I tried to work on some digital paintings.
And well, all I found out was that my skills were seriously lacking and that it was pointless to do all these paintings if I didn't even get the basics of drawing, anatomy, light and colour right. I did some practicing by myself for awhile but I found it was difficult (and boring) doing it alone. Also it was quite hard to judge my work for myself and to see what are the aspects that I need to improve on. So I decided it was time to stop lurking around and to get some serious help!
So that's why I decided make a sketchbook post here in polycount. You guys were a great help when I was doing 3D, and the community here is amazing. I know this is mostly a 3D-oriented forum, but I hope you guys will be willing to guide me along. And any critiques, tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Aaand so, here's the stuff I did recently. I started with a bunch of studies figure studies from photographs, movies and even game screenshots lol. And also a bunch of 30 second poses. They all came out.. well, not so good. But I'll keep practicing!
I'll do my best to update as often as I can. Though in my current situation, I'm afraid I can only post during the weekends as the rest of the time I'll be away from home. But I won't be giving up!
Thank you for your patience!
Replies
Now that I look at it my scanner looks a little blurry lol. Or maybe I draw too lightly.
I'll be posting sketchbooks in cghub and conceptart.org too. Hopefully that will prevent me from getting lazy and motivate myself to do better each day!
These are all the studies I did earlier this week. I'm trying to clear them out of the way so I can post the most recent ones.
Hope it's not to boring
Btw, I edited the previous pictures so that they are a little smaller and more compact. The previous sizes of the pics were like obnoxiously huge lol.
Anyways, more stuff! Finally caught up to the present.
First pics are some perspective stuff I did while studying Loomis' Successful Drawing book. Its such an awesome book, though the first few chapters of perspective stuff are pretty intimidating, right now I'm still at the spheres page, and the next few pages are looking even more challenging lol. I have a whole bunch of other perspective stuff but I don't think I'll be scanning those, it's really just a whole bunch of cubes and cones and stuff, not exactly very exciting, though I learned a whole lot.
Next are some really embarrassing heads done in an attempt to draw without reference. I keep messing up the proportions and size of the features. After that I went into a rage and searched "male models" and drew these four head studies.
Next are some digi landscape studies! Haven't touched my wacom in ages lol, so this was pretty fun. Pictures are from terragalleria.com, lots of pretty landscape photos there! My goal here is mostly to study colours (which I'm really pathetic at).
Aaand more perspective stuff from Loomis. These are done just last week. I'm progressing the pages of that book sloooowly lol. I'm at page 36 now. Getting a little more comfortable with this construction drawing stuff now, though I'm still doing simple forms. Hoping to apply all this to something useful soon.
Ahh, a little slow on the update this time. I entered the imagineFX monthly challenge (the theme was Sky Harbour), so I was kinda busy with that the whole weekend. Soo that's what I'll be posting now!
These are the sketches and thumbnails I did to get an idea of what to draw for the final piece. Originally I planned to have to characters near the foreground buuut I gave up on that idea because I was afraid I couldn't finish it in time. Plus I was also struggling with scale and rendering so I didn't really have the confidence. So I went with itty bitty characters instead.
After I decided on what to do, I did a basic perspective drawing first, before scanning and adding more details and linework digitally. The line took a hell of a long time because I kept getting stuck not knowing what to draw next.
Aand the final piece. To be honest it didn't really come out the way I liked. I struggled a lot with stuff like lighting, colour and design details. There's also so much like "empty" areas all around. Plus it looks pretty bad when zoomed up lol, since the brushwork is really sloppy. Soo I probably will have to practice on all these things.
Back to gestures. The last two are done with the side of my pencil, wanted to mimic charcoal.
These are some crappy master copies of charcoal figure drawings done by Ryan Woodward. The way he draws with charcoal is amazing, and I wanted to study how he uses so few strokes to convey so much in his figures. Check out his stuff at conteanimated.com, he's crazy!
Some poses from imagination - which are pretty bad lol, need to study proportions of the figure properly, plus learn all the landmarks of the human body so that I know where to render shadows and stuff. Also got a calligraphy pen today! Did some 30s gestures with it and random figure studies with it. And finally some arm anatomy studies.
For some reason I couldn't concentrate properly and I have no idea why soo I didn't do as much drawing as I wanted today. Bleh.
SSquir33 - Ah wow! I did try practising lines the way you mentioned before, though I must admit I ended up getting really bored with it too quickly. But your words are motivating me to start doing it again. And again! AND AGAIN! I saw these exercises being recommend by Feng Zhu in his videos, it's pretty inspiring. Wonder how long it will take to reach his level of draftsmanship. Freehand circles are immensely hard lol. But yeah I'll start practising that too. Thanks!
Eoq - Thank you! I will!
More studies! Focused on arm anatomy these few days. Still gotta study a little on the muscle and bone to know how to render the form of the arm properly. Also need to study how the arm works when it's bent and twisted, and how it connects to the shoulders and the torso. Oh yeah, and arms in perspective too lol. Ahh so much to learn!
Also tried to do a few full figure poses from imagination. I had to do a really messy way of figuring out the pose though and most of it was guesswork instead of really understanding though. Soo that means I gotta do more full figure studies then.
Next are some heads from imagination and hands from life. Uhh, I think I was on autopilot when I drew these. Wasn't really concentrating much, especially the hands lol. And my heads are still really terrible bleh. Think I'll be doing head anatomy studies next.
And lastly some 30s gestures with a calligraphy pen!
It's a pretty cool way to practice colours I think, although it doesn't provide blending and shading practice, which is another thing I'm really weak in. I'll most probably do some blending exercises soon! And try to paint some figures as well. To be honest I hardly ever paint figures - it's mostly environments, sooo it's gonna be a bit of a challenge.
Studies from terragalleria
Then a couple of quick ones from imagination - I think they turned out okay, though the colours I've chosen could've been more... harmonious?
And last two studies from some holiday travel website.
Another update! Did some random thumbnail-ish sketches of environments to see if I can come up with interesting ideas and compositions. For some reason when I started doing these my mind suddenly froze up and I couldn't seem to come up with any interesting ideas aaand so I just sort of vomited out some generic rocks and cliffs and other boring stuff. My imagination seems to be at an all time low recently... has anyone ever experienced this before? And if so, any ideas on how to jump start the good 'ol creative brain?
Also bought a new sketchbook! To be honest I'm really nervous to start drawing on it lol. All my recent studies and sketches were all done on plain old copy paper because there is no pressure. But I guess I gotta get over that fear sooner or later.
And here's some studies from The Fundementals of Figure Drawing by Barrington Barber that I borrowed from the library.
And lastly, back some good ol' perspective studies from Loomis!
As for keeping going; one thing that's kept me drawing consistently is life drawing. If you can find a drop in life drawing session you can attend every week, it's a big boost. If it's anything like Malaysia the models can't be completely naked, but it's still worth the time and money.
Gaaaah! I didn't draw anything at all yesterday! Gotta make up for lost time!
More Barrington Barber studies! I changed the male and female figures at the bottom a little though, instead of copying straight from the book - 'cause I felt their poses were a little stiff and awkward. Nooot sure if I made an improvement though.
Aaand skeletons! Gotta figure out stuff like how the bones twist and turn and landmarks and all that good stuff. Might do some quick skeletal poses in the future maybe?
I ought to do some sketches and drawings of my own. But lately my mind is totally blank so all I can do are studies. Bleh...
If you're more comfortable having a ton of photos to reference from, you're not alone - The Dinotopia Guy loves his reference and I know Ghibli artists who swear by youtube and their iPhone camera. Print it out, pin it up, reference dat. Whatever gets the job done.
gillmeister74 - Thanks! Yeah, proportions is tough lol. Everytime I leave and look at my studies a day or two later I always cringe when I notice all the mistakes. Face proportions are especially hard for me. Get that eye a little too big or that nose too low (both of which I'm constantly guilty of) and you just ruin everything.
Anyway, started drawing on my new sketchbook! Just some really random stuff. Really messy and badly drawn lol, it reminds me to practice more!
And more perspective studies from Loomis. About halfway through the perspective section, learning new stuff every page, though I admittedly I think I'm going a bit slow. (I keep stopping after doing one page)
Aaand some heads practice. First one's from imagination - which was a disaster, second one's from photo refs - which are also disasters. I feel kinda bad for the models in the photos I drew from. Will be doing more heads this weekend.
Some envi studies. First one is from imagination, second is from photo ref. Coming up with realistic and harmonious colours is tough!
Also tried painting some heads. Black and white cuz I'm afraid of colours atm.
Sketches! Went drawing with a friend at mac's. Sketched a character from a manga I was reading and practiced drawing heads.
Portraits from photo refs! Added more shading and stuff instead of just line, think it helps a little, might add more darker values next time. The last two portraits at the bottom didn't turn up so well... sorry about that.
Aaand finally, more perspective from Loomis! First one is a little sketch projected into perspective as sort of a "test" to see what I have learnt, instead of just copying from the book. Pretty excited cuz the next few pages looks like it's going into more practical perspective stuff!
Also, a DRAGON! Haven't done dragons much now that I think about it. My first few attempts were a disaster though, because of my lack of knowledge of animal anatomy.
And finally some figures from imagination. Still bad... yeah. Curse my messy lines!
Painted some eye studies from photos in photoshop. Mainly focusing on practicing colours and rendering.
Then trying to apply what I learned by painting one from my mind.
Next are more perspective studies (from Loomis as usual). While doing the drawing with the church I ran into a few problems and made a some mistakes, so I did a few other orthographic-to-perspective drawings using simple shapes to practice a little more before moving on.
I finally got around to do those skull studies that I kept saying I'll do. At first I was on autopilot a little - drawing without thinking much - cuz I had no idea what I was supposed to be concentrating on. The skull shape? The position of the features? But after awhile I started focusing on the planes of the skull - where the forms turn, etc, hope it'll come in handy when I start drawing/painting heads.
Next are some studies I did as practice for my entry CGHub's Anatomicae challenge - Fog, Lights and Rock & Roll. Mostly studying musician poses and the underlying form and anatomy, also trying to capture their movement and energy and stuff - man, am I bad at this. Bleh.
Also, some heads. Some reffed, some not. You can probably tell which is which.
Aaaand as usual - perspective practice! I'm still working on the same page of Loomis' Successful Drawing where it touches on the basics of 2-pt construction drawing. Drawing a bunch of random buildings get a better understanding of some problems I'm having.
And finally some black and white composition sketches I did for CGHub's Anatomicae challenge. Trying to come up with some interesting lighting effects and a nice composition. Reffed from a few music videos of the awesome japanese all-girl rock band - SCANDAL!
Edit - Does anyone know how to prevent the auto Youtube video embedding? I just want a link, not a video in the middle of the post.
Some fog studies done for CGhub's Fog, Lights and Rock&Roll Anatomicae challenge. Hopefully the practice will help me in doing misty mountains and foggy scenes in the future!
Aaaaand the final! Learnt quite a bit doing this one (I originally added a bunch of random photoshop blur effects, but in the end I don't think it did much to improve the picture, so yeah, also got a reminder that less is more!) Oh, and you can check out the WIP and stuff here!
Lip studies! Found out that I rarely draw mouths that are slightly open - it seems all I ever do are closed mouths. Also, teeth.
Aaand one from memory after the practice.
I still got a bit more stuff to post soon!
More perspective practice! Ran into a few curved edges problems in the first one, plus made a bunch of wierd mistakes. So did a few more simple exercises. Think I'll be doing a couple more before moving on.
Next are some nose studies in photoshop! I realised I'm pretty bad at noses - like how the nose forms differ from each other and stuff. Also I think I was being pretty sloppy with the rendering and colour observation. The last one is from memory/imagination. It looks... pretty bad lol. In my mind I had no idea what a natural nose was supposed to look like.
Next are some heads studies/practice. When I draw heads without reference I'm still samefacing a lot. Ugh. Trying to understand and capture different features.
Aaand lastly, a sketch and a study! Done on copy paper cuz I'm still too scared to draw on my sketchbooook.
Keep it up
Aaand, another update here.
First up, a naked sword dude from imagination! It had 10000 mistakes so I did a few studies of the really bad ones for practice. As usual - need to improve on line quality, anatomy, dynamic pose/gesture, etc.
Next are some pencil rendering practice. Used tissue papers to get that smooth blend. I borrowed a book on drawing/rendering portraits that advised me to do a few of these a initial practice.
And some more perspective stuff. The last two are studies from Loomis' Successful Drawing book. I tackled the church drawing again and finally moved up one page. Yay.
Aaand lastly, some portrait studies! A few of them are studies of drawings by the amazing Alex Pascenko!
Wtf is this thing? It's so bad I just had to post it to remind myself how much I suck.
Borrowed How to Draw Lifelike Portraits by Lee Hammond and started on some nose studies. Not really digging the blending/rendering method (cuz I feel it takes waaaay too much time for me) but I did it anyway. It's got a pretty nice look but I think I still prefer hatching or just simple shading.
Aaaand some portraits from imagination. I think I improved a bit (bu just a little bit). I seem to have this bad habit of drawing eyes too close together.
The usual perspective from Loomis. Should apply all this into something useful soon.
Some heads from imagination. I flipped this drawing in photoshop, and my mind exploded from how bad the mirrored image looked, everything was like distorted, I'll have to take note of this, must be the angle I'm drawing with on paper. Also my faces all still look too similar.
Lips studies after Lee Hammond's How to Draw Realistic Portraits book. I apologize for the freaky looking heads on the second picture, especially the supposedly-female-looking one. I was more concentrated on where lips should be placed and totally neglected everything else.
And lastly, some digi studies from Terragalleria. Uh, I'm bad at drawing tree branches. I always get too impatient/lazy. Sorry.
Loomis perspective stuff. Just this one this week lol. I ran into some problems understanding this one but I think I get it now.
And some head studies. Starting to get into hair. So many things to practice at one go!
More lip studies. Focusing also on line quality. I got lazy at the end though.
And some random sketchies. Ahh, I'm terrible at figures. GOTTA PRACTICEEEE
The usual perspective from Loomis' Successful Drawing. Think I went a little overboard with the note-taking.
Back to gestures drawings! 30s poses with a calligraphy pen. Haven't done those in awhile. Mainly to get myself familiar with drawing the full figure again. I wonder how those artists out there are able to do such awesome 30s gestures with so much movement and accuracy. Mine are just messy and bad.
Next are 60s gestures done with a charcoal pencil. I dunno. I tried to get that "classical" traditional charcoal drawing look but it didn't turn out so well.
Aaaand a 10min figure drawing. Yeah... bad, I know. I noodled around and ran out of time before I could finish the important parts.
Lastly, some sketchbook stuff! Couldn't resist practicing more eyes lol. I'm just always annoyed that I might keep drawing almost the same eyes all the time. Plus random rocks, trees and grass! (Was practicing how grass would bend and stuff)
More perspective stuff from Loomis! Getting into some more interesting stuff now - the last image was a lot of fun to do, might probably do more of these kind of interior stuff for practice. Also I realise I suck at drawing furniture. And people.
30 second posemaniacs! I'm still struggling with laying down proper proportions quickly. With these quick gestures I'm always torn between doing accurate measurement and energetic strokes - I've seen people who can do both, but it just seems to slip right out of my fingers. Ugh, maybe I'm thinking too much.
Lastly, some figure stuff! First ones are studies, mainly focusing on proportion and doing proper measurement. I got lazy halfway though. Second ones from imagination - can't seem to come up with more interesting and dynamic poses. I think I may to study some anatomical landmarks and some figure construction techniques.
Aaand some digi stuff again! First one is an attempt at painting a head from imagination. I think the drawing came out... okay (I still think I'm samefacing), but the rendering is like, I dunno I wanted to make it look like skin but it turned out like plastic or something. Too many wierd colours and highlights? I'm still not used to the forms of the head too.
So yeah next are digi portrait studies. Mainly focusing on colour and somewhat on facial proportions. I didn't really do much blending though. I apologise if the heads end up looking creepy. It's really tough!
I wanted to do a third head study but I was getting a little burnt out and tired. So I did this quick little painting of a flower to relax a little. And also to try out a different digital painting method. So far I've mostly restricted myself to using the hard round brush with no opacity to paint (then using one with opacity set to pressure to blend). Gotta find out more methods for rendering!
First up is a head done along with Linda Bergvist's skintones tutorial. It was a little awkward for me at the beginning cuz it wasn't my usual method of painting, but it became pretty fun in the end. Learnt a bunch about colour and colour mixing from this, though I'm still struggling with the head forms and where to put the shadow/highlight etc. Will probably revisit this in the future again.
More Loomis perspective! Reached 50 pages of perspective studies up to this point. Yay.
30 second gestures. I think I'll make it a point to do gestures as a warmup before doing more figure studies. Also, I'm hoping that doing these gestures will help me improve the speed, movement and proportion of my figure stuff. The first two pages are a little messy cuz I just kept redrawing over the old poses a few times.
Aand finally some Bridgeman studies. Starting on his book - The Complete Guide to Drawing from Life. Used a fineliner pen for these. Normally I'd be really careful when doing studies. But recently it's been pretty tedious and tiring for me. So for now I'll probably be using the pen to do loose studies - it feels more comfortable. Impatience keeps getting the better of me.
Some more 30s gestures.
Figures from imagination! Don't mind the weird hatching - it's to distract you from my crappy linework.
Aaand some Bridgman studies. Not sure if I should imitate his style/technique or just copy down exactly what I see.
It's really late - but have an update!
The usual Loomis perspective practice. Studying inclined planes now. Nearing the end soon. I'll probably have to do some practical application of what I've learnt so far. Just doing studies is pretty pointless if I don't make use of it.
A little digi sketch from imagination. Ran into some problems on how to go about rendering it properly sooo I pretty much gave up on it. Need to practice more environments!
Here's something a little different. I've always had trouble trying to draw symmetrical things or unfamilier angles from my drawing hand (right), so I did this pen sketch thing to practice drawing symmetry. It's pretty random, yeah.
Aand some more eye studies. As usual I've got to improve my linework and shading with a pencil.
And lastly some Bridgman figure studies. I was being really sloppy with these, bleh.
Then trying to apply what I learned by painting a little something from imagination. Still struggling with more realistic colours. I think I tend to oversaturate things too much and that makes my paintings a bit more stylized than I intended.
And lastly, a quick study from life.
Just the usual Loomis perspective practice. The last downslope city drawing is pretty bad. I was really impatient and just rushed it out - and it shows. Also I didn't really concentrate on drawing the cars properly (and in the right scale!). But me struggling to draw cars is also a reminder that I've still got a lot to learn about simple forms and shapes in perspective.
Bridgman studies.
Aand some figures from imagination. The anatomy and proportion is pretty off, and I was being pretty messy and reckless with my lines. But these are done pretty quick - and the reason is so that I can find out what are my bad habits and what I need to improve on when it comes to drawing figures.
I concluded that I'm really bad when it comes to drawing the lower body (among other things) and so I did some leg studies from photos.
Followed by a few from imagination to practice what I learned.
Some silly figure doodles. Not really thinking, just making random marks and see if I could come up with some convincing figures and poses. Have to start thinking of anatomy and rendering forms next time.
Gah, some really, really bad non-reffed head sketches. So many studies and practice and I still can't seem to draw a proper head, so frustrating. Either I need to concentrate more or rethink my learning approach. Still really struggling with the features, too. Especially the eyes. I can't seem to draw the eyes and make the irises look where I want without redrawing like a hundred times. Bleh.
The usual perspective studies after Loomis!
Some digi heads. About an hour each. Um, not really done very well. As usual, features and proportions seem... awkward.
Aaaand a new sketchbook! A really small one to bring along with me wherever I go! Gonna start sketching more from life. It's really tough! All my lines are really messy.
First are some head drawings. Practicing head various head construction techniques (lifted from several online tutorials), mainly because I my proportions are pretty much alway off for my facial features and also to try out how to construct different head "shapes". Kind of came out a little wonky though (the second image).
And then a little digi head from imagination. Not so good. Skin tones, values and underlying head structure definitely needs more work.
More perspective studies after Loomis. Probably after 1 more page I'll be pausing on this for awhile - and start applying the perspective stuff I learnt so far. And also to brush up on my figure drawing skills because the next few pages will be dealing a lot with the human figure in perspective.
Lastly, sketchbook pages! Time really flies when you're drawing in public transport.
More head studies. Second one is from imagination with a focus on constructing the head using circles and lines/curves. I think I'll have to study the skull structure more instead of solely relying on abstract construction to draw convincing heads.
Next are some studies from Bridgman. Same thing - using too much abstract construction, but no real understanding of the underlying anatomy. Need to study some bones and muscles.
And lastly some sketchbook stuff. Some from life, some from ref, some from head.
Lately I've been thinking about my works so far, looking at my old stuff and reviewing them. It's been a couple of months since I started this practice regime thing, and I think I managed to improve a little - though not as fast as I would have liked. I know that improving takes time and all, I guess I'm a little impatient. Looking at other people's sketchbook, particular those artists who weren't so good in the beginning and had practiced their butt off and eventually became outstanding artists now, I'm convinced I could be drawing a little more and thinking a little more than I actually am right now. Because, truth be told I'm actually not managing my time well and lazing off more often than I should - and along with other commitments, it's not a good idea to waste so much time.
Also, since my end game is to be an awesome concept artists whose job is to create amazing, mind-blowing new designs - it's probably a good idea to flex my imagination and design muscles once in a while and not just keep doing copies and studies. Um, might have to think of some methods to approach this issue.
But anyway, I'm rambling. Just wanted to get that load off my head and get it out there. In short - more practice! More thinking! Less procrastinating!
Some digi studies in preparation for the New Worlds Challenge over at CGhub.
And this is my entry to the challenge. It didn't come out exactly as I would have liked, nor as fast as I would've liked (I dunno it took like 8 hours or something just to paint this lame thing), but I'm really glad I attempted this - it showed me where my level was still at. Painted using only the round brush, had a lot of trouble blending and painting grass, as well as a whole bunch of other problems (lighting, colour, etc, etc). Oh well, you can see the progress here!
Bridgman studies. Trying to fully absorb the ideas that he is trying to convey through his figures drawings. Though I'm not 100% sure I'm getting it.
Two silly little digi paintings from life I did on my Iphone using Sketchbook Pro. Not really used to it's interface and painting with my fingers, so they came out a little wonky. And I supposed they count as practice of some sort.
Sketchbook stuff.
Aaand, also started on an assignment I created for myself to apply all that I have learnt from Andrew Loomis so far.
This is the assignment!
And this is the first little drawing! An exterior scene in 1-pt perspective with a centralised horizon. Worked on this 2 hours every night for about 3 nights not including preliminary doodles. A lot I could probably improve on, like more interesting details (it's all just bricks here, wtf) and paying more attention to accurate scaling (there are some scaling mistakes, particularly on the railings of the top part of the bridge compared to the railings near the bench). Still, I think I learnt a fair bit from this.
And that's it! So, so sorry for such a long post, I hope it wasn't too boring - and thank you for taking a look!
Figure studies after Bridgman. Did some shading to try to understand and differentiate the planes of the figure. I think it helps since Bridgman draws his figures in a really simplified, planar way. Still trying to figure out how to get the most out of studying his life drawing book.
Leg studies. To... study the leg.
Aand the sketchbook. Some of it are sketches of my next perspective drawing - which I'm currently pushing myself to complete as soon as I can!
Finally finished my 2nd perspective drawing. It's a walled city kind of thing! It was pretty painful drawing every house and building and trying to match the perspective accurately (with a ruler and everything). But in the end I think I did ok. Though, I must admit I got lazy at the end and didn't do any details nearer to the foreground. Also, the design of the buildings are pretty bland I guess, and so is the arrangment of the city itself, and not enough variety. Will have to take not of all these in the future.
Some 30s gestures. Pretty lame lol, but I did these stick-figure style to practice proportions. So yeah, I was wondering if it helps or not. Also some 1min gestures. Ugh, I still draw really messily and inaccurately.
And some embarrassing figure drawings using posemaniacs as reference. Tried do some shading, but it came out terrible. I had no clue on how to shade the forms of the figure properly - especially on the face and torso.
Lastly, some Bridgman studies.
Sometimes I do a study and I don't feel like I've understood or learnt anything at all, or I felt that my process and approach was too clumsy. When that happens I try redraw it again and try to address the mistakes and weak points of the previous study. I think it helps a little.
Aaand random sketchbook stuff.
A bunch of sphere studies. Mostly to practice colour and lighting, and also a little on brushwork and blending (used the hard round brush for all these). Learnt a bunch about lighting from this tutorial.
And some sketchbook pages!