Arty Antics and Similar Stuff

[Medicine Man]

You're all really too kind. It makes me look like a bit of a big head, fishing for compliments now. That wasn't my intention, honest. Just sharing.

I'd love to see what everyone else is up to though, regardless of what you think of your work. For what its worth I don't really think too much of my own tbh.

We're all battling self-doubt and inferiority complexes I suppose.

Back on topic. I don't trust anyone who doesn't make a cock out of clay or indeed any malleable substance when presented with the opportunity.

[Raid]

G'wan then. These are early technical exercises so they're not really supposed to be good images (and the construction lines are all supposed to be visible), although when I get to the end I do sometimes add little bits and pieces for the hell of it (the grass and smaller mushroom, the colour on the daisy etc.).

Spoiler

I was fairly happy with the mushroom. The hibiscus (middle) isn't amazing as I've not really got the edges of the petals right, and the daisy isn't bad but looks like it was just in a hurricane as the petals are all over the place rather than forming a loose disk.

[Mantis]

Some good progress there. The Drawabox lessons really are so good at drilling the concept of construction lines into you. Even now that I'm doing anatomy lessons I'll still construct everything underneath just to make sure all the proportions and planes are correct. It really helps when you're considering the lighting situation too.

[Medicine Man]

Nice!

I love still seeing the construction lines. I find it particularly pleasing, sort of like if you could see how they made the pyramids. Yeah, yeah we can all see the pyramids and all, but what about all that cool scaffolding!

[Raid]

So I did the Drawabox cactus exercise last night, it turned out pretty horribly, which kinda laid bare one of my biggest issuesat the minute; I really struggle to draw ellipses. They're always misshapen or lop-sided, and I don't have a lot of control over the width. So I just spent 2 hours drawing nothing but circles and ovals on a grid, enough to make my drawing shoulder ache slightly. I can't say I've improved much, but I did at least learn to slow down a little which improved things.

It's funny how much of artistic ability is down to muscle memory. It's not like I don't know what a circle looks like, but producing one is surprisingly difficult. I could cheat and use a stabilised brush or an ellipse tool, but I really want to be able to draw if someone ever hands me a sketch pad, not just on a PC and a £1000+ drawing tablet.

[Mantis]

It's definitely worth doing those exercises with a pen and paper I think. Even without tools to assist you I feel like there are other crutches with digital that make things easier. With ink and paper you become so much more accurate over time as you ghost your lines because once the pen hits the paper there's no correcting it.

I haven't really done many complete drawings on my graphics tablet to share yet, mainly just studies. And the vast majority of my learning has been with sketchbooks and pens/pencils.

I did do some Metal Gear Solid studies a while ago because Yoji Shinkawa is one of my absolute favourite artists in the industry. I've got some Pentel brush pens to practice the style with but don't think I could have produced these non-digitally just yet. I'm quite proud of them though.

Spoiler

[Raid]

Those are extremely cool. I'm not a big fan of Shinkawa's style (I love the character designs in MGS, but I don't like how abstract the illustrations look), but it's certainly distinctive and I'd say that's a really well done approximation.

I understand the reasoning behind learning with traditional media first, but as I have no real desire to use them I decided to go digital first so I can learn the ins and outs of my drawing monitor as I went along. Dealing with the parallax and delay, even when it's absolutely minimal on my Cintiq is important. I also found in the past that using a pen and paper was pretty off-putting - this probably sounds daft but the inability to easily undo a mistake just makes me not want to make a mark in the first place. Ctrl-z removes that obstacle for me.

[Mantis]

I get that, I kind of feel the same when it comes to having mistakes on show. But there is an upside to not having an easy undo button too. Practicing with pen and paper will gradually train you to nail your lines first time rather than relying on being able to just tap undo repeatedly. Drawabox in particular is very big on the idea of ghosting your lines before you even touch the paper and making sure you always make a mark with purpose. It's rough going when you're early doors but eventually it really helps you visualise exactly where you want your lines to be and when you get through the really sloppy first hundred or so marks you'll start to notice the improvement.

The permanence of it is scary and discouraging because it holds all your flaws right up to your eyes, but it will definitely make you a more confident artist in the long run I think. I have hundreds of pages of A4 paper full of absolutely terrible cubes and cylinders which I gradually improved on over time. Ellipses and cylinders were a real pain for me when I first started, now I can freehand an ellipse pretty consistently first time because of all the practice.

[Raid]

Yeah, I know the theory, it's iterated several times in early drawabox exercises. I've been ghosting lines the whole time, so I'm used to the concept. All I know is that when I've tried in the past to learn I've put my pencil down after a couple of weeks and never picked it back up for years at a time, whereas with the way I'm doing things this time I've been doing an hour or more a day consistently for 4 months. I will eventually pick that pencil up again (as I said I don't want to be locked entirely to a PC, even though I expect I'll be doing most of my real work on one), but I'll be significantly more confident when I do.

Today's exercise was a pitcher plant. I had a bit of the background TV I had on remaining when I completed the exercise, so I added a bit of colour. for the hell of it.

Spoiler

[Mantis]

Fair play, ultimately the only way to get better is consistent practice. So whatever format you find works most comfortably that gets you drawing at least an hour a day is undoubtedly the best approach for yourself.

Your linework is very neat looking anyway.

[Raid]

I posted in the Room 101 thread the other day about scorpions, as I'd moved onto the insects / arachnids lesson in Drawabox. I figured I'd post the actual drawing, along with some of the others from the exercises (and one of the plants from the previous one which I was quite happy with).

Spoiler

I'm not especially happy with the wasp, as the scaling between the different body parts isn't great, and the legs are all over the place (they were in the original source image too, but the depth of field in that photo helped to separate them, which isn't something I could do). I like the louse, although I think the line work is a bit heavy. I really like the scorpion though, which is the latest of the three, and I ended up moving some of the linework around compared to the underlying construction sketch. The angle I've drawn it at is slightly different to the source image, so I had to pull some details from other images that were hidden in the original - I wanted to force myself not to rely too much on the photo.

I've started putting some effort into "finishing" the images, which isn't really part of the exercise but I'm quite enjoying it. I've started sticking on a podcast while I draw, and I'm finding the process quite soothing.

[Animalmother]

Really great. Is that 2nd one a crab louse?

[Raid]

I don't think so, but I'm hardly an expert. This is the original image.

[Rusty]

Love it.

[Solitaire]

My youngest, Sofia, is getting quite good with digital painting. I'm not too crazy about most of her content, because I just am not into JoJo or whatever craziness she's watching haha - but this newest one kinda blew me away.

Please allow me to just link the instagram post directly:



If any of you take a liking to her artwork there, she'd be thrilled to have another follower