Ebi's sketchbook - pic heavy - potentially NSFW

[ebi brain]

Critiques are always welcome! ^_^

GOALS:


Every time I finish a section, I'll cross it off the schedule and move on to the next until the whole level is complete.

Some notes:
L1 = Figure drawing for all it's worth
L2 = Loomis’ drawing the head and hands
VP = Vanishing point by Jason Cheeseman-Meyer
DE = Drawing Essentials by Deborah Rockman

*Level I: still life, 9 x line, 1 x value
Level 2: still life line drawings (15x) and value(5x),
Level 3: still life: 20 x line, 10 x value. Figure drawing: 5 x portrait, 5 x whole (use value only if comfortable, otherwise line).
** Level 1: 1 monochrome
Level 2: 1 monochrome, 1 colour
Level 3: 3 monochrome, 1 colour

Old blood sports prompts can be used as exercises to further apply what I’ve learned and to have a bit of fun without actually participating
http://crimsonbloodsports.blogspot.nl/


Obviously I can draw other stuff outside this schedule, but this will be my main focus.

Non drawing goals:
Go to bed on time
Eat healthier/exercise more
Study more
Keep room organized/tidy (= more space for drawing/studying)

[ebi brain]

Bunch of 45 sec. gestures before school.
I'll try to add some life drawing as well later on!

I never really know what TO DO when doing gestures:/
I always feel like I'm doing it wrong.







Experimenting with wacom bamboo:




It's very enjoyable but not good for my RSI

[ebi brain]

Some Loomis studies.
Ugh. I suck at drawing circles/elipses.









20-30 min. sketch of myself.
something tells me I should lower the eyes....
Tried to follow Loomis' procedure (Up until what I've learned).

Take two.... should I lower the eyes even more?...

And yeah I mirrored it and saw how slanted and uneven everything is XD
will add more later.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

20-30 min. sketch of myself.
something tells me I should lower the eyes....
Tried to follow Loomis' procedure (Up until what I've learned).

Take two.... should I lower the eyes even more?...

And yeah I mirrored it and saw how slanted and uneven everything is XD
will add more later.

The eyes fall halfway down on the total length of the head - in other words, there should be just as much space below your eyes to your chin as above your eyes to the top of your head. Now, those are GENERIC proportions, and will vary a little from person to person. While it is good to mirror your drawings, when doing a likeness you need to be careful because no one's face is really symmetrical, and those subtle ratio differences are what makes one person recognizable from another.

Good gesture drawings. I need to do more of those.

[ebi brain]

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to help me out.
I think I realized what I did wrong. I kept thinking that the line that divides the face in half is the eye line, but it should be the brow line!

So, I'll try another sketch soon and see if I can get it right.
But, I agree, I guess if you strictly stick to the "rules" that you take all of the uniqueness out of the face, and end up with something pretty standard. I think that's also why things went wrong; I was so busy trying to follow the guidelines that I didn't observe enough and think for myself. So that's another thing I'll work on!


I think I need to do about 10,000 more gestures before I'm actually satisfied with what I produce... and even then I'll probably find something to get frustrated about.

Anyway, here's another bunch of them. There's only one that I actually like.














phew!

I'm starting to realize how important the position of hands and feet are for gestures. So, I'll try to make an effort to study them more whilst doing gestures, and in general.

[Obscura]

I love your gesture drawings. I'm a total ignoramus, but are these something you just draw from scratch, entirely without references? What are you looking at when you do them?

[ebi brain]

Thanks! Though, I still have to burn through thousands of these before I'll actually get it right.

Right now I'm using pictures for reference, though I'm trying to figure out a way that I can use myself for gesture drawing and in September I really want to attend live model classes.
I guess once you're more comortable with anatomy you could do it from your imagination.

The site that I use for these poses requires a subscription to be able to download pictures, you get high resolution pictures and you get the same pose from many different angles so I think it's pretty good. Though you can get a ton of poses for free on the web... I just like that everything is in one place here.
http://www.female-anatomy-for-artist.com/ (though they have different sites for different types of references).

But what I'm looking for when doing these gestures is how I can portray the movement in such a way that I capture the essence of it, or the energy/dynamics/mood etc.
So, forget about details and just look at the whole picture..
I guess what I focus on is how the weight of the body is distributed; how the position of the shoulders are in relation to the hips; what the head/neck is doing (though I really have trouble getting the position of the neck right)... Things like that.

And since you only have like 30-45 seconds to put all of that down (15 when I'm feeling sadistic), you just don't have time to focus on details or keeping it pretty. You just jot down what's necessary to convey the message of what the body is doing.

then again, I'm still a beginner and I have no idea what I'm doing, so maybe this is the wrong approach... But I'll find out soon enough I guess

In any case, it's a good exercise to give your poses more flow (and hopefully make them more believable).

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Thanks! Though, I still have to burn through thousands of these before I'll actually get it right.

Right now I'm using pictures for reference, though I'm trying to figure out a way that I can use myself for gesture drawing and in September I really want to attend live model classes.
I guess once you're more comortable with anatomy you could do it from your imagination.

You don't ever really do gesture drawings from your imagination. Since they are a learning tool, and a method of warming up, you'll generally always have a reference in front of you. The goal is to force-ably turn off your internal filter that makes you stop and fuss over every line, and instead get the "gesture" of the image put down on paper.

You might focus more on S-Curves and action lines than trying to capture all the volume and mass in a gesture drawing - you can always add that stuff later if you have the proper curves and skeleton structure in place. This video might help you out - I really wasn't very good at gesture drawing until I started using this method.

[ebi brain]

Yeah, I personally would never do gestures without a reference, but since I saw other people doing it, I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks for the video, even though Loomis' book is really good, it's great to actually see his method in action. Makes things a little more clear for me.
I'll try to apply what I learned from the video in my next set of gestures, though, I might not scan ALL of them (RSI is a pain). I guess 1 page is enough to show what I'm doing anyway

Thanks again!

[ebi brain]

31 down, 29 to go!

I find it really hard to capture the spine right... and I still need to ween myself of off adding bulk.
I also bumped the time up to 60 seconds so I have some extra time to process the image.

Note to self:
Draw.More.From.Life.

update: now with extra feet!
Some quick life drawing...


quick warm up sketch


30-45 minutes.
Then the doorbell rang and I had to stop. Maybe I'll add the second foot tomorrow.

feet are weird.

[Kohaku]

Hey ebi, just noticed you have your own art thread and I have to agree with LateWhiteRabbit and say your gesture drawings are great as I can take a quick look at them and I can see exactly what they are doing and where all there energy is directed, I really must do more of these myself and coming to this site is the best thing I have done as everybody is so helpful and there are links to great learning guides flying all over the place.

Keep up the good work.

[ebi brain]

Thanks Kohaku!



I've wasted my arms trying to pick out a limited oil paint palette I want to order from some webshop.

I got the palette from Gurney's website:
Winsor red
Burnt Sienna
Ultramarine Blue
Permanent Green

those colours were easy to add to my list because they're affordable (for oil paints, that is (T^T))...
but now.... Cadmium Yellow Light. 18-25 euro ARGH!
isn't there any substitute out there T_T I've been searching for THREE DAYS.

Some contenders are Indian Yellow, Chrome Yellow (Hue), Naples yellow... but nothing comes close.
I think I should just draw straws and get whatever 'cause doing all this research is eating up drawing time.

[ebi brain]

I really should remember to draw BEFORE starting my programming homework.
*brain = frazzled*


Despite the crappiness of this drawing, my fingers really are crooked and weird.

halfassed loomis studies


Did about 40 gestures.




I'm super pissed off re: my gestures (and everything).
I just cannot seem to get them right (as in pretty and flowy like Vilppu's) >_<

I guess I need to practice patience more than anything.

[ebi brain]

So I put all those goals up....
and then my sister visits me for three days, so no drawing happened XD

I'll do my best these last few days, but I think I'll repeat this week's goal, next week.

Anyway, here's the best I've done in these past days...
I bought some kraft paper sheets from some clearance sale. I plan to do some bookbinding and make a bunch of sketchbooks.

One A4, 40 page book will cost me about 1 euro and 20 cents, instead of like... 9-12 euro, if I make it myself score!

Anyway, just some bunnies.



Yeah. I have no idea what I'm doing with those white and red crayons XD


On a brighter note, I got my oil paints! I splurged on artist's grade... I can't wait to try them out!!

[ebi brain]

This is what I'm trying to draw from life today.



Quick 5 to 10 min. sketch, as a warm-up.



45 min. into the drawing.
I'm having a ton of trouble with the ellipses and I guess the proportions overall. I must've drawn the bowl over three times, and just now decided to just scrap it completely and start over again.

I read up on drawing foreshortened circles (I know there's another word for that, but my speech recognition does not recognize it, it turns it into:…) And Deborah Rockman's book "drawing essentials", and it all sounds nice and dandy, and I can sort of produce foreshortened circles on paper just like that, I know about vanishing points and such, but when I try to drawing from life it all just goes downhill.

My initial plan was to do half an hour per drawing, switching to a different object every time. But now, I think I'll just use all my time on one drawing trying to get it right as best as I can.


Once I've mastered this to the best of my ability, then I'll be able to do a painting.

I'm glad I created a little still life spot in my room. I used to just put some object on my desk – which has maybe 1 inch of free space – and it was really frustrating to draw and keep my concentration. But with this little reserved space, it's much more peaceful to draw


40 more minutes of drawing.
Bowl seems too flat (but I'm leaving it for now), glass too short (so I am going to adjust it).


another 60 or so minutes... progress?


20 minutes later..

that's it for today. Phew. Tomorrow I'll try another angle.