Style?

I didn't have as much time today as I did yesterday...Only about 3 hours :(.

But! I think I spent them wisely! I started off studying a portrait photo, but drawing the mouth wasn't working out (as you'll see). So I decided I would test myself, and see how much I could do one my own.

I used the reference as little as I could, and pretty much improvised :p. I dunno if you're supposed to do that...But I thought it was a good idea, and I think it might be the best thing I've painted all year! :o

I included the version with the sketch, and the version without...Since I would like to develop a technique that doesn't have lines in the final product.

Please critique this if you can, as I feel like this is where my skill level is if I spend a fair amount of time on a piece :).





And the reference photo:
Stock 205 by ~Lady-Moriendistock on deviantART


I'll have more time tomorrow :).

The next level?

I'm supposed to be leaving write now, but you know me and my long blog posts :P.

I did a lot today :) Which is nice :). I really really really want to keep this up.



Here's my ultra crappy warmup. I usually never show these, and actualyl DELETE them...But I'll try to change that from now on.



I was trying to be pro and just start painting...No sketch no nothing...Fail :/



Then I tried painting metal for the first time.
I actually learned a little about how the colours are placed beside each other...But I might want to spend more than an hour on this in the future.






Then a figure that I drew...And it turns out it's the second time I've drawn this photo :P. Oops.
I did it without construction, and it turned out BETTER than I thought it would! :)
Had to fix it a hundred times though...




And then lastly...A mobile suit before bed. Because I love all things mecha. Especially Gundam! He doesn't have arms...So he's sad :(. And when he's sad he does pelvic thrusts. Just like he's doing in the picture.




I feel good about today :).

Mirrors are magic!

So I guess drawing wise this week really sucked. Two of my teachers thought it would be cool to give us massive projects in a short amount of time. So pretty much all of my free time this week went towards those, with no studies being done :( Of the stuff I've done a few times for practice, but those aren't really share worthy.

The good news is that my last project is due tomorrow, so after that I'll be back to normal. After tonight's all nighter, yaaay :/.

I don't want say I "doodled" this today...Because I spent a long time on it :P




It's a self portrait that looks...Surprisingly like me :o For my first try, I guess :P. The concept was for it to be me in a Pokemon trainer-like outfit xD. Don't ask why...People are doing it on deviantART and I wanted to as well :p. I used a mirror...And damn...I should've taken everyone's advice sooner! I think this is the best drawing and painting I've ever done :o.

I know I need to study and practice more...But I'm kinda proud of it :) I might even get back to it someday :o



And on the subject of getting better I watched the video review that Rahll did of the new Cintiq tablet...

I know I'm not good enough to own such things yet...But damn! Just SEEING that stuff makes me wanna draw for days :P.



Sorry for the measly update, I'll have more time starting tomorrow :)

Just keep swimming :P

Hey guys :)

Haven't updated in a few days, but I've been drawing!
I'm still doing Plate 1, and I'm trying to take my time with it. Doing some of the same drawings over and over again, to make sure I understand what they're all about.

I won't bore you with the repetitiveness of seeing the same thing over and over again though, so I'll just show some of the progress I've complied into one image.




I really feel like I've made progress doing these :).

Some of them are digtital, and some I did with a pencil...But you'd never know because I used pencil brushes for the digital ones!

How smart am I? :P


PENCIL BOX by ~mawgallery on deviantART

P.S. That one with the knife was difficult to draw.

Punched in the face

Not literally, but still :P.

There's been a lot of silence here, and I apologize for that. I've been feeling really down lately :(.

I've just been feeling like maybe this isn't such a good idea...Maybe I'll never get good at this :(.

But I across this blog post about progressive learning. And I think I'm going to try it out.

Basically, it's breaking things down, and learning them in parts. So instead of trying to do my figure drawings like I used to, I'm going to try to learn different parts at different times :).

Starting with the human head.

So here's a little of what I did today. It's still early, so I may do more...But I want to post here since it's been so quiet :P. It's from Plate 1 (1-4) of Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis :).



And thanks for the poke Julia :). It's really awesome to have someone who cares enough to check up on me :).

P.S. I wonder if doing these digitally is a good idea... If anyone has any ideas, please share your thoughts :)

What the...

Slight rant :/

Yo, I barely had time to sit today, it's bullshit :/.

I had to get on the roof to clean the gutters, even though I said I was busy. (AND my brother could've done it, Not to mention how HIGH our roof is...And how flimsy our ladder is....)
I had to help with groceries, even though I said I was busy.
My younger brother wants to learn how to DJ, so he got a mixer thingy. Guess who had to help set THAT up :/.
I woke up kind of late, because a headache kept me from sleeping last night. :/
People kept BUSTING INTO my room all day from random crap :/.

Needless to say, I didn't have much time today, not to mention I kept getting interrupted. So...The quality of today's study really sucks :(



Blue profile stock by ~psylight69 on deviantART



I'm kinda bummed because the model in the stock photo was really attractive and my crappy painting didn't do her justice :/.

Oh well...I guess I DID learn some stuff while I did it, so that's a plus.

Original stock photo:

People these days :/

Gah...I'm still so busy! But I had about 45 minutes (or something) today, so I decided to pout the time into one drawing. Just because I'm really liking the result that gives me. The scanner squashed the image though! And it's 11pm and I'm already too tired to open Photoshop and fix it :(. I can assure you it looks a little better than the scan shows though.



I know, I know, it's not the best drawing you've ever seen. And it's only ONE :/. I need more time to myself :S.

On a side note as well. There's this dude that gave me a llama on dA the other day. Then he said he found my blog on my profile. THEN he starts telling me that he back-read all the way to when I started this blog :P. And he says that I got a lot better since I started, so I was like "thanks" and I told him that practice and studies really help etc. THEN he starts cussing me out saying that there's NO way I made progress from stick figures, to here with ONLY practice! He thinks I'm doing some secret trick that I'm not telling him or something :P.

Some people just don't get it.

Bye! :)

Time Sink :/

I'll write a post now even though it isn't that late, just because I've been SO busy today, I don't think I'll have time to later :(.

My mom worked me like a slave today, because we have these REGENERATING TRESS at the side of our house. Seriously, last year i DECIMATED these tress, roots and everything. There was NOTHING LEFT except soil. And somehow, they came back :o.
But yeah, I was doing that from the time I woke up, till now, and basically had no time for myself today to do any figure drawing or anything.

So in my tired state, I worked a little on my work in progress from before. Taking into account the advice that I got! :) I darkened some of the values, pushed the saturation a little, and did some weird background crap :p. I also tried applying some of the colour theory stuff I read about...But I'm not sure how obvious that is.

It's not much, but it's better than not painting at all I guess?

I dunno if I still want to finish this xD. But I kind of do, so I can have an icon to use that I made myself :).

But if not, I can include in an art dump. Because that's what all the cool kids do :p.


Before:


After



Take it easy, and tell me what you think :)

My birthday!

Sorry about the silence! I was relaxing over the long weekend, taking it easy y'know? But I WAS drawing! I did something a little different, and skipped the gesture drawings I normally do to warm up. Instead, I jumped into 10 minute figure drawings, and it turned out great! I can get a lot more done in 10 minutes than I do in my usual 5, so I think I'll try that for a while, WITH the gesture drawings :).

Unfortunately, I didn't scan anything I did recently :(.

On the plus side though, today is my birthday! :) I'm officially 19 years old now, woohoo!

To make up for the lack of art though, I bring you this. The most metal video on YouTube.



See you soon! :)

Survival

I just survived my first week of school. So now I only have...One...Two...Three...One million more to go! :( I'm proud of myself though, because I managed to draw and stuff during the week :) Despite having a new schedule :).


I won't post my drawings from the past couple of day's this time, but I WILL show you a painting I started today! It started off as a study of a photograph, but while I was sketching I thought to myself "It's been a while since you last painted something from your imagination man". So I closed the reference and started this :P.



Please tell me what you think of it, and it what ways I can improve on it :). I plan to cover the missing eye, which is why it isn't painted at the moment :P.

And in other art related news. Everyone seems to be excited about Wacom's new product. The Inkling. After watching this video about it though...I personally don't think it's all that practical :/. But maybe that's just me. Tell me what you think :)




See you next time :)

STILL rusty :P

Quick entry tonight, as I'm going to bed soon for SCHOOL tomorrow morning :(.
I can't believe I'm already back in school, it's so time consuming and annoying! D:

Anyway, I lost the crap I did yesterday, and today I could barely keep my eyes open and only got like an hour of practice :(. I'm still really rusty, but I feel like I learned a few things on an eleven minute figure I did today :).
Downside is that the model in the photo was REALLY attractive, and my poor drawing skills didn't do her justice D:.

I'm shaking off the rust though! I'll be back to normal soon :).

I'm rusty (I'm back)

Hey guys. I'm back after foolishly taking time off because of my mouth pain. I thought I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my studies with my mouth hurting all the time, and I made the mistake of giving myself a break :/. What a dumb idea! I tried doing a study this morning, and it SUCKED!

I also did a ton of pencil stuff, but my basement is being used so I can't use the scanner right now :/. Go figure, right? Those turned out better :(.

But anyway, I'm back, and now I'm going to try EXTRA hard, because it seems like what little skill I had ran away while I was gone.

I feel like this spider. (Wait until the end to see what I mean)

August 16th - Mouth problems :(

Hey guys, I've been having a serious problem with my mouth for the past 3 days. I've drawn in that time, but I haven't scanned any of it because of the pain :(. It feels like there's a cut on my tongue or something, and my tongue looks fishy when I look at it in the mirror :(.

I don't want there to be too much silence on this blog...So here's a cute video that a friend showed me a while ago.

Sorry for the filler guys :(

August 8th ...Gesture drawing?

Here's some gesture and figure drawing from today. It's not much, but I'll try to get more done a little later :). It was my first time using the course, but it was fun! I felt like I was in a real session :P

Kinda mad that my scanner sqaushed it and ruined the tone a bit. I'll have to fix that :/

Started before midnight (August 5th)

Not much to say about this one.
Except that its crap :(
The only reason I'm uploading it is because I want to keep this blog updated. Through the good times...And the bad times...
Good times being...I dunno...
Bad times being...Right now xD.

See you guys later D:

Ugh, dammit D:

I DO have the pencil stuff I promised before scanned, but it's ugly so I'll only show some of it.






Okay...So I guess I've kind of been slacking on the studies, and I hate myself for it :(

And here's a contest entry I painted and finished just today! (Well...Yesterday xD)



That's all for now guys, see you soon :)

July 22nd

I know, I know.
I did some drawing (pencil and paper) today/ But I have to scan it before it can uploaded anywhere :(.

So in the meantime, enjoy this.


Read the rest of the comics at Snafu-Comics

July 21st

Not much to say except that I finally downloaded those Loomis books everyone talks about :). I started reading the one about figure drawing .

Here is a fail study from today...I tried doing it two different ways, but neither of them worked out :(. In my defense though, the lighting was different than anything I'd ever tried before...But I know that's just an excuse.

July 18th

I had fun with the skin rendering study I did last night, so I decided to do another one! :) I took the same amount of time (about 3 hours) and I don't think it turned out as well he he ^_^'.

I need to practice drawing hands though. So expect sheets of that coming soon :).

One more for the day :)

Just practicing painting skin . I spent a lot more time on this one than I did the other two from this morning . And it turned out a LOT better too! The hands are garbage though...And I didn't try the hair and face because I didn't want to be overwhelmed. Baby steps, right?

Conceptart.org sketchbook?

So last night I was doing some lurking, and I saw some REALLY inspiring stuff on Conceptart.org. Before, I only know about Johannes Voss' super amazing sketchbook journey there...But last night I found a ton of other stuff there. I think it would be cool to maybe try doing that for myself :).

Here are two quick studies from this morning. This is my new way of doing them. I think it helps me learn values while practicing anatomy :). Two for the price of one!

See you later :)

Mark Crilley! And my short absence

I have NOT forgotten about this blog, nor have I forgotten about art :). I've been finishing up a few things for the past little while, which is why I haven't posted anything. But I found Mark Crilley on YouTube! He wrote the Akiko books I read as a kid! For the past while he's been making "How to draw" videos on Youtube, and while I know the only way to learn how to draw is through studies, I think his tricks and tips are really useful. Not to mention he's a REALLY great person, artist and author :). So here's his latest video, hopefully it'll help anyone who sees :).

I'll be back soon :).

Hm...

I've been looking on blogs and deviantART, and I think maybe changing the way I do my studies might be a good idea...It seems like when people go to figure drawing sessions, or do gesture drawings...They always have some sort of time limit, right? So maybe I need to get some of that in my studying time...So I can do more, in the same amount of time :o.

Not so great :/

Alright, so I just finished these two, and I have to say...They didn't turn out well :(. I guess maybe I wasn't feeling it tonight :(.

The reference for this one wasn't great quality, and I tried a new method. Instead of using shapes to draw the basic anatomy of the pose, I tried just going in and sketching it first. I'm definitely NOT pro enough for that D:.

This one sucks too, but I guess maybe I rushed it. And like I said before, I guess maybe my mood wasn't right tonight.

Should have more soon though...So hopefully those will be better!

What's this? A BLOG?

What is UP reader? :P My name's Chris, and this'll be where I dump my art while I learn to draw! Hopefully I can dump all the studies, sketches, doodles and finished art I do here!

For today I have two days worth of anatomy practice. I'm trying to hold myself to a minimum of ONE practice a day! I haven't done today's yet though...Must hurry!

The very first day! May 19th. I got a little lazy with the face. And I made a funny face instead :P. Won't be doing this much though! I need to be serious :P

Second one from May 19th. Looks 100% better, and I used the technique I use when I use pencils...Interesting...

May 20th. Same technique as before...But I need to get better at it so I can stop sucking at drawing D:.