Ryo - Art School Journey

[Inkpendude]

I think Marc once explained "shadows are there just to give a hint of volume to the objects",

Yeah it's a very hard challenge! Specially if you wanna draw with ink, and you wanna use the shadows properly. you have to really think when to use really thick lines and shadows, and when to leave a blank space.

Great breakdowns! you will learn pretty fast if you use that method

[ryooh]

I think I get what you mean about the 3D mesh. It’ll just be a matter of wether or not I can correctly implement it in pieces in the future. Whatever trouble comes from that is on me though, your advice is thorough and well put together so don’t worry about not being clear. But yeah this is a challenge to say the least. Clothes can be so easily manipulated especially depending on the type material you want to portray.

I don’t do enough 3D figures for sure. It’s one of those studies I let forget about due to my fixation in the current lesson. I’m trying to do better at that though. I’ll incorporate some of those in this week as a small side goal.

I’ll also be sure to check out that video! I don’t remember seeing that thumbnail in my subscriptions section, so I think I missed watching that one. So it’ll be completely new to me.

I have recently changed by dpi to 300 as that was something another YouTuber suggested but I came by it by complete coincidence so that was lucky, I’ll try those sizes as well, I usually just to screen size for my iPad for pretty much everything haha.

As for Marc’s brush pack yes indeed I do have it. I had the brush set that i usually use before so I just had a habit of using it more and felt more comfortable using it but this last week I used Marc’s legendary lineart brush for line art and used the usual brush for just sketching. Haven’t looked at my studies over the weekend so idk how I’ll feel about them but I’ll post them here by the end of the day so if ya happen to see them you can of course give any thoughts you may have if you’d like.

Really appreciate the time taken to help out, hoping I can pay it forward one day or maybe back if a day like that ever comes around. I hope you have a successful week, in studies or otherwise.

[ryooh]

So this week was alright, there was one day where I couldn’t get the pose right for the life of me so I decided just to do gesture practice. The first one isn’t bad, didn’t go back over the lines where skin show to make them cleaner but it wasn’t my focus anyways.

Also I tried to do some hatching, to the best of my ability, tried to Imitate how shading is done in bleach but obviously not to the same effect.

I also shaded the second one the way I did previously on others. But didn’t want to post that one because I have a bunch of others with the same type of shading. the hatching came out meh in my opinion but I can just keep trying to get it right

The bottom one seems unfinished now that I’m looking at it but idk why I would have left it that way. And yeah the laces I’m the shoes are looking rough.

That’s it for the week, going to try some harder clothing pieces but idk how it’ll go. Some days are better than others so we will see. If anyone has any critiques or advice, it is more than welcome. Hope everyone’s week brings progress.

[daceronine]

Looking better with every iteration!

[ryooh]

Hello all, been about 3 weeks since I last posted. I think this post will be long so this is a heads up and I’m sorry in advance lol. I pretty much continued on the regular practice track, I did decide to move into the practice where we draw over a model. I’ll post the ones I’ve done over the past week below. Found this really enjoyable. I definitely want to get better at thinking of different clothes to draw and become more creative but I think I just need to accumulate more knowledge that way I can make whatever clothes I want actually seem functional/believable on a body.

I’m not for sure how well I did on these practices so far, I have my own opinions on which I think are a bit better and which are worse I’ll leave small notes above each.

Also I decided to move onto this practice because the anatomy part that would come with the last one just took me a long time and I know there is a torso anatomy lesson ahead of me so it just seemed better to spend the extra time on the clothing. Speaking of the next lesson I likely will move onto that sometime here in the near future. Depending on how I feel on these clothes by the end of the week, that could be this weekend. I would like to get more anatomy studies going. Especially if I can get the growth I’ve gotten with my heads. Which isn’t great but it is noticeable which feels nice lol.

Starting off, this one I obviously did reference a pose instead of drawing over it. Don’t think much of the clothes they came out alright I think some folds make sense but the pants should be baggier so I believe there should be more folds. Kinda around the knees.

I like this one more think the jacket could be better, seems maybe a little stiff, at least the folds do. I do like the pants more though.

Think I did better on this one than the previous two. Given the materials like the jacket being like a combat vest typa deal and the jeans being tighter there aren’t going to be a bunch of folds. I will leave the critique here solely to everyone/anyone else.

Added some color, and some fur not much else I want to say that I won’t put in a wrap up paragraph at the end.

Referenced the pose here instead of drawing over again. Mostly because the anatomy was stylized for that persons art style and the torso was quite small.
Left the body sketch as a sketch and didn’t clean it up and as for the clothes I like what I was goin for, maybe could have done some more. The folds…. Um idk to be honest they seem okay.

So this was the most recent, being done not long ago. Think the jacket was done kinda well, think I got the folds from gravity right, if not then close. And I think I got the skirt right? But I do like the choice I clothes I think

So to wrap up I think I’ve done decent. I don’t have any major dissatisfaction just the urge to be better. I don’t know if today was a fluke but I do like the demonstration of folds a bit better. I’m feeling meh on my coloring still, it did slip my mind up until this post for some reason. Possibly because these post give me more time to self reflect/ critique since I spend more time staring at practices. When I don’t post I usually just practice and don’t look as intently later on at them. Which I should change that habit. No matter how busy I get this does help me see things that I wouldn’t see while practicing or in the short time I spend looking at it after.

Nit as long as a post as I thought it’d be but anyways, I hope everyone is in good health and has made strides in their studies. Please feel free to leave any comments, critiques are, as always welcome. I hope everyone has a good week.

[daceronine]

Oy, good work all around man! I think the second one is the one I like the most. Something about the simplicity of gray scales is very alluring to me, and the folds work really well with that pose.

Folds in general are rough, if I could share some advice that helped me, was that when drawing them from imagination, still try to use references from clothes in similar poses to see how fold tend to form (their specific structure and shading), and then apply that to your piece. As you build your mental library, you'll be able to use references less and less.

And you're right in that posting helps us self reflect and critique ourselves. It's one of the reasons posting online helps, it kinda allows you to see your work with fresh eyes and see potential improvements.

[ryooh]

Okay trying to get back on a schedule now. Over this past week I did take a little bit of a break. Still did some studies just not as much and I have some unfinished personal stuff. I did start the torso anatomy lesson and did some practices. It is pretty tough and I’m trying to make sure I touch all bases for practices, not just the current lesson. So I’m not spending a bunch of time just doing torso anatomy practices. Still got a lot to work to do for past lessons too so figuring out a good balance is becoming more and more important and difficult. But for now I’ll post some of the torso studies and the few clothes I did. Plan on getting back on a good study schedule. And hopefully figure out a good flow to touch all bases.

This was done shortly after last post. Folds aren’t bad I don’t think but I do need to spend time just observing clothing in real life and in other media. I think it’ll do me good.

Somewhere in between, no thoughts really.

Most recent, I think I like this one.

These were the first torso practices I did. Don’t think I got the muscles correct exactly.

Most recent, still don’t think I got them right. I’m going to review the lesson again on Wednesday when I practice.

That’s pretty much it, the torso has a ton going on and I can see this being difficult maybe. But it should be okay. Got a lot to figure out, and more to improve on. Idk how my progress as an artist in general is coming along. So I need to take some time to do more (finish) personal pieces instead of studies that way I have solid benchmarks to look at for overall skill. Anyways I hope everyone has been doing well and I hope progress is making its way to everyone. Have a good week.

[snakker]

These are all looking very good

keep at it!

cheers

[ryooh]

Thank you very much!

[ryooh]

Hello all, this last week I did a little less clothing studies but drew a little more heads. I’ll post the clothing studies and some of the torso studies.

As for torso it could be going better I think and I’ll have to keep going back to the lesson video and taking a look at how the muscles are suppose to sit. I’ll also probably try to find some good 3d models to look at. Tried to find some a while ago but didn’t find any good ones/ ones that’s worked for me. Although I didn’t look long tbf.

But that’s all for this week, hope everyone is doing well and I hope everyone’s studies are going smoothly. As always any critique or the like is welcome.




Curious if I have the breast in the right spot? I think I do but I thought I’d ask regardless.

[ryooh]

Hello all been a while again. Even though I haven’t posted in an 3 week I’ve still been practicing. Still doing trace overs for torso because I feel there is a lot of different positions coupled with angles the torso can be seen from so I’m trying to get some variety. Also I’m not just dedicating my time to just torsos like I would for other lessons. I’m doing heads more often, about twice a week instead of every once in a while. And still practicing clothes when I’m not doing heads. I mostly try to fit in a front and back view of the torso a day. I’ve been thinking to try and see where I’m at and draw the torso from memory. See if I can get some decent results. And decide if I move on to the next torso assignment from there.

Anyways I won’t post all my studies because that’d be ridiculous. I’ll post the most recent heads. And a mix of clothes and torsos.

For the heads I’ve really been trying to step away from references as of late. Mostly using them to find a position I’m not familiar with. And help with that beginning step. I’m doing a lot of experimenting currently and it feels like I’m having more success but still wading through the water. I realized not long ago that when not using a reference to find a position I tend to hover to a 3/4ths position. So that’s something I can mix up going forward. Also I’ve been meaning to get more expressions into the studies. That way I can make sure I stay familiar with how the face can change with different expressions.

Clothes have been fun to be honest. I dunno where I stand with progress. Think I’ve improved a bit since I last posted but I don’t think it’s by much. To give an idea, The box head figure is the most recent one I’ve done that’s here. I’ve also been making sure I find references for similar I’m unsure if what I’m visualizing the folds to look like are correct. Priority is making sure I keep enjoying these as much as I am. I do wanna push myself to try and get some different stuff goin. I like the types of clothes I’m doing now but I wanna expand and build upon them too. They don’t necessarily have to have a bunch more going on though.

Lastly are the torsos, I won’t say much here I’ll leave any critique to anyone else. Only thing I’ll say is i struggle a bit with the mid to lower back sometimes and the muscles behind/next to the obliques and pecs.

That’s all, sorry for the lengthy post. I won’t say much more besides thanks to anyone who takes the time to come in here and read/respond. Any critiques are welcome and I’ll do my best to apply advice given. Hope everyone is doing well and making progress. Thanks again

[daceronine]

All good practice man.
Progress is iterative, almost like evolution. You won't see much change from piece to piece. It might even seem like a downgrade at times depending on your mood, but do a quick comparison against something like a year back or more and I think the progress is much more evident.

These are pieces you posted here, and even though the right one is more of a sketch, I think you can see some significant progress!

For muscles, I think you get the general idea, which is the whole point of the exercice. To get to know the muscles exist and take it into account when you do a piece, which looks better than someone who doesn't even know they exist. I think you'll be surprised at how much it improves your next piece!

As feedback, once you finish tracing the muscles, try to hide the original potrait (hopefully you have it in a different layer), Then flip the muscles line art. I think you'll quickly see what gaps may exist, then come back and try to correct them, then retry until it looks "good" flipped. You can try to outline the body as well to help you when you hide the potrait.

[ryooh]

Yeah you’re right, you Bring that up at a good time because the last 2 days of studies just haven’t great, just couldn’t get things down like I wanted. And lookin back at where I was, even months ago, can be helpful for the mental. Just having you bring it to my attention has actually helped so thank you!

As for the muscles, yeah I think I forgot I needed to get an idea of the muscles here and not necessarily have each fiber engrained into my memory. I’ll still stay in this exercise for a bit longer and try that tip you gave. Seems pretty useful, wish I could have thought of that sooner. I’ll see how well I can make use of it.

Hope you have a good week and thanks again.

[ryooh]

Hello all, been a while. Hope everyone’s been doing well. Mostly did more,of the same since I last posted. Just started drawing the torso anatomy over skeletons yesterday. Over the past week though I didn’t study much. And I drew a bit but I just have some unfinished personal stuff to show for it. No pieces really involving the whole torso though. Dunno why specifically but I just couldn’t get into the mood to study/draw even though I did pick up the pen and start.

Anyways, here are the torso studies I did over the past couple days. I see I forgot to draw the trapezius on some front views and didn’t draw the collar bones either on some. Aside for, that minor thing. I think I’m getting the proportion wrong for some of the muscles, either that or the shape. I did reference some similar angles to try and help but honestly I feel I still didn’t get it. I can’t say it’s just one muscle at the moment because to be honest each one had something about them that I think I struggled a bit with. The back I’ve always felt I’ve had the muscles over the shoulder blade too large and I usually draw them last so I don’t know for sure which part of the back I’m getting wrong that’s causing that. Which leads back to the beginning of the paragraph.

The plan for now is to take time to review the lesson some more. Study references more thoroughly and obviously put some more time in to draw studies. Also putting in some time for personal pieces that have the whole torso in view that way I get some practice in while doing something that isn’t just studying. Putting the practice into some practical use i guess. That’ll be all for now as I don’t wanna have a whole essay for folks to read, not being too hard on myself as I know this isn’t what many people would consider “easy” in art. The torso has a lot to it and I did expect it to take time. Hope everyone is doing well and that your week brings success. Thanks for your time.

[ryooh]

Hello all, hope all is well and everyone enjoyed their holidays.

I the past month has been really busy for me. So I haven’t been coming to the forum to check things out like I should. There has been some days though where pretty much all my relax time was spent playing an mmo i like a lot. Like this last weekend, I did still practice just I feel I could have allocated some more time to practice or coming here.
But I ended up sitting down and getting myself back on tracks bit. After I posted last I continued putting the muscles over skeletons for a while but decided I wanted to try and see what poses I could accomplish with just some reference use and nit drawing over skeletons. so I’ll leave some of the recent ones below. Some I like some I don’t. I’m not very consistent but that’s what practice is for. I can feel the improvement though. Way back when I was doing gesture poses it was frustrating getting the torso correct but now I’m not haven’t near as hard of a time. Obviously there are some exceptions even with the head I sometimes struggle still. If anyone has any feedback to give its more than welcome and I’ll do my best to apply any critique or advice to my studies. I have been on this assignment for a while so I did decide to move onto term 4. I’ve only just watched the game prod video so no new assignments yet. Should be soon though.

I did get in some personal stuff, only about 2 pieces are what I’d consider finished and another one that’s close I think but I dont really know what to do next with it. I’ll post the 2 i finished here. If there is any advice or critique for those I’d really appreciate that. Doing full works is still foreign to me because I only ever do practices and they’re usually very rough sketches. So any help in the full finished piece area would welcome.

Hope everyone had a good start to the new year and im sure many of you will reach new heights. Thank you for your time!

[ryooh]

Hello all, not much to show this time in quantity. Moved on last week to the rest of the arms and hands. So the follow along will be here.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Have a good week everyone.

[ryooh]

Hello, hope everyone has been doing good. It’s been a while since I went and watched a lesson so I felt the need to watch the rest of the anatomy lesson and whoof. The leg man lol. A lot goin on there. 3/4s view was particularly difficult for me. The follow along is below.

Here are some practices, hands are still hard sometimes, obviously not perfect. But I can feel progress which is good. As you can see I was only focusing on what anatomy classes I had done so now that I’ve watched the lower body I’ll always be incorporating it now. Unless I feel the need to work on specifics like faces, hands, etc.

Lastly I started a few pieces, finished one abandoned another and currently working on another but I don’t have many more ideas in what to do and I dont know if I wanna add color.

This one I finished.. Got the guidelines of the character and realized I was drawing something similar to a manga cover I like so I decided to reference it when I had trouble, the hand really. Guess I had it stuck in my subconscious though. I took the straight black shading of the hand and tried just using that for the a lot of the piece. More for style since I’ve seen Tite Kubo do the same for some of his art and I like his art a lot. I think I like it, I’m not going to make it an unbreakable habit though.

This is the one I’m currently working on. It’s got more goin on and I want to add more. Just to add some stuff around his hands. But I dunno if it’ll be too much so I’ll see if it’s worth adding later on. I want to do something with the ellipses behind him too. But I’m not 100 percent sure what. So I’ll have to think. Also going to add ripples around the monster since it’s coming through space and I want some effect around the hole it’s coming through. Also gotta check the clothes folds and make sure they’re correct since I didn’t reference so I’m going to look around for references for that. Also wanna try something more expressive for the next character. This guy is nonchalant and cool so I think his expression is ok but just a note for the next.

The third one I had a throne room scene where a king got blasted through a wall into his throne room. But I didn’t really know what to do with it anymore even though I liked where it was going. I should probably restart it but I can’t seem to get myself to do anything with it. In fact the previous two pieces were done after I stopped working on the throne room. So it’s been sitting dormant for a while.

Anyways just wanted to do a checkpoint type post again. I saw that many of you were doing pretty good in your art. It’s good to see y’all’s hard work paying off. hoping for everyone’s continued success. Until the next time, take care.

[ryooh]

Hello all, hope everyone is doing well. Doing a progress post. So shortly after my last post I got in a pretty bad mood about my art and I was getting super frustrated. It’s was too be expected I suppose since I had just started legs and started doing full body studies. Regardless I tried slowing down, not completely stopping but I did cut down the volume of my practices and only did a little bit. I couldn’t completely stop because I did get the into the mood to draw and i don’t really like taking full on breaks because I feel lazy. But once I would start I’d end up getting frustrated so Id stop for the day to not get myself too worked up. This went on for a while like 2-3 weeks I think, I had gotten super busy with work as well during those weeks so that didn’t help. I am back on track now I think. Did some practices the past few days and was chilling through it all. I’ll post the practices from the beginning then kinda in the middle between then and now and then the most recent practices

These are the early ones, there isn’t much because of what was previously said.
.
These were some from last week, better and there’s a little more but I was still getting that feeling of frustration.

These were yesterday and the day before. 5/26 and 5/25. With those 2 sectioned off heads being from the weekend when I just pretty much didn’t draw at all. ( usually don’t draw much on weekends )

Not much here but if anyone has any useful tips or advice/ critiques they are welcome even though it’s been about a month since I finished up the anatomy lessons I don’t think I’m much further than where I started. I’ve noticed or at least feel like I’ve slowed down a lot. Spending a lot more time on lessons, I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily as long as I’m staying disciplined and working on improving.

Well that’s it, not much I can think of adding at the moment. I hope everyone has been seeing some progress big or small in your work. And if not hopefully the people around you can point it out for you. The pressures of succeeding can be a lot sometimes but try not to get overwhelmed. ( guess this goes for me too )

Take care everyone, till next time.

[daceronine]

Yo, hope you're feeling better now, all of these look pretty darn good.

For the most part they have good form and gesture, if there's any feedback I would give, it would be to work on the lineart sketchiness. For the most part sketchiness is fine while... well... sketching, but once you finish the sketch, try doing more confident lines over the sketches to refine the lineart.

Keep it up man, there is definetly improvement there.

[ryooh]

Thank you, I think I am lol. But yeah I agree, I’ve always had an issue with sketchiness. I tried to fix it for a while but slowly stopped. I do make an effort when doing bigger pieces and not just practices but it takes a while. Since I’m about to start some practices right now so I’ll do what you suggested and put some line art over the sketchy part of the practices. Build some line confidence.

Thanks a lot for the critique