Strelok's Art Diary

strelok_2012 2023-08-26 09:01:43 UTC #21

Continuation of the animal head simplification studies. This time its dogs.

Refs

I've found its easier to sorta look through the forms to find the most basic ones first then build additional ones on top. Starting with the a sphere for the cranial mass then a box for the muzzle. Thing is, the muzzle doesn't look like much of a box on a real dog, so to make it look more like the real thing I added triangular prisms to flesh it out more. You can also add spheres and tubes/sausages to make it look more organic but my case I've kept it largely boxy and inorganic. Another thing to note is that some of the shapes will taper, especially with extreme foreshortening.

Anyway this was fairly quick and simple to do. What do you think of this method of simplification? Do things line up? (e.g tip of the nose, nasal ridge, jaw, cheeks).

strelok_2012 2023-08-30 04:45:46 UTC #22

Back with those gesture studies I promised (seems like no one has any opinions on my studies).

I then went over my quick studies and annotated what I thought was wrong with them.

Refs:

And finally I'll try to explain the volume and stick figure thing I had going on with my gestures.

Here I just captured the flow of the limbs and such, I'd also use 4 lines to capture the volume of the torso.

Now I try to add volume to the gestures by just encompassing the limbs in very simple lines. Its not contour like some would believe (which I did) but flow with form (or volume). I also try to use less lines overall, though in this case I still use individual lines for shoulders, arms and legs. though I don't think its inherently bad, its possible to 'continue' a gesture line from its end but that takes a bit of practice. Hopefully this is useful to people who are struggling still struggling with gesture.

zegalur 2023-09-01 19:48:50 UTC #23

I do Try to complete one of these, at least to a finished line art. If you don't test it, it's difficult to know if you get the concept.

strelok_2012 2023-09-05 02:24:33 UTC #24

Finally finished the spine copying assignment I set for myself. There was some back and forth where I looked at proko's videos and attempted the drawings as well, so there will be inconsistency between the studies I did. I also seem to have very little time now, hopefully things settle down so I can draw more.

I'm messing up landmarks and proportions in most of these so I think that's what I'll work on next.

strelok_2012 2023-09-21 10:48:53 UTC #25

Hahah you thought I died, but I am immortal muhahaha....

Anyway, I've switched gears and am now following a curriculum. I'm not committing to it 100% in the sense that I might take more time on a given term or less depending on how comfortable I am with the subject. First term is Gesture, construction and composition. And so far I've just been following Proko's figure drawing fundamentals course. Right now I'm on the Robo-bean assignment.

These were uploaded out of order 'cause I uploaded them all at once.

On the side I still drew anthro dragon characters:

This one was done over the course of many breaks during work at 15 minute intervals. I actually have quite a bit experimenting and drafting I did where I was figuring out where to place things on the head. Also another attempt at just painting shapes and getting something to work. It turned out very similar to my previous attempt.

This was after I did a bit of Proko's figure course. Just sat down and drew some gesture drawings which I refined on a new layer. There's plenty of mistakes but it was a 'for fun' drawing so I wasn't worried. Was going for an expressive feminine look.

This one was super quick. I did this in about 15 minutes on a train after I had gone to a job interview (which, didn't end well but whatever). Just tried to sketch a gesture then put a manikin over it.

Another semi-quick drawing. Asked my friends whether I'd be able to draw a male or female figure faster. They said female and, funny story, as I showed off my progress they though I was drawing pr0n . As a side note the female figures don't have breasts 'cause I decided that anthro reptilians don't need 'em. Much more interesting trying to show dimorphism in other less obvious ways.

With the exception of the robo-beans everything was done without a reference from imagination. I really surprised myself with what I was able to do. Also I might change the topic name to Art diary as my personal pieces are showing up here alongside studies (that and studies take time to prepare for submission to this thread).

strelok_2012 2023-10-15 11:35:48 UTC #26

Still drawing, though I often get distracted by other things.

Following the curriculum I did figure drawing, doing quite a few loose timed gestures which I didn't bother saving as it would take forever to get them all together for a forum post. Additionally I put a bit more effort into proportions as well.

In that last one I wrote "Iterative Torso" which was taken from Sycra's "Iterative drawing" video. Gave it a shot to see if was any good.

I didn't iterate as much as I would like but I have to say it is a valid method of learning art concepts without relying too much on reference. Just go with your intuition, as Sycra says.

Which brings me to a question I have: What are people's thoughts on using reference when drawing something for fun? From my time with DrawABox their philosophy is to forego reference and just let your imagination take over.

An example of one of my 'for fun' sketches. Done without a reference relying heavily on memory. Though I feel that a lot of the time my drawings never progress past the gesture/structure stage given I have poor knowledge of anatomy. Because of this I have a lot of basic sketches that don't look like much.

Ah and also I've learnt a bit about composition and it really helped me look at things differently.

These are thumbnails of scenes I thought were interesting from the shounen anime Future Card Buddyfight.
I am unsure on how to approach thumbnailing involving characters, as in what to emphasize or what to shade. moderndayjames thumbnailed landscapes which doesn't quite work for me so I kinda draw basic representations of what I see.

And now for the bonus failed drawings/sketches!:

Tried to just draw a figure with a reference

Random figures/gestures from imagination, needlessly detailed torso in the top left.

Well that's it for now. I really want to start having at least nice clean lineart drawings of anthro dragons but I feel that may be quite far off still.

'Til next time,

Strelok out.

strelok_2012 2023-10-16 07:46:43 UTC #27

Another quick update: I understand gesture now (I think). Its the flow of something.

I've tried to illustrate it here:

Compared to the contours which I seemed to focus on previously:

Ref:

With this new revelation my gestures drawings actually capture the flow of a pose or subject.

Though my proportions are still off...

Plus a couple failed attempts:

All these were 2 minute gestures I did after rewatching Proko's approach several times (and a bit of Michael Hampton.

strelok_2012 2023-10-25 08:00:49 UTC #28

Finished the composition unit
I didn't quite do 50 scenes but I still learned something.

A continuation of thumbnailing Buddyfight scenes.

Next unit is human anatomy, starting with the head.

One of the 20 heads I've done for Ahmed Aldoori's 100 head challenge. Its unfortunate that I have to do human heads instead of anthro dragon heads but I can do that in my own time.
Speaking of which...

I turned my previous 50% sketch into more of a sketch page. Just playing around with figures and other random stuff that pops into my head. Also learned some things about animal snouts/muzzles.

And that's all for now, in about a couple weeks I'll post more sketches and perhaps some tips or ideas I have on drawing the head.

strelok_2012 2023-11-02 23:46:28 UTC #29

Finished the 100 head challenge. Though to be fair, I made it ridiculously easy by just doing the basic loomis head for each one.

Initially I had a bit of trouble judging proportions & angles but after the 30th or 40th head it got really easy.

The only real thing I got out of it was that facial features tend to align with one another pretty well and that can be used to determine proportions & angles.

Still do some sketches for fun every now and then. Though I'm finding that I have trouble imagining things I haven't seen much before (obviously). I've asked on the MC art school discord regarding the reference for fun and people generally say that its ok, so I'll be incorporating them into my 'fun' sketches and drawings.

Also did a bit of experimenting to see whether or not my anthro species can sleep on their back.

...No, they cannot. At least not without some special bed or something.

The next unit on the list is Perspective 2, which will include very structural drawings.
I'll be making another post in 2 weeks or so.

strelok_2012 2023-11-27 12:10:52 UTC #30

Took a bit longer than I'd have liked but I'm back. My stylus broke while I was doing Lesson 5 of DrawABox so I had to revert to my portable tablet to draw.

DrawABox Lesson 5

The organic forms exercise is lost somewhere on my computer and I couldn't find it.

DrawABox Lesson 6:

I ran out of time to do the rest of Lesson 6 because my stylus was broken and it took a week for the replacement to get here. I'll eventually catch up with it in a later unit I hope. Either that or rotate the curriculum I'm following to do lessons/exercises I missed.

Personal Drawings!

All done on my portable tablet. The last one is me trying to figure out what the Dracthyr skull looks like underneath the skin.

Dracthyr are a Race from World of Warcraft. They're a big part of the inspiration for my own race I'm working on. Here's what they look like:

My only grief with the race is that the Head feels too square when viewed from the front, especially the Jaw.

Now I also continued to do figure and gesture drawing in the background and I'll say this:
Proko does a decent job at explaining the concepts but in practice, his examples can be a bit hard to follow, especially for beginners. I managed to brute force my way through gesture through repeated attempts and re-watching his videos to pick up on subtleties not explained in the demos.

I'm currently stuck on mannikinization and to an extent the Robo-bean which I did more of during my off-time.

I've been motivated to create a youtube channel where I further break down his methods and try to explain whats going on and how I interpret it.

Next unit is Human Anatomy - Torso, which I've been looking forward to. Though I doubt I'd get through it due to the sheer volume of content there is, I'll upload whatever work I get done withing 2 weeks (Hopefully).

strelok_2012 2023-12-10 11:18:57 UTC #31

Gonna post my progress on the anatomy course. I think I'll also extend the duration of this unit by a bit as I'm very much intrigued by the subject matter.

Draw Skelly Spine assignment

Trace Models:

Draw Models:

Currently working through the pelvis assignment and I should be done with that in a couple days.

strelok_2012 2023-12-13 07:37:54 UTC #32

Pelvis assignment done:

No Ref:

Struggled with the sides of the pelvis just below the Illiac crest. I didn't pay attention to that area when drawing from the reference and hence my no-ref drawings just have an empty space there.

Progressing through the ribcage assignment and I'm really enjoying the anatomy course so far. It really feels like a breath of fresh air after doing 3D shapes and gesture. I'm also looking at Michael Hampton's approach to gesture.

strelok_2012 2023-12-14 08:11:22 UTC #33

Tried my hand at Michael Hampton's approach to capturing gesture.
30 seconds.

Going into 1 minute gesture.

2 minute gesture to finish.

My thoughts so far are the same as when I did Proko's course: Things are explained well but in practice its different. While the general rule of thumb is to capture the flow and rhythm of 8 parts that make up the human body, the actual method of doing so may vary from the demo shown as part of the lecture. Sometimes the parts have foreshortening and perspective applied to them, thus a different curve or line is needed to capture them and show gesture.

Failed or incomplete gestures (No particular order):

Doing 30 minutes of gesture as a warm-up feels a bit too much for me as I don't always have a lot of time. I was also inspired by @Pattu_w's gestures, which is why I had another look at Michael Hampton's method.

Up next is to finish the Proko RIbcage assignment.

strelok_2012 2023-12-15 00:15:24 UTC #34

Emulated @Pattu_w's gesture drawing style and I really like how they do the legs. I can see how to simplify the gesture of the leg into 1-3 lines. The line economy is also something I like and will try to incorporate into my own gestures.

Didn't time these, just focused on the things that made Pattu's gestures look good.

Finished Proko's ribcage assignment:

The 3rd one (or 5th if you count the previous 2 I posted) was really difficult perspective-wise.
After this its onto the shoulders exercise.

strelok_2012 2023-12-18 10:12:33 UTC #35

Finished the shoulder assignment and this has been the hardest one so far. The scapula is a very complex object that is difficult to draw because of its varied forms.

Gave it a try with the first Proko assigned image and I just couldn't draw it. I could not see nor imagine the form of the scapula.

I decided to draw just the scapula in isolation in hopes of understanding the forms and how to construct it. Then moved back to the original reference images.

Towards the end there were some really challenging angles that I just had no idea how to approach nor do.

strelok_2012 2023-12-20 09:14:28 UTC #36

Back again with a quick update. I've made a start on the muscles portion of Proko's Torso anatomy course but I actually wanted to bring up something else:

I've been looking around the art school discord and seeing other people's work on term 1 and I would like to do 1 on 1 critique sessions with people. I've found that a lot of the time people either don't give honest feedback or are afraid to do so as well as not giving any feedback at all. Its understandable as I also hesitate sometimes, its being considerate. But even so, I wanna start a sort of program where I take 1 person on term 1 and help guide them and also offer some perspective on things. While I myself am still stuck on sketches n such I feel that I might be decent enough to help beginners. I also hope to perhaps inspire others to perform self-critique and improve on their own.

With that being said, I'm opening up one slot to give 1 on 1 critique and mentoring to help beginners out, reply with one of your study sheets to secure a spot. Hopefully my experience and wisdom will be of some use.

strelok_2012 2023-12-21 10:17:55 UTC #37

Finished the Pec and Breast assignment on Proko:

The skelly portion was the easiest given I have the bare skeleton to work with. Tracings... not so much. Too much visual information and its difficult to filter it to get what you need.

The breasts assignment was daunting at first because well... I never drew breasts. You might notice that in my gestures I never capture the gesture of the breasts on a female. But after the first few rounds I managed to get the hang of it.

And as the week comes to a close it means I won't get to continue the anatomy course in full
: (.
The 1 on 1 feedback & mentoring is still open as I haven't had anyone reply yet with a practice sheet. You can DM me on discord if you're on the Art School Discord if that's more comfortable. My discord handle on the discord server is: Strelok_2012 (Own Term(s)).

strelok_2012 2023-12-24 12:08:31 UTC #38

Did the Abs assignment and got varied results. Initially I had no idea how to approach it but figured something out. Misjudged the distance between the pelvis and the ribcage.

And that marks the end of the anatomy course... for now...

I'll probably continue doing it on the side as I have with gestures as I'm really fascinated by anatomy.

Up next is Perspective III, which I am somewhat familiar with already.

strelok_2012 2023-12-30 10:26:47 UTC #39

Perspective III has been pretty boring so I didn't put a whole lot of effort into it, as well as the fact that I already grinded a several dozen pages of it in ink.

The unit description is pretty vague in that it suggests Scott Robertson's Book "How to Draw: Sketching Objects and Environmnents from Imagination" but doesn't elaborate on what to do in it. I figure its to read through it and attempt to apply the concepts and techniques described in the book. Still, I feel its unnecessary for me currently as I'm focused more on figures.

Really good explanations of the techniques however, clear and concise.

Well, perspective is boring, so how about something else?

My first attempt at Shading or tonal study. I had no idea what I was doing and was going off of scraps of information I retained from watching videos a while back.

(Used soft brushes and smudging)

(used hard brush and no smudging)

2nd Attempt was much better as I watched Proko's "How to Shade a Drawing" video. He describes separating your tonal values into Light and dark families using core shadows seen in the reference. Its explained well, surprisingly. I didn't have too much trouble grasping the concept and I actually would suggest this method for beginners to use when they want to shade their drawings. Best part is that it works for both greyscale and colored drawings.
I went from not knowing how to shade to being able to shade (decently) within 2 days (or 3-6 hours).

I've actually been conceptualizing a method to render anything given any lighting scenario using Proko's method as a basis.

Quick personal sketch I did as I was bored from perspective.

Started off as a figure drawing with a focus on Anatomy then added Anthro features at the end. I was actually falling asleep while drawing and adding in the Anthro features was what woke me up.

At the end of this week, I'll be moving back to Anatomy, this time focusing on the arms, yay!

I really enjoy anatomy and I also desperately need it so I can accurately draw shapes and render them correctly when drawing the figure.

And I'm also impressed by how quickly I was able to grasp rendering and feel like I'm incredibly close to being able to replicate but a part of what the artists that I look(ed) up to can do.

strelok_2012 2024-01-02 11:01:19 UTC #40

Happy belated new years, here's to more success.

Did the arm tracing assignment and I was so tired from new years I had a hard time doing the assignment, I stayed up 'til 5AM and only got 4 hours of sleep.

I can see so many mistakes in these... but I was running on 4 hours of sleep.

Next up are hands and I'm wondering why people consider them hard, to me they seem relatively easy. Suppose I'll find out.