I really like your bean studies, do keep practising those.

Thank you a lot!! I've always felt really weak with how I do beans; robot beans are even harder, haha. But, practice makes perfect, so I'll keep at 'em, and hopefully my skill level with catch up to my critical eye.

Also sorry to anybody that looks at my sketchbook (for whatever reason; it's still really barren), but my old tablet finally died! :c I haven't drawn for a little while because of that; just sorta taking a mental health break, because I'll be getting a new tablet once I move here soon. I only just started getting "drawing withdraws", so I'll go back to pencil/pen and paper later today. One big issue, though, is that I don't have a proper table to draw on, and really bad back issue. The good part of having a tablet was the fact that I didn't need to use a table or to hunch in order to use it, so I'll have to find a way around this for the traditional stuff.

When I was still doing Draw a Box studies regularly (I should get back into the habit now >.>) I'd usually just ignore my back until it and my neck were stiff and burning, and then I'd have to lay down. That's...not super good for me, tho. I'll figure it out.

Note to self:

"The reason why you feel like you’re reverting is probably because you are copying the references without retaining the information. An exercise I recommend is to find some pose references. For example, I have a Japanese book of poses. Look at one of the poses and then put it away. Try to draw what you saw from your own memory. Try to reconstruct it from scratch. When you are done look back again and fix any errors. This forces you to solve some problems on your own, and hopefully retain some of that information. It also forces you to see what you are doing wrong, and gives you the answer on how to fix it. Do this exercise often. Then, after that, try drawing similar poses without references."

Do this exercise. It sounds like a fantastic idea.

(Source: Erotibot on Tumblr)

That's a really good exercise. Our brain learns the best when you force it to recall something from memory. And it learns close to nothing when you just copy image once and stop there.
I also recommend not just to do it once with each pose (or whatever you try to memorize) but several times spaced in time. For example do it the first time for 25 minuites, then repeat it with the same pose half an hour later, then in one hour, then the next day, etc, until you can reproduce it on the level you want. This type of practice is a bit hard to mantain but it puts your learning on steroids.

That's a really good exercise. Our brain learns the best when you force it to recall something from memory. And it learns close to nothing when you just copy image once and stop there.
I also recommend not just to do it once with each pose (or whatever you try to memorize) but several times spaced in time. For example do it the first time for 25 minuites, then repeat it with the same pose half an hour later, then in one hour, then the next day, etc, until you can reproduce it on the level you want. This type of practice is a bit hard to mantain but it puts your learning on steroids.

Holy crap, that's a good idea rockman. I'll try that! Dunno if I'll remember to do it past a few days later, but I could certainly try.

Yeah, it takes a bit of planning and note-taking. Though you can use flashcard apps like Anki which would do all the spacing for you. Just make cards like "memorizing exercise: pose1" or something like this. Improvise!
Also, laughed at "rockman"

Yeah, it takes a bit of planning and note-taking. Though you can use flashcard apps like Anki which would do all the spacing for you. Just make cards like "memorizing exercise: pose1" or something like this. Improvise!
Also, laughed at "rockman"

No prob, rockman! B^)
And yeah, I might set alarms or something.

It's been awhile, guys. Still drawing, but I've had a lot of various life happenings that have prevented me from posting here or I've been too...stumped, I guess, to be interested.
I completed a big work recently. http://suffocatingromano.deviantart.com/art/Patron-Saint-of-Witch-Hunts-648083022 It was a lot of fun, but I referenced very little during it. Mostly wanted to just...freehand for once, I guess.
Anyway, I'll try to post more here soon.

ho boy it's been a while since i've posted here but i've Actually Gotten Some Shit Done (tm)

first off: a commissioned poster for a friend. used some reference, but not very much. mostly just spent a few hours staring at communist propaganda. and yeah, none of the korean or russian actually translates to anything useful or smart--he asked me to use both languages but also said he didn't care what it said, so i chose random words. nothing clever unfortunately, i was too exhausted to think of anything smart

second order of business: more art for a friend. in fact, everything except what i just submitted for critique is for people besides me.

this one is of my friends big titted weed-focused magical girl self insert oc. i love her. almost no ref (i'm specifying for these bc i feel like all of them would've been of a much higher quality if i pushed myself to use reference but i was pushing myself to get all the shit on my backlog done already).

third: a genderbent character my friend adores.

um. i know the boob shading makes little to no sense. by the time i was done with my lineart i had a massive headache and i wanted this done, like, yesterday, so i said "fuck it" and went with this. no ref.

fourth: fetish art for one of my partners, oh boy.

i don't have much to say on this one. did use a ref, but not too heavily. actually had fun with this, but i stayed very loose and didn't worry too much about, like...the basics or anything like that. i feel it's not very strong as a piece but it's nice on the eyes and has more fluidity then my other stuff (which is, ah, fitting, considering what's happening to the character).

...uh, i suddenly can't add attachments. um, okay then. i think it might be the speed at which i was uploading, so i'll give it a while. in the meanwhile, you can see the picture here: http://i.imgur.com/0wpFCmY.png

fifth: more NSFW gift art!

used one ref for this, but stayed kinda loose with it too. didn't color it or add a background like i shoulda but oh well.

this isn't the most high quality version of the pic but i was caught off guard by not being able to add attachments, so here: http://i.imgur.com/97ohBdc.png

sixth: final piece of gift art!

i was very loose with this one, and the simple subject made that work. i like this one a lot.

also not the highest quality version, but: http://i.imgur.com/2C2TnIO.png

final piece of art i wanna put here: something for myself this time.

here's what i said in the critique post for this:

(The full versions of the ref in grey, ref in color, and mine can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/tEMG8)

Hey! I haven't submitted something for critique here in like, over a year. I'm actually looking for help on two things:

1: I've been working on a study off and on for a few weeks, and I think I'm juuuust about ready to work on it in color. The only problem is, I've never really done this before--in fact, this is part of why I decided to do it grey-scale, so I could learn how to transition into color from there. But I barely know where to start. I vaguely know you use multiply on another layer, but I've had such limited experience with that. I really just need a boost.

2: While the above is the biggest thing I came for help on, I'd also like to hear some overall critique of the picture as is. Like, did I get the likeness okay? The glasses and the wand are something I always intended to add in bc the only way I was able to motivate myself to work was to turn it into fanart piece as well (not even gonna go into who the character is). But did I do alright on them?

Side note: ...if this makes sense, while I did try to be roughly accurate with it, I was more attempting to get the same...feeling. Less "pixel accuracy" and more "understanding of the piece". I didn't spend a lot of time on the background as a result, but I still attempted to replicate the importance it had to bring the picture together. Does that make sense? So, like, I'm not that concerned about getting it 100% the same, but if you don't think I properly understood something in the picture, please lemme know!

now, on the subject of art in general, here's some of my short term to-do items:

start animal anatomy studies (likely candidate: doe)

(explanation: watched a really interesting video by an animator about how he'll do dedicated animal studies when he wants to make a certain animal character, and went through his process in detail. it excited me, and i wanna try it out. vid is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8EnCabl29w, info starts around the 3 min mark)

start human anatomy studies

(explanation: this is self explanatory; i wanna learn human anatomy. i'm not one of those people that thinks anatomy counts as a fundamental instead of an intermediate skill--how to draw form and knowing proportions are fundamentals instead--but i still really wanna know anatomy, possibly more then i'll actually need for my art)

finish the master study

(explanation: that's the post i put up for critique)

do a percy picture from scratch

(explanation: it's the character from the study; i wanna draw a full illustration of him with little reference. not bc i don't think references are good, but bc i want to force myself to get less anxious when i don't have refs. half of the time i spent drawing friend art without reference was feeling super fucking anxious even though i didn't have time to go looking for the exact refs i needed)

do a raw meat study

(explanation: i wanna learn how to draw food better, and drawing a raw chunk of meat feels like a good exercise for that, among other things)

plan out a study comic

(explanation: i wanna do a like 5 page comic that's less geared towards story and more geared towards learning how to frame panels and how to add backgrounds etc)

start fabric sketching

(explanation: clothing is stupid and dumb and i hate drawing it but also it looks so fucking good when it's done right and i gotta learn how to do that)

Jesus Christ, it's been a Hot Minute, huh? I have... changed a Lot, artistically, since my last post.

Lemme try to go chronologically. In this post I'll tackle 2017 past me posting in here;

1: https://i.imgur.com/e1zHI3g.png

A study I did of a vertebrae. I was intending to do the whole spine, but in the end, this was it;; Might do a much smaller-scale version of this project with the skeleton, but I wouldn't be this... intricate.

I know I heavily ref'd stuff for this but I have literally no idea what. This was years ago @_@

2: https://i.imgur.com/1vwlrMN.png

A study of Madame X, in greyscale because... well, honestly, I just wanted to do it that way at the time. Things were... stressful.

3: https://i.imgur.com/gdrogPR.png

Based loosely on a screenshot from Nekomonogatari, a kinda-commission I did for a friend when I was in a slump.

4: https://i.imgur.com/W3IcGTR.jpg

This is 1 of 3 entries I made for a Rick and Morty zine, wherein I decided to base all three on studies of classical art. This one didn't get in, which, honestly, yeah, I understand. I... can't remember the name of this painting rn, but it's a Gustav Klimt.

5: https://i.imgur.com/ygPUSoW.png and https://i.imgur.com/ix7Qsce.png

These are the 2 entries that did make it in. Again, can't remember the painting names rn, but they're based on a twin pair of Alphonse Mucha paintings.

6: https://i.imgur.com/2EqKt5S.png

Oh I cannot for the life of me remember which painting OR painter this is based on, other then "they're Russian" >< Anyway, this was a, like, 3 hour study I think.

After this I had a major depression crash again, and discovered that I tend to experience burnout from anything creative between December and February.

(I would say it's SAD but this year I... wasn't depressed exceptionally (I mean I had bouts but those were outside trauma related), I just could NOT make art or writing work. I sat down and tried and it'd make me hurt too much >_> BUT ANYWAY I'll do 2018 next)

... fuck. I was in the middle of finishing up a very long post when the page refreshed. Uhhhhh... I'll finish this after I eat. :/

Please do! This sketchbook seems to be having quite a turnabout. The Madame X study is brilliant, but maybe that's tainted by my love for Singer Sargent.

Also,

Rick and Morty zine

Yikes!

Please do! This sketchbook seems to be having quite a turnabout. The Madame X study is brilliant, but maybe that's tainted by my love for Singer Sargent.

Thank you so much! I think I've gotten a lot better, but, of course, I worry, haha.

Yikes!

Hahaaa, that's fair.

ANYWAY.

2018. This year was... really, really good.

1: https://i.imgur.com/lHakb5m.png

After I came out of my slump, I was commissioned by a friend to make a t-shirt design for her Rick and Morty cosplay channel. This was largely freehanded, save referencing the portal and photos of my friend and her husband (Rick).

2: https://i.imgur.com/aLF4YUO.jpg

Starting to ramp up some, I made this as a Mother's day (... it ended up being pretty late, but that wasn't too much of an issue) commission for a friend of their step-parents. I really fuckin need to work on perspective (I'm getting things set up here to restart Drawabox, which I had a lot of success with the first time), and I made their step dad's head, uh, kinda small... but I'm overall still a lil proud of this!

... of course, then I found my new muse.

3: https://i.imgur.com/3mpMpR4.png and https://i.imgur.com/Efg31wS.png

These were both done in about 30 minutes a day or so apart, referencing random pictures in my inspiration folder, after I fell absolutely head over heels for the musical Be More Chill. It revitalized my interest in art unlike anything else I've ever done. Seriously, I haven't been this into something since Artemis Fowl in middle/high school >_>

4: https://i.imgur.com/A4jWxQI.png and https://i.imgur.com/Q8UHdYg.png

Two of my friends fave characters from BMC. A day apart. 4 hours or so each. I used their preferred face claims as ref; Froy Gutierrez and Tommy Martinez.

5: https://i.imgur.com/96cKwqY.png

Ahhhh... I have no idea why I never fixed his fingers, I easily could've, but. Ignoring that, I really... really like this picture. It's sorta my favorite, honestly. Freehanded.

6: https://i.imgur.com/VlIe6st.png

A quick 2 or 3 hours picture of my friend's character using her FC (... that I can not remember the name of. She's a wrestler, I think?)

... then.

7, an animatic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_YnbdvHM8w

I. Stumbled my way through this, and I freehanded literally everything, but I... so... enjoyed making this. My friend lost it, in a good way, when I sent this to her.

8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijp2Y7sFwuE&t=26s

This is sorta-kinda an animatic. It's based on another video, and Dangling Grandpa's sprite style. Took forEVER to make this, despite less things happening in it then the last. Sorry the lyric effects are kinda... like that.

9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQ-JgDTo5Y

A short animatic/animation of a 6 second vine. Freehanded.

10: https://i.imgur.com/1awJQq7.jpg and https://i.imgur.com/aS4bWEb.jpg

Uhhhh heads up: stylized gore and light nudity in the second pic. More Rick and Morty, done for a fandom event. I know there's quite a few things wonky about both of these, but I was struggling to keep myself engaged for some reason, and had trouble really looking at them by the end.

11: https://i.imgur.com/euF4vcm.png and https://i.imgur.com/u40bQzy.png

Important to note about this one: parts are directly, intentionally, traced, though nowhere near all of it. I was under an extremely strict time limit while being VERY ill. The person these pieces are for is aware of this, and I got the go ahead. It wasn't a for-profit in any way.
But, yeah. Two Mucha paintings. And... partially traced or not, these took fuckin forever to make and I am still VERY proud of them. I know I could've gotten a very similar quality if I'd taken longer and not traced at all, but it wasn't an option;;

(Also, those are the last two Rick and Morty things I'll probably do for a while, just bc I'm so invested in BMC.)

12: https://i.imgur.com/CP6R4WK.png

The last image I drew before entering a creative coma from December to late Feburary, this is a WIP Halloween picture that I plan to finish... (waves hands vaguely) eventually. It's based on a panel from Junji Ito's Tomie.

Whew! That's a lot. Next post will be 2019!!

This is much shorter, but.

1: https://i.imgur.com/gUUSvKA.png

As my annual artblock disappeared, I started restlessly looking for something to kick start finishing, like, anything. This is from an insanity art meme by tumblr user capochiino. I'd say this took 3 hours or so--I was a lot slower from rust.

2: https://i.imgur.com/y9vyn26.png

In the middle of working on the next piece, I drew this as a warm up. About 45 min. Model in my inspiration folder, but I can't remember who she is.

3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upRNCatdgOY

I am... insanely proud of this one. There's issues with it, and I sorta just finished frames at random, and I REALLY need to learn actual video techniques and stuff, but, like. I still genuinely think some of those frames are delightful. If you could give it a look, I'd greatly appreciate it.