G'day guys, welcome to my sketchbook!

My backstory I discovered Sycra's channel two years ago and have been lurking on this forum anonymously for awhile now. Ever since I was young I was a kid that loved to draw, but never took art too seriously, since it was just fun for me. In the last few years, I realized that being an artist was something that I wanted to do as a job, and took it semi-seriously, buying a tablet, filling out sketchbooks, but still drew mostly stuff from imagination without studying from life or reference too much - I did do gesture drawings and some proportion studies, but it wasn't a habit. Two years ago, I finished high school and begun a degree in media production - quite an open degree, with opportunities in audio, video, graphic design, animation and other aspects of producing media. I was most interested in animation, but knew I wanted to work in a design job rather than a dedicated animating job. I took art a bit more seriously, trying to do a bit of digital painting and character design. I took courses in costume design and composition, hoping that they would teach me something or motivate me. They didn't, and while the assignments did push me a little into other media, such as pastels and watercolour, I didn't learn much that I hadn't already learnt from art channels on Youtube.

Now, at the end of my second year at university/college, I decided that if I wanted to get anywhere, I needed to sit down and really get some work done in the next few months before university starts again. So two weeks ago, I started putting more hours into learning and experimenting, especially with digital painting and colour. I'm very new to this, so that's why I've made this sketchbook here, to get some feedback and general advice on things.

Some recent digital paintings I've done over the last weeks. Mostly figuring out colour and just painting techniques in general - never tried painting with acrylics or oils, just some very basic watercolour glazes to add some colour to sketches.











Gestures. Not happy with the way I do them as far as line quality and form goes.









Some studies, which have been really helpful I feel, even though they were pretty quick.







Figuring out how to paint rocks and mountains a bit...



Portraits, which I have a lot of trouble with. I want to be able to paint more roughly and be less nitpicky about rendering and cleanliness.



Finally character sketches!

Great paintings, I like the way you create space scenes. Also those studies you did look awesome, post more!

Nice studies! Keep doing those! One notable thing about your environments, there is no real value differentiation between foreground, mid-ground, and background. Separating those will do wonders for the depth of your work. Try to set up a good value scheme and stick to it. Study perspective (both linear and atmospheric). I could recommend some books to you if you'd like.
I also do like that you don't seem to be afraid to put down lines when doing your studies, that's great. Keep up the hard work!

>new to art
>beautifully done pieces

Bro, you've got something special going

Nice studies! Keep doing those! One notable thing about your environments, there is no real value differentiation between foreground, mid-ground, and background. Separating those will do wonders for the depth of your work. Try to set up a good value scheme and stick to it. Study perspective (both linear and atmospheric). I could recommend some books to you if you'd like.
I also do like that you don't seem to be afraid to put down lines when doing your studies, that's great. Keep up the hard work!

Would appreciate that greatly! I'm still figuring out the general mindset of painting and how detail gets lost the further the depth...it's a concept I am struggling with putting into practice.

Warm-ups today




Also, painting clouds without using cloud custom brushes. Thought I'd break the habit and learn how to paint them raw.



Compared to this from last month using cloud brush

Pretty happy with this one...had some lighting issues with the clouds but a mate pointed out my mistakes. Satisfied with my lack of reliance on custom brushes, this one was using chalk brush and hard round, changing the Opacity and Flow settings.

lovely colors. I guess you catched the moment

[Ambiguity]

Also, painting clouds without using cloud custom brushes. Thought I'd break the habit and learn how to paint them raw.

Ahem, I'll just leave this here....
http://www.androidblues.com/cloudtut.html

So much studying! hmmm not much I can point out for you to focus on cause by the looks of things you have a better handle on studying and gesture work thin I do, just keep up the great work I guess

Wow wow! So much stuff to look at XD It all looks great, the environments are promising. Did you look at references for the clouds? Don't forget about the atmosphere as you go up, they look a little like cumulonimbus clouds, very heavy and weighty at the top.

I'll do some cloud studies later in the day, applying the techniques in that cloud tutorial. It should help a bunch.



Leaving this here. Think they're too stiff?

EDIT: Got Pascal Campion's book from Kickstarter, did some pose studies out of it - his characters have a lot of movement and feel really dynamic. Also did a few gestures to warm up.





And a rough painting from the cloud tutorial - suuuper rough and messy, but I think I'm kind of getting the idea

Hey welcome to the forum!
Nice works. You're improving with the clouds already. Keep it up.

I suggest you not to use pure black for shadows, same with white and light.

Also, I like your cartoony faces and characters.

Yeah, those clouds are alot better! And the colours are lovely. It's the gesture within those character drawings that are stiff, for the style I think there should be more 'curving' of the anatomy if you know what I mean? I find it difficult to describe myself XD Nice designs though, and they aren't too similar. I guess that's something I should work on.. All my characters have the same body types and faces :'D

Hey welcome to the forum!
Nice works. You're improving with the clouds already. Keep it up.

I suggest you not to use pure black for shadows, same with white and light.

Also, I like your cartoony faces and characters.

Thanks! I'm working on remembering not to use pure black for shadows, it's something I have to consciously tell myself.

I'm spending the weekend doing a lot of gesture drawings to loosen up. Seems like a nice relaxing way to spend these two days.

Loosening up on gestures I think, less focus on the anatomy of the body and more on the 'feeling' of movement. And a few character heads.

A question?

Are you using any anatomy study books. I would recommend sticking to two. I am studying anatomy from George Bridgman "Figure Drawing" and Burne Hogarth "Dynamic Figure Drawing". That could help in your studies. Also I recommend doing gesture sketches to loosen poses, do about 10 or 20 per week if you can.

A question?

Are you using any anatomy study books. I would recommend sticking to two. I am studying anatomy from George Bridgman "Figure Drawing" and Burne Hogarth "Dynamic Figure Drawing". That could help in your studies. Also I recommend doing gesture sketches to loosen poses, do about 10 or 20 per week if you can.

I draw from multiple sources when I study anatomy - I believe I have a digital copy of Bridgman's somewhere. And 10-20 gestures per week is nowhere near the volume that I would prefer - it's easy to pump out an excess of 20 gestures in a 15 minute session every day. I used to do a lot more earlier in the year, but lately I've been spending my time and effort on painting environments over figures. However, these few days I've been moving back to traditional and consequently doing more gestures.

Few more heads and characters





Clouds

I really liked the heads in the sketchbook.
And the clouds keep getting better. Although I wouldn't put the withe line in the borders. Or maybe adding them, but lighter.

Thanks, I'm having trouble with blending the darker and lighter values in the clouds, but I think it may be a work flow related issue. I'll try making the edges less bright next time.

I'd start with Scott Robertson's How to Draw. Probably one of the best books out there to learn good perspective and general drawing skills.
While learning perspective can get a little dry (at least for me), it'll help you a ton for the rest of your career. Even though the book is pretty drawing intensive, it'll most definitely improve your painting as a result.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=asap_B0034O5O32_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417472780&sr=1-1

You also can't go wrong with James Gurney's Color and Light book. Great for learning how light and color works and why it does the things it does.
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719

I'd recommend studying some good anatomy books. I like Loomis and Bridgman, but find the one that works best for you. Although if you can make it to a live figure drawing class every week at least, that'd be ideal. It can get pricey, but it's definitely worth it.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been quite busy.

No probs, thanks for the recommendations. I bought both books off Amazon, eagerly awaiting their arrival!

Bridgman 'Guide to Drawing from Life' studies. Because I did a lot of cartoony stuff I hadn't really looked into head construction and the planes of the head, but the studies really helped me get an understanding of simplifying the planes of the head. I've never thought of the head in this kind of way before. Looking forward to more studies out of Bridgman and very glad it was recommended to me.

They're looking good! I quite like the figures you've drawn on the left side there *^*

Great drawings!
Is that a moleskine sketchbook?

Great drawings!
Is that a moleskine sketchbook?

Thanks! I'm making this week my dedicated anatomy study week. I'm pretty sure I missed some key points from Bridgman, but I'll do a second past later in the month to refresh and relearn. It's a Strathmore toned tan sketchbook by the way.

Some more Bridgman studies, the page in the upper right is my attempt to apply what I've learnt. Sitting figure is referenced, bottom from imagination.

Doing a bunch more studies out of Bridgman, but they're fairly standard so won't post here. However, through the studies, I've picked up on the way Bridgman does figures and applied a bit of that to my own drawings. Hopefully this gives my figures more form.






Some stuff that isn't studies...don't want to lose my creativity going through all this anatomy.