Insatiable Desire for Critique

[thisismyboat]

I'm on DA and CA already, but I wanted to post some of my stuff here in the hopes of getting some more critique. Here's a compilation of sketches from January until about last week, just to give you guys an idea where I'm at:
<img>https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/
523494_10151618232379319_1175339735_n.jpg</img>

I did this a few days ago with ink, just hanging out by the riverbank. It's extremely sloppy and I quit early, but it was a neat exercise in trying to determine value when your options are only 0% or 100%. Next time I think I'm going to mark things out in pencil first.
<img>http://www.conceptart.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=1 759752&d=1365110732</img>

This is what I'm currently working on. I made a mistake with one of the eyes in 8B, and I might be stuck with it now because I couldn't erase it for the life of me.
<img>http://www.conceptart.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=1 760596&d=1365221129</img>
I think my ability to see properly still hasn't developed much. I can never seem to get the values right with these kind of things. The transitions always seem too harsh, even for hard edges, but if I smooth them out it all turns into a midtone mush. It's so frustrating. Is there anything obviously wrong about the way I'm doing this, or is it a matter of just practicing more?

[thisismyboat]

Oh boy, first post and I already screwed up. Let's try this image thing again!
Compilation of stuff from around January to last week:

[thisismyboat]

Portrait I'm currently working on:

[Rumsworth]

I like what you've got going so far. It might be better for you to post some already finished works to get some proper critique if you've got any handy.

[thisismyboat]

Hrm, I don't really have many finished works to be honest. I've been strongly focusing on life studies in the last eight months or so, so finished pieces have been a very low priority for me. The pencil sharpener in the sketch compilation is probably the closest I have. There's also this is one I did for a show in February, but it was intended to be more of a stylized pop art piece:

[thisismyboat]

Sketching in the university food court. Scanner kind of butchered the quality.

[thisismyboat]

Seems to be getting worse the more I'm working on it. Does anyone have any critique on this so far? I can't tell if the problem lies in my pencil technique, my ability to perceive value, or both.

[Jenou]

At 4/8/13 11:03 PM, thisismyboat wrote: Seems to be getting worse the more I'm working on it. Does anyone have any critique on this so far? I can't tell if the problem lies in my pencil technique, my ability to perceive value, or both.

I think you ought to finish it entirely; right now you're becoming your own detractor by spending time trying to figure out the problems. A finished piece of shit gets displayed before an unfinished masterpiece.

[RaymondLuk]

Hi TimB!

The values are looking great at this point, one thing to point out though, is that the shading on her right eye makes it look kind of flat instead of curved :P
Take a few short breaks here and there! Work in chunks to get through it if you have to :D Then on to better things, wish you luck

[Lucky]

At 4/6/13 03:50 PM, thisismyboat wrote: Oh boy, first post and I already screwed up. Let's try this image thing again!
Compilation of stuff from around January to last week:

I think the only suggestion I can give is to try drawing from the inside out first and feel the pose a bit more as abstract as that may sound. They tend to feel a bit static as poses and face expressions which is good but I can almost feel like you're trying to push them yet are scared to. But they're all great studies, I really like them keep posting :)!

[thisismyboat]

Blegh, finally finished (I think). I've worked on it so long that I can't even tell if it look like me anymore. It was a good challenge though. The only use of Photoshop was to tweak brightness/saturation settings so the scan would look closer to reality.

[thisismyboat]

Whoops, forgot to thank everyone that's been commenting on the piece so far. The suggestions and videos you've posted have been really helpful.

[thisismyboat]

Haven't been drawing very much lately. Moved out, stayed with a friend for a while, moved out again, settled in, built some furniture, etc.
Here's a sketch compilation of my friend's dog:

[thisismyboat]

Some bats I drew for a friend.

[thisismyboat]

At 5/15/13 12:53 PM, thisismyboat wrote: Some bats I drew for a friend.

Would help if I actually attached the image. I also somehow managed to adblock just the "upload" button, so now I have to disable adblock entirely for newgrounds to use it. I'm a mess today.

[thisismyboat]

Some gestures. I wasn't focused on line quality or the accuracy of the large figure drawing because I've haven't been drawing much this year, so my goal was just to get my pencil moving again.

[thisismyboat]

My friend gave me 90 minutes to draw an African elephant as Death. This is what I ended up with in that time limit. There's a lot of really bad lighting/value errors. Unfortunately I was rushing to get the shading done by the deadline, so there wasn't any time to fix them.

[LeeIsMyName]

At 5/24/13 05:46 PM, thisismyboat wrote: My friend gave me 90 minutes to draw an African elephant as Death. This is what I ended up with in that time limit. There's a lot of really bad lighting/value errors. Unfortunately I was rushing to get the shading done by the deadline, so there wasn't any time to fix them.

IS the elephant... a nurse? If it is, I think I can see the metaphor. If not, ignore this comment.

[UltimateSavior]

At 5/17/13 09:53 PM, thisismyboat wrote: Some gestures. I wasn't focused on line quality or the accuracy of the large figure drawing because I've haven't been drawing much this year, so my goal was just to get my pencil moving again.

I'm really digging the top left gesture, with the person walking with his arms thrown up in the air like he jus' don't care.
Can you draw a larger, finished version of that?

[thisismyboat]

Preliminary image for my upcoming lithography project. I've already started the etching into the plate and I'm really excited to see how it'll turn out.