Nae mentioned you took an art class, had to check it out for myself. Sorry if that's super old news, don't get on here as much as I'd like anymore.

Some of that stuff is pretty decent, especially the figure work. Not bad for what I'm assuming is your first time doing that sort of thing.

Your still life drawings would probably be nice if I could see them :P What do you have against contrast? Use those darks! Break out the 6b pencil for your shadows to pull out the rest of the image. I used to have the same problem, and every time I drew a still life it was always too light. Make yourself push your darks to bump up the contrast.

Photos are pretty cool looking, never really done anything with that myself so I don't fully understand the process, but looks pretty sweet. Could be fun to experiment more and integrate into some of your more simple cartoon type stuff.

Looks like you got a lot out of your art class, maybe a few more in your future?

At 24 minutes ago, Captain-Ben wrote: Nae mentioned you took an art class, had to check it out for myself. Sorry if that's super old news, don't get on here as much as I'd like anymore.

Hahaha, yeah, glad you came by to take a look.

Some of that stuff is pretty decent, especially the figure work. Not bad for what I'm assuming is your first time doing that sort of thing.

Yeah, last time I took an art class was 10 years ago, hahaha,

Your still life drawings would probably be nice if I could see them :P What do you have against contrast? Use those darks! Break out the 6b pencil for your shadows to pull out the rest of the image. I used to have the same problem, and every time I drew a still life it was always too light. Make yourself push your darks to bump up the contrast.

Mmm, yeah, those were my first time, and they didn't come out great being documented.

Photos are pretty cool looking, never really done anything with that myself so I don't fully understand the process, but looks pretty sweet. Could be fun to experiment more and integrate into some of your more simple cartoon type stuff.

What you do is take masking fluid and blot out the portions of the photos you want to keep. Then, after it dries, you submerge the photo in a solution of bleach and water, and it makes the ink run off the page. The longer it's in the solution, the more ink will run off.

Looks like you got a lot out of your art class, maybe a few more in your future?

Oh definitely, I'm taking another art class this semester, and this one is all drawings, so expect another larger art dump once I'm done this semester. There's gonna be a lot more stuff because not only do we do a lot more in class work, but we also have personal sketchbooks, so there's definitely gonna be a lot more to see.

Oh look, I papercrafted.

At 4/9/12 08:37 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote: Oh look, I papercrafted.

One more angle.

Another papercraft, this one is Black Spiderman.

I know it probably won't surprise any of you...... but I made a pair of nunchuks.

I should probably get around to documenting all the work from my second art class and uploading that......

At 6/8/12 05:55 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote: I should probably get around to documenting all the work from my second art class and uploading that......

Yes, yes you should. drrr.

Time to start uploading the sketchbook work, starting from the top.
For each piece, I'll name the subject and what kind of piece it is.
Hopefully there's an improvement as the pieces carry on.
All of these pictures were taken with my phone's camera, because my scanner wasn't capturing the lines well.

Girl Lying in Bed - Female Figure Study

Nude Art - Female Figure Study

Lone Barren Tree - Still Life

Wristwatch - Close Up

At 6/11/12 02:37 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote: Nude Art - Female Figure Study

Looks like a good start here. One thing you might want to consider is trying to get in longer lines. It looks a little "fuzzy" which means you're probably inching your way along very carefully to try and capture what's in front of you. Instead "shadow draw" as long of a line as you can before you put your pencil down onto the paper. Then make that line in one fell swoop with confidence. Great drawing is all about having confidence in your lines, and that comes with practice. But you do have to practice it, otherwise you'll only practice timid, short lines.

Here's an example of sorts, if it's helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-RNTyMY2oU&list=UU88alnRehVT XcQ0rRReyLcw&index=1&feature=plcp

You want to first look for the big sweeping lines and then you can always go back in after and add details. Starting with the details and every little bump and curve will only slow down your progress. Good luck with it, and keep at it!

At 6/11/12 02:49 PM, JKR wrote:

At 6/11/12 02:37 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote:

You want to first look for the big sweeping lines and then you can always go back in after and add details. Starting with the details and every little bump and curve will only slow down your progress. Good luck with it, and keep at it!

Thanks for the input.
Just want to point out though that these pictures are from my sketchbook during my previous semester of school, starting back in January, till the most recent in April. I've already been told about that issue, and I think I've corrected it by now, so hopefully you should be able to notice it in the later drawings of the set. I'm posting everything so that I can show what I've done and the progress I've made. But I appreciate any and all feedback.

Winter Scarf - Fabric Study

Northern Pintail Duck - Continuous Line

Redhead Duck - Continuous Line

Sony headphones - Continuous Line

Microscope - Continuous Line

Running Shoe - Continuous Line

Nice improvements over here!
I quite like the male figure and the microscope too!

At 6/11/12 06:02 PM, Flowers10 wrote: Nice improvements over here!
I quite like the male figure and the microscope too!

Thanks man, but I'm just getting started with posting.

Hand - Line Only

Hand - Line and Tone

Hand - Tone Only

Scanned Face - Tonal Range in Purple
Yes, that is based of an image of my scanned face.

At 6/11/12 07:11 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote: Hand - Tone Only

At 6/11/12 11:52 PM, big-jonny-13 wrote: Scanned Face - Tonal Range in Purple
Yes, that is based of an image of my scanned face.

I like these, I don't know if it's because of the technique but they show a big improvement over your line-only drawings, at least to me.

Have you tried breaking what you're trying to draw into simple shapes so that they're easier to represent? I say that could help you a little, specially with those ducks.

At 6/12/12 01:05 AM, MasterMerol wrote: Have you tried breaking what you're trying to draw into simple shapes so that they're easier to represent? I say that could help you a little, specially with those ducks.

The shapes suggestion is really really really helpful. The problem right now is it looks like while you're looking at a hand for reference, you're still just drawing/rendering what you THINK a hand looks like. Everybody does this, and it's hard to get over.

Personally, I find ignoring trying to get proportions and details correct, and focus on just drawing shadows (however faint) accurately to what their shape is, really helps me. If I get the shape of one shadow done, I can then use that to size out the rest of the piece.

Take your hand, for example. Your hand has a shadow on the lower right side. Once you get that one shadow done, you can build from there. Say your pinky finger looks to be about half the width of that shadow above it, and just slightly longer. If you have at least one solid reference point, you can use that as a measurement through your whole piece. You'll keep getting more reference points and the proportions will all fall into place without you actually have to think about proportions.

This doesn't have to be done with shadows, that's just how I like to think it through. Can be anything. The shapes thing only gets you so far, it's learning to use those shapes as a way to measure everything else that is really useful.

Good to see you still practicing. I'm hopefully going to be doing some more realistic work here in the future, been wanting to.

good to have you posting art again. I do wish you'd post a bit more during semester instead of one big dump at the end and then nothing for 5 months.
Chipping in my p about the shape-shading thingy: If you focus on one shadow like ben suggested try to forget that it is actually the shadow at the bottom of your hand; try to forget it's supposed to be part of a hand alltogether, that way you can focus on solely the shape.
I like face-print one and the one-line headphones; I think you could in general have some darker darks on the ones with tone.

Thanks for all of the feedback guys, I'll store it all for future works, really appreciate it.
Also, Qbles, I know, it probably would be better to upload it little by little, but the problem is that my scanner wasn't able to capture my sketchbook drawings well at all, and I didn't have a camera with me at school. Even if my scanner worked for the sketchbook, it still wouldn't allow me to capture my non-sketchbook pieces, as all of those are way too big.

Continuing on, this is only number 15 of 64 sketchbook pieces. I think when I started drawing, I still did fall into that trap of drawing what I think I saw instead of what I actually saw. However, I feel that in my later pieces I was able to break away from that. My teachers had us do a lot of blind contour to start breaking away from that mold, and I think I really did get away from it eventually.

Man Reading Magazine - Figure Study

Man in Bean Bag Chair - Blind Contour

Man Doing Work at Table - Blind Contour

Man Reading Paper - Blind Contour