Workshop participation thread for Moe

Warm-up Assignment:

Ok, don't laugh too hard...

I am 23, and am currently taking Computer Science at the University of Lethbridge (hence the bad case of 'programmer art'). Anyway, most of these sketches are from two or three years ago. Sorry about the poor quality - I snapped pictures of the originals with my digital camera and ran them through gimp to make them black/white (instead of yellowish). Anyway, the character on the top left is a soldier/security guard that I drew without any references. The scuba diver chick on the right was also drawn without any references. The underwater scene with the guy stabbing the squid-like thing was drawn around the same time as the first two. Same with the sword on a table next to it. The Roman style soldier was drawn a few months ago. I now notice that he is leaning back quite badly. Oh well - draw and learn. The castle on the bottm was a test to see how well I could shade, and was done probably close to a year ago (although I never finished it). The little vase on the bottom is only about 1.5" tall (for the original drawing). I thought it looked cool, so I threw it in.


Again, sorry for the bad quality. I will have to take any newer sketches to the unversity and scan them there.

Ok, here goes the first part of assignment #1. I would say it took me about 20 minutes (probably way too long). I can't say I was drawing from my shoulder. I think I need to find a more comfortable place to draw, as the chair I was sitting in doesn't allow for a lot of movement. Either that, or I need to invest in a clipboard or something hard to draw on (rather than my sketchbook in my lap).


In case you can't tell what it is, it's my alarm clock and a AA battery I had sitting on my desk.

EDIT - I didn't do any shading on it, as the focus was supposed to be on lines. I really ought to scan it, as I think the original looks a lot better than a picture of the original.

[Edited by - Moe on October 30, 2006 11:31:31 PM]

It's interesting that your sketches of objects seem more in proportion/perspective (hopefully i'm not just throwing around big words here) than your human pictures. I guess the human form is a complicated beast after all!

Yeah, I find that human proportions are hard to get right. I have been doodling in the margins of my notes at school, and I find drawing people the most challenging. I think it is because we can immediately pick out when something doesn't look right, as we are used to seeing people all day and are able to notice very subtle things that we don't consciously think about.

I don't want to jump ahead of the workshop, but part of the problem with drawing humans - and faces in particular - is that we actually perceive the proportions wrong based on what importance we attach to the various parts.

Yuri (slowpid) will cover that later, so don't worry about it. By the end of the workshop, you'll be much better at drawing people. I have two drawings of my own face made 19 days apart, and the difference is incredible. I'll probably show them when I make a third, after I finish some training material I've been working through on my own.

That's fine. I don't want to jump ahead of the workshop either. In the mean time, I have an old-school magazine cover to draw...

Oluseyi, do you have any other feedback on Part 1 of Assignment 1?

Quote: Original post by Moe
Oluseyi, do you have any other feedback on Part 1 of Assignment 1?

It's a solid start. Lots of people beginning to draw don't properly render perspective; their cognitive information about the nature of the object overrides what they see, such that they do not accomplish realistic drawing. Your travel clock shows subtle details (note the way you draw the part of the top that is visible, aware that the curvature causes the remained to be occluded from view by itself), which is an excellent indicator.

With a few pointers and some technical instruction, I think you'll be a very capable artist.

I think what Olyusei said was right on. Its a good start, the perspective is just a bit off. I'm attaching a quick sketch over to set the perpective straight. I had like .02 minutes so its horrid looking, but conveys the point.