Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Incase it's not obvious.

I got a new graphite kit and I'm having fun with it. Apparently until 5 AM. Here's a nude woman with no proportion.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.























AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Monday, January 26, 2009

In on time


It seems like when I take photos of these drawings, imperfections become magnified. For instance, the jaw doesn't look strange and the right eye doesn't look smaller to me on the actual drawing. Here's another Grade 8 art assignment. I used one of my friend Zeph's facebook photographs as a very loose reference, then imagined what his beautiful bare chest and collar bones look like. Unhhf...

Sunday, January 25, 2009

I kneel before SCIENCE!

This drawing was a good exercise to gain a bit more understanding of perspective, proportion, and wrinkles in fabric. Plus, ya know, why me?

I attempted to foreshorten the arms and failed, so it looks as if he has giant arms. It was supposed to look like they are coming forward but whatever!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Remember legs? I remember legs.

Continuing with the LEGS ONLY tradition of this BLOG, here is a leg I drew. I did it from memory so be soft with my feelings and my legs.

EDIT: Made some changes.


Friday, January 23, 2009

LETS GET SERIOUS, FELLAS.

There was nothing more important than learning bone-structure and muscle structure when it came to drawing the human body. That sounds obvious, but until I started to understand the shape of things internally, my stuff was extremely flat and incorrect looking. When understanding why things are given the shape that they are internally, drawings seem to become so much more real and believable.

At this point I can do a pretty good job of looking at something and replicating it roughly onto paper. However, this kind of drawing is really not what I'm interested in. I'm not looking for photo-realistic portraits or amazingly replicated scenery. Drawing anything I can imagine is my ultimate goal in this whole endeavor. I want to be able to picture something in my mind and draw it to paper. Always nice to have hefty goals.

Something that's always been important for me, at least at a subconscious level, is why I am learning/doing something. If I don't know why what I'm doing is important, my heart is never into it. If I don't agree with why it's important, I won't care about it either. Right now I'm having a blast with drawing, and that's reason enough.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

I'm sketching.

I've been sketching stuff for the past couple of days. I'll scan them at some point!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Monstrosity

Today, while searching for my dog Chuck who escapes the yard on a daily basis by smashing new holes in the fence so can he harass the lady in the trailer park and pick fights with smaller dogs while befriending bigger ones, I thought about how I'd forgotten the leash and how I would have to hold onto his collar and kinda squat to one side for the walk back, forcing me to alternate sides to avoid cramps. I also thought about how artists can create realistic scenery and shape from just their mind. It got me thinking, if I try to detail the shape of a human-being from my memory, what would I end up with? A monstrosity.

For some reason, I have an extreme resistance to actual measuring. I basically eye it all, save for the lines I draw across everything. When in doubt, I just draw lines all over stuff and hope that it becomes better; often it works. In this case, however, I'd have to say that the lines I drew over the imaginary muscles don't really serve my work much. In fact, I'm going to ask you to ignore them. Let us delve into the actual shape and proportion of this drawing for an extended period of time for no good reason.






I guess the basic outline of the head here is right. I knew we have those muscles beside our necks because my brother used to flex them all the time when we were younger, point out how his were bigger, then execute a wrestling move of his choosing shortly thereafter. Again, I decided to throw tons of lines all over it rather than do a face. The way I see it, the face would only distract you from the true beauty of this "piece". You could argue I'm actually making a political statement, here. I'm not sure what that would be but I'm sure you can fashion your own bullshit. We look at faces too much, anyways. How about looking into something more important... The heart. (unless you are a girl then it's the boobs)

As you can see, I tried to draw ribs at one point, then erased them. I also tried to draw the chest muscles, then erased them. What I am left with is a very crude representation of what a chest structure looks like to me. Collar bone sweeps across the top, marry in the middle, then divorce at the bottom.

I really struggled with the abs and whatever the SIDE-ABS are called (maybe they are also just abs), so I just gave them a healthy dose of lines and moved on. The arms aren't the same size or angle, but I figure they're the least of my worries and are well within my acceptable bounds.

The hands are something that I was surprised with. It's a bit hard to tell, but these are about a centimeter big. In the past, they've been something I just couldn't draw, and I always hear that they are the toughest things to do. Yet, the one on the left looks pretty decent. The right one is missing knuckles and, basically the entire hand-body.






I reached a mental block here, dick-jokes aside. The shape of the legs and body seem correct, but there's something that seems off (DICK JOKES ASIDE). I wasn't really sure how high up I was supposed to make the divide, or how the divide is really supposed to look, but whatever.

Yo where's his dick mang hahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!


I couldn't believe it, but I can actually draw feet from memory. I mean, I'm not an authority on feet, but those are some damned okay looking feet. The fact that I got these right makes me happy enough that I can discard the rest of the body. From now on, FEET ONLY. Only feet. The legs get an honourable mention, but lose points for being different lengths.








I'm semi-happy with what I can draw from my memory. Obviously, everything from the waist up is in question, but I'm sure I could have nailed some details by just thinking harder and taking my time. I usually give up on my drawings too early, and I'll walk away with that lesson.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Who draws a shoe honestly

Today I decided to try my best and draw something from reference. The thing most often recommended is different kinds of fruits. I roamed around my house in search of fruit. Fruitless in my efforts, I found an old shoe that had contours and a shiny coating. I plotted it down in front of me and tried to resist the urge to put it on my foot (that is where shoes are supposed to be).

I learned a few things today.

1) It is important to draw big when you are doing something that has to have a lot of detail. I didn't do this.

2) Measuring is important, and you should use your pencil and mentally mark a reference point.

3) I don't know how to do the thing I listed second, so I just eyed it.

It's not perfect, but I'm fairly happy with how this turned out, considering my fatal errors of policy.



The photo was taken after I drew the shoe, and it wasn't snapped from the same angle. Still, there's plenty of other issues that make this less and less of the shoe it deserves to be. The belt going across the top is too thin, there's several areas that aren't highlighted when they should be, and discrepancies in all sorts of places. The reason why I HAD most of these problems is because this drawing is about three inches wide, and I simply could not do enough detail. In the future I'm going to employ the pencil measuring technique so I can actually get things at the right scale.

I guess I really shot myself in the foot on this one, HAHAHAH fuck that's funny.


Sunday, January 18, 2009

Shadows are Stupid

Shadows are probably the hardest thing I've tried to do, and seem like they can only really be learned using references. I remember back in Grade 8 or something, I had an art-class that forced me to draw pears. Despite the fact that all of my pears had nipples on them, they seemed pretty realistic, and that was all thanks to shading.

Breaking this shit down, you have three basic levels of light, I guess.

There's highlight, which is where the light-source is hitting the object directly.








Midtone, which is the varying level between light and shadow.








And finally, Shadow. This is where the light is hitting the target least.









Using the powerful SECRET knowledge that light interacts in such a way, I was able to craft this masterpiece.













I gave up the only girl who loved me so I could play football one time how gay is that.


I want you to look at this drawing like the film Rudy. He tries and he tries and he tries, plays one game when the team is already in a vast lead and his actions have no actual impact on the outcome, then dies of cancer. That's like this picture I drew. I didn't actually look at a human face while I did it, nor did I really finish it or even touch the right side, and it shows. Still, there is some spots where I feel confident things are semi-correct, like the highlight on the cheek and the shadows beneath the eyes. Despite it not really turning out human, I still think I probably learned some stuff here. It's a bit harder to do drawings on the tablet, especially when shading, so I deserve mad props for that shit.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

My Tank Is Almost Fight

This is my first stab and trying to visualize each shape and really build something. Even if that something is stupid and badly done, I'm still strangely proud of it.
I added the hill in after I saw that one side was higher than the other. That's how the pros do it.

You are really just a bunch of spheres and stuff

Today, I am learning the fundamentals. This includes an includes an introduction to the following:

-Lines
-Shapes
-Perspective
-Negative Space
-Shadows
-Proportion
-Measuring with my pencil

Whenever I look at something really amazing, such as Superman, I notice that he is very hard to draw. There's all sorts of muscles, shadows, and it's always from a perspective that seems difficult to mentally picture. How does someone do this stuff? The internet tells me it's about breaking everything down into smaller parts.

According to legend, two parts of your brain are constantly at war. There's the logical half, which tells you that "a cup is a cup what you are drawing is something stupid and definitely not a cup stop it!" and there's the artistic half, which says "When you draw two vertical lines connected a curve it will look like a cup!" It seems like learning to understand how everything can be broken down isn't about using that artistic side as much as it is telling your logical mind to shut the fuck up, and believe that after you're finished with all these lines and curves, you'll have superman.

Tracing something is easy for obvious reasons, but one key reason is because your mind is breaking everything down into lines, curves, and shapes. You're not really focusing in making a "hand" as you go, you're thinking about segments.

What if Tom Hanks was retarded?

This is one of the many horrible horrible sketches I've done throughout the day. I'd say I did about 30 or so, and this is one of the good ones. There's plenty of issues with it so I don't really need to point any out, and I didn't really want to correct them. What formats should I be uploading these abortions, in?

I've been using Drawing Coach because I need a coach in my life, and he has some pretty good guides on how to setup proportions and some formulas for making things look right. http://www.learn-to-draw.com/ is also a nice resource to get re-acquainted with my artistic side.

That's it.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Can someone with basically no talent learn to draw? YNESO.

You can tell by the comic below that A) I can't draw, and B) The bird-king's crown and scepter vanish and are no where to be seen at all in the last frame. Possible sequel? I hope not.

I've always been told by teachers, artists, and infomercials that *I* have a secret untapped ability to make art. Not me specifically, but anyone. No matter who you are, you can draw, apparently.

Though I believe that most everyone can do what the guy with puffy-hair does on paint canvases by following formula and instructions, I don't think anyone can learn to draw a comic like a pro. I don't believe that the highest level of art can be done by someone who is not born with an inherent talent which is head and shoulders above others. I think it's bullshit.

Maybe you're slapping your knee, laughing, saying "Grimes, of COURSE it's bullshit!" To that, I say, "FUCK YOU! I'LL SHOW YOU. YOU ASSHOLE." I was just gonna end this post and not post anything ever again, but because of your flagrant disregard for my pure, raw, and untapped ability, now I have to spend hours and hours of my time proving you wrong.

This web-page with time and dates will be used as a personal experiment. I will, until I lose interest (which could happen really really fast I seriously can't do anything for along time) post my work as I crawl through my progress of becoming a full-fledged artist. I probably won't link this page to anyone because I am embarassed and ashamed that I am trying to achieve something because learning is for fags.

I will atleast weekly produce a comic for you to skim over so that you can post memes in the comments section. You, you are the true artists.

THIS POST WAS MADE ON A MAC RUNNING UBUNTU USING OPERA (FIREFOX IS TOO POPULAR).

Thursday, January 15, 2009

If you don't know squirrels you won't get this.



I think I subconsciously stole this concept so if I did you can lash out at me it's cool.
If you are new to this you have to click to make the image super big!