Back to the drawing board: Part 3

 Really my purpose for publishing these is to show that we need to keep learning, most people keep these piles of learning sketchbooks hidden away from the public eye. But as has always been my aim with this blog, I share everything, good and bad so that people can see that anybody can be an artist, as long as you can put in the work and have a passion for what you do.

Back to the drawing board : Part 2

 So here's a story that always stuck with me:

I met a guy who had taken a year out to draw faces everyday. After he finished this year of daily studies, he tried drawing his own stuff again and he found that he wasn't really any better at drawing. So he was very disappointed by that. 

And so that's a great thing to keep in mind, if you really want to improve it's important you study by copying, BUT THEN you need to also draw from your imagination. Because the two parts of your brain need to sync up. If you draw a page everyday of studies, and then a page from your imagination / memory, Eventually the 2 will merge and you will come out a better artist.

Well, that's what I believe anyway :P There are geniuses in the world who learn things really quickly, I am not one of them. But I enjoy the journey, so it doesn't bother me that it takes me 5 times as long as other people :D 

Below more of those studies, also some pages from memory mixed in:

Back to The Drawing Board : Part 1

 So I took Inktober as an excuse to go back to sketchbook drawing. I will be (trying) to make a comic book in the traditional way on paper with real inks. So I have been looking at some comic art (going back to the 80s X-men, because I have never read those!) 

So every day I filled at least a page with studies of hands and sometimes faces, I started with pencil drawings for the first 2 days but then I went to drawing with biro, since as a storyboard artist you need to draw fast, you never really have time to construct, so I think it's better to learn how to draw hands without the need for an eraser. 

For me sketchbooks are not about making nice pictures, instead it's a learning ground. Make mistakes, make notes, and fill as many as you can :)

Loomis + 30 second sketches

 There's sometimes I always go back to, and one of them is definitely Loomis. Going back to his Mannikin, which really is still such a fantastic template that by design has a lot of movement. I copied it terribly, I'll pay a bit closer attention to proportions next time :P

And then followed it up with some 30 second poses trying to use this mannikin :

Second page already a bit better.

They key to these things is to make it daily, and stick to a schedule. Doing some gestures once every while...not very useful :P