Sketching ... and stuff!
Added 2019-10-02 21:02:09 +0000 UTCHey everyone, I thought I'd share some things going on behind the curtains with you guys.
So, it might not be visible in the final product, but I suck at sketching. Like real bad.
It's kinda of leftover from being self taught in drawing, that I never really followed a proper "learning sequence". I just did stuff. And one of the very basics that I sucked at was sketching. But I was really good at copying and shading, so with enough references I (kinda) got by without ever really learning to properly sketch.
So instead of focusing on fixing my "weak points" as artist, I simply focused on improving my strengths. But it does affect my drawing process. The reason I never show the image before the initial lineart is that it takes ages to get done. I need billions of references, a lot of double checking to see if everything is in place, fixing issues etc etc. So it can easily take up several hours just to get the lineart done. And since it's such a messy part of the process, I simply leave it out to have a more "elegant" final product.
Anyway, rambling aside, this month I finally managed to fix my schedule and finish everything within the time limit, I decided to practice sketching.
The initial image (sequence is top left to the right), took me a good 4-5 redraws to get it "kinda right". But then after an hour or so, it became a lot more fluid. So it's definitely something I'm trying to include in my routine, to slowly fix my sketching issue. I also plan on doing days of drawing hands, faces, feet, things like that.
Following up on that, I'm planning on including a small "extra drawing" each month. While I really don't have time to make a full 5th image, I'm thinking about making a "ink version" of characters in a more "pin-up" pose (like those sketched here).
And I'd do it in a style similar to Widowmaker voyeur (the very first voyeur, which was a mix of lineart + rough shading).
Anyway, just thought about sharing those things with you guys, so let me know what you think!
Comments
I agree, there's a lot to learn from the gestures and poses in the "raw state". I love to see other artists initial sketches just to see where they start from.
Lee
2019-10-04 22:56:38 +0000 UTCYeah that bum is just too good to be anyone else :D
Arch
2019-10-03 16:25:39 +0000 UTCI love artist sketch pages. Sometimes just the gesture captured. Sometimes with one or two grayish colors painted in to capture basic lighting intent. If it doesnt click for you, just sketch it again with a change of pose, lighting, or perspective. Once you are happy with it, you have your reference. Become famous. Compile old sketches, publish, profit.
Slevin
2019-10-03 16:14:33 +0000 UTCDo I see Ahri and Widowmaker there? :D
Ritterfeld
2019-10-03 12:30:13 +0000 UTCthanks! And I'm glad you liked them and the insight =) My favourite ones would be the chair, and the 2nd from the 2nd line.
Lee
2019-10-03 04:42:10 +0000 UTCit's nice to see these, they're looking really good too 👀that chair one too is a really nice pose. It's cool to hear more about your art and process e.t.c too
Crown
2019-10-03 04:13:57 +0000 UTCnone of them were used. They were all drawn from my head =)
Lee
2019-10-03 01:20:50 +0000 UTCI think the second to the left image on the second row has a cute look about it. Don't know if it's been used in an image before but i'd be interested in seeing it fleshed out
SilverLotus
2019-10-03 00:50:16 +0000 UTCThanks! I was really happy with the result. I believe that with proper practice, it's definitely something I can improve. And while there's no imediate effect on the other drawings, this is the kind of thing that will improve them in the long term. In having more dynamic, or simply more interesting poses. Drawing faces for example, was something that I had a lot of room for improvement. While I wouldn't say "omg, I'm perfect at them now!", I can definitely do better now than what I could do 1-2 years ago. The "morning" series of Iris is something I'm really proud of with her messy faces. And I do plan on making a series of her with just facial expressions (kinda like a photo booth session). And I'm glad you like this type of post. I think it's interesting to start to include 1-2 of them in a month just to give a broader look of what's going on, things I'm planning and so forth. =)
Lee
2019-10-02 22:44:15 +0000 UTCoh I do plan to use some of them in a way or another. That is definitely one to be used lol
Lee
2019-10-02 22:33:18 +0000 UTCyeah it's something I think it can be very benefitial to the artist. I see a lot of artworks in a daily basis but I also see a lot "of the same": torso shot of a sexy pose. I was surprised to how well received were ... feet. Then I noticed that a lot of artists tend to hide or simply crop them out of the image. On the other end, I see huge artists that I follow (artgerm, irakli, and many others), they are actually pushing the boundaries of their art. I see artgerm images nowadays and compare to when I first followed him on deviantart almost 15y ago and the difference is huge. He can literally draw anything from his head. And personally I wanna look at my own drawings in a few years and see actual improvement.
Lee
2019-10-02 22:10:28 +0000 UTCI continue to be in favor of you doing what you think is right for you and if that involves self-improvement and also possibly bonus art for us then I'm triply in favor! I also appreciate this sort of peek behind the curtain. While it's certainly possible to overshare and oversaturate with updates, I've never felt you've done so. I appreciate the occasional insights into your process and being kept in the loop when you're delayed or thinking of making changes.
CDH
2019-10-02 22:02:31 +0000 UTCshe was literally the very first voyeur lol . I mean, if you look at the right of the screen, where there's the thumbnail of the patron tiers, it's her on the Voyeur thumbnail =D
Lee
2019-10-02 22:01:41 +0000 UTCA Widowmaker voyeur??? Where did I miss that??
Arch
2019-10-02 21:57:01 +0000 UTCYeah line art isn't as popular as it use to be. Most artists I watch on Twitch do a simple draft and go from there. Fascinating to know your process though and I like the idea of a extra as long as it doesn't eat up your free time.
Chris Harris
2019-10-02 21:42:33 +0000 UTCI really like the third pose on the chair. You should def incorporate it in the future.
Linarian
2019-10-02 21:28:50 +0000 UTCnowadays you can really get away with not being really good in sketching and lineart. Specially in the movie/gaming industry there's a lot of photobashing or paint over since deadlines are a real problem. But it's something that's been bothering for quite some time. When you use references, you kinda rely on ... having a reference. And many times you won't have the exact reference you want, and this might cause the pose to look "rigid". So It took me a lot of effort to break free from it in the past months to have more natural poses.
Lee
2019-10-02 21:25:43 +0000 UTCLine Art is honestly kind of a specialized skill at this point. The only people I’ve seen who do very detailed lineArt are comic book artists where that’s the style. A lot of the best painterly artist don’t even bother with.
Vladimir Duran
2019-10-02 21:10:31 +0000 UTC
