Euro – Member

A legitimate genius and an incredibly nice guy too.

A surprisingly good 5-a-side goalie too Spent two years with Graham up in Derry hey! We did the same graphic + product design course. Portraits can be added to the list of things he’s annoyingly good at. Lovely chap as you say.[/quote]

Well he’s probably several magnitudes better now than he was even 15 years ago. He genuinely draws every day without fail, if I recall correctly he would draw first thing in the morning and last thing at night – maybe just a sketch but he would rationalise it like doing press ups. I’d love to find some of the stuff I did when I was working with him*

I say working with him but really he was putting up with my noise and trying to teach me how to be a professional artist.

Now, do more arts…

Says him, you’ve contributed three? drawings? 😛

I’m doing a hangover today anyway.

Loving the chess piece.

Definitely enjoying this. To keep on track I threw this one together:
Very quick, every roses has its thorn. . .

As I mentioned I tried my first hand at Hellboy. Using someone elses picture as inspiration, can’t find the link on the laptop. This is my 1st Hellboy:

Finally I was inspired to try a portrait:

[img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4500/37008561214_3171934f18_c.jpg[/img]

It’s a bit tricky doing a portrait in ink, I’m getting more confident with it though.

Keep it up peeps almost half way!

cantbikewanttobike – Member

Thanks Jimjam, my main issue was the raised leg, not being high enough. I’m still struggling to stay loose, there’s no way I could sketch that in a minute!

There’s no need to sketch what I posted in a minute, or to try and hit that level of quality/execution. The point I was making was that doing thirty sketches in 30 minutes is a more useful exercise than doing one and carefully rendering it.

Edit: Holmes, very nice work. Itching to do something else now but dang, dat hang over.

doing a portrait in ink

It’s bloody murder, wasn’t even going to show this yin, can you tell i got a bit pissed off? 😆 Even she looks confused with me! 😆

but f it, no 17. I’m gonny leave the portraits for a while. Might have a go at inventing faces mind. infact a complete change of pace and trying a bit of invention might be the change of direction I need for a bit… hhmmm, dunno, taking a break for a bit.

anyone guess this yin?

Dave Chapelle?

A go at dynamic running sketch, and trying a quick portrait of my daughter

cantbikewanttobike – Member

A go at dynamic running sketch,

I think the runner on the left is a big improvement over the last one, for sure. Trying to figure out how I can set up my phone to record some video – my wife is away with the proper camera.

Dave Chapelle?

least you understand why I got pissed off.! 😆

Right I tried to do a video freehand with the camera but it’s kind of awkward to hold the phone with one hand and draw with the other, but hopefully it should give an idea of how I sketch, if anyone cares (though in fairness I’m a bit looser and quicker when I can hold the page with my other hand).

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQkdCpZB4Y[/video]

The audio in the video might be funny because Youtube is currently editing it behind the scenes to remove background music.

I reworked it after that, about another two minutes but you get the idea.

The sketching process shouldn’t be super tight or controlled.

Interesting to see, thanks for taking the time to do. A lot of this stuff puts me in mind of some martial arts instructors, “and then you just do this” followed by something complex that they have practiced a billion times so that it becomes loose and fast. Bit like MTB skills I think that I may need to go back to my normal mantra “slow is smooth – smooth is fast” trying to avoid tightening up but not trying to run before I walk.

The sketching process shouldn’t be super tight or controlled.

Should probably be mentioned that you are talking about drawing from imagination, which is absolutely right, I agree.

Think now I’ve entered the second part of this month I should be dedicated to invention, and learning how to do that. i’ve tried the copying patter, i’m no very good at it! 😆 (or atleast won’t be for an other couple of years.)

got that anatomy book there the now btw, quick delivery that!

cantbikewanttobike – Member

Interesting to see, thanks for taking the time to do. A lot of this stuff puts me in mind of some martial arts instructors, “and then you just do this” followed by something complex that they have practiced a billion times so that it becomes loose and fast.

I understand what you’re saying. Ignore what I’m drawing though. I’m just saying be fast and loose, regardless of whether it works or not, it will eventually. If you haven’t already, check out those warm ups I posted above, they really help. Then take a subject and try sketching it 30 seconds at a time. Then another excercise is to take say, 3 minutes or 5 minutes and draw a figure but don’t let your pen or pencil come off the paper, then repeat but try it in half the time and so on.

These are all traditional drawing exercises designed to improve spontaneity of line and reduce hesitation / improve co-ordination.

seosamh77 – Member

The sketching process shouldn’t be super tight or controlled.

Should probably be mentioned that you are talking about drawing from imagination, which is absolutely right, I agree.[/quote]

It doesn’t matter, even if you are drawing from a photo reference, or drawing a landscape – a sketch is just that. You might have to do multiple sketches, or you might start with a sketch and then work into it but basically the principle is exactly the same. I’ll caveat that by saying if you want to trace something or you want to recreate something with photorealistic accuracy using a grid ref for example then you’d not take that approach but…you’ll never learn to draw by doing that – all you’ll achieve is getting good at copying.

Loose, fluid relaxed sketching is like sessioning a corner on the bike or drilling a move in jiujitsu. By doing it 1000 times you’re developing that muscle memory so it become second nature and you can do it spontaneously, and you can control it when you need to be precise.

ot that anatomy book there the now btw, quick delivery that!

What do you think?

aye it looks very good, just flicked through it, but aye lots if great information in it! 🙂 Looks well worth the 6 quid. It’s a hardbacked ring bound edition.

Check this out.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAamIaoSKZo[/video]

And another

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-v8TZ5zCOM[/video]

And the incredible Todd McFarlane

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJJ_B65yW7E[/video]

+1 to jimjam for all the advice and links!
I forget when I read it but the idea I carry with me with the lots of quick drawings idea is that it’s about being able to fail faster and thus learn quicker.
Plus there’s nothing worse than spending two hours on a masterpiece and then spotting a basic mistake you made in the first few minutes.
And yet, in spite of knowing all this, I still struggle to actually apply it. Hey ho. Here’s two scribbles:

David Millar

I went to the same school as him bit he left just as I joined so I never met him. A friend used to sit next to him in CDT though so I feel there’s still a connection 🙂

Goat dude:

Pretty good jim, you don’t get to that level without doing a billion things before it though! 😆 good examples though, cheers! 🙂

those are cracking twirl! 🙂

seosamh77 – Member

those are cracking twirl!

+1. Beautiful work. I panicked when I saw you’re goat guy there (thought it was Black Philip who is on my list).

seosamh77 – Member

Pretty good jim, you don’t get to that level without doing a billion things before it though! good examples though, cheers!

No, I agree 100%. But you also can’t be afraid to fail, and when it comes to drawing there are literally no consequences so you should push yourself to be as fast and as carefree as you can, because…so what.

Twirlip of the Mists – Member

I forget when I read it but the idea I carry with me with the lots of quick drawings idea is that it’s about being able to fail faster and thus learn quicker.

My life drawing teachers had us doing these exercises for years and they were completely wasted on me. They literally never explained that there was any point to them (I don’t think they knew that there was). It clicked with me after about 30 seconds of watching Graham Toms (up there) drawing and he explained his warm up processes and his approach.

Five years (well maybe ten) bucking and rebelling against those bloody stupid teachers who wouldn’t just let me draw the way I wanted to draw 😳

No, I agree 100%. But you also can’t be afraid to fail, and when it comes to drawing there are literally no consequences so you should push yourself to be as fast and as carefree as you can, because…so what.

yip, spot on! 🙂 hopefully I can incorporate this advice, I do need a change of pace!

15/31 Severn Valley Yeoman Foresters Field Archery silver medal for Hunting Tackle October 15th, 2017 Lamy ABC Uniball Pin Fineline Crayola coloured pencils A4 photocopy paper

And for those in the know…. 630 over 36 targets and 4 spots 🙂

15/31 Severn Valley Yeoman Foresters Field Archery silver medal for Hunting Tackle October 15th, 2017 Lamy ABC Uniball Pin Fineline Crayola coloured pencils A4 photocopy paper by [/url] – Flickr2BBcode LITE

Mercury
16/31

16/31 Mercury Ink pencil felt by [/url] – Flickr2BBcode LITE

Check out this guy on insta

https://www.instagram.com/jacobdoodles/

Absolutely incredible still life drawings, sketches and studies.

One of the things that that I’ve discovered is that (as someone else said) it’s fine to fail. What’s the worst that will happen. 17 years ago I’d throw it away if it was not perfect. Now I’m keeping hold of them.

Also ink has helped me be more confident and bold, to just go for it.
So with that in mind here is todays effort. Again really rough under draw then I tried with the approach of less is more here is the result of about 30 mins work:

Great job. I know exactly what you mean about the pen and spontaneity, I was pencil phobic for many years because they caused me to faff so much.

Now what to draw next.

Day 16. I went round and round the houses over ‘fat’ and couldn’t make anything work that didn’t plainly need another week of drawing time. So I drew a sea monster.

So I drew a sea monster.

Well of course. Looks great. My prompt list today is Ghost in the Shell. Never really enjoyed drawing in an anime style but there’s bound to be something in there.

jimjam – Member
Never really enjoyed drawing in an anime style

I’ve noticed there are legions of people on the inktober hashtag that like drawing in that cutesy manga/anime style, i really dislike it actually.

seosamh77 – Member

jimjam – Member
Never really enjoyed drawing in an anime style

I’ve noticed there are legions of people on the inktober hashtag that like drawing in that cutesy manga/anime style, i really dislike it actually. [/quote]

Yeah and a disturbing number within that seem to be into Furries. I mean, each to their own and all but FFS.

You could draw GITS in a non-cutesy way. The mecha isn’t cute. Actually, after a bit of a google, I don’t think the manga is all that cute. And, wow, you have to fight through a lot of scarlett johansson pics to get to the managa now.

Perhaps we should have a richter scale of manga cuteness. Akira somewhere near the bottom and Ranma 1/2* nearer the top.

* There’s waaaaay cutsier stuff than Ranma but I don’t know the names.

Twirlip of the Mists – Member
. And, wow, you have to fight through a lot of scarlett johansson pics to get to the managa now.

Tell me about it. Total nightmare 😆

You could draw GITS in a non-cutesy way. The mecha isn’t cute.

Something about it just doesn’t click with me at all. I watched a lot of it when I was younger, and I bought Intron Depot etc but nah. Done to death I think. I’ve got Berserk on my prompt list which I’ll definitely do but apart from that…suppose I could got back a bit and do something I missed.

Or just draw a sea monster.

I don’t think the manga is all that cute

Yes, probably getting my genres mixed up, not into it myself, so showing up my lack of knowledge, probably meaning more kinda pokemon/kids japanese cartoon style. It’s like a disease on the inktober hashtags! 😆

Another go at my kids, trying to stay looser.

And another quickie

Quick sketch between reviewing reports.

Nice Jon 🙂

And an even quicker go at the canon silhouette, just using a bic

I don’t know what it says about my thought process but all I can see there is a bloke striding along an erect phallus!! 😯

its based on a photo of me on this