Hey Folks, This is my first figure I've ever drawn. I drew it on paper, and then scanned it into the computer. I just wanted to try it to see if I could do it, and I'd like your honest opinions. I gave him the name Baxter for no reason in particular, except that he reminded me of a teenager fox of some kind. What do you think? J.
I see traces of Baloo, Theodore, and the fox from The Fox and the Hound. Overall, not bad. It's pretty proportional for your first figure drawing. I'd say a meerkat.
Well, I took another shot at it and this is my second sketch of "Baxter". I was aiming for a little more accuracy and realism. J.
Looks better than what I can do! To nitpick, though - take a look at the eyes, eyebrows (are you missing one?) and size of the ears (I'm not sure they match up). Good job on the hair!
Definitely better. Only few things I can see are that he's got a bit of a lazy eye and he only has one eyebrow. The ears actually could be correct, if you consider the foregrounded ear to be pointed back a little. If both ears do that, then all you would see of the background ear is the tip, and it would be thin and appear pointed because of the angle. And for some reason he reminds me of Dennis Leary. Maybe Kevin Bacon. I dunno. Definitely reminds me of an actor, though.
A fox would have more pointed ears. His ears (at least his left one) look more like deer or cow ears.
Sketch #3 of Baxter, with a few modifications to the eyes and the ears, and an attempt at expression on his face: J.
Make both the eyes have that white "sparkle" or one eye will stand out - his right eye is too black. Hair's still good, ears look much better! Something's up with his forehead (too narrow?) There is more emotion in his face in this drawing, and it's definitely an improvement from the first! Keep it up!
FOREHEAD. FOREHEAD. He's shaped like a vase. The irises are too big. I liked the eyes in the second one better. Keep the pointed ears, though. Pointed is good. Looks more like a fox.
^ Thanks. I'm currently working on Bax's forehead and eyes. In the meantime, I did a quick sketch of a bunny from a comic called "Better Days" just to see if I could do it. I liked the outcome, myself: J.
Another missing eyebrow. His irises are different sizes in each eye. Other than that, it looks good to me!
Actually, the irises are correct. His left brow is weighing a little lower than the right, which makes the top of the eye drop a bit. The irises are the same size, they just appear different because the space around the left one was made smaller.
I did a sketch of my dog, Dallie, as a gift for my father for Father's Day (he loves that dog like Hank Hill loves Ladybird). I think I need to get some specific drawing pencils. I'm using #2 pencils to draw these sketches, and there are times when I'd like to use something that shades well. In this one I used my fingers to do the shading and blending. It's my first attempt at actually shading and blending something. By the way, the actual sketch is darker than this. My scanner doesn't like pencil. J.
It's great...but there is something seriously wrong with perspective of the back end of Dallie's hindquarters...they are too small and makes her(?) body look disproportional. I'm not good at describing so I will use photoshop to give you an idea of what I mean...I haven't added detail or anything, but do you see how this changes the shape of her body and the perspective of the drawing?
I have one of these: You can get this one for less than $15...General's is a good brand and they have smaller sets as well that are around $5 and worth it for great control and shading. You can't beat charcoal for bold color and you an do smudge effects with it as well.
More contrast. Dont be afraid to shade areas much darker than others. He's a bit monochromatic. Contrast is a HUGE factor in black and white sketches. You may even want to look up rendering. Rendering takes forever, but it yields amazing results. It makes contrast muuuuch easier.
I see what you mean. In the photo I had, her legs were about the size they are in the drawing. She was laying more to the front than the side, but yours actually looks better. I guess sometimes it's better to be very detailed in some places, and then just let the eye and imagination do the detailing in others. Thank you. Oh, and you draw very well. The actual sketch is darker and there is contrast between the lighter and darker areas. My scanner hates pencil drawings. I'm currently playing around with the settings to see if I can get it to be more accurate in correctly scanning the paper. J.
Absolutely! Shading and contrast is your best friend! Thanks! I keep meaning to scan and post some stuff but I keep forgetting. You do an excellent job..and it will only improve with every piece you do.
Nice work, foreshortening a figure can be tricky without the theoretical instruction. Her tail pointing up right might help to suggest the depth of field and fill in the negative space. Your shading is coming along nicely, but keep up the cross hatching practice. One of the things we used to do was create a palette of four values in addition to white in a corner. This let's you reference the concentration of each colour value and keep them uniform. Good instinct in avoiding hard angles in the hatching, with a softer lead you can cheat in details and/or creat an entire secondary palette. As for pencils, may I suggest the extra outlay on tech pencils? I prefer them as they don't shrink and maintain a reasonably constant line weight. Also, you can switch up the leads, so you rarely need more than three or four. Smudging is another tricky effect skill. Try one of those eraser pencils as a counter effect to eliminate the halos. Seriously though J., take a couple of classes. You have some serious natural talent here.
Thank you. I'm going to buy myself a little art set with all the necessary pencils so I can get a better resulting contrast. These pencils only get so dark and then you're just adding layers. In the interim, my dad loved the drawing. He said the same thing about the eyes, that I captured her perfectly there. J.
Michael's sells some good sets, as does AC Moore. Online, try Dick Blick or Jerry's. They've got good selection. Amazon does too, for that matter. Nothing wrong with using a #2 if you want to concentrate on linework. Shading and whatnot, tho, you'll want a decent set. From about an 8b to an 8h, with the middle-of-the-road HB doing nicely for initial layout. Also, if you really want to play around, get some graphite sticks and some charcoal. Great stuff with which to noodle on newsprint. Also, experiment with your papers. For finished art I used to like plate finish bristol board. It's relatively expensive compared to something like a sketch pad, but I loved the results I could get from it. My brother, who is a semi-pro inker for comic books, prefers more tooth to his bristol. A pad of newsprint for playing with charcoal and graphite, some good high-rag-content sketchbooks for pencil work, and bristol for when you're feeling ambitious. I like to use a drawing board for everything except quick sketching, because you can set the drawing surface at an angle. A regular old table or desk works just fine, tho. What you mostly want is a solid smooth surface that doesn't have any scratches or divots that will catch your pencil point thru the paper.
Paladin's thread motivated me to pick up a pencil again. It's the first drawing I've done since I last posted in this thread (stupid life gets in the way! ), so I made a slightly idealized version of me, as a Starfleet Captain. Nerd? Oh yes. But I enjoyed it. J.
I did this about an hour ago. I changed a few ways I was sketching the image, and this is what I came up with. Excuse the poor image quality, but my scanner sucks once more, and I had to get the shot with a digital camera. I call it "First Officer", and it's not supposed to be me. I did a mind's eye drawing to see if I could. J.
Lemme share something I learned about drawing faces: eyes are hard. They either look exactly right, or completely wrong. There's no middle ground when you're doing a portrait. Cartooning, of course, you can get away with a lot more, but when you're going for realism eyes are just fiendishly difficult. Best advice is to keep a mirror handy so that you can look at your own face for general structure, even when drawing a totally made-up face. Remembering that I'm only talking about realistic portraits, when doing eyes there are things to keep in mind. First, there is about one eye's width between the two eyes. Second, they're not round or oblong, but have a corner on each side. Third, the iris and pupil take up about a third of the visible eyeball and at least some of the top of the iris is going to be hidden behind an eyelid to avoid the "deer in the headlights" look (unless that's what you're going for, of course). Fourth, unless you're super-detail-oriented, don't try to draw individual eyelashes. Fifth, shadowing and highlights will bring a lot of realism to the eyes, especially if you keep in mind that the surface of the eyeball is moist. Probably more kibitzing than you wanted, but hopefully I was helpfull.
