Kelsey Lee Martin
New York But Not The City
I'm a character concept artist at Velan Studios
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Kelsey Lee Martin
•
3yr
added comment inWhat's the best way to practice drawing perfect cubes?
"perfect" cube kinda depends on what you want to use the cube for. A perfect isometric cube and a perfect 3 point cube are gonna look totally different but they're both "correct". Also if you have the right technical knowledge, you don't need a still life reference to practice from. Boring answer, but the best way to draw Perfect cubes is to draw 1,000 crappy ones
Kelsey Lee Martin
•
3yr
Cool little goblin guy. Push those values! If you are having trouble with saturation and contrast, try starting with all flat colors and make sure those are at the saturation you want. Then you can add in hard cast shadows with a blue or purple (or whatever color you want, just not gray) on a multiply layer. This gives you a nice base to start painting on top of.
Kelsey Lee Martin
•
3yr
New to the site, I hope this how I'm supposed to add art to my profile :P
Anyways here's a quick stylized study from earlier this year that I really liked how it turned out.
Kelsey Lee Martin
•
3yr
These gestures look great, nice job including the wrist. I agree with Radoslav, the shading is your easiest zone for improvement. When using tone "paper", try to limit your use of white to only the brightest highlights. 90% of the shading should come from your paper value and pencil, the last 10% is the white, aka the topping on the cake. (obviously not a hard and fast rule, but a good place to start)
For Step 1, Finding out what you enjoy drawing is more important than learning fundamentals. Right now I think the biggest thing you need to do is find the fun and enjoyment in drawing. If you don't have any fun drawing at level 0, the road ahead is just going to be worse.
When I was younger, I started off trying to copy my favorite anime or videogame characters just to get a feel of how drawing works. Even if you wanted to trace stuff for fun, that's fine too (I just personally never found that challenging enough to be fun).
My daughter paints and starts with a traced reference every time. She also uses the reference to determine colors and layers. I think she is learning a lot about shading, shape, color through the process although it certainly isn't formal training! I see her work improving too.
Kelsey Lee Martin
•
3yr
I know you were looking for non-line related feedback but practicing "line confidence" would be your biggest level up right now. Your proportions and gestures are really good, I especially like the pen piece.
To build up line confidence, sketch your quick gesture lines in much lighter, and then only really use pencil pressure when you put down the final line. Practice making only one "final line" and committing to it. It might be frustrating when you're not happy with the first dark line, but committing to it is important to avoid overly sketchy drawings. Practice makes perfect :)
Thank you for the feedback, Kesley! I see there is no way for not talking about my lines (lol), I think pen sketches are a bit 'better' because I had to put more confidence into something i cant erase. I can't find an 'exercise' that will teach placing one final line (Watts level). Maybe I am doing something wrong? - I do gesture lines, I place head, torso and pelvic area as lightly market boxes that are turned the right direction, positioned against each other, and foreshortened. And after that all the mess begins. Part of the mess is shadowing, part of it is not using eraser, but the biggest problem (i don't know what it is) i don't know how to make it cleaner. Should I erase between drawing construction stages?
@brevittyy
•
3yr
Asked for help
Hey guys, i have done some loomis head drawing . Pls let me know if there is anything wrong or what shoul i improve in my head drawing.🐼
Looks good. I think including the neck muscles that meet at the sternum will help the gesture, and including just a hint at the traps and/or shoulders will be a good way to level up this practice
