Topic: Gauph's art journal

[Gauphastus]

I'm sure nobody minded me posting in the merry doodles thread as much as I was, but I still figure it'd be more appropriate to have my own thread.
'cause I draw friggin' constantly. I'll keep like.. doodle or die or other odd stuff to merry doodles. Quick and fun stuff.
For my actual development, practice sessions, studies, and whatever the hell else, I'll use this thread.

Don't feel obligated to give feedback. If you just wanna pop in and look at stuff, go right ahead.
I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do even if it looks like I'm talking to myself. 
Also, apologies to those who had given me feedback previously but I hadn't responded; I do read it, but I have a -very- hard time actually responding to it because I'm awkward as hell.


Anyway, I'll start with these ones that I made over the last week.









I'm getting better with poses but it's still a lot of screwing around 'cause I don't technically know what I'm doing.
All this toonery is cool but I would like to strengthen my fundamentals a bit before attacking any one of my ridiculous projects I've jotted down over the years.
Shortcomings that I'm focused on improving:

perspective (ie. foreshortening)
better forms and shapes(stretch/bend/squash/etc.)
anatomy and proportion (which have substantially improved since I went to posemaniacs a few months back)

These are very broad but I could go into specifics for a good hour. Just know that I'm very self-aware and critical of my own stuff and I'm working on making it better.
Yeah, duh.

[Didero]

This stuff is just getting better and better.

[Gauphastus]

So I'm going through some 60-second gesture drawings on pixelovely when who should happen to appear..

[Krakow Sam]

Menace to society!

[Inkling]

[Gauphastus]

Did a bit of practice throughout the day. Just one page.
I was a little stumped as to what to draw for once, in terms of poses I mean. Maybe a few more trips to the usual sites could help, even if they are all mostly weirdo artsy poses.
The reason I was stumped is because I really wanted to practice some of the things I picked up over the last week or so.

In any case, I did get a few things down. It started off pretty basic but then I hit a bit of a stride.
Took too long though and now it's bedtime. The time for strides is over. Oh well.



I can sense that I'm beginning to understand foreshortening, and I'm a little bit better with the curves of the arm and legs. Knees and elbows still confound me, but I'll get there.
Bit of color in there. No idea about color theory. I'll keep dabbling though just to get a very small and slow start on it for later.

[Gauphastus]

Just a bit of screwing around today (by that I mean for the last hour or two).


I took a break for a couple of days to read up on a few things. I'm not sure what to tackle first..
Saw some tips on different panel layouts for comics, since I'm going to get into that way down the line (projects!). It was different styles of manga layouts but it basically says the same thing I've been told elsewhere about leading the reader's eye. It's a tricky thing I honestly had never considered. If you want an example of god-awful eye-leading go see Dresden Codak.
I also read a little about vanishing point, and one, two, and three-point perspectives. Very neat stuff. I suppose I can dabble a bit in that while I work on other things.

But mainly, I'll keep chipping away at anatomy and poses like usual. No point getting too much into color theory if I don't have anything really solid to color.
Anatomy stuff can get rather complex, what with the bones and muscles and all, but I can see it eventually becoming a second-nature thing.

Here's a tutorial series I've read through once already. I'll be spending time doing drills based on this stuff here, as well as the usual posemaniacs/pixelovely stuff.

[sgore]

If you want an example of god-awful eye-leading go see Dresden Codak.

Truth.

Also, the movement in your figure drawing's getting pretty amazing lately.

[Gauphastus]

WELL.. I meant to take a break for a day and attack my exercises with a fresh mind.
It turned into two days, then three. And so on.
I have not drawn much. There's been a bit but it's nothing special.

There's more in my sketchbook which nobody will be seeing for awhile anyway.
So much white space. Pfff.

I've pretty well eliminated video games as a distraction. Now my casual browsing of the internet has spiked.
So I'm getting rid of that now too.
Let's try.. one week without internet access. I'm unplugging the thing and leaving it that way until next Tuesday.

I'll surely get some results out of this, though it'll likely be more exercises and unfinished works.
I sometimes worry that I'm a bit obsessed, but I feel like I can't commit to presentable finished work (projects!) until I've conquered more of my artistic flaws. This is the reason I'd never started one of those adventure threads in the storytelling section even though I really wanted to.
I'm basically focusing more on the early stages of the creative process, leaving the later stages for.. later. Not much point learning how to color/paint digitally or draw backgrounds if my characters are wonky.

Dunno if a week will be enough time to put a dent in even one flaw. Haha.
We'll see though.

See you, chumps.

[Gauphastus]

'kay, I'm back. It sucked though. I got like two days in and got hit with a sudden back injury. I couldn't sit in the office chair here to do any work, and was forced to watch TV.
Oh my god freaking damn, do I hate TV.

Tuesday


Wednesday


Thursday/Friday (started late 'cause my sleeping times went out of whack a couple of weeks ago)


Friday morning is when the back spasms started. I spent the next few days recovering.

An hour ago



I'm going to continue with the anatomy/proportion tutorial after I eat. The piece seen above was pretty quick since it wasn't really a drawing tutorial.
More about math really.
The next part is about perspective. I might first try a few more 8-heads tall dudes first to get myself back into the groove. Shouldn't take long.

[Gec]

Now would be a good time to go to an establishment where people buy expensive coffee and draw them as they wait.

[Gauphastus]

I was all rusty from not drawing.
So I got unrusty. Here's how.



Took awhile. Had to take breaks because hand cramps and such.

[Didero]

I'm glad to see you're drawing again!

[Gauphastus]

Did another shape challenge for the Design A Character group, one of the first things I wanted to do when I started drawing again.

[Krakow Sam]

I like that rockabilly looking kid.