So here I go looking for attention again - My pencil drawings

Here are a couple of sketches I've made over the years.
Just to make things clear:

1. First of all, these are sketches, not art, art is something made on a bigger canvas/paper and are preferably made using some sort of paint.

2. Most of these are made in just a couple of hours or less (the Hepburn one is made in 15 minutes)

3. The anime and (obviously) the portrait ones are taken mostly out of magazines, I don't have enough experience with anime to make up anything I would consider good enough, allthough the foxes are 100% mine and I would be happy to take requests for avatars/signatures if anyone here likes them.

4. I like coffee, cookies and carrot cake!

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S1.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S2.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S3.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S4.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S5.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S6.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S7.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S8.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...niensis/S9.jpg

These are freehand, made at home, I'm really bad at finishing off mostly everything...
(Maybe you prefer people using digital medias?)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The animals are just an idea I've been working on, as "fictional" characters they've got good qualities, and some extremely annoying qualities.
I find that developing expressions and personalities are easy, but finishing their bodies is hard, I'm not sure why I even continue spending so much time on them, sometimes I consider just sticking to practising the traditional things like still life, portraits, scenery and such.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by galen

Point of advice: Resize your images to a more manageable size. This makes it easier for people (like me) to view your images easily and all at once, which in turns makes it easier for me to judge your techniques and give you advice on what to work on.

Done...
I didn't like the idea of resizing it too much so the biggest ones have 800 as their longest side.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I would have guessed as much on the proportion part, I'm more a fan of the empirical method rather than learning the anatomy before I start drawing, so I guess I'll just need to practise by making more of these drawings.
I notice especially how much I fail at the eyes though, for some reason I end up making them way too small in fear of making them too large.
The anime heads are old, so I don't really care that much about them, they're just something I made when I was bored I guess.

The last one is actually the first, I think it's because later on I focus way too much on the pencil use rather than shape.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by guyinrubbersuit

Do you do any guidelines at all? Or do you mostly do outlines when drawing?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but you should have noticed that I'm a rather messy "artist", I practically never draw using the first line, I usually make at east two or three light handed ones before I use it, as for the proportion part I use guidelines to some extent, but after ten years of freehand practice looking at other pictures I tend to get a bit arrogant when it comes to proportions since my drawing is made more intuitively.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Magi

Its easier to catch proportion and structural issue when you break down object into simpler geomatric shapes, and this method applies to just about everything.

How very modernistic of you.
Anyways, I use this method, but only to a certain extent as I use it for more wholistic/compositional purposes rather than details.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't want to seem impertinent or anything, but to be honest, I already knew about that.
It might not seem so from these fast sketches though, as well as I don't like using the technique throughout the process because I think it undermines a lot of the empirical experience as well as the personality of it all, I think the shapes should come more naturally rather than being a result of drawing the same object over and over again, if I'm interested in finishing a picture I might do that, but not throughout the freehand drawing practices.
So to shorten things up, no offence or anything, but you're preaching to the choir.

I did get one good piece of advice through this thread though, I've realized that I focus far too much on the pencil technique, and that I should go back to practicing the things I used to prioritize (mostly the shape).

How ya doing, buddy?

It's not a matter of knowing it, it's a matter of practice, that's why these are just fastly made sketches.
For a finished product I'd do more of an effort to avoid such obvious mistakes.
Still, personally I prefer making a first attempt, then do a fast shading and continue with drawing it over a glass-table and correct any proportional mistakes, but I don't have that at the moment so I just practice making as many sketches as possible.
Now I'm annoyed, but in a way it's a good thing since I shouldn't have accepted these drawings as good enough in the first place, I guess I got a little vain there for a short time.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Now that I agree with (nice to hear some critizism from someone who doesn't think of me as a beginner), I've tried to improve my shading/ pencil use, but I have a habit of getting reckless and doing a far too rough job.
Otherwise I usually focus on shape and detail rather than it being so damn correct or the finishing touches which I probably should, maybe I should start by switching pencil softness more often.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I didn't realize I was at such an early stage.
As for the finished products, most were made at high school and there's probably just one or two of them that I've kept (rest of them thrown in the garbage), these are at a larger format and aren't as easy to scan.

But I guess I am, since I was about ten years old (I'm 20 now) I've been mostly practicing looking at other things and drawing them, I learned about the "not drawing what you think you see" phrase about seven years ago so I'd think I'd be somewhat beyond the stage of hearing it now, that's why I get kind of annoyed having to hear the basics from others again.

I do understand how you'd think the cartoon stuff being stiff because of lack of anatomical knowledge, they're more a result from a very old attempt (which I've given up years ago) to learn to draw more Disney-like.
I know I need to go over anatomy a lot more, but I usually prefer practicing as much as I can by just looking at things and drawing them since that's what I'm the most used to.
There's also the part of the fact that I can't stand a lot of the academic drawing style because I think their ideal way of portrait drawing loses a lot of character and personality, if you know anatomy through and through you're not really able to draw portraits, but you're able to draw what the anatomy books taught you how it "should" be (although I know it IS necessary to learn it, I get scared of becoming one of those people who can't draw anything else then Greek statues if you know what I mean).

And as I've been judged by proper shading at school for about three years now I refuse to acknowledge that I "shouldn't worry about it".

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'd rather draw like Degas than Michelangelo (DaVinci is overrated in my opinion), even though I'm resistant it doesn't mean that I won't listen to reason, I just went to the library as fast as I could and borrowed some books on animal and human anatomy.

I'm just a bit pissed off from realizing how inexperienced I am, which is in a way kind of good, I needed to be kicked to the ground again.
Up until now I've usually been a B student when it comes to arts and crafts subjects at high school (I took a coarse that focused on arts and art history), and now I'm studying philosophy at the university (with no practical art subjects which is extremely annoying), so I guess I got a bit arrogant.
I'll try and make some more finished products soon, but I'll probably keep on going at where I was, but at a faster pace and making more fast sketches than working on my shading (allthough I know I need to work on that too).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by vemp

I'm with this, I can't really critic your work if the ones you posted are just sketches. Your actual work might be better than your sketches, so I'll just wait for those.

I'll try and do some paintings sometime soon...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I've got a few newer ones now, just curious if I've improved any, please go easy on the criticism...













I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Magi

Hey, not bad. What's the medium?

I think if you are afraid of tough critique, don't expect them to be really helpful. Of course, one must exercise good desecration when it comes to something like this.

I prefer critique when it's said more carefully, and not the "that girl looks like she's had some sort of unsuccessful plastic surgery" type of comments. I mostly just wanted to see if some of the people who commented of my last set of drawings might think I've improved.
And by the way, they're mostly coal, plus one in ink and the building is a mix of pencil and coal.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, sorry, in Norwegian we just say "kull", which means both coal and charcoal.

FELIPE NO