johnway's sketchbook last update 03/02/2018 (NSFW)

[johnway]

I'm currently reading basic perspective drawing: a visual approach by john montague. Quite informative and his way of teaching instantly clicks for me.

So... Weekend. More perspective drawing. I was trying 2 things really.

1. Drawing a perspective drawing using plans to shape and model something in perspective. Shot myself in the foot right off the starting line by attempting 1 point perspective with the shape that didn't really have any need for it.

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I did have another one but that was crap the tangent lines meant i learnt nothing so that went in the bin pretty prompty.

2. A quick drawing with one point perspective and drawing buildings. I attempted to add a few additional features to make things interesting like a monorail but that wasn't thought out properly. Slapped on some quick colour to distinguish shapes present. I need to stop doing that as its becoming a bad habit to half arse paint something.

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[darkreaver]

looks like you're still cutting a lot of corners in terms of perspective line construction, and your intuition simply isn't there for that yet. Take the time to draw all of the lines in.

in the first picture, the vertical line for the bottom point ought to be longer than the others due to it being closer. For irregular shapes (or even regular shapes not orthogonal to the perspective plane!), it's helpful to construct rectangular prisms orthogonal to the perspective plane to get a sense of how the perspective will change elements inside the prism.

in the second picture, the window panes in the right side blue building do not follow perspective.

there are lots of other errors too. you need to follow the rules!

[johnway]

More perspective practice. The first was using the plan to draw an object in perspective. I had a feeling that i was forgetting something when i did the odd shape thing yesterday as it was the size. After a quick glance i saw where i went wrong and had another stab at that method.

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After that a quick practice in drawing something with one point perspective with someone running through some sort of tunnel thing. Again, i slapped in some colour to distinguish what everything is.

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[muzz]

That's looking better!

[johnway]

Haven't had much time this week as i'm busy moving stuff and all the practice i have been doing has mostly been on the sketch book.

So instead i decided to take a break from perspective and try and improve my skills using the wacom tablet. I started off on some quick sketches. This time i decided to up the resolution to 4800x4800 to see if this improves things.

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Finally as a main piece, i did a picture. No refs and i used a square brush for the shading. The picture isn't 100% correct and could do with a crop, but i was more interested in completing i had been busy and i need a lie down. Took me about an hour and i had to fiddle with the face as it was far too asymmetrical and it was getting on my nerves. Its still asymmetrical, but it wasn't quite as nasty.

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Next week, i should get back to perspective and hopefully we can draw a room or something.

[tniznet]

Hi John, you got a neat sketchbook going. I would suggest some more pencil work as well to complement your digital studies.

[johnway]

Thanks for the words Tniznet. I do have a sketchbook, but i have no scanner and i can't find the damn digital camera atm. So i haven't had time to take some photos. If i can find/buy a new one i'll probably take a few snappies.

[johnway]

Sorry for the late updates but i'm feeling melancholic torn between studying IT and improving my drawings and work pressures getting at me. To make things worse the perspective book i was using had to be returned to the library as someone else wanted it. So perspectivie is going to suffer whilst i find an alternate book.

Luckily we got to the stage where we can build what resembles a house. So... fruits of this week:


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i just about managed to learn to draw angled planes and learning vvp and the such. Easy enough. Although i could brush up on more complex implementation such as protruding angled objects.

Yesterdays results were meaningless. I didn't have the exp and i wasn't improving. I therefore decided to sink my team into something my worthwhile/challenging with perspective and do it via reference. I was getting sick and tired of crap shapes. I needed something that i could use meaningfully.


todays work

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I did this partly free hand as i didn't know where the vp were and simply played with it. I missed a few details here and there to speed things up. It was alright up until i started working on the right side where it went horribly wrong with a dastardly curved roof played havoc. I might had added a few more features like the gutters but i was more interested in finishing.


Next week: More houses in perspective. Probably.

[muzz]

Ooooh house looks good

[Grieverjoe]

Good job on that house, dude.
It looks a lot like my in-laws' house...do I know you?

[RobotCat]

Only your first 3 lines on the left side converge to the same vanishing point. The rest kind of go all over the place. If you're doing this as a practice you should really expand your canvass and add that vanishing point and use actual guidelines instead of eyeballing it.

[johnway]

Yeah that was something i really should have done. I took the picture from ref and since i couldn't figure out where where everything was exactly within the refs, i just eyeballed it.

I'll do a couple more and extend the canvas and go from there.

Good job on that house, dude. It looks a lot like my in-laws' house...do I know you?

hahaha! I got this from google. It was the one of the more interesting yet doable pictures i could think of. The spire was also what interested me as i had been practicing drawing it free hand and wanted to implement it somewhere.

[johnway]

Ok weekend and more perspective practice. This time i took a ref pic and attempted to do it legit: extending canvas to get the vanishing points etc.

Must admit it was harder then i first thought and i had to repeated expanding my canvas width. I think it was something like 140000 pixels or something. Admittedly i left it in a very unfinished state compared to the last one as i didn't see the point of continuing after i did the main bit. you can see the ref image here. http://static.bbci.co.uk/wwtravel/im...50055675_1.jpg


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A bit of a mess tbh, but the perspective is consistent. i don't think i helped myself by choosing this picture compared to the last one. I'll step back and do something else maybe more small scale and with curves in it. Like a chair.

[Threes]

great perspective practice! im working on it too, go us!!

i like how you are using extra canvas to extend your lines, but i think you need to be a little less sloppy with where they converge. i notice on a lot of the past posts, the lines dont all converge at exactly the right spot

[johnway]

I blame that partly how far i'm zoomed out. The last one i had zoomed out to 10% as the 14000 width would never ever fit my screen if i was closer. Annoying half of the time the lines kept disappearing and reappearing.

But all these lines are starting to eat at me now. For one thing if i was say, drawing a comic i can't rely on expanding the canvas/paper indefinitely there has to be shortcuts or something to get round it. My guess it has everything to do with the angle (degrees) to get round it. But i need to scrutinize graphic novels and see for myself at how they do it with such awesomeness.

I also want to move away from the lines as soon as possible as i noticed a horrible trend that most of the art looking stiff or without character. But that will come with experience. Right now i'm also practicing hands and making a mess of that as well. Again more practice.

[johnway]

Bah! I'm making little progress without a perspective book. I was hoping to practice drawing curves in perspective but without some guidance my attempts so far has been hamfisted and unproductive. Last week i attempt to draw chairs as they had a curved edges and the such. But after a while i lost interest and to regain some sense of progress i went back to drawing head and some lighting as a quick excersise

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Today, i had another shot at drawing curved edges and went freehand to draw a recliner that had a cushion and some cloth on it. It looked alright for a while before i had enough. So i opted to practice drawing hands. I had been practicing throughout the week before bed and develop my skills further with it. I wanted to see how it translated on Photoshop and drew those.

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Tomorrow i'll go back to prespective drawings like another house. I could always do with the practice whilst i wait for the book to arrive in the library.

[johnway]

Step back today. Practice drawing a 1 point perspective image of a room. It isn't strictly referenced, but i remember seeing on the cover of john montague's perspective book so i decided to practice drawing that in point perspective as i was quite impressed with it.

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I did hit a snag and that was with the areas numbered 3 and 2.

3 - i used perspective and drew it to the 1 point perspective and it looked a mess. I left in there as it followed the rules and couldn't see why it didn't look right. My guess are the following

-The room (walls) were never in perspective to begin with and it caused everything from it being wrong.

-I should use a VVP (vertical vanishing point) instead. But as i understood, it was used for angled services like a ramp or in previous drawings a roof.


Square 2 was partly free hand, part using vvp to get round the problem ( if i remember correctly).


But 2 different results and 2 incorrect perspectives. Will need to figure this one out later.

It has also come to my attention that my paint work is also getting worse. Something i'm itching to improve in photoshop and i'm getting no ideas on how to do this. I only hope i stumble across the answer via practice or from a vid on Youtube giving me the answer.

[Espresso]

The last one was a great improvement from the post right before it. You should finish it. Make the books have depth, make both arms of the chair proportional, add the pictures etc

I think looking away from your drawing and then flipping the image when you return would be helpful for you.

[johnway]

The thought to actually flip the pic didn't really cross my mind for some reason. I was aware of some of the faults and decided to go along with it. I might try it to see what happens, but since most of this was with lines anyway i felt it wasn't needed. Might have to try it on my next 1 point perspective pic.

The plan is to keep practicing perspective drawings (and hands on the sketchbook) and go from there. I need to learn detailing and i have eyed a few books that i want to buy/read to get round that.

Then after that, learn to bloody paint properly. I'm sick of the blurry mess or smudged mess i make everytime.

[johnway]

Not much this weekend. I spent more time practicing on my sketchbook drawing heads, lips and the figure. I did however did mess around with some perspective practice just to practice.

Please note that they are a very rough sketch and in most cases i didn't both finishing them as i was more interested in possible results.

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This was suppose to be a starship zipping through a cityscape. For the ship i crudly drew i was thought it would be a laugh to try and use christopher hart's techniques and see where i would get with that. Predictably being one of my first attempts at this and with absolutely no help from the book it was crap.


Sunday: Back to perspective drawing. Its some sort of open patio/store front thing looking across a river. Unlike my usual self i didn't feel like colouring it in and left it as it is.

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It looks all very unnatural. I think next time i'm going to ditch the line tool and see what happens.