Thanqol Learns To Draw!

[Thanqol]

Day 172: Patterning

Stick figures, to experiment with an action sequence.

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Time: 30 mins
Music: Lift

[Thanqol]

Day 173: Double-Dipping In Wrath

Experimented with Airbrush+blur for the shading across the piece, looks better in some places than others. Overall the picture kinda works.

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Time: 2 hours
Music: Dreaming Wide Awake

[Thanqol]

Day 174: Imaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagination

Woo! Almost everything's done! Sketchdump!

1: Tired Jayden

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2: Almost something, but the flaws are hideously obvious

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3: Sketchy and incomplete, but going somewhere.

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4: Goodbye, Jayden's tie :(

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Time: 1.5 Hours
Music: Code

[Thanqol]

Day 175: Safer On The Ground

Whitefire.

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Time: 1 hour 40 mins
Music: Exponential Tears

[Hawkflight]

Ah yes, that reminds me of the dream I had early on in the RP. It was nice. ^_^

Which reminds me, we still need a Whitefire/Silvermane pic. :3

[Thanqol]

Ah yes, that reminds me of the dream I had early on in the RP. It was nice. ^_^

Which reminds me, we still need a Whitefire/Silvermane pic. :3

I'll add it to the list.

Day 176: Windmillin'

Don't take nothin' from no windmills

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Time: 1 Hour
Music: Working

[Trazoi]

That's really really nice. The thicker branches in the tree aren't quite right, but the rest is lovely.

Edit: The wire frame is slightly out of perspective, but for a wire windmill in heavy wind that isn't necessary wrong.

[Thanqol]

That's really really nice. The thicker branches in the tree aren't quite right, but the rest is lovely.

Edit: The wire frame is slightly out of perspective, but for a wire windmill in heavy wind that isn't necessary wrong.

Thanks! I'll practise drawing more trees in the future, it's been on the list.

Also I just read the Dresden Kodak guy's tumblr and my head is asplode with crazy art wisdom.

I read the same thing months and months ago, before I started drawing, and my reaction was "Wow, this guy's really smart to think of all this." This time my reaction is "Oh god, it all makes so much sense!". I don't know how much of it has outright stuck in my brain, but it feels like something did.

I'm going to get started on character design next, then. I'm going to see what I can pick up and put together. Angles and shapes and body language and pose and hand gestures and framing and blocking and colour schemes and it all adds up to be indistinguishable from magic!

AND I'M GOING TO BE A WIZARD.

[Trazoi]

I'm going to get started on character design next, then. I'm going to see what I can pick up and put together. Angles and shapes and body language and pose and hand gestures and framing and blocking and colour schemes and it all adds up to be indistinguishable from magic!

Character design is fun. I tend to get stuck on the details. I spent yesterday doodling different designs for a character because I couldn't decide between two almost identical hair styles. I'm not sure if it really mattered.

[Thanqol]

Day 177: Apprentices

Ai'ight, took forever, but I finally managed to produce something decent.

First off, the crap sketches. Bad and rushed because they weren't turning out right. I was going to avoid posting these but may as well.

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But, I managed to do a good one, which I can use a design baseline for at least one of these three characters. Meet Bycatch.

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Time: ~2.5 hours of work
Music: Under Construction

[Thanqol]

Day 177b: Bycaught

In her element.

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[Thanqol]

Day 178: Schemin'

It's incomplete, but I reckon I've got Bycatch's design about right in my head. Not complete but, y'know, whatever.

Interestingly, these last few pictures have been my first real foray into the style I've always wanted to learn. I've been avoiding it because I wanted to learn everything else first. But this just comes easy. It's the kind of pictures I want to draw. I'll be developing it until I get it right, and I'm going to maintain my other styles of drawing just as well, but this approach feels... right.

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Time: 1 Hour
Music: Molossus

[Thanqol]

Day 178a: Dusk Beam

I blame Lix.

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[Trazoi]

Interestingly, these last few pictures have been my first real foray into the style I've always wanted to learn. I've been avoiding it because I wanted to learn everything else first. But this just comes easy. It's the kind of pictures I want to draw. I'll be developing it until I get it right, and I'm going to maintain my other styles of drawing just as well, but this approach feels... right.

I'm curious - what's the style you've always wanted to learn? Is there some examples out there that you're inspired by?

I'm not 100% sure what I'm aiming at, but I'd like to get a cartoony look right somewhere along the lines of a modernised Hanna Barbera look but with my own style in there somewhere. Somewhat like Cartoon Network was like a decade ago, maybe a mix of the iconic Powerpuff Girls style with a more realistic Samurai Jack feel. That's a big reason why I like watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and would love to get my hands on the DVD version - they've got that look.

I'm probably not the best person to give advice on this as I've been locked in a horrible style due to laziness for ages, but I think it's fine to develop a style as long as you also do some more realistic drawing too. I know my style has improved bounds once I did some basic anatomy sketches. The trap if you have your own style is that you work off your own stuff as a reference and you get stuck thinking increasingly weird looking stuff is perfectly fine because it's your style. Like what happened to me and ridiculously short legs. (I'm still fond of huge heads and the eyebrow-less look though, and I'm not completely sold on noses. )

[Thanqol]

I'm curious - what's the style you've always wanted to learn? Is there some examples out there that you're inspired by?

A combination of the character design in Dresden Codak, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Darken. Slightly cartoony, but primarily expressive. Simple, distinctive, stylised, recognisable, easy to learn and difficult to master. So much can be communicated with that style, and it's easy to scale up and down. Can switch between serious and comical at will.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm aiming at, but I'd like to get a cartoony look right somewhere along the lines of a modernised Hanna Barbera look but with my own style in there somewhere. Somewhat like Cartoon Network was like a decade ago, maybe a mix of the iconic Powerpuff Girls style with a more realistic Samurai Jack feel. That's a big reason why I like watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and would love to get my hands on the DVD version - they've got that look.

I'm probably not the best person to give advice on this as I've been locked in a horrible style due to laziness for ages, but I think it's fine to develop a style as long as you also do some more realistic drawing too. I know my style has improved bounds once I did some basic anatomy sketches. The trap if you have your own style is that you work off your own stuff as a reference and you get stuck thinking increasingly weird looking stuff is perfectly fine because it's your style. Like what happened to me and ridiculously short legs. (I'm still fond of huge heads and the eyebrow-less look though, and I'm not completely sold on noses. )

I've been deliberately avoiding developing a style until I've got enough experience to render it one tool amongst many. I want to be able to decide "I don't like the look of noses so I'm not going to include them" rather than "I can't do noses so I'm not going to include them". At this point I'm feeling pretty comfortable in my linework and I've got a basic handle on colouring, so I'm more inclined to experiment, but I don't want it to become habit. Yet.

[Thanqol]

Day 178b: Beamspam

Why mess with a winning formulae?

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[Hawkflight]

*looks to the right side* KITTY! <3



Also, small nitpick, it's singular 'formula', 'formulae' is plural.

[Domochevsky]

Are you trying to pick up the slack from Trazoi and Ido?


Day 177, shape correction! o/

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Girls like having torsos to fit their organs into, i hear.
(And clothes that don't tug into the underboob fold for regular clothing. :D )

[Thanqol]

*looks to the right side* KITTY! <3



Also, small nitpick, it's singular 'formula', 'formulae' is plural.

Learn something every day.

Are you trying to pick up the slack from Trazoi and Ido?

One of my long term Plans has been to spend summer break really going nuts with this drawing thing. Schedule minimum stays the same but I've got a lot more free time and I plan to spend a lot of it drawing pictures. Secondary objective is to make everyone else look bad.

Day 177, shape correction! o/

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Girls like having torsos to fit their organs into, i hear.
(And clothes that don't tug into the underboob fold for regular clothing. :D )

Huh, that's really helpful, and interesting. Really highlights the problems that come with referencing from non-realistic pictures. I'll be more careful.

[Thanqol]

Day 179: War

I went paintballing today.

I stepped out of cover and caught one in the face ten seconds into the first match.

After I'd spat the paint out and cleared mud out of my visor, I realised something. That's how easy it was. That's what war was like. You don't get to see it coming and prepare for it. You don't know who killed you, how they killed you, or why. It's just you take a step and then you're dead.

And that's happened so many times.

I wound up having fun and giving very slightly better than I got. But that realisation's still with me. War's not something you can get good at. It's not something you can learn as you go. And so I tried to copy some of the feeling in today's drawing, which didn't work out overall artistically. Maybe if I had hours more to spare today this would have gotten somewhere, as is, it's just kind of limited.

Anyway. Happy Veteran's Day.

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Time: 1.5 Hours
Music: Pavlov's Bell

[Saeyan]

Paintball! Haven't seen you on msn lately but just wanted to say the progress is encouraging.
Remember perspective. Rulers are your friend.

[Thanqol]

Paintball! Haven't seen you on msn lately but just wanted to say the progress is encouraging.
Remember perspective. Rulers are your friend.

Rulers. Yes. Rulers, that's something I've meant to get for like a million years and never got around to. Rules next time I go in to the store.

Otherwise, thanks!

[Gadora]

Rulers. Yes. Rulers, that's something I've meant to get for like a million years and never got around to. Rules next time I go in to the store.

Otherwise, thanks!

For an improvised straightedge, you can take a piece of paper and just fold it a few times and use the folded edge to guide your pencil.

Wow. This is what I stop lurking to post?

[Thanqol]

For an improvised straightedge, you can take a piece of paper and just fold it a few times and use the folded edge to guide your pencil.

Wow. This is what I stop lurking to post?

That's actually helpful! Also, I love having lurkers and knowing that you're there, so it isn't a total loss ^^

[Nameless]

Day 179: War

I went paintballing today.

I stepped out of cover and caught one in the face ten seconds into the first match.

After I'd spat the paint out and cleared mud out of my visor, I realised something. That's how easy it was. That's what war was like. You don't get to see it coming and prepare for it. You don't know who killed you, how they killed you, or why. It's just you take a step and then you're dead.

And that's happened so many times.

I wound up having fun and giving very slightly better than I got. But that realisation's still with me. War's not something you can get good at. It's not something you can learn as you go. And so I tried to copy some of the feeling in today's drawing, which didn't work out overall artistically. Maybe if I had hours more to spare today this would have gotten somewhere, as is, it's just kind of limited.

Anyway. Happy Veteran's Day.

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Time: 1.5 Hours
Music: Pavlov's Bell

This is actually a really interesting drawing. and very hard to draw. Awesome work!

[Thanqol]

This is actually a really interesting drawing. and very hard to draw. Awesome work!

Thanks! I'm going to be working on my perspective amongst other things.

Day 180: Da Po-lice

The World of Darkness changes even the kindest ponies.

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Time: 1 Hour
Music: Luna's Ruse

[SiuiS]

Day 178a: Dusk Beam

I blame Lix.

Don't we all?

Day 177, shape correction! o/

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Girls like having torsos to fit their organs into, i hear.
(And clothes that don't tug into the underboob fold for regular clothing. :D )

I'd like to day your correction was wrong. Bu truth be told, all I can say is you need to draw more curves. That's enlightening.

And I've seen the weirdest t-shirts, man. They sculpt themselves to the shape of the skin. Ive seen t-shirts that did as much work to define the breasts as a bra normally does. It was fascinating from an artistic point of view; cotton can do that?

My point being, that fold under the breasts that serves only to define the breasts? It actually exists. Even if it is kinda creepy.

One of my long term Plans has been to spend summer break really going nuts with this drawing thing. Schedule minimum stays the same but I've got a lot more free time and I plan to spend a lot of it drawing pictures. Secondary objective is to make everyone else look bad.

Fine, I'll crack down on actually learning something... Still dealing from Inkwell though.
Pony can generate depth. I mean, wow.

Huh, that's really helpful, and interesting. Really highlights the problems that come with referencing from non-realistic pictures. I'll be more careful.

Yes, someone said it earlier in the thread, but get as close to the source as you can before using it as a reference. The difference between the real thing and a phot is astounding, and visible to the neophyte. What then, the wider difference between reality, and fantasy of a fantasy?

For an improvised straightedge, you can take a piece of paper and just fold it a few times and use the folded edge to guide your pencil.

Wow. This is what I stop lurking to post?

Hush, you. I found that useful, and so did he, so no self berating aye?

-

Quick question how's that pseudo script comin, mate?

[Thanqol]

Yes, someone said it earlier in the thread, but get as close to the source as you can before using it as a reference. The difference between the real thing and a phot is astounding, and visible to the neophyte. What then, the wider difference between reality, and fantasy of a fantasy?

I said that.

Quick question how's that pseudo script comin, mate?

If that's at me, the answer is 'Skyrim'.

Though, in fairness, the entire day was spent watching the Fringe instead.

Which leads us to...

Day 181: Screwups

This was interesting to do. Whole bunch of screwups but it was primarily an experimentation piece with different colouring techniques side by side. Needs more time but I left it late.

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Time: 1.5 Hours
Music: Zero Sum

[Thanqol]

Day 182: Paints

Paints are pretty cool.

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Time: 1 Hour
Music: Remember

[Trazoi]

Symbol of love, peace and cheap conjuring tricks.

Very pretty. You've got some great shades of white there.

What happened to the poor thing's legs?!