Ponythread Learns to Draw II

[Recaiden]

Once I read the line about the power of the Aether, I could see it in the picture, but beforehand, no. Also that place looks like it's about to tip over.

Day 2 - Busy day, rushed drawing, but worthwhile.

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First, I realized as a I was drawing that I had very little idea what the building I was drawing actually looks like.
Second, augh angles! Need better stairs (and persepective and everything), but I like the screen.
Time: ~25 minutes.

[flyingchicken]

xoxoxoxoxo

[Recaiden]

Day 3

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Drawing of a little statue of an owl that I have. Tried to do longer strokes, wasn't really focusing on the perspective so it's a bit too panoramic.

[Madcrafter]

Day 325-6:

In response to the devilish arrival above, I drew Bharrai. Please ignore my complete disregard for real bear anatomy (she is bipedal after all). Otherwise decently happy with how this one turned out. Hands are quite stiff/not angled correctly; I didn't really think about how I was going to pose them before drawing them out.

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Time: 2 and 2.5 hours
Music: Pony

[Recaiden]

Very nice pseudo-bear.


Now that I'm back at my scanner, here's the drawing I did yesterday:

Day 4!

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Tried to draw do another big rectangles piece. The view from next to my sketching point.

[Madcrafter]

Before going for a whole room, maybe try getting your basic shapes and perspective down. Spend a few days drawing boxes and things from every conceivable angle.

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Day 327:

Just a couple pony sketches, and wings.

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Time: 45min
Music: none

[Recaiden]

Day 5: Boxes

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[Thanqol]

Day 5: Boxes

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Having trouble getting straight lines?

Move your elbow!

Make motions with your entire arm, not just your wrist. Smooth strokes with your entire arm. It's weird at first but it's a critical technique.

Also, no shame in using a ruler.

[Dispozition]

Having trouble getting straight lines?

Move your elbow!

Make motions with your entire arm, not just your wrist. Smooth strokes with your entire arm. It's weird at first but it's a critical technique.

Also, no shame in using a ruler.

Also quick strokes. The slower you stroke, the more wobbly it'll be, in my experience.

[Recaiden]

From last evening, when I had time to draw but not to scan.

Day 6: More boxes, now with quick, full arm strokes.

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I expected to hate this. Thinking "I knew one day I'd have to give up the fun part of drawing to improve, I just didn't expect it to be within the week." But it wasn't terrible. Just weird. Need to do it more. I an draw straighter lines, but my ability to create the correct angles went straight out the window.

[Thanqol]

I expected to hate this. Thinking "I knew one day I'd have to give up the fun part of drawing to improve, I just didn't expect it to be within the week." But it wasn't terrible. Just weird. Need to do it more. I an draw straighter lines, but my ability to create the correct angles went straight out the window.

Here's another super secret trick: You don't need to do your hard lines on your first go. You can do underlying sketches to help you shape things out.

Let me demonstrate in the most rushed way possible!



This is me doing what you're doing, effectively: Lines on paper with no erasing or pre-drawing sketching. It looks derpy as heck!



Here's a picture I took the time to do a little more sketching about before I inked. When you're using pen&paper do your sketching with a H-3H pencil - it's a hard lead so it makes very fine, hard to see lines! Feel free to be a bit messy and scribbly with it. Then, when you think you've got the sketch looking right, go over the lines and harden them out with a 4B pencil.

A few other things:

- Decent art tools add a +2 to your drawing skill straight up. Get at least a decent set of lead pencils.
- The first stretch of this project is teaching your hand to do what you say. You're working on fine motor control. It's not glamorous but you can't skip it!
- Try to keep your eye on your subject matter, not your page. It's another weird counterintuitive thing but these things are all good to start learning early rather than letting them become habits you have to break!

Keep at it!

[Recaiden]

I will keep that in mind about the page. That's not something I would have remembered. And I'll try to get some better drawing tools the next time I can.
The multi-levels of drawing is a good tip. I tried it a little bit on the box, and will work on it more in the future.

To clarify though, I didn't hate drawing in a more arm-involving way.

Day 7

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Today was not a good day for drawing practice. Or for getting much of anything done.

[Madcrafter]

To clarify though, I didn't hate drawing in a more arm-involving way.

Then you'll end up like me, and that is not a good thing. I only actually really realized I wasn't (and that I was actually in a terrible posture for drawing) when Thanqol mentioned it above.

Pre-sketching is a good idea. You might not want to do it all the time for the boxes or stuff (at least, once you get some practice), but for "big" images (not large, but investment/result-wise) I'd heartily recommend it. See the image of Bharrai above, which I did without any sketching beforehand, and as a result messed up the paws horribly (bear anatomy notwithstanding). Usually an image like that I would have done two or three layers of sketches beforehand. I'll post the ones for my current drawing when I upload it.

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Days 328-30:

Started on Monday (a holiday for the Queen's birthday here in Canada) forgetting I wouldn't actually have any time yesterday and today. Nonetheless got it presentable.

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The final product. First sketch is below.
And the second sketch refining the first.

Time: 1h, 20 and 30 min
Music: Pony

Those sketches were actually cheating a bit, since parts were traced from reference instead of my own hand. Had I not, there would have been a rougher one to get all the bits hashed out properly.

[Recaiden]

I'll have to look into proper drawing posture further then. I've read some, and forgotten most of it.

Day 8

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I seem to have trouble keeping vertical and horizontal in proportion with each other.

[Madcrafter]

Day 331:

Just some faces, trying to grab expressions. Shoulda grabbed some more references.

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Time: little over an hour
Music: Pony

[Recaiden]

Day 9

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[flyingchicken]

xoxoxoxoxo

[Recaiden]

They are trying to be squirrels and various things around my living room. Also pyramids because thy're not quite boxes.

Now that running the scanner won't wake people up:

Day 10: Having trouble getting lines to stop racing about the page

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[Recaiden]

Here was Day 11: Perspective? What's that?

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[Madcrafter]

Nothing productive, pah! That seal-thing is wonderful. The middle one I'm afraid I have no idea though.

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Days 332-4:

An idea that got tossed up in ponythread by someone, now like a dozen pages ago. Rushed the ghosts at the end because of the terrible cramping in my hand. Also not too fond of the trees' texture now that the ghosts are there either. Really, it might have been best to leave just Luna alone, since she was the most well developed portion of the piece (which is no longer noticeable at this resolution, but w/e)

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Time: 30m, 1h and 2.5h
Music: Pony

[Recaiden]

Day 12: In which Recaiden tries to draw all sorts of different shapes that appear on his computer screen and throughout his living room.

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[SiuiS]

Day 287:

Orange stuff, liked the style on an image I saw, so I tried the same. Lacklustre.

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Time: 50 minutes
Music: Pony

Nice, I like it~!

if you were ever curious as to what I looked like

here's an idea

some more doodles as I descend into the night: my great fear, that, 10 years later, I'd be like,

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Dude, your eyes are so red. You should really stop wearing all that awkwardly thick, pasty white eyeliner. And grow some damn pupils, you're creeping me out.

that skull throne pic looks neat

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some broken pen doodles--I ordered a replacement pen nearly two weeks ago argh still hasn't arrived

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What do you use, if I may ask, to make these?

Also quick strokes. The slower you stroke, the more wobbly it'll be, in my experience.

Mechanically, it is the impulese. When you go slow you need to continue putting energy into the stroke, a single brisk slash works best because the entire pen mark is using the same payload of energy, in the same direction, with almost no outside interference. Taking too long is like having eight different people all start and stop and continue a project with no communication amongst themselves, only with the manager (your brain) who is probably overworked and just wants to go back to her wife, three kids, and eigh tmassage-trained harem slaves.




Also, guys who are like, "wow, what an idea! I wish I had a resource list somewhere!" Go trawl Thanqol's first draw thread. It's an amazing conglomeration of tips, advice, dissection and resources.


EDIT: oh, right, I came here with the express purpose of being selfish and plum forgot!
Could I get someone with some measure of digital art program+skill to grab me one of these ravens in a repainted gif or png format? Preferably right-facing raven.



Anyway, off to start drawing, I suppose.

[Madcrafter]

Something like so?



Original picture isn't very good resolution wise.

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Day 335:

Sketch of a google doodle, practising freehand straight lines. Can't eliminate all the curvature, but by going over-bounds I can usually get a straight section after a few tries.

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Time: 30m?
Music: Pony

[Recaiden]

Day 13: Vampire Squid

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Really no explanation necessary here.

[SiuiS]

Something like so?



Original picture isn't very good resolution wise.

Bangerang, better than I imagined. Thank you~!

Day 335:

Sketch of a google doodle, practising freehand straight lines. Can't eliminate all the curvature, but by going over-bounds I can usually get a straight section after a few tries.

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Time: 30m?
Music: Pony

That is actually a habit of good digital artists which I have allowed to hold me back; most will casually go through ten to thirty strokes of the brush, deleting and undoing and redoing again in quick succession, throwing down huge swathes in just the right way to decide to whittle it down and keep a small portion. Setting a target size, and working through it, allowing degeneration of technique outside the area while preserving form within is a great idea if you can wrap your head around it.

It also teaches a certain mindfulness of composition, making sure you can target appropriately.It's good or you.

[Madcrafter]

Bangerang, better than I imagined. Thank you~!

That is actually a habit of good digital artists which I have allowed to hold me back; most will casually go through ten to thirty strokes of the brush, deleting and undoing and redoing again in quick succession, throwing down huge swathes in just the right way to decide to whittle it down and keep a small portion. Setting a target size, and working through it, allowing degeneration of technique outside the area while preserving form within is a great idea if you can wrap your head around it.

It also teaches a certain mindfulness of composition, making sure you can target appropriately.It's good or you.

Ah no problem for the bird.

It was definitively different in a way. I had to work sequentially so I could erase before I started the next section, which was a little strange. Something I'll practice more.

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Day 335:

But not today.

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Time: ?
Music: None

[Recaiden]

Day 14:

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[Recaiden]

Day 15

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[flyingchicken]

Dude, your eyes are so red. You should really stop wearing all that awkwardly thick, pasty white eyeliner. And grow some damn pupils, you're creeping me out.

What do you use, if I may ask, to make these?

a broken pen!

Anyway, off to start drawing, I suppose.

hop to it peon!

[Madcrafter]

Day 336:

Ain't gettin' much done.

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Day 337:

And now that the stressful part of my week is over, we can resume usual posting schedule.

Free your mind Neo.

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