Art Syk3's Weekly Sketchbook Thread

[Syk3]

[color=#30415d]In order to keep us practicing, my art teacher requires us to keep a sketchbook, where we turn it in every Friday with a new drawing, provided that we have at least 4 days of school that week. We can draw pretty much anything we want to, dealing primarily with 3-dimensional objects around the house, that should take us at least/around a half hour or so. What we [i]can't[/i] do, however, is draw copyrighted material, especially anime, which he dispises.

Right now, I'm in the middle of drawing a GameCube controller, but there are plenty of other drawings from the beginning of the year up until now that I'd like to get out of the way first. Eleven, to be exact. Constructive criticism is appreciated with each drawing as it's posted. Hopefully I'm already off on a good start, though, because I've gotten an "A+" on all so far. ^_^

If you can't tell, this first one is a drawing of a salt/pepper shaker behind a glass. Dated: 9/4/03 I apoligize for scan distoriation. :/[/color]

[SaiyanPrincessX]

Heh, we do the same thing at my school, except we are aloud to use copyrighted material, depending on the teacher.

Anyhow, Its quite good, but could use some improvment. The glass is too flat, it needs more dimension and the shadow leaving the glass and the salt/pepper shaker should be a little longer. Nice job overall Syker, I can't wait to see more of your art. ^_^

[Kinetic]

[size=2][color=slategray]The advanced art class at my school does that. Hopefully I'll be in that class next year :p[/color][/size]

[size=2][color=#708090]Anyhow, it looks great :) There aren't that many dark values, but that's alright I guess. It's hard to pull off transparency and make it look good, but you did it very well. The glass, as I said, is a little too light but it still looks great. Nice work ;)[/color][/size]

[Megumi]

Not bad. You've got the transparency of the glass pretty good. I don't know whether it was that light on purpose, or if the scanner killed it (I usually add some contrast on any pencil picture I scan because so much of the detail is lost otherwise) but darker shading would be nice.

[Syk3]

[quote name='SaiyanPrincessX']Anyhow, Its quite good, but could use some improvment. The glass is too flat, it needs more dimension and the shadow leaving the glass and the salt/pepper shaker should be a little longer. Nice job overall Syker, I can't wait to see more of your art. ^_^[/quote][color=#30415d]Yeah, I see what you mean about the glass. I don't know what I was thinking, lol; the bottom sides need to be a lot more round. I don't worry too much about shadows, usually, so you'll notice that they are pretty short in my drawings.[/color]

[quote name='Kinetic][size=2][color=#708090]The glass, as I said, is a little too light but it still looks great.[/color'][/size][/quote][color=#30415d]>_< Yeah, that's deffinitly a problem from the scanner. It didn't catch all of the lighter values, and made others even lighter. Ah well.

I'm going to post up two more sketches now. This first one is of my watch before its tragic accident. RIP :( You'll also notice that I do my drawings rather late at night, heh. Dated 9/10/03

The second piece is of my computer moniter. Dated 10/3/03[/color]

[KKC]

O.o I didn't know you drew stuff! *wacks you on the head for not telling me*

Those look pretty good to me, Syk. Though, on the first one I only see one shaker (unless the glass is a shaker >.>). Our art teacher is pretty cool, though he doesn't mind anime and stuff he likes it when we do our own drawing and not copy right ones.

I really love the watch one you did, that shading looks really good and you kept all the numbers look about the same size (unlike most that I see when the 30 will be extra small and the 60 will be huge).The computer looks pretty cool too, but something about the screen bothers me for some reason... it might be the shading, though I really don't know.

Poor watch.... at least you got to draw it before the... accident... If you still have it, you should draw it now... if it's like... cracked or something you can put "before" and "after" and merge the images, lol.

[SaiyanPrincessX]

Ah, very nice. The watch is my favorite out of the two. The shading on this one is much better and you caught the folded section of the band nicely. Also, as K.K.C. mentioned, you kept all the items on the watch the same size. I do see a few small quarks but they're hardly noticable. ~_^

The moniter doesn't really apeal to me. I don't really care for the shading and it could be more detailed. :/

[Syk3]

[quote name='K.K.C.']Those look pretty good to me, Syk. Though, on the first one I only see one shaker (unless the glass is a shaker >.>).[/quote][color=#30415d]Yeah, lol, I only said salt/pepper because I didn't know which one it was. ;p[/color]
[quote name='SaiyanPrincessX']The moniter doesn't really apeal to me. I don't really care for the shading and it could be more detailed. :/[/quote][color=#30415d][color=#34015d][color=#30415d]Yeah, I could have done a little better with the shading on the moniter. >_< Don't let the image there fool you; the drawing itself was actually a lot bigger, and it was hard to shade in the same direction. Still, it's something I can improve on.[/color][/color][/color]

[color=#30415d]Okay, I now have my next two pieces for critique. The first one is of a mustard bottle, since I was already running out of ideas, haha. As you can see, I didn't really do much with the shadow, though it is there, and that rip across the top of the labels is just a spot where there wasn't any mustard against the side of the bottle.. or something. Dated: 10/9/03

The next one is one of my bigger drawings, of a blender. It didn't take me too long, but my art teacher obviously thought it did, and he let it count as two grades. XD I think I did pretty good on the shading, though unfortunately the scanner didn't pick up a few things and it looks like there are a few breaks in the cord. o.o Dated: 10/23/03

EDIT: That blender is a lot lighter than I thought it would be. It's hard to see a lot of it, so let me see if I can get it scanned again.

EDIT AGAIN: I tried scanning again, and that isn't fixing the problem. I apoligize; just try to imagine it a lot better (or.. darker) than what you're seeing. <_<[/color]

[Arcadia]

[size=1]Blenders are cool, and they make nifty noises, too. Milkshakes for everybody!!

Really, though, despite the lightness of the picture, the shading looks good, especially around all the angles, the lines are pretty straight and the entire thing looks well proportioned. Good stuff![/size]

[Megumi]

Do you always go sketching in your kitchen?

Seriously, they're pretty good sketches. Again, you might want to consider adding contrast to them- it does wonders for the detail.

You might want to work on some more interesting subject matter- like sketching outside, or things with lots of texture that are more difficult to draw. Mustard bottles and salt shakers get a little boring after a while. I know, I had to sketch stuff like that for art class in middle school. Two and a half years worth of jars, bottles, vases, kitchen appliances, and shoes. Why shoes? I have no idea.

[KKC]

[size=1]Mmm...Blenderism!

The blender looks really good, I think the scanning looks pretty good, I can see it just fine. The shading is pretty good, you seem to be pretty good at doing the shading on the see through glass part of it.

The mustard is pretty good as well, but the shading is a bit dirty looking, but they arn't called sketch books for nuthin' :) All these kitchen drawing are making me hungry though *eats some girls scout cookies*

I think drawing kitchen stuff is fun ^^ I think it makes good practice sketching out bottles and such, it's a lot easier then your backyard, but land scaping in fun. [/size]

[Syk3]

[QUOTE=Megumi]Do you always go sketching in your kitchen?

Seriously, they're pretty good sketches. Again, you might want to consider adding contrast to them- it does wonders for the detail.

You might want to work on some more interesting subject matter- like sketching outside, or things with lots of texture that are more difficult to draw. Mustard bottles and salt shakers get a little boring after a while. I know, I had to sketch stuff like that for art class in middle school. Two and a half years worth of jars, bottles, vases, kitchen appliances, and shoes. Why shoes? I have no idea.[/QUOTE][color=#30415d]A large portion of my drawings do seem to come from my kitchen, heh. This is due to the fact that I find I can most peacefully do my homework there, away from the computer and somewhat from the TV. So while I'm there, I look around and just draw anything.

And at any rate, these drawings aren't intended to be anything majoy, only to keep up our artistic talent, or something. He says it should only take around a half hour, so we shouldn't stress on it. I would really appreciate suggestions for things to draw, though. :)

Okay, I have two more drawings for you guys. The first one is of two boxes on top of each other, which people continually mistake for food processors, or something. o.o It really stressed on the shading, I think. Dated: 11-6-03

The next one is of a fancy candle thing. My mon had a ton of these, with the glass around being different colors and such, but I don't remember what color this one was. The shadow is also a little longer than my others. Dated: 12-11-03[/color]

[paco3]

I think[font=Times New Roman] you should draw something outside, also. It would be more happy looking and be more fun to look at. It might even bring more people here that will post. I do think it is vary nice, just needs some life.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman] My school does the same thing. I'm not in the right art class to do that though. I wish I was, because it is better than what i'm doing.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman] I noticed some one's signature says' "Married to Mei July 3." At least I think it is something like that. Anyhow the point is July 3 is my birth-day.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Just thought that was cool.;) [/font]

[Syk3]

[QUOTE=paco3]I think[font=Times New Roman] you should draw something outside, also. It would be more happy looking and be more fun to look at. It might even bring more people here that will post. I do think it is vary nice, just needs some life.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]My school does the same thing. I'm not in the right art class to do that though. I wish I was, because it is better than what i'm doing.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]I noticed some one's signature says' "Married to Mei July 3." At least I think it is something like that. Anyhow the point is July 3 is my birth-day.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Just thought that was cool.;) [/font][/QUOTE][color=#30415d]Yeah, well the thing about drawings things outside is that nature tends to be extremely detailed, and I'm one of those people that really feels like I have to draw something exactly as it is in order to portray it in it's deepest form. It would take me, at the very least, 2 hours to draw a single leaf, I'd say. lol It might look nice, but that's not really the point of the sketchbook. Just something that should take around a half hour, and it's meant to be stressed on or anything. If you have more specific examples for things outside that may be a little more simplistic, however, I'd love to hear them.

And yes, you read that in my signature. It was actually the fourth in many countries, but in any case, it was done to comemorate our.. now-friendship, heh.

Anyway, so I have two more sketches for you all, because I know that if I don't show you often enough, you just won't be able to take it. :)

The first one is of my GBA SP, of course. The shading is a lot more consistant than the moniter picture, but at some places, I think I should have put a lot more different values in, like around the buttons. There's also a lot of unfavorable smearing around the top of the picture, mostly from being in my backpack for a while. Dated: 12-18-03

The next one is of my alarm clock. I chose not to write in a lot of the text, and just concentrate on the buttons and design itself, along with the shading. I think I did pretty good on this one. Dated: 1-16-04[/color]

[WW2]

Well all the pics you have posted are pretty good, and have some interesting subject matter.
The perspectives you used for the machines are done well, and look accurate.

The only problem I have is the shading you used. It looks as though you used the same pencil for the entire drawing, which gives it a monotonous value.

In my opinion, you should start using different pencils like a 3B or 5B to help create a wider range of values.
This should make your pics more exciting to look at.

But then again...thats just my opinion. :D

[Shinmaru]

Call me biased but I like the drawings :p

The alarm clock looks pretty good...I think it looks a tad odd in places (especially in the upper right hand corner) but it's pretty accurate. The Game Boy Advance SP is just as good, though the perspective makes one side look larger than the other, I think.

Overall, though, it's good stuff; far better than I could ever hope to do in my lifetime, anyway lol.

[Syk3]

[QUOTE=WW2]The only problem I have is the shading you used. It looks as though you used the same pencil for the entire drawing, which gives it a monotonous value.

In my opinion, you should start using different pencils like a 3B or 5B to help create a wider range of values.
This should make your pics more exciting to look at.[/QUOTE][color=#30415d]Hm, I've never really thought about it, but yes, I do use the same pencil for the whole drawing. In fact, I use a mechanical pencil (*GASP!*), which, although heavily frowned upon in the artistic community, I feel is necessary to draw all of the thin lines in a picture without sharpening every 5 seconds. ;p As for shading.. I suppose more pencils couldn't hurt.[/color]
[QUOTE=Shinmaru]Call me biased but I like the drawings :p

The alarm clock looks pretty good...I think it looks a tad odd in places (especially in the upper right hand corner) but it's pretty accurate. The Game Boy Advance SP is just as good, though the perspective makes one side look larger than the other, I think.

Overall, though, it's good stuff; far better than I could ever hope to do in my lifetime, anyway lol.[/QUOTE][color=#30415d]Finally, someone who actually [i]likes[/i] the drawings! lol jk

I do see what you mean about the SP now. I probably should have brought the line in a little more to give it the effect of it being further back. :/

I like these next couple sketches a lot, probably because they're my latest ones, other than the GameCube controller I was talking about in the first post. The first one is of my CD player that I recently got. I don't think I did too bad on the shading, and I did an amazingly good job on the typography. I usually do horrible on that, which you'll notice when you see my GC controller drawing, but I suppose in this case I simply treated it as another part of the drawing. Dated: 2/9/04

The next one is of my glasses. I was originally very concerned of how I would make the ends look 3-dimensional as apposed to flat, but I think I did a good job on it in the end. I like the small detail and shadows, too, heh. Dated: 2/13/04[/color]

[Shinmaru]

I think these latest sketches are fantastic, quite honestly, the glasses especially. Strikingly close to photographic quality, I think.

It's easy to see how much you improved, perspective wise, from the last sketches to these two sketches. I like how the glasses are kind of bent slightly...it adds a nice effect to the sketch, I think. The left handle of the glasses looks sort of funky, though. The right handle looks far more natural, I think. Plus, the shadows are kinda eh. Still, good work, I think.

The CD player is just as good. You even replicated the logos very well, which I thought was quite cool. I also think the "groove" on the CD player was fantastically replicated. The only problem I have is that a couple of the buttons look sort of odd. However, it doesn't really take away from the sketch very much, so whatever.

Great work, man ^_^