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My drawing journal. (Lots of pics!)

22K views 193 replies 43 participants last post by  HorseCrazyTeen 
#1 ·
Here are some of my drawings! These are the copies so they aren't as good as the originals, unfortunatly--plus I don't have professional pencils to draw with, the way I would like. I gave all the originals away as birthdays or thank you's or whatever. Some detail was also lost because our scanner isn't the greatest. 

Here they are in the order I have drawn them in. I drew the first one a long time before the rest.

One of these days I'm going to get pencils that really draw boldly and smear well!
 

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#28 ·
Ok, I got a minute. that painting is one of the first commissions I did on HF. Still one of my favorite pieces.

Over time, I tend to get tighter and tighter and tighter, and I dont' mean this in a good way. I started out painting really loose and "fresh". And that's what was what was "my" style. over time, I got so wrapped up in getting the details just right, that I now struggle to keep the "feel" of a drawing.

but, this is not meant to be a critique of ME. why I mentioned it is that I see a really nice freshness and freedom to your style that I personally find very appealing, and I had at one time and hope I wont' entirely loose over time.

You aren't desperately worried about exact accuracie. you are ok with drawing a line that's a little wobbly, and drawing a correcting line right over the old one and letting them both exist in the same space. and you use line that is in a variety of motions; some horizontal, some vertical, some heavy, some squiggly. your drawings look like they are just caught in a moment of action; freeze framed, instead of having been created in a solid , stolid stillness, as if they were a statue. Get what I mean? I even like the way you have the writing going around the edges and are not overly concerned that it's all perfect and squared up.

I would suggest that you do take care about how the writing sits in the blank space around the main figure. You don't wnt to take up all the blank space. White area is important. So, don't have your white space all used in a very even way; use some for lettering and leave some to balance all the activity of the drawing. AND, good lettering is essential. I am very bad at lettering, so in the few cases where I have had it in a drawing I have asked my friend , who does caligraphy, to do it for me. If you do it, even if the style is "squiggly" do it well, conisistent sizes and spacing and lined up well. If it isn't , then it must look like its' INTENTIONALLY done this way and not just you being lazy or sloppy.

Teh way you did the hands on the last one, the girl, is perfect! not too much, not too little. this is why I think you have some talent. Hands are hard to do.
 
#31 ·
Thank you everyone.

Hey everyone! Sorry I took so long to answer. I had my post all done and previewed and everything, but my dad accidently lost my page before I posted it.

tinyliny -- Thank you so, so much for all of your input. You notice things about the way I draw and it helps me out. It is also interesting to see the things you've pointed out (and jaydee too) about my drawings that I haven't really noticed before.

I think all of your drawings and paintings seem very free and fresh. You show the mood and emotion in them so well. I wouldn't have ever possibly guessed you might struggle with it. I love your work :)

About the lettering... I do tend to use that too much, because I want it to take the place of the background, as I detest (and I mean DETEST) drawing backgrounds. I don't know why I don't like it. I actually kind of regret doing the lettering on the top of the sketch; it does seem like too much. I think that the "True Love" would have been better, but once I drew it I couldn't erase it without it showing. I have a bad habit about starting something dark, so that I can't erase it thoroughly... :oops: Anyway, thanks for pointing that out! I will be careful about what I do with that in future.

WSArabians -- LOL No, it's not Khemosabi. (I had to look up "Khemosabi" to see who/what he was; I didn't know) It was copied from a random picture I found somewhere. It was a blurry one, so it was kind of hard to copy. I had to just make up some stuff to take the place of details that weren't there.

TheLauren -- I'll try to start on the baby one soon so I can post it up on here! I might post pictures of my progress. :)
 
#33 ·
tinyliny -- Thank you so, so much for all of your input. You notice things about the way I draw and it helps me out. It is also interesting to see the things you've pointed out (and jaydee too) about my drawings that I haven't really noticed before.

I think all of your drawings and paintings seem very free and fresh. You show the mood and emotion in them so well. I wouldn't have ever possibly guessed you might struggle with it. I love your work :)

About the lettering... I do tend to use that too much, because I want it to take the place of the background, as I detest (and I mean DETEST) drawing backgrounds. I don't know why I don't like it. I actually kind of regret doing the lettering on the top of the sketch; it does seem like too much. I think that the "True Love" would have been better, but once I drew it I couldn't erase it without it showing. I have a bad habit about starting something dark, so that I can't erase it thoroughly... :oops: Anyway, thanks for pointing that out! I will be careful about what I do with that in future.

:)

The lettering is not a bad thing. I like it. And , this thing you call a bad habit; of writing it first in dark, is an indication of your boldness and self confidence and fearlessness in occupying the page. I think that is just smashing! you can't buy that. you've either got it or you don't.

Don't be afraid of the lettering. Just pushi it a little. I mean, experiment with making it larger, and smaller and leaving some blank space. You need not worry about the background. you are not a camera. The camera has not choice but to do the background. you can include or exclude it , as per your sense of what has the best graphical balance.
 
#32 ·
The background is sometimes a bit daunting - or even boring so taking the 'less is more' approach can work better - a few light lines and some shading - create the horizon, a tree or trees, some grasses around the horses feet all help to give depth. Its actually amazing what you can do with pencil strokes - need not be 'photographic'
This is sketch my son did a few years ago - not a horse - but he's used a mix of shading and then fine and bold pencil to just create an illusion of whats there around the more careful study of our old garden tractor Alice which makes it stand out more
 

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#34 ·
jaydee~ Your son can really draw. I love that picture. And I see what you mean about the "less is more" and the shading and different pencil lines-- that is very helpful to me. I will have to try something like that soon, instead of trying to do exactly what the background actually has or skipping it altogether. Thanks for the example!

tinyliny~ Ohhhh. So it's not a bad thing to start dark, that's great to know!

Okey doke, I will experiment around with the lettering a bit, then. And you are right that I'm not a camera; I never looked at it that way before, really. lol

I have a question for everyone and anyone. Do you freehand the basic outlines or do you trace or transfer them onto your paper? I do freehand but it takes way longer and I have to keep checking that I have it agreeable with the photo. The outlines aren't as clean as if I trace, either. But, I feel kind of guilty when I trace because I feel like I cheated! It's silly but I do. So what do you all do? And why?
 
#35 ·
I dont trace I draw free hand. Unless I'm doing one with coloured pencils or watercolour or something where Im concentrating on the colour and cant be bothered doing the outline free hand. But yes I would say 95 % of the time I do it freehand. Im like you I feel like Ive 'cheated' If I trace.
 
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#36 ·
My son has had to learn the hard way by taking and accepting some really tough critiscm that did shake him for a while but he was determined and pulled himself together because he sees art as a major part of his career plan
I dont trace - I use very fine pencil lines to mark out the entire piece first
If you struggle with proportions you could experiment with making a 'grid' on some tracing paper that you lay over the photograph and use a size adjusted grid drawn on tracing paper to lay over your the piece you're working on - obviously you cant do this if you're working from actual real life!!
 
#38 ·
Thanks you all for responding!

Here is that baby I'm in the process of drawing.

First here are the basic outlines, in freehand of course.

Drawing Sketch Text Illustration Line art


And here she is with the face partly done. I loved doing the eyes because this baby has such big, expressive, beautiful ones :) I will post more progress on it tomorrow.

Photograph White Drawing Head Sketch
 
#41 ·
Great start
Dont forget babies tend to have soft pudgy faces which means less shadow and much finer lines than you would see in an older person with sharper features and contours from wrinkling and hollowing as the skin & muscle tone ages
Have you ever thought about experimenting with charcoal or pastels - even coloured pencils?
 
#42 ·
Thanks jaydee. I'm already done with this one, but next time I draw a baby I will keep all of that in mind!

I actually have gotten real interested in trying some colored pencil drawings lately, seeing some of Catlinpalomino's :) The only problem is that I don't have any good colored pencils now. I want to get a bunch of Prismacolors though. They're real good quality. I had some when I was little, but of course then all I did was play around with them. Now most of those pencils are gone or used.

I have charcoal sticks and pencils and have drawn a little with them, but I prefer regular pencil because they aren't so messy... As for pastels, I have no clue! I don't know how to use them and I haven't ever tried. I'd like to someday though. And I kinda want to give watercolor another shot, but I don't have the equipment for that either.

Okay, here's the baby! I really loved doing this one; babies are one of my favorites to draw. Usually it takes me a lot longer than two days because I get up and down and up and down and up and down and up... and down. lol This time I actually sat down and concentrated.

In this one I focused too much on shading and not enough on likeness to the photo, so this one is a little off. I shaded a bit to much, too.

View attachment 125276

I fixed a lot of the mistakes I'd made in the last one and finished the mouth. Up to this point all I used was just a mechanical pencil.

View attachment 125286

And here is the finshed product! I touched it up and then used my good drawing pencils to shade and put expression into the eyes.

View attachment 125281
 
#44 ·
Oh yaay I inspired someone! haha I recomend you try coloured pencils I am actually finding that I am getting the hang of them and Its fun trying colour.

As for your latest drawing, It is Amazing! Absoloutle cuteness overload. The eyes really pop out and the shading on the cheeks is so soft! Really nice work!
 
#45 ·
The finish result is lovely - I do admire your patience and courage to do portraits - they are really hard to do and babies and children have to be the most difficult
You should try the coloured pencils - I cant say that I got on well with pastels and I prefer acrylics to watercolours. A long time ago, almost by accident I 'discovered' some paints in the UK that are sold in tiny little tins by a company called Humbrol for people who paint models, they behave like an oil paint so you can get great shading effects using a 'dry brushing' technique but unlike true oil paints sold for artists they dry quite fast.
 
#46 ·
Thanks you two! I think that this drawing is maybe my personal favorite. I didn't really struggle with anything like I usually do, and plus babies are irresistibly cute and fun to draw.

Caitlinpalomino-- You certainly did! I'm thinking I might be asking for some Prismacolors for my Birthday...

jaydee-- That's funny, babies have always come easier to me than adults. But horses or other animals are the easiest. You can't mess up the likeness near as easily as with people. If you get one thing wrong with people it's a whole lot easier to notice. Smiles and teeth-- whew. The worst.
 
#47 ·
I love the way you capture people I am jealous I have the hardest time drawing people lol. You can give me all sorts of different animals to draw but me and drawing people don't get along well. :D
 
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#48 ·
Well thanks Peppy!

I used to have so much trouble with people, but after a year long break of hardly any drawing I found I could draw them. Since then I've drawn more people than anything else. I haven't drawn a dog or cat in what...two or three years? My main subjects are horses and people.
 
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#51 ·
Thanks guys! :D

Dreamcatcher5~ I do draw horses for people here on HF sometimes. I think I've done three so far, so if you want me to draw a picture of him then just PM it to me. I can't guarantee when it will be done though. It might be done in a couple days to a couple weeks. Just depends on what's going on!
 
#52 ·
Here are some more progress drawings, this time of Dreamcatcher5's horses. I will finish the rest of it either tonight or tomorrow!

Here's the plain line drawing; the only things I didn't do yet are the palomino's eye and muzzle.
Drawing Sketch Line art Line Figure drawing


I have some basic shading and details done.
Drawing Sketch Nose Figure drawing Artwork


I'm in the middle of drawing the palomino's mane, and I still need to add details and shade/highlight.
Drawing Horse Sketch Head Nose
 
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