Sketching to the next level?

Some more, perspective is off in a few places I can tell, but it’s practice.

varying the line weights is already helping things pop more.

The thing that stands out to me is your ellipses.

I made these images a while back to show what happens when the ellipse moves away from your eyeline.
Image 01
Image 02

This image shows how the minor axis is always oriented. In most instances, the minor axis always goes to your VP.
Image 03

Just some objects made from ellipses.
Image 04

Hope these help.

@ Yo- ya, it does for sure!
@ J6 Studios- great stuff! Thanks a bunch, I’ll add it to my list of exercises :stuck_out_tongue:

Tried out some ellipses today.



Skoshbox-

In the order that your latest sketches are posted, it looks to me like you are taking steps in the right direction. The bottom page looks a bit looser and I can spot some areas where the line weight difference is starting to add that “sketchy” POP that we all love so much.

Keep it up!

Agree that these are looking better!

You might like to try drawing cubes to warm up and then filling in the sides with ellipses like in the example below (actually just found the site but it has a lot of good info if you keep looking, is it from another C77 poster?). I noticed after doing only pages of ellipses that it was harder to draw an ellipse in the context of the rest of a sketch, but this helps that.

Robby-roy’s post is pretty important to learn because ellipses and cubes are building blocks for objects.

For instance, if you set a wheelbase for a car with ellipses, then you can use the box to find other proportions. If you use the cube then you can draw the ellipse etc.

Sketch-A-Day posted this link: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/trogu/420/reference/perspective/tutorials/ellipses.html

Thanks for the post Robby-Roy, good stuff! I remember doing that exercise in first year but I was never really good at it so I think I gave up. Gotta get back on the horse!
Some more exercises I’ve been doing:




On this one I’m getting better at noticing when my ellipses are off, but I still tend to draw them at the wrong degree, working on it.

did a quick resketch of your box with buttons.

I like to weight the lines heaviest at the bottom and sides. Try more cross contour lines to show form. Get into the habit of putting down a quick axis before you draw any ellipse that needs to be oriented to something else.

remember, if your tool doesn’t allow line weight variation with pressure changes, like a pencil, you’re going to have to lay down multiple passes to get a heavier line.

In my opinion, correct proportions in perspective is the most important thing to master. Line weight might be next then shading and lastly coloring.

Quick creative procrastination sketch I did, papermate fineliner.

Just doing some more practice:
Sketches_0058.JPG


Sketches_0060.JPG

Hot Dog! Your drawings have come a long way.

Your ellipses are looking much better. Try to make your straight lines straighter. They have a wobbly feel to them. Learn to sketch lines to a vanishing point. That will help get the shapes be in perspective and also help you with short and long lines.

I tend to use my wrist for small lines but my entire arm for long perspective lines.

Practice making up more complex shapes. I made this a while back but it’s an example of what I’m talking about.

@J6 thanks for pointing that out! I also did an hour of straight line drawing working on that today as well.

Ran across these guys on the net, can’t remember where but I love the quick style of them [not my sketch]:
Pandas quick.JPG

20 minute sketch of my headphones:
Sketches_0061.jpg

Update: Been at an internship at a small company (myself and one other design front most of the design work) for the past few months. I’ve been doing some furniture/graphic design and we started off sketching quite a bit, but recently it’s been computer graphics and now we’re actually building a trade show booth! Which is a good experience but my sketching has been getting rusty (so many things to do in a new, big city). So i sat down today and did some warmups and a sketch of my desk.

you liked those pandas figured you’d appreciate this image too
untitled_by_tinvasus-d8uj8i4.jpg