Casual-T, or “T,” as he is known to friend and foe alike, bides his time amongst the living by hitting his drums in various late-night establishments of ill repute throughout NYC, in the hopes of making drunk people fall all over the dance floor in an all together amusing fashion. This is done in exchange for little green pieces of paper.
If that doesn't pay the bills, he spends his time sitting in his humble abode, hacking furiously at his backlit $20 keyboard, hoping to eventually outdo that proverbial monkey-army with their infernal typewriters. So far, no luck!
Thusly we move on to Plan C: Illustrating a children's book in partnership with his beautiful wife & confidant. She writes the text, he draws the pictures... A match made in heaven.
I really enjoyed @Will-Terry's & @Lee-White's live class this past week, and took the opportunity to practice by following along and using Will's coloring techniques. The image below is the sketch Will provided for the class, colored by yours truly. It's not meant to be an exact copy of his colors, but rather an attempt at duplicating his process. Any constructive criticism is, of course, much appreciated. Thanks for checking it out.
Hello good people of SVS! I hope everyone is keeping healthy and safe, during this rather "interesting" situation. If nothing else, at the very least this "mandatory vacation" provides many of us with some extra time to put pencil to paper, or, perhaps, stylus to screen, or brush to canvas, or chalk to concrete, or face paint to forehead... You get the gist.
Keeping within that spirit, I took @Will-Terry's excellent "Drawing with Digital Pencils" class, and wanted to submit my classwork for review and constructive criticism. Here's what I came up with...
Any pointers are much appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to check it out!
-T
Top o' the Evenin' to y'all!
My name is "T"—as in the esteemed British beverage, only not quite spelled the same. I've been lurking around SVS for a month or so, and figured today's as good a day as any to bid you all a jolly "hello!"
I'm a musician by night (gotta pay the bills somehow!), a writer by day, specializing in unfinished novels (I have a few excellent ones lying around the house!), and a composer/producer when the need arises. I also dabble in photography (mostly of stock), and spend the rest of my time getting as far away from mankind as I possibly can (living in New York City this is a Sisyphean task, to be sure).
Having said all this, some of you may wonder what I'm doing at SVS. Well, since I drum at night, write during the day, and take photographs when I sleep, I figured there wouldn't be much wrong with using the remaining in-between hours for a bit of illustrating. But wait! There's method to the madness...
My wife—who's a singer—and I, are currently in the process of recording an album of children's songs, and we had the marvelous idea of combining a few of the songs with corresponding picture books. And that's why I'm here... I was charged with the task of learning how to draw.
From what I have seen so far, SVS seems to be a very generous, caring, and utterly talented community of artists, art lovers, and pencil owners. So, even though seeing some of your incredible artwork is quite intimidating for a young pup such as myself, I will, with your kind permission, offer some of my beginning efforts for constructive criticism, ask for advice on how to best sharpen my Photoshop brushes, and possibly add 1 or 2 cents of my own on any given topic, every so often.
And with that I holler "Cheerio!" in your general direction, and look forward to good times here at SVS.
Thanks for reading,
-T
I mentioned it before, and will gladly do so again... Perspective is (and shall, for the immediate future, remain) devil's work. I look forward to the day when I shall raise my pencil in an altogether menacing fashion, and, with a swift stroke across the smooth and fragrant paper, smite down my enemy amongst yells of "Take that, you old fiend!" and "Away with you, spawn of Beelzebub!"
Yes, one fine day it shall be so. But, for the time being, I would much appreciate any hints, tips, and constructive criticism in regards to the images below. This is the final assignment from @davidhohn's excellent course on Perspective. If you haven't taken it yet, and are—like me—fighting the good fight against horizon lines and vanishing points, go and take it. It's worth every minute!
This is the "rough" version:
This is the "fancy" version:
Thanks for taking the time to check this out.
-T
@deborah-Haagenson Thanks much, Deborah. It was such a fun class, wasn't it? Artists have been doing master studies for centuries, and it is indeed one of the most valuable tools we students have. What's even more amazing is that we live in an age where, through the magic of these here interwebs, we can actually watch the masters do the do as they do the do they do, and interact with them by asking silly questions (I'm an expert at that!). Come to think of it, this would be an absolutely amazing age to live in, were it not for pandemics, inflation, power-hungry elites, and, most depressingly perhaps, the fact that chocolate is not health-food!! 
@johnchoi said in Drawing with Digital Pencils - Classwork:
@Casual-T I was thinking that maybe you could make the bunny's shadow follow the texture of the grass. It looks like the shadow is floating over or under the grass as it is.
I made some adjustments to the shadow according to your suggestions. I find it amazing how big of a difference some of these small adjustments make. Thanks for catching that, John.
Alright, so I'm biting the bullet and will dare to post my first non-classwork related piece of... uhm... art?! I've been perusing various beginner classes over the last two months, and tried to apply some of the things I've learned to this little fella. I shall name him/her/it Sammy the Squirrel. Feel free to offer advice on how to improve, or what I could/should do differently/better. I know the forum is chock-full with people who know a thing or two about a thing or three. Your time and expertise is much appreciated. Here goes nothing...
@Kim-Hunter Thanks for that excellent observation! I toned down the interior just a bit... Waddayathink?
Hey David... No worries, art is like riding a bike; once you get back into the saddle—even after 20 years—it only takes a couple of scraped knees, a chipped tooth (or two), and maybe a broken nose, and you'll be back like you never even left! Well actually, being a newbie around here myself, I don't know much about art as such, but I scraped plenty of knees riding my bike, so I guess that counts...
Very much digging the stuff on your Instagram!!
-T
I'm enjoying this class so very much. Huge thanks to @Will-Terry and @Lee-White for doing this. The amount of information one can gain by observing a master's process is invaluable!
@Dima-Eichhorn Well, as everybody knows, WIP stands for Wonderfully Important Project!
@Dima-Eichhorn That just means your husband and I have great taste! Ha!
And "MIA" is an acronym for the military term "Missing in Action." So when I say I was MIA, it means I was otherwise engaged and didn't have time to visit the forum.
Been MIA for a bit, but came back just to see what Lucy and Pigasso were up to... Love the fun ideas and really appreciate your style, Dima!
@Dima-Eichhorn I wonder what's behind it!
@LisaF Thanks much for the info. Looking forward to next week's Critique Arena... Let the games begin!
@Dima-Eichhorn Haha! That one (Day 24 Page 4) is particularly funny! Love it! 
@Dima-Eichhorn I haven't been on the forum for a few days, since I'm spending every waking minute at the moment setting up a website for some of my photography, but had to swing by and catch up on Lucy & Pigasso's adventures... I wonder what they'll get up to next.
Thanks for sharing this, Dima!
@Braden-Hallett Looks like I missed it, too... Hadn't checked the forum in a couple of days, since I'm in the midst of a project which keeps me busy 25/8 at the moment, and simply assumed it would be around the same time as the previous ones. Bummer!
@Heather-Boyd said in Sammy the Squirrel - First Attempt at Attempting a First:
If the nut is more your focus -up the contrast on that.
Thanks much for taking the time to respond, Heather. Your suggestion is very helpful. There are SO many things that need to be considered, to turn an alright image into something better. I know that with practice many of these things will become second nature, but for the moment I'm glad if I remember half a percent of one percent of two thirds of all the stuff that goes into a great illustration. 
-T