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 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.

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!

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

@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!!

Awesome (and very educational) to see the evolution of this. The final iteration looks great!

@carlianne Thanks so much for your very nice welcome message! I'm glad you enjoyed my little introductory ditty. Just as much as you enjoyed reading that, did I enjoy looking at the incredible illustrations on your website. Looking at them is simultaneously inspiring and intimidating; a very interesting mix of emotional responses—I shall name this INSPIRINTIMIDATION!!

@carlianne Thanks a million for the wonderful suggestion (The devil's in the details—or rather, in the perspective!). I immediately broke out the old dental kit (from the time when I wasn't quite sure whether I wanted to be a drummer, an illustrator, or a dentist!!), and went to work right away. The drill needed a little oiling, but once that was taken care of, it took only a moment. No worries...I gave the bunny some Nitrous oxide. Don't think he felt much! And while master hare was out, I also pushed the eye over just a bit. Had to improvise, since that's not something they taught us at the Hooterville Dental Academy.

Here's my handiwork...

@ArtofAleksey Beautiful and very intriguing designs! These shapes and curves are ever so graceful, and I love the details. Looks like that vehicle design class really paid off...

@Kim-Hunter said in Will Terry's live class from last week - Classwork:

@Casual-T Chocolate isn't health food? I know I must be really annoying to you all but I have just enough science in my background to be a horrific pain in the tail.

NIH article about the health benefits of chocolate. Cheers!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696435/

Of course there is a difference between cacao and chocolate, as well as a rather big difference between dark chocolate and the much more sugar-laden milk chocolate. Although the article you linked is quite interesting (although I haven't read it in its entirety), I am not so sure it is entirely trustworthy, since it quotes from a 08/2000 study financed by Mars Inc. Yes, that's Mars Inc., as in the makers of the utterly delightful Mars bar, the caramely goodness called Snickers, the crispy crunchy delight that isTwix, and everyone's favorite multicolored chocolate buttons M&M's, etc. One of the "health benefits" described in the article is "weight gain." Hmm? I doubt that many people living in the US have much of a problem with gaining weight.

But, I'm very open-minded, so I'll just hook up a quick cup of hot cacao, grab a good book, and retire for the evening. I'll let you know if it immunized me against COVID-19.

PS: My wife has told me on a number of occasions that my sense of humor is somewhat...uhm...off. So just to be clear, this is meant as a lighthearted and facetious response, rather than a serious discussion on chocolate's health benefits, or lack thereof.
PPS: Now where's that pack of Lindt I stashed away for a rainy day?

@Kim-Hunter said in Drawing with Digital Pencils - Classwork:

Nitrous oxide! That takes, Wild as a March Hare, to new levels. Cheers!

A bit off-topic, but this reminds me of a gig I did last year at a private party (I'm a drummer by trade, albeit currently somewhat underemployed due to parties having been outlawed!). One of the attendees at this particular party was a dentist who had brought a huge canister of Nitrous oxide from his office. So, while the band was laying down some funky jams, party people filled up balloons with N2O, inhaling the gaseous goodies. Suffice it to say, there was plenty of giggling and snickering (any maybe the odd bit of tooth pulling, just for the fun of it), and everybody was just about as high as a kite... One hell of a party!

@Kim-Hunter Cool beans! This forum is such a great place to learn. I'm loving it!

@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!!

@Gas-Docs I think the warlock lamp is a great idea. I can dig it!! I'm pretty new around here and don't claim to possess any expertise, compared to some of the SVS OG's. So please take my suggestions with 7 grains of salt (and perhaps a wee pinch of finely ground celery seed [for added flavor])...

The perspective on the middle horn seems a bit off, and I also can't quite tell how/where it attaches to the skull (drawing through might be helpful for this). The horn on the right looks like it's coming out of the skull's mouth (I'm guessing this would be one of those "Tangents" Will Terry mentions in his Creative Composition 2.0 class), rather than from behind the skull. The shading might have something to do with that, as well.

And just to be perfectly clear... I think perspective is devil's work. I struggle with it every time I attempt to draw anything other than a stick figure—and sometimes even then!!

@Annaaronson Great idea!Nothing beats good old-fashioned practice, when it comes to getting better at anything. Definitely looking forward to seeing your progress.

@Mara-Price Thanks much for the positive comment. Very glad you like it! It was a fun assignment to work on.

@Lee-White Thanks for pointing that out. I've adjusted that hot-spot on the horizon (along with a couple of other minor details). I'm glad it met with your approval otherwise. What a fun class that was (especially the fact that you neglected to record half of the last session )

@Paint-Doodles Nicely done! I took the same class just the other day, but haven't gotten around to posting my classwork just yet... This is a fun and very informative class, isn't it? I find it absolutely amazing how easy it is to trick our brains into seeing these 2D images in 3D, simply by adding a little light and shadow.

@Kim-Hunter Thanks for that excellent observation! I toned down the interior just a bit... Waddayathink?