Atemis: The Newbie Chronicles

[Atemis]

Posting this thread in the hopes it will motivate me to keep improving.
Right now i'm just practicing some of the basics, this weeks goal was to practice animal anatomy.
I only did two wolf drawings. :I

Hope to make them appear more 3D in the future.

 

[Maugryph]

Not bad. You proportions are off but if you keep practicing you should be able to tackle that. I see that your building with shapes, very good. Your drawing is still a little flat. try to see the shapes in 3-d. Try to see through the forums.
I would recommend this awesome book for you to check out. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Wildlife-J-C-Amberlyn/dp/0823023796. a quarter of the book is on how to draw wild canines like wolves, foxes, and coyotes

 

[mapdark]

Also you might want to invest in one of these:

Just saying , drawing on lined paper is the worst thing EVER. It can also distort the way you draw because of the tricks those lines play on your eyes.

 

[Atemis]

Not bad. You proportions are off but if you keep practicing you should be able to tackle that. I see that your building with shapes, very good. Your drawing is still a little flat. try to see the shapes in 3-d. Try to see through the forums.
I would recommend this awesome book for you to check out. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Wildlife-J-C-Amberlyn/dp/0823023796. a quarter of the book is on how to draw wild canines like wolves, foxes, and coyotes

I may be showing my inexperience by asking this, but is there a way to give your art more depth (and appear more '3D') without usings coloring and shading, or is that the only method?

 

[Maugryph]

I may be showing my inexperience by asking this, but is there a way to give your art more depth (and appear more '3D') without usings coloring and shading, or is that the only method?

The thickness of your lines can add depth to your drawings but you must still understand where the light is hitting the object to decide how thick the lines will be

 

[Atemis]

I was bored so I decided to try and hammer out a bust for a fursona.
Now i know what you are going to say, "Oh no not another wolf!" Well i'm not original enough to be a (insert obscure animal here) so you'll just have to deal with it.

I was inspired by a multitude of different popular artists and used bits and pieces of their styles as a sort of reference until i can fully develop a creative style to call my own.
It's not exactly where i want it to be right now, id like to make the muzzle shorter and bit more puffy/rounded and cartoonish, but I didn't feel to safe 'cartoonifying' that much yet. It looks much better on paper rest assured.
I'm going to use this picture to practice shading and line weight.


Ill probably return to trying to draw wolves and various animals more realistically.

 

[Goatsby]

If you're having trouble with line weight / quality, I would recommend that you practice drawing straight lines, circles, and curves using your arm and not your wrist.
If you use your arm as opposed to your wrist, you'll find that your lines will be more flow-y and crisp. It's difficult to do at first, but it's well worth it in the end.

What you're doing now is awesome and I hope you achieve what you're looking for in art. c:

 

[Atemis]

If you're having trouble with line weight / quality, I would recommend that you practice drawing straight lines, circles, and curves using your arm and not your wrist.
If you use your arm as opposed to your wrist, you'll find that your lines will be more flow-y and crisp. It's difficult to do at first, but it's well worth it in the end.

What you're doing now is awesome and I hope you achieve what you're looking for in art. c:

Thanks I will remember that!

Another quick sketch; I included the base work with this one hoping it could help isolate my mistakes.
Sorry about the lighting, I just had to work with it.

Both pictures are light as I don't have a scanner and had to use a camera phone.

I didn't warm up properly and unfortunately it shows. I really fudged up the nose this time around.

The two primary areas i'm concerned with are the ears, which seem completely wrong, and the muzzle (more specifically it's size in comparison to the rest of the head.) I really loved drawing this picture, but I can't shake the feeling that i'm doing something fundamentally wrong. Please be brutally honest.

I'd like to finish up perfecting the head and then move on to doing full body once my confidence is up.