Savina's Sketchbook

[Wanderlust]

Hi everyone,

I’m so excited about NMA’s new look – yay for us students! 🙂

My name is Savina and I’m a fairytale artist.

I’m a little reticent to post my sketches here, to be honest, because I’m so SO far from where I want to be with my art, but I’m hoping that sharing my journey will help me to push to improve more. I hope we can get some student critique groups going too – that would be great!

Please feel free to offer feedback if you feel like it on any of my pieces – I don’t get offended – especially if you see an area I seem to be struggling with. I look forward to chatting with everyone here!

So without further ado, here’s my 1st set of recent sketches (cringe!):

WIP OF AN OWL:

WIP OF THE THREE BEARS

WIP OF A BEAR VS SQUIRREL:

As you can see, I struggle with shading, perspective & environments and clothing. This year I’m going to be focusing mostly on composition, perspective & environments and shading. The funny thing is that I had no problem shading a finished drawing, but I really struggle to shade a sketch because I don’t grasp the different techniques yet.

Next, I’ll include some of my animal studies, along with a couple of my finished pieces.

I’ll try to update this at least once a week, since I sketch every night. 🙂

[Deany]

Awesome drawings and paintings you’ve got! Can I ask a question, please? I’m wondering how long ago have you started drawing/painting and what approach have you used to improve your skills? Got someplace where I might follow your progress? Thank you

[Wanderlust]

Hi @andrix9743 – thank you for the compliment!

I started drawing in February of 2011, but had to take a year off in 2016 for health reasons. So I guess all told I’ve been drawing and painting for about 6 years. My progress has been very ugly, lol. I’ve only just recently been STARTING to see some progress on my forms and anatomy, so I don’t have any paintings yet that I’m happy with.

As far as what approach I’ve used, I didn’t really have one until I started at NMA and Schoolism this past year. Since then, I’ve been acting as though I’m taking art school and breaking my learning down into 10 week quarters, taking anywhere from 3-5 classes per quarter (which is what I was able to handle last year – this year I’ll probably knock it down to 3 or 4 because my health isn’t great again). I choose which subject I want to improve on, then I plan my class choices around that. For example, this past year I felt I most needed to learn form, so I took Rey Bustos’s class on human anatomy (EXCELLENT), which helped me then when I took Joe Weatherly’s class here on animal anatomy (also EXCELLENT), because I was able to relate the animal bones, muscles, etc., to where they are on a human. I also took Joe Weatherly’s animal figure drawing class on DVD, which I cannot recommend highly enough – it’s what really made a change in my over just a period of a month. And I took a few other related classes here at NMA. This year I want to improve my environments, so I’ll be taking perspective, landscape and composition classes.

I plan to post regularly here to this sketchbook, but you can also follow me on Instagram – just be prepared to be underwhelmed, lol; I’ve included my progress thus far there and you’ll see that it’s been slow going. 🙂 I hope you’ll post your work in a sketchbook here on the forums!

[Deany]

That’s great to hear! I’ve been drawing on and off since I was a child, although only around 2015 figured I’d at the very least try and bulk down on necessary fundamentals. Got burnt out not long into 2016, drawing lines and boxes/cylinders over and over again wasn’t very rewarding at the time.

Last year in January I’ve picked up drawing again, haven’t stopped by current date and have no desire to stop either. Although I can barely see my progress, sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’m making any, that and I’m ending up feeling a bit frustrated that I can’t create what I’d hope to. I’m not really disciplined enough and studying anything isn’t easy for me. But so far I am liking the courses I see here. I’d mainly want to venture into digital painting, which hopefully I can improve upon despite most courses here are traditional.

Found your instagram and I’m going to follow you. (Though my name there is different from the one I have here – deanyosla)

 

[Wanderlust]

I looked at your IG and your work looks great, @andrix9743! I was so frustrated since November at not feeling like I’d made a single bit of progress in a year, and then I watched a dvd by Joe Weatherly and suddenly everything I’d studied for the last year totally made sense and I made a leap forward. Sometimes you have to be like a squirrel who gathers a ton of nuts that you don’t eat, then when the right lightbulb gets turned on, it’s like all the nuts crack open (why in the world I thought of that analogy, I have no idea, lol, but it fits). I get so frustrated at still being a beginner and not being able to create the environments I want to, but I know it’ll happen if I just keep training. NMA definitely helps a lot because the community and constant updating of classes keep me feeling like I want to keep pushing. You should post some of your sketches here in the sketchbook area to help keep you motivated!

[RobertSeal-Coon]

Nice stuff!  I particularly like that simple drawing of the shocked cat.  Do you do illustrations?  I can just imagine these in a children’s book.

Also, you seem to have an impressive number of pencils on the go at any one time.  Are you using one hard, one soft and a mechanical pencil?

[Deany]

@SavinaFrancisco Thank you for the compliment! Sometimes I can hardly notice progress, although it increases gradually. That analogy fits most artists, I guess, because I end up looking for resources to hopefully improve my drawing/painting skills and then when I do actually find it – I lose any motivation to even attempt.

The courses here sorted into learning paths help in that regard, as I want to subconsciously complete the course so the blue progress bar gets filled. 😀 If only I’d make my own “progress” lists like that and actually follow them through. I’ve tried but it didn’t work that well.

I’ll most likely create a sketchbook thread soon enough, although I wonder if I can change nickname. Gonna try my luck with support section.

[Wanderlust]

Thanks, @robertseal-coon! I actually don’t want to be an illustrator (I’m TERRIBLE with deadlines and I don’t play well with others, lol), but I’m greatly influenced by the Golden Age Illustrators, so my work is very illustrative.

As far as pencils, I typically only use one pencil when I sketch – and HB. I have both a regular wood pencil by Staedtler and a lead holder by Staedtler; I like both for different reasons, but kind of just grab whichever is closest to me when it’s time to sketch :p .

[Wanderlust]

Unfortunately I think we all rarely notice our own progress, @deanyosla :/ .

I have trouble finishing courses too – I tend to bounce around. But I always make sure to make myself circle back around to finish a course, even if it’s a few weeks later. Of course it’s better to stick to one course and follow it through, I also have a focus issue, so it can be really tough. Hopefully having the learning paths here will help both of us with that!

[Wanderlust]

I wanted to include a couple of my older graphite drawings here because I’m hoping to do more this year and I’d like to see the old and new ones all in one place.

This one is called The Singing Lesson and it’s from 2015. You can clearly see my problem with environments here :/. This was also done before I’d learned about form, anatomy and structure, so you can see those mistakes here also.

This was from 2014 or 2015. This was the first drawing I did where I felt like I’d found the subject matter I enjoy drawing. It’s called The Mouse Wizard.

This was a commission I did in 2014. Again, you can see my issues with form and environment. I’ve done a lot of work to improve my form in the past year, so I’m hoping to improve my environments this year.

This one is from 2014:

[Deany]

Even artwork from 2014-15 looks awesome. I especially like the amount of details you managed to capture, plus all that realistic texture. :O So awesome.

[alec.justice00]

Great stuff! Reminds me of classic children’s books. Hope to see more from you!

[Ida Brown]

Love the line work and depth in your drawings! Keep it up

[Wanderlust]

Hey everyone! I had to quit NMA for a few years due to health issues and finances, but I’m baaaaaack 🙂 So I thought I’d post some of my progress here in my sketchbook. Here are some of my sketches & sketchbook paintings over the last year:

This one isn’t finished yet, but here’s what I’ve got so far of the apothecary shoppe:

Building a squirrel snowman:

At the museum:

Another unfinished one:

A couple of little sketchbook paintings:

 

[Azra]

Your sketchbook paintings are great , I’d really like to know more about the first one ,hope to see more from you

[Author]

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