Hello everyone, Oblongly here! I'm a silly little lady, young and spry at the age of 21 . I've been peepin' around for quite a while and I've finally decided to start a sketchbook. My art journey has been a weird one. I have been drawing all my life, but recently started to take it seriously this october. Eventually I would like to work as a professional illustrator/animator. Not only is critique welcome, but wanted! I am seriously working to improve.


Oct.01.2016 The first portrait painting I did to kick things off


October Doodles


November doodles


Animations Oct.- Nov.
Move it, Move it


December Doodles so far...

Very nice sketchbook so far! Glad you joined the forums and I think it's great that you are getting serious about drawing and exploring a of different methods. My favorite so far are you animations. They are lots of fun . looking forward to seeing more.

geryes wrote:Very nice sketchbook so far! Glad you joined the forums and I think it's great that you are getting serious about drawing and exploring a of different methods. My favorite so far are you animations. They are lots of fun . looking forward to seeing more.

Thank you! Yeah I'm not really sure what my style is right now. I figured I would just jump around and try things until something sticks. Glad you like the animations, I have a couple that I will be posting soon.

December.06.2016
This is something I started working on yesterday, I'm working on trying to finish it today. I need to modify the rib cage to make the arms seem like they belong there. As far as those giant arms go, I think I am going to shrink those down a lot more, maybe to slightly larger than her regular set of arms. I think I will also lengthen the torso/widen the hips so it gives them a place to anchor to. The legs are looking kind of funny too although I'm not sure how to fix them. Any advice?

I found drawabox.com not too long and today I finally starting doing some of the exercises. I'm in dire need of a better foundation in fundamentals, so I figured this would be good for me ^^.

After doing some practice today, I wanted to do something for fun.

This is something I drew back in the beginning of october (oct.1st.2016), It's this man in the process of turning into a dragon.


I figured I would finally try to paint it now. So I'm doing this late night paint session, when I realize I have no Idea what I'm doing.


I'm trying to block out forms, but I just don't know where I should be doing them or how I should be adding light. It's a jumble of confusion. The tail is really throwing me off and I tried looking up references for fish fins or bat wings with a strong light source, but found none. I have no idea how light is supposed to be going through his tail . I'll be trying again later in the day because I wanted to at least get it to a point where it reads well and doesn't need the underlying line work.

And this is why I really need to brush up on my fundamental skills hahaha

Decided to practice some hands today and then I did a sloppy animation for fun.

Continuing on with the drawabox lessons

Continuing my Drawabox exercises and dabbled in a quick gesture drawing session.
I'm starting to like drawing in ink more and more.

The anatomy is wonky, but it was fun using markers xD

Just checked out your sketchbook, and boy, do I envy your dedication! I wish I had that sort of stamina, haha. I see so many people using drawabox to learn their fundamentals, and I'm thinking it might be time for me to maybe check it out. Do you feel like it's helping? Maybe it's hard to tell from this early on, though.

I also really love your figure studies! Loose and expressive, but not so much that you lose the form. The dragon (wyvern?) creature you used for your value study is awesome, and I think you were headed in a great direction with it. I hope you continue to work on it!

DRaff210 wrote:Just checked out your sketchbook, and boy, do I envy your dedication! I wish I had that sort of stamina, haha. I see so many people using drawabox to learn their fundamentals, and I'm thinking it might be time for me to maybe check it out. Do you feel like it's helping? Maybe it's hard to tell from this early on, though.

I also really love your figure studies! Loose and expressive, but not so much that you lose the form. The dragon (wyvern?) creature you used for your value study is awesome, and I think you were headed in a great direction with it. I hope you continue to work on it!

Oh my god xD it's funny that you said that, because recently I feel like I haven't been doing enough. Thanks for that though, because today was one of those days I was feeling down about my art. Yeah it is kind of early, I just started drawabox 4 days ago, but I actually do think it's helping me. When I go to sketch something now I think more about form instead of shapes. I use it along with Scott Robertson's How to Draw book, I think I'll see the benefits more the longer I do the exercises . You should definitely check it out and plus it is all free. You can also submit all your exercises on the subreddit for critique! There are a lot of people there to help out if you don't understand something.

Thank you and I don't know what it is, just a man transforming XD. My basic idea behind it was a fantasy world where the more evil things you do, the more you start slowly transforming into a dragon. This guy is basically halfway there haha. I'm definitely looking to complete it, I'm just not sure what my next steps are for it .

Today's drawabox exercises


Here is another WIP, this is a painting I did not too long ago when my painting skills were pretty meh. I'm trying to repaint it now with my newfound skills, but it's looking a bit flat. I probably need to go in and fix the contrast, but I am not sure at all about where the lighting and shadows are supposed to be going . (I really need to learn how to paint hair )

Redoing yesterdays drawabox exercise


Sketching up some skulls, I'm super rusty with these since I haven't drawn any in a while. Also, some more gesture drawing.

Have about three more drawabox exercises to do to complete the first lesson.


Didn't really get to draw much yesterday, dentist appointment and other things. Today I was back on my schedule doing some figure drawings and skulls.

That wizard painting is so cool! I feel you on the painting hair thing - I have zero idea how it works, either, ahaha.

I think the lighting you chose for the values is a little confusing; it almost feels like his face values are inverted? I think the light is supposed to be coming from below, but it looks like the top of his arm is lit, which is a bit strange. Though, I think the white background might be throwing a lot of it off; having a darker background might help it seem as though he's in a dark environment and being lit from below. Maybe? I don't know. xD

And it's great to see the studies as usual. The style of your figure/gesture drawings is really angular and cool

DRaff210 wrote:That wizard painting is so cool! I feel you on the painting hair thing - I have zero idea how it works, either, ahaha.

I think the lighting you chose for the values is a little confusing; it almost feels like his face values are inverted? I think the light is supposed to be coming from below, but it looks like the top of his arm is lit, which is a bit strange. Though, I think the white background might be throwing a lot of it off; having a darker background might help it seem as though he's in a dark environment and being lit from below. Maybe? I don't know. xD

And it's great to see the studies as usual. The style of your figure/gesture drawings is really angular and cool

Thank you , and yeah hair is weird. I watch tutorials and think I understand it when I watch, but when I go try it myself it just looks like blobs lol!

Whoa, you are so right xD. I wanted it to come from below, but the face was the only thing I sort of knew how to do. I have no idea how to shade clothing/paint hair etc. I really was trying to do something too advanced for my skillset haha. I'll make the background dark and see what else I can fix haha. I used this reference for the light on the face.



Thanks! I really like gesture drawing, 30s-1 min are my favorite to do. I think that's why I have trouble with the longer timed sketches, after a while I look at the paper like, " oh crap I have 10 minutes left, what else am I supposed to do?!?!"

Another drawabox exercise


I got my hands on Michael Hampton's Figure drawing book and I really like it. It is so heavily based on the fundamentals, drawabox will definitely help me with this.








I'm also starting Istebrak's 14 day face painting challenge and boy do I have a rocky start. I'm ready to start improving!

Recently I have really been thinking about maybe applying to Art Center's Entertainment Design- Concept track. Obviously my artwork is no where near the skll level yet, but I'm seriously think about pushing my practice into over drive so I could maybe start a portfolio the middle or end of next year. I know it's a lot of work ahead of me, but I think I'm able to do it! I know art school isn't needed and it's expensive, but I don't know, I really like art center. haha

drawabox exercise, It looks really off I'm going to give another try.


Attempting more gesture drawing, I think I will try to break it down to a specific part to study, like the torso.

Completed Lesson 1 of drawabox


Just a few skull sketches and I got started on working on the anatomy of the torso today.

Nicely done with the box exercise. There is something oddly satisfying about seeing a lot of boxes in floating back in space . I also really like the portrait you started as well. The values are really nice. Keep up the great work.

Hello there! =). Nice studies you've done, I see you were doing drawabox. Great linework with those exercises, very clean and precise, lineart like that is always a pleasure to see =). Oh and you had a pretty nice start to the face challenge, I would just recommend to take care of where the eyes are looking and up the eyes a bit closer to the eyebrows, but I'm sure you've been told this already ^^ Anyway, keep up the good work!

geryes wrote:Nicely done with the box exercise. There is something oddly satisfying about seeing a lot of boxes in floating back in space . I also really like the portrait you started as well. The values are really nice. Keep up the great work.

Yeah, I feel you on the boxes, it's sort of relaxing in a way. Thanks a lot though geryes, I'll keep on pushing on!

Valkhira wrote:Hello there! =). Nice studies you've done, I see you were doing drawabox. Great linework with those exercises, very clean and precise, lineart like that is always a pleasure to see =). Oh and you had a pretty nice start to the face challenge, I would just recommend to take care of where the eyes are looking and up the eyes a bit closer to the eyebrows, but I'm sure you've been told this already ^^ Anyway, keep up the good work!

Hey Hey!! Thank you! A lot of the artist I like are great with lineart, so I try to emulate it xD haha. I have always been a fan of crispy lines! Wow thanks, it's funny because in the critique video Istebrak warned me of the same exact thing! Only thing you mentioned more that I noticed it that I need to move the eyes up, I wish I would have saw this before I did my repaint haha. Any tips are appreciated all of this digital painting is so new to me, people tell me to use certain brushes and I'm just like," huh???, umm let me see if sketchbook pro has that...ehh??" Thanks again though!

Some random doodles, getting ready for drawabox lesson 2 and starting some exercises from Scott Robertson's book.


Finally added the bottom torsos to the rest of the first page of my anatomy sketchbook.

Random anatomy doodles in a different sketchbook.

I took DRaff210's advice and did a quick rough paint over just to see how it would change the piece. It definitely makes the piece read a loooot better. I still don't understand much about light/shadow so I'm thinking of doing some basic light studies with cubes,cones etc. and yeah I still suck at painting hair, so I didn't even touch . I need to work on that haha.

This was my day 2, I fixed up quite a bit, but now the symmetry is off xD. I also need to move the eyes up/or eyebrows down like Valkhira suggested. The side planes of his face and his mouth are still confusing me a bit though.

Hey, nice sketchbook!
I very very like the studies of skeleton! You have nice feeling of form in your drawings, especially the simplified gestures!
Your gestures are also nice! I love the flow in this one


Keep it up!

The wizard painting definitely looks better now! And yes, hair continues to be a nightmare. Boo.

And yeah, about art school: if you really think it'll help springboard you into becoming the artist you want to be, then go for it. However, as someone who went to a design-related school (video game design), I can personally say that the experience wasn't worth it - I wish I'd known that the skill you can gain from getting a degree in a creative field can also be gained completely on your own with the right motivation. Sure, there were networking opportunities and stuff, but it definitely was not worth the dent in my wallet, IMO.

Not trying to dissuade you, but thought maybe I'd chip in on that end. Ultimately, though, do what you think is best.

Koźlik wrote:Hey, nice sketchbook!
I very very like the studies of skeleton! You have nice feeling of form in your drawings, especially the simplified gestures!
Your gestures are also nice! I love the flow in this one

Spoiler: show

Keep it up!

Thanks a lot Koźlik! I really fell in love with brush tip markers, that really help with getting a "flowy" feel. ^^!!

DRaff210 wrote:The wizard painting definitely looks better now! And yes, hair continues to be a nightmare. Boo.

And yeah, about art school: if you really think it'll help springboard you into becoming the artist you want to be, then go for it. However, as someone who went to a design-related school (video game design), I can personally say that the experience wasn't worth it - I wish I'd known that the skill you can gain from getting a degree in a creative field can also be gained completely on your own with the right motivation. Sure, there were networking opportunities and stuff, but it definitely was not worth the dent in my wallet, IMO.

Not trying to dissuade you, but thought maybe I'd chip in on that end. Ultimately, though, do what you think is best.

Thanks, your advice really helped out a lot, I don't know what I was thinking using a white background previously .

Yeah I totally agree with everything you're saying. Me wanting to attend art school was a fairly recent flip flop of mine ( a week ago haha). My parents use to want me to go and I would avidly tell them "Art school isn't worth it, it's super expensive and I can basically learn everything on my own!" It's still something I tell other people, I guess what draws me in now is the sense of community, the teachers, the work they put out and being around so many creative people. My high school was an art school (a bit different we had majors and such and I was a visual art major), so I am sooo used to being around other art students and I basically lost all of my connections since then (I graduated in 2014).

I feel like this is a pretty chill community so I'll be frank with you. This is my situation, after HS the next year during 2015 I basically working all year trying to figure out what to do. This year I started school in another state in August (degree unrelated to art), but had to come back home because of wonky reasons. So I was back home near the end of September and October was when I figured I should start doing something with my art. I was Finding all of these tutorials (watching all of sinix videos, yeah I'm guilty xD) and pushing myself to get better. Which leads to now, I'm unemployed (looking for work), no bills to pay, no friends xD, and I'm at home everyday just drawing, so I guess I'm kind of lonely . Teaching myself these past few months has been a great experience and I have become much more confident in my abilities. Since it is super competitive to even get into ACCD, I just thought I would give it a shot and plus I really like it. Hopefully I can visit and take a tour. When I told my mom she just looked at me with this blank expression and said, "aren't you the one that always told me art school not even worth it?"

Most of the portfolios that make it into ACCD look professional already to me, so what I was thinking of doing is take the time to improve my skills and create an amazing portfolio. Since it's soooo expensive I would send it to Art center and if accepted see if they'll offer a nice amount in scholarships and if not just send my portfolio off to companies. That's pretty much the plan atm and I think it's a win-win scenario. Thanks a lot for the good advice as usual though !

I got a little bored with drawing boxes and took a small break. I decided to work my creativity a bit and try my hand at doing some of those really neat looking silhouette concept sketches. The first page was me looking for cool shapes and the second one I picked a subject and made 20 variations of it. The last page I was looking at some snails, trying to make some variations, and then snail men happened.

Ah, knowing your high school background, I think wanting to go to school makes a lot more sense. I totally get what you mean about suddenly not being surrounded by like-minded people anymore; that's happened to me more times than I'd have liked. Should you ultimately decide to go to Art Center, I wish you the best, and I'm sure it'll be the right choice for you.

DRaff210 wrote:Ah, knowing your high school background, I think wanting to go to school makes a lot more sense. I totally get what you mean about suddenly not being surrounded by like-minded people anymore; that's happened to me more times than I'd have liked. Should you ultimately decide to go to Art Center, I wish you the best, and I'm sure it'll be the right choice for you.

Yeah it blows when it happens, but good thing we have forums like this, it's good to be around people although virtually who love art as much as I do haha. Thanks a lot! If anything I need to be asking you for some painting tips, I really need it xD lol!

Todays Warm-up and starting the 250 box challenge. I got to 50 so far!


Yesterday I was thinking about doing the character design challenge of the month and I chose the two topics, fastfood and frantic. Of course I had to go with Ronald Mcdonald and the hamburglar, so I ended up doing some thumbnails. I'm still not sure which one I will do. (p.s. the guy looking through the glass is supposed to be Grimace, the figure was just a place holder hehe)


Today, I did some work in my anatomy sketchbook, doing a ribcage breakdown. Afterwords I did a page of figure drawing.




Afterwards I wanted to try some environment sketches, but that didn't last for long. It ended up turning into composition thumbnails an area I definitely need to work on.


Then I was back to my silhouette design practice.


To end the day, I did some skull sketches and some animals.