Razor's 2019 Sketchbook

[slash razor]

thats a nice owl! ;)

no art in 6 days :OOOOOOO

oh yes the owl if only I can get to that lvl still stuck drawing the circles

yes been a few day been sort of sticking to traditional and havnt been bothered to post

[slash razor]

okey dokey lost a bit of motivation last few days, sort of lost focus on which direction Im heading.... not depression or anything like that more burn out

anyway sort of in the charcoal mode at the mo.... watched a couple figure studies on youtube so trying to get that painterly feel and light and shadow .... I wanted to get it darker but the sticks and pencils just aint dark enough.... feedback welcome maybe 45-60 mins each and a couple Kley studies

[Fedodika]

so for this one,

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/attachme...205554.jpg

I feel the arm is a little short, and the edges are good in some places like the upper back, but once you get to the sacrum area, they get smudgy but really, i did a figure drawing a few months back with the same issue and almost sold the thing so its not a big deal :D

Her cranium could also be taller, really get the roundness and fullness of that hair.

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/attachme...205629.jpg

This one her butt, it just... it makes me sad, like the shadow from her crack looks kinda muddy and the way the leg on the left side of the page goes in is very sharp, but i understand its going forward and its being obscured in the value, id try to seperate that form, since the gesture doesnt follow the contour of the left side. Her head is kinda cone shaped. with women always go for more round, more volume in hair.

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/attachme...205705.jpg

With this the scalpula, i dont think the hard edge would have a line that hard to seperate it near the rhomboid, only thing is just be more careful with those buttcracks, be delicate, butt cracks are beautiful subtle things, they love you :D

[slash razor]

thanks Fedodika.... been longtime since I did anything longer then 20min quick pen sketch.... I notice Im in a hurry when I should take more time and try and get the proportion more accurate.... just got to slow down

yep you spot on with the arms they look like stumps lol and yep will be more careful with the butt... you havnt made it until you can draw a good female butt :)

[slash razor]

failed with the head so just blacked it out

[Fedodika]

the edges are quite nice dude, as you said you failed the head, thats probably a deep message from destiny letting you know what to work on ;)

[slash razor]

thanks Fedodika emmmm destiny yes you have my full attention :)

ok good plan will work on both... did this last night trying to seperate light and shadow

[slash razor]

more studies

[Fedodika]

something about these strikes me as a little weird, like the one first the eye lid on "her" right, and like how you indicated the eye socket on the far side as pointy, ive never seen a skull do that

and like the male head, the shadows are super hard around the lip area, i see what youre going for but idk some of the edges feel too hard, if you are copying something id be interested to see what the original was :O

[darktiste]

This what it mean to have a full range of value.Good job.I would second with fedo for the edging job i think you have to realize the rounded nature of the face you hardly get those hard edge unless it fall near a bone structure the place you normally get hard edge will of course depend of the light direction but a good thing to remember is round vs hard edge. This mean that the surface is more like a sphere,egg or cylinder or is the surface more like a cube or more like what i would refer to as planar surface(not rounded).You have to understand that you can get hard cast shadow or soft cast shadow.One exercise i recommend is to take a ball and a table lamp.Place the ball on the ground.The shadow are much harder if the ball is near the ground but if you lift the ball observe the shadow it become softer.One exercise is to try and take simple primitive form and make your own shadow scenario.

[Amit Dutta]

Nice to see some decent studies and in charcoal too and focusing on actually important fundy drawing skills. You're gonna level up big time if you continue this mate :)

Can i ask how big you are drawing? A2 or minimum A3 newsprint and drawing larger can help you hone your edge control until you get the dexterity upskilled. If you really want to isolate and work edges, doing 20 min layins (enough time to be challenging not enough to waste time) with edges but no tone at all until perhaps the very end if there is time, is a massive skill and hand-eye booster.
Bradwyn Jones on yt has some good videos showing the same process we've also been doing at the studio classes which is heavily Reilly /Watts focused. You might also want to read Harold Speed's book on Drawing which is all about the academic method and probably help you flesh out the context and why these things are so important.

As fedo mentioned your proportions and edges likely could do with more accurate mapping which will likely be shown in analysing the refs. But your accuracy will come on quick and improve big time if you keep doing the focused layins.

[slash razor]

something about these strikes me as a little weird, like the one first the eye lid on "her" right, and like how you indicated the eye socket on the far side as pointy, ive never seen a skull do that

and like the male head, the shadows are super hard around the lip area, i see what youre going for but idk some of the edges feel too hard, if you are copying something id be interested to see what the original was :O

its a special type of skull ;) lol Im assuming you mean the eyelash? but yes I did struggled with that one Feds the lighting was all over the show.... there is a dark line going from the top of her eye to her towards her ear that was supposed to be a shadow lol but just came out a fail tbh I sort of gave up on it

yea the male portrait I was in 2 minds whether to go just dark shadow or keep some of that rim lighting on his shadow side in the end it was a mish mash of both.... Ill def keep and eye out for that

thanks Feds do appreciate your feedback

[slash razor]

This what it mean to have a full range of value.Good job.I would second with fedo for the edging job i think you have to realize the rounded nature of the face you hardly get those hard edge unless it fall near a bone structure the place you normally get hard edge will of course depend of the light direction but a good think to remember is round vs hard edge. This mean is the surface is more like a sphere,egg or cylinder or is the surface more like a cube or more like what i would refer to as planar surface(not rounded).You have to understand that you can get hard cast shadow or soft cast shadow.One exercise i recommend is to take a ball and a table lamp.Place the ball on the ground.The shadow are much harder if the ball is near the ground but if you lift the ball observe the shadow it become softer.One exercise is to try and take simple primitive form and make your own shadow scenario.

thanks darktiste good suggestions I do have a skull so I might get some still life in while studying the forms....

[slash razor]

Nice to see some decent studies and in charcoal too and focusing on actually important fundy drawing skills. You're gonna level up big time if you continue this mate :)

Can i ask how big you are drawing? A2 or minimum A3 newsprint and drawing larger can help you hone your edge control until you get the dexterity upskilled. If you really want to isolate and work edges, doing 20 min layins (enough time to be challenging not enough to waste time) with edges but no tone at all until perhaps the very end if there is time, is a massive skill and hand-eye booster.
Bradwyn Jones on yt has some good videos showing the same process we've also been doing at the studio classes which is heavily Reilly /Watts focused. You might also want to read Harold Speed's book on Drawing which is all about the academic method and probably help you flesh out the context and why these things are so important.

As fedo mentioned your proportions and edges likely could do with more accurate mapping which will likely be shown in analysing the refs. But your accuracy will come on quick and improve big time if you keep doing the focused layins.

thanks Amit thats encouraging I'll definitely be sticking with the charcoals for awhile then... I have a big roll of newsprint which I can cut to A2 but the size Ive been using is A3 to fit my board... Im still trying to get use to the violin type grip but Im loving the freedom of movement, smudging and pickout with kneaded eraser....

I actually watched one of Bradwyn videos the other night and sort of followed along but it was a Chris Legaspi vid that got my charcoal interest back its amazing what you can do with a stick of charcoal

yes my biggest problem is patience and of course taking the time to block in so will try and fix that

yea been stuck last few weeks wasnt sure what direction to head and improve.... so its encouraging that you recommend this.... cheers

Edit: just checked Bradwyn's 20 minute warmup blockins.... will def be doing those

[Amit Dutta]

Hah, I watched that nma vid for a bit too last week and recognised you drew the female figure he drew :) So vine charcoal is awesome because you can get smooth block tone easily and it goes dark and matte and can be picked out easily but it's a bit harder to be precise like you can with a pencil.
If you want make a vine section darker just go over the areas you want darker with the charcoal pencil. This will however also 'set' the tone more so it won't be as easily removed...so only do that when you are sure! For the layins i think the pencil is best...and then once you're solid on those just try whatever with the vine too! I prefer the vine look as well.

I think I'd recommend an A2 backboard also just because the extra space means you essentially have more 'resolution' to work with and It's a bit easier when you are doing the gangsta grip. But that's not a big deal i guess.
Those 20 min layins are secret sauce. Don't tell anyone :)
But yeah slow the fuck down during and just work methodically. It's easy to get panicky or flustered with a time limit and speed up and ruin everything because you are trying to be fast. Speed as a goal is a terrible one to aim for. Whats funny is i noticed when i 'slowed down' i invariably was more efficient and in the zone and actually finished faster lol. A lot of the studies i did are posted chronologically on my insta if you want to see the progression of exercises.

Last edit: go to life drawing whenever you can. Hugely beneficial to practice all this too in live setting with a moving model.

[slash razor]

thanks Amit for the suggestions will def keep them in mind and yes lol that was the vid

still trying to find my way with charcoal.... more studies

[Amit Dutta]

I kept trying to post a decent crit yesterday but the forum backend keeps f ing up...so only the shortish version.

Good start!
Draw the whole head. Better to judge and practice proportions if you can see the entire cranium.

Step back from the board at times to help see major proportional/placement mistakes.

Think there is probably a bit of skew and innacuracy in some of these so do a check to see how off you were. I know well the poet painting of zimou tan that you used and i believe from memory you drew it a bit longer...stretched vertically? 

Better to measure really well the key broad relationships and proportions in your lay in and get em right up front. Saves a ton of time fixing later. If something is wrong fix it immediately. If you can't tell, measure and check.

Edges could do with more closer observation. Think about the 4 types...hard firm soft lost as you are putting in your layin lines. Hard edges are quite rare in a face for naturalistic approaches but still helps to categorise the edges.

Keep your pencil highly tuned, sharp and well sanded so you can lay down nice uniform tones.

Still suggest you draw a bit bigger. Less faces per page at most to start with esp on A3. Really will help with more refined edge control. I was doing 1 per A2 sheet...sometimes 2 at most. Smaller than that and nuance gets more difficult

Good shit man. Do more :)

[slash razor]

thanks Amit ill keep a eye on your suggestions
got a couple studies in

[chubby_cat]

No real crit, just popping by to say daaaaamn your studies are looking great and you're improving in leaps and bounds. Really loving the recent study of the man in the hat.

Keep it up Slash :)

[slash razor]

hey thanks chubby_cat

had a couple days off with the charcoal but back on the wagon tonight with another charcaoal figure study will post that tomorrow

but had some time to do a quick digital study