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My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-05-2015
Hi everyone,
I have been eager to start a sketchbook and finally got around to it.
I am very interested in character and creature design and want to eventually design my own characters from 2d all the way to a full 3d modelled and rendered character. It will be a long journey but one I am very excited to take and experience with everyone.
I started with loomis and got about a third through it and then went onto michael hamptons book and that is where I am now.
Just finished reading the gesture section, so I have gesture on my mind.
I am always willing to learn from you guys and I will greatly appreciate it. I aim to one day be in the position to pass the knowledge on to others.
First post-Gesture gesture gesture
All 1-minute poses
Tried to capture the pose and proportions as best I could.
Cheers,
Matthew.
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-07-2015
Looked back at my previous gestures and felt like I was concentrating to much on the contours. I tried the loomis method of gestures and it felt a lot better.
I created gestures then on a random sheet overlayed the reference images on top to see what I was consistently doing wrong and that gave me a more informed session. Felt like I made some progress today.
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-11-2015
After not being able to add attachments and eventually deleting all the other posts by accident I finally figured out that I can't have the image resolution to high.
Here is a few sheets from todays work. Did some gesture and started on some robo bean.
Next I want to start developing the gesture to a mannequin.
RE: My Journey - rainbowsorknives - 05-12-2015
Hey Matthew welcome to the group!
Great studies! you can see straight away that you are understanding what you are reading. keep going!
looking forward to seeing more pal! lets have alook at what your imagination has to offer! :)
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-13-2015
@rainbowsorknives Thanks man its quiet comforting to know I am on the right track.
a few sheets from todays work, Did some robo bean and gestures from imagination.
Doing the gestures from imagination was quiet nice this time because initially from hamptons book I tried to go straight and draw them without reference and it was hard. I then decided to do a lot of reference gestures first and get a feel for everything and so this time around it was great to see how it helped.
First time trying to mannequinize, firstly it was great to do step forward a bit.
I didn't overlay and copy when drawing. I used the images as reference and only after the drawings were complete did I overlay to check were I had gone wrong.
On this sheet I found that my gestures were very stiff and it showed a lot in the mannequins. So need to work on exadurating more.
RE: My Journey - AngeliquevdMee - 05-14-2015
Good start at your sketchbook, keep drawing! it's the only way to get better :) it's good that you see the figures are stiff, not all of them though... some look ok even though they are a bit stiff. For example you could have pushed the dancing figure more by making the center line ( if you apply it ) more fluid and dynamic, but you are making good progress overall. Keep on pushing :)
RE: My Journey - StardustLarva - 05-14-2015
Nice work with those gestures, I'd say you're nailing it with the construction of those figures. I think really I'll just echo what AngeliquevdMee said, in that you should make the centre/spine line a bit more dynamic. My life drawing tutor often recommends that you exaggerate the curves of the spine just a little bit more when you're doing gestures.
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-14-2015
Wow thanks guys :) I will take that into my next practice sessions
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-15-2015
Here are a few from todays work. I tried to add more curve to the spine in the gesture and also tried a few different gestures styles.
After a couple more mannequins I will progress through the hampton book and drawing the head is the next chapter :)
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-16-2015
Some mannequins from today
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-27-2015
It has been awhile since I last posted, mainly because it was just practicing the same gestures.
Since then I felt that my gestures were not expressive.
I came across the new masters academy youtube channel and watched glenn vilppu draw gestures which is also similar to the way michael hampton does his gestures in his book, and they looked alive and expressive.
I watched him draw the gestures over and over again picking up the concepts and the way of thinking etc.
I feel it is making my gestures more expressive and feel it is helping my mannequin drawings too.
My proportions are off in some of them so I will be working on that more.
I am now splitting up my days and dedicating days to certain practices. gesture 3 times a week mannequin 2 and the other 3 will be dedicated to studies of a specific area of the body, the basic construction of it and eventually the anatomy.
I did struggle with the mannequinizing of the laying down poses. They had heavy perspective so it was a good challenge.
RE: My Journey - Bearlaser - 05-29-2015
Nice constructions man. Paul Richer is a good resource if you ever want to get into the specifics of anatomy after having built a foundation in the structural abstractions. The plates from Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters by Robert Beverly Hale are the same though if you happen to have that one already.
I would try to avoid chicken scratching also, this is a problem that I have as well; sometimes a line that looks as though it was drawn quickly wasn't. I've found that this is more often the case than not. It might help to slow down a bit if you're scratching because you feel you can't do the line quickly. I realize that gestures are usually done with a time limit but sometimes moving slowly and efficiently can be faster in the long run. Your gestures don't look haphazard(I don't think that's how that's spelt ._.) though; you're doing well.
Keep reppin' the block nigga :D
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 05-29-2015
Thanks for the advice :) It was good timing because I have been thinking about how to move progress from here so the anatomy books will definitely help.
You are spot on there I do scratch and rush a bit and those are the gestures that usually come out looking like vomit especially where there are lots of overlapping limbs lol
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 06-26-2015
This is where I am at so far, been doing 30second-5 min gesture poses. This session I was trying my best to lead the eye through the figure.
On the longer poses I definitely did not excercise economy of line so have to work on that.
My head sizes are way out of proportion up to the 2 minute poses. So on the 5 min I decided to just add place holders until I had done the figure and then place the head in to what I thought was the correct proportion, so I think I will start doing the same on the other times and also try improve my shape design.
Every day I feel im getting better at capturing and feeling the poses, still lots to work on though.
RE: My Journey - Gliger - 06-26-2015
Cool sketchbook :D I'd definitely recommend doing more figure construction drawings from imagination on the side, that should help you improve your sense of proportion.
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 06-26-2015
Thanks man, I will definitely try that :)
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 10-22-2015
Wow it has been ages since I last posted.
A lot has happened since then, stepped away from drawing I was getting frustrated with progress as I felt I did not know the fundamentals and just drew without any real knowledge as to why I am doing certain things. So that led to frustration towards any practice session.
So I took a break got that drive back to draw and found a website called newmastersacademy and took sheldon borensteins fundamentals course and yesterday took steve hustons intro to laws of light lessons, I feel like I have the base that I was looking for and to push off from here to continue growing and practicing those fundamentals.
So going from that here are some still lifes, certainly not the best but a start and platform to constantly learn and practice.
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 10-27-2015
Some more still lifes.. doing my best to not copy the subject exactly.
Still lots of learning to do.
Any critique comments are more than welcome
RE: My Journey - MatthewVermeulen - 10-28-2015
another still life, trying to improve on and apply the fundamentals.
Have not tried to take it into realism and really pushing it, still sort of getting the hang of things.
How do you guys/girls spread out your research and drawing?
I think I probably do a bit too much research and not enough drawing. I am thinking maybe using a 80/20 approach to this.
RE: My Journey - DQ_Nick - 10-28-2015
Keep up the hard work man. I'm definitely guilty of the too much research problem. Something I've been trying to do more of lately are memory studies. For example, I'll spend 20 minutes drawing a page from Loomis, then put it away and draw everything I remember from memory as precise as possible for another 20 minutes, then comparing my memory drawings to the reference and making careful note of mistakes. Rinse and repeat, for at least a couple hours a day. It can be frustrating but seems be the most effective for internalizing visual information, especially with the figure.
These form and value studies look great though. Those are key fundamentals for giving your drawings a sense of depth.