Just one solitary figure study over the past few evenings. bumbling about with shapes and edges.
I've been watching some vids by a guy called Steve Carpenter, I love his charcoal drawings - sublime. I'm fascinated by how he puts in some careful shapes and then obliterates them and then brings it all back at the end.
Shapes and edges man, shapes and edges.
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Practicing some linework using gesture, construction of forms and some quick lighting indications. Trying to get better at constructing on top of gesture.
The ref is from Senshistock.
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
i wouldnt reccomend senshi stock to practice from, maybe for inspiration, her lighting is not good so its difficult to see forms, plus her body suit conceals a lot of important things about like hip protrusions/ribs etc.
Croquis cafe has very nice still images to practice from, nice lighting, nice physiques, and nice poses not the most dynamic but above average for sure.
Now id reccomend for this stuff in particular you drop the straight lines only thing and let the lines flow more, swing the arm, that rendered one above her hip to her armpit is a perfectly straight line and its very bizarre looking, though your proportions arent too bad.
but yea watch these vids and start thinking about how to flow lines more
@ Fedodika: Thanks for the tip about Croquis Cafe mate, appreciated. I spend so much time hunting around for good references - this will be a good addition to my list of resources.
Also, thanks for sharing those links on drawing with curves. Cool stuff, I'd not seen those Steve Huston vids before.
Let me explain myself about the straight line thing.
This is a thing that I have investigated for the past 6 months in an effort to get better at simplification in art and it has been used by loads of master artists who I admire and respect. Checkout these links:
Having looked into this, I then made a conscious decision to draw mainly with straight lines for the following reasons:
1. It allows me to be more accurate with my line placement, particularly during the construction stages.
2. It allows me to be more accurate with my perspective, particularly during the construction stages.
3. It results in a drawing which I feel is better constructed, has better proportions and one which has a nice blocky and constructive style. Of course style is purely subjective so I can appreciate that this is not to everyone's taste.
It isn't that I won't or cannot draw with curves, rather it is a personal preference in both my process and in the style that I aspire to. In fact, after a straight-line block-in I will sometimes go in with some curves to achieve more flow as you put it but they will have benefited from the placement of the straight lines.
Please don't take this the wrong way my friend, I have the greatest respect for you and value your input but I love straight lines!
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Another female action figure study. Referenced from Senshistock again, Fedodika was right about the lighting with Senshistock, but I like the action poses she does and capturing action is my focus with these at the moment.
Any crits most welcome as always - thanks.
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
im not saying dont ever use the straight line thing, but dont limit yourself to it right now try curved lines and really lock it down in your skill, ill do this quick drawover... Look at walents stuff too, you know mix it up. Yes ive seen those links many times, i even show them to newer artists, its good to know about this technique, but not be dogmatic about it, especially for doing dynamic poses where rythm is everything
You seriously miss the line of action purely due to the forced straight line here, you could even exaggerate it a bit. Use curved lines to rough it in, get as much energy as you can, then you simplify into straight lines. Your legs have a nice flow, but a lot of your lines are really heavy, vary their weight more, also senshii, bless her heart, but shes not attractive, shes pudgy, average face... if you do practice from her, pretty her up... alot!
@ Fedodika: Thanks for dropping by mate, yeah good shout about the line-weight, it's cool to stress some lines and let others fade away ...
Quote:Use curved lines to rough it in, get as much energy as you can, then you simplify into straight lines.
Sorry to dis-agree with you man but I've found that it is much better to use straight lines to rough it in and then refine with more flowing curves.
Roughing in with straight lines helps me to get placement and angle correct before I go in and refine with curves or more lines. This approach results in piece with better proportions and perspective for me.
It might be different for you but there are many paths to mastery - each to their own dude.
Peace!
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Hi, Artloader,
how are you? It's have been almost a month since your last post...
I'd like to put my 50 cents into your dialog with Fedo about using straight vs curved lines. You know, I use both and I'm agree with you that straight helm in getting proportions. But to my personal experience, curves help in exaggeration. That is why I use straights in mostly in portraits and curves in poses.
I'm not sure what is the purpose of your action poses study was. If you wanted to get right proportion of these dynamic and unusual poses, than I agree with you about using straights, but if you wanted to capture movement, to even make it more evident, than Fedo is right about curves. Take a look at FORCE Drawing - Part 1 - with Mike Mattesi.
Also, IMHO, balance between "C", "S" and "I" curves\lines are essential for capturing life, action and force.
Good luck to you and hope to see some updates.
Cheers.
@Roanna: Hey thanks for stopping by it has been a while hasn't it? I've had a few things going on in my life that meant I had to take some time out. I've still been dabbling here and there though. The straight line thing? I was just practicing construction really - I agree with both you and Fedo that both curves and straight line should be used and I do use curves, it just that I like to have a nice rugged constructed style in my line drawings. A stylistic choice I guess.
Anyway I've started messing about with willow charcoal and paper, here are my first fumblings, any critique and tips, especially on charcoal drawing would be most appreciated:
These last few are master studies of Wangjie Li sketches, I know he works digitally but I was trying to channel his mark making traditionally:
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
your portraits r gettin better, i think you should look out for hard edges around the eyes. ive noticed i can lay in an eye, shade it halfway then just barely scrub it with my finger or a blender digitally and it instantly gives it life from a blurred edge
I feel her lips are a little crooked or too large, and the lip crease above (between the nose) you should never ever ever ever indicate that with a hard line. i cant see the reference, but i feel her eye is like sliding off her head a little, or they arent symmetrical. of course, there is some room for that in reality.
But the good news is most the crits i had were on edges which means you aint struggling with proportions and moving into more advanced stuff :)
Where did you get references for the jumping girl with a pistol ?
Thanks in advance
Hello Wolf! I got the reference from Shenshistock on DeviantArt. She has some good poses, although she wears a body suite so you won't get the full anatomical detail but she's good for poses.
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
@Darktiste: Thanks dude - I used a brush to control the soft transitions of the charcoal.
@Baldgate: Thanks dude - I've been admiring charcoal art recently and some of the stuff I see just blows my mind - I'm just trying to learn a fraction of what they got. People like Steve Carpenter, Casey Baugh and Wangjie Li.
@Fedodika: Thanks for the crits my friend, still trying to find my feet with charcoal but there's a few proportional errors that have nothing to do with charcoal - just sloppy measuring on my part heheh.
Anyway, here's another charcoal study I did recently along with the ref:
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
good job on the face, his neck and shoulders are beefier though, also the pit of his neck is a slightly lower. I get youre going for the expressive kinda thing, i think its better to focus on nailing things first though, then throwing in implied edges and lines and stuff. All too often i find myself trying to cover up things i dont feel like drawing with lost edges but if it aint all situated right people pick up on it
Hey Fedo man, thanks for the crits - yep, my accuracy was a bit off - more practice needed and I completely agree about nailing drawing first and foremost but this was one of those times when I was just experimenting with mark making.
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Been a while since I posted some art, I've been trying out different painting strategies with acrylics.
This first one I used no water - just paint straight from the tube. I found it very difficult to work with as it dried out very quickly and was quite thick.
This second one, I loaded water into my brush and then mixed it into the paint. This was a lot easier to work with but I heard that water will lessen the longevity of acrylics.
Anyone got any tips on achieving a good paint consistency with acrylics? I'd appreciate it - merci beaucoup!
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Here's my two cents on from beginning a drawing from gesture vs the more academic block-in approach. You may already know a lot of this but this has been my experience.
There are a few main benefits to the Vilppu style "inside out" approach - flowing gestures then constructing ontop. It is better at helping you develop the intuition of how to DESIGN your own figures from the model and from imagination, vs just drawing what you see with accuracy. You get a better understanding of how to lead the eye with lines to create a greater impression of movement and rhythm, which is very important when you're trying to make your artwork feel "dynamic". Since training this way my ability to draw from imagination and put my ideas onto paper has increased immensely. I tend to find this approach far more useful to me because as a fantasy artist I am so often having to invent what I can't see.
However all of those things are kind of extra and are not important as raw accuracy and observational drawing chops, which the academic approach naturally is far better at training. Your eye can never be too sharp and your hand can never be too deft at judging and making marks. My general drawing skills skyrocketed once I learned how to simplify things visually and block them in in this fashion. As a fine artist the academic methods may be all you need to make the kind of work you want to make at a very high level. If a high level of accuracy and realism is your goal then just stick to this approach because it will get you there the fastest. I know a lot of academic artists do gesture drawing as its own exercise so perhaps squeeze it into your training somewhere.
The good news is that there's no right way to draw anything. I utilize different schools of thought depending on my goals for a piece. Portrait? What will serve me best is a more academic observational approach. When I'm just put my ideas onto paper its far more effective to get the point across starting with gestures Vilppu style.
@Nature: Hey man thanks for the input, you make a lot of sense - particularly about invention. One of my big goals over the next year or so is to get better at invention so what you say provides me with good food for thought. The thing with the straight line approach for me was that I found it so useful that I wanted to spend a year or so really locking it in before moving on with my art journey. When the time feels right I will probably incorporate more curves into my sketching.
Anyway by way of a Happy Christmas to you wonderful people on Crimson Daggers, here's a piece I just finished (30" x 24" acrylics on canvas), critiques always welcome:
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
![[Image: female_gun_pack_2___drawing_reference_by...5n1g3u.jpg]](http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/325/f/2/female_gun_pack_2___drawing_reference_by_senshistock-d5n1g3u.jpg)
![[Image: IMG_0010.jpg?resize=696%2C462&quality=80...info&ssl=1]](https://i1.wp.com/batman-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IMG_0010.jpg?resize=696%2C462&quality=80&strip=info&ssl=1)
