Nat's Sketchbook

[Tygerson]

Awesome that you've got freelance work!

Your colors are really well balanced, and you've got some great character work going on. Way to fight the comfort zone trap!

[-echo-]

Wow, very inspiring sketchbook! :)

[Eristhe]

@Fedodika Thanks a bunch! I definitely need to get onto those trickier anatomical areas and more complex angles/perspective. :'D

@Tygerson Thank you! I kinda miss the days where I could just study though... I'm hoping to get right outta that comfort zone!

@-echo- Thanks a lot! :D

Quick post before I head to bed, a couple anatomy and colour studies. 

[Fedodika]

i guess i could offer a little nitpick could help; So, maybe you dont always do this but the hand on the dude whos hand on his face above looks fine but his other hand is in this kinda intense position for the relaxed pose, you know what i mean? Like i couldnt imagine someone realisitcally having their hand kinda tensed like that whilst taking like a little thinker pose you know?

When you draw someones jawline, you dont always have to have a hard line weight where it overlaps the neck, in fact you can make a female face softer if you let up on the line weight

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...winton.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ce/20/70/ce207...-faces.jpg

And ya you can find examples of hard line weight on that specific area, but its just something to consider when connecting the jaw

Also dont forget the little webbing between fingers is its own form and can be helpful drawing hands; You seem to know this vaguely, but if you always remember it, it WILL add alot of character and anatomical accuracy ;)

[Eristhe]

@Fedodika thanks -so- much for taking the time to write this all out, you have no idea how helpful it is to hear this kinda stuff! Line weight especially is really something I struggle with and hearing tips on that (especially on softening the jaw, another topic I struggle with) is suuuuper helpful. Also finger webbing! All of this is gold. Thank you again!

Here's some stuff from today. Some studies into shoulder anatomy combined with quick skin/brush efficiency tests. Trying to put those lost edges/line weight tips to use. Quick hands from reference to practise more complex angles/webbing.










Then application: a couple of imaginative sketches plus some colours for the lines I posted here earlier this week.

[Tygerson]

Thanks for the figure advice! My short gestures look pretty atrocious, but I'll do more and post them. :)

I love the warm skin tones of the lady with the lute, and her epic hair! Two minor things. One, her femur looks kinda long. At least, if it goes all the way past her elbow. The other is that the tree branch to the right sort of looks like a roast chicken, complete with drumstick. Maybe that's just me...

[Fedodika]

hey just droppin a few thinks to help you visualize, a few tweaks here and there, hope it helps!

[Eristhe]

@Tygerson It's great to see them! Short gestures are messy by default imo. Also nice catch on the leg - that was my bad for placing some fabric there that obscured the anatomical shapes. I can't unsee the chicken leg now, though...

@Fedodika Cheers man! I really gotta work on that face construction, it kicks my ass every day, ha.

Bump for today. Some figures from reference (including a bit of process). Trying out some more extreme angles, foreshortening etc.







One figure from reference, but exaggerated the perspective as an exercise.



Couple figures from imagination, trying to apply what I learned. Not happy with either of these - struggling with stiffness and face errors.



And a bit of rendering on the lady with the lute, who also needs some fixes.

[Fedodika]

nice gestures on these, I feel with the dude w/ the heels on has a funky hand and his foot thats to the right of the page looks weird; remember on hands the box shape, or even if the photo has a pose that's flat, you can use your fundies to edit and make a better pose. Also i think the post of the figure was better before you did the finished lines, it had a better curve, but i know drawing the un foreshortened 3/4 pose is easier, it's a common problem when going from good to great ;)

[Tygerson]

Your line work looks so nice. I like the last two women from imagination, although the hand gestures feel a bit unnatural compared with the rest of the figure. Also, it's always refreshing to see appealing characters with varied body types.

[Tygerson]

Oh, and I love seeing the progress on the lady with the lute! She's just lovely!

[Eristhe]

@Fedodika Yeah for sure, I definitely gotta work on my construction a bit more to tackle these perspective poses.

@Tygerson Thanks a bunch! :D I've been putting hard work into my lines the last couple years and I feel like it's starting to pay off. You're right on the hands looking stiff though - I'm struggling to get my gestures to come through in my lines. And varying body types, faces and builds is something I have a lot of fun with.

Small update today because it was a slow one. Picked at the lute lady a little, but not enough progress to justify posting here. All gestures and lines from reference, trying to work some more on line weight and quality.

[Tygerson]

I like seeing the process of gesture before the more complete figure. Do you just draw the new one right on top?

Also, what's a good face drawing resource?

[Fedodika]

I think your lines are good the way you simplify a lot, i just think the only place you vary the weight of the lines are in the eye and the brow, when there is so much else you can do; maybe grab some loomis or vanderpoel or someone you think is good at line drawing and really think about why they vary the pressure on some marks and copy it to the best of your ability.

it's strange but line weight can add crazy dimension to a drawing and you do some things well, like you break the line in some places to imply form and some of your lines are lighter on details like elbow wrinkles or hair. Incorporating that kinda sensitivity can get really cool results :p

[Eristhe]

@Tygerson Yep, I do! If I were using pencil I'd treat it as somewhat of an undersketch. I don't often focus on specifically the face, but I know Loomis and Bridgman's constructions are meant to be good. For just generally good resources to draw from with varied face types, angles and expressions, Croquis Cafe (http://www.onairvideo.com/cc-photo-archi...raits.html) and http://humanae.tumblr.com/ are both helpful!

@Fedodika Yeah I'm so used to sketching with the intent to paint that I often forget about creating 'nice' looking lines - there's definitely a lot more I can do with it! Loomis and Vanderpoel are great recommendations to study (also gonna take a look at Watts and Sargent).

Just a quick drop here, got carried away with some personal work and missed my studying, oops.

Couple sketches from imagination:





Started rendering out an older piece for fun/anatomy practise.




Last but not least, the lute lady. Pretty sure she's all done now, although the piece feels empty, kinda simplistic to me. Learned a lot about rendering this kind of hair though, and hey lutes are fun. I can't decide between the warmer palette or the colour corrected version with more cool shadows.

[Fedodika]

I'll give you a little theory for this last piece; So in a composition, and this applies to EVERYTHING, there are big, medium and small, generally, of course can also be tiny, or huge etc. So, the brances you've selected are elements on the image, and they have quite similar sizes, but one is slightly bigger. therefore you have a lot of medium sized elements, which create a uniformity, which probably makes you feel "empty" as you say.

Also there is the element of gesture in the branches themselves which is also uniform as like a half elipse on the canvas. A fine illustrator will plan literally every little thing on the piece to lead the eye around how they want. 

Take this waterhouse, start the eye at the fish at the bottom, then it goes up to the foot, swooshes in the leg, and into the harp. The trees in the back aren't perfectly straight... coincidence? they are perfectly balanced as complimentary C curves to the image. And her head, points back to the fish, which starts the eye over again. You can see all this stuff in great painters. Just take any master work and take a bright color and draw on top to find the big rythm lines and gesture of where the eye is going and such; you'll learn more about image making in a very small time ;) also take written notes, it makes all the difference

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/t...rhouse.jpg

[Tygerson]

The lute lady turned out just lovely! Either color set looks good. I'd maybe even go halfway between. I think sometimes there's a tendency to overcorrect in Photoshop, so I usually do my correction, let it rest, then dial it back a bit.

[Eristhe]

@Fedodika THANKS MAN! I can't even begin to state how helpful this lil compositional refresher was (also, huge fan of Waterhouse). I'm super rusty with full comps and I gotta get back into it! I did a couple of studies with the lines overlapped like you said and they were a tonne of help.

@Tygerson Thanks so much! I actually often take the same approach, lol. Digital art is a fickle beast.

Away for the weekend but squeezing in some drawing around travel, work etc. Feeling a bit rusty/stagnant. Added some details to the lady with the lute as well as cropping the composition. Gonna put her to rest now and move on to the next thing.




Here's a couple of lines/figures from reference.






And some colours on some of my previous lines. This guy to apply the study I did earlier last week, and the other two from imagination. Gonna tackle some water studies for those.






I kinda wish my middle line art + colour stage looked more consolidated but I think I'll always be a heavy render artist. Just gotta get my act together and get some things finished up.

[Tygerson]

Good luck tackling water! Sounds like you're breaking new ground.

[Juneau]

You're so dedicated and passionate! Really inspires a lot, and you're skills are amazing. And thanks a lot for suggestions!
Keep it up, looking forward for your new works and updates.