Just going to be posting lots of fundamentals in here for now I think - I might work on a few final pieces and more fleshed out illustrations and things...but when it comes right down to it, I still don't have the basics down to anything like the degree I'd like.
I just did a quick male and female body layout and a torso musculature from imagination/memory. Hopefully this will serve as a good starting point to measure progress against in the coming weeks. I'm going to go through each body part individually, as well as tackling gesture of the body more generally. The main thing I suck at still though - imagining everything as a 3d form rather than 2d, so I will no doubt do some more boxy constructions and things too, something I never really have done (shoots self).
I've got bridgman, vilpu, huston and loomis to study from, so I better get down to it.
I'd also like to do landscapes, composition, focused portrait work, vehicles, creatures and on and on and on... start somewhere I guess. (Y)
I like your approach to learning anatomy - I've found that studying muscle origins and insertions give me confidence when inventing poses from imagination.
Also I saw your question on the bottom right there about the abs vs the external obliques. The ext. obliques attach to a sheet like tendon that goes over the outside of the abs. Proko explains it very well in this video:
Hey, you are off to a nice start hear Beardy! :-) Thanks for dropping by my art goal.
Those are from imagination? Nice job. Definitely keep that up. The whole point of constructive anatomy is, well, constructing anatomy. But note that your proportions are definitely off–the legs, as a whole, feel far too short for both the man and woman. I'm not studying anatomy right now so I can't give you any more specific advice, sorry!
Quote:The main thing I suck at still though - imagining everything as a 3d form rather than 2d, so I will no doubt do some more boxy constructions and things too, something I never really have done (shoots self).
I'm working through Dynamic Sketching, so I'm very much into the boxy constructions and 3d forms right now! You should definitely give that a go. Don't shoot yourself, just go and do it man! I recommend following the lesson plan at [color=green]Draw a Box[/color}. It's awesome, and I intend to complete the entire Dynamic Sketching curriculum. Someday, when I have the extra funds, I want to take Peter Han's CGMA course. Right now, though, Draw a Box is freely available, and Uncomfortable has become an awesome teacher in his own right.
If you complete the homework in the required mediums, Uncomfortable will crit your work over on on /r/artfundamentals. :-)
Keep up the good work Beardy! Looking forward to your next post.
"Drawing is a skill like hammering a nail. You might not be great at it yet, but there is nothing stopping you from gettin' down and hammering away." -Irshad Karim
Thanks both, did a bit more this evening. I tried box sectioning the torso and the hips - made me realise how bad I am at judging the forms of the body in perspective, I've been far too reliant on contour up until now. I think most of them are a way off at the moment. But I'll be doing the challenges and lessons on draw a box in conjuction with some 'simple form' based anatomy studies and hopefully i'll see an improvement in no time! I really enjoy this type of study - so I intend to do at least a few of these, in depth, every day.
Quote:But note that your proportions are definitely off–the legs, as a whole, feel far too short for both the man and woman.
Sweet mother of god. Yup, Looking at it today - I see this. I think I have a tendency to idealise the figures the way I like them, whenever I draw females it's always dat ass/thighs and no attention payed to the chesticles. On a serious note, I sometimes do the complete opposite in my gesture sketch sessions... ie. oh my god why is everything getting so long the further down I get - I still can't get my head around (lol) how big heads actually are in relation to everything else on a body. Angles/landmark relationships and more careful observation are key I guess.
Quote:I recommend following the lesson plan at [color=green]Draw a Box[/color}.
I did some to warm down briefly today. In digital, as I was specifically told not too...because I'm a rebel (my lightbulb blew and it's too late for me to go scooching around the house). I will get stuck in seriously tomorrow - I think I'll warm up for my sessions with an hour / hour and a half of the Draw a box exercises. 25 cubes a day should help with my box construction anatomy too.
Quote:I like your approach to learning anatomy - I've found that studying muscle origins and insertions give me confidence when inventing poses from imagination.
I've tried studying it all before. But I realise that just copying diagrams doesn't really work >_> who'd a thunk it? now I'll be repeating them from imagination and checking them (repeat as many times as necessary).
I think it's going to be even more important for me to approach things like the above because I don't have any ability to see things in my mind really - the only time I can actually conjure a reasonable mental image is on the verge of sleep. If I try normally I just get a black blob.
did a few more pages of box constructions to try to get the hip/torso relationship in my mind. One of 3 posted below. Did some gestures that I closed the doc on and deleted before I saved. warming down and sketching for fun.
Goricentaurillanocerous - who knows. He's ready to party, clearly.
Wanted to time a 2 hour study. Thought I'd do a portrait as hadn't done one in a while.
Two hours into study and chill and she gives you that look.
I am constantly battling my want to spot render shit - hence over 60% of it not even laid in correctly. I have some days where I force myself to render cast/occlusion, core shadow etc. and just work on the piece as a whole...then I find myself slipping back into spot rendering.
Was fun anyway. Might finish it between other work - reference is like page 1 on Pinterest if you search Zombie. Placements etc of flaps and things aren't on but I was more interested in the way the values and the shinyness of the blood etc. which coincidentally I didn't really achieve.
Should try painting without any opacity jitter, I find myself large brush, low pressure painting a lot, which it seems might be a shitty/slowslow way to do it.
a few quick ones from imagination - i still need to tackle perspective, looking up and down. Though I feel more comfortable with the 3/4,side,front on these days I cannot for the life of me draw a person looking up.
aware most the stuff I'm posting is boring - but I'm really trying to make sure I draw something / post everyday.
I did some sketches of the skull from ref - I don't think I can call them studies though, I realised half way through I wasn't really blocking or thinking in terms of blocks *slaps self*, so I'll come back tomorrow and do some more abstracted versions. Continuing with the figure too. Going to do some thumbnails for a couple of book cover illustrations I'd like to do soon as well. applying practice and all that.
Something different that I've never really done. did a few 20-30 min value study from screen caps. I hate doing these so much - every second feels like an agony of failure...but I guess that means they're worth doing, so I shall endeavor to do at least 2 or 3 a day, alongside anything else I do, until they aren't so painful anymore.
Is it wise to continue with the time limit? I can see for myself that a lot of my shapes and values are way way way out, they could probably be rectified with a bit of noodling - but is it better to just continue with the imposed time and concentrate on trying to get a bit more accurate each time?
Some quick notan studies - find these very hard. I think making the conscious decision of what to class as the 'darks' of a piece is a great exercise. I was getting into it more towards the end and, I think, seeing the shapes a bit better.
Wanna do a character sheet for Nancy from Stranger things. Soon as that red bomber jacket went on with the fingerless gloves and baseball bat. 80's heaven.
Starting with a portrait. Will finish tomorrow.
Been falling sleep all weekend, I think the heat is slowly killing me.
noodle noodle - she has a really whispy bang in the reference, starting from the widows peak area and partially obscuring her face. No frikkin idea how to go about painting that.
Doesn't feel productive at the minute - I think because I'm trying to paint things I don't truly understand, studying and simplifying some hairstyles will be next on my list.
Not related to concept art or illustration really. Just thought I'd update as I haven't in a while - did this portrait commission of a kitty cat. It's only the 2nd paid thing I've done ever, but feelsgoodman.
I'm still working on my basics - I enjoy portraiture so I think I'd like to focus on character and creature for a while. Hopefully doing these animal portraits for locals will be good texture practice that I can then apply to imagined creatures/hair in general.
Beardy, that's really nice fur rendering, and with that lighting, feels very soft and airy. THe anatomy studies in the beginning will help you a lot, so keep doing them. start with simple poses so you're more focused on studying and remembering where muscles are.
Thank you meat! I'm doing these for a bit of money at the moment - each one feels like I'm learning something regarding rendering, and my god those all white animals are a test in subtlety. I shant post anymore of those though.
Just posting a quick WIP for the DoD Ascension challenge. some biker pig guy (just noticed his left arm could do with bulking up a bit in the tricep/outer arm side).
I hate ellipses still, so those need sorting but it feels good to do something that's not a study ...and actually like it. I think I want to go for a more comic/illustrative style than straight up painting on this one, could always do two versions eventually I guess and see which I like more.
Hello, Nice work you have here I really like that pig in the latest post.
One thing I am noticing in a lot of your more rendered images is your edge control. I see you are using softer edges and gradients within the forms themselves but the outer edges often look too hard to me. This is particularly apparent in the cat painting you did. the edges along the silhouette of the images could be a lot softer to better portray the inherent softness of the fur. In general, the softer the material the softer the edge.
Thank you Jonas! This is definitely something I will work on, as it's often a conscious effort to clean the edges I think i've developed a bad habit. :)
Hard circle round eraser is more addictive than crack.
I shall give that areticle a read in my study time today and try to apply it to the portraits I'm working on at the minute. Thank you once again, I want to keep on track to improve as fast as possible. Posts should be more regular again now that I've sorted my health.
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