Apologies for not updating in awhile, been too focused on this illustration haha.
Firstly stuff from my life drawing class, felt like my work this week has been my best so far although I didn't realize until I finished my last drawing that the head was too big haha, rookie mistake.
Progress on my illustration, I'm behind on my schedule so won;t be able to paint it until next week so a week behind, didn't realize it would take me this long to work on it but just another learning curve. Fixed the perspective issue I was having, my brain musn't of been functioning properly because I came back to it the next day and it all clicked.
Wasted a day trying to do a more refined value study and realized that it would be best to do that once I have a finished drawing using reference, so prob wasted a day doing that.
The photo below is just abit of the prep work I've been doing, spent tonight shooting my reference imagery and figuring out the size that I want to paint out so I'll start working on the finished drawing tomorrow.
My online class started last night aswell so I'll post the work for that when it's done.
Wow it's been over a week since I last posted, since I've been working on this illustration I wanted to post the major steps rather than every little change that I've made so that's why I haven't posted.
Here is the finished drawing that I've done for it referring to my thumbnail design and using reference that I shot myself (will post it all when it's finished). Changed the position of the man digging as I wasn't happy with how he was placed in the thumbnail. Not sure if perspective is right on him now in relation to the man standing.
Atm I'm working on the value structure which I'm struggling with, I've reworked it quite abit but I want to get that done tomorrow so I can figure out my colour scheme.
My live streaming class started at Watts last week so here is my first drawing for it which was a head lay-in (haven't posted ref since I'm not sure if I can or not?). Watched the feedback video for the entire class this morning and made notes, still need to make corrections to my drawing following Jeff's advice but it was mainly moving the features a fraction downwards and inserting some straight lines into the drapery (he was very happy with my work so there weren't too many corrections apart from what I said.)
Watched the video for this weeks lesson and did the homework which was a 2-3 hour rendered head drawing.
Finished the grey scale for the illustration last night. Been trying to blend it but can't seem to get it right, same with colour which I've been messing around with but it keeps turning out looking really sickly and ugly due to my lack of colour knowledge.
Atm not sure what to do. I can transfer the drawing to a masonite board and complete the under painting in burnt umber, might be best to take it to that stage while I try and figure out my colour scheme. Been working on a sketch easel the past few weeks so I can finally go outside and do some plein air painting and work on my colour knowledge.
Noticed the finished drawing I posted yesterday was not the best quality so here's a brighter version. :)
looking at your last portrait i think your issue is that 90% of your edges are hard. specially the lines you have in the hair for example. or maybe the lips, both have a hard outline, try to dial back on the lines and just see what you can do with edges or go more for the side of the pencil for line weight instead of the tip;
Also when you shad the head, like shade with the planes as they move in space. For instance the way you shaded the muzzle above the lip is flat, its just tone, I'll do a paintover just fixing the edges and shading patterns here.
So just dont be afraid of the side of the pencil and soft edges. Edges are your number one tool to direct the eye around the image. Hair is soft, lips are soft, skin is soft, eyelids are hard, but theres not really much on the human face thats gonna require very deep hard lines for realistic indication. The only thing i can think of are very deep wrinkles on an old person and even then you can use the side of the pencil and go for an 8 value instead of a 10. I also raised the jaw a bit as remember people with longer muzzles tend to be less attractive, you want less distance between nose and lips. I edited the proportions of the ear, hopefully this all helps my dude <3
(05-06-2018, 10:39 PM)Fedodika Wrote: looking at your last portrait i think your issue is that 90% of your edges are hard. specially the lines you have in the hair for example. or maybe the lips, both have a hard outline, try to dial back on the lines and just see what you can do with edges or go more for the side of the pencil for line weight instead of the tip;
Also when you shad the head, like shade with the planes as they move in space. For instance the way you shaded the muzzle above the lip is flat, its just tone, I'll do a paintover just fixing the edges and shading patterns here.
So just dont be afraid of the side of the pencil and soft edges. Edges are your number one tool to direct the eye around the image. Hair is soft, lips are soft, skin is soft, eyelids are hard, but theres not really much on the human face thats gonna require very deep hard lines for realistic indication. The only thing i can think of are very deep wrinkles on an old person and even then you can use the side of the pencil and go for an 8 value instead of a 10. I also raised the jaw a bit as remember people with longer muzzles tend to be less attractive, you want less distance between nose and lips. I edited the proportions of the ear, hopefully this all helps my dude <3
Thanks for the paint over man, much appreciated. :)
Your right, I'm definitely going too hard on my line weight, even though I am using the side of my pencil (like the bit on the cheek) I must be putting too much pressure when doing it.
I am trying to be conscious of being more delicate with my shading but I'll have to be even more conscious about it and go even lighter.
I'm struggling with shading the areas in light like the cheeks for example, don't have a clue at how I should be interpreting the different values there and how to shade to indicate planes. I'm hoping Jeff can help me understand this in this weeks crit video.
Been ill the past week so took a week off from work. I was feeling better yesterday so I reviewed the critique video for last weeks homework (I'll post my notes tomorrow), watched this weeks demo and spent today doing the homework.
Gonna try and get some practice in later based of what Jeff recommended.
Anyway here is the homework for this week.
Tried going softer on the shading but apparently not as soft as I thought. :(
Apologies for lack of updates, I've had less time than usual to practice this past week so I've been trying to utilize my time as much as possible to draw . My schedule is tight for the next 2 weeks aswell but after that I should be back to my usual routine, I'll aim to post atleast once a week until then.
Don't have enough time tonight to photograph all the work I did from my life classes and other stuff I did, I'll try and post them next week but for now here are my corrections for week 2 of the live stream class aswell as some notes from Jeff aswell as the homework for this week which is a figure lay-in. I'll watch the feedback video for last weeks homework during this week (perhaps Tuesday since I have a few hours to spare) and post the corrections.
Would be fun also if you would add more expression to those face.Maybe experiment with lettering and composition for book illustration etc.Did you try living drawing or you copy from reference?
hey Peter, glad youre putting in some good work, i wanted to leave a suggestion for your last figure on good calve indication. You can make a very sexy well drawn leg with delicate attention to the flow of the line, i'll leave some examples that are worth studying, cheers <3
(05-21-2018, 07:10 AM)darktiste Wrote: Would be fun also if you would add more expression to those face.Maybe experiment with lettering and composition for book illustration etc.Did you try living drawing or you copy from reference?
Yh I really need to work on my expressions, heck I still struggle sometimes drawing a closed mouth haha, it's definitely on mt to do list though! If your talking about the drawing that I did for that book illustration then I used reference that I shot myself since I had no one to pose for me :(. I'll compile the reference I used and post it tomorrow.
(05-21-2018, 07:24 AM)Fedodika Wrote: hey Peter, glad youre putting in some good work, i wanted to leave a suggestion for your last figure on good calve indication. You can make a very sexy well drawn leg with delicate attention to the flow of the line, i'll leave some examples that are worth studying, cheers <3
Hey Fedodika funny that you post those examples (thanks btw :) ) In last weeks crit Jeff talked to me about leg indication and actually recommended the same artist to look/study from haha. I actually started doing some studies from the artist the other day, just need to finish it off and then post.
Another week without posting but my schedule is back to normal now so I can finally go back to my usual hours which means I have the time now to post again a few times a week!
Since last time I've created myself a new art schedule of couple of 3 hour blocks a day for my practice time as that's all I can manage, I've gone back to modelling it after the Watts Online course so that will be my plan for the foreseeable future. I still think it's a good idea for me to get really proficient at drawing/painting before doing full on rendered imaginary pieces. I was gonna ask Jeff about this actually and get his imput.
Anyway enough about that, here's some life drawing from earlier this week and today I went back to head phase 1 so I worked on my lay-ins (which Jeff suggested) and some skull drawing from life and a little head from imagination which I need to fix the ear on.
I'll post all my critiques from the live streaming class at the end aswell as the h/w from last week. The critique for that one should be up today so I'll watch it tomorrow and post that.
See you all tomorrow. :)
For the skulls I wanted to focus on the basic construction rather than indicating the lighting.
For the 3 hrs pose, his hands are really small, and his forearm thats in shadow also looks tiny because you could add some lineweight to indicate where the arm is coming back. in some areas you indicate like the patella, going too hard on the values. Also make sure your pencil is sharpened well, i dont think those visible lines in the background shading are the most desireable, it seems jeff goes for a smoother gradient with a well sharpened pencil and i never see thin hard lines.
The way you indicated the abdomen is strange too, it seems as if its jammed into the rib instead of the ribs covering it, like you have it closer to being correct on our right side, but maybe this ref will explain it better ;)
(05-31-2018, 08:43 AM)Fedodika Wrote: keep fightin the good fight peter!
For the 3 hrs pose, his hands are really small, and his forearm thats in shadow also looks tiny because you could add some lineweight to indicate where the arm is coming back. in some areas you indicate like the patella, going too hard on the values. Also make sure your pencil is sharpened well, i dont think those visible lines in the background shading are the most desireable, it seems jeff goes for a smoother gradient with a well sharpened pencil and i never see thin hard lines.
The way you indicated the abdomen is strange too, it seems as if its jammed into the rib instead of the ribs covering it, like you have it closer to being correct on our right side, but maybe this ref will explain it better ;)
Thanks for always giving me critiques man :) only wish I could be more helpful to you.
Pretty much everything you said I realized myself (and so did Jeff) after I completed the drawing. Struggled with it from start to finish (this was my 3rd attempt).
Don't know why I'm still struggling with my edges, especially soft edges. I'm using the side of my pencil when laying them in but I musn't be doing it correctly, thinking I might just study a bunch of lay-ins from Jeff and just practice copying his soft edges until I can do it properly since it's bugging the crap out of me.
Thanks for the link, I'll give it a look and study from it. :)
Spent today working on my basic construction, studying Brian Knoxx's drawings from his instagram account and then I tried it myself from ref which I'll post tomorrow.
Need to go back and ingrain the ideal proportions as I believe I drew some of the forearms and upper arms too short/long. I'm not sure where the cylinder for the arm actually begins like is it from where the deltoid inserts into the arm or does the cylinder go all the way up to the shoulder?
Tomorrow I'll do the h/w for this weeks class. Want to spend 4 hours on it and take my time and not rush to completely render the drawing. Want to spend my time working on the basic construction and my edges and shadow mapping and getting all that correct before moving on so I might spend half my time doing that or possibly more.
I've also included some of the ref for that illustration I was working on at the end.
brian knox has some great shit, thanks for mentioning him! but man get these crits as much as you can and you will fly so so fast, it's gonna be insane!
(06-01-2018, 07:46 AM)Fedodika Wrote: brian knox has some great shit, thanks for mentioning him! but man get these crits as much as you can and you will fly so so fast, it's gonna be insane!
No problem man :) The live streaming class has been great so far, so valuable getting all these crits, gonna take atleast 1 class per term, if you have the money it's definitely worth it.
![[Image: aim-high-pinup-lo-res.jpg]](http://pinupwitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/aim-high-pinup-lo-res.jpg)
![[Image: gil_elvgren44.jpg]](https://mestadelsbilder.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/gil_elvgren44.jpg)
