02-21-2015, 11:59 PM
Hey man, just gonna drop you some advice here! Thanks for checking out my sketchbook, I appreciate it : )
From what i see you seem to have a very strong grasp of perspective. Theres some over foreshortening and some harsh convergence going on but that will resolve itself over time and honestly isnt too big a deal, you understand the vast majority of it very well.
I think when it comes to anatomy, you clearly understand the musculature and the structure, but in my opinion you're relying too much on the construction methods from books, especially when it comes to heads. Construction and all that shits flawless for cars and spaceships but in my opinion it falls flat for faces. Nobody's face looks anything like those generic heads loomis and hogarthe get people to draw. Absolutely nobody. I challenge you to find someone who comes even remotely close. If you want your heads to feel a bit more natural, definitely learn about the planes and the general proportions, but instead of constructing a head the loomis way when you draw from observation for instance, just keep those things you learned in mind and let those dictate the flow of your mark making. I've actually found that loosely sketching a skull first and then laying flesh on top gives better, more natural results than trying to memorize symbols from loomis. Check out skull sketcher, its a free 3d skull thats pretty lightweight. Learn how the skull works. Learn how to simplify THAT and make your own method of construction instead of following loomis too much or whoever you are following at the moment. 95% of the mass we look at is the skull, but asaro heads and loomies tend to focus more on the planes that lie over the skull for some reason. Not enough time in those books is dedicated to the skull.
Another thing you can do, and it's surprising that i've basically never heard anyone mention this, is to learn how to do orthographic projections as a basis. Scott covers it in one of the videos closer to the end of How to Draw if you don't already know how they work, and glosses over it in other parts of the book (i think he could have elaborated more on that aspect). If you have mastery of drawing the head from profile, and from top view you can do orthos and then project the features down onto your picture plane and get a more accurate result. It's not perfect and it requires some practice but it can help you map out proportions more accurately in a shorter time frame. It might also require some minor tweaking to get it right but the times I've tried it I've gotten better results than by just guessing or constructing the way its taught in books
And last thing, about figures. I think, again, that you understand the underlying structure and the musculature very well, but when it comes to proportion and symmetry you're still a bit inconsistent like with the heads. Focus a lot on the proportions first, generally speaking people are quite a bit taller than we like to think. Do what Dave rapoza does when he submits a painting: he knows he paints very dark and high contrast, so when he submits his final he makes it 20-30% brighter than hes comfortable with to compensate. Likewise, I think you can make your figures 20-30% taller than you're naturally comfortable with or you think is right; do that as much when you're drawing foreshortened figures as when you're drawing standing ones and I think over time you'll become more comfortable with drawing more accurately proportioned figures. That also applies in reverse (ie make things smaller if they look too big) and for head proportions and features
Looking through your sketchbook again, I think you might benefit from switching mediums for a while. You're working almost exclusively in line, and I think if you set that aside for a while and learn a bit about painting and how to work with volume and masses rather than in contours and outlines you might see some change in your lineart, since you'll be developing a different side of your art brain rather than making it think unilaterally. Not saying you need to devote all your time to one or the other but let them inform each other, let each of their respective strengths compensate for the weaknesses in the other.
From what i see you seem to have a very strong grasp of perspective. Theres some over foreshortening and some harsh convergence going on but that will resolve itself over time and honestly isnt too big a deal, you understand the vast majority of it very well.
I think when it comes to anatomy, you clearly understand the musculature and the structure, but in my opinion you're relying too much on the construction methods from books, especially when it comes to heads. Construction and all that shits flawless for cars and spaceships but in my opinion it falls flat for faces. Nobody's face looks anything like those generic heads loomis and hogarthe get people to draw. Absolutely nobody. I challenge you to find someone who comes even remotely close. If you want your heads to feel a bit more natural, definitely learn about the planes and the general proportions, but instead of constructing a head the loomis way when you draw from observation for instance, just keep those things you learned in mind and let those dictate the flow of your mark making. I've actually found that loosely sketching a skull first and then laying flesh on top gives better, more natural results than trying to memorize symbols from loomis. Check out skull sketcher, its a free 3d skull thats pretty lightweight. Learn how the skull works. Learn how to simplify THAT and make your own method of construction instead of following loomis too much or whoever you are following at the moment. 95% of the mass we look at is the skull, but asaro heads and loomies tend to focus more on the planes that lie over the skull for some reason. Not enough time in those books is dedicated to the skull.
Another thing you can do, and it's surprising that i've basically never heard anyone mention this, is to learn how to do orthographic projections as a basis. Scott covers it in one of the videos closer to the end of How to Draw if you don't already know how they work, and glosses over it in other parts of the book (i think he could have elaborated more on that aspect). If you have mastery of drawing the head from profile, and from top view you can do orthos and then project the features down onto your picture plane and get a more accurate result. It's not perfect and it requires some practice but it can help you map out proportions more accurately in a shorter time frame. It might also require some minor tweaking to get it right but the times I've tried it I've gotten better results than by just guessing or constructing the way its taught in books
And last thing, about figures. I think, again, that you understand the underlying structure and the musculature very well, but when it comes to proportion and symmetry you're still a bit inconsistent like with the heads. Focus a lot on the proportions first, generally speaking people are quite a bit taller than we like to think. Do what Dave rapoza does when he submits a painting: he knows he paints very dark and high contrast, so when he submits his final he makes it 20-30% brighter than hes comfortable with to compensate. Likewise, I think you can make your figures 20-30% taller than you're naturally comfortable with or you think is right; do that as much when you're drawing foreshortened figures as when you're drawing standing ones and I think over time you'll become more comfortable with drawing more accurately proportioned figures. That also applies in reverse (ie make things smaller if they look too big) and for head proportions and features
Looking through your sketchbook again, I think you might benefit from switching mediums for a while. You're working almost exclusively in line, and I think if you set that aside for a while and learn a bit about painting and how to work with volume and masses rather than in contours and outlines you might see some change in your lineart, since you'll be developing a different side of your art brain rather than making it think unilaterally. Not saying you need to devote all your time to one or the other but let them inform each other, let each of their respective strengths compensate for the weaknesses in the other.