04-04-2023, 06:30 AM
@Berebobe2
Pretty much all humans are studies. I have the bad habit of tampering with the details, values or what else, but I try to not stray too far because doing these portraits has been so helpful!
Studies were something I was a bit resistant to doing in the past. These started as a way to learn pencils, but I'm finding I'm picking up extra knowledge by osmosis now. Leveling up "for free" feels wonderful!
@RottenPocket
Thanks! If they look any good is due my ample experience in rolling saving throws.
I'm serious, I always make a mistake in the process of rendering them, sometimes two or three, from which somehow I can recover. The same can't be said of drawings with darker values: Mistakes beget new mistakes when I try to fix them haha. But I'm getting better!
@Leo Ki
I'm used to adjusting values in each page set to make drawings blend better, but I never paid much attention to grouping in a drawing and my shadows and reflections have suffered for it. That's one of the causes of the darker values struggle — it's easy to get away with poor grouping in high contrast or lighter scales, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when you go for darker colors.
Thus I was struggling a lot with rendering darker skin:
Besides the poor grouping, photos from this era tend to have bad exposure and I wasn't adjusting values well to compensate for it, and the lack of darker black pencils led to a lot of frustrated scratches trying to compensate. It's a big problem since the hatching direction is obvious when darker, and can make or break a portrait.
But I'm getting better (and just got new pencils yesterday, not 100% black but very close and wonderfully soft! <3):
I can say I absolutely have a visual library, I just can't see it in my mind, only on paper. If I go on autopilot traits from faces I've seen before just start to pop up on unrelated portraits. It's pretty funny!
Uh oh. Layout is the least instinctive part for me. It's something I want to study closely before dipping my toes into it (though I already have a pretty clear idea of what I want on each page of chapter one at least).
Minor figure drawing update: Leyendecker hands from a while back, trying to absorb his wonderful thumbs.
I'm at arms now they overtook hands on the #1 spot for worse body part, but I'll try to accumulate studies before posting because I'm still at the very early outline and structure exploration phase, meaning "they look goddamn confusing and awful but don't worry it's getting better". I won't have much time to discuss approaches this week.
(03-31-2023, 05:19 AM)Berebobe2 Wrote: Oh man your pencil work is awesome. I love well done traditional drawingsare any of these from imagination?
are any of these from imagination?Pretty much all humans are studies. I have the bad habit of tampering with the details, values or what else, but I try to not stray too far because doing these portraits has been so helpful!
Studies were something I was a bit resistant to doing in the past. These started as a way to learn pencils, but I'm finding I'm picking up extra knowledge by osmosis now. Leveling up "for free" feels wonderful!
@RottenPocket
(04-02-2023, 01:06 PM)RottenPocket Wrote: It's been a while since I had anything to do with value studies, but I'd say you're doing the opposite of sucking. These drawings are beautiful.
Thanks! If they look any good is due my ample experience in rolling saving throws.
I'm serious, I always make a mistake in the process of rendering them, sometimes two or three, from which somehow I can recover. The same can't be said of drawings with darker values: Mistakes beget new mistakes when I try to fix them haha. But I'm getting better!
@Leo Ki
(04-01-2023, 10:46 AM)Leo Ki Wrote: Did you do value grouping within each individual character or on the whole spread? I can see it at both levels actually.
I'm used to adjusting values in each page set to make drawings blend better, but I never paid much attention to grouping in a drawing and my shadows and reflections have suffered for it. That's one of the causes of the darker values struggle — it's easy to get away with poor grouping in high contrast or lighter scales, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when you go for darker colors.
Thus I was struggling a lot with rendering darker skin:
Besides the poor grouping, photos from this era tend to have bad exposure and I wasn't adjusting values well to compensate for it, and the lack of darker black pencils led to a lot of frustrated scratches trying to compensate. It's a big problem since the hatching direction is obvious when darker, and can make or break a portrait.
But I'm getting better (and just got new pencils yesterday, not 100% black but very close and wonderfully soft! <3):
(04-01-2023, 10:46 AM)Leo Ki Wrote: Now I wonder if the visualisation is there, but repressed in the subconscious, or it is truly absent.
I can say I absolutely have a visual library, I just can't see it in my mind, only on paper. If I go on autopilot traits from faces I've seen before just start to pop up on unrelated portraits. It's pretty funny!
(04-01-2023, 10:46 AM)Leo Ki Wrote: Also, I'm waiting to see your comic layouts.
Uh oh. Layout is the least instinctive part for me. It's something I want to study closely before dipping my toes into it (though I already have a pretty clear idea of what I want on each page of chapter one at least).
Minor figure drawing update: Leyendecker hands from a while back, trying to absorb his wonderful thumbs.
I'm at arms now they overtook hands on the #1 spot for worse body part, but I'll try to accumulate studies before posting because I'm still at the very early outline and structure exploration phase, meaning "they look goddamn confusing and awful but don't worry it's getting better". I won't have much time to discuss approaches this week.