naive.super's sketchbook

[naive.super]

Hi all,

I just joined this site and thought it would be good idea to post my studies to keep a perspective on my work as well as for motivation. Past few months I've been working on grasping the fundamentals. I'm using the figure as a starting point and hopefully someday reach my goal of telling visual stories :)

Here's some of this weeks life drawing and sketchbook. Crits and comments are very much welcome. Thanks :)

[naive.super]

off to a slow start this month, but things should pick up in April as I'm starting Spring semester classes. In the meantime, here's some head studies.

[naive.super]

Trying to get to know the skull better. Starting to get a feel for the main volumes. Couldn't help myself from rendering and adding texture . Also included some studies based on Villpu and the book Elements of Form by Elliot Goldfinger.

[Mr. Toodles]

hey welcome to the forums keep working hard

[naive.super]

Some head drawing from life. Charcoal pencil on newsprint. Still trying to get those values under control. Hopefully will improve on this in the next session. Any comments or crituques are welcome :)

Thanks Toodles! I'll definitely try to work even harder this month.

-joseph

1.5 hours +/-



20 min lay-in

[Budgie]

Nice drawings! I always love traditional stuff. Lookin' forward to more (;
For a crit, the eye on the right (especially the eyebrow) in the 1,5 hr one from the last post looks a bit off, which gives me a feel that there's something wrong with the whole face. Then again, I haven't seen the model in real life, maybe she looked that way. I think the second drawing is better. Maybe in that one her face on the right to her mouth shouldn't be that flat.. Again, it may also depend on the model.
Try to watch these little details the next time, and it will make the drawings even better (:
See ya!

[naive.super]

Hey Budgie, Thanks for pointing that out. That's exactly the kind of critique I was looking for :). I'm going to work hard at getting the head to look symmetrical. Your right, looks like her face is kind of falling off on the right side. If I ever had to draw a model with a lazy eye, I'd probably want to correct it in my drawing anyway. haha. Cheers!

[naive.super]

Today's life drawing. 1.5 hrs +/-

as always crits welcome :)

[YOLOLEX]

man i love ur work, such control over charcoal its incredible. keep goin! u got a great understanding of basic forms, and i like that goldfinger studies are there

[naive.super]

Thanks Yolo, I'm happy that my proportions are getting better. I think I need to practice more on value and edges. Still using charcoal and traditional mediums before attempting this stuff in digital :)

[naive.super]

Hi all,

This is going to be attempt #2 at this sketchbook ;). Hopefully I can keep it up this time.

I've been keeping up the traditional studies. Slowly trying to transfer the knowledge to digital.

I've got more time in the next few months, so I'll be posting regularly to keep track of my progress.

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for stopping by!

-Joseph

Studies from life. Been studying lots of anatomy and perspective past few months...










from photos...




oil and gouache...







First attempts at digital. Still trying to figure out a process, but I like how I can be more graphic with shapes in PS.




Comments crits welcome. Thanks :)

[valve gear]

that oil portrait is great man! I really like those gestures too. Since 2008 I have a box of oils but used them just once, I should relly give them a try again. What do you mean with "active marks in lights and passive in shadows"?

[naive.super]

Thanks Valve. Definitley give oils a go if you have the time. You definitely have the skills so I'm sure you'll figure it out just fine. Just like any other medium, it has its pluses and minuses. The pluses being that it dries slow, so you can manipulate it as you wish and come back to it the next day and change stuff. The down side imo, is that its more difficult to get hard edges. Good brushes can help though.

"active marks in lights and passive in shadows" is a comment I wrote down from my teacher Carl Dobsky. I'm taking a figure drawing class with him and he mentioned that my shading had too much visible hatching and marks. He said it's better to have more active marks in the lights and have them more subtle and blended in the shadows. Unless the focus is on shadows of course.

-J

[naive.super]

WIP from cast drawing class. I'll take a pic of the cast next time I'm in class.

---

Collaging long studies I did of the different body parts in PS.



and here's the rough sketch of the final pose that I will use to inject the information from long studies onto. This was largely from imagination, using just the information and a bit of recreating the pose myself. I'll be enlarging this and transferring it onto bristol board tomorrow. Fingers crossed hopefully it transfers okay.

---

and some basic forms from today. Studying some Scott Robertson...

[naive.super]

Here's the final pose rendered a bit...



Also some rendering practice in PS...

[naive.super]

A few studies. Still trying to compose with just shapes and value.





ref:


wood texture practice...

[JyonnyNovice]

Beautiful studies and work! You have really great control of your medium, they are great to look at! How did you go about transferring that figure onto bigger paper? It's a step that's always puzzled me with traditional work... keep it up mate ^^

[naive.super]

@JyonnyNovice: Thanks man. It was a simple process to transfer although might be hard to explain, so I'll try my best ;). What I did was take the drawing I did on regular US letter sized paper ("8X11) and went to the print store and had it enlarged on a copy machine big enough to fit at the size I wanted on the bristol ("19X24). Then, to do the actual transfer, I got some graphite powder and smudged an even layer of it onto some paper with a brush, making sure it covered an area as big as the enlarged drawing (You can buy transfer paper to do this, but this is the cheaper solution). So I took the paper with the smudged graphite and put it facing down onto the bristol, and the enlarged drawing on top of that, I then start to trace the contours of the enlarged drawing so that the graphite powder underneath creates the transfer onto the bristol. Hope that makes sense :). I can post pix of the elements if my explanation is a bit confusing. I find it's a great way to approach larger traditional works, especially because I like sketching small.

---

rendering wood practice...

---

Oil study from life using just burnt umber...

[AngeliquevdMee]

The way you control your materials is outstanding! I really love the colors in the bouguereau study. Great job :)

[pindurski]

Well, imo it looks like you certainly know what you are doing. I look forward to seeing your progression.