|
raging bullwinkle posted:The time you're wasting while you save for an expensive tablet will not have been worth it in the end. Buy a bamboo! I don't have money for any tablet 
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 11:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:34 |
|
|
Macaluso, this might be the kind of thing that you're looking for. Not many submissions for Halloween in the end. I was hoping a few might come in late, but I get the feeling it's been a busy week for most.  Challenge Four: Wed Nov 2nd - Wed Nov 9th Technical Challenge: 10 Gesture Drawings http://youtu.be/6Jwil-h2RWY Taking a break from creative assignments, we're going to focus this week on loosening up and working fast. You can literally do this assignment in ten minutes! Try to work large, if possible, and don't get hung up on perfect lines or details. If you feel like doing more than ten, do more and post your favourites. Try not to spend any longer than a minute on each drawing, just whip through them, letting your hand and eye do the work. Kismet fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Nov 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 17:41
|
|
|
SpectacuLars posted:I find that posing dolls this way usually result in very, very stiff-looking poses, and you don't really ever need to put too much detail into muscles as long as they are there. That is, unless that's not the point and I'm talking out of my arse, in which case you could perhaps try a combination of loose/gesture drawing*, posemaniacs.com (which provides both poses and a bit of anatomy), and - for the custom 3d poses - you could always get the free Blender and try to find a good rig that let you control muscles and poses. If you can't find any (I couldn't, but I haven't worked with blender in a long time), there's always the goofy-looking but easy to handle and rather feature-complete Mancandy rig combined with anatomy references of your choice for the more dynamic poses (but for a slightly older version of blender). Non free is good too, I spent 1000$ on a cintiq, I can spurge a little more on good software. quote:The time you're wasting while you save for an expensive tablet will not have been worth it in the end. Buy a bamboo! I would like to posit that even though I don't use my cintiq as often as I would like (its as cumbersome to move around as gently caress) I grin my rear end off everytime I interact with it, I love my cinty.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 20:15
|
|
|
edit: nevermind
Medenmath fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Nov 10, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2011 02:01
|
|
|
Cross post from the comic artists tread: I'm challenging myself to take part in NaNoMangO, which is to draw a 30 page comic in 30 days throughout November. Day 2 and I have the first two pages done in pencil. I redraw everything over and over, because I can't really draw anything much from my mind. Lots of time spent referencing, erasing, redrawing, etc. Hopefully I should get quicker as I get into it. God I hope so. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about inking these. I'll give it a go inking by hand on layout paper laid over the pencils, and see how that compares to a digital inking test.   Does anyone know anyone else doing nanomango? Or where anybody doing this might converge? I'll be updating my progress at http://nanomango.tumblr.com/
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2011 02:58
|
|
|
Fearian posted:Cross post from the comic artists tread: I've never heard of this, but it sounds really interesting! I've always been torn between wanting to draw something sequential and not having enough confidence/patience to work out what I would actually do. Your pages look good so far, although I don't like the guy's forearm in the first page. It's a little too gorilla-ish to me. Spamantha fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Nov 3, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2011 03:05
|
|
|
in the reaching panel? yeah I want it to be stretching unrealistically space jam style, but it's not extreme enough. I'll play around with the scales when I ink it. Here's a quick ink test in Photoshop: 
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2011 03:43
|
|
|
SpectacuLars posted:
Thank you for this great advice! After reading your post, I think my main problem is trying to figure out the line on paper instead of in my head (also, I'm sure I don't use enough elbow!). I'll start paying more attention and implement your techniques.
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2011 17:25
|
|
|
Work-in-progress, a reproduction of a Goya piece in pencil.  <--- The original. Any thoughts?
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 00:55
|
|
|
I'd say (and I may be wrong, but I'm going for the "advice is best way to learn" philosophy) try and get a larger tonal range. The hair is pretty much the darkest part of the work, so go as far as you can in it. However, where you have been adding the dark tones, you've just been shading, whereas he does the same lines as elsewhere, but in thicker density. It may be work trying to use only three shades like he does. The proportions are pretty impressive though, especially on the arms. I could be really wrong though... 
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 01:57
|
|
|
What jumped out at me the most at first glance: The back is really really wide and also seems to be a bit too long, so maybe try to work on proportions a little bit more.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 03:26
|
|
|
MixMasterGriff posted:Work-in-progress, a reproduction of a Goya piece in pencil. Looks like you haven't blocked in the whole picture yet. I would really recommend holding off on the shading of the figure until you've got all the elements, owls cat and desk, on the page. When you start with one section you'll more than likely make it the wrong size and squish everything else. Did you run into the edge of the page on the right already?
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 04:52
|
|
|
There was more room, but I cropped it. Thanks for all the response! It's hard not going right into the shading. I wanna make it look cool! Temptation...
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 05:52
|
|
|
Looks good! I'm not exactly professor Anatomy, but I think the right arm (our left) is looking a little boneless. A bit hard to tell where the elbow is, and the upper line of the lower arm kind of flows together with the folds/shading on the upper arm.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 15:58
|
|
|
I want to try my hand at watercolors. Besides the paints and a good round brush, are there any other recommended tools for a beginner? I'm just looking to paint some simple still lifes.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 16:08
|
|
|
Quantify! posted:I want to try my hand at watercolors. Besides the paints and a good round brush, are there any other recommended tools for a beginner? I'm just looking to paint some simple still lifes. Have some nice absorbent kitchen tissue to hand so that you can react like lightning to accidental pooling or streaking. It's also pretty good for gently lifting colour, sort of like a dry sponge. Honestly, I'd also recommend getting two brushes, just so you have the choice between broad and fine. Fills and washes look a thousand times better when you're using a broader brush, and the paint is much easier to control with a fine one. Finally - really dumb and obvious, but just in case - make sure you're using the correct paper. Nobody told me this when I started out with watercolour, and I assumed a heavy cartridge paper would do. Not so. MixMasterGRiff: I agree with what's been said. Looks like you're paying attention to the fine detail in exclusion of the big picture. Blocking in the lights and darks of the whole scene first doesn't just help get things in the right places - it does a lot of the work for you. e.g. if you look at the original, there is a slightly darkened kind of aura around the main figure helping him pop forward, but there isn't a definable outline. A lot of the forms in that picture are built up in relation to each other, by the contrast in relative lightness/darkness of big blocks of space. If you focus less on reproducing the right individual marks and more on reproducing the overall balance of the image, you'll probably get better results.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 17:37
|
|
|
Kismet posted:Finally - really dumb and obvious, but just in case - make sure you're using the correct paper. Nobody told me this when I started out with watercolour, and I assumed a heavy cartridge paper would do. Not so. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 19:15
|
|
|
Kismet posted:
 I already missed two challenges due to real life getting in the way.Used pixelovely set to 1 minute poses for these. A warm grey Tria marker on cheap copier paper:   Quick poses are fun for warming up, but I hate that they always remind me that I'm super lovely at eyeballing proportions quickly. I know how proportions work, really! I just need time (and an erasable medium) to adjust them as I go. Attempts at blocking them out beforehand in a longer drawing often end poorly as well, as my initial pass of them is always wrong, but further work straightening them out eliminates any life or motion the original may have had, leaving a more anatomically accurate but lifeless figure. There was actually an 11th, but it's nearly indistinguishable from an abstract swath of scribbles.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2011 02:01
|
|
|
Pretty sure it's 3. Full page, breakin' the law, and this, unless I missed something? Also I learned from this that literally all I do anyway is gesture drawings, perspective spergouts aside. Swoosh swoosh swoosh, I think it looks better than what happens when I try and get all precise (because I don't know what the gently caress I'm doing).
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2011 19:54
|
|
|
 Big Foot in Paris II I'm getting a tablet, so hopefully no more real life-digital transition messiness.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2011 23:58
|
|
|
I was wondering if I would be able to get some help on blending techniques for digital painting in black and white? For some reason I just can't seem to get it. I made a small example at the part where I get stuck. I've been able to paint fruit ok, but when it comes to peoples skin, it's like my brain goes all crazy. I would like to be able to make it look more "painted" I guess is the right way to put it. (I know some of the proportions are off, I was just trying to make a quick example of the trouble with blending/making the strokes look more realistic). Should I be doing strokes in the directions of the planes of the facial features? D: I'll welcome all the help I can get. I'm sorry if this is a bit long, but I'm basically asking what the next step in making this look more realistic is, and how can I go about learning/practicing it?
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2011 05:37
|
|
|
I can't help you, but whoever can will probably have an easier time if you post a larger image. Hard to see blending and individual strokes in that tiny one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2011 11:19
|
|
|
I was afraid of that, I will work on a larger one, and post it when I'm done. Thanks for the heads up! 
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2011 13:52
|
|
|
   Agh. I work so huge on gesture drawings. And I can tell I'm getting rusty on these. Same deal, ten pixelovely one-minute poses. Edit: thought I'd mention I have no scanner at the moment! So cell pics it is
mareep fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Nov 7, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2011 06:33
|
|
|
Quantify! posted:I want to try my hand at watercolors. Besides the paints and a good round brush, are there any other recommended tools for a beginner? I'm just looking to paint some simple still lifes. My favorite (easy to find at Michael's) mid-grade watercolor paper is Strathmore's 300 series cold press 140lb. For a few dollars more, the 400 series is good too, with a more natural looking texture. As someone else said, a watercolour block is great if you are using lots of water when you paint but most blocks tend to be pricey. Using painters tape to adhere a single non-block watercolor sheet to a drawing board or piece of masonite works just as well. Get a decent palette with a permanent spot for each color you have and a sizable mixing area. Unlike acrylics, watercolor paint can be easily rewetted and used again, even after it is completely dry. Most interestingly, don't use white. Use water, and the white of the paper as your white. solar energy panel fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Nov 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2011 18:15
|
|
|
Gesture drawings from real life. The poses ranged from 1 to 3 minutes. My first time having to quickly draw using a tablet pc.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2011 03:42
|
|
|
Some of these are really flowy and on the mark, like the woman holding up her arms and the two in the bottom right corner, but it looks like you're still not quite there with finding a consistent rhythm and going with it. The best (worst?) example I can find is the one with the stool at the top. It just feels so rigid and I'm not even sure I understand what's going on here. I notice that the ones I particularly liked had the best, most uncluttered lines. They just flew smoothly from departure to arrival, no stops or return trips. Like they just knew exactly where they were going. Try to emulate those more. I really like the one in the bottom left corner also, even if the lines aren't quite there yet. I have a bunch of these done from today/yesterday, I can't scan them in tonight, but I will tomorrow. Hope that's ok Kismet! Diseased Dick Guy fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Nov 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2011 04:17
|
|
|
Giant Boy Detective posted:Wait, shouldn't that be Challenge Four? Whoops, you're right. I'll go back and fix that. Diseased Dick Guy posted:I have a bunch of these done from today/yesterday, I can't scan them in tonight, but I will tomorrow. Hope that's ok Kismet! That's fine. This challenge was E: gently caress, I should really catch up on my sleep before posting. Kismet fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Nov 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2011 06:02
|
|
|
Here are my challenge pictures http://imgur.com/a/gsiD7 Two things I notice right off the bat about the assignment in general: If you're doing these from photos of video, a line of action is absolutely essential. Almost all of my photo ones took three or four tries before I had a human being with a mostly proper spine. Second thing: Photos and videos SUCK. Don't get me wrong, they help out when you're not around people or want to draw or need a reference. I have absolutely no problem working at least partially from photos. However, I did a few of these from photos and a few from real people (I can tell which, not sure if you guys can.) I notice a huge contrast in the way my brain is actually interpreting my reference. It is nearly impossible to just glance at the photo the same way you can a real life body and get a feel for a pose's personality and the overall body itself. My brain at least seems to get tunnel vision with photos where I can see the whole body but I can't really see it the same way I can when I look at a live human. Maybe I'm weird though \/  \/I'm proud that I seem to be getting a lot better about my line quality. I tried to make mostly broad strokes and always move in one consistent direction. I found Mike Matessi's Force book to be extremely helpful in this respect, I highly recommend it. Also, pencils suck, china markers rule, just throwing that out there. Speaking of well-known artists and gesture drawing, I have a question I've been wondering about for a while: It seems like a lot of artists have some extremely varied ideas about what gesture drawing actually is. The first exposure I had to it was in Kimon Nicolaides books and he seemed to define it as capturing the essence of a body in action, the feeling of it, but seemed to be about a lot of scribbling which feels kind of meaningless without seeing someone doing it for you in person. Then there are people like Matessi and Stanchfield (granted it's more gesture drawing for animators) who are all about the fewest lines to convey the most meaning and capturing a verb and a rhythm, personality and exaggeration. I feel I tend to emulate their ideas the most. It appears as if the former looks at is as more of a mindless automatic activity and the latter view it as a much more thought oriented thing (not active thought, just also not passive.) It seems there's also a third group of people who think every object ever can be made into a gesture drawing, like the lady in that video. The artists I mentioned above and others I've read who covered the topic all kind of agree that a gesture is a capture of action and emotion. I don't really feel much emotion when I look at a fan or a spoon though? Or a woman sitting atop a pillar meditating? Youtube only confuses me more on the subject. I will mention that Stanchfield did encourage gestures with inanimate objects, but he was talking about animation and personification and it made more sense in that context. So I guess my question is what exactly is a gesture drawing and what is the overall point of them? Are there two categories of drawings that both just happen to be called gestures? Sorry for always making such long posts! I hope I'm making sense and not just talking out of my rear end. Diseased Dick Guy fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Nov 9, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2011 06:15
|
|
|
I'm in a rush and literally only saw your bolded part so sorry for the poo poo post!  Gesture drawings are good anatomy practice in broad terms - you get the proportions down, the flow of the body. They also massively help your line work. You shouldn't be making short scratchy strokes, you should be drawing confident lines from the elbow. Hopefully having 30 seconds to get down a form improves this. Gesture drawing is a broad term, but generally if you are working on quick, loose line drawings that capture the shape and movement of your subject, that's a gesture drawing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2011 13:15
|
|
|
Fearian posted:I'm in a rush and literally only saw your bolded part so sorry for the poo poo post! There was no need to read the rest of my post anyway, so don't worry. I mainly just put it there for context of my confusion because I'm pretty sure I asked this question before but not in this thread. Thanks a lot for this post, it is really helpful! This was pretty much exactly what I was looking for, just a really concise breakdown of the purpose besides simply "making a picture recognizable in 30 seconds" or "capture the gesture!"
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2011 16:24
|
|
|
Diseased Dick Guy posted:There was no need to read the rest of my post anyway, so don't worry. I mainly just put it there for context of my confusion because I'm pretty sure I asked this question before but not in this thread. It might not seem instantly obvious what a "gesture" drawing is or what purpose it serves. Saying something like "it captures the energy or motion of a figure" is correct but difficult to understand if you don't practice it. A great understanding of anatomy is only part of the battle to drawing great figures in any figurative art. The most details, precise drawing of a human can still look like a manikin or a poser figure if the lines of the limbs and their relation to the torso or other limbs do not convey believable motion and weight. The purpose of gesture drawings is to simply express the direction, weight and motion of the body instead of just body parts. I know it can sound fancy talking about the "energy" of a drawing, but it's really very basic. The best examples which come to mind is the "lines of motion" tom and jerry picture that gets quoted everywhere. These points are true for representative figure drawing as well.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2011 03:18
|
|
|
Well, I'm a day late but here are my terrible drawings anyway! Note: nudes    
Medenmath fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Nov 11, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2011 04:03
|
|
|
Goddamn, once I got used to drawing on a tablet, I was able to do so much more with my drawings in terms of shading:
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2011 06:45
|
|
|
Some nice work on this assignment! Sorry about the delay. I'm up against the deadline for my final year dissertation at uni, so I've been forcibly avoiding the internet lately. It will all be over come Friday. (Giant Boy Detective) (redjenova) (etceterability) (Third Murderer) (Diseased Dick Guy)(more in imgur album) Challenge Five: Sun Nov 13th - Mon Nov 21st Technical Challenge: Blind Contour Drawing I don't know about anyone else, but I really love doing these. Draw your subject without looking at the paper or lifting your pencil, focusing on edges and taking your time. This is a good exercise to space out through the week, trying out different objects whenever you have a few minutes to spare. Highly, highly recommended for the beginners in this thread, though it's a great hand-eye coordination exercise at any level. I've been told it helps a lot with the skills required for drawing on a tablet too, so take note, digital artists. Kismet fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Nov 13, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2011 18:23
|
|
|
Does everybody have the problem where if you're drawing a line and you want to go correct it with another line in addition, you tend to draw along the same path? This is true for me even on a tablet. I know it's how our brains learn and work, but I guess I'm just impatient whenever the mechanics of my learning process are laid bare. Also, how long did y'all have to practice drawing a straight line horizontally and not have it curve all over the place? I guess I'm not using enough elbow, but it just feels like the kinematics of my body don't like straight horizontal lines. Mind you my posture is terrible because of my broken leg (gotta keep it elevated). Content: 
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2011 19:11
|
|
|
Kismet posted:Some nice work on this assignment! Sorry about the delay. I'm up against the deadline for my final year dissertation at uni, so I've been forcibly avoiding the internet lately. It will all be over come Friday. You missed mine, it was an imgur album I posted a few pages up. http://imgur.com/a/gsiD7 I hope your dissertation goes well, no wonder you haven't been around.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2011 19:22
|
|
|
Diseased Dick Guy posted:You missed mine, it was an imgur album I posted a few pages up. http://imgur.com/a/gsiD7 Derp. Edited it in. Yeah, I didn't expect things to get quite as heavy as they've been these last couple of weeks, but illness and another deadline being brought forward really messed up my schedule, so I've been working flat out to catch up. Funnily enough, the thing I'm hurting for most is having the time to sit down and draw properly. My hands are literally itching to just scribble pictures all over my notebooks every time I sit down to write, and I've caught myself craving perspective studies. I've got used to it being an outlet, I guess. Once everything's handed in, first thing I'm going to do is get out some paints and make a brutal hash of some master copies. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2011 19:41
|
|
|
I wanna try and get better- one the things I struggle with is line confidence. I'm always terrified of doing a really lovely line. So I decided that using one, continous line is the way to go for now... the only problem is, I still do the sketchy thing. Help? ... it's supposed to be a pepsi can with a crazy straw in it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2011 12:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:34 |
|
|
If you make a lovely line, just erase it and make a new one. I honestly know about two people who can consistently draw exactly the kind of line they want with the first stroke. The more lines you make, the more confident you'll be at making them. I'd suggest trying your hand at images where you don't erase lines at all, even if you mess up. Also practice drawing all sorts of lines (varying thickness, tapering, curvature etc.), basic shapes help too; I find that drawing spirals as well and accurately as you can with just one line is great practice. Also your one-line technique would look really great if you refined it a lot. Right now it's kind of shaky and messy, but still pretty cool. Just keep drawing lines, and don't worry if you mess up or have to erase lots of lines.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2011 22:14
|
|
