you're Kevin Smith? Pretty much.

FIX YOU NECKS YOU Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler what

Growing up kids used to call me 'No-Neck' due to my lack of a neck. Maybe that has carried over into my artwork and caused me to play down everyone else's necks to make myself feel better?

and you'll probably end up beating your family too

I am the violent type.

it comes through in how you flatten out the necks of your figures, I can tell this from that.

it is like you are choking your family through your art

I avoid them because they take longer to draw because I am not as comfortable drawing them. Haha. I used to be much better with hands and feet but I just kind of let them fall behind overtime. Also I have been meaning to post this portrait of me that Erik Gist drew. I will link it it since I didn't draw it and I dont want anyone to assume I did. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CXjxCzN0Bq...d9+%282%29.jpg Way to fit exactly into my stereotype of the traditional artist.

I avoid them because they take longer to draw because I am not as comfortable drawing them. Haha. I used to be much better with hands and feet but I just kind of let them fall behind overtime. Also I have been meaning to post this portrait of me that Erik Gist drew. I will link it it since I didn't draw it and I dont want anyone to assume I did. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CXjxCzN0Bq...d9+%282%29.jpg Way to fit exactly into my stereotype of the traditional artist. What is it, the fat head?

Cake, what would you say your most finished/best piece is?

(USER WAS INFRACTED FOR THIS POST) One that involves a flattened neck

One that involves a flattened neck Troll elsewhere, Loomdun. This is an on-topic forum.

Oh yes I forgot this is the ass patting not the critiquing what a person should be improving on more in order to further develop there art work my bad Continue with the ass patting I'm sorry for ever stating anything that would have probably begun improving the works status then what it already is you are right

Rolo the best piece I have done is not on here, it is sitting 100 miles away in Los Angeles, and I may have run over it with my car on the way home. Hopefully it will be fine though, and I am going to drive back up there on Friday. If I had to choose something I have already posted though I would probably pick this figure drawing: The only thing I dont like about it is the leg. As for Loomdum, I hear you loud and clear buddy. You do not like the necks on my figures. I will keep that in mind, but they will probably remain a low priority for both focus and execution in any kind of timed pose. They just arent that important unless you have some kind of crazy neck-fetish.

Well, its not just the leg, is the whole leg/bottom/lowerback. The shoulders/head/neck/arms look like a woman's, but something about the flatness of the ass and the musculature of the back (and the leg is just a little big) make them appear very masculine.

Cake, I'm not so worried about the flat ass- plenty of women like that. The leg, as John pointed out, is off. I dunno, the more I look at it, the more it looks too long and too thick below the knee. I avoid them because they take longer to draw because I am not as comfortable drawing them. Haha. I used to be much better with hands and feet but I just kind of let them fall behind overtime. Also I have been meaning to post this portrait of me that Erik Gist drew. I will link it it since I didn't draw it and I dont want anyone to assume I did. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CXjxCzN0BqQ/SMddj9iIF7I/AAAAAAAAALw/1_KO6G5hT3s/s1600-h/head9+%282%29.jpg Way to fit exactly into my stereotype of the traditional artist. What is it, the fat head? Not particularly. It's a thick face (no, not fat), facial hair and sort of reserved expression. I grew up with that association; the common stereotype of the pale, waifish, turtle-necked artist came out of left field for me. Oh yes I forgot this is the ass patting not the critiquing what a person should be improving on more in order to further develop there art work my bad Continue with the ass patting I'm sorry for ever stating anything that would have probably begun improving the works status then what it already is you are right but loomdun your comment was repetitive and worthless too

Not particularly. It's a thick face (no, not fat), thick facial hair and sort of reserved expression. I grew up with that association; the common stereotype of the pale, waifish, turtle-necked artist came out of left field for me. Never do you see thicker facial hair than on a writer or artist. Seriously, sometimes I just want to give up on art because of my damned thin mustache. Anyway, your work is great. I'd say you have talent, but I hate describing skill in art as talent. So I'll say, well done working your ass off to get to this level. People say your imagined stuff is your weakest, they're right. But don't let it get you down. The fact is, you've put countless hours into developing your technical skill. Those who have great imaginative work put countless hours into that as well. Pretty much everything in art comes down to hard work, and your philosophy about working out the mastery of technical and observational aspects first is a great option. For the sake of other readers of the thread though, I'll say its not the only option. One can work congruently on observational work and imagined work and likely in the long run end up at the same level as the artist like you who chooses to perfect the skills before moving onto the imagined work, its all about the number of hours you put in the interim.

Thank you guys for your comments, I am definately starting to focus more on creative work these days. More work from the last couple quarters: I drew this one right handed!

Really nice, Cake. I will offer advice when I return from school. Hey, you're a lefty too!

Either you've aged horribly or that portrait looks nothing like you

The only things that jump out at me are that the guy's torso on the first one seems too long, and the girl fourth from the bottom has a nose that looks like a lump was just pasted on there.

Yeah the torso does look a little long, its likely just a guy with a long torso though. A couple of times in the thread things like that have been mentioned and you said its what you saw, but thought you maybe should have changed it to the "expected" proportion or whatever. I disagree though, I like how you've been doing it, draw what you see anatomically even if it seems off a little, because thats art. I mean if you changed everything to be "normal" then every drawing would be of the same generic person, with perhaps a different hairstyle and skin tone. Also a weird thing that popped into my head is I really like how you rendered the knees in the last batch, I didn't particularly notice it in the older ones, but these latest ones for some reason it caught my eye. Maybe just because its something I've noticed some people skimp on for whatever reason. Edit: Also you're getting better about doing the hands and the feet. Some of them are still pretty undefined or nonexistant, but it looks like those are the ones w/ the shorter time limit.

Thanks guys, I will keep those things in mind. I dont remember that girl having a particularly unattractive nose so I definately blew it on that one. Yeah mobo, I like to stick pretty strictly to what I see, but I am in a workshop with Steve Huston right now, who is a spectacular figurative painter and he is pushing me to draw more my idea of what I see than what is actually there. Trying to push the gesture while maintaining structure and such. Losing what I don't need, emphasizing what I like etc. Its stressful. A great workshop though if anyone ever gets the chance to take one with him, and he supposedly has a book coming out in the next year about how he works, and I would highly recommend it. The program at Watts is already modeled a little around what he teaches because a few of the instructors took his workshops before, but if you don't have the chance to get out here it would be a really good book to pick up for sure. Spono - Have you seen me before? I did post another picture of me on here with Max Turner once I think. In any case I think he got a good likeness in the portrait, even if it looks much more badass than I do.

There isn't a single one of those drawings in that last batch that I don't like, but they all look like they were done on newsprint, meaning you probably burn through these. The only reason I use newsprint is if i'm burning through pages and pages of work, and as a result usually end up pitching a lot of them, only to save a few select pieces. Please tell me you do not throw these away.

I keep drawings I am proud of, or that I think were milestones in my development, but most of them I shoot and then throw away. You just cant keep everything, they stack up really quickly. We almost always draw on newsprint at my school, smooth newsprint anyways. We will use bristol for longer drawings though (9 hours or more) and I never throw those away, though I have also never really finished one.