*** UPDATE PAGE 23 - - - July 16th, 2009 *** Hey duders, I haven't made a thread in.........ages! I posted the speedpaint in the doodle thread, but I guess I'll repost it here. (A handful of people told me the water edge was too sharp against the mountain, and I will fix that, thank you!). Also! I have some other work to post, I just have a shitty camera/not good lighting/small scanner, so please forgive me for the picture quality of some of these (the really bad images I decided not to even post)...I also suspect a few of these pieces may have been taken at a *slight* angle, so...whoops! This is all stuff over the past year, September to May, in Sight-Size and Figure Drawing class, Figure Drawing II (both pretty much the same thing, same professor...we took these pieces slooooooow)...and one from Color Theory (the abstract, in acrylic). I think taking the figure drawings suuuuper slow was a good thing for me - as well as the sightsizing that we did. I still think I could've done better on a lot of them, though - almost ALL the figure work we did was done in a dark room, and I had no idea that my marks were so scratchy/apparent until the lights came back on. Oh well! Next time. Blah blah blah here they are: (This one was drawn from a different angle than the 1st posted image - and it was also drawn after the 1st image. Class still had some time left and I couldn't really work on the 1st image anymore, so I drew this.) (Horrible picture. ) (...and again...:<) (This one is huge, and took me forever, and I don't even like it that much. ) (Had to disguise objects for the assignment, which is why there are two leaves on the canvas. ) (This one, above, is a self-portrait kinda thing that I haven't finished. HORRID pictar, sowwy. 9.5 hours so far.) (The Laocoön Cast study took 21.5 hours, measures roughly 20" high (?), and with it, I won 1st Place in the Drawing Category for the 2008 SCAD Foundations Awards. That made me pretty happy, and it's probably one of the pieces here that I'm most proud of.) As usual, comments/critiques welcome. Sorry for the picture qualities. I tried to fix some stuff in El PhotoChop, but eh.

Good god, Nightdragon, I was nodding along appreciatively but the further I scrolled the more my jaw dropped. This was done with pencil? How big is it? Are you working from a photo or a mirror? I love the hands and the wrinkles on the shirt. Please post some updates as it progresses.

Yeah, you're stuff is pretty damn awesome. Especially that last piece, which just blows me away! Congrats on 1st place btw, at 21.5 hours you sure as heck earned it

WIN FUCKING WIN Jen you blows my mind, lady.

Pretty.

Terrible. Just... terrible. ...Is how looking at your work makes me feel about my skillz. Awesome stuff.

I have to stop every time I see that landscape. Bravo, madam, bravo.

That is some impressive render work right there, made me do a double take to check if it were pic or sculpture.

marry me?

ND, what you need is a little bit more self esteem. These are all aces.

Thanks for all the kind words, guys! This was done with pencil? How big is it? Are you working from a photo or a mirror? I love the hands and the wrinkles on the shirt. Please post some updates as it progresses. I will definitely finish this, so there should be updates. It was drawn with a small scale of pencils, and a .5 HB mechanical pencil for some detail-areas (that's the pencil I'm holding in the picture. It's my flavorite). It's partially done from life, and partially from a picture. I took a picture of the entire scene for later use, because I was drawing this in the light of my dormroom, above the sink, and I won't be able to reproduce that lighting for the next year (I haev apartmint)...but most of it is done from a mirror. And thanks, the hands are my favorite part so far.

ND, your figurative work is very much improved. And that cast drawing is incredible.

premium stuff ND. Premium! You've definitely got chops. You'll probably whip out this stuff faster and faster as you keep drawing too. I would like to see silly or more personal stuff from you though. GET KARAZY!

The first word that comes to mind is "Poppin' ".

so please forgive me for the picture quality of some of these I refuse!

Thanks very much, guys! So yeah - people have told me the edge of the mountain is too sharp. Does this mean the mountain just looks like it's sitting ontop of the lake, rather than emerging from it? Or does the edge need to be run over with a blur tool? Or should the shadow on the lake be darker? Or should I make the reflections more apparent by adding more mountain-color there? I guess I'm not 100% sure on what people mean...and I've been staring at it so long, and the only thing I see right now is that the shadow on the lake needs to be darker...but aside from that, when I look at the reference, that's all that makes sense to do. Suggestions? I'm not getting it. :<

Thanks very much, guys! So yeah - people have told me the edge of the mountain is too sharp. Does this mean the mountain just looks like it's sitting ontop of the lake, rather than emerging from it? Or does the edge need to be run over with a blur tool? Or should the shadow on the lake be darker? Or should I make the reflections more apparent by adding more mountain-color there? I guess I'm not 100% sure on what people mean...and I've been staring at it so long, and the only thing I see right now is that the shadow on the lake needs to be darker...but aside from that, when I look at the reference, that's all that makes sense to do. Suggestions? I'm not getting it. :< As much as I love that mountain, yeah, I'm kind of seeing that now. It looks it's sitting on top of the water like a Jesus mountain. Sorry, I don't really know much about painting, so I have no idea how to fix it. Could you post the ref?

Just looking at it, it sticks out to me that there is no beach or anything at the water's edge. And no, I don't mean sandy beach with fun in the sun. Most times there would be something built up at the water's edge, be it gravel or a sand spit or maybe some vegetation etc etc. Right now the mountain seems to just leap out of the water,especially on the part that is closest to the viewer. Look at how you have it on the left side where the mountain fades back, it's got more of a slope into the water whereas the closer parts seem (whether you meant it to or its just a depth issue) to just pop up out of the water and start climbing. Hopefully that makes sense.

I think (think being the operative) that the texture of water tends to change the closer it get's to land. Wind tends to die off (glassing off the water) and currents are more apparent (breaking water on the shore), these could be your issues, but at such a distance, I don't really know how apparent these effects would appear but it may be a clue as to why it appears to be floating on top.

at times like these really study nature and observe what is going on in that water/earth interaction.

At the edge of the water the mountain is still very ... mountainous. That is, its still rock. That's probably the main thing hampering the 'believability'. Erosion, vegetation, etc. And seeing that recede beneath the surface of the water could help.

Really like your stuff here, very enjoyable to look through. Just wanted to make sure you get the appropriate number of asspats. =D

That drawing of the lake and mountain scene is absolutely beautiful.

Uh-mazing! Really cool stuff ND, always love looking at your posts. And you definitely deserved the 1st place with that bust. I thought it was a photo at first as well, do you mind me asking what medium you used for it? It looks like charcoals but I can't tell for sure, so clean.

at first glance i thought that cast study was a picture of an actual statue that you had been working from, not the work itself. very incredible. brava! post more!