Cake Time. (NSFW)

rts

Well after a pretty long hiatus I am taking a couple of classes again. So I will throw up the work from those classes in here.

First a drawing I posted awhile back in the doodle thread that I was pretty proud of:





And now the first of five parts of a 15 hour drawing I started on Monday night. It's still at a phase where I am working very softly.

Arfenhouse

Will you have my demonspawn?

I love your black guy.

And I love that you're starting softly.

F87

Soooo goood.

The values on the first image are inspiring.

Visti

Is that first one graphite? It's pretty awesome. Good job.

m3nace

Woah it's awesome.

rts

Thanks guys. Yeah both images are graphite, the first one is a mechanical pencil with hb/2b lead combined with graphite powder applied using a large bristle brush.

earthwormadam

Bwwwaaa

Wow Cake, you're a pretty okay artist.

The_Glad_Hatter

Could you give a quick rundown on how you actually use graphite power? i've never actually seen anyone use that irl.
DO you buy it in a store? Or just grind up regular graphite pencils/ sticks? is it hard or soft graphite (does that matter?).
So it's just kinda like applying makeup or something? Powder up the brush and go crazy?

rts

The graphite comes in a container like this:



That is not the brand I use, but I doubt it makes a difference. I use a large filbert bristle brush to apply it. First I dip the brush in the graphite a bit, then I tap the brush on the rim of the jar to get rid of any loose graphite (otherwise it makes a huge ass mess). Then I just kind of scumble or scratch it on the paper in the areas I want it. You have very little control doing it the way I do, but the randomness adds a nice element to the drawing. You can pick it up off the paper pretty easily as well with a kneaded eraser, which gives you at least some control. You have to be careful though, once you pull up the graphite powder with an eraser, you will never get back the natural random feel it had before. So make sure you do it right the first time.

I am sure there are plenty of other ways of working with graphite powder as well. Using different brush shapes may have an effect, but I doubt it is significant. The way the graphite goes on is pretty rough. If you have illustration board or water color paper you could probably use water with the powder. I have done that with charcoal powder before, it's pretty fun. But you probably want to use a sable brush if you do that.

The_Glad_Hatter

Thank you for the explanation. The powder sounds like a lot of fun for big drawings or stuff that really takes a long time. I'll be sure to pick some up next time i'm at my art supply store. Really curious how it'll turn out.

edit: i just bought some and toyed around with it for a minute. What an interesting way to apply graphite. Fun, but i'm curious if i'll be able to control it enough. I have a feeling you _really_ need to know what you're doing when you use it.

edit 2: MAN is this stuff messy!

Rankenphile

gnomon has a really great tutorial on rendering curved surfaces with a single-point light source using graphite powder here

he tends to use a soft cloth for a lot of his application, but it's a neat process and fun to watch/learn

The_Glad_Hatter

Thank you. The preview was pretty informative. Paper masks huh? wow.
anyhoo, sorry for threadjacking your own thread cake, but i've been wondering about your graphite powder for too long...

nakirush

::face palm:: I have watched that DVD twice now and now I FINALLY know what graphite powder is. I need to go try some now!

Radar6590

15 hours? It's very accurate, but how big is it? Looks like it'll be sick when finished. Also the portrait is, as everyone is saying, pretty awesome.

Urantia

Ugh, Cake I'm sorry to get involved in jacking your thread- your drawings are lovely and you know I admire in brooding silence- but I felt I would be remiss if I didn't clarify:

That's not graphite powder Mr. Robertson is using in those videos. He uses ground up nupastels, baby powder, and that soft cloth is a Webril pad- all cotton laid smooth. If you buy this DVD thinking you can replicate he results with the graphite powder you have at home, you will find yourself having to go out and put down more money for the aforementioned supplies.

source: I took his class and have done dozens of those things.

Also, cake, how big is that head drawing? I had a scale in mind, but now that you mention there is mechanical pencil involved, I am deathly curious to know the truth. So damn nice.

rts

The drawing is on an 18x24 sheet of bristol, but the drawing itself is probably somewhere around 11x14, maybe a little larger. You can see it at around 5 minutes in this video walk-through Amber (Ikage) did of the school to get an idea of it's scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw4lDKl4hqo

rts

Now 6 hours into this drawing. Basically just finished the two-value block-in phase. Next week I think I am going to spend pretty much the entire three hours working on the head, because its really weak right now.




And here is a painting I did last year which I never posted. I posted the digital sketch I did for the piece a bit back, but never the actual painting.

The One 52

Amazing work! I just love your production so far. Keep up the good work!

rts

Thanks, I have a couple of illustrations I am working on right now I will post soon.

Bagginses

It looks like you'd enjoy depicting some of the post-age-of-princes emperors of Ethiopia. Their clothing seems right up your alley.

wakkawa

Awesome I look forward to you posting those illustrations. The other stuff on this page is lookin preeettttyyy good.

TheRadiantOnes

I like the first image the most, very nicely rendered, and a nice bit of character to the expression.

The second one has a nice feel, but something about the detail around the hands looks odd. The knees also look very heavily shaded, compared to the rest of the figure.

The color image is better than I could color, but it feels like an underpainting- I wish it had just a few more crisp edges.

Over all, impressive stuff, with some minor complaints…

rts

Wow, underpainting....that's pretty harsh.

Update on the figure drawing.

The_Glad_Hatter

cakemikz wrote: »

Wow, underpainting....that's pretty harsh.

Underpainting's probably a harsh word to use, but i can see what he means because of 1) the very very saturated brownish colours and 2) that it could use some sharpness/ detail in some areas.

Kendeathwalker

That painting has som really nice stuff going on. I tend to agree with the others tho, Just give it one more sitting. I would either bring up the detail in the breast plate, or put more detail into his face.

for the breast plate.. maybe som nicks and cuts, show some wear on the armor. make the pattern on it a little more inricate, or give it some engraving.

the way the pattern looks right now its just coming off clunky, and you draw better than that.

if you choose to go the face route well.. you know what to do.

You have awesome edge control in your drawings... and some of its slipping away from you in the paint. If your being a purist.. i guess its just patience and more practice.. but you could fix some of it very easily with digital touch ups.


Its good to see work from you.

.Tripwire.

Holy shit, saw the first pic in the OP and felt like I was looking at a Nathan Fowkes piece (intended as a big compliment!) Awesome portrait!

rts

Wow that is a real compliment thank you very much. I will try to post the progress on the figure tonight.

Kendeathwalker

yea definitely going to have to agree with trip, its a sick drawing.

rts

Thanks. Here are two more things. The other drawing didn't turn out so hot in the end...but it does look a hell of a lot better than it did in the last update so I will probably scan it in at some point to show you guys. Anyways, this is the new drawing from the same class, as well as a further development of a spaceship painting I am attempting in the style of John Harris.

rts

Also I am going to be doing some streaming if anyone wants to watch. Definitely going to be pretty rocky though, its just something I am prepping for class tonight and I have no idea what I am doing.

Mustang

Those fine little highlights on that arm are fantastic cake. Scary neat.

Shizumaru

The far leg on the figure feels a little on the small side. The lower leg/calf on both feel a little small/thin as well. The guy could be really top heavy however, but in relationship to the drawing thats how it feels right now at this stage. What grade of pencil are you using? May wanna establish a dark to gauge the rest of the picture, especially with the rendering you already have going in the arm. I'm guessing the guy is super ripped, but I think a bit more squinting might help simplify some of the shapes down unless the entire drawing is going to be rendered out the same way. Only problem with that is that then theirs no hierarchy of form. Hope you have enough time to finesse things.

rts

Thanks for the feedback. That leg is supposed to be foreshortened moving away from us, but I think the shadow being cast by the arm is being pretty disruptive to the read. It may still need to come up in size though, we'll see once the drapery is in over the lower part of the leg (it wont be visible). I am using an HB .5 mechanical. Last time I jumped into the graphite powder pretty early, and when I later started to figure out my halftones and shapes a little more thoroughly I ended up making some mistakes and being forced to take out the graphite powder in some areas, which gave the whole thing a bit of an awkward look. This time the plan is to just draw and get the shapes in before the powder goes down so there is no confusion later on. Value-wise I don't want to hit my darkest darks until after the graphite powder is down, because the powder doesn't go down so well on top of the super smooth darks.

At least thats my plan. Who knows how it will actually work out. May have some more hard lessons ahead of me in the next few sittings.

rts

Alright, an update to the figure drawing. I am also including the little value comps I posted in the doodle thread on Monday. The model in this drawing has actually agreed to trade a free photo shoot for the drawing, so I will be able to provide some high quality free figure reference on theillustrationboard.com sometime in the near future. I remember trying to do those video lessons and one of the most annoying things about it was trying to find decent reference for everyone.








I still have one 3-hour sitting left.

The_Glad_Hatter

cakemikz wrote: »

so I will be able to provide some high quality free figure reference on theillustrationboard.com sometime in the near future.

Thank you.

I can't stare at pictures of naked guys for TOO long at work and i'm not superqualified to crit your stuff (see: my thread), but some areas seemed to have lost some sharpness. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next three hours.
Man i wish we had poses this long where i draw...

rts

What areas do you think have lost sharpness (and the result was negative)?

Here is an update to where I stopped on the woman. I am not sure if I will bother picking it up again.

The_Glad_Hatter

Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing drawing (definately improved) and it is a little nitpicky, but i figured i'd just drop it in and see what you thought of it. The upper back of his skull, and mainly the upper edge of his left deltoid muscle. bottom of his chin perhaps?

okay, make that super nitpicky. I probably just had to get used to seeing it with the background in place. (couldn't take a very very good look at work, but at a glance it seemed that something had changed). In hindsight i don't know if i should've commented about it.