Figures and portraits and illustrations (NSFW)

rts

I have been posting here for a bit leaving comments on people's work and such, but I haven't posted any of my own work. At least not for a very long time if at all. I will try to post more work after this but I am a bit irresponsible about getting work done (you will notice that there is pretty much not a single piece in the following post which could be considered finished) and about shooting my work as I kind of suck at it. You will get the general idea well enough from these images I think. This will mostly be older work, some of it smeared after many months of being underneath a stack of paper/work that is 6 inches deep.

My paintings are garish and overly colorful at the moment. I have decided to focus on more colorful than tonal paintings for awhile but that doesn't mean I am happy with how most of them have turned out. I want to paint colorfully...but controlled. Also, I am including one portrait that I am working on right now. It will likely be the first drawing of mine I ever really consider finished.....if I finish it that is. That one will be at the bottom and I am including two phases of the drawing.

3 hour charcoal (from life)


3 hour graphite (from life)...I had to bump up the contrast on this as it was pretty smeared out


9 hour graphite (from life)


Some faster charcoal drawings (from life)


A tonal composition study for a large illustration I am currently working on.


A color study from photo reference.


Outdoor portrait (from life) The wind knocked this over onto my palette two seconds after I lifted the clasp on the easel. It stills gets the feeling across though I think.


3 hour portrait (from life)


And here is the graphite portrait I am currently working on. About 11 hours in. Not sure why it looks like I drew it with a crayon everytime I shoot a photo of it. Its a bit messier than I usually work but I wanted to get a more painterly look to the drawing this time. The style is less than photogenic though.

3 hours in (from life)


11 hours in (mostly from life, some from photo)


I think I have another 10 hours or so ahead of me on this. Some areas just aren't working yet and other areas I have barely touched.

Any comments criticisms critiques and/or questions are welcome and appreciated.

MufasaJoe

EEEEEK! Oh my god I love these.
How do you get those long poses? 9 hours?!?
By charcoal you mean charcoal pencils? Or are you using sharpened vine?
What classes are these for?

Edit: Waaaait. You mean you worked on the drawing for 9 hours or there was some guy sitting there on and off for 9 hours?

Cola Koala

Man these are great. I am thoroughly impressed with your rendering skills.
Also very nice job on the paints... something I personally have a great deal of trouble with.

bombardier

This is all excellent. I love the third painting. Only thing that's bothersome is the rushed dark area shading in the pencils.

rts

MufasaJoe – Thank you. Nine hours is actually not exceedingly long for a pose at my school. In fact, this was a fifteen hour pose which I was only able to make it to nine of. Most figure classes at our school are three hour poses (or one pose a class) with some quick 5 minute warm ups in the beginning. On Saturdays we have a 6 hour pose, or, two classes with the same model in the same pose back to back. And we usually have at least two or three long pose classes each quarter, that will be made up of two fifteen hour, three nine hour, or one thirty hour pose. The model will sit for 15 hours, in 20 minute sections with 5 minute breaks. We will tape off the pose on the chair/floor to help get them back into position after each break.

We never really use vine charcoal at our school, just charcoal pencils. There are a variety of charcoal pencils being used around the school, but for the most part we use these pencils sharpened to about a 1 inch tapering tip: http://www.pearlpaint.com/shop~ocID~5999~parentID~5976~categoryID~5971.htm
And we work on smooth newsprint.

As for classes, they are for a variety. I think there is some Figure Drawing, Long Figure, Long Head, Portrait in Oil, Outdoor Portrait and Still Life, Creating and Illustration, and 20-minute Figure Lay-ins. These are all classes at my school in, Watts Atelier. http://www.wattsatelier.com Watts is located in San Diego, California.


Cola Koala – Thank you, I really enjoy working in the early linear phase of a drawing and I struggle with rendering so its encouraging to get some positive feedback on it.


Bombardier – Thank you. I do struggle with rendering high value areas, but more specifically I struggle with rendering any kind of area with a large flat tone. As for the dark values in the portrait I am currently working on, it is very much on the agenda to get in there and clean up those values. And perhaps even clean up those darks so they resemble hair.

rts

Here is some older stuff:


3 hour draped figure study in charcoal (from life)


? hour figure in graphite (from life)


15 hour portrait in graphite (from life) I would really like to go back and finish this someday.


5 minute head quicksketches....oh god! how did that get in there!



(The last image was from my first quarter at the school...in July I will be starting my 10th, the school is year round so we have classes even in the summer)

Novus

I'm in the same boat as far as posting comments but no artwork (I will someday...) except that I'm not nearly as good as you; I couldn't match your level of realism with a camera. I feel a little pretentious giving crits on these but here goes. The cowboy’s hat looks like it was giving you some grief; the back in particular just doesn’t look right. The guy with the mustache below the cowboy; his left foot is a little squished; though the rest of the piece is superb. The painting with the beached ships looks kinda flat; though it’s a photo reference and that tends to happen. I particularly like the painting of the red headed women - the lighting in that painting is really nice and the way you’ve captured the eyes give it a lot of life, though the neck and shoulders are a little monotone - and the old man three down in your first post, the look on his face is great.

NightDragon

Well, you're pretty fabulous. Aside from the comment bombs made about the shading, I really don't have much to add. In the painting of the woman, her face seems a bit flat...but aside from that, it's all super-super.

Tam

I don't think there's much we can tell you to make you any better, man. You've got most everyone here beat.
All of these pieces are excellent.

rts

Novus - You should never be concerned about critiqueing an artists work. If they take it well great, if not well whatever. We all have eyes and we can feel it in our bones when something looks off. After working on a drawing for 3+ hours I will trust just about anyones eyes but my own as getting a fresh perspective can be enlightening. As for the hat it didn't really give me much trouble. At the time it was reading like what I was seeing and I still believe it is accurate to what was up there. But that doesnt mean it is right. The hat does look awkward even if it is accurate, and so it needs to be changed. I should have drawn through the form and really got the folding of that brim across much better than I did.

As for mustache man's foot, I don't know if I agree about the squished feeling but it may not be moving back in space the way I want it to. I will take another look at the drawing tonight and maybe change it up a bit. Even though I dont plan on finishing the drawing it will be helpful to fix something like that so its in my mind in the future. I don't know what to do about the boats, it was a color study but I pushed the values quite a bit anyways. That may be what is making it feel flat. Thanks for the comments man I appreciate it.


NightDragon - Thank you, I agree the woman feels a bit flat. There isnt much atmosphere in the painting though I did try to bring the background into her skin as often as I could. It can be difficult to get a more colorful piece like this to read with strong volumes though. Also, sorry I crapped on your thread with my bad attitude.


Tam - Thank you, but in the near future I will be posting more illustrative stuff that I think it will be easier for people to comment on. My illustration work is very weak compared to my figurative stuff and its open to a wider variety of interpretations and ideas. In fact, I am working on two sketches that I need to get done in the next three and a half hours or my ass is grass. I should be working on them instead of typing this but here I am. Anyways, I will post them once I have submitted them and hopefully I can get some good feedback before I execute the finals.

Toji Suzuhara

I really love all of the pieces (well, except for the one you did starting out, but that's to be expected, right?). Your understanding of value and form is top notch! Your color sense is phenominal, too, but I'm biased towards saturated, bright colors.

I really love how you render your musculature. It's so classical.

However, I'm not really feeling your charcoals as much as your other works. Based on the few drawings you've shown, it seems like you have a tendency to treat charcoal exactly the same as graphite, but it's not giving you the solid tones you're used to being able to achieve with graphite pencil. Do they require that you use charcoal pencils? If not, experimenting with charcoal sticks (and slightly better paper. Sketch paper or something) to tease out the charcoalness from the medium instead of trying to make it be graphite could yeild some really spectacular results with your skill.

Man, I really love that three hour painted portrait a lot, though.

rts

Alright here are two sketches that were due tonight for a WoW card competition being hosted by one of my instructors and being judged by two of the art directors on the game. These are just sketches, the final paintings are not due for another month.

First, an action card. Show a male Draenei paladin berserk with fury, and radiating magical light because he has become so powerful.




Second, an item card. Show a close up of an epic W.O.W. battle weapon of your choice (axe, mace, sword, hammer, etc.). Focus must be on the weapon and should not look like a creature card.

I chose these things: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28315



Any comments or criticisms are appreciated, I have a good amount of time to get these looking like actual cards but I am sure it will be over before I know it.

rts

Toji Suzuhara - Thank you. As for my charcoal drawings looking like I draw exactly the same way as I do with graphite, you have a pretty good eye. Once I start doing any real rendering I usually shift gears and use the charcoal more like graphite. I have a bit of trouble with the charcoal actually, it gives me that nails on a chalkboard feeling when I use broad strokes...and it annoys the hell out of me. But thats just me being a little girl. In reality I should be using it more like this: http://www.erikgist.com/life60.html. This is NOT my work, this is the work of my instructor ( http://www.erikgist.com ) who happens to be hosting the WoW card competition I last posted about. But as you can see he works more on the side of his pencil (we sharpen them so a tapering 1 inch charcoal tip is showing) so he can cover more ground quickly, and get smoother tones. My ability with charcoal really isn't up to par, but this next quarter I will be a bit more focused on it.

I have used charcoal sticks before, mostly in cast drawing, but I am not a big fan. I prefer charcoal pencils, graphite, or ballpoint for most of my drawing. They really encourage us to use the charcoal pencils here. With all of the students using the same medium it makes it easier for the instructor to jump around and help everyone out. That way when he sits down at your pad he is using the same tool he was using 5 minutes ago on the drawing belonging to the student sitting across the room. The majority of the instructors at the school were trained from within the school as well. So they all work very well with the charcoal pencils and it just makes it easier if everyone is working with them in the shorter poses (6 hours or less). Thank you for your comments I appreciate it!

blizzard224

I don't really have anything at all constructive to add, but I must say I just love the first of the paintings in your OP.

NightDragon

Nah, it's fine.

Curious, though (almost afraid to ask) how old are you? You say you're in school...but I don't think I've ever met anybody who was this good, and under 30.

...and how do you do the super-long poses so well? There must be an unintentional switch-up in the pose at some point, during a break. What I try to do is get everything down in a line first, and then try to get the shading all in one go on the next session. Third session (if there is one) I just work further on the shading. Do you do anything similar to this, or differently? I'm curious about how you can get such accuracy on something that must change at least a few times.

AliasTheJester

Oh hell, this stuff is very awesome. Inspiring stuff, sir. Makes me realise how long it's been since I've done any life drawing, hah.

rts

Blizzard224 - Thanks, I really wasnt expecting much going into it but I was happy.


Nightdragon - I turned 21 back in March. The thing to realize is that at my school we pretty much focus entirely on drawing and painting from life. 90% of my classes are just drawing and painting from life. So for two and a half years or whatever it is that is pretty much all I have done. We dont have Math or English classes, no general courses..no degree for that matter. Just drawing and painting. And the guys who teach here know their shit. Most of the instructors are young (with the exception of Jeff Watts' (the founder) father I believe everyone who teaches at the school is under 40. There is one instructor who is younger than me. Turned 21 today in fact.

As for getting information despite shifting in the pose, its really just doing a lot of drawings from life mostly. I mean, models move..they are human. You just have to work around it as best you can. And who is to say how accurate my drawings really are anyways. One of my instructors once held out his arms like he was telling a fishing story and said "there is a wide range of good drawings that you can achieve...all you have to do is hit somewhere in this range" and that made a lot of sense to me. We dont all draw exactly alike, and while getting the likeness on a model is really important sometimes it just doesnt happen. Those are never my favorite drawings but that doesn't mean they are bad drawings. If you had been there and seen the model for any of these drawings you may not think I had achieved a likeness. I hope I did, but it can be difficult to judge as your experience and your eye evolves.

You can sort of see my process with the graphite drawing of the young woman towards the end of my first post. You can see in the first image of the two that it is very linear, and I am just trying to get in as much information as I can without getting into value. Its made up entirely of shapes, not eyes and earrings and a nose and mouth..but just shapes. If you look at that tutorial I linked to you earlier and go down to chapter 3, you will understand what I mean. I am just creating shapes where there will be major or minor value shifts, and enclosing them with a soft or hard edge depending on the turn of the form. Honestly, I probably take it further than I should. A lot of that information gets lost as I start going into my values, but I am still a student and I have a long ways to go. I am someone who sees things more linearly as well. Some people see more tonaly. And thats cool, you just need to learn to work around your strengths while trying to improve your weaknesses. Sometimes I will work in the linear phase for 15 minutes, and other times 5 hours. It really depends on how well its going. I don't worry too much about things changing because it doesn't matter all that much. We can usually get the model back into position fairly accurately, and if not hell, something up there may have changed for the better. In fact, chances are something did. So I cant really say when I go into value, it depends on the pose and exactly how well I am doing that day.

What you really have to watch out for are long costumed figure poses. Maybe I will upload some of my ventures into the world of long draped figure drawing but they arent very pretty. Because every 20 minutes when the model goes on break, and then sits back down again everything has changed completely. And not just.."can you move your arm a little to the left" the changes in drapery cannot be corrected..you just have to roll with it. Some sitting you may get a really cool sleeve, and another sitting maybe a really cool collar. You just pick one and get to it right off the bat as best you can..and try to get it near completion by the time they go on break.


AliasTheJester - Thanks man, get back into it! Its a lot of fun.

Greatnation

Wow man, these drawings are nuts. I actually looked at the Watts school while I was shopping for colleges last fall. I was actually for a couple weeks really serisously considering it. Like its hella cheap compared to any 4 year school and I could probably have done alot with the extra money. What it came down to, is that I really didnt want to give up any of my other interests, in history and english mostly.

But damn man, those poses are long as shit. I've been taking a class at the local community college here in Cincinnati, and the longest pose Ive done has been 45 minutes.

I'd like to see what you end up doing in years to come, do stay around.

FirmSkater

Needs more Eve oil-paintings.

rts

Greatnation - Thank you for the comments man. It's too bad you didnt come to Watts, its a cool place. Maybe if you are ever living in San Diego in the future you can take a class or two here. I know there are a few students who primarily take classes at local community colleges, SDSU, and UCSD. Watts is nice because they let anyone who wants to take classes take a class, and you dont have to enroll in a program or anything. Just sign up each quarter for whatever class or classes you want to take. Some people take 1 class a quarter while being fulltime students at other schools, and others take 8 classes a quarter treating Watts as their fulltime education. Honestly, I will probably be here longer than 4 years. Maybe the price difference averages out a bit, as I expect to be here for another 4 or 5.


FirmSkater - Sethur? Priest? Who are ye. Anyways, I still want to do that at some point but I really wasnt ready for it. I may give it another go in a quarter or two.


Tonight we are having a sketchgroup at my school, if anyone is in the San Diego area, wants to check it out, and sees this before 6pm PST (chances = slim) this would be a good time. Let me know and I will get you more information. I plan on working on a bit of a comic (comedic comic not hero comic) project that a couple buddies and I started a bit back. Comic stuff is usually poorly received in this forum but I want to give it a shot anyways. I likely wont even post the text, or dialogue or whatever you want to call it...just the artwork. I think its a bit different than what you usually see here. Not sure how far I will get tonight but we'll see. I will post it tonight or tomorrow.

Virum

Dude, awesome stuff.

I think after I get my degree I might posse on down to take a few classes there.

As for the comic stuff, post it with the dialog. We have a few comics that we appreciate here, (Sundays, Night of the Living Dead, Earthwormadam's stuff).

rts

Virum - Thanks, you definately should come take some classes when you get the chance. You will not regret it. I am still not sure about posting the dialogue. Its true that we wrote it with comedic intent but...it was more to try our hand at paneling and illustrating a comic more than writing one. The written part while I find it quite funny, is not really intended for outside reading. Its not something people would understand without some explanation, and after an explanation nothing is funny. Though, I guess I might as well just post it if nobody will understand it anyways. What difference does it make? I just dont want this thread to turn to focus on the quality of writing rather than art.

Actually come to think of it...some of you guys may like it. It is art related. Its not even about games! How about that? But seriously though, I dont want the writing to become the topic of discussion really. I will include an explanation of the dialogue when I post it however. And so far I havent used digital at all in its production. I don't plan to either, but it really depends on how well I handle gouache on this thing as I want it in color.

bread of wonder

Great stuff, man. But I also noticed how you treat the charcoal drawings - and charcoal can be lots of fun once you start treating it like charcoal, and not just an alternative medium to graphite. Maybe I'm just saying this because it's my preferred medium, but I'd really like to see you get over that fear of charcoal, and using charcoal pencils is probably not the best way to go with that, because they feel like pencils and thus if you're used to graphite, you'll use them as pencils. I know your school prefers charcoal pencils but maybe on your next charcoal drawing you should challenge yourself and use vines charcoal or something just to kinda force yourself over that, because honestly I wouldn't have really realized that you posted any charcoal drawings at all had you not mentioned it. Obviously your skill far exceeds mine (and it should, I'm only an architecture major) but it just bothers me that your charcoal stuff is pretty much neglected.

I'm also looking forward to seeing that comic. Is it kinda in the vein of Art School Confidential?

Lalilulelo

Flawless victory.

Virum

Cake, for my own edification or whatever, I'd like to see something drawn out of your head that you have tried to make look as real as possible, just to see how much better all this life drawing makes you at stuff. Do you have any such pieces?

As for the comic, say you don't want the writing critiqued and just the art, I'm sure most members will respect that.

rts

bread of wonder - Charcoal is an ok medium. I am unlikely to be using vine charcoal in a drawing class, its rather messy and drawing is about learning to see, not necesarily about what medium you are using. But I am pushing forward this next quarter with charcoal quite a bit. It's true I have been neglecting it, but I have 8 classes coming up this next quarter and 5 of them are charcoal drawing classes, so I will have a lot more of it to show. I am going to use it less like a pencil as well. It is something I am capable of doing but it is difficult for me to keep control of my values when working with broad strokes so I tend to avoid it rather than working on it and getting better at it. That changes next quarter.


Lalilulelo - Thanks man.


Virum - Man that is a tough thing to ask. I dont do much drawing out of my head, in fact, it is a serious weakness for me. But I will sketch something today or tomorrow for this purpose and upload it. I will say that in illustration most artists shoot reference anyways...so working from your head isnt always necesary. But I dont really know how much my life drawing stuff carries over into my imaginitive stuff. Probably not as well as it should because my actual anatomy knowledge is pretty weak. Its something I am working on.

As far as the comic is concerned, I didnt get as much done yesterday as I had planned to. I ended up just kind of hanging out and talking to people mostly at the sketchgroup as there were a lot more people there than I, or anyone had anticipated I think. I will upload it with that request though, but I also kind of want to know if people would like to see more of them. It might be a fun little project outside of my schoolwork. I am going to hangout with the dudes who I started the project with tonight so hopefully we will get some more done and I will upload it.

Gihgehls

This is really great stuff, man. I had no idea you were so talented! I feel kinda bad for messing up the forza'd WANG logo now If you ever make another AC thread, please post a link in the WANG forum again. I'm not a great artist and I don't usually lurk here, but I definitely want to see more of your stuff.

(ps accept my xbl friend request)

rts

So, sorry for not posting the comic yet. I got kind of sidetracked by games and Live Free or Die Hard (man that movie was good). Also, a last minute portrait workshop at my school with Max Turner. Actually the workshop has been planned for a long time, but I was on the waiting list to get in and did not find out until yesterday that I could attend. So I dropped what I was doing and drove 100 miles home and oh man do I not regret it. The workshop has already served to loosen me up quite a bit, and I will try to post these in the order I did them today. I am leaving out a lot of the crappier or no longer existant drawings.

They are all 20 minute portraits from life, in graphite. They all have their issues, being done quite quickly with a slow medium, but any comments critiques or criticisms are welcomed.

bombardier

That last one is excellent for 20 minutes.

Virum

I really like 4.jpg

NightDragon

So, I'll say this now because I forgot to earlier - God DAMN.

And only 21? I feel so...unaccomplished, heh (I'm 20). I'm really amazed at your skills. What are you planning on doing job-wise? Like, what do you want to get into? (I'd give crits on the art rather than muddying up your thread with chit-chat, but...I am currently crit-less, and generally curious about other stuff )

rts

bombardier - Thank you. It is easily my favorite of the bunch. For that last one I was trying to combine what I had learned during the previous 6 hours of the workshop with the way I already liked to draw. I like how it turned out.

Virum - Thank you, I liked 4 better before the paper started coming apart though. But I guess that is sort of the price you pay for using rice paper. It also suffers from some structural issues, her face feels flat I think. The rice paper does not allow you to take out information though...so I was stuck with it. I do like the feel of it though.

NightDragon - Thank you. I wouldn't worry about the age thing, 20 is still a really young age to get started if you work hard. As far as what I want to get into, I would really like to start doing illustration work as soon as my stuff is up to par. I think I have a good shot at it too once my work gets there, as three of my instructors are professional illustrators and this afternoon I went to lunch with an art director on the WoW card game (and formerly of Magic: The Gathering)...as he was also attending this workshop. So the connections are there I think if I can just get my illustrative work to where it needs to be.

rts

Max Turner Workshop - Day 2

Here are a few from today. Again, they are all 20 minutes in graphite, with a white pencil thing some of the time. Comments/critiques/criticisms are encouraged as always.

Greatnation

The distance between the eyes seems a little to large, on all of them. Seems that way at least, I wasnt there so I cant be for sure.

On those three quarter view ones, I dont feel like the far eye is placed in the skull right. Feels like they need to be pushed back just a tiny bit, and brought towards the bridge of the nose. (mainly the first one and last one)

Brolo

Cake, I don't think I've mentioned this but you are awesome.

rts

Greatnation - Thanks man, good eye. I agree with you...the eyes are starting to seperate in all of the drawings. Not sure when I developed this habit, it must have been recently because I don't recall suffering from it much previously. I think it has something to do with the speed of the drawings. In 20 minutes I just keep pushing forward, but in those long 3-15 hour drawings, the eyes eventually ends up in the right place because I have so much time to study it. I haven't done head drawings this quickly and in such repitition before, it really allows you to see what problems you are commonly suffering from.

The first and last drawings were of one model, and the rest were of the same girl from my 11 hour drawing. I think some of the issue is with her type, but I probably need to play it down to make it feel better. Thanks for the comments man.

Rolo - Thanks chief, I appreciate it.



Max Turner Workshop - Day 3 (Last Day)

The first two are twenty minutes in graphite, the third is forty minutes in graphite. Comments/critiques/criticisms are appreciated as always.

earthwormadam

Killer work. Not much more to say than that. And to post more soon.

bombardier

The last ones are my favourites, again!

rts

EarthWormAdam - Thanks man, I plan on posting work for awhile. Hopefully I will get more variety in here as I build up my illustration portfolio over the next year or so in preperation for the next comicon.

Bombardier - Thanks Bomb, I think its because the last ones had 7 hours of warm-up before hand.


Anyways, there is another sketchgroup at my school tonight. If anyone is interested in coming by its at 6pm PST. This is of course in San Diego (North County) http://www.wattsatelier.com for directions. Also, I am thinking about seeing if a couple of other dudes from my school might want to post their work in here.

tmccool

The classes I planned on taking here got cancelled because of low enrollment... bummer. I can't find any live models anywhere in Pittsburgh. I want to go back to school.

rts

tmccool - That sucks. Keep looking though, its worth it.


I feel like I should update this thing at least once every few days, but I dont really have anything new to show, so today you guys get some digital stuff thats about a year old. I don't do much digital work anymore (with the exception of those sketches for the WoW card game competition) because I want to have an original when I finish stuff. I used to also use it as a crutch to avoid learning to use real paint. So, I had to stop.

The first three are studies from screen captures of Lord of the Rings and Kingdom of Heaven, the next two are digital studies from life. They are all three hours. The first is also the only piece of mine that has ever made it into the brochure at the school.