Figures and portraits and illustrations (NSFW)

rts

I would not use an x-acto knife. It will be more difficult as well as dangerous. X-acto razor blades work great though. There are usually a few new students each quarter using knives, and it is a little frightening trying to sharpen your pencil up next to them.

We usually end up using these mostly just because the local art store sells them. Oh yeah, and as a little tip...dont try to get more life out of your razor blades than they can give. I usually buy one for each pencil. The second it starts feeling at all difficult to sharpen a pencil I toss the blade. They are cheap, and it just isn't worth the stress to use a dull blade.

rts

Alright, a few updates...some of these are from earlier in the quarter.

20 minutes in charcoal


2 hours in charcoal


2 hours in charcoal


2 hours in charcoal


2 hours in charcoal


6 hours in graphite (still another 6 to go)


Any comments critiques criticisms or questions are appreciated as usual.

piL

I really love the way you rendered noses in this last batch, it's pretty awesome. I noticed on the last two that the eyes seem like they might not be matching up right. might be totally wrong though; I'd honestly trust your eyes more than my own. Also, I think the plane of the last guy's glasses are possibly a little off--but his glasses could have totally been angled downward a bit. I know this stuff is irreparable at this point, they just might be things to look at in future drawings.

Red_Arremer

Thanks for the tip. I'm digging the old Indiana Jones guy.

rts

piL - Thanks man. There is definately something up with both sets of eyes. In the first of the two, I think I just need to push his right eye back in tone a bit. Its popping with that bright white and it really shouldnt be. Its giving and illusion of weight onto one side. On the second guy, I think it is more his type than anything. If you go back towards the beginning of the thread you will find another drawing of him (the one I took my avatar from) and you will notice his right eye is a bit wonky there as well. In fact, if you look at this rendering my instructor did of him you will see it again. It is a key part of his character type, but I may have botched it so it is just reading like error. As for the glasses, I am still feeling out the shape of them a bit. They are much more round from life, but I want them to feel a bit more square, hopefully they will start to even out and feel less awkward as I get them settled. And nothing is beyond repair! The indiana jones piece is still pretty light, I haven't used anything but a normal mechanical pencil so far so I can take everything out pretty easily. Thank you very much for your comments!

Red_Arremer - You are welcome, and thank you.

rts

So I am putting together a website for my portfolio and I have the basic layout done. Let me know what you guys think, none of the links are active but when you click on an image it will pop up the full version in a new window, and all of the blue text will take you to that person's website. Unfortunately I don't have much for the illustration or concept sections, but hopefully this will encourage me to get more creative work done.

http://www.rtschutter.com

Shiboe

cakemikz wrote: »

So I am putting together a website for my portfolio and I have the basic layout done. Let me know what you guys think, none of the links are active but when you click on an image it will pop up the full version in a new window, and all of the blue text will take you to that person's website. Unfortunately I don't have much for the illustration or concept sections, but hopefully this will encourage me to get more creative work done.

http://www.rtschutter.com

Pretty cool dude. Few things IMO:

- I'd try to format it so vertical scroll is gone for say, 900 px. I think it would look cleaner, and it always removes a bit of the frustration inherent in scrolling pages other than bodies of text. For example, you could have each category adjacent horizontally with the preview slices listed horizontally below it, and as you moused over each catagory, the row of previews would switch to the corresponding catagory.

- You can code new windows to open with specific parameters, which I think you've done partially, but there are more you can utilize. Mainly, make the full size pic windows' dimensions the same as the pic they are displaying. The whitespace can be gotten rid of. You can also remove the status bar along the bottom.

- You might want to make the title a smidge larger or more noticeable. It looks clean, but it could be missed easily I think. Might also want to locate it higher on the page, maybe fade the top pattern earlier.

I do like the color scheme. =D

piL

All your links open up in a new window without bars. I don't know what those are called, and while I understand why you might want to do that for images, links to your school and instructors might not need to be that way. I don't really have any advice on web pages though, so other than that it looks pretty to me!

Also, I want to go to your school. /dream

rts

Thanks guys, I am still trying to workout exactly how to get the images to popup properly. Its been a long time since I did any of this web design stuff so its been a little rough going. I was using javascript before but now I am just using html. The scrollbars are back and I can set the dimensions for each window properly in a bit.

Shiboe - Can you do a rough mockup of the layout changes you are talking about? I am not entirely sure I understand what you are describing.

piL - So come. No excuses.

piL

cakemikz wrote: »

piL - So come. No excuses.

My current plan right now is art school after I get a science degree. Also, its a bit of a commute.

rts

piL wrote: »

cakemikz wrote: »

piL - So come. No excuses.

My current plan right now is art school after I get a science degree. Also, its a bit of a commute.

I drove down here from LA for two years before I moved down!

piL

cakemikz wrote: »

piL wrote: »

cakemikz wrote: »

piL - So come. No excuses.

My current plan right now is art school after I get a science degree. Also, its a bit of a commute.

I drove down here from LA for two years before I moved down!

I live in Kentucky :P

Shiboe

cakemikz wrote: »

Shiboe - Can you do a rough mockup of the layout changes you are talking about? I am not entirely sure I understand what you are describing.

I'm not in a position right now to do so, so I'll try to explain better (maybe an example later on). Basically, either utilizing flash or javascript, you can turn each category (illustration, figurative, concept, bio, contact) into a mouse over button, and instead of listing vertically, they could be listed next to each other horizontally. As you mouse over each one, there is a nother table of the preview pictures below that change to you're currently moused over category.

I just looked at your page again, and realized you're using an image map. I would strongly recommend against this. It will load slower than many small pieces, it will be more involved to update as your site grows, and generally is less dynamic.

I don't know your level of skill with HTML and javascript, but there are plenty of free online tutorials if you need them. You cannot do what I was previously suggesting with an imagemap, or at least not without having several very large images. I could certainly code it for you, but then I might have to charge. =D

rts

piL - Well that would be some commute! Though I will say that we have students from New York, Minnesota, Pensylvania (my roommate), Washington, Canada, Mexico (though that is within 2 hous from here) and all kinds of places. Its turns out that I was actually really lucky to be within driving distance. We used to have a guy who would fly out for 3 days every week from Dallas to take classes. And another guy who flew out from Vegas every weekend for over a year. Obviously not everyone can do that but you should come check it out once the opportunity arises.

Shiboe - Actually I used to do web and graphics design type stuff for a living a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I would rather avoid flash just because it is unnecesary for a site like this one. Perhaps even unprofessional on a portfolio site. An image map is definately not what I would use were I producing this for a client. But for myself? It gets the job done. I will likely break it up into smaller pieces but the thumbnails will always be one big piece. It is just easier for me. I should also add that I don't really intend for the site to 'grow.' I may add on a 'fine art' section but other than that I will always have only 7 pieces in each category and I want it to remain one page. It does load slowly right now, but I am going to break up the main image into perhaps three pieces, and make them gifs. Also they are transitioning my site to a new server right now so it is unusually slow. I do appreciate the comments!

Virum

I think the main problem with your portfolio is the fact that you mainly have studies on their - I'd like to see some more art, and more stuff from your imagination.

rts

Virum wrote: »

I think the main problem with your portfolio is the fact that you mainly have studies on their - I'd like to see some more art, and more stuff from your imagination.

No kidding! I have a really hard time with more creative type work. But it will fill out over the course of the next year or two. I would never actually submit this in it's current state as a portfolio for work or anything. I wanted to have it online before I went home to visit family for Christmas though so I could show them some of my recent work.

Virum

That's cool - they are fantastic studies of course and it's a nice concise way to show what's going on with your work.

I have trouble with the creative aspect of art as well - even my art teacher told me that it wasn't my technique in the projects that was keeping me from getting an A+ it was the stuff behind it that was lacking.

Anyways good luck! I live in Northridge, maybe sometime I'll stop by and do a workshop or something.

Tam

How long have you been drawing from life and from whom/what have you received instruction?

rts

Virum - You should come down! We have several workshops going down this year, including one with Jon Foster, Steve Huston, Glen Orbik, and quite a few more. Jeff Watts (the guy who founded the school) also has a couple of workshops coming soon.

Tam - I have been drawing for about three years and the entirety of my education has been at Watts Atelier of the Arts.

rts

Hey everyone, haven't posted in awhile because I have been pretty sick since the start of the new quarter but I am getting back into full swing.

I have a new illustration piece going and everybody gave me such great comments on the last one hopefully I can get some more comments and put them to good use this time. Here are the color comps for the illustration. Let me know which one you like, or why you dont like any of them. That would be great!



The idea is to have a blue collar guy who works on spaceships in the future eating his lunch on take your son to work day. He is almost oblivious to the spaceship taking off in the background but his son is extremely excited.

Whardy

Firstly, I love the idea; it's really poetic but understated and this is perfect for illustration. I think the top right version is working the best because there is a lot of contrast (cool foreground/warm background, orange/blue) but you haven't 'overexposed' areas by using (almost) pure white like in some others. There also seems to be a higher range of colours in this one. I would avoid using black on the shadows in the distance; think about the aerial perspective. It may be difficult to go into greater depth because the design is clearly in an early stage of development. Keep it up, I'm always impressed by your skill and care.

Brolo

I always tend towards saturated colours because I can't seem to make more subtle tones work without having them look washed out.

So I think something like the middle one would be a good balance. I'm not sure about having the boy in indigo though - humans are a lot easier to identify when they're in warm tones.

in_absentia

I really like most of the color tones that you've set up. I'd say 1st and 3rd appeal to me the most. [edit] I didn't see the bottom two because they're leaning but, I like them a lot too. I know that doesn't help alot but I figured i might as well mention that [/edit]

But, I don't think that rocket is... "rocket enough." I thought it was just another tall building until i read the story behind it.

rts

Thanks guys!

Whardy - Good comments. Definately going to put these into action.

Rolo - I suffer from similar problems. The boy is in indigo because I was messing with hue/saturation and forgot to fix him. My buddy Arthur also prefers the one in the middle.

in_absentia - I like the first one the most personally, but you are the only other person I have shown it to who has liked it so far. The rocket/spaceship is definately not reading the way I want it to in these comps. The next phase of the project is going to be working out the design of the spaceship.

Tam

I really like the dawn colors (3rd on the top). Glad you're drawing again, by the way.

NightDragon

Upper right is my absolute flavorite, but bottom right is nice, too.

Tam

NightDragon wrote: »

Upper right is my absolute flavorite, but bottom right is nice, too.

Yes! hi5

rts

Thanks guys, I am probably going to go with the one on the top right. With some slight temperature changes.

rts

A few ship sketches from tonight. I have some recent paintings and drawings I want to upload as well but I will have to wait until tomorrow to get them off the camera. Gotta get up really early for plein air.

piL

cakemikz, my knees were shaking with giddy anticipation, those look great.

rts

Thanks piL


Here is a little bit of the work I have done so far this quarter.

2 hours in charcoal each.



Little still life study.


Graphite cowboy 6 hours in

Tam

So how did you come by this incredible eye for value? Is it practice, practice, practice?

rts

Pretty much. All of the information you really need is right in front of you, all you need is to learn to see it.

Tam

I can see it, I'm having trouble breaking it down into logical steps. Which where practice practice practice comes in.

rts

So I got a new toy. And this is my first venture into it's use:



This is the WIP head of the blue collar worker in my large piece. Has a bit of a feminine quality right now which I am going to play down.

Rankenphile

jesus christ, these are fantastic

edit: having gone back through the entire thread to watch the progression you make is utterly incredible. This stuff makes me absolutely thrilled that I'm going to ge to do some of this stuff when I go back to school this year. You have an amazing eye for character and are able to express subtle emotion perfectly while bringing out wonderful tone and shape, demonstrating a great understanding of the underlying anatomy and technique. I'm running out of synonyms for "really really good", so I'll stop gushing, but by all means keep posting more stuff!

DaMoonRulz

I liked the colors of the third one. Are the spaceships going to be more detailed? I thought they were a skyscraper and a factory with a smokestack.

rts

Rankenphile - Thanks man, though I think my classmates would tell you my head is plenty big enough.

DaMoonRulz - Yes the spaceships will be much much more detailed.

Speaking of which, here is a bit of an update on the progress of the illustration. Still in more of a rough sketch phase.

Neolight

cakemikz, thanks for putting your figurative work on here because it is an inspiration. Maybe its because i'm a newbie, but more often than not I can't sit in front of a model for more than an hour tops. It must sound ludicrous, but I'm wrapped up in gestures. I'll draw allot of fast sketches because there is always this point where I won't know how or where to continue.

The only thing I suppose I can add a thought to is your tonal concept for the illustration. I really want to see more contrast in it - like in your card arts. It'll unleash the power in the image. Speaking of the WoW cards, thats a really cool contest. I think I might humor it without sending anything in, lulz!

That tablet pc looks like its actually accurate. I've had one tablet pc in the past and it really sucked. Microsoft had implemented the tablet's architecture so badly, that the operating system's performance was vomit inducing.

rts

Neolight - Thank you for your comments. It is easy to get stuck when drawing anything, and get into trouble moving forward. I run into this same problem often, though obviously a bit later in a drawing than you do. My instructors say that the best way to deal with that is to do extremely detailed master studies, to get a feeling for what a finished drawing or painting should look like, feel like, taste like...etc. They also suggest taking even longer classes, such as the 15 hour pose classes, because they start to push your eye for finishes.

The illustration does indeed have more contrast in it now. I wanted to upload a newer version of it but I am having a bit of trouble with my host at the moment.

The tablet PC is awesome, though I have had a few problems with crashing. I need to get it functioning as smoothly as possible. In any case, I liked it so much I ended up buying a 20" Cintiq for working at home. Which has turned out to be a nightmare because of vista. I am trying to get my hands on a copy of xp right now so I can downgrade.


Drawing/painting updates to come as soon as I get my host figured out.