WCK's Drawings - The Good, the Bad and the Badass

winter_combat_knight

Here are some drawings i have done. I have been stuck in a habbit of drawing manga for so many years. I have decided to NEVER again draw manga and to try a more realistic approach to my drawings. Below are a few images. Let me know wat you think. Any problems, perspective etc would be good. Cheers.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

It looks to me like you suffer from one of the same problems I have for a while, that is, where your portraits are trapped in a weird spot between cartoony and realistic.

Assuming it's the cartooniness of manga you are trying to escape, I suggest working on how you define form. A lot of times it is the suggestion of form that will help give it a realistic feel and not going in and trying to draw every contour.

DeeLock

Hey winter!

You're just starting out on the long and hard road to being a better artist. I think you've made a good decision to study life rather than work exclusively in an anime style. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on here. Line quality, spacial relationships, anatomy, gesture, construction,perspective, value, and three dimensional representation.

I'd suggest heading over to the questions, discussion, and tutorials thread and do every human anatomy and gesture tutorial you can do. The Glen Vilppu Drawing Articles are a good start.

This is a great article and i think it will really help you out. It deals with breaking value into two dimensional shapes to better construct your drawings.

I'd also suggest working on more than just portraits. Sign up for a life drawing course, take art classes at school, draw your friends, draw your cat, draw your table lamp, draw all the buildings on a street, draw yourself. Do these things from LIFE. Don't use photo references, especially flash photos like you've been using for these drawings. Go out there, bring your sketchbook and fucking do it!

Good luck!

winter_combat_knight

Cheers for the advice mate! Im in second year of Illustration at uni this year. I'm taking a painting/drawing class which has helped me so much. Thanks for the links. Appreciated!

winter_combat_knight

A pic i did tonight. Took me bout 1.5 hrs. Looks much better in my sketchbook. My 8 yr old scanner doesnt pick up the colours nicely at all.

amateurhour

winter_combat_knight wrote: »

A pic i did tonight. Took me bout 1.5 hrs. Looks much better in my sketchbook. My 8 yr old scanner doesnt pick up the colours nicely at all.

That's a good bill murray

bombardier

That's some heavy football eye syndrome you've got going on there.

Asamof the Horrible

Try to focus on drawing exactly what you see, as opposed to what your brain wants you to think what you're seeing (such as football eyes). Spend as much time as you need doing a predrawing, just make sure all the proportions are ACCURATE before you start putting down values. Also, use your pencil to line features up, to make sure that they're accurate. Having good construction beforehand will make or break a piece! Strive for perfection! You're off to a great start mister

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGzr_hlKcsg Here's a good watch for you, he explains what I just said a little more in depth.

winter_combat_knight

Cheers for the links mate. Thanks for heads up on the football eyes fellas. Here is a pic i drew while thinking about the suggestions from u guys. Tried to avoid really sharp lines. Cheers!

BTW i dont have an obsession with Conan O'Brien

Mykonos

although you do need some practice in obvious areas, I do gotta give you props on the liveness on some of them.

winter_combat_knight

Eves are a bit out, as well as the shape of the face.

Mykonos

yeah the chin is too pointy and the jaw line should be lower a bit i would think. Also you may wanna smooth out that pointy tip. It's ok, I just made the exact same mistakes on something I'm working on now.

try using some references - keep two or three minimum out while drawing, and study each photo and try to give yourself an understanding of how the face works. what's differentiated between male and female etc

winter_combat_knight

G'day fellas. For a uni assignment i am to do a self portrait where we get to choose our own method. I have considered mixing both traditional work and digital colour together. Here is an example of one of my sketches i coloured in photoshop which took me bout 10 mins. Of course my actual portrait i will spend much more time gettin the right proportions and tones. What do you think of this for a method? Can it work or is it just a mess?

Cheers dudes.

Mykonos

looks more like a portrait of conan obrian....well then...i guess you look like conan obrian, huh?

Nam

Less detail, more measuring and attention to proportion dude.

winter_combat_knight

Mykonos wrote: »

looks more like a portrait of conan obrian....well then...i guess you look like conan obrian, huh?

Haha. I should have mentioned this was just a test for colouring.

Less detail, more measuring and attention to proportion dude.

Yeah this does need more time given to proportions, but i just grabbed any image as mainly a test for colouring.

My main question is does anyone think Pencil work and Digital colour can work well together? If it doesnt fell free to say so.

misosoup

it definitely can work, if you don't try and use the pencil lines the same way you would use digital inks. You have to incorporate the properties of the pencil lines so that it dosen't look forced and un-natural.

An awful description, I apologise, I'm not feeling particularly eloquent today.

Mustang

Hang on a sec, that's not supposed to be Conan O'Brian?....cause it looks exactly like him.

Fletcher

It is Conan O'Brian.

He is doing a self portrait, and the Conan picture is practice.

winter_combat_knight

Mustang wrote: »

Hang on a sec, that's not supposed to be Conan O'Brian?....cause it looks exactly like him.

It was a test mate

Here is a quick sketch of the self portrait assignment im doing at uni, which i placed in photoshop.



I dont think im going to go with colouring it on computer. I'm sure it can work well if i put in the time but i think i'll go with acrylics.

winter_combat_knight

Portrait for Uni.

Assignment is a portrait of a celebrity. I chose Conan Obrien.

Here it is so far...

jibjib

Doing well so far. The best things for you at this point are to practice and measure. Don't be afraid of optical measurement. The best artists spend 1-2 hours just on the first stage of a sketch, measuring and fixing lines until everything is in the perfect spot.

Try getting a small cropper to look through so you can compare proportions.

protosome

The drawings themselves are fine. Though I must say, the first guy kinda looks like he's just been busted on 'To Catch a Predator'.

jibjib

oh, and definitely get in the habit of shading by building up lines instead of smearing/using the side of the pencil

winter_combat_knight

protosome wrote: »

The drawings themselves are fine. Though I must say, the first guy kinda looks like he's just been busted on 'To Catch a Predator'.

Is that an American television show? I wouldn't know what 'To Catch a Predator' is:) But yeah it kinda looks weird.

jibjib wrote: »

oh, and definitely get in the habit of shading by building up lines instead of smearing/using the side of the pencil

I never thought about that. I'll give it a go. cheers mate!

jibjib

jibjib wrote: »

oh, and definitely get in the habit of shading by building up lines instead of smearing/using the side of the pencil

I never thought about that. I'll give it a go. cheers mate!

The technique I'm referring to is explained very well at the top of this page. Once you get the hang of it you'll never go back, i guarantee

winter_combat_knight

Hey fellas. While i'm still working on a realistic styled portrait of Conan O'Brien, i thought id attempt to do a caricature. Advice/Feedback etc would be appreciated.

jmpspin

I see the villian from the incredibles

earthwormadam

Needs much more contrast. Also it looks too soft, some harder edges might really help if from looking fuzzyish.

winter_combat_knight

earthwormadam wrote: »

Needs much more contrast. Also it looks too soft, some harder edges might really help if from looking fuzzyish.

Cheers for the heads-up. I just realised on my monitor the colours appear with much higher contrast than it does displayed on other monitors (my bros PC and Macs). I'm probably going to have to calibrate my monitor or use another one.

winter_combat_knight

Hey fellas. From an assignment at Uni we are to experiment with mixed media to create a series of images with a particual theme. I have chosen New York because of my interest in the city structure and art style. Thought id share some of my work ive done so far. BTW they dont need to be exactly accurate/realistic, just visually interesting.

Tube

I find those much more interesting than your portraits

winter_combat_knight

Hey fellas just thought id post up my final portrait of COnan im handing up in class on thursday. Id do more but i have a ton of other work to do by the end of the week. I think its much better than when i started.

Mustang

Still lacks contrast, especially on the face, which makes it look flat. I can see you've tried to improve it but you haven't taken it far enough.
I wish I had the time to do an over paint to give you some clues, but you need to be more heavy handed in your shaded areas, darken up the shaded colours to provide a bigger spread between light and dark. It'll make it look more three dimensional.

winter_combat_knight

Mustang wrote: »

Still lacks contrast, especially on the face, which makes it look flat. I can see you've tried to improve it but you haven't taken it far enough.
I wish I had the time to do an over paint to give you some clues, but you need to be more heavy handed in your shaded areas, darken up the shaded colours to provide a bigger spread between light and dark. It'll make it look more three dimensional.

Thanks mate. Id like to add more to it but i think i'll leave it and apply what ive learnt to a new piece. If you ever get a chance to do an over paint id like to see it. AND I CAN HAND THAT UP FOR UNI!!!

maybe not. Cheers again.

nothingmo

Cheers for your great work

Tam

The upside down triangle shape of Conan's head, the lines on his face, and his bone structure are critical, I think. Basically, do those better.

winter_combat_knight

G'day fellas. Just uploading my final self-portrait for my illustration class at uni. Considering that i spent many hours going in circles im quite happy with how it turned out. It was done using acrylics, which i have never used in my life before this (except short studies with fruit).

Process this afternoon.



Final i just finished tonight. Definately needs work but im done with it.

Sublimus

You have not even come close to capturing the expression in the picture. Try and pay more attention to the subtleties of the facial features.

winter_combat_knight

Sublimus wrote: »

You have not even come close to capturing the expression in the picture. Try and pay more attention to the subtleties of the facial features.

Very true. It's very muddy at the moment as well. I've only just started to understand how mixing colours work. I have to hand this up this morning. I've had alot of trouble with using acrylics and for that i'm pleased with how this has turned out. No way does it look good, but i'm more happy with this than i am with my Conan photoshop painting. Cheers for the comment mate

Mustang

I'd like to see some of your sketches.
I'm just wondering whether it's the medium that's giving you trouble, or whether your having issues with the structures themselves. I'm just getting the feeling that your missing a few of the basics that are killing you in these big pieces. By the way you really need to work on your noses.