Birds (pg9)

beavotron

I'm making a new thread, see?
and I'm going to post my drawings in it.

I had my first ever real life drawing session yesterday and it was marvelous. I will be attending on a weekly basis. Hurray for drawing!

NSFW:

20 second quick poses:



5 minute longer poses:

crit me!

more tomorrow!
not life drawing
some other things.

jibjib

This was your first life drawing class? Holy crap, sir....

These would be great even if you'd been taking the class for months.
For the first batch (20 second ones) maybe try to use less lines. Try to get to the point where you can make one swift, bold stroke for a body part and move on.

The second batch...are all prety much perfect. Maybe work a little more on getting the facial features accurate.

Overall, very nice

beavotron

jibjib wrote: »

This was your first life drawing class? Holy crap, sir....

These would be great even if you'd been taking the class for months.
For the first batch (20 second ones) maybe try to use less lines. Try to get to the point where you can make one swift, bold stroke for a body part and move on.

The second batch...are all prety much perfect. Maybe work a little more on getting the facial features accurate.

Overall, very nice

well to be fair, i should specify that i have done studies from photographs, my only reason for not attending life drawing sessions is that they weren't available in my city till very recently.

I need to seriously get used to the whole process. I was trying to draw a full image of a woman in 20 seconds instead of trying to just get the gesture. It's a strange process to get used to, but I think I'll get it down in the next few sessions.

I think I made her feet too big
and her bum in some of them
because again I think I'm focusing on details when I should be putting more emphasis on shapes.

She had hairy armpits, I kept debating whether or not I should have drawn in the hair.

thanks for the crits!

jibjib

Hah, ah yes, the old "should...should I draw that?" debate.

I know what you mean about details. It's tough to budget your time, but you seem to be getting the hang of it.
Is this a class that includes lectures and demos, or is just drawing the whole time?

Kendeathwalker

try drawing with charcoal or conte crayons. neocolour makes these great wax crayons that can give you great line quality and let you lay down tone very quickly and they dont get all over your hands.

at least for the quick poses those tools let you knock in shapes quicker than a pencil.

Tam

The foot on the bent leg in the second to last one seems too long.

MufasaJoe

Great start.
I would ditch the strategy of laying down the blue first. That makes sense for illustration and whatnot, but when your first starting figure drawing I feel like you should avoid anything that implies you are at somepoint going to come out of those sessions with a finished product. (At least with five minute poses.) I think using a more final medium like pen is great, when it makes you really look at your failures because they aren't going away anytime soon. Like on the second five minute, the bum and left leg look flat and it's hard to tell when that happened, but I bet it happened when you were working in blue, before you put down the pen/pencil.

NightDragon

beavotron wrote: »

I need to seriously get used to the whole process. I was trying to draw a full image of a woman in 20 seconds instead of trying to just get the gesture. It's a strange process to get used to, but I think I'll get it down in the next few sessions.

Haha, I'm in the same boat.

I LOVE figure drawing classes...man, I don't know what it is...but they're great, aren't they? You seem to be doing pretty well for the first go, and I think doing a bunch of gestures, as you mentioned, would definitely help. I actually *completely* suck at doing those gorgeous, flowing gestures, mine tend to be more structured/angular. One of my professors told me that I make gestures "like an illustrator, rather than an animator" though, which I found interesting (I always figured the "flowing" kind of gestures were the ideal, but I think I make gestures like you do - a bit more shape oriented, rather than movement oriented). I suppose in this case, I would suggest you try to do both - the flowy kind and the more "structured" kind. Both have their benefits. You're off to a great start though, keep it up!

Mustang

Cracking level of detail for a 5 minute timeframe beavo.
The chest seems a bit wierd on the first 5 minute one, like the protruding portion of the breast is rigid rather than being maniputated by the upper arm.....it's almost like it lacks any weight.

beavotron

thanks all!
i think the major problems all cropped up because i layed down the blue stuff in like 20 seconds just so i could go over it with the pencils and make it look nicer. the end result is it's not as accurate as it would have been if i spent the time actually paying attention to what i was drawing.
this is something i clearly have to break out of
as the people who have seen me draw can attest to, i have some sort of obsession with clean lines.

i am going to try conte next time
this is going to be a big step for me in getting over the obsession.

bombardier

PROX

These are really impressive beavo!
Some tips:
for the 20 second short poses, capture the gestures. Don't go into the muscles and stuff. Try and get the pose and proportions with simple geometric shapes

For the 5 mins, focus on proportions and fitting 3D blocks together.
Mark down the top bottom and middle of the figure first.
This is so you dont cut off the feet when you run out of space, and is a good start for proportion
Try and simplify the basic muscles masses into blocks that wedge together.
Remember to draw through, like a wireframe.
When you do this, draw lightly.
This will allow you to do multiple passes for detail in longer poses

beavotron

Did a speed paint of a welsh corgi
sort of from a reference but i took a ton of liberties with it



Stopped at the hour point because i gotta go get ready to go out but i may finish it tonight.
edit: thanks proxadoo!

Tam

It's Ein! The smiley effect of the dog opening its mouth is a bit off. It's cool though.

beavotron

i think i'm finished now,
tam is the mouth looking better?

Tam

Er. Heh, not to discourage you, but it looks kinda goofy; can you post the ref?

beavotron

for shizzle

Endless_Serpents

To be fair on old Beavotron, thats a pretty goofy dog breed. I think the tongue could be darker though, but I shouldn't really give advise.

Tam

Oh I see it, the "smile" in yours is too long going back and it isn't open far enough. I know there's asymmetry in the smile too, but I think you exaggerated it a little bit; I think you can go for artistic license here and just make it symmetrical.

Hope that helps.

beavotron

Endless_Serpents wrote: »

To be fair on old Beavotron, thats a pretty goofy dog breed. I think the tongue could be darker though, but I shouldn't really give advise.

why shouldn't you give advice? that's a good point, i will darken up his tongue

tam: Ahhh yes I see! I will fix that up as well and hopefully it'll improve it a bit.

thanks cool dudes!

Endless_Serpents

beavotron wrote: »

Endless_Serpents wrote: »

To be fair on old Beavotron, thats a pretty goofy dog breed. I think the tongue could be darker though, but I shouldn't really give advise.

why shouldn't you give advice? that's a good point, i will darken up his tongue

tam: Ahhh yes I see! I will fix that up as well and hopefully it'll improve it a bit.

thanks cool dudes!

Because I'm mad, mad like the fox.

sharky t

great stuff beavo! it looks just like my uncle's dog, he would love that picture more than his own child...
he's a sort of creepy

PROX

For the shadows, don't just go for a darker, desaturated version of the color. The dog is outside, so there should be some bluish tint to the shadows. This is caused by the sky.

Iruka

beav, I think if you adopted a slightly more planar method for observing light, you may find it easier to create volume.

you dont have to go that much darker, but I think it needs more shading to pop alittle. the flatness is making it look off. Here is a clearer diagram of the planes I think need to be emphasized/were missed:

beavotron

cool iruka, that does look way better
i think shading and lighting are my biggest weakness right now.
any good tutorials or books that you can recommend?

Iruka

I cant really think of a book, I learned it from my drawing and painting teacher, and AOB, really. I would just say play with higher contrast and practice blocking off shadows. Even if what your looking at is low contrast, just think to yourself "if there was a hard edge, the plane would change right here" and make a line either mentally or on the page.

Deusfaux

i think gesture drawings are most successful when you get away from drawing the outlines of the shapes you see the person is composed of

you're rather drawing the energy and gesture within those outlines or shapes

Tam

Iruka, I am making the Girl In The Dragon Suit Fanclub. I am going to make my friends be in it.

sharky t

i found a pretty good tutorial on lighting in the questions, discussions and tutorials thread: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
it's got pictures to show where the lighting should go like this:

beavotron

Oh geez I just dredged this thread up from the nether!


aaaand just a page out of my book that i thought was kinda neat:

NightDragon

I pretty much love you, and think we should have art-babies.

xoxo,

ND

beavotron

sweet, and you know the feelings are mutual, so lets make with the babies already

MKR

Those drawings are all kinds of classy.

Mustang

I hate not being as awesome as you Beavo.

My only crit is this dude


It's all nitpicky stuff. His posture seems to be leaning backwards and his head seem a tad on the small side. He has an unusual outer pocket in/on his pants and his right forearm looks more attached to his stomach than his elbow.


Apart from that, I was feeling low about my art this morning and now I feel even lower.........*sobs a little and gives a thumbs up*

EDIT: I forgot to mention how I love the 60's sex comedy/drama style you've got going on here, it is, for lack of a less used term, awesome!

beavotron

great crits mustang, i hate that dude of the entire bunch and the reasons you stated are pretty much dead on the reasons why I hate him
gonna fix him up a bit and repost.

edit:

better?

Shiboe

Wow, I really love that style you've got going on, minimum usage and maximum effect on the lines. Very clean and solid looking. Nothing but love, they honestly look straight out of an old Disney movie or something.

Curious about the hiding legs though, it seems like you'd see more than you do unless they are amputees, could be wrong though. And the guy looks like you meant him to be midstride, think he needs a bit more motion to convey this if it was the intent. Also, cig looks a little short on the lighting dude, not like it matters though.

Here is where I'd post an emoticon heart, but they don't make em in the size required. =D

beavotron

hahah oh yeah that cig is totally short. it's like he's lighting one of those popeye candy cigarettes!
hahaha didn't notice, i should fix that!

great crits shiboe. The dresse and trench on the second row of women are pretty long, almost to the ground, and I wanted them to be sort of petite, it just seems more... 1950s ladylike? I think about my mom when I think of ladylike women and she's like... 5'2" hahahah
If the men's legs are too short I should fix em, I want them to appear tall, are they doing okay?

Mustang

better?

Much, though were I to know him personally I would harass him to the point of tears about his ankle freezer pants.

I think the mens height looks fine and your girls are adorable.

Tam

The sunglasses lady's coat looks a tad bathrobe-ish to me. I think cutting the lining after the collar and upper torso should fix it. Caveat though- my knowledge of 50s fashion comes mostly from BioShock.

beavotron

good point, i will erase it after the middle band.

beavotron

So I'm trying to achieve that old fashioned like 1950's ad cartoon style with the big headed children and the funny shading:


crits plzzzz