jpeg doing boring things, not actually updated daily. nsfw/56k

jpeg

yo. let's see if I can stop lurking so hard and make myself try to do more art simultaneously.

here are some things I've done relatively recently.

Gouache on illustration board


Acrylics on canvas board


A group portrait of characters from my last DnD campaign.


Ink on bond paper. I never did get around to adding the strings to the guitar, I was super wary of messing it up.


Random gestures I kind of liked from life drawing last year.



So I am doing daily self portraits to get myself drawing more often. Here are the first three, in order.

Mustang

Dude the faux hawk was done 5 years ago, let it go. Your acrylic hair is much cooler.

Also, some good work here, I can't find any glaring faults. The nose is looking much better in the last one.

jpeg

haha I don't really care whether or not the faux hawk is 'done', I think it's slightly more interesting than a straight up buzz cut if I want short hair.

thanks for the comment though.

worstcase

really loving the acrylic piece and the guitar piece is wonderful. How long did i take you to do both of those?

Also...

you have a douche hawk

jpeg

thanks worstcase. I can't really remember exactly how long those took. if I had to guess, the self portrait maybe 15 hours, the guitar pic maybe 6?

also hahaha god dammit I am well aware I have a douche hawk. I indulged myself 3 weeks ago with a coin flip. I am getting rid of it soon so I don't have to look douchebaggy for job interviews.

tonight's sp:

Mustang

The structure is a little flat, but the values are superb.
Can we actually get a photo of you? I still think your not foreshortening the nostrils enough, they seem to hang a little low in comparison to the tip, which seems a little short. The only other thing is the red you used on the lips is too intense.

All in all though, I think this is your best one yet and a pretty nice portrait.

jpeg

thanks mustang. I tend to accentuate the features of my face that are kind of weird, like my giant red lips and upturned nose, I need to pay more attention to shying away from that

here is a pic of me in all my douchebaggy glory: http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/1390/img1992p.jpg

Mustang

Hmm, you're pretty on the money as far as I can tell. Maybe extend the tip of the nose out a little more, it's a good job though dude.

Kendeathwalker

I really should be the last person saying this as I have the same problem but you are putting the eyes to close together and the face is long from the nasal bone down to the chin.. been stretched and narrowed(although it might just look that way because youve stretched things) bit. It must be a common distortion ..

rts

Was that the reference you did the last portrait from? Also you have gnarly hands.

jpeg

@kendeathwalker: yeah I have a bad habit of doing that. I try to watch out for it but I keep doing it despite this, I should just start over if I see it happening.

@cakemikz: none of these are photo referenced, I work from a mirror. and yes, I have the hands of a 90 year old woman, they are simultaneously really fucking weird (90 degree hitchhiker's thumb, can bend my fingers back to touch my wrist, etc) and really fun to draw because of it.

here is yesterday's. I couldn't spend very much time on it, I wasn't home most of the day. I saw modest mouse last night, it was fun times.



I used a mirror propped up in front of me with another mirror held on my shoulder to draw a profile portrait. It was interesting

Charis

DON'T REGRESS! The self portrait of you scowling is much more interesting than the token 'I am moderately interested/surprised by the events taking place around me' face.

jpeg

sorry sorry sorry charis I know I should practice expressions, and I will! I am trying to focus on one 'gimmick' per self portrait haha

this one, I took off my glasses because I felt like I was over-rendering/paying too much attention to the shapes of things and avoiding color.



my goal for tomorrow is to actually draw something besides these damn things because I am getting burnt out. I should do a bunch of hand studies.

jpeg

hand studies incoming after this.

this is actually the second portrait today, the first one had me smiling and is a total abomination. even though this one is stretched vertically and not very well drawn I like that it is semi loose, which is tough for me.

jpeg

mmk I am a liar

I wish I had something worthwhile to post besides these but my sketching has been pretty much fruitless lately. means I should be trying harder, I guess. ohhh wellll here's today's:

jpeg

tried painting without blending at all. it was an interesting experiment.

exit

oh dang i love the hell out of that one

TheMorningStar

you have a long neck

mensch-o-matic

you seem to be changing the shape of your face just a pinch in every portrait ( most notably your eyes and lips) try to figure out the exact distance from your eyes to your forehead, from the tip of your nose to the top of your lips, and maybe between your two ears. keep working on relative space and proportion as your bible because you're pretty golden with values/color.

also: i laughed out loud at your 'durr' pic


also also: modest mouse live? you lucky whore

jpeg

@exit - thanks, I was thinking about the movies waking life and a scanner darkly and was like, I wanna try that

@themorningstar - thank you, my mother is a giraffe

@mensch-o-matic - thanks for the crits dude, I definitely appreciate it. I tried to pay more attention and correct myself more often with the relative positioning of my facial features on tonight's. also yes, modest mouse was fucking great. if you have the opportunity, see them.


portraits are serious business

Mustang

God, I'd want to punch myself in the face so bad if I had done this many self-portraits.
So in honour of your achievment I bestow upond you the "Bi-Annual Mustang Award for Not Punching Yourself in the Face", it's very prestigious.

XAL

You kind of look like a more serious version of Fargo. Might be the hairline and glasses mostly.

jpeg

@mustang, thank you, I am honored. most of my willpower goes not into maintaining this as a daily activity, but to keep myself from punching myself in my god damned face

@xal, haha, yeah, I can see the resemblance.

my last two have been total jokes, basically. I have been helping my sister move in to a new apartment and have been totally wiped by the time I've gotten home, so both of these are terrible but worth posting anyway, I guess.




also a rough sketch of an epic illustration I am doing of my last dnd campaign

RubberAC

These are really awesome. I love that last (serious) one. Also you seem like you would be awesome to dnd with

jpeg

thanks rubberac. I actually just started a campaign today, dming for the first time. it is fun times.

tonight's

DeeLock

Serious Business is my favorite.

Have you ever heard of Andrew Jones? Check out his self portrait threads for inspiration.

jpeg

But of course DeeLock. I've had CA.org sketchbook threads in the past, I don't have one currently though. He is definitely an inspiration

tonights got botp'd

jpeg

2 weeks of these, now! I am not really sure where I was going with this, but it sure looks menacing. (the lighting makes 0 sense, I know)

Mustang

You should probably see a doctor or something, I don't think hair is meant to glow white hot.

Mindsack

yeah, eyes shouldn't look like that either, but the fact that the hair is brighter is that much more concerning.

Great self portraits though, I try to do self portraits myself but it can be very frustrating, so kudos.

rts

I like it. Save for the use of that brush the way you have there on the chin and under the eyes.

The_Glad_Hatter

Am i correct in that you're using pictures as basis for your portraits?
Am i mistaken or would practicing with a mirror be better for actual observation skills (since a mirror is not a flat projection like a picture. You have two eyes, the camera has one.).

I always saw practicing with a mirror as a much bigger challenge. The photographed ones always come out with more of a resemblance because the camera does all of the flattening for you.
Altough i'd appreciate oppinions on that from other commenters on this subject.

RubberAC

He does use a mirror

rts

I have always thought of drawing from a mirror as a nuisance and a waste of time. But maybe thats because I have so much model time available to me.

Kendeathwalker

cakemikz wrote: »

But maybe thats because I have so much model time available to me.

You sir are correct.

jpeg

@mustang, mindsack - glowing white hot hair and eyeballs are a side effect of staring at my hideous visage for so long
@cakemikz - thanks, I agree with you on the chin, I kind of liked it on the cheeks but I may have overdone it
@the_glad_hatter - I have used a mirror for all of these, and 2 mirrors for the one of the profile view (one on the wall, one held on my shoulder)

Basically went a similar direction as 2 nights ago, but did it better. Also, I did not use a picture for this or any of these. For this one, I closed one eye at a time so I could do a portrait of myself with my eyes closed.

I am tired.

The_Glad_Hatter

jpeg wrote: »

For this one, I closed one eye at a time so I could do a portrait of myself with my eyes closed.

damn, that's some clever stuff!

RubberAC

It seems like as great as youre getting at self portraits, you need some work in other areas.
That hand is hells of wonky

jpeg

thanks both of you. @rubberac, yeah I know, my hands are terrible. I've been practicing them a bit lately but have yet to see the fruits of that, really. it doesn't help that my hands are really pretty wonky in real life, they look like the hands of a 90 year old woman, only a 90 year old woman with insane hitchhiker's thumb, knuckles that bend at 90 degree angles, and can touch her wrist by folding backwards.

here's yesterday's and today's (today's is incredibly lazy but I am once again falling asleep at the keyboard. I should not put these off until night time).

jpeg

no glasses, big headphones, and RAAAGE FAAAACE

Mustang

Even though that's the least finished it's the most interesting pose, so therefore better, so yeah, finish it.