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smof's stuff (now NSFW)
Brovid Hasselsmof
[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered User regular
[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered User regular
Hi folks. About 5 weeks ago I started on a mission to learn how to art. Here is my thread of crappy stuff that will hopefully get less crappy over time.
Here are some heads. All done from photo reference except the second pic. Who the hell designed these things, they are so hard to draw.
This is meant to be an apple, it is not a really badly drawn head.
Will try and update this thing regularly and would appreciate any and all feedback on if I am getting any better!
Here are some heads. All done from photo reference except the second pic. Who the hell designed these things, they are so hard to draw.
This is meant to be an apple, it is not a really badly drawn head.
Will try and update this thing regularly and would appreciate any and all feedback on if I am getting any better!
Brovid Hasselsmof on
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Pretty good start here, dude. Not much to crit on. Some of the features on those faces aren't lining up exactly right, but based on your scribbles, you seem to be aware of that. So just keep up the hard work!
I've been using this site lately NSFW http://characterdesigns.com/index.php?sitepage=photosets just grab a bunch of trash paper (sketchbook is better) and draw faces as fast as you can without really giving a shit. Always, remember to draw what you see and push the blacks.
I see some of your stuff is leaning to the right, some faces, and most notably the apple, stuff is not rotated, but "skewed" towards the right. This COULD be a problem of posture and how you "align" yourself with the paper.
@Atomsk42 thanks for the link. I've been using a different site of photos for gesture and figure drawings but it has a pretty limited selection. Also I would be interested in that graph, curious to see what it shows.
I know the best way to draw something is start with the broad shape and gradually focus down on the details, but I find that really hard with heads as I still haven't figured out what shape a head is. Every guide I've seen seems to suggest starting with a circle/sphere. But no part of the human head is circular or spherical! So I kind of still haven't worked out a good way to do the first step. I'm sure if I can get that down, it'll be easier to work on placing the features right.
Things I have learned: I don't know how to do shading, I am rubbish at fitting things onto a page, and I am slow as hell at drawing - each of these took me 45 mins to an hour.
These sessions have finished now, but there will be another load starting in January and I intend to go again. Even though I don't draw anywhere near enough, it is surprising how useful just one hour of drawing a real live person can be.
I really can't get my head around shading. This is probably the biggest thing for me at the moment. A lot of the other stuff feels like it's improving, if slowly, but shading I feel like I have literally no fucking idea what I'm doing, and it is so frustrating it just makes me want to pack it all in. I can do a line drawing and think "ok that's not so bad" and then I try and shade it and it turns into this horrible muddy mess.
I know the answer might just be "do it more" and if that's the case then cool. But I can't help feeling like I'm doing something fundamentally wrong, and if I just keep doing it this way I'm only going to get better at doing it wrong.
This is something I did today. I don't normally bother doing this much shading on a piece but I figure I have to start doing it if I'm going to improve.
It just looks so scratchy and shitty and the different values don't create any depth, they just look messy. I don't know if it's the pencils I'm using (3B and 6B), or my lack of technique with the pencil, or that I'm putting the wrong values in the wrong places or what.
This is the pic I used as reference. And yeah I know her face looks ridiculous. By the time I got to that point I'd kind of given up (hence also why her hair isn't done)
Would appreciate any advice anyone can give.
Keep it up, keep your nose to the grindstone. I'm enjoying looking over your figures, and I think there are some pretty good relaxed poses, particularly in the two seated women.
You don't even have to worry about blending to start understanding how to use different values to fulfill the purpose of shading, which is creating the appearance of form
As far as your concerns about technique with the pencil go, to be honest I think that the soft range of pencils (like the two you have) take more work to get a smooth appearance. Personally HB is my default for the figure drawings I do at school, but for everyone it just comes down to personal preference as long as you're keeping them sharp enough. Also, you want to make it darker by gradually building up the amount of graphite you've put on, instead of just pushing harder.
Keep at it and feel good- your attempt there is a lot better than you think!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I wouldn't beat yourself up so much about "I don't get shading", because frankly I've seen a lot of people do a hell of a lot worse and think they're doing a bang-up job at it. I think a couple of concepts thrown your way and you'll be well on your way (not saying executing these concepts are easy, but at least you'll know you're headed in the right direction.
First (just so we're on the same page), some vocab. May seem redundant, but it's important to know and to evaluate your drawings in these terms. If something's going wrong with a drawing, at the core of the issue is going to be one of these 3 things.
Now on to applying what Lyr said about simple forms onto a tangible example, taking into consideration the shape/value/edge concept as things progress:
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I managed to mess up the left eye somehow, but overall I don't hate it too much. Need to figure out a better way to position the mirror though so it's not going straight up my nose next time.
Bought some eggs earlier and will be drawing one tomorrow!
This week's efforts.
Used harder pencils for the shading this time and I think I prefer the outcome.
I much prefer the second one. I used a slightly different approach, much looser lines, so that might be it. Or it could just be because it doesn't have messed up foreshortening and grannyface.
If anyone can give me some feedback on my proportions that would be most appreciated. Because I feel like they're all right, so unless someone points out they're not I'm just going to keep doing them like I am!
Do you have any hogarth books?
http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Anatomy-Expanded-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015521
His stuff has a lot of interpretation going on, but he is great at teaching how to make forms geometric, which can help with measuring.
Thanks for the feedback. I will pay more attention to head sizes next time.
That last figure shows improvement in general; the way you've dawn the face is nice.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Not happy this week, nearly left the session halfway through. Don't feel like I'm making any progress. Been in a shitty mood for days and have to force myself to draw. Oh well.
This happens to everyone periodically, and it sucks, but you get through it if you just keep working. It's good that you didn't leave! The nice thing is that you're making progress even if you don't feel like it, just try to remember the things you're learning and the fact that if you feel challenged you will improve.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
I second that. Keep at it!