Geoth's Graphite Goodies! UPDATE - 3.28.08 Friday

[Geoth]

Hello everyone. This is my first post/thread on these boards. I'm going to try to post somthing everyday, or at least somthing every two. The other sketch books have been inspirational to me. Critique and comments are welcome, and helpful. I listen.

It's time to join the fun.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/1508.jpg

I decided to start with some skulls. "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" an anatomy book I got as a gift for christmas. Not sure how it compaires to other books of the same topic, but I've found it helpful and a small source for references.

[Rockhart]

not bad, not bad. good range of values but if you want the shading to be smoother i suggest either using your finger to rub it in or a tortillion (a paper stick thing you can find at any art store). other than that thier isn't enough to really comment on. POST MORE! and keep it up...

[zaimless]

Well its lookin good to me. I like seeing skull work done. I have noticed that they themselves are being used more than ever in art these days. Keep practicing cause I think you are doing well.

[Geoth]

Rockhart - I'm using tortillions, ^^. I guess I should be using them more thoroughly.

zaimless - Thanks for your positive feed back. Skulls do show up everywhere don't they?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/1608.jpg

I figured I might as well start from head and move down to the toes with my anatomy. It's getting too late to fill up the page, and it's in too weird of a place to crop the space out! Anyways, my new scanner that I got for christmas ("CanoScan LIDE 90" $70.oo) seems to be performing well. I havn't scanned anything in color yet because I'm focusing on my graphite at the moment. Only time will tell.

Does anyone have any pointers/tips about shading graphite with tortillions? other then just spending more time making sure the strokes blend.

Any recommendations on what to study first as a beginner artist? I need to go through basics I mostly self taught. I want to go back and redo everything I've done before to win over my weaknesses.

[Rockhart]

the best way i fid to use tortillions is to "draw" with them in small circles not straight lines. if you do it right it should work great. faces are looking pretty good, though don't make the eyes so dimond shaped... keep drawing you're off to a good start! :)

[Geoth]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/11408.jpg

Quick 5 min sketch. I've been busy with finals at school, and my intenet wasn't working for a week. I will get back to posting more.

[Geoth]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman_000666666.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman_0004444.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman_0003333.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman_00022222.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman_000111.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman2.jpg

[scottmcd]

Nice start. Thanks for commenting on my sb. You should put a link to yours in your sig.

Good deal on the skulls - I've been practicing those lately too. In the later stuff, I think this one is particularly good: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/Geoth/birdwoman_0004444.jpg

For your faces, I'm seeing a fair amount of "iconic" drawing - meaning that you seem to be drawing what you think an eye looks like rather than how eyes actually look. One practice I do from time to time to is to draw a face from a reference picture, but have the reference picture upside-down. That gets you paying attention to the patterns of light and dark rather than mentally thinking "and this is the eye."

If you want to practice eyes, look at this post:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1425673#post1425673

For the tortillion, I do cross hatching with a medium or soft pencil and then use the tortillion at an angle to the cross hatch lines. Have fun!