My Head Drawings @ Watts Atelier

[GCastro]

Hi there.

I've seen some cool threads of ppl sharing their progress, so I thought I'd share mine for this Fall session of my Head Drawing class at the Watts Atelier.

This is the first one of the 10 wk session. Nine to go :D

http://gc3d.mselah.com/Images/sketch_01.7.jpg

excuse the poor digital quality. I'll update with a better quality soon.

God Bless,
George

[dns2k]

good layin and shading. what classes are you taking and on what days?

-dns

[GCastro]

Thx Dns2k.

Right now I'm only taking the Head Drawing Class on Thurs. Night. I wish I could take more, but I was laid off from my job. Hopefully i can take more i the near future :)

Are you taking classes there?

George

[dns2k]

yea i am there wednesday night for anatomy and thurs for head figure quiclsketch in the morning

-dns

[lucasgraciano]

Good to see your stuff up on the forum! Your drawing looks pretty good! Keep posting, I know you've got more! I didn't know you were taking classes this semester. When are you in?

Lucas

[GCastro]

Hey Lucas, I'm in at Watts on Thursday evenings for the head drawing class.

Here's my head drawing for yesterday:

http://www.gc3d.mselah.com/Images/sketch_02.jpg


I'm learning a lot. I'm hoping for a progression of improvement, but that'll only happen if I practice at home everyday. I gotta get my butt in gear!

George

[GCastro]

Mama said there'd be days like this. Well she didn't actually say that :D but still. I'm hoping that in the next 7 classes i have left, none will be as bad as the one i drew last night. Here it is.

http://www.gc3d.mselah.com/Images/sketch_03.jpg

enjoy!

George

[dns2k]

kool picture... it is really not that bad. looks like the tones went a little heavy handed. try to keep it only to 4 values and stay light. that was always my problem once you go dark you cant really go back and fix things. otherwise good job.

-dns

[GCastro]

Another week, another drawing. Dang, these classes are flying. Next week we'll be half way through.

here you go:

http://www.gc3d.mselah.com/Images/sketch_04.jpg

thanks for the comments,
God Bless,
George

[lucasgraciano]

Hey man looking good! A few comments that may help you in your drawing:

1. Watch your jaw line there is a straight that comes down from the ear and then connects to the rest of the jaw.

2. Your eyes look a little big. They also look a little too close together. Remember there is usually about an eye width between the eyes. Both eyes also look like you just drew two of the same eyes. because of the 3/4 they will both take on their own shapes. Watch the highlights. i dout that both eyes had the same highlights. Time for some more studying? Vanderpool! Loomis! Bridgman!

3. Remember your value control. The shadows are the same value as your hair and the shadows in your hair. I believe this model has darker hair right? your hair value alone should be darker than your shadow on the flesh and your shadows in the hair should be value relative to the hair value.

4. I don't like your background. It does not add to the composition in a good way. Before starting your portraite try a little composition study. Find your 4 major values and how you want to compose them.

I know it's a lot to take in at once but you'll hear these kind of comments over and over until you start getting it right. Great stuff for your first semester back in a while! You've got to do a 100 bad drawings before you can start doing good ones. Milage and studying! Keep posting and I'll try to give you my crits. Hope you don't mind. If you do disregaurd this whole critique. Talk to ya later.

Lucas

[GCastro]

Hey Lucas!

Thanks for the critique man! I really appreciate it. I definetely understand what you're saying, i just wish my hand would too. :D But you're right, it will only learn with practice.
Every critique i get i try to put into practice on my next drawing untill i eliminate every mistake, or most of them anyways. hehe... So keep'em coming.

Thanks,
God Bless,
George

[GCastro]

Here's Head Drawing #5. I'm learning lot's of little things here and there, just havig trouble applying them. My biggest issue it the lay in process.. I think. But it's a vast improvement over how I was drawing a few months ago :D

I may not be able to make it the next two classes. I'll have make ups, but not sure if they'll be head drawings. We shall see.

here you go:
http://www.gc3d.mselah.com/Images/sketch_05.jpg

[LightBrownboy]

Keep going man, liike Lucas said study, study, study and lot of milage.

The main problem I see in a lot of the heads are the head size. Its either too wide/narrow or too long or short. This in turn affects the features and all your proportions. Take like 30 seconds before you draw to analyze the model, see wats longer or wats shorter but the main thing get the silhouette and main shape of the head down.

For instance in the second drawing of the girl in the hat, we are not seeing enuff of the skull in the back of her head. I know she was wearing a hat but that field of depth and illusion of the back of her head needs to be implied so we feel that 3-D shape. One thing to remedy that problem would be to evaluate where the neck connects to the head. That's one thing throwing the image off.

What you should do for practice, is draw cylinders, squares, and cones.
Pretend you are drawing the head in a cube, see how the brow line wraps around the form to meet the top of the ear line on the side plane. We want to creat a 3-D image on a 2-D surface so we really need to push the idea of planes so we can show the viewer what is coming at them, and what is receding into space.

Hope this helps, see ya in class sometime.

-Pat

[Main Loop]

these are nice.. definitely has that Ron Lemen look...

[LightBrownboy]

Nice improvement, watch out for the placement of the ear.....the ear says a lot about where the viewer should be in realtion to the figure, in this case, Jim. Right now the ear feels a little too high, you are showing the viewer the underplane of the chin so as in perspective it is a slight upward angle, lowering the ear a little will get back that perspective for ya.

You are getting better at getting the big shape of the head now, keep goin. this little things will only help you progress.

Peace,
pat

[GCastro]

Wow, great tips. I'll keep them in mind for the next class. For anyone going to Watts Atelier right now, how great are those Ron Lemen Notes??!! The most amazing info i've seen! I wish I could have all his notes from every class. Gotta remember to thank him when I see him.

George

[GCastro]

back from a trip. I missed a couple classes, and i'll have to make them up. Here's the drawing from last Thursday.

http://www.gc3d.mselah.com/Images/Stills/head_sketch_06.jpg

thanks for the comments,
George

[GCastro]

Well, the semester has come to an end. I'm really quite sad because i will have to put my Watts days aside for a little while, but i'll be sure to get back to it as soon as i can. It really is a great place to learn, but also to hang around some really great people. The instructors are the coolest, friendliest people you'll meet. I'm really gonna miss it all. :(

Anyways, enough of sappy stuff :) Here's my last drawing.
Jeff helped me with a few feature problems. Overall i think it's my best one for the semester.

here it is:
http://www.gc3d.mselah.com/Images/Stills/head_sketch_07.jpg

Thanks for all the critiques, I'll be back again soon.

God Bless,
George Castro

P.S. I missed a few classes, thus you only see 7 drawings instead of 10.

[MulletMan]

Hey, some good stuff in that last one especially. I really like how you handled the eyes there. The only thing I see that throws me off is the neck in that last one. It just doesnt fit with it in my opinion. Mabye its just the angle or light.

The other thing is to push the values. I dont think youre pushing them and letting people see the shade of the face. The cheeks and nose really need some tone to them. Good luck to you!