Eye of the Tiger

[sullivan west]

♪ It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight ♪

[sullivan west]

Tom Wolfe.
About 6 hours.

"...Las Vegas is the only town in the world whose skyline is made up neither of buildings, like New York, nor of trees, like Wilbraham, Massachusetts, but signs."

[humanNature6115]

Your stuff has lots of character.

=================================
:mittenbop: :mittenbop: :mittenbop: Sketchbook:mittenbop: :mittenbop: :mittenbop:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120761)

[sullivan west]

Thanks HumanNature!

Here's a quick black and white sketch- the culmination of a sleepless night thinking about new york city.

About an hour and a half.
I know her nose is god awful, but I'm tired to working on it. I like to think of it as a botched nose job.

[Verehin]

originally works...I like this

[sullivan west]

Study of a woman's face.
1 hour.

[Eerin]

Thanks for visiting my SB alleluia :)

I find the pieces with the clouds and air balloon really impressive. I'd hate to be in something like that in real life. The sheer size and power the scene gives off is overwhelming. :)

[Nerahla]

welcome to ca!!

The first thing I'd like to offer is a little trick -- do you use photoshop perhaps? If you use the line tool (on a new layer) from one center of the pupil to the other, there will be a parallel line that matches from the tips of the nose and the corners of the mouth. Also the eyelids, etc, to help align them symmetrically. right now everything on your faces is skewed and needs adjustment to be correct -- this is OK -- you know what? TONS of people do this, but most of us just know how to fix it :)

If you're interested in the anatomy of the face (and who isn't?) I suggest picking up some Bridgman and Vanderpoel books from Amazon.com or your local bookstore and do some pencil studies. Then scan them or snap pics and post them here for us to see! :)

Very nice start!

[sullivan west]

A WIP for Kyrie.

Eerin- the monster clouds are near and dear to my heart. Thanks :)

Nerahla- I'll be uploading a bunch of life studies fairly soon. Sadly, I hate to admit it, but the last weeks of summer are doing a fairly good job of luring me away from practice. :( I'll have to slap myself into shape soon though!

[Lateman]

yes yo,

looks very nice. you got your own style. keep up the good work!

cheers letaman

[gardenrusalka]

The last woman reaaallly reminds me of Bette Davis. Lovely expression. :)

[sullivan west]

Some excerpts from my sketchbook. More to come soon. Most from life- keeping Loomis in mind. Sketching people in cafes can get kind of awkward. More than once I've had someone realize I'm staring at them, so they quickly finish their coffee and leave. Gah.

Lateman- Thanks for the encouragement
Garden- Bette Davis really? I'm really afraid that most of my portraits have blank expressions. So I'm trying harder to study facial muscles and expressions to help give my sketches some more personality.

[gardenrusalka]

I think you definitely have some good expressions going on.

[sullivan west]

Two New Pages from the Moleskine. I suck so hhhaaarrrdddd. Which is why I'm going to bother everyone and post my sketches until I'm not embarrassed to share them anymore. Any advice for sketching people in public? People just move so quickly.

[vanbythevaseline]

I like your style. Very expressive. Keep it up.

[sullivan west]

vanbythevaseline- thanks, I'll try.

A quick paint. Just wanted to get some practice in.
About and hour and a half. Gah.

Her torso is way way too short, her hands are too small, the eyes are funny, the face is disproportionate- oh and she has a flat nose. See you tomorrow night. My work here is done.

[wilkerson]

I agree with that other comment about your work having character. Where I think its lacking is in structure in the figures and faces. If you can think in terms of specific guidelines for proportions like in loomis and whatnot, i think it will help a lot.
thanks for commenting on my sketchbook.

[Nele Ooms]

I like your style.

[thrilafrommanila]

you look as if you are onto a great start.

some advice i can give is perhaps use some darker tones to create darker shadows. it'll help give your subjects more contrast. but don't forget to add a bit or lighter lights on the face as well :D

keep up the great work ;)

[sullivan west]

Sooooooooo.... I've been really busy with school and work. Being a full-time student and working 30 hours a week is pretty hard on my schedule. However, I WILL BE TAKING FIGURE DRAWING CLASSES :) I'm super excited! Oh, and I'll finally be getting glasses! Double plus!
I have been sketching a lot though. Will be posting my sketches once a day. Will return the favor with critiques soon :) Keep drawing guys!

wikerson- thanks and I completely agree. I'm studying loomis right now. Working on structure, the basics. It's so very important.

Nele Ooms- Thank you :)

Thrilla- I like your screename. Right now I'm focusing on structure but I'll work on. Thanks for the support!

[sullivan west]

Just another update on the sketchbook. Making a quick digital piece as well. I know it will take awhile for the rules of perspective and proportion to sink it. It's frustrating, but well worth it I'm sure. One day I'll learn how to draw. correctly.

[sullivan west]

Quick concept for a character- Regina. Both her hands are poorly sized. However, I was able to do this sketch noticeably quicker this time than I would have been able to previously. So I can barely feel practice paying off. More to follow tomorrow. Hope everyone had a nice night.

[ploepp]

Hey, thanks for your comment!
I got to know Loomis from this forum, it's great :)
We hat the "Venus" in art lessons, I quickly copied it but didn't have the picture on paper in front of me, just the overhead-projection. But you're right, it's not wrong to copy the 'Old Masters'. ;)

Great stuff here, I especially like your 2nd and 9th post. Keep doing those figure studies!

[sullivan west]

Woah its been a long time.
Quick study of the most suspicious fruit known to mankind.

[sullivan west]

Study:
He Lives By His Wits- Duveneck

[Ryn]

Hi alleluia.

Nice sketchbook! Your skintones are really lovely, you pay such caring attention to the subtle variations of hue, I love it. If I may offer a critique, I get a notion that you tend to get into detail very quickly, which can make a painting look stiff and awkward by the time it's finished. Study up on your gestures. Work on starting your paintings with general shapes, then wittle them down into being more detailed. If the underlying shapes/values in a painting aren't strong, no amount of rendering - no matter how beautiful - can fix that. In this same vein, you may want to try working with bigger brushes, and only using smaller for detailed areas. As an example, in your last post, you could have given enough information to describe the cheeks with far less smudging/teeny tiny brushstrokes. Big bold strokes reduced to detail when necessary will communicate your image much better.
There is a tutorial I have in mind that demonstrates this concept beautifully, but the name of it escapes me at the moment. I will forward it to you if I can find it though! Until then I hope this critique was helpful, keep up the awesome work.

[sullivan west]

Bit off more than I can chew.I really want to get back into drawing. I know I have sooo much to learn. It's daunting, but I really want to get be decent at drawing just because I enjoy it so much. This piece ended up pretty funky- I didn't use references, went about it the wrong way. I'd like to come back to it some day though.

[GrayHouse]

Hey!

You got some really nice observational drawing and painting going on up in here. And from what I can see a good grasp of stroke variety. I would say perhaps that you need to start using some sharper edges in some of your studies to help bring focus to certain areas and the like. You're on the right track!

Cheers

g.

[sullivan west]

@GrayHouse: Thanks, and I'll try to stay on the right track!

Practiced painting male/female torsos in greyscale from photographic references. Kept it to about 10 minutes each. To me drawing male torsos seems to be more difficult, probably due to a lack of prominent defining features (a.k.a breasts)

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey =) Yip I find drawing guys harder too =) There's a good finish on the first female torso =) For public sketching I like to draw jus a few good lines from observation, and then I'll try finish it from mind.. Hope that helps =) Good luck with your next study =)