Molten Core Workshop - Exercise makes the master.

[Lakeland]

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg
Greetings!
As every concept artist needs to exercise to get better, the Molten Core Workshop activity was created to ease the pain of doing it alone. Here you will find various challenges taken from tutorials, books and online sources, that will cover the training of basic and advanced skills of every artist.
This post main purpose is to support my SSG activity, but EVERYONE are welcome to join.

Everyone are welcomed to join in with any assignment they want at any time!

There is no need to crit or comment, but every constructive idea is welcome.
I wish everyone patience and resolve in the practice.:steph:


First Assignment: 100 eyes
Deadline: Sunday 07.06.2009
Your job is to draw 100 eyes. Try focusing on proportions and surfaces around the eye socket. Try drawing the eyes as if they would express certain emotions like satisfaction, anger, sadness etc.
100 eyes should fit in 2x A4 format.

You are free to improvise with this assignment, as long as you keep the practice of drawing the eyes your main concern.

Good Luck everyone!


Assignment List so far:
#2 - Creativity Chillout (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2288804&postcount=37)
#3 - Light / Shadow exercise (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2293918&postcount=59)
#4 - Creativity Chillout (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2303552&postcount=74)
#5 - Simplifying Shapes (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2309444&postcount=97)
#6 - Self Portrait (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2319083&postcount=103)
#7 - Full body studies (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2358022&postcount=122)

[aspenboy]

Kewl! Count me in, mate :)

Should we hit only pen&paper, or media doesn't matter?

[Lakeland]

Use whatever works for you.

What might help in this assignment is to divide your A4 Sheet with 8x6 grid. That would make enough space for 48 eyes per sheet. The whole thing should take anything from 3 hours to 5 days work, depending on how skilled you are, and how much detail you decide to put in there. Dont stress out though :) just DRAW!
GL!

[spaztastic]

I'll be in on this one, gotta clean house fist. been gone 3 days and the mess is worse than when I left. that's what I get for leaving my hubby home to tend house.

[kikindaface]

I'm in too, need to get one more motivation ( and eyes are one of my biggest weakness in my faces ) ! the thing is that if we have to fit 50 eyes per page, it will be really small drawings, but anway, i'll do it ! c ya

[Mat Kaminski]

I gotta ask, is this 100 sets of eyes? Or just 100 single eyes?

[spaztastic]

just 100 eyes not sets. the orbital socket/ eyebrow bone and to make sure you have emotion and expression conveyed in the eye.

[Lakeland]

the thing is that if we have to fit 50 eyes per page, it will be really small drawings, but anway, i'll do it ! c ya

The 2 page requirement is due to space reservation on CA servers. If you want, you can draw the eyes in whatever format / amount of sheets you want. In that case, post everything beyond 2 sheets on external servers and use the "[img]" tag to paste the link.

[Lakeland]

ok here goes the first 20. my hand is numb :P

[spaztastic]

here's my contribution,
12 eyes... will go for some more later. I figure if I do 10-20 a day I can get the 100 by sunday... sooooooooo

[ashess]

thought I'd do 50 for sure. but even that is a LOT. so 25..
688123

[Lakeland]

Welcome to the Molten Core :P

as just a side note, a couple of my thoughts:
I noticed that "angry eyes" are readible the most when you draw the nostril shape. Somehow that wrinkle that forms there when the face is angry is the key to that expression. Dunno why. If I draw angry eyes without showing the nose, they can be easily interpreted as sneezing or even histerical laughter expression. Atleast in my case :P

And another thought about the eyes is: For some reason, drawing the eyes of any non-white race is very hard for me. I need to keep in mind all the structures behind the eyelids, and the characteristic extra fat layer when it comes to asian-type eyes. Its very interesting to draw these eyes, and very good practice.

[danlambert]

Sounds good, I'm in. *runs off to draw

[MoHog]

My offering of a whoping 6 eyes!!
will do my best to reach 100 by sunday - this thread is gonna be good

689038

really like your painting style lakeland - may try some myself (any pointers?)

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Heres my first fifty done in pencil and some in ink, some are animal and alien most are human. The next fifty are gonna be digitally.
Nice eyes everyone your all looking great specially spaz's lovin the soft brushwork.
:yayca:

p.s - Sorry about the crap picture the scanner is playing up. :(

Edit: could only get up to 70 before i lost my mind lol. Plus i had no more time.

[ErikStorstein]

Noticed this post this morning, and figured "oh hey, this will be a fun exercise".

I'm not drawing anything more with eyes today.

Edit: ahah I sound super grumpy! thanks for starting this ! ;D

[Lakeland]

Zilrion hehe :) NP mate, the pleasure of torturing people with hard ass boring stuff is my job :)
however *raises his finger* This will give us enough xp to level up with the Concept Artist profession.
This, or we can go kill a 1 million boars. :D

[Mat Kaminski]

<holds pencil to mouth> Hmmm... I do need to get that attack skill up <ponders>

(Sorry I'm in a goofy mood lol)

[Leonor]

Oh, I want to join in with this one. I have a few questions, though:
Is there a due date?
Can the eyes be both from observation and imagination?
Can we copy eyes from books (Loomis, etc) as well?

[spaztastic]

Leonor, yes there is a deadline it's this sunday.
Yes the eyes can be both from observation and imagination.
yes you can copy them from the loomis books or online or magazines.

hope to see your art up here soon.

[danlambert]

slacked today, only drew 4 eyes. Tomorrow I must kick it into gear.
I'm intrigued as to what the next challenges will be like, I know it's early but any hints?

[spaztastic]

Danlambert: I think we are going through the facial features. I am not positive but thats my guess. so next maybe ears/nose or lips? i do know for sure it will be helpful and AWESOME!!!

[Leonor]

How did I miss the deadline the first time? :^^;: So that means we can post until 23:59pm of the 7th?

I'd really appreciate any books and eye tutorials you can link too, so I'm not missing anything I should know. I really want to make the most of it. I have my links to Loomis but that pretty much is it.

[Lakeland]

Loomis will do.
The anathomy study is needed just to know the structures behind the skin, so, it helps alot to know it. However, dont feel stressed out by the assignment. Try to find some referance that suits you and try to recreate it, using your knowledge from Loomis and your reference / imagination.
Try Google images with the keyword "eye",or "face" or "angry face", "smiling face" and on and on, by snooping around you ll find massive amout of good reference pics.

I am so happy there are so many people interested in the MCW :)
and the next assignment is a secret for now.
All I can say is it will be a creativity exercise that will have its deadline only 2 days. From there we ll get on with some more time consumming assignments again.

[spaztastic]

Leonor: hi, no prob. I have been going to deviantart.com for reference pics, they have a really good selection. http://www.furiae.com/index.php?view=gallery this one is really good. I know I have more but I am running short on time this morning so it will have to wait till either tonight or tomorrow. and yeah I still have 84-86 eyes to do yeah for procrastination :nohope:

[spaztastic]

how very EVIL Lakeland giving us just two days........huh well fine.... I LIKE IT :D !!!!!

[Klungsama]

Awesome this workshop stuff! Much easier to actually practice the stuff I suck at (not that I don't suck at everything right now :P)...

Here are 10.eyes at least.. I have a busy weekend and saw the workshop yesterday, so a bit late.. but at least I've done some! Hopefully I'll make more tomorrow and sunday :)

Spent around.. 15 - 30 minutes on each eye.. To much maybe, i dunno.. I'm so slooow.. rock ooon! :rocker:

[Pezz]

Part of my problem of being told to " go do studies " is that I often feel way overwhelmed and lost at a starting point. The formalities in being told what to draw IE assignments help me greatly (one of the reasons why I opt to go to school a lot). I will start now, since I am at work.

Is it OK if these are a mix of "from observation" and "from imagination" to mimic what I feel I've learned from the observational drawings?

[Lakeland]

There are no boundaries whatsoever.
Your angle is very reasonable. I myself try to make it 50/50, refernce and imagination.
Always trying to use the insight I get from observation to a imaginative composition.
Thats how it works I guess :)

[Demotyme]

It's much easier to work with someone telling you what to do.

First 20

[Mumph]

Count me in! Starting a bit late but will finish in time :) Great initiative!

Edit: Ah shit, thought we had the whole day too. Might do them anyway.

[ashess]

1st 50 done.. not sure I'll make it. last bunch from ref.
690683

[spaztastic]

20 eyes from imagination... plus my hand :hehehehehe: ummmm I can explain it.

[Lakeland]

Hey all, dooing great!
I myself couldnt find the time to do the whole 100 but it was hell of a ride anyway :P

Dont burn yer pencils yet! still 3 hours left till the next assignment.

[MoHog]

hmmm 100 is tough, will be posting about 30 tomorrow morning

[Pezz]

I only got eight done tonight during our D&D session. They are all from my "Artists Guide to Facial Expressions" book I dug up this morning, except for #5, which I tried to draw from my ever moving boyfriend..

I'm working on some more now that I'm home sweet home to photorefs and some more this morning. They're all rendered in graphite on Bristol.

[Lakeland]

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg
Aaaand we re off with the next one.

Assignment #2: Creativity Chillout

Description:
The main theme for this exercise is " Two boys cleaning the moon "
Your job is to tell a story of two boys that decided to clean the moon.
Tell that story using 6 frames (like a comic frames, 6 camera shots, so to say)

Important: YOU CANT USE DIALOGS !!.
Dont focus on technique or precision in this. You can even use stick figures as the characters representation. The main aspect of
the exercise is to chill out :) and figure out the way, these two guys can achieve the goal: clean the moon. You can also tell why did they decided to do that.
In those 6 frames you have to figure out what means they use to clean the moon, how do they get to the moon, or maybe how they get the moon to come to them?
The possibilities are only bound by your imagination.
Forget the laws of physics, just try to come up with the weirdest solution ever, try thinking out of the box.

DUE DATE IS 2 Days : Tue. 09.06.2009

Goodluck!

[MoHog]

quickly slip the last few eyes in :P

The hand adds a good diversity to the piece spaztastic, and number 16 just scares me (good tho)

691464

nice topic lakeland, shud be marvellous

[Klungsama]

Great contributions by everyone! :D I have only made the 10 eyes.. I will try to make a good one for the next assignment though. I love the Alien MoHog! Haha :D

[acb]

wow @_@ cool thread ^_^
i hope ill be able to paticipate in this and btw do i have to do the first exercise to be able to do the other one or can i do the second one and then finish the first one ^_^ ?

[Me,Myself & Me again]

To be honest i think you just hop in when ever as long as you participate ey lakeland?
:P

[surfandsnow]

Heres mine, first half from imagination, second half from reference . around 86 in all, with a little less than half that shaded. I'll have to finish them latter.

[MiniGoth]

Definitely not 100.

[aspenboy]

Damn! I wasn't able to finish my eyes-on-a-stick on time... I assume that it's ok to post them after the deadline?

[Lakeland]

yes you can do the assignments in whatever order, and no you dont have to do the first one to do the second :P
I just hope we can keep it organised somehow :P

[acb]

btw....about the moon exercise....can i use written things but not dialogues betwin the characters ?

[Lakeland]

no. The idea is to communicate only by using composition and elements you imagine in the story. Its easy to say what you mean, but showing it without words requires some creativity. As always, dont be stressed out with the exercise. Take a deep breath and just go with the flow :) MCW is not about crits or judgment.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Guys yours thinking way to much about these assignments its ment to be enjoyable not overly thought out. Have fun exercises not boring homework. :D

My moon comic is gonna be wierd. :P

[MoHog]

well put M3 an lakeland. Im having a blast as a tradish media illustrator I love this kinda surreal stuff - in fact I might carry this on to a folio piece

[Lakeland]

Exactly :D


so my idea was to use the fishing rod and a catapult . :D

[acb]

LOL lakeland great idea ^_^
will be posting mine after ill work on it abit cuz i cant settle with simple lines here @_@

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Yay i finished mine with time to spare :D
* pats himself on the back*
Nice one lakeland, like the far off view point of the scenes.

[MoHog]

missed the first 2 panels - no idea why the lads need to clean the moon...

so four panels about two guys (weirldy based on me an my bro) who believe that the half-moon is just a bit dirty

http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q429/LouAy/moonbook.jpg

nice work Lakeland and M3 (pats on back)

[Klungsama]

MoHog; I can't see your image :(

Awesome stuff from Lakeland and M3!! :D

I'm making mine right this moment, not as good as yours, haha.. but still it's a cool practice :)

[MoHog]

awww man, i'll rescale + use attachment manager

EDIT: anyone else not able to view? stimulus could see it on my sketchbook thread

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Sorry matey i can't see it either. :(

[danlambert]

I can, and I like it! Cool concept man

[Lakeland]

Great Concept there MoHog :P

[Lakeland]

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg



May I remind that EVERYONE is welcome to join at any time with any assignment you feel is good for you.

Aaaand we re off with the next one.

Assignment #3: Light / Shadow exercise

Description:
Your job is to find 30 small objects in your room and draw them :)
It is imperative to observe and try to recreate the light/shadow distribution on the object. Try to present different light conditions (Bright room, darker room, light from different angles).
Since it is a pure value exercise the use of color is not needed.

Try think in planes and basic geometry when it comes to finding solutions with light issues. Let the general idea guide you to more and more complex surfaces. Dont get into the details too fast. Be sure you got the value right.

DUE DATE IS 7 Days : Tue. 16.06.2009

Goodluck!

[MoHog]

chosen objects should be quite revealing of about the pupils :P

[Pezz]

Didn't get a chance to scan and post these last night, so here we are, Assignment 2: (drew them at work!)

[Lakeland]

hehehe kewl. gj :D

[Klungsama]

Nice one Pezzle!! :D

A bit late for mine.. Anyways, here she is.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Love the idea and creativness Klungsama its a very fun image. :D
Same with you aswell pezzle, great style to urs. This was a fun assignment. :P

[KonstantinZ]

Didn't get a hundred done yet, but that's what I have so far.
I'll do the rest as I catch up to the assignaments.
Cheers and thanks for the inspiration!


K

[Zenobia]

Awesome thread, and fantastic idea!
I'll definitly keep an eye on this place, and see if time allows me to get some practice in with some of these exercises. :D

[Mumph]

Great work everyone!
Sorry for being late but here are my hundred eyes.
First page is from ref., second is from looking in the mirror, third is from imagination and nr 84 - 100 is digital from ref.
On to assignment nr 2.

[Mumph]

Ok, assignment nr 2 done :)
Back on track again, feels good, will try to keep the deadlines from now on.

Edit: Haha! Just realised the guy in panel 4 has 6 fingers, oh well.

[Call girl]

Is there a chance to join you guys ? I will past 1,2,3 assignment as soon as possible:)

[MoHog]

I believe this is open to all - just dip in whenever :D
the more the merrier etc. good luck

btw Mumph those eyes are awesome - digital work especially, tear is very convincing

[MoHog]

post these now and hopefully another batch on thursday after last exam
pretty happy with em - critique much appreciated
696820

[manni]

better late then never - i've missed the first two exercises, but perhaps i can do them later. the 30 small things was a real tough one, but i'm quite happy i did it, learned a lot here. and i would never ever have done it all by myself ;)

so here they are, let the funny guessing game begin

[spaztastic]

ahh man I am gonna have to drop out for a while, I am subtitling some vids right now, so I am super busy. but I will be doing past exercises to keep up. Great workshop Lakeland! :D

[Lakeland]

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg



May I remind that EVERYONE is welcome to join at any time with any assignment you feel is good for you.

Aaaand we re off with the next one.

Assignment #4: Creativity exercise

Description:
Your job is to use one of the reference sheets I prepared for you and concept with it :) What we re looking for is crazy make up, piercings, alien facial features you can imagine. Simply take the template, and go crazy with it. Notice I left out eyebrows and eyelashes to fill.

It is a pure creativity exercise but try to observe how much a good, thought out make up can influence a character. Dark shadows under the eyes create more gloomy face, long eyelashes can create a sexy look. Try experimenting with tatoos, face modifications and all that serves different character approach.
But most of all - Have Fun !

tech note:
you can download a reference JPG files from this adress:
face 1:
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3443/reference1a.jpg
face 2:
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7082/reference2a.jpg
face 3:
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1330/reference3a.jpg

They are A4 format, so if you prefer to work with traditional media,
you can easily print them out and scan when you re done.

DUE DATE IS 4 Days : Sat. 20.06.2009

Goodluck!

[Lakeland]

Mohog: good luck with the exam
and no critique here. just practice :)

Great Work Manni ! :)
I my self got entangled with something and couldnt keep the deadline on 30 objects :) but Ill get on with it as soon as I can.

Spaz: Thanks babeh ;) hope to see you soon :)

[danlambert]

Sweet, this fits in pretty much perfectly with where I am with my studies. I think first of all i'll try and render them out with a few different lighting scenarios, then pick one and go to town with a few styles! Thanks

[ijacobs9]

Man I wish I'd seen this one earlier, cus I think these exercises are GREAT!!

I'll try working in overdrive to catch up with all the assignments.

Thanks Lakeland!

[Lakeland]

You re welcome :)

So here's ,my emo faggachino, dark priest :P

[Krizalide]

Hi guys, I'm a bit late to join and I'm a bit busy so dunno if I'll be able to post alot. But I'll try my best to follow with the other assignments :)

http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q434/Krizalide/reference3a_color.jpg

[surfandsnow]

Assignment 3, only 14, but I spent a bit more time on them.

701124

[manni]

@surfandsnow: puh, these are really great, perhaps i'll try some with more time again...

so here's my try on the girl

[SteFlack]

Great thread Lakeland.

Lakeland – I really like your dark priest, nice idea with the marking and all the piercing. Hope you have time for another before the deadline.

Krizalide - Love the colours and how you’ve handled the hair. I would maybe work more on the nose and hide the line art, would help make it look more finished.

Surfandsnow – Great job with assignment 3. Good to see you’ve spend time on them and really studied the forms. They all look very solid and you’ve handled the shadows and highlights very well.

Manni – It’s nice to see you’ve tried different things on the same image. I think it really show’s that even thought the starting sketch is the same you can really change how a image can look with just simple changes in colour and a few little touches here and there.

Great job all. :)

Well I better get started, got 100 eyes to do and try my hand at assignment 4 before the deadline.

[SteFlack]

Managed to finish Assignment 4 tonight, I'm not to happy with the final but I learnt a few things and I guess it could sort of count as my first character design even though it’s far from original.

701839

[danlambert]

Here's where I'm at with the rendering, feel like I learned a lot. Tomorrow will hopefully get a chance to throw on some crazy make-up and other odd things!

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=700905&stc=1&d=1245280830

[Mumph]

MoHog: Thanks man!

Assignment nr 3 done, missed deadline again :D
I will try to offer critiques next time posting.

By the way, i´ve been trying to calibrate my monitor and have been messing around with different settings and would appretiate if someone could tell if my images are too bright/dark or not?
Thanks!

EDIT: I re-scanned my images and managed to better the quality, so I guess it was problems with the scanner that made them look too bright.

[Lakeland]

Ste: no worries man! we re here to practice, and since you learnt alot, that counts!

Danlambert: love the light there :P I would however go for a small touch of bright values here and there, to get the image sharpness, sort of cherry on the top. Cant wait for the make up :)

Mumph: they are too bright with to much contrast , atleast for me. Try this tool for calibration: http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/fclick/fclick.php?fid=269
or this site : http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

[SteFlack]

Danlamdert – Nice job so far, looks like you’ve nailed all the correct lights and shadows… Looking forward to seeing where you take it next.

Mumph – Well done for completing assignment 3. I think the scans let the original sketches down a little though. The eyes you posted for assignment 1 shows you can handle tone very well, I really like your digital ones and it shows all the practicing was really starting to pay off.

Lakeland – Thanks for the comments and I’m looking forward to the next assignment.

[manni]

just finished the lighting for the second piece. not sure if i can finish it completely, but i'll try
@danlambert: nice lighting. i like the softer tone much more than the harsh one i did in the last piece

[SteFlack]

Manni - I really like the eyes on this one, they look very detailed. I would maybe soften the tones a bit more, try not to go too dark and also keep your bright whites to help really finish off an image. At the moment it looks like she is lit by a very strong light and most of the form is lost in either shadows or highlights.

[MoHog]

koolio stuff everyone, awesome blending manni

trying to catch up with some mentoring now exams are over

703177

exercise for skintone - used ref. and only used colour picker twice :D

[danlambert]

Had a little go.

First one is the revised just basic face, I added a lighter value to certain areas, and also made the whole thing a tiny bit lighter. Pretty happy with how it came out.
Next was supposed to be like a tribally gothy thing, not really sure. I don't think the full affect is there because I didn't alter the hair or clothes.
Next was not really part of the challenge I don't think, but oh well. Changed her expression as well as adding a little bit of make up and the tears. Just realized I should have added a few specular highlights to the tear/tear path, oh well.
Next is really subtle and probably not worth posting, I think I could probably push it further. Was going for the airbrushed magazine perfection look.

Was fun, going to do some more when I have some more ideas, probably paint up the other face first.

edit, it put the top one on the bottom for some reason

[Mumph]

Krizalide: Nice but I think the skin is too bright over all. Those blue lines on her forehead and chin should probably be lighter to correspond with the lightning on her skin. I also Think the colors are too saturated, perhaps it would look better with just some parts saturated that much? Nice job!
surfandsnow: Great job, I like them a lot!
[ste]: Thanks and great job on the portrait. Maybe the eyes are just a tad too bright, and I think they will look more convincing if you put a shadow on them (from the eye lid).
Lakeland: Yeah, I think I solved the brightness issue, thanks for the help!
MoHog: Nice job, maybe the back-ground could be in another color? A color to complement the skin tones perhaps.
danlambert: I like your different versions! The top one is my favourite. Why didn´t you render the ear? :)

Keep it up people!

Here is my try, just trying to get better at picking colors. Didn´t bother with make up as it was already hard enough :)

[danlambert]

@ Mumph - lazyness of course

[SteFlack]

Thanks for the feedback Mumph. I think the eyes were the first thing I changed and totally forgot to go back and add the shadows again. I still won’t have seen it without you pointing it out.

MoHog – Nice effort and it’s good that you didn’t rely on the colour picker.

Danlambert – I really like the first one, very smooth shading and I like how you’ve rendered the nose ring, the one on the lip is a little hard to make out though. One thing worth mentioning is that you don’t need the shadow cast by the nose ring. Shadows don’t get darker when they over lap.

Mumph – Love the colours you’ve used and I like that you added some more colours to your shadows instead of going straight for black, good job.

[Lakeland]

Nice job guys, but I guess most of you missed the point of the exercise xD
instead of thinking about how make up and features can influence a character, you
started going into unnecesary detail and rendering :P.
It is a creativity check :P not a light skill check !

The important thing here is that you did something anyway. Good to have a thread that inspires you to work in any fashion :) so dont mind me naggin hehe ;P

[danlambert]

Nice job guys, but I guess most of you missed the point of the exercise xD
instead of thinking about how make up and features can influence a character, you
started going into unnecesary detail and rendering :P.
It is a creativity check :P not a light skill check !

The important thing here is that you did something anyway. Good to have a thread that inspires you to work in any fashion :) so dont mind me naggin hehe ;P
I wanted both! so sue me haha!
Looking forward to the next challenge

[Lakeland]

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg
Aaaand we re off with the next one.

Assignment #5: Simplifying shapes

Description:
Your job is to pick 30 shapes of any kind and draw them in a simplified way.
Try to think logo-wise, Try to look at an object of your study and try to guess what is it that makes it, that is this key thing to its form. What makes the object recongnizable by our brain. And then draw the object using as litle lines you can, to make it readable.
Important: YOU CANT USE VALUE HERE, ONLY LINES.

The purpose:
This extraordinary skill, to look at forms in a simplified way, lets you discover the key element, that stands for their integrity and readability. Once you learn to discover it, you will know to which elements of the image you need to put the greatest weight in.

Note:

As Im a student my self I cant do that in a good way yet, but I tried to picture what I mean in the example below.

If you have problems with finding your objects, try with human poses on
www.posemaniacs.com.

With things pictured in motion (running man, or jumping horse etc) try to adjust your linework to reflect that dynamic.



Bottomline:
This isnt a time consuming exercise, however dont be mislead, it is VERY hard for most people.
There is alot of thinking to do here, as even one line put in the wrong place,
can change the weight and dynamics of the object.

DUE DATE IS 7 Days : Sat. 27.06.2009

Goodluck!

[Lakeland]

ps. I added Assignment list in the very first post , page 1, for better navigation.

[surfandsnow]

some critique if it helps

@Lakeland - I love the design, but the values seam a little bit muddy to me. I think that the hair should probably be darker so you can add highlights. Try to sharpen up some of the edges on the face, it looks a little bit over blended to me. Also thank you so much for coming up with this workshop, its definitely helping me improve and I think Ive gotten a lot better since It started.

@manni - post #81 the reflected light in shadow is too strong, if you put in
the darks as a large region of a single flat value(22 for example,literally one value), even a slight change in value will stand out well and you wont have to make it so bright to stand out. #88 it was already mentioned but the image is a little bit washed out, you need to render the forms a little bit more.

@[ste] -#83 The lines contour to the form well, but I cant tell exactly what the lines are supposed to be, the lines feel too hard for tatoos, and too soft and ill defined for something more solid like metal.

@danlambert - #84 & #91 looks good to me, the only thing I could think of would be a little darkening around the hair line(especially on the upper left forehead), and a little more attention to edges(sharper). I would also make the highlights much brighter on the piercings.

@MoHog - #90 The color looks pretty good, but try to avoid outlining the eye especially the lower one.

@Mumph - #92 The color looks good, but the hair needs some specular highlights and you need to define the lower left jaw a little more.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heres mine for assignment #4, I think I need to make it a goal to make the deadline for next week. I tried 2 point lighting for the first time, and I practiced shiny metal some more.


Thoughts (might be helpful)
I think shiny metal looks better when there are only very few bright specular highlights. I also think its better to start a painting out with some reserve using values in the 10-90,15-85 range and then waiting till the end to explore the full value range. That way I dont over do it with too strong a value or exhaust my value range to early. One thing that Ive been doing more often lately is to add "contact shadows" when to forms get close to one another or actualy make contact, making them sharper and darker the closer it gets to the contact point(If something looks like its floating, odds are the problem is you forgot about the contact shadow). These shadows anchor one object to another.

I also have found that when painting reflected light it helps to and other things as well it helps to render everything around it flat with a single value so I can add details without too much contrast because only a small difference in value stands out a lot that way. I ran a line over the form of the head to see where highlights would pop up when the form faced the right direction, but provide a consistency to the highlights when possible. Finally highlights shouldnt compete for attention one should be stronger than another and the strongest should be around the focal point, like many things involving composition if things are even you wont know where to go, like if you come to a dead even fork in the road, unless one road is bigger or goes with the flow of the path you wont know where to go( I like that analogy anyway).


Alright I am done rambling, here it is.

[Lakeland]

hehe thanks again surfandsnow :)
however, Ill say that again, the exercise #4 was not about rendering, but creativity in face design :P, thats why I didnt bother about values and colors. The main aspect of this assignment was to let your imagination loose :)

Good to know that it was a developement for everyone anyway :P

[Lakeland]

Small update here. 18
12 to go.

from all of these I found the converse allstar shoes the hardest. funny. :P

[SteFlack]

Very nice lakeland, I've still to start mine but I'm looking forward to it and I think it’s going to be a very helpful exercise.

[Lakeland]

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg
Aaaand we re off with the next one.

Assignment #6: Self-portrait

Description:
Face thy self!

The purpose:
Self portraiting is a great way of learning face anatomy. You rarely make mistakes here since ... well, its your face :P. You know it well enough by now.


Note:
It would be great if you could attach your picture along with your self portrait study. That way, everyone can give you some guidelines and crits.
Try to put your experience from exercise #1 in motion here.


DUE DATE IS 4 Days : Wed. 01.07.2009

Goodluck!

[surfandsnow]

@lakeland - post #101 Drawing #10, I would break up that gesture line around the spine/neck, the rest look great.


my Assignment #5 - line art and simplification is definitely one of my weaknesses. I got a little better at the end, but I still need more practice in order to be able to do it consistently well.

notes
-balance thick lines with thin ones(opposite side)
- fade lines out once they start overlapping and become interior lines.(contour becomes cross contour)
- lines with gesture are thicker(duh)
- lines are thicker around area of intrest
-contour/outline is thicker

[Mumph]

[ste]: Thanks!
Lakeland: He he, yeah you are right, will think about that for future assignments.
surfandsnow: Thanks for the crits!

My 30 shapes for assignment #5:

[Borzaszto]

I am a little amazed. I've been looking for something like this thread for a long time. All of the similar threads I found died after a couple of months. People loose interest. I hope you won't :)

[surfandsnow]

my Assignment #6
used a mirror, tried some facial expressions, most of them stupid. The first one is probably the best.

[manni]

@surfandsnow: nice idea, and nice outcome, i'll try that one too. i quite like the over-surprised one :)

I've done that one with a mirror, but it took quite some time. after taking a picture and moving it besides the painting, i noticed all the stuff that's off, but i really couldn't see it before that. Will take some practice..

[surfandsnow]

@manni - #108 The hair is both too dark and too lite, the lower eye lid is a little dark along with the side of the nose and in between the fingers. I also didnt notice it at first but the perspective is a hair off, the picture is a kind of 3 point perspective with the head tilting back and the copy is a kind of 2 point perspective with the head level.

Overall Id say to be more careful about the values and to try to lower the contrast between planes/elements and focus on the important larger highlights and shadows. I sort of took a different approach where I placed only a select few darks and lights in key areas on top of line work and I think it reads well because you dont get lost in meaningless detail. Id say to be more careful about drastic value changes.

[Mumph]

Great job guys!

Assignment #6:

[manni]

just two further portraits, trying to incorporate surfandsnows feedback :) skintone looks nicer, but still quite off though

@mumph: nice work here, i like the first one better, the second one seems to have a light tilt

working on the main features i notice that i have really a problem seeing where i'm off. i notice it though if i zoom out of the picture a bit or zoom in, than suddenly it comes as a hammer hit. is there any other way to get that right? pencil measuring when doing sp's is not that easy :)

[Lakeland]

Sorry for beign idle lately. I have a major job assignment in progress, so very little time left for anything else. Ill catch my breath next week. In the mean time, lets all take some time to catch up with assignments and work on somethings to build the sketchbooks ;).

ps. feel free to post any exercise topics you would like to practice!
as I said in the first post, the idea that many people are doing the exercise with you is making your work easier in a way, so do post your assignment ideas, cause Im running out of ideas lol :P

[surfandsnow]

@Lakeland - yeah keeping up with everything can get tricky sometimes, hope all the work goes smooth though. I also have a few ideas for some more exercises if you want them.


OPTIONAL Interim Assignment #6A: Wireframes

Description: Right now one of the things I am working on is developing a sense of rhythm in perspective keeping things symmetrical while connecting different elements.

So the assignment is to find 5 objects/photos and produce a wireframe drawing of that object with unseen/invisible lines in addition to the normal ones. once you finish the wireframe drawing from the photo try to find out how different elements of the object are connected in space and find the rhythm of those lines. Then try produce 3 more drawings of the object from you imagination with different perspective.

1.Find Object/photo
2.Produce wireframe drawing of object
3.Find rhythm(in perspective) of object
4.Produce 3 more wireframes with different perspective from imagination
5.Repeat


The purpose: The idea of this assignment is to get a sense of rhythm in perspective and develop an idea of how objects are shaped in 3d so we can re-create then more easily.


Note: A wireframe is the line work of a object in 3d with normally invisible/unseen lines drawn in. The pic I made and attached is just a simple example of a wireframe and some technique not how to do the assignment. (edit: Wireframes usually outline plane chages)

When I say rhythm in perspective I mean finding a rhythm that helps aid in symmetry and the rhythm of said lines might not always be visible in the final drawing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wire_frame.svg

I hope some of that made sense I'll try to post a example in a day or two.

Edit: Simply put, find a photo of a object and recreate it from different angles.

If You So Choose DUE DATE IS 7 Days : July 14, 2009

Goodluck!

[surfandsnow]

ok so I made a example for what I wanted to work on for this one. A lot of it involves constructing your own perspective and analyzing the form in the photo. It sort of falls under the category of using references properly.

The reason I wanted to incorporate rhythm, is because a common problem when constructing your own perspective, is that the results are jagged and square, so I wanted to make things smoother and work on my stroke economy.

One of the things I use a lot with perspective is using a central axis that I can measure even distances from once I have two points a equal(or foreshortened) distance from the axis I have symmetry that I can use to draw with. As long as the perspective lines are parallel on the page there is no foreshortening and the mid point is in the visual center. Also dont forget to check that everything lines up along the perspective lines, its easy to forget.

I can also use the axies to navigate space and find where landmarks line up. The axies are also useful for finding angles in space that I can use to analyze form and improve symmetry as well.

This one is tricky, but it should help improve your perspective and make sketching a little easier. On a final note wireframes are mostly based on planar changes in form.

[Pantastic]

Hi! Sorry to butt-in, but I've got a quick question: would it be alright if I started with the first assignment and worked my way up to the current one? I just found this thread, and the assignments really hit on some stuff I'm having some troubles with!

Thanks a bunch!

[Lakeland]

if you read anny of the assignment text you ll se that you can hop in whenever you want with any assignment. Good luck.


surf:
that one is pretty complex, not sure I understand it. Ill give it a thought as I go with the autoportrait thing.

[Pantastic]

I did read the text for the assignments, and I saw that anyone can join at anytime, but I didn't see anything about being able to do the assignments at anytime as well so I thought I'd ask to make sure. Thank you for the clearification.

[surfandsnow]

@Lakeland - yeah my description was atrocious to say the least, and I have all this little side stuff I want to work on too that didnt help things. The assignment itself isint easy either.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simply put, find a photo of a object and recreate it from different angles.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to use simple stick-figure like like wireframes so I could focus on navigating 3d space and I wanted to incorporate rhythm to get quicker and better results and also to understand the flow and connectedness of the form, but everything is secondary to the key idea of recreating something from a photo from a different angle which requires an actual understanding of the form and perspective. The invisible lines are also necessary for understanding the form enough to recreate it from all angles. If your having trouble with anything specific like analyzing the form in the photo, I can try to help, but the above "simply put", is the core of the assignment.

[Lakeland]

aaah :) sounds good :)
..
bah, btw:) im half way throug my auto portrait. talking bout due time failure lol :P

[surfandsnow]

ok, so my own assignment was a little harder than I thought, and as a result it took me longer than expected. overall I did ok-ish, but I am very happy with the car. It took me a long time, but the line works fairly good and everything seams to be reasonably accurate so I am happy with it.
729125

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729127

I wanted to get one more assignment in, but since Lakeland should be getting back soon, I'll just leave it as a informative exercise.

notan thumbnails

As important as composition it is often ignored, especially when it comes to value. so the goal of this exercise is to boil down what you see(photo, life , etc) into simple abstract shapes of value. Composition should work independent of subject matter, so the shapes can, and probably should, be abstract and unrecognizable. The shapes of value should lead the eye through the picture almost like a path. The thumbnails should be done with 2-4 values.

Some more information on notan.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=virtualartacademy&view=videos
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/notan.asp
http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1857&perpage=10&pagenumber=1

[Lakeland]

Hello.
so my autoportrait is here :P

Ill be getting back soon with next assignment, be it 2-3 days.

[Lakeland]

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6074/moltencoreworkshop.jpg
Aaaand we re off with the next one.

Assignment #7: Anatomy studies

Description:
Your job is to construct 15 full body anatomy studies. Best to use photos as reference, or anatomy books. We are looking for a regular model, not the body inside, and muscle insight. Regular posing model light and shadow study, that is first and foremost focused on proportions, angles, skin/muscle light distribution. You can do a full render if you want, you can make a pencil sketch the technique is up to you.

Everywhere I go to find tutorial materials I find this ever comming back sentence - do studies. Since MCW is about boring yet developing exercises that are pain in the ass of every artist, thats the thing we re gonna do.

DUE DATE IS 7 Days : Tue. 01.08.2009

Goodluck!

[MoHog]

kk, lets get this show on the road

5 female studies , will be followed by 5 male thn a final instalment of mixed models

found this first batch to be great fun - luv drawing the female form

734737

(Ps the smiley is cos I was happy with the sketch, looking now he does seem a tad pervy :P)

[Lakeland]

hahah it does ! :P I was like, hey... wth? :P

nice line work on the smiley one btw. luv these.
Im still poking around to find a good referance. Using porn shots all the time makes me...hmm distracted :P

[Mat Kaminski]

Great reference spot: www.chracterdesigns.com <--- female ref

ummm dont really have much male ref though.

[Krizalide]

hey, been working hard on my portrait in last 2 days, I'm kinda glad that after some years of lazy drawing I still can do nice stuff ^^

original pic :D
http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q434/Krizalide/portraitkrizalidepic.jpg

lazy clothing though lol
http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q434/Krizalide/portraitkrizalide.jpg

[MoHog]

cheers Lakeland, I know what ya mean - would definitely invest in a figure reference manual

nice portrait Krizalide, pretty much spot on methinks

[Lakeland]

wow Krizalide! spot on indeed!
nice job!


and Matte_Art... dunno why I get the error 404 when clicking on the adress you ve linked

[aspenboy]

and Matte_Art... dunno why I get the error 404 when clicking on the adress you ve linked
Because the URL has a typo ;) --> http://www.characterdesigns.com/

[Lakeland]

I knew that!

:P


Aaaanyway.

This excercise pissed me off to say the least.
It was frustraiting and exhausting. molten core in its finest I guess...
Im really lost when it comes to characters. no idea what to refer to what, how to hold structure, proportions and all that... I mean. I know the basics, yet to draw one is like carving it from stone. goes hard for me for no reason..

[surfandsnow]

@Lakeland- ellipses are really good for finding proportions and finding areas where parts line up is good, like elbow-ribs.
on the figure you shaded I think you went a little too dark too quick(I know it was a quickie, but still too dark), I think its a little better to start out with low contrast and then build contrast up slowly. I also think your interior lines are a little dark, I think that line art reads better when the contour is a lot darker than anything else.
Another thing thats help me a lot is when a area get unruly I pick a value with a big brush and just run over everything and clean it up, I also noticed things go a little cleaner when you paint things in a single stroke so that you dont get the values skewed with that layering effect. I also looked at some of your stuff and I think you should try to use a bigger brush. http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm#flatten_and_simplify.


ok since the focus was on anatomy I tried to spend a good bit of time rendering the form. I made a sketch before I painted and then progressively lowered the opacity of the sketch until I eventually turned it off. I used the blender brush from time to time when the shading got a little murky and I as usual I used as big a brush as possible to paint with, but I also tried something a little bit different.

I defined the darkest darks and the brightest brights in different areas of the figure and used those areas to sample from so I could shade the gradients easily. I also tried to pick one area one the figure to be the brightest overall and and slowly darken areas away from that point.

I copied from various references from deviant art, I picked a few that werent full figure because they had better lighting or anatomy.

[Mumph]

MoHog: Nice but the lightning becomes very washed out, try adding a grey tone over the whole body first, and then darken. Keep darkening from that, save your darkest spots for where there is really no light hitting the body. Nice form!
Matte Art: Thanks for the link man, great ref. indeed!
Krizalide: Very nice, i would perhaps soften some edges in some parts. I think you should set up a more dramatic lightning though for the next one, so that you get more defined shadows.
Lakeland: I agree with surfandsnow's crits. Good job.
surfandsnow: Really nice although some edges could be softer I think, or maybe it´s the lightning that is very strong? I really like the last digital one and the ones done in pencil have great form!
-------------------------------------------
Sorry for being late, it´s time to get this going again! Here are my first 6 ones, more to come.

Good assignment!

[Mumph]

I´m trying to incorporate more hard edges.

[danlambert]

Attention! Back away from the airbrush!