Sleepys book o' bedtime sketches

[Sleepy_Head]

I'm currently doing a lot of work at university, so my sketch time at the moment is last thing at night with a cup of hot milk. Any other time I have free will be dedicated to the assignment work for the middle class and will not be featuring here.

So for starters, here are the two faces from the 10th and 11th Jan. Both references are in the book 'Portraits' by Steve McCurry, and are drawn with a hb pencil on cream sketch paper. (Please feel free to critique like mad, I need the help)

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/sketchbook1.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/sketchbook2.jpg

[Sleepy_Head]

I'm starting to do a study of what I consider the second hardest part of anatomy after hands, the eyes.

This top photograph is the eyes from a portrait by the legendary Steve McCurry, (Don't quite know where I stand on copyright here, if anyone knows a reason the image shouldn't be used PM me and I'll edit the post to remove it!!) and is my first subject. I plan on doing the same eyes till they look right and then move onto the next photograph in his book 'Portraits' till I get to the end.

All comment greatfully recieved. I need the help :D

Cheers

Sleepy


http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/eyestudyreference.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/eyestudy-rough1.jpg

[sketcher]

Eyes say a lot about a person so it's important they're accurate.
The first thing is the irises (the coloured bit) they are always round, perfect circles.
Second, what happened to the eyelashes? ;)
Mostly not enough details to see it as a real eye. Even if you're eventually going for cartoon styles, the basics; round iris with a round pupil within, eyelids with lashes, usually the eyelid crease (not always in stylised pics).
Irises are never usually a solid colour either. So even tho she has light coloured eyes, there are flecks of colours through it.
The other thing is the position of the irises within the eye, yours are a bit small and therefore give the impression that she is looking away rather than directly at you.
Keep practicing tho cos you'll get it

This quick pic might help...
http://img15.photobucket.com/albums/v45/justjess/1df0adab.jpg

[Sleepy_Head]

Continuing with the eye study, and after the one crit from sketcher, I have done a quicker but I must say better attempt at the eyes from yesterday.

I think I may have the left eye a bit too small, but at least it looks like she is staring out of the page now and not to one side.

(See two posts up for the reference)

Crits if you could please,

Ta muchly,

Sleepy

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/eyestudy-rough2.jpg

[sketcher]

Great improvement Sleepy, very nice !!!!
Sketcher

[-The Swift-]

ditto to sketcher, great improvement. it looks a lot like the ref, looks better shaded too!

keep up the good work:D

[Sleepy_Head]

Having read through the Portaits book I found a face that begged to be drawn. I have made it a bit thinner than it should be, but I am only a beginner :D

I recon I'm about halfway there, but I am having a bit of a struggle shading it in. That and I didn't realy notice that she is looking slightly to the right so her left side looks a bit wrong too. Any comments would go down a treat.

Sleepy

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/face1-halfway.jpg

[Sleepy_Head]

This is the result of another 3 hours work on the previous posts result.

Even though the likeness is not quite right, I'm chuffed with the end result. I think I managed to get some depth in there, but any crits would be good.

(I would scan in the source, but my scanner is giving me jip at the mo)

Sleepy

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/face1-finished.jpg

[legacy]

keep at it sleepy!
i want to more sketches. Try your hand at some "quick" shape / gesture stuff. (Shit, i need to take my own advice), it helps to get the feel for shapes so that you don't focus on one little section of a picture until you have the whole picture :D

[-The Swift-]

great wrok sleepy! this pics really good the shades and tonal range is so much better than the previous!

keep going, you're doing good
:)

[sketcher]

You're style's really growing Sleepy, what level of realism compared to cartoonism are you looking for?
Lot more depth and character in that second one, the tight lips and heavy eyes.
Maybe try some greater tonality in the hair..

[Sleepy_Head]

As part of my drawing regime, I am doing some practice pieces that help an artist get back to using the right side of the brain.

One of those exercises is to draw a picture upside down, these are from quite complex drawings and I think they both came out rather well.


REF: Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Igor Strvinsky
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/seatedman.jpg


REF: Sixteenth century drawing by an unknown German artist.
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/horserider.jpg

[legacy]

WOW, the 16th Century piece is just amazing quality for drawing upside down.

keep up that kind of work my friend and you'll be a bigshot in no time at all :D

keep up the work mate :D

[Sleepy_Head]

Thanks Legacy. It shocked me as well. When you do them upside down you start and don't look at the picture your doing until it's completed. I did a few others the right way up and they were total cack in comparison.

It is supossed to remove the thoughts about what the actual image is from the left side of the brain that deals with language and serial thought and free up the right side to deal with pure imagery. I will be using it as a warm up routine from now on.

Sleepy

[Sleepy_Head]

Another drawing done using a training technique. This time drawing using only the left eye for observation. The eyes, unlike the hands are wired to the side of the brain that they are on, so your right hand and left eye are connected to the left hand (non-analytical) [Edit: analytical] side of the brain more commonly known as the side you draw from [Edit: Logic and words, see Edit below]. (This is opossite for south paws :D)

[Edit: This is actually a good training task, but factually incorrect. The point of this task is to use the analytical left side of the brain as the input/output (left eye and right hand) but use the right side for the control. This helps the brain to switch to the right side for the perceptual processing during drawing by making the left side do two autonomous tasks, which stop it from taking over control of what is going on. This is not the best of descriptions, but my recall of facts is a bit shabby, and this was word of mouth from a clynical sycologist and I think I lost the thread a bit when he started using words of 20 syllables :D. Sleepy]

Apart from the thumb looking like I just smashed it with a hammer, it's pretty much what my hand looks like.

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/hand1.jpg

[-The Swift-]

not bad sleepy,
so how do you train the right hand side of the brain??? i heard people talk about it, but it makes no sense? can you enlighten me?

[Sleepy_Head]

I use several sources, one is the clynical sycologist who gave me this last one, other source is the book, "Drawing on the right side of the brain" (which I highly recommend) and I know several artists whom add a bit in here or there.

Unfortunately I have a major project in computing on the go, so I don't have any large amounts of free time for doing them all. Even the quick ones take an hour now, so the best I can manage is about one a week :(

You should check out the book, it's suitable for beginner, intermediate and professional artists alike, and if you are already doing art then just use the techniques whilst doing your normal work.

Cheers

Sleepy

[lavhoes]

Originally posted by Sleepy_Head
REF: Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Igor Strvinsky
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/sleepy_head/images/seatedman.jpg

Heh, I still have my upside-down drawing of that somewhere.

I think we've all got one lying around someplace.

Good show! =D