I like painting mascara! =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 52

I feel really weak at drawing the female body (Brooke D.). Anyway, I mostly tried to capture the feel of the torso.



Body 53

From life, Brooke was resting on my bed. I tried to draw her torso and legs for the moment.

[Kungfoowiz]

Calamity of Touch (original work by Linda Bergkvist).

[Kungfoowiz]

Troll in the Fog...

[Kungfoowiz]

Eagle Skeletal Profile

A simplfied profile of an eagle's skeleton..

This is based on the golden eagle, which is an amazingly powerful creature, it can hunt wolves, cats, and even grizzly bears would you believe it!

Take a look at these...
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lswBDZuL-8w
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GoEalfyMqM&feature=fvw
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWaosOaURfU&feature=related
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9UlIwMHb4&feature=related
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwyrRAZDzA&feature=fvw

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 54

Heads from Bridgman's drawing guides. He draws so straight, I'm not particularly fond of his ways, anyway, trying to get into it.




Body 55

Some things from life, and then a bit more of Bridgman drawing studies.




Body 56

From reference, life and imagination. Fun stuff.

[Kungfoowiz]

Troll in the fog...

Shambok wanted me to develop the concept a bit further, so here's the progress so far, just getting it cropped and prepared how I would like to take things, it was an awkward pose to begin with, so I just want to change things around before committing to anything.

That's all I have time for tonight...

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 57

Drawn from life, time limited, 2 minutes per sketch. The model is Anne-Marie.



Body 58

From life. The same model, Anne-Marie, drawn from different positions around a chair. A nice killer angle too, really enjoyed this.

[Kungfoowiz]

Troll in the Mist... =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Cup of coffee

Still life practice, tried to paint a cup of coffee on my table..

[Kungfoowiz]

Apple from life.

[Architaylor]

Hey man LOVING the still lifes, particularly the cup seems like you got the colours down even though its fairly dark :)

The character stuff seems good too colours seem really desaturated though :/ I'm not sure if you're painting over greyscales but I dont think its working colours need to "pop" more :O but doing the still lifes will definately improve that :D


oh btw see attachment :D

[jeremygordon89]

Good stuff man, though I hope you're spending more time working on drawing than digital painting at this point (in my opinion). Digital painting is good to do all the time I think to learn to get the hang of it, though value and structure (drawing) is the backbone of all of it, so you really need to focus on getting that down. I'd recommend doing Bridgman a lot (he's helped me a lot so far, and I'm just now past the head and neck).
As for your painting, I think more color variation would bring them to life more (cools and warms). Keep up the good work!

[Kungfoowiz]

Taylor - Thank you for the compliment bro! I'm glad you like the coffee cup, yip it was a pretty dark scene, set against the bottom of my table, which is pitch black (almost).

Yeah, I see so, upon looking at the troll again, the colours are more washed out than I wanted. Nope, that was painted with colour, no value underdrawing.

Hey, thank you for the DS sketch, it turned out so-so. =) I may get something for Christmas or whatever, probably not until the school holidays though. Thank you bro, I appreciate the comments.


Jeremy - Thank you for the comment bro. Yip, I need to keep the drawing side up, I'll crack open the books today promise. The Bridgman studies are difficult for me, I find he draws much straighter than I'm used to, but I'm willing to persevere with him.

Awesome, thank you for the tip, I'll think carefully about my colour variation in the next pieces.

Thank you for the comments chaps, keep well to you both.
Edward

[Cranberry]

Well there's progress but not sufficient if I have to be honest... Focus on anatomy, focus on the bigger shapes, you want to draw fluid natural lines but they won't look any good without a fundamental form underneath them...

Your faces also need a lot of work, look up some pictures and draw from them, when you get a bit more confident start drawing people in your environment, be it on the bus, your friends, whatever...

Jeremy is right too, drawing from life should be your number 1 priority at this time, painting will come later! That doesn't mean that you can't paint of course, but the hours you spend on a painting would give you more result if you spent them on drawing and doing studies.

The stuff in post #255 for example, it doesn't look like you had a good look at the stuff you drew... The anatomy, without wanting to sound rude or mean, is still at a pretty childish level, which is a letdown to see after 9 pages of hard work, which leads me to thinking that you're looking wrong... Have you tried reading "drawing on the right side of the brain"? I think it's a book that will help you a LOT.

Hope to hear from you and remember, bad crits are the best crits, I'm saying this to help you not to bring you down :)

Cheers

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Cranberry!

Don't be afraid to rip into my work, that's what I'm here for, to learn from the mistakes I make. There are many things which I can't see in my work, and others do. This both scares and inspires me! =)

You've raised a good point in that I haven't been really looking at and drawing what I see in many pieces. In some cases I'm trying to draw from imagination, but the studies aren't that good I must confess.

I do have a copy of the book you mentioned and will start reading through it.

Thank you for the great advice, it's really helped me to recognise mistakes in my work.

Keep well bro.
Edward

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 59

Studies from Bridgman's life drawing book. Not much else to say really, just practicing heads...




Body 60

More studies from Bridgman's life drawing book. Some heads in profile, as well as a skull.

[Cranberry]

Thats more like it! More stuff like that last post but even better! The drawings where you just focused on planes are much better! Keep at it

[Kungfoowiz]

Thank you. =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 61

Drawn from life.


Body 62

Studies of heads from Bridgman's life drawing book.



Body 63

More from Bridgman's life drawing, some line practice on the heads.




Body 64

Self portrait (guess which one is me!?) =)

The other is from imagination.

And then the hand was drawn from life.





Body 65

In the first one: Is it vase or are those faces?

Second one, Albert Einstein upside down.

Referenced from New Drawing on the Right of the Brain.




Body 66

Practicing drawing the German Horse upside down. =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Rendering 1

Practicing painting various types of material. Not sure how good they are, you decide..

Referenced from the Figure Artist's Fantasy Bible, by Matt Dixon.




Rendering 2

More practice of materials and surface painting.

Referenced from the Fantasy Artist's Figure Bible, by Matt Dixon.

[Kungfoowiz]

Blending some skin tones.

Referenced from Enayla's website (Linda Bergkvist) - http://www.furiae.com/tutorials.php

[jeremygordon89]

Good to see you're keeping up with the Bridgman studies, and the digital stuff is great practice. I recommend you keep doing that, as well as more drawings from life (long drawing such as still lifes would be helpful)

[Architaylor]

Bridgeman studies show a lot of improvement :) the right side of the brain book seems like a good exercise as well the knight came out really well :) keep it up man ill see you tomorrow :D

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey chaps, thank you for the comments!

Didn't feel like drawing this evening, was feeling depressed...
But I'll make up for it tomorrow, promise!

Here are some colour charts, they're used to get familiar with your palette. I found it interesting to see the difference which yellow can make in a flesh tone.

And then a painting (Sexy Chick) from reference. The skin tones are way off unfortunately but enjoy.

[Architaylor]

hey man! at least we're feeling down together haha :D The colour stuff seems really useful as well :D did a (not so) quick paintover of the girl, I'm no expert but it might help :D

[Kungfoowiz]

Ta bro.. yeah, I need to work on the popcorn... Thank you for the paintover...

Punch me in the face ever time I mess the face...

[Kungfoowiz]

Colour/value studies. Thank you to Architaylor (check my signature to see his sketchbook) for the idea, it really helps to improve your colour perception. Mine is way way way way way bad, anyway, at least there's ample room for improvement.

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 85

Mouth studies in pencil, referenced from Bridgman's book.



Body 86

Some more mouth studies (a bit of nose too) in pencil, referenced from Bridgman's life drawing book.

[Kungfoowiz]

Sketched some ideas for painting...

[Krato]

ok well i suggest instead of drawing whole faces you take your time and draw specific features, start with the nose, studies noses.. then after a week or so work on the eyes, then do both eyes and noses, study from pictures and the mirrior and try to learn this stuff, since it seems your drawing the face without any focus on the form and structure. Also allot of your drawings (and paintings) look reeeeeally reaaaaally rushed, dont do that. Now with your photoshop stuff, that seems like the worst way to start a painting..ever. Do a sketch of the people try to get there proportions right THEN start painting, right now your just jumping in there with soft brushes and uneven brushes which is going to be hell trying to fix. I use the first brush for that stuff and allot of the painting, you know the circle brush, it works, i would never use a soft brush or the other brushes you used in the early painting stages.. hell i only use the soft brush at the very end to make "special features"

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Krato

Sure thing, I have been doing some of the specific features of the face. I'll do some more though and then see how they fit onto the face. *Punches self in the face..*

Yeah, I need to slow down on the painting side, you're right, it isn't something which should be rushed.
Yip, I know, those are just thumbnail ideas actually, they've been blown up by about 300%, not the final sketch, sorry bro, I should've mentioned this.
The original sizes are posted below.

Thank you for the great advice, I really appreciate you looking through my work.
Keep well bro and I'm looking forward to your next pieces.

[jeremygordon89]

Keep up the Bridgman and reference studies, and then try applying the knowledge from imagination and drawing from life. I completely agree with what Krato said, have to take your time. Keep workin hard man!

[Kungfoowiz]

Thank you Jeremy.

Okay, well here we go then, did these from reference this evening.

What do you think - are they any good?

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 89

Some sketches of people walking in the park today.




Body 90

Drawings of people and other stuff at the Cardiff Museum today.

[Kungfoowiz]

Worked on these sketch thumbnails for a bit.

[Kungfoowiz]

A watercolour portrait of Anne Marie, she is our life model for this year.

I would like this to be my Final Drawing.

Please let me know what you think?

Thank you.
Edward

[jeremygordon89]

Good to see you're keeping up the hard work!
For your facial feature studies, try to not outline things as much and try using tone to bring out the form rather than outline, especially in the lips. I think the watercolor portrait would look better with some darker tones too because right now it looks too flat (needs more form), but it's headed in the right direction. Keep well

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Jeremy

Thank you! I'm glad to hear that, you're the second person to say I'm improving!

Yeah, I do feel the painting is flat. The camera shot also kind of messed the picture, it's on a large paper so I can't scan, but that doesn't excuse the lack of form and the outlining. Some things to think about, I need to practice more with it and -really- get a feel for the watercolour, get rid of that fear for messing stuff up.

Another painting - Silvery Sea, a strange new world, where the sea is made of silver water, and the sky sparkles with emerald light from this universe's star...

[Kungfoowiz]

Updated with a cleaner photo of the portrait painting.

[Kungfoowiz]

Sadness - this mimics my feelings when I feel sad.

It broke my heart, a cat was strangled to death by someone, we don't know who...

[Kungfoowiz]

Been rather busy lately, biggest school project EVER... so very muchly busy-ish...

[andres333]

Man that cat is giving me the shivers....
that head is looking great, look like a lot of work.

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Andres!

Long time... where you been bro?

Yeah, the cat upset me enough to paint it...

Thank you, I got some help from one of my other friends with it, but yeah, it looks super good if I do say so myself. =)

Here's my next painting, The Crucifixion.

Condemned, Brutilised, Crucified..

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 92

Some studies using skin tones, I don't feel that I got the tones or the shapes how I wanted though.


Looking Up

Painted this for fun onto my sketchbook cover, with acrylics.

[Kungfoowiz]

Well, it's Anne Marie leaning back and looking afar...

[llex_paul]

hey man! long time no concept art...
i see that you started to have more colored ones, that's nice! keep up with painting. big shapes and don't stop drawing!

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Llex Paul

Aye, keeping well bro?

All's well here thank you. Yip, I started to work some colour into my things, but I'm still doing pencil work.
However, at the moment I'm a bit busy, so I can't do something every day.

Sure, I'll try go for the big shapes. Looking forward to seeing your next update.

Keep well bro.
Edward

[Kungfoowiz]

Charlize

[Loathsome]

Nice sketches you have going.
I'd suggest that you spend more time on the color studies, you don't have to refine the rendering completely or anything. Just try to block in as many colors as possible. I'm sure there's more meat to the chicken than that, my friend.

Keep it up though, I like the hard work so far!

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Loathsome

Thank you for the compliment. Yip, trying hard with the sketching, going to work through Easter on them too.

Alright, I'll continue with the colour studies, but trying to get the colours right and blocked in correctly.
Aye, there is a lot more meat to be minced.

Happy Easter to you and everyone!

[Kungfoowiz]

Made a few fixes to the Charlize pencil portrait..

[llex_paul]

hey Ed! pretty nice one, the nose is not in the right place, it must be more straight. but it a step forward anyway! cheers!

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Paul!

Great to see you back on here, was wondering whether you became lost in Wonderland yet.. =)

Awesome, thank you for the feedback, I'll look into fixing her nose soon.

Here are some more sketches, mostly 2 minute sketches.

[Loathsome]

Hey, I'm sorry to tell you but you have to stop working on that portrait and redo it if you're aiming for proportional accuracy because they aren't working well. If you're able to erase things and redraw stuff then do that but it looks like the pencilmarks are to harsh to do that so you'll have to redo it.

I'm not trying to be mean here.

I'd suggest that you check some face construction tutorials. I have a perfect book for this but sadly I'm not able to scan it at the moment but I looked up this for you; http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-draw-a-face

It's not by any means the best tutorial on the internet (but the guidelines are accurate, distances and such) but if you google "portrait tutorial" or "portrait construction" or something I'm sure you can find something even more helpful.

Hit the guidelines right and put place holders for the face features before you put things down so you get them right. Else something like this happen and you'll have to redo it ):

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Conny

Thank you for the advice and the video tutorial. I can rub out these sketches, they are quite light on the paper, but darkened slightly with Photoshop as the camera/scanner lightens things.

The thing with the video tutorial, I'm drawing this in perspective so I can't say whether an eye would necessarily be in the same place as in the video.

So the distances and guidelines would change quite a lot from the video.

However, I'm not ignoring what you're saying, I would love to fix the mistakes in my work, I need to be more careful with things in perspective.

[Kungfoowiz]

Charlize portrait, fixed up the nose somewhat, please let me know if there's something else which needs looking at, thank you.

Body 98, studies of Burne Hogarth's torsos and bodies.
Referenced from his Dynamic Figure Drawing book.

Body 99, studies from Andrew Loomis's Figure Drawing.
Head studies, and a photo reference study (woman).

Body 100, studies of bone structure, referenced from Andrew Loomis's Figure Drawing book.
A bit rusty unfortunately..

Hydrangea and Iris, watercolour.
Inspired by the work of Stephanie Pui Mun Law.

Figurative 8, coloured pencil, construction of some cartoon characters.
Referenced from Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation book.

[jeremygordon89]

It's good to see you doing Loomis studies mixed in with your other stuff; Loomis should help you out (I'm actually looking through his figure drawing book too at the moment). Just keep doing what you're doing, and maybe try doing a few long drawings from life, like still life or self portrait. It's always good to do that every now and then to see where you've developed and what could use more work.
Also with figure drawings, try drawing figures made completely out of boxes and figures made out of spheres, and just stuff like that might help you with structure.

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Jeremy

Yeah, I would like to move forward with some longer drawings.. I'll have a think about this.

My next painting, House with the Rickety Old fence, watercolour, inspired by Colette Pitcher.

Thank you.

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 101

El Coro body studies and some other stuffies.


Body 102

Hogarth face studies.


Please Mister Headmaster

Some random drawing. =)

[Loathsome]

It feels like you rush your stuff too much, I get the feeling from most of the things I've seen. Slow down and get things correct. A sketch doesn't mean; do it quick. It means; get it accurate. So rather than speeding through something, spend some time with it so you get it right. Speed comes with time since you learn more. Speed isn't really speed either, it's the amount of information put down on the paper by just a few movements. But to get that you need the information first.

It's better to get only a few and good and accurate drawings rather than quick and bad drawings. Cause what do you learn if you only boost out quick stuff with not too much thought to it?

Take your time, it's not a race.

I learned this about myself a few weeks ago and I'm happy I did.

[jeremygordon89]

I definitely agree with Loathsome about rushing, and I find that I do it sometimes as well. It's fine to do quick drawings some of the time, but when doing studies I'd like to see you spend a few hours on a drawing (and do a lot of them). I think doing photo studies, still lifes, and stuff from imagination that you spend a lot of time on will reveal a lot to you and show you where your weaknesses are and where your strengths are. Keep it up

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey folks

Yeah, you guys are so right, I need to spend more time on the faces and bodies and really turn out some decent stuff instead of the usual junk.

Well, I can't promise changes soon, but I will start to think how to do this, it is difficult for me, but I will give an honest effort to slowing down and being more thoughtful in my drawings.

Thank you guys, I really need you to hit me like this, as it's the only way I have any hope of improving.

Well, here's tonight's studies, all from life, mostly with an ink pen.

Body 103
Some warmup stuff in pencil, and then less than a minute sketches.

Body 104
Longer poses, and then quick sketches, everything in ink.

Body 105
Sketching with brush pen.

Thank you and keep well everyone.
Edward

[My57]

I like all the dedication. Keep it up. Just remember that their is no such thing as a line but to differences in contrast. <- Just something to keep in mind when you want to do realistic things.

Also pay attention to proportion and form. Don't worry about detail so much until you get those two thing nailed.

[jeremygordon89]

Good to see you doing figure drawings; just remember to supplement it with a lot of anatomy study. When you do figure drawings make sure you get the gesture down first, then the basic form of it, and then add details.

[Kungfoowiz]

-

My57 - Sure thing, I'll keep that mind, my focus was perhaps more on the linework but I hear you and accept your critique in good faith, especially with regard to proportion and form. I'm working hard to understand these better. Thank you for your advice.


Jeremy - Thank you for the compliment bro. Yeah, I'm glad you noticed, I've throttled off the anatomy for a while, I do hear you though and would like to do some muscles and bones again.
Sure thing, I'll get to practicing the gesture on the figure as it gets more pleasing drawing. Thank you and keep well Jeremy.

-

At the moment I'm doing a likeness sketch of Lucy Lui. Please let me know what you think.

Thank you and keep well everyone.
Edward

[Jamie Romoser]

hey nice updates man. One thing you might try and think about is
for drawing, rendering, painting take the time to really think things through about what its gona look like before you even put the pencil or paint brush to the paper. Just try and think about every stroke your doing and why your doing it.
have a good one
keep having fun
-Jamie

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Jamie!

Excellent, thank you very much for your encouragement. I shall try to think about my strokes and how they may affect my work.
For many of my studies I'm pretty lose though, but I'll have a think about how to tighten them.

Thank you, you too, keep well bro.
Edward

[Bella DC]

Wow, i think the likeness studies helped you improve very quickly! Are those just four attempts? By your fourth attempt you've drawn her very well. The contours on her face have really helped bring out her form. Perhaps try shading and adding line at the same time? I don't know if that's good advice but it helps me :) Hope to see more!

[Avvatar]

Lots of studies, always a good thing! What I notice about a lot of your faces is that the features are all misaligned which is making them distorted. For example the eyes might be angles one way but the mouth won't be parallel to it. Even really minor wrong angles could throw off a likeness.

For your figure studies I would suggest really trying to push the forms and basic shapes at this point. They are looking flat so it's essential to really draw them as if they are made of three-dimensional shapes. Don't just try and draw the contours you see, but how everything works and joins together.

[Kungfoowiz]

Bella - Yeah, by the fourth attempt I began to see where I was going wrong. Sure, I'll try your approach for a while to shade some parts and then continue with line for a while and see whether it works for me. Thank you Bella.

Avvatar - I struggled a lot with keeping the facial features aligned. It's going to take some time to get it right I feel. I'm starting to use more construction to get them to line up properly though.
Definitely, drawing the figures as basic shapes first helps a lot, I'm also trying to do this, but yeah, I need to practice more. Thank you for the advice, I'll try to put these things into my next drawings.


Here's a small update this evening, Michelangelo's Christ in charcoal, and some more Lucy - process 5.

Thank you and keep well everyone.
Edward

[jeremygordon89]

The Lucy Lui sketch is pretty close, nice job on that. One thing I've learned about likenesses (and any drawing really) is that it's all in the angles and the shadow shapes. I think you should focus on large angles first and then smaller angles and then smooth things out, but you've done pretty well with this one; the only thing I notice is that some values need to be darker and her right eye is off. Keep up the hard work man

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Jeremy

Thank you bro, I'll work on my angles for the next pieces.

Here's the finished piece, as well as the process steps taken to complete it.

Basically the process started with a pencil drawing to find the big shapes, and then I painted it digitally with large brushes, gradually reducing the brush size and refining more and more details in the face.

[jeremygordon89]

Excellent result I must say, especially the texture in her skin and the highlights on her hair; well done man! How much did you learn from doing this study?

[Kungfoowiz]

Thank you Jeremy. Well, I learnt about the planes of the face, some things about proportion as well as how to paint in greyscale, so it was certainly worthwhile.

Next piece, Michelangelo's Study for Christ, charcoal on paper.

[jeremygordon89]

Good job dude, these are great studies to be working on. I'm sure they'll teach you a lot; I'm actually starting to do photo studies and master studies now as well. Keep posting more of these as well as more imaginative work.

[Kungfoowiz]

Thank you Jeremy. Sure, here is one from imagination and the other from life.

[DoubleXdragoN]

Found you, you m**********. :DDD I'll pass on constructivism soon. Late atm, shiftwork coming up too.

[Kungfoowiz]

Brea.

[Kungfoowiz]

Brea Bennett

[Kungfoowiz]

Sarge

[Kungfoowiz]

Sorcerer, study for value and clothing folds.

[Kungfoowiz]

Rogue

[Kungfoowiz]

Paris

[Kungfoowiz]

Dwarven Warrior

[zou]

hi Kungfoowiz

nice sketchbook :) keep it alive

in case you're looking for opinions:

You've done improvement in proportions, but not enough (it's always not enough :)
i suugest you do some bargue copies, begin by line drawing.

i was told a good tip: for one year, just copy nature and masters drawings. Nothing from imagination (just for fun). but keep copying like crazy for one year.

in this year, you must concentrate on proportions,construction and values.

good luck

[that_one_guy765]

looks like your really having fun with it. i like it lol

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey folks.. thank you for the feedback. I may take you up on some bargue, haven't done it in a while.. I've been told that my values are too light, so it's something to work on, in addition to other things...

Dwarven Warrior 2

[Kungfoowiz]

Okay, attempted a bargue... looks like I need a lot of practice..

[Kungfoowiz]

Started to sculpt a head using edge loops.. although I messed up somewhere.. going to redo it tomorrow.

My plan is to sculpt the whole figure and clothe it in a few weeks from now..

Made in Maya btw.

[Kungfoowiz]

Had another go at Brea..

[Kungfoowiz]

Body 130, facial & ear study

[Kungfoowiz]

Head sculpt 2, planning on making a full character, starting with the head.

Today I managed to get the edge loops to flow perfectly, and even though the actual shape is off, the loops are important to get right, so as to minimise the tris created.

Made in Maya.

[Kungfoowiz]

Head sculpt 3, okay so working on the mouth and lips now..

This is in preparation to make a full character.

It's important to get the edge loops to run around the mouth area and over the lips.

Made with Maya.

Any questions then feel free to ask away..

[Kungfoowiz]

Head sculpt 4, here is the eye, I'm not quite happy with the eyelid but fiddling with it only made it worse.

Rule of thumb, add more edge loops for finer detail but be careful of how spaced out they are.

Also used the Split Polygon Tool (in Maya) to add folds near the corners of the eye.
If you're using 3DS Max, the Cut Tool does the same thing.

Inner parts of the eye (hidden from view) are folded back, to create a seamless edge between the eyeball and the socket.

The lacrimal caruncle (little ball of the eye on the left) and the lacrimal fold (stretchy bit near the tear duct) were roughed in.
I'll be coming back to this later to punch out the design of the eye much better.

Any questions, feel free to ask..

[Kungfoowiz]

Head sculpt 5, the nose, okay so here the nose was extruded from one of the poly's, this face is then extruded subtly downward a few times (twice I think) and then the vertices are arranged to create the shell of the nose.

The underside of the nose, to create the nostrils, some faces were merged, and then this merged face is extruded upward several times to create the interior of the nose.

Scaling and shifting the vertices around creates a natural look.

Any questions, feel free to ask..

[Kungfoowiz]

Head sculpt 6, the Adam's Apple as well as where the cheek bone protrudes are sculpted in..

Edge loops are added to show extra detail, and to remove detail, edges are removed using the Loop Tool (both 3DS Max and Maya have this) to select, and then using the Remove Edges Tool (Maya, it's just called Remove in 3DS Max).

Any questions, feel free to ask away...

[Kungfoowiz]

Oh boy.. I'm exhausted.. but it's done...

Head sculpt 7, The Ear, one of the most difficult parts to make...

The process is to create a basic shape for the ear like a rectangular cube of sorts, and rotate it to the proper angle (reference is essential).

Btw, the rectanglar cube thing is extruded out of the side of the head. That side is basically a merged face of poly's, on the side of the head.

This rectangle is then extruded outward to give a basic block in for the ear shape.

To this, the Polygon Split Tool (Maya) or Cut Tool (in 3DS Max) is used to almost "cookie cutter" the shapes of the ear.
Be careful not to create tris when you do this, it is important to keep things clean and have four sided poly's as much as you can keep it.

Shapes cut out include all the inner parts of the ear, as well as the flappy outer part of the ear.

The flappy part of the ear is then modeled from the vertices which were cookie cuttered.

The inner part of the ear is then extruded and moved downward into the ear, scaled down, and rotated, naturally trying to follow the curves of the ear as it spirals much like a funnel into the side of the head, where the ear drum is.

[Kungfoowiz]

Okay, had a collab with Taylor, a Zorn colour study.. we spent about one hour one maybe one or two skin colours.. well worth the time though..

[Kungfoowiz]

*shudder* Another colour study, shows how bad my colour observation is...

It's interesting to note how dark some greens are, and when mixing them how dark you really have to make them before they actually become dark.

Reds are ergh... they are so difficult to pin down in terms of colour because the colour literally blinds you from its value..

Yellows are fairly-ish easy to mix, although not easy by any means.

Blues can be difficult sometimes, especially with intensity.

Anyways.. on the long road to looking at colour..

[DoubleXdragoN]

Eww, color study.. XD

Well, it has to be done. The copy fits the original quite well, and the colours do suggest things right. Wouldn't it be better to observe the image in greyscale just to get the values, and then add the colours on top?

There is a method of first painting in the values with a single colour, then using a proper palette to finalize the picture. Or, hell, even put in huge blobs and then add colors, and value. In reality, the image is composed of so many colours and they're inter-mixed thoroughly to create smooth gradients. Then again, disregard what I said if it sounds pointless. XD

[Avvatar]

Hello again! Nice to see those color studies, you should definitely do more of those and try some blending as well. The 3D stuff is looking like you are making progress, I can't wait to get into that. I still notice with your portraits that the features are all distorted and skewed. Be very careful and make sure everything aligns on the right axis or it will throw everything off. Also try and simplify everything to start off, it looks as if you are looking at every little contour rather than the big picture. As for the Paris Hilton and Brea portraits I would say they look really soft and need some hard edges.

Lastly I would do a lot of work on getting the fundamentals of the human body down, I see a lot of proportion issues, and I don't think you quite understand the basic forms of the major components that make up the human body. Just keep practicing hard and you'll get it!

[zou]

hello

working hard huh !
the bargue is quite good for a studie, but the bargue copy exercice takes more time. Check out Dorian itten's tutorial and mindycandyman also. they posted very good exercice.
i remember dorian wrote they were given 3 month to finish one bargue, it's really a slow exercice with tons of measurements and checking, and for shading: working with one dot at a time.

congrats on your 3d modeling , good work.

the colors seems right, but if i was you i would concentrate on values and lines.

see ya mate

[jeremygordon89]

Your studies are looking good Edward; I'd suggest spending more time on the Bargue copies though, and then do a trace-over on tracing paper or acetate so you can see where the problem areas are. Good work with the color studies too; just keep practicing them and you'll surely get it more exact each time.

[Kungfoowiz]

Ron - Thank you bro, I'll think about doing some value studies in greyscale.

Avvatar - Thank you very much for the compliments on my work, I shall start to do some blending, as well as line things up on axis, you are right, stuff seems off.., looking at the bigger picture and hard edges too.

Zou - Sheesh, one dot at a time? That's insane!!! Okay then, I'll do the next one more deliberately. Thank you for the compliments on my 3D stuff. I shall do what you suggest and focus on line and value.

Jeremy - Hey bro, thank you for the compliments on my colour works. I'll do some tracing over to see how much my bargue differs from the original piece.

Okay guys, looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Thank you for the great critiques.
I leave you with some of my life drawings from last night, it kind of confirms what you're all talking about here, so yeah, lots of work ahead..

3 - 5 minutes in charcoal and pencils (one longer one for 30 minutes).

[Kungfoowiz]

Okay guys, finished the head sculpt. Many things I'm unhappy with so I think there is going to be a lot of tweaking over the next few weeks..
If there is something particularly noticeable then please let me know about it, any critique is welcome. Thank you very much.

[zou]

hi nice gesture

do more of them , thousands. since they are quick to make.

about your 3d head, i think you've added too much vertices. if i was you i would redo from the last state (your last post)
you don't have to alwayd add edge loops to get into details, sometimes when the vertices will not move a lot in animation (like in nose) you can add adge that does not loop. Anyway, you can do more heads to practice and grow your skills.

keep it mate

[Krato]

hey man i like the amount of work im seeing here, though with your traditional media and people studies the pictures are reeeaaaallly flat.. especially the erm.. paris hilton drawing it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo flat.. its barely darker then the page,, anyway keep an eye out for the stuff in the future,

[Kungfoowiz]

Zou - Awesome bro, thank you for the compliments and advice on my 3d! Sure will do, I'm going to push myself to do more gesture, they're also the start of most of my drawings too.

Krato - Thank you for the compliments bro! You are right.. my 2d work looks terrible by comparison. I should be on the line and value studies today, promise!

Thank you guys for the great advice, keep well to you both! =)

[jeremygordon89]

On the 3D head the ear looks a tiny bit too far back (though I don't know too much about ear variety), and I think the back of his cranium should be a bit more squared, seems to be a bit of a cone shape to it. Keep tweaking it and working at it bro, I bet you'll learn a lot about form from doing 3D work huh?

[kingkostas]

i see hard work in here mate.Thats always the things that gives you potential and achievements.You are also doing "special training" with all these 3d construction, and color hard blocking etc. I am very happy watching things like that!!!
Now in case you are tired when doing full piece studies, simply reduce it to a certain part of a painting/master study/or whatever and force your mind focusing totally in understanding why
But ok, full works can give you points in composition study.
Everything is going very well!!!
You need more anatomy
Keep up the really good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AlexTooth]

Nice sketchbook man, keep practicing. For some advice, I'd definitely get into some fast studies, for a hour or two a day focus on quantity not quality, like 30 figures in an hour - it really drills stuff in the brain I find! Keep going.

[Untouched24]

Hey man, keep up the hard work.
After looking over your work I'd say pay close attention to proportions and construction when you're drawing faces, figures, or anything really. Really take time to see how things line up, and the subtleties in the lines of certain features.
For example, you may see a mouth and draw a straight line, but really look at it and you'll notice direction line changes and subtle differences. Really draw what you see, not what you think you see. Those Bargue studies for example, are meant to have a long time spent on them to reaaaally analyze the shapes, lines, and value changes and try to get them as exact as you can.
Also be aware of your value range, check to see the lightest lights, and where the darkest darks are in what you're studying. Really try to hit the lightest lights and darkest darks, and be aware where the contrast is. For example, your Paris Hilton picture could use a lot more value.
Keep working man!

[Kungfoowiz]

Jeremy - Hey bro, you're probably right, the ear does feel slightly too far back, I'll adjust it this week. Yip, the cranium is pretty bad atm, agreed with you there and it's going to be looked at. I'm not sure whether 3D helps, I think in a way yeah it does.. Thank you for the help and good luck with your own studies.

Kingkostas - Hey bro, thank you for the advice, some more targeted studies sound tasty, I'll look into those. I believe there are some skin painting studies which could be done like that.
Definitely agree with you, I'll do some anatomy studies. Thank you for the tips bro, keep well.

Alex Tooth - Awesome, thank you for the advice, sure I'll start to speed things up, I'm painfully slow, so this will certainly help me. Thank you very much for the tip. Good luck with your own works too.

Untouched24 - Thank you very much for the wonderful advice. Yip, you're completely right, my construction is very weak. I'm going to make an effort and work on the proportions and my values. I think that's what I admired about your work, you managed to hit some of your values very well.


Awesome guys, thank you for fantastic advice, so.. here are my studies so far.. any critique is welcome.
Thank you very much.. =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Who is the monster?

[LAL]

woooo!How serious studies!cheers! My friend ,keep the nice studies up! I will come back again to see more.

[jeremygordon89]

Good to see you doing a fair amount of studies man, it's sure to help, though for drawing bodies construction I think you might be having problems with proportions and drawing through. Try working through this a little bit http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/ if you want to get a better feel for construction (it's what I'm doing), and be careful not to make your rib cages too small/too big, etc. Those are the things that will really be noticeable so it's better to fix it early; plus it won't take long to get a solid idea of the proportions and it should push you in the right direction. Keep up the good hard work man

[Loathsome]

Keep up these studies you're doing, they will do you good.
This works for me, I don't know if it's the same for you but;
When you study the muscles, ask yourself what they are for. Then it's easier.
We need muscles to move everything. Therefor there must be a muscle lifting the forearm upward (biceps) and a muscle pulling the arm backwards (triceps), for an example. So then you just have to ask you this same question every time you do studies "What does this muscle do". When you know these things it's easier to remember because it becomes obvious that there needs to be an muscle at Y to do X.

[DoubleXdragoN]

Curse you for being late and washing yourself off because you're starving! That's no excuse! XD

Hmm, judging by your sketches, you still need to see in 3rd dimension. Start with natur morte, observe the relations of objects and judge their sizes one to another. Heck, start with a match box. Drop it anywhere in front of yourself and draw it. Take a glass, fill it up or leave it empty and draw it as it stands there.

But, to be honest, it's puzzling as to what advice to give you. Loomis is very good for proportions and the structure of the body. Draw those tiny skeleton bastards doing all sorts of shit. :D

[zou]

great amount of work !

Your lines seems a bit fuzzy when doing the figure though in the studies the line is much better, i suggest your do more basic stuff (cubes, cylinder , lines) Yeah i already said it but that's so important. If you want to draw a figure then , do it with cylinder and cubes (do not bother yourself with anatomy this time just proportions)
But you're in the right track, and keeping that will dinfinately improve your skills

uuuhhhh this last monster is so freaky

[kingkostas]

Great studies!!!I like very much the simplifying of the body parts. The creature looks very interesting as a rough, maybe with more work or recreation will become a great rendered creature.
Keep it up mate!!!

[llex_paul]

hey mate;) the last one is cool, i like the brush combination. keep it up and don't forgot the drawing;) cheers!

[andres333]

hey looks like you've started studying from Figure drawing design and invention definitely a great book, you'll surely improve. just one observation try to draw in terms of forms rather than in contours catch the volume, the outline is just the consequence of a well defined form just like in real life
i'll be looking forward to see your progress :D

[Kungfoowiz]

LAL - Thank you bro, will take a closer look at your work soon..

Jeremy - Hey bro, thank you, I took a read through there this week and agree with what you're saying about construction. I'll try to apply it to my work..

Loathsome - Awesomeness, thank you for the advice on the muscles, that is an interesting way to think of it. I'll keep this in mind going forward with my studies.. thank you bro, keep well and good luck with your own work.

Ron - Hey bro.. yeah it takes forever to walk to the life drawing place, by the time I get home I'm starving too.. Yeah, seeing into the third dimension is more difficult than I thought but I'm going to keep going. Thank you bro, good luck with your own studies too.

Zoouuu! - Thank you bro, yeah, I'm going to make an effort on basic shapes. Glad you like the monster, wait till you see my self portrait.. it's even scarier! =) Lol..

Kingkostas - Hey, welcome bro! Yeah, form is giving me some paint at the moment, going to keep practicing though! =)

Llex Paul - Awesomeness bro, thank you for the compliments, yeah I need to get into the habit of redrawing some things too. Keep well bro, and good luck with your imagination pieces too!!! =)

Andres - Yeah, it's an awesomesss book! I was most interested in how to create edges with the bone structure, there are some sweet things in there. Definitely, going to try and start thinking more in terms of forms and outline will come along just by their little selves! =) Thank you bro, good luck with your own drawing too and keep well for now.

Okay so this is the past few days studies, some is quite rough because I'm trying out new things and thinking in different ways, I'm afraid to say that not much of it is good.. unfortunately.. some life drawing as well, and also a bit of painting thrown in, and a self portrait *hides!*
Got to keep working on the things you guys have mentioned, the main things are construction, proportion and form.

Cheers for the next studies and any tips are welcome. Thank you to everyone and good luck with your own drawings. =)

[AlexTooth]

Lots of cool stuff here man! I remember doing a lot of these exercises, all good! The michelangelo(?) looks great. Planes, forms, construction, all good tonic :) keep going!

[Kungfoowiz]

Alex Tooth! - Thank you for the support bro, muchas gracias! =)

This was great until I started adding the cast shadow, other than that it's a masterpiece.

[zou]

hello bro

i'm sure i've posted a comment last time (don't know whers is it)

anyway: your update is very good, many materials and good dedication.
i suggest you work more cube and cylinder. One instructor (who is a great artist here) told me that : a day one student came to class and did 300 cylinders (from life) THAT'S a real exercice.
You should also draw much bigger in class we were drawing box and chairs in A2 format. I was thinking , what a waste of paper but don't think it anymore after doing them.
don't forget perpspective (i see some lines that when extended don't meet)
in a cube that is not frontal there no horizontal line at all.

when drawing hair, draw just a mass(a block) of hair, avoid drawing lines of hairs.
Alaways Think in mass(shapes) , ignore details. Details are your ennemy when you exercice drawing.
your colors are good, good point for you.

Try doing longer strokes (avoid furry lines)
all i said is always a reminder, coz it's always good when drawing
good luck in your next works

[Architaylor]

heeeey man, last few posts are a serious improvement on anything in this sketchbook :) 1st self portrait is awesome how did you set up the side view? Colourhas improved dramatically have you tried using HSV sliders? I wanna see more self portraits man try one a day for the break ;) lets see one in pencil maybe?

[Kungfoowiz]

Zou - Hey bro!! Awesome, thank you for the detailed advice, I shall focus on the cubes and cylinders as you recommended, and start drawing bigger too, also always thinking in shapes. THank you very much for the tip on the perspective lines, I kept wondering why some lines looked okay and others not.. so thank you very much for this, I will try and improve upon the previous ones. Keep well bro and have fun with your nexts too. =)

Taylor - Hey bro!!! I haven't seen you in ages.. have you come back from holiday yet? =) Thank you for the ups on my work, I'm very glad you can see some progress.. Yeah, the side view was just easy, just took my cam and put it to the side, it took a few shots to get right, but just hold it steady. Yeah, I've been using the HSV's, for different values change the saturation as well. Yip, I would like to keep this up definitely.. sure I can do something in pencil for sure, the traditional one actually started as that too. Would love to see your landscapes, I think it's the one thing we are doing next year. Keep well bro and have fun with your nexts. =)


Okay guys, I'm moving house tomorrow into a new place, so may be offline for a few days.. Going to keep drawing when I can though. Thank you to everyone who has helped me the past weeks, it's been great. I leave you with some of my life drawings from last night.

Keep well everyone and have fun with your nexts!!

[AlexTooth]

Sup mate. Good practice all round.

Note on your lines/crosshatching - try to imagine the forms under the surface of the skin and work in those directions, it adds tone but also tells us the shape of the muscles etc. Particularly would help on the arms, legs, breasts, face. Keep going!

[Avvatar]

Hey again, you sure do a tonne of studies! Very nice to see. I think you should slow down a bit when you do faces and really focus on on the proportions and structure. There is still quite a bit of distortion and proportion issues so I think looking out for that could help you improve dramatically. Also try and simplify, simplify, simplify, and look for the big picture rather than each individual feature. For instance I notice you are drawing individual strands of hair, when at this point it would be better to just block it in so it doesn't look like a spaghetti wig.

Those latest digital studies are looking quite good, perhaps just some harder edges might help. I like the colors though, and the face looks quite accurate! Other than that just keep on practicing and I look forward to seeing more!

[kingkostas]

mate i like very much the portrait in 373#
The studies are very nice as usual.Try to make things less rough and focus on drawing.No need to rush with the values.
keep up the good work!!!

[zou]

life drawing ! lucky b......

i'm kidding :)

the up side down exercice is great !
waiting for MOOAAARRRRRRRRRRR

[alexson]

Man I wish I had something like life drawing classes near me. Nice work anyway, keep it uuuuuup!

[Kungfoowiz]

Alex - Hey BRO! Thank you for the advice on thinking of the underlying form, I shall try to work on this for all my next things! Will come visiting you soon. =)

Avvatar - Word! Yeah.. speed is an issue for me.. going try and bring the pace down a touch.. perspective is something I'm working on though, agreed with you there.. awesome thank you for the advice on the hair, I've started to do that.. some of my next drawings should show hair blocking. =) Also working on edges for painting, need lots of practice though..

Kingkostas - Hey!! Thank you for the ups on my work!! Yeah.. some of my next ones, going to do some more deliberate things, we see. =)

Zou - BRO!! You are too awesome.. love your drawings! =) Yip, got some upside downs just for you, okay, just like you like them, LOL! =)

Alexson - Ta bro, glad you like what you see.. life drawing is super nice! =)

-

Okay guys, here my studies, some of these were done on the the pavement outside whilst moving, honestly I tried to draw every spare minute while moving home, so.. a lot is rough.. sorry guys, will try to neaten up, improving my line work is still something I need to work out.. can't help myself.. I'm looser than a harlet! =) Also some digital paintings.. ENJOY and HAVE FUN with yo STUFFIES! I'll be visiting you guys soon!

Keep up the FUN!! =)

Enjoys... k'THX! =)

[jeremygordon89]

Keep up the good work man, it's great to see you doing so many studies. I'd say just try studying major planes of things and remember to look at negative space too. Try getting a head cast from Amazon of the planar head (I got one and it's great for learning the planes of the head) and drawing / painting from that if you can. If you can't, just find images of the planes from the internet and draw from that. Also I think the John K curriculum is really great, though I've probably already mentioned that; you should work from that and see how you like it too. Keep up the good work dude

[zou]

so much studies ! you're working hard, and that's the best thing you can do.
i already see improvement in the primitve drawing. but make sure to draw from life (even the primitives: the cylinder) and do some (near) frontal view.

the skull is good ! and the last face is so nice...

keep having fun mate

[kingkostas]

very nice mate.Keep up the simplifying and your training in depicting 3d simple objects.This will be a great weapon for your progress.Try to totally simplify the figures that you feel are off.
keep up the good work

[Loathsome]

That last painting was pretty cool!
Keep doing studies of people. When I started drawing figuredrawing like crazy, I started to improve a lot.

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey guys

Jeremy - Cool bro.. I will think about getting one.. they are a bit on the pricey side.. but maybe for a birthday or something.. I will see.. it is very nice to have yes.. Have fun with your next studies. =)

Zou - Thank you bro, aha! I see, I will make some cylinders out of clay and draw them.. I didn't realise they too also have to be drawn from life. Sure thing, I'll get going with some frontal views, they are difficult yes, to make them look convincing. Good luck with your next studies too, you are surely learning those values so well.. your edges are incredible too.. just keep going bro.. you are AWESOME.. =)

Kingkostas - Definitely bro.. I will do as you say.. tonight's study was just that, simplying, using a comics as a guide for muscles so. Good luck with your gestures and your paintings bro.. you too are just as awesome. =)

Loathsome - Awww bro, thank you.. I'm glad you like it.. I also think it rocks too, if I say so myself, lol! =) Yip, sure thing, I'm going to keep up the figures and try as much to improve. You too, go kill your next studies and let's keep the faith! =)


Okay guys.. not much tonight, I was doing some photos today.. so.. just a muscles study, the important muscles, these have to be in your mind when you draw, so they must come naturally. Also remembering the front plane and a side plane, and then plugging this knowledge of muscles into this thinking.

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey guys

Just made a video tutorial on making a custom brush in Photoshop if anyone's interested? Some people asked for it, so I thought to do one. Also my first video tutorial, so a bit shakey.

Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_4apF3sJQ

Thank you. =)

[kingkostas]

thnx for sharing helpful things :)

[andres333]

this amount of studies will surely pay back

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey guys

Awesome, thank you for the kind words, definitely, I'm probably going back to more daily studies now, I feel my rhythym for things going this way.

Onto some eye studies, going all around the face and onto the body soon. I feel weak on female faces and things, so something to practice me thinks.

Some of these are rough.. I'm just starting with them, trying to get used to the style, I will try to improve on the quality as I make my way through the chapters.

Referenced from Christopher Hart's Cutting Edge Anatomy book if anyone's curious.

[asiJa]

Hey, your style is very interesting, People usualy try to do things as clean and sharp as possible, but some of your pictures, like the face on
June 26th, 2010, 08:03 PM looks realy cool because of being so etheric and uncertain. I don't know if this is intention or not, but i looks cool. May be it would be more difficult, however, to learn paint believable realistic basics, if you paint this way.

[Loathsome]

Keep pushing the head studies, you'll get it eventually!
Puuuuuush it to the limit!:steph::steph::steph:

Just keep an eye on the proportions. Use a mirror and check your own face for reference and try to make up your own guidlines and borrow others. I do that all the time. Just watch out so all images doesn't end up looking like yourself :)

[kingkostas]

nice nice, keep pushing and yep you will get it.Actually the more you are able to understand it as a compination of 3d shapes the more easier will be for you to do it in every angle.Keep up doing it on the sphere.

[Avvatar]

I promise to get that tattoo design up soon! I'd say for your studies try to focus on quality rather than quantity. Personally I feel as though doing one long study really well is better than a hundred so/so studies. Try to really really focus on structure. A lot of your facial features for example, just seem to be placed in space, rather than being a part of the skull and face. What might help is if you start off by drawing everything as a plane, or general shape. Once you have the proportions right then you can go in and do the details, just don't jump the gun.

[Kungfoowiz]

Sheesh.. I've become so lazy.. no cylinder studies or female ones yet!

Struggled with perspective today, I will show my drawings once I have the plan views finished in perspective.

asiJa - Thank you, I'm glad you like the style. To be honest, I'm aiming for realism, but I just don't yet possess the skills to pull it off. I dearly would love to hit a nice balance between a good painting and a realistic rendering.

The uncertainty arises from the fact that most of the time I get lost in what I'm doing, and then I forget things, like how the face is supposed to look. I'm still not even comfortable with the way I paint, it is an uneasy feeling, but with practice and finding out how to get the opacity and flow to work for me, rather than against what I have in mind.

Yip, that's the goal though, I would like to be more believable and honest in my approach. Thank you bro, keep well for now, I'll check through your work soon.

Loathsome - Hey bro! Thank you for the great encouragement. I must confess to being rather lazy at the moment. I'm trying to claw back the energy. I will do as you say and keep pushing forward, but I'm drawing a lot slower now, trying to learn from the strokes I make, as you guys have been telling me, so the drawings will be fewer now.
Sure thing, I will also work on the proportion as you have mentioned and make an honest effort to do some nicely proportioned faces using guidelines and a mirror.

Avvatar - Thank you bro, I shall do as you say, I've already started to slow down a bit, especially with these latest studies, I'm going more carefully now (although I may do a few pages of quick heads, Alex Tooth recommended this). But yeah, you're right, slower is better as I need to learn what to draw first! And correct mistakes too.


Okay guys, here are tonight's measily studies, they're from life, and they were done much slower, I'm trying to learn the things you guys have talked about: form drawing, mass, anatomy and proportions.

Generally just drawing slower at the moment.

Okay, sorry for the essay but just letting you know what I'm doing, maybe it will help you with your own drawing problems. Thank you.

[My57]

try focusing more on proportion with some of the images. Mainly with the head. It's a bit big in some drawings.

Keep it up, doesn't matter if its a little as long as your still at it.

PS: Glade you like the girl and her eyes. No I'm not gonna change them. Good enough for me. That painting is done :P

[Krato]

do studies of faces from photos and life take your time with them all of your studies look rushed, your rendering looks really rushed and that just doesnt add up well at all in the end. go to a celebrity cite and just go through the photos one day and draw dozens of faces and try to get everything down, it doesnt have to be perfect but your person shouldnt look like et either. then the next day do recall try to draw what you did yesterday without looking, and if you struggle look back at your old drawings or do more studies.

[jeremygordon89]

Hey man, my advice is to take a step back and focus on pure form. Try using simple cylinders, spheres, and cubes to make your bodies, and take your time making them right. Remember the order of figure drawing: Gesture (the most important), Form, and then any Anatomy. Just go through the figure over and over and each time clarify it a tad more until it's done. Try to avoid the scratchy lines and just remember to think through the forms instead of worrying about contours so much. Hope that helps

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey guys

Myst - Thank you for the encouragement, I will keep in mind the head size for my drawings for sure, sometimes it slips, need to be more careful! Good luck with your next drawings too.

Krato - Hey bro, yeah, you're right, I can't seem to get the rendering convincing enough. It isn't really rushed, I do spend time on it, it's just I can't get it to read well enough at the moment. I will keep up the studies as you recommend though and try and improve on these things. Have fun with your next drawings bro.

Jeremy - Hey! Great stuff, I've gone back to the basic forms tonight and just sketched them out in these latest studies. It definitely helps as you say.


So here we go guys, I've slowed down a lot and just done gesture and form stuff.

Good luck with your own drawings and thank you! =)

[kingkostas]

nice work on the gestures mate.the rendering will become better when you actually understand what kind of form you are rendering.so as long as you manage to make good simplify of forms into basic objects, then everything will be easier for you
keep up the good work

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey bro, thank you, I will keep trying to simplify. Going to do some more form drawing in the coming days and try to render some things.

I would be interested in some feedback on this? It's a 1 hour speed painting, I'm most interested to know what you guys think though? What could've I done better perhaps? What is glaringly wrong perhaps?
Please let me know, just a few things to know would be nice, you don't have to go crazy on the critique.

Thank you very much.

[Jojomondag]

Nice work on the last piece, ive scouted through your whole thread and its cool too se one grow, continue witht hat. I really like the spfinx drawing! and your face in profile looks sweet too, Keep going strong!

greets/jojo

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey Jojo

Cool bro, I'm happy to hear that you can see me improving.

Sometimes I think I'm not improving at all, and I'm actually going backwards. Other days I wake up and really have to think about things, the direction I'm going in and how far along I am on the road, it is an uneasy feeling.

I'll take a look through your work soon. Thank you for the encouragement, let's go foward positively and have fun while we're doing it!

Here are tonight's figure studies, they are in preparation for my next character design.

Also I have here a photo of the basic shapes made from plasticine (Nu-plast), it was left over clay from a rather dismal maquette project I attempted in my first year University course.

Cool, onward, good luck with your own drawings and paintings everyone!

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey, I set a new challenge for myself tonight, to paint in a different way for every painting I make now, that's the new rule.

So here I'm painting way more opaquely than I normally would.

Also, the drawing is different to how I normally would draw, it was quickly gestured, but more deliberately drawn for contour.

[andres333]

lol what a coincidence I did hands too

[kingkostas]

very nice studies mate!!!!here i played some more with the enviro but ok its not important.
This worked needed more work in overal and as a speed one it would need some accurate value placements etc.If you turned your work in greyscale you would see that the tones are very close enough and on a scene with so much contrast needed(open air landscape and such) the contrast was not there.Other than that you had to put more "paint" and not simply low opacity or/and smoothed brushtrokes.You have to quickly define shapes,quickly place the important values and give mood by coloring or doing these directly.
You dont have to worry because its not bad.i am just giving you more things to have in mind for your next works.also try to see enviros and shape them down to simple shapes.i am not saying that very good but try to see the general view of things first and then step in focus details.That will help you to be more accurate , more stabilized, and more quick.
If you keep up studying all these will come, its not magic or other things, you just learn to see the world around you with a different eye.
keep up the good work!!!!

[Kungfoowiz]

Andres - Yeah, we rock bro! Have fun and go kick those next studies like there's no tomorrow!

Kingkostas - Dude, seriously, your paintover is HARDCORE. This was a complete surprise, thank you very much.
Sure, I understand what you are saying and will think about where values should be placed, your paintover provides a very good idea of how to go about doing this. Seriously, so cool man, thank you. Keep well and I will come visiting you soon.


Okay guys, here are tonight's life drawings, not much, but I'm trying to improve my faces in general, and also female ones in particular. You guys are the judges though. Thank you very much everyone and good luck with your drawings and studies. =)

[zou]

hey, you're burning with uranium !!!

glad too see you're working hard , your manniquin figure are improving

for the cylinder and cube, i think you should make them with cardboard or more solid material. the clay won't make clean edge or perfect circle. Invest some time and money in them , they are worth it !

and as a reminder, check and recheck your measurements !

keep your nice work

[kingkostas]

nice mate, i really like the middle figure
here something, but ok what you need to do is just keep measuring and improving your guides
keep it up!!!

[Kungfoowiz]

Zou - Waaaaa, thank you! =) Planning to do some more of those figures soon, they're on the hit list. Okay, I will look around for some better materials to make the basic shapes again, clay does come out a bit wonky for me. And sure, measuring is something I need to look into a lot more, I need to think more on it.. a whole lot more! Have fun, I'll be a visiting soon! =)


Kingkostas - Hey bro! Thank you for that, yip, I still notice distortion there, the guide and measurement needs some more thought. Thank you bro, I will be around soon to share out the fun! Keep well for now. =)


Here you go guys, my studies for tonight, bunch of heads in rotation, some hip hop chick from ref (Christopher Hart's Anatomy in case you're wondering), and then some rough-ish anatomy studies of the upper arm (from Drawing School).
Planning on doing more faces though, many, many more, to practice the measurements and guides you guys have been saying to me.

Okay cool, go have fun guys, burn da pages, bust those pencils!

[PHATandy]

Heya man, stuff is looking pretty good, your working real hard.

I think, looking at your work, probably the biggest area i think you need to look into is the idea of measurement and proportions. You can do quite a few things well, but often it seems its being let down by some odd proportions. Whenever your doing any drawing (im assuming a lot of it is from Reference) really get into the habit of measuring out your drawing so you know things are going the right sizes.
Like with these latest arm muscle studies. You need to spend time looking at how long each part of the arm is. First going from wrist to elbow - and elbow to shoulder. Make sure your getting the right measurements that match the picture/life your working from. Then you start introducing measurements of widths and smaller lengths (like lengths of individual muscles).
Even if you have to, size up EVERYTHING with a pencil or a ruler, going from all angles, making sure its all in proportion to each other (based on your reference). You need to spend time doing some pieces of work where your just spending 90% of your time doing the measurements, It will help teach your eyes to make the same measurements over time.

Sorry for the big crit, but I think its an area that will help you improve lots. You need to train your eye to be able to see all the correct proportions, by in the mean time, using an actual measuring device - judging lengths on your pencil is normally pretty good.
Sorry if its been said before but its a very important part and you could make big jumps if you improve upon.

Hope you understand where im coming from :)
Keep up the good work though! just dont stop!!

[DoubleXdragoN]

:: PHATandy (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2811253&postcount=414) ::
Sounds almost exactly what I was saying to him a few days ago. One odd thing though, is it actually ok to measure from wrist up? I've always measured the arm from the shoulder and down in relation to other body landmarks which has proved to be rather effective.

:: Ed ::
Keep at it! I can already see your head drawing has improved tenfold. Also the note about the eyes being too high: they seem just about right unless my tired brains are seeing things.
Keep going at it!! I've been applying those painting methods to what I already knew. I used to go with big color variations without considering the effects of saturation and value. Slowly, gently, over many, many layers of paint.

[Loathsome]

Don't spend so much time trying to get all the muscles accurate. Try to understand why they are there and block in the general forms. There's no way you'll understand the muscles if you just keep on doing the complicated parts first.

I can't do it like that anyway. I take babysteps.

[PHATandy]

:: PHATandy (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2811253&postcount=414) ::
Sounds almost exactly what I was saying to him a few days ago. One odd thing though, is it actually ok to measure from wrist up? I've always measured the arm from the shoulder and down in relation to other body landmarks which has proved to be rather effective..

Thats more of just an example. Its about the idea behind measuring - it doesnt matter where you measure from. Once you get the hang of it you can make a lot of judgements with your eye and you can start to make judgements of things like angles or curves. To start with though, Id reccommend making all your measurements either Horizontally or Vertically. Just work from key points in the drawing - if your working from life or from reference - thing about the important stand out areas, like knees, feet, top of the head etc. Then its about cross-referencing all of those. Obviously if your drawing is just of an arm - you can just make referencing points around the arm. Like wrist elbow shoulder, muscle joining points etc. Its always about transferring measurements though - you have make the measurements of your reference and transfer it over.

Sorry for the long response, just thought it might help you guys out. Im by no means a master of this. But i understand some of the ideas behind it (putting it into practice well is a little harder :) )

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey guys

Thank you for the great critique Andy, yip, you're completely right, I barely measure a single thing in those studies, it was all just eyeballed the whole way through.

I have a brave idea of how to measure, maybe not using a pencil for the reference pieces though, rather just comparing elements in the image with each other would be good. I can't promise changes overnight though, it will take some doing to improve upon these things.

Ron - Thank you, I'm happy that you can see some improvement, you showed me a few things which really helped me, so thank you very much, hopefully we can teach one another some more things.

Loathsome - Yip, I think you are in right in some respects, I've been looking at similar studies of muscles, and it's important to get the shape and positioning of them right. But.. I too am also interested in the function, it would actually be nice to do some drawings in motion to show the range of movement. I honestly don't know how to go about doing this but it's something to think about. But yeah, rendering isn't maybe as important.


Here are my drawings for tonight, a self portrait using a mirror, not sure what happened with the ears, but I know I wasn't looking carefully enough that's for sure. Then a selection of 30 second drawings..


Okay guys, hope your drawings are going AWWWSEOME, keep it FUN, ALWAYS!

Thank you very much. =)

[prsnsweeney]

hey really like the massive amount of gestures you did those always help with drawing the figure i agree with several of the above posts as far as measuring the best way to get a really good drawing is to start out by mapping out points or blocking in major shapes very carefully and exactly cause if there is a flaw in the underlying structure no matter how much you try to cover it up the drawing will always look a little 'off'

i also see you used pen on the gestures nice job i think using ink is a great way to learn to draw because it forces you to be more carfull with your mark making

[Cranberry]

Wow, insane amount of posemaniacs here dude! Keep going like that!

Also good studies on the muscles but like it has been said before, focus on getting the proportions right! I'd leave out the rendering as well, it doesn't really add anything to the drawing because it's a simple study anyway.

Gogogogogo!

[My57]

I like the previous gesture drawings!

Remember think line = design

thin lines = realism.

^Things to go by in future drawings.

Your portrait is a bit out of proportion, try doing more loomis and such. Not to say that you shouldn't do full on portraits, I would actually encourage more of those. Pain in the ass but rewarding :D

Thanks for the previous comment, and nope my paintings are indeed that light. I paint in thin layers and stuff. I could probably darken them a bit more... Will probably keep that in mind next time :P

[LAL]

good studies，I think the human body posture can be refined some ,so,you can learn more and more,keep up my friend!

[jeremygordon89]

Great job with those gestures man, keep working hard! I'd really like to see you do daily self portraits or something, I think that would help you with faces a lot and just in general. It has helped me after just doing nine so far, so doing them every day or so is a great exercise

[Braintree]

hey! without knowing what you look like, i would say you might have made your features a bit too large for the rest of the head. besides that it looks good.
keep at iiiit!

[AChipps]

Your last pictures shows a lot of improvements, and if you keep it up your quick blurry sketches with digital draw will look like mine. From what I can see with the pencils is you learned to spend more time with them, that is when you really started improving. I made myself go longer with my drawings until I started to lose track of time, and the art I did had a lot of effects I drew, but didn't remember drawing. I stared at them for hours. I'm sure when you get there Your art will improve so much people would think it is done by a different artist. I can tell you are not there yet, but you are close. Maybe next year.

[kingkostas]

great amount of gestures mate!!!and a variety of ways to do them.Very nice training.Keep up the hard work, you will be rewarded :)

[zou]

hi there

you're doing great dude. You're working on portrait, already improvement.
one thing about them: the face seems a little big compared to the whole head. (in terms of ideal proportions of course) try to make fuller skull (especially the top) draw the contruction lines don't guess them in your mind.

the gesture are quite good, i'm glad you're experimeting a lot of things.

keep up

[Kungfoowiz]

Prsnsweeney – Hey bro, thank you for the tips, yip, I’m trying to do more measuring in my works. Next work you may see some, but it is going to take a while before it truly sinks in. I honestly really want to work at the measuring aspect of my work. It troubles me greatly.

Cranberry – Aww thank you bro, I’m glad you like the gestures. Yip, I will try my best to really improve upon the proportion aspect of my work, it is closely related with the measuring, so it something I’m looking into with almost every drawing I make from now on. Also I will keep away from rendering in the anatomy studies for the moment, as I’m more concerned with what you guys are mentioning, which is the proportion in each study.

Myst – Hey man, thank you, it seems you guys are liking the gestures! Thank you very much for the tip on line quality. I will try to mix up my lines between realistic (thin) as well as some chunky ones for interest and where forms are meeting or overlapping, to suggest shadow and the turning of form. Thank you, I’m actually working from Loomis occasionally, but I will give it some more study on my self portraits.
Yip, for your own oil paintings, I think try to apply more value and saturation for your shadows, at the moment your values feel a bit too light. But keep going, your drawing is good and it shows up in the paint.

LAL – Bro, thank you! I’m glad you like the studies! They are for your pleasure and mine, waaaa! =) Alright, I shall look at my body postures and try to improve them. My latest gestures probably aren’t much of an improvement but I promise I’m working hard at them, just that some drawings will come out as fails. I will keep trying though, you are a good person to study from, I loved your last character design.

Jeremy – Hey bro! Aww thank you bro, I’m pleased you can see I’m working hard, I honestly try, it is difficult at times though, but gotta keep it FUN! =) I will try to build up to doing daily self portraits, I was going to do one today, but it looks like tomorrow instead. We’ll see, I will try to work up to doing them daily. =) Thank you bro, your faces are a good study, I see you are doing regular ones, so.. I have no excuses.

Braintree – Heya! Haha, you are completely right, I looked in the mirror today and the features are definitely oversized. I will focus on making sure they look correct in my next self portrait, we’ll see though, it will probably turn into a fail, but I will learn something. That’s what I think is important, even if it looks like fail, if you learnt something, then it isn’t necessarily a fail anymore.


AChipps – Hey bro, you know what, I think you really hit a point there. I do need to spend more time with each pencil drawing itself, I feel almost scared of the pencil sometimes, like it doesn’t render out what I have in mind, but with more practice my hand coordination with the pencil may improve. Thank you bro, good luck with your next works.

Kingkostas – Hey Kingkostas! Thank you bro, I’m pleased that you and everyone else seems to like the gesture work. I also like them, I think they will help too, it helps to see mass sometimes I think. I’m hoping this will spill over into more refined works, we’ll have to wait and see.

Zou – Zou, my bro! Aww thank you man, yip, it is from life, I will try to improve upon the construction and fit an ideal proportions face and features in there. Also give a fuller skull as you recommend and stop guessing the construction. Thank you bro, I hope your back is feeling better and I’ll be coming around soon.


Okay guys, thank you for the great support here, all the tips and for just being there when I feel down and such. I hope to spread out the fun to you guys soon, so I’m looking forward to seeing all your latest drawings.
Here are mine, some body proportions for male and female, some 30 second gestures, study of the muscles of the neck. I’m still battling to keep things in proportion, but I’m trying, honestly!
Then a Bargue study, I decided to start with something simple, the first eye plate. Thank you Zou for providing the bargue plates to us. They are available from here if anyone else is interested: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166289

Okay guys, hope you are succeeding with your drawing and painting, even if it is only in small ways.

[kingkostas]

Great!!i am glad you keep up mate.i think in some the less quick ones, you let the muscles confuse you and lose the overall shapes.But i am sure you will get it soon.No worries as long as you keep them up
you exaggerated the muscles very much intentionally or unintentionally and things went strange somehow.your female had very strong neck and shoulder muscles ;P like bodybuilder
keep up the good work!!!

[Loathsome]

I like the proportion studies! These are really good. Remember the land marks 2h-nipples h3-bellybutton h-4 crotch half way from crotch to toes - top of kneecaps. That's how I think about it. And as you keep doing the figure drawing you'll start to find more landmarks on your own. You can always make your own rules as long as they work. :)

I still don't understand why you try to learn all the names of the muscles, but I guess that's more power to you. But you really don't need to know what they are called.

That thing the other dude said about the muscles is pretty right too. Focus on proportion when you do proportion, especially if you have a hard time getting it look good. It's better to take one step at the time, that way you learn more. A good idea would be to make a schedule over the week of what studies you should do each day and then put your focus on that particular thing. It has worked wonders for me.

[Kungfoowiz]

Kingkostas - Hey bro.. awww thank you, that helped a lot, I will be more careful with the finer features of the female. Yip, the neck does look thick, these things slip past me, I will keep them firmly in mind for future. Thank you for all this help, I hope to help you sometime too. =)

Loathsome - Hey bro, thank you for the great tips on proportion, I've made notes on what you've said and will keep these in my mind when drawing my next ones.

Why do study the names of the muscles?
Well, I think it's good to know them firmly in the mind, that way, if someone asks, I can quote them off by heart, it isn't hard to learn them, and in fact triggers the memory, they become like little friends, after a while, and I hope to in the end know each and every one of them.

I wish I had the luxury to study things in isolation, just that I'm running out of time and my Uni starts back again soon.. and I just feel so left behind. I will try to dedicate a few focused studies though on proportion. Isolating problems does work as you say, I will try, promise. Have fun with your next study bro, keep well for now. =)


Okay guys, here are my studies, they are just more anatomy ones, I've honestly tried my best to keep things in proportion, but there is much more work to do I'm pretty sure of that.

Also a 10 minute apple still life. My goal is to paint an apple day, until it actually looks like an apple. =)

Hope you guys are coping with your works, just keep having fun, and learning from the fail.

[AChipps]

To have great control over what your hands do and what your mind thinks. You have to doubt everything you do when you draw. Simple things like shifting your body when drawing a curve, or swinging your elbow out. You don't notice them, but they change the angle you draw in and your perspective on what you are looking at. You can draw perfect sometimes, and some days you can't. That is because you need to train yourself new habits for drawing. It was hard for me and I was drawing good already, but not consistent. I was told I was swinging my elbow out. I didn't know I was doing it, but I had to stop things like that to keep my arms in the same position. I had to learn to keep a check on anything I was doing that would effect my art for over a month. When something wasn't going right I knew to watch that closer than what I was drawing, and that was hard, but now my arm is always aligned with my drawing and not tough working angles from bad habits.
It is hard to keep an eye on what you are doing and your art, but it will help correct what you might be doing wrong that is effecting your artwork.
I know the next problem you will have because I have a great memory I just forgot what it was. :)
A good drawing position is important. It is the balance of many joints between your mind and pencil. Your body position effect your shoulder just like your wrist to the fingers holding the pencil. That all needs to work together in coordination like a team to put anything you want where you want. When develop good habits you art will follow your mind, and everything in between will be forgotten. It will be just your mind, your eyes, and point of contact to your art. You just think and it will happen, but always needs practice to keep up that level of performance.

[Kungfoowiz]

AChipps - Hey bro, thank you for the advice, what you mention I haven't thought of before, I will try to think of ways to become more consistent, for example drawing at certain angles and turning the page I think would help.

Thank you for the great inspiration, yip, I would like to trust myself more and will look at habits, for example any shakeyness I get sometimes.


Well.. there's not much tonight, just some two studies, trying to learn form and value, and then a rather rubbish 10 minute apple still life.

Good luck with your drawings and paintings guys!! Will be coming around soon. =)

[jeremygordon89]

Good choices of studies man, main thing I'd critique is edges on the apple one; make sure to differentiate where soft and hard edges are, that will really make or break a painting (edges). Also, the first apple is better than the second I think because you used bigger shapes for the colors instead of smaller scratchier shapes of color which tends to get too busy and confusing. But good practice, just watch those things the next time around and keep up the good work!

[Kungfoowiz]

Jeremy - Hey bro, thank you, yip, the edges suck a lot, thank you for the advice, I will try to think about my edges in the next paintings. Also applying less scratchy strokes.


Okay, here is just a self portrait tonight.. some collab with Taylor too, Taylor's work is on the left, mine on the right.

[Avvatar]

Hey man, sorry for disappearing on you! The studies are looking good, especially the ones you are doing of muscles. You seem to do a much better job in terms of rendering and proportion on them. The torso digital study looks pretty sweet, I think some harder transitions might help a lot though. I notice when you are doing digital paintings that you are using a smaller brush than you really need to. Try blocking things in first and then switch to smaller brushes as you want to get more refined.

For your apple study, I would suggest making the apple much larger and making it the focus. Also pay close attention to the colors, the black shading and pure white highlights look very off compared to the green you have there.

Maybe you could try a study from photo reference and post them side by side, might help with a more thorough critique. Anyways take care and I'll be checking back soon!

[Kungfoowiz]

Avvatar - Hey bro! It's okay, was thinking you gave up on the windmill painting for a while. Aha!! Thank you bro, yip, I'm trying to work on my proportion of things, hoping to get better with every study from now on..

Sure thing, I will apply some harder transitions to show the differences between the muscles and other things. Okay, thank you for that, I will keep in mind my brush size and select it more appropriately in the nexts.

Awwseome advice bro, thank you, I will do that for my apple study, make it more of the focus, as it is, need to nail those values. Yip, I messed up the second study, was trying too hard or being too eager I think.. More to come on that front though, some may be fail-ish though, I will post a reference photo, but I'm actually working from life, so the photo will just be so you can see what I'm seeing more or less. =)

Thank you bro! Keep well and have fun with your next studies.


Here are mine for tonight, just wrapping up with the torso and abs tonight, I plan to do the pelvic region, the legs, arms and hands lastly. I would've covered most of the body afaik then.

Keep well everyone, and have FUNE always! =)

[Untouched24]

Hey man, keep up the hard work. Nice to see all the studies, keep at it.
As for any crits, I'd just kind of say the same thing I said before. Really focus on proportions and construction. Gesture out whatever you draw, figures, faces, etc and get the rough measurements and shapes down, then really look at how things line up, the negative space around them, and the lines and shapes that make up the 3D form you're trying to convey.
For example that last self portrait you did I would take some more time to focus on the construction of the face. Is the eye really just a simple shape like that with a curved line on the top and bottom ()? Or is it maybe a little more squared, maybe less wide, or maybe there's slight shape changes throughout. Also looking at the eyelids and how they change shape and form around the eye. Look for these subtleties and focus on the construction and use that information to really line everything up. Line the rest of the face up based on where they meet up with other features of the face. Corners of nostils with the corners of the eyes, etc. Try paying closer attention to this to really try and nail it.
Also I'd highly recommend doing more Loomis studies for head drawing and really focus on how he constructs them and how he manages proportions. The planes of the face part may really help to kind of see how he breaks up the different sectons and how the proportions relate to each other.
Sorry if I was rambling or anything, but I hope I was helpful and didn't just say the same things again. Keep at it man!

[Kungfoowiz]

Untouched - Hey bro!! Thank you, yip, I don't mind, you are helping me to improve bro, so I honestly don't mind. I will do some studies of the eyes and nose and try to convey a more convincing shape. Also I'll do some more Loomis studies, I was planning on doing what Krato mentioned too, which is to do many pages of faces. So yip, I will focus on the construction when doing this, and try to put in more subtle changes in the shapes of the face, particularly the corners of the eyes and the nose as you mentioned. I will try, and please don't feel guilty for saying these things, this is the only way I can improve, so thank you very much. I will really try to get these into my next studies. =)
Thank you bro, have fun with your next studies!

Okay, so here are my studies this evening, just a bunch of drawings from life. There are many errors unfortunately, but I'm trying to learn how to make my forms more convincing at least by doing this.

Thank you very much and hope everyone is having fun with their drawings and paintings. =)

[zou]

hello there

your studies are taking good shape. You're improving each time in a different aspect.

i'm glad too see , you're working your anatomy seriously.
your lines are so delicate in your drawings, very nice.

try to loosen more your strokes
as a crit for the last post:
when drawing from life you can easily get overwhelmed, especially with the many things you're learning, so it's good to fix yourself one goal at a time. for example: for this session you say you gonna focus on proportions (and less focus on other things) you do straight lines and marks. then you continue expanding your focus.
you can also ignore this and do it the way it come, perhaps it will be more funny :)

keep your journey mate

[kingkostas]

heheheh i have longer hair than you :D
Great studies again, and mostly because you are doing a lot thats is always a great thing and definite improvement, so nothing to worry as long as you keep up
.now i see a lot of black in the apples.paint them again and now check them more, is that shadow really of black color?and if yes whats the status of colors on a composition that contains black blacks?(ok thats a little crazy here lol :P)
just keep in mind to check if you should have used that black the next time you will do a similar training
keep up the good work mate!!!

[jeremygordon89]

It looks like your bodies are definitely improving, keep it up with drawing a lot of bodies and heads I'd say. Also I think your line quality will improve just by experience, but yeah try drawing with a nice dark colored pencil one day (a soft one like prismacolor) and I bet you'll love it. It makes lines and shading feel more natural for me at least and is a good experience. I'd say try doing a bunch of pages of basic forms in perspective and combining with each other (like egg shapes on top of cubes) and twisting (to get a better feel for the twisting of the human body's basic forms, something I still need to do). Keep up the good work

[prsnsweeney]

hey thanks for stopping by my sb and i like what jeremy said about trying the soft colored pencil you could even use a light colored or grey marker and practice using pressure and strokes to acheive different lines

[My57]

Your getting skimpy on your proportion! Try doing more block people and have a anatomy book open to remind you of proportion. Once you memorize proportion or get better at it drawing people becomes so much easier.

Hmmmm as for painting, try doing more black and white studies rather then colour. It will help you understand shape, form and value. That way your paintings can be a bit more solid looking rather than transparent.

Hope that helps. Glad you like the flower robot :P - I thought it was clever :D

[Kungfoowiz]

Zou - Hey! My good bro in drawing and painting! =) Thank you for encouraging me.

Drawing with straight lines to solve the body when drawing from life is an excellent idea. I will start to do this and use it as a way to solve my proportional issues as well as something to build the whole drawing around.

Thank you bro, I hope your back is feeling better and you feel happy to show us your drawings or paintings again sometime. Keep well bro.

Kingkostas - Hey bro, aha, I have since cut my hair short again, I don't know why, I just did it, but yeah.. it's gone now.. I feel naked again. Alright, I have been thinking about how to approach these paintings in general and how to begin with a colour composition, like a sketch almost, so I will try to think more about the colours I'm seeing, trying to simplify them as well. I think the black is there because I became lazy and didn't really 'look' at the colour. Thank you bro, I hope you aren't working too hard, I will be coming around again soon. Keep well for now bro and have fun with your drawings and paintings. =)

Jeremy - Hey hey bro! Aww thank you bro, yip, I will try to do more figures and really push for better lines. I will get some colour pencils and start practicing some figures and basic shapes. Thank you bro, I hope your studies are going okay, I will be around soon to come see.

Prnsweeny - Hey bro, thank you for the tips, I will start to practice pen pressure, I do in fact have some markers here, so I may give it a go. I've done some marker work in the past but I always seem to make a big mess, but I'll keep trying. Keep well bro and have fun with your next drawings.

Myst - Hey bro! Yip, for sure, proportion is something I'm continually working, I'll be drawing with boxes and straight lines I think for the next life drawings. Definitely, I couldn't agree more, I need to work on my values, I still like working in colour once in a while though.

That flower robot is so AWESEOME (that is a new word btw!) =) Where else could we find a robot that delivers flowers and kicks ass! Woooo =) Have fun bro and keep well for now. =)


Okay guys, here are my drawings from this last week, the going has been slow, trying to learn the arms and legs. Thank you for the encouragement and tips, and I hope everyone's drawings are going okay. Keep well for now and thank you. =)

[vatteh]

There's a great attention to detail in these muscle studies. Keep it up.

[PHATandy]

Hey kungfoo the studies are looking really good. Lots of good details and shapes, but I think you need to try and get the proportions of the muscles a bit better. An important part of learning the muscles is their respective sizes to each other.
Like this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1036690&stc=1&d=1281303253)is really good, its pretty much spot on. But say in this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1036689&stc=1&d=1281303230) youve got the lower half of the leg much too small and theres not enough curve in outwards of the muscles (like the thigh to knee to calf). Just hoping you can see where your getting it right and wrong.

That said though, your improving a lot and theyre getting much better. Keep up the hard work, its paying off :)

[shambok]

Buddy ... your work is improving so much I'm just freaking blown away!!!!!!!
I haven't been around for a while but I'm back now so ill be dropping in more often. Seriously ... your progress is breathtaking!

[kingkostas]

nice mate.i like how you penciled these studies.Now keep up learning the anatomy and everytime keep in mind how u could simplify each part and its measurement
keep it up!!!

[andres333]

hey man your commitment is inspiring but i think you should study simple forms first and then go on with anatomy, it' ll a lot easier

[DoubleXdragoN]

Dude, I love how you fuse hands and feet into the forearm/leg! XDDDD Really, listen to people a little, study some basic forms. See the shapes, feel them. Remember the matchbox! I understand you're short of time, at least try drawing some quick shapes or still life. It will make things hell of a lot easier for you to draw and comprehend.

[asiJa]

Hey, I like your clear hatch by pencil and detail, looks really fine, but I would recommend you first focus on overall forms and anatomy (proportions, posture, even gestures). For me It's much easier to catch importaint overall features if I force me to forget about all details for a while. Also It could help instead of drawing right form anatomy atlas, try to remeber some big features, make very quick sketch and than check it from the atlas, correct, try again. This can help to really realize and memorize basic features quite fast. Paper worth nothing, your time does :)

[prsnsweeney]

hey i really like what your doing with the studies of the muscle keep it up keep focusing on a body part or section of the body then study that part from whatever material you can : statues master paintings life (even yourself) i find this is what really helps you to not only observe correctly but to really understand it and be able to draw it convincingly good luck and keep drawing

[Loathsome]

Hm.. you seem to have difficulties in rendering. I would suggest that you block in your colors first before blending them. A good exercise is to just use a few main colors and stick to that and don't blend at all. If the block in looks good, then you've done a good job. I sometimes do this with values too.

Colors and value is simpler than you think. If you blur your eyes just slightly, you'll find that the value pattern/color pattern isn't all over the place, it's pretty blocky. You might find the same value you saw on (ex.) a large part of the leg and it's also on a large part of the torso.

By using less value in the beginning it won't turn out muddy. And almost all the time it's less value in there than you think.

Think about the general light principals: Midtone, highlight, corseshadow (where light and shadow meet), shadow, castshadow and reflective lights. There's more but keep these in mind and look for them the next time you do a color study. Look closely where the light comes from.

Hope that helped some, I tried to make as much sense as possible.

Cheers!

[Pixie Trick]

Your studies are going very well! You've improved a lot by doing them, I can tell. :)

[My57]

last anatomy studies looking pretty good. Watch out for dem hands though. I see some improvement in line work :D

and I use a 2B pencil for those portraits. I used to do HB-2B (start hard, finish soft) but I think I can just go straight into 2B as long as I'm careful. Which is something you can try doing with your stuff. Start with HB and Finish with 2B.

Glad you like the portraits! I have some more I have to upload soon :P

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey guys! Been away for a while, but still drawing behind the scenes! Just felt lazy to update.. really sorry, free tea & biscuits to those who still love me. =)

Vatteh - Hey bro, thank you very much, will come take a looky at your works soon.

PhatAndy - Awesome bro, thank you for the advice on the leg there. I need to look more on the shape for that. I've been looking into what you're saying though and will hopefully come up with something reasonable soon.

Shambok - Ahhh, you're finally back brother! Hey.. mmm, while I think I may have progressed, and I thank you for complimenting me, there is still so much more to learn.

Kingkostas - Hey bro.. aww thank you bro. Yip, learning and trying to remember these things is rather challenging. I took a look at various other artists' works to see how to simplify, in order to remember the shapes I'm after.. Keep well for now bro, I'll come a visiting soon.

Andres - Hey hey Andres! Yip, I agree with that, I have done some shape studies, I'm not really sure whether to show them yet (they are that bad yes). In a few more pages, I should be ready to show the cubes and such.

Dragon - Bro!! You are so right, I need a kick like that once in a while. I get lazy and drift to contours and other edgeiness rubbish all the time. I think it's because I like how lines go, but that just isn't how things work, it's the volume and shape of stuff that I need to understand.. More drilling to come, more craziness..

Asija - Hey hey bro, long time.. yip, you're right, from today I'm going to start doing more imaginative work, testing the anatomy knowledge, but starting first with what you and everyone else is saying, gesture for basics and getting shapes, and then checking this against my anatomy books.

Prsweeney - Hey bro, aww thank you, I'm glad you like what you're seeing so far.. it's taken a while to even get here.. I feel.. but yeah! I would like to do some master studies, at the moment it's just life and some from the anatomy books really. Observation tends to go wonky much of the time, I think I just need to slow down even more. We see, more studies to come and go from there..

Loathsome - Hey bro!! Aww bro, that is so helpful. You are right.. I struggle with rendering, I don't know how to render, period. This has seriously helped me, I'm going to apply what you've said to me here and learn how to render as you said.. Thank you bro, I will come see your works soon.

Pixie - Hey Pixie! Aww thank you, it's reassuring to hear that. I'm not sure what to do next, but I'm just going to keep going and doing as much as possible in what little time which I do have. I'll come take a look at your works soon too, okay, thank you very much.

Myst - Hey bro! Yip, hands give me pain, I've done a few pages of studies (they are terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE though), I can't even show them to people, because they quite simply don't even look like anything, let alone hands. Yip, thank you for the help with the lines, thinner ones do look so more realistic, I also got help from Taylor with mine. There is an image attached to help others if they're struggling with lines.

Thank you for the help there bro, mmm, I think I need to go buy some HB and 2B pencils, as I'm pretty much running out of everything here, most of my pencils are used up..
I'll come take a look at your latest portraits soon.


Okay guys! Thank you for the wonderful support here, and I'm sorry for being away, I needed some time alone and such, well.. here are a few things I've been working on, mostly from life and the odd bit from reference. Study of Lin Ran too (just plain aweosomeness..)


From what you guys are saying, I need to work on gesture and simple forms, so that's pretty much what I'm going to be doing, but there are no expectations on improving overnight..

Thank you to everyone, I will come take a look at your works soon and have FUNE with your drawings! =)

[Loathsome]

I see you've been busy, good!
I also see you got the fantasy book by Matt Dixon :D I have that one to, it's sweeeeet.

[queenmob]

Wow, I really adore people who spend time to really STUDY drawing like this. Thumbs up for the color studies and the head studies! Great work!

[alexson]

Great stuff! And that's alot of stuff! Keep it up!

[zou]

hello dude

isee you're having so much fun :) your first study is ace ! Lin Ran ? yeah quite awesome (i studied him one time, not enough of course)

keep up your good studies !
about your portrait: it's quite good, but like you wrote on your notes, take your time when doing stokes and get broader pencil (wich isn't necessarily darker)
you shoud also sharpen it like calligraphy pen to get a large stokes when you want and thin strokes if you turn it into your fingers.(you should also relax yourself and breathe deeply as if you were calligraphing)
when shading, you're doing the right way but just tru to homonize the hole.
One instructor described the shading stokes like this: like a plane, the pencil land softly on the paper and take off, the result is stokes fading in the beginning and the end with also the precision of a pilot.
as soon as possible darken the eyes, the eyebrow and the hair: the drawing will seems half completed and this will motivate you to keep working in it.

good luck with your nexts

[My57]

lots of studies! Just keep at it at the hands and it'll click one day. Glad to see a lot of studies being done. Much more than what I've been doing recently sadly...

[kingkostas]

lovely studies mate.THe watercolors are nice explorations.Its good that u checked out linrans works.
keep up the hard and good work!!!

[Kungfoowiz]

Loathie - Hey bro!! Yip, pretty much, really going to try and push myself, starting with the gestures and basic shapes, also a bit of rendering in the evenings. Oh yip, it's Matt's book. It's okay, and was a good beginner's intro to painting and such.. but it's kind of limited now imho, but still good in a way. Good luck with your next studies bro. =)

Queenmob - Hey, I checked out your website, you have some serious pencil and colouring skills, I'm surprised you haven't got a sketchybook yet.. Thank you, I'm really pleased to hear that. =)

Alexson - Hey bro, yip yip, lollies. Have fun with your nexts too. =)

Zou - Yip, he's just plain aweseome. Definitely bro.. I have a thought in mind for my self portraits, I'm approaching them wrong.. you are completely right, the strokes are rubbish, just need to do a few junk ones and find out how to get them right.. we see bro. Thank you very much for the advice on altering the strokes, I'll give that a real going over in some of my next studies bro. =))
Awesome.. also thank you for the tip on the harmonising, I'll try to keep it more consistent in future.. We see bro, I've made notes on your advice here and apply it in my next studies. =)

Myst - Yip bro, come, let's keep up here, wipe away those tears, and don't be sad, lollies. =)

Kingkostas - Hey bro!! Aww thank you bro, they are such fun those watercolours, I'm exploring values, although they suck atm, it comes from my crappy pencil skills, but working on it.. we see.. Thank you bro, well, you are inspiring me muchly. =)


Okay guys, here's mostly this week's studies, some days I had crappy days, and then it was ok, but learning slowly about shape and form mostly, and I'm trying to work on proportion as well, even though it sucks sucks sucks sucks, and I need to work haaaarda! =) Some stuff from imaginashun, and then a pile of stuff from reference, and then some other rubbish.

Btw, I would like to go back to daily updates, I'm not sure how the rhythym is going though, so we see.. trying to at least. Will come take a look at everyone's works soon.
Okay guys, let's work together here and work HARDA! =) Have FUN for now. =))

[PHATandy]

Someone is working DAMN hard. Love seeing all this work dude!
The hand studies look really nice, especially where you are hitting the right shape with as few lines as possible, it really helps capture the gesture and feel of the hand better when your not fiddling around so much.
Like these (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1052024&stc=1&d=1283035577), even the incorrect ones feel much more like hands, because they have the right gesture and feel to em.

Keep up the hard work, Its paying off!

[andres333]

woah maaaaaan
all this time i havent been drawing whereas you've been working your ass off :D
keep it up sorry for the question but how old are u?
you're starting to understand form :D:D:D

[prsnsweeney]

hey kungfoo some solid work here nice job i can definitely tell your studies are improving i like all the work your doing with hands, they can get tricky, have you tried drawing your own and after doing the studies? it helps alot with your observation skills and noticing the basic forms o and i noticed my sb in your signiture thanks man =]

[zou]

heyyy, awesome amount of work (make me feel more crappy... kidin' ) :)

you seem having just the good books, the good references and the motivations to improve. just keep up !
i see you're improving on the basic geometric forms(but keep doing them). it's a good thing, sometimes your strokes just get awesome.

keep up

[shambok]

Hey buddy, you're whizzing along as always ... pumping out the work!
Absolutely awesome hand and feet studies!

[kingkostas]

niceeeee i am glad to see u working that hard!!!check the construction of the connection of hand with the arm.In some of the studies it looked strange.
Nice nice, all these shapes and basic stuff, these are great.Keep up understanding them and command them
keep up the good work!!!

[Kungfoowiz]

Okay guys.. I've come to a realisation of sorts the last few days. I suck totally, that's a given, but I just need to keep drawing every day.. I think I've had blocks to it for some reason or I make an excuse not to draw. This has to be stop.. anyways, here's my crappy update, going to start the improvement by doing a daily self portrait. Zeitwolf also inspired me with the warm light and cool shadows in his work so I made a quick painting following his, hope he doesn't mind.. thank you to everyone, I will come around and look at your works soon. Keep well for now.

[Zeitwolf]

ha, thanks for taking my drawing as reference, I'm honored! :)

let me explain, why I posted the close-up of the head: the thing is, the range of hue in this painting is extremely narrow. Even though the shadows on the face are a leafy green, and the lights are a greenish yellow, the color temperature appears cool and warm. I dare you to press auto color in photoshop :D

the little face and gesture thumbs are cool, I should be doing those

[Kungfoowiz]

Ahhh... okay, I think I understand, that was a big shock, the colour cast came straight off and I was staring at a bunch of skin tones!!! *shock*

Just to see that happening again, I took the colours and painted them alongside and Auto coloured it again. Wow.. what a discovery, thank you for sharing.. =)

Here's some rubbish for today.. been drawing from Riven Phoenix's Structure of Man for a while now..

[kingkostas]

Great!!yep thats it, warm light brings in colder shadows and the opposite. Auto adjudgemnts are really great tool to help u in your research.Try to understand it, and how you approach works, that with "auto..." have small changes
keeeeeep it upppp!!! :D :D

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey bro

Yip, I think I'm going to start using it, but only for checking, and then only sparingly, I don't want to become a crutch..

Here is some extra stuff for today, a page of faces (left faces are imagination, and the right are from reference). Then some still lifes (they aren't good enough to include the photos yet.. lol,, you would be horrified!).

Onward..

[Kungfoowiz]

Okay guys, here's today's self portrait, and a Serpent Lady character, I'm pretty much stuck at the moment, I need to do more studies for it, but if you have any thoughts then I'd like to hear them. Thank you! =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Okay, a bit more today, still life (sorry no photos of the reference yet..) and some other stuffies. Thank you and I'll come take a look at your works soon. =)

[Krato]

hey your getting better but your renderings are very sloppy and look quite rushed especially your graphite drawings, you really need to spend more time making sure all the features are placed in the right location then taking your time to render.

[Kungfoowiz]

Krato - Thank you bro. I'm really pleased to hear that from you, that I'm getting better, you are one of my harshest critics. =)

Yip, I need to work on the rendering, it's all over the place at the moment.. face features are still giving me nagging problems, I'm going to practice them over and over until.. they get better.. hopefully.

Here are my latest things, just boring old self portraits and still lifes.

Thank you and I'll come take a look at your works soon. =)

My next studies will be the figure and hands, and a bit of rendering..

[fantasyartist]

Thank you for looking at my sketchbook! You've got some good studies here. I would say you need to focus more on drawing heads instead of faces. You're worrying too much about features when the structure of the head itself isn't there. Even if you get good at drawing features they will look wrong because there's no foundation for them to stand on. Practice drawing simple forms in perspective from every angle. Then when you're drawing complex objects, relate them to these simple geometric forms to control them and give them structure. Hope this helps:
http://www.willwestonstudio.com/wws/free-downloads/

[Kungfoowiz]

Thank you FantasyArtist! I took a look at those things last night and will try appy these things in my studies..

Here is a self portrait in planes, and then an apple still llife.. Thank you (=

[fantasyartist]

I noticed you miss quite a bit of volume at the back of the head. Remember that in profile the head fits in a square.

[Kungfoowiz]

Fantasy Artist - Bro.. you are the best.. thank you for showing me the errors clearly in my work.. I will come and take a look at your works soon. Thank you bro, keep well for now.

Here are my studies for today, a self portrait, trying to shade more carefully this time (softer basically) and along the planes. And then some pages of hands from life.

I hope you guys are working hard.. thank you and keep well everyone. =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Some life drawings from last night..

It's coming up to my first year anniversary of drawing.. =)

[Kungfoowiz]

Eyes, nose, and mouth studies.

[Kungfoowiz]

Ear, hair and figure studies..

[Kungfoowiz]

Self portrait, and basic shapes painting in grey tones..

[DoubleXdragoN]

I hope this gives an idea of how the shadows are projected.

[Kungfoowiz]

Awww. thank you bro, missed that completely.. I live in a 1D world apparently. =)

[zou]

more and more posts, you're a good wroker mate :)

i noticed some of your drawing are done more carefully than others , and they give better results. your shading is going better, but sometimes you use some furry lines ( you have very good shadings using the side of the lead)
( i suspect you're doing so much experiment even after understanding the thing and that's not a bad thing)
as a reminder: never draw figure without careful construction

take care bro

[kingkostas]

ahahah u live in a 1D world, thats interesting :D haha!!!
Ok the studies are lovely.Definitely keep up these basic shape understanding.Master everything about drawing and rendering these basic elements!!!
keeep ittt uppp!!!

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey you my BROTHERS!!! =)

Zou - Wwaaaa, thank you'sss thank you youoyy ! =) Yip pretty much playing around with hatching, smuding and side pencil shading, some ways work better for certain things and getting the job done quick quick. Sure, I agree with that, my figures feel a bit too liquidy without the construction to guide.. =/ We see, going to mix it up then.

KingkostaZ - Heeeeeyyyaaaaa, =)) Yip, I craw along the X axis and then down the Y, I'm soooo scared of Z at the momentt... =) Yip, pretty much, going to hammer down the basics, I'm thinking of tattooing them on my nipples just so that I don't forget them, waaaaa. Lollies!!

Coming to see your works soon guys!! =)

[jeremygordon89]

Good work on these foundations man, they're coming along very nicely! Just remember to try to draw from life, imagination, and reference every day and you should have these down in no time; keep up the great work!

[Kungfoowiz]

Jeremy!! That is music to my ears, I'm reaeeeellly happy to hear that from you, as you are one of my harshest critics next to Krato! Waha! =)

Definitely, I'm going to work all three horses at the same time! Let's all keep up and work harda!! =)

Here's my rubbish for tonight, I prefered last night's self portrait to be honest.. it was a closer match imho. Got to do better!!!

Then a bunch of hands from life (they are much larger than what you're seeing in case anyone's wondering..)

Okay guys, I'm coming around soon to see your works. Let's keep together and have fun but be serious about our studies!! =)

[fernandoart]

Hey, nice update man...
Excellent hand studies, I wish I could draw hands like you can...
As for the yes, I think you're making them a bit too wide, and they loose a bit of realism (at least for me). Take it from me, the guy who's found 1001 ways of failing at drawing eyes... :P

Keep up the studies!

[Kungfoowiz]

Hey bro, thank you, the biggest secret to drawing hands is to understand the structure of them first. Look at Hogarth's figure or hand drawing books (I have the figure one which is fine) and check out how he simplifies the hand into a bunch of cylinders, a wedge piece and a series of balls. Draw that until you know it like.. well.. the back of your hand. Not that I'm any good.. those are well.. they're crap imho but thank you still. (=

Here my studies for tonight, self portrait which I look kind of gay in.. lollies.. and some armoured dudes. (=

Keep well everyone, I will be coming around soon to look at your works!

[fantasyartist]

Great to see you updating constantly. Those armored dudes are looking fine designwise but the drawings look flat. You need to think more in 3D.

[shambok]

Mate ... you are styling! i Love the constant updates and event though I dont always leave a comment I do check them out. You are improving incredibly. I really like the thumb nail faces a few posts back! and the face studies ... they are awesome!
Thanx for dropping in and giving me comments and crit ... I really appreciate it!

[Kungfoowiz]

FantasyArtist - Ta bro, yip.. that's the big challenge at the moment, drawing it so it looks the part.. need to practice like crazy on what you say, so.. there will be a lot of fail for a while unfortunately but practice makes perfect. (= Will be updating constantly.

Shamie - Nuuu problemo.. something just didn't feel right about your last painting.. so thought to say something about it rather than just let it pass..

Okay here's my first update for today.. I like to paint mascara, even though I suck at it, I like painting it, I like ppppppaaaaainting itttttt! (= And.. I don't care whether it sucks, I just like it. (=
Oh.. and yesterday's self portrait..

[Krato]

look at someone elses work who renders on pencil, notice all the detail they put into there renderings? you sorta just scribble some graphite on the paper in all your renderings you need to take your time with the rendering or else its all just a waste