Watts Students

[grinn]

A few buddies at Watts Atelier and I have been discussing putting a thread up together and so here it is.

My name is Ryan and I will start with a few drawings/paintings I have done in the last few months, and hopefully a few of my buddies will add to it in the near future. Thanks for any comments/critiques!

http://www.rtschutter.com/new2/lady.jpg

http://www.rtschutter.com/random/guydude.jpg

http://www.rtschutter.com/8-5-09/6.jpg

http://www.rtschutter.com/September09/watts4.jpg

http://www.rtschutter.com/September09/watts1.jpg

http://www.rtschutter.com/August09/4.jpg

Gouache after Fechin
http://www.rtschutter.com/August09/2.jpg

http://www.rtschutter.com/August09/1.jpg

Gouache after Schmid
http://www.rtschutter.com/random/schmidgouache.jpg

[SweetPea]

hey nice stuff, clearly well drawn, you clearly know ur way with ur tools, what i would suggest is some more tonal variation, you seem to have large blocks of shadow, which really all blend like smoke to air (da vinci quote) so i would suggest more subtle variation in tone and darker values as well. Keep at it!

[Babbey]

Hey all,

My name's Tom Babbey, and I'm one of Ryan's previously-mentioned buddies at Watts Atelier in southern California. I've been taking classes alongside Ryan for a few years, and thought I'd go ahead and show my work from class as well. There's a mix of Figure Drawings, gestures/portraits in oil and two studies at the end of the post(after Sargent and Elvgren).

Thanks in advance for any crits/comments, and make sure to swing by and check out the school if you're ever in the San Diego area.

[Matt Smith]

Here is some of my stuff. Done at Watts and some done at home in my free time.

http://www.mattksmith.com/paint1.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/paint2.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/rose2.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/skullpaint.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/cloudstudy.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/l22.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/loomisheadstudies.jpg

[kevinwueste]

Good things going down at Watts ! Ryan the 2nd drawing of the bearded man ( even on the super waffle-y side of that toned paper) is really wonderful
-Tom the first male figure, the female portrait ( very Watt's -ish style ?) and the reclining nude figure are really great stuff !!
Matt I like the first woman oil painting and the head studies.. all solid things by all of you but I hope it's ok to have picked out a few things that ( in one viewer's humble opinion rise above).. keep posting!

[kevinwueste]

Good things going down at Watts ! Ryan the 2nd drawing of the bearded man ( even on the super waffle-y side of that toned paper) is really wonderful
-Tom the first male figure, the female portrait ( very Watt's -ish style ?) and the reclining nude figure are really great stuff !!
Matt I like the first woman oil painting and the head studies.. all solid things by all of you but I hope it's ok to have picked out a few things that ( in one viewer's humble opinion rise above).. keep posting!

[JS Neo]

Expect nothing less from people studying in watts.

Ryan all ur stuff are so good. I especially like the reclining woman in the chinese dress. So simple shapes and good design, yet feel so complete.

I love the recling nude by tom too. I like how u are able capture her expression so well.

Matt i like how ur second painting is going. It looks not completed but i am sure it is heading the right direction.

Keep them coming!

[fukifino]

Oh hai guyz!

Here's some of my (mostly unfinished) paintings from the previous two semesters.

[Toobs]

This is amazing, I'd love to see more! :)

[whatyoumaydo]

Hey, the fine Art section still exists! Awesome. Been at Watts for little over one full year. Crazy but good. Here are some drawin's.

http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/03.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/01.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/02.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/04.jpg

http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/05.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/06.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/07.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/08.jpg

http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/09.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/10.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/11.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/12.jpg

http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/13.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/14.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/15.jpg
http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com/images/16.jpg

I'll update again when I shoot my pad from this term.

www.lookatthesedrawings.com (http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com)

[mc2mc2]

Sup guys!

My name's Matthias and here's a selection of my stuff from this term...
It was a pleasure learning with all of you :)

I'll do a bigger update during the new years...

[MikeHayes]

Hey guys, I heard you there was a party in here... I have a couple years of stuff that needs to be photographed. In the meantime, here are some recent portraits:

[drd]

Awesome work, guys! Makes me wish I could study there.

Undoubtedly I'll make the trip all the way to Cali someday...can't wait.

[dpaint]

Great stuff, can't beat that Reilly method.

[Raileyh]

Love the work you guys. I had to do Gil Elvgren copies too, to learn how to stylize shapes.

Keep at it!

[StephenJ]

This stuff rocks, way to go.

[lena murray]

I see a lot of good work coming out of this school, keep it up. One small criticism when it comes to painting, not enough cools. I don't know why this is happening in almost everyone's painting (could be the lighting in your classrooms), but the flesh tones are somewhat "fried" as we call it in Russia, keep looking for the bluish/greenish tones in the flesh (they are there) and be more careful with those oranges and reds.

[Matt Smith]

Thanks for the nice comments and feedback everyone. Here is a Leyendecker face I did a study of.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Really nice work guys, some really solid studies in here! It's great to see good structural drawing still going, especially in good ol' sd :)

A few things though

Matt: your work is looking great, but you might want to buy a new skull when you get a chance.

http://www.mattksmith.com/skullpaint.jpg

You painted this one well, and if you're using it as another still life object that's fine, but don't use it to understand the structure of the head, that model of skull is really inaccurate. Moreover, when people see it, they'll think something's off about the skull and they'll think you painted it inaccurately, which you did NOT. The cheapest accurate skull on the market is this one, for slightly less than $100

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Human-Skull-Model-A20/dp/B0006TYJTI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=industrial&qid=1262292495&sr=8-2

Ryan: Again, incredibly solid work all round. Only comments are on the toned paper heads. This one in particular:

http://www.rtschutter.com/new2/lady.jpg

This is likely a quicker study than the rest, but there are still some things you could do to give it the solidity of your other studies. The tones on the forehead do not describe the various planes effectively, The corner where the front plane of the forehead meets the side plane of the temple needs to be indicated with a value change. In this case, you could use the white chalk to show that turn of form. (like you did on the bridge of the nose). Ditto where the front plane of the face meets the side plane (you have it at the cheek bone, but the highlight continues). Basically, you can find highlights the same way you guys find cores on the newsprint studies. Cores and Highlights basically occur wherever there is a drastic form turn, thus they're markers for significant changes in the surface. Also, make sure that planes turned at the same angle in space get the same kind of lighting. It would help to include a value shift where the underplane of the jaw meets the neck as well (the neck would likely be darker).

Hope this helps!

Best,

-Ramon

[AztcFireFlower]

Love this stuff!
Matt, that 2nd portrait in your 1st post is outstanding. Delicate and strong strokes at the same time. Love the painting right after as well.
Matthias LOVE the charcoal faces. Nice value shapes. Beautiful.
Mike Great drawings.

Frank Reilly, does indeed, live on!

[pleinair]

Hi everyone. I am new to Concept.org and have a question about the Watts method of drawing a portrait. Here goes: In the Watts drawing video, he mentions drawing the abstract lines first, then mapping where light and dark meet, then shading in value 5... Can anyone further clarify the mapping step.
Any help would be apreciated!!

[whatyoumaydo]

So, nobody explains the method better than Jeff and Erik, the two primary instructors at school. Jeff's video and Erik's figure tutorial will probably get you the farthest in terms of understanding the procedure they teach.

http://www.erikgist.com/ErikGist_WattsAtelierFigureTutorial.pdf

Personally, I think of the mapping phase as systematically breaking down the drawing into two values - light and dark. Everyone goes about it in their own way with their own calligraphy, but basically you are analyzing what you see and deciding if it goes into one of three categories: the light shape, the dark shape or discarded entirely. I tend to get a linear construction of the head or figure first, then go over the top of this "mapping" out the dark shape. This gives me a two value drawing which can then be brought up to a finish. Hope this helps! I'm sure some of the other guys can chime in and help explain it better.

As for Lena Murray's astute (and correct) observation about the paintings being too warm, I have two thoughts about this. One, I think they were all photographed under very warm light, I don't remember them being that consistently warm. Second, this may be a sign of slight a cultural difference between Southern California and Russia. Russian paintings for a variety of reasons tend to be very cool, sometimes almost too cool for American's taste. I'm sure the same applies in reverse. Compare Repin, Serov and Fechin with Sargent, Chase and de Laszlo. All great painters but the Russians tend to be cooler in overall temperature than the Americans/Europeans. Also, we are about 3 minutes from the beach and surrounded by people who use all sorts of methods to tan themselves. Maybe our eyes have adjusted to the "orange look."

I'm usually full of crap, so all of this could be wrong.

Thanks for the comments everyone, it feels good to get some recognition from the world outside our little school!

www.lookatthesedrawings.com (http://www.lookatthesedrawings.com)

[Matt Smith]

Graphite rendering I did of Grunt from Mass Effect 2 from a screen shot.


http://www.mattksmith.com/grunt.jpg

[Matt Smith]

http://www.mattksmith.com/life/l25.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/life/l26.jpg

http://www.mattksmith.com/life/l27.jpg

[Babbey]

A bit to quiet in this thread as of late, considering all the awesome work being cranked out of the Atelier.

Here's a few of my animal studies from the last term at the school, along with a couple animal tutorials I threw together to help out other students at Watts.

[Nick R]

One of my gifts for Christmas I'm almost done with. Need to fix the head size.

[kev ferrara]

Looking great everybody!

[benlinalexander]

Wow, this is just amazing work. I think I might just sit here are just study these works.

[Nick R]

If you're interested in the Watts way you should definitely check out Erik's stuff. He's been teaching it for years. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60746

[Happy Satan]

awesome work everyone!

Ryan - i really liked your work, the portraits on the reddish Canson (?) paper are great, have a kind of laid back ease to them.

Matthias - the oil of the dude in glasses is awesome. feels... rich and oily, in a good way. :)

hope to see more updates soon!

[Mane]

Abit cheeky I know, but would any of the watt students be able to upload the reily abstraction head sheet, pretty please? I have seen a jeff watts dvd where he has the sheet infront of him but I havent managed to the the exact one around the internet.

Loving the work though guys,

thanks
Chris.

[Nick R]

mysocksrock, there are a few variations of the that head sheet. The one that Jeff typically uses(that I assume is probably the one you saw) I don't have a copy of. I'll see about getting it when the next term starts though.

Here's an update of some pen studies I did after taking the Inking class with Doug Stambaugh.

The Indian was an oil painting on the cover of a western art magazine. Sorry I forget the artist or what magazine it was. The frogman is a study of a digital painting by Ilker Serdar Yildiz for the Pathfinder RPG.

[Lightpunk]

Awesome stuff in here! Very inspirational.

[Nick R]

Here's some of my stuff this term.
A WIP study of a drawing Jim Hahn did,
a 20 minute lay-in,
and a page of quicksketches.

[keith eager]

Some really nice studies guys! Keep slowing down time, slowing your hand, building up forms, then anatomy, building up your power to visualize.