Spartan Camp #131 - 50 gestures + Optional "Turnaround Study"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #131- 50 gestures + Optional "Turnaround Study"

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 4th of April.

- The gestures can be of anything, human, animal, cavorting capybaras.... You can draw full figures, but you can also go for heads, arms, eyes, or anything specific. All media can be used, both digital or traditional. Coloured or black/white. Quick scribbles or long studies. Imagination or referenced. Clothed or nude. Specifics are up to you!

- In addition to this, participants can choose to do an Optional "Turnaround Study", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study:
The concept is fairly simple: draw a pose in a few different views or from different angles. It doesn't have to be a strict turnaround, you can also include top/bottom views if you want. Goal is to get a good 3d sense of the figure. You are free to use reference but you can also decide to do these from imagination. Reference may be hard to find.
Here's one possible source:
http://human-anatomy-for-artist.com/?id=15



Colour, medium, time frame, any specifics are up to you! Have fun!

50 poses is a challenge, but don't hurry or stress yourself reaching it! Focus on drawing, as practising is the main goal of this exercise.

Critting each other is highly encouraged!! Share constructive criticism, reference and resources!! Let's help each other get better!

Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #130

shiNIN :star:
Sealegs :star:
Anthis
aprat

[Sealegs]

Hey guys!

Trying some study from Glenn Villpu's "The Villpu Drawing Manual" In it he has this exercise, where he takes simple spheres and boxes, and uses them to explain an easy way to understand the torso...He demos the squash and stretch, and twist-with a ball and a box inside a sock...

This manual in particular has served of great value to me because it is simple and easy to understand, especially just for the basics.

You can download the manual here (http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/vilppu_drawing_manual.html)in PDF form if you don't have it already...

Another good person to look at for simple figure drawing techniques is Kevin Chen...some of his stuff is over at CharacterDesigns.com (http://www.characterdesigns.com/index.php?sitepage=tutorials)
This site also has lots of good photo reference, nude & costumed.
Anyways maybe some of you want to try this excercise... hope it helps!
Ill be back !... with gestures and turnaround...:)

[Sealegs]

Hey guys! This week i did some poses from ref and artist study, then i tired some from memory...tried to keep it looser, but also use the box and circles as a starting point..

Anyways for these first ones I spent like 10-15 min each from ref, tried to make nicer lines, while keeping some structure... trying to make it like it was drawn traditionally... :) (the paper texture, is just a texture i found online...)
I think ill do the turnaround study tonite...

[echo7925]

Been extremely busy recently, so managed to just do a couple of studies. All referenced from books, but I exaggerate the poses a bit, especially the foreshortening part. I was looking at this book "FORCE Character Design from Life Drawing" by Michael D. Mattes, and was really inspired. So I thought I tried to practice some of the stuff I learned from the book.

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab107/echoart2010/131/01.jpg
http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab107/echoart2010/131/02.jpg
http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab107/echoart2010/131/03.jpg

[shiNIN]

Not much this week...
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/horses0401.jpg
I tried to do some linework too but I have regrets. It's extremely slow (at least one hour per gesture) and tiresome for me.
Yeah, I rushed the last one.
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/sc131.jpg

[aprat]

I tried a new thing where i drew the same pose a few times, often starting with a small gesture.
The last one is the only one done without reference. It's a quick attempt at a turnaround study.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115a.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115b.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115001a.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115001b.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115002a.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115002b.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115003a.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115003b.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115004a.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115004b.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115005a.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/aprat/115006a.png

[Sealegs]

I spose i can try to give some feedback, for what its worth...

echo7925- I am familiar with that book! Fun stuff... I like how all your poses are from challenging angles and all action poses! Some of the guys on the first page are looking real solid, keep up the studies and keep practicing forshortening...

ShiNIN- Awesome Horses, i like how u are studying both humans and animals... a nice page of studies here! The bottom one, and the top right are my favorites :) nice figures!, i like the idea of changing the line color for the dress...

Getting nice digital linework is definetly slower than traditonal and can just be plain frustrating...sometimes u just have to draw and redraw and erase until u like it... i find drawing while zoomed in seems to yield better results, usually at like 200% zoom...Sometimes its just better to draw it out on paper first then just do some cleanup digitally...

aprat- Nice drawings, Like how you really broke down the shapes, and drew each pose multiple times-Good Job taking a small gesture and turning it into a more complex drawing.-looks like you really understood each pose by the time you did the last drawing of it...Keep up the good work!
Nice turnaround! expecially like the perspective from below, very nice!

Sealegs -Learn to draw please...

Tried a turnaround, the first drawing was form reference, the others 2 i had to try to create with no ref....it was a good exercise in that i had to really think of how the figure was turned ...
here (http://characterdesigns.com/bandaid/content/photosets/3926/3993/Photoset_039_067.jpg) is the ref i used...

[shiNIN]

Sealegs: Thanks :) I love to include animals too (to make my life easier and more fun, humans are extremely tough and I have an eye for anatomy flaws :( I see them but can't correct them all).
I used zoom (and my tablet is already nice big) but I don't see the drawing as a whole that way... I wish I could have the line control I have with a pencil...

[aprat]

Sealegs - Everything looks really nice, especially the turnaround. You really know how to reduce the form into geometric shapes while showing the anatomy.

echo7925 - Nice poses. I think you could benefit from doing some studies where you reduce the form into simpler shapes, like Seaweed did.

Shinin - The horses look really good. I think what i said to echo applies to you too, and also i think you should concentrate i bit more on anatomy and proportions and put a lower priority on polishing individual gestures for hours.

[shiNIN]

aprat: But I do concentrate on those... That's why I spend only one hour per gesture (sometimes less), polishing it would require way more :D I spent 10 hours on an extremely rough basic sketch once...
I usually think I should focus on the very essence of gestures and forget about the details of anatomy but I can't do that, I love human anatomy too much :( Now I know some anatomy, too bad I can't apply this knowledge because my skills are horrible at the most basic/important level.
I'll try harder this week. It can't be I can't learn to draw a simple human figure by myself....

[Anthis]

I didn't get as many done as I'd like, so I'll lump them in among with the rest this week.

Great round though! I'll keep it short since the next one is up. Great job critting each other too!

Sealegs; Glad you like Chens studies too! I was wondering if others also felt inspired by them. Also I'd agree some of these basics are always valuable. Nice turnaround study, tough pose. I think that in your reference the neck is actually bent forward. Perhaps you should test it out yourself, that's an approach that works for me. Nice studies, good use of lineweight.

echo7925; That's a name I hadn't heard before, always good to know a few of these books. The good thing is that they can be really inspiring, just like you mentioned. Tough poses! Think your approach is good - taking some things from the book and try it out on your own. You can never experiment enough!

shiNIN; those horses are actually getting stronger. Despite being sketches, they are clear because of the good values. If you really spend that long on the gestures, then perhaps you should take a look into that. Are you erasing and redrawing a lot? You may want to start out fast and sketchy and draw the 'finalized' correct lines over them. Or try really quick sketches. Just give it a try once, it may be refreshing.

aprat; I think that's a great approach, I think it's really working in a few of those. Those figures are getting more and more organic! I often try to achieve the the same clean shadowed areas I see in your figures, but it often results in muddy or broken up areas. Perhaps you make good use of the 'direction' in which you are drawing, I'll take a look into that. Great turnaround study - really pushed it on the complexity

[shiNIN]

I spent much time on those because my hand is clumsy and my lines are wavering (even with a pencil, I can't draw really subtle changes in lines. I know what I want but my line control is too weak), I need to redraw all lines a lot. That's one reason why I love to work with values: they're quicker, easier, funnier and by nature, they are closer to reality. But I love nice linework too...