FIGURE/PORTRAIT DRAWING ASSIGNMENT 1

[fredflickstone]

Ok, I was asked by a few members to maybe give them something to work with that can be critiqued. So this is what I am thinking for this thread:

I will give a form assignment of some kind once a week, you guys have the week to post and make corrections. During that week, when I can, I will make comments on the work, and give instructions as to what to fix, etc. and post them that same week for crit.

The next week I will post a new assignment.

1. This weeks assignment is to draw 5 heads from photo
reference, attach the photos to the art...

---For the drawing, I want only form. No details. Do not look for the eye lids, highlights, nostrils, lips, ear holes, etc. Look for form. The Form of the head, the form of the nose, the form of the tooth cylinder, the eye socket and ball in the socket...and the values that are rolling across that form. Keep it simple.

---Lets see if 1. you know what I am talking about, and 2. if you can see it correctly.

Good luck and have fun. Become explorers, not frutrated students, and seek out the answers, it will make the experience that much more rewarding.

Good luck and hurry...1 week is not that long.


Ron


And dogone it all, sign up for AUSTIN TEXAS...I will be out there with the big list of great pros, and will demo figure stuff, portrait stuff, etc. for the cost of the event. I will talk with ya 4 days in a row all day on this stuff...a one time chance..unless we do it again...heh GO TO AUSTIN.... CHECK THE LOUNGE FOR DETAILS>


ron

[StylesDavis]

first one!

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron.jpg

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_ref.jpg


many thanks that you spend your time and effort for things like this, ron! i really have to say that after i didn't thank you for answering some of my dumb questions at sijun.com... :emb:

[StylesDavis]

another trial. strange that i don't see my mistakes before i scan my drawing and compare it lying next to the reference pic in photoshop...

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_2.jpg

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_2_ref.jpg

[StylesDavis]

For the drawing, I want only form. No details. Do not look for the eye lids, highlights, nostrils, lips, ear holes, etc. Look for form. The Form of the head, the form of the nose, the form of the tooth cylinder, the eye socket and ball in the socket...and the values that are rolling across that form. Keep it simple.

ups... i think i read too fast... and me very bad english only...! :bash:

[paper slayer]

:jump1: Wheee! I'm definatly in on this.

[arghmisfit]

same :chug:

[anteD]

Sounds fun, let's see if I got the concept of this task correct. Is this the right amount of details or is it to detailed?
I don't really understand why my drawing lookes so much thinner, because it seems to me that they are the same size, if one messure :confused:

http://www.cs.umu.se/~c98adn/tmp/GPpencil.jpg http://www.cs.umu.se/~c98adn/tmp/00002692.jpg

This is, btw, the swedish prime minister, before he changed his glasses ;)

[fredflickstone]

http://rev-art.com/lemenimages/whattodoo.jpg


THis is more along the lines of what you want to be doing first. Get the general size of the head, and then get the values of the volumes correct, in short, simplifying the forms and looking for the values. Details in the face are the eyes, pupils, irises, highlights, lids, nose, the nostrils are details, the mouth, everything about the mouth except the tooth cylinder is a detail.

In short, details are bad. Get them second. FInd the form first, and make it volumetric. THis is the way to see the big and simple which is sooooo important....


Got it?


Talk again soon.


Ron

[killing.people]

http://www.insultant.net/paris/knee/face.jpg

http://members.cox.net/schofiles/photoref_1.jpg

uh, this was an hour's work. i was focusing on forms but, i got lost in mindless staring :p i forgot what i was doing. i broke a few of your restrictions, sorry about that, i know it doesnt help me any - my mind got lost. with your response i see more of what you are looking for, and will aim for that.

the foreshortening on the forehead always gets me. i planned to draw the glasses on the right and the eye on the left and it was proving to be very difficult. i am tired, had to stop :\

-killing

[Burton]

First one:

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port1.jpg

[Darkstrider]

Hey, cool! I wanna play! :chug:

Ok, this is probably more detail than you wanted, right? I tried to do it faster and looser, but it wasn't working, and I went into slow detail mode. Do the dark lines count against me? I'll start on the next one, and try to get it looser.

http://www.darkstrider.net/images/10331.jpg http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Valueface.jpg
(Damn... I wanted them side by side!)

Funny how we all seem to be picking faces with glasses! I'm gonna finish this drawing now.

[roger]

I don't think I got it, anyway, thanks for this exercises Ron.



http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/rogershared/activities/ffs01a.jpg

http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/rogershared/activities/ffs01b.jpg

http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/rogershared/activities/ffs01c.jpg

http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/rogershared/activities/ffs01d.jpg

http://img28.photobucket.com/albums/v83/rogershared/activities/ffs01e.jpg

[fredflickstone]

Darkstrider-that is the concept sorta...if you look at Rogers down below, that is more along the lines of what to aim for first. What you have works, but its too cartoony. THe idea of modelling in form first is for the volumes and values, which you have achieved very well here. The other objective is to have a good close rendition of a likeness with no details, so that once those volumes are convincing, all that is left are the details, icing on the cake.

You have found a strong likeness, in the vain of a characature, which you could depart into if that is what you have chosen once the generic, form finding has been achieved. This also usually has less curvature to it in the very beginning so that the understructure can be found first, which is why form first; it sets up a strong scaffolding for an even stronger finish. We get so caught up in the lines of teh eyes, lips, etc, we forget the surrounding tones that create the additional character volumes that make up the rest of the likeness. That is what this exercise helps achieve.

Roger, those are fantastic. THat is the point of this. Now, one additional comment for your work, think of the direction of the lines. THat is, make sure all your lines count in the drawings, and not count against you. The tones on the third picture down, the actor with the gold cross on a chain, the lines describing his forms are breaking apart too much, some of the lines are going against the structure you set up in the middle of the cface that works so well. But, you have achieved the right goal in this exercise, the lines of your drawings are additional information that was not originally called for exactness.

Great work you guys, we will make great artists of all of you yet!
:chug: :chug:

ron

[fredflickstone]

Killing people, no mouth or teeth yet, or nostrils, or eyes or ear detail or glasses...just form, which you found a lot of...and well rendered, but not quite the objective.

And Burton, you found too many details too. Try to imagine him just a hunk of clay, and you are just starting to mould his head up in that clay, you have to start with big generic masses, no lines...

[Burton]

Ha, probably too much information in this one too then:

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port2.jpg

[sone_one]

hi,

first off let me say thanks to you ron for doin this for us.

im not sure i got it done what you want... looking forward to your crit. thank you.

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/aug-02-portrait-ref.jpg


http://members.chello.at/sone_one/aug-02-portrait-1.jpg

[sone_one]

another...

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/portrait1-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/portrait1-1.jpg

[kgb]

Great thread Ron. I hope there is more of these.
Here are my three poor attempts. I wanted to get some feedback on these so I can apply my corrections to the next 2. I must of done 20 different ones and these were the only ones that seem to resemble anything at all. :(

http://www.alexandrovich.net/daily_sketches/2004/05_may/connery_form.jpg

http://www.alexandrovich.net/daily_sketches/2004/05_may/crowe2.jpg

http://www.alexandrovich.net/daily_sketches/2004/05_may/crowe1.jpg

Thx

[sone_one]

number 3

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/bill_bright-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/bill_bright-1.jpg

lookin forward to your crit :).

[kasap]

1e photo (http://www.phys.uu.nl/~rutten/astronomershots/siu2002/kop-gemmajanssen.jpg)

http://members.lycos.nl/bolunixan/new/kop_1.JPG

2e photo (http://www.gobuilders.com/images/visitorinfo/womenbasketball-overbey.jpg)

http://members.lycos.nl/bolunixan/new/kop_3.JPG

great assignment, it's fun to do. got some problems to get the right value in an area with the right stroke i wanted, have to do more of these i guesse :).

[SirRon]

http://home.comcast.net/~viridium/wsb/media/56259/site1158.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~viridium/wsb/media/56259/site1157.jpg

Hope you don't mind if I keep on trying on the same reference? Wish I could do more but it's one week before finals :)

[Burton]

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port3.jpg

[arghmisfit]

http://img23.photobucket.com/albums/v69/arghmisfit/face.jpg

[Darkstrider]

Ron, I want to say thank you SO much for this... for putting your valuable time and energy into helping us so much. This is really incredible!

Ok, I think I understand better now... I realize the importance of getting the shapes and values down quickly and correctly. I think these are a lot better than my first attempt, but I definitely need to keep working at it. The first 2 are in pencil, the last 2 in vine charcoal.

http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Face2.jpg

http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Face3.jpg

http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Face4.jpg

http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Face5.jpg

[sone_one]

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/mike-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/mike-1.jpg

[Darkstrider]

I have a question....

Is the goal to do these fast, like you would in a quick pose life drawing session, or should we be taking our time and really trying to develop the values and forms, or something in between? I tried to do my last 4 pretty fast and loose, and I know they suffered for it. I just noticed that I did the eyes as if they're hollowed out sockets rather than bringing out the rounded form of them, and I think it's because I wanted to do them fast.

Also, is there a difference between using pure value, like the way you did in your example, and using lines, the way some of us (myself included) are doing? I guess what I'm trying to get at is, since I'm using lines, is the goal to get as much mileage as possible from just a few lines, or should I go ahead and develop a good solid degree of value (I promise I won't go as overboard as I did on my first one!! :rolleyes: )

Also, I think one problem I'm having is because I chose these artsy black and white portraits that have strong lighting with some solid black shadow that completely obliterates the form in places. Maybe that's working against me. My question is... if I'm working from one of these pictures, should I go with the black shadow the way I see it, or go ahead and draw the forms I know are there? I'm starting to understand that this exercise is about developing our own "mental mannikins" in our heads and learning to shade them and see them from different angles.

[paper slayer]

http://img2.photobucket.com/albums/v11/paper_slayer/Headsketch1.jpg

[StylesDavis]

2 new ones...

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_3.jpg

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_3_ref.jpg

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_4.jpg

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_4_ref.jpg

[pencilfarmer]

my attempt....


http://www.pencilfarm.com/images/one.jpg

http://www.pencilfarm.com/images/1.jpg

[fredflickstone]

Ok, now I need to keep up. This is great to see all the enthusiasm for real learning. Gawddang this is cool...ok, where to begin...

Burton your number three is getting better, but yes, you are right, you are still seeing too much. Volumes and values...make sure if you outline a form, its to constrain it, that is, where the cast shadows are, they create edges. Where form shadows bump into other forms, they create harder outlines. Use them only in those areas if you gotta use em...but you are getting closer...

sone_one-nice job. You are getting the idea, but no nostrils. Just like the mouth is a lump of clay to begin with, so is the nose. Think of flat planes with no holes bored into them yet...now do a few more and get better contrast lighting, not so flat this time...

Number 2 is better, except for that dark cast shadow edge under his chin on the left side. It is out of value, needs to be a bit lighter...another thing to try in the artwork, find the side of the form that stops, and find the side of the form that rolls into light, and better define each side as a difference in the way their edges look. One side of the forms should feel soft, rolling with light, the other side should feel like it is coming to and end, or one of the other shapes has abruptly halted another smooth blend. This will help explain better, the forms you are finding. You have them started well, but literally think of this phase as sculpting, and your edges are going to be a bit sharper than they will in the finish, that way you can scultpurally see what is right and what is out of place, or not conforming to the rest of the dimensions described.

kgb-they are all good attempts, close to the likenesses in the outlines, but they all feel rushed. Slow down and thoughtfully sculpt out the forms, give yourself the chance to really find out what form is, or what form really means by developing better design into the shapes you create, and look for the receding planes, or the 3rd dimension and really thoughtfully explain that too. These feel flat because of the rush job, but the ability to see shapes and realize them quickly is strong with you. If we can slow you down so you can work things through a little more thoroughly, just think what you could be creating....cant wait to see round 2

sone one-number 3 is better yet. But resolve those eyes also. Think of them just as orbs...no details, and sew those shapes up....nice work....oh, also double check ur value range, I think you could push your darks a bit further, they are getting a bit too light, not by much, but enough to lose the value contrast the photos have...

Kasap-working in painter eh? well, make sure you switch to a smaller brush size and get into those corners of the brush strokes and lock all the shapes together you have painted. There are too many gaps in the brushwork to see the shapes realized completely...good values, good brush direction, now also think through the nose and the eyes. The eye is a socket with a ball in it. This is a combination shape. You may not see the volumes in the eye balls because the light source on the camera blew them out, but your pictures will have a greater depth to them if you remember these simple volumes first. ANd it will help you finish the eyes generically also...same with the nose mouth and ears, no holes, or details, just simple shapes thoroughly realized from edge to edge, and corner to corner...keep em going...


Sir ron,- nice break downs. Try to make the heads feel a bit stronger in construction by starting with straighter lines. Look at the curves in the photos and try to figure out where they chnge curvature, and straighten the forms out. This way the curves dont cause your image to get too cartoony or characatured too soon. If characature is what you are after, start simple, then figure out how to distort. The top two images, the two female heads are very nicely handled in their volumes, and I like those more than the volumes realized on the bottom image because you dont have any hard out lines cutting the form akwardly in them. That bottom image of the same head is a bit too "scarred" by the hard out lines that counter oppose all the delicate shading. Does that make sense.? IF not, write back and ask questions. I will help you through this one, you are so close, I want you to get this one thoroughly.


Burton, number 4 is getting better still, but dont shade so loose ans sketchy. Try and tighten those planes up with better volumes of value. And dont worry about finding the eybrows...


arghmisfit. Need to complete the head. Just a face is not enough to realize a head. This is broken thinking. If you want to command drawing good head drawings, portraits, chartoons, etc. Think through the forms all the way, dont stop where the details stop, the picture is made better by thinking about the whole first, and not the parts. Give it another shot and resubmit, I think you can pull it off...and if you do, dont worry about eyelids either. Just make eyeballs, the ball shape is the most important.

Darkstrider-nice attempts. Some are better than others, and a big reason are the photo references. The top one, the older gent with the glasses, its too contrasty, not the way our eye sees light and dark, a photo effect. SO as a result, you cant put anything meaningful into the shadows, there is no reference point to work with. Try and find better contrasty images, digital phot galleries will provide you with this more than not. Go to Getyone.com and type in portraits, you will get a heap load of great ones.
The second image down I think is the most successful. The volumes are well designed. the details from left to right are well balanced, and you retained her head tilit. The volumes are well resolved simply. I think you can find a bit more depth in your forms, and resolve what the shapes dimensionally are she creates. I.E. her arm is a cylinder, head is a cube with conical chin, etc.
I would also suggest a center line in the forms to help tilts and axis. As in the third image down, the female head. She is not tipped correctly in space and as a result, she flattens out and looks a bit deformed in her outside contour, just because the features are out of alignment. THe last one is not so well resolved in forms. The values are right, but everything feels flat and graphic, no harder edges, rolling edges...again, realize the forms more thoroughly, and the drawings will sing volumes without need of details.

sone_one, number four is good. Now maybe a little less big linear. Make those lines whispier, thinner, and more of them to create solid tones rather than broken tones...good work on the form finding, that is the goal...

Paperslayer-stronger forms. The drawing is well designed, looks just like the contour in the photo, but the photo has stronger values, clearer shapes realized by light and shadow. Get in there and strengthen those forms. Also, draw bigger so you can get into them and work the forms out.

Styledavis-nice drawings. Now hook those forms together. Dont let the mouth/tooth cylinder feel detached from the whole, connect it. Find even better dimension around the forehead and cheeks. Connect the dots. Your details are good, but the bigger shapes still need some glue to get em to stick together...

Pencilfarmer-nice reference with strong lighting, but the duel lightsource is throwing you off a bit. There is anatomy in the shoulder, and you are designing both anatomy and shadow into one shape. Make sure you define what is what so that shadows fall over forms rather than blend into them and make new anatomy that doesnt really exist. Also, your front light source is not strong enough on the front planes of the head yet...brightne them up. Otherwise, this is nicely crafted. You have drawn the lines in conforming to the direction of the forms well, and the values are close to resolving the form well. Now clean up the shapes, define form from shadow, and get the light source on the front of that head better lit and this one is golden.

Great work everyone, this week is hellish since I teach a lot, so it will be sporratic when I answer, but I will get to em...

Darkstrider-your questions answered-take your time and develop well defined forms. The objective is this, form finding is the hardest thing for most artists, they like details. Form is the primary basis for any type of visual illusions(art). take your time finding the forms, and the drawings will develop more rapidly when you do them from life, or just through time and experience, since you develop good intuitive basic skills that solidify what you should be really looking for first...speed comes with experience...
Lines equal value. You can get lines to become value by spacing them apart appropriately so they dont create rifts in the planes you create. I draw in line, go look at a lot of my life drawings, line is movement, and enough movement creates excitement. Pure tone alone cant quite drive that statement home, just learn how to develop tones with your line design and its all good. TRy drawing with ball point pen for a while, that will teach you a thing or two about tone in line...
Dont get artsy photos. TRy gettting well lit images so even your shadows have good depth in them too. Artsy is what we become when we know how to handle reality first.

Great job everyone. Read through Darkstriders questions answered here at the bottom, they will help many of you out.


Cant wait to see the next round.


ROn:chug:

[fredflickstone]

I am looking at these images backward in the preview mode, so for some of you who stacked the images into one frame and my numbers arent coordinating, flip em, and it should be right...heh


ROn

[Big-Dave]

This looks like it's gonna be a great thread, and it's something I need to work on too so I'm giving it a go

http://img33.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Kitsuken/Studies/Form-Study-1.png

should have more done soon

EDIT: Thanks for the advice, I see your point with the values and everything, so I redid it and tried to improve on that. Flatter colours too cuase I used more mid tones (I've a bad habit of using too few colours and relying on opacity to effect colour)

Anyway, hope this versions an imrovement

[fredflickstone]

Big-Dave-good developing drawing at this stage. What I would do now, is really go in and realize the forms on her face, that is, define them better. They are all in with values, a bit too dark in the value range(lighten them all by at least 1 value) but the shapes are ot clearly defined in space. WHat shape is in front of what, what edge is harder, what edge is softer, etc. THis is how dimension works RIght now, the image drawn borderlines a graphic design, simply because all the edges drawn in currently are all similar all over...lo at my hand drawn example to get the story, its chiseled out, I will do another soon to help push it along again...keep em rollin, each one is progress. THe more you do, the closer to the truth your art will speak...how yoda like...heh


Ron

[sone_one]

hi ron thank you a lot.

shall i correct thosei allready did according to your crits, or shall i make new ones? which brings more experience?

[fredflickstone]

sone_one-correct your already started drawings it doesnt help to keep starting mistakes if you dont correct what you have made mistakes with...you are half way there, you just need a bit more to see it, you can fix them...

[fredflickstone]

Big-Dave, did you change the values in that image? They look a lot better, but sharpen those shapes...

ROn

[pencilfarmer]

thanks for the help fred - muchos appreciated!

[Big-Dave]

Well, I went to image>adjust>curves and moved those to a sertain position, altering the darkest value to a lighter one. Then I duplicated the layer and set it to screen...

Just kidding :D. I just painted over it again. It had more errors than I realised at first, so I thought that'd be the best way

Thanks for the advice, I'll try and get that done now

[sone_one]

ill work on the previous ones tomorrow. heres nr 5.

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/face-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/face-1.jpg

[nil]

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/crompton/images/lemenassgnmnt01.jpg

self crits: i think im a wee bit tentative with my shading, although the scan really doesnt help, for some reason my scanner only wants to grab the dark values. but yeah, i feel like im holding off a bit, everything seems to be too light. im having trouble seeing the spheres of the eyes with all the detail on them in the photos.

these were great to do, i would try and get some more out tonight, but i think i wanna hear back first. definitely get some done tomorrow night.

*edit: FUCK i hate my scanner. there are more mid tones in the actualk drawings :mad: *

[Darkstrider]

Alright, I got some new pics and I'm gonna do this again, but one more question first. I get that we're taking our time and carefully developing form... it's not about speed or economy of lines or anything, and we should have pics that show the entire head and are lit clearly so we can see all the forms. But here's the one thing that I'm still not clear on.....

Should we be trying to copy the shading/shadows exactly as we see them in the photo, or should we be creating our own shading to clearly define the forms that we see?

Also, are we supposed to be rendering the surface of the face, or more like the underneath structure? It's hard sometimes because, on some faces more than others, the lips are larger forms than the orbs of the eyes, and it's hard to see the curve of the teeth behind them... I'm often tempted to go ahead and render them... as form, not as a line. But since you already clearly stated that we're not supposed to do that, I'll resist the temptation. :)


Man, this is so excellent! This is the kind of training I need, and wasn't able to get at the local community college. They don't teach technique... basically the instructor just walks through the room saying "you learn to draw by drawing". We had live models like twice, but there was no instruction in HOW to do life drawing! Frustrating. Again, thank you so much Ron!

[sone_one]

nr1 corrected (at least i hope so :D)

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/aug-02-portrait-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/aug-02-portrait-1-1.jpg

[Big-Dave]

Nuther one from me.

http://img33.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Kitsuken/Studies/Form-Study-2.png

Got a new tablet now too, so I might be able to get another finished tonight

Oh, and the last ones been updated a bit more, although I didn't do much to it, it just got to the point where I seem to e working that one and not making any improvements

[sone_one]

nr3 corrected

ref
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/bill_bright-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/bill-bright-1-1.jpg

[fredflickstone]

sone_one-nr 5 is good. Now, watch something else...when you lay in the heads, use a center line, especially with these straight on shots to keep the alignment of left to right correct. The lower part of the face seems a little curved through the middle, if you know what I mean, but other than that, you are totally getting the concept. Good values, good forms...now get some high contrast images, with good volumes in the shadows and practice different value scales with your work.:chug:

nil-cleaner, and fewer lines if you can. the lay in should feel light, you might be getting a little heavy handed in the lay ins, if so , you might try starting the lay ins with a gray pencil, a non photo blue pencil, or a gray marker, but feint lines, not heavy and dark...and watch those mouths. Go look up my head tutorials in the tutorials section on this forum, and look up the head drawing tuts. There is an explanation for the mouth, how it works. IT is a clinder like form, not a wedge like these two suggest in the drawings. Take your time and be careful to look at the picture for the shadow patterns, this will help you find those basic shapes easier.

sone_one nr1 is correct, maybe soften the laugh lines around the mouth to get him back to the correct age, but you are off and running, 2 down, 3 good ones to go...

Big_Dave-looking good. The eye socket feels weird to me. Go to the tutorials section also, and grab the head tutorials, there is some explaining of the head, and its simple forms, might enlighten you to the eye socket shape. You have the concept, but its a ball stuffed into a wedge. Your drawing in Oakley lenses...heh. Also, get that chin off the neck, or find a darker value somewhere in there to help pull thsoe forms apart further. Beyond that, your shape defining is getting much better. Good work.

Darkstrider, try and find the forms, any you see, whether they be in mid tone or shadow, and define them. This is an exercise in seeing what comes first in the drawing, and most of that has to do with basic forms first, not details. Edges dfined become details, but forms found are structurally sound and create a compete scaffolding to place the little stuff, that later sits better on the forms.

Go full value if you need to, but no textures, only simple forms. So, for example, if the model is old, and there are lots of age lines in the face, omit them and move back into the basic structure of the entire cheek, as if you put a gaussian blur filter on the model before drawing him. Regardless of how many age lines there are, those lines are still following bone and tendon, and contrast muscle fibers. All stuck to a surface, not becoming singular and independent, but ameshed into the larger forms. Freckles, cracks, lips, pupils, etc, are details, stay clear of them until the bigger"Matrix" of forms is well established. While learning, you should take your time and do the right thing with the assignments. Once you get the concept, it should be more intuitive to you, and this basic lay-in thing will then draw itself into the picture instantly, and you will be able to draw more confidently, the details in their correct locations...now go to it, and have a heap of fun...


Ron

[fredflickstone]

sone_one n3's eyes feel a little too capped...if that is the right term. Blend them into the head better, the dark lines feel like outlines, maybe too dark a value also, but they are forcing the eye balls to feel pasted on, or caps, not adhering into the face better...this one needs a little TLC...

Ron

[sone_one]

thanks a lot ron... im learning so much doing these!

what is TLC?

heres corrected nr3
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/bill-bright-1-2.jpg

corrected nr1
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/aug-02-portrait-1-2.jpg

[fredflickstone]

sone_one-heh, language barrier TLC tender lovin care...old term, dated now but still used by dinosaurs like me...heh

These are better. Remember to grid the drawing off before starting, then block it in with the forms line up from left to right ...keep that template in check and you should do fine with your head drawing...


Ron

[Big-Dave]

Ack, I've misread something you said earlier. Wont be doing the eyes that way then :p Hopefully the eye socket will look better when I draw the eye differently.

Thanks for the advice on the chin too, I'll try and work on that

[Tjendol]

Don't know if I can still post and if I got the idea...but here's my try...

http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~s0369519/drawing/niro.jpg

[Vulturius]

my first attempts:

http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie01.jpg

http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie02.jpg

http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie03.jpg

http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie04.jpg

http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie05.jpg

[kasap]

ron- yes these are done in painter classic, i work with lines most of the time so i thought lets try to paint aswell, like hitting two birds with one stone. you were right about the eyes and especialy the mouth area, didn't think about it that when you smile the volum of the lips somewhat dissapear but the volume of the teeth area comes forward. thanks for the advise and the time you take to do this it's appreciated

http://members.lycos.nl/bolunixan/new/kop4.JPG
http://members.lycos.nl/bolunixan/new/kop-5.JPG

[Darkstrider]

*Downloads head tuts*

Ok, now I'm good to go! :rock:

Sone-one, your drawings are great... very inspirational. I hope I can do as well.

***EDIT***
Hey, I just figured out why you guys who work in PS put those little dabs beside your drawings... it's your value palette, isn't it? You grab from them for different values. I didn't get that... I thought maybe you were using ink wash or something. Huh... learn something every day!

[sone_one]

thanks darkstrider :). glad you like them.

yes its some kind of palette thingy... cause i like to turn of the menus when painting from ref... the workspace is bigger then.

[Big-Dave]

Here's a morning post from me

http://img33.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Kitsuken/Studies/Form-Study-3.png

Spent ages on that mouth area, still cant seem to get it right. Anyone else having trouble with that?

[Tjendol]

Great work people...this is fun and pretty challenging to do...I like it :)

My second attempt:

http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~s0369519/drawing/toni_soprano.jpg

[Darkstrider]

Here's my 2nd gen attempt#1 (if that makes any sense!)

I think it's a lot better, but everything got too dark. Tried to clean it up with an eraser, made a big mess, and finally did some cleanup in PS. Next time I need to use a harder pencil!

http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Port1.jpg

[cosmonaut]

Ok, first real post here. Not too happy with how it turned out but I can see this is definately a good exercise. Plan to do some more tonight.

Number 1:

http://home.comcast.net/~kevinwaldron1/ken1.jpg

Kevin

[Burton]

Here is my fourth try. Thanks for all your comments so far:

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port4.jpg

[The Iconoclast]

My attempt. I've never studied heads or drawn portraits, but I guess yas gots tuh' start somewhere, nyah?

Thanks sone_one for the little push over in the MC. I think I needed that ^_^

http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/TheIconoclast31/200126010-001.jpg

http://img24.photobucket.com/albums/v71/TheIconoclast31/scan0013.jpg

Sorry for the huge image :beer:

[hito]

Ron you're f'n awsome for taking time to do this for us! I look forward to meeting and learning from you in person in Austin.

http://stu.aii.edu/~nll181/face01.jpg
http://stu.aii.edu/~nll181/face02.jpg
http://stu.aii.edu/~nll181/face03.jpg
http://stu.aii.edu/~nll181/face04.jpg
http://stu.aii.edu/~nll181/face05.jpg

Thanks again!

[Darkstrider]

Next gen, #2:
http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Port02.jpg

Tried some slicker paper, seems to work nicely, but I was having a bad drawing day. Oh, and I realized that I hold my drawing pad at a little bit of anangle, so all my heads are tilted too far to one side! D-OH! :mad:

[Auguste]

give a try first....

http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/auguste288/DSC01719.jpg http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/auguste288/DSC01719d.jpg

http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/auguste288/DSC01718.jpg http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/auguste288/DSC01718d.jpg

[Big-Dave]

http://img33.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Kitsuken/Studies/Form-Study-4.png

This one turned out... amazingly well considering the time spent on it. 45 mins to the 1 1/2-2 hours of the last one. Next one wont be till tomorrow evening though. Got my first final tomorrow, so back to studying I go:rolleyes:

[loken]

http://users.mcleodusa.net/w/wtriska/incoming/sketch1.jpg

Thanks for taking the time to help everyone out Ron.

I found this to be rather hard. I feel like I'm copying the shapes rather than interpreting them as forms.

My other problem is with finding some decent ref! Eheh. Everything I find seems to be shot with a flash or fancy schmancy secondary light sources.

Are we suppose to take the light source from the photo and use it, or try to invent our own to search out form?

[edit]

Okay, heres another attempt. I feel a little better about it, but I'm still having a damned hard time simplifying. I did find it helped to think in the simplest of terms when it came to the direction of the light.. i thought, is it coming majorly from the top, bottom, left or right of the face.. then tried to envision it as a series of spheres cones and pyramids.. but still had difficulties..

http://users.mcleodusa.net/w/wtriska/incoming/sketch2.jpg

I'll try again soon.

[fredflickstone]

I cant answer all these today, maybe by tonight, I have class to teach soon, but...

Tjendol-Good attempt. But not really getting the concept completely realized in the drawing yet. The forms need to have value that works all over the form to heal the entire form together, or make all the parts seem as one form, not many fragments stuck together. The eyes feel pasted on, and dont have any value relationship with the rest of the head. You have given them outlines and they feel stuck on as a result. You also positioned the eye ball too high in the eye socket. It needs adjusting. Start with a center line in the head shape so the features dont turn on you, the nose and mouth are veering to the right through the middle of the head. Look at the examples I did again, and go grab my head tutorials in the tutorials section to help you figure out what to see correctly. But keep trying, this was a good firest attempt.

Vulturius-need to get pictures with complete heads, like the indian guy you picked. The head isnt totally realized unless you can see the whole thing, otherwise you are only drawing masks. I can see you are understanding part of the concept, but 2 things.
1. the tooth cylinder, as much as it is a volume, should feel like it blends into the face, not pull away from it.
2. Clean up your tones, as in the last one you did. Cleaner is easier to see the things we need to find in the forms.

Good attempts, next time better reference...:)


Kasap-nice second round. See if you cant get that tooth cylinder to work better for you. The old man smiling, since his mouth is depressed, that one is going to be tricky, but the values in your drawing feel artificial. Keep em tonal to the flesh, not the teeth. Good plane break up, but make the seams that bind one facet, or plane of the head to the next simpler, not so painterly yet. We need to realize solid form before letting loose. Keep em up, and good reference.


Big-Dave-get complete reference, no edges of the head clipped, and dont look for highlights yet. The light edges in the cheeks are a bit too premature. Good attempt otherwise.

Tjendol-your Suprano image is nicely painted, but there is too much information too soon, and too many values that are too dark. You have given him quite a tan, and the values need to be more like the photo. Go back and recheck your values, and draw simpler. Get those tutorials to help you out.



Darkstrider-now you are getting it. But I still see lids cut in the eyes. Nice characature of her, reminds me of a rockwell silhouette. Try some high contrast lighting too, not just subtle lighting, this is harder to find form, but a great challenge.


Cosmonaut-need construction under the values. THis head doesnt read like the reference yet. Slow down on the layin, then look for volumes, not outlines. It is a good first attempt, but now try it again with a bit more construction involved.

Alright, I am off to class, I will answer the rest later. This is really inspirational to see so many want to learn to draw the right way, or a better way, I garuntee you, you do these exercises it will only improve your work...thanks for the inspiration and keep em up.


Ron

[sone_one]

another one (#6?)

ref.
http://members.chello.at/sone_one/noel-ref.jpg

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/noel-1.jpg

cheers

btw im glad some of the MC fellas finally made it ;) (hito, iconoclast :chug: )

[edit] heres the sketch i started with before i went for the shading...

http://members.chello.at/sone_one/noel-1-sketch.jpg

[Darkstrider]

*LOL* mine ARE looking like caricatures! I tend to get caught up in the details and exaggerate them.

Sone-one, thanks for posting that sketch... I tend to just get the head outline and the center line, then the lines for the eyes nose and mouth, and then just start shading. I need to try it more like that.

I have the same problem as Loken... copying the shadows and the shapes directly from the picture rather than reinterpreting them onto my drawing as pure form and then shading it. This is really hard because when I look at a head, I see the eyelids and lips as form... smaller than the major forms, but impossible to ignore. It's hard to imagine the head without them. I keep getting confused as to whether I'm trying to draw the surface of the skin or some theoretical forms underneath. I try to draw it as theoretical forms, but end up mostly drawing the skin.

[jetpack42]

Wow...tonight I realized how powerless and weak my artistic skill is when faced with a real test. I attempted the same head 5 times...I kept getting halfway, realizing I was drawing details, and then going on to a new one. I seem to be wired retarded, or just have some bad bad bad bad habits screwed into my brain. So without further ado, let the awfulness begin.

Here's the guy I was tryin to draw...Though I don't know him, I have grown to hate him
http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face01.jpg

and my attempts, in order...

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face02.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face03.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face04.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face05.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face06.jpg

I learned that I'm not seeing the...drawing, as a whole. (I Also learned I draw heads way tooooooo wide) I'm not really..completing it as a whole. I do a section, move onto whats interesting, do it, move on to whats interesting, and so on. I think I need to learn to really work out a drawing properly. It's pretty obvious I don't know what the heck is going on...must...practice...

Thanks Ron for doing this. I'll appreciate any insight you can offer. I've got my hardhat on, so be brutal. If I learned one thing from art school, its how to take criticism...and I'm my own worst critic. I always set high goals for myself, and seem to fall so miserably short. Life goes on...

This seems to be a big hit...maybe the lesson should be bi-weekly? to give people all a chance to do it several times and whatnot...but...what do I know? I can't even do the lesson right once.

[urbunner]

Here are 4 attempts. I couldnt believe how many mistakes I noticed once I scanned my drawing in and compared it to the photo. I'm seeing how important it is just to get the very basic form correct. Thank You Ron for taking the time to do these excercises. It feels like I'm sitting in on a college course I did'nt pay for.
http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/old_lady.jpg http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/lady.jpg
http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/black_male.jpg
http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/beard_man.jpg

[Tjendol]

Ron, thnx for your comments and for the time you take to help us all out.

I tried to change one of my earlier paintings (tony soprano) Editing didn't work out so I started from scratch.

This time I tried to keep it more basic and simple because I tend to get in details very quickly when I'm drawing. I started out with lines and then I tried to get the values in correctly to make more of a consistent totality.

I really feel I'm learning from this. I hope I did better.

here it is:

http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~s0369519/drawing/soprano_edit1.jpg

[heartbeat]

First let me say thank you for doing this you don't know how much I appreciate it.And also this is a great way to push someone use photo references the right way
And here is my try # 1

http://img74.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Mishkata/10.jpg

[Gunyouken]

Hi there,

Thanks! this is the best art website i've ever seen, it is wondefull to find great artists willing to help us beggining artists out.

I only found this thread a few minutes ago and I did not have time to really sit and draw some faces... I tried one of these with the full sized eyeballs in the sockets like we were supposed to... but it looked all wrong it seemed to changed the whole form of the face so i just put in non finished eyes.

http://img51.photobucket.com/albums/v157/gunyouken/ron%20assignments/Assignment1.jpg

[bear]

Thanks for taking your time and doing this ron.

I think I missed the point and ended up doing more of a copy rather than finding and drawing/painting the most important forms.

http://cybear.spawnpoint.org/forca/ugh1.jpg

[fredflickstone]

Bear-this last one is good. This is what you need to be doing. Look for a better connection between the tooth cylinder and teh nose. IT is a rhythm that exists in the photo, find it and draw it in correctly and sign this off for now. Great job on this one. DO you understand better about what to look for now when starting a pictiure? ANd dont stop doing this. This is the way to block in a start for a stronger finish. Until this is intuitive, dont stop with this procedure.

Gunyouken-hello, thanks for the quick posts, but you didnt quite do what was required. First, no line art only, you are fleshing out forms. 2. I am not looking for the eyeball, I am looking for a socket. GO look in the tutorials section of this forum, go back out to the main messageboard center, and find tutorials, and get my head tutorials, "read" them, and then try this again. I think it will make it easier to find what you should be looking for first. I also posted one on the first page with a digital, and a pencil version of what to find, go hunt that down, and retry these. ANd try not to get to anime with them...but thank you for trying to improve your work and submitting here, that is always good for the artist in us.

Heart beat, I am going to do a few things with yours to show you what you can do to find stronger forms, but what you did was good, and right on with what you guys should be accomplishing in the pieces posted here. THe forms are found, and values are placed in correctly, I see good volumes, and not really any texture except for maybe a little showing up in the hair. It is a good one though, and your seeing the right things. Just need some harder edges in the image, and they are there, look for them. And need maybe a bit more done with the size of the bottom shaded plane of the nose.

Tjendol-now your getting it, but still seeing outlines in the piece. Try and end forms with harder edges, but not outlines. And unfortunately, its not that great a reference so you cant see the dark side. This is a photo thing and doesnt exist in reality. But you have to find that other ear to help create a better left to right balance on the head. IT feels lacking in balance since the ear hasnt been found. Once you find it, you may have to invent more values in the shadow to make the forms work right...a little bit of work...but I am sure you can do it.
:chug:

urbunner-looks like you are trying to draw the head the same size the reference is. Draw them bigger if you can so you can model out the forms better. You have the concept right for what I can see currently, but ithey are sketchy, not clear and I need to see better forms to really help you out. Now, if you can control the pencil at this scale, finish these off cleaner, but if you dont think you can do it, then redraw, but bigger and cleaner. Take your time, and dont rush through just to get lots done. Quality not quantity is going to teach you more in the end. good first attempts.

jetpack 42-

[fredflickstone]

hit wrong button...doh finishing jetpack 42 right now...

[fredflickstone]

jetpack42-the funny thing is, these are not what to look for, but all of them are very cool to look at. You have a neat line style that looks very klimpt like or scheile looking...maybe even kent williams sketching...organic and passionate.

But, yeah they suck for this assignment...heh..you said you had that hard hat on...I am kidding, but a D, D+ maybe...no, what is missing, seriously, is the form. None of these express form yet. They all feel black and white, but not volumetric. Shading form is not easy at first, but requires gradation skills, and those are easy to learn. YOu need to see when a value changes, how to register that in your drawing, making it apparent what your form is doing and where it is going in pictorial space.

These images, as cool as they are show now understanding of how the form is turning dimensionally, they all feel graphic. But again, that is a different kind of drawing, and there is nothing wrong with them beyond not working with this assignment.

But, if you want convincing drawings to share with all, they need more attention to dimension, and not feel so flat. Also, spend more time learning how to use the graphite you work with so it works for you and not against you. Seems like when it is laid to its side for broader strokes, they fall to pieces and not hold up as solid form...

Dont let this stop you from going forward, keep pounding through these, and yes, watch your widths and your heights in relation to each other, not independently, and that goes for the placement of all things in your picture. ALl things have a width and height relationship to each other, find them both and you are closer to exactness....

[fredflickstone]

sorry for all the typos...



sone_one-number 6 is looking good, except the face is slightly side lit, and the eyeballs appear directly front lit, not sticking to the face as well as they could. But I believe it appears you understand the concept clearer now, am I right?

loken-I can say at least you tried, and got some of it right, but not all of it. Yes, it appears the images have a look of copying what you see, and not fleshing out the forms entirely. The forms are created by the anatomy under the skin, plus the light and shade on the skin, or whatever we draw. Surface plus Interior construction = what we draw. These feel copied from a reference. Get the head tutorials I have over in the tutorials section, read em and then get back to these two images. You get part of the concept, but need to grasp a few other ideas before the conceot works with you. A key to stronger drawing of objects that have a left and right, is find the center line of the object to keep all things left to right in check, and can better find the forms that may be less obvious to find.
Better reference, we have a reference thread back out in the main messageboard area with a great head ref section, and gettyone.com and type in portraits in the search engine. Thousands of good ones will come up.

Big-Dave, it does look good for a short period of time. IT has a strong likeness. But, dont look for highlights for now. They are too soon, and are breaking forms like the tooth cylinder into too many incorrect segments. But it is her likeness without details. Do you usually have a difficult time getting a type right? This is big improvement if so...send it back over when fixed, and for next time, no more cropped heads, we need to see the whole thing.


Auguste-those are better. Teh glasses man and dark man. But, teh african american is not the right value yet in skin tone, which adds another complexity to what you are searching for. But, the value scale is off because his tone was not first placed. Both are getting closer, use more light construction for better alignment of your forms, and no nostrils...just planes.

Darkstrider-next gen #2 is not a good reference since you had to add to the head, and it doesnt look right, the new addition, which means more time is focused on what is not there vs what is. The values are off a bit too. All value is a plane, or surface facet. You have tones kinda doing there own thing in your picture, not really making any sense of themselves. The shadows under the eyes, the square on her left temple, and the tones around her mouth are all floating. They dont have a place to be, or anatomy to sit on, so they get in the way, almost like camouflage. And her eyesockets are deep set and you have yours drawn in too light, and not comforming to the rest of the lighting. But, the rendering has personality, and the characature is fun, just not quite what we are trying for completely. Keep taking a swing at it, its only a matter of more practice.

hito-where did you get the brute man and the indian woman heads? Those are in a book that is hard to find. DO you have the book or did you find these online? I want to shoot that book...heh. The last one of the bunch is by far the most successful of the lot. I dont mind the x hatching but be careful with it since it never produces harder edges unless you outline. That makes for rough looking forms until you know how to diversify your hatching. The second one is in indirect light, and you have made her face glow, it would be in a darker value overall. The third one is lacking any light and dark, and the forth and fifth ones are halfway resolved, but dont have a variety of edges on the forms found to make them clear as to what forms they are. Does that make sense? They eyes count as forms too, not voids. BUT, and I have to say, your likenesses without details are very close on almost all of them. Keep em up.

Iconoclast-I admire your honesty. this is an ok first attempt at a head, it reads in its cartooned version, but the photo reference is pretty bad. ITs cropped to close to his face. We need to see more to see more solid form... Try again.

Burton-Need ot find the rest of the head. The hair is hiding part of the head you drew making it look funny. Part of the skull is missing making it look awkward. And I am still seeing lines in the eyes, why? heh no more eye lines...you also darkened the values on the side of his head that is brighter lit. The far side of his head should be rolling into shadow more than his right cheek...

ALright everyone, I might be talking direct with each one of ya, but I like what I am starting to see, and I am only talking direct to give you a kick in the butt to get the next ones right and closer to perfection. I am going to extend this out another week to give you guys a chance to clean up and do a few more to understand the concept before I assign number 2. Coolio?

Talk with ya soon,

ROn

[sone_one]

But I believe it appears you understand the concept clearer now, am I right?

yes i think and at least hope so ;). thank you!


I am going to extend this out another week to give you guys a chance to clean up and do a few more to understand the concept before I assign number 2.

weee ive been so curious what will be next.... well np ill do a few more experimenting with values und edges. its such a great opportunity having you giving indepth crits... ill stress that :D

[hito]

Thanks so much for the commets Ron. I got the last two out of the face book in the school library. Should I not use them?

I'll take another swing or two at these. maybe I'd be better off with attempting values with charcoal pencil?

[fredflickstone]

sone-one-cant wait to see what you produce.

hito-can you get me the name of that book, and the isbn number. I want to trakc a copy of it down. IT is actually a great book to work with. I just can't ever find out the name of it. Oh, and the author too. Use many from that book, it is great reference.


Ron

[bwkeough]

here's my go at the homework. I defintely got carried away and over-rendered most of these, past the point of the assignment. However, I did find myself really seeking out the volumetrics, more consiously than ever before. I had previously been taught to seek out the shadows of the eyesockets, nose, and lower lip to find the likeness. That idea, I think, follows only partway down the path you're showing us, Ron.

So, tell me when I left the path on these:
(all images are from a time:life picture book, "life goes to the movies."

#1 Liz Taylor at 17
http://nand.net/~keough/homework_images/lizs.jpg

#2 Bogart in the African Queen
http://nand.net/~keough/homework_images/bogarts.jpg

#3 William Holden in "Stalag 17"
http://nand.net/~keough/homework_images/wills.jpg

#4 Brando on the set of "The Countess from Hong Kong"
http://nand.net/~keough/homework_images/brandos.jpg

#5 Buster Keaton on the set of "Film"
http://nand.net/~keough/homework_images/busters.jpg

Never did have so much fun doing homework on a Friday night! :D

[hito]

dont have a variety of edges on the forms found to make them clear as to what forms they are. Does that make sense?

actually, now that I think about this... I don't understand it as well as I should or thought I did.

I'm thinking: edge where the forms meet... the sharper the angle where the forms meet, the more distinct the edge?

I'm breaking down the head into masses ala Georgeman and Robert Beverly Hale, and then hatching the values loosely. I guess I needed more time to develope the values more to show the volumes?

[Velo]

Ron, it's just awsome that you're willing to spend the time to give this kind of detailed instruction! I'm planning to go to the workshop, and also working on taking a trip out to Watt's for the fall semester, so I am looking forward to learning from you in person. It can't hurt to get a head start, right? :) Thanks again for your time helping people with these studies!

I did two to start it off and make sure I am on the right path.

http://www.velondra.com/images/wip/headstudy2.jpg http://www.velondra.com/images/wip/studyimage1.jpg

http://www.velondra.com/images/wip/headstudy1.jpg http://www.velondra.com/images/wip/studyimage2.jpg

[D.O.Jones]

I've got a long way to go in this.

http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v203/RashOverdrive/ron_head.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v203/RashOverdrive/port2.jpg

[jetpack42]

This stupid thing. How long do you have before the messageboard automatically kicks you off in the middle of writing a message?

Ron,
Thanks so much for the critique, and even looking at my work. Your talk with Manley, and any other classes you're teaching is the main reason I'm going. Your paintings always make me realize how far I have to go, how hard I need to work, and how much of an artistic peabrain I am. I thank you for the inspiration, and the help.

also, bwkeough, killer sketches man, killer!

I somewhat understand what you were saying. I tried to pay attention more to the volumes. It's difficult to train your mind to think the right way. I fall back into my old habits easily. One of the worst is drawing with my wrist. You can see it in the ones from yesterday, and the early ones today (even some in the late ones). I've always got the hardhat on though, so just tell me where I'm screwing up so I can do my best to not do it next time. I do want more convincing drawings to share with all...so I'm back for some more. Early on I was drawing small, thinking too much detail, and really sucking it up again. the 3rd drawing woke me up a minute or 2 in when I saw that mouth line, and how I was just copying a line from a photo, instead of building up some 3D form on the page. I think I am starting to grasp a little more the metality of drawing the volume, space...and putting it on the page. In the end, I mentally said "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" and held my pencil like a monkey and made bigger broader marks. I think I need to draw bigger, and hold my pencil like a monkey more often, because it seemed to work. I was also inspired by bwkeough's drawings so I decided to start using the crosshatching more, I think that is getting gradually more successful. Obviously I have to do this about 100 more times, but today was one of the rare days I could feel, and see, my improvement. (Usually its just one crappy drawing after another, like yesterday) Anyhow, let me know where I am going astray, I will work harder to stay on the path that is right.

Here's the poor bastards who's likenesses I butchered...
http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Faces01.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face07.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face08.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face09.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face10.jpg

http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Face11.jpg


Thanks for your inspiration and tutelage. Both are invaluable. If we are hanging out outside of the workshop, drinks are on me.

Also, thanks for extending this lesson another week. I'd really like to learn, but am very busy (who isn't, right?). I'll take advantage of the extra time to catch up with everyone, thank you.

[Nold]

Ron, this thread is awesome thank you for taking time for this. Good that you extended the time for this assignment another week, otherwise it would have been to late for me to jump on the train.

http://www.nhoch2.de/images/assign/1/1.jpg
http://www.nhoch2.de/images/assign/1/2.jpg
http://www.nhoch2.de/images/assign/1/3.jpg
http://www.nhoch2.de/images/assign/1/4.jpg
http://www.nhoch2.de/images/assign/1/5.jpg

[bear]

Bear-this last one is good. This is what you need to be doing. Look for a better connection between the tooth cylinder and teh nose. IT is a rhythm that exists in the photo, find it and draw it in correctly and sign this off for now. Great job on this one. DO you understand better about what to look for now when starting a pictiure? ANd dont stop doing this. This is the way to block in a start for a stronger finish. Until this is intuitive, dont stop with this procedure.

Ron: I think I might have confused you by using someone else's (pencilfarmer's)ref pic - this was my first one (don't worry though I'll do more!).

[Gunyouken]

Getting into anime is quite a big prob for me... stupid how to draw manga books. :D I only of late discovered that I would rather draw life drawings.

I didn't have time to work through the tuts between the time I found this assignment thread and today, I'll be more in tune with whats happening in the next assignment.

ciao

[Darkstrider]

Hey, you're in luck.... this one's been extended another week!

Thank god too... last night I made one of the ugliest drawings I've ever seen. It seems lately my pencils refuse to obey my will. Iused to be able to get really fine gradations of shading and control it exactly how I wanted... on typing paper! Nothing else seems to respond as nicely. Maybe I need to pick up a pack of it again, since these are just sketches and don't need to last for centuries.

Jetpack... I bow down to your linework! :chug:
I'm really diggin' your stuff, but I don't think it quite fits the assignment that well. By the way, how does a monkey hold the pencil... you mean just really loose and floppy? Makes for some nice unpredictable stuff... very sponaneous, but maybe choke up on it just a little... that way you can get your lines more under control and let them start to blend together into shading.

I'm going to cleanse my aura and renew myself and try this again... need to find the right combination of media and paper. I think it also depends on the right balance of right brain/left brain... I tend to try to do it all intuitively when I should be carefully laying out the planes of the face first.

Man, I really need to draw something else for a while first though... remind myself that I don't always suck this bad!:xx:

[troymcoy]

I just came across this today so I thought i'd have a go,
i'm new to digital painting and OC

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/363/hanibalref.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5006/pepaprdform.jpg

It doesn't realy look like Peppard anymore, but it was fun...

[Tjendol]

http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~s0369519/drawing\walken.jpg

Alright...switched back to traditional..which btw is a hell of lot harder than digital..lol. I also used a different picture with less really big dark spots so I can see what's really going on all over the picture.

I need a smaller eraser..when I used this one i took away half the nose..lol

This time I really tried to use values that work all over the form. Could'nt really get as dark as some of the values in the picture because I used pencils, that's why I used the darkest value possible as the darkest in the picture and worked from there on.

I tried to form shapes with the values so there wouldn't be a lot of obvious lines in the drawing like the ones before.

Hope it's better..

Well this was fun, I think I'm gonna practice with pencils a lot more from now on.

[bear]

no.2:

http://cybear.spawnpoint.org/forca/ugh3.jpg

The things I feel most uncertain about is how to treat the mouth and eye areas, I guess I should look more at good examples.

[Papi]

Ron, thanks a lot for the time you take for this community !

Here's my try :

http://server5.uploadit.org/files/hokuto-assignement_001.jpg

[Gunyouken]

Here is what I did today.
My scanner refuses to scan my lighter lines, so there are some values missing... stupid scanner...

This is more difficult than I thought it would be.
I sort of see where my problems lie, it is difficult to fix them though, I also feel that on rounder faces I tend to make them too slender,

It's a pity I live so far from texas,it would have been nice to go to that workshop. I think one can pick up alot from the artists that are gonna be there.

http://img51.photobucket.com/albums/v157/gunyouken/ron%20assignments/heads2.jpg

M

[loken]

Hey Gunyoukon, your second one isnt half bad.

On your first one, your having some problems fleshing out the face, largely because of ill-symmetry. I have that problem too though sometimes, heh. Ron mentioned before, putting a line down the middle on both your sketch and reference.

Try drawing big shapes first, lightly, then mold the contours to the shape of the face.

Your drawing with all curves at first. Curves are hard to control, so break it down to large line segments.

I'm no master, so you can take my advice as a grain of salt, but these are things I've slowly been solving in my own drawings with success.


Anywhose, I did another.. I feel better about it. I have a ways to go though. Not enough contrast. Struggling with core shadow vs reflected light.

http://users.mcleodusa.net/w/wtriska/incoming/sketch3.jpg

[urbunner]

Here's another attempt. I did it bigger and fleshed out more of the tones and form. I'm going to continue doing these I'm learning alot
http://http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/old_lady2.jpg

[urbunner]

Sorry first one did'nt go through. Here's my second attempt
http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/old_lady2.jpg

[loken]

Ah, I'm stupid. Forgot to say thanks a ton for the crits Ron. Someone ought to start a paypal donation account to give you a vacation. You just never stop. :)

I tried again with the O-ren one, and I feel like I learned quite a bit, but I know theres some fatal mistakes in there somewhere. Probably my weakest point is in understanding where to put the core shadows.

http://users.mcleodusa.net/w/wtriska/incoming/oren2.jpg

[jetpack42]

Today I was sitting at Kidney Dialysis with my grandpa, and I tried to take what I am learning, and apply it with what I already know (not much). These are attempts at 3 dimensional volume WITHOUT PHOTO REFERENCE. That is the goal, right Ron? In the end, to be able to draw convincingly from your head? Anyway, my attempt...


http://img3.photobucket.com/albums/v12/jetpack42/Faces02.jpg

[Burton]

Again, thanks a million for taking the time to do this. It's very helpful.

second try on this first one:

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port4-2.jpg

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port5.jpg

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/people/burton1/portraits/port6.jpg

[Big-Dave]

Thanks for the advice. I'm definately glad we're getting another week, I can't do any more till after wednesday (got my 2 worst finals on the same day, need to spend the first half of the week studying) I'll get back to work on these once exams are over though,

Do you usually have a difficult time getting a type right?

Wasn't quite sure what you meant by this. The thing I had most trouble with was getting the form of the mouth area, I can't seem to visualise it without lips.

I'll try and work on it though, and try and adress the problems you pointed out, should have more work done on the 4th and have the 5th done by the end of the week. Thanks again for the help

[kasap]

Thanks for the crits ron, worked on the oldman some more, you were right about the values didn't realize how off the really were, made the eye balls bigger too. couldn't really get the planes connected simpler together have to work on that some more. i realized i was drawing details so i stopped.

http://members.lycos.nl/bolunixan/new/kop-5edit.JPG

[StylesDavis]

sorry for posting all these kinda ass-faces, but they are all from my high-resolution skinningreference-page i need for 3d... :)

i was struggling very hard with this one. perhaps i have to study skull & facemuscles in my bammes first to achieve better results...


http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_5.jpg

http://mitglied.lycos.de/chrisnix/4ron_5_ref.jpg

[urbunner]

Here's another one.
http://img18.photobucket.com/albums/v54/urbunner/jack_copy.jpg

[Metrini]

THANK YOU RON!! (mostly fort he extension =p) And of course for the assignments and assistance =)

Here is my first attempt. I wasnt sure waht to do with teh nose and mouth. Do your worst!!

More to come

Metrini :D

http://underwearninja.com/users/metrini/Metrini/Homework1.jpg

[Gunyouken]

Hey Loken

I see what you mean with the drawing all curves.. I tried to draw everything in line segments , like in Ron's tuts.. But I fail miserably, as soon as I use line segments nothing looks right AT ALL. I just end up erasing. I'm still trying though.

:chug:
Cheers mate

[sixBlade]

Thanks a lot Ron for doing this, and more importantly for extending it, I thought it was 2 weeks anyway so I would have missed out if u hadn't! I only wish I could go to Texas, damn the lack of money. :(

Not entirely sure if these were whats wanted.

Nr. 1
http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sixBlade/face1.jpg
Nr. 2
http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sixBlade/face2.jpg
Nr. 3
http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sixBlade/face3.jpg

Probably happiest with the first one, looks more like what we're supposed to do. #2 just went wrong from the word 'contour'

#3 I was trying to focus specifically on the shapes themselves and mostly disregarding the actual lighting in choice of trying to define the shapes more.

Are we trying to keep the existing lighting but pushing out the shapes more? I'm a little confused still.

[fredflickstone]

Ok, here we go again, I have this stupid Itouch spam that pops up when I type, and I lose everything I wrote to the damn spam. I had this almost finished, a lot of writing, and its all gone to cyber space…

I will redo the crits, but it will take longer than I thought, and I cant get to all of them now since its lost, but I will get to them all by tomorrow…damn…

Metrini, thank you for posting, its good to see you here. This is a very good first attempt. But there is something missing that will help this image entirely. Draw a center line down the middle of the face in the photo and look at the tilt that is in the head. Then do the same with your image. The center line is not aligned with the same tilt and as a result, the features are expanding up to the to right of his head. Getting the center line reestablished will help you get the drawing back on track.

The other thing in the image that is in need of fixing but in a small way, is some of the modeling of the forms. This is an easy fix, and requires less reconstructing than axis fixing, ala centerline of head. The tip of the nose is a bit light, lacking in value causing the nose to feel as if it belongs to the light planes of the head, when in fact, the tip is facing away from the light. The edges on the laugh line are too sharp, the laugh line in the photo is depicted softer. Softening this line up will bring back some of his youth. The chin also lacks in solid value structure and as a result feels a bit dislocated from the rest of the head that is so well modeled. Make the fixes and this one is a go…nice work.

urbunner-now that you are creating pictures with mass only, can you see what the problems would be in the drawing if it were approached linearly? The tooth cylinder is out of alignment with the rest of the head and as a result, makes the head feel more upright, and there is a slight tilt in the head. This is where the likeness is drifting. Put a centerline in your drawing before blocking in all the tones and it will help resolve this error. Other than that, this is a great attempt, its working, I see form clearly and can rectify drawing problems without sacrificing too much in labor…

Style Davis, same as I mentioned above, drawing in tone, and doing it clearly now, we can easily see where, linearly, you might have messed up a bit. The eyes have a new expression of their own, not related to the one in the photo, making this senator look angry. The eyes are a bit too close together also, they could spread out a bit more. BUT, this is all good since the drawing is well formed, we can see what is missing, or what is wrong, and that is good, don’t you think? Also, start with a centerline in the head so you can make it easier relating left to right.

Kasap-think neo from the first matrix when drawing that tooth cylinder. No indication of where the lips and teeth are, he looks like a clown, instead of form. The skin should cover over the teeth, and not be discolored. Same with the eyes. You made them bigger, but not volumetric. They are still white and should be skin tone. Think skin covering over everything revealing only form, not color, not details, then this will work well. It does feel better everywhere else, so its just the eyes and mouth that need some work.

Big Dave-what I meant was, do you have trouble getting likenesses in your drawings, or is that easy for you to achieve? It seems that now you are massing in forms, the likenesses will evolve quicker, as your images are doing. You are very close to a strong likeness in most of the images, that is a really strong attribute to have…

Burton, you are on your way to getting the concept. All three are much stronger now, well, the first is stronger, the others are getting close to the point. I still see outlines for features in the head, the noses especially, and there should be none. Just volumes built up by tone. And no nostrils, they need to be absorbed into generic planes first so you understand how to model more form up with form shadows, that usually exist on the nostril planes but we miss that info because we are too busy rendering the nostril hole…
Try to get your lines closer together when you shade also so the tones are cleaner.

Jetpack42-wow, you are very noble helping your family. That is something lacking in so many these days…the goal of drawing from life and learning rules is so we as an artist, one who speaks from within and feels for what he/she sees, can express what we see or feel effortlessly, so it is more about the content emotionally vs technique that tends to come across without feeling. These certainly have feeling in them, and I like the stylization. Now, as for likeness or whatever, I don’t know what your goal was that day, but they feel consistent from one to the next. But representationally, they are missing in certain elements that would give them more personality. That will come with time. The more you do this the easier it will get and the more careful information will stay in the work vs. meaningless stuff…nice sketches…

Loken, that is a stronger attempt this time. Cleaner, simpler, and easy to see where things are slipping, the way it should be you are bringing up your drawing correctly. A centerline is what you need. Then you can really see what is missing, or what needs to be more to the right or left. The eyesockets feel a bit small. Don’t try and paint a separate value for the lids vs. the white of the eye. Think of the eyeball as fleshed over so there is no telling what a lid is, you are looking for ball mass only. Get those fixed. Work on tryng to make the left and right side of her face feel mirrored in form. The shadow patterns are falling weird over your drawing of her left cheek, your right side, try to see if you can figure out how the cheekbone structure is working to make the two sides feel mirrored in construction. If you are confused, try it anyway, submit again and I will do a paint over to help you with it. I am trying not to do paintovers yet, I want to see if you guys can figure this stuff out on your own or not…keep it up…

Urbunner-She is feeling a bit zombified in this picture. Try really hard to keep the shading cleaner, so we can read the form. Just because her skin is aged, that is not the surface we are after. We are still after making her feel full of form, the wrinkles are details. This is too busy in the tones and need them cleaner, then we will get down to business on what is going on underneath…J

Loken, head on hand girl, she has a downtilt, and her head is slightly tipped to the left, you can see the stress in the sterno clydo muscle. The neck muscle, its tense, active. These have to be brought back into the image or the picture wont work in the end…keep working on this one…


more soon, including sixblades new post...


Ron

[Metrini]

#2

http://www.underwearninja.com/users/metrini/Metrini/Homework1b.jpg

[Metrini]

I see exactly what you mean ROn and thanks for the suggestions. Working on it right away!

[sixBlade]

Ron have you tried installing AdAware:

http://www.lavasoft.de/

or Spybot: Search & Destroy:

http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10122137.html?part=104443&subj=dlpage&tag=button

It sounds like you've got some sort of Adware on your computer thats causing those annoying iTouch popups. Either of the programs above should sort it for you.

[goldi]

Hmmm... I hope I'm not too late.
After I saw what's happening here in this thread, and all the great work you posted I decided to join the club ... :)

http://www.ilumino.net/pics/conceptart/sketch-karlasmall-paint1.jpghttp://www.ilumino.net/pics/conceptart/ref-karlasmall.jpg

[sixBlade]

Heres my number 4. Tried to do it in a different way to the others, is this better? More importantly should I try to blend the tones more?

I have too many questions, sorry.

http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sixBlade/face4.jpg

Edit: Just looked at my 1-3 again, dear god theyre bad, anatomy issues all over the shop. I apologise for my horrifically bad drawing skills.

[bear]

no.3

http://cybear.spawnpoint.org/forca/ugh4.jpg

[sixBlade]

Redid number 1. gonna do 2 & 3 like this as well before doing 5

http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sixBlade/face1-2.jpg

[Metrini]

remake of #1

http://www.underwearninja.com/users/metrini/Metrini/Homework1a.jpg

[Form]

these:
http://img16.photobucket.com/albums/v47/formsketch/May%2004/CharacterPortraitValues1-Lo.jpg

and this one, taken further to c how it would help me.
http://img16.photobucket.com/albums/v47/formsketch/May%2004/b6d8594c.jpg

thanks ron, a valuable exercise.....NEXT! :D

[Signature]

Is it too late already?

Self crits ...

There are details that shouldn't be there.
The messy brushstrokes look ugly.
The proportions are off.
And I can't paint the shape of hair in general

http://www.andyart.de/images/oldandbad/end01.jpg
In this one I tried to eliminate local colors.
Thought maybe that is ok because of the "Become explorers" part!?
The hair still seems to be darker. So I didn't really succeed.
Light and shadow are not separated as well as they should be.
Especially the side in shadow has many spots that are too bright.

http://www.andyart.de/images/oldandbad/end02.jpg
This is more off topic I guess. Too many details.
Here I didn't eliminate local colors.

edit:

Another quick one:
http://www.andyart.de/images/oldandbad/end03.jpg

[sixBlade]

Metrini in both of yours you seemt o have drawn the lower contour of the face first, noting the angle of it reasonably well, but then placed the hair on top flat (rather than at the slight angle) and thats ruined the placing of the rest of the features at the angle as well. Be more careful ;)

[Metrini]

Ahh I see what you mean. I definitely see it with the first image!! Thanks!!

[Darkstrider]

Ok, you guys convinced me to try photoshop. I did a few really bad attempts, then suddenly hit 'the zone' and did this one:
http://www.darkstrider.net/images/Port4.jpg

...It could be better I know, but it took me a looong time to get it here (and at times it did look better!). I think with some more experience in PS I could bring it a lot closer.

....I'm going to keep working this one... I can see a lot that needs doing. I'll post the new improved version later.

[ZeKeZ]

Hi every1 ^_^. Just wanna say that all your works n effort r really inspiring. I've been visiting this board 4 some time now but i think this is my 1st post. Hope its not 2 late 2 jump on2 this 1st assignment. Heres my post.

http://zekearts.com/gallery/assignment1a.jpg

http://zekearts.com/gallery/assignment1b.jpg

http://zekearts.com/gallery/assignment1c.jpg

Thanks ron 4 starting this thread n 4 any comments/crits. Its really encouraging 2 c so much involvement. Every1 keep up the good work :cool:

[sixBlade]

Heres my redo of #2

http://img41.photobucket.com/albums/v126/sixBlade/face2-2.jpg

[dCepT]

Hi, Ron. I got into this thread a bit late, but I'm stoked that I'll be able to learn from you! I haven't got the opportunity to go to the workshop, so this is the next best thing!
And like everyone else have said; thanks for taking the time out of your undoubtedly busy schedule to help us out!

Here are my first two. I'll post the next three tomorrow.

http://img35.photobucket.com/albums/v106/dCepT/assignements/Arab.jpg

http://img35.photobucket.com/albums/v106/dCepT/Assignements/OldLady.jpg

thanks for your time, man!

Fredrik

[fredflickstone]

I have started from page 3, where I didnt get to yet, and now its caught up to page 4, with sixblades being the first in the next post which will have to be later. I am hurting after this one and have class soon...post with ya later, and keep em rolling, this is an awesome thread with biggg improvements already with the reposts...

Ron


Bwkeough-I cant say a whole lot other than this first run of images is amazing. I love the look. Do not, and I mean do not move in another direction with your style unless you want to change it personally. I think you have a striking look and it can only get stronger. One thing I will point out though, make sure you constantly keep an eye on the tilt of the heads.
Brando is off, and the tilt in Liz Taylor’s nose is slipping. Keep a really light centerline down the middle of the face, and change it as you see it needs correcting.
The other bit-when starting off the block in don’t think about nostrils, and go for planes. Think of the nostrils sitting on a surface, and you have to find that surface first before you bore the hole into it. Get it? Stupid analogy, but I hope it colors the details…I think you have a look similar to an artist named Jerome Opena, and another named Derek Hess. Both I probably spelled wrong. And I don’t know how to produce a tilda over letters or I could bust out some Spanish text…heh Its awesome stuff. Oh, one last thing I just spotted, don’t overdo the outline around the ball of the eye. Keep it light so it doesn’t create the illusion of caps. And I am looking at beauty of technique, and missed that you also drew in the lines of the mouths. Just look for tooth cylinders and keep it simple in this first block in phase. But, I like the stuff no less…J

Hito, I think I typed that in a bit wrong, and I don’t know what came before that, I need to look it up again, but what I think I was referring to was, don’t cut the smaller stuff up out of the primary forms you are looking for first, find the big forms first. For example, don’t look for the corners of the lips without finding the tooth cylinder, just the cylinder first. Then, once all the forms are found in simple configuration, or in basic shape placement, the understructure, the grid, what have you, then add the details, and those on the face are the eye lids, brows, nostrils, lips, laugh lines, etc. Form simple first.
I hope that is better clarified, I am confused now…heh

Velo-you have the right idea with your two images, the little child and the business woman. But, the edges need to be clearly defined, and nostrils are out of the question in stage 1. Look at Bwkeough’s comment’s above for what I am explaining. And as for those edges, look at the cast shadow on the womans forehead cast from the hair. See how much firmer that edge is than the one you drew, need to tighten that edge as well as others in both drawings up a bit more.

And, on the child, first block in the value his skin tones are, and then block in the shadows on top of that value. He doesn’t feel dark enough yet. And the shadow pattern side is on his left, the drawings right side of his face, not the other. Heh. Its low lit so it is tough to see. But good first attempt…fix and repost…

Rashoverdrive-good attempt, but, soften that edge under his tooth cylinder so it doesn’t feel linear, and strap like. Then do another. That is a good one, do you understand what it is you are supposed to be finding when blocking in the head? Just want to make sure you get the concept, and not beginners luck…heh j/k


Jetpack 42-hey great set of images. Good reference to work from and hope to see these mugs in your illustrations…heh
Now, I want to teach, not admire, so forgive me if anything sounds contrary to what I like about the work. The sketch style is awesome, don’t loose that emotional style, but, style aside, lets think mechanics to sharpen up the techniques. Clarity when it falls from the pencil.
A big part of what you need to do is work things out until they do work, and not jump to another in hope of rectifying the mistakes made previously. I am having my students take their quicksketches home and practice with them, cleaning them up, making useful studies of them so they are not a wasted effort. You should stick it out, buy an eraser pencil so its like drawing when you are correcting, and fix until it works. It will be so rewarding to look back at good work rather than dozens of “oh well’s” heh
First, start simple. That is hard I know, but it is what you need. Do it light. Draw in the basic idea of the head, not personal powerful contours. Then a centerline for divisions from left to right, and the tilt of the head, and pitch. Think swivel and 3d for a moment.
Then, find the shadow patterns, they are dictated by the lightsource, don’t look for details. These are dictated by the features. We are looking for masses first, then details on the surface later.
Shade the forms so they all feel like they belong to one form, not many floating forms.
Don’t draw nostrils. Don’t draw lips, Draw planes, and forms where they will go. Nostrils have to have a surface for the hole to sit on, find that plane.

Then save the heads for part 2. But again, I like the sketchy look, it just needs some curbing for now until finesse is your friend. Shade clean and slow, don’t speed draw, take your time and get it all right the first time. Keep em up, and consciously think of the steps, I know its hard, but once you do, drawing gets so much easier from there.

NOLD- You have the idea. Look at the first one again and the last one again and see if you can clean them up so more form appears in the layin. The first one is lacking structure around the top of the eyes. Place a centerline if needed to retain the left to right axis. The last one feels weak around the eyes as well, top sides. Since the sun is lighting him from above, there would be more evidence of structure in the top lids. Washed out a bit by the photo. The others are nice in volumes. The woman in shade could use a stronger core shadow separating the light from the dark a bit more, then that would bring more illumination to the rest of the shadow volume.

Troymccoy, as much as that is a good image and a good character, its not well lit, and as a result, it will be tough to make sense of the midtones which are mostly what he is lit with. The drawing you have done is wobbly, if that makes sense, as it doesn’t have an apparent bone structure under the forms , there is a loss of left to right symmetry. Now the pencil drawing has more structure and more symmetry, but it’s a bit too rounded, and makes him feel very youthful, not his age. And don’t get caught up in nostrils also. A bad habit most of yall are getting into. Find the plane the nostril sits on first. Heh
Hit up a new reference, and give it a round two.

Tjendol-getting better, this Mr. Walken is good, but a bit too much detail, that is, the filtrum, or groove above the lip is a detail, no nostrils yet, and no eyelids yet. Gotta get in the habit of seeing the bigger picture first, not the details, then drawing gets easier from there…give it another go around…

Bear-number 2 is much better. But it feels a bit lopsided, or tilting extreme left in the back of his head. Find the balance of the back of the skull, using height vs width proportions. That is, compare the height and width at the top of the skull, middle, bottom, middle third, etc. where ever you need to to find the hidden or missing volumes that will bring the image to a better, stronger likeness. Full of form. Also, don’t look for eyelids yet, its too soon. Find the ball of the eye, and in assignment 2, we will address everything else…

Papi- you got the noses right…yeah…you have done what not many others have done yet. But, where are the eyeballs in the sockets. You clawed everyones eyes out…heh
Get those eyeballs in the drawings, use the lids to help figure out the lighting on the ball forms, not the stuff under the lids, pupil, white of the eye, etc. Good first attempt, let them see what you have done too…J

Gunyouken-much better go around. The last one is the most successful of the three.
Your overdoing the shade in the cheeks, they are light and not in shadow. They are right now, the same value as your shadow patterns. Light and dark first, then we will get lighter half tones in there later. And the hair on the first few feel like hats, not hair. You need to get the hair to feel like a part of the head, by drawing the skull under it first, then placing the hair on the skull, so it fits better, feels adhered to the head, not propped on it. But this round is certainly stronger than round one, and less anime looking…J

[fredflickstone]

Here are a few more. Now I have to go...I will get back to the rest when I can tonight or tomorrow...thanks.

Ron


Sixblade-the first reference is cropped in too close, so its not a good one to start with. Number two and three are both good reference, so this is where to start.
The scale, or proportions of features to the reference are a bit off in both, the girls head too wide, the guys head to tall, because the forehead and top of the skull have been way too compressed. The concept is working out, that is, what to look for, but what you have found is not accurate to the reference yet, and the shapes all feel stuck on the face, rather than adhered to an overall head volume. The tooth cylinders in both feel like plates rather than volumes. Both, all drawings, for now, should have structure grids worked out in the underdrawing before you locate the volumes. I see no reference point to any of that yet as well. Grab my head tutorials, read through them carefully, especially the extras pages, they will help you get the images laid in proportionately before you launch into any tone locating.
And thanks for the tips on the spyhunting. I have em all, and they don’t get anything for me. Its time to wipe the HD and start fresh…heh

Goldi, that is what to do, but I want to see stronger light and shade. The light is above, with a strong shadow pattern under the jawline, you don’t have any shadow pattern currently. Watch out for looking to match complexion, or texture, which is both what you have in the pic. Its about form first, that has to do with light and shade, not what the surface is made of. Be careful to keep the two distinct, and find another reference that is better lit, and submit another. I want to see how well the concept of light and shade is with ya…again, great first attempt.

Sixblade-number two is better, but what happened to the eyes? They are holes…heh. Look for the sockets, the are ball sockets, and his eyes, have heavy lids and orbitals, so it will be a bit tricky to find, but they are there…

Bail on number 1. Bad reference, get a full head all the way around and start with that…

Metrini-much better attempt, but don’t neglect the eyes. Think of him as having his eyes closed, and he has no eyelashes or eyebrows, completely shiny face. That is what you look for. Then you will have a ball socket designed correctly before the details go in, and the whites are found again. Don’t worry about matching the value of the whites, they are details…

Form-, those are interesting. I assume mostly made up. They are all lacking left to right symmetry, but the concept of finding forms is there. And yes, the test of where it would take you next is fairly successful. But none of this is following any assignment so I cant really help you with anything yet. Give some honest attempts at following a pictorial reference, and submit and I can take this to a learning level vs a complement level.

Signature-need to forget about finding complexion, and just stick with finding the light and shade. This is a more powerful way to start. All of these have good form to them, but none of them have any impact, the way the images you have selected to copy do. The light and shade is not there, mostly in the last one, but all of them can have more direct light on them. The concept is definitely there, but need more value range in the light and dark. Also, set up the drawing with structure lines if you need to. The heads a lacking a bit of symmetry from left to right of the skulls, a centerline will help resolve that issue.

[heartbeat]

Thnak's for the advices

Here is my N#2

http://img74.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Mishkata/2.jpg

and N#3
http://img74.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Mishkata/3.jpg

and this is my N#1 on which I made some corrections.
http://img74.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Mishkata/11.jpg


Thank you again for doing this :)

[kasap]

thanks ron, I took a step back and tried to make it simpler and tried to make the mouth and eyes look better. was looking for a picture of Neo but found this nice lady instead :)

http://members.lycos.nl/bolunixan/new/kop6.JPG

[Tjendol]

http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~s0369519/drawing/bullock.jpg

Well, another attempt...lol.

I'm starting to hope I'm gonna do one the right way soon now..hehe.

I gor rid of all the details. The only thing with these oil pastels is that it leaves ugly little spots in the painting. Next time I'll use a different brush :D

Thnx for the crits Ron, much appreciated.

[bwkeough]

Ron, thanks for the crits and the compliments! I think you're dead on about the nostril thing, as a sequence of steps I definitely do drill the holes before i create the volumetric plane that contains them. I drew a 2 hour portrait of my wife last night and I think it also suffers from some flattening in the nostril (among other things). I won't hijack your thread and post it here, I'll create my own life drawing/study series thread later this week.

I'm not familiar with those artists, I'll have to look them up!

[sixBlade]

Thanks for the C&C Ron! :D
I know what you mean about the tooth cylinders.. I was thinking of them as flat because I wasn't sure what to do for them. I think I've sorta figured out how now though, made some changes to improve on the forms there now (will upload tomorrow in one post to make it easier)

By structure I am taking that you mean loomis-style structure since I remember your head tutorials were very similar to loomis' method. I've actually gone through quite a lot of 2 loomis books on the head, I must just be a complete dumbass because you're right I didn't use the structure in these at all!

I think I'm understanding more and more now, the eyes I really didn't understand what I was meant to do with them.. when you say eye socket it confuses me because in the drawing you did its more an eyeball coming out of the page than an eye socket boring a hole into the head.. I've been sorta fubaring it but I think I've figured out what you meant now.. hopefully the changes I've made will be the right ones :)

#1's reference was actually the best of all of them.. it was me that cropped it like that so sorry!

Anyway thanks a LOT for spending all this time looking at what we've all done, and again for writing such great crit on everybodies work, it really is the next best thing to being at the workshop. :)

[paper slayer]

http://img2.photobucket.com/albums/v11/paper_slayer/headstudy2.jpg

http://img2.photobucket.com/albums/v11/paper_slayer/headstudy2_ref.jpg

Went overboard with detail on the body, I thought that it would help me get the correct values of the head. In hindsight it would have been better just drawing the outline of the body.

[fredflickstone]

http://rev-art.com/lemenimages/demos.jpg


Here are a couple redraws. You know who you are, are there any questions? For the rest of you, this is your model to work with, be it digital or pencil...

finish the rest of the crits tomorrow...

Ron

[Darkstrider]

Hey cool.... that top one's mine! I tried twice to do basically the same things you did to it... darken the shading and further bring out the skull structures, only my efforts didn't work so well. I screwed it up both times. Still struggling with the intricacies of PS, but I can see that it allows for great value studies... in many ways easier than pencil. My problems come in when I make a repair, then my repair needs a repair, and pretty soon I got a big mess. I end up using the airbrush, and then everything gets all misty... not good. I need to keep messing with my settings and create some more custom brushes (none of the standard ones are any good! they're all too mushy around the edges with the big ones.) and figure out how much opacity to use. But I did find a neat trick of keeping the original drawing isolated on the BG plate and then you can switch from normal to multipy when you want to see it superimposed.

But sorry... this isn't the place for PS tips and tricks! I'm going to try it yet again, using yours as a model. Thanks for showing me how it's supposed to be done!

[ZeKeZ]

Heres my 2nd attempt.

http://zekearts.com/gallery/assignment1a1.jpg

http://zekearts.com/gallery/assignment1b1.jpg

http://zekearts.com/gallery/assignment1c1.jpg

Not very good... but i think its slightly better than my 1st try. C&C please?? Thanks

[Tjendol]

http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~s0369519/drawing/norah.jpg

Thnx for the demo!

I made Norah look like a witch..lol

[Vulturius]

Thanks for your commets Ron.
Here are some new attempts:

#6
http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie06.jpg

#7
http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie07.jpg

#8
http://www.vulti.de/pics/sketches/portstudie08.jpg

[goldi]

Ron, thanks for review. You are really amazing!! :chug: