Life Studies from Home.

[Blackhawk]

Here are some life studies I try to do nightly at home when I find the time. These are the only decent ones, there are many more that I wish I never drew :D Crits appreciated.

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/clyde.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/clyde2.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/clyde3.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/clyde5.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/clydeface.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/mom.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/livingroom.jpg

http://members.cox.net/spagina/life/spunky.jpg

[retro002]

yesss. finally! :D

well what can i say, i think you looked at em for long enough for knowing what's not so satisfying. the doggies are great- - i should get me a bunch or two ;) linequality is very rhythmical - those loose sketches (ie 1 and 3) are definately better than the pics where you tried to be exact (5 and 6). away from that, perhaps you'd enjoy to visit a school or something and study some skeletons, i did that a few times and found it very interesting. -dug one of the old sketches up for ya:

http://retro002.free.fr/oldsite/sketch/sammlung004.jpg

anyway, my definately favorite is the fourth, these are the kind of pieces i'd nail over my bed. so... wasnt this much more fun than sleeping?! :D great job!

(btw: do all you americans have hardcore-sized tv-screens? )

[jester]

Blackhawk - these are great. I know how much dogs start moving around when one desperately wishes them to hold still (though I never had a dog of my own).
Massive big TV, makes me envious! :)

Jester

[ZippZopp]

blackhawk, those are fantastic! i love the line work. i especially like the way you've done the dog on the couch...the way you've done the shading is very nice. you've really captured that sleepiness and lathargic nature of the dog. excellent work

[Blackhawk]

Thanks guys. Retro, thanks for the critique, I also thought some of my exact stuff lost it's appeal. I want to be more precise with my pencil drawings, but I start to loose any flow in my drawings when I do it. The pencil rendering stlye I really adore is stuff like this...

Jrr's Life drawings (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2326)

William Bouquereau Study (http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/Louvre/large/Flaggelation_of_Christ_Study_pencil.jpg)

Picture (http://www.laafigart.com/images/Wee1b.jpg)

I know it's kind of small in the second one, but you can still make out the draftsmanship skill in the line and yet it still keeps a nice rhythm to the drawing.
This is something my drawings lack. I either get really loose and lose a lot of form but keep some rhythm to it, or I tighten up too much and I lose both, it's frustrating.

As for the TV, it's for my parent's. I rarely watch TV, I probably average about 2 hours a week at the most. When I move out again, I probably won't even bother with cable. Just need to get a job to help me pay for school and an apartment :D

Jester - Thanks, my dog Clyde is very active, he's the one in most of the pictures. He fidgets and changes position once every 2 minutes. My dog Spunky, the fat one in the bottom, he's much more managable, he'll lie still for a good half hour before moving again. I like drawing Clyde though, it really forces me to speed up, but I usually end up with pages full of scribbles because I'll start the sketch and then no more than 15 seconds later he'll move around again.

Zipp - Thanks bud, I appreciate the comments.

[retro002]

as for loose and rhythm or exact and stiff, i have the same problem. a friend of mine, who teaches lifedrawing and such lately told me a bit about it. we compared drawings i made and in conclusion those, where i intended more anatomical correctness werent really better or more exact - in fact the pieces were just stiffer. i guess i have to stick to my loose style and work it out trying to control the line more and more over time. not sure this is right, but it seems to work out better than any other way i tried. you may want to give it a try. i love your loose linework.

[miasmak]

blackhawk, I too prefer the looser stuff. Dogs are good to draw also because the human anatomy preconceptions don't work anymore. I find picking 2 or more positions which the dog-subject is likely to be in and drawing all of them at the same time also helps. Then if he/she moves you can just flick to another half finished sketch. Be warned this can be a bit of a mind bender though.:rolleyes:

Perhaps we can start a daily best friend/familiy member portrait thread ... just a thought.

imo, only one other thing more difficult than drawing pets is drawing toddlers

[daarken]

these are great! i really like 3 and 4 the best. very nice studies.

mia: i would have to disagree with you about the anatomy. dog anatomy is virtually identical to that of humans, just some muscles are longer/shorter. if you know your human anatomy, you can look at a drawing of the muscle system of a dog and identify all the muscles very easily. knowing human anatomy actually helps a lot with drawing different animals.

[JoshuaTheJames]

cool...

if you like pen and ink you should really check out these Andrew Loomis books!
http://www.fineart.sk/anat.htm

his pen and ink drawings are amazing!

-Joshua

[Blackhawk]

Thanks guys, I honestly never expected this many responses :D

Retro - Exactly, it's a tug of war for me as well. My machine exploded yesterday, so I did two traditional portraits. One was loose, one was tight, and I'm almost emberassed to post the tight one. You'll see in the SPOD thread later when I find some way to scan them in (I'm on an old 400mhz clunker right now at a friend's place).

Mia - Thanks. Actually, as Daarken said, a lot of dog anatomy is similar to human, in fact, that helped me a bit when I draw the legs on my dog Spunky. He has very stocky, muscular legs and they really pop nicely and show a lot of good, recognizable form. A friend/family Portrait thread would actually be fun. I'm finding that I enjoy drawing portraits more than anything now after starting the SPOD stuff a few months ago.

Daarken - Thanks bud. I envy your rendering style from your life studies in your thread. I apologize for not commenting in that one, but all it would be is butt kissing :D I took a little bit of influence from your sketches and studies.

Joshua - Thanks. I actually did download his Anatomy book and his Illustration book and printed them both out. His illustration one has excellent examples of pen and ink studies, they were all really inspiring.