雜七雜吧 *11-19-2009*

[Alm0st]

Science major, just realized that this is not exactly what I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life. Still planning to finish up my Clinical Science degree, but also planning to catch up with my long lost love: ART. Been on a dry spell for a bit, left doing what I love to do for a good 5 years ago. It's great to stumble upon this great community of artists, just the push I needed to help me re-emerge as a better artist.

Thanks for looking,
-Frank

[Alm0st]

Also got a refurbished wacom not to long ago to practice with. feels weird..
Well here's an apple. (about 45 min on/off)


*edit: moved figures over to the next post

[Alm0st]

here's a WIP, movie still of tropic thunder, which was quite a funny movie.

[Alm0st]

couple of pages from my sketchbook.

life sketches from the beach


random faces


hand studys (loomis & self)


bridgemen torsos

[Alm0st]

more figures, these are actually done on drawing paper this time instead of newsprint. It was weird working with better paper.







thanks for looking.

[Alm0st]

so I got used to drawing paper a little bit.
feels like I'm improving, I hope...

5 minutes(supposed to be a 10 minute, but had to restart.)


20 minutes


30 minutes, trying out compressed charcoal.

[Nightblue]

The figure drawings are looking great The apple came out really well too. Keep up the good work!

[Alm0st]

Nightblue-Thanks for the encouragements, I'll be sure to drop by your sketchbook after work. (I'm sure you're awesome).

a Quickie for fun(1.5 hour or so). need to work on my PS painting skills. If you're from SF, you might recognize this from Japantown...


appreciate the peeks!

[Alm0st]

Painting in PS is a beast. Props for those who went through the hard work to learn it.

Speedo-paint 45 min


detailed (just used a hard brush circle)


thanks for the peeks.
-Frank the blank..

[Alm0st]

Speed paint again! same subject. Learned a lot from this one.
-40 min


thanks for those peeks yo!
-Frank the shank

[Mumph]

Very nice! I like you life drawings. I should try graphite next time
Will be checking in from time to time. I don´t have any crits at the moment. Great start!

[Alm0st]

Mumph: thanks for the encouragements! I'll swing by your sketchbook in a moment.

Now in figure drawing class we moved on to the head/neck/shoulder..

favorite one (10 min)


side profile, which I have to work on more (10 min)


the one that I disliked the most, the face is too small...(30 min)


and here's another speed paint! (approx 1.25 hr)


Thanks for the peeks!
-Frank the tank.

[kuroart]

good stuffs. im digging everything so far. keep em coming.

[invinciblewombat]

your short pose life drawings win. hard. The one thing i would recommend is to approach your digi paints the same way you would working with charcoal and go from super general to specific. it looks like you're getting caught up in details a little early in some of them.

[Alm0st]

SO a couple more head studies, once again the more time I spend on them the more it turns out not so good...but then again that new piece of vine was being really stubborn

once again shortest time spend = favorite (10 min)


vine was killing me (10 min)


compressed charcoal (20 min)


yay it's the weekend, hope to get more done.

thanks for the peeks,
-Frank the skank

[seth1]

Haha, Love the ending of your name. "Frank the skank" Gave me a good laugh. I like your choose of medium. charcoal is so much fun and pretty easy to erase if needed. I think you need to start trying to keep your values more coherent. Keep your light's, light, and dark's dark. Right now it's getting pretty muddy with your values. Get away from finger smudging. Your faces are also lacking Structure and planes. Learn the planes of the face and things start to really pick up from there.

[Mumph]

What´s up man? Thanks for the crits!
Your portraits are very nice and you manage to capture the expression well. Although I agree with the face beeing to small in the "one you dislike the most", I like the black around the head.

I agree with seth1 about them being a bit muddy.
Keep posting!

[invinciblewombat]

very nice sense of light on the first one, they all look to have a bit of superfluous scribbling in them though, if you slow down a bit and take your time to make strategic marks during lifedrawing i've found it really pays off. it can be frustrating during short poses though since you're only got a little bit of time to get down a lot of information.

[Alm0st]

kuroart: Thanks bud! definitely keeping them coming.
invinciblewombat: Thanks for the complement, much much more thanks for the critique. Yea the "superfluous scribbling" at the moment came from a very stubborn piece of hard vine...any tips on taming the charcoal? but then again my goal is to use as little strokes as possible to portray something, every stroke counts!
seth: currently thinking of things to keep my posts as interesting and eye-catching as possible =P. anyways onto the superbly helpful critique you gave. I was finger smudging on purpose to try to smooth the compressed charcoal, but I guess it really smudged up the whole thing instead. Also took up your advice on structuring my faces/heads, did a ton of Bridgman boxes for the head (which will be posted as soon as I get my scanner running again.). much thanks again!
Mumph: Dude my man!!! I'm just enjoying life as it is =]. loving that fact that I'm finally committing the time into sketching more and improving my art. thanks for the complements and more thanks for the critiques! I'll be dropping by that sketchbook of yours soon.

So, Bridgman rocks, but my scanner sucks. I did a bunch of Bridgman studying on my sketchbook, so the only solution is to copy them over again via tablet, which is good for more practice. will continue to practice them over and over again once I get back from work & class. Here's the first part of it.


found an oldie, some vampire girl (with ref).


Thanks for the Peeks,
-Frankie the Lanky

[Alm0st]

So, tried to follow the advice that seth1 gave me about structuring and planes, and hope it shows.

quickie 10 min pose


20 min


thanks for those peeks,
-Franklin the turtle

[Mumph]

Yo! nice update, you have a very nice flow (bridgman studies). That´s a great book to do studies from.

Was looking at some earlier posts, is that tropic thunder WIP still in progress?
Cool vampire girl, how did you do the white in the hair?

I tried charcoal the other day, it was really hard but i´m going to keep trying.

Keep it up!

Edit: Forgot to say, that last portrait is nice although I think you could use even darker values in some places, it looks kind of washed out. Maybe it´s just the photo. The neck also seems kind of long.

[Alm0st]

Mumph: kinda got lazy on tropic thunder (but I will finish it for sure). The hair is done using white paint marker, decos to be exact. And yes I do need to push my values, but also the cell phone photos do not do these charcoal drawings justice

10min


10min


25min


thanks for the peeks,
-Frankles

[seth1]

Hey, do you have photoshop? If you do use the Save for Web function and save at %60 it will down the file size 200k or more.

bridgman is awesome he is so articulate. Now take a look at Andrew Loomis and study proportion, and placement of the features. Some times your features are going off not a lot, but it's noticeable. Your values are still really messy but charcoal does take awhile to learn to control you need a delicate hand. What I think might help is defining the big planes of the face, Shadow and light keep it simple. Also go take a look at this thread http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60746 and the fine arts section http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7 it may give you some insight on how to approach your drawings and how to place your values. Keep up the good work

[Alm0st]

Seth1: thanks for all the juicy info yo! checked out GIST's figure studies, that man is insane, let me repeat that, INSANE! I wish my values came out to be like that... and also having a better camera would help too, unlike my cell phone.

anyways slow busy weekend...

just a homework assignment, practicing eyes.


thanks for the peeks,
-Frankenstein

[Mumph]

Great studies my friend, both the heads and the eyes. Do more I know I probably should myself
No crits at this time.

[mollymillions]

excellent life drawing work. Was a fan of the page of cartoon-style faces also.

[Jeff Bartzis]

wowee! cool stuff!

[Alm0st]

It feels like forever since I've posted. First I would like to apologize for the slow updates. And now to the goodies!

Mumph: Hey thanks there mate, you keep doing your thing and I promise I'll do more of my thing!
Mollymillions: thanks for the comment Molly, I'll be sure to drop by your SB again.
Jeff Bartzis: THanks!

Scanner status-still down

Phone camera status - horrible quality





Thanks for the peeks,
Franksterr

[Alm0st]

45 min tree speedy. anyone got tips on better rendering? kudos to those who do.



skeep eht rof sknaht,

knarF-

[Alm0st]

I vow to do leg/feet studies this weekend.
20 min



-Knarf