Jim H
Jim H
Earth
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Jim H
Ok, so I was unhappy with my Michelangelo study... so I tried a Mucha. There's a thousand things to fix, but I learned a lot from the observation.
Jim H
Here's my actual attempts at this with Michelangelo. I first went with some line practice (only some shown here) where I tried to figure out what kind of pencil would work best - I eventually went with a 4B that was really well worn. Then I did a couple of thumbnails of the ear and the face just to get a feel of it. After that, I did a full head. I think my thumbnails caught some aspects of the line better than the full size one. Also, while I was doing the drawing, I found that holding the pencil a bit more like a paintbrush helped in some cases. Once I get to the tone and value section...I will have to really practice up.
Jim H
On my first try, I got by butt kicked by this exercise. I tried an Eliza Ivanova drawing. What a mess I made of it. Then I watched a couple videos of her drawing and I realized that my innate knowledge of the human form and my eye-hand control over the pencil just isn't there yet. But, I studied her lines a lot, in the future I want to try again. The second time, again I think I overreached... I went with Michelangelo. :( It wasn't all for nothing. Actually I (re)learned something that I had not thought about since art history in Uni: Michelangelo's human forms were almost completely without straight lines. Unlike modern artists (Leyendecker, Malan and Eliza Ivanova for ex.) who use curves and straights to define form, Michelangelo used almost exclusively curved lines (at least in the samples that I referred to). Another thing that made me feel a little better every time I botched a line or a drawing was that - at least in his sketches - Michelangelo erased and re-drew, and sometimes just drew OVER some previous lines. In the gorgeous head study example below, the blue lines show erasure marks, and the red arrow shows a curious double pupil where Mich decided to switch his model's gaze. Maybe someday my mistakes will look that good.
Rachel Dawn Owens
I like your breakdown. It sounds like you’re on the right track. The point of this exercise is to just pick up a few pieces of knowledge from the masters. Michelangelo is a very ambitious guy to follow. That sketchiness is called pentimento. When you do it right, it’s not necessarily about ‘fixing’ a drawing as much as it is just building on top of what’s already there. Nice observations.
Jim H
Lots of fun, did my own redline just to get more practice at drawing animals. Here's my hierarchy of importance.
Laia Baldoví
This was hard but fun!
Jim H
29d
Nice stuff
@charliewoodley
I never know what brushes to use for these, I probably should have chosen something bolder. I didn’t label but it should be fairly obvious which ones were done in a minute 😁
Jim H
29d
nice gestures @charliewoodley
Jonnathan Avelino
Jim H
29d
these all look like a proper bending torso to me, looks good. The first one top left, is a bit bending in the rib cage: I don't know if I could pose in that position. :D
Krisztina Eperjesi
My first lvl.1 assignments. I did two and three valu version of the same picture. It was so challenging to keep the papier clean. Any advice how to avoid patches due to soft 4B pencil?
Jim H
29d
If you're a righty, work from top left outwards (from top right outwards if you're a lefty). That way you drag minimal graphite with your hand. Also: you can use a clean sheet of paper between your hand and the drawing surface to rest on... and make sure to not drag the resting paper as you move your hand. replace as it gets smudged. As the most expensive option you can look up "Artist Leaning Bridge Hand Rest" at amazon. but it may be best to try one of the above first....
KC
Asked for help
Level 1 and 2 attempts. This was a good challenge and really showed me just how unconfident I am in my lines. I tried to loosen up a bit on Captain Skully McSkullface, which worked in some areas but not in others. Overall, I enjoyed the assignment and it gave me some good areas to focus on in the future.
Jim H
29d
Nice boots, and great skelly! very cool
@purpleart
Here are the first attempts. Found the landscape particularly tricky as abstracting an already abstract wideangle lanscape ended up looking confusing to my eyes.
Jim H
29d
Nice @purpleart I like those boats especially. I might have to skip ahead to the Notan section to join in the fun....
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