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Kassjan (Kass) Smyczek
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9mo
added comment inDigital Painting in Grayscale
Asked for help
Wanted to nail it and I wasnt happy with the first result. My opinion was that it already has to feel vivid after the figure drawing phase. So I did it again. I think the second version already is better. But the oil brushes really make it hard to control the strokes. Lastly to keep control of the middletones is challenging! And greyscale should already make it simpler. I will continue doing my best. And I don't know why, but my pen rotation doesn't do anything. So I had to adjust pen rotation manually - which was time consuming. Going to google that one....
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9mo
Hi @Kassjan Smyczek, nice painting! Yes I agree that the second attempt is an improvement!
I've been taught that a figure drawing needs proportion, balance and rhythm. It needs all three.
Part of the improvement in the second attempt, was made by improving the proportion; by raising the navel, the relationship of legs and torso got more realistic.
I did a paintover were I went through your drawing and pointed out how you can improve it by improving the aspects proportion, balance and rhythm.
It might be beneficial to work on the drawing in steps, to make sure that you get proportion, balance and rhythm. I did a paintover showing that in this reply https://www.proko.com/s/2WFA
I hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions!
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9mo
Cool!
Andreas Kra
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9mo
Here I tried to apply all the learnings from before. My process was:
1. Sketch the 3D form, adding some basic shapes and combining them with an organic one.
2. Identify the planes that lie in shadow.
3. Apply the shadow gradient and experiment with different edges.
4. Enhance the areas of interest with more light and shadow contrast, and identify spots to apply lost edges.
Overall, it was a lot of fun. Any improvement suggestions or major errors you notice are welcome if you'd like to share.
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9mo
Nice!
Andreas Kra
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9mo
Here I tried to apply my knowledge of perspective to cylindrical forms. I experimented with edge control. It is quite challenging to move away from thinking in lines.
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9mo
Hi @Andreas Kra, nice studies!
Some quick tips:
- The ellipse that represents the circular end of the cylinder should be perpendicular to the lenght of the cylinder (see attached image).
- You might want to make the light part of the shade slightly darker, so that the tones aren't misinterpreted as receiving direct light. You could think of an object with clear directional light on it as having two value ranges; one range for the values that belong to the surfaces receiving direct light, and one range for the values that belong to the surfaces in shadow. A clear seperation, results in a clearly communicated idea.
I hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions!
Art Stark
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10mo
Asked for help
#240701_Brush Pen_Gasser_Incidental Figures
“Even if you are primarily interested in landscape painting, you should be able to depict incidental figures to give a feeling of life to the subject. The figure is a foil to a landscape, and if it is not executed convincingly it can destroy the effect of an otherwise good canvas.”
— Henry Gasser’s How To Draw and Paint
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9mo
Yeah, nice! People sketching is so much fun! You managed to capture a lot of character with the poses and the different clothing and features, characteristic to each individual.
- You might want to try doing some sketches that leave out the details of clothing and facial features for example, and instead focus on getting as much attitude into the body language as possible, with simple means. The drawing in the bottom left for example, has a nice clear pose, that capture the femininity that the clothing suggests. I get the feeling that she's looking at something, or communicating with someone, in front of her. But maybe we could extract even more character with the body language? WHAT is she doing and HOW is she doing it?
If she's talking to someone, could we make that more clear? How could we make the main point more clear?
We could also think about the details: She's holding her bag in her left hand; how would her unique shapes pose when doing that? How does this specific individual hold a bag? She's wearing high heels; how does that affect where she puts the weight? How will the clothing affect her movement?
I hope this helps :)
@j4e8a16n
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9mo
Asked for help
Drawing hands is challenging; even a minor error can undermine a great deal of effort. I have attempted it three times already. Pay attention to the invisible small finger knuckle, the 'raccourcis' of the hand, and especially the thumb.
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9mo
Hi @j4e8a16n, nice study!
- When you drew the hand, what was your process like? I think knowing that will help me with giving feedback.
😎👍
Abigail G.
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10mo
I just finished the first assignment for the figure drawing class and wanted to get some feedback on them! It’s been a while since I’ve done any gesture drawing, and I really want to improve. I would really appreciate any feedback/advice you guys might have! Most of these are 30 second-2 minute drawings, though the ones on page 3 are more 3-7 minutes. Also ignore the face on page 3, I got carried away lol
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10mo
Hi @Abigail G., nice drawings! I'll do my best to help you further :)
- It would help me to know what your art goal is. What type of work do you want to create? Do you have any examples of artists who does that type of work?
- With drawing you communicate ideas. In your next attempt of the shorter poses try to make sure that the idea of the gesture (the action) is completed. In many of your drawings (image 4 for example), you have started to add details before the gesture has been communicated, making the drawings hard to decipher.
-To me it has been very helpful to keep this line in mind: "Do one thing at a time".
So I might start my figure drawing by focusing on the gesture.
When I feel like I've said what I intended to say (the action; what the structure is doing), I might do another pass where I focus on the shapes that the figure is built of, and how they would look in the gesture I've decided on.
When I've communicated the structure of the figure, I might start to think about clothing for example, and how the wrinkles in the clothing could lead the eye.
The exact process wasn't the point here, but the idea of doing one thing at a time, since that creates clarity in your mind and in turn in your drawing.
- I've been taught that a figure drawing needs proportion, balance and rhythm. Proportion (the structure), balance (the sense of weight) and rhythm (a flow that leads your eye through the drawing. Often one side of a part will squash and the other will stretch; all the parts of the body squashing and stretching together creates a rhythm). You need all three.
I try to work on improving in all three areas and on making all three present in my drawings. You might want to try doing that too.
I hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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11mo
Hi @robot0906, nice studies! Nice rhythm and flow!
- What's your art goal? Animation, illustration, landscape painting, or something else? What type of work do you want to create? If you have any artists in mind who does the type of work that you want to do, please share!
- It might help to describe the gesture (what the figure is doing) with verbs. In drawing 8 for example he's "taking a step" and "punching". Try to make your drawing really sing that. Put focus on the bending of the leg and how weight is put on it, and the forward thrust of the arm. Clearly defining what gesture you're chasing after is going to help a lot I think. As an artist you're often trying to communicate things, in this case the gesture (what the figure is doing).
- For more realistic figures it might help to pay more attention to proportion and structure. Think of the figure as a simple model build with pieces of clay. The pieces have specific forms and proportions. Take one of the poses you've drawn. Draw it again, but this time, draw the figure as if it was a simple clay model. Look at the forms of the figure and imagine them as pieces of clay. Try to be simple but specific with the shape of the pieces. Make the pieces match Richer's proportional canon Human Proportions – Average Figure.
I hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions!
Hi @Matthew Kaluza, really nice study! I'll try my best to help you further :)
- So if I understand you right, you're looking for a way to depict the plants and trees, without relying on adding all the detail. There are many things to consider when depicting things visually, but two of the keys are shape and value. It's possible to capture a subject in a very simple and abstract way. If you have a characteristic shape and give it the right value, you'll have it. And add appropriate edges, color and textures and you'll have something really life like. Like @Tiffanie Mang's small gouache studies Painting Landscape Thumbnails (STEP BY STEP).
Shape:
To capture the character of a subject, the silhouette is the most important shape. If you want to capture something with great economy of line, just draw the silhouette. If you want more information, you could then draw the silhouettes of the interior shapes. And keep going.
When drawing from observation, try to learn from the subject you're drawing. Try to be accurate. Look closely at how the silhouette is unique to each object in the scene. The shape of plants and foliage will be different from the shape of a figure, and the shape of the rocks will be something unique, and so will the shape of water. This idea, that different things have different shapes, is something that could be used as a design tool; you could push the idea, and make things more different than they would be in life. You'll see this in old sculptures for example, that leans into being less realistic and more designy.
When studying shapes there are many things you could consider. The more you learn the greater your analytical toolset will become. Some things to consider are:
How the size of shapes and the lenght of edges vary. Think big, medium and small.
If edges are straight or curved.
The overall proportion of the shape, height to width.
If you want to do a study of this painting, and capture it's likeness in a short time, draw the silhouettes of the different areas and capture their unique character.
Value:
To capture the light of an image, value is key. You seem to be pretty comfortable with working with tone. Does the term value grouping sound familiar to you?
As you create the tonal design of the image you try to look for groups of value. In the case of Boucher's piece one might say that Venus, the sky, and some other parts hit by light make up a light group; and that the foliage, shadows in the bottom of the image and the left pillar in shadow belong to a dark group (it helps to squint, to see this), and that the stone structure to the right, as well as parts of the relief that isn't in shade, belongs to a mid group. For a quick tonal study, paint these three groups.
Within these groups there is variation, that you can pull out. So it's not really a matter of three values, but rather three value ranges. Each group has a range of values that you can use, but you don't want to go outside the group, since that breaks your value design.
In your study you have broken some of these groups. You've made the pillar to the left as bright as the relief in light, behind venus, making the pillar break out of it's dark group.
If you'd like to learn more about value, I'd be happy to guide you. As a suggested assignment: Choose an image and do a value study of it, and I'll try to guide you from there.
-"it’s supposed to be a master COPY so I decided to just leave it there"
When things aren't matching the reference bothers me too, though I think I would have recommended you to ignore that and add those details anyway. Recently I've tried to have the mindset of doing one thing at a time; I break my process into stages. I do my best in each stage, but as I've moved to the next I don't go back and fix things too much. If my proportions are off, then so be it, I simply have to get better at proportion; I'll get to practice that once more as I do another painting. It helps me finish things and it also makes me draw better: My mind is much clearer, I'm making my marks deliberatly: "Ok, so now I get the overall proportions" and "now I try do show what the subject is doing (the gesture)" and "now I try to capture the subject's specific shapes and forms" and "now I try to connect them with rhythm" etc.
I hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
