Seeing anatomy hidden inside shadows
3yr
Ramon Romaioli
I feel that the gaps in my understanding of anatomy ambush me in the "shadows". Literally ! These two ink studies were meant as practice to get better at crosshatching and I came to a couple of conclusions: 1- crosshatching is merciless; you can't hide your ignorance of anatomy or still better it shows off wildly 2- I have considerable difficulty when it comes to anatomy hidden inside shadows (for example there is something off in the back and shoulder blades of the "woman with red shoes" but I can't fix it). Any suggestion will be welcomed and much appreciated.
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Julien
Nice drawings, the cross hatching on the first one is very nice. As for the second one and your "soulder blade in the shadows" problem, I think you wanted to highligh her left shoulder blades receeding sides and left them white ie. the same value as the areas receiving light. That cannot happen since it is within the shadow area, and even if it may receive some baskscaterred light, it still need to be darker than any values of the light area. Another thing: you can diffuse the edges of the cast shadows of her hand+shoes on her left leg: as it goes along her leg toward the ground: near the hand = sharp edge, away from the hand = loose edge. Otherwise, great resemblance (I recognise Saturn from croquis café if I'm not mistaken, I remember drawing that pose).
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Art Anderson
See if this helps. Missing the shoulder blades.
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Ramon Romaioli
Thank you Julienne, your tips are great and to the point. Your scheme is clear … you are definitely right about diffusing and fading the shadow running down the leg. Yes … that's Saturn, one of my favourite female model … as talented as beautiful.
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An
3yr
These are really nice! I can see on the first drawing that the breasts are very low, even though they can sag, the start of the breast seems to be lower than it should. Another thing I see on the first drawing is the indent of what I am assuming to be the elbow. From the turn of the hand, you would actually see more smooth/ bumps on the outside of the shape, since the bone/joint is on the other side of the arm. The foot in the first drawing is pointed a bit outward, I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the toes that are on the other side should become less visible when they are away from where you are looking (in the current state all of the toes are equally visible, creating the look as if the foot is pointed towards the camera). For the second picture, the thumb wouldn't be visible if she was trying to use it to hold the shoes, the fingers gripping them should also have a split (two on the right two on the left) to show that she is holding both shoes. The way the arm goes out so much is a bit awkward, I'm not sure if the reference was like this but it seems unnatural with the shoulder blade in a neutral position while the arm is so far back. The last thing (for both drawings) is that you might want to push the gesture a bit more just to give the poses more expression. These studies are amazing and I hope you achieve mastery at hatching!
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Ramon Romaioli
Thank you Anfissa for spending your time on my issue. I'll try my best to put on paper the thorough and precise advices of yours.
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James Doane
Nice work! I would comment that details should be lost in the shadows. Having shadow areas with basically no detail is a great art choice. Rembrandt would be a great example; his paintings have nearly no detail in shadows. Therefore, the anatomy details should not really stand out in shadows, which is probably why you are finding it difficult to find them.
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Ramon Romaioli
Thank you James ! I've taken a look at your digital paintings and got a clear understanding of what you mean. They are great by the way! Hope to keep in touch and have more of your valuable advices in the future.
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