Demo - Line Master Studies - Jeff Watts
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Drawing Basics

Lines

Demo - Line Master Studies - Jeff Watts

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Demo - Line Master Studies - Jeff Watts

145K
Mark as Completed
Course In Progress
Stan Prokopenko
Master Studies are one of the most effective methods for improving your art. Let’s take a look at a drawing from my instructor, Jeff Watts, and see what we can learn.
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drawingdodo
This was the best exercise for me so far! Really cool to actually study other people's amazing artwork, and try to understand their decisions. All the original artwork is by Ignatius Tan, if you want you can check him out here! https://www.artstation.com/muju
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Bernt Bigton
I found a beautiful drawing by Andrew Loomis, and in my mind I thought it was a good choice for a study, but clearly it was way to difficult for me at this level. So I really do need this course.
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Dre Torres
You actually did pretty good, you just didn't shade it.
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Javier Lozano
In this case, I am studying the art of Jose Garcia, one of my favorite contemporary illustrators. I chose him because I am very attracted by his use of lines, which I think is perfect for this exercise. I tried to be as clean as possible while keeping everything learned in the rest of this course. PS - I struggle with taking pictures of my sketchbook. I usually take it under my desk lamp, and I find it challenging to get the correct illumination (sometimes too bright when the light hits directly, or in shadow cast by the phone, etc.) Do you have any advice?
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drawingdodo
Great artist to follow for this exercise, his line work is awesome! For advice regarding the drawing itself, I think you should have maybe a bit of a darker range, for example near the upper neck, that helps make the face pop out a bit more in the original, which might be a bit lacking in your piece. Still a great looking piece, hope you had fun! As for taking pictures, I think you should try to find an angle that gives the biggest amount of even light. Maybe, having a lamp and pointing it upwards to not create too many cast shadows. Then, when you have the photo on the PC, you should give it a pass in an image editing software, and calibrate the curves to increase the contrast to where you feel it should be. You can see Stan actually doing it several times for some of the photos he grabs from here! You don't need Photoshop for this, there are a lot of free options to do this (Krita is a full blown drawing software, but you can also do a great deal of image adjustments there, for example). Keep it up!
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Julian Blake
I highly doubt anyone will answer this, but @Stan Prokopenko how could one do a study similar to this one you just did, but with a set of pencils sharpened with a regular sharpener and with a regular grip? Is it possible to arrive at a similar line quality without the exact tool or the exact grip? or is it better to study a different artist?
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Stan Prokopenko
It's still possible to study aspects of it with a different tool. You just have to be mindful of the differences. Check out the next demo in the playlist. I use a regular pencil to do a study of an ink drawing :)
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knchesmore
My study of Heinrich Kley's dancing elephant. He seems to use heavy lines in a combination of important objects as well as those in shadow.
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Martha Muniz
Wonderful pick for this exercise! Good observation on line weight, it's definitely key to giving the object dimensionality and volume. Something else about Kley that I think adds a lot of the personality and style to his sketches are his searching lines, like you can see around the elephant's right shoulder or its feet. It gives the impression that he is gliding his pen across the page in exploration before tightening the final drawing, which provides great insight into his process. Practicing this can be beneficial in improving flow, line confidence, and imaginative drawing. I would also highly recommend Marshall Vandruff's series exploring Kley if his art is of interest to you: https://youtu.be/NJYnHNCmHFY
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Jack
3mo
This is my attempt on the skull. There's a ton of issues with it, but because it's my first master study I'm just happy :)
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Patrick Bosworth
Congrats, nice study! Keep up the good work!
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sheldron
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drawingdodo
Could you show us the original for reference (as well as credit to the original artist), or is this an original piece?
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Martin Dubček
Ahoi. My go.
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T.M. Dusablon
It definitely feels like a Watts sketch, you captured the line quality-
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Tiago Silva
My study on another Jeff's drawing
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Steve Lenze
Hey Tiago, Your drawing is pretty good, the proportions are close and the gesture is nice. As far as the rendering, you were focused on the surface details, but missed out on how Jeff rendered the bigger forms before rendering the smaller forms. I did a quick sketch to show you what I mean, Hope it helps :)
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Sita Rabeling
Another skull study. I wanted to copy Jeff’s style, but it’s hard to get some reasonable result with just lines. So it became this after a journey with my pencil. Sorry if it’s ugly, but I learned a lot!
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Steve Lenze
Hey Sita, I notice you draw pretty well, but I think it's rendering that you need some help. What I'm seeing is that you are making everything too close in value, creating a flat look to your drawing. Some times when there is a lot of reflective light, people get confused and lighten the shadow side too much, which is what you did here. It's best to ignore it and just render the shadows. You have to think of the head as a box with a side, front and bottom/top. I did a quick paintover to show you what I mean, I hope it helps you, because your drawing is pretty good, but you need to think about shading as a way to give a 3 dimensional feel to your drawings. :)
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zan
4mo
Followed along with this and did my own - *seems* like after this and after the critique video I have a better feeling for how to do these studies, but I can't quite be sure yet I'm executing well - obviously I'm off on a lot of these lines, there's still tons to learn, but I dunno does it at least look approached well? - feeling better but also not terribly confident about it and I'd love some critique.
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Steve Lenze
I think you captured the proportions pretty well, good job :)
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Cameron Dunbar-Yamaguchi
This was very helpful in shedding light on HOW to do a proper master study. It was something I had been mulling over while I get ready to start studying my "Art Parents".
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Reilly Herbst
Any critique is welcomed
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Steve Lenze
This is nice, but I can tell you were drawing with your fingers. Glen draws with his whole arm, that is why he can get those beautiful sweeping lines. Then he comes in and adds detail to the drawing with his fingers.
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Sita Rabeling
This morning’s study. After working pretty precise on the other projects I wanted to draw the lines and proportions more loosely in this exercise. It was fun, felt relaxing.
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Braydon Piper
I chose some artworks from Vinland saga by Makoto Yukimura, I also meant to take a picture of the traditional one before scribbling in those details .
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T.M. Dusablon
Hi Class! Master line project. I learned from DS Delux from Hungary. I love his animal drawings. The darker lines draw my attention first to the turtles head and front fins, and leads my eyes down the turtles back. I like how the searching lines are left within the sketch, but are softer and not attract too much attention. The searching lines also helped in my own sketch of the master turtle.
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Memori 0
Hi, I just want to mention that the artist is psdelux, I couldnt find the artist at first.
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Tony Zhang
Proportions are so off. LOL. But I had so much fun doing this!
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drawingdodo
Great work examining a piece and deconstructing the line weight!
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Steve Lenze
This is a tough angle, I think you did pretty well :)
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Gregory Payne
I chose one of my all-time favorite drawings, Albrecht Dürer's portrait of his mother, Barbara Hofer, at age 63, two months before she died. The drawing shows both the ravages of age and of childbearing--she had 14 children, only two of whom made it to adulthood--and Dürer's tender feelings towards her. As with all of Dürer's drawings, the subject is closely observed. Thanks to this assignment I now see this charcoal drawing with new eyes. In terms of line it has everything: very fine lines, heavy contour lines, firm vs. wavering lines, light vs. dark lines. In the few places where I felt Dürer had used blending, I omitted since this exercise is limited to lines. I didn't try to make a "perfect" copy, but I do regret now that I missed the tilt of the face, which gives the original such interest. Another case of the brain telling the hand and eye what to do!
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Gregory Payne
Incidentally, if you look closely you can see that Dürer corrected himself. Originally he made the nose just a little too long, then decided to shorten it just a bit, but a trace of the older line remains.
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sara keyes
I found an artist recommended "Glen Keane" Stan Prokopenko from You tube.
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Sarneth
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Steve Lenze
Hey Sarneth, This is a good exercise to do to explore the skull in different angles. Just make sure you keep the elements lined up with the lines. I did a quick sketch to show you what I mean, I hope it helps :)
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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