Filip Mladenovic
Filip Mladenovic
Phoenix, AZ
Filip Mladenovic
Well I didn't really want to start a new thread for this. It is somewhat based on a Sargent painting. Let me know what you think. I don't really like the character design.
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Filip Mladenovic
I think those are all pretty good composition except for the 2nd (middle left) one. The shapes are interesting but I think it is too evenly balanced. The black and white seem to equally dominate the composition. Also there is a very even distribution of point shapes that sort of distract from the figure. I think to emphasize the figure a little bit more (and I only mean a little bit, like 15% more), you should cut back on some of the dark shapes and leave a bit more flat white space.
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Filip Mladenovic
I think this is a great idea and when I have some time off work I would like to try something similar...
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Filip Mladenovic
Keith Parkinson was one of my favorite artists and I don't think anyone else knows about him. Here's a study based off one of his book covers.
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Filip Mladenovic
The proportions of both of the faces in the first photo seems a little bit off. 1) On the first face the mouth seems a little bit too high / close to the nose. On the second face the nose and (our left) side of the face seem to be drifting too far left. 2) In the second photo the eyes don't seem to really follow the perspective of the face. The eye on our right looks like it drifted up too high. That being said I think all the other ones are really great. Amazing progress if you've only been at it for 6 months. You really show strong construction of the forms in the 3rd photo. Honestly, I think the issues with the first couple of faces may just be things you already know how to fix and as you get more practice these variances will go away. Just keep on practicing the way you are. It looks like really good progress for only 6 months.
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Steve Lenze
Hey Olga, This painting is really good! The face and all the armor is great. The only thing I noticed is that the proportions are a little off. It might be because of the downward perspective you chose, but it takes away from the heroic nature of this character. I did some drawing to show you what I mean. I hope you find some value in it, keep it up, your stuff is really good :)
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Filip Mladenovic
That's a great point about composition. Those are the kinds of subtle things that make a big difference.
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Filip Mladenovic
I think it looks pretty good for the most part. The figure/pose is a little stiff but maybe that is justifiable in heavy armor. The main things I can think of (and these are minor): 1) Maybe the torso and especially the shoulders should follow the turn of the head a little bit more. His body is facing one direction and his head is strongly facing another direction with little rotation in the hips or torso. This is not necessarily unrealistic.... Again, maybe this works with heavy armor but then maybe the neck shouldn't be turned so much. 2) The beard feels a little bit too detached from its environment to me. Maybe you can add some cast shadow around the neck? Maybe the beard hair should be reacting to the hard collar of the armor and deforming? Right now the shape of the beard looks too stiff. Again, these are pretty minor points. I think overall this is quite good.
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Filip Mladenovic
Nice album. I really like the textures and brush strokes on the wolf. The lighting is also really interesting. Did you use reference?
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Marco Fornaciari
Those studies are amazing! Good job!
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Filip Mladenovic
Thanks
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Filip Mladenovic
Here's my first set of abs assignments. Maybe I should not have shaded them so much. I may have ended up focusing more on shading than the structure... Please let me know if you see anything I can fix.
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Filip Mladenovic
Heres the second bunch. I tried to avoid over rendering the shadow at first but then I ended up doing it anyway.... It almost seems like more work to keep the forms in their simplest forms...
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Jordi Solà
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Filip Mladenovic
Well after using the rounded bucket more I think I understand it better. The key thing with the bucket is making sure you angle it correctly (leaning forward usually). I wouldn't exactly recommend using the guidelines I posted here.
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Filip Mladenovic
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Filip Mladenovic
Another set of drawing. I shouldn't have hatched some shadows in that last one... it probably doesn't help the study at all.... Please let me know if you spot something off, Thanks!
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Filip Mladenovic
As I'm watching this block in step I can't help but compare the drawing to the photo presented in the video. I specifically noticed that the planes of the face you've drawn have more sense of depth or perspective than the photo. Sort of pushing the frontal planes of the face forward? In the photo I (think) I'm seeing face as a lot flatter with less foreshortening in areas. Is this just because of the focal length of the photo vs. life or is the sense of depth something you intentionally strive for (maybe exaggerate) in your block-in? Would you recommend trying to compensate for some of the limitations in photos if we don't have the luxury of working from live models?
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Filip Mladenovic
I'm not sure how detailed these sketches were supposed to go. So I tried just keeping them more gestural and not focusing too much on value or shading. Please let me know if you noticed something wrong. Thanks. Will hopefully be posting the rest in the next couple days.
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Filip Mladenovic
I think this gave me a false sense of confidence. Need to check the examples from Stan...
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Filip Mladenovic
Re-did these after watching Stan's examples. I still need to really grind the notion of volume into my subconscious.
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Filip Mladenovic
uh I completely botched this huh? I didn't give them any real volume. I've probably been drawing too many slender women : (
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Filip Mladenovic
It looks like you are focusing on the planes of the face and form in this example. Would you also recommend breaking down portraits into other elements such as value ranges, hot vs. cold or sharp vs. lost edges? Or do you recommend analyzing something else, like a landscape for those types of elements? I think I have a harder time with overall composition and balancing values than anything else, so I wonder if this type of analysis on a portrait is something I should focus on?
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Anne-Lise Loubière
Hello, I'm no expert, but composition wise, it's not really easy to read. The eye jumps a bit from a spot to another without much directions. The shapes of the huge statue and her scarf merge in a disturbing way (they're catching the eye of the viewer instead of the girl. The two pikes behind her are also a bit distracting, I think there are too many strong diagonals that don't converge somewhere (the pikes, her rifle, the stones, broken fence). I think the lighting is also a bit off : the main light source seems to come from above and that giant wing would cast a huge shadow upon her and the ground. Maybe you should try to rearrange some of the background elements and define a clear light source. I'd recommend working in black and white thumbnails to see if your silhouettes or the action read well on a very small scale (like the size of the image preview in your post). Working small avoid getting caught up in details. Usually, the focal point of your picture should be were you have the highest level of details and contrast. So here are my two cents on this ^^ Take this with a grain of salt though, I'm also learning :D
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Filip Mladenovic
I tried fixing it up with all your advice. I think it really helped. It's still a long way from perfect but I think it is much improved.
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Filip Mladenovic
Thanks. I always knew background were a problem for me. I was really not thinking about the lighting much for the background using some sort of excuse about it being foggy or overcast. But I think you are right that the lack of clear lighting really destroys the structure of the background. I think your points about the background lines seem right also. I thought I had enough color contrast in the background to avoid any confusion with those lines but they are really just a distraction and don't contribute anything to the picture. I probably should have just deleted them. I also remember fighting with the 'cape'. I was deleting and re-drawing that shape repeatedly. I was trying to keep it sort of dynamic and energetic but I agree that it doesn't look right. Ironically, I had thumbnailed this all out in black in white before I did the final painting and I thought it looked better. However, I think the problem was I didn't really include most the background in the thumbnail. I was going to say I left out that background in the value sketch to focus on the foreground and midground. Saying it out loud sounds so obviously stupid I don't know why I didn't think about it when I was originally doing it. Also I can't paint the ground. I don't know what it is about rocks and dirt but I just can't handle them. I've done a couple of landscape studies to try and improve and its not enough. Probably my difficulty with these things contributed to why I didn't give enough attention to the background.
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Filip Mladenovic
I had a hard time with these two. I feel like identifying the spine of the scapular and medial ridge got lost. I kind of feel like there were too many muscles confusing me.
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Filip Mladenovic
Studies for assignment. These ones I didn't have too much trouble with compared with the last two.
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