Anatomy Thread of Gnarly Cranium

[gnarlycranium]

Now that I FINALLY HAVE A REAL TABLET... it's time to get this thing rolling.

No tracing, no eyedropper from the reference. I'm just starting to try to figure out how to work brushes in photoshop so they actually do what I want.

001:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces001.jpg
about 2 hrs, after 1st try went down with a photoshop crash

from reference:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces001r.jpg


002:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces002.jpg

Again, about 2 hours, too long really to be feasible for this challenge, but I was enjoying with this one. I like this guy, he seems grumpy. Fun bulgy head and suspicious peering eyeballses. The tablet is beginning to seem more friendly.

From reference:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces002r.jpg

[Womball]

These are really impressive! The last one especially it looks almost 3d, has a very strong presense and DOF. The first the one eye is much larger than the other, however I am not familar with the sculpture your working from.

[Rebeccak]

Leah!

Welcome! :) It's great to finally see your thread here - and some really impressive work to kick things off. I definitely look forward to your updates - *subscribed*.

I think it would be cool if you could tell everyone a little about your art training and background.

Cheers, :)

-Rebecca

[gnarlycranium]

Thanks, Womball!

I edited the posts to put in small reference pics and a link to the project thread. When I have more images done I will try to figure out a convenient way to link them up to the first post to keep things organized and sensical.

Rebecca-- I need to remember your quickdraw, you snuck a post in on me again. :)

My art training and background? Umm I've had a lot of art classes since I was a kid, from painting to ceramics to ukrainian eggs and airbrushing, that sort of thing. My favorite physical media (aside from the trusty 0.5mm mechanical pencil and a white eraser) would probably be Prismacolor colored pencils, which the extremely talented illustrator Dorothy Norton taught me to use, usually used on stretched watercolor paper and combined with watered-down acrylic paint applied as if it were watercolor. I didn't come across CG until I was 21, when I saw a demo of MAX, completely flipped out and became obsessed. Self-taught since then, about 5 years now... not much Photoshop experience because I only just now got a tablet after all this time. I've got about a year of college, mostly science stuff, with a few assorted art classes like Color Design, Drawing, and 2 terms of Figure Drawing.

[Myku]

gnarlycranium,

I really like the heads- the second one is quite awesome. As for the first one, I ran into some difficulties drawing it as well..... it looks easier than it is, for some reason!

Great work. I will definitely check back. :thumbsup:

[gnarlycranium]

Progress has slowed down a little bit, I had to start over quite a few times and finally gave up and started using grids to get my brain to quit warping the thing and putting down the wrong shapes. Also since I'm inexperienced in photoshop, color is driving me absolutely NUTS. It is sortof interesting though as I go along, to notice when I happen on the right color to use in the palette that applies to many other bits of the painting.

003:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces003.jpg

probably 3 hours, maybe more if you count the times I started again from scratch


http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces003r.jpg




004:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces004.jpg

1hr maybe.. the sketchy stuff in this one really got on my nerves


http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces004r.jpg

[Rebeccak]

Leah,

It's great to see your pieces here - looks like you are making a lot of rapid progress already. :) It's up to you as to whether you wish to continue with the 50 Heads Workshop, or if you might rather join us in the 50 Torsos Workshop:

Anatomy Lesson Series: Body Part 2 - The Torso (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=405198&page=1&pp=15)

Since all of the reference images show the full figure (head / torso, etc.) you could kill 2 birds with one stone. :)

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Cheers,

-Rebecca

[Maidith]

Congrats on your new tablet =)

I like your drawings; you've got a good eye for proportions.

[urgaffel]

You scare me... You're doing really good already o_O

And why aren't you on msn huh? HUH? I have some stuff you need to get and I can't give it to you unless you're online >_<

[Rebeccak]

Hi Leah,

Any updates? :)

[gnarlycranium]

Thanks guys!


Urggie! You and your silly being-in-Amsterdam stuff! My schedule has gotten a bit out of whack lately, so I have not been online early enough to catch you. I might be online late enough at some point to see what you want then.

Rebecca-- I think I'll stick with the heads for now, to at least finish what I intended to do. Maybe I'll hit torsos next? Or whatever everybody else is working on by then.



This is taking me much longer than I thought! I haven't had as much chance to work on it as I should. I also lost track of how much time I spent on these... color is getting a little easier, but it's still a pain.


006:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces006.jpg

I got pretty irritated with this one-- I think I'm finding it much harder to work on someone else's drawing, with warped perspective and screwed up lack of foreshortening and so forth, than on the pictures that are from real sculptures, which at least have solid, consistent geometry that's much easier to interpret. Maybe I should try drawing it more like what my brain wants it to look like, rather than mimicking so literally.

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces006r.jpg





007:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces007.jpg

Her receding chin is bugging me. I know there's got to be some slick easy way to do the pearls, but I don't know what it is yet. Tried three or four different methods, all mixed in there. The hair was much easier than I expected, hurray for brushes.

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces007r.jpg

[Rebeccak]

Leah,

These are some really beautiful pieces - in a way, really tranquil, calm work, it's actually really nice to see the level of refinement you are adding to these. :)

Feel free to stick to the Portraits Workshop - whatever suits you, I think you're doing some beautiful studies - I look forward to seeing more. :)

Cheers,

-Rebecca

[gnarlycranium]

Well, I'm way way way past 30 days now, what with moving and piles of other crap, but still trying to plug away on this thing...

And I dunno how this stuff got out of order! 5 was missing, so here it is:

005:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces005.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces005r.jpg



008:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces008.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces008r.jpg

Skipping #9 for now, it just wasn't coming out right...

[Krylo]

Oh Wow! These are awesome:thumbsup:

[gnarlycranium]

Too many updates at once, when I included the ones I missed, so making a second post...


010:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces010.jpg


http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces010r.jpg

I did this one after doing some pretty heavy research into skin tone tutorials around CGtalk... I'm pretty happy with the area around the neck, though as usual, mouths are giving me trouble.



011:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces011.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces011r.jpg
Now, THIS one makes me happy inside.

After reading through some of those tutorials I persuaded myself to try painting exclusively with a hard-edged round brush, blocking in values alone without any preliminary line sketching. I have always been very dependent on line drawings, trying to get the layout of my images perfect that way first before even starting on the shading (coloring book mentality?) so this is an area I need to work on. (Partly that was my trouble with charcoal, which I despised for years) I need to be able to read the shape in values, and sculpt it as I go along instead of trying to force it. I didn't use smudging or anything like that, either. Heavy, constant use of the eyedropper tool, and lots of light careful scrubbing with a hard round brush-- mostly at a pretty big size, too.

It has worked MUCH, much better than I expected it to. I thought it would be really driving me nuts, but I think in fact a soft brush is in some ways adding more complexity than intended, and taking away some control. If I want a wide area to be somewhat lighter, a big hard brush will lay that down consistently-- a very soft one will apply a giant range of variation. I have noticed many times that trying to smoothly shade something with a soft brush results in a really splotchy look-- hot spots where the paths of the heavier 'center' of the brush have crossed over, and there's no real way to even it out, since the brush always has that uneven, spreading area of effect that piles up on itself. With a hard brush, if you want a little bit of a certain color over a wide area it's real quick, and then if you want a little more over HERE, you can slap it down there, just there, without it slopping around. The result is blotchy, but with the eyedropper and going over things lightly and carefully that all gets worked out-- plus if you squint you can really tell where the shapes are going. A little -splat- of a certain value in approximately the right space really will convey a shape, while a soft-edged splat will suggest a more complex form with shading that isn't intended yet. ....If that makes ANY sense.

Of course this will mostly get shot to heck as soon as I work with color again but we'll see how that goes.


012:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces012.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces012r.jpg

Again, with the skin tones-- this one was a little tougher, but I'm most happy with the bicep/shoulder region. The orange-browns in the shadows of the hand and chest gave me trouble. I liked the blues in the wrist. And I HATE facial hair-- or as my roomie referred to it, 'that dog attached to his face'. This one was also tough cause the resolution on the source was fairly low, but the original image was obviously very detailed.


014:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces014.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces014r.jpg

For some reason I really got to enjoying this one, even if his face is all funky yellow and lopsided. Went back to some preliminary sketching, less complex skin tones since it's not that realistic. The mouth was less of a problem this time.

[urgaffel]

Those are some really nice copies Gnarly! Especially the greyscale one, it seems like your gamble paid off :) The bearded (dogfaced?) old man is good too but it feels like the shadow is a bit too saturated. I have no idea how to correct it so feel free to ignore that comment :D

You're improving loads, keep it up!

[anandpg]

Hey! How did I miss this thread?! Nice studies, Leah!:applause:

[NR43]

I agree, those are well worth the effort
Perhaps you could spice some of these last ones up by playing with the levels a bit

[Rebeccak]

Wow, Leah, wonderful update - and I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the tutorials as well. :) Great to see that you've been working on these as it seems you're getting loads out of painting them - I'm really looking forward to seeing more! :)

[gnarlycranium]

Thanks, guys!

NR43-- I'm going to try to stay away from fiddling with these too much, they're sucking me in and taking up wayyyy too much time already as it is, heh!

Rebecca-- Glad you liked my rambling, wasn't sure it would make sense to anybody, just talking at myself.


Plugging along... let's see if I can do more than one today!

013:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces013.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces013r.jpg

This one turned out to be easier than I expected, I hate it when the source image is all.. squashed and blotchy, but actually this went pretty quick. A bit of confusion here, since the # of the image and the ones in the actual list were mixed up between 13 and 14, but I've fixed it now.

[Zephyri]

Hi leah, just dropping by to say some nice work going on in here... I love the eyes on the last head, you've captures their wateryness very well indeed. You've got the colour and shape matching down pretty well, I think by concentrating on sharpening a few edges here and there, and pushing some of your darker tones, your work will be top notch!

[Rebeccak]

Heh, sometimes you learn a lot by listening to others' inner musings. ;) Great to see your other piece! I want to run the hands / feet Workshop in maybe a month and a half or so. Hope you'll participate in that as well! :)

[gnarlycranium]

Yay I did another one!

015:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces015.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces015r.jpg

He looks like Jay to me, he needs a yellow coat and a baseball cap.

[urgaffel]

Go Go Gadget Gnarly! :D

Your blending has improved loads in these last pieces, glad to see the hard edged brush is working with you and not against you ;)

[Rebeccak]

w00tage! Go Leah! :) I notice you are going chronologically, sweet!

[gnarlycranium]

Heh well I WAS trying to go in order, to prevent myself hopping around to ones that seemed 'easier' or more fun, just trying to muscle through the whole thing... then I skipped #9 and somehow forgot to post #6, and #13 and #14 got swapped around, so... well, I'm trying anyway.


016:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces016.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces016r.jpg
I notice that this odd beaky-faced dood seems to be pretty popular.. he's one of the sculptures too if I'm not mistaken, the one that looks like a surprised cartoon? I could just look up the titles, but I'm lazy.

[Rebeccak]

Ah, that's a good approach. :) Definitely keep posting!

[deco-3d]

Wow! These are really amazing. Thanks for posting them and keep up the excellent work!! :)


Abby

[anandpg]

Wow! Awesome work, Leah!!:applause:

[Intervain]

lovely studies there! I agree with Rebbecak - keep posting! :thumbsup:

[gnarlycranium]

Thanks heaps, guys! Feel like I'm finally starting to get somewhere with this... only like 30 more to go, gaaah!


017:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces017.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces017r.jpg

This guy again. I actually just re-used my palette from the last picture, which sped things up a bit, although the flesh colors in this one are definitely less... dead-looking-- and at least he's taken his hat off, what's with all these middle ages doods and their funny red hats?

I'm really disliking the colors in these, and the fudgy shading, there's not much of a sense of form. The profile was fun, but overall I really prefer drawing the sculptures, the 3D form there can't be argued with, while these are all... squashy. I think I'm getting faster though, it's surprising me a little that I'm getting it to come out as well as it does.

[Rebeccak]

Very nice! :) I might suggest adding just a bit of mass to the back of his head on this one - but I totally see what you mean about the shading - it's relatively flat in the 'original', which is of course a photograph of a painting with more subtle modeling than is likely shown in the reproduction. Nice work, keep it going!

[NR43]

This is turning into a "Anatomy lessons Part 1: the Head" thread itself :)


NR16 ... really impressive
The last one, the chin is a bit short and a tad too much protruding I think

[gnarlycranium]

NR43-- Thanks! I've been trying to keep it organized to just the heads for now, it's so hard to find specific projects in other people's threads.

Rebecca-- I also keep wondering what some of these looked like originally, before they got all gunked up and old. And then I start to wonder what some of those guys would've thought if you handed em Photoshop or Zbrush, heh!


This one's been a nice change... a woman, with no red hat. The resolution was low though, and the skin tone very odd-- came out better than I expected though. Braids are a pain in the butt.


018:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces018.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces018r.jpg

[deco-3d]

oh, she is lovely. I think you have a softer style then the original, which I think is actually more becoming of her... :)


Abby

[gnarlycranium]

deco-3d-- Thanks! I just wish I could've helped her with that kink in her neck, too.



019:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces019.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces019r.jpg

Beaky-faced dood again. The actual sculptures seem much easier, probably grayscale helps too.

My hand is starting to hurt! I think I'm done for the night.

[razz]

Gnarlycranium, great studies! How come I haven't stopped here to take a better look at your work before?! So, studies are awesome, but do draw from imagination and from life or you'll end up like me. There has to be a balance between studies, life drawing and imaginational drawing.
Love the last one :thumbsup:

[Rebeccak]

Heyhey, another good one. :) I'd be curious to know too what Michelangelo might do with Zbrush or Mudbox. :) Probably model the whole damn world. :D

[gnarlycranium]

razz-- Not sure what you mean by 'like me', your sketchbook thread seems pretty free... I'll dig in it more.

Rebecca-- And then I get flashes of Bill and Ted, and Beethoven (rhymes with beef oven) going nuts with synthesizers, Attila the Hun whacking people with baseball bats, and Socrates giggling wildly. ...Michelangelo putting spraypaint graffiti over half a town, DaVinci busting in on the Mythbusters show and waving his arms a lot... my brain goes weird places.


ANYWAY! Something a little different this time...


020:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces020.jpg
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces020r.jpg

Again with the beaky-faced red hat man! Although checking the titles now, I see this one is Pope Benedict XIII, as was the last one, but the other beaky doods were all somebody else. How many guys with that nose can there be? Maybe it was fashionable at the time.

I got about halfway through this one, then decided I was getting pretty stale on the nitpicky shading and relying too heavily on my grids. I was very happy with the sense of accuracy I got in the last piece, but obsessing on technical nitpicking is eating a lot of time and not serving the more active practice I've been wanting to get.

So I hid the grid and started over with a blank layer, sketching loosely, trying to get a little more personality to it... this particular sculpture looks to me like some creepy cross between a turtle and a baby-thing, all sortof hunched over with big bulbous head and eyes and squishy body, blandly sulking about something. Then I turned my shading layer back on again, underneath, and resized the freehand sketch till it sat right, and actually from what I can tell it fits surprisingly good, so I set the sketch to Overlay, slapped in a little more shading on the shoulders, and called it done. I think I'm getting a little more confident with the tablet finally.

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces020a.jpghttp://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces020b.jpg

[Bonedaddy]

I'm glad that you're up and painting regularly. :) Way to go. All the stuff looks great. You're wayyyyyy better than I am, I got no room to critique.

[gnarlycranium]

Jason! And here I was thinking Japan ate you. Aww, there you go being all nice again! Still feel like I'm way behind, barely know where to go on the forums to post anything, but it's been nice getting my drawing arm limbered up again. Good to see you come by!

[razz]

Gnarlycranium, I mean that I find it very difficult to put ideas out from my head onto the paper. I've done many studies and very little imaginational work, so that kinda gets in the way somehow. But I can't say it doesn't help, the studies I mean. They sure help a lot. Only if I have done more imaginational work, it would have been much better.
Now about last study. I've never used a grid for my studies. And you know why? Well I just don't like it nor need it. I've never even tried using it. I just think it is much more fun, at least for me, not to use it. Of course it's everyone's decision. But don't you get too reliable on grid then? Won't you want one day to get over using it?

[Rebeccak]

I agree - I don't use a grid either, and while I don't see anything wrong with it, for myself it takes the fun out of having to measure and double check and just see how close (or not close, as is more often the case) I can get without it. :)

But like razz says, I see no problem with it's use, just find it more fun and challenging without it. :)

[urgaffel]

Hey you! Things are looking pretty dang good here, I hope you're well too :) Haven't spoken in a while so I'll take this oportunity to do my annual "I hope I'm going to Siggraph this year" thing here... And now I've done it :D I really do hope I get to go and that you'll be there too. Take care!

[gnarlycranium]

Whew... things are very weird lately, taking a few classes (including figure drawing, from a teacher who likes to cuss a lot and stand in front of me while I'm trying to draw, he's funny) and various other stuff, everything I'm trying to do seems like it's falling behind.

Plus, this picture was just maddening. So many people! So much for not taking too much time, argh, I'm done!


021:
http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces021.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/50faces021r.jpg

[lilirious]

Hi!

your works are so good! I really like 020, he's just great :D I think your version has more life to it than the original :) great expression :D

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi...Leah...:)

I just went through your thread.....really enjoyed seeing the progression of progress....lots of hard work, that is paying off alot it looks like...always a great thing to see...:thumbsup:
Anyway, just wanted to say, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your work and progress...:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

[Rebeccak]

Hey Leah, :)

Nice start on your master copy! Great to hear you are taking figure drawing, though your prof sounds like a nutter - lol. :) Hope to see some of your drawings here too!

[gnarlycranium]

Erilaz-- Thanks so much! I really agonized over trying to get some energy into 020, I get too finicky sometimes and need to work on livening things up.

SpiritDreamer-- I will take your word for it! Thanks! It's so hard to tell if there's any progression in one's own work. Now I just gotta post more.

Rebecca-- That's nothing. Today the teacher threatened to take his pants off in class. Gonna miss that guy, he's fun. ....Although, upon seeing examples of my digital work a bit ago, he did tell me "Wow-- you know, you should try doing some REAL paintings sometime." :rolleyes:


At any rate, I brought one of my drawing pads home today, this is a little of what I've been doing while I've been slacking off not painting heads:


http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/Portfolio/FD05-10-07b.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/Portfolio/FD05-10-07.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/Portfolio/FD05-15-07.jpg

http://www.moreplans.com/Leah/Portfolio/FD06-04-07.jpg

[urgaffel]

Those lifedrawings are really nice, especially the last one. I look forward to seeing more from you :)

[anandpg]

Awesome work!!:applause: keep it up!

[SpankTheMonk]

hello leah,

you have some really cool work here and I thought I would just chime in, I especially dig the fact that you picked up a pencil and pad even though you have a swanky new digi tablet
and the work you are doing with the tablet is really nice, Have you thought of doing a still life with the tablet?.... I am sorry to not keep in touch with you from last siggraph in Boston, you are so cool, and I was glad to re-meet you in San Diego...

evren

[gnarlycranium]

Thanks, Evren! Glad we got to hang out in San Diego!

I definitely would like to use the tablet to paint real world stuff-- it would be fantastic if I could haul it somewhere like a park or something and just draw things, but I haven't got a laptop. Here in my apartment I can't manage a still life of much but like... fruit or something, so I'll probably stick to drawing from reference for now.

I love figure drawing classes and intend to keep on taking them whenever I have the time. I guess I could try hauling around a sketchpad the way you guys do also, thing is I frustrate myself so fast most of the time I hardly ever use such a thing. I need to muscle through that somehow.

[SpankTheMonk]

I think fruit or small objects in your apartment would be peachy, that is what I was thinking

the reason I suggested a still life is when I first was learning how to paint with the digi tablet my teacher had us bring things in/ objects to digitaly paint, and I was able to transition, adapt, and progress well with that connection to traditional drawing, but thats me

I personal think there is no substitue to haveing a physical object in front of you that you can move around or move around it..the same idea applys to drawing the human figure..

[urgaffel]

Something I've been doing is to always have an a5 sketch book in my bag. Although I don't use it as often as I should >_<

Why aren't you posting more stuff eh? I want to see more pictures! More pretty colours!

Hope all is well :)

[gnarlycranium]

Yeah, drawing people from photos is weird, it feels almost like cheating and yet somehow harder at the same time. No depth, no chance to move a little and figure out just what that lump is, everything's already translated into 2D. Better than nothing though. I've never liked drawing fruit much, guess I could try it sometime when I'm bored.


Okay Urg, have a 3D head scan, then.
http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs19/300W/f/2007/226/9/9/Head_Scan_by_GnarlyCranium.jpg

AND COWPIGGY!!
http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs18/300W/f/2007/223/2/d/Cow_piggy_bank_by_GnarlyCranium.jpg
...Okay, so he's not figurative, or a head. But what's weird is I posted that sucker on deviantart, and within 10 minutes it'd been favorited 4 times. Nobody gives a crap about the stuff I broke myself over for months of blood sweat and tears, but they love the 2-hour cowpiggy. What the hell?

[MattiaNelli]

Hey Leah, it's a very good idea what you are doing with the master copies in this thread... and your pencil figure drawings are great!

019 is my favourite, really strong 3d feel of light!

[bela_bartok]

Hey Now! I kinda like the cowpig! He's cute!

;)

[lilirious]

awwwhhh cowpig is so cuute :D Great life drawings btw :) keep it up :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.