Anatomy Thread of Gnarly Cranium

#35

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:

#36

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

Abby

#37

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

019:

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.

#38

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:

#39

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

#40

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:

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.

#41

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

#42

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!

#43

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?

#44

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. :slight_smile:

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

#45

Hey you! Things are looking pretty dang good here, I hope you’re well too :slight_smile: 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 :smiley: I really do hope I get to go and that you’ll be there too. Take care!

#46

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:

#47

Hi!

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

#48

Hi…Leah…:slight_smile:

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

#49

Hey Leah, :slight_smile:

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

#50

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:

#51

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

#52

Awesome work!!:applause: keep it up!

#53

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

#54

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.