Malpractice: Maladies practice thread'

#21

And here’s a quick value study:

#22

keep up the good work Maladie!

#23

Thanks for the encouragement:)! Here’s an update. Inspired mainly by beaux, I’m trying to make this a much looser portrait with more visible brushstrokes. His nose is crooked, I’ll try flipping asap…

#24

He Maladie!

Loek!

:smiley:

This last value study is really beautiful.

I just don’t know if I can let you get away with not finishing the girl, though. Maybe I’ll let it slip. Maybe…:smiley:

:scream:

#25

Okay Mu, I guessed you were right…

So here comes, especially for you…drumroll an update on gipsygirl. I know the hair sucks, but I worked mainly on giving the eyes and features more depth, and cleaned her up in general so she doesn’t have to lay in the fridge with a bare skull:). (she became more like film noir-girl, though:))

#26

I continued working on the male portrait. It’s coming along pretty well, even starts to resemble the real thing a bit. I love painting in this loose style; it’s good for my values, too. So I guess I’m gonna do more stuff like this.

#27

Maladie.

This male portrait is really good. Really good. It may sound “unexcited”, but it is something I would not say about anything I did.

The value transitions, the blending, the proportions - it all just works in that one.
Make some decisions on the level of realism and the level of detail you want to have in that painting and then see to it that you apply this level to anything in there so it gets a unified look.

As concerns the girl: just don’t stop, hehe:scream:

#28

For continuity, as this is really becoming a progress-dump instead of one WIP, I’m putting up some recent studies. One done as a line study, the other a value study. I hate to admit it but I’m learning much more from these then from my own clumsy, ref-less tries:)…

To spice it up I’d love to share a zen koan I read recently (it’s also in the sketchathon):
A student monk and his teacher are walking along. The student asks: “How can I become enlightened?”
The teacher just slaps him in the face and says: “Keep walking!”.

Kind of my motto these days. I keep walking, loving every step. And who knows, one day…enlightenment:lightbulb.

#29

I was working a bit more on old Jakey tonight. I’m at that stage where everything you do can make it worse instead of better. So, I decided to leave it at this for now and consider it ‘finished’. By the way, I like the loose style; I tried to clean it up a bit without losing the flow, and think it worked out pretty well.

#30

Or do you think the sketchy hair is weird? It was a conscious decision, but I’m wondering now whether it’s not too much of a style-clash…

#31

Hey maladie. You’re making big progress. Keep it up.

For a crit, I’d say the same thing I say to myself: gotta do more life drawing. I can tell you’re working from photos on these things. Usually it’s best to do at least a year or two of painting heads from life before you resort to photos. At least, that’s what I think.

#32

Good progress in here! Funny to keep the name of the thread the way it is for a doodle thread, but it’s hard to pick out. :stuck_out_tongue:

Jakey’s looking pretty good now! I never dare draw people on the streets, I meander too much to stay still that long anyways lol. But a good thing is to force yourself to memorise faces almost like a photographic memory. And keep staring while they’re not staring at you.
When they walk by you get all the angles :). hahaha, I feel like such a creep. :slight_smile:

#33

Hi Beaux, thank you so much for visiting my WIP-thread. I wanted to ask you a question about what you said. How can you tell when someone is working from pictures? A certain flatness? I was thinking I could get good just with this practice, but as it seems I must consider life-drawing courses (or pestering friends for posing)…

That’s a really loaded question. Definitely enroll in some life drawing courses. I’ve taken our college’s figure drawing class 9 times and still feel like I’m barely begining to learn. When you’ve done a lot of study from life, it’s easier to have life in your paintings. When you look at work that’s done from photos without lifedrawing experience, it just lacks life. Hope that helps.

#34

I made this sketch today with a reference pic from Liv Tyler, and I was happy with the style, so I’m putting it up here too…ten minutes, no eraser, no rescaling.

Over the weekend I have pestered friends and family for posing, I was really shy and the sketches suck, but I will scan a few at work anyhow:).

#35

For experience and enjoyment I have embarked on another ridiculously ambitious project. I know, I know, I should stick with the basics. But I can’t help it (I have evil right hand syndrome:))…

This image has its inspiration in a poem I wrote. It’s about a girl getting lost in voices from the past, when all the world has come to a standstill. I would love to be able to transfer the images it evokes in my head, to the canvas. That’s a long way to go, though…

A no doubt hilarious notion about this, when you aren’t actually the one working on it, is that I spent all night on the face then HATE it with a vengeance. mirthless laughter:) I wanted to go more sketchy, less realistic, but failed miserably. I’ll have another go though!


[left] [/left]
[left]Aaaargghhh!! It’s female Chucky from Child’s Play!:twisted: [/left]

#36

Nice work on her face if you ask me. What strikes me as a nasty misstake though is her pose, her lifted hand is on the same side as her lifted leg. Human beings generally can’t/don’t walk this way to balance their weight and rpeserve kinetic energy (oooh big words), try it perhaps, you’ll find it is pretty annoying. Interesting topic. Like where this is going.

#37

Thanks! I imagined her half-asleep, stumbling over something, hence the weird pose. Might just turn out to be a cop-out, though:).

#38

Then maybe some tweaking is only needed, thing is you personally might understand why or what because you imagine it, but without slight or extreme exaggeration some paintings are hard to read. Since there’s no inherent motion to read from so to say, blah blah. I’m sure you’ll figure it out :). I didn’t see a rock, anyway :p.

#39

I couldn’t resist The Painting…The Hand…it was calling me…ok, I sound like a madwoman, I’ll stop it. Much happier with this comp and face. Ain’t she sweet?:slight_smile: Also, almost no blending! My painting is improving a little after all.

(After seeing post: ok, head’s too big and not blended in very well…that’ll teach me not too post in a rush of excitement:argh:)

#40

Another update on the face. I tried to think more about the lighting (hardly any from the front) and the style I want. I’m learning a lot doing this. I might just go on till I have the right face, then go on.