Malpractice: Maladies practice thread'

#41

Looks very good!

#42

I’d say block out the lighting on the whole body before going into too much detail on the face. Otherwise you may have mismatched details. It also saves you some time and a headache later by establishing your lighting on the whole, so that you can make sure the head fits in with it. This way, if something ends up being off on the head, you won’t have to redo all that detailing, or try to fudge the image to make it look right.

Also, be very aware of how and where the hair attaches to the head. That girl has way too much forehead and also lacks sideburns, or ears for the matter.

#43

interesting. i certainly like the liv tyler sketch. :applause:

i’d like to see you finish that painting based on the poem. i think it will be nice. what do you plan on putting on the background? right now it looks kinda empty but the girl is so detailed.

#44

Hello guys, thanks for all the feedback!

I’ve decided to abandon this thread for a while to work more with pencil and paper. I don’t have a scanner, but will probably look one up in a week or so.

All this practice lead me a little off-track, I felt. I know this sounds bad, and everyone should start at the basics and all that, but what I really want to do, apart from gesture and value studies, is learn how to develop characters and stories (and eventually model and animate them). So next to the basics, I should search for my own style and what stories I want to tell.
Right now I’m making loads of studies of the girl. When I’m happy with her I will show her off here:). In the meantime, my practice studies will be in the Beginners Lounge.

See ya in a week or so…

#45

Be sure to look for some good resources so you know what to work towards. All the chatter on the internet can be pretty misleading… :slight_smile: Good luck.

#46

Hmmm…I couldn’t really stay away for long in the end. For the moment I’ve decided, next to my regular drawing practice, to search for a ‘mood’ or a ‘style’ with line sketches. They seem to be what I’m most comfortable with now. I’ll bother with paint, light and composition later.

The girl is still fascinating me. Here’s a quick study:

and also a Rembrandt line study that I like to share with you guys:

#47

Here’s a sort of monster from her world (it’s the friendly kind):

#48

The girl is lovely, very emotive. That’s really one of your strong points if you ask me! :thumbsup:

in the end shading is only a good understanding of form, which you only have to train (once you get around to that). This is dah stuff! You’re on a good track!!! :smiley:

#49

Totally getting into linestudies. It’s seems to be a technique that’s really speaking to me right now! I’ll add a few of my own later, this is just a ref practice study:

#50

Maladie!! I’m so ashamed I haven’t been by here yet. I love the title =D

My first impression so far is that I LOVE the little monster guy from the girl’s world. He is SO cute… he reminds me of the little mouse character in Spirited Away. I have a little plush of that guy up on my rear-view mirror in my car :slight_smile:

I think you have improved a LOT since just the start of this thread, and of course I see your work in the beginner’s thread as well.

The line work above is really good, and the form is really defined a lot better. Can’t wait to see more now that I’ve found this thread! :slight_smile:

#51

Thanks, LM, it’s great to see you here!:beer:

I’ve worked on a comp for the girl and the monster tonight. I really love the atmosphere of this world somehow. Stylewise, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. Either keep it really loose and work with colours, or keep it crisp and work with stark black and whites, like a comic.
If anybody feels like voting, polls are open:).

#52

I really like that last one- I think a comic style would go well with the rather harsh, emotional feeling of that painting.

Just a teensy tip- use a thinner, harder pencil for drawing the outlines (for now) and a reduced opacity soft one for shading… you’ll find it easier to maintain a consistent shading tone.

So far you’re really good at producing emotion and that is a MAJOR thing that artists need- I need to work on that myself! It’s what makes paintings interesting to look at. You have a lot of potential, now keep plug plug plug plugging away! (like the rest of us all, eh? :smiley: )

#53

^^ I like that shot Maladie, I hope you work on it more, would love to see it colored and shaded, etc.

I think paper made a good point… my art teacher told me yesterday that she’d rather have a student with good concepts who didn’t know how to draw than one who could draw but had trouble with ideas – because you can teach drawing, like riding a bike. It gave me such great hope for myself LOL!

We just need to keep banging away! hehe

#54

I haven’t been here for a while and I’m a little ashamed. It’s hard to admit, but developing a whole piece is just beyond me at this point. I come across detail after detail that I can’t get to look right, I just don’t have the skills yet to make the images like they’re in my head.

I’m guessing - and I really tried until I was almost crying… - that my progress is better with short-spanned ‘snapshots’ where I work on one thing at a time. Like: how does the facial anatomy look when lit from one side? Or: how do I make a haughty face look haughty? Pieces are just one bridge too far for me - I hate to admit it:).

Positive things of the previous try with girl and monster:

  • comp is more interesting than my first attempts;

  • emotion comes across;

  • characters have a unique feel to them.

As for the things that went ‘blerk’, check this out:

Discovering I can’t do a comic-style shaded face:

Discovering I can’t get a crayon-effect in Photoshop:

#55

It seems the crayon effect is doing ok, I’m no good with those things though, perhaps it’s in the building up with layers to achieve the effect? :slight_smile:

I believe, in comics generally, only the very darkest shadows get some outlins to sharpen them, and a general form shadow line I’ve also seen.

You’re really creative, it’s fun watching these experimentations develop.

#56

I’m so with ya on this one. I feel the same way! You do have a really good eye though! Luckily drawing is just about practice :slight_smile: It’s the creativity that can’t be taught.

#57

awww, guys…thanks for the kind words!! What I like most about this forum is everybody seems to encourage eachother, and I really needed that after my little breakdown:).

I’m much happier already, because I tried a haughty face and oh yes! it’s haughty. Look!

and a close-up:

[left] [/left]
[left]I did this without a ref. She turned out some sort of Egyptian queen which I like a lot. As you can probably see her body anatomy is off and looks way too stif, I’m going to need good ref for that. Also the face looks alien and needs tweaking.[/left]

[left]I will take heed of my previous mistake and keep this a snappy (by which self-made English word I mean ‘a quick sketchy attempt to catch or practice something specific’). However I would like to practice on the haughty pose:).[/left]

[left]Last but not least I attempted some sort of speed-paint. I saw this a couple of days before, cycling home from a satisfactory evening. I was in a happy mood and nature did it’s best to make me even happier. I thought the colours of the tree, the sky and the light contrasted so beautifully I wanted to paint it.[/left]
[left] [/left]

#58

Maladie,

I need to stop coming to your thread: your creative outburst along with the incredible progress you are making is intimidating me…

:eek:

#59

Can I coax you back with a cookie?..no?..

#60

i’d say you should continue that piece. it might not turn out as well as you want it to but you’ll learn a lot. keep the finished piece and when you’ve gathered enough knowledge and experience do a rendition. :thumbsup: