Thanks Corvax[color=Cyan]!!![/color] you have convinced me that there is still room to move with the values in the skin.
And thanks also Rebecca for the tips on the colour temps…i bow to your powers of observation…or rather…
super powers
Great work Vidar3d! and i’m looking forward to your updates Mr Mu!
Cheers!
HI everyone,
this greyscale thing is really helpful! I am starting to see differences in values I did not realize before. Thanks for hitting my brakes, rebecca!
I did not have these problems in my first pic in this workshop (fourth photograph), and now I think that’s because I did not pay attention to some important things.
I had to think of something I keep telling people when I teach guitar lessons. When they complain that things are getting hard all of a sudden I tell them it’s a good sign, because you are progressing to the next level and are no longer content with what you did before.
Now, ehem, that’s what I feel like at the moment.
i’m looking forward to your updates Mr Mu!
thanks! It’s good to know there’s people who know what they are doing waiting for one’s take on tasks…
So, this is really heavy wip, haven’t got round to get into details… just too excited about finally seeing values!
I can see! I can see
congregation kneels down
a shaft of light hits his head
erm:wip:
Wow, Mr. Mu! Nice progress!
Hey, the purpose of this thread / forum is WIP, so WIP away! So glad you’re focusing on grayscale…it’s just the best way to learn digital, in my opinion ~ actually, the same applies to traditional. Can’t tell you how many grayscale oil painting studies I’ve done ~ I sometimes prefer it to color! 
Alrighty, then, looking forward to update: part trois.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Hi Rebecca
Worked on head today. Made bigger. Increased the angle, leaning back a little.
Started to put in facial planes. Got a book from Library on “creating a likeness”.
Says you are supposed to start from the eybrows and bridge of nose.
Then eye sockets and work your way outward.
Thought I would give it a try and see if it works.
Different approach from the way I have been doing it.
Still using one big oil brush - Painter 8.
Roughing in.
Applying one brush stroke on top of another. No blending tool used. Just color.
Keeping brush the same size throughout so far.
Alot of color variations on this model.
Quite a challenge.
Didn’t get a chance to tell Corvex or Dave about Burne Hogarth. Hope he looks into it.
Can only improve his draftsmenship, I think.
Take care and have a nice Holiday
Glenn
Beautiful start, SD! Like your approach a lot. Definitely hope that you and Mrs. SD will have an excellent Thanksgiving.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Hi there,
is there actually some kind of deadline (end of attention-paying) to this workshop?
putting in some detail, still avoiding hair, fan and most of the legs. Will leave that for the next round. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out why it is I can’t establish a real likeness in the face. I guess it’s because the angle of the head is actually pointing more towards the viewer in the reference, but I am not sure. Any hints anyone?
je vous show le progresse part trois:
Mr. Mu,
You’re making an incredible amount of progress! The OFDWs each run 2 weeks, which means that I should be posting a new one Monday, 11/28. However, all OFDWs remain open on a continuous basis ~ feel free to post for as long as you like ~ there have been several folks who have posted work to previous OFDWs long after new ones have been posted. Most people move on to the most current OFDW, though I will always look at work posted to any of the threads.
Keep up the good work! Your values are looking great!
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Hello everyone
I have been noticing everyone including myself has benn having a problem getting an exact likeness of the model’s face. Some are very similar but not exact. Exactness is essential when doing portraiture. Can’t be faked. Especially if you are trying to sell the portrait to the person who owns the face!
Found this method maybe it will help, don’t know. This is the first time I’ve tried it myself.
Take Care
Glenn
From: Getting a Likeness by Frank Slater
Hi All, here’s my next update (perhaps the last one, LOL!)
I could have pushed the midtones, but thought the orginal image is a little dark so tried for a trade-off between too dark and washed out. Did some work on the hair and adjusted the temperature of the various skin tones (probably not enough).
Spirit Dreamer, thanks for posting the pages from that book… I must see if i can get a copy. I realise that the likeness in my image does not match the model and could do more to bring it closer. however, i think i’ll dip into the pool of artistic license and keep her as she is now 
It would be interesting to do a portrait exercise in one of these workshops…I might focus on the face for the next one (depending on what the poses are like).
thanks everyone for all the help!
DrawMonger
like I said before, I hope the face on mine comes out as good as yours has.
Posted those pages, because they helped me,and thought they might be of some help
to anyone who was trying to get an exact likeness.
I think your painting came out great, in fact, I think everyones came out, or is comeing out great,but there is always room for improvement,in everyones work, includeing mine.
Take Care
Glenn
Thanks Glenn, I think the face of your image is comming along nicely. The attention to values of light and shade have given it a good form and shape. I find subtle blending between the values helps a lot.
drawMonger,
You’ve done a really incredible job here, and I think that the adjustments you have made have helped a lot! The one thing that just doesn’t jive with me yet is the bkgrd blue color ~ perhaps it is too distracting because of it’s textures, which is drawing too much of my attention? I also think it would help if it weren’t so uniform / flat in terms of value ~ I think it’s flattening out the picture quite a lot, which is a shame since you’ve put so much effort into beautifully creating the foreground form.
Let me know your thoughts on this ~ perhaps toning down the bkgrd both in terms of hue / value and texture could help this already nice piece a lot.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Rebecca, funny you should mention the background…i’m not happy with it either and should have given it more thought from the start…but as an experiment i tried to give the piece a bordello feel…didn’t really work, but i’ll post it anyway
drawMonger,
Hmm, interesting, but it totally flattens out the figure…I think if perhaps you did more painterly stripes, muted / grayed, and fading off without the photo pattern at the top, I would like this a lot more…take a look at the simple bkgrds in some of Liepke’s pieces, in which the bkgrds just set up the figures basically:
http://www.usartists.org/art/liepke.jpg
http://www.herndonfineart.com/images/Liepke/liepke_helping_with_the_dress.jpg
http://www.hansongallerycarmel.com/malcolm_t_liepke/alone_together/index_html/fullsize_jpg
[left]That last piece looks to be inspired a lot by Toulouse~Lautrec:
[center]
http://www1.fccj.org/cgroves/2236docs/test4/toulouse-lautrec-at%20the%20moulin%20rouge.jpg
[left]Definitely try to give this piece more atmosphere through the play / relationship of color between the foreground figure and the bkgrd.
Pink and green, baby, pink and green!
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
[/left]
[/left]
[/center]
WOW, Great pics thanks…backgrounds are really hard for me…it seems that i’m getting better at painting a figure or a landscape (in oil at least) but put the two together and…frzzzzt (that’s a fart sound by the way).
Liepke’s work is inspiring though!
I do agree that the background i put in doesn’t fit. ‘interesting’ is a good word - you are so polite
Will have a go tomorrow finishing the pic.
Many thanks!!
Hey, no prob! I think the thing digital artists forget the most is to look at traditional work. It’s the basis! I find myself looking at more digital work these days, and it’s so refreshing to look at traditional work to find out the answers to the questions we all have about our own drawings and paintings.
The thing to note about the current bkgrd is less the pattern than the value ~ notice how in your previous piece, the hue may have been wrong, but the value really right ~ it sets off the foreground figure perfectly, whereas the lighter / striped / busy bkgrd makes the figure practically disappear. So, it’s less a matter of wallpaper picking than just finding the right tone to offset whatever object / figure you have in the foreground.
Luckily, with digital, you can experiment 'til the cows come home! Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
hi (takes a deep breath for a long post),
I had hoped this workshop could help me improve my skills - instead this workshop is changing me…
Now, where I live snow is always a rare sight - just more so at this time of the year. But what happened that night was the biggest snowfall on that day of the year in that area for more than hundred years. We ran outside, had snowball fights, built some giant snowmen (more than six feet high - we had to lift these snowballs with three of us). Everything was freshly covered in snow.
And whenever there was a pause in the common merriment I stood gazing at the snowcovered trees murmuring to myself: “It’s not only white - there’s the core shadow and beneath theres the bough and it’s got some green it and…”
Some two hours later, when we got home, I had to have a black tea and while water was cooking I was looking for a cup and said (omg, I really said it loud - i am so glad there was noone nearby…) “hm no blue cup…I need warm colors for this”, picking up a nice red-green one mind the simultaneous contrast:surprised
So…to cut a long sentence short: I am in the workshop when I am not at home. Thanks to this the last boundary between cgtalk and what I had left of real life going on is fallen to the ground.
I hope you’re happy now rebecca
shakes fist
here’s what I call finished for now. Thank you spiritdreamer for hints on establishing likeness, but I will see to it for the next OFDW.
Known issues: face likeness, fan, and hair of course.
All the time I was listening to J.S. Bach drinking in perfection with my ears so that the choir seemed not to sing “Jesuuu meiiiiiiine Freuiiiiiiide” anymore, but “the faaaaaace ooo do the faaaace” and I was llike “naaa” …next time:
hi (takes a deep breath for a long post),
I had hoped this workshop could help me improve my skills - instead this workshop is changing me...
- was on a friend’s birthday on friday, all of us being 30+. At 1.00 am, we had been eating pizza, smoking (not me), drinking (me), boozing (not me), and playing music for some hours and were actually sitting quite comfortably on the warm couch, gazing dreamily over bottles and crisps into the distance, when someone cried out: “Look at the snow!”
Now, where I live snow is always a rare sight - just more so at this time of the year. But what happened that night was the biggest snowfall on that day of the year in that area for more than hundred years. We ran outside, had snowball fights, built some giant snowmen (more than six feet high - we had to lift these snowballs with three of us). Everything was freshly covered in snow.
And whenever there was a pause in the common merriment I stood gazing at the snowcovered trees murmuring to myself: “It’s not only white - there’s the core shadow and beneath theres the bough and it’s got some green it and…”
Some two hours later, when we got home, I had to have a black tea and while water was cooking I was looking for a cup and said (omg, I really said it loud - i am so glad there was noone nearby…) “hm no blue cup…I need warm colors for this”, picking up a nice red-green one mind the simultaneous contrast
- last night I had a nice candlelight dinner with the beloved mother of my daughter and in a particular romantic moment I could not help but notice the delicate value change on the left side of her nose. When I became aware of that thought I could have made use of some heavy drink to compensate for my shock.
So…to cut a long sentence short: I am in the workshop when I am not at home. Thanks to this the last boundary between cgtalk and what I had left of real life going on is fallen to the ground.
I hope you’re happy now rebecca
shakes fisthere’s what I call finished for now. Thank you spiritdreamer for hints on establishing likeness, but I will see to it for the next OFDW.
Known issues: face likeness, fan, and hair of course.All the time I was listening to J.S. Bach drinking in perfection with my ears so that the choir seemed not to sing “Jesuuu meiiiiiiine Freuiiiiiiide” anymore, but “the faaaaaace ooo do the faaaace” and I was llike “naaa”
…next time:
Mr. Mu, you are seriously HILARIOUS!!! :scream: It's lucky I wasn't drinking a soda when I read this, because I would have snarfed it for sure!! :scream:
Thanks for this great story and feedback ~ I am so gratified to know that my diabolical plan of taking over the Universe One Open Figure Drawing Workshop At A Time as a big banner over my doorway reads in Helvetica Bold font is working perfectly ~ Muahahahahaha!!! Or, as I should say, Mr. Mu~ahahahahaha!
This piece has come just so far since when you started it, and I truly hope connives that you will be a part of the next OFDW, which should be launched in the wee hours of the morn, either tonight hopefully or tomorrow.
EDIT: Snarf I just went to set my timer for my 11 minute pasta and automatically set the timer to 15 minutes. Perhaps I should see someone about this? 
Cheers, 
~Rebeccakalways my pleasure to make you snarf (what a word, did not find it in the dictionary, but it says it all by itself), because this forum is such a joy to me, so you’re welcome: snarf away prepares joke, passes drink
Oh.My.God.
you are so like a good friend of mine who is fond of doing a certain type of jokes which is in english called low pun, I guess. He can’t avoid a single one of them! It is only when I cringe in pain before him that he finally stops by saying (in english - he studied english):“Ok no more puns or I shall be pun-ished…”
thanks, and I surely will. This is so much fun and it helps so much. I am planning to do an anatomy thread, starting with hand studies (I always avoid hands. Because I do it a lot, I can tell instantly when someone is choosing poses because the hands are hidden, lol, this has to stop!). I already collected material and resources for this. But I think I will give the beginner’s lounge a try also, and, erm, the sketchathon and there’s the dsg, of course, and urgh just starved in front of the monitor
One question though: In the opposing curves thread you suggest overdoing the lines to establish beautiful forms and masses - but in these OFDW we are supposed to stick to the reference as possible? Or not?
til soon