Open Figure Drawing Workshop 019 - The Awakening of the Underground Giant

[Knedlo]

Hi everybody.

I have finaly find enough courage to post something. That is mainly because I really love this theme and if I hadn’t posted something here I probably wouldn’t have posted anything at all. This is not only my posting debut, but it is also first digital painting I´m trying to complete (my new wacom is still hot), and well it is my first painting after many years of creative idleness. For those reasons i´ve decided to develop an outline from this sketch i´m posting below to colorise it afterwards. I think this will be the easiest way for a newbie like me.

My image has a litle background story. In my world the God and the Devil really exists.
But they are not as black or white as it is expected but having a little more personality and this makes them to act not as good or bad as they should. In this world. right after the genesis, the Devil started to dig enormous caves and tunnels inside the new-born earth, to make a room for his deamons to dwell in, but it almost made the fragile land-shell to collapse. The God at the last minute created a giants who were to spend their eternal lives in deep slumber bearing the heaviness of men´s world on their massive shoulders. Unfortunately their rest can be broken ,not easily and not for long cause the burden they’re carrying drains all their energy right away, but it is enough for them to yawn or curse on disturbance. Being those sounds nothing when emited from a mouth of men, it makes the earth shake coming from collosal lungs of such creature. For a men above it is a catastrophe and so it is for deamons hence they are trying not to awaken those big fellas but sometimes…

[left]I’m not feeling competent to critique any of yours grat work guys/gals at least not as tired as i’m now but I’m realy happy with this thread so I’d like to thank you all, especially to you Rebeca for doing such a great things for us to learn.

Hope it will be finished till deadline.

And please excuse my mistakes - I’m still learning.
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[Frejasphere]

Hi All

Finally getting some time to sketch on the awakening giantess… Almost panicking a bit… so haven’t even had a chance to properly browse through this thread… what I’ve seen look fantastic lots of brilliant ideas and some lovely interesting work happening

Posting one sketch - done a bunch, but just want to get one up for starters, and basically it’s sort of where she’s heading at the moment as I’ve sort of had 2 ideas that morphed into one.

Concept: The Earthmother Giantess of the Sea awakens in despair at what humankind has done to nature… reaching out of the ocean she becomes a devastating cyklone rising up and spiralling with force, although that force in itself is destructive, it’s not governed by her anger - it’s a chain-reaction to what we, as humans have brought on by neglecting earth and forcing the giantess to awaken…

I’m not sure yet if I’ll keep her in this composition or if I’ll do her as a whole figure (or maybe both)

This sketch is very rough… so things will change, just needed to get something up

cheers all

a.

[Talaria]

Rebeccak, thank you for pointing it out, I think I fixed him now (ohhh I wished I hadn’t shaded him…) . I’m also putting some roots in the background as well.

SpiritDreamer, You’re right, those ink paintings are a very good reference for my drawing, thank you!

Aggie93, yeah the proportions, I tend to draw necks long :/…Well I was planning on painting him digital but not anymore, I don’t think I could finish it in a week. Though I don’t start drawings digital, I always make them in pencil and then scan them, I find that it’s easier to draw and to correct somethings in a sketch if it’s traditional.

Paperclip, I’m glad that you liked my drawing

Frajasphere, Your concept is very interesting. But I find that her neck is too close to the tip of her chin,try making her pose and see your neck.

Well here’s my giant, I think I fixed his neck now ,is it still too long?. I’m working on the background, I’m making roots, rocks and a waterfall (It will be hard to draw water)

[architectus]

Daniel thanks a bunch, I love how you think in geometric shapes for the over all composition, I should start thinking that way when I am sketching the idea. I think you are right, sqaures are rather dull. I should have made it a wide screen shot or virticle. I really like your idea, but I love my gorilla and I don’t wanna see him go. Maybe I can think of a way to keep him and work with a horizontal rectangle instead of virticle.

Thanks a bunch I will see what I can come up with. Hopefully I will not have to repaint to much. It is very rare that I ever spend more than 6 hours on a painting, and it looks like this one is now going to go over 6 hours.

Rebeccak, thanks, I actually thought about making him a taller hero, but then I decided on the shorter buff Conan type. Although I need to make him more buff I think. I think I will end up completely repainting him. Daniel gave some reall good ideas, I want to try to use a few of them as well.

Thanks so much everyone who commented and gave critique, it is much welcomed.

Talaria, your drawing is coming out nice. My only recomendation is maybe add some larger dark areas, perhaps in the lower left side of the giant. This would add contrast, although it is not always needed.

shyam - The only thing that distracts me is all the green in the sky, it makes it look some what alien, although that might be what you are going for. I agree with rebeccak, adding some disaturation will be nice. Keep up the good work.

spiritdreamer, I took a look at your portfolio, your style in indeed unique, reminds me of the posters they make for black lights. I like the sudgestion to make the giant larger, it does add a more dynamic feel, thanks.

aggie, hey don’t give up on digital painting, it takes a while just to get used to the mouse pen. Do you have it set to mouse mode or pen mode? Pen mode is funky for me. I find it odd that if I click on the uper left corner the curser jumps to the upper left corner of the screen. I set mine to mouse mode, this way the pen feels just like a mouse. You might want to try setting it to mouse mode and see if you like it better. I almost gave up so many times when I first started digital painting. But one day it just clicked. And I keep getting better and better. Use hard brushes mostly, and start off with them set to a higher opacity to block everything in, then to refine set the opacity and brush size down. And as you refine more and more reduce the brush sizes. Just like it takes a while to get the hang of oil brushes, and you must learn techniques on different brush strokes and such, so to is digital painting a new medium. As for the ball, set the shadow back further and make it more oval. Also use hard medium opacity brushes to first do the shadow, get it as perfect as possible, then smooth it with a dry knife, or just add water blender. then if you wish finally use a soft brush here and there. That is how I do it at least.

Mecha, I really wanted to check out the brushes, but the page says I must be logged in. Do you have another way I can check them out? Nice work, I am really likeing how your painting is turning out. My recomendation is make the giant screaming, mouth open, eyes titly squinched to show he is in pain? As it is right now he looks rather calm, considering the that he just got bashed or cut. Will you be added some desaturated greens to the lower part of the giant?

I really want to see an update from Corvax, I really liked his giant.

EAD, you going to post some updates, I hope so, I really liked your sketches

thomasphenix - I like your giant to, I look foward to seeing him again.

alright I think I typed to much, I shall try to get more work done on my giant.

[architectus]

yeah unfortunatly it looks like it would take to much paint over to change it in such a way to incorperate my new ideas that you guys inspired. I work fast so maybe I can repaint my new idea.

[PureGhostGR]

Here are the next two steps in the painting.

This is more of an attempt to put some colors together. I like the idea of golden hues for the morning with faint traces of blue, indigo and purple for the night going away. I increased the canvas a bit to be able to have enough space for the clouds and the faint mountains on the background.

I tried to clean the bodyshape a bit and I have also sketched and painted a rough face. In my opinion everything feels too plastic now. The character also now looks like a comic superhero instead of the fragile and playful idea I had in my mind. I think I will change the head entirely by tilting it to the side… or maybe draw her looking over her shoulder a bit.

Perhaps the colors are a bit too cheerful too… I will try to work a bit with the saturation.

NR43
The figures look increadible. There is an ‘earthly’ feeling in your bodyshapes that I honestly find to be matching the theme beautifully. I look forward to seeing the next step with this.

aggie93
Thank you.

MechaHateChimp
Very good work! I like the contrast between the two figures. My suggestion would be for you to consider making the giant have eye contact with the human… in a way that would perhaps make the threat more direct. Also, thank you for the link to the brushes.

Talaria
Great pencil skills… the pose is so very elegant. Beautiful work.

SpiritDreamer
Thank you for the great suggestions. I believe it would be great help to actually take reference photos for this. Really grateful you took the time to offer your insight with this.

Rebeccak
There are many things I would like to try with the background, but I would like to keep it simple. My main target is to get the figure down right and to learn how to paint clouds properly. I like the idea of golden clouds and light blue/purple hues in the sky but I will have to figure out how to paint it.

HladekStepan
There is a part of your painting that really steals the attention for me. It is the small villager that is running down away from the giant on the left. I have no idea why that is so, but it is always the first thing that I notice when I look in your painting. I like the way that figure combines with the background I think.
I think that the best way to go about adding your own texture to the skin of the giant, would be by making a custom brush yourself (or finding one that matches the effect you want).

Knedlo
Very interesting story and certainly a bold concept. I really look forward in seeing the next stages in your design.

Frejasphere
Another beautiful concept and very inspirational. I like how your sketch seems to capture alot of emotions in it, especially sadness. Looking forward to the next stage.

[architectus]

Here are some sketches to refine my idea. I do not mind starting over, more practice is good.

I like the one where the guy is jumping to save his women out of the hand of the giant, especially because I can see his cool back rocks, which remind me of the robotech mechs.

However, I really like the dynamic movement in the top left one. The hands are ready to smash down on the ground. But then I cannot see his cool back rocks, so I refined it bottom left. Although, it looses something in the process.

Let me know what sketch you guys like best, or maybe how you think I should miss match. Your input is always good. As of right now I would most likely go with the top left, or bottom left. If the top left I will combine the hands together making one large fist.

But I really do like the guy jumping to save his woman, maybe I can find a way to make the giant dynamic yet taking the woman in his hand. any ideas on that?

I know I could just think for my self, but the way I see it, the more minds the better.

[mazalo]

Hi everybody,

very nice progres here…I am busy working on some project at the moment so I dont know if I will make it to post some work on the theme …I will try to make some skeches…
Nice one rebbecak
…se ya…

[architectus]

I narrowed it down to these two. The left one I made it so his hands are transformed into a rock mass, that he will use as a weapon to smash smash smash.

The right one is the one I think I will end up going with. I exagerated the arma lot lol, I will fix that if I decide to go with this idea.

[mazalo]

well…I found some time to make some skeches…here is one

…I was thinking …the sorcerers from the ancient cult of giant monster gods is awakening the giant from his 10000 years sleep…:))

[architectus]

mazalo I dig it, nice sketch, painter X artistic oils - wet oil brush and dry oil brush? I had a similar idea but it was natives worshiping the awakened giant. It would be cool to put some cult type symbols on the ground, with some candles maybe.

So it looks like my rock dude is just a giant beast man now. Although I might still make him less human in some way. I am not sure if I am going to stick with the archer, if I do I will put some clothes on him. I think I might go back to something like the sketch, but a different pose. I might add a female in there as well.

[hauntedminds]

this one not to dark . painted in painter …

[Vidar3d]

[PureGhostGR]

Here is a small update.

I have more or less tried to do the things I wrote in the last post.

This is where it is starting to get tough. I tried to change the head to make the pose of the character look more playful and gentle but it still reminds me of an action superhero (I used the sculpture at the first post as reference for the face).

I have also started painting the clouds. I think I would like to learn a way to make them more round and full.

architectus
All the sketches have interesting compositions in them. The one you have painted is the one I would have worked on as well. I think that the spear as a weapon might work a bit better that the bow in that case, but that is only a suggestion. Keep up the good work.

mazalo
Beautiful work! I really cannot offer much advice on how to improve it, but I will tell you that I can see a grey-green-blue hue reflected on the cultist bodies that does not show anywhere else. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me however.

[Rebeccak]

OPB PureGhostGR:

PureGhostGR, I like the basic sketch you have but am wondering how this tells the story of a giantess awakening from underground? I think that to fit the theme you may have to show the ground being broken (perhaps make an extended vertical composition, with the earth below and perhaps some people staring up) - part of the challenge is not only to create a finished, rendered image, but also to make the image illustrate the theme. I would love to an extension to your current concept which explains the story of “The Awakening of the Underground Giant”. Looking forward to more!

OPB Vidar3d:

Vidar3d, it’s good to see you back here. Atm I am confused a bit as to what is going on in the scene. The giant seems not quite awake, and he seems a bit small to be a giant - I’m also not sure what has happened with respect to the skeletal remains of what I am guessing to be other giants? Mainly there is scale confusion between the giant in the bkgrd and the female figure in the foreground. Perhaps enlarging the giant could resolve this, along with making the female figure smaller.

hauntedminds,

Welcome. You have a nice start here and overall I am liking your composition - the main thing is, since the theme is about Awakening, you may wish to make the giant look as though he is sleepily awakening - right now he is sleeping, which doesn’t fit the theme. I’d like to see you push the rendering of this as far as you can, and then we can further critique it.

More crits to come…

Cheers,

-Rebeccak

[Rebeccak]

OPB architectus:
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[left]architectus, this reminds me a lot of illustrations I have seen by Vallejo etc. - there is one image in particular I am thinking of but can’t find it. I think the main thing you want to consider is how this illustrates the concept of awakening - he is awake and fighting, but how is he awakening, or how did he awaken? Something in the image needs to explain that - perhaps an army of men who dug up a pit in the background, where it is clear he has come from - etc.

Am definitely impressed with your speed, and would love to see you push this further in terms of the drawing of both figures. I think perhaps it might be good to do a linear drawing for the giant to work out the perspective and the proportions. You might even think about doing a traditional drawing first and then scanning that, as quite often your lines will be more convincing traditionally (this just depends on how confidently you draw in the traditional medium). Looking forward to more!

OPB mazalo:

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[left]mazalo, it’s great to see you back here! I really quite like your start to this, and am very interested to see where you take it. I think I have pointed out to you the paintings of Alex Kanevsky to you before, but this again reminds me of that loose painting style. Would love to see you keep a bit of that while rendering this and working out some of the compositional issues as well. This also has a bit of a LOTR flavor which I like. Great start, looking forward to your progress!

More crits to come…

Cheers,

-Rebeccak
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[Rebeccak]

OPB Frejasphere:
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[left]Frejasphere, I like your thinking behind this, now all of it just needs to show up in the sketch. One artist whose work I think you will quite enjoy is Arctis. You can check out some of his fantastic work here:

http://arctis.cgsociety.org/gallery/211283/

I think he depicts similar themes and in a similar way, and might serve to give you inspiration.

OPB Knedlo:
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[left]Knedlo, Welcome! I think that you have an interesting first sketch here but it needs to be more fleshed out before I can offer any real critique. I think the next step is to take reference photos or to use reference photos which you find on the web - check out the first post of this thread which contains a link to justmeina’s gallery, which contains copyright / royalty free nude male photos, which would be very useful for the figure of the giant. Looking forward to seeing your next step!

OPB Cyanid:
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Cy, it’s great to see you back here, and with such a strong sketch! Really hoping to see you take this further. The main challenge here will to be to show how and why he has awakened. I think if you think this through this will give you more interesting sketch elements which you can introduce and incorporate into your basic sketch. I’d like to see you push beyond just doing a sketch and doing a more finished piece - as far as you can take it.

Cheers,

-Rebeccak

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[Rebeccak]

OPB Shaolin7:
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[left]Shaolin7, Really liking the development so far - someone’s work your painting style reminds me of is beaux, who has Don Seegmiller as a teacher in Utah.

One area that looks a bit off is the upper legs, which appear to be a bit short. I think you are aligning the knees with the hands, and the hand could acutally be extended further vertically which would allow you to do the same with the knees / upper legs.

I’m curious as to what story elements you will be adding here - he looks as though atm he is at the bottom of a cave or well, so it will be interesting to see how you incorporate the bkgrd. Definitely looking forward to more!

OPB Glenn:

[left]Glenn, it’s great to see your experimentation, and as always, a pleasure to have you here as our established Workshop veteran. I think this is a classic Glenn concept, and it would be more interesting, I think, if you developed it more along the lines of a painting. I look forward to seeing more.

OPB danielh68:
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[left]danielh68, it’s great to see your concept, and it’s very strong compositionally - the main thing I would suggest is to make the figure less completely centralized and to let the composition breathe a little more - there’s such a tight framing that it’s hard to escape looking at anything but the giant, and you want to have other areas of the image that people can look at, yet have the focus remain on the main subject of your picture.

I like the sort of film noir aspect to this - I’m not clear if your giant is male or female, frankly I think it would be interesting either way - sort of a female moatzilla, if you will.

Definitely interested to see how this progresses!

OPB Corvax:

David, I quite like this concept and am just waiting to see how you flesh it out. It has a very LOTR feel to it as well, which I think is quite cool - there are tons of possibilities with this, so I’m looking forward to your update.

OPB botched:
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[left]botched, it’s great to see you back here, and with an interesting take on this, along with a different approach than I’d seen from you in the last OFDW - am curious to see how you develop this. The lion atm looks like water - is that the idea? I’m not quite sure of the story yet or how the lion is awakening…looking forward to seeing how you piece this together.

OPB SaraD:

SaraD, it’s great to have you back as well - I’m sure you’ll do a beautiful job - one thing I might recommend is expanding the canvas so that the framing is not so tight. Apart from the ship there is nothing else to show scale…I think that making the atmosphere perhaps a stormy one could be quite cool as well, as a suggestion.

OPB nards26:

nards26, this is quite a cool sketch - do you have any updates?

nazarone,

As well, I would enjoy seeing an update.

OPB pierceda:
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pierceda, I think the key is to look at reference. Try www.characterdesigns.com, and find some good reference shots which you can use. The images are royalty / copyright free.

Cheers,

-Rebeccak

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[Rebeccak]

OPB Splinter:
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[left]Splinter, welcome! I think that the bkgrd needs more mountains, etc. to give the volcano a sense of scale and place. I’m looking forward to your update!

OPB Siju:
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[left]Siju, it would be great to see this developed further - I really recommend giving more breathing room to the composition. Try not to completely center your figure. As well, adding in atmospheric perspective eventually will really give you a stronger sense of depth.

OPB AOAH:
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Andy, these are great, do you have any elaborations? I particulary favor the top right guy.

OPB Vilhelmina:
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Vilhelmina,

Do you have any updates for us? I like the first step I think the most - would like to see you develop this.

Ronnientes,

I am hoping to see an update from you soon as well.

stylshpassion,

Welcome! I am curious if you might explain more about your drawing and how it fits the theme of “Awakening of the Underground Giant”. It would be great to see an update.

If I’ve missed anyone, it has not been intentional! Keep up the good work, everyone, and keep pushing yourselves to do better work and to challenge yourselves.

And please, continue to critique one anothers’ work, as this is an invaluable part of these Workshops!

Cheers,

-Rebeccak

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[mazalo]

thanks rebbeca.

i worked more on composition and wanted to add dinamic to the painting…i kill some colors in the way, dont know are the colors better now or before…C&C welcome…