Ahhh I see 
that reminds me I really need to work on my anatomy skills but don’t worry I just need some time :).
Ohh and btw really nice picture.
Well I can’t do much about it since my picture is drawn on the paper … and this reminds me that I could switch to digital painting …
Slux,
I’m not too worried about you, I’m quite sure you’ll get there. 
While of course you can switch to digital media, I am not completely sure that I would absolutely recommend doing so at all times…the key thing about traditional media is that it forces you to really focus and pay attention to what you are doing, as fixes are not as easy to make in traditional vs. digital media. It’s sort of like working out…if you work out with heavier weights, you’re bound to get stronger. It is not to say that digital media is not difficult, it has it’s own challenges, but you are quite accomplished with digital media, and it is not something which is a big weakness for you. So, that is my thought with respect to traditional media. 
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Hmmmm I see well than I guess I will try both. I will draw some pictures traditionally and some digitally :). But I guess I will draw all sketches tradionally and than I may scan some of these and finish them digitally. Right now its easier for me to draw sketches traditionally because I own smallest and cheapest wacom tablet what they sell. Its A6 Volito so its not even Graphire series … :sad: Its ok for painting but its little more uncomfortable for sketching because its very small area and also it has 50% sensitivity of more expensive tablets … I woud really like to work with Intuos 3 A4 
I hope that tablet fairy will get me one … ohh may be I should write to Santa Claus … hopefully he could help me …
Hi
I was little busy today so only one pic :sad:. I was doing some webdesign for my friend. Its not finished yet but in case you would be interested its here
[http://www.wolfandgang.com](http://www.wolfandgang.com/)
Its not finished yet but I work on it. Ohh and btw it looks like he want it to look :) He always sits there and looks over my shoulder and says "Could you try this, oh little bit to the left ... yeah great and may be we should ..." lol you can imagine :scream:
Ehmm but anyway at least some before and after. When I finish my work I blend it. You can compare results … it takes same extra time but I think it looks better … I guess I could skip this step because its not very educative and these drawing are supposed to be just studies … hmm never mind …
Here it is
007 - 1. 10. 2005
Before
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic007-1-small.jpg[/img]
After
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic007-2-small.jpg[/img]
- SluxSlux,
Cool website, indeed you are multi~talented! Lol, we all know what ‘clients’ are like.
In terms of your drawing/s, I think it’s great to take these as far ‘blending’~wise as you like…it reinforces what you do or don’t know, and helps you to take the time to see things more clearly, which is really the goal behind ‘rendering’ pieces such as this.
I think your major weaknesses are arms and faces, as your torsos seem pretty strong, and legs not bad. I would suggest doing some arm studies when you get the time or inclination, as I think most of the arms I’ve seen you draw have been a bit thin and on the unstructured side. Arms, particularly female arms which have less muscular build, can be tough to draw if you don’t know a bit about their anatomy, which you can exaggerate in a drawing to bring out.
Here are a few examples from the web, but I always encourage people to buy / draw from anatomy books, as they are the best resources for study.
http://catalog.nucleusinc.com/imagescooked/11631W.jpg
http://people.musc.edu/~bacrotr/anatomy_on_the_web/images/arm.gif
http://www.bartleby.com/107/Images/large/image411.gif
[left]Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
[/left]
Thanks for crits yeah I guess my hands are little uninterestrering lol … frankly I don’t know much about muscles in a hand … :eek: and I have a pleny of anatomy books … its my hobby to collect learning material … I just have to read it well that wouldn’t be a problem but reading is clearly not enough … it has to be practised and it takes a lot of time … but I will start my anatomy study soon … right know I have to finish some things … and than very intensive anatomy study I want to know everything! …
Slux,
You have great enthusiasm, and I’m sure once you start your anatomy studies in earnest, you will improve very rapidly. Of this, I have no doubt.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
So far so good…your first sketch looks more stylized than on the realism. Looking at your works so far…I sense your strongest is male anatomy…but the last woman looks better…only that her face looks cartoony and thus needs a bit more detail.
My two cents and great works you got ther
Hi thanks for crits
Hmm the first picture wasn’t supposed to be stylized rather rough. It took me 1/4 time what takes my latest pictures. Hmm dunno what I could do about faces … thery are prety small and paper is quite rough so its little more difficult to draw small details … hmmm may be I could use harder pencils that would be little easier but I will do some face study later … there is so many things i need to practise … ahhh and it takes a lot of time but I guess I have to keep going and wait for results …
SHADING
Hi
Someone asked me how I shade my pictures so I have thought that I could show you how I work. But be aware I’am just beginner so I don’t claim that all my methods are right and that its olny way how to do it. There is a lot of methods how to achive these results and all artists have their own preferences so you may try it and use what works for you best.
At first what tools I use. Notning special. You may check photo below (ohh and sorry for crappy quality but my camera is very old and its just crap). As you can see I have set of ordinary Kooh-I-Noor graphite pencils. This set is from 2H to 8B. For these of you who are not familiar with this there is a little explanation
Pencils are divided into categories whole range is below
10H, 9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, 1H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B (9B - this should be pure graphite)
Categories with H are considered as Hard and are good for technical drawing.
Categories with B are considered as soft and are good for art.
In practise this shows how much graphite each pencil contains. Hard pencils contains a little graphite and more of another substances. They aren’t very good for drawing because you can’t get very dark tones and they are also hard to erase. Kategories with bigger number and H contains less graphite than these with higher number.
Same applies for kategories with B - these with higher number contains more graphite and it gives you darker values and thats very important for art drawing because without dark tones you won’t be able to achieve higher contrast and your drawings will be flat and uninterestering.
All artists have their own preferences. I use only 3 pencils. HB, 1B, 4B.
HB - its the yellow pencil below, I use it only for sketching. Its good for sketching because its not too dark and its easy to erase.
4B - I use this one for shading. So basically all shading is done just with this one pencil. As I said for shading you should really use 4B or softer (6B seems to be quite popular too but I’am fine with 4B) otherwise you won’t be able to draw darker values. (the green pencil below)
1B - I don’t use this one very often, only sometimes for small details because softer pencils may not be that good for small details. (btw its the red pencil on the picture below)
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-tools.jpg[/img]
Ok so now you know something about pencils. Another important thing is how you hold your pencil. I have noticed that a lot of starting artists hold their pencils near the tip. Its not very good for shading because its quite difficult (especially for starting artist) to maintain constant presure. The result is that your shading is very inconsistent and looks very messy. Because you have a little control over your pressure and somewhere its dark and somewhere light and its not consistent.
When I do shading I always hold pencil at the end (see the picture bellow) Its much easier to control your presure and shading is consistant. I usually put very little pressure on the pencil. Sometimes I just let the weight of the pencil to draw. When I need darker values I put more presure on the pencil with my thumb (see the picture bellow).
I don’t try to get all shading done at the first try. At first I shade it lightly and when I need darker values and shade that place over and over (lightly) and it gets darker. It takes more time but you have more control over it so if you make some mistakes its not a problem because its not final value yet you just shade whole picture lightly, than you compare all values and you see where you need to darken it more and where is already dark enough. If you shade your picture at first try its difficult to get all values right because not all parts of picture are complete yet and you have nothing to compare it with.
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-shading.jpg[/img]
When I need to draw details I hold my pencil closer to the tip or in the middle (see the picture bellow). Its better becase when you draw small details you need firm hand and thats not the case when you hold it at the end.
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-details.jpg[/img]
Ok so now you know what pencil to choose and how to hold it. Now something about shading itself. When you shade object you need to pay very good attention to shadows and highlights thats what it is all about. If you are just a beginner its good idea to take some time and just look at the object you are about to draw - analyze it. Pay very good attention to all shadows and highlights. When you think you know your object well you may begin wite shading. When I shade I always start from dark and continue to light (see the picture bellow). If you put your pencil on the paper it automatically creates dark spot and when you lift it from paper it automatically creates brighter values so it make sence to shade from dark to light. It would be difficult to do it the other way around. Because if you would want to to achive constant shading from dark to light it would be very difficult to start from light.
Another thing you should consider is that all your strokes should copy the shape of the object you want to draw (see the picture bellow). Its not necessary because values creates depth so what is really iportant are values but if you copy shape of the object it helps to read the form better. But you should definitely choose one direction and you should not change it every five seconds because than it looks prety messy.
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-shading2.jpg[/img]
Smearing
Another interesting technique is smearing. You don’t have to do it but it may give you interesting results. There is a lot of ways how you can smear. Lets see same examples.
On the picture bellow you can see same examples.
On the left are unsmeared value ranges and on the right side are results after smearing
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-smearing.jpg[/img]
For this on I have used for smmearing my fingers. You have probably tryed it yourself. Its prety common technique. I usually don’t use my fingers for smearing because it not very precise. Fingers are quite thick and its difficult to smear small areas because you usually smear everything around. Also your fingers are covered in graphite and it may be prety messy bacause when you touch something you will leave there some graphite you have on your fingers, its very easy to make your picture dirty. Also your fingers are oily and this helps grahite to hold on paper better. It may be hard to erase it.
This one was smeared with smearing stick. Its made of hard paper and you can buy it in art stores (see the first picture its that white stick). This is better for smudging because it has a tip and you can buy it in various sizes so it can be very good even for very precise shading. Also be aware that after some smearing it gets dirty and its full of graphite so it actually draws so when you shade with it your values usually gets darker. You may clean it but I just let it as it is I don’t mind.
Thats what I usually use - regular bristle brushes (see on the first picture) when I’am finished with shading I just smear it with brushes. You can use various sizes of brushes I use number 2 and 4. These are just regular flat bristle brushes. It may take little more time to smear it really well but you have more control over it and you can achieve very subtle smearing. As you can see on the picture tips of the brushes are black because they are full of graphite so you can actually draw with it but its very subtle so be aware when you shade some highlights. But its easy to clean them if you want it I just leave them as they are.
OK now little demonstration.
At first I just draw sketch with HB pencil.
Then I use my 4B pencil for shading. At first I just shade whole picture lightly.
When first shading is finished I use it as a guide for my final shading. I slowly built up my picture and I constanly compare all values.
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-3-small.jpg[/img]
After that I use bristle brushes for smearing
And thats it
[img]http://draw.sluxweb.net/practise/pic008-4-small.jpg[/img]
I Hope its at least little bit usefull
btw sorry for my english … if you want I may post more examples later
cheers
- Slux
hmm,i was always taught that you should start with the dark tones and work your way up to light.seems u started with the midtones…
looks good though.
Slux,
Your tutorial is fabulous! Please do post more images…I think it’s just great that you’ve done this! :applause:
Great step~by~step photos and nice write up of your procedure. What was that about your ‘horrible English’? LOL!! Great stuff!!! :bounce:
I’m going to link this in the Tutorial Links thread. Here’s the link.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
rebecca,
guess who asked for this :P…
been doing lots of stuff but havent posted them lately, soon.
Slux-Lol. You shade the same way that I do. I like to hold my pencil high but I use the rendering grip and a plain hb pencil only tho’.
Noob-Darks first? I was taught light layers of light and build your way to dark. As my professor would put it “Many light layers on top of each other equals darker tones.” He had us use only one pencil to teach us pressure and pencil control.
Nice tutorials
Hi
I’am glad you like it guys … I may do some revisions later, well we will see
Uff I was little busy lately I was hit by that big news you know about autodesk and alias … I didn’t see that coming at all … well I’am XSI user but anyway
Hmm it seems I should stick to pencil lol
Oh and btw I usally start with darks and midtones as well … I just shade it with same value at first (very lightly) and that I darken what needs to be darken … I don’t touch white at all thats the reason why I almost don’t use eraser at all …
And yes it was Warpyy who asked for it …
yeh exactly,but thats not exactly what i meant,i can’t think of a way to explain it,nevermind…