Anatomy Studies, Painting, WIP

#1

Hi there,

This is a study of my hand; painted it last night in Painter 12 using a mirror, my own hand as reference, and own skin texture brush.
Thought I’d start up this thread and post more anatomy studies as I go along.
Would really appreciate if you have any critique to offer.

I had some feedback in a previous thread suggesting I work on my colours and shadows, and differentiating between materials with texture, (thread: Off World Engineer), so decided the best way to go about improving these things would be to get some good life drawing practice in, in the meantime, while I go about improving the other work I posted.

So here we go, starting a series of life studies, for fun and some serious practice :slight_smile:

Here is a bit of the process:
As always critique and comments welcome!
Thank you!

#2

The foreshortening of the thumb looks wrong–it looks stubby instead of foreshortened.

If you have not mastered simple copies of 2D images, then I would advise you to not do any life drawing yet, because you’re not ready for it at this point. You need to first master the basic of eye-to-hand coordination, as well as your analytical/observational skills.

You should read this–it explains why life drawing isn’t necessarily the best thing for beginners: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=166&t=939978

#3

This is a useful and informative thread which you’ve linked, however I disagree with your suggestion that I should not be drawing from life.
I find life drawing to be a valuable practice, especially for scrutinizing real surfaces and their colour detail first hand, which was predominantly the purpose of the image in this post, to experiment with texture and colour.

While there are many many faults with this image, I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad for a quick practice sketch.
The thumb does appear stubby, and this is partially artist’s error, but also partly due to the fact that I do have stubby little thumbs and fingers. Same goes for the odd shapes of the nails, that’s the way they are, and that’s the way I’ve painted them.

While making it, I was mostly concerned with the process of attempting to loosely but nicely capture the little details and texture, with some more energetic colouring, to follow up on advice given to me in my other post; was hoping someone might offer criticism in these areas. Certainly not looking for ego-boosts, but it’s not the most encouraging thing in the world to be greeted by only a bad point. If a person is to progress they also need to know which good elements, if any, they should carry forward to the next painting.

Lastly, I would not say I’m a beginner to painting; I am new to digital painting, but have good experience drawing and painting in a variety of media on paper and canvas. It may not be readily apparent from my two posts that I have ‘mastered simple copies of 2D images,’ but I can say that I have worked hard to become proficient at drawing accurately from both 2D and 3D forms. Even if this was not the case, and I was new to drawing, I still wouldn’t completely rule out drawing from life; much as it may be a daunting task to approach when you’re starting out, it can also pay off greatly in the long run, giving you a greater grasp of depth and form than you would have if you purely practised re-translating a 2D image, as I’m sure you would agree.

#4

Yes, but you are forgetting about the psychological and emotional aspect of it all. I’m approaching this from the point of view of a teacher who has taught art directors and lead artists and professional illustrators, all the way down to the level of total beginners who could only draw stick figures. With beginners, one must be careful about putting them in a position where they feel so daunted, frustrated, and discouraged that the journey of artistic growth suddenly feels hopeless and impossible. If a beginner or even an intermediate artist has not mastered the basic and essential technical skills, they will often feel frustrated and discouraged by how hard is seems to work from life. While you may not have felt frustrated or discouraged by it, many other people would, and that is why I maintain that it’s important for beginners (and some intermediate) artists to first master the essential basics of technical skills before tackling working from life.

#5

Yep, nothing wrong with a bit of 2D practice and confidence building. :slight_smile:

#6

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