Anatomy Thread of .: Mr. Mu :.

#721

hi Mu, nice to see your “line” experiments :slight_smile:

about the video/technique - I cannot see very well in the video how the strokes/details look like, but - I would say - you can achieve similar smooth blending (while still keeping details) with oils too, either on paper or canvas (diluted with terpentine or other oils); personally, I prefere oil painting/blending much more for “blended” paintings, as oil painting lets/allows you “undoing” pretty much (in early stages, when not dry, you can completely “redefine” your painting, as you may wish; very flexible and “safe” technique, for me) … but I do not use acrylics very much, so I do not want to /cant compare which technique is better …
a.

#722

HI there,

krispee- The acrylics in these videos are special acrylics which can be re-wet to work into them again wet-in-wet. I think they are called interactive acrylics or something. There’s a bit of info about them in his comments on the videos.

Magdalena! Thanks so much for showing up!

yarabe - life is too short for not trying the things you want to do! Just go and do it. Dance as if noone is looking!

alice- Lol, go create is the one motto of my life…:scream:

alenah - that was what I was thinking and then I tried to achieve similar effects with watersoluble oils, but failed miserably. I really wanna do it, though, and will give it another try. And then another one, and then another one… you get the picture.

The only life drawing I did last week I can’t or won’t post as I did it after I took a bath and was too lazy to leave the bathtub and grabbed my notebook and did a… well… life drawing…:smiley:

You’ll have to wait a bit longer, I’m afraid.

cya
Mu

#723

one from imagination.

an environment from imagination and a quick mouth detail self portrait:

#724

Your understanding of planes and values is getting deeper, I can see it in your last mouth drawing.
Good work! :smiley:

#725

thank you alice!

another landscape gesture. This one was pretty hard to boil down to its main aspects as I didn’t realize from the start how complex the elements were layered.

At working size (zoomed out, click for slightly bigger version):

Ref I used was this one.

#726

HEY…MR MU…:slight_smile:

I like those latest updates :thumbsup:
On that last landscape…Maybe some blending and softening in that sky and far horizon…will really add depth to the piece.Think distant, middle and forground, and how the values change from being closer in value on the value scale from light to dark in the distance, and more contrast of values/farther apart on the value scale as you get closer to the forground…Why not stick a couple of little figures in there also…doing that will add scale and a fosus point of interest…they don’t have to be detailed, just an indication of gesture kind of thing…Just a thought…:slight_smile:
Anyway, keep going, and keep up those self studies/portraits…They will capture your moods and feelings along the way in the process…:eek: :scream: :wink:
TAKE CARE MR MU
Glenn

#727

Glenn, that hint about the distant, middle, foreground would have helped me sort out the complexity of the layers in this landscape when doing the gesture! I will try to keep this in mind for future gestures!

I am taking part in the “self portrait as creature” workshop! Fits in with my occasional selfs and might add a bit of spice to it. Also, a more refined piece might be fun, again.

here’s my approach:
[ul]
[li]I’ll turn my self into a snakeself.[/li][li]I just took a reference photo. The lighting is pretty bad, but my flash (which I could have put on a light stand to go for a bit of varied lighting) only syncs with my analogue camera. As I don’t have much time, quick equals nice.[/li][li]I will have to kind of model/simulate the lighting. The ref will merely serve as a base for the portrait and resemblance.[/li][li]Mixture balance: roughly 70% human+30% snake[/li][li]snake features:[/li][list]
[li]tongue[/li][li]eyes[/li][li]teeth[/li][li]lip structure[/li][li]scales[/li][/ul]
[/list]I will start with the portrait drawing, collect snake reference, add or merge the snake characteristics on a rather developed portrait and refine or unify from there.

Lighting will have to be heavily altered from the ref, but I don’t really know wether to do this at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. Maybe towards the end I can play a bit with layers and masks to add a bit of light atmosphere? Don’t know. Any suggestions?

#728

apart from that, I rediscovered my copy of “drawing dynamic heads” or whatever its english title is, by Burne Hogarth and remembered that you won’t find anything as strictly geared towards structure as Hogarth.

So, instead of Loomis, I will tackle my structural issues with Hogarth for a while.

click for hi res

only available in lofi:

#729

first WIP in the Imaginative Figure Workshop

From here, I will add the following features (outlines) from various references:

snake teeth
snake scales
merge my eyes and snake eye characteristics
tongue
merge my lips with scaled ones

#730

and structural Hogarth homework:

click for hi-res

#731

Hey Mu great to see you are also in the workshop!
Looks like you’re having a great start already :slight_smile:

#732

Hey Johan!

thanks!

starting to morph the mouth.

#733

I will keep the tongue for later on, because I want to add a fuzzy movement blur on the double tip which I noticed in quite a few reference photos and that is easier to paint than to draw, I guess.

Scaling my face was an amazing experience, because I feel I got a completeley new and deeper understanding of the planes of my face through this exercise!

#734

HEY MR MU…:eek: :thumbsup: :slight_smile:

I was thinking that for the scales and color of them, …you might want to check out some of the works of BORIS,…He does the best scales and color on them better than any other artist out there that I know of. I know alot of his images have snakes and scaly creatures in them…Chech them out, will inspire you, and give you great ideas for your piece I think…:slight_smile:
KEEP GOING MR MU…But don’t scare yourself and everyone else to much in the process…Think of the children…LOL :scream: :smiley:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

#735

Actually, this started out as a quick colour test, but now it could very well be that I just start with this.

I am trying to follow the workflow I have seen in all the Bobby Chiu and Mark Behm videos and go from really dark and then gradually add lighter and lighter layers.
My ciaroscuro I set up like this: my fictional light source (fictional in the sense that my ref only feature frontal flash light - no time to set up my external flash) comes in from the upper right hand side, so I’ll put the lit side of the face agains dark background and the shade side against a light background.
Maybe I will let the cheeks (the “horizon” line) pick up a bit of that green light to give it a bit of backlit feeling.

Or I’ll just trash the whole thing and start from somewhere else…:scream:

#736

HEY MR MU ,…Here’s a link to some of the works of BORIS…
HAVE FUN…:slight_smile:

http://vallejo.ural.net/

TAKE CARE
Glenn

#737

I think the green bg isn’t working too well.
Perhaps shift the hue to something closer to the foreground colors and then spice up the focal point with some complementary colors?

#738

Hi Johan,

while I was actually happy with the venomous green I realized I can’t handle the hues in the face at all.

Man, how long will it be til I finally learn to handle colours? Shit.

Anyway.
Back to values.

Glenn,

from what I can see (and as far as I was able to focus on the snake scales with all the distractions by butts and curves and legs and whatnot of all the beautiful women’s portraits in that gallery…:smiley: ) he hardly paints the scales at all in the shade.
He just puts them in very crisp and clear where the highlight hits.
Interestingly, though, in a drawing of his, he leaves the highlight blank and puts the scales in where the shade is.

As I am doing a painting, I will put the scales in where the highlight is. Thanks for the tip!

#739

added a tongue, a bit of blending:

#740

Hi there Mu. This is looking good, the scales look much better. Curious about how it’s going to look in color.