Now OPEN!!! Open Figure Drawing Workshop with Hong Ly and Rebecca Kimmel 003

#121

Spirit Dreamer,

Ah, some time to take a closer look at your and AOAH's work. :)

It seems that the figure has a hot white/yellow highlight around it’s rim…I would maybe tone this down a bit so that she doesn’t look like she’s glowing. Also, I think her hanging leg, especially her lower leg, is much too short. I’m sure you probably realize this and are still working. :slight_smile:

One thing about the waterfall idea ~ you may want to be careful, because it could look too easily like a Pantene commercial, lol! :slight_smile: So, I would caution you not to do something too generic…but then again you should do whatever you feel is best for the piece. :slight_smile:

Definitely looking forward to your updates! :thumbsup:

AOAH,

Independently, the face and chest are really looking great. I think you are doing the right thing by trying to get shapes of values to work together, and this is a good way to paint generally.

I think the head and chest area are, each by themselves, looking fantastic. However, I think her chest is a bit small, though I could be wrong, since I am not looking at the photo.
Her head just seems to be overwhelming her chest a bit at this point. Bear in mind that you can easily copy merge, paste, and rescale areas and blend them back in if adjustments need to be made. :slight_smile:

I think the left leg and foot have a great value and shape. I would just bring the right leg, foot, arm and hand up to the same basic level.

And definitely knock the bkgrd in in one fell swoop. It will take a lot out of the equation, as right now it is only providing a distraction. Later on, a good way to take care of the bkgrd, I discovered, is to create a light gray layer (masking the figure), then create a darker gray layer above it, and then erasing out the darker gray to reveal the lighter gray beneath. You can get some pretty good results with this method pretty quickly ~ it’s equivalent to using a soft cloth to erase lights out of a monochromatic oil painting.

Good luck, and post your results! :)

Cheers, :)

~Rebeccak
#122

Well, Here is my try. Wes not to happy with this one. My wife didn’t like it to much too. Oh well. I will try to do better.

#123

Cheers for the comments

The reason I havent used a flat background is largely because Im painting in the negative space around the figure at the same time as on the figure itself, giving me a means of creating edge. i find it easier to do this than to switch to the eraser or a mask each time I want to change an edge(or maybe Im just being lazy). Also i think its important to have the figure ‘within’ the space rather than stuck on top, hence Im using the same layer for foreground and background. This would be be a fatal error with a complex background but I think its ok with the simplicity of the surroundings in this particular photo.

Anyway I agree that I need to reduce the ‘clutter’ of the background and concentrate on the figure. I heed your advice and continue to learn :thumbsup: muchos thanks

#124

Dark3D,

Have you heard of this book:

High-focus Drawing : A Revolutionary Approach to Drawing the Figure (Paperback)

[left]I had a teacher once who was I believe a former student of the author’s and both teach this method of drawing using very fast Opposing Curves with pencil on paper. I think it would really suit your style brilliantly, as you use a very linear approach vs. a painterly approach to drawing. :slight_smile: I highly recommend this book, as I think it would help you advance in your style of drawing which I happen to really like. :slight_smile:

The author of the book taught at SVA (I think he may still do so) in New York.

I don’t want to try to force you into taking a different approach than you are used to or like ~ but I do think you would benefit from doing a fully painted, shaded piece. But this is only a suggestion. :slight_smile:

Will you continue to work on this piece? I think it has a lot of great possibilities. The main thing that I think needs to be altered is the head / face. The other thing which I would recommend with respect to the line work is to break your long lines into shorter increments ~ using overlapping forms to show what is in front of what, and taking more time to refine the outline. I think you are giving it one pass, and it is not always possible (in fact, it is very difficult) to get the figure perfect in just one pass of linework ~ so I would suggest not focusing on the interior shading at all, perhaps, but just working and reworking the exterior linework until it is really defining form in a highly satisfactory way.

Hope this is useful, and look forward to your update! :slight_smile:

AOAH,

No, I absolutely agree about working the edges ‘dynamically’, as a friend of mine calls it ~ he referred me to a quote of John Singer Sargent’s (whose work I really love) about just what you are talking about ~ in oil paint, of course, you don’t have the option of creating layers and masking, nor would you necessarily want to, as edge variation is one of the key elements to a successful painting in any medium. No, I would not recommend to anyone masking the figure from the start ~ I work the same way as you, working the figure and ground simultaneously, though not necessarily on the same layers.

Looking forward to your progress! :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak
[/left]

#125

pixelkeg: hey thanks and even more for the tips, really appreciate it.

Rebeccak: thank you for taking the time to do that! very helpful indeed :thumbsup:, will try to apply them in anyway i can.

moonlantern: thank you! and yours is a great sketch so far, any plan to paint it over digitally?

PSR: very nice, the pose and the bg are really working out very well. shapes and values in general are looking great, esp the face (love your interpretation for it, btw) and upper torso. and i certainly want to see the colored version too.

Spirit Dreamer: great choice of skin values so far. and definetely looking forward to your update!

Andyonahill: very nice, and kudos for doing it in grey-scale. btw, i usually paint like you too, simultaneosly switch between main fig and bg to create the contrast lines, and in color, doing so also helps to blend contrast colors more naturally toward the light source(s).

Dark3D: really love your line works and colors. the hands esp are made and rendered very effeciently. good job!

Anyway, i guess this is my finished one for fig 2. had some fun playing w/ the bg, which i don’t usually do for figure studies:) . C&Cs are appreciated as usual.

off-to sleep now, and keep up the good works:thumbsup: , everyone!

#126

b2dermawan,

WOW!!! Great work on the figure and on the feathers! I really love this unique take on wings, which are seen sometimes too often ~ I really love the feel they seem to have ~ they are radiating a soft ostrich feather texture which is really pleasant to see. :thumbsup:

There are some details here and there which I think can be improved. If you wouldn’t mind my doing a paintover, I can point these out more easily in that way. Give me a bit of time, and I will do that for you if it’s okay. :slight_smile:
Thanks for posting this amazing work! :bounce: I certainly look forward to your continued and future participation in the OFDWs! :applause:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#127

Rebeccak: By all means, please do:bounce: !. This’s supposed to be a study, so there’s nothing i’d wish for than to improve!. personally, i think a paint over is the most effective way for me to understand, since my english aint that good. so thanks in advance!

#128

b2,

No prob! :slight_smile: It may be much later, but I’ll have it for you at least by tomorrow. :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#129

Rebeccak, thanks heaps for the input, I have a habit of getting stuck working on just one element of a drawing at a time I’ve realised, and also skimping on doing the basic outline (cuz the rendering is more fun :blush: ). I’ll try to work on the drawing as a whole more…strangely I don’t have this problem during life drawing classes, maybe because of the time limit…:shrug:Ooh and I’ve got an old book with colour pictures from the Sistine Chapel, I’ll use that! Thanku again; we need workshop things like this in school.

Yayy thanks b2, hehe I would do a digital painting but my weekofrest is almost over, soon to be replaced by crammingforexams :cry: eight weeks of pure unadulterated legal studies, fun. Nice work on yours again; the wings look sweet! The colouring on the body turned out so well too, really glowy but still realistic…

Ahh, this is the final drawing I will be posting, before I go off and reread my Justice & Outcomes textbook (so frightening…it’s like a telephone directory). I finished the head and arms, I think the pose isn’t as exaggerated as in the photograph. A bit weird around the head cuz this is a digital camera shot, it’s a bit more…compressed than it should be.

Dark3D I really like how you colour, especially how some of the colours seem really soft and others are hard-edged and scribbly. I think it works really beautifully, especially on the hair. Really nice style.

Andyonahill the face looks awesome, particularly how you did the tones on the nose and lips, reminds me of oil paintings…

Spirit Dreamer, this looks really good, I like that purpley-tinged shadow you give to the skin in some places, and the shading on the stomach looks really well done.

PSR your tones on the face and chest look…photographically good :eek:

Okii I go now.

#130

Rebeccak, I will try to take a look at your recommended book. I actually use a fully paint style first then work over with a linear style. Its really the only way I can go as fast as I do. I rarely have more than 1½ hour of spare time to work. So I started to Block in with gray paint as a fast gesture drawing before I start the line work. I started this practice with light gray markers and pen and Ink on paper before I bought my Tablet PC. Anyway thanks for all your suggestions and help. I will try and learn from them!:thumbsup:

Well here is a fast sketch I made rather fast and cartoon like…

#131

moonlantern,

I saw your post earlier this evening and didn’t want to respond too quickly, as I would not do your work justice if rushed. Allow me to say that your Drawing is really beautiful, and that you had a good start before, but have really developed this into a very wonderful finished drawing which has so much going for it that I am sad that you will be a lawyer! Totally kidding, if I were as multitalented as you, I would take full advantage as well. :slight_smile:

Before you run off and are buried beneath a pile of legal texts, can you tell us a bit about your background and training as an artist? I find it hard to believe that you are purely a hobbyist, as doing work of this calibre is impressive for a full~time art student! :slight_smile:

First, let me say that I just love the linework, particularly around the torso and right leg. This is just beautiful. I also love the contrast between the (varied) sharpness of the figure’s outline as contrasted with the softly mottled interior. This is done consistently and quite clearly consciously ~ well done! :slight_smile:

The face also has a very beautiful and naturalistic expression which I really appreciate. And the bkgrd shading is sympathetic with and not competitive with the figure, which is an advanced concept which not everyone masters.

Overall, I have to say you have done an excellent job, and I really hope that you will be able to join us again on your breaks or when you just need relief from the legal profession. :slight_smile:

Looking forward to seeing you on the forum and in future OFDWs. :slight_smile: And best of luck during your studies. :slight_smile:

Dark3D,

Seeing this work, I am completely convinced that you will just love the book I previously mentioned. And thank you for describing your working method, it is always interesting to hear. :slight_smile: You have an innate style which I think you just need to refine. I really feel that the quickness with which you draw is both a great strength and something of a weakness, as I think the slickness of your tablet’s surface is hindering you from really getting those important connections between adjoining forms which is so important to getting a figure to spatially ‘read’. Perhaps it is having almost too much confidence (not to be confused with cockiness, which I don’t read at all) ~ but perhaps that great exercise for beginners would also be useful to an advanced artist like you ~ flipping the reference upside~down, and drawing from the reference that way. I think it might slow you down and allow you the focus to really look at the reference in a new way. This, I am convinced, would also affect your drawing style at the most basic level.

I hope you do not take these comments as being overly critical ~ I really see so much good stuff in your drawings, but think that the book ‘High Impact Drawing’ would really give you a lot in terms of advancing in that particular method. :slight_smile:

Great to see your work, and look forward to seeing more! :slight_smile:

Cheers!

~Rebeccak

#132

Hi Rebecca
Worked on this a little more. Feet legs face whole figure really.
Decided to leave brush strokes in the original state for this one.
Trying for that expressive descriptive brush stoke oil painting look.
Still a little more detail left to do. Under neck hair feet etc.
Decided against water fall and jungle.
She doesn’t have that personality or look.
You’re right again
Looks more like an Aphrodite.
Maybe sitting on the edge of cloud in sky
With ruins from antiquity, Olympus behind her.
Vague and cloudlike - mirage looking.
Reuben-ish allegory type of thing.
Will have to think on it a little more.

#1 original color pallette
#2 light green tint added
#3 light peachy tint on top of green tint added
#4 adjusted saturation and value and brightness
#5 face from #1

Once more I can’t decide.
Need opinions - Anyone’s and everyone’s are welcome
and appreciated
Take care
Glenn

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Face.jpg600x796

#133

Hehe thanks Rebeccak, I’ll still be visiting these forums regularly though (cuz they’re addictive :thumbsup: ), just not drawing stuffs for the threads :sad:. Ahn, and thanks for your comments and stuff, I is honoured, seriously :slight_smile: Unn just as a sidenote, I think I might’ve been misleading in the other post; I’m not in college yet: in Australia you can take legal studies as a subject for the high school certificate (umm, kinda like your SAT things?), sorry for the confusion :blush:

To answer your question, umm. I started drawing about four years ago, after seeing the artworks done by manga/anime artists. Ah, I dunno what to write…I found that Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book at the library in about eighth grade and read it. I had my first life-drawing classes just after I joined CGTalk, so the combo of reading the Anatomy forum threads and having life-drawing really taught me lots, and I’m not sucking up :cool: That’s it, I think.

Spirit Dreamer I like the first one and the fourth one, though I think the fourth one mightn’t work with the background you’re gonna do on account of it being so high-contrast…

Dark3d ahh you can get the form down so well quickly :eek:

Okii seeyou, I think I already wrote too much…:blush:

#134

Spirit Dreamer,

Wow, this latest piece is looking fantastic! I think that this and your piece for OFDW 001 are really your best so far, and it’s great to see how consistent you are in these pieces. :slight_smile: Keep going, you know what you are doing…I think in your variations, you tend to make the colors go too ‘hot’, and I always like your neutral variations better. Neutral tones + a bit of saturation here in there is much more pleasing to my eye than an all~round saturated piece, which seems to burn out my retinas. :wink:

Great stuff, definitely keep going! :thumbsup:

moonlantern,

WOW, only in high school! That is seriously impressive! :eek: ROFL, I think that had I been as good as you are now in high school, I would be in the stratosphere now. :scream: Well, cheers to you, it’s great to see such a young person with a lot of talent! :thumbsup:

Lol, no, it’s nice to hear about peoples’ backgrounds, so thank you for telling us about yourself. Is there a law and art double~major in colleges there? :slight_smile: I’m sure you could do very well at both. :thumbsup:

Anyway, great to have you here, and best of luck with your current studies. Glad to see you on the forum! :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#135

Hi everyone a lot of nice pieces so far … good work :thumbsup:
Ok I’am little late but as I promised in another thread here I’am
Ok nothing special as usual … good old paper and pencil
The scan doesn’t look very good … hmm my scaner is crap :sad: …
but anyway here it is …

  • Slux
#136

Slux,

Lol, as usual, your ‘nothing special as usual’ piece is pretty special ~ nice work here, and as I would expect, your shading is quite consistent and very soothing to view. This is quite a nice, complete piece which I think anyone would be proud to claim as their own. :wink:

I do think the pose looks a bit stiff, and I think this is just a matter of putting down more loose, gestural lay~in lines before committing to the final lines. But this is a minor criticism. Keep going, if you have time, please do the second pose ~ and I look forward to your continued valued participation! :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#137

to Rebbeca
I’am glad you like it and thanks for crits …
dunno if I will draw second pose … hmm may be I will but for now I think I will try to draw this one in Photoshop … because I really need to work on my skin painting :slight_smile: I have painted skin only few times and results weren’t very good … probably because I have always painted from my memory … so this should be interesting lesson :slight_smile:

  • Slux
#138

Slux,

Painting sounds like a great idea! Just so you’re aware, OFDW 004 opens tomorrow or Monday…but as you know, all OFDWs remain continuously open, so I would love it if you would continue on your piece in digital format. I’m sure your results will be well~worth the wait. :slight_smile:

Note to everone: our model for OFDW 004 will be our own zhuzhu, who is a model in real life and has an amazing physique. Some of his poses are partially nude, and I trust that our audience here is mature enough to handle one of our own members here at CGTalk volunteering for the OFDW. Please be as respectful to zhuzhu as you would to our current model in your depictions and in your interactions with zhuzhu, who is an extremely valuable contributor to our Forum, and who has been incredibly generous to volunteer his great photographs. :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#139

here’s my attempt at the other model…i couldn’t resist doing some photoshop touchup on the head of the figure ( :twisted: ) Also added a bigger study of the head for fun.

Great work all!! :thumbsup:

#140

drawMonger,

Great to see you go after the second pose after working so hard on the first…kudos! :thumbsup:

The shading on her face and upper torso are quite nice…and I really like the shading you have done in the bkgrd ~ the consistency is quite nice.

The bit that I think could use a little refinement is the area along the right side of her ribcage…her side right beneath her rib cage is too flat, and there should be a bit of an indentation where her last right rib curves in…as is, there is sort of one continuous line which is making her form there look a bit less organic. This is a relatively easy fix.

Her left breast is a bit saggy ~ breasts as you know are essentially round forms, and it’s easy to get the perspective a bit off on them…this is easily remedied in a digital format. Her arms seem a bit thin, but I think the overall sense of proportion is rather good…with a few minor tweaks, I think this drawing could become quite strong. :slight_smile:

I like the up~close facial study you’ve done…it’s nicely considered, and again, I appreciate the delicacy of your shading. I think this drawing could be strengthened if the area around the eye were given more depth ~ currently, the eye appears to be sitting on the surface of the face in an unconnected way, when it is situated within an eyesocket that has a reasonable amount of depth. The ear is a bit too close to the eye…additionally, the top of the ear should align with the eyebrow and the base of the ear with the nose…so that’s a good rule to bear in mind. Finally, don’t place a heavy outline around the edges of the face until you feel absolutely confident of its shape. :slight_smile:

These are all nitpicky things, but I think you’ve done two really nice drawings ~ and I am eager to see if you will be painting this pose as well. :slight_smile:

Cheers! :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak