Now OPEN!!! Open Figure Drawing Workshop with zhuzhu and Rebecca Kimmel 004

[Rebeccak]

Deb,

The body looks great so far! You might want to paste the URL into the little picture box in the Edit Post window, so everyone can see your nice work!

The arms look fantastic! I would just work on getting the chest to be more volumetric, and to ‘read’ as more dimensional. I’m sure that with time you would develop this area anyway.

I think the face looks a bit stylized, more so than the body…I like the style of the body more, as it is more naturalistic and ‘breathes’ better. Great stuff, keep going, you’re doing an awesome job.

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[Rebeccak]

Well, this is very rough, but here t’is so far…lol, so far it looks like a ‘Young & The Restless’ poster in the making. This must be attributed to the ‘hunkiness’ of zhuzhu, lol.

[left]Cheers,

~Rebeccak
[/left]

[Rebeccak]

Slightly updated version…

[left]~Rebeccak
[/left]

[MattVogt]

Good work Rebecca! Oh and Spirit Dreamer I love your style. Everyone keep it going!

[Rebeccak]

MattVogt,

Good start! The overall proportions of the body are good ~ as you continue working, I would focus more attention on the feet and the head, and perhaps work on the head in particular in a separate document of its own, so that it has your entire attention ~ and then, once you’re reasonably happy with it’s blocking in, paste it back into your main painting.

Good to see your work, keep going!

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[Kirt]

I didn’t get past the head …

[Rebeccak]

Kirt!
Great to see you here! :bounce:Nice work…planning to finish? I think his eyes need to be a bit set more into their sockets…but the color scheme is nice, rather the reverse of the photo. Hope to see your update.

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[SpiritDreamer]

Hi Llynna
Was thinking about what you said about having a hard time painting your thoughts or conceptualizing for a lack of a better word. Hope you don’t mind me expressing my thoughts on the subject. Might help us both or anybody else who reads this. Years ago I took a class called Creative Thinking, while attending art school in Boston. Part of it was to train yourself not to just look with your eyes, but to see with your artistic spirit or imagination. When you close your eyes and are on the verge of sleep, there is a moment when your mind is between two worlds. One is a world of percieved reality, the other the realm of freed imagination or dream. Objective of the imaginative artist is to capture more than can be seen or looked at with the eyes. And to actually capture what is in your spirit or imagination. Another lesson I remember from this class was to be blindfolded, held by the arm by a fellow student, and walked around a city block downtown Boston. Rush Hour. Subway, crossing streets, traffic etc. Objective, force you to see with that part of the mind I was just talking about, the part sighted people rarely use, except during sleep. As I get older I often wonder how blind people percieve a world reality. They must make up images of pure imagination and see with a vision that is off limits to the sighted. They must be able to tap into that part of the mind that imaginative artists strive to master. Think about it. How do people like Stevie Wonder create the universal lyrics he sings, while never having seen or looked at the world we sighted perceive as reality. Eyes in a sense are a limitation, an obstacle to imagination to true vision. There’s alot more to the world than meets the eye. Look into a microscope or a telescope and you automatically realize that sight is an illusion of sorts. See life with your spirit if you think you have one or your imagination if you don’t. But see don’t just look. Buz Aldrin the astronaut had a nervouse breakdown and couldn’t get out of bed for months after returning to earth. He explained it as seeing the earth from afar in a whole different reality. Changed his whole conception of his world and of his vision of reality. I had similar experiences every time I came back after 90 day patrols on that submarine I used to be on. Could only imagine the world without seeing it for 90 days at a time. Taught me that reality is just a state of mind vision. ANyway just thought I would explore this thought of imagination and the artistic use of it with you and whoever else reads it. Might help you to visualize your thoughts easier and understand the conceptualization process better.
Take Care
Glenn

[b2dermawan]

wow so many great works so far!

Llyna: nice blocking so far. some shapes might need fixes but i’m sure you’d overcome them on the next step. keep updating!

Katea: great rendering as expected! the biceps look a lil bit small while chests get a lil bit wider in return, imho, but quite a fair trade i say! overall very accurate and overall top notch renderings!

zhuzhu: thanks man! really appreciate it.

goliath: hey, no prob. and yours has developed quite nicely, maybe a darker value for the bg might work better for your fig, just my 2-cents.

Loulu79: thanks for pointing that out:thumbsup: , really need that. i will look in to it. About your work it’s a great start so far, you’ve gotten most of the shapes’ feels, and from some detailings you’ve begun, this’ll definetely be a great pic.
my 2 cents, if it’s okay, i’d suggest to play more on broader value ranges, and then to play with contrasts more. the lip is a lil bit off (easy fix). his left (our right) bicep looks a tad smaller thus inbalanced with his right’s, and overall the upper left hand takes “longer” space than it should thus causing his right hand (the one under),esp in area where those two hands meet, quite out of space and off-shaped. for this prob i’d recomend to play with the perspectives. And overall try flip the pic horizontally every now and then to give you fresh views on your work. Keep it up!
moonlantern: thank you! hope to see you joining this class too. hey sure, exams is important to tackle (had my share on legal studies my-self:sad: ), but surely there’s no harm to have lil (or more:twisted: ) fun to do one or two quick sketches?

PSR: wow man, great steps so far. interesting to see you work with a very focus approach. and your latest update is really coming along very well, though i’m quite anxious on how you’d define the skin later, as doing it on greyscale is never easy. yet i’m sure you’ll tackle that matter quite easily as you definetely are on the right track:thumbsup: ! keep updating!

Dark3d: it’s quite complete for just a quick sketch i reckon, good job!.

augustus: hey great and very efficient sketch! any plan to paint it?

Corvax: nice development esp w/ the rendering and the head study! keep it up!

purb36: ROFL:D ! i completely forgot the u-wear focusing on the shapes and tones first. no worry i definetely would put the u-wear on later, or would i:twisted: ? thanks a lot, and hope to see more of your works here!

shyamshriram: wow great sketches! more please!

well ocean: great sketch, and cool style!

jrr: great sketch, minimum line-strokes yet maximum feels on overall figure, very nice.

Spirit Dreamer: always inspiring to see your work develops sir, great stuffs!

Samanthie: nice sketch so far! my 2-cents, if u don;t mind, his left (our right) shoulder and bicep are a lil off shape, study more on that area, esp in the darkest shadow area of the ref, to see how they really shaping up. keep updating!

Vahn: Cool! it’s zhuzhu with attitude in the your first one haha!, i personally hope you would maintain his first expression, but it’s definetely your decision i guess. overall nice lighting and colours. keep updating!

Drawmonger: nice sketch so far. plan to paint it?

Rebeccak: hey great work and grasp of values as usual! well i won’t expect less from you:thumbsup: ! should get my hand on this painter software one of this day. btw, it’s so not like you to have the background in almost transparent:) ?

Mattvogt: great proportions overall, and good decision to do those helping lines first! keep it up!

Kirt: cool! really love the colors!

Keep up the good work, everyone!

[b2dermawan]

Anyway, been slacking-off again… i blame those over-hour works! (and those crazy parties after’em ) well, this’s my latest update and last for fig 1 i think.

C&Cs are welcomed as usual. (just don’t ask about the nipples’ whereabout, okay? :D)

[Rebeccak]

Spirit Dreamer,

Thanks for your always insightful thoughts here. It is always very interesting to hear what you say.

b2dermawan,

Wow, thanks for all the great comments! Indeed, on mine, I’m working the bkgrd a bit differently…getting used to Painter, which, so far, I love. You’re such a great critiquer, thanks for taking the time!

EDIT: Ah, just saw your piece! Verrrrry nice, as usual, I love your color pallette ~ the harmoniousness of the colors in your piece is quite soothing without being boring.

Somehow the body looks more volumetric to me than the head. Any chance you could work a bit more on the head / facial features to bring them up to the level of the body? The arms in particular look great, and I think just adding a bit of modeling and increased value contrast to the face would take this a long way toward the finish line.

Excellent work, and look forward to seeing more!

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[Arctis]

Hi all,

Here’s my little interpretation of the great pose of Zhuzhu
I know ther’e some problem with the face (in the rendering probably). Sorry Zhuzhu handsome guys are the hardest to draw (like cute girls)

I’ll post comments later.

[Rebeccak]

Arctis,

Really fabulous work here ~ I love the play of muted oranges and blues you are using, they’re working together quite effectively! Really solid sense of form in both the body and face, and the bkgrd tone is working quite nicely with the skin tones ~ not competing too much, and not fading away.

His right arm at this point is looking more developed than his left…I am sure that with time you will change that. Additionally, the bluish shadow above his left collarbone is looking a bit funny ~ too sharp, and too strong a shadow for the light source. There is in addition that funny cream colored splotch on his wrist which I’m sure you’ve already noticed.

Really looking forward to your next update!

Cheers, :)

~Rebeccak

[Loulu79]

Loulu79,

Welcome to the forum, nice to see your work here! Indeed, it is really exciting to see so much great work, from all over the world.

You’ve got a really great start here, and the face is really coming along nicely. Advice which I’ve heard elsewhere is to not perfect any particular part first, as you will have the tendency to stop there. I would work now on the body to bring it up to the level of refinement of the face. It really looks like you know what you are doing, so I would just keep going, and trust your instincts. Every now and then, pull back and look at the overall BIG picture and not just the details. I think you are doing a good job of this now, just don’t get too hung up in the small bits first.

Great to have you on board, and look forward to your update!

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

Gotcha…that’s exactly my habit anyway: both hypnotically going and perfecting one area…the other actually stopping from all the detail and looking back…and switching it like it’s in the mirror…that’s where all my tell-tale signs of tweaking…so yeah…Thanks Rebeccak.

Edit: Arctis’ work is my most favorite so far…it has drama and an interesting style to it…how do you people harness the human skin with lighting and all…huh?

B2dermawan: Yeah…I need that input man! Thanks … like I said to Rebaccak…I was tweaking the face so much…the other parts of the body needs tweaking as well! And it has become my habit of switching it from left to right…but thanks…that has strengthened what I saw in mine too…thank u thank u thank u thank u…And yours is getting much much better.

[raptor_3D]

Hi,
finally there is printable version around here -> great :).

So here is my WIP. I did some basic shading in order to see how the head will look like.

Unfortunately I have not much time now so I won´t update at lightspeed :). But I´ll try to finish it as soon as possible.

Thanks Zhuzhu for reference image and Rebecca for new workshop!

Cheers

[Rebeccak]

raptor|3D,

Lol, yes, hopefully, we will have printable versions from now on…it depends on the model source, but I will try my best. Zhuzhu is looking into getting more shots taken, and the model lined up for the next OFDW 005 has hi~res images which can be printed.

It’s great to see your work here, and it looks like you’re off to a good start! I would recommend checking out this post if you have not already seen it, and just re~evaluating the major axes of the body, particularly of the head / face, before you really go in to render. You have a very nice outline of the body so far, but I think the head needs more mass at the top / back and there is something in the tilt of the head that is a bit off. Try to make the eyes appear as though they are set in sockets, and not floating on the surface. This is important for conveying a sense of volume and realism in the face.

Good work so far, and look forward to seeing your update!

Cheers!

~Rebeccak

[raptor_3D]

Thanks for comments Rebecca.

Now when I look at it after some time I cannot believe I was so brave to post it here! It´s quite a disaster.
I´ve found another mistakes that make head so horrible. Also the body is not so good - bad proportions here and there … I tried to measure it after drawing but I missed something - well, it may be theory of chaos

I will redo it completely.
Hey pencil, get ready for the holy revenge !!!

[Rebeccak]

…well, it may be theory of chaos

I will redo it completely.
Hey pencil, get ready for the holy revenge !!!

ROFL! Looking forward to your update.

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[Arctis]

Hi,

Thanx for the feedback. About the difference between the left and right arm, I must say I don’t see the problem… However I agree about the blue, and I simply forgot to remove the white plotch on the wrist !

-Vahn : the body is coming along nicely; now let’s start the face : it’s the hardest point, to me
-Loulu79 : good structure : maybe more contrast will underline better the whole volume of his body. His mouth is too much on the right, and the shadow cast by his head on his shoulder should be darker. Keep it up !
-Rebecca : hey, cool to see your stuff. His expression is nice (not a simple task…) However I must say I’m a bit surprised by your process, this time. Don’t take it bad, but I don’t really see the structure behind the painting.
-Samanthie : nice volume already. The right part of his face seems a bit flat, and the volume of his hair is bigger on the left part.
-MattVogt : good start on a difficult pose.
-b2dermawan : hey, cool colors, and nice volume too. The background is a bit odd on the edges, but the mood is really good.
-raptor|3D : good proportion on the body, but don’t forget the structure on his face. There’s a symetry that has to be respected.
-Kirt : hey, not the easy part. I think his eyes are too far from the nose, and too small. And he’s got more hair at the back of his head.

Good work, all of you.

[Vahn]

arctis i like your shading a lot there … very nice

just the centerline where the breastmuscles meet in the middle is a little bit off center :wise: