Open Figure Drawing Workshop - William Bouguereau Master Copy - with Rebeccak 012

#221

SaraD,

Nice progress! :slight_smile: With respect to the figures in the back, I wonder if you could try selecting just those figures, copying them, and creating a new document where you would paste them and enlarge the resolution to a decent size that would be paintable. Then you can work at that larger resolution until it was time to paste them / rescale them to the original size. Of course you would have to do some tweaking to get this to look right, but Iā€™m sure it would be fairly simple to do. What do you think? :slight_smile:

Marco J,

Beautiful work! :thumbsup: Really enjoying watching this come togetherā€¦looking forward to seeing your next update!

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#222

A bit of work on the face todayā€¦

[left]This is one of those paintings which could take forever to copy accuratelyā€¦:argh: :smiley:
[/left]

[left]Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak
[/left]

#223

Wow, so much great work here. :drool:

Itā€™s a really tough painting for a beginner like me, but i definately hope to be able to finish this one. :slight_smile:

#224

jFeige,

Youā€™re doing a great job so far! Itā€™s always harder to work Traditionally, but I would encourage you to stick to it! :wip:

Personal Anatomy Threads I think you might quite enjoy are (in no particular order):

Anatomy Thread of El Chief
Anatomy Thread of raptor|3D
Anatomy Thread of Slux
Anatomy Thread of Corvax
Anatomy Thread of Redehlert
Anatomy Thread of default.rol
Anatomy Thread of ThomasPhoenix

These artists are all working Traditionally, and have some great and inspiring examples of their work! :slight_smile:

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

#225

Ok, I came into this a bit late in the game, but Iā€™m going to try and work on this as best I can.

WOW super difficult poseā€¦ darn those masters for making such complicated imagery! :smiley:
Anyway, hereā€™s my contribution. Itā€™s only a sketch at this point, but I want to work on it today and see how far I get.

Time: 1 hour

This might be doubly difficult for me on many levels due to my using Painter and I hardly ever use that program, plus Iā€™m not used to painting this many figures in one image. Most Iā€™ve ever done is two. O.O

Pray for meā€¦ good gravy what have I allowed myself to get into? Whereā€™s my muse!? This is all her fault!

#226

MeliHitchcock,

Welcome aboard! :slight_smile: No worriesā€¦we still have lots of time left in this Workshopā€¦we just started it last Sunday, so itā€™s been a weekā€¦but depending on where everyone is at in 2 more weeks, weā€™ll see if people want to extend it another week for a total of 4 weeks. :slight_smile:

Nice start! Really looking forward to your next update!

Do you want to tell us something about your training / background? :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#227

Another updateā€¦continuing to work on the face, tried to organize the lighting a bit better and tone down the bottom part of the image ~ am noticing that focusing my rendering efforts on the face means that I need not spend as much time on the body, as the faces are the focal points anyway, and draw the viewerā€™s attention thereā€¦

[left]Cheers,

~Rebeccak
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#228

Thanks Rebeccak! :slight_smile: Yay for more time! I thought Iā€™d be coming into the tail end of this. I was interested in the last open sketch thread still lingering about on the first page, but I can wait for the next life drawing thread that crops up. =)

Love your new update too! This is really coming along nicely! :slight_smile:

Bit about me: Iā€™ve been drawing for a long while, and I say long while I mean since I was kid. My mom is an artist too so I kind of inheritated the ability to draw. :stuck_out_tongue: I took small art classes here and there since my high school sucked in that department. I ended up going to Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design up in Denver (before the school was accredited and was this tiny little school) and graduated in 98 with my BFA in Illustration. Sadly though I never put my more creative skills to good use as ended up taking a job as a Technical Illustrator. For a while I wasnā€™t sure what I wanted to get into with my Illustration Degree and I kind of liked doing the technical stuff. However my currect job doesnā€™t call much for creative work, itā€™s all black and white isometric line art (BOREING). I work for L-3 Communications but our division handles government contract work for Air Force Space Command. Basically we do HEMP (high-altitude electromagnetic pulse) hardening for various military facilities. I canā€™t really detail -what- I draw because thatā€™s sensitive in nature, but suffice to say itā€™s not spiffy things like guns or planes or anything. LOL

On occassion we get to do 3D modeling, which I had to take a (very cheap might I add) class on, but the class was kind of a joke. The sad thing is our company doesnā€™t want to dish out proper training classes for our programs we use. Personally I donā€™t even like the software we use (Strata Studio Pro) either. I wish we used 3D studio Max instead, but again, cost is an issue.

I did do a series of posters that I got permission to repost for my gallery page. Not the highest quality due to the time constraints and the number of posters involved but the clients loved them. You can go see em here if youā€™re remotely interested:

http://www.deviantart.com/view/22405973/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22404867/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22404791/

Unfortuanately though, after I graduated from college I got bad burn out and stopped drawing things for myself for a long time. Up until the beginning of last year I just fiddled, never really doing anything serious. But I want to get back into it again, however my skills had slipped and fell a bit.

Finding this place is like a god send because of the resources and workshops like this I can participate in. I need the practice bad, need the feedback badā€¦ eventually I want to do more with my art and get out of tech illustration it bores me to death now after six years of doing it. My only problem is where I live is horrible for art jobs. One thing at a time I suppose. I need to work at getting my art back up to a decent level before I feel confident enough to go seek other positions.

Yipes, sorry about the length! :o

#229

MeliHitchcock,

Thanks for the biographical info., I donā€™t mind at all the length. :slight_smile: It sounds as though you and I have had very similar backgrounds, in that we both studied illustration, and both have experience with Government Subcontracting ~ as you say, Boring with a capital ā€œBā€. :wink: But, a job is a job, and it pays the bills ~ so I am as happy as you are to have this forum as a resource / extension of the school experience, as prior to starting the forum, my art output was decreasing as well. Itā€™s fantastic to have such a great gathering place for really talented and hardworking artists ~ and to see everyoneā€™s contributions here. I may have been allowed to start the forum, but itā€™s nothing without everyoneā€™s interest and collaboration on threads such as this one. :slight_smile: So I do appreciate every post. :slight_smile:

I have seen people improve at lightning pace on this forum, so Iā€™ve no doubt that if you put in the requisite effort, you will come out with the results and improvement which you want. :thumbsup:

Looking forward to your next posts! And I wish you the best of luck in your art endeavoursā€¦I think that art has a lot to do with quality of life ~ even if you never make a dime off of doing what you love, at least you (meaning anyone) have a passion and a purpose, which is more than many people out there have.

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#230

Worked a bit more on it. I am ever so tempted to load this into photoshop and do the background as I have the perfect brush to finish it and blend it with, butā€¦ Iā€¦ mustā€¦ resistā€¦ temptationā€¦ :argh:

#231

MeliHitchcock,

Great update! Wow, that was fast! :wip: I know what you mean about Painterā€¦itā€™s definitely hard to adjust to! :slight_smile:

Realized a lot of things were off, so did a lot of cutting, pasting, and re~blending into the background:

[left]Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak
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#232

Hi Rebecca and Everyone
Worked on big figures in foreground this morning
searching for lights and darks.
Then decided to play with light and color

Been a long time since I read Danteā€™s Inferno. A truely disturbed and disturbing midieval
mentality, philosophy and vision of life and death if ever there was one.
Just my personal opinion and feeling.
Take Care
Glenn

DANTE_24.jpg600x756

DANTE_25.jpg600x754

#233

Lovely thread, thank you all.
If Iā€™m allowed to make a suggestion for next timeā€¦ hereā€™s a master painting that could work well in this kind of workshopā€¦ I thinkā€¦ (Rebeccaā€™s opposite curves are everywhere in this one, by the way)
Have fun,
TL

#234

decided yesterday to join, hereā€™s my scanned pencil-sketch.
Next Step will be the underpainting in painterā€¦

#235

A bit of quick work on the background characters, not too much though (about 2 hours) since today is the last full day with Peter before he goes off to his new job in Amsterdamā€¦hopefully Iā€™ll have this finished in the next week or soā€¦

Iā€™m not too sure whether to tighten the shading up to make it more photorealistic or to keep it more loose and painterly like thisā€¦I havenā€™t started texturing or detailing anything yet. Keep up the good work everyone, lots of pieces really starting to look amazing now!

#236

Hiā€¦Elsieā€¦:slight_smile:

FANTASTIC job on those figuresā€¦in every respectā€¦really liking your colors on this oneā€¦:thumbsup:

#237

Glenn,

The color looks greatā€¦looking forward to seeing how the drawing develops. :slight_smile:

tizianoadmirer,

Welcome aboard! Thank you for the lovely image ~ I hope you will participate here with us! :wavey:

Erich,

Looks great! Really happy to see you joining us! :thumbsup:

Elsie,

Fantastic work! Iā€™m sorry for the fact that Peterā€™s taking offā€¦but given that he seems like a world traveler, Iā€™m sure heā€™ll be back in town in no time flat. :wink: hugs

~

A small update from meā€¦trying to tidy the background a bit, and adding a bit of color as a test / undertoneā€¦

[left]This may be just about as far as I get on this one, due to the CGWorkshop starting up on Feb. 10th ~ but Iā€™ll defintely be following everyonesā€™ progress with anticipation! :thumbsup:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak
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#238

Hey Rebecca, I have a question:

I am doing my copy in graphite pencil - so it means it will be more or less grayscale. So I was wondering - what should I start shading first: the background or the main figures. I am not sure because the figures are very light if compared to the background. I fear if I start with the figs, I might get them too dark and mess up the overall contrast.

Great work everybody, Elsie - just fantastic!

#239

fooxoo,

Since you are doing your Master Copy in graphite, I really recommend having the line drawing be as finalized as possible before you start shading. This means a lot of work in the front end to get things ready for the shading process ~ since, as you know, once you start shading, it can be difficult if not impossible to rearrange features.

I think the best approach may be to shade (depending on whether you are right or left~handed) from the upper left corner, down and across diagonally to the bottom of the bottom right. This ensures that you donā€™t smudge anything as you go ~ I would also recommend placing a sheet of clean paper under your hand and arm, so that you donā€™t smudge your line work or any shading you may have already done in the main part of the drawing.

Youā€™ll really want to try to set the value key for the whole piece with the sky ~ take a step back, look at the original Reference image, and try to generally determine where are the areas of your lightest lights, and where are the areas of your darkest darks. When you start out, do something of a first pass until you are comfortable with your technique. In fact, I recommend just practicing basic drawing strokes on a sheet of paper before beginning.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

#240

fooxoo,

Also take a look at this short demos in case it helps with shading technique:

TUTORIAL - Shading Techniques (Various Media) - by Rebeccak

Shading Tutorial by Slux

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak