Open Figure Drawing Workshop - William Bouguereau Master Copy - with Rebeccak 014

#321

Nice choice, Aggie. :wink: It gives it a bit of spice. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

#322

thanks, Davey.

Eep, Rebecca, how will I be able to tell if it becomes overpowering? Iā€™m not even sure if I know exactly what that means

#323

well I have to stop for now, so Iā€™m posting this one, not sure if Iā€™ll be able to finish, though thereā€™s still quite a bit of work I could do. Anyhow, I love these sorts of threads, thanks Rebeccaā€¦ and let me know about the ā€œtoo muchā€ thing, because Iā€™m still green.

#324

Cyph - Absolutely gorgeous!:surprised I love the way your drawing is so strong yet smooth.:arteest: Everything is detailed even the crashing waves, something I had trouble with on mine earlier in this thread. (besides the elongated body, long story:banghead: ) And to top it off, in such short time. I am dumb-founded.:bowdown: I must see more of your work.:drool: I am a charcoal, pencil freak!

#325

Thanks again, Davey. Iā€™m quite fond of charcoal and graphite myself, though I consider myself to be more of a digital artist, I donā€™t want to be one of those digtial artists who can only paint/draw on the computer. Besides, thereā€™s something terribly rewarding about getting super dirty and blowing your nose to find chunks of charcoal in the tissue paper. yay.

the waves are going to be difficult, for certain, so I can relate to your pain there. And getting the right proportions down is probably always the hardest part of the entire process for me. I can never see how people can work that out as they go along, itā€™s something I have to bang out right away before shading or anything else. otherwise everthing will turn out completely off.

I couldnā€™t seem to find your images of La Vague, or theyā€™re not showing up for me for whatever reason. and I commend all of you who took on the first painting, there were just too many elements in it for me.

#326

I usually end up with black marks on my face, hands, and everywhere else my fingers are. That is the fun of being an artist but hard to explain to others.

As for purportions, I normally try to get the figure down first loosely, then begin rendering lightly and add darkness as I build it up. I just started using color pencils, so I do not have a technique down. I am still playing around. I normally do not see the purportions until I can stand back from the piece and then I see it. My La Vague was on an 11" x 17" spiral and I sat down with it while I was in my hotel room at a convention.

I will PM you the link to my LV. As for complexity and elements, last month was the first time I had more than one character with Dente and the Nymphs have three females and one male but they are so intertwined. It is difficult, but I threw away the detailed pencil strokes to color my figures.

#327

ahhh you used colour pencils, very difficult. I guess as long as we have fun with these, eh?

And does ANYONE know what Rebecca means by ā€œoverpowering the viewerā€ā€¦ if so could you please explain it to me? I know what overpowering means, obviously, but I donā€™t know what it means in an artistic context, unless one is talking about fumes.

#328

cypherx: If I were to hazard a guess, Iā€™d say sheā€™s referring to diluting the focus point for the viewer by having too many strong/detailed elements fighting for prominence. So right now, the face on your piece is standing out very nicely, detail and rendering wise. If you were to pump up the body to that level of detail and value, it may end up fighting for focus with the face, for example. That would be my guess, anyways. Iā€™m horrible at judging focal points in my own stuff. :slight_smile:

That said, yours is coming along really nicely. Charcoalā€™s fun. I need to restock mine and try to get back into it. :stuck_out_tongue:

edit: Looking back at both of your most recent updates, you may be pushing the values on the body a little much. The face stood out very nicely in the second-to-last update, with the body nicely defined, but delicate. Right now the body might be starting to fight with the face for prominence. But Iā€™ll reiterate my previous point about being an awful judge of focal points in my own stuff. :stuck_out_tongue:

#329

Cypherx, Iā€™m stunned at your beautiful linework in such a short time!

Amerasu: thanks for the thoughtful comment. I can tell from your working speed and end result youā€™ve been doing this for quite a while.:slight_smile: Do you maybe have a WIP thread I can check out to learn from, or something like that?

Everybody, I donā€™t think Iā€™ll be doing more work on this. I have been atmitted to the second round of a 3D-art education Iā€™d applied for (YEE!!). So now itā€™s preparation time for the second roundā€¦

Iā€™m also really bummed because I overblended the whole thing a little and still working with that crappy monitor. This means Iā€™ll have to do everything detailed like the face in seperate canvasses and I really donā€™t like that. Iā€™ll definately join the next one though!! Iā€™l just start in a huge canvas instead of 800 by 800:).

#330

Cyph - I am with Tekk, I think she means too many focal points, foreshadowing. However, your latest rendering has put the focal on the girl. Make sure the waves do not come out to strong, soften them up. Maybe that is what she meant.

Here is what I did last night. My next succubus is not madusa, I just gave her snake features. Her tail is a king snake (red and black, friend of jack) and her hair is filled with venomous coral snakes (red and yellow, kill a fellow). Ms. Allu got bat wings that were very thin with a pinkish purple hint. You can see her viens through the thin membrane (that is if the picture wasnā€™t so bad). Notice the end of her wings is attached at her tailbone of her spine.

#331

LoTekK, I think that makes pretty good sense. I personally prefer my last version, but I do know some people prefer things that arenā€™t too finished looking, like i have a friend who always prefers my stuff in the work in progress stage, and no matter what it looks like he thinks I should keep it really loose with loads of sketchie lines, which is great, but not my personal preference.
I am with aggie in thinking that the focal point was the girl as a whole, but I know what you mean, itā€™s always hard to discern. I guess in the end worry less about what the viewer thinks (though taking it into consideration isnā€™t a bad thing), and more about what you feel is right because while the viewer may look at what youā€™ve done once or twice, youā€™re the one who has to live with the results knowing you could have done better, or at least been semi satisfied with the results.

Thanks, Maladie. It wasnā€™t really a short time though, I worked on it for several hours. Iā€™m pretty tenacious though, and a slave to the charcoal. I honestly feel like I didnā€™t do most of the stuff I draw when Iā€™m finished. Like someone took over and I was in lala land thru the process, wonder if anyone else gets like that. Good luck with your 3-D stuff, thatā€™s something I would never have the patience to do.

#332

No, I definitely get what you mean, and wasnā€™t suggesting keeping it sketchy. I took another look at the two updates, and I think I know whatā€™s bugging me about the last one: the relatively heavy outlining going on. Donā€™t get me wrong, youā€™ve done a fantastic job with the body (the subtle folds of skin, the elbow area, etc), but the bold black outline is bugging the hell out of me (most notably on her left arm). That said, the piece is coming along beautifully. Looks like youā€™re tackling the waves just fine. :slight_smile:

And I know what you mean about it being about you in the end. Sometimes I find myself in illustration mode, where itā€™s less about yourself and more about everyone else (or rather, the client :p).

Like someone took over and I was in lala land thru the process, wonder if anyone else gets like that.

Iā€™m sure we all get like that to some extent. :wink:

Aggie, Iā€™m liking how your piece is turning out; itā€™s definitely an interesting direction youā€™ve taken it. Love to see you take this all the way through. :thumbsup:

#333

Maladie, congratulations on your acceptance! :slight_smile:

I have a few WIPs on the Bouguereau and theyā€™re posted all over this thread though Iā€™ve combined them here. You can click through to the large versions. I painted this one at 500 DPI, approx 1500 x 2200. Perhaps a bit small but it turned out fine. Definitely up your painting size so that you can zoom in for detailing and tiny bits of shading. It should really help.

I also wrote a digital anatomy painting tutorial for this forum a while back. It might be helpful. http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=308311

#334

cypherx,

Sorry for the delayed response, but I think all of these guys expressed it much better than I could :smiley: ~ basically I just meant rendering the body a bit more without taking too much emphasis away from the face. :slight_smile:

Amerasu,

As always you know that I would love it if you would like to create a Tutorial on your step by step process ~ if so, feel free to call it TUTORIAL - Title - by Amerasu. Thanks for showing those steps here, itā€™s great! :thumbsup: Also of course I hope you submit your piece to the Gallery! :slight_smile:

Aggie,

Nice progress so far, and I hope one day we can convince you to go digital. :wink:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#335

LoTekK, sorry for it bugging the hell out of you, with most of my charcoal drawings I like to do that. Were I to do it in graphite, Iā€™m able to have much softer edges that blend into the bg. Iā€™m sure itā€™s possible to do with charcoal, and hats off to those people who can, Iā€™m just not one of them. Unlike many of the people here, I donā€™t have the client to worry about as I donā€™t do art as any sort of profession, itā€™s just a hobby/obsession for me. Thanks again.

lol Rebecca I figured you were just ignoring me :stuck_out_tongue:

#336

cypherx,

LOL I try not to ignore peopleā€¦:Dā€¦just busy with the ongoing CGWorkshop and such. :slight_smile: I try to keep up with these threads as much as possible, but frankly itā€™s more interesting for me to hear other peoplesā€™ advice and input than just hear myself speak, heh. :slight_smile: Itā€™s great to see everyone giving so much advice and support, and I always enjoy hearing everyonesā€™ comments. :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#337

Whoops, didnā€™t mean for that to come across as harsh. :blush: Like I said, youā€™ve got a fantastic piece there. And contrary to what you said, it looks like you do have the chops to not rely on outlines. The aforementioned subtle skin folds and the like are testament to that. Which is probably why the outlining stood out to me. :slight_smile:

Amerasu: That is positively gorgeous.Incredible work on the skintones, and lovely valves all round.

#338

lol um okā€¦ then just call it my style to outline the figure when using charcoal.

#339

Amerasu - I like the little thumbnail progressions. You are really talented.

Cyph - You said it best that it is not want everyone else wants to see, but what you have to live with. I have some projects that I did not finish, like leaving a head off or legs and hands, but I felt that my work was done. I got it through and displayed enough to explain my art. We live with it and I would rather know that that was it. And as far as the dark lines are, I do the same thing. It brings the subject out to the front and creates a division between the subject and the background. Working traditionally it is harder to make that determination otherwise.

Reb - I would love to work in digital. Right now I cannot afford to get a tablet and software. I am sorry to disapoint everyone with working in traditional in a digital forum. You guys, however, have become family. And I have learned alot from here with the contacts I have made just in this thread alone.

Here are my references for my alterations:

Scarlet King Snake

Coral Snake

#340

cypher: Fair enough, I should shut up now. :smiley:
aggie: Why would you apologize? Your piece is looking great. :thumbsup:

Desole, Monsieur Bouguereau. Tres desole:

No, I have no idea what I was thinking. And yes, the proportions are botched big time. Thatā€™s what I get for not laying down any guidemarks before diving in. :stuck_out_tongue: