Well having entered the torso challenge and generally wanting to get going on practising anatomy some more, I’m starting this sketchbook thread.
I did the first torso today during a lunchbreak, but with crappy office stationary supplies it ended up being with a rollerball pen, so i’ll do a few more tonight when I get home to rectify the following:
#61
RUBENS
The holy family… It’s the child on the right 
Overchord,
Welcome. 
I look forward to seeing your work for the Torso Challenge! If you wish to introduce yourself to everyone by telling us a bit about your art training and background, that would be nice. I know that you’re active with the Daily Sketch Sessions, so it will be great to see your work here as well.
Cheers,
-Rebeccak
Thanks Rebecca,
I’m purely a hobbyist. I have had no formal training but was involved in a few things for student magazines newspapers etc, but all of this stuff was predominantly cartoons. I did a bit of sketching on the side purely for my own satisfaction.
I almost stopped drawing entirely for a couple of years where I was immersed in writing my thesis :eek: - when i came back to it about a year ago I started doing digital stuff and acquired a Wacom. I am still - after a year of practising - not comfortable with sketching on the Wacom. It’s great for colouring work, but I don’t feel I have the same control over the sketching.
So I’m backtracking a bit to try and improve a bit more on paper and try and develop the tablet use in parallel with catching up on drawing skills. I’ve only done a couple of life drawing sessions yonks ago, and human anatomy has always been a bit of a bane. So I’ve decided to try and move forward with it now, after spending lots of time reading through the stacks of information here at CGTalk.
So I hope i’ll be able to keep up the steam. I did sign up for a life drawing course where i live but it was oversigned, so I didn’t get a place this semester - but will try again after Christmas. In the meantime I’ll try and keep the steam up by posting stuff here
Well another couple hits the dust tonight 
I the first one with pencil of #52. I didn’t get the posture quite right. I think he’s become a bit too rotund and not leaning/striding as much forward as in Ruben’s original, but here it is:
#52
RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel
Silenus (or Bacchus) and Satyrs
c. 1616
Drawing, 383 x 266 mm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
For the second exercise tonight i switched to tablet and tried to work with gray scales instead. This is something I have not done a lot of, and I did the mistake of making a quick line drawing first. I really find that the lineart is too much of a crutch that i end up leaning on. So when i switched the lines off, it was painfully obvious and I think its probably still pretty obvious after my attempts at fixing it…
014:
MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
Dawn (detail)
1524-31
Marble
Sagrestia Nuova, San Lorenzo, Florence
ok last one for tonight. This was done fairly quickly. I’m trying to get a feel for using the gray scales, and this time i deliberately did not make a line sketch first. There’s still a long way to go to really start getting a clearer shape out…
008:
MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
Christ Carrying the Cross (detail)
1521
Marble
Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Overchord,
Thanks for the biographical info! That really helps.
It’s easy to forget when digitally painting that the drawing is still the most important aspect of the piece. Your first traditional drawing is quite strong - don’t forget to put that same emphasis in your paintings. Try not to think of painting as painting so much as rendering a drawing.
Cheers,
-Rebeccak
Hey, Overchord.
Nice to see you here! I’ve enjoyed your stuff in the DSG, and can’t wait to see more of your sketches here :D. Also, I have to agree with Rebecca about painting. I was very uncomfortable with it at first, but I’m slowing starting to realize how it relates to drawing and it’s not so scary after all. Plus painting with the Wacom is less messy ;).
Peace.
I realise that I haven’t been posting much in here - just wanted to say thanks for the comments (better late than never ) and i will try and catch up on some more anatomy soon!
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