Spartan Camp #21 - 50 gestures + Optional Study of an action pose: Jump

[MeTaL-Mike]

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 2nd of December.

The gestures can be of anything, human, animal, cavorting capybaras....and can be in any media, digital or traditional is fine.

In addition to this, participants can choose to do a study of an action pose: Jump, in any media. Black and White or Colour is fine.

:muscle: Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!:muscle:

PS...critting each other is highly encouraged!! Let's help each other get better!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #20

Euthyphro
Anthis

[MeTaL-Mike]

we'll be doing some action poses for a couple of workshops. think comic book poses and try to work them out as much as you can in value and color.

[Maledict]

I just recently discovered the spartan thread series - I'm considering joining, but I'm not that good yet. I have a few questions though.

Some of the gestures in the previous threads were very well damn good, and I have a question as to how the drawings of the gestures are done in the first place. I can somewhat understand how gestures from observation are done, but when gestures are done from imagination, do you draw the shapes, contours, and anatomy without any construction lines and out of the white? I can do gestures form imagination fairly well, but I'm trying to find ways to improve the workflow of how I do them.

Thanks :)

[Anthis]

RabbiSatan; Sure, join ahead!
First of all, you're not required to draw from your head. Most of us use reference here, as far as I know. You can do a direct copy from a given pose, (http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/ is a useful site), but you can also just keep reference around as a source of inspiration.

I don't think there is any specific method for drawing from imagination though. I'll just speak for myself. I usually start of with thinking of a possible pose. Could be an action or passive pose, person sitting/lying down, being idle or active, male/female, whatever suits you. Doesn't have to be functional either.

Most people don't start right away and out of the white, I'd recommend construction lines. Make sure you work light and soft, so that you can erase parts. There are many ways to get the general shape down. You can start with a stickman, or with some of the bigger shapes. Starting off with a spine can work well, or vague shapes of the head, chest, and thighs. George B Bridgman and Andrew Loomis are some well-known names in the field of anatomy drawing, you should check on those, 'case you're interested. They have some pretty solid methods. Guidelines on proportions are useful too.
Just make sure you don't start with details too early on. Just get the general shape down, larger masses of the body, proportions, how seperate parts are angled. You can do detail afterwards ;)

Remember this activity is about practice, if you're not good yet it doesn't matter.
I hope this was useful, just the thoughts of someone who's also learning, and isn't good either :)

__________________
Sketchbook;
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105027

[Euthyphro]

RabbiSatan You really should join in, good fun, great practice.

As far as workflow goes, I would suggest looking around at different people's work to see how they build and try anything that looks promising. I like to switch around the construction method and the starting point; it is really interesting to see how the spine ends up if you place just the hands and feet to start. I'm sure if you sit down a few times with a timer, once you get through the first couple hundred you'll know your best way to gesture. Switching the amount of time you have can help as well. I would suggest starting high 90 seconds or so and moving down... I enjoyed it.

Alright here are the fifty. A some from loomis, a few from the ole noggin, and the rest are a mix of 30, 60, and 90 second runs on posemaniacs. I tried to change the way I was constructing the figure, I'm not overly happy with much of it but I think I picked up enough to make next week an improvement.

I have a pretty good idea for the jump study... of course once I start on it I may regret saying that. We'll see.

[Anthis]

Euthyphro; Think its good to use more than one method, keeps you flexible. The last ones seem to be the posemaniac ones. The short timed ones seem pretty good for 30 sec. I'm always having trouble timing it. The ones above are probably on a longer timer. Perhaps you should start off with some soft lines that you can easily draw over. To avoid getting the messy look of having several corrected lines next to eachother. Draw lightly and then finish the pose with some strong lines. Think that would help.
I assume the first 2 scans are from loomis/head. You seem to be suffering from the same problem as me - the torsos tend to get elongated. (MeTaL-Mike pointed this out to me earlier on) Think your going good though. You don't seem afraid of complicated poses and different approaches.

Hope that was helpful, just some thoughts. Correct me if I'm wrong on which ref you used where :)

50 from head, with some random ref-checking on internet and magazines. Some jumpers from head, some from ref. Had problems getting good reference on those.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Anthis_/spartan%20trainings/Sparta21-1.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Anthis_/spartan%20trainings/Sparta21-2.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Anthis_/spartan%20trainings/Sparta21-3.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Anthis_/spartan%20trainings/Sparta21-4.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb12/Anthis_/spartan%20trainings/Sparta21-optional.jpg

__________________
Sketchbook;
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105027

[MeTaL-Mike]

RabbiSatan - come and join us. it's really cool and trust me it totally pays off.
Skill level is not a problem here because were all here for one purpuse only: to do more drawing and learn!!! If you draw from Ref it's ok but do try to push yourself to try out new thing yourself and try not to just copy a photo but to analyze it instead.

Euthyphro - very nice stuff, good work. keep on working it. and try to do an optional study as well.
Anthis - as always good stuff. i see that the proportions looks very good in your drawings man. nice work.

I'll upload mine in a few minutes. have to finish something first.

[MeTaL-Mike]

Ok here are mine. late but thought i'd upload them anyway.

50 Gestures
http://www.molszak.nl/conceptart/Gestures_wk_48small.jpg

The Optional Study of a Jump
http://www.molszak.nl/conceptart/OptionalStudy_wk48small.jpg

[Maledict]

Ok, I'll join :) When is the next thread due to be posted? Or when does this thread stop? I'm a bit busy with 2 mentoring threads and an apprenticeship workshop on another site, but I think I can squeeze in some time to this thread :).



Edit:

Oh, nevermind, just saw thread 22 just now, will post my gestures there soon.

[MeTaL-Mike]

ok cool.

Really looking forward to seeing your work man. cheers.