The Art of the Feminine Form Assignment Thread

[Jason Manley]

Thanks to everyone for participating in such a great class. I enjoyed sharing time with you immensely.

Those who have attended the class were given an assignment to do the following:

A. 100 female head gestures (no more than 5 minutes each), from life and imagination (50 each)
B. 50 female gesture drawings (full figure). Half from life, half from imagination (50 each). No more than five minutes each.
C. I will also include one long term digital or traditional painting of the lady of your choice from life and one from imagination using the information you gleaned from the class.

This is a lot of work but doing this will cause you to see a bump in quality of your work.

I will stop by and share feedback when time allows. Those attending the class and reading the forums can also participate in feedback. I encourage you to help each other.

With that said, you may upload the assignments as they come. Get five heads done, post five heads. Get the images done, post the images. Keep active. Do not listen to that personal voice inside you that says you would rather watch tv or search facebook. You took this class for a reason! Let's see the progress over time k?


Best and thanks,


Jason Manley

[Vladimir Gasai]

ah i already did 187 head gestures but they are not all women
didnt knew they supposed to be all women
i drew 100 from life and 87 from imagination 3 min each :/

should i post those i already did? or post them with the figures and the ladys?

[Vladimir Gasai]

Here is the so far part of the assignment,
more to come :)

the first 100 is from life and the next 100 is from imagination
sorry for posting them so big i wasnt sure how would they look if thats a problem i can delete and post smaller :)

[surus]

I also did the first 10 5-minutes-heads and 10 5-minutes-figures, but didn't know that they where meant to post here? Posted them in my sketchbook and will also post the next 90 there.

[Vladimir Gasai]

The lady of our choise from imagination and real life should be full figure or any way we want as long its a female?

Thanks

[Craz]

First 50 heads- imagination. :)

[alamed]

First 5 from reference .... I think I should rework it later on.

[Sirielle]

Call me dummy, I still don't know what exactly is head gesture. A quick sketch?

Nice drawings so far.

Craz, I think the heads from imagination are too much alike, unless you were thinking of the same person. If not try to make the faces more unique.

Saying that we'll see if I can make mine unique when I find a moment.

[alamed]

Didn't want to sleep tonight before finishing the first 5 imaginary.
I tend to be extra cartoony/comic style when drawing from the head. Need a fix for that.
The i next to the numbers refers to imaginary numbers :P

[alamed]

Next 5 from photo ref, should've labeled them 6-10.
#4 and #5 I think I spent more than 5 min on :~|

[alamed]

Look out, more crappy art :D
images 6 - 10 imaginary heads ... after I scan I see that they have no back head

[alamed]

Look out! 5 more for today!
From photo ref ... spent more than 5 on some ... they were very fun to draw
Am I missing the point of the exercise by going over 5 min?

[Vladimir Gasai]

really nice alamed well Jason told to do not more that 5 minutes but its ok :)
i did mine in 3 min each and it the first time i did so many thats why mine sucked :P
yours are pretty awesome keep doing it and the more you get better the lesser time you will need to make it quicker :)

[Ninjac]

Work is looking good so far! Keep it up everyone. Here is my first page of heads male/female from photo ref. More to come!

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[Lael]

Are we allowed to do the assignment if we were not there for the class? I watched the streaming class but was not able to get to the class due to timezone. I still want feedback for my drawings.

Thanks,, Lael

[Vladimir Gasai]

Yes Lael you can Jason mentioned that so feel free to post :)

[Eclypse]

Here's my first 44 head from observation and photos. Since my last 100 head about 1/2 a year ago focused the female head, I've decided to focus on more the male head this time around. Yes, I did take a bit longer(about 15 minutes) to flush out a few that I really liked :P.

[Lael]

It is really difficult to draw a head without reference and make it look realistic at the same time. I will draw reference heads once I get back to school tomorrow.

[thek]

Really great drawings guys, makes me somewhat embarassed to post mine here - but in the interests of education, general community awareness and self improvement, here they are.

For what it's worth, I really enjoyed the class. Will definitely have to watch those vids through again to see how efficiently Zhanglu creates beautiful faces and forms. Because it was a feminine form assignment, I've decided to stick to female heads. Be warned though, they're not pretty! In fact, they're pretty damned masculine, especially at the beginning - I think i'm starting to notice how much of an impact the jawline has - and I've been deliberately trying to keep that rounded/soft since.

[Eclypse]

4 from imagination, time to go to 20th century art history

[alamed]

Thanks Vladimir Gasa :)
5 more from imagination ... needs more work :(

[alamed]

5 more for 20 from reality! 30 more to go
This will take ages >.> ,but I see the improvements ...

[alamed]

Com'n everyone, keep it up and going :)
Another five from imagination, so 20-20 (only 40 heads so far?! 60 to go)
It was a bad drawing night, but at least got to focus a little on the eyes, and discovered that I fail epically in drawing hair (Someone give me points/links please?)

[Jasonwclark]

Sorry for slackin' dude - Alamed's been busting out like a champion! :yayca:

Was hoping to get more done before monday, but guess I might as well just post now, since I'm heading out to a wedding in Oklahoma this week. I've been going over the time too, more like 15 minutes or longer + erasing time instead of the 5 assigned, which means I'm not really doing things correctly. I tried to get someone over here to do the gestures, but so far the best I've been able to manage is some awkward coffee shop sessions and a chain smoker who's doesn't like to sit still for very long :)

Here are some heads I'm working on though. Profiles from the imagination are OK, but 3/4 is a lot harder. I don't really know what I'm doing without something to look at, so I started by checking out Gibson girls and some AC Johnston photographs - did a few sketches looking at those and then tried to do a couple in similar positions right afterwards, to see if I could get some general shapes out of it. Also watched that Bobby Chiu vid where he talks about the 3 triangle profile idea (nose, eye-socket, lips) and thought that was pretty cool for doing simplified characters. Going to try for some of those on the next round.

I think I can get a few more on this page, then start in a bigger sheet next week... Maybe run into a couple cute bride's maids at this wedding willing to help out - that'd be nice. Oh and the big mug at the bottom is a self portrait I started way back in Nov, which has me feeling pretty damn lazy that it still isn't finished.


Anyhow, I'll catch you guys in a week or so, when I get back - Really excited for school next month! Keep up the good work all and thanks again for this class.

[alamed]

Wow Jasonwclark :O good work, where did you learn to shade like that? (top left drawing)

5 more heads today, from reference. It was very hard to stay with the 5 min, I guess that was the point, to capture the essential features and not spend time on details ... I'll try to stick to that in the coming drawings.

[Flapenko]

Hey! :) I have nearly done all the heads from life, yes from life woohoo, I found some very lovely people who were willing to help me out, so thankyou to them, I'm only sorry I couldn't always do them justice. Anyway, I have to go to college in like 10 mins, so this is all I had time to prepare for upload.

All of these have been done in 3-5 minutes, from life. Was very hard...

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[Flapenko]

Just realised how bad the quality of these images is. Ill try and fix that later.

[Jasonwclark]

Nice work Flapenko/All :)


where did you learn to shade like that? (top left drawing)

Basically I try to do the cartoon first until it looks decent, and then shade outside of it lightly, in a diagonal up and down sort of way. I like to start light and then darken it in rings fanning out around the head, but sometimes I go dark too soon and then its hard to undo, because erasing changes the texture of the paper. I remember watching a youtube video a while ago, (don't recall who put it out, I think I found it through an Elwell link) anyway, dude gave some good tips about shading... Like to start out slow with tiny squiggles and then build up the values in stages. And if you want to give a simple form a greater sense of depth, to just put a little value outside of it (doesn't have be too much) and that will make things start to appear three dimensional. The more subtle the transitions in value, the more the drawing starts to work kind of like painting, when you take out the lines all together and just have the blocks of value meeting together. The flipside is using lines or starker transitions in value to give a drawing a more graphic feel. The trickiest part for me is figuring out how to balance those, and then also figuring out when to stop working it. Easy to spend a lot of time shading around, but I think what you learn from the line drawing/cartooning part is more important for remembering.

Oh and just so you don't think that one in the upper left is all that great on my part, check out the actual source :)


Caja Eric ca 1927-30
From the excellent book "Jazz Age Beauties: the lost collection of Ziegfeld photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston" by Hudovernik, which is full of just devastatingly gorgeous women. She also posed for Alberto Vargas way back in the day - a serious contender for loveliest girl ever...

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[Flapenko]

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Some more, not sure whether I will post anymore. I'm a little tied up with my final major project at the moment and feel I should be focusing more on that :P

[Ninjac]

All the heads are looking great. I have noticed big improvements in all of our work. Here is the half way point of my heads. The second page is all from imagination then the other three are a mix of life ref and imagination. Each sketch is about 1-3 min.

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[Ninjac]

Here are 4 more heads I did from photo ref. These are a little more involved, close to 5 min each.

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[Mykro]

Lookin good everyone. I had the same misunderstanding about only female heads, and didn't realize they were supposed to be quick gestures, but I'll be posting the ones I have that fit the criteria soon-some are in my sb. As for what I have left, I'm alternating those with my project for the month-long chow. I'm sure not expecting to win, but I need some votes.

[Ninjac]

More heads!! Most of these are from imagination, and the last is an oil study that I was inspired to do. Doesn't really fit the homework criteria but I thought I'd share it anyway.

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[boojai]

Here's my attempt at not even close to 100... I'll try to squeeze time to do more... they are about iono.. a bit more than 5 mins, around 8 or 9 mins .. i was counting time with music. :)

[jmiles]

Hey all!.. good stuff up here so far.. finished my heads a little while ago, but couldn't find the thread, but was lead to it by Ninjac... I actually varied it up a little bit between graphite, fine tipped markers and brush markers... for other updates you can check out my sketchbook. here is my progress:

[Ninjac]

Top three heads from imagination then the bottom four from life.

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[Ninjac]

These are the last of my 100 heads all from life except one small one. I've also started the full figure too from life. Most are close to 5 min long except the last one on the bottom right, it was a fun one so I spent a bit longer :ninja:
By the way very nice work boojai and jmiles, keep it up!

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[Eclypse]

Got 6 more heads done! Half are from photos and half are from imagination. I've also started on a illustration for fun, I though might as well post it since it deals with the feminine form.

[cl0aked]

Ninjac, that's a beautiful oil study!

[Vladimir Gasai]

Here are my 50 female full figures from life each done in 3 minutes.
Nice work everyone :)

[jmiles]

started on my figure drawings today.. got 10 done.. most of which were definitely longer than 5 mins... but I took my time.. i'll make faster ones w/ the next bunch

[Craz]

Female heads from life. These are of my fellow students, which means I was drawing 16-18 year olds who wouldn't sit still for 5 seconds.

[Mykro]

Finally! I had some time since CHOW200 is over to scan the rest, arrange and post these. Only rule breaker is some are a lil over 5 mins but I tried to save around then if I was working digital, then work em over for myself, but I got 53 from ref, 29 from imagination. I guess next is 21 imagined heads and then I'll start my figure work...

[Eclypse]

2 more from imagination

[jmiles]

mooaar female figs.. 11-16

[Vladimir Gasai]

50 figures from imagination 1 to 3 minutes spent on each

[surus]

Thanks for posting to everyone! How do you force yourself to draw so many heads? It's very hard for me to get started the next e.g. 5 or 10 figures or heads. And everytime I try to focus on the 5 minutes deadline I go on drawing till 10 minutes :) So I had only the first 40 heads and figures, but I'll go on till the 100. Could anyone share a bit discipline? ;)

[Vladimir Gasai]

Well i will share my personal point of view on this.The thing is that i have a timer first of all :P set in at an alarm sound 3 minutes so i just draw whatever i can in 3 minutes and then stop no point in doing highly detailed heads in 3 minutes because you are learning and testing yourself.Anyway just try it out ;)

[alamed]

Back, took a detour to learn some face anatomy with Mr.Loomis, then drove past shading road to learn a thing or two.
The result is a *little* better drawings of faces, and more shading. However the shading is still not so good.

@surus: I just think of batches. "Ok, just 5 ref head drawings today before 12 am", and then I keep looking at the clock. I get past the 5 min limit always, but by 12 am, I have 5 new drawings. 10 if I worked faster, 5 ref, 5 imaginary.

Here is the new batch. 26-30 ref, 21 to 25 imaginary.

[alamed]

Imaginary heads, 25 to 30. A skull added as a bones as I realized that starting with the skull sketch produces better heads