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Anthis
August 30th, 2011, 01:13 PM
Spartan Camp #195 - 50 gestures + Optional "Head Construction Study"

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 4th of September.

- The gestures can be of anything, human, animal, cavorting capybaras.... You can draw full figures, but you can also go for heads, arms, eyes, or anything specific. All media can be used, both digital or traditional. Coloured or black/white. Quick scribbles or long studies. Imagination or referenced. Clothed or nude. Specifics are up to you!

- In addition to this, participants can choose to do an Optional "Head Construction Study", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study:


The background:
In about two months, it will be International Self Portrait Day. Every year, this great activity has a high turnout here on conceptart.org. Take a look HERE (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=199075) to see last years' portraits.
Because of this great opportunity, we will devote some of the upcoming optional studies to this topic. We will focus on heads, faces, anatomy, and other things related to portraiture. Not every week, of course. Just enough to prepare us for this event!
This week will be focused on some of the basics; construction. Methods differ greatly. Some advice to start with a square, some promote the use of ovals or circles. Some use construction lines heavily (Loomis), while some construct from 'within' and focus more on shapes (Bridgman). Most people center lines, eye lines, or a simple perspective grid to get the general shape and proportions right. Furthermore, there are many tricks you can use to remember general proportions. Examples: The eyeline is halfway the head. Bottom of the nose is at the same height as the earlobes. Eyebrows at the same height as tip of the ear. Space between the eyes has the same width as an eye. Remember; these guidelines are subject to variation.

The assignment:
Using construction, create one or several heads/portraits.

I could not find any decent tutorials, but here are a couple of videos that should give you a good idea. First one is especially useful.
Videos: First (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD9NFW8rEwo&feature=related), Second (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBcV6vwczJk).

As always- reference advised, not obligatory. Colour, medium, time frame, any specifics are up to you! Good luck and have fun! And feel free to ask questions!



50 poses is a challenge, but don't hurry or stress yourself reaching it! Focus on drawing, as practising is the main goal of this exercise.

Criticizing each other is highly encouraged!! Share constructive criticism, reference images and resources!! Let's help each other get better!

Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #194

shiNIN
strato:star:
bakadoodle:star:
BlackDelphin:star:

shiNIN
August 30th, 2011, 02:02 PM
I still don't get the optional, I dunno if some shape with darker spots on eye stockets or something is okay or we should draw some lines and a very sketchy something... Whatever. I will bring heads, that's a given.

Some hands, I used anime screenshots as references but often looked at my own hand, especially when I saw the anime one wasn't quite right. My poor left, it still isn't quite healed.
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/animehands0829.jpg

BlackDelphin
August 31st, 2011, 02:28 PM
shiNIN , i'll say it again, awesome hands, nice blocking in and construction! lets see some more! :D

i started with the portrait; did the construction and really tried to focus on what i was doing
it's not perfect, but for a 3h study, i like the results; had a lot of fun adding my own details

Kjesta
August 31st, 2011, 02:39 PM
Gosh, I think this might kill me... But let's see if I can still make the 4th of July while also doing a painting for someone on the side. Which needs to be finished by the 5th.

Anthis
August 31st, 2011, 06:53 PM
I have edited the brief to make more sense, and added some videos to get the point across.

Will comment and post soon! I apologize for being unreliable, I'm stuck in a college-related mess again.

BlackDelphin
September 2nd, 2011, 03:37 PM
Where is everybody?

Concentrating more on construction this time.
First from bammes, then gradually from memory, until i didn't need reference any more.

Did another portrait, of a friend's OC.
I don't like how the right eye turned out. Looks anime to me.

shiNIN
September 3rd, 2011, 01:58 PM
I was lazy and bought a house and packed instead of drawing but I have some stuff... Skulls are okay being here I guess and they are cool anyway (I mean skulls in general, not my sketches).

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/sc195heads.jpg
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/oldmaster_hands.jpg
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1312961&stc=1&d=1314817652
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/doodle0831.jpg
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1314964&stc=1&d=1315071900

shiNIN
September 5th, 2011, 07:49 AM
I didn't do much for the optional... These are crazy days and my focus is a gentle thing. Packing, cleaning, getting back my baby bike after 3 months makes my attention span and patience really tiny. But it will be awesome in my new home :D

BlackDelphin: It's strange, your head sketches and your portraits has a very different quality. I wouldn't think they were made by the same person. The eyes of the sketches trouble me much. My favourite pet peeve nowadays "one eye gap between the eyes". There are people with eyes closer to or farther from each other, but just a little and it's not typical and usually not so nice. One should more or less stick to the one eye gap if they want to draw a human and not a weird alien.
The portraits are nice just way too soft.

Anthis, THANKS!!! I never heard of Self Portrait Day but it's just what I need and you told us about it soo much earlier, I looked at the topic last year, I'm totally feel inspired to level up my head drawing skills and make some awesome ones myself, at least I will try.
I'm very bad at drawing heads and faces, especially considering I always drew them and not much else. I know quite a lot about heads, I just need to be more serious and fill the holes...

Erm. Well it's more of a tiny half-assed head proportions and head drawing in front view minitutorial in shiNIN style but whatever. They would be nicer if I could draw with brain waves...
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/headprop.jpg

Oh and I have these too, not gestures but I show them. Tell me if I shouldn't :D
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/skull0903.jpg
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/shiNIN666/gfx/messy_arms.jpg

Strato
September 6th, 2011, 01:22 AM
Missed the deadline, sorry. I'm too lazy to re-attach everything, so I hope people don't mind links.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3239635&postcount=53
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3237680&postcount=52
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3235965&postcount=43
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3235118&postcount=40

BlackDelphin
September 7th, 2011, 04:09 PM
shiNIN- you mean the sketches are not that good? i was experimenting with a new method, and it totally backfired;
perhaps it is because i used a different construction method on the portraits, one I am more comfortable with
and you spotted me there! i used only the soft round brush; i feel uncomfortable using the hard round, but i think
i'll be experimenting with it more; i think they tend to be to soft too, thank you for the crit

shiNIN
September 7th, 2011, 05:07 PM
BlackDelphin: Yep, the sketches are... well, scary because of the eyes.
Experiments are important, I had a short period when I used pressure sensity opacity brushes only (after I used fixed opacity hard ones for years) and some people kept telling me my stuff isn't sharp. But I have no regrets. Now I use different brushes and I hope I find the right way. Soft brushes are scary, beginners love them, making horrible blurry stuff, you have more skills so you could pull off it much better of course, but it's still blurry. Sometimes a soft portrait can be cool and theoretically, one can do a great and not too soft one with a soft brush but with tremenduous work, I think. I prefer quick sketchy hard brushwork over quick soft brushwork, the former looks more artistic if the artist has some skill. At least to me.