Sketchgarden

[Ellingsworth]

More of the assignment, tried to make the lines lighter this time.

[Seedling]

Good morning! Michael, I’m totally jazzed at how you’ve dived into the perspective stuff. Good improvement with the line heaviness. As long as you keep up the enthusiasm I’ll keep providing exercises. (This is a great excuse for me to review what I know, and fill in the gaps!) I got the next step – two-point perspective - drawn out this morning; I may have that ready to post some time tomorrow. In the mean time, you could take one of the drawings you’ve done and try drawing rectangular holes through the blocks; or you could switch over to anatomy studies.

JL, Odayga, are you guys stockpiling drawings to post all at once? I look forward to seeing what you've got. . .

[JL.Alfaro]

I dont know about Odayga, but I am...Im gonna scan it all at once and then post it. Im still waiting for that email from Ellingsworth and Odayga if you all want the "stuff"

-JL

[Seedling]

Oh yay, I'm glad to hear that JL. My afternoon went sour and I was in need of a smile. Thanks.

[Ellingsworth]

Good morning! Michael, I’m totally jazzed at how you’ve dived into the perspective stuff. Good improvement with the line heaviness. As long as you keep up the enthusiasm I’ll keep providing exercises. (This is a great excuse for me to review what I know, and fill in the gaps!) I got the next step – two-point perspective - drawn out this morning; I may have that ready to post some time tomorrow. In the mean time, you could take one of the drawings you’ve done and try drawing rectangular holes through the blocks; or you could switch over to anatomy studies.

JL, Odayga, are you guys stockpiling drawings to post all at once? I look forward to seeing what you've got. . .

Sounds good, Michelle, anything you have that you think can help me would be great, those perspective studies are great and really shed new light on something for more, can't wait to get more of them. Here's a small doodle. It's a William Whitaker painting study. I adore this man's work. It is beautiful.

[Seedling]

Oooh, Michael, that looks pretty nifty. Could you post the original next to it for comparison?

I’ll get the next perspective assignment up tonight. I had time to photograph my recent drawings this morning, but only had time to process this one. Here’s where the unicorn pic is at. It took me more research to get to this little sketch than I expected, and I need to hustle if I’m going to make a finished painting of it by Sunday! *eep*

[chaosrocks]

seedling -- sorry to butt in..please see my notes on this in the grl forum.....
chaos

[Ellingsworth]

Oooh, Michael, that looks pretty nifty. Could you post the original next to it for comparison?

I’ll get the next perspective assignment up tonight. I had time to photograph my recent drawings this morning, but only had time to process this one. Here’s where the unicorn pic is at. It took me more research to get to this little sketch than I expected, and I need to hustle if I’m going to make a finished painting of it by Sunday! *eep*

Awesome, I'm looking forward to that assignment.

"Nooooooo! Papa, don't do it! I love Mr.unicorn." *Thrusts*

Cool concept for the painting, hmm, maybe instead of just a normal flat headed spear put some neat design elements into it? Maybe a few more points or something to make it look EXTRA dangerous.

I can't wait to see the final painting. Maybe you should try to post process shots?

Here's (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/databa...ge.asp?id=5940) the original painting done by William Whitaker, here's a new version, I tried to shade better this time and get a better likeness, I still have some left to finish on it.

[Crush]

Well, I don't know if I'm supposed to be posting any crits here... just say so and it wont happen again

Anyway seedling, you might want to look at the perspective of that unicorn's horn in your last post, it should be pointing more to the left instead of straight vertical like you have it

The only reason I would keep it how you have it is that it does actually make for a better composition that way I feel... maybe change the angle of the unicorn's head instead? (if you change anything ofcourse, it's your piece hehe)

[Seedling]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Much appreciated. I’m struggling with the image like mad.

Michael – I will explain this properly later, because I’m frothing at the mouth to get to the unicorn painting. I give you the challenge of figuring it out without my yammering.

[Odayga]

Skullinprogress..

[JL.Alfaro]

Heres the leg studies I've made so far

[Seedling]

Hi Ashley! Skulls! Skulls are great for learning not just anatomy, but proportions, in general, because they have such complex shapes with big forms and tiny details going in such unexpected directions. If you can get the proportions on a skull correct, you can draw anything (given enough time, patience, study, and a good radio station).

You are getting closer to the correct proportions with this one!

Here’s a sprint exercise to help you get the proportions even closer. Have you got a kitchen timer handy? Start with the skull in front of you and one sheet of paper. Divide the paper into four quadrants. (You can draw the quadrants, or fold the paper, or just imagine dotted lines where you need them – whatever you prefer.) Set the timer for ten minutes. Draw the skull in one of the quadrants. Time up! Then turn the skull. Repeat. Lay the skull on its side. Repeat. Turn it again. Repeat. Ding! Done.

Just like doing quick figure studies for the first time, you’ll likely want to dump the paper in the trash can when you’re done. That’s absolutely fine. You have to make a lot of bad drawings in order to get to the good drawings.

[Seedling]

Ooh, JL, those are great! Those muscle studies will really help you when you’re cobbling together figures from your head. (I have seriously got to do that same sort of study myself sometime soon.)

I believe I’m going to have nightmares about that anatomy instructor tonight! The other funny tidbits are a nice touch. Gotta do something to amuse yourself through tedious exercises!

[JL.Alfaro]

thanks seedling, I got some more but Im going to post them tomorrow.. its late

[Seedling]

Good night JL! I should hit the sack myself.

I’ll just post these and run. From Sunday’s sketch trip at the zoo, cheap-old bic pen on printer paper. The close-up of the elephant is to show you this snazzy way of sketching fast: lasso the areas of mass loosely and lightly, then darken up the most correct lines, then knock in a flat layer of shadow where it’s needed. For a more complete drawing, more layers of shadows can be added in. It's an efficient way of recording visual info in a hurry.

Wildebeests are my new favorite.

[Seedling]

Hey Michael, here's the rest of the two-point perspective thingamajig. . . cheers!


Onward to two-point perspective! This time, instead of one vanishing point in the center of the page, you’ll want to put two - one on the left, and one on the right. This time, instead of drawing orthogonal rectangles here and there, just draw vertical line segments. Try one above the horizon, one below, and one crossing over, for starters. Make sure those line segments are between the two vanishing points for now. Then, draw lines from both vanishing points to the ends of each of those line segments. (A) The vertical line segment is now the corner of a building that extends all the way to the horizon. Add in more vertical lines - the far corners of your rectangle. (B) Connect the ends of those new line segments back to the vanishing points to fill in the rest of your box. Those lines will meet at and define the furthest corner of your rectangle. And there you have it - boxes in two-point perspective.

Remember that everywhere that a corner occurs, there should be lines from that corner to both vanishing points. (And remember to leave all of those light scaffolding lines lying about. The more complicated this gets, the more you will need that information to continue your drawing successfully.)

A quick word about tools and precision. When setting up a complex scene involving buildings or space-ships, it will start off exactly like this: a bunch of simple shapes in space. If your drawing contains small errors at this stage, then by the time you are down to the details, those details will be magnified. A good picture can be ruined by small mistakes made at the outset. You may find, for instance, that in a picture of the courtyard of a building, everything on the near side of the image works, but everything on the far side of the courtyard is crooked.

The key to keeping a perspective drawing from going badly like that is to keep those vertical and horizontal lines at tidy right angles and perfectly straight. So, either you have to eyeball where you are putting your ruler very closely (and expect that some of your drawings will go terribly wrong), or you must use a t-square and board.

A t-square is a ruler with a segment that is designed to hang over the edge of a drafting table to hold the ruler perfectly horizontal. It’s typically used with a triangle and drafting table. It isn’t necessary to have a drafting table to use a t-square, but some sort of rectangular surface is necessary. The paper is taped down to the surface while drawing to hold it in place.

Here’s an image of how a t-square, triangle, and board are used: http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/21900/219...uare_21986.htm

I have to insert a disclaimer here – I’m being naughty and not using a t-square at the moment, because I’m drawing these demos in a hurry. You should use a t-square if you can get your hands on one, to get yourself in good habits. Later, when these rules are second nature to you, you can break them willy-nilly.

Back to the drawing board. . . Try out the exercise above, making various sorts of rectangles in space. Perhaps try to figure out other sorts of shapes. See what happens if you draw your rectangles too close, or beyond, the vanishing points. See what happens if you draw your rectangles far above the horizon, or if the two vanishing points are closer together. Mess around to get a feel for where this system works, and where it breaks.

[Ellingsworth]

Thanks, Michelle. That explanation helped a lot. I did a quick one this morning, I'll be sure to do a lot more.

Those animal studies look great, I might have to do that sometime. I need some buddies that like art, though. I had to explain to my friend for the first time yesterday why artist draw people nude, he thought it was weird and said they must have some kind of fetish... The reason he asked was because I let him look through my Henry Yan figure drawing book. *Sigh*

Nice stuff, odayga and JL.Alfaro.

I also threw in a larger version of that earlier face.


EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a cool documentary I found on Michelangelo. I thought it was neat.

http://tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/7869

[Seedling]

Morning Michael! Wow, you’re up early. And you’ve already done a three-point perspective drawing? Holy fast! Looks good. Notice how the lowest rectangle looks oddly squashed? It has been drawn correctly, but it demonstrates where this perspective system starts to fail around the edges. I’ll show you tricks for dealing with that later.

Oops, I need to run. . . here's my work in progress. . .

[Ellingsworth]

Here's some more two-point perspective studies.

I went out and rented Knocked Up, pretty good movie, wasn't amazing but it was a pretty well done comedy. I'd probably give it a 3.5/5, overall.

[Ellingsworth]

Morning Michael! Wow, you’re up early. And you’ve already done a three-point perspective drawing? Holy fast! Looks good. Notice how the lowest rectangle looks oddly squashed? It has been drawn correctly, but it demonstrates where this perspective system starts to fail around the edges. I’ll show you tricks for dealing with that later.

Oops, I need to run. . . here's my work in progress. . .

Holy crap... Michelle, that looks great so far, the final is going to look awesome. It's really great to see you putting great use to all those oil skills you obtained over the last year.

[Ellingsworth]

Another two-point.

[Seedling]

Hi Michael!

You’ve picked a very challenging painting to copy, and you’re doing a good job of it. I’m impressed that you are getting such a range of values without ending up with a smudgy mess. (Smudgy mess is a common outcome for that sort of pencil rendering.)

I’m sire you’ve already noticed that there are two things to keep in mind in this sort of rendering: proportion and value. Proportion is made easier when copying from a 2D source, of course; but you are still faced with the tricky task of converting color into value.

Take a look at two areas on the painting while squinting: her hair on the right side of her head, and the shadow on her nose. Notice that the hair there is the blackest of blacks, and is practically flat. On the nose, notice how the shadow is basically another flat patch of a single value.

Some artists do work successfully by taking part of an image from start to finish, and then moving on to the next area from start to finish, but it’s risky because the whole image can be throw off balance by making one part too dark. I find a much safer approach is to start drawings (even drawings intended to be highly rendered) in about the same manner as that elephant sketch I posted earlier, where values are dropped in as big flat shapes. As the drawing progresses, smaller and smaller flat shapes of shadow get dropped in, or lifted out with eraser, until they stop looking like flat shapes and start looking like a rounded form.

Remind me later to draw you an example if this doesn’t make sense.

Good job with the perspective drawings! Don’t forget to draw in the back side of the shapes as well. It’s especially important to draw in the far, hidden point on each rectangle, because it’ll tell you how accurate your drawing is. Basically, if you end up with only two out of three lines on the back of a rectangle meeting up properly, that’s your signal that something was crooked in the drawing.

***************

Stuff blew up at work yesterday. I may have to be putting in extra hours these next few weeks, which is going to play havoc with my plans for the unicorn painting and the 100-creature project. But I went ahead and drew up the net few perspective drawings last night, so at least I’m ready to keep you busy with that.

Oh yeah. . . I should get to that work stuff. . .

[Ellingsworth]

Hi Michael!

You’ve picked a very challenging painting to copy, and you’re doing a good job of it. I’m impressed that you are getting such a range of values without ending up with a smudgy mess. (Smudgy mess is a common outcome for that sort of pencil rendering.)

Thanks, Michelle. I think it's just because I was going super slow on the drawing and enjoying the process instead of trying to rush to get it done. Still I'm going to stop the drawing here and move on to something else. Next time I'll have to pay closer attention to the small details, like you said. Thanks for the advice.

Good job with the perspective drawings! Don’t forget to draw in the back side of the shapes as well. It’s especially important to draw in the far, hidden point on each rectangle, because it’ll tell you how accurate your drawing is. Basically, if you end up with only two out of three lines on the back of a rectangle meeting up properly, that’s your signal that something was crooked in the drawing.

Thanks again! I just noticed what you said about drawing the back part also and it helps a lot. I just did a new one and tried to include the back this time, things seem way off, but I think I'm starting to get it. Little by little.

Stuff blew up at work yesterday. I may have to be putting in extra hours these next few weeks, which is going to play havoc with my plans for the unicorn painting and the 100-creature project. But I went ahead and drew up the net few perspective drawings last night, so at least I’m ready to keep you busy with that.

Oh yeah. . . I should get to that work stuff. . .

I hope you mean figuratively and not literally! Thanks for drawing the next batch up, I'll be sure to jump on them as soon as you post them. Take your time on the oil painting you are doing, I'm sure it will look great in the end.

Well I ordered Shawn Barber's Foundation Painting a few days ago and I'm going to sit down go through the DVD when it arrives, then Get together my paints and supplies and try to produce my first oil painting!

I also need to read over some color theory and work on my shading and anatomy more.

Here's that quick perspective drawing with the back filled in.




If you guys want here's some recent documentaries I've been watching that I enjoyed, they go over some old master's info and give a pretty good insight into their lives.

http://tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/7903

[Ellingsworth]

Master copy/doodle I did this morning while watching Mythbusters.

[Seedling]

Hi Michael! I don’t have time to explain these drawings right now, so I leave them for you to figure out.

Fozzy has decreed that we are not to show our work on the 100-creature project until we turn them in, so I won’t have much to show for a while. If you guys go for too long without hearing from me, poke me with a stick via PM!

Odayga, JL, let’s see some drawings!

Drawing and Mythbusters sounds like a good combo. I'm going to go do some of that myself.

****************
[edit] Three-point perspective info!
****************

A right-angled box is made up of three sets of parallel lines. So far you have learned that in some circumstances parallel lines are drawn on a flat surface using lines that converge at a vanishing point. But why do some of those lines *not* converge at a vanishing point?

Actually, they all do. One-point and two-point perspective are actually simplifications of what our eye actually sees. To see why, in one-point perspective, think of the lines on the box that you draw parallel to the horizon. Imagine that instead of being entirely parallel, those lines are actually just slightly not parallel – which means that somewhere, hundreds of feet off the edge of your paper, those lines actually do meet at a vanishing point, one that is inconveniently far away. The same with the vertical lines in both one- and two-point perspective. Somewhere far above or below the horizon (and off the edge of your sheet of paper) those “parallel” lines meet in another vanishing point.

So, those parallel and perpendicular lines in one- and two-point perspective actually represent a shortcut. Three-point perspective is actually quite simple: every corner (or point) making up a box must be connected to three vanishing points.

You might be wondering about there horizon. Forget about it. The horizon is something we as humans are used to seeing because we stand on the surface of the earth, and most of our life we are surrounded by big rectangular box-structures that sit neatly on the ground-plane. As long as the boxes that surround us remain neatly orthogonal, and we remain on the ground (as opposed to high above in a helicopter), then one- and two-point perspective suffice for drawing what is around us.

But if you were standing at the foot of a sky scraper and looking up at it, or flying above and looking down, you would need a third point of perspective. That third point would not fall on the horizon, but would instead be up in the sky, or down underground. So for the sake of clarity, we can throw away the horizon for now.

Draw three points on your paper in a roughly equilateral triangle. They’ll need to be close to the edges to give you enough room. These are your three vanishing points. Label them “1”, “2”, and “3”. Put a third point somewhere in the center. That point is the point of a rectangle that is closest to you in space.

Draw a line from all three vanishing points one to that first corner of your cube. Then pick a second point somewhere between the point on the cube, and vanishing point 1. That will be the next corner of your box. Draw lines from that point to vanishing points 3 and 3.

This gives you two triangles. Extend two more lines out from vanishing point 1, intersecting each of those triangles. That will give you a shape that looks like a very narrow hard-backed book. That is two of the near sides of your box.

To find the rest of your box, just remember the rule: all points on the box must connect to all three vanishing points. (I say “find”, because after the initial steps, you no longer get to decide where the remainder of the box goes.) There it all is! Now you just have to sort through the mess of lines for the outlines of your cube. Darken those up so that it stands out clearly.

**********************

Try using those same three points to draw multiple boxes in space. Look for the following things to happen:

A. Overlapping boxes. As long as you don’t get lost among all of those scaffolding lines, you can layer as many cubes over one-another as you like. The tricky part becomes deciding which one is in front of the other. That’s up to you, actually. You can also choose to turn the boxes into conjoined twins. (And as you do, start thinking about how you could make use of this to construct scenes of buildings.)

B. If you were to connect those three vanishing points, you would get a triangle. Notice what happens when a cube extends over the edge of that triangle: it behaves like a box in one- or two-point perspective that crosses the horizon. Instead of seeing three faces of the cube, you can now only see two.

This is more easily understood if you think about what is going on back on the surface of the earth. Think of a rectangular building from a street-level perspective. You can’t see the floor of the building because the walls are in the way; you also can’t see the ceiling because the walls are in the way. From some locations you would only be able to see a single wall!

C. Lastly, and most importantly, think about what is going on if all of these boxes share the same vanishing points. This means the boxes are all parallel to one-another.

[Ellingsworth]

Hi Michael! I don’t have time to explain these drawings right now, so I leave them for you to figure out.

Fozzy has decreed that we are not to show our work on the 100-creature project until we turn them in, so I won’t have much to show for a while. If you guys go for too long without hearing from me, poke me with a stick via PM!

Odayga, JL, let’s see some drawings!

Drawing and Mythbusters sounds like a good combo. I'm going to go do some of that myself.

That's okay, I'll try to get it myself, thanks for numbering and doing a great process sample.

Take your time and don't feel the need to post your work for us, hope you do well in the challenge and if you need an ass kick to get your butt into monster-making-gear, let us know!


The Mythbusters and drawing rock but you can't forget to watch some Dirty Jobs also!

Here's a quick review of the three perspective's learned so far, I'll do more later, because tonight I'm feeling really, really bad.

[Ellingsworth]

I drew an eye from Bridgman but got bored so went crazy on the rest of his face, threw in a nose and a small cigarette.

[Ellingsworth]

More perspective practice, I'm going to try some advanced use of it soon like Crush suggested.

[Ellingsworth]

Value studies. HB and 2B pencils.