ConCrete teaches Badger to build a better den **Nudity**

[EruditeBadger]

ConCrete has graciously accepted mentoring me. This will be the thread that follows that.

ConCrete below are my best still-lifes, live drawing, and sketch from photo reference. One I have no idea of how to go about color. I have PS CS3 and a 4x6 Wacom tablet but haven't really gotten the hang of using it.

Drawing fundamentals that I notice: Line quality, still very sketchy and not confident in my lines. Anatomy and proportion. Volume and mass. I don't see my shapes as being as 3-d as I would like. ((These and a few more are in my sketchbook link in signature))

I'm sure you'll find other stuff that is wrong and feel free to nail me on that. Looking forward to working with you.

[ConCrete]

Cool.

All right, what you have:

1.Basic sense of distance and proportions between edges and objects.
2.Some shading knowledge.
3.Some Basic Anatomy
4.Some composition theory

What you need.

1. Freer line, better line quality
2. More anatomy observation
3. More thorough study of shading/lighting
4. More study of natural forms (the skull in your skill life)
5. Hands and face study
6. Cloth study.

What is your destination with this mentoring? Do you want to be a professional illustrator? Do you want to be a master draftsman? Where are you going and what do you need to get there?

I have given you some basic guidelines. Color is very very important and easily forgotten, the line quality is very important. The proportions are merely more study. You can make the call and let me know the direction you want to go.

[EruditeBadger]

To put a name to my ultimate goal I'm going to say Professional Illustration.



In layman's terms - I want to be able to tell stories with pictures. I don't mean in a panel format though I'm not necessarily against that, but I want to the viewer to wonder about what's going on inside and behind the picture. I want to be able to draw what I see in my head.

Tall order I know.

What do I need to get there:

Figure drawing
Drapery/Costume
Landscape/Environment
Creature

With those things comes value, shading, form, mass, line quality, color, composition.



That's not too tall of an order is it?

[ConCrete]

TO be able to tell a story your lines must be words. Look up the book,

Force - Dynamic Life drawing for animators, by Mattesi

This book shows that line and shape can make very powerful words when made into sentences (creatures) and stories, compositions. For the first assignment I want you to go into public places and draw people walking. You may have 15 seconds if you are lucky to understand how they move and where lines are going. Use a broad media, I prefer ebony pencil. and capture not what you see, but the truth. Exaggerate and speak about the soul of the figure not the physical form. Tricky I know. I did a few in my sketch. These are not anywhere near as beautiful as Mattesi's but they show the same purpose.

The figure on the left had a back pack over his shoulder. I wanted to capture the weight of it. The figure on the right had leaned over a railing momentarily and I want to capture the torsion of his body. Do a bunch of these.

[EruditeBadger]

I'll get on this. Tonight was my first Life Drawing class, funnily enough he started out talking about finding the movement of the pose, the "truth" of it.

So I've had two demonstrations now between yourself and my life drawing teacher. Looking forward to trying this out some more over the weekend.

[EruditeBadger]

So here we go. i tried to keep the idea of force in mind as I did these. Some were at the mall, gym and life drawing class. Let me know if this is what you were getting at. Also, the time limit on everything but the drawing class was really difficult. Speed is apparently a downfall (or maybe liberating) for me, since there is no way I could finish.

[ConCrete]

Obey the time limit. Don't think of it as finished or started. Think of how many words you have used to describe what you see. I would like you to get an ebony pencil or some really grungy charcoal. Wide forgiving lines. Get some really big sheets of newsprint or some other cheap big paper and when you draw, do not see the outline of the figure. See how they move. Draw the loudest words (or curves and weights) you see. I will try to get you some ideas of what I mean but any page in force would show you what I want from you. Use the entire huge page. Stand when you draw and draw on an easel if its possible. Get your whole body into the drawing from the tips of your fingers to the bottom of your feet. Assume the pose of the figure and feel how the weight transfers and communicates. And then attack it.

You cannot fail at this. You can only have varying degrees of success. So relax, and have fun.

[EruditeBadger]

The drawings done were based on the videos at Mattesi's site. www.drawingforce.com. The book is on order and should be here anytime now. As soon as it pops in I'll have a look and see what you mean exactly.

I think with your recent explanation I should be able to try to come up with something before that. Any examples you can send would be great. Thanks for the patience with me.

-EB

[ConCrete]

No problem.

[EruditeBadger]

Sorry it took so long to get back to this. Got caught up in a project and wasn't able to upload until now. The book "Force" hasn't come in yet, but I was trying to take your examples and work from them along with what I'm being taught in my life-drawing class.

I'm looking for weight and a sense of shapes moving forward in space and others receding as well as the force of the stance themselves.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[ConCrete]

Your first Figure is beginning to explore how lines interact. The swirling body and the discussion between the lines themselves. Now draw one line to express what you have expressed here instead of many. One word to describe something is more powerful, if not as accurate, as many. After that drawing you lose the freshness of your curves. You are copying what you see, not telling the story about it. Drawing life isn’t about accuracy, its about explaining that moment in the drawing. SO fudging angles and lengths of things to better explain the tension of the work is better art than complete replication. You are not a copy machine.

You are also using multiple lines and multiple ways to explain a shape. The third drawing form the top, his face has a circle on it. You are trying to explain the face but those lines are not compatible with any of the lines in anyones face, find the edges of things or the largest difference in contrasts and draw those lines. The fourth drawing you use circles to explain the torso. In animation of cartoon characters that can work, in life drawing rarely does it work. There is a life to the head arms and legs, the torso has no life in it. Find those lines.

The fifth figure is well done. You capture motion with the angled pose, you foreshorten well with the leg and arm. I can read that pose. Now find the edges of that pose and apply what you will learn about shapes when you read force.

The final drawing has shapes that are well defined and readable. You are doing mass drawings though. Where you draw the positive space so as to define the masses of the subject. Force and mass drawings are different.

Now for the anatomy. In all pieces the anatomy is off. The legs are always too short. This makes arms look to long and people look disproportional. The legs accommodate over half the body’s length. To draw them too big is a better error than too short. Even in the runner they are off a bit. It makes it look like you were above everyone when you drew them. To fix this, draw, draw, draw. The more you do it the easier it gets. Drawing on large pieces of paper is intimidating but when you can draw it huge you can draw it smaller better.

Looking at your first set of drawings this set is a big step. You have started to get fresh, the lines are rich and full, if not well placed or descriptive, the essence has improved, a huge step in the right direction. The big dirty charcoal makes it hard to remain stiff, I want you to continue using it, and trying to find some newsprint, it is cheap and huge in scale and the surface is perfect for charcoal figure drawing. Very good work. I want you to draw more from life, more form the figure, I want you to work on proportions and shapes. Depth and line quality.

[EruditeBadger]

Aye aye mon' capitan. Good crits, I can see your points very clearly. I'll get on it and get back with you.

[ConCrete]

I am glad we are on the level. I think we are both going to benefit from this exchange.