[insert creative title here] - katinki's studies

[Man Made God]

The dice... some of your lines aren't converging and are actually diverging into the distance. Check them again with the straight line tool. And if you want the boxes to be at different angles but still sitting horizontally, then they should share the same horizon but different vanishing points. I saw a tutorial a while ago that might help, I'll try and find it.

EDIT: Couldn't find the tutorial, but Seedling's thread looks good. Link

[katinki]

thank you! what a revelation - same horizont, different vanishing points, that's nearly too easy!
thank again! i'll try that out tomorrow!

[Man Made God]

Yeah, if you use multiple "horizons" then you can get slants like a ramp or a hill, its hard to explain, but I think Loomis deals with it in Successful Drawing. Since the horizon is the eye level, there is only really one, but if you create "false" horizons, then you get slopes. And when I say different vanishing points, I think you can actually measure the differences, but I tend to eyeball it.

[Demo]

crap i think i should re do my nose studies amazing as always and very diverse

[FearSelf]

For your dice, I recomend trying to figure it out with pencil paper and ruler. did you actually use dice to use as refrence? My teacher told me once, you can figure out angles by holding your pencil up to the edge that you want the angle of and then from your seat or wherever when your drawing it, trying to keep the angle with the pencil, putting it down at the same slant on paper. Err I don't know if this makes sense. I dunno, I need sleep. I'll try to figure out the persoective thing tomorrow and try to make myself more clear.

[katinki]

after yesterday's perspectve crash i did a lot of reading and a couple of studies on that subject today: two-points, three-points, circles, shadow construction. still not flawless but i feel a lot better about them, i really gained new knowledge! but the pics look a bit boring...
and a sp, natural media for a change, it's basically just the base and i wanted to add colour washes ontop, but i ran out of time and have to stop at this point. i haven't done anything with acrylics in ages and it was strange but it felt good to get my hands dirty again!


manmadegod thank you again, i only have loomis heads book, not succesful drawing but the perspecttive101 thread was extremly helpful!
demo thanks!
fearself it makes actually sense! thanks! sounds like a rough method good to use outdoors! i'll try it sometime!

[Envisor]

I've been gone way too long. Sorry for that. The perspective pieces are awesome in the last, its good to see you messing around with something different. On the self-portrait, you have the values down, and the colors are mostly neutral. Cant wait till you delve into color a little more. The lips do look a little off on this last one, I think its the right side of the lips that are off, it seems a little too low compared to the angle of your face.

[Asatira]

The perspective pieces are awesome. You're able to get a lot into each one. I like the die. I'm afraid I can't really say anything about the self portrait; I like it, but I can't be more constructively critical right now.

[katinki]

i continued working on yesterday's sp abit but i didn't make it better, i fear. and after taking a photo i realized that the ear is *way* too far back. grr. head studies haven't sunk in enough apparently. then i did another acrylic sp - which has an even dumber error (and looks nothing like me), i seem to have tilted my head while painting, i can cut it through beneath the eyes and half one half with the head tilted down and the other straight frontally. grr again. and a couple of eyes.
many mistakes today but it was worth it, i still feel that i learned something...



envisor please stop saying sorry for real life stress - that's awfull! and you were right about the lips - i tried to fix that.
asatira thanks!

[hp]

those eye studies look fabulous =P

nice self portraits. the colors work really well.

[Trefle]

Whoa, really great pictures!
Love the perspective studies, so many cubes, but still looked good *not to mention very vool*

the self-portrait is good, although maybe the hair could use some more shading?
Also, yea, the lips were kinda tilted....but no problems!

I want to see more! ^^

[Hive_minD]

I really liked those eye-studies in your last post. Just fab!

Chris

[Envisor]

The lips are much better! The self portrait is good, do yours really stick out like that though. It seems like the ear is in profile view instead of it being in frontal view.

[FearSelf]

Very nice die, eye studies! And I do like the first acrylic self portrait. The colors for that one may be dull, but I think they work together. On your other self portrait, I don't really like the colors so much. It all looks a bit too mucky. Did you use black? How do you mix your colors, or what colors do you use? I like to mix mine on the canvas, to get really interesting and strange colors. I find it makes it more emotional. Try using acrylics in different ways.

[Eon]

Mixing acrylics on the canvas? I'll have to try that. So many heads and facial features studies. Reminds me what I'm not doing. I'm guessing the ear sticking out that Envisor is refering too is due to holding the hair back. How about more vivid colors? The earth tones are almost monochromatic and bring about a certain dullness to the portraits. I'd go for more intensity and value with your colors. Closer to your still life digis.

[dmitri]

Maybe try not to worry so much about the likeness of the sps as of yet - think more of proportions and the ways the features are built. You say you want to be an illustrator, not a portrait artist! So, think of them as head studies, not self portraits.
Bammes and perspective are a great thing to study, but try and apply it more... really try and get the form that Bammes has captured into your portraits too.

[Asatira]

Maybe follow dmitri's advice? I still think the first portrait is still pretty good, yet I get what you dislike about it. Second, well, I can definitely catch some of the really big mistakes. What do you think happened?

I really like the eyes. The first two rows have eyes that are very sculptural, and that can be a good thing.

[katinki]

hp thanks!

trefle yeah, the hair would have needed more work, but the flaws were too fundamental to continue imho...

hive_minD thank you!

envisor the ear was pushed forward by my hair, but i overdid it...

fearself thank you for the advice on acrylics! actually i decided to go exactly the opposite way, i think it helped me a lot this time to mix the basic shades before painting. because these darn acrylics dry so fucking fast i get hectic and make bad decisions when starting to mix when i need the colour.

eon i tried getting more chromatic this time - i hope it works!

dmitri thank you very much for your valuable advice! you're right in every aspect, i'll try harder to apply structure!

asatira the last sp's big problem was that i moved my head while painting... i tilted it and didn't notice. that's why i decided to work after a photo today, one problem less - i have enough to worry about.


today's little batch - a portrait after photo ref (i tried to pay attention to structure and don't go into unnecessary details) and some quick (15 sec) and alower (45 sec) poses.

[Envisor]

Was the portrait done in acrylic paint? The structure on this one is nice, I've been trying to get the construction done before I start painting now, it's the way to go, and I think you've already got that in the bag. Keep it up.

[Asatira]

That's a good self portrait, good attention to what your goals were. A little nitpick about the coloring around her left eyebrow, but I'd bet you know that. I can't quite picture doing 15 sec gestures just yet, but yours look great. I can easily read the poses.

[FearSelf]

That works too for acrylics. The colors are improving. The left eye looks a bit strange, like it's rolling back into her head sideways? I dunno I think I'm reading too much into it.

[Trefle]

Whoa, the portrait's great! and yes, the left eye is kinda weird.

Still, awesome work! keep it ^^

[katinki]

another little mixed bag for today: a still life of a tomato (i tried to approach it more open to get a more soft and painterly result - i like the look of it but the colour isn't spot on. oh well.), a sketch of my bf staring at the screen (i really have to work on my pencil hatching, don't know how to exercise that best. any suggestions?), some brushpen cops and a doodle i just started to slap colour on, i'll try to paint her neatly probably.


envisor yep, the last portrait was real acrylic. i think it helps me to mess with the real stuff again. i'll do a couple more, i think.
asatira yeah - you're right there is something off with her (no it's not me just a random photo) eye. meh.
fearself as i said, you're right about the eye. she looks like she is slightly cross-eyed.
treffle thanks!

[Man Made God]

It's hard to keep up, you get a lot of work done! As usual, your painting is very impressive. Your hatching seems pretty solid, but it looks like you got impatient with some parts. It is a sketch though, so perfect perpendicular lines can't really be expected. Maybe you should do a longer hatching study or try some different approaches. There's nothing wrong with "flat" hatching, its a cool stylistic choice, but you could try curved hatching, which gives a greater sense of depth(and can make you think a little more like a sculptor).

The hood in the last drawing bugs me. It looks like its floating or being pushed up by a backpack or something. The proportions need tweaking too, the knees seem too high, the lower legs look far too long in proportion to the torso.

Anyway, keep it up, this is becoming an epic sketchbook!

[FearSelf]

That tomato looks unreal. But shinnnny! Shouldn't there be a shadow from the stem thingy on the tomato? I like using pen for hatching, I don't know if this would be useful to you. I really like the concept of your sketch with color slapped on. There are some problems with her as Man Made mentioned, but yea I think you should start another drawing of the same character, and plan it out. I bet it would look amazing.

[Asatira]

Cool tomato, cool portrait, cool figure. That's all I've got tonight.

[katinki]

just a small update tonight, i just played further with yesterday's sketch. still not finished. i think i never posted just one pic as an update up to now. shame on me, more studies tomorrow, i promise!



manmadegod thanks again for a great critique and advice! i'll try to hatch following the form next time for sure! a longer studie could be a good idea as well. and i incorporated your anatomical advice in the girl pic, i hope it's better now. after you mentioned it those things were really obvious...

fearself thanks. i see that the tomato came out "unreal" but i don't really understand why, oh well. and about hatching - pen would certainly be good to get more disciplined and all but i would really love to learn to handle the pencil better. i think i'll tackle pen and ink stuff when i got more firm with the pencil.

asatira thank you!

[FearSelf]

I think the tomato looks unreal because of the color, that's the only thing I can really think of. I like how the girl is turning out. And the mouse/rat. It looks cute.

[Demo]

Hi their good stuff as always. are those eye studies from Bammes too they look great and im really excited becsuse i orderd the his book only 13 dollers here in the land of the doller quite a steal, only thing i think about the tomatto is that their are not enough differnt colors acting on it just a few gradiations of red i think thats a problem and the stem thingie seems kind of awkward it looks like its just supported by the one part which dosent seem like it could support it. only thing i think i could do to help u know what ur doing keep workin

[Benisimo]

hey really like the texture on your paintings and your sketching and eye studies are looking awesome