A thread with artwork and words (Nov. 25th MASSIVE ART DUMPING)

[Adam Nowak]

This went from my collection of school to becoming my second sketchbook here. I'm going to keep posting both and as often as I can to improve as fast as I can. Just by trying to draw daily I can already see an improvement. I like comments but I like critiques even more. If you have ever anything you want to point out, feel free!


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From 2009: I've been at the first Life Drawing class for about a month at school now. We've done many gestures and contour drawings. The class will be moving onto shading the figure next week. Gestures done in conte, contours done in charcoal pencil. Critique is appreciated as always.

[Oruhito]

I really like the drawings of the drawing horse! Great perspective. Also the clean and illustrative line of the last few drawings is really pleasing.

Except for the last drawing, nearly all of your figures have proportional issues especially the head in relation to the rest of the figure. The gesture is pretty good and has a nice sense of energy, but your since of line seems confused and lost. I would recommend learning the proportions of the head to the ribcage to the torso: these are the three most important masses of the figure. Focus less on forms and more on structure and your lines will flow more easily along the forms. Great dedication and repetition of the exercises. Can't wait to see more!

[Adam Nowak]

Yeah, I've noticed that a few have heads too big and others have feet too small. I gotta keep working on that. It seems fine before I go into it with the contour lines and then it hits me like a brick in the face. I gotta take it a bit slower. And I'll definitely keep posting these whenever I can get a hold of my friends camera.

[Adam Nowak]

1- Benches
2- 30 second gestures
3- 45 second gestures
4- 1 minute gestures
5- 5 minute gestures
6- 5 minute gestures
7- 15 contour
8 - 1 hour 30 minute contour
9 - 1 hour 30 minute contour
10 - Some more gestures before I started moving onto shading the figure. The last two were done using my right hand. I couldn't stand how rigid and stiff most of them were turning out.

[Noah Bradley]

You're getting some sweet rhythm in your lines. While you're working to solidify the proportions/structure, don't lose sight of that. Keep that life in your figures.

Keep it up.

[Adam Nowak]

Thanks man! I've noticed slight constant improvement but I hate it when one of them is going good and WHAM huge foot/long arm. I gotta get the proportions together, like you said.

[TheYellowDart]

These are pretty cool man. Especially the contours.

On the gestures, there's two things to remember:

1) Just because the time allowed changes, doesn't mean the speed at which you draw changes. Draw at the same speed regardless of time frame.

2) The only other thing is, find a few more straights/construction lines in the gestures. This will help with proportions and solidify the figures.

[elenaM]

The life in your sketches is present but proportions is an issue to consider addressing. Look at the femur length in all your sketches and notice how short they are for the bodies they belong to.I guess once you revise your proportions you can move with confidence towards the next step.

[Adam Nowak]

TheYellowDart - I definitely tried to finish too fast when I started out. You can see the same thing happened with my recent head studies. I gotta keep that in mind, thanks. As for the second part, well, if I can ever get something like kevinwueste's figures: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=162263 I'll be a happy man. He can definitely block in the figure while still maintaining that sense of "energy".

ElenaM - Yeah, stupid femur, why can't it be shorter. I try to keep my stubby legs in mind every time I draw now.

I got everything uploaded all the way up until yesterday morning so I'm all caught up. Keep in mind the gestures were done about the time I created this thread so... they suck. I still see a 10% okay 90% garbage ratio. I have no camera so every one will have to stare at 2MP, non auto focused, phone pictures.

1 - Paper bag, about 5 hours with charcoal
2- Gestures, 5 minutes
3 - Shaded figure, 8 minutes each
4- More Shaded figure with gestures on one page

Yesterdays work

5 - Yeah...warm up head gestures. No measuring, just eying the proportions and loosely describing the forms and planes of the head. 5 minutes
6- Shaded head, 8 minutes
7- 1 hour head study. I totally screwed this up by going in too dark from the beginning and trying to fix it by erasing it. I had the outline pretty down too. Always next time.

[Adam Nowak]

Got some of last weeks studies. I'm having trouble trying to get tight rendering. I'm not sure if that will come with time but I guess I just have to get more practice in. Again, to bring up kevinwueste's work, I mean something like this:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1247935147

compared to my very last portrait.

[Adam Nowak]

We went onto focusing on the hands and did a fully rendered drawing for the end of the week. Had some time in between classes and started to draw a skull the model used as a prop.

Ever since September I've been attending an oil painting club in another room of the school. It's an after school type of setup where a model is hired to pose for two weeks, 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. So essentially you could get some nice studies in and it's been getting very busy in there as more people find out about it. I used to only be able to come in once a week but now it's on for two. Starting from top to bottom it's my first proper oil painting and the bottom is the most recent one finished yesterday.

The first two are 9x12 the rest are now 11x14 all on canvas board. I use turpenoid and the medium is 1 part linseed oil and three parts turpenoid. I use 3 flat brushes, a 1, 3 or 4, and I think a 5 or 7. I got cheap oils that don't even have a name. They were left over tubes from high school. Again, super terrible camera phone quality totally screws up each painting. But at least it's here.

The instructor (Don Yang) had me start in a ivory black (I think, I don't remember) + burnt sienna underpainting for each one to get the form and proportions right and the second time I come in I come in I add titanium white to the palette and get a midtone, light midtone, and dark midtone. Though on the last one he told me to push it a bit further with some shadows and highlights. It's been tough but I love it so much and I actually feel like I learn something every time I start a new painting. Next week a new model is coming in and I will start to incorporate color. I can't wait to completely screw it up.

[Adam Nowak]

One more portrait. Will continue working on it later next week.

[Adam Nowak]

So I'm kind of nervous as I'm finally transitioning into using color in my oil paints. The last one I posted now has black, white, and burnt sienna all acting as colors instead of just mixing black and burnt sienna and adding three gradations of white. I think I pretty much failed and I'll get to work on it tomorrow some more but I feel like it's a failure in the right direction. I did however get a copy of Richard Schmidts All Prima which I heard so much praise about around here and am so amazed by reading the first 50 pages. I can't wait to finish it.

Here's a drapery study I just finished a few hours ago. Took about 12 hours. Used vine charcoal and a charcoal pencil.

[Adam Nowak]

Here it is.

[Adam Nowak]

1. Most recent oil study. Starting to feel more comfortable with it.
2. Accidentally took a small resolution photo. 10 hour pose with charcoal and brush.
3, 4, + 5. 2 minute gestures.
6. Most recent 12 hour pose.
7. I've been spreading the idea around my class to get together after school and putting the life drawing room and light set up to use and practice portraits of all those who attend. We've done it twice so far and it's been going great. Some gestures and two longer poses.

[cdejong]

You're making nice improvements! The long studies of the drapery and paper bag among others were very impressive. I'll have to try that sometime, looks like I could learn a lot from a long value study.

You're really on the right track, just keep doing what you're doing and I look forward to seeing further improvement, there was some really nice stuff in the last post!

[Adam Nowak]

cdejong - Thanks, I really appreciate it. Long studies get me really focused and I can sometimes get lost easily. I did quite a few this semester, I'm going to try some quicker studies.

The semester has ended and I decided to merge this thread with a new sketchbook.

- Self Portrait
- Larger version of a study previously posted
- Final for Life Drawing 101. Took about 12 hours with mostly vine charcoal with a charcoal pencil for the darks. Once again, a terrible photo but I bought my family a point and shoot for Christmas so I hope that will improve the quality from now on.
- Some more studies after school with a few friends. (That huge eye is really buggin me in one of the gestures, just ignore it! ) There's one girl who's great at posing, she seems like a natural model. The next day she brought a friend who's a ballet dancer. Looking forward to getting together with everyone again in January.
- And I might as well post my sp from Nov. 1st. I'm having big problems with the digital medium so Photoshop is going to wait for a little while.

I'm on break for two weeks. I was going to start doing some quick oils everyday but I forgot to buy some supplies. Will try to get that asap.

[Adam Nowak]

OLDER WORK FROM LATE 08 TO LATE 09

I decided I should put up the stuff I did right before I started school. Most of it is godawful, but I'm not here to just post pretty pictures. That will come later.

[Adam Nowak]

These are some sketches since September to this week in order. I've been trying to nail one or two things down at a time. I have a goal to concentrate on specific things at a time. Since Life Drawing was my main focus this past semester, I decided to study anatomy and work on certain things like the hands and now heads. I feel like it's getting somewhere but I still need to nail the planes of the face.

Working with ball point has helped, I don't need to worry about overworking something by too much shading and it makes me try for less mistakes.

[jordyskateboardy]

Woah! The amount of work on this page actually scared me haha. therefore wasn't able to get a good luck at everyhting.
I really like your anatomy studies. They're really forcefully. Superb done.
For crits I'd say watch your porportions in the face. THey tend to be kinda off at times. Just look up the proportion dimension and you should be fine.
Awesome sb keepitup.

[Adam Nowak]

jordyskateboardy - Thanks Jordy, don't be scared! I agree, proportions are my enemy, will keep doing more studies.

One more painting from a session before school got out. I was basically the last person to leave the school since it was last Friday night and everyone either skipped or left early to kick start their break. It almost feels odd how a lot of people impatiently wait for the clock to hit 5 so they can run home. Then I ask them if they have to go to their job or if it's something important and they say, nah, I just wanted to get out of school. Anyways, a digital piece I worked on one night from a sketch I posted earlier for a school submission. Pretty lame but whatever. Was just trying out different brushes.

[Adam Nowak]

- One more study from school
- Started a new sketchbook as the previous one is almost full. Tried some extreme foreshortening using myself.
- Got a oil study in from last night. Took an hour and a half, 9 x 12 canvas board using only Winsor & Newton Winsor titanium white and ivory black. Trying to get the form down.

[Adam Nowak]

Photo reffed my friend.

[sketchibo]

Damn, that is a hell of a lot of drawings. I really have nothing useful to say, just keep going. This is awesome.

[Euthyphro]

Very nice. You've been improving. The last couple batches of life drawings have a very nice movement to them.

One thing I notice especially in the earlier posts were that your hands seems to lose their form. The more recent studies with the single shades rectify the issues for the most part, but it is something you may want to watch for.

The two pen portraits of your friend are very nice, very lively. The nose of the one on the right looks a little odd on the left side (his right).

Overall there is a lot of nice work in here and your definitely on the right track. Keep it up

[Adam Nowak]

sketchibo - I'll keep on keeping on.

Euthyphro - Thanks for catching that, I kind of squished his nose a little. it was interesting that you mention form as the day before school started again I went to attend a figure drawing workshop in Chicago for 3 hours. It was a pay at the door no instruction session. It was awesome I was the youngest person there at 20 years. There were ladies there who were turning 70 years old and the old men were complaining about their medicine.

After the three hours were up I was waiting for my ride and the instructor came over and asked if I would like a critique on my work I did (gestures and poses from 20 seconds to 25 minutes). I said I'd love it and we ended up talking for over an hour. He basically said it came done to form and that I have none. His take on it was one should learn the skeletal structure and not by just reading books and studying anatomy but by sculpting the bones. Individual bones of the skull, the pelvis, etc... until you have such a grasp on it that you are able to instantly visualize the inside of the figure so that you can draw the outside. I'll definitely keep it in mind...

Got some sketchbook and figure drawing warm ups. Finished one sketchbook so I want to finish the moleskin next. I've been inspired by Chromosome recently if anyone notices in some of the work. The model further down kept moving a lot so she became really hulked up for some reason. :/ Overall I feel kind of rusty even though my break was only 2 weeks long, like I've stepped back to September of last year but with fresh ideas. Another side project I want to keep focus on is the idea of a "daily" self portrait. I've been lurking in the sub forum for over a year now and have wanted to start one up but I never felt like I could commit to it so here it goes, but in a different way. Instead of doing one everyday, I just want to have 365 done by the end of the year even if I skip a few days.

So I've got a lot on my plate and will try to make the most of it. Besides school, the self portraits, after school drawing, and open painting sessions, I signed up for the portrait club run by one of my teachers, a weekly 3 hour session to do one oil portrait of the model which is either a student or instructor, I'm planning on really getting into digital seriously this year, and I've been reading over some books besides Bridgeman like Vanderpoel, Micheal Hampton, and Henry Yan (that book is just pure eye candy).

[JasonHickey]

Hey man. Great life drawing. I must say your line work is lovely. You build up the structure very well. Have you thought about etching? It would suit your style perfectly.

[leanunlibro]

Thanks for the comment in my sketchbook. Your improvement is awesome. It seems that you too want too overload CA servers hehe. Your life drawings are splendid. Keep posting more

[Adam Nowak]

JasonHickey - Thanks, I went not too long ago to the Art Institute of Chicago and was amazed by Rembrandts etchings. I'd like to try it out some day.

leanunlibro - Thanks will do. Need to update a little more frequently a few projects come up from time to time that eat up my entire day. Going on 2 hour nights of sleep recently.

I've joined the after school portrait painting club. I've been using Utrecht artists canvas either 9 x 12 or 11 x 14. I'm currently using

Titanium White (W&NW)
Ivory Black (W&NW)
Ultramarine Blue (Utrecht)
Alizarin Crimson (Utrecht)
Cadmium Yellow Light (Utrecht)
Terra Rosa (W&N)
Burnt Sienna (W&NW)

1: Still Life from near the beginning of the year when I first picked up charcoal
2-6: More oil studies
7: Recent white charcoal on black paper figure drawing
8: Getting to use toned paper with black and white charcoal now
9-11: Oil Portraits. I really despise the first one. I was ill prepared and I ran out of Ultramarine blue about half way through.
12-14: Sitting in on other peoples classes and some sketches for a painting that I completely screwed up. Yay.

[Bella DC]

Hey! Thanks for commenting on my sketchbook! You have some amazing life drawings here and I especially admire your oil paintings! Keep it up!