STOP... Scannertime.

[siryder]

Whoa!! so much improvement on this second page...thats what you get for working hard!
The Anatomy studies are great. Just wondering have you seen the book GottfriedBammes - DerNacteMensch, I have found it to really help although it's all in german and I can't read a thing.
Thanks for checking my sketch book out

[Avvatar]

Hey and thanks for commenting on my sketchbook! You have some really great studies going on, I think they are definitely paying off in your figure drawings. One thing I would pay attention to, especially with your portraits, is proportion. Even more specifically try and practice eyes some more, I think with a little more shading and refining they will change the whole dynamic of your faces. The Bourgerau study and that fight club study are my favorite works of yours. Really nice work on the lighting and good use of texture brush on the guys hair!

Hope to see more from you, take care!

[Benjy]

@siryder: Thanks I'll add Bammes to my wishlist.
@Avvatar: Thankyou. Proportion is definitely a weakpoint for me.

Bridgman studies today:







And a cowboy I drew the other day, face is pretty crappy, but I kinda liked the rest:

[Benjy]

A couple of silly gifs:

[Benjy]

A WIP for today:



Ref: http://almudena-stock.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d208vfs

[Benjy]

A slight update to the photo study from the other day:



And another life drawing session:

[Benjy]

Random brainfarts:





And a photostudy WIP. Trying to keep to only large, full opacity brushes as an excercise in ... something.

[Benjy]

This weeks life drawing session:







And a random bit of concept art:

[Benjy]

Some thumbnails thinking about composition for a scene I might do, and some cartoon stuff. I just started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, ...I love it. Screw what it may say about my mental age, it's an awesome series.

[Lumens]

Hello benjy,

i'll have to throw the treadtitle compliment right back at ya.
cracked me up!
love the movie stills and masterstudies. keep it up!

[Benjy]

Study of planes of the head, a random portrait, and a random sketch from imagination.







And a CGTalk DSF. Hadn't done one in a while and the topic caught me. I find usually they're too vague and I spend so long trying to think of something clever that I never get started on them. This time it was sooo vague though that it wasn't an issue, something just popped into my head. The theme was "yellow", time spent was about 35mins I think.

[Benjy]

A few10-15min scribbles from this weeks life drawing session:

[kingkostas]

hello mate.You are doing great improvement even while being in 3 pages long.
I can surely say you are on the right track, so really just keep up the good work.

[knut-]

You seem to study various things and get improved on everything nice and right. Keep up!

[Benjy]

Less time for drawing the past couple of weeks, but still going to figure drawing sessions. Here are a few from this week:

Two mins:





Ten to fifteen mins:

[Benjy]

A few Hogarth studies and other bits:

[Benjy]

Saturday night Bridgman, some posemaniacs, and poses from imagination.











Edit: And a quick random head to see if any of it sunk in before bedtime.

[Benjy]

A bunch of stuff. First off is a few pages from this weeks figure drawing session. I didn't really manage much that I liked, but as usual it was enjoyable, and at least I always feel like I learned.







Some studies, a bit of Bridgman, Hogarth, some faces from Batman: Year One.








Plus a few random bits from imagination:

[BludHund]

Heya Benjy,

Your lines are looking very 'thick', are you drawing small or just using a fat pencil? Charcoal pencil maybe?

In your life drawings/figure drawings: SLOOOW DOOOWN. Concentrate on getting each stroke right, you'll
haveto be satisfied with un-finished looking sketches on short poses, but that's okay. You'll build up speed
as you improve, but just don't rush.

When drawing short poses, or starting a longer pose (IE, doing Gestures), do not draw the actual forms (the
outline, etc). instead, draw the 'idea' of the pose, concentrating on action (tension and relaxation of
muscles) and mass (balance, weight)

On your head studies, pay close attention to symmetry. Connecting symmetrical points of reference
in 3D space is a crucial skill. In general, don't focus so much on outlines and blocks of value. These are very
important for composing a finished image, but not so much for learning form and anatomy and other basics.

Those beard thumbnails are pretty awesome

[Benjy]

@BludHund Thanks for your advice. I'm generally drawing on A5/A4 sized sketchbooks, with a 2B/4B graphite stick. I think most of the thickness of my lines is just down to my being a heavy handed Neanderthal when it comes to holding a pencil. You're absolutely right about the slowing down thing too, I'm usually scribbling like a maniac for two minute poses, and whilst I don't mind that so much it spills over into the longer poses which end up looking kinda sloppy as a result I think. I'll try and be more controlled.


Switched to an A3 sized sketchpad for figure drawing this week which helped massively. I really liked having more space to draw in - I can't imagine going back to my A5 moleskin now, at least not for life drawing any ways.









And some other bits and pieces:

[Benjy]

oops. Double post. I'll fill this with something useful later.

Edit: Here we go:

[in2eternity]

Thanx for stopping by at my SB
I like your work with color, the last two at #71 are my favorites! What about drawing, I think you need a little more work, but you did so much progress in anatomy studies, that I don't think it'll take long

[Serrat]

Really great sense of weight and volume on the anatomy studies! I also like the energy of your really quick concept stuff, like the gun and the "yellow" painting a lot.

Your study of drapery on the deviantart model turned out really nice. That might be a good next step for you to study, along with the anatomy.

[Benjy]

@in2eternity, @Serrat: Thanks!


Always more practice to do, haven't felt particularly successful the past few attempts at drawing, but I'm sure it'll pass.












This weeks life drawing was a bit of a loss, these were the only two of any value.





Plus I thought I'd share a few of my 3D bits and pieces. Mostly sculpts done in blender. I try to keep this thread about my traditional stuff though.

[Benjy]

A couple from this weeks figure drawing and one from one of mjranums stock refs:

[Benjy]

A bit of 45 sec posemaniacs:



And this one was reffed from a photo of a few of my friends on a night out. I was after something to paint and came across it on facebook and decided to give it a twist.

Still very WIP. Crits appreciated.

[shambok]

Thanx for dropping by my SB ...
Wow... another prolific person .. nice!
Really like your studies ... you have a nice combination of form and contour!
Keep up the good work.

[Benjy]

@Shambok: Thanks!

Photo study WIP of one or MJ Ranums refs and some posemaniacs:

[NinoCencini]

hey man you're doing great.. this last study from mjranum is looking good.. i gotta practice some colors myself

and i just visited your blog and there are some cool tips there.. i'll make sure to drop by more often..
keep it up!

[Benjy]

@ricpolisel: Thanks

Really enjoyed today's figure drawing. Here are a few of the good ones:







Also a couple of torso studies I did in blender over the weekend and a bit more work on the photostudy: