The PHATandy Tome of Daily Updates.

[PHATandy]

ThomasM - its funny you should say that because in my recent enviros ive tried to stay away from slapping something obvious in the foreground, it sort of became a 'trick' for me so i tried to get out of the habit of doing it - but i guess it works on some levels. Its definitely something ill have to look into, to see what works and doesnt. Thanks very much for brining this up, cheers.

Jockeman, oren90, teapo, Nickeybeats and cgaddict - thanks loads for dropping by, really appreciate your compliments. Thank you.

Had a pretty shit day really, didn't feel inspired at all for most of it, lots of empty paper when it came to trying and doing some fun/imaginative. So i just did some head practice, something which i think is the weakest part of my work by a country mile. My anatomy is OK, just my faces are always lacking something here and there etc etc - but im working on it. Sooo these are full of errors, if you can see consistent mistakes im making and errors that im making more than once - point them out. Im sure it will help me get these better.

Almost coincidentally, ive been reading Pluto - a manga by Naoki Urasawa, which is a sort of tribute/adaption of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy. Just finished volume 1, and its totally awesome. His ability to tell a story and lay out dialogue and scenes is amazing - the pacing and flow is nothing short of amazing. It reads like a dream.
But his facial work and style is really good, totally not normal manga - at first i was a bit put off by his style, but now i cant get enough of it. His characters have really good expressions and tell so much of the story by themselves. So i think i might actually look into it on an artistic level. Some pages for you to see...
Here, here, here.

Until tomorrow.
Page of photos/Andrew Loomis - pencil.
Page of imaginated heads - photoshop.

[oren90]

great bunch of heads and loomis

[ThomasM]

Really like those Loomis studies!! - thats exactly what I've been doing all week at home. I recommend Burne Hogarth - Drawing the human head. Loomis covers the planes of the face well but I think Hogarth's illustrations really help with those areas that loomis doesnt cover as thoroughly - like the volumes of the cheeks and the mouth barrel shape.

Tom

[cgaddict]

Loomis heads! Very nicely done, his approach is the best IMO, and these studies are very solid. Lots of depth conveyed in these, I'd like to see you continue doing more. Keep them going!

[PHATandy]

oren90, thomas and cgaddict - thanks a lot guys theres more of this stuff coming. Im gonna go into some basic loomis/hogarth

Sorry i aint posted in 2 days , i was out in the countryside for a day at my girlfriends then yesterday i didnt have time to scan in my drawings for the day. Ive down a couple sheets of heads..

Heads still being a huge problem for me... specifically the female one... im gonna blitz as much portrait kinda stuff as i can for a week or so. I did a portrait tonight, but i kinda think some times im missing the point with these - i find a painting so in depth /zoomed in all the time, that im not learning things about the overall shapes and characteristics of a human head, or more specifically, what makes a women look womenly. Im just refining a painting, comparing basic shapes all the time. This is good for my painting etc - but im not learning about how to draw the head, well i may be, but not directly.

So im gonna go back to some basics - i was getting very frustrated early on drawing heads and stuff from my imagination or even from photos - it seems to stem a LOT from proportions/measurements on the face - so im trying to get those right and simplify it all. Which is the other hard part, trying to get something right without adding in unnecessary detail. But it seems like all my heads look so similar if i dont add detail - so it becomes about style and character, which is something im not sure i wanna go into. I think for the moment id rather practice at going for realism to start with then work onwards.

arghh.. more ramblings. Sorry.
When i get back to university tomorrow, ill scan and post my pages from the last 2 days (well the ones that dont suck).

[My57]

I like your stuff! Thanks for dropping by mine, I know what you mean about the face. I just felt my last update was to hard and not very warm looking (if you know what I mean) and I over blended a bit playing around with a brush.

What program do you use for digital painting? I like the brushes your using and I'm lazy when it comes to experimenting

Thanks for the photo tips as well, I'll try that next time! Its spring now over here so should be awesome.

[ThomasM]

Totally get what youre saying about portraiture - can be so frustrating!

Agree with what youre saying about that womans portrait too - really like it btw I've found the same thing when using PS that you are mentioning: using photoshop often results in so much time zoomed in concentrating on things like colour use that you forget to think about the volumes of the facial features.

Only crit is that the region of shading above and under her mouth (from her nose to her top lip and from underneath the bottom lip) looks oddly shaped, as if these regions are just flat rather than suggesting their true volumes...

Tom

[oren90]

a lot of hard edges on this one, it needs a bit more of soft areas there, an did you use a chalk brush by any chance?

[PHATandy]

My57 - Thanks! and im just using photoshop atm - i dip in and out of painter for periods of time, but all of this thread i think is photoshop - i just have a huge chunk of custom brushes from all over and ones that ive sorted of adapted/refined to how i like using them.

Thomas - Yeh this kinda ties to Orens comment - im a sucker for working in hard/well defined shapes, makes smooth areas confusing.

Oren - I guess it is a chalk brush but its kind of a mixture of everything - they're just a couple of different brushes most of them textured. Some of them are chalky/rough edged but some are actually quite hard. I think they are chalky in that they dont go down 100% first stroke so u have to rework a little - giving a loose edge. But as you say with this one - i work in a quite defined/blocky shape to start with, i need to work on balancing that with soft blended areas. Its an area i need to work on, i dont like the idea of blending being laborious and overworked i prefer it to come about it naturally through my brush strokes and choice of colours through a gradient etc. So its tough, but something i definitely need to look into. Thanks for making me stop and think cheers.

Some pages of these girls Ive been working on - gonna keep working on this. Im not really paying much attention to my drawing here. Its sort of a study of the area, i feel like im using the drawing as a process to just help remember all the little things. Like just by putting a line to the paper as i think about, im more likely to remember it then just by reading about it or looking at women.
That said - i really like the idea of being able to draw people/faces off the bat, quickly, so im gonna start putting more thought into my little sketches. At least for the moment im learning all the nuances of what makes a women look like a women, its just about getting them into the sketches first time.

Which leads me to my little inspiration call, because this guy knows how to get shit right. first time. Cory J Walker - hes totally awesome, i understand he works in comics, but i literally only know him by his blog and love everytime he updates with his daily drawing. Hellboy - Batou - Supergirl - beautiful stuff.

Also Nate Bellgrade does some similar stuff - im pretty sure him and Cory do the daily sketch together. Heres some The Wire portraits he did

And my lowly poop...

[ThomasM]

these are awesome its a fact. Really inspired by these - exactly what I'm aiming for at the momen with all the head stuff. I like that you dont include too many details and keep the lines really simple - and in answer to that scribble you wrote, you definitely are able to make things simple and yet realistic!

Great work.
Tom

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

There's some cool ink work early in the thread, i'd like to see some more of that...

But good work overall, keep it up!

[Holland]

Great updates! I like seeing this sort of work

[Qikalain]

awesome gallery. i really love how you use those strong brushstores and clear shapes in your enviromental paintings on the first page. it has a really strong sensation. keep on the good work!

what kind of paper do you use for the last head studys? is this some sort of sketchbook or loose print paper?
(the noses are too big i think, you should care more about proportions)

[PHATandy]

Tom! Cheers dude, its very flattering of you glad you enjoy them (im largely unhappy with my portrait studies)

Flying Dutchman - yeh man i would too haha! Its tough - i love doing everything and at the moment im focusing on anatomy and studying and im forgetting about all this other stuff. Im start back at University soon though, so ill be actual projects, not studying, so ill be incorporating more mediums into my work again

Holland - thanks man!

Qikalain - Thanks and its just basic printer/copy paper, loose. Its actually very poor quality. But its super smooth so i find it gives me the most room to work with strokes and line quality. Yeh ive been noticing a lot of my proportions are bad - i even learnt some tips from tonights work about getting noses in the right sizes, and how to change them in the right way.

Tonights work was some bits and pieces, starting doing some bridgman but to be honest, i dont think its nearly as good as it was for me 4-5 years ago. His body/muscle anatomy stuff is very good, but im not that fond of his drawing technique and his head stuff is quite poor beyond the basics. And even so his drawings dont give me much confidence in his techniques because they dont seem that good.

Then i was gonna do Loomis but remember about something i found ages ago called the famous artist course, its some out of print book or sort of course material from loads of amazing artists way back in the 50/60s. I only look through the beginning of it before (its like 10-15 big chapters, covering loooads) but i looked into the head/hands section and it seems amazing. Its simple to a certain extent, but the way the drawings are and the way the text and pictures works is that even pros could do some of the excercises and learn more. Its done by these amazing artists including Albert Dorne and norman Rockwell. It turns out its so good, im seriously considering going through the whole thing, working chapter by chapter, reading everything and studying what i can. Even from what i looked at, the figure/anatomy stuff is amazing, its really well written and paced. And the techniques look amazing.

So i spent a lot of time reading through that and only got this done. Hopefully im gonna get a good chunk done tomorrow.

[My57]

ah cool, good head studies.

I like PS brushes but I don't like the system itself. Its mainly the colour pallet that I hate. I find it destroys my work flow if I need a new colour that I did not predetermine. Which is why painter works for me I suppose. I found the hard oil brush as well so now I got something that adds texture but doesn't make it blurry.

[TheGnoll]

great updates, as usual!
You're really really productive!
you definately seem to know what you're doing so i don't really think crits might help you (pretty useless for studies, i think) -so here come the boring-keep up with what you're doing, cause your refining is definately working. BTW Do you ever go to the UK sketchmeets or anything?

ps-where the hell did you find the FAC?! i've been looking for it for ages and can't find a copy i can ship over here nor a decent file---please share, even via PM!

[oren90]

nice batch of faces and studies as always in the faces batch some seem to have a bit of bad proportion (distance between the eyes) or placement of the eyes just a few of them have this and most of them are in an angle overall they look great and a great amount of them too

cheers

[PHATandy]

my57 - Yeh I love the oil brushes on painter. Some of my favorites are the oils.

The Gnoll - Ha you really think so, my productivity has definitly got a bit better but i still dont think im working enough. If i did, what i did today, every day then id be happy. But some days i let myself do just 1 page or something too easily. Ill be doing more work when im back at uni though which is good. Hopefully lots more doing studies and my uni work during the day

Also no i dont do the Sketchmeets- ive thought about, but i dont have a car and my University in right at the very bottom of England, so im ridiculously far away from everything.

Oren90 - Yeh cheers dude, proportions is probably my single main problem really with faces. Im slowly trying to teach myself to work through the measurements of the face every time i draw and get it right. Im trying! haha


And todays work - Pencils!. Started some excercises, reading through the first chapter. Some really good Info in here, all about pencil medium. I did 2 studies where i liked some of the pics, of firstly Albert Dorne i showed yesterday, and then secondly Austin Briggs - who is GODLY with a pencil/charcoal/INK. The confidence of his lines, the line weights and quality. The composition and character. Is flawless, hes a true genius when it come to workly purely with line.

So 2 studies - then i did the first 2 exercises. twice. These were pre-produced line work which then i just experimented with pencil working out and filling the space. Was very satisfying have a decent composition worked out, and then all you need to do is focus on lighting and working its composition out tonally. Think i learnt something here. You can kinda tell which ones were realistic lighting vs altering tones for compositional purposes. Might try some where i try and get both - figuring out a light source that gives a good comp at the same time.

Cheers!
(Heres a whole set of Austin Briggs from the Todays Inspiration blog - which i highly reccomend.)

Tomorrow - Inking!
Less rambling, more work:

[oren90]

good work on these studies man , you're doing great, keep it up

[ThomasM]

I don't have the necessary skills to even give a crit, but I am liking those last posts. keep on dishing out the inspiration and I'll keep coming back to one of my favourite SB's on here!

Tom

[Mister Dark]

When I see your lines, I see confidence.
The fack that you're willing to redraw the same scenery proves how commited you are.
I know you will become great, i just do.

[PHATandy]

Oren, Tom and Mister Dark - thanks very much for your appreciation and compliments cheers.

Because its 3 in the morning, im keeping this quick.
Next little study - doing some studies with fixed lines, working with dip-pen (brush for filling out black areas) - gonna repeat studies with just a brush tomorrow. I dont feel like im learning much in the way of new techniques, i know how i like to handle black and white, but im learning a lot about how tones should be use compositional. Like changing colours and tones so objects sit right in the picture. Also how you can do that through hatching/texture rather than blank tones.

I dont really need to tell you who this is, but apart from being one of my all times favorite comic writers and artist - his black and white work is phenomenal by itself.
AWESOME
AWESOME
AWESOME

More tomorrow as usual!

[mike butkus]

Hi PHATandy, you have some very good studies and paintings here, my suggestion is that you should really should focus on anatomy, structure, and composition, which you are to a certain extent, you have good drawing skills and a lot of ability, i feel that it's just a matter of time before we see you thunder into the art world with your talents.

[Cameli]

Whoa nice sketches! its always really fun to check ur sketchbooks!nice heads by the way
cheers

[PHATandy]

Mike - Thank you so much for the compliments dude. Really appreciate you looking at my work, im VERY flattered. Thank you.

Cameli -Thanks dude, glad you enjoy coming here .

And because im pushing late nights agaaain. Quick!
Just trying some more inking stuff with a brush not pen with those pre-drawn pics from the FACS. Happy with little bits - annoyed with myself in others. I just find the urge to put marks to down far to easy and i never consider stuff. Althought even when i do, it doesnt work out like i planned. Need to work on visualizing shadow and tones, and how they will be worked out on a micro scale - ie what strokes and actual marks will make up them.

Then i read the whole chapter on form, did some studies on some stuff, from life, from the book and from out the window. Its good to have a little re-cap of some fundementals and make you think about them so u dont forget them. Just drawing at the same time to make me remember.

Which reminds of a blog post i read today - which is in a small series about remembering fundementals when drawing. Like silhouette importance and drawing CLEARLY not Cleanly.
Its at the Seven Golden Camels blog Articles are called 'Kick in the head' - highly recommend this blog.

Night!

those last few studies rock. Really coming in to yourself.

[mike butkus]

Structure! looks great.

[PHATandy]

Mitze and Mike - Thanks a bunch guys, really appreciate it

More studies! I was just talking to my housemate and said that im kind of 'rebooting' and i think that summed it up kind of well. Im at a stage where i dont really know where i wanna be going so im rebooting and starting again - brushing up on all my basics and then taking it from there, really trying to see what i want to do in terms of actual application (illustration or conceptart) and in terms of style/medium. The FACs is helping me cover this basic ground quite nicely.

I did the chapter on composition - a lot of it is just reading, and then practice and re-reading. Referencing it while you work. But i made some notes - a sort of Rough guide to composition. Maybe something i can keep to hand and use as a check for my sketches or whatever. Or when im making the picture, run through this for compositional ideas. Composition is something i hardly ever consider beyond my innate and intuitive abilities. I sort of just apply basics naturally - but i feel thats not good enough, so this might help me out.

Then im on to figure drawing - This part is pretty in depth and offers some good working methods, so im gonna work on this for a while - i think im gonna mix in some Loomis as well at the same time. I know theres some stuff from that, that i should include, loomis' face stuff is totally rad an' all.

Also realizing that I keep saying im posting at 2am in the morning is making me feel like i reeeaally need to go to bed on time.

Bed tiem!

[oren90]

the studies look awasome, great to see you're working hard, want to see more of the line work and perspective stuff.
your composition studies reminded me how much I suck at them and how much I need to do 'em too

[ThomasM]

mmmm tasty composition stuff - the inks from the post above arent that bad either :p. I like the idea of going back and "rebooting" as you say, although I think I'll hold off on that until I have actually booted the first time!

Its obvious you are working hard, but still....more more more!