My Anatomy Sketchbook. HELP! Seriously.

[crazy3dman]

OK, it's been a while since I've been hanging around CA. I miss this place.

Lately I've really had a desire to improve my life drawing and anatomy skills.

I don't have the money for classes right now. And I'm definitely not scholarship material So, I'm really hoping that some of the amazing talent around here will take a moment every now and then to take a look at what I'm doing here and drop a critique on me.

If anyone is up to giving me real serious criticism please don't pull any punches.

If you see something I'm doing wrong and have time to do a draw-over, feel free. I'd really appreciate it.

I'm going try to approach this very methodically. I'm going to start with the bones and work my way out.

I know as soon as people here read anatomy and life drawing everyone is going to suggest Loomis and Bridgman and Hogarth. Those are all on my agenda. I'm starting with an old-school Anatomy-for-the-Artist book by Stephen Peck.

My goal is to eventually be able to draw the figure from memory and imagination without reference.

It's going to be a long haul I know. But I've really been inspired by the incredible improvement I've seen artists make here on CA.

So, here we go.

The first two are from studying the book.



The third one is from memory after doing the first two.

[LAL]

hi,my friend!as long as we persavere can certainly succeed!i want to see more of your works,thats good!keep it up!

[purb36]

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!!!

i hope you're back for real...it's been too long, too long.

g'luck on the anatomy start, man. i really hope you can get to where you want to. it's a good start...now finish some other views, so you can understand the orthography, and thennn...you just need MAAAAAAAAAANY more. g'luck man, cheering you on. welcome back.

[crazy3dman]

LAL - Thanks for the kind words and the encouragement. Every little bit helps.

purb - Wow, that is a warmer welcome back than I ever could have hoped for. Thank you so much. I am indeed back for real. I am totally committed to sticking to this. I'm afraid it may not be the most exciting sketchbook for quite some time. But please stop by once in a while and let me know what I'm doing wrong.

Here are a couple shots at the back view of the skull. Both from looking at the book. Tomorrow some from memory and some side views.

[crazy3dman]

That's weird, updating didn't bump my SB to the top of the list. Let's see if this one does it.

[6 Sided]

I'm learning proper anatomy too. Maybe we can help critique each other's in the future?

[the ANGRY filipino]

Hey Crazy!

Welcome back!!! I'm digging the linework...now lets see some more view of the skull..
try drawing it at angles that really force you to study its structure...
throw in some weird creature/animal skulls in here too..so you won't get bored and stop...

best,
Angry

[Kambei Shimada]

Nice start, interested to see more..

Keep posting.

[crazy3dman]

6 sided - Hey! Nice to see another Chicago area artist. Let's definitely trade critiques. That's what it's all about here.

ANGRY - Good to see another familiar "face" here. I'm glad you found me. Lots of different views on the way.

Kambei Shimada - Thanks. I will definitely keep posting. I hope you'll keep stopping by.

Here I've got two more sketches of the back of the skull. one from referencing the book and one from memory.



And one of the side view from ref.

[LORD M]

Ello there 3dman. Great to hear you're getting seriously serious about studying anatomy.

Heh, I also started with the bones when I realised that everything I knew about anatomy was flawed and started over again from scratch. One thing I can recommend is that you don't do so extremely detailed sketches, think more on form, perspective and proportions. And don't forget to challenge yourself and draw the skull in space aswell.

And since you're starting out with the bones, I know a thread I MUST recommend for you. The Bonedoctors Book of Bones! - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26748

[Metal Fingers]

i would agree with everything Lord M just said, really just try and bounce around between line variance and emphasis on form through simple line economy. A study habit I've really enjoyed is drawing the shit out of something, and then drawing it from memory, just doing that over and over.

[crazy3dman]

LORD M - Thanks for checking in. Your suggestions are good ones. My first drawing will always be a detailed attempt at reproducing what I see in the book. But after that I will try to do simpler versions where I'm concentrating on the major features and proportions. And thanks for the link. Mentler is indeed a master.

Metal Fingers - I will be doing drawing of the skull from many angles after I get past these straight-on views. I see you've been going nuts on the Bridgman studies. I'll get those one of these days.

Here's todays.
Two from ref.



One from memory.

[crazy3dman]

Laid down a grid this time just so I could get a better look
at how the different landmarks relate to each other.
Then drew the profile features over the top.

[the ANGRY filipino]

Hi Crazy3DMan!

Nice idea overlaying the flesh on top of the skull..must be a headache to do it..but I see how it can definitely help..(note to self: try that one day)
One minor crit would be that his ear , though positioned properly between the eye and nose area..seems a bit tiny...?

[purb36]

in general, the ear will go from the bottom of the nose to the top of the eyebrow. i wonder if that scales as the eyebrow-nose distance gets shorter or longer...interesting; we'll have to see...

[crazy3dman]

Yikes. You guys are right. That ear is way too small.
I was getting to close to it and worrying about the details
but not stepping back and looking at the proportions
as a whole.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Here's a few different views.

[the ANGRY filipino]

Love the new updates! The angles you chose are good..and the hatching is delicious!
Good job man!

[PHATandy]

Sweet work dude, its cool to see some real focus on an area, should help you loads. The overlaying the head is a good idea, would be good to try it on some of the other skulls - will put some of the studies into practice. Theres a few errors that could worked on to, the neck at the back needs to come in a little bit, so the back of the head is bigger, maybe pronounce the shape over the back/top of the head because it looks very front heavy.

Hope that helps in any way
Keep it up, your work is looking good so far.

[Kristin64]

Chris,

These are beautiful! I love your hatching style! I've never been able to pull that off!

A few things... from the anterior view, I think the mandible seems a bit too wide. It's typically a lot more narrow than the width of the cranium.

From the posterior view, the sutures look very large. I think they are smaller, like this: http://www.bartleby.com/107/illus188.html
Of course the size of your cranial sutures really won't matter when drawing the figure--no one will see those!

Also... on some of the lateral skull views on which you've rendered the face, the ears don't seem positioned in quite the right place. I think the top edge of the ear is typically right around the level of the eyebrow, and the bottom edge of the ear is usually right about at the level of the bottom of the nose.

One last thing... you can see a little of the sternocleidomastoid muscle in one of your sketches. Don't forget that that muscle inserts onto the mastoid process, which is behind the ear--so that muscle should appear to tuck behind the ear instead of running into it.

I hope you aren't sorry you asked for my input!

These are all very picky little comments--overall they are beautiful!

[crazy3dman]

Angry - Thanks for the support Sir. I'm glad you like it.

PHATandy - Thanks for the comments. I can see the mistakes
clearly once they are pointed out. Thanks for taking the time.
I think I'll go back and try to redo that one.

Kristin - I'm not sorry I asked at all! Thank you so much for
the critique. That is exactly the kind of help I was hoping you'd
be able to offer. And thank you for the kind words also
I'm going to be at this a while. So hopefully you can stop in
and leave more words of wisdom here occasionally.

Here's a couple more from the book for tonight.

[ryan mcshane]

nice stuff! maybe try to use less lines, i can see so many unnessasary lines on your skulls, other than that just keep at it man! and try focusing on other areas too.
nice work

[ThomasM]

loving the skulls! Jealous about your line -work. Keep the anatomy coming - I'll definitely be back to see how this is coming along!

[crazy3dman]

r y a n o i r - Thanks for the comments. I'm just going through the anatomy book from start to finish. So, I'll be on the skull for a little while still and then on to the rest of the bones.

ThomasM - Thanks Sir. I do hope you'll stop back and check up on me occasionally.

More skulls!

[purb36]

sweet stuff man. eventually, once you understand the skull more, you can start working on variations in skull features, like for the races or the sexes, and be able to do it in a controlled way that you understand how to get the features you're looking for. lookin good, lookin good. keep it up, cb.

[Magic Man]

Help!? Dear sir, these sketches are horrifically AWESOME! =)

Keep that stuff up mate, lovely volume and cross hatching

Cheers, Darren

[ngross83]

I don't think I'm capable of giving any critiques on these, just a bit of "keep up the good work" from me.

[ryan mcshane]

ah alright cool! just make sure you know how the skull fits on the body C:
keep it up!

[crazy3dman]

purb - Thanks Sir I appreciate it. That is definitely something I'd like to be doing eventually. It seems a long way off at this point. But, step by step...

Magic Man - Thank you so much. That really means a lot to me. Right now I'm working right out of the anatomy book. At some point down the road I'll be trying to do more from imagination and memory. Your work has always been some of the most inspiring for me here on CA.org. I hope that when I move on to some more challenging things you'll come around once in a while and share some of your expertise.

ngross83 - Thanks for the kind words. I hope you'll stop by once in a while and make sure I'm not slacking.

r y a n o i r - Step by step. Eventually I'll be looking at how all these parts work together. Thanks.

OK, here's tonights installment.

[purb36]

btw, the ear size is independent of the nose-eyebrow thing, at least as far as my single test-subject survey results go...i have really small ears, and they only go from the bottom of my nose up to the middle of my eyes.

keep plugging!

[the ANGRY filipino]

the latest update is simply crunchlicious! you have used less lines but still managed to show the forms well!