Shockowaffel's Sketchbook

[shockowaffel]

I think this part of the body is the one, most people struggle with. I dont like it either.
The good message, you can always check you own hands as reference.
The bones of the hand are tricky, but they follow the same rules as all bones. A bone cannot change it's form or go through another one. The arm is the static part in this study and we look at it from above. There's a mass of small bones in the wrist, but neither do we see them, nor do we need to.

The muscles of the hand are very small but the most prominent are two fleshy muscles of the palm.
The thumb muscle is actually attached to the middle finger, as well as the wrist.
The movement of the hand seems very complicated, but it follows strict mechanical rules. The illustration in the lower right shows that a hand turned to the max right/left side forms a straight line on the opposing side.
The fingers almost exclusively pull to to form a fist. They can be tilted sidewarts and pulled upwarts, but not much.
The thumb is a little different, since it can rotate. Imagine the thumb like a hinge. Looking at it from the front, it can move around in a 90° area.

Proportions and constructions: (upper right corner)
- Start with two same size boxes (slightly longer than square form) and cut off a little at the corners like shown or similar.

- The knuckles do not form a straight line, you can use a curve or the shown example.
- There's skin between the fingers which optically shortens the fingers. This is very important !

The middle finger is the landmark we need.
- The knuckle marks 1/2 of the hand.
- The 2nd knuckle is at 1/2 of the finger.
- The 3rd knuckle is at 1/2 of the rest.
- The index finger and the ring finger end at aproximately the same length.
- The pinky (knuckle to fingertip) is close in size to the middlefinger (skin between fingers to fingertip).
- The origin of the thumb lies lower than the knuckles, from above, as well as from the side.
- The straight thumb reaches the 2nd knuckle of the index finger.

other notes:
- Pay attention to the folding of skin and deforming muscles.
- A fist looks different when you hold something like a sword.
- The first line of knuckles do not move, except the one of the ring finger and the pinky, but that's not much.
- The box used for the hand gets thicker to the wrist.

[MrFrenik]

As always, very informative studies, sir. I keep checking back to learn something new.

[Overtoom]

Great work You have a very cartoony, cubic style. Goes amazingly well with the man muscles. I'm gonna study your studies

[ANtY93]

Had some good time looking at these studies

[shockowaffel]

@MrFrenik: My pleasure.

@Overtoom:
Cubic ? I didnt look at it that way up till now. Well I guess it's a bit cubic.
I wouldnt talk about style while using references like Bridgeman though...dunno.

@ANtY93: Thx, let's see what's in your SB.


New stuff !
After I finished Briedgeman's book and my studies, I was hungering for nude drawing courses to start again, but since it was in between semesters, I had to wait and wait and wait
Finally it's starting again !
Here are the results of a 3h drawing session. Some were quick 2-3min sketches and other were ~7min.

[Sushy]

Awesome studies again

Life drawing seems to go well for you

[Seaport]

Good progress here, keep up the studies they'll pay off

[shockowaffel]

Gottfried Bammer, the guy surely knows how to draw, but damn, his texts can be a pain. Whatever, it definetely helps getting a feelinjg of form.

[monstertree]

Nice studies, it's good to see someone who draws in a more cartoony style also studies anatomy at the same time. Keep working hard man.

[Revidescent]

Your anatomy study is great, and I love all the notes you're taking! Sometimes it's easy to forget there's more to study than just drawing, very inspiring stuff. The lifedrawings really show the amount of work you've been putting into understanding.

[shockowaffel]

@monstertree:
There's no way around anatomical knowledge.
@Revidescent: Thx, I love taking notes. ^^ I helps so much to get certain of things you know and things you dont know, when you write it down.
...and it can help others to understand what you did and why.

And some more:
I wanted to do something different or try another approach.
I checked some stuff by Gottfried Bammer and it's really something else than Bridgeman's "The human machine".
Bammes works more in simplification and forms with volume, although I must admit, I only know the one book I mentioned, from Bridgeman, so maybe he shows the same strategy in another book.

[Gannicus]

great studies haha yes bammes has its own language^^

[shockowaffel]

posemaniacs sketches

I wanted to work on foot placement, axis in the body and legs...legs feel often weird when I draw them, especially in life drawings, but not here...strange.

[Gannicus]

Nice sketches man! thanks for sharing

[Theotenai]

If you make a manual with all your studies one day, I'll buy it ^^ They are so clean and beautifull !

Thank you !

[Alex Eh]

Really lovely studies, wow! Keep it up! Maybe more imaginative drawings again too?

[shockowaffel]

@Theotenai: Thx, also I'd have to make quite a few more since a lot of the anatomical stuff can be found similarly in Bridgeman's book "the human machine".
@Alex Eh: Thank you, yeah I'll try and do some non-study stuff, asap.

For now, I took the time to digitalize a bunch of my sketches from nude drawing classes. They're not all from the last session, but also some older pieces, though I only selected the ones that were okay to show at least. ^^

[shockowaffel]

And some more...had some trouble using the attachement manager.

[shockowaffel]

After the nude drawing sessions and the studies it's time to put the learnt magic into practise.
I wanted to do something meaty, to see anatomy and since I like to follow the state of the art of blizzard products(Warcraft), I decided to give the horde a race that's more fitting for a monk than a panda....Ogres.
And no, I dont play WoW, it's just fun to check on the game development. ^^

The first sketch is about a week old..maybe a little more and totally off.
The second try I did today and it's WAAAY better.
The third is the newest and I corrected some more stuff.
I think it's quite fine now, but if somebody has some thoughts on it...

[shockowaffel]

I'm still working on the ogre, but for now...let there be nudity !

[Theotenai]

For the ogre, it seems to me that the right hand is a bit too big (as big as the left in front in fact).

Nice gestures as usual !

[Lux_Aeterna]

woah, i love these anatomy studies. and the progress in the ogre is really good. the first one doesn't look bad, but the second one is far more intersting because it obtains movement and shows a different perspective. good work

[shockowaffel]

@Theotenai: Yup, they are big, but that's fine since it's a warcraft creature.
@Lux_Aeterna:Thanks, I'm working to get better.

I worked some more on the ogre.
I balanced his body a little more, implemented a shadow and tried to render it in a first way.

[shockowaffel]

Working on the ogre's shadow, I realised that it's rather difficult for me to cast/project shadows convincingly.
Soooooooo...I remembered a practise I saw somewhere:
Paint something only with black and white and no lines.

[shockowaffel]

And some more shadows

[Lux_Aeterna]

very interesting way of studying shadows. and they look very good in your studies, keep up practicing.

[Alex Eh]

Really cool updates! Keep working on the ogre I think it will turn out really well! Love the sketches and the latest shadow studys.

[shockowaffel]

@Lux Aeterna: Thx, I will.

And altough I didnt get any feedback on my ogre I managed to pump it up.
*phew*

[shockowaffel]

Added background and stuff...

[shockowaffel]

Finally, here's the coloured version of my ogre.
I'm quite happy with it and I've learnt a bunch while working on it.
Cant wait for my next piece. ^^
I added some details to make the chinese flair stronger and kept the colour palette in the warm area, since red is the horde's main colour and the skin of the ogre is orange/yellow. As contrast I worked in some warm greys (shadows) and just a tiny bit of blues here and there.
I hope you like it, too.
For the horde !