Tome of Searing Passions

[LtPlissken]

I think that you are over-shading some of your drawings unnecessary,
in this case you overshaded the torsos.
A few hundred more from these
heads like you posted above, and you will be a master head and portrait drawer.
I don't know, currently you are still struggling with the skull shape, sometimes
the faces tend to be flat or deformed on some way, but you definitely improved
with the eye positioning. Hair, still do not fit all the time on the head, and try
to solve somehow differently the hair rendering, currently the girls look like
they have a messed up hair or like they are going half bald. Leaving white
blank strands between the other hair, creates the effect of baldness.
Look up for some artist who render realistically hair with graphite pencils.
Actually it does not take up too much time to make it look real, you just need
to know the right technique.
The last female head, the stand alone one, have some major issues,
I do not know what, but it looks real strange, maybe too long face, or
too short skull, the mouth is more protruded than it should be, I am not sure,
but it creates an awkward effect.
Improvement for sure, and you should be satisfied with your progress,
you just need to push things more forward just as you did till now.
Wish you a happy drawing, cheers.

[TacoMeat]

Hey. I'm seeing nice progress. Did you have a reverence with any of these? Your heads appear either elongated or made to wide. I would recommend referencing more. Thats all for now, I'll see you later.

[JaneMag]

Nice sketches! One tip for you - try drawing with thinner pencils, preferably a lead pen. You will get thinner lines, which often give a more professional look to art than thick pencilstrokes. It's also much easier to draw details.

[devastacio]

Hi everyone,

Lets get to the replies...

@ Myllys - Hello there mate. Yeah you're correct about the gesture drawings mate. gonna do some very soon. About the profile view; yeah that was a mess. Actually whole point of doing it was to practice because i suddenly recalled that i haven't done any profiles views. I should look at some references soon and get this fixed. Thanks for the feedback and for the encouragement mate.

@ Beth - Hey there, you made me laugh with this;

But you're neglecting mens heads.At this rate of practice you'll be drawing a woman's head on a male body.

Muhahaha...boy oh boy, you sound so disappointed and irritated to me. so heres goes a sketch of a guy just for you. is he handsome enough? oh btw you have to live with the anatomical errors if any. no guy is perfect. he says. . lol kidding mate. thanks a lot for your valuable feedback my friend. they are always helpful. about the rendering; well you are correct about this mate. hehe i just couldn't resist it. but im doing lots of studies nowadays. going to post em all in the weekend.

@ Sivonja - I tried to take your advice and did some doodles. sometimes i forget and get to my misguided missile time of sketching. Ill always try to keep your advice in my head whenever i sketch. thanks for always trying to help me to get better my friend. i really do appreciate it.

@ Catish - hey thanks mate. Well i took your advice and did some doodles using less details than usual. Ill try to do more. btw i really like your sb mate. superb style. keep it up.

@ Kungfoowiz - Hey there bro. thanks a lot. yeah i enjoy it too. anyways i should use more references so i could improve the quality.

@ Danny_K - Hey there, Well thats some good advice mate. I think you are 100% correct about this. im going to give it a shot as soon as i finish the back muscle studies im doing currently. lets see how it turns out. thanks a bunch for the idea

@ Snake - hello there my friend. always glad to see you here. hehe okay since most of guys mentioned that i should just restrict to the lines at the beginning ill do that form next set of studies. hehe 100 wont do mate maybe 1000 or more to master. even that im not sure lol but thanks mate ill try my best to get there and hope youll be there to witness it. That profile view is fu*ked up anyway mate. i did it because i haven't done any before. so im gonna practice more on this. Some head constructions maybe off because i timed it to test my skills. Well hair rendering was done quickly and without thinking. totally my carelessness. when i think and do it i can do a much better job, as i did in the 'tiger lily' piece. ill try to be more careful with this in the future. thanks for the crits mate. Yes, im really happy with my progress mate but i should keep on pushing harder because the road is long and rough.

@ TacoMeat - Hello there mate. well these are all done from imagination and done using time limits to check skills. i need more practice and as you said, im gonna use some references for some in depth studies. thanks mate. ill see ya later.

@ JaneMag - hello there mate. Now,Thats some good advice. actually im self studying here so these kind of tips are really valuable since they cannot be gained via practice. Thanks a lot ! im gonna try it out soon.


Well lets see the updates....

Sorry guys nothing much interesting to show these days. Im still doing some muscle studies so these pieces are done when i was taking a break. Ill post all those studies in the weekend. I tried to keep my lines clean this time. but i went ahead and shaded the guys portrait anyway. i swear ill just do only lines next time as you guys pointed out several times
Hope you enjoy!

[Sivonja]

Well m8 ,it's ok for now i see u use some rules about proportions but one big think is that u need sometimes to use shortening ,sometimes knowing of basic rules how to make head is not enough, u must learn how to sometimes make for example ear bigger than nose ,and head still have good and real proportions .

[Rebecka]

Your sketchbook is very interesting and fun I like it very much!
Your last post are very nice, one crit though is the proportions of the head. But it's just a minor thing, check out some anatomy books and do some studies and it will be even greater!
You have a great sketchbook here so keep to it! And take care

[kiwigarbage]

Hey! You're doing so well with those faces. It sure can be frustrating to do the same thing though, throw in a few things that are more free and fun, at the very least use a different medium Don't make it too much like work!

I'm not sure, but it looks like you might be using a very hard lead in these drawings...which makes it difficult to get a range of value. F or HB works well for me, I can get most of the values I want (especially with an F). I find that Derwent works best, staedtler gets a bit grey, and I feel that I can never get a black even with the softest lead.

Just something to think about!

[LtPlissken]

Hey there, nice update.
I will not go into any details, cause I know that you are going to
improve each day. You know what to do, you have plenty
of good advices, good support around you, you are studying from
some of the best art books, following tutorials, so what else do you need?
You are good to go, just keep on doing your quest.
I see a lot of experience on the horizon for you...

[teapo]

good studies all around mr. devastacio :3 there is much variety to your male faces but that aspect seems to be lacking in the female heads in terms of their eyes and nose shape-- but that isn't the important thing at the moment! what's important is that you're getting the general shape of the head down-- good work!

looking forward to more of your progress! let us keep drawing ^^d

[Trisquel]

Sigh...if I still had a working tablet I would have totally done red lines on that last male portrait. Well I can tell it might be a bit difficult if it's your first attempt at a male face, so I would advise you to start out with a very faint outline of the proportions. Try to make them exact and correct before you begin to flesh them out and add values. Look in a mirror and look at studies of other male faces. It's all about lining up proportions correctly.
The forehead is too small, the eyes are too close together and should line up at the centrepoint of the ears, the neck seems much too thick and the jaw seems to jut out too far from the face, the mouth is a bit too defined for a male face, and including only one half of the upper portion of the torso is unnecessary for a facial study. Let's take things one step at a time! You're going to improve by leaps and bounds.

[Black Spot]

Just caught up with your SB. You really need to slow down. I know you're learning lots and want to put into practice, but you need to learn it properly first. Less haste, more speed, is one of my favourite proverbs and so true. Think before you draw.

[ThomasM]

keep on working hard, no crits from me about the last few posts other than encouragement!

[donalfall]

Black Spot is correct, and it's advice I could follow more myself. Pick a project or two and really work them out, methodically & slowly - and work real big. Like your torsos, for instance. Take 2 and work up the drawing. Looking good!

[shiNIN]

I'm agree with Trisquel... Well my crit would focus on the problem of inconsistent perspective... Mouth: front view, nose: somewhat turned away, eye: much more turned away, we are far from seeing the farther corner, the nose should leave the farther cheek from that angle...

Where are you? I'm used to your frequent updates (and I'm so totally one to speak myself... )... I hope we hear from you soon

[oma]

i guess all ppl infront said the crits u need to take in mind.

for the rest just keep them commin as u allways do..
and where are ur more frequent updates ?? u allmost gonna lose the status of updatemonster!

[Chaser226]

Its good to draw from imagination, but in the beginning, I think its important to draw from reference to build up the visual knowledge/library. Doing studies of the torso for example, you should've gathered reference shots to copy. As others have noted, I think you shouldn't try to "render" unnecessarily. Rendering is about light and shadow, and light/shadow helps you understand form. Rendering without light in mind isn't very beneficial to you at this point. Perhaps try to depict your reference with line only?

[LtPlissken]

[Kungfoowiz]

Came in here to say you are doing good work.. obviously can't see the muscle studies you're doing, but the imagination faces are good. Do what you feel helps you.. =)

Have a good one.. =)

[Izi]

I like the fingers on your serial killer's neck. Reminds me of that song 2pac wrote with the lyrics about "lace my bitches with don fingers, real n*ggas fingers on nickle-plated 9 triggers".

Tip on the abs - irl they are not so even. There is a certain v-shape and fat deposits on either side of the abs that really kick ass when you add them. Try looking at some old Roman Statuary, or Greek is better, if you can find it. (Romans just made cheap copies, they didn't actually know alot before Michelangelo.)

[devastacio]

Hello everyone,

Thanks a lot for valuable comments my friends. i have little time with me so i wont have time to thank each of you personally.

Ill be away for next six months. Well little tough life but basically i want to find some time for myself to do some in depth studies. I wont be able t check your sb's regularly but ill somehow try to find time to at least encourage you from time to time.

Im closing this sb. It has served its purpose and its about time i act on those crits/tips/advice i got here. im more than happy about what i did here and im in debt to each of you for helping me out. many thanks

Black Spot - Your comment changed my way of thinking, totally. you have no idea how much this means to me , and decisions i made recently are based on this. i want to thank you for this invaluable advice in my own way. ill probably surprise you in some good way Thanks again Ma'am.

Well all you people dont miss out your updates or ill be sending Mr Gibson to 'Force update' your sbs (check out my sb and LtPlissken's sb for more Mr Gibson Stories lol) Good luck to all of you and many thanks. Always keep in mind to make this place a better place by helping out each other.

[shiNIN]

Oh

Well, do what you think is best for you but I will miss you
When you started to update and improve like crazy, I felt challenged and motivated and I got more active myself...
Sniff.

Good luck

{You needn't force that six months... No one will blame you if you come back sooner We don't want your skills to skyrocket without us seeing it, the shock would be too much that way }

[Sivonja]

, Damn , I will miss you , take care and may the luck be with you

[LtPlissken]

I do not know what to say man,
sad that you are leaving us,
now our engine is running a bit weaker.
hope that you will be back after six months,
or maybe even earlier.
Good luck with your studies.

[Kungfoowiz]

Good luck with your studies and see you soon hopefully.. =)

[Ramalooke]

I can't leave you for a moment alone without you having strange ideas. But I understand. Hope we'll met again, let me know when you back Best wishes mate.

[Black Spot]

I'm gald I could help in a small way. Good luck with your studies and come back when you're ready.

[poetry man]

hope to have you back soon!

[LtPlissken]

We did not forgot about you,
neither has Gibson.
Soon it will be the time for you to
come back....

[Mag-Neo]

---wonderful studying & good luck with that....

[kiwigarbage]

Hey friend, I know your decision was strong and for a reason, but don't forget your friends here at CA that support you!

Good luck in all you do