Can't be Clever

[ToxicCalico]

... with a title.

Hello, everyone. I'm a new member to this community but I can already see the amass of knowledge bundled up in this small corner of the internet; I'm hoping some of that can be shared with me.

I have been drawing seriously for a couple of years now. I hope I had created an account here when I first heard of this site so I could look at my own progression, but I guess I'll start documenting it now.

Here we goo! <------- Love this.

[ToxicCalico]

A copy of one of Mucha's portraits plus the assignment which was integrating a foreign object into the picture so I did a nautilus as a helm. This very old, something I did in high school as my final senior project.

[RaphaelLuebke]

promising start for your sketchbook!

welcome to ca - cant wait to see more

[ToxicCalico]

@Xbert: Thanks! I'll make sure to keep this updated!

here are a few things I'd like to get some feedback on, they are from high school but they are the last thing I completed using Photoshop:

[PLeon]

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...1&d=1302798318 at a quick glance, I could've swore that was a sculpture, haha. Great start man, keep it up.

[ToxicCalico]

@PLeon: Haha, thank you!

Here's more stuff from my figure drawing classes and my drawing 2 class:

[ToxicCalico]

I just recently got a tablet and I've been practicing some on Photoshop. I drew this from a reference, but I think it looks a little off, something in the chin, can someone help me out?

[ToxicCalico]

Some doodling on the tablet, haven't really gotten a hang of it yet.

[ToxicCalico]

just testing Photoshop with charioscuro techniques with this invented pose.

[ToxicCalico]

Need to do some animal gestures more often.

[Loathsome]

Dude. Those studies aren't bad!
I can't wait to see what you'll be surprising me with next!

[ToxicCalico]

@Loathsome: Haha, thanks! I hope I can keep surprising you!

Today's update more character doodling and a WIP. Few weeks of Photoshop and I still don't know what I'm doing XD



Just began laying out the values, pretty crappy looking right now.

[Dope Fiend]

Well so far everything looks great, your gestures have great movement and line quality. I hope you'll keep posting more!

[ToxicCalico]

Thanks! I'll make sure to keep posting here as often as possible!

On that note! Heres some figure drawing assignments and a WIP, a three week pose, this would be after the fist week.



Sorry they don't photograph pretty well.

[Fallenangel]

Hey.
Great start to a sketchbook...my only suggestion so far, try to scan your sketches and studies don't photograph your works.

Alex.

[DARKTHUR]

Hey first of all thanks a lot for commenting my sketchbook!! I decided to do the same here, and wow! I must say I'm amazed man! You really have a great way to create volume and light in a realistic manner! The studies you've uploaded show a lot of potential too, and I really enjoy those chiaroscuro drawings you have here.

Well, very inspiring works you've got, make me want to get on and draw a little bit more! :d

[alexson]

Nice figures, man. I like the shading. Not much I can comment on, critique wise. Just keep up the good work!

[ArcZephyer]

On post #7 where you were wondering if the girl was a little off, I think the forehead is a little on the small side and the part on her hair seems a little off to me as well. It's very beautiful though and I don't think the chin is off, at least it doesn't seem like it to me. I love your figure drawing assignments, they are wicked awesome and so delicately handled! Keep it up!

[ToxicCalico]

@Fallenangel: Thanks. unfortunately these pieces are 18x22 so they wont fit in my scanner, otherwise I would.

@Darkthur: haha, thanks! yeah I always try to make my lights make sense, although I know I have a long ways to go.

@Alexon: sure will!

@ArchZephyer: ooooohh you know now that you mention it it does look small, I guess in turn thats why her chin looked off, I actually thought it was too long, but good eye!

Most recent update the second week of the three-week pose she kinda looks asian :

[MoKhi]

Wow. you've got really sumptuous use of materials. You manage to give a great sense of form. one thing is to remember to try out every pose before you draw it. Some of your figures look unbalanced.
Amazing work! Keep it up.

[OldJake666]

I thought I'd check out your work after the comment in the "what made you depressed thread." Basically, I don't know what you're talking about! I don't know how old you are but these studies seem fantastic. Those figure drawings are better than any of the drawings you'd see in my figure drawing class. That painting also has just a brilliant sense of form.

[ToxicCalico]

@Mokhi: Thank you! I know, that is one of the things my professor would call me out on, to be honest, it is really difficult for me sometimes to see when things are unbalanced. I know one of the first gestures I posted would've been impossible. It is the long poses I have trouble with sometimes.

@Jacob Kobryn: Thanks, that gives me reassurance I am not the most confident of art students, I tend to compare myself to everyone, and whenever a criteria I judge to be a comparative mean doesn't match I feel like crap, because I measure my own success with the average of my peers. At the same time, though I feel like being self critical can be pretty useful, I always think complacency is my greatest enemy. never being truly satisfied pushes me to improve I think. But damn, sometimes It can be a betch D:

Anyway! I havent been doing much drawing but I've been doing some, heres another master copy from "Drawing The Head", I though I should actually read this one.

[Velocity Kendall]

i free transformed it a bit, see what you think. maybe its too mcuh but you get the idea.. it never hurts to squash and stretch things and see what happens i find.

"never being truly satisfied pushes me to improve I think. But damn, sometimes It can be a betch"

i agree. the tension between doing what you know how to do well, and something new, which by definition you dont know how to do...
lovely work by the way, full of dynamism and interesting ideas
and reallly well drawn. subbed

[Conniekat8]

Very beautiful work!

[ToxicCalico]

@Conniekat8: Thanks!
@Velocity Kendall: it is almost too frustrating at times. Anyway! Thanks, on second look that looks better, hopefully you can help me with the next one.

This is a portrait of my friend, she posed for me for about forty minutes and then I gave up. I took a picture and fixed it at home. Move the eyes the mouth and the nose but still the mouth seems a little off somehow.... something with me and mouths...

I like pretending there before and after pictures from some self-esteem commercial

This is after I came home and fixed it. The light quality at her home wasn't very good so it was kind of hard, she posed for me inside, I think the greatest change was the light source, I just made it up on the second picture.

[dan liimatta]

6 and 19 are wonderful and very nice studies - & it will be fun to see you apply it to a piece of your own - or the quality of the values and flow in 12 opposed 14 & 19 is pretty big with the later two being pretty damn solid in everything.


Will love to see where this will go, especially given the rendering qualities in the Mucha copy and just the fact that you draw from such a fascinating reference makes me want to see more of your own creations.

[ArcZephyer]

There are definitely a few errors from the new portraits, even though they are rendered quite beautifully The first girl you have has some odd tilting going on with the eye and a little bit with the nose, the lips actually look fine to me. I see the same with the second girl but it's not as apparent.

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten , and I will now suggest to you, is to "flip the canvas horizontal". If you're working digitally it's quite easy, just set a single button to flip the canvas. Traditionally I use a mirror or if your already finished just scan it in and flip it on Photoshop or something. When you flip it, things that you didn't originally see become glaring errors. Try it with these and you'll see what I mean.

Edit: I didn't see that you fixed the forehead on the last portrait, looks much better! The hair is still a little confusing though. If you're intending for the part to be in the middle it should line up withe the center of the face and be to the right a bit more.

[Velocity Kendall]

Wow, i trhink the latest ones are really beautiful! As the author of the work you will see all kinds of horrible mistakes everywhere, thats normal, but to me theyre full of life. There is a sort of convex forhead thing going on but I dont think it would be too hard to fix, or maybe just leave it as its not a massive problem. If you look at Durer's drawings half the people look totally fucked, boogly eyes or messed up heads, and he didnt seem to mind. And I noticed doing self portrait attempts that my eyes are nothing like the same height in my skull, like Sloth in the Goonies, but no one seems to notice that either. Apart from the occaisional scream of horrified terror its fine.
Very very nice stuff going on here.
Oh yeah and the flipping horizontal trick IS awesome, everyone should use it as a matter of course.
i think i kind of ruined this, i prefer the original..

[ToxicCalico]

@dan liimatta: Thank you! defining myself as an artist is one of my main goals, so ultimately I want to develop my own original work. I dream of the day I can combine styles like Art Noveau with meca art @o@. I'm trying to learn as much as I can before entering an art school, that takes time away from the personal things I want to draw ): I cant wait for when I'm able to just do whatever I like

@ArcZephyer: Thank youuu! omg. I swear I saw it while I was working on it but after a while I began thinking I was just being obsessive about it, the tilt of facial features is what I need to watch out for. those two portraits are one and the same, the second was my attempt to fix it but tiltsssss..... Someone gave me that advise actually, some Professor named Hope, but for whatever reason I get vertigo when I spin my canvas around XD

@Velocity Kendall: Thanks! Actually one of the things I get called on most of my classes are concavities and stylized lines. I'll look out for them more now.

I don't have much to show this time, just a sketch of a character I made while listening to "Highway Unicorn", and "Heavy Metal Lover". His name is Altheus although I haven't set for it yet. He's been on my mind for about a year now but nothing I came out with related to is looks really fit him. In my attempt to create a new profile icon this came out and I thought it fit Althy perfectly.



Its not really finished yet, I still need to work in value to the eyes. I tried doing it in color but... I failed. I was hoping someone had some advise about coloring in Photoshop for someone that knows very little about the software :B

[redpandafire]

I think his nose is a bit small, but otherwise he is turning out very nice .