Sketch Things (October 21, 2012)

[K-bot]

Your studies are looking good like everyone says... but remember to take time and do FUN stuff for YOU! Art isn't just about getting better, don't forget to have a good time along the way!!

[AustenFM]

Master Sage, your life drawings are looking great! Awesome flow and form! But i really enjoy this --> http://attachments.conceptart.org/fo...7&d=1318823853 Your imaginatory drawings are looking a lot more solid and cohesive these days~

How are the stickers and mirror i sent a while back holding up??

Keep up the hard work broham!

[HunterKiller_]

Thanks for the kind words.
Lovely gestures again.

To elaborate and reiterate my last points, and now that I'm getting a better feel for your work, I think what you're doing is focusing too much on the transition between light and shadow. The transition doesn't mean anything unless the shadow is defined and accurate.
Pencil and paper (especially this sandpaper you're using!) isn't an ideal medium for large areas of fine gradation, not without labour.
I'm sure you've heard of the principle of reserving values, much like a limited palette, trying to stay with a few values might help in preventing all these transitions.
http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com/
Check out this blog if you haven't already. Fowkes has masterful control over value, pay attention in particular to his blocking in steps.

Please, please treat yourself to some newsprint.

[Fallenangel]

That is a really huge amount of studies!!!
I can only say one thing...keep 'em coming, you're doing an awesome job so far.

[Kungfoowiz]

Loving your studies bro =) Yip that's the prob I got with University aswell, it's all fuggen politics all the time.. mostly jus wasting people's time.. ignorant fucks =(
Good luck with finding a replacement.. =)

Your figures are jus awesomes! =) And the Vanderpole makes my eyes pop out! =) Nice work there bro, really nailed that I think. =)

[oma]

haha im a checky monkey ? ? hihi

xD

no but gut updates.. i really can't say that much more about it.. its inspirational to see ur commitment!

[ErikR]

Nice studies, keep em coming !!!!!««««««««« !☺▬▬☻

[JailHouseRock2]

Holy shit dude, WHAT A STEP UP!!! I leave you for a few months and you've gone super pro! Life drawings are insane bro, absolutely adore them, no crits there man!

Keep sharing mate,
Matt

[Marian Rowling]

Hey Sage that is a shame about your Thursday class. I hope you manage to find a good replacement. I like your choice of master study and you've done well I think. Life drawing lines are getting more and more confident and Saturday's life drawing looks great, I hope your happy with that one. I shall really have to step up my work if I'm ever going to catch up.

[Black Spot]

I'm loving the life drawing especially the ones on the rough textured paper. That last one is stellar.

[p sage]

Well, as Ned Flanders might say... Happy Halloweeny-ding-dong-diddly to all of ya!

Hah... Thursday short pose is no more, so this is going to be a fairly anemic update

Okay... first of all... some tunes (to augment this anemic night )


The only thing I didn't do this week that was a goal was another master copy. Oh well... time marches on and we die hehe

Okay... well the newest addition to the family just showed up Saturday, and goes by the name of di Medici... Michelangelo did some stuff for 'em at one point, I think



(will be using that for some studies... very soon)

Also got a new large-format scanner, so hopefully the quality will be better on all imgs from now on.

Wednesday is really an oddball night; some strange politics are surfacing that I don't want to get into... suffice it to say that I'm not going to let it affect my work... it could, and maybe it should.

Anywho... we typically do several short poses before the long pose. I decided to apply Thursday night logic to Wednesday. Pretty rough...






Then the long pose. Actually, I erased all the values I put in there on site, and redid them a bit at home... trying to render much more sensitively... gradating better, I hope.




Figured I'd get into the digis a bit more this week, though it took until Thursday to actually get going. Some oddball stuff from the mind, and quick worthless sketches.

The 100px drawing was done using no size dynamics and 100 px brush (original was resized from 2000 x 1500). It was to see if I could do a quick digi using a large brush and large eraser only, on only a single layer, and get it to read.





Progress on the jester; this constitutes a few hours. I'm going to finish him this week, promise. The second image was just a quick adjustment to the head position (neck looked broken).



As ismo says, I'm trying to get my pencils to be "less gross"... still pretty gross



Best for last. Saturday's pose. Interestingly enough, Wednesday's politics sort of leaked into Saturday's pose... although the two are done in different parts of town with different sets of people. It forced me to try harder.

I'm quite happy with it. I really nailed the likeness, and had several other artists remark about the likeness, even when I wasn't sitting behind the easel. Made muh feel good Of course, I must get better, and in a few months I'll see it for the rubbish it is.




Cheers to everyone, and I'm comin to see your books! (Let me know if I've missed you)
---
Rob Powell Haha hey thanks.

Kerah Too nice, man. We have to kick each other in the nuts, remember? Heh thanks for the embarrassingly nice words

Flanagan You're right about the values. I'm the worst person at values who's ever lived (j/k) Thanks again for the crit.

ryan mcshane Hey, good point. Thanks!

andres333 Can't wait to see your random designs. Are you taking cues from Alphonse Mucha?

Sycra Dude, thanks!

K-bot You're right. Work is more fun than fun, or something

AustenFM You know how to butter a guy up, Austen (er, 'no homo' says Riley)... talked about your fine merch in your thread. Thanks again broskee.

HunterKiller_ Sweet link, thank you. You're right about the value stuff, of course. I've been focusing all week on those, and I think things are looking better. Thanks again for the critique... keep working hard in your book... some good things are happening for you, too.

Fallenangel Thanks, dude. I wanna see where your Jupiter/IO thing goes. Looks killer.

Kungfoowiz Hehe well keep your eyes popped in, or your cats may try to eat them. Cheers man =)

oma LOL... yeah, you are... ya cheeky monkey Thank you. Keep painting and working hard, man. Really get serious. I think you have some hidden abilities you need to hone.

ErikR Muchas Gracias!

JailHouseRock2 Good to see you back around. Thanks for the comment there, Mr. Leonidas-by-way-of-Wellington

Marian You are sailing off under a great big head of steam in your own positive direction, leaving me in the dust... what are you talking about? Thanks, M. Your constant support is very helpful.

Black Spot Well, thank you.

[Flanagan]

What can I say? Your figure drawings are sick. Hmmm...perhaps try a new medium? I dunno, but you need serious props for studying so hard. You make me feel guilty about my work ethic. Lol, keep up the good work, maaan.

[ismo]

You're doing really well, man. Your line is already looking very confident and dynamic especially in many of the quick poses. Post 264 has bunch of really good work. My favorites are definately the eye studies, cause you handled the edges really well in those and the forms read clearly.

One thing I'd try with shading is separating light and shadow more in the early stage to help the form read better. I kind of started figuring that after out studying few awesome draftsmen in the fine arts section here. I don't know if that makes any sense (I'm a noob too), but I do know that studying the "pencil masters" here and through art history definately can make you understand drawing more and therefore improve faster.

Keep going man. This much drawing can only have good outcomes (as long as you remember to maintain your hand health.)

[Mr.Pryminista]

You got some nice studies here. Good line work. Real free and loose. Good stuff.

As a criticism, I'd say that your work is really figure heavy and you seem to be working within a limited range of mediums. Go beyond these frameworks, try something completely different. Experiment with watercolors or oils or maybe sumi ink, try whatever as far as mediums go. Have you tried doing some landscape studies? Go outside and sketch or paint the environment around you. Basically what I am getting at is getting outside of comfort zones. For a long time I got stuck in the routine of just study the human figure and then occasionally coming up with a few drawings from imagination here and there. I got stuck without even being aware of it.

Anyways, good luck and keep the work coming!

[Ludic]

Great figure drawings! looks like they're improving a lot as well!

Keeep going!

[Satu]

Damnit Mister, you are working really hard, I see! Awesome! I don't understand how you can find your pencils gross, I think they are looking very good! Love the tank on post #281. Also loving the cast face you bought

[Kerah]

Ah Chad, delicious studies friend!
That bust looks very good and usable as well. I wonder how much did you pay for such a pleasure, I wouldn't mind acquiring one myself if the cost was reasonable!
Also congrats on purchasing a new scanner, I know how painful it is only to be able to scan A4 and smaller versions

After you and Jephyr are done with the jester, you should come up with an idea too. I've been indulging much in the community activities lately. Not expecting much success, but I really enjoy the subjects they come up with
Anyway, good to see your update!

Cheerios,
V.!

[anonanon]

Hello there, I haven't stopped by your book in a long time so it was great to see so much new work. As always your dedication to mastery is inspiring. Your imagination stuff looks like it is improving (lol at butter fingers). I must remember to check this out more often!

[cloudcan]

Your contours are so elegant and flowy esp nomming the graphite works.. more please

[prsnsweeney]

Hello hows it going. really love the studies on page nine. Your lines are looking very nice its too bad they closed down your short pose thursday i think it was really helping your line quality, very strong.

[monstertree]

Your pencil work isn't gross, I just think you're using paper with too much tooth - try a moleskine and you'll never look back

[Flaskpost]

Mister Juan is lookin awesome! Everything is great, except his feet, especially his right foot and lower leg, wich seems out of perspective. very tough angle tho, you´ll nail it soon enough im sure

[Vodus]

I reaaaally love your pencils! lovely flowy lines Would love to see you do some more digital and colour stuff since that seems behind your pencil work right now.
Keep being awesome!

[Kungfoowiz]

Aawww man you have a bust, that's awesome! =) I heard they are very good for improving values with =) That one looks particularly high qual too =) Lucky bro, look after that thing, looks super awesome =) About the only meaningful tip I could give you is to keep up that life drawing, that boxer shows alot of improvement from even some of your last figures tbh =) Keep up bro and thank you for sharing your stuff =) Good luck with your next piece =)

[Fernteixeira]

seurat always used this kind of paper xD http://s3.hubimg.com/u/641542_f520.jpg

its cool xD

[wasabi89]

Hey man,
thanks for stop by in my book, i really appreciate that.
You got some sweet lines over here, have looked thru that theory that you bumped over my thread. shit, made me got thought to myself for hours about that. hahaha damn!
anyways, my stuff is pretty shit in compare with yours,
if you could give me some tips, crits in your spare time will be awesome
i just want to learn! Take care
and keep it up that awesome work!

cheers

[Marian Rowling]

Hey, hey Sage look at you with your sexy new bust! I am in admiration and looking forward to some nice studies. I'm pleased to see you are still working on the Jester, I really like the pose and attitude you have going on with this one. You did a really nice job with the Juan Carlos piece so your right to feel good about it. Oh and thanks for constantly checking out my 'little bust'....hehe bit of a clue to your question there.

[Just Call Me Bruce!]

That bust looks like it'll be fun/hard
Your life drawings look to have improved, but as a critique I think on the Naomi piece the middle is really confusing to look at so it makes it look a bit squashed, whereas I think the gesture/lay in has more structure to it because of the lines indicating the pelvis.
Keep at it man!

[Ricardo Robles]

the last pencil work is really good, love the smooth shading. I´d wish all tanks were like that one Saludos!

[SMILEFACE]

WOW THE EYE/MOUTH STUDIEZ IN 264 ARE WICKED AN THE LIFEDRAWINGS ARE HoT WICKED LINES YALL RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK BROTHER XD