Spartan Camp #218 - 50 gestures + Optional "Feet Anatomy" Study"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #218 - 50 gestures + Optional "Feet Anatomy" Study"

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 1th of April.

- The gestures can be of anything, human, animal, cavorting capybaras.... You can draw full figures, but you can also go for heads, arms, eyes, or anything specific. All media can be used, both digital or traditional. Coloured or black/white. Quick scribbles or long studies. Imagination or referenced. Clothed or nude. Specifics are up to you!

- In addition to this, participants can choose to do an Optional "Feet Anatomy Study", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study:


The background
In the Spartan Camp we tend to neglect feet. Perhaps this is due to the nature of gestures, which usually lack detail. Perhaps its because feet can be plain difficult. But feet are also of major importance, bearing weight and providing balance to the figure. They shape a figure from the bottom up. Therefore we will focus on this instrumental part of human anatomy in this weeks optional study!
Not convinced? This quote from George B Bridgman might inspire you:

The foot has strength to support the weight of the body. It also has flexibility, elasticity and beauty of form. Its construction is the envy of the bridge builders. The arrangements of its tendons and ligaments as they bind, pass round and through slits is akin with the belt, straps and ropes of the machine.

(George B Bridgman, "Bridgman's complete guide to drawing from life", p316)

The exercise
Draw feet and/or study foot anatomy. You can go about this in different ways. You could pick up your drawing book and do some of the exercises, draw feet from reference or draw your own foot. If possible, try to find and name a few important anatomical features. The foot is complex, so keep it understandable for yourself. Make sure that when you finish the optional study, you'll have learned something new about the foot.

A couple of reference links:
Tutorial on drawing feet.
Foot anatomy by David Kassan.
Gray's anatomy on feet. Very technical but might interest you.

Next weeks study:
Character Redesign Study.

As always- reference advised, not obligatory. Colour, medium, time frame, any specifics are up to you! Good luck and have fun! And feel free to ask questions!


50 poses is a challenge, but don't hurry or stress yourself reaching it! Focus on drawing, as practising is the main goal of this exercise.

Criticizing each other is highly encouraged!! Share constructive criticism, reference images and resources!! Let's help each other get better!

Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #217

AdrianNagorski
shiNIN
Jaik
ashess
MartinC
Azimuth

[Anthis]

Here's the first couple. Bit too finished to be called gestures.

[eclip-se]

Anthis: Love them! how much time spend each one? btw, i'm back and IN!

[ashess]

oi, this looks like a good one~! im gonna have to read this in debth later.


hmm forgot to reply to the feedback last time. but that doesnt mean I didnt take it to heart!

@ martinC -thanks; it's vanderPoel.

@Jaik -thats a great idea on the horse muscles; I was a little busy looking @ volume and how light affected it; more mighta been too much.

@adrian- played a bit with zbrush but never really get round to it. I animate in blender. its free! try it!

also I forget who told me about the lack in levels in my dark areas for the lady's bust. totally true i'll do better next time

[shiNIN]

I'll be super quick, I'm in a hurry, the village choir is waiting for me, there are miles to walk and my hair is wet!

I'm pretty well, so my critic leveled up and it was a bad idea. It's always a bad idea, I'm slow.
So I'm kinda disappointed atm but I look at the future with a hopeful heart and mind.

IDK yet if you need to see the best of my pencil stuff (Vilppu this time) but here are my digital ones:




Don't tell me any of them are nice, my inner critic will laugh at you bitterly. Well the vultures aren't all that horrible but the originals are zillion times more awesome. It's kinda expected from my single favourite bird

[ashess]

I'll be super quick, I'm in a hurry, the village choir is waiting for me, there are miles to walk and my hair is wet!

wait. what? haha.

ye the vultures are nice. the heads r ok, but still feel small. work BIG girl. work big. think big. get big. I hope. haha.
anyway, a lil shark.



1 1/2 hours. its borderline though. more a color study then a gesture. posting it here anyway. cause im bad :p

also, what anthis said about ssg; I used to have one. but we sorta fell apart. not sure why, or how to stop that from happening. maybe I should try anew. I was a lil sad about it falling apart though.wouldnt want to have it happen again.

[MartinC]

Nice shark ashess

eclip-se Done my 100 / 60 sec, your turn now.

Some 0033 guys foot resources: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.p...st_id=13229502

[ashess]

thanks martin, but as im going for the right color& light thing.. im not ready by a long shot!
the 60 sec are good; but it's a bit of a shame you have no line weight. what program are you using?

another hour on sharky.

[Little-Maiden]

well finally back in!

@Ashess Nice shark, as MartinC already said. In terms of providing CC, i'll note that the painted image is alot brighter in value than the reference photo (even in the second attempt). I think continuing to darken the inside of the mouth and giving the jaws and teeth a blue tint. Also you should be pushing a deeper and deeper, more saturated blue as you go towards the bottom right corner.

@ShiNIN hehe, cool vultures, the girl on the right kinda looks haggard, like shes not had much rest. Anthis pointed out to me before to be careful with sharp contrasts and I think it applies here as well.

@MartinC Nice gestures, I wish I had access to windows programs (really wanna try Paint Tool SAI). Alas im stuck on a mac for the time being.

@Anthis awesome drawings as usual- those are imagination right? I've always wanted to ask how you start those. Do you place any guidelines down or do you attempt to visualise them and then just do the contour drawing?

------

Well heres my stuff, 50 very quick gestures (roughly 45-90 secs in length) some blank heads in an attempt to do quick contour studies while visualising guidelines. Also, some more extended poses from imagination.

Like I mentioned in my SB my main discovery doing the imagined poses was my very very bad weakness in drawing necks. Its like I understand the concept and principles but still can't fully make a plausible looking connection between head and torso.

[MartinC]

ashess I have pressure sensitivity on the brush, but only a little bit in opacity. I tried with size pressure sensitivity, but then I get to slow, focusing on the line thickness.
I also scale the image down mostly to 50%.
The program is called MyPaint, started to using it because I'm on a linux (Ubuntu) box, it's support canvas rotation, Smudge brushes, its free and under rapid development
I personally compiling from git source code too get the latest and greatest.

On the heating the colors and values right, what I do, is to zoom really far out, so that the entire image and reference becomes really tiny(4 cm x 4 cm), and then you should see much beater the difference in color and value. Hopefully this can help.


Thanks Little-Maiden, Paint Tool SAI is pure awesomeness, no doubt about it(and its cheep 50 bucks that I remember), but I can not use it, doesn't support pressure sensitivity under Vine on linux, the only option is Virtual box plus windows install in it but this is a little bit troublesome, the file managements becomes a nightmare.
I'm now used to MyPaint, there are some download links for mac, but don't know how it will run on it.
I would try it, its free and takes little space on hard-drive, good luck.

MyPaint side link http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

The last photo ref study painting that I did in it.



Here are the feet studies:
From construction drawing ref:http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=13229502


and some from photo ref:

[shiNIN]

I'd love to be in a SSG with others, I don't really mind the skill difference (well the best is if I can compete with a better one ) but they should be able to stand me. It's not that hard, it seems, I'm amazed how popular my little SB is and no one in Spartan Camp shouted at me because of anything (big messy traditional stuff, whining, wall of text, I did all of them a lot).

ashess: I think I liked the first version of the shark better, okay, its underside must be toned down but I prefer it more clean and I don't like the overwhelming blueness of the original. I never believe photos anyway, cameras work differently than the human eye (and we can interpret things in a subjective way as well), that's why my important shots are RAW ones and I work on them afterwards.
The second version seems a bit messy and we don't see the direction of light there, unlike in the original.

Little-Maiden: Your stickmen looks so nice! Mine are so childish. I will study yours, maybe I can learn from you
Avoid sharp contrast? What do you mean exactly?

MartinC: I really like the last bunch, especially the girl's face. Maybe the lower part of the farther eye could be lower but the face are very lovely. And faces are hard, as I was reminded in the last days when I tried to draw some

I'm still quite inactive but I better put the stuff I have before it become too much for a single post... But I really should draw more than refd sketches... I neglected heads for too long too...



As I wrote in my sb as well... DON'T comment the redhead. My self critic almost fainted seeing that, I know pretty well how epically bad it is. I have no sense of volume and lighting...


Today I continue to draw from Vilppu's book, it's so great, it changes my lazy uninterested morning mood quickly.
I really wish to be able to draw figures, I just wish for a level where I don't have a strong desire to hide and just feel bad. I'm glad my refd figures (when my ref is a good drawing) gets better but I need to draw by myself much better.

[Aishani]

I've been wanting to post for so long. Had exams, and then when that got over, I couldn't draw for a day.

Only a few gestures this time, and the feet studies. I've never done feet before, so I don't know how they've turned out (my eyes are dazed and tired). Will try to update.

[Anthis]

elclip-se; Ranging from one, two minutes to 10mins. Differs quite a bit. Sometimes I just "hit" the right feeling and things seem to draw themselves. Looking forward to your stuff!

ashess; Good eyes! Like the right one especially for the heavier opacity and more solid forms. I guess what you said about SSG's happens. Mine had a period of low activity and people would leave occasionally. We're pretty strong currently. Not like these things are rigid clubs either, can always invite new people. The shark one is an interesting piece. Seems you lost some of the overwhelming blue from the original, yours is actually easier on the eye. I can't see whether those are grays or greens you used on the lower part of the snout, but they make the image that much warmer.

shiNIN; Good to hear! Actually, its interesting how you mentioned the vultures. Went on quite a few zoo trips last summer with a Dutch sketchgroup and we all agreed that the vultures were indeed great to draw. Some true words about photographs there by the way. Using those for ref is a tricky thing. I completely agree on your last not, and I think that's an important one. You (and I too) just want to be able to draw great pictures freely, without feeling bad about our own drawings. On the way, you'll have to go through a lot of bad drawings though... Anatomy drawing will only get you so far, you'll also want to do drawings from imagination like the artists you look up to. Pretty sure you have those!

MartinC; Great find? Did you check his other pages? I like those pelvises even more. How did you come across a Japanese (?) page? Nice structural approach to them, and you've also used that on your own set of feet. They feel a bit on the short side sometimes, but this could also be your model. Good studies. In retrospect, you may have wanted to do the study before those gestures. At least, that's often how I feel. They're good gestures anyhow, I like how you handle the foreshortening. Can be tough with contours.
Good tip on zooming out, by the way. I use photoshop, where you can set a small scale 'navigator' window in the corner which I use for the same purpose.

Little-Maiden; They are. I like to vary my approach. Sometimes I just place some scribbly shapes to outline gesture and then flesh out the figure. Sometimes I think of a pose first and then go straight at it. I often use simple construction as well. Or I'm inspired by a pose I happen to see elsewhere and vary upon it. Or go crazy and just place a figure with limbs in all sorts of directions without worrying about a functional pose. I often stand up to try a pose for myself. That's definitely an easy way to generate quick poses. You can also check yourself to see if a pose would work out at all, or to check how a limb would look when foreshortened.
Your last scan looks like from imagination. Torsos are short in some cases but I like them otherwise. There's something interesting about the neck area. First off, the shoulders are not some horizontal platform and the head is somewhat hanging forward. Held in place by the powerful trapezius muscle on the back, and moved around by the sternocleidomastoideus. I can only recognize those two. But as far as I know, they pretty much define the neck. Imagine cylinder, add those two muscles, add an adams' apple/larynx.

Aishani; They're nice foot studies, good of you to include some bones too. Note how the big toe has only two bones in it (the phalanges of the foot) whereas the rest have three. Same applies the the hand, with the thumb only having two! One thing to remember with the foot is how the bulge of the ankle on the inside of the foot is slightly higher up than on the outside. Noticing it in one of your feet, but just making sure. Useful to remember! Liking the gestures too, though you seem to run into some trouble at various joints (wrist, knee). Also, if these are taking too long it might be useful to do some quicker ones focused on overall figure and gesture while working on anatomy separately. Sounding overly pessimistic perhaps, but you're going good!


Feet from Bridgman.
Then feet using a mirror.
Then feet from imagination. One of the lessons learned is how I underestimated the toes. Better next time.
And some gestures I forgot.

[Aishani]

I could only put in this much. Six gestures.

Anthis- Yes, I do realise the problem with the joints. In fact, it's one of the more pressing problems. I tried to loosen up my hand by doing gestures based on Andrew Loomis' figure drawings. The thing is, my lines are never smooth. They are bumpy, irregular and inconsistent and take away from the flow of the figure. The more I try to concentrate on this, the more frigid the stance becomes. This is also the problem with a figure on the second page, where I've marked the actual pose with faint pencil lines. I didn't have the heart to redo it. And yes, the ankle on the inside of the foot needs to be properly placed. Or else the feet don't look like feet. And as to sounding pessimistic, I have to deny that. Getting actual criticism means that I'm progressing, that I'm heading somewhere. I like this feeling.

[Vritra]

Aishani, had to comment, great post. You've come a long way in these seventy odd figure studies, and that's saying something. It clearly shows that you're applying yourself, and trying to work towards correcting your last mistakes. For example, the joints on these are looking much better than the previous ones - which shows you really listened to Anthis. And this can only be a good thing.
Now for the crits. I don't really think you understand how the shoulder and hip region works, and you need to work on that. As for the shoulders, you show some serious weaknesses on full frontal shots, showing you need to work on the bone structure, and how the muscles overlap into one another. Have a look at these pages - 1, 2, 3.
As for the hip, watch out for the flaring, you tend to exaggerate that a bit. Also, practice male figures, because the male figure you have looks like it has the hips of a female. So watch out for that.
Again, great works, Especially the one you rendered a little on the middle of the second page. Seriously beautiful looking, that (other than the hip flaring, which happens a bit lower than it normally should).

[eclip-se]

Sorry for the big size, havent drawn for 2 weeks? i've had a lot of work and was moving into a new home.. What's worse, i have to find new job

MartinC: Here they are The portrait is awesome, love the hair color, legs also.

ashess: Nice sharkie

shiNIN: Vilppu, nice studies as always!

Little-Maiden: Damn, those extended poses are really nice

Aishani: They've turned really great, love your line work, keep them coomin.

Anthis: "Sometimes I just "hit" the right feeling and things seem to draw themselves" yeah, i also have this, but only very rarely, gesture 100 was done that way Anyway, great leg studies and gestures!

[shiNIN]

Erm... Sorry, my weird everything and messy traditional big bunch is here!

eclip-se: Thanks. I'm in a period when I need nice words, again. But my Vilppu sketches are kinda nice. Not my merit. Well, maybe partially.

Anthis: It's okay I'm not good but I wish to feel my efforts weren't in vain I spent, like, 120 hours on arm anatomy, okay, my brain wasn't cooperative and I mostly look and rarely drew but I did that too... And the triceps still confuse me epically. I have some idea about the arm when it stays put but when raised, bent and even twisted, things get tricky. My usual half-assedness isn't enough
And I'm still kinda scared to draw figures. They are scary. My mind go blank. I love flowy stuff because I don't need to think about everything, I just play with mere curvy lines and most of the anatomy takes care of itself or become not so important. I surely subconsciously use my anatomy knowledge, it's much better when I consciously think and get scared "omg the whole anatomy, perspective and whatnot, it's infinitely complicated, I better go away and hide under a rock".
In short: no matter how I look at it, figure drawing is HARD.

Feet. I plan to do some master study feet studies, I studied foot anatomy enough for a while. Mostly not now, earlier.
Whenever I draw feet and use google, I find infos about how unhealthy fashionable shoes for women. It always remind me how I don't understand people. Why to think about wearing something that's incompatible with the size and shape of our foot? We are walking on it, at that!
When people draw women, it's usually include more or less high heels, or not just I see that way. But it's quite frequent I'm sure. What's wrong with normal proportions, why do we need to change that even that way, instead of just drawing the legs longer? Eh, whatever. I don't want to draw 8 heads tall people all the time either.



Missing u from Vilppu's name, I didn't notice.

[Aishani]

Updating with a few more feet studies. Or to be more specific, leg and feet studies.

Vritra- When you say that, it means a lot. Yes, I have to listen to criticism because I can't practice that much. So whatever I do, I try to put in some thought (not that I'm always successful, tend to get carried away while working). And I'm sure that if didn't start posting in Spartan Camp I never would've come this far. And as to the points that you mentioned, yes of course to all of them! I've never practiced anatomy, am really clueless about everything, not only the shoulder and hip regions. Was never inspired enough to study anatomy, basically. But now that I see how it works out, I feel like I want to know it, how it works, so that the rest works as well. I'll spend this week looking at, and (hopefully) learning from the pages you linked me to.


eclip-se- Thanks. I'll try and update more.

[shiNIN]

I don't know if I will do more this week but here's my optional. I started to get warmed up, having fun and rememering feet anatomy I ever learned when I stopped, I feel like making another bunch soon...
HEY! Where are the upper part?
Well I can't bring it back. I need to redraw
It's practice but still it's sad

[EDIT] Nope, it was 10 mins and they are better than ever ~

[ashess]

aishani and shinin- beatiful and classic looking feet really enjoy looking at them.
ec-lipse- nice and very readable constructions of the feet there! and wow you shock me every time with this many gestures.
anthis- they good; those feet. when you draw them im always confused why you leave m out so often.
ye I definitely need to revisit that shark. bout ssg, maybe Ill get a new group. well see
martinC- nice link; the way you constructed those feet is really interesting. do you know anything of any theory behind this?

so finished my chow entry. sorta. hand's hurting a bit so will do feet tomorrow ^^ ill be late I guess but I do want to do the feet.

[Little-Maiden]

@ShiNIN: Good feet but they're a bit too soft and blurred. As for my previous crit, I was talking about how one should lower the contrast between light and dark when doing the values on a face.

@MartinC yeah, well I'm gonna get a new laptop soon so Ill be steering away from mac only because I hate the way I can't use many programs with a macbook.

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meant to upload this yesterday but blah so lazy! >.<

anywho:

From imagination mostly. Stiff poses and crappy hands abound!

Also foot studies in inkpen, not easy but quite interesting to learn.

[shiNIN]

A single reply but I needed empty lines ~

@ShiNIN: Good feet but they're a bit too soft and blurred. As for my previous crit, I was talking about how one should lower the contrast between light and dark when doing the values on a face.

I'm sorry I still don't understand Huge contrast is cool and brave...

I can't do anything about my stuff being blurry. I might try to paint on Tegaki E but the result won't be so good.
I wished to use fixed opacity brushes more but I kept switching to pressure sensitive ones. Because many artists is able to use them, guess I just need a lot of time to get used to them, maybe?
I liked my only 66 and 33% opacity stuff in the past but now it annoys me. I still don't know what to do with flow and size but I better don't think about it because if I do, I end up doing nothing.
I personally don't mind the blurryness so much, I have much more serious problems. And I'm quite happy if I can draw, no matter how. I still spend hours thinking about art and not actually doing it. I still barely draw and that's totally half-assed too.
In short: I know, I know but I do this or nothing

Your last bunch is cool and useful

[eclip-se]

Little-Maiden: WOW!

[ashess]

so feet. one roughly after vanderpoel. one just memory. sorry cant hang around right now!

[untier]

I come.

Madness? This is Sparta!!

[ashess]

some very nice feet there untier!
we seemed to have missed the wagon though; the rest is already at #219!

[untier]

Yeah, ashess, I agree. Let's just turn to the right wagon.