Winter Maiden WIP

[BlackDelphin]

I feel there are flows mostly in the face, but I'm not sure what.
Crit please!

[BlackDelphin]

first wip

[self-epidemic]

Any references for us to compare with? Right now its blotchy, so its hard to tell what you are confident with, or un-confident with, I can't tell if the lower legs/feet are short or its the angle. It makes it difficult to help!

[BlackDelphin]

I'll be working some more on it tomorrow, here's the reference i'm using.

[Chas]

Really hard to crit 'cus there are no definite volumes that have been defined.
It looks like there is some weirdness going on at the head/neck, hand/shoulder area.
I think the best way to proceed here would be to forget about the sheet covering the figure and just draw the complete figure out. Work out where all the forms and volumes of her body are and how they are all connected then start developing the sheet. pay close attention to her head and her right foot they are both angled so that part of each is toward the mattress and they other toward the viewer.

p.s. HEY! I just took a quick scan through your sketchbook. FOR SHAME! You have all these great figure construction studies in there: Loomis, Bridgeman, What the hell man! why do all those studies and then not apply that knowledge by constructing the figure in this piece?

[self-epidemic]

Your head drawing is at the wrong angle as the ref, which is giving you the most difficulties, look at the negative space and compare what I'm linking. The arrows I have drawn are guidance that the spaces/lengths/distances are wrong somehow:



The angles are wrong, go back and draw the form, draw the shapes you can't see, get some depth. I did the same mistake and if you miss this area, you'll miss a massive amount of understanding, causing issues like the face being wrong.

[BlackDelphin]

Chas thanks! i did the construction part in some studies in my sketchbook, but i ended up not knowing what to do with it afterwards.
I mean, i wasn't able to paint on top of it, and just get a stiff result. Or very shaky lines, looking as if there were no construction there in the first place,
or almost none.. Guess i should try some more?

self-epidemic sounds like i'll be starting anew today, trying to construct the figure first. Thank you.

[self-epidemic]

Draw the form, draw out blocks, I can't stress how important that is! Good luck! I want to see it, so don't give up kay?!

[Chas]

Draw the form, draw out blocks, I can't stress how important that is! Good luck! I want to see it, so don't give up kay?!

^THIS.

[BlackDelphin]

Construction I did today

[self-epidemic]

You've definitely chosen a hard pose hu? Its hard to figure out whats going on.

The one thing that strikes me is the face, the angle is still wrong, you keep pointing it up when its almost flat, well not completely but much more flat than yours.

I would advise getting in, and breaking the components of the face, you're making things up right now.

Perhaps flip the canvas and refresh your eyes?

[BlackDelphin]

Yeah haha, I drew this a while back: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/o/20...3db476276d.jpg and I wanted to do it better this time.
I still don't know what to do a about the body in that upper covered area...can I get away with putting the cloth now? ;


About the head, basically change the direction, and give it a better construction?
Something like this, from that angle?

[self-epidemic]

The original sketch you did isn't so bad, how about using that as a starting point? The face is at least a better angle.

[BlackDelphin]

That drawing was a monkey-see, monkey-do type drawing, and I hate that very much.
I want to be able to draw it and understand it. I want to redraw it properly, with constructions, or not at all.
I feel like the painting part will be influenced a lot by my understanding of the pose.

If it won't look good this time either, then I guess I'll do more studies. (bridgman, hogarth, etc)

[self-epidemic]

I think the problem is a lot of it is missing, I have the same issue, I know what its kinda supposed to be like, but there are still gaps, and its kinda passed my own knowledge.

I think you should keep trying, but maybe flip the image over and get a new perspective on it, perhaps.

[AldoKatayanagi]

The issue that leapt out at me is that you're turning forms in the wrong direction, changing the pose and perspective.

The evenness of the lighting makes the forms harder to discern. The top thigh is particularly hard to judge. You've drawn the cross contours going strongly one way, when really they're more subtle because the thigh's nearly parallel to the picture plane.

Draw the big simple shapes, figure out which way they're facing. Practice drawing cylinders and boxes in perspective. Draw negative shapes and shadow shapes. Draw the "envelope"; find the landmarks on the figure and draw straight lines between them.

The drapery in the photo is a big ugly wad, so it's hard to find the form underneath. Her back would form a more vertical line than we've drawn.

Don't be afraid to exaggerate the cross contours a bit, but make sure they're going in the right direction. Look up Glenn Vilppu's figure and gesture drawings. I watched those videos once like 6 years ago and I still think about them every time I draw something

[Giacomo]

That drawing was a monkey-see, monkey-do type drawing, and I hate that very much.
I want to be able to draw it and understand it. I want to redraw it properly, with constructions, or not at all.
I feel like the painting part will be influenced a lot by my understanding of the pose...If it won't look good this time either, then I guess I'll do more studies. (bridgman, hogarth, etc)

You seem to feel that drawing from observation is somehow "bad," but you're still copying a photo. What do you hope to accomplish?

If you want to get better at construction, I'd suggest you a) work from easier photos than this one (i.e., standing pose, strong directional lighting, nude figure) and b) slow waaay down and actually work to see the forms as cylinders and boxes. The problem with your "construction" drawing of 18 Nov is that it's not really very constructed--it's just a quick and inaccurate copy of your reference pic. Copying Bridgman and Hogarth isn't going to help--you need to be willing to do the hard work of analyzing the forms and understanding in your mind how they fit together.

As always, just my two cents.