Eckis sketchbook - please rip me asunder

[Linzwinz]

I was admiring your progress and got to that hour long drapery you did and thought "nice, that looks so great" ... and then I saw the blue satiny dress and was just blown out of the water. Really nice job on that, it looks fantastic. The amount of time you are putting into all of this is making me feel guilty, keep it up!

[Joe777k7]

Paintings!! Man im jealous, time to start doing some studies for me Great work so far, cant wait to see how far you take things! Its all looking great, looks like you are really pushing yourself Keep going!!!

[ecki]

WOW, off to page 5!
I'm not satisfied until my page count reaches 5 digits, though

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@Yemi775: Thanks man! For getting to the latest post, I'm just appending &goto=newpost to the link, just take a look at the link in my signature

@Linzwinz: Thanks man! I should still do more drapery. I think I should draw some drapery from life. I'm not working that hard, I'm still eating too good for that

@Joe777k7: Thank you! I'm just trying to work on stuff that I'm having problems with. I'm doing a little laps that way, because I'm having problems with almost everything – but that's how it goes

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Today was another face day, I've still got a lot to learn about faces and heads.
About now, I've tried ~10 different construction methods and they kinda fail me. I think the only thing that I can do is learn the limits of head shapes and just get a feel for the whole thing.
Right now, all those construction methods are unfolding in my head as I draw and it works kinda nicely. Still need a lot of practice – I often fall for the "big eyes" manga trap

Today, I've got a little monk in color (from imagination) and some random 2 minute faces / heads (drawing script):

[Kvetch]

Keep it up, the drapery studies are great, particularly this one: http://conceptart.org/forums/attachm...5&d=1359158131

[I STRaY I]

Nice work man, you're working hard. I can relate to you a little in regards to construction methods. My construction tech is a disaster, and hardly as clean as you. I will say that of the ones I've been looking into, Loomis' typical method works, but I like planes the most. Sycra has some good videos where he kind of talks about dividing the face too, similar. This seems to make the most sense to me. The perspective box is by far the hardest to grasp for me. Naturally, just intuition is my favorite, but very time consuming and I would imagine most educated folk would say to avoid it. I'm sure they're right. Regardless, you are applying yourself well, the drapery studies are very nice, you accomplished much there. I know you know, more faces as in variety and shape and so on, my only suggestion. Cool!

[Danny_K]

nice progress mate, keep it up the mileage will bring progress

[ecki]

@Kvetch: Thanks man! I will keep it up

@I STRaY I: Thanks! I'm not really using intuition, I'm just using a compilation of the various methods and I try to project them onto the drawing mentally, somehow Well... maybe that's exactly what intuition really is :/

@Danny_K: Thanks! I gotta draw more!

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Some more face renderings today:
It takes ages for me to think those through, but I think that this will become better over time @_@
The painted skin still looks zombie D: Gotta work more on that! I think I'll do some self-portraits next.
Wow, my proportions suck – So much to learn

[GrayPersona]

hey eckie nice facial studies I quite like that horny girl(oh no not that pun!),one thing I would suggest when learning facial construction is to choose one and stick to it for a while until you feel you have undrestood it.
.the thing about all constuction ideation(loomis,hogarth,reily,bammes,bridgman) is that they are not consistent with each other and when you start learning, it can be a bit overwhelming moving between them
without losing consistency of structure.
anyways that is my experience at least,might be different for you-keep up the hard work man.

[CrashPoint]

Good work on your heads! Just keep on drawing them and eventually you'll be able to put it all together. The face has a lot of different shapes and features going on as well as being the most recognizable part of the human body, so it's only natural that it's a pain to get it looking right.

Be careful with the size of the bodies on your last heads, they look like you gave an adult a child's body(I'm assuming that's not intentional). Otherwise great progress!

[MrFrenik]

Thanks for the kind words, Ecki, but I'm nowhere near kicking anyone's ass in this stuff, ha. But I have learned a few things here and there that might be of help, so if you ever need any specific advice, don't hesitate to ask.

Your faces really are looking better and better. This is how I started anatomy too, and I think it's understandable since humans are naturally drawn towards faces (probably an empathy thing). I'll stress again though that I struggled to really understand how to draw the figure until I confidently understood my perspective drawing first. Sorry if that's a me being a broken record, ha.

I think another thing that's helped me is to buckle down and draw everyday for several hours at a time (around 10-12). Mileage is a huge factor in any skill, so keep that in mind. But, of course, it's better to work smarter than harder. You can try and luck into understanding how to go about drawing the figure, which I did for about a year and you can totally see in any of my other stuff, or you can sit down and take the shorter path and find out what it is you need to study to know what to study and then study it. Alright, enough rambling. Keep up the updating and great work, Ecki.

P.S. contest polls are up for the latest IDW, and since participation has been down as of late, I'd like to help get it back to a healthy level of activity. So I'm asking anyone who reads this to go support your fellow artists and vote!

[Yemi775]

Dude you are kicking ass, keep at it man and thanks

[Kvetch]

Hey man, thanks for your comment. You're absolutely right, I'm going to switch from perspective studies to composition for a while. Looks like your face studies are paying off, remember the inner corners of the eye tend to line up with the widest parts of the nose. Love the faun/dryad, keep at it

[ecki]

@GrayPersona: Thanks man! I kinda start to notice that studying heads and drawing over some photos helps me to understand the head form and construction best. Every construction method that I've found so far is kinda limiting and leaves A TON of construction lines. Right now I like to give me little hints and targets that tend to disappear into the drawing (I try to erase as little as possible). I've also noticed, that no construction method helps me in the end, because they never cover the subtle overlapping planes. This is all just hard study work.

@CrashPoint: Thanks! I will be drawing heads for another week or so – I think I just have to keep at it for now. Yes, the body of this one guy is WAY off, but I didn't want to erase it and just went to some more heads. However, I noticed that mistake immediately after I drew it.

@MrFrenik: Thanks for your detailed comment, man! I'm not really starting out anatomy right now (hopefully :/), but I'm just having some BIG trouble with faces, so I'll be doing those for a few weeks. I think that I need to go back to hands and feet next Actually, I'm starting to think in perspective more and more. The only way to get proportions and everything right (even with my faces) is to think of them as objects in perspective. I think that perspective studies / exercises help with drawing in general, but I also think that drawing in general also helps with perspective (If you think of forms in perspective). But I don't know – I'll definitely go back to some more perspective after some 100 more faces, ehehe. I would love to draw hard every day, but I'm working from 7:00 to 17:00, so I only have the evening hours and my lunch break (- walking home | - eating). This works for putting out some work, but not for real big studies (that what my weekends are for). During the week, it just burns me out to do hefty studies after work. I mostly try to sketch as much as possible and to relax a little. I don't know anything about "IDW", but I'll check it out, thanks

@Yemi775: You mean, I'm getting my ass kicked? My ass looks like a minefield

@Kvetch: Hey hey, thanks! Great hint, I've never consciously noticed that eye/nose alignment! – Another jigsaw piece that fits into my understanding of the head / face

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Yesterday, I've migrated the Desktop environment on my PC / Notebook from Xfce4.10 to KDE 4.9 (I'm a Linux user who draws mostly in Gimp and MyPaint – I'm happy that way). Now I've found another great tool: Krita
It took me some getting used to first (still does), but it's really fun and extremely powerful!

By the way, It's midwinter! That means that spring is slowly coming. This sketch is inspired by Imbolc / Imbolg / Midwinter / Lupercalia (no ref):


Some random doodles that I did in Krita (no ref):


One more advanced drawing that I did in Krita (2-3 hours, no ref):

[Yemi775]

your faces are getting better man, try drawing at least one or more faces from memory everyday and you'll see improvement. That ^ girl up there looks very good man i'm happy to see improvement buddy, keep on the hard work.

[ecki]

@Yemi775: Thanks! I will keep it up

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Today, I've spent most of the day on this one big skintone study. It didn't quite turn out like I initially wanted though.
I should do more of those and don't spent that much time on each of them

[ecki]

Today, I've spent a lot of time on studying skintones.

First, some 60s quick poses:


A master study from dear fdasuarez:


Another master study from dear janaschi:


A head from imagination, no-ref, to apply what I've just learned:


A hand from life (The lighting was changing all the time, so the rendering was mostly from imagination):


And some more sketches, just to relax a little:

[Revidescent]

That last update is fantastic! Shows what study and direct can do; that imagination head is great. (Minor crit - I think the cheek/jaw area is a little off in shape, and I'm not sure about the eye area. Something about the eyebrow shape, or brow ridge in general, isn't working.)

[MrFrenik]

The master studies are pretty killer, man! I definitely think that studying from paintings is a great alternative to life; the painter has already simplified a lot down for you, so you get to study how they went about doing this and learn where they kept in certain details and just grouped other areas into larger masses. Great use of color and value too. Try and push the values a bit more in your imagined work. Right now they seem a bit mid-tone concentrated and not enough play with shadows and strong lighting. Keep up the great work!

[Danny_K]

good studies mate, I would like to see hundreds of heads studies now. did I go overboard?! hundreds? no I meant thousands, get those facial proportions and feature in place by doing lots and lots of heads, after I have done hundreds or even more over the years I still have a long way to go, as I said mileage.
If you see you are lacking in some part tackle it until you see progress and then do something different so you won't get bored of the same topic, rinse and repeat.

[kikindaface]

hey dude, i agree with danny, tackle your weaknesses, until you don't have weaknesses anymore lol which i suppose will be around 20-25 years ( for the minimum of course, for me it's more around 35-40 years lol !! )

[Yemi775]

Sweet color man keep up the good work and i agree wit Danny, i'll take that advice for myself to haha.

[lionheartGFX]

holy crap so much good updates! you are missing alot of reds in those skin tone studies, and your faces have improved alot! but dont read as well in perspective, try to be more involved in the construction of the face, try to really depict exatly at what degree the head is turned, and you forget alot the way that the tip of the jaw connects with the neck, keep up the awesome work man i love it all!

[Kvetch]

Hi mate, great updates. The portrait from imagination really shows how much of this information you've internalised. Keep doing what you do, it's definitely working.

[Suira]

Hey. There's a lot of progress going on in herem the studies from jana and all that has paid off, cause the one from imagination looks better than the studies so nice, the result isn't so important as how much you've learned from it so way to go man. And yeah I agree with most people in the sense that you need some serious face/head/neck studies, from life, from masters, whatever you want. And if you're gonna do master studies I'd recomend real master. Not that Jana or Algen aren't geniuses, but you'll get more out of a sargent or daumier study. Anyway, great improvement so keep it up!

[ecki]

Wowowow, so many nice people

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@Revidescent: Thanks! Yeah, I still got a lot of problems with the basic head shape, but that why I'm doing a lot of heads and trying a lot of different construction methods right now

@MrFrenik: Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to be a little sparse with strong contrast, partially because I want to focus on very subtle value changes, partially because I enjoy those paintings more and partially because I don't know any better – But I'm keeping at it.

@Danny_K: Yeah man! You're speaking my language! I'm doing as much head studies as I can right now Eventually, this will pay off!

@kikindaface: I don't aim for loosing all my weaknesses, they are, what makes life great I just love drawing/painting and want to make a living out of it – But yeah, I got a pretty long way ahead of me and I'm ready for it

@Yemi775: Thanks

@lionheartGFX: Thanks dude! Yeah, now that I'm looking at it, there are a lot of reds that I'm missing. Maybe that's a little trauma that sill lives in me... Some time ago I used WAY too much red in my skintones But yeah, head constructions!!! They are on top of my list just about now!

@Kvetch: Thanks! I will keep it up

@Suira: Thanks for checking out my sketchbook Really helpful comment you've giving me there! Yes, real master studies are a nice thing to do, I should do a few of them, but first, I'm trying to get the head construction right. I will definitely keep it up

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Ok, you guys (and goddesses) convinced me! I'll be doing heads and necks for at least a week now (maybe mixing some paintings in). I really have to think more in 3D space when drawing. I often loose myself in details and stop thinking about space, etc. That is some bad news – I will have to kill that

Yesterday, I did a big ass page with about 30 different (5-10m) head studies, some quicker studies, some heads from imagination and also some hands thrown in for good measure. Sadly, my pc crashed (actually it was my fault, but it too long of a story) and I wasn't able to save anything. That's why there was no update from me yesterday. But I think(/hope) the effort will show through in this update:

Some warmup stuff:


Now some head studies and random sketches (even though they still look like shit, I'm able to think in 3D now because of that little Loomis-ellipse I'm putting in):

[I STRaY I]

Nice updates, I'm digging those attempts at no reference. Thats some serious sack man. I need to take this on more, just not yet. I think the tones your doing are also nice and subtle mostly, which is ideal. Sometimes, (i hate to hear it too) but use bigger brushes, mainly that nose, #136. But all in all good stuff man. Keep at it, and you'll be hearing that level up tune soon!

[GrayPersona]

there is some nice stuff here eckie,I like those heads on the last post ,and also those facial paintings are decent,I would suggest though to do more value studies and leave out color
its hard to measure and place values as it is without worrying about color.

[Kvetch]

Hi mate, nice update. These head construction studies are where it's at, the heads are looking more solid. I really like the reilly/faragasso/lemen/fixler style constructions at the moment, they seem a bit stupid and overcomplicated at first, but you can pick and choose the bits you like and combine various methods, which is fun.

[Inkthyosaur]

Good studies, and I am seriously jealous of you getting to ditch the day job for practice.

2 things on your head studies though. The straight on views are cool, but your 3/4 angles look quite flat. So where you are drawing the left cheek leading, the right eyebrow area doesn't seem to curve enough around the skull. Which ends up with some of them looking like the planes of the face are out of whack. Stick at it though, the face is a real bugger to get right. Especially from odd angles. Only other thing on faces is to try some more expressions. Keep on keeping on.

[ecki]

@I STRaY I: Thanks man! You're absolutely right, I tend to start scribbling with very small brushes way to soon. I always have to remind myself about that

@GrayPersona: Thanks, but I think it's best for me to work directly in color. I think my values are quite ok already and I should focus more on color at the moment. But when my color skills are as high as my value skills, I will go back to exclusive value studies. Until then – it's more color for me.

@Kvetch: Hey hey! Heads are a pain, but I just gotta keep working. I think it's key to think in 3D. Throwing in a little construction really helps with thinking in 3D.

@Inkthyosaur: I've just saved up a lot of money over the last ~5 years, so that I have enough money as backup for my plan. Yeah, you're right, I have to get the skull shape into my head more exactly. I think a few more skull-studies would also help me?

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Yesterday, I painted 2 (rather) quick faces, but they were THAT horrible, that I didn't want to upload them on their own...
They look so horrible... (I had to use a different color chooser (Color wheel), I'm usually used to the HSV-RGB sliders)


And a bunch of sketches from today (heads=no-ref; poses=reffed):