Spartan Camp #251 - 50 gestures + Optional "Shoulder Anatomy Study"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #251 - 50 gestures + Optional "Shoulder Anatomy Study"

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 20nd of January.

- 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 "Shoulder Anatomy Study", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study:

Background
We have not had a proper anatomy exercise lately. Let's make it a tough one this time; the shoulder area. Time for some heavy lifting!

The exercise
How does one perform a shoulder anatomy study? In advance, try to look up some information on shoulder musculature and find some reference images. You then study the shoulder by drawing it, trying to understand it as you go.
The shoulder area controls movement between the upper arm and the torso. You might want to find out where some of the biggest muscles sit (You could add names for some of them) and figure out their basic function first. The shoulder area is complicated, especially due to numerous muscles interacting with the shoulder blade (scapula) and collarbone (clavicle). You can start off simple though. Take it as far as you want. Your main goal will be to try and learn something new about the shoulder area!

For reference, you can use some of the resources below. A simple internet search will yield plenty of images. You could also use a gesture drawing tool and limit yourself to only drawing some of the shoulders. Just some thoughts!

Reference

Link: You can get "Figure drawing for all it's worth" by Loomis here. Great resource on figure drawing and anatomy in general. This is a 'must have' regardless of the Spartan Camp. Covers the shoulder as well, naturally.
Link : Wikipedia is kind of in-depth, but its not so bad to do some exploring here.
Link: Images, names
Link: Arm and shoulder area by Leonardo da Vinci!
Link: Several shoulder study images
Link: One of a series of videos showing shoulder movement. Interesting if you're looking for images of the shoulder in many positions. Alternatively, you could use your own body and a mirror.

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 #250

e-nat - Looking good! I like the specialized leg studies. I find the ankle area particularly tough, I'd say you're doing pretty good there. Also, I think CA is safe. Perhaps it's the waves of spammers that sometimes flood the place?

e-nat
Klaustrophil
Animare
Eskeleto
Olooriel
Hamorhage
AdrienneRose
Staal Sander
Functioncurve

[Animare]

Lol I've never actually looked at Loomis's books, although had one downloaded for a while. I always just thought they'd be similar to Bridgemans since they are usually recommended at the same time. This 'Figure drawing for all it's worth' book is amazing! Will be using it a lot more now.
Spent the morning drawing the shoulder studies from this book.

[- nat -]

Awesome optional study this week and great start Animare, your studies are very inspiring and detailed!
@ Anthis, thank you good sir.


As I have used and abused that poor brush (Thanks for the critique, Hamorhage!), I decided to reacquaint myself with markers (next step will a hardedged brush).

30 sec


5mins


not timed but less than 5 mins (last one is a botched Marilyn Monroe)


imagination portraits


done last week, 2.5 hours

[Hamorhage]

wow guys! Seriously amazing start!
Animare: These are great studies, so great they could come right out of a book!
e-nat: Let me bow down to you. You are exploding here! Your gestures have soo much character here, and all great proportions!
And thank the lord...no blurry digital brush But wow, seriously, you are rocking those markers!
And then the icing on the cake..a brilliant study. The colors looks natural, great work!

[Eskeleto]

Wow! Really good start guys! I am really jealous of the full figures that you are putting up here e-nat. I believe I am getting a bit better at getting more of the figure within space. To try to achieve this I might have to start drawing smaller or go on a bigger initial image size.

Most of these are at 4 minutes, and that is one of the key factors in getting more of the figure. I have more time to study and to think about the form and the volume of the figure instead of just the outline. Some of the proportions are a bit off but I think its time to do a detailed figure study and maybe start a sketch book here.

[AdrienneRose]

Worked on some shoulder stuff, from one of the links you supplied.



I am having an issue with my PSE8, and I posted it up, but haven't gotten a response, so maybe one of you guys will have a clue:

"So I am fairly new to PSE8 (photoshop elements 8), and this is what I have been using to draw on. Anyway... This issue started coming about to where a layer is in complete grey tons.

I make the background layer a nice grey. Then make a second layer to sketch upon. The issue starts when I make a third layer and place it in between the first and second layers. This is what I do to put some color down under the sketch. However sometimes when I pick a color it comes out in the grey tone that color would be...

Does anyone know how to fix this? I am not sure what is going on at all, but it doesn't happen all the time...

Any help would be very much appreciated! Thank you!"

[Staal Sander]

There are 2 options that come to my mind AdrienneRose.
I think you might be either working in greyscale or on a channel.

I have 2 possible solutions to.
#1: go to image -> mode -> and select RGB, or CMYK or any other color modus you like to use. But RGB is pretty much standard for web, while CMYK is for full color printing.

#2 You might be working on a channel. Go to Window -> Channels and select the RGB (If you work in RGB Mode that is) The other ones will look black and white.

#3 It might be something completely different.

Edit:
Here are my figures so far.
Some until I got bored with them, some 1 minute ones and some 2 minute ones.
All from photo.

[V3T]

Hope you do not mind me joining the fun, I'll post the rest of the figures later [=

[Hamorhage]

V3T, love the linequality in your studies (the last page)
Staal: I think you have a lot to learn (anatomy wise) but I love the energy from your sketchbook, it almost makes me want to draw when I see them!
Eskeleto: I think its a good idea to spend more time on your drawings to get you more comfortable and confident. Once you have a flow in place, you can try to speed up that flow.

Went life drawing yesterday and had a really bad session. I was trying some new approaches but couldn't get anything to work for me. I'll keep experimenting though, I got a bit tired of following a routine in the way I draw. And when experimenting you need to be aware that the quality will get worse first Most of the drawings below were 1 minute, some 5 mins. The last drawing is a inkwash on paper, and made it look like it was done on brown paper afterwards in photoshop.

[- nat -]

@ Hamorhage, hehe, Thank you That's why I love this place, all the critiques are spot on and quite practical.
btw, I think your experiments are interesting. Different technical approaches, maybe you had different goals in mind...but the uploaded result is very inspiring. I'm always jealous of your dynamic gestures and anatomy (the short poses, as well as the long ones)

@ Eskeleto, good job so far! I think it is better to create a big canvas and then resize the drawings when you're done instead of drawing small. That way you'll have more chance to notice mistakes or whatnot. Also I notice that you're using the action line in some of the poses, that's excellent... Concentrate on the action instead of the contour (a bitter lesson I'm currently learning). A CA Sketchbook sounds like a wonderful idea!

@AdrienneRose, sorry I don't know a lot about photoshop Elements. Maybe the others have an idea.
I really like your studies, especially the bone structure, though some areas are not clear, maybe it's the PSE layer system?

@ Staal Sander, I like that you're combining both clothed and nude gestures, I would suggest maybe starting with the gesture, form and then drapery? It would give the figures better balance and structure. (for example #16 and 25 are dynamic while # 9 is a bit stiff). You're doing good all in all, keep it up!

@ V3T, welcome Awesomeness, I love the optional study and the gestures. Did you squish the canvas by any chance? some of the gestures on the left side look a bit squished.


Some stiff poses (5-8 minutes) done yesterday




Hopefully less stiff poses after sketchbook critique...2 minutes, but they're much more difficult than the 5 minutes. My goal is to concentrate on action flow, (Vilppu- function then form), there is some contour drawing (by instinct), gotta work on avoiding it.



Imagination


Will upload optional study later.

[Anthis]

Whoa, you guys are fast this week! Got mine finished, uploading tomorrow.

AdrienneRose - Check if you're not working in greyscale (under Image->mode). That's the first thing I can think of.
V3T - Welcome! Looking good, pretty solid gestures. Remember to check whether the weight is distributed evenly in the standing poses. In some of them, the figure seems to be leaning on one leg, in which case you would see a tilted pelvis. Nice shoulder study too, accurat

[Hamorhage]

I'm focussing on gestures again..I normally don't refer to my blog but I wrote some thoughts that might be of interest in people who want to loosen up their work as well: http://dailysketchbookchallenge.blog...cs-30-sec.html

Here are the sketches anyway, all 30 second drawings from posemaniacs..dare I attempt 15 seconds next? Haha, I think I will!

[V3T]

I'm hoping one of you guys could help me with a question on gestures. Are they more about the action, rather than how the figure looks? I have noticed Sargent has very scribbly gestures but they tell the action. Also, thanks for the critique, I am certainly gonna work on them =]

[AdrienneRose]

Wow! Animare!! Those are great drawings of the shoulder!

@Staal: you were totally right! That seemed to fix the problem right up! Thank you for your help!
I love your gestures too. I really feel the movement!

I am glad you're joining in @V3T! Your shoulder studies are awesome!!
Also, I wanted to add, since you asked about gestures. I had to refresh myself about gestures recently, and quick ones can be scribbles! But they can be whatever really, but they're just supposed to reflect the motion at the very least. But I think the scribble ones reflect a shorter time, 30 seconds or less, cause one can really get a lot down in one minute with practice!

@e-nat: I think I got the problem figured out thanks to Staal. I haven't really played with it too terribly much, but haven't come across the issue again quite yet. -- I think that they're unclear because I may have made it a little too small in pixels, and because I did some scribbling. lol.

@Hamorhage: I love your 30 sec gestures, and am excited to take a good look at your blog! I definitely need to follow some more arty blogs!
I can't believe you can get down so much information in 30 seconds! I am super impressed. I really like the silhouette ones! Also, I think it's great that you tried some new approaches to your gestures! I think I need to try a new way as well, could you explain what you've tried?


Here are some of my gestures

For the above ones, I was using the posemaniacs app on my iPhone. Not sure how I feel about it. I don't like that it's not real people. But it seems okay.





All the above gestures are done with LoveCastle (the drawing script).
5 minutes is a really nice time. Today (above), I tried to make "determined meaningful/purposeful lines". Less scribbling. More... meaning. I think it turned out pretty well!

I did this one in the waiting room at the doctor's office. From memory. I see now that her leg proportions are pretty off. lol


42 completed, just a few more to go!

[Anthis]

V3t - The definition can be a bit vague. I believe that in general, a gesture is about the movement and essence of a pose. The basic form and its most important information. Action, balance and emotion rather than details. Gesture drawings tend to be relatively quick, but are not necessarily warmup exercises. You should check THIS thread in which gestures are discussed. Check Mentler's response in particular.

So, mine are not technically gestures ;/
Did do a lot of shoulder stuff though. Mixture of Loomis, Hampton, Fripp and the shoulder examination video.

[Hamorhage]

tonights' life drawing + some shoulder studies

[V3T]

Thanks for replying to the question guys =]. Anthis, your figures look great, loving your work.
I thought I would just post the other 25 gestures, they are a mixture of timed gestures.

[- nat -]

30 sec


Not timed. theme= Sword fighting stances.


From imagination.


Loomis and Vilppu

[AdrienneRose]

@Anthis: Your shoulder studies look so awesome. I guess I may have to do some studying on how to study for drawing. haha. I haven't got so far in my Loomis book yet, and I feel like I would be cheating if I flipped to the shoulder part... but I like what you've got here!

@V3T: Hmm, it looks like you've got an awful lot of straight lines in your drawings, they look good, but try to get more curved lines, and less straight ones. Might feel a little more "gesture-y".

@e-nat: I can't believe you can come up with so many poses from your imagination. I really suck at that. I feel all, put on the spot and my mind freezes when I try to come up with a pose on my own. A lot of the time, if I am trying to come up with a pose, you can see me in my living room... standing in all these funny poses. haha.


Today's work.



Shoulder studies from HERE.



30 second gesture warm up.



5 minute gestures.




Reference for 30sec and 5min drawings Here.

[Flashback]

I'm back!

My look like crap.

[Eskeleto]

I have had a rough couple of days which included Photoshop crashing twice and not being able to save anything which didn't help me get out of my rut

Got back on the horse today though and started off with some several done at 45 seconds. Then slowly transitioned to longer poses which then lead to some of the optional studies.

Oh and a big thank you to AdrienneRose for that link on shoulders! It is an absolutely amazing resource

@V3T: I really enjoy how you are able to capture the form with such confident and dark strokes. You have some really solid looking ones going there.

@e-nat: Those multiple lines you put down to add volume to your gestures are great. It shows that you are thinking about the entire 3d form and volume, and not just the contours.

[Eskeleto]

Double Post !

[Eskeleto]

Triple Post!

[AdrienneRose]

I'm back!

My look like crap.

They're not too bad, I would just take your time on them, they look rushed. But decent otherwise!
----

One more shoulder study from here. Pretty much exhausted that resource. I may draw a couple more later today.

Should I write the names of the items as well? Hmmmm. Maybe I am "studying" wrong? Who knows. LOL.

[Hamorhage]

My morning gestures

[AdrienneRose]

Hamorhage! Your shoulder stuff looks amazing!! What resource are you using, if you don't mind sharing? They look awesome!!

[Hamorhage]

Hi Adrienne! Thanks! I was using a book I bought over christmas (it's a huge MASSIVE book which was on sale for 7 euro - couldn't believe it). It's called "Anatomy Drawing School"
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Drawin.../dp/084160164X

It has amazing drawings and I like that it shows images on how bones move as well.

[AdrienneRose]

Hi Adrienne! Thanks! I was using a book I bought over christmas (it's a huge MASSIVE book which was on sale for 7 euro - couldn't believe it). It's called "Anatomy Drawing School"
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Drawin.../dp/084160164X

It has amazing drawings and I like that it shows images on how bones move as well.

I can't believe you found that book for 7euro!! It's like... over 50USD on amazon!!

Where on earth did you find it for 7euro?! If you find another one... you should send it to me! hahaha.

[Flashback]

Gestures drawing...

[V3T]

Shoulder studies before the day is out.
Hamorhage, your studies are really slick o_O