Spartan Camp #252 - 50 gestures + Optional "Negative Space Drawing" study

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #252 - 50 gestures + Optional "Negative Space Drawing" study.

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 27th 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 "Negative Space Drawing", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study:


The Background
When drawing something, we usually focus on the object itself and draw its outline and form. This is the positive space. Alternatively, you can also look at the "negative space" not covered by the object you are drawing. Negative space creates shapes that can be compared and measured, making it be particularly useful for measuring proportions. It's a nice exercise that allows you to perceive objects in an alternative way, and it can be quite tricky.

The Exercise

Choose any suitable reference (say, a solid object or a a figure) and study it by drawing the negative space rather than the positive space. Do not add any detail to the object itself. You can simply shade all the areas (usually background) not covered by the object. Such as the surrounding space and any openings. Do a quick image search and you'll find plenty of examples.

Interesting note:
After some research, there does seem to be some conflict on using a silhouette to outline the object and then simply shading around it. After all, by doing an outline you are essentially drawing the positive space... I would think that not using silhouette is the more interesting approach. You may want to judge this one for yourself; just check some of the reference sources below!


Reference
A couple of examples.
Link: Examples of negative space drawings. Some use silhouettes while some don't.
Link : Has lots of background info. No silhouette.
Link : This is a negative space drawing using silhouette and lines.

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 #251

Animare
e-nat
Eskeleto
AdrienneRose
Staal Sander
V3t
Hamorhage
Anthis
Flashback
AK_Guerrero

[Flashback]

Hope it's not too light.

[Hamorhage]

I don't know if you can see this outside of the UK region, but this is a very interesting (slightly visually gruesome) look into anatomy by dissection. Not for the fainthearted might I say!

http://www.youtube.com/channel/SWE9tAxhQRNGA

[Spivak000]

Hello everyone. I wanted to post some of these last week, but I was getting warning messages when visiting the site. Anyway, here go some gestures for this week.

<<Update>> Here are a bunch more. Stayed with pencils on these as I find it easier to draw with than waacom tablet. Anyone else have discomfort drawing with the waacom?


________________________________

[Hamorhage]

Spivak: You have some great structural stuff. A bit hit and miss on some of the bigger studies, but I love the way you are analysing structure, shape, etc..

Here are todays' 30 second warm ups:


EDIT: Some more life drawing (first 2 sheets are 1 minute) followed by a 20 min pose and an untimed quickie.


EDIT: another page of posemaniacs (color pencil)

[V3T]

All 50.. This was a long day. Some are 5 second gestures, a few are 10, the rest are longer, I am sure you can tell which is which though =]
I do have advice for people though, advanced and new.... NEVER EVER draw with cold hands... It is horrible..

[Angel Intheuk]

Made a start...

[- nat -]

@ Flashback, good start! You could push the values more or make the shading more pronounced. A challenge would be to try some unusual shapes/spaces.

@ Spivak000, Love the drawings You seem to have a variety of objectives in mind. It would be better to organize the studies by goal, as I see some figures have flow, construction, tone and anatomy in mind, all in the same drawing and they seem to be fighting for dominance. Doing more specialized studies of each theme would give you more insight. (btw, I think the head and hand studies are awesome, definitely inspiring)

@ Hamorhage, the link does not work in Canada. Not sure if it's a blessing or a curse.
The model this week seems to like standing. You're really good at capturing so much detail in 30-60 seconds. And the longer pose with composition is great! (Hope I don't sound like a broken record). I'd love to see some structure work (so I can steal learn from you )

@ V3T Good advice indeed. Love the gestures, maybe you can introduce a bit of variety. Like longer poses or anatomy studies, just a couple to break the monotony. But good work overall! Keep it up.

@ Angel Intheuk, A little bit of everything your quickies and the longer poses are quite dynamic.Some of the figures in the second page have rather big heads ( I notice it because I make a lot of mistakes with proportions myself). Keep up the good work


My turn!!
So today I ventured into the critique corner in CA...and well, browsing the various threads and reading lots of harsh yet honest comments, I realized I need to study bridgeman more.
I missed the mark with the first few (started with contour and whatnot), but then I started working with shapes and broader pencil sweeps. Nothing clicked yet, but I hope it will with more practice.



I stole the grid idea from Matt Kohr, simply because he is awesome. Link




Imagination

[Hamorhage]

V3T: You've got nice flow in your animal studies..try to keep those some ideas in your human poses, The last page is quite angular and captures less movement because of it.
Angel: Nice work. You're suffering from the same problem we all have, which is getting stiffer when you have more time to pencil. Really my goal is to be able to keep the movement and motion of quick drawings in longer studies, but unable to do so at the moment
e-nat: stop being so darn wonderful! I love those sweeping lines in your latest gestures, they bring so much life to your work! Your picture from imagination is beautiful, pretty good description of the human shape and lovely use of line. And even though the face is well drawn, I think you should've pushed that shape/movement more. I think it's the positioning of the head that makes this image kind of stiff. We're suposed to always think what the model or character is thinking. I think if you ask yourself why she is in that pose, you won't find a reason. You basically drew that pose to practice Don't worry I do the same things, but recently when I drew form memory I write down keywords first: late for work, tired, sick, sleepy, happy...

Hopefully it will help you, I feel so stuck right now. Like I've actually gone backwards. But I know I'll leap forward once I figure this out!
PS: You are right, this life drawing model was really bad. She was just standing, totally uninspired. Her poses were so boring that I started drawing from memory in the session (never ever do that usually).

[Animare]

30seconds from tuesday and wednesday and a 1hr class from pixelovely

e-nat love that imagination pose

[Anthis]

e-nat; Great link! Will be doing some gestures using that approach soon.

I think these are all 45sec, not sure. From Lovecastle and posemaniacs. I'm a bit clumsy with digital sketching.

[Hamorhage]

Great drawings Manthis! I love how you switch between pencil and digital. I am doing the same at the moment.
Animare: I love that little sketch with the dark brown brush on top, creates a cool look, might replicate something like that tonight as well.

Yesterday I did some posemaniacs, then took an idea of one of the poses and did some sketches from imagination. I think it's a pretty cool exercise.

[Animare]

Nice Anthis, you're fast at capturing a lot of info in 45 secs.
Great idea Hamorhageand love that little image, I saw it on facebook earlier, didn't realise it was you. Made me laugh.
Some more 30second warm ups from today.
Also three attempts at the negative space studies from today. Sadly no scanner here so took the pics on my phone, boo.

[Olooriel]

Some Loomis and a detailed eye study, more coming soon (I hope).

[Hamorhage]

You put in a lot of effort on these negative space drawings animare! Nice! (edited: sorry e-nat! Haha)
I have taken a step back , I was too focussed on drawing fast and my work was getting extremely sloppy and ugly.
So here's me drawing nice and slow I barely got the poses down, but at least it's got some life and grace (I think)

PS: Sorry for the large scans, too lazy to resize

[- nat -]

I believe that was Animare my evil twin from other parents/country (or I could be the evil one, you never know...what do you say Animare?).

@ Animare, Impressive! you're on fire!!I love the complex shapes you worked with and the gesture paintings is a there a trick to doing negative space?

@ Anthis, the transition looks pretty good, the proportions and action are all there and look pretty good

@ Hamorhage, nice approach, going back to the basics? awesome cartoon applications btw

@ Olooriel, yay structures!! great work on those, and the eye study shows a lot of detail, love it! Did you start with a sketch or painting from the get go?

[Animare]

Thanks guys!
Olooriel Really love the eyes, especially the colours.
Hamorhage those slow poses are really attractive! So flowy!
Haha e-nat you don't seem like the evil type, although maybe the e in your name stands for evil? Do you have any plans to take over the world?

There's not really a trick, I preferred to use objects that had lots going on in the background though, made it more interesting to draw. I also avoided drawing the silhouette before shading - 'tis why the ladder is wonky hah.

Here's today's studies, no speedies today, I just jumped into some slow drawings/paintings. No proper timers but I didn't go over an hour on any.
Also tried a pose from imagination, my mind just seems to go blank when I start drawing and I forget what goes where lol. That front leg is wrong, like the wrong angle or something. I can't work it out. He also looks very stiff.

[Hamorhage]

Animare: That elephant study is awesome! Your pose from imagination lacks one thing : PURPOSE
Why is the character in this pose? Did you act out this pose yourself, it's though! Haha

Meanwhile I am continuing my new approach to these drawings in the attempt of bringing life and energy to my work:

[Olooriel]

@e-nat: Thank you, the structures were hard because I'm not used to them, really got my brain smoking For the eyes I sketched in the outline (where the eyelids meet the eyeball) just to be sure that I got the placement and size correct, then I jumped in to colour and value.
@Animare: Thanks! And that coloured elephant is so perfect!

[- nat -]

e-nat: stop being so darn wonderful! I love those sweeping lines in your latest gestures, they bring so much life to your work! Your picture from imagination is beautiful, pretty good description of the human shape and lovely use of line. And even though the face is well drawn, I think you should've pushed that shape/movement more. I think it's the positioning of the head that makes this image kind of stiff. We're suposed to always think what the model or character is thinking. I think if you ask yourself why she is in that pose, you won't find a reason. You basically drew that pose to practice Don't worry I do the same things, but recently when I drew form memory I write down keywords first: late for work, tired, sick, sleepy, happy...

Hopefully it will help you, I feel so stuck right now. Like I've actually gone backwards. But I know I'll leap forward once I figure this out!

Much agreed, now that I look at it her neck, as well as head direction are making the whole stiff. I erased the parts I didn't like (neck, head, shoulder & arms) and noodled around. She doesn't look 100% dynamic, but I'll try to edit/fix when I can see more clearly. As to her expression and body language, that area needs a loooot of work It's definitely my next step. Hopefully I'll be able to update later tonight with new stuff.

ps: Maybe you could try something new like what you did with the cartoons, try to put clothes/scenario on the figures. or color/paint them? Maybe because you draw a lot from life drawing sessions and they tend to have similar themes (even if the model is great). Or it could simply be that this week's model was uninspiring.


@ Spivak000, Amazing work on the pencil studies! They definitely have more clarity and structure.




From imagination.








Edit:::

Body language exercise...Damn this is complicated. I'm struggling with the emotion of the ref (from an asian drama). The two main questions are : 'what is the character portraying' and 'how can I show it', given... some actors are good, others are bad, some are subtle and others are extreme....

[Spivak000]

Wow, awesome posts this week. This thread is filled with gesture-aholics.

Hamorhage: Thank you. I just love doing structure studies. They are just so... structural. Hah!
Your 3rd to last drawing, I believe from life, is great and I like how you looked at the whole area with the artists in the background. Your quickees are also nice and loose.

e-nat: Yes, I definately need more focused studies. Lately I've just been in ADD study mode. No structure or discipline. The grid layout is really neat. I picture an entire wall filled w/ these for inspiration.

[Hamorhage]

Edit:::

Body language exercise...Damn this is complicated. I'm struggling with the emotion of the ref (from an asian drama). The two main questions are : 'what is the character portraying' and 'how can I show it', given... some actors are good, others are bad, some are subtle and others are extreme....

BANG! This is what it's all about! Storytelling. You've done a wonderful job e-nat.

And yes, I am actually inclined to stop going to the life drawing sessions for a while because these models are not professionals..it's very cheap so these are just people wanting an extra buck Unfortunately I don't run the class, so you can't be giving direction. But the models don't think about movement, story...they think people just want to draw a naked person to learn about anatomy.

Anyway, keep going with your work, it's amazing

[Flashback]

60 sec. gestures.

Somehow I lost the last page in the upload. Sorry if some are too light. I tried adjusting the scanner and messing around with the colors in gimp, and I like how the traffic increased exercises.

I am trying to get the flow, and catch the action

[Animare]

Spivak000 Great update, you can tell you're more comfortable with a pencil. All the faces and poses look like they have life/personalities.
Thanks Hamorhage. You're right, I really hadn't given it any thought as to the purpose. I was just focused on getting the anatomy correct as always. Will think about the narrative more.
e-nat Fantastic idea. I must do this.

30second poses from Sat.
30secs and 60secs from this morning - was trying to go slower, not try to get the whole thing down but to draw it correctly instead. I spent the whole time fighting with how fast I should be going.
Also picked a pose from posematics, drew it and then put three camera locations up and tried to draw what the camera saw.

[Flashback]

30 sec. posemaniacs.

I can't stand Posemaniacs.com. It likes to piss me off with static fucking poses with exception of turning the picture 090 degrees and/or 180 degrees. Same thing with lovecastle's affair with horses and horses jumping stuff at least you can turn that off.

[Olooriel]

Twenty-nine 1 minute poses (I thought I had done thirty, but apparently I had not), some wolf studies, and more Loomis head construction: