max1975 finally drew that comic book he's been threatening for years

[Cyberotter]

I like your oct 28 picture. The idea of words clinging to someone like that is intriguing. Maybe dragging her down? Her hand has a good expression.

[Saise]

Nice anatomy drawing, very smooth shades, I like it.
I also like other works you draw. I am happy. So i like it
(Logicaly...) I really like your works.

[max1975]

Saise: Thanks for stopping by

Cyberotter: Dragging her down...that's a really good way of looking at it. I'll keep that in mind when I go back to the idea.

A few quick figure studies, kinda sloppy:

[jtheanswer]

I like your life drawings man! Keep it up!

My favourite is the girl on the bed from the first post.

[max1975]

Forgot my pencils today, stuck with ballpoint pen. Which is ok, but I like to at least have a rough pencil underdrawing. Ah well. Just some junk. The boat will probably sink because it's not put together right...I love boats but I don't know much about them.

[Zaknafain]

Keep on doing those life drawings. I can definitively see the improvement.
You seem to have problems with faces. Best would be to make some loomis head construction studies. It looks like you are paying more attention to the features than to the rest of the head and the head construction. I don't think that this is a very good idea.
Hoever I really like your drawings style. Looks interesting.

[max1975]

Zaknafain: You're right, my heads need work. They used to be (relatively speaking) a strength, but as I've worked on other things they've fallen behind. So here's a few I did today, putting some more effort into the underlying structure before getting into details. The real trick, though, is going to be attaching them to bodies. That's always where I run into trouble.

[Qxzi]

Like the updates max ! Good studies and faces

That colourful painting(#30) is my personal favourite. Its got really good brush strokes and really nice colours

Keep it up man !!

[max1975]

Qxzi: Yeah, I like that painting too, though it doesn't photograph very well. and looks a little more 2-dimensional than I'd like. But it's certainly the best painting I've ever done (with real paint, anyway)

whee, naked friday!

[max1975]

Some heads, studies, arc construction thumbnails, and attempts to comprehend figure skating...i just don't understand how that kinda thing's possible.

[Aether]

your life drawings really stand out and you seem to have a good understanding of anatomy and proportions
If id have to critique id say you should study the planes of the head

Good work
More I say and keep it up!

ps. Thanks for replying in my sb

[fractured1]

Hey hey Max!
Great work. You are still going strong. I like the color piece you put up not too long ago. And I am not much of an "abstract" fan. I have to say I agree with Aether. Your body work looks pretty good. You seem to be getting the flow of that down. But the heads look like they are coming out squashed...or too well rounded.
The planes comment rings true. Although the head is a basic oval there are many angles that make up the face. I draw out an oval and map my proportion lines in to get started, after that I draw a rectangle over the top to "box" things in, or to keep the sides of the head from flowing outward along the same plane that an oval would....Errr Hell Does that make any sense? If not drop me a PM and I will try to show you what I mean.
Lights and darks are looking alot better though so keep it up baby!

Peace

[Qxzi]

Max i love those faces and figures. They are looking 10 times as better with all these firgure drawings. Like the stuff going on

Keep it up!

[max1975]

Thanks for the comments everyone, especially the help on the heads. I did a few today, trying to incorporate what Fractured suggested. I think it helped a bit, but I dunno...the third one's eye still seems to be sliding off her face I'll keep working on it.

[Mikko Voipio]

Hello. It has helped me a lot that I have started to think the head as a 3d box model. Thinking what direction the planes face. You've got a great thread going on here so keep up posting. I'll be back.

[max1975]

Placeboast: Thanks for stopping by I will add "3D Box Model" to my list of head techniques to play around with.

Here's a WIP...thought I'd throw it up here so people can tell me what's wrong with the head (etc.) before I move in with darker pencils (the drawing's actually a lot lighter than it appears here...I always do level adjustments in photoshop)

[max1975]

Did some more work on this one, looking a little better I think. Something's wrong with her foot though.


And of course, Friday means naked people. Was struggling though, maybe because I was so bloody tired.

[ApolloNuevo]

the latest set of life drawings are much nicer. kudos.

-apollo

[max1975]

Still looking for a photoshop technique that will look good without being prohibitively slow. This one seems to be working well so far:


and yay! this is my hundredth post. I should have a drink to celebrate.

[brokk]

hey max, really nice figure studies! The only crit is that on the heads sometimes the placement of the features looks a bit off, like the eyes are too far appart or not on the same level. If your not doing the face studies from life, why not do a self portrait? Also all the faces look a bit alike, in the sense that they all have a similar expresion.

The last image looks cool, try desaturating the background more, so that the figure pops out more. Maybe even dropping the value somewhat too. The figure also doesn't have any strong shadows but it does have a strong lighting, judging by the shoulder and hair. You could add some stronger cast shadows over at areas, like on her clothes, under her arm.

Cheers, keep this up, and post more.

[Qxzi]

hey max!

Like the figures and that last update! Those figures have great shading and have rhythm. That last update looks great with that colour. Can i ask, how did you do it, because im trying to put colour in my drawings, but have no idea how. thx mate. See you around, keep it up

[max1975]

bRØk3n_sPiRiT: Why no self-portrait? The lack of mirrors. Actually I did a few recently, they apparently did not help me much. You're right about the features, and I'm working on it. I'm intentionally not trying for many varying expressions right now, trying to make sure I've got the fundamental structures right first.

Shadows on the color picture are being a bit tricky, I want to get some strong ones in there and also use some complementary colors, but I'm using a new technique on that and unsure how to proceed. But it is a WIP, and I'll post it here if/when I figure that out.

Qxzi: There are people around here who do a much better job than I do in coloring things with Photoshop (bRØk3n_sPiRiT, for one) so you might be better off asking them. But here's what I did for this one.

Do you have a wacom tablet (or any other drawing tablet for your computer)? If not this may not work so well, but here goes. I started with the fully rendered pencil drawing in post #47. The first step is to do a levels adjustment to make sure your darkest areas are black and your brightest areas are white, and you've still got some grays in between.

Then made a new layer, set its blending mode to "multiply," and painted over the clothes in flat, solid colors. I used the paintbrush, but you could also use the polygonal lasso to select the areas and fill them, which would work better if you're using a mouse and not the tablet. I did the same thing for the skin, except for that layer I used "color" as my blending mode.

You'll want to try the various different modes, some work better than others for different materials. In this one, I just changed the blending mode on the clothes from "multiply" to "color burn," and I like the results a lot better.

Next is the part you'd want the tablet for. I went into the layer with my original drawing (after duplicating it so I'd have a backup), took the smudge tool, and smeared up all the pencilwork in little strokes to smooth it out and make it look more like brushwork. The pressure sensitivity of the tablet is really handy for this, I don't think it'd work very well with a mouse.

Send me a message if you need any help with this. But you should also see how other people do it, I've tried a lot of different methods and am still searching for one looks good without being obnoxiously time-consuming, because I'd like to finish a picture once in a while. This method does seem to be working pretty well though.

Here's the pic again, with color burn instead of multiply on the clothes. I like it a lot better this way.

[max1975]

Some environment sketches in photoshop. I don't know what I'm doing with these, but hopefully I'll figure it out if I keep doing them.

[tensai]

nice effort going on here. i have to say your life drawings look a lot more alive (?) than the others. really like the way you map out the shadows and generate a wider range of values in them. the line work is also more lively. how about doing some designs on top of the poses you did in lifedrawing? or in the same state of mind or state of hand?

keep it up.

[brokk]

Nice enviro sketches! There's an enviornment of the week activity you know ; )

and you're too kind, I'm in no position to say anything about painting! Qxzi, if you wanna see cool painting demonstrations, check out bumskee's painting thread

bhranadhwyn4-color.jpg looks really better with the new background color, still needs those shadows

Cheers, keep posting

[max1975]

bRØk3n_sPiRiT: I dunno, I think a lot of your colors are pretty cool. Merchant, massive black, arctic carnivore...especially the arctic carnivore. I'm thinking about doing this week's EoW, but I might also wanna try the IDoW, but I'm not gonna be much use in these weekly things till I find some ways to significantly speed up my process. Shadows on the girl at the bottom of this post, not sure I like 'em yet.

Tensai: I tend to be a lot more confident doing shadows on the life drawings, because I can just draw what's there. On my drawings from imagination I have to figure out where the light's coming from and where the shadows are gonna fall and I'm more hesitant. But I'm trying to move those more in the direction of the life drawings, we'll see how it goes in the future.

Some quick face studies, reference here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/startle.../sets/1021467/ (massive nudity warning if you happen to stray out of the "faces" area).


Now the shadows:

[max1975]

Tryin' the EoW...i think it needs a skeleton in there or something. Maybe some tiny, evil elves. Or maybe just more shrooms.

mmm, edible cave...

[masterpug]

Wow, there is a lot of improvement in here. Very very nice. Might want to check some of the chins, they look a bit too pointed and there is very little variation from face to face. You have some very interesting environment work, and that ongoing work looks great! Also, your 'body' anatomy looks spot on.

[jtheanswer]

Nice updates! What are you using for your head studies? I mean, what book or references or whatever. I am using Loomis, and though its useful, I find it hard to get the proportions right.

[fractured1]

Sheesh Max I don't look in here for a week or so and BAM! Last few updates look great.
Nice color work on the dancing girl. I like the process, seeing you make different adjustments is a great way to learn about the methods.
Critic: IMO the dancing girl has a few items that stand out to me. 1. the bottom foot looks too short, if it is supposed to be foreshortened then the perspective on it is off just a bit. Look at the toes on the bent leg foot and then look at the toes on the bottom foot. I think that might be what is throwing it off. She does not look like she has a big toe there.
2. the bent leg looks to me as if it is longer than the straight leg. If you look at the distance from her hip to her knee on both legs you might see what I am saying. 3. her eyes look too far apart. I have also found that the one thing that can throw a portrait drawing off is when the pupils are not facing the same direction. That little subtle shift can really make things look "off". Since our eyes are slaved to one another that is an important detail to maintain.
Hope that helps some.
I like the enviros. They look like you had fun doing them. Very nice.
Anyway that is my 2 cents for what it is worth. Keep up the GREAT work. showing good progress.

Peace