Life drawings of androids

[scottmcd]

Here's the sketch from the figure drawing session yesterday, finished out a bit more.

[scottmcd]

Evxyza92: I'm glad you noticed the 'bot head in the collector's window. I'm doing a new version of the other one you commented on (the portrait of some friends at the renaissance festival). In the new one, her head is tilted a bit differently to better show that she's playing the fiddle.

Here's a WIP for this week's CHoW (mis-scanned at the top):

[scottmcd]

I wish I had more time for this one. Maybe I'll get back to it for color or to soften the lines. I scanned using 600 dpi and the black/white setting. In the end, I think it may have been better to go with greyscale. Anyway, here 'tis.

[scottmcd]

A coworker wants me to come up with a mascot for BLAST, which is a molecular biology product that matches DNA sequences. The mascot is to be a beagle in honor of the HMS Beagle that Darwin sailed on. So, I found some references and started drawing a few beagles. These are probably more lifelike than she wants, but I figure it makes sense to start like this and then make them more cartoony.

I haven't really done animals much before, so this is new. I took a look at some skeletons as well.

[scottmcd]

If it comes together I may submit a CHoW this week. Don't know if I'll have time, but the topic is a mobster and his moll. This is the sketch I did at lunch today. The general seated posture for both of them comes from a reference, but the clothing and details will differ.

[The Whistler]

Hey Scott Thanks for replying back at my sb. As for your work, I definitely see much progress since your first post, I think you're somewhat better in faces than anatomy (my case too) but you'll catch up, no doubt about it.

Oh, and as for digital work, check this out http://www.carloscabrera.com.ar/tutorials/ very VERY helpful, at least in my case

Cheers and good luck

[scottmcd]

Whistler: Thanks for the tutorials and comments.

--

Here is a first cut at a beagle for a mascot. I'm actually thinking it should be a bit more cartoony, but we'll see. I doubt this will actually make it onto the web site where I work, but it would be cool if it did.

It's reduced from full 8.5 x 11 size.

[scottmcd]

If the beagle was an exercise in simplicity of line in inking, this one is an exercise in values. I printed out the last figure drawing I did very dark and then placed a piece of computer paper over it. A light box sure would have been nice, but I was able to see well enough. I usually use the brush pen, but this was a Hunt 102 nib pen.

Notice what filling in the space between his arm and torso did to the paper. Being just crappy printer paper, it warped the whole sheet, giving it a pretty interesting pattern that I decided not to Photoshop out.

[scottmcd]

Here are some gestures and the long pose from this morning's life drawing session. I don't mean to cut off the feet on these gestures, but I still run out of paper (these are reduced). As for the long pose, I'd still deepen the darkest darks and better establish the highlights, but the basic image represents about an hour and 20 minutes.

[scottmcd]

Here's this week's chow...

[scottmcd]

I went to the Small Press Expo here in Bethesda, Maryland this weekend. Then, I did this during lunch today:

[scottmcd]

This week's chow: the apple gatherer. Dunno if I'll finish it. It'd be nice...

[scottmcd]

Nearly final version of the Apple Gatherer for the chow.

[scottmcd]

... and the final.

[scottmcd]

This week's drawing - done in ballpoint pen after a light pencil sketch. I didn't get the hand on her hip in the right place, and I keyed her navel off of that. Only later did I realize how far off it is. Otherwise, though, I'm fairly pleased with it. Did a number of gestures too, some of which I may get around to posting.

[DIMAGYAN]

hey scott. nice work on the last chow, good character.

as for the miners daughter, i think is very good. what i think you have to do is not have fear with black and white. make some test to see what works. emphasize what is important. and keep in mind the "order" of the page lecture (follow a z path from left to right). the frame inside of the page is a bit distracting, i think. i made a couple of quick sketches to show you some ideas of what im writing about b and w render. (i hope you don't mind that i post the images, is more easy for me that say with words. tell me if you want i take it off the images from here.).


good works, keep drawing


first test

second test i move the woman a bit to the right
(just a couple of ideas for b&w)

[scottmcd]

DIMAGYAN: Thanks very much for your critique and draw-overs. It's perfectly fine to keep them there. I definitely appreciate it! You'll see that I experimented with blacks in the figure drawing I did last weekend, and I'll keep working on it.

-----

Here are two things. The first is a figure drawing from the life session last weekend. He's leaning against a chair that I didn't draw in, though I may add something there if I get around to it. The second thing is a WIP of the pencils for the first page of a 4 page story I'm working on. The pencil is light so I enhanced the contrast quite a bit. In the story, the Caliph is having a dinner for the members of his court, but the court storyteller is late.

[scottmcd]

I see a lot wrong with this, but in the name of actually getting things done, I'm going to call these pencils finished and begin inking later tonight or tomorrow. The figures along the table in panel 3 were harder than I'd thought, and I completely winged the perspective throughout. Anyway, once inked and in the computer I'll add words and move on to page 2.

[scottmcd]

I did the inks over the weekend. After this is done, I think it's quite possible that I'll re-do this page, but for now I'm going to go ahead with it. I like panel 2 and think that came out well, except for his hands. I need to find a reference for that hand position and go from there. Next up are words and titles. This is reduced from 9x12.

[scottmcd]

I took care of the lettering and such for page 1, which is below. Stylistically I may want to re-do it after I finish the others, but we'll see. I like the caliph in Panel 2, but would like to fix things in the other panels.

I'm penciling page 2 - made decent progress last night and today at lunch. I had my wife take reference photos of myself for panels 1 and 3, and I think that helped produce better poses. The hands are better also. Panel 2 will be an up-shot of Harun Al-Rashid reacting to the fact that that Abu Hasan is late, and having an idea. He orders an egg to be given to each member of the court and instructs them to sit on them carefully, then produce them when he gives the signal. That last part will be in the caption at the center of the page and possibly a caption in Panel 3.

Other thoughts. The line of the table in Panel 1 was initially going to lead to the table line in front of HAR in panel 2. It will lead to something else compositionally now that it's going to be more of a close-up, and I'm still deciding what. In panel 3, the arches in the background serve to delineate and highlight the figures. I'm thinking of having the background of the arches be black, which will frame the second figure heavily. It's not that I want the whole room to be dark - there's ambient light coming from all around actually. Compositionally, though, I don't want to fill up the background with detail. Plus, I do think it would be effective to frame the figures.

[scottmcd]

We had a great model today. She had both stamina and interesting poses. Her husband was just deployed to Iraq, so she's back in this area, which is home, while she goes to Howard University. I hope she can come back.

The gestures came out better today than the long pose. The gestures are all reduced, but each filled a 9 x 12 sheet. For the long pose, I started off in pencil and then moved to ink. At the beginning of inking, I was going for solid, clear blacks and whites. After I finished the arm and shoulder, though, I started wanting more gradients for the chest and abdomen. That's how I finished it out, but I think I should have stayed with the bolder style throughout. As it is, the shoulder area is just this black hole that draws the eye away from everything else but doesn't define much shape by itelf.

I took a photo of the pencils before inking started, so if I get lightbox for Christmas maybe I'll have another go.

[scottmcd]

Here's page 2. I'm generally happy with the postures, which are from reference photo my wife took of me. I'm not happy with the upshot of Harun Al-Rashid in panel 2. I like the effect of the arch framing the guy on the right in panel 3.

[scottmcd]

Today's life drawing session: ink and grahite, about 2 hours. Both full size and reduced.

[scottmcd]

I'm still working out placement of blacks. The "x"s around Abu Hasan in panel 1 indicate blacks, and there will be clear shading of the people. Considering blacking the background of panel 3 (the hand). Probably hatching as a background for the inset panel at the bottom. I hope to finish up over the Thanksgiving break.

Oops. I still have to add the food to the feast table.

[scottmcd]

Here's page 3, and also the first self-portrait I've tried. It kind of wavers back and forth between looking like me and not. It's from a reference photo my wife took for the first panel in page 3.

[JL.Alfaro]

Hey man, been looking through your sb, you been doing good progress, specially with your newest life studies. If i can crit you on anything it would be your rendering technique. You need to improve on the way you sketch your shadows and mids in. Most people choose either a cross hatching or single stroke technique, but in some of these you go back and forth between the two and then throw in some squiggles in there. just stick to one techniques is what Im saying.
Also, on some of these, there is little variation between your outline and the actual rendering on the inside. You might want to push into getting rid of that out line and focus on creating the shape with the interior rendering instead.

keep at it man!

[scottmcd]

JL.Alfaro: Thanks for your comments. That's just the kind of thing I need for rendering. I experimented with shading w/o linework for a couple of these doodles.

These are some preliminary sketches for the next page. I drew them while watching "The Brain That Would Not Die" with a sick daughter home from school.

[scottmcd]

Here is today's life drawing long-pose (1.5 hrs), plus a drawing of my daughter I did last night (20 minutes). She was reading a book, and the two light sources were on either side of her, slightly behind. All in graphite this time. I was working on de-emphasizing the line work and improving the rendering. The figure's head is wrong, but not as wrong as you might think. The guy has a weird head. Finally, a couple of hand studies.

[scottmcd]

This is a digital drawing done with mechanical pencil and 4b. Get it? "Digit"al. Yeah, ok. Never mind.

(My wife says this looks like her: )

[scottmcd]

Today's Sunday, so I went to the last life-drawing session of the year. Good model this time - a skinny, slight woman. I spent extra time on the proportions, which I think I pretty much got. The rendering needs work, but that's OK. Below are the gestures and then the long pose.

I'm also including some prep sketches I'm doing for the last page of the comic, which I plan to finish penciling today. It's kind of hard to find good refs of people either stifling laughter or just full-out laughing. The Faigin book called Facial Expressions helped, especially with the stifling laughter one.