Need help on improvement

**Pietas** · March 28th, 2007, 07:34 AM

I'm not really a drawer but an animator and 3d modeller. I have discovered that my models need stronger lines. I know that was because of my drawing skills being bad, so I have the last two month trying to improve them. Now I need a little help from others.
So brutal honesty would be welcome. I have the will and time to improve my artwork. I just don't know how

**Slash** · March 28th, 2007, 05:17 PM

Look up some material on drawing faces. Study the proportions of the face, and how to construct a face from primitives. Skull studies and the knowledge of how the skull sits will also be invaluable.

I recommend you start out with some loomis, he's rather straightforward and easy to understand.

**Pietas** · March 29th, 2007, 02:18 AM

thanks. The indian is a direct study of http://the-structure-of-man.blogspot.com/ witch is awsome
But I might have been a little off

Anything in particular that looks wrong?

**RogerAdams** · March 29th, 2007, 03:24 AM

Both of these are very good. The first one is the strongest. I agree with Slash. See if you can get your hands on a cast or model of the skull. I picked one up online from a university for $35. It's not the best skull but refer to it often. I made some notes. I hope it makes sense.

*Edit:

After reading my notes I wanted to clarify what I mean about the eye a little more. It is a ball and the way you can indicate this is by making the lids of the eye conform to the shape of that ball. Drawing the entire sphere for the eye will give your lids more structure to be drawn upon. I always draw the entire ball when painting or drawing an eye.

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**Pietas** · March 29th, 2007, 04:13 AM

Thank you so much! It is exactly what I needed help with

Really appriciate the time and effort you have taken to show me. Can't wait to get home from work and fix my problems

**RogerAdams** · March 29th, 2007, 04:08 PM

No problem. Keep at it, both of these show great potential. But do check out Vilppu's stuff, they beat every anatomy book I've ever bought.

**YVerloc** · March 29th, 2007, 04:44 PM

Those aren't bad! You're definitely on the right track. The only thing lacking is confidence - You're noodling your shapes and sort of discovering your values by accident. Roger and Slash give some excellent advice.

I'll add one tip of my own that may help. You say you work as a 3d modeller (my background too), so you're probably really good at visualizing surfaces in 3d. When you go to shade your drawing, you can try to use the 'sphere trick' if you want. Basically you paint up a sphere as a sort of material swatch, and use that as your palette to paint your picture with. Use your pen like a surface normal - pick a spot in the drawing and literally touch the screen with your pen and tilt it until it matches what you think the surface normal at that spot would be. Find the matching part of the sphere, grab the color there and got back and apply it in the original spot. It's kind of a gimmick, but I found that it helped me be disciplined about visualizing the orientation of the surfaces. Hope it helps

**Pietas** · March 30th, 2007, 02:57 AM

RogerAdams: I tried google the internet for Vilppu, but he doesn't have any free tutorials does he? If I'm going to by one, witch one do you recomend?

YVerloc: my lack of confidence really shine though? you are absolutly right. I haven't gone to an art school or done many drawings in the past. My techque is bad. I use only one layer, and I just keep adding strokes until I just can't see what's wrong with it. it get espesially hard to do color this way.
What you show to me does really make sence! I love the ball. Going to try to add broader strokes in my next drawings like the last one you showed me. 5 strokes and you have allready got the essence of my entire painting. Thank you for showing me

Does anyone know of a good skin tutorial?

**YVerloc** · March 30th, 2007, 04:16 PM

skin tutorial? Hmmm ... If only there were lots of pictures on the internet of smooth, round globes of skin. You know ... like breasts.

Seriosly - paint out the nipple, and crop the breast to a circle, and you're good to go with a ready made skin sphere for the sphere trick. You'll almost certainly be able to find a breast that's lit how you want. Build up a little library of them.. you know.. for research.

**RogerAdams** · April 1st, 2007, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by Pietas

RogerAdams: I tried google the internet for Vilppu, but he doesn't have any free tutorials does he? If I'm going to by one, witch one do you recomend?

You can actually start out with any of them. If you want to draw the head better you can start off with those (http://vilppustore.com/anatdvd.htm). But once I got the head videos I wanted to check out all the others. Gesture, box forms, and then all the anatomy series. His drapery lecture is killer, in about 40 minutes he explains the seven basic folds. I just prefer his method of drawing which is different than the academic style of drawing, he teaches you to not copy the model but to analyze it.

On some of the anatomy dvds, there are some sample videos of how the videos will look like, which I think sometimes give the wrong impression. They are shot while he's doing a class so you hear some loud background noise and paper shuffling but the audio and video are perfect.

Do you live in the US? If you do, check out Smartflix.com (link). They rent instructional videos. They have all his videos and a bunch of Gnomon titles too if that interests you. So for $9.95 you can rent one for a week and they provide the shipping costs back if you live in the US. I live in Canada so I have to pay to have the shipping returned.

PM me if you'd like anymore info.