Molten Core Workshop - Exercise makes the master.

[Lakeland]

Greetings!
As every concept artist needs to exercise to get better, the Molten Core Workshop activity was created to ease the pain of doing it alone. Here you will find various challenges taken from tutorials, books and online sources, that will cover the training of basic and advanced skills of every artist.
This post main purpose is to support my SSG activity, but EVERYONE are welcome to join.

Everyone are welcomed to join in with any assignment they want at any time!

There is no need to crit or comment, but every constructive idea is welcome.
I wish everyone patience and resolve in the practice.


First Assignment: 100 eyes
Deadline: Sunday 07.06.2009
Your job is to draw 100 eyes. Try focusing on proportions and surfaces around the eye socket. Try drawing the eyes as if they would express certain emotions like satisfaction, anger, sadness etc.
100 eyes should fit in 2x A4 format.

You are free to improvise with this assignment, as long as you keep the practice of drawing the eyes your main concern.

Good Luck everyone!


Assignment List so far:
#2 - Creativity Chillout
#3 - Light / Shadow exercise
#4 - Creativity Chillout
#5 - Simplifying Shapes
#6 - Self Portrait
#7 - Full body studies

[aspenboy]

Kewl! Count me in, mate

Should we hit only pen&paper, or media doesn't matter?

[Lakeland]

Use whatever works for you.

What might help in this assignment is to divide your A4 Sheet with 8x6 grid. That would make enough space for 48 eyes per sheet. The whole thing should take anything from 3 hours to 5 days work, depending on how skilled you are, and how much detail you decide to put in there. Dont stress out though just DRAW!
GL!

[spaztastic]

I'll be in on this one, gotta clean house fist. been gone 3 days and the mess is worse than when I left. that's what I get for leaving my hubby home to tend house.

[kikindaface]

I'm in too, need to get one more motivation ( and eyes are one of my biggest weakness in my faces ) ! the thing is that if we have to fit 50 eyes per page, it will be really small drawings, but anway, i'll do it ! c ya

[Lakeland]

the thing is that if we have to fit 50 eyes per page, it will be really small drawings, but anway, i'll do it ! c ya

The 2 page requirement is due to space reservation on CA servers. If you want, you can draw the eyes in whatever format / amount of sheets you want. In that case, post everything beyond 2 sheets on external servers and use the "[img]" tag to paste the link.

[Lakeland]

ok here goes the first 20. my hand is numb

[Mat Kaminski]

I gotta ask, is this 100 sets of eyes? Or just 100 single eyes?

[spaztastic]

just 100 eyes not sets. the orbital socket/ eyebrow bone and to make sure you have emotion and expression conveyed in the eye.

[spaztastic]

here's my contribution,
12 eyes... will go for some more later. I figure if I do 10-20 a day I can get the 100 by sunday... sooooooooo

[ashess]

thought I'd do 50 for sure. but even that is a LOT. so 25..

[Lakeland]

Welcome to the Molten Core

as just a side note, a couple of my thoughts:
I noticed that "angry eyes" are readible the most when you draw the nostril shape. Somehow that wrinkle that forms there when the face is angry is the key to that expression. Dunno why. If I draw angry eyes without showing the nose, they can be easily interpreted as sneezing or even histerical laughter expression. Atleast in my case

And another thought about the eyes is: For some reason, drawing the eyes of any non-white race is very hard for me. I need to keep in mind all the structures behind the eyelids, and the characteristic extra fat layer when it comes to asian-type eyes. Its very interesting to draw these eyes, and very good practice.

[danlambert]

Sounds good, I'm in. *runs off to draw

[MoHog]

My offering of a whoping 6 eyes!!
will do my best to reach 100 by sunday - this thread is gonna be good



really like your painting style lakeland - may try some myself (any pointers?)

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Heres my first fifty done in pencil and some in ink, some are animal and alien most are human. The next fifty are gonna be digitally.
Nice eyes everyone your all looking great specially spaz's lovin the soft brushwork.


p.s - Sorry about the crap picture the scanner is playing up.

Edit: could only get up to 70 before i lost my mind lol. Plus i had no more time.

[ErikStorstein]

Noticed this post this morning, and figured "oh hey, this will be a fun exercise".

I'm not drawing anything more with eyes today.

Edit: ahah I sound super grumpy! thanks for starting this ! ;D

[Lakeland]

Zilrion hehe NP mate, the pleasure of torturing people with hard ass boring stuff is my job
however *raises his finger* This will give us enough xp to level up with the Concept Artist profession.
This, or we can go kill a 1 million boars.

[Mat Kaminski]

<holds pencil to mouth> Hmmm... I do need to get that attack skill up <ponders>

(Sorry I'm in a goofy mood lol)

[Leonor]

Oh, I want to join in with this one. I have a few questions, though:
Is there a due date?
Can the eyes be both from observation and imagination?
Can we copy eyes from books (Loomis, etc) as well?

[spaztastic]

Leonor, yes there is a deadline it's this sunday.
Yes the eyes can be both from observation and imagination.
yes you can copy them from the loomis books or online or magazines.

hope to see your art up here soon.

[danlambert]

slacked today, only drew 4 eyes. Tomorrow I must kick it into gear.
I'm intrigued as to what the next challenges will be like, I know it's early but any hints?

[spaztastic]

Danlambert: I think we are going through the facial features. I am not positive but thats my guess. so next maybe ears/nose or lips? i do know for sure it will be helpful and AWESOME!!!

[Leonor]

How did I miss the deadline the first time? So that means we can post until 23:59pm of the 7th?

I'd really appreciate any books and eye tutorials you can link too, so I'm not missing anything I should know. I really want to make the most of it. I have my links to Loomis but that pretty much is it.

[Lakeland]

Loomis will do.
The anathomy study is needed just to know the structures behind the skin, so, it helps alot to know it. However, dont feel stressed out by the assignment. Try to find some referance that suits you and try to recreate it, using your knowledge from Loomis and your reference / imagination.
Try Google images with the keyword "eye",or "face" or "angry face", "smiling face" and on and on, by snooping around you ll find massive amout of good reference pics.

I am so happy there are so many people interested in the MCW
and the next assignment is a secret for now.
All I can say is it will be a creativity exercise that will have its deadline only 2 days. From there we ll get on with some more time consumming assignments again.

[spaztastic]

Leonor: hi, no prob. I have been going to deviantart.com for reference pics, they have a really good selection. http://www.furiae.com/index.php?view=gallery this one is really good. I know I have more but I am running short on time this morning so it will have to wait till either tonight or tomorrow. and yeah I still have 84-86 eyes to do yeah for procrastination

[spaztastic]

how very EVIL Lakeland giving us just two days........huh well fine.... I LIKE IT !!!!!

[Klungsama]

Awesome this workshop stuff! Much easier to actually practice the stuff I suck at (not that I don't suck at everything right now )...

Here are 10.eyes at least.. I have a busy weekend and saw the workshop yesterday, so a bit late.. but at least I've done some! Hopefully I'll make more tomorrow and sunday

Spent around.. 15 - 30 minutes on each eye.. To much maybe, i dunno.. I'm so slooow.. rock ooon!

[Pezz]

Part of my problem of being told to " go do studies " is that I often feel way overwhelmed and lost at a starting point. The formalities in being told what to draw IE assignments help me greatly (one of the reasons why I opt to go to school a lot). I will start now, since I am at work.

Is it OK if these are a mix of "from observation" and "from imagination" to mimic what I feel I've learned from the observational drawings?

[Lakeland]

There are no boundaries whatsoever.
Your angle is very reasonable. I myself try to make it 50/50, refernce and imagination.
Always trying to use the insight I get from observation to a imaginative composition.
Thats how it works I guess

[Demotyme]

It's much easier to work with someone telling you what to do.

First 20