Spartan Camp #216 - 50 gestures + Optional "Two week long Study"

[AdrianNagorski]

Spartan Camp #216 - 50 gestures + Optional "Two week long Study"

In Anthis's absence I'm starting the next thread, Hope nobody objects!

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Friday the 16th of March.

- 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 "Two week long Study", in any medium.



The exercise:
Simple plan, study some thing for two weeks, so work on a painting or sketch for two weeks,
Old paintings from the pre Raphaelite era or after make good examples or other artists its all up to you as long
as you don't get demotivated and can stick to something for two weeks.


Link:
http://largesizepaintings.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.oldpaintings.it/
http://oldpainting.blogspot.com.au/search/label/1400s

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 #215:

AdrianNagorski
littlebones
alizak
Obacmar
ashess
Little-Maiden
Ixallus
Gibi
eclip-se
MartinC
kayness
LordLouis
shiNIN
darkops

[shiNIN]

No, I don't deserve a star, I didn't do the optional.

Not counting the fun in the end of the last topic, I have these this far:






I really dunno what would happen when I actually drew. I'm still very lazy, my mental state is already okayish but actual drawing is little. But I feel pumped up now
I really bring babies, elephant, baby elephants and whatnot this week!

[Bellhop]

Some Loomis arms. Mostly gesture stuff from pixelovely.com.
I drew from some stills from the movie the Battle of Algiers as well.

[Bellhop]

@shiNIN: Lackadaisy, eh! I love that comic. I also noticed you drew Asuka from Evangelion, a couple of weeks ago. I think it's cool that you could draw different styles, like realism and cartoony.

[AdrianNagorski]

shiNIN: font under estimate yourself brother! Every one got a star for there constant dedication and i wasn't sure how
Anthis ranks people so i took the easy route.
Also a good long study will be great for you, im liking the range of variety in your work recently, but take it easy, don't slow down but focus on areas that make you feel like you don't want to draw. Take your time thats the secret.

Bellhop: liking the movement and the form build ups in your gestures good work,

So night shift last night, woke up remembered Ashess did some
rugby stuff awhile back so i thought i'd the same...hmmm..
maybe she did wrestlers?? LOL cant remember now.
almost 3 hours work hope quality surpasses quantity in my case, off to work soon so during the coming week i should have more to post, keep working hard guys!!!!

[Vritra]

Hey AdrianNagorski, I couldn't find any thread where I sign up. So, do I just jump in? You allow that in Sparta?

[ashess]

Hey AdrianNagorski, I couldn't find any thread where I sign up. So, do I just jump in? You allow that in Sparta?

bring artwork and you're allowed in!

[Anthis]

Thanks AdrianNagorski for posting a new thread!
I've had a bad week and posting a new Spartan Camp got lost in the mess.

Will get some gestures in soon!

*Edit* just noticed we had a different optional study*

[AdrianNagorski]

Vritra: Anybody is welcome! usually Anthis runs
the show but hes being missing in action for awhile, so i've continued his fine work,
any way post, critique, learn and enjoy.

[kayness]

heyy Adrian thanks for the shout out!

This week's gesture drawings are 2 minutes animal drawings from pixelovely.com and negative space drawings from posemaniacs.com.

I used different coloured pencils and I decided that a brown colour pencil scans the best (not really a surprise, but I could hope). Every page except for the birdie one was adjusted to heck in photoshop for contrast and curves. The feline page was actually done in bright forest green and it scanned awfully so I changed it to brown.

I hope you guys don't think I'm being mean for calling that fish ugly ...I guess he's ugly by human standards but I'm sure some fish ladies find him hot or something.









for the two week long study, I reallly wanna do this!!!! I've been in love with this painting for like, forever or something!

[shiNIN]

I hope you guys don't think I'm being mean for calling that fish ugly ...I guess he's ugly by human standards but I'm sure some fish ladies find him hot or something.

You are a nice one. I think telling your subjective opinion isn't such a big deal; I think people who kill spiders are mean. And I don't think every spiders are cute, most of them are a blob with legs but I like all I meet
Sweeet bunny and squirrel sketches
Good luck for your master study. Multiple figures, it's what scares me most, that's why I'm thinking I should do that too... A single portrait is too quick for two weeks.
By the way, I think we should make the deadline 18th, it was always Sunday and I like that tradition.

Sorry guys, I slowed down, I have just this little thing digitally (and some very wip golden jackals I don't wanna show yet. not easy).

[darkops]

Anthis YEAAAA...YOUR BACK!! It was so lonely without you. question..I've been doing 90 sec poses for sometime and also I've decided to study thou Burne Hogarth Dynamic Figure Drawing. i really want to get down a good habit study so that ill improve that fastest. any thoughts???

Kayess well, when im doing 90 sec poses its easier in mypaint...not like in photoshop where you have to make a new layer or resize them. So far I've been doing them everyday but don't feel like im getting better at it. Feels like im mindless drawing them like a zombie. its pretty easy to doing them...as easy as brushing my teeth..as for the enviro thumbnails since i started them they feel like a chores...i dont feel like i have that much confidence in rendering...put i have to do it if i want to be awesome...

Shinin nice update... yea, I only like a few thou...there hard for me because I've never painted...Even thou there small i take a few water brakes to clear my head. I'll keep doing them and it'll get easier with time.The next step for me is making bigger more refined enviro.

Martinc hey, can you make a small tutorial of how you render in mypaint i think it would me?

[shiNIN]

darkops: there's a few nice ones again... I love enviros I'm pretty sure they will be very useful for me but almost always end up drawing figures or heads

Anthis: thanks for the link
There's kindgirls.com too... But I personally prefer gracefulnudes.com. Mmmm...

I lost my golden jackals due to blackout and my absent-mindedness, I usually save more often
I tried to redid them but it wasn't easy. I try to stop copying things and find rhytm and whatnot in animal drawing as well but it will take time.


I have these as well.

[zy.]

shiNIN- lovely anime faces! Good character going on in your work.
Bellhop-- nice quick studies and good to see values in there too. Well done.
AdrianNagorski-- Very dynamic! Hard to say if there is any cc, some of the faces look odd, but then I've seen rugby player pics before and their faces DO look odd.
kayness- yey blue pencil. Beautiful birds, nice values going on. For the negative space stuff, do you set up a skeleton first? I ask because a lot of your pics don't have that much negative space (like a triangle between an arm and a hip), and that can make it really tricky.
darkops-- nice thubnails! Some really great stuff in there. Wow, tones of figures too! Well done!

[kayness]

thank you shinin, love the flowy dynamic lines in your characters! and yes multiple figures will be challenging but I think it will be exciting!

zy. for the negative space study i drew from this http://www.posemaniacs.com/negativespace they didn't have skeletons, just silhouettes of figures so I just copied from that. Thanks!!! I love blue pencils too, I'm just concerned it may not be as eyecatching or whatever as a basic brown pencil.


darkops - good philosophy - "do it if you want to be awesome!" which reminds me to do enviro too. it's my weakest area at the min. i didnm't know that enviros are allowed here...

[shiNIN]

i didnm't know that enviros are allowed here...

They actually aren't.
Spartan Camp originally is for gestures, figures... Allowing heads and hands and whatnot is okay, they have gesture too and even if they are neutral, they are part of the figure at least.
Some people bring objects and enviros from time to time and we are so very tolerant and interested in other things than gestures that no one says a bad word. But those still aren't gestures at all.

This actitivy may called Spartan Camp but it lacks Spartan strictness.

[AdrianNagorski]

Anthis:No problem man , i apologies if i was out of line for doing it. In any case hope your coming weeks get better and you can pump out some more awesome_ness!!!

shiNIN: LOL you made me laugh with: "This actitivy may called Spartan Camp but it lacks Spartan strictness."
i guess each one has there own avaliblity and discipline here which
is cool. if i could id draw 12 hours a day!!! every day!!

The faces are from my soggy brain,
the rest is from images from flicker, me betta get started on the
two weeker, leaning towards a Franzetta study i tried once. . .

[Eternal Apprentice]

I want to join this.

[Guardian G.I.]

I'm too lazy to reply to everyone whose work I like.
AdrianNagorski, you have greatly improved while I was not looking, great job!
The imaginary faces look skewed. I often do the same mistakes when drawing from imagination, though.
shiNIN: All of your stuff looks good to me, except all that animu stuff which I don't understand...

30 sec gestures and a few sketches from Soviet paintings about World War II.
I don't know what to draw for the optional, because my head is full of random ideas: it's either some sci-fi environment or vehicle sketch (which would probably look like crap), or a portrait of Vladimir Putin, or some architecture concepting, etc.
Master studies are not an option - I'm too bad at painting to successfully do one.

[shiNIN]

I'm slowed down again I have just these (and some pencil scribbles, force book and anime alike and some photo refd fail too. it wasn't my day):



Oh and I know what I want to choose for the optional.
I told kayness I always tried to avoid multiple figures.
So I thought why not jump
Nothing surprising, Bouguereau as always.



..maybe I will think over and run away
I dunno yet
Now it seems a good idea to me.
Maybe it will be over two weeks. It should be enough in great state and working on it a lot but I'm not always in my top shape and this world offers more for a hedonist

[ashess]

with you all in spirit if not in action! :o

@Anthis-welcome back man; hope you're doing better!

@shinIn- love those foxes! the piece you choose.. wow! there's multiple figuresand multiplemultiple. wouldnt going for 2 be easier? just saying. this one intimidates me enough to run away screaming, let alone get anything down on paper.

@darkops- lovely screens! and wow, that's 50 gestures already huh? glad you didnt make m so dark this time. though they're a bit small now!^^


ahh, spent all evening on my water element. and my new scanner hasnt arrived yet so canna scan any pencils. so this is all I got :p

[kayness]

Shinin, I don't think I've seen that one before. What is it called? I don't like many of Bouguereau's works but that one is stunning to me even though this is the first time I saw this!

Guardian I think you captured the essence of the figures very well!

and ashess, cute baby drawings!

[Obacmar]

Hay everyone
A few from my life drawing session today.

Shinin - Lots of good stuff, I especially love the forms in #9 and the hentai grrls OC
darkops - those thumbs are awesome. The gestures are quite small, but I guess they read so what do I know.
Kayness - the ugly fish is really cool. The negative space stuff is really interesting.
Adrian - dope studies cool subjects

srry guys if I'm brief/vague, or I missed you. Its cold here and I want bed. bye fo now

[shiNIN]

Lots of good stuff, I especially love the forms in #9 and the hentai grrls OC

What do you mean? What hentai girls? I put so much stuff here, I won't be able to tell what you called like that.

ashess: Nice things are going on in your sketches, I really dig several cat sketches. There are flows but there are nice "messy" gestures (I mean, not clean and steril but lively, pros do that too and it's cool).
No, I wanna do that painting I feel so brave now. I have to get out of my comfort zone, it's nothing new, so why not to make a big jump?

kayness: It's Bouguereau: La jeunesse de Bacchus. I find it interesting enough, I probably won't lose patience for a long time

Out of my comfort zone (heads from different angles!), I was oh so rusty with digitals but I warmed up a bit ~ I will redo the first one but it's a bit informative.




Bad jpeg quality happened on poor heads - and my anime bunch, they are kinda useless copyworks but cute and I will reshot them tomorrow

[MartinC]

darkops you are doing great on the gestures and land studies, just don't overdo it so you don't have fun, the important thing is consistency, I think

about the tutorial,
I will look into it, but setting things up for recording, streaming is a pain. (running ubuntu)

shiNIN You are rocking this Spartan Camp,looking forward to your master study.

kayness Great animals study



eclip-se here there are 100/ 60 sec

[Obacmar]

Just some doodles from imagination, messy and loose maybe a 1 min each, I have no patience lately. The little doodle book lives in my pocket and I love it!

shiNIN - Yeah you do put so much stuff here, slow down... JK. Hey man no offense intended, I love Hentai. (top of pg. 2) anyways the line quality in your digital work is quite nice (pg. 9), but there is a noticeable lack of hands throughout your work as of late.
ashess - The Faceted feel to the kitties form is really cool. The girl and doe proportions are off her thighs in particular... My latest gestures are from a live model I attend the "life drawing" every Monday for 3 hours. Its the best ! and I encourage everyone in the universe to do it as much as they can.
Adrian - The comic character busts are cool, but some can be deformed a tad. I suggest more construction lines to establish orientation / scale 1st. Dont worry if they show through Did I mention I love the details in your samurai's

[kayness]

not all the pictures i posted are showing for some reason...

[ashess]

not all the pictures i posted are showing for some reason...

for me, in the previous post at least, none are!it doesnt even give a mising image tag. did you use the attachment manager to upload right into the thread?


@shinIn- you say 'I'm feeling so brave, but I gotto learn to blend'.
I have to disagree. that particular one is blended plenty. it could use some crisper areas to accentuate them maybe- soft and sharp is always between contrasts.

[kayness]

for me, in the previous post at least, none are!it doesnt even give a mising image tag. did you use the attachment manager to upload right into the thread?

When I checked later they appeared just fine. It mightb e what Adrian said about the network being busy and stuff.. Thanks!

Shinin- great angles. you do the highlights so well! very bold and luscious strokes!

Obacmar - love your style and stylization and the construction lines that you used, esp the head on the bottom right, left page.

[Anthis]

This round is, quite frankly, overwhelming. Got some drawing to do myself! Coming up next.

shiNIN; Those faces are getting better and better. Complicated angles, different styles, characteristic shapes... Be clear on whether you go for a stylized or realistic approach though, they seem to blend occasionally. You got an extreme painting for the optional study. Should work out though, your value work is getting better too.

Bellhop; Nice job on these! I like the mixed reference, teaches you different approaches and views. Add some of your own if you feel like it, and you've got a nice complete exercise. If you can help it (time limits can be constraining) try not to skip the feet. Good arms!

AdrianNagorski; It always strikes me about dancers and athletes how crazy their posing can be. Can be a tough exercise. Great to hear you could draw 12hr a day. Because I love to see those imagination sketches in between. Fun to see some Hogarth too. He puts a lot of emphasis on those muscles, which I find tough to work with. Keep the bone structuers they attach to in the back of your head.

Eternal Apprentice; Go for it! No signup or requirements. Just hop on when you feel like it.

kayness; Just wondering about the photoshop adjustments. I find that my scanner sometimes 'messes up', requiring adjustments. Is that the same with you? And I agree that's a fantastic painting. Values seem to be getting better after the digital transition. Nice negative space drawings, I haven't tried those yet myself. In the first gestures it appears as if you are drawing small sections at a time. Like you place one line, lift your pencil, then place another one, and so forth. You seem to get more organic (and better, too!) along the way.

darkops; I have very little experience with Hogarth but he seems fun (good, too). His figures tend to be extremely muscular though, so you might want to compare with other reference for good measure. Great environments, value work is important. The ones with the subtle contrasts seem strongest to me. Nice posemaniacs. Its interesting, you got some good anatomy work going on there but you tend to lose track of the proportions. Careful there!

Guardian G.I.; Love what you did with the soviet paintings! Very typical. You've got to realize though (and I don't always follow this advice myself) that you'll improve by doing these things you're bad at. Similarly, drawing 'obligatory' poses won't do you much good, because it lacks effort. That doesn't mean that these gestures should be a painful exercise. It does mean you've got to try and make it work for you. For example, use reference that inspires you or draw things you find interesting. Because it would be a shame if you lost your drive.

ashess; Thanks for the link, good one. Also spotted your C.o.W entry, good luck! Digital Pixelovely can be tricky. Knowing the shortcuts for whichever program you're using is helpful though. So you can create new layers quickly to start a new pose. Fun to see some gestures of your own. They seem very conscious and planned, with foreshortened action poses and all (in post#26). I personally find it hard to get organic gestures when I try too hard at getting action poses. It sometimes works for me to start out with a looser sketch than usual. Just a thought. Because I like yours. Challenging stuff!

Obacmar; Perhaps you meant to say 'anime' or 'manga' rather than 'hentai'. The latter refers to erotic work, haha. Lovely gestures. In fact, some of these are really standing out. The second image of post#23 has especially strong poses. You could say these gestures are messy or scribbly, but they are really organic and natural. Great work. Shame you lost your patience (I know the feeling) on those portraits. Some could use a more solid jaw!

MartinC; Absolutely love our optional study. Love the colours, great work there. Even with how sketchy it feels, everything has great form. I like how the background has some structure and texture in #47, don't wash it down too much! Good work on the hands, unfortunately I think the figures are a bit small. Looks as if a couple of them could use bigger heads proportionally. But as I said, hard to see.

Little-Maiden; Less hard lines and heavy contrasts in the face! Try smoothing transitions a bit. I forgot who, but someone once said: "tone=form, line=definition". It just struck me that Kayness has done the same fish gesture on page1. I love the in-depth facial feature studies. Sometimes it takes only a very slight value shift to define the form. Also great gestures this week!

zy.; Yea, that's good knowledge. What area do you mean with the 'little wings"? I too interpret the pelvis as a square, though technically it isn't. It helps with proportions though. Regardless, the Iliac crest is a landmark you should remember, as well as the point where the femur attaches to the pelvis.

Vritra; Welcome and great work! In fact, fantastic work. That's a lot of gestures. For 30sec gestures, these are very good. The risk of going auto-pilot is there, as you mentioned. You might want to do some longer poses in between, or some from imagination. Puts things in perspective, gets you a new view. Also allows you to go in-depth.Your earlier drawings (post#44) are more detailed, but less lively. Personally, I find that alternating approaches is helpful. Can be tough to find the right routine with the highest yield in terms of learning...
Also, that's great advise and a nice analogy. Though I like to alternate with some fun activities and challenges to put the studies to use and see what requires studying next.

Jaik; Hi and welcome! Wonderful work, the AC trailer is very recognizable! You raise a good point. Usually if you were to do longer poses, your initial sketch would be lighter. Then you have enough freedom to get more detailed anatomy in. With quick gestures like your 30sec pixelovely ones, you only get a few moments to define the overall shapes , movement and action. In a way, long and short studies can serve a different purpose. *edit*
You're already doing better with the longer poses there. Some advice for coming up with gestures: Try some really quick and loose scribbles as a warmup, to get some ideas. Posing yourself works too.

Aishani; Welcome, and please don't feel intimidated. The Spartan Camp focuses on improving, and there's no entry level. And you're doing good at that. Either you have a good eye, or you seem to know quite a bit about anatomy already. (careful with wrists and knees!) Good sense of form. Rather than gestures, these are quite elaborate and long studies with attention to detail. Gestures are more focused on the basic shapes, movement and action. So they serve a different purpose. Not that yours are bad, in fact longer studies are perfectly fine. But doing some gestures can help you in a different way. I personally find that a mixture of exercises works well. Great work!

consone; Hi there, great work! I hope you're not getting too much trouble with posts that are not appearing. Unfortunately, it can take a while for new members. Don't be discouraged, because this is a great website. Doing quick gestures can help you get more natural, fluent poses. Because you've got some great details going on. Shame the scans are a bit small! Also, no need to shy away from the faces. They require practice too, after all.