G2KCJB Anatomy Study Group

[SkullClutter]

So, in another thread, a bunch of us mentioned wanting to be part of an anatomy sketchbook critique exchange / study group. Here it is.

EDIT: How the group works
- Open for all to join. Drop in, introduce yourself, and get studying!
- The focus is on a new body part each week, with the new part being announced on Mondays.
- Please work in greyscale
- Work from whatever materials you have access to. Make a note with your post what you're working from. If you found something online, we'd appreciate a link.
- Post as much as you want each week.

Currently Studying: Knee and Lower Legs

Feel free to keep doing studies: do more work on the head and neck, do some studies of overall proportions, get a head start on the rest of the body, whatever. Feel free to post any of it.

Original Group Members
gateau
KingElvis
Jyoung
Charmer
grimfeather
BitJockey

Gateau suggested we pick a body part a week to study, and I think that's a great idea.

First things first:
- Tell us a bit about yourself - where you're at right now, what your goals are, etc.
- A link to your sketchbook
- What body part should we study first? Start from the head and work our way down? From the feet up? From the middle out? We've figured this part out.

About me:
I'm a programmer by day, but I've been doodling since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I'm not trying to go pro, but I still want to make my art the best it can be. My ultimate goal is to create illustration-style paintings.

The link to my sketchbook is in my sig.

I don't mind starting anywhere for the first week, but I have been doing a lot of head studies lately, since I've been working on portraits.

[Charmer]

The order of learning doesn't matter I think. I would say lets begin with the head and keep the plan downwards like you said. So that we have an order nobody can hide from the needed practice

About me: I'm Flo, 21 years old, from germany and I study Virtual Design in the first semester right now. We'll do a lot of 3D stuff but I can specialize myself on 2D if I choose so. In the third semester we'll have Concept Art and Matte Painting, so I'm going to get very much better until then. Right now I do some anatomy stuff but the problem I have most, is that I lose my focus WAY TOO FAR. I do lets say 10 heads and end head studys. And I hate that. I wanna be professional anytime, right now I have 3 1/2 years to get fit. Where I am in anatomy... hm. Take a look into my sketchbook. Not so far, that's all I can say. So it would be alright to start at zero.

My Sketchbook can be found in my Signature. Let's see whats happening here. Starting page in my browser, lets get some bodys nailed down on paper/tablet!
Can't wait to start practicing with you guys!

[Jyoung]

as far as the study goes you guys just pick and i'll follow. i want to practice everything.

About me

im 24 years old currently employed building furniture. i taught myself art and have been working at it constantly for the last 6 years.i would like to reach professional level and do work in cover illustration and in game development.
i dont have a ca sketchbook but when i do i'll add the link.

[grimfeather]

hey im 21 and a student working in retail to help pay for school in 4-5 months in canada, iv always been interested in art and taken afew short courses but most everything i know has been self taught. Im planning to go to school in march so im building a portfolio in three and a half months(it only needs 5-6 good pieces and their more for skill basing)

sketchbooks in my sig(it hasn't had much done as iv had no scanner and only recently started with digital)

As for body parts to start with im not too picky but I do think we should work hard on the legs, hands and feet as lots of artists have issues with these(also facial expressions).

[KingElvis]

Hi, names Martin, Im 24. Im currently employed as a police officer in germany. All that i do know about art is self-taught. Id love to get my art on a professional level, so that i can earn some money doing what i love. Im still not really focused on any one area like conceptart, portraits, animation or anything. Ill look and see whats the most fun to me.

My sketchbook can be reached by the link in my sig. Times have been crazy during the past months but my schedule is kinda stable now so that i can use a lot more time to draw and paint.

Body parts: Lets go with the hands if you ask me. you cant practice enough of em, and i certainly havent!

[grimfeather]

im on skype if anyones interested just add nate.r.burt from bc/canada

[Diarum]

if I may add my 2 cents, but I think you guy are over looking the most important part of anatomy, Proportions. I think that this should be the starting point of an anatomy study group, it helps solve problems down the road and brings everyone up to speed. but again, just my 2 cents.

[Jyoung]

one quick idea, i was thinking since christmas is approaching that we take that week off since im sure many of us will be busy with the holidays.
and i thought about it, working head to toe makes sense to me.

[grimfeather]

proportions are a good study but something that is also picked up over time, if you learn to draw the different parts im pretty sure you will get a general idea where things go and look. Mind you proportions are necessary for foreshortening so it might be a good idea to touch on them once and awhile

[SkullClutter]

Consensus seems to be we start at the head and work our way down.
I also agree proportions are something we should touch on at some point, but we can also touch on this as we go - we can do an 'eight heads' diagram when we do heads, and we can do sketches of arms beside torsos when we do arms, and so on. Not just study bones/muscles but also proportion and foreshortening each week.

I also agree that we should take between Christmas and New Year's off, since I'm sure we'll all be busy with friends and family around that time.

So when did we want to start? Monday to Sunday?

[Leo::Amorim]

Hey guys, i've been busy, already respond bitjockey by PM... Sorry the delay...

If you guys have room, i would like to join... Is that cool?

The name is Leonardo, 20, i'm brazilian and self-taught artist... I just got into digital art few weeks, still struggling with softwares and tablet. I practice the hard as i can to reach a professional level. Right now i'm doing my first comic book, but i'm in love with concept art. I try to fit in these two areas, take the best that each one have to offer. I did studies of anatomy, but still have bad times with it, don't have confidence on my draw, so if i can join so we talk, practice and analyze each others works, that would be great.

If the space is full, no problem, but here's my skype and msn, so if you guys want to discuss and talk some ideas, just add me! And give a heads up when add, so i can know who it is... =D

[email protected]

leo-amorim-twg

[gateau]

Hey guys,

I just realized G2kcjb stands for our initials.. lol how cute

I'm also from Canada but from Toronto. I'm hoping I can improve enough to start a portfolio without hesitating about the quality. The truth is that I don't have a sketchbook yet cause I'm a little embarrassed of my work lol.. Hopefully that will be a motivating factor rather than an impediment! I don't really have much of an art background but I've been drawing for ages if that counts =p.

I'm good with starting at head level! Ready to go whenever you are =p

[Jyoung]

monday to sunday sounds great to me.i assume work on it all week and post on the weekend?

[KingElvis]

Leo::Anorim Well, why not You seem to be just as ambitious as we are so you definitely should join us!

gateau: yeah, i realized our initials there too the other day. But it really took me a few minutes haha Nice job bitjockey And please dont be hesitant about showing your work man. We're all beginners here, more or less.

Bitjockey,
Jyoung Sounds good to me. Study: Heads, starting Mon, Dec 5. Posting until: Sun, Dec 11.

[SkullClutter]

I wanted a thread title a little more creative than just "study group".

Jyoung Post things as you finish! That way we have more time to crit each other and to do more studies with the crits in mind.

Leo: Welcome, glad you could make it.

[Leo::Amorim]

Thanks, guys!

So we start with heads, right? Should we post here or in our sketchbooks?

Starting as soon as possible!

[grimfeather]

probably the head its where most artists start as you can base proportions off it

[SkullClutter]

Post in here, that's what the thread is for.

[znno]

Hey guys,

I will also be joining you guys as I get permission from bitjockey .

My name is Zarni Nway Oo and I am from Myanmar (Burma). I am currently studying at Arizona and people here called me 'Z'. So, feel free to do so.

I am 21 about to be 22 and my sketchbook link can be found in my sig. Unlike most of the people here, I didn't start off when I was really young and all I can remember is doodle at the back of my school books and getting scold for that.

I get interested in drawing and painting and digital arts not so long ago but get really serious like 1 months ago.

As, you can see in the sketchbook thread my drawing skill is not to the standard yet.

My goal is to become a concept artist in film/game industry while on the other hand traditional painter good enough to exhibit in galleries.

For now, I just want to learn to draw properly lolz.

[znno]

Hey guys,

I will also be joining you guys as I get permission from bitjockey .

My name is Zarni Nway Oo and I am from Myanmar (Burma). I am currently studying at Arizona and people here called me 'Z'. So, feel free to do so.

I am 21 about to be 22 and my sketchbook link can be found in my sig. Unlike most of the people here, I didn't start off when I was really young and all I can remember is doodle at the back of my school books and getting scold for that.

I get interested in drawing and painting and digital arts not so long ago but get really serious like 1 months ago.

As, you can see in the sketchbook thread my drawing skill is not to the standard yet.

My goal is to become a concept artist in film/game industry while on the other hand traditional painter good enough to exhibit in galleries.

For now, I just want to learn to draw properly lolz.

[tomskie]

Hey ,

Im also part of the group hehe..

Well my name is Tom. I am 20 years old male and i live in the Netherlands. I really want to be a illustrator with warrior scenes. I really love animation too and I want to make comics, but I am not at that level YET... My sketchbook isn't up to date at the moment, but you can take a look. I'm studying health at the moment, but i REALLY WANT THIS.

1. What i suggest as a body part is the shoulder, neck, torso or legs, lets start simple.
   
   
2. What i also suggest is too study a body part from all viewing points and really nail that body part.
   
   
3. How much time do we take on a study and how much studies do we do ? I want to know how much time we take at one study for example 30 minutes for a torso 30 minutes,30 minutes for a head , 30 minutes for an arm.
   
   
4. How do we study ? Only with line, with shadow or already with color ? (I prefer with shadow, because you get more sense for form and you learn to apply shadows correctly )
   
   
5. What material do we study ? I would like too study all the same material together so we can compare our mistakes and learn from them.
   [ Hogarth, Loomis, Vilppu, Bridgeman and from reference]
   
   
6. I know there are free references at 3d.SK at the moment for free, because its Christmas. If everyone would download those we can study the same material.
   
   
7. We post weekly
   
   
8. Before we go to bed we trace one head from a magazine and one when we wake up we done head study ! This tracing will help us to get more sense of the form. ( i read this from ccsears )
   
   If there are any remarks about my ideas, please do so.
   If you can add an idea please do so.
   
   When do we start to post, Christmas is coming in 30 days too me, so i will study right now!
   
   Tom
   
   

[Charmer]

Well Tom... that's sounds like a pretty good plan!
I have tons of anatomy stuff. Got the Loomis stuff and the drawing manual by Vilppu from the internet and some books by bridgman.

I'd say we should do it all in greyscale / lines with shadow.
The best thing is to keep everything easy to understand, so eight points above aren't easy to remember all the time. Maybe we should make a schedule like Dave Rapoza did a while ago for a wallpaper?

If that group works good, maybe we shall do another study group out of it later. For example animation or light and color or whatever. Anatomy now! Can't wait to start with you guys!!

[tomskie]

Well guys, i have another point.

Bridgeman is a more advanced book in anatomy. It didnt make sense to me when i started to copy stuff from it, because its so scribbly and stuff ( The books from bridgeman are meant to get form into your drawings ). Van der poel is easier to understand and the images in the book are drawn very well. It's easier to start with a book like van der poel then to start directly with Bridgeman. It depends on wich level you are ofcourse.

I don't want to be the boss, but i want some clarity.

Some reply's please.

[znno]

Hey Guys,

I also part of this group but for some reasons my post didn't show up right away.

My name is Zarni. You all can call me Z. I am from Myanmar. I will intro the rest .. I just want to test whether this will show up or not.

edit: Okay it seems it shows up when I do quick reply.

Okay... the rest...

I am 21 about to be 22. Current studying at ASU.

I want to become a concept artist leading the film/game industry, and an artist whose works are good enough to exhibit around the galleries in the world.

That being said... my skills are just around that of 3 years old lolz. I do not start off early like most of the people here do, and I am not from artistic background.

However, I know that there is a calling inside me and I strongly feel that drawing and painting are my things.

Okay enough with intro. .. I also want to suggest that we should not focus on one thing for whole week. It will get boring.

Let's study every part of the body for 15-30mins each everyday?

I got to know a friend who is pretty good in fine arts and she suggests that I should start studying with tone. So, I am going to do with that.

What do you guys think?

and bookwise .. I have no idea..

[Jyoung]

hey znono, welcome.

for me personally hitting all the areas one by one seems best. i dont think it would get boring as it is only one part for each week. memorize and build our own refrence we can look back on in the future then move onto mastering the next part. this was the way i was planning to study on my own before the anatomy sketch group was made.

[znno]

Alright @Jyoung , I was just suggesting .. lets see what we can achieve this week.

Anyway, I have gmail and skype to keep in touch.

znnoarts(at)gmail.com, zarni.nway.oo

[tomskie]

my skype is : ultimatemagician502

[Wingal]

Howdy, hope its not too late to join!

About me: I'm a 19 year old wanna be animator. Currently taking a year off to gather more funds for school. I enjoy drawing animals the most but thats probably because my humans need tons more work.
My sb is in my sig.
For body parts i would go with hands,feet, hooves, paws, claws, and the sort =)

[grimfeather]

ok so we were supposedly starting with head sketches tomorrow so ill post some links that should help people get started

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&se...+head#/d2zm8ue a quick tutorial

and if you have some spare change id recommend picking up the figure drawing videos from the banner up top since their really worth it and are 50% off right now

[Vella C Raptor]

If this is still open! I'd like to give it a shot. If not I might just follow along privately and disregard this post haha. :, D

I'm 21, currently applying for community college to get my associates, then try for an art school. At least, that's my immediate goal. Also to improve of course!
My sketchbook is in my sig...and really I'd be happy to start anywhere. I'm lacking in studies so hopefully I can start sticking to them. Mostly I struggle with torsos, hips and waists.

If anyone wants, they can add me to skype (chroma102), msn ([email protected]), or aim (pikashare). Thanks!