Anthis' Sketchplace! studiescreaturescharactersspeeds and stuff

[alisn]

wow your sketches are amazing

[Anthis]

SSG Study #5: Shaded Sphere Study

Here's the brief for the next SSG study!

To offset some of the tougher studies we've had, this is a quite basic exercise to study light and shadow and how they affect value. You draw a sphere, add a light source, determine the shadows and reflected light, and simply render it out.

These links will give you a clear idea and some guidance.
Good tutorial with some background info.
A basic tutorial.
Detailed tutorial on light in general.

Deadline; Thursday the 29th of March (1 week from now).

[Anthis]

zou; I think we all did! Good source.
Dizon; Yeap, same here! I'm happy with the reflected buildings as well, though the rest of the car looks somewhat dull rather than reflective.
-Jag; So do I, I just need more of it!
Crane; Na, I doubt that. There's a lot of stuff I badly need to work on. I don't know if there's any communication through CA, like ventrilo.
blu01; Cheers, I'd like to do many more of those. Just.. time...
Little-Maiden; Yea the spartan camp can be busy, but there's a lot more to be studied.. haha. As for the SSG studies.. we basically take turns in coming up with interesting studies. We've just started doing this, we'll see how it pans out. I'm sure you can handle these exercises too, just give it a shot.
alisn; Cheers!

Boxers from reference. Big update incoming too.....

[Dizon]

Awesome study. Great colors, man.

[Anthis]

Dizon; Yea, colours are a big issue so you can expect more stuff like this...

So, I promised a big update..

These are all gestures and anatomy sketches for the Spartan Camp (see signature for activity info). The Spartan Camp has seen an influx of participants and is quite active by now.
I've been doing these things on a weekly basis. They're from imagination, usually after doing some referenced work first. Progress is slow, but it's there!

I know, it's no use practising anatomy if you're not doing characters and such. They're up next.

[Anthis]

Went with ashess and Kapri to the Body Worlds exhibition here in Amsterdam to do some drawing. Beautiful stuff, needless to say. Had a great time, I'd say we learned a couple of new things and exchanged some thoughts too.

[Kapri]

Damn, those figures from imagination really rock! A little crit (that ashess gave to me a little while ago ): the figures are all closed. Maybe try to leave some lines open and post some really loose gestures that exaggerate the pose allot?

I also had a great time at the expo. Learned allot too. I bet some of the old renaissance masters would have gone nuts for a changes to study human bodies like that.

[zou]

hi anthis


the boxing man are awesome, especially the colors. i'm curious about your thinking process when guessing colors. (me: it's like, more saturation , more lightness... )

this body Worlds exhibition seems great, i didn't know that someone would do an exhibition for the human body (seems a thing for doctors)

your bodies are nice too but sometimes i see small arms (or thin)


good luck with your nexts

[ashess]

ahh! finally the update; was wondering what kept you. but with that much to scan, I can imagine you didnt really want to :p
I had a great time at the expo too; and it's great to see all those muscles and joints change with movement. definitely new insights for me too!

I also had a great time at the expo. Learned allot too. I bet some of the old renaissance masters would have gone nuts for a changes to study human bodies like that.

indeed! I heard stories that some secretly dissected bodies and actually got into trouble with the church. haha! guess we got it good.

the expo stuff looks real nice; ah, it does add a bit to see the whole figure like that. I might be a lil sorry I only drew joints. still, they are important to me now

the figures are allway hard to crit for me; they just pretty much seem good. some feet missing again and I notice the props. they are pretty wrong in perspective. you could put some extra effort there.

[Anthis]

Kapri; Hmm, do you mean they're too focused on contours? Or lose some of the edges in favour of more fluent and open lines? Because I do notice they tend to get stiffer as I render them out.

zou; Our process is roughly the same then. I usually try to 'understand' the local value and saturation. Like; "is there bounce light from other parts of the body?". Or "does the light reach there?". The body worlds thing is quite well known, though I'm not sure if they would visit Tunisia. Fantastic to look at, give it a Google search.
As for the arms; that's a good observation. Was trying to move away from exaggerated, muscled figures. But perhaps I've gone too far, haha.

ashess; Agreed, I too am happy with our modern values and open society, hah! Perspective in those figures is something I've had to work on for a while now. It happens mostly when foreshortening, which takes up all my attention and makes me lose track of other things. That's what I think, at least.



-Some newspaper sketches.

-Went to a free portrait drawing class from the Wackers Academy, after a suggestion by Kapri. Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours on this. Charcoal. On an actual easel, with a teacher looking over your shoulder. New experience, but liked it a great deal.

-The SSG study from this week. Balls with light sources. Inspired after Michael Bierek's "mystery of form" download. Need to do more stuff like this.

[Anthis]

Feet needed work.

First after Bridgman.
Then using a mirror.
Then imagination.






And random Moleskine junk.

[Dizon]

Nice studies, man! I see you improving with your drawing skills.

[PeopleEveryday]

Fabulous sketchbook!

My only comment/critique on your from-imagination gesture drawings is that a few of them seem to be a bit weightless. Those figures are also ones that seem as though they should have a strong twist in the spine. The shoulders and hips don't seem to quiiite compliment each other. I'm sure a few sketches of twisted bodies would resolve that issue.

But this is a beautiful set of work! You have some amazing talent.

[zou]

nice post anthis

like the lighting exercice (the back view and different situations)

the sketches from mind are pretty cool

keep up

[Angel Intheuk]

Hi Anthis

You have such an admirable work ethic, you make me wish I was more structured and disciplined with my studying as you are, which is a good thing, I come away from your SB inspired everytime.

Your moleskine sketches are so good, I love the array of different poses and costumes and armour you come up with, great imagination. I think some of the poses can seem a little stiff or rubbery depending on how dynamic or posed the character is, but that's obviously something you're working on and you're definitely going about it the right way. I've noticed it's difficult to keep the essence of the gesture in a finished sketch because of anatomical corrections that can sometimes ruin a good pose, I geuss that's where dynamic angles and foreshortening come in to play.

Nice job on your first life drawing session, they are invaluable, very difficult to get into at first but once you do you'll wonder why you hadn't done them before

Great SSG Studies! the fabric studies and the car...wow! I was convinced you'd used photo manipulation at first on the car, it's so cool.

You can tell the anatomy studies have sunk in with the last batch of gestures. The feet studies are great too, just keep aware of making the ones from imagination too rubbery, but that really is the only crit.

Nice work keep it up!

[oren90]

cool studies and sketches

[Anthis]

Dizon; Eh.. I hope so!
PeopleEveryday; That's a very good critique. In retrospect, the point you raised is not something I've paid attention to. Sometimes it's difficult to point out the flaws, but I do believe you are correct here. Thanks a lot!
zou; Thanks! Need to do more, more more!
Angel Intheuk; I appreciate the kind words, though I agree only partially. I'm still drawing quite a bit, but I'm often really fighting to get anything done. I can't do it even when I know I do want to draw. Don't know if its common. Something I need to get figured out.
As far as the rubberyness concerns, I believe it occurs when I get carried away with dynamic poses, foreshortening or anatomy. Figure solidity seems to lose out first when that happens.
oren90; Thank you!

First one is a SSG study (suggested by Crane). Assignment was to draw plants based on a lists of nicknames. *edit* Just noticed the names are intelligible. I chose "stained glass", "unwelcoming", "wind sock", "cat ears".

Then two Daily Sketch Group things.

And a CHoW entry.

[Anthis]

Went lifedrawing with Kapri and ashess last week. I was ill, got there late, and had no idea what I was doing. Still a lot of fun.

20min each (slow!). First two are A2 sized, then I ran out of paper and had to use an A4 sketchbook. Will prepare better next time..

[Hesse]

keep it up , your doing great.
Dont be afraid to get in the blacks in those pencil sketches

[Rob Powell]

Hey man! Great updates lately! Like those DSG's and really Liked your alien gardner chow piece, got my vote on it, though something's bugging me. The lighting on the glass of his helmet is a tiny bit distracting to me, and I think you should indicate it's outer edge a little more so it's shape is a little more defined, there is a subtle line to indicate it's edge near the bottom part but it's a little bit too subtle.

[Mr.Ebony]

Your studies of muscle and light are amazing.

[Jyou]

i love the underwater piece you have on the first page. the environment looks great O:

[Hai]

Hai; The scanner does mess things up, but I've got part of it solved now (scanning with all adjustments off). But like you said, the values are no good regardless. I have to admit I can't put my finger on it though, so you can point it out if you can see anything specific. Perhaps the range between completely white and shaded areas is too big.

This could be a good thing to experiment with. Perhaps you should try to limit yourself to a few values once and see how it works out. You could start with three (darkest, midtone, lightest (nothing)), and see how it looks, then add more if it feels right. Even if it doesn't fix your specific problem it could be a learning experience all the same.

[Angel Intheuk]

Hi Anthis

Loving the enviros The atmosphere in the sci-fi one with the couple is really nicely done.

What you said in regards to feeling like you're struggling, I constantly feel like that too and apparently it means that we're making progress (I heard it recently as well from the Crimsondaggers interview with Brad Rigney from 2009, don't know if you've seen any of their videos but I'm finding them a great inspiration atm - here's the link to their Youtube page-->http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...1019.1j2j3.6.0.) Anyway keep up the good work

[zou]

A2 size; thumbs up

your digitals are great as usual
for the last figure drawings, i sense the line is getting more confident in each drawing

[Anthis]

hesse; Yea good point. I already switched to B/2B pencils, but I'm still drawing too 'lightly'.
Rob Powell; hey Rob! Thanks for the comments, there were none exchanged during that round. C.O.W does way better when it comes to critique. I can understand if the glass effects are badly placed- I wasn't quite sure how to handle it.
Mr.Ebony; Thanks!
JyouHah, that's a while ago though! Cheers, though I think I need to practice way more on the environments.
Hai; Good points there. Perhaps some more simple value studies as well, or cast drawings. These things are fundamental and invaluable after all. I'm pretty sure it would fix a lot of problems.
Angel Intheuk; Haven't seen the videos yet, though I do own the Brad Rigney download from Massive Black. So I think already I know what you're referring to. Will check out the daggers stuff though. Nothing new is gained when you stick to comfortable ground, right?
zou; That could be true. I'm still quite unfamiliar with charcoal, and figure drawing in general. There's usually no warm-up time, though.

Not too much... for now.

This weeks Creature of the Week entry. Topic is "Whiptongue". Tried not to use any specific animal reference this time, attempting come up with something completely new.

[zou]

nice creature, although it seems detailed, it could be more finished

[Anthis]

Quick update: lifedrawing session with Kapri back in May. Charcoal, ~A2 size, bit over an hour I believe. Got another one that needs scanning.


Let me clarify inactivity:

I'm supposed to be graduating from uni within the next month, so I'm rushing to get my thesis done. Practically doing night shifts of writing, so there's very little time for other stuff.

Aching to draw but I can't spare the time right now. Soon though... very soon!!.....

[jNeumann]

Your figure studies are awesome! They feel natural, and you have a good line. Keep it up!

[Merē.Jorg]

Really nice work (especially your studies).

Just discovered you, but I'd love to see more from you (when you have the time, from what I understand).