Spartan Camp #88 - 50 gestures + Optional Study of "Anatomy colour study"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #88 - 50 gestures + Optional Study of "Anatomy colour study"
The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 24th of May.

The gestures can be of anything, human, animal, cavorting capybaras....and can be in any media, digital or traditional is fine. Both with and without reference is OK. 50 poses is a challenge, but don't stress yourself reaching it! Practice is the main goal.

In addition to this, participants can choose to do a Optional Study of "Anatomy colour study", in any media. Black and White or Colour is fine.

Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!

PS...critting each other is highly encouraged!! Let's help each other get better!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #87

Mindbendermind
Anthis

[Ian RB Webb]

Hello, this is my first post here, I'm a rising freshman Sequintial Arts major at SCAD. I wanna keep my skills honed and such, and I felt that this would be a wonderful opportunity for me. Be forewarned though, the quality of these pictures SUCKS (I was running on low battery power, had to take 'em SUPER fast ).

[jefflarose]

I hope this is ok?

[Mindbendermind]

Nice to meet you, fellow Spartans. Nice flow in the linework, Ian and interesting use of greyscale, Jeff.

My first gestures for the week are all from posemaniacs - 90 sec/pose. Getting into habit of having this as a daily warm-up. :-)

As for the anatomy color study, I happened to paint a nude woman eating an apple yesterday evening, so I guess she'll come in handy here. Much of the coloring was inspired by a Frazetta painting (used some other references as well). Sorry for the small size of the image. Might add some other study during the week.

[shiNIN]

welcome, new ones

yay, I actually started my gesture studies before the weekend... unusual... (though I always try to do it).

the half part of my stuff, I lazily copied some referenced own copies, drew some lolcat gestures and I used pictures from http://imageevent.com/justmeina/refc/bytype (thanks again for the link, Anthis! )
I'm very displeased with myself.

EDIT: some posemaniacs... 10, 15 and some 30 seconds but I became tired and inpatient so the 30 second ones aren't better and I stopped doing them.
sorry for the quality, both drawing and photographing, I'll be more careful next time.

I plan to make some detailed ones (probably Bridgman) and the optional too.

[jefflarose]

more poses

[Mindbendermind]

Nice addition, Jeff.

Have begun painting another image with a woman chased by a dragon. Although much of her body is covered by a dress, I guess it's better than nothing (just a detail of the pic):

EDIT: Added some more 90 sec posemaniac gestures

Sorry for missing your post, Shinin. Looking good - I sense improvement. Remember that as the time limit decreases they AREN'T supposed to look "good", but more to capture the flow of the pose, helping us to "loosen up". I struggle a lot with this - so hard to let go and just let the pen flow freely. Still don't dare not to look at the pen but only at the screen as is suggested at the posemaniac site. Hopefully will get there one day though... :-)

Have to say again, Anthis, that I am SO grateful for these camps, encouraging me to do my "daily posemaniac workout". My figure drawings are starting to look better and I draw my characters with more speed and confidence than a few weeks ago. Thanks for your efforts in keeping it going, mate. :-D

EDIT: Last additions of the week - some 90 to 10 sec/pose posemaniacs

[shiNIN]

I hope it's okay for optional... I planned to modify it in Photoshop or something (I drew it on Tegaki E) but I became tired/lazy...
well, not good, I plan to do more in the near future.

[Anthis]

A lot of poses very early this week. Lot of contributions too. Wonderful!
C&C:

Ian RB Webb; Welcome to CA and welcome to this activity. This site is wonderful if you want to improve. Hope you enjoy the spartan camp too. Nice job on the poses. They seem to be referenced from posemaniacs, did you use a timer? If not, you should consider using some more construction lines to lay down the big shapes first. It will help you maintain proportions, get a feel of perspective and weight, and you can notice mistakes early on. I believe it also helps you 'learn' the actual anatomy. You're not afraid of the tough poses, which is a great thing. Many of your poses are well balanced and look fluent, keep that up!
jefflarose; Sure that's fine and welcome! "Gestures" is somewhat of a broad term here. Nice to see some value studies. Tough though! Are you using a tablet? For the value studies: You may want to start out with a big brush to lay down some big basic shapes. You seem to be using one size only. For the rest of the poses: I would recommend more sketching. You can make a light sketch to outline the general proportions, perhaps on a different layer. Just start with the big masses: a pelvis, head, chest, add limbs. You can use construction lines if you wish (recommended!). You have a lot of lines there, just to fill up the pose. I don't think you need all of them . I think the first value study is going good though. I can see you are using construction lines, working on the values, trying specific body parts. Very nice. Some tough poses among those too! Stay loose and try out some different settings and methods to find out what works best for you. Digital drawing can be a challenge but you'll love it! Keep it up!
shiNIN ; I can recognize the poses right away! Quality looks fine too, it's easy to see. Nice going on the flow lines and construction. Notice that when you let go of them, some of the proportions change and the pose gets less 'confident'. It seems to happen more with the long poses (at least, I see that often in my own poses). Second scan has some very smooth poses though, and those quick posemaniacs are good too. Actually, Mindbendermind nailed it: they are for loosening up, capturing the flow, improving your analysis. They force your to work economically and spot the most important properties of your reference. And variation is good! And so are cats. Wonderful optional. Actually the body looks great, obviously the head is unfinished.
Mindbendermind; That first colour study looks wonderful, very crisp brushwork too. Good job on the posemaniacs. A few of those have clear construction lines, and a line from the head downwards, to determine the flow. Those skeletons in there are pretty good for the proportions. Those poses seem stronger than the rest. Be careful though, in some of your drawings, you seem to be drawing 'around' that skeleton. Just outlining the figure (those lines are shaky!). Perhaps you should also try to sketch more round shapes, to pretend you are actually drawing the 3d figure. As it is, some of the 90sec poses are pretty good though... clearly better than some of a few weeks ago!

Small note on this weeks optional study: got a colour deficiency myself, so no in-depth crits on this subject at this point.

Wonderful stuff everyone! I will hopefully post a new topic tomorrow and rewrite the brief a little. To make things more clear.

Colour study unfinished.. will have to wait till tomorrow.
Some posemaniacs warmup:


Reffed from http://fineart.sk/index.php?cat=0 (There are free samples on this website, beware of the ads though. I used poses listed under 'female anatomy samples')


And just poses;

[Sealegs]

Hey guys! Since its a 3 day weekend i thought i would try this exercise...
Tried to do these pretty quick-kinda rusty at drawing...Not sure if i reached 50...i wanted to do the last 10 in value, but dint quite make it, - ill do the color study tonite...
I used a posefile book for ref...

I'm trying to get more structure & construction into my drawings...
i should definetely do this more often...and from imagination...i want to do some of those posemaniacs next time...

[shiNIN]

Sealegs: well, such drawings make my day better... *shining eyes*
(I must try much more harder *sigh*)

Anthis, thanks for your kind words! (not like you could persuade me I did well - I saw nicer copywork by me already. well it depends on my refs very much)

[Ian RB Webb]

Anthis: Thanks for the crit! Yeah, I used the thirty second timer application for all of those, as soon as I get settled down into summer, Imma open up a sketchbook and start some serious stuff. Right now is graduation time and I'm swimming in a sea of parties and rehearsals and family matters. It's just that right now unfortunately time constraints call for quickies.... Imma keep on doing the spartan training, it's good fun.

and sorry for this, but I can't resist.

THIS IS FIGURE DRAWING!!!

[Anthis]

Sealegs;Very nicely done. It's good to see how you build up those bodies and define those shapes.. You really seem to be able to determine the important features of your reference and translate that to a few lines. Inspirational workflow! Afraid I'm lacking constructive crits at this point. Don't skip those hands and feet too often! Though I think those feet are pretty strong. Good balance. Like the value studies too. Thank you!
shiNIN; Perhaps. Some days are just not so good. Though I'm sure professionals can work their way around that!
Ian RB Webb; End of the year... Good luck on that! I'm sure quickies are fine though. Working on a timer forces you to think over your lines. See you around!