Spartan Camp #101 - 50 gestures + Optional Study of a "Sci-Fi Character"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #101 - 50 gestures + Optional Study of a "Sci-Fi Character"
The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 23th of August.

- 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 Study of "Objects in Perspective", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study: Sequel to last weeks topic. Either from ref or imagination. Have fun! Colour, medium, time frame, any specifics are also up to you!

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.

Critting each other is highly encouraged!! Share constructive criticism, reference and resources!! Let's help each other get better!

Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #100

bakadoodle
Joshua Reimer
adamp
Mindbendermind
Armobot
Anthis
Angel SHIN
Rafael kokiri
Outis
philzero

[bakadoodle]

Guess I'll get it started. Actually did these Sunday night. Went about it all wrong, tried to rush and get them out as quick as possible. Sadly this still took me almost 2 hours... Anyway next set will be better.
Also working on the optional and would love some collaborative assistance with a draw over maybe to make sure my proportions aren't all out of kilter.

All these are no ref. Next set will do a couple refs.

[Mindbendermind]

First post is a 15 min ArtRage sketch of a master work (Botticelli). Will be putting some extra focus on master portraits for a month, then'll do torsos for a month.

Might mean I will go down in quantity for a while - but hopefully not quality ;-)

[bakadoodle]

Mindbendermind - can you post a link to the ref image? Good practice, and loved the Vampy from last week

[adamp]

Here we go kicking off #101!


baka: #6, #7, #8, #15, #20 are my favs. I love the linework.
Mindbendermind: That's a great plan of attack to focus. Excellent start with that portrait; keep them coming!

References used for all except the bug eyed character and #10; which feels like I did better hair on it than when I actually had reference.

[bakadoodle]

Just for Anthis, I did a couple refs.. heh see if you can guess which they are
Got burnt out on gestures and decided to paint some on that face.. THAT is what happens when you try to paint with lousy lineart.
#9 started out so well but the left leg took a bad turn and it all went downhill.
#5 was adamp inspired, had to get that arm "technique" (basically doing it right)
#4 was the result of too much caffeine.

Second pic is the optional sci-fi character I was working on. Inspiration for it dried up when I couldn't get the other arm right. I tried it so many different ways... Unless someone wants to nudge me in the right direction gonna walk away from it for a few days.

adamp - Damn! I am loving those, # 7,8,11 really hot and clean. I'd love to be able to do hips the way you do. I need to get whatever books you are using

[Mindbendermind]

Mindbendermind - can you post a link to the ref image? Good practice, and loved the Vampy from last week

Thanks. :-) The ref comes from the great site Web gallery of art

Hmm...seems I can't link to the actual page of the ref (found by search function at the site). Will try to attach the ref image instead.

Also posting another 15 min master study - this time from Caravaggio:

[badass]

i have never participated in a spartan camp but these always sounded fun.

i just did these in an hour, hopefully i can get all 50 (or close) done today. with school and everything im not sure if ill have time before sunday, so im going to make an effort to do a spartan camp day of extremeness.

yesterday i did some bridgman studies, ill post those as soon as i can get to a scanner. also, later today i might be doing some life drawing, in which case ill scan those.

i used posemaniacs as a ref for these. let me know what i need to do to improve. i understand i am probably using too many lines, not capturing the gesture quickly enough. any tips on this (or anything) would be much appreciated!

[badass]

okay so i just did a mega drawing binge. heres some more!

[bakadoodle]

Snow Lion Great post! thanks! They just kept getting better and better as I scrolled down! Very dynamic, lots of energy. A bit exaggerated here and there but that is kind of a good thing. I like the size you posted at as well, can really see the construction lines.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Not quite done 50 just yet, but getting there.

[bakadoodle]

Pumpkin - body proportions look good, you might benefit from some more focus on skull and head proportions. Great addition to the camp, we all appreciate your participation and sharing.

[bakadoodle]

So burnt out, can't seem to even manage decent stick figures. Probably going to take an art break for a few days. This set is crap but I figured I'd post anyway cause I think it makes close to 50.
Was attempting to do 'soft touch' gestures. Didn't go so well. I'll try again with refs some other time.

[Mindbendermind]

Take it easy and do take a break if you need it - as long as you need to. Your supposed to last another 40 years in the business you know ;-)

Here is a Dürer head study I just did:

[krisCrash]

:o so active this thread is after only 3 days (I thought it ran sunday-sunday?)

Snow Lion: I like those blocky lines a lot very fun and different
Smashed Pumpkin: So detailed!

Long time no post for me.
Just 60 second posemaniacs doodles for now

[Armobot]

Wow...wonderful drawings everyone! So much energy here, I'm getting fired up!

[Outis]

Trying to start posting a bit earlier this week. These are some pencil thumbnail sketch studies after some Steve Huston paintings, which can be found here:
http://www.eegallery.com/cgi-bin/sea...STEVE%20HUSTON

[bakadoodle]

:o so active this thread is after only 3 days (I thought it ran sunday-sunday?)

It does, but I'm hoping to get people to post and comment more regularly so the tread doesn't look so dead. The more activity, the more people come to look the more people participate and the more inspiration we have to keep going.

The way I see Spartan Camp is, there are no prizes, no judgment no competition as such. It is more like having a personal trainer yelling "come on powder puff!! One more set, work out that doodle! Feel the burn!!" Then telling you "nice job, good effort, nice improvement".

I know I need all the help I can get to stay focused and get better.

[Anthis]

Totally agree with bakadoodle and everyone else.
Posting stuff throughout the weak gives a good 'activity' feel, and leaves more time for commenting. If you post on sunday, there's the tendency to focus on the next week already.

I usually submit my stuff on the last day though. Because scanning is a bit of a hassle here I prefer to do it all at once. For saving time. Should be able to fix it somehow.

Good going everyone! Lesson for me too.

[Mindbendermind]

Finally ready to post the master study I've been fiddling on in ink the last days (a Bronzino portrait). Also finished my "optional" - Tristan from Camelot 3000, an ink study from one of my favorite comic artists, Brian Bolland.

After finishing the portrait I felt like looking at the basic composition, shapes and line rhythm a little further. Post these quick explorations as well. Often find that there is an underlying "compositional gesture" that can be found in paintings, almost like a "Kanji" upon which the entire painting is built. Do you know what I mean?

I believe Speed talks about those thing in his "Practice and science..." - haven't gotten that far in it yet though.

Also ordered Hamm's "Drawing the head and figure" yesterday. Probably good basics for figure drawing. Very good reviews at amazon at least. You guys have it?

[Mindbendermind]

okay! now, if I may be so bold as to blarg of all ye participants: stop painting over/referencing previous artworks and look at the lovely people around you,especially in motion, -in action, -feel their disposition,- (my english is crap but) a persons 'physical language' is as important as their spoken language (especially in visual expression), Hands and lips are so important! sci-fi? what makes a sci-fi? hands and lips and eyes are always important (now I go and hide)!!!!)

As I suppose that you by "painting over/reference" suggest that tracing has been used, I just want to say that I copydraw (ref next to paper) my master studies, and do not trace.

Reason I focus so much on master studies is the following:

I strongly believe that doing Master Copies is one of the best ways to learn the figure. The difference between drawing from Master Drawings and drawing from regular photographic reference is enormous. Why? Because with Master Drawings, the form has already been interpreted in terms of lines, and copying for example several works by the same master (good examples are Michelangelo, Raphael, and Rubens) you can quickly pick up their vocabulary of terms, which are often repeated. Once you start to pick up this vocabulary by doing MANY master copies, you start to use it consciously and subconsciously in your own work. - Rebecca Kimmel

And I believe her.

(Also like to add that I regularly draw from life my own hands and feet as well as family, but don't always feel like posting such personal stuff).

Anyway, here are more reffed ones - three from photo refs and one master study in pencil I've worked on during the week (drawn from a photo ref of a bust by Algardi):

[badass]

more... this is probably because digital painting is more difficult for me than drawing on paper, but these all look so much worse than my previous post (which were paper/pencil scans).

any ideas how to improve at drawing on the tablet? (besides just doing... more)

[bakadoodle]

more... this is probably because digital painting is more difficult for me than drawing on paper, but these all look so much worse than my previous post (which were paper/pencil scans).

any ideas how to improve at drawing on the tablet? (besides just doing... more)

Couple things..

If you don't have felt nibs for your stylus (and sometimes even still) Put a piece of paper over the surface of your tablet. I use inkjet paper because its mostly smooth, but still gives some added surface resistance to keep my pen from sliding so much.

I might have said this in another post, but if you are like me, when you draw with pencil/paper, you rotate the pad often to compensate for the uncomfortable lines. If you are using photoshop, you can use the rotate canvas tool (R hotkey) to do the same thing.

Dragging out guidelines from the ruler bar can also help with positioning and proportions.

Mindbendermind Good work bud, definately seeing improvement. I don't offer much advice for you because I'm not sure what to say. Your method of progression is a bit foreign to me. You seem to be getting better though

[Outis]

Some more Steve Huston studies:





I'm still trying to capture that elusive gesture and vitality. I feel like these drawings end up looking stiff and flat. I suppose I just need to keep practicing.

[aprat]

I've been trying to go for a more analytical approach inspired by Bridgman.
I had some more sketches but Photoshop is defecating into my mouth and calling it a sundae.

[Outis]

For my sci-fi character, here's a Space Marine from Warhammer 40K, from book reference. I used watercolor, which I'm trying to get the hang of...

[Armobot]

Good work guys! I've been very busy this week, but finally got to squeeze in some time to draw some poses. I'll try to comment on everyone's work tomorrow, hope you guys don't mind. Now, time to get back to work.

[philzero]

not much this week. Been working out of hogarth's 'dynamic figure drawing'

[Outis]

Armobot: I like how you blocked out the poses with swathes of paint. Especially the two on the right, with the yellowish highlights. It was interesting to see you create depth by opposing hues, in addition to perspective created by lines, or tones & value.

[Outis]

Mindbendermind: Your Algardi study is magnificent. I think you're on the right track with the master studies. You're an inspiration. Bravo!

Philzero: Great solidity and depth on the figure drawings. The poses are nice as well. Quite dynamic.