An overture

[LordLouis]

update

Just back from life drawing, 2 hours acrylics again.
I did a lot of colour mixing before I started and used loads of water, and I felt it worked much better than last week. I got really good feedback on it as well!
Colours are slightly different from the photo, I tried to adjust it as much as possible.

I also continued with my studies of my orc mongol- first by doing some bridgman warmups, and then just drawing from photos to get ideas..

[ezekrialase]

very nice sketchbook!

[Lightship69]

Hi there matey

I just dropped in to see whats new, That horse archer is great you really caught a sense of action and movement in it, good job!

you should expand it up a liitle more so we can see some more of the pony/ horse that he is riding I rather think it could be a good one.

All the very best to you as usual.

[LordLouis]

Hey there, thanks for your comments
@lightship: thank you very much! unfortunately the horse rider is just a study for my orc concept (see text) and it's based on a painting in which the horse is cut off- I'm not sure I could finish it :s

Okay here is my first plein air painting! har har! it's done in watercolour. it looks crap.


and some more studies of archers on horses.. all done from photos and I tried some rendering with pencils. Meh.. I feel I'm just copying along. I think I should start thumbnails.

[isokarhu]

As far as I can tell, you're doing all the right things.. and improving as a result.
I can definitely relate to the feeling that you're "just copying" when you do studies.
Keep it up!

[Black Spot]

Love the life drawing - you have a good sense of colour and how to push it every now and then. This will get better the more you do. Watercolours are a really tough medium. If you'd gone over the shadows with a wash of blue after it had dried, it would look tons better. Don't afraid to wreck a picture finding what works and what doesn't.

[LordLouis]

@isokarhu: Thank you for the encouraging comment! I try to stay away from photos as much as possible, I feel it is training completely different parts of my brain compared to drawing from life.

@BlackSpot: Wow that means a lot coming from you! Thank you so much! Unfortunately the life drawing class has 3 weeks Easter break, and I am missing it a lot. I see what you mean about my watercolour picture! Good idea.. I might have a go at it when I have more free time at my hands, thank you!
I have done some studies with dry-on-dry, wet-on-wet and what-is-it-called, but I didn't find them helping a lot. (see first 3 attachments)

Update: Unfortunately this post is lacking colour and medium variety, as I am in the final stages of my degree at the moment and this month is completely booked with work, so I do the odd pencil work here and there.

The last 4 images are sketches from an exhibition "Animals inside out" currently running in London. I visited it yesterday and it was absolutely amazing to see. My bf had the patience to let me sketch some of the animals, and it was a really tough challenge- hundreds of people were there and so many looking at my drawings, I tried to blend them out as much as I could by concentrating on drawing. To my disappointment I could never quite capture the volume, as much as I could see it.

Please feel free to comment!

[LordLouis]

a self-portrait, 70 minutes- a break from work.
"The complete guide to drawing the head" has arrived and I flicked through it.
Man I learned so much from doing this portrait:

1. Midtones are not highlights
2. Paper is not infinite
3. I need a new kneaded eraser
4. Wiping pastel with a wet cloth turns everything into green-black mud
5. Standing back from the easel is not as effective as the flip-test
6. It didn't survive the flip-test
Why do I look like an Asian man? -_-

:/ ... anyway, work. bb

[LordLouis]

I'm actually surprised that I drew something yesterday and today.
I had attempted another pastel portrait, and it ended up being all flat and crappy and I completely lost it why I can't portray form when I know it's there. I bought "the mystery of form" here on CA and I could shoot myself for not having done that earlier.
I have formed a ball out of modelling paste, but I will wander down into town tomorrow to get simple forms to shade in detail.

(L. Freud)
(outside my window)

Today I grabbed my 10 year old coal sticks and drew my bf while he was exercising. I tried to concentrate on shadows exclusively, avoiding lines whenever possible. The results vary a lot, but I am overall stunned how much form defines itself just like that- it just started to take on more and more form. Yeah I think I get now what I have to train.
One of the faces is myself in the mirror- found that much harder to do. The upside down face was drawn upside down. Quite interesting experience.

[LordLouis]

I keep forgetting to scan this one, did this 2 weeks ago.
These are my thumbnails for my orc hunter concept.

The project is subject to continuous delay due to necessary acquisition of skills, but I am determined to pick it up every once in a while. The next step would be refining one of the thumbnails, and I don't feel ready to do that with my battle of form..

[Black Spot]

Think of the front of the face as basically flat slab with bits sticking out and other bits carved in. The ball is the back of the head. Once you start seeing things in more simple shapes, it starts to make a lot more sense. You might find it easier to work with toned paper to get the mid tone and use chalk for highlights.

[dracken]

A lot of good studies. Keep up the good work.

I'd only say maybe pick one subject and study it for a week or so, in order to really understand something.

Good luck.

[LordLouis]

Thank you two for your feedback! Blackspot I actually found it quite confusing, the paper being a tone. @dracken What subjects are you thinking of?

I had (an still have) very important deadlines and thus I have not been able to draw as much, though I often feel I am not sure what to draw anyway. I'm planning on creating a thread somewhere here..

First batch is from life drawing class I had after 3 weeks again. My teacher asked me to draw the class rather than the model, and that I should try to "tell the story", similar to story boarding. Well, I found it very difficult that I actually had to think of something, and I found it went really badly.








The second batch is... STILL LIFE! YEAH! My 6£ Polystyrene head arrived. I read so often, still life is good for form and value and composition and color... I have finally engaged with it. I hate it, it's not fun, I have to force myself to do it, and I don't understand what kind of errors to look out for. If a bowl of apples looks like a bowl of apples, I am done for my part. I don't really know how to build up on this.








And the last batch, from life. Grew some balls again and drew on the bus.







And: self-portrait in acrylics. It's smaller than A4, which was really a problem for me. Acrylics is very interesting. However, I don't understand colour and neither how to understand it. Very very frustrated these days.

[Lightship69]

Ye Gods I was only away for a little while and you churn out all this stuff!! but I have a question mate.

How bored do you have to be before you take to drawing the toilet?? or did you and BF have a fight and you went in there thinking "thats it he's an arse!" then after an hour go hang on thats an interesting shape pass the pens and paper!! LOL

he he he just being silly, I like the updates and sketches, I hope you and yours are well and wish you all the best.

[PeopleEveryday]

Nice sketchbook! Good quality stuff here.

I think my favorite work are your quadruped sketches. Specifically where you've highlighted the opposing forces on the spine (on what looks like a cheetah.) Thinking about hips vs. shoulders and creating a strong line of action is a good way to get more life out of a drawing. Try it in some human stuff, too!

[LordLouis]

Hey
@Lightship: Haha!! Well you get the idea of how much I hate still life xD
Thank you very much, yeah just drawing along really, not sure where to push it.

@PeopleEveryday: hey there, thank you very much! Those drawing are from books, I'm afraid. I haven't gotten hands on the human FORCE: life drawing book yet, but I am planning on. Problem is I always end up copying books but being unable to apply it in real life, which makes everything a waste of time really. I'll pop into your sb soon, thanks!

I just wanted to update from today. One drawing from my desk which I REALLY screwed up the measuring, for which reason I didn't bother shading. I really need to get more disciplines with measuring.
Second one is life from bus.

[LordLouis]

Mh, got more time on my hands now, but I feel quite depressed about my 'development' at the moment.

Sorry for the bad quality of some of the pictures, anything bigger than A4 doesn't fit in the scanner.

First batch is from life drawing class:
(First hour on the model, second hour on the class itself again)








Second batch is still life (or attempts thereof when bf is walking in). Drawing the head with the polygon-method was really tough and showed me exactly where I didn't see the head's structures. Will do more often. I got this fantastic piece of advice in the fine arts forum, just awesome.




And the last two from imagination. I have to try to think on my own again, so I can see a purpose in doing studies..



Feel free to comment, as always.

[Tea of Doom]

Hey,

It's good to see taht you draw a lot. One thing to watch out for tough is the quality of your hatching, In some pieces it is very ''patchy'' and inconsistent, hampering readability. But you have soem good pieces too ( like the first image in your last post ), so just be careful when you draw, don't neglect your hatching just for the sake of getting something done fast.

[Black Spot]

You might think still lives are boring, but they teach you to observe and develop form, which you can bring to your other stuff. The toilet is awful, the bookshelf better. How are you going to draw a nose if you can't draw a pyramid or cone? You need to ask yourself if you want to improve or just coast along - it's your choice.

[Lightship69]

Ouch that was a bit harsh Mrs Spot!! sounded a bit like a school marm telling off us naughty children..... lol

Don't Panic LordLouis we all have our weaknesses and I am sure that you know what yours are and what to do about them. That being said she was right about the crapper it was a bit awful but they are though arnt they I mean they were never designed to be pleasing just functional.

I'm rambling now and I only dropped in to see how you were so I''ll go take my nonsense elsewhere, love and best wishes and keep posting my mate.

[LordLouis]

@Tea of Doom: yeah you are right about that. I lose patience too often.
@Blackspot: I get what you're saying; I just find that I have to find a compromise between 'basic' and 'interesting'. I tried it, view my update. Feel free to comment! Thank you!
@Lightship: Ahhh nevermind, I'm sure my toilet doesn't mind I'll make a toilet clipshow JUST for you next time :p thank you for your words again!

ever felt like you're just wasting your time with drawing and no progress? yeah...
now, I'll just dump everything I've done in the past few weeks here.
It's summarized by lots of Asaro head still lifes, drawing from life (myself), more failed self-portraits, a few imagined pieces, and a study of Frazetta's Panther painting.
I also did a sculpture yesterday of which I add some photos- I have never done sculpturing before and it's all a bit sloppy but it turned out to be nice.


I tackled legs and feet (still am) as I found myself confused about the shapes and volume.

err.. uploads are being funny, so excuses for chopping up posts or whatever..

[LordLouis]

numero deux

[LordLouis]

what the hell? bloody attachment manager -.-"
-feet

[LordLouis]

number 3

[LordLouis]

ok, the first one is a frazetta study.

[kevin_]

great work, really like the traditional stuff!

[LordLouis]

Oh, thank you Kevin! Well, I hope to do more acrylics and watercolour in the upcoming weeks; depends what time and space allows!

And, how could I forget: my sculpture photos..

[Lightship69]

Wow I like the sculpture!! I don like the idea of him being skewered through the wedding veg like that but I suppose you have to keep the boy still while you work on him! lol

some nice pencil work going on up there too by the way and I noticed a little Frazetta influence too I think with the Tarzan and black panther image............ or I'm drunk and hallucinating again! which is also possible one can never tell!!


Thanks for posting stay well and all my very best wishes to you and yours.

[LordLouis]

Hey lightship, thanks for your visit! Hehe well actually I had to hold him in my hand all the time- which caused the figure to go all soft and I had to re-do his chest and back and feet, like 8 times.. I spiked him up for the photo- he can actually stand on his feet, if he doesn't happen to be melting~
Yep that's Frazetta!

Small update from the last 3 days..
acrylics, pencil stuff and some ps. If you can figure what my gif is made from, just know that I will attempt again to capture the movement much better

I just can't portray the head.. I KNOW there are the planes but~ sigh!
Feel free to share any thoughts and feedback you might have, thank you!

[Black Spot]

When you draw in planes the form shows a lot better, but you can see when you stop thinking about it. I like the sketches of real people, they are free and honest. Sculpture looks fun.

I know I can be brutal at times, but I want you to think about what and why you are drawing at all times. Even if you don't agree, putting it in the back of your mind where it might pop out and you shout 'Eureka!' is enough. Art is full of those moments.