Spartan Camp #200 - 50 gestures + Optional "Portrait Study"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #200 - 50 gestures + Optional "Portrait Study"

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 30th of October.

- 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 "Portrait Study", in any medium.
Additional notes on this weeks’ Optional Study:


In our series of optional studies leading up to Self Portrait Day, we will have our last portrait-related study this week!

The background:
On November 1st, it will be International Self Portrait Day. Every year, this great activity has a high turnout here on conceptart.org. Take a look HERE to see last years' portraits. Because of this great opportunity, we will devote some of the upcoming optional studies to this topic. We will focus on heads, faces, anatomy, and other things related to portraiture. Not every week, of course. Just enough to prepare us for this event!

The assignment:
Because this is the last week before November 1st, I've left the optional study this week fairly open. Simply perform a portrait study to prepare yourself for this event! There are many options. You could go for a master study, or polish up your head anatomy skills. Some value studies are always great. Or perhaps those ears/noses/eyes keep giving you trouble and require some attention. Always wanted to do a portrait of your favourite film/series character? You could give the self portrait a trial run... Have fun! Because after this week, we'll be back with regular optional studies!

As always- reference advised, not obligatory. Colour, medium, time frame, any specifics are up to you! Good luck and have fun! And feel free to ask questions!


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.

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

Come on soldiers! Flex those muscles!!

HALL OF FAME - SPARTAN CAMP #199

Obacmar
samming
ashess
Drygrass
Talis
LeanneMGardner
dracken
Guardian.G.I.
MusicMetalHead
shiNIN
Little-Maiden
Azimuth

[Anthis]

The 200th round...

Over the course of all these rounds I have seen vast improvement in many participants, and we continue to improve. As far as I can remember, this activity was originally created by Cwn_Annwn and picked up later by Metal_Mike. It has changed slightly over time with some ups and downs, but I am very happy to see people picking this up with enthusiasm. Lately, the work has been absolutely outstanding. Especially critique, perhaps one of the strongest pillars of this website, has been fantastic.

A big cheer to all previous and current participants who continue to flex their muscles!

[Azimuth]

Tossing up taking a shot at this weeks chow. Therefore wolves!

[shiNIN]

Yay us
Oh I came here when Metal_Mike was in charge... I immediately know this place is for me and though I had a long period when I was inactive on CA (my Tegaki E period, it had its merits, I fell in love with hard brushes ), I returned and I don't ever want to leave this place. I know I write too much and too personal stuff and draw too little without the right attitude, my improvement is barely noticeable but no one even tried to kick me out, so you have to deal with me in the future as well.

It's the 200th round and my circumstances are the best to take this drawing thing REALLY seriously, so I plan to do more and better stuff than ever.
The optional is sweet, I try to do one every day. I neglected heads lately, I just did sketches but nothing more But I wanna draw a nice Self Portrait on the 1st of November...

Stuff from last week. Just simple things, some stickman-skeleton is my own, they are very simple but it's still an important step for me, my rare attempts in the past were stiff.



I worked on the froggies more:


Hmmm... They aren't gestures but I show them anyway, it's anatomy at least.


Photo study wip, quick, I experimented with a not so simple brush (it has a subtle texture).


Azimuth: Wow, nice ones, I love #2

[ashess]

Anthis:
200. wow; I just joined in the fun. kinda sorry I didnt before. somehow the title seemed too hardcore for me. haha! portrait day sounds like fun. will def join. its on a tuesday.. not my best day timewise. do I understand correctly you have to make the piece exactly on nov1?

Azimoth- I love those lines! #4, #7  .... flow!

shinin: now you sound a lil down. I think you're doing fine; nobody learns to draw over night. some nice hands in there btw..

facial muscles and some hands

[ashess]

uuuh. guess I am a typical untecnical female after all! just spend over and HOUR trying to get our internet working before I decided to bother and phone my husband about it.. who knew right away that I had confused the internet modem and cable modem...

anyway, some stuff. studies from photos. checking cheeks and mouths this time. as usual trying to follow the optional towards something. and ofc some more babies!

[Obacmar]

Start into another spartan camp
Nice mix of things so far, wolves, froggies, kiddies. I'm boring today.

[Azimuth]

@shinin i like those little cartoon expressions and that photo studies really nice

@ashess are you using different coloured paper? The babys hands are interesting i never really thought about the way they are different to adults.

@obracmar cool joggers, from life?

[ashess]

@Azimuth- 1st page is from a moleskin. 2nd and 3rd are plain a4 print paper. 4th and 5th are studypaper a2 size, so not scanned but photographed. that's why they turn out a bit dark. (using flash ruins the drawing)
@obacmar: boring? is you put m in the right order you can ANIMATE those bchsss hahaha!
been watching some fame remake movie and sketching on my laptop. most r a bit dodgy, but I think they served a purpose.
compilation:

ps, the cat was on my lap. not in the movie Oo

[Obacmar]

Busy day so I just did more sketches from photo refs. These were all boxing photos, using the Loomis Manikin.

ashess - Love the baby hand sketches, and baby head studies. The brush you're using for the digital sketching looks too soft.
shiNIN - Very productive lots of material, love the froggies. Stretch that torso
Azimuth - nice line control/quality , I'm jealous
Anthis - Yer awesome! Thx fo the props

[Azimuth]

Totally wasted yesterday so i decided id do the optional portrait so i can tick off a whole box in one go. Heres Oswald Cobblepot! would have taken me around an hour. I think hes recognizably the same character but the whole thing is askew somehow i think i misjudged the angle of the centre line of his face

[shiNIN]

ashess: Oh yeah, I was a lil down, especially in the two days when it was kinda dark, I need natural light What overnight, I started to draw several years ago... And it's not just about the results. Time flies and I end up doing nothing again, it's quite tiresome after years. But I'll solve this somehow
You drew zillion babies again, good, good, they are somewhat messy at the moment but quick sketches don't need to be oh so tidy, it's okay if you learn through them You definitely captures some typically toddler gestures

Obacmar: Boring my ass... You started with a fiiine bunch! Dynamism, that's what my figures lack, usually (if I draw any figures at all).

Azimuth: Oh you chose a nice, interesting, interestingly lit but not a very easy reference. Unusual features (that nose ), unusual lighting... Unusual colors too but you didn't use them.
Hm... Yep, the angle. You totally changed that. Just like the curvature of the forehead. You need to study your reference better. Don't rush, try to see the angles and proportions and whatnot. Sometimes it's good to stop and compare the two picture carefully (I usually forget this so I need to resize rendered parts... it's so silly ). Practice will help
But what the most problematic difference and flaw in your version: his EYES. Look at them in the original. Look into his eyes! They are intense, aren't they. They aren't looking at us, no, but they are totally STARING at whatever he's looking at so it's better that way. Staring at us like this would be unbearable.
If you wish to capture one thing about him, it must be his eyes.
He so totally not looks aside like an embarrassed lil anime girl.
{I never was perfectly sane but some situations enhance this greatly. Don't mind me.}
His eyes is open, we see his whole irises and some eyeball part around it. It's very important. You just skipped a tiny gap and his stare and even the location he's looking in, changed a lot.
Eyes usually are the most expressive features in the face, it's the ones we look at most, so it's very important to draw them well.
Of course, you need practice to do it nicely, I'm sorry if my enthusiastic comment was too much for you at the moment. I never mean any harm and I almost always give crits with the best intentions (exceptions happen when some very, VERY big jerk comes into Critique Center but it's very rare and we chase them away pretty quickly. Oh the days when we were pretty soft but honest and the hurt or just troll lil one called us names, perfectionist/elitist assholes were one of them... it was a few years ago...)

I totally steal refs from others this days, so I started to draw Azimuth's ref, I stopped pretty quickly, I'm not in form
The other ones aren't so great either, well bottom right (Ramalooke's ref btw) isn't bad, just a flawy wip, I love only my witch, she will be pretty... in her dreams... oh so totally wip. She must be here already when she was a simple sketch even without shading, now I work on her in PS.


After some paintball I try to draw some more...

[Dr_Motherplaguer]

Hi there! The very-very new recruit is come =)
Im not good at drawing, thats why Im full of enthusiasm with such useful and motivating training. Hope you will not throw me off the cliff for my attemps =)

Today`s gestures:

[Obacmar]

Oswald Cobblepot, so cool. I thought I would steal it too. My "attempt" and its not very good. meh Oh well, I posted all for your amusement.

shiNIN - I love those little thumbs and Is that Ellen Page? also that ear is well constructed.
Dr_Motherplaguer - Welcome ! nice gestures. nice proportions

[shiNIN]

Dr_Motherplaguer: Welcome! This place just gets busier and busier, sweet!
What are you talking about, everyone is nice here and your gestures aren't that bad either (I let you go this time, but be prepared, I may (probably will) tear apart your faces with passion in the future It's my specialty, so to speak, despite the fact I'm so totally still learning drawing faces myself. It means you have some skills, by the way, tearing apart beginner's extremely weak stuff isn't that joyful.)

Obacmar: No, she's supposed to be Juliet Aubrey but the resemblance isn't good (the face even turns away from us a bit and the lighting is special but still, I messed it up a bit).
I loved that ear, a nice lighting to show out its form
Yay, another few Cobblepot! The last one has nice eyes - not so perfect ones as the original but it's hard to reach I guess

Paintball is painful and I can't even draw during it so no pic this time.

[Azimuth]

wow thanks for the critique shinin i might take another shot at him before the end of the camp

@obracmar oooh i can feel the evil

[darkops]

hey everyone this is my first time on this thread... i was looking for something like this, so i can post my studies. anyway here's what I've been working on. Working on getting good at rendering but i don't have any idea besides practicing.

anthis this remind me of homework...i deferentially want a star next to my name

shinin lol paintball...bring me back memories what do you play speedball or woodsball?

[Obacmar]

Belly dancers! Google it there are tons of full body refs. Kinda getting carried away with all the manikin gestures, I might even do all 50 this way. Hopefully I get this all done it's Halloween weekend, gonna be on the road and probably switch to real paper

darkops - Welcome Love the contour gestures. Good color on the fruit. I think you should use a lighter shade of grey BG
shiNIN - Paintball is soooo fun. Hhhhmmmm yah know that would make for a good ref search.
Azimuth - MUHAhAhAHaHHAahaha *evil laugh*

---edit---
I did some paintballers..

[dracken]

Did around 35 figures so far this week and a few perspective studies of a simple box on my desk. Not much, but trying to learn more about how to measure stuff and having better proportions







Good luck to everyone else

EDIT: Just noticed I missed a few numbers up there. Will scan them and upload soon

[Azimuth]

Yay more new people i don't feel my newbishness quite so exposed now

Cobblepot take two, feel alot better about this one although its not as clean as the first

[shiNIN]

I'm sorry no pic now either, I will draw some sports one, we have a lot of newspaper, it was hard to decide which one can I use to start the fire in our tile oven...

darkops: Welcome!
It was speedball.
You should watch your arms, you tend to draw them very thin.
Considering your linepetting (no matter if this word exists or not ), maybe you should do some 30 seconds gesture drawing, or sketching without raising your pen... or some handsome stickman drawing would be nice, using just a few longer strokes.

Obacmar: Oh no. If I googled for belly dancers, I'd end up playing with a simple graceful maiden for long...
You use a bit too many lil strokes for legs, our sturdy femur needs something less shaky.

dracken: Kinda nice bunch... You still drew tiny heads.

Azimuth: I don't think cleanness is the most important thing That will improve with practice anyway. This version is much better Well it's hard to draw those eyes if you leave the irises blank You should go more crazy with black here (hair and mouth), this character, scanners and cameras would like that too.

If others are so shameless that bring boxes, fruits and whatnot, I will show my shiny gauntlet too... It even has a shape similar to a hand! It's a wip at the moment, I spent only 4 hours on it. Later.

[Obacmar]

Cool stuff! I still feel boring I did soccer players! Especially when it's the 200th round AND Halloween. I guess I'm that serious about getting better

shiNIN - I got these done before I noticed your crit.. I agree! I think these femurs look stronger non?
dracken - nice studies Check balance, and proportions
Azimuth - Cobblepot'n! Definite improvement.

[MusicMetalHead]

Copy pasta from my SB

Simplified skulls. Trying to nail down a sort of lattice work to attach the face to.

Two facial muscle studies, these really helped later on.

A quick hair study, an abandoned skull, and a quick two minute sketch of my cousin Jon.

A sort of concept sketch of an idea for a drawing I had. More skully sketches, this time with noses lips, and sometimes an eye (argh matey).

More skulls.

I'm really kinda proud of these guys. Well the first three. I did the first three (left to right top to bottom) completely from imagination. I started by drawing out my skull thingy, then I started placing features. The first one is kinda crappy, the second one is a sort of blackish looking dude, and the third one I really wanted to to draw a total psycho for some reason. Does he look psycho? Then that last one was a fairly quick drawing from reference which I totally botched. She's too masculine. I really like how I was able to define part of the face without line though. Still trying to pin down hair.

Thank you to Talis for suggesting that I study the facial muscles and such. That was one of the most helpful tips I've gotten in a while. Takes longer to draw but so worth it in the end. Might not post for a while due to how much of a pain in the ass it is to scan this shit in. Planning on getting a new scanner soon though, one big enough to fit my sketchbook.

At 23.

Azimuth: Those animal gestures are really nice and flowy and capture the action very well. You captured cobblepot pretty well I think, although it might be better if you gave his eyes a pupil. The eyes make or break a portrait, and it looks kinda off with no pupils in my opinion.

Shinnin: Skull buddy! haha. I really love that ear, its really nicely rendered (that might have been mentioned already haha). Lots of cool sketches in there too, and I'm loving the frog and the photo study. Those four portraits look nice too, especially the lower left one. Everyone jumping on the cobblepot bandwagon this week it seems, maybe I'll give it a crack.

Ashess: More bebbies. Those other gestures are looking pretty cool too.

Obacmar: Fighting photos are such a great study aren't they? More cobblepot. Everyone loves cobblepot.


Dr_Motherplaguer: Welcome! Don't worry we don't throw people off cliffs here. Well not most of the time. But when we do its a site wide event. Liking those gesture, especially 5. Hair, hair, how I hate hair. Its such a pain to get it down right isn't it?

darkops: More newcomers. YAY! Lots of nice gestures here. Maybe work on using longer lines though? The fruit studies are coming along nicely too.

dracken: thats some nice gestures there. perspective all in order. great hatching on the rendered ones. Jealous over here.

[ashess]

@ motherplagues- welcome, and dont be so modest! your lines are a bit messy, but proportions and the anatomy of those figures is fine. you just have to work on your line quality and thats the easy part, right?
@ darkops:wow, even your drawings are dark. good start though. espec the last page, with ref turned out well.
@ obacmar: bellydancers! but seriously, without flesh? isnt it time youput the skin back on? ^^ same goes 4 the soccer players. about the last drawies, eew. definitely looks like Ishould have used a sharper pen.
I sort of meant to go for plains instead of lines, but with asfar as I zoomed out you cant even see that anymore. here's a detail @ the size I worked.







@ dracen: good work mate. boxes allways bore me to pieces. but the are necisary. I really like the chest on no 6 (or is it 5?) some very sharp drawings in that batch.
@ azimoth: ah damn, now I gotto try too. I think you got the right feel in there this time. very gothic.
@ musicmetalhead: good skull studies! the last piece you seem to have lost where everything goes on there though. dont forget all that mass on the backand the top of the head!

and ye, with everyone having @ it I wanted a shot at the cobbler too. here's my build up. I tried to go for shapes not lines again.



also have a page of nose studies. will scan soon!

[MusicMetalHead]

yeah ashess. I completely disregarded everything I'd learned about the skull for some reason, and copied like a trained monkey, which apparently I'm not all to skilled with at times.

[shiNIN]

Hi people I will be short now and I won't even talk about my lil crisis today when I realized I can't even start drawing gestures (not warmed up state, pencil and newspaper clothed figures doing crazy sport gestures, I challenged myself way too much...) and I better forget them and draw heads and enviros... Crap, I talked about it.
I did some messy stuff in total desperatedness and I guess I will continue doing them but MUCH every time and some miracle must happen.

I'm TIRED. I was so fresh an hour ago but Mr. Cobblepot + pressure sensitive brushes happened. His "dominant" eye (his super staring right one, our left) was especially hard.
Not the angle of the ref, I might do a brainless copy too, whatever, here he is:

One hour or a bit less in total.

I promised some donkeys a while ago then I forgot about it. Here's some impatient quickies:

[Azimuth]

phew that makes 50. Went with stretching people for the first page and people just been people (workmen and such) for the second.

musicmetalhead: blank eyes yeah, i probably should have blacked them in (pupil and iris essentially the same in the ref imo)

shinin: time well spent on that portrait im still pretty scared to work in colour

draken: i hate practicing perspective good work. Be careful though or you'll start seeing it EVERYWHERE

[Kellye]

Don't have access to a scanner right this second, but I'll try to replace these with proper scans when I have the chance...

EDIT: Okay, replaced the bad iPod pictures with proper scans, hopefully these show detail a bit better and don't have wonky shadows from the lamplight...

I tried to keep these fairly quick - most were sketched in about two minutes or so (with the exception of #7, which I kind of overworked...)

[shiNIN]

Kellye: Yay, nice capybaras. 1-2 minutes? You are guick
(I should draw some capybaras myself... But I barely drew faces and figures this week)

I accidentally realized I didn't answer MusicMetalHead about the time spent on my heads last week. This place is too busy, I missed the question. It seems I did just pencil heads that time. All my pencil stuff cost a few minutes at most - except my extremely messy muscle studies or figures when I try to do them by myself. They cost more sometimes and therefore they becomes all black in the end... I can't handle pencil well

Beware, big messy badly shot pencil stuff of mine ~
I tried to learn some anatomy this week. I drew more but there were really bad, they aren't for show
Oh the sports gestures I mentioned before I couldn't do them better.


Maybe I shouldn't put 3 pencil bunch here...

[darkops]

SHININ: I tried out some 30 secs but i didn't work for me, it was to fast so i think ill stick with 60 secs. Yea i do have a hard time with thous arms. also i tried not lifting the tablet pen but i only did 5, i don't know if i did it right. well when i do this 10 figures i just trying to make it a habit everyday. what did u mean by handsome stickman? do you mean like what Obacmar is doing

ASHESS: lol...yea i just don't like having a white background

MUSICMETALHAND: i have a hard time making clean lines...ill try with thous 60 sec poses