Whirly's World of Wonderful Shiny Things

[Stephane Perez]

ahhh haha i meant Whirly but you too!

[Whirly]

Thanks Steph!

You are right Wing I do need to do imaginative stuff but is scary at the mo!

Keep trying it Rhubix I am finding it really helpful!

I hope you are right Eternal Apprentice!



More life drawing.


i absolutely cant copy contours or negative space or draw the outline or stuff like that. I only really know one method I need to lean the other stuffnot just my vilppu-ey type stuff. Really do need to focus on other drawing methods I think. Does this seem right? Prob need to do some still lives using different methods. Advice please

Noodles

Most of the animals are copies from Vilppu's animal drawing book first couple of pages.

[Lakai]

Hi Whirly,

concering the contour and negative space drawings. Its pretty much the same for me as I would handle any other form. Simplify it, don't get caught into all that little bumps and stuff. Rather draw with straight lines at first to prevent u from nitpicking u can add detail later. U gonna get used to this process and eventually do this rather in ur mind.

Heres a quick example. Just look where the apex and recesses of the major forms are ( circle in the example) and connect them with straight lines. The only thing u have to guess is how long the lines are and angle.

If theres another process I'm curious as well . Hope it helps somehow.

[Revidescent]

Man, you're really getting the hang of lifedrawing! My #1 crit is do a whole bunch of foot studies - the feet are the weakest part of nearly all your recent lifedrawings. I know I noted them briefly last time I stopped by here, but they've really got an oversized, paddle-like feeling to them, and are really bringing down some otherwise quite solid drawings. Try doing some of those construction notes for them, perhaps. Hampton covers feet pretty well.



As for stuff like contours and negative space - they're most useful as a tool when combined with the sort of structural, gestural approach you're already doing. Sometimes looking at the figure in a different way will make mistakes suddenly obvious - for example, an arm may seem solidly constructed, but you can look at the negative space between it and the body, and see the shape is entirely different. And of course, the old traditional holding-up-a-pencil-to-measure-angles-and-proportions is always valid.

[Whirly]

Lakai and Rev those are so much help! Thankyou!

Rev I am half way through my foot studying but I am doing under your orders

in the meantime a couple of doodles I did at work with reference from a couple of images of sculptures I found on the net.

[Stephane Perez]

Very nice man see you really are getting into life drawing such strong progress. i just had my first life drawing session of the semester and ive gotten so out of practice so don't stop its like going to the gym. Best i can say is how right Rev is. i still struggle with feet but only recently have i been told how important they are and nailing the feet is what will really ground your subject. Also beware of awkward crops like at the shins or ankles.

[Whirly]

Forgot about going back to feet but did some master study gestures when I got home.

I have copied this page from Hampton a few times now. It used to take much longer and I had far more problems with it. You don't tend to see people copying other peoples gestures but I have really found it helpful. It felt much better this time round like I wasn't just copying the lines but actually thinking in terms of the pose/feeling the pose. Anyway I strongly feel that copying master gestures is a useful exercise for anyone interested.

Also much less line petting!

[Whirly]

I know I know I should finish my feet studying but was having a lot of fun going over Hampton again and I feel like I am really learning. Even applied it to some gestures from imagination. Still feels like I'm not "copying lines" so something must be working

[Whirly]

Just some more Hampton notes and decided up do some gestures digital this time so i could upload them. I actually think my ones done in pen/pencil look better which is interesting. Anyway here they are.





Also just realized that only a few months ago I had to push myself to draw rather than sleep now i have to push my self to go to bed rather than draw that's a pretty cool breakthrough.

[Revidescent]

You're doing super well with the Hampton studies! The imagination gestures are great.

[Whirly]

Ok so its first day of my MONTH OFF WORK TO DRAW!!

I have got a pretty strict timetable planned out for the next four weeks. I dont expect miracles but Im gonna work my bloody ass off while I can!

WEEK 1 DAY 1

Figure warm-up



I am re-doing my Peter Han stuff so here are my notes


CTRL Paint Chamfer Blending Exercise


Ctrl Paint Hard Vs Soft Edges Exercise

[Whirly]

WEEK 1 DAY 2

Figure Warm Ups


Studying Preston Blair


Preston Blair Hands .. Dam even cartoon hands and ridiculously hard!!


Head Structure Grind .. I knew when I did my head stuff previously that I needed to grind the structure in its much simpler form before laying in the features. Small bites needed for study! The earlier bits need to be solid. Working through ProkoTV for my head studying by the way. Already did the notes from the first video so this is grind stage. Notes then Grind is my method as usual. These are from imagination.

[Whirly]

Week 1 Day 3

Doing the drawings of my animal toys has been amazing. The hardest thing I have done so far and yet it feels super useful!!

I also did some photo studies. This is the first time I have ever worked with colour!

Figure Warm-Up


Dinosaur From Life (Toy)


Bull From Life (Toy)


Hippo From Life (Toy)


Environment Photo studies

[Whirly]

Week 1 Day 4

[shockowaffel]

Lovely work you're doing, all those sketches.
MORE !

[Whirly]

Thanks Waffles!! Here is more

Day 5

[Whirly]

Week 1 Day 6

Consisting of gestures, more hands after Preston Blair AND from imagination and observation

More anatomy study.

Shoe drawing from observation. Drawing from observation is SO HARD. I almost didn't post this but though it might be worthwhile so I get advice.

[Whirly]

Week 1 Day 7

Well I have certainly never drawn as much as in one week as I have this week so it is going well so far. I was supposed to rest today no drawing timetabled but I wanted to do a bit more anatomy study on the upper torso. This time from Vilppu.




Even though I want to be an environment artist (you probably cant tell from this sketchbook because I really dont know how to approach learning it) learning anatomy is really fun.

[ill_Buny]

I like your sculptures, your environments and the way you drawing muscles on photos looks convenient to memorize and analyze human body. A lot of good exercises, I think I should try some of them.

[Rhubix]

You've been busy!!! A month off work to draw is amazing!

Preston Blair Hands .. Dam even cartoon hands and ridiculously hard!!

this made me think of my first cartooing classes, and how apparent it became that I had no idea what I was doing haha. My instructor could slam down all kinds of hands in seconds- where I used to agonize over every piece.
It really does become easier as you go. Just like figure gestures- hand gestures are very useful.

Looking forward to seeing what you get done!

Happy sketching.

[Whirly]

Thanks Rev!! Need to go pro .. busy busy busy!!

Here is Week 2 Day 1










Week 2 Day 2

[Whirly]

Week 2 Day 3

The second set of gestures are studies after Ryan Woodward and the sculpt is a quick study after Philippe Faraut

[Whirly]

Week 2 Day 4

I didn't want to post my application of side view head drawing as it looks absolutely awful but I need to post it all so here you go.

[Whirly]

So a very odd drawing day. Did some more Toy Drawings but then went onto my cast for more observational drawing.

The point was to practice stuff I have never really been able to do, the classical 2D drawing methods, drawing the countours, or blocking in linearly or copying the negative space. Now I can do this from a photo easilly enough but from life I am finding it impossible!

I just gave up in the end and drew my cast the way I am more comfortable with which is more gestural to constructive approach and it looks far better and also believe it or not took less time.

What should I do? Keep trying the method I struggle with??















Also A couple of things I did on my off day. The first page (except for the weird eyeball thing are JUST COPPIES of artists sketchbooks I am subscribed to on CA. The Other page is just a few more arm anatomy notes.

[Whirly]

WEEK 3 DAY 2
Today was a much shorter drawing day as I was busy today. No figure drawing warm up and no time to grind from my Proko notes. Here is the new stuff though Peter Han Class notes and grind and Proko Extreme angle notes

[Rhubix]

You're a machine- this is great stuff -the animals are particularly fun to look through.

[Whirly]

Thanks Rhubix. Its strange because after I draw all those animal toys I always think they look absolutely terrible but I like them the next morning

Week 3 Day 3

My timetable is going to take a bit of hit now since I am moving house next week and need to sort everything out. Its been great so far and I know when I am back at work I can continue this at a slower pace.

Studying environment stuff from James Paick's CDW video training. Got a long way to go. I think I will take his CGMW classes next year after a year of pushing forward. Here are my notes.

[Whirly]

Week 3 Day 4

Figure Warm-up and anatomy.

AND I HAVE DONE MY FIRST EVERY DIGITAL PAINTING FROM LIFEEEE. I bought the cast ages ago but then suddenly felt like I wasn't read to draw something that complicated from life. Well I gave it a go and learned loads!!

[Whirly]

Week 3 Day 5

Studying Eyes with Proko and Legs with the usual guys.

[SeriousMalz]

Wow, you are working quite hard.
The life study from 298 seems pretty good ^^