Spartan Camp #227 - 50 gestures + Optional "Reilly Method Study"

[Anthis]

Spartan Camp #227 - 50 gestures + Optional "Reilly Method Study"

The aim is to produce 50 gestures by Sunday the 17th of June.

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


The background:
Lately I've been noticing many figure/anatomy studies done in a distinct style. Examples can be found here and here. This method is apparently called the "Reilly method", called after a teacher who utilizes it.
The finished studies all have a very strong and simple light/dark separation, making you think about the form and correct light placement. The actual construction also has a simple pattern. The method makes sense and seems useful, making it a useful optional study!

The exercise:
Do a study trying the "Reilly method". Please check out the following link:

Guide by Ron Lemen: Here (PDF)

This is not a technique of my own devising, and I don't quite know the details of it. This technique is also too elaborate to cover in a simple optional study. I would advice you to simply check out some of the links provided, and to give this method a try. You might not like it, or it might be just what you need!

Reference not obligatory - feel free to play around.

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 #170

shiNIN
kayness
ashess
SmallPoly
DKHutcheson
AdrianNagorski
snacks ex machina:start:

[Anthis]

Here's another guide:

This one (video version here).

Interestingly, construction is handled slightly different. I'd personally go with Ron Lemen's guide in the original post because of the elaborate write-up. Just posting for another perspective!

[kayness]

Nice! I totally dig how the Reilly figure thingiepoos look

[MeteorCat]

This is my first time participating in the spartan camp. Thank you for the 'Reily method study' link Anthis. I really enjoyed this technique & I believe it is a good method to use for observational figure/gesture drawing.

The Drawing Script

[SmallPoly]

I prefer the Billo-Rielly method myself. It's fairly similar, but you absolutely have to "do it live".



Some real stuff to come later.

[SmallPoly]

Here's #s 1-5 using variations on the Reilly method.

[Pádruig]

First time participating in the spartan camp, I'm a beginner but I want to learn so constructive criticism is welcome. The sizes got a bit messed up but whatever. 41 to go!

[SmallPoly]

Here's the next 10:

[AdrianNagorski]

Im so rusty today, trying to catch up to every one . . . .

[AdrianNagorski]

today feels much better . . . . .

[SmallPoly]

Next 10: 16-25. Working from http://www.lovecastle.org/draw/

[J8stine]

Finished for this week, did some 10sec, 20, 30 then 60sec with reilly structure.

Then broke into some graphite reilly shading and inks, finally a bit of reilly-style charcoal.One or two biros too.

I actually found the reilly method a lot more challenging than I expected until I tried the charcoal, especially with pencil I kept scribbling over my own tone-lines by mistake.

[kayness]

wow these are inspiring. it's like having the curves adjustment tool in your brain. I can't believe it's already saturday and I'm still not churning out any studies. upf. hopefully i'lll be able to turn out some before the end of the weekend.

[MeteorCat]

I'm not sure if these count so if they're not appropriate I'll delete them.

[AdrianNagorski]

MeteorCat : i think it counts! if i were u, i'd try to use large shape first,
break those forms down into cylinders and cubes LOL VESSELS!!! but in all seriousness
you could erase that structure once you got a guide down, i like to think of it as carving
into the form like sculpting, once you got the shapes broken down then shade em.

Kayness: dont be lazy like me!!!

J8stine: really suprised by these well done looking great, like how you also did them hands!

SmallPoly: those gradation dots is that a brush?? your figures look great but some times you make those legs and pelvis to small, i struggle with this.

[J8stine]

It's really nice having a group of people to practice with, all our works are so individual it's great seeing what other people come up with! I am also open to crits or suggestions on any aspect of my work, am desperate to improve.

MeteorCat: your general structure in your work here is good and I like your direct ob church drawings. Two things I would suggest you try is:
.becoming more confident with your outlines - try a few gesture drawings where you force yourself to draw every line only once without taking your pencil off the paper instead of lots of shorter lines and see how they come out.
.Pencils - perhaps use a darker pencil - I would love to see your work a bit more clearly! 4B pencil or darker, and perhaps try using the point of the pencil for sketching lines and then the side angle of the pencil for the shading - it gives a much smoother, wider stroke and is great for blocking in tone quickly.

SmallPoly your tonal work this week is really nice, I enjoy the variety you put into your 50 sketches. Especially enjoyed your 5-15 this week.
I agree with Adrian about the occasional short-leggedness, especially the thigh length in some sketches.Overall pose and tone though is lovely.

Padruig a good start =) can't wait to see some more.

Adrian I am enjoying your sketches so far, but I must say your full-figure sketches are miles ahead of your facial studies.
where are you getting your lady faces from? You could do with finding some more dramatically lighted ones -lighting from side/above/below... and I would suggest from film screenshots so you know they aren't PShopped out of proportion.
I would also suggest drawing more women without makeup so you can really concentrate on the actual structure of the eyes. Perhaps lightly sketch in the whole eyeball circles as they would sit in the skull before drawing in the eyelid shapes, and make sure these two things look right before adding any eyelashes.

Hope these comments are welcome, just let me know if I should stop. This is only my third post after several years of lurking so my etiquette might be a bit out the window.

~J

[MeteorCat]

I didn't write the numbers but I counted to 50 including the latest pencil drawings so I'm happy to say I completed my first Spartan Camp.

Thank you for the critique J8stine and AdrianNagorski.

[SmallPoly]

Hi, all! The gradation dots were done with a brush. I've been messing around with the brush engine a lot lately. It's pretty simple to make: New canvas - 100x100. B&W circular gradient from center. Use this to define a new pattern. In a new brush, turn on "texture" and use the circular gradient. Turn on "texture each tip" and set the blending mode to height. Turn on pressure, and set max to 10% instead of 100%. Set min to 0. Since the pattern width is 100px, setting the scalign percentage essentailly sets the maximum size of the dots.

@MeteorCat
Don't pet your lines. more swoopyness. Looks like you're having trouble with volume in general, but keep at it. Focus on geting the overlaps right. I'd also recommend focusing on line work and save the shaded stuff for more in-depth studies.

@Padruig
Hands look good. I really need to do some hand studies soon. Mostly good proportions. Good overlaps & landmarks.

@AdrianNagorski
Those look great. Riley method seems to be working out great on your stuff. Lots of volume. Some of the lines on the face studies are overly strong - esp. on the lips. Monkey looks fantastic. You're right about the legs and pelvis - I didn't spend enough time getting the initial proportions right. I tried to get things more accurate for the stuff I did today.

@J8stine
Lots of great studies there. I should try out some of the techniques you're using. Not much else to comment on. Both of you are right about the legs - I tried to lay out the initial structure more for today's set.

-----

Another 50, again working from http://www.lovecastle.org/draw/

[kayness]

SmallPoly I love the different ways in which you approach the Reilly Method....verrry creative & THANKS for linking me to another figure drawing site !!

AdrianNagorski - I have you to thank for these studies...crack that whip lol!








For the top left figure in the first pic I followed the youtube tutorial that's linked from one of the links Anthis posted.
I used mechanical pencil with 3B lead - my favourite pencil for sketching, except the second to last pic where I used a Derwent Drawing pencil. Although I don't use pencils much because it smudges and dirties my hands. Somehow I don't think mech pencil is ideal for this sort of sketching.

[Pádruig]

Seems I didn't quite reach 50 this week due to this and that but I'll definitely participate next week as well. Here are some hands, feet a mouth and a face. Thank you for the encouragement J8stine and Smallpoly.

[kayness]

I drew some more today


Bought a tin of Derwent Drawing Pencils...and I was very excited to try it out. I tore the plastic wrapping open like a kid on Christmas morning. Here's the result:

[Little-Maiden]

This is late, but will be intending to participate in SCamp next week.

Will post crits later.

----

Reilly Heads and Bodies. All freehand and from imagination. It's not exactly easy to freehand the rhythms from memory. Theres notable mistakes but it was a good exercise nonetheless.

The two life dawings were refd ofc, each about 30-45 mins.

[Anthis]

Keeping it short! I was really excited about doing the Reilly study but got caught up in work.
I'm usually a little hesitant about imposing a technique or method on others. This one seemed like a very valuable resource though, which is why I decided to give it a shot.


MeteorCat:
Welcome! Glad you like the method. There are so many different ways to construct figures.. it can be hard to figure out what to do. I think experimenting and just trying things out for yourself helps. Feel free to play around. Try pens to practice line confidence, or really loose lines for more organic drawing. (some of the others gave some good advice on this as well). Nice work on those gestures, you've got some tough poses in there but the construction seemed to help out. Also- the drawings in your second post are appropriate, no worries. Good job!

SmallPoly:
That's fantastic, I got a good laugh from that.
You also have some very interesting results on those different variations. When I saw your first couple of gestures, what immediately came to mind were comics and manga with the typical shading methods for halftone. And then I saw you used something of the sort in post#11.Nice work on separating shadow,light,halftone.

Pàdruig:
Welcome, and nice job! Hands can be extremely tough so I'm glad so see those, some of which even foreshortened. Don't forget to pay attention to the wrist though. The bones from the lower arm create quite visible bulges at the wrist (which you spotted, they're in your first sketch). You may notice that the entire hand can look better and more structured with a correct wrist (you did add them in some cases). At first I thought the facial features in that portrait were way too big, then I thought; could that be distortion from the glasses?

kayness: Those are some good studies, thorough work! I think the "Reilly method" sources I posted are a little vague on shading. With that I mean whether lines should follow the form, or whether you should use parallel lines following the light. I see you tried both, and tried to mix them too. I usually end up following the form because my parallel shading often seems to get too pronounced. You pulled if off well in a couple of those.

Little-Maiden: It took you a few tries to grasp the proportions, but the last couple from imagination are pretty nice. A full figure from imagination, with shadows is a lot to do from scratch. Almost like sculpting. It's interesting you've added some separate head studies. You might as well just add heads and faces to the rest of your poses as well

AdrianNagorski; Fun post. Somehow it seems like you varied your workflow along the way. Or perhaps you drew these over the course of a few days. The first couple of figures are very focused and neat, especially the very first. The very last couple are more gestural and sketchy. Good to see some face studies too. There are some very distinct proportional errors, so you may want to check back and forth quickly between the reference and the drawing. For instance, facial features tend to be slightly big in comparison with the skull.

j8stine; Great work! I had to look up 'biro', learned something new.. I think you did a fantastic job on trying all the different methods. It can be tempting to scribble away with a pencil, which is a forgiving medium because you can easily correct things. Ballpoint and ink teach you some line quality and confidence. Great sketches, you managed to keep them organic too. The Reilly ones are nice too, though perhaps too sketchy for the method to actually "work". Good post! And are those Blade Runner screenshots?Love that.

[Pádruig]

Anthis Yes, I used a reference pic where the person was wearing very thick glasses and his eyes were enlarged and distorted. If you have any tips on how that could be shown more clearly I'm all ears : ) Thank you for your constructive criticism.

[J8stine]

Thanks for the feedback Anthis, might try some more refined tones for my final 50 next week and see if I can get less sketchy.... sometimes I loosen up and then forget to refine things again. Also, very well spotted!! They were Bladerunner screenshots, I love the lighting in loads of the scenes of that movie.