.: Big American Party :.

[Beershite]

Thanks for dropping by my sketckbook
You got some great studies and drawings here mate!
I like that Michaelangelo studie, i would like to see more of you're poses with that kind of shading. It's a great way to learn anatomy and lighting in the same time. Keep it up!

[Olle Werme]

Sigh, I feel like quoting my last reply. I won't though, some dancin' will do.



Keep it up mate. ^_^

[bunny]

kick-ass studies man. Keep it up!
My only suggestion, for now, is to spend more time sketching out guidelines and comparisons for proportioning before you render light&shade. Let's say, if you're drawing a girl and her back looks a bit 'hunched', fix it before you go any further.

That is all for now Keep arting!

[Andy P]

Yeah man, the life drawing's really starting to come together, can see that you're thinking about the figure as a whole, not just in pieces. Watch the feet and hands, they're still lookin a little small. Great work man!

[Seer]

Hi max and welcome to the SSG

I think anyone can see the improvement you've made since you started "school", especially the post you made two weeks in. What do you think is the most important thing you've realised? I'm really interesting in finding out how the sessions have helped you out on a more mental/motivational level.

I need to go over what you've posted, only had a quick skim so far, just wanted to write something before the pie cools down as the saying goes.

[Mag-Neo]

-Thanks a million for your comment man..... There is really nice anatomys, sketches & some pencils are here..... Quiete good starts....... Keep more posting & GOODLUCK man.......... ........ / ofcourse i'll be take some colored stuffs on my sketchbook..... But this days i'm so busy crazy...... I'll be it if i have got free time...... /

[Matsign]

Thanks for your comment in my sb thread! So can we expect another full monrth of intense art studies? If so I'll be watching. Peace mate.

[max xiantu]

Thank you everybody for your crits, comments and visits. I'll definitely be over at your spots soon.

Kvick :: Thanks for the suggestions. I'm just starting to draw somethings from memory. I'll show you some on the next post. All my drawings aren't timed, but the life drawing sessions I go to are structured like that. I draw much more than I post here, I'm working on stuff from the imagination that I'll also post shortly. Good stuff. Thank you.

canned_fruit :: thanks homie!

Beershite :: Thank you. I am trying to incorporate some of that great masters stuff in the life drawing, but I'm still terribley slow at rendering ... and I usually don't have enough time on the pose to get into that. But I promise you I'm working towards it.

Olle :: Maybe this post will give you a chance to be harder on me Nice footwork.

Bunny :: One of my main focuses (focusi?) right now is working out my proportion, but the main problem I'm having is I usually don't noticed how messed up it looks 'til I'm done or look at it later, with a fresh eye. Perhaps I need to step back more and put down the pencil. Draw with my eyes.

Andy P :: Thanks brother. I'm working on that proportion and blowin up those hands and feet.

Seer :: Thanks for having me. The life drawing sessions have definitely helped me stay focused and motivated when I come home to do some "homework" so I'm better for the next day. I recommend it highly if you have the opportunity.

Mag-neo :: Thanks man. I'm still gonna keep my eye out for that color work!

Matsign :: Thanks. Yes. Yes. More intense art study. As long and as much as I can.


This is a just a small update. I'm going to spare you all the class stuff and show a bit of the other things I've been working on at home.

I built some basic geometric shapes out of cardboard the other day and I've been lighting them and drawing the scene. Don't know how to build a sphere, so I've used an egg.

Attachment 32334

I even tried it out in Photoshop

Attachment 32335

I've also dedicated myself to going through and really chewing on the Loomis Figure Drawing book. Here's an example of one of the page studies. I changed the heads a bit, and unfortunately drew the side view one out of proportion. I had fun inking it though.

Attachment 32336

And my very first self-portrait. I set up some semi-harsh lighting and ended up squinting a bunch and in turn, screwed up the eyes big time. I will be doing more of these, it's a damn good exercise.

Attachment 32337

Thanks for looking!
m:.

[morningbloom915]

You show awesome improvement from the first post to the most recent! Awesome, I say. The SP looks good. Something is bothering me about the ear though, and you already explained why the eyes are a bit off. Incredibly well done nose, though. And those are often the most difficult! Your geometric shapes look really good! How did you build them out of cardboard?

[Beershite]

hehe, yes i know what you're saying. And afterall it's more important to get get pose right first

[Seer]

Whaa, it's nice to see you going through some basic geometric shapes, I have some I did a while ago that I haven't uploaded (better do new ones instead). It's a good subject to be drawing when you're out of ideas/references (like stuck in an isolated prison cell).

Nothing to complain about on the proportion/figure study.

The left contour of the self-portrait is weird to me, maybe the angles are too sharp? The ear and mouth are looking great though. I'm getting reminded of more and more stuff to draw. Thanks!

[bunny]

Thumbs up on yer geometric shapes! Specially the CG'd ones.

Nothing to critique about the figures. Nice inking

The eyes in the self-portrait are what bug me the most. Your right eye is noticable bigger than your left. Eyelids and sockets need more rendering, especially on the right one; it looks like a stretched oval glued to yor face as it is

That's all! Keep it up, you are improving and that... that makes me happy.

[sith]

i never really noticed these ones before

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...9&d=1159109077

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...0&d=1159109090

love 'em. really great job on the foreshortening. great pose by that dood too. too bad you got the worst angle. it's just like "bam!"- crotch shot! what sucks is if you have that class first thing in the morning- that's really not something people you wanna wake up to

[armando]

Whoops, I said center of the figure for the crotch, I meant halfway point, yeah it's really only useful for a standing pose. I also looked at the rest of those thumbnails. These are all good studies you're doing, you seem to have a knack for seeing shapes like on the public gestures. On your cone rendering, it looks as if you have placed the cores symetrically opposite from each other, this is a guess as I can't see the other side, but it would be benificial to do another study looking down at the cone so that you can see all around it and pay special attention to the placement of both cores. The inking looks good on the Loomis proportion figure, it's clean and has a funny cartoony quality which can be useful. A stylistic crit for that would be that the lines change too often from curvy to straight, and vice versa, let either curves dominate or angles and straight lines. Another thing is the line weight tends to change for no reason, it would be a good idea to try the exercise again and take these things into consideration, then compare the psychological effects of each style.

[Olle Werme]

Gah, those inked ones are beautiful, I love them. I got to figure out where I can get hold of some myself. Post some more of that kind. Thumbs up on the simple shapes as well.

That self portrait is really cool, I feel the mouth looks a bit flat but overall it really nice. Now what would be totally awesome would be you posting a whole bunch of these (well, one at the time of course), makes it easyer to crit and - as you said - it's probably a really good exercise.

Sheesh, I haven't ever done a selfportrait (except for that one in school when I was 13), gonna do that right away. ^^

Keep it up mate.

[rmore]

big improvements noticable.

[Marty666]

Hi max! The geom shapes are really nicely shaded, esp. the pencil ones. The ps ones have outlines that are a bit dark and I miss the reflected light you had in the pencil ones. Cool self portrait! I think the far eye could be a bit smaller and (just by a bit) wouldn't touch the outline of the face. Hope I could help a bit. Keep posting.

[max xiantu]

Thank you all of you for your crits and comments, they help tremendously and I am very much appreciative. When I look back at these posts I see alot of errors that I didn't see before(often with your help), which is great, 'cos it means I'm learning to see better. That gets me going.

morningbloom :: Thanks. The ear probably bothers you because it, like the lips are more rendered than the rest of the piece. Even rendering, a new lesson I built the geometric shapes by breaking them down into their 2D counterparts, ie. a cylinder is 2 small circles and a rectangle, a cone is one large half-circle and a small circle, etc.

beershite :: ah, yes. the pose. without being a poser of course.

seer :: Thanks brother. The contour of the face is perhaps too convex, but I do have a fairly angular contour from that angle. I checked!

bunny :: Thank you too. I agree, alot of the features look disparate and collaged. I kept that in mind for the new one.

sith :: Thanks for looking back. Luckily, class is not til 1pm, so I'm fully awake before I'm faced with a full frontal assault.

armando :: Great suggestions. I'm going to try them out for the next posting. You have a wonderful brain and the crits are always on point.

olle :: Thanks again and again. The mouth is definitely flat. I think I still had a bit of a problem with that on this one.

rmore :: thank you.

marty :: Danke. Good eye on the reflected light on the digi. I'll work on that.

Back to some figures. I think I've gotten the hang of proportions and working looser.
Some quick ones (5-10 minutes)

Attachment 34140
Attachment 34141

And I did a second self-protrait. I made the pose real boring-like, as to not add to the difficulty right now. I'll make future ones more interesting. Hit me with those crits

Attachment 34139

Thanks again :.

[Spats]

Hey there! It's been a while since I stopped by.

Great job on the SP's. I can see how doing those helps, I've never done any myself though haha

Also the life drawings rock as usual, keep it up! Looking forward for updates.

[Lee W]

the figure drawings are coming along nicely and that last sp looks great, but check the eyes

[morningbloom915]

Much improved on the sp! I do have a few crits. The thing with this one that bothered me is the right hand side of the face and the left hand side are different. Everything seems just a tad bit higher on the right side of the drawing. I know your face is probably not perfectly semetrical, but I doubt you're very far from being even. The most noticable area was the bottom of the jaw and the lip line is vertically off center. The insides of both ears are drastically different. You did an AWESOME job with the facial hair. I think the head hair is a little distracting the way that it is now. I have a hard time drawing hair believably, but the best ones I've seen have seem to render hair in clumps or sections instead of individual strands. The strands kind of make it look crazy and all over the place.

Serious improvement here. Especially notable in the eyes, facial hair and eyebrows. Keep it up.

[madhatter106]

You're moving in a good direction...I have noticed that you seem to be better at the lady figures than you are with the men - at quick glance, the men's heads and necks look rather small, while the some of the torsos look a bit large and long in comparison. The more recent lady sketches have a great sense of proportion and foreshortening - especially the last two.

I am a great fan of reclining poses, and I always had a hard time convincing my professors in college to let us do them. Their rationale was that for my field, costume design, you almost never end up drawing a figure reclining like that. My argument was that this didn't necessarily mean there was nothing to learn from doing such a pose, but I seldom won out.

I also like the line quality and weight you used in the tree sketch in one of your earlier posts - I would love to see you use that sort of line in some of your figure drawings! It might prove interesting...

[Beonarri]

Great progression from post 1 to now!

I can't really give a crit, since you're doing everything right so far.

Keep it up!

[Niels23]

Hi max! Thanks for posts in my sb, really appreciate your support! Great sb you got here, very nice life drawings and you`re progressing really fast.
These ones:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...0&d=1159109090
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...9&d=1159109077
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...9&d=1160492290
are damn good!
Ryder`s method in figure drawing really pays off I see. Great work with last sp - proportions and facial planes are figured out very well. Keep posting, you`re doing fine!

[max xiantu]

Hey yo ...

Spats :: Thanks brother. now, let's see a self-portrait

OldNoobie :: Thank you. I checked the eyes. Not the only thing that needs work

morningbloom :: Thank you. and thank you for the diagram. i love the diagrams. It was helpful in noticing my right side dominance. I have to be more aware of that. Maybe mirror the drawing in the future. I did the hair like that, just having fun. It's funny, when I was done, I thought, 'man, the hair's not crazy enough'

madhatter :: Thank you. I think what you're seeing in regards to the drawing men vs drawing women is the sequential listing. I improved a bit in seeing proportions, just happened to be when we were drawing the ladies. Reclining poses are fun f'sho.

Beonarri :: Thank you very much.

Ulver :: Thanks. The only part of the ryder method I've been using is the initial envelope, then I put a gesture inside and build from there. I think Ryder's technique in full looks very mechanical. Thanks for the good words.

Well. This week, I kinda slacked on the at-home work. Had a bit of a hectic time with some other things and I didn't really get to work on my foundation stuff. But a few of us in class started a bones and muscle study group. We're doing the skull first, so you'll see some serious studying on the next post up.

A bit of notes from lecture. The top is a quote from the Delacroix journals; " The only reality for me are the illusions I put down on my canvas. All else are shifting grains of sand" - Delacroix
After that are graphs showing wishful thinking in art progress, followed by reality in art progress ::

Attachment 36877

that being said ...
this week I tried out some different materials, styles and techniques. All these were short poses, 5-25 minutes.
hit me back with crits, comments, suggestions, spit in my eye, et cetera

some conte ::
Attachment 36870
Attachment 36871

ink stylies ::
Attachment 36872

pencil render ::
Attachment 36873

this woman blew all the rules i've been learning about proportion out the window. short legs, long torso, long neck, loooooonnnnggg hair...
pencil madness::
Attachment 36874

more conte ::
Attachment 36875

more ink steeze ::
Attachment 36876

Gotta hit that anatomy hard. and I'm about to try my hand at some environments ( or landscapes for you fine art types )

thanks for stopping by. it's always appreciated.
max :.

[bunny]

Hey you.
Good to see some improvements
This isn't a real comment; consider this a palceholder.
I'll verbally tear you a new one tomorrow

[Listing]

getting better. Proportions improved markedly. Keep on it.

[Beershite]

haha, that timeline is great!
And that conte's are really looking good there, would like to see more of those

[morningbloom915]

I like diagrams too. They make things easier for me to see. I really like the first ink. So simple, but it conveys the form so well! I would love to do some hand gestures with you. I'm not sure how well I'll do, but I'd love to give it a shot. How many to a page?

[max xiantu]

I've decided to post a bit more often. Keeps me focused, and the crits help truckloads. (thank YOU)

bunny :: thanks. and yes, I'll wait.

Listing :: thank you. I definitely will keep on keepin on.

beershite :: glad you enjoyed it/them. got another conte for you below.

morningbloom :: thanks for the comments. I did my gestures today. way harder than I anticipated, but I learned tons and I think I'll do more soon.

The figure gestures are getting looser and I think better over all. Gestures definitely help huge in me learning how to see. I think I'm going to do gesture studies of alot more things. Apply it across the board and such.

8B graphite. 1 minute gestures

Attachment 37686

More Conte. Exaggerated the abs and deltoid in exchange for more time to mess with conte rendering. 20 minutes.

Attachment 37687

Morningbloom and I have agreed to loosen up and learn our hand anatomy as a team.
They suck, but I learn bunches in a 35 minute period. I will do these again. and again.

1 minutes ::
Attachment 37688

2 min ::
Attachment 37689

5 min ::
Attachment 37690

and lastly, today's train sketches.

Attachment 37691

thanks for your eyes.
m:.