Gato - Jazz hands and dancers

Hands hands hands. I've reached my goal here.
All Jazz hands. The hands got more fluid, have more form. Maybe the difference isn't visible but I got a lot of security out of that training.

And dancer dancer s dancers:
30 maybe, I didn't reach 50 because the research took too long and I was lost watching youtube videos and browsing through Flickrs. 
They are still stiff, there's a lot more to dancers than to handes, difficult bodies and bodytypes, more possibilities of movement, different form language. In the last sketches I push those. I wanted to take a break for this week and start with dancers next monday again, but then with no set goal. 










 
Reminder to myself: I have to push my forms harder and I want to get more flowing, organic lines. But yeah, push them forms push them push them.

Face - LoffelNog

Amelie still study - reference - 3hrs+

Besides colour pencils and apples on the table I think this's the first colour study I've ever done?  I am a tiny bit less afraid of colour but it still scares me. I spent too long stressing over gradients, shifting colours along the Hue really confuse me and get in the way of my Value but I'm getting a feel for a process. Need to work more generally and not get fiddly.

Should do some artist studies, preferably ones who also use GIMP's (very lacking) brush tools - see how they do it.

If I find the time I'll do a few more in the week.

Faces - LoffelNog

Whoah where did those last 4 days go? When scanning stuff at school, don't forget to collect the files.

Bit of a mixed bag this week; Pencil and then GIMP. I'm still with trouble balancing the features of the face and for the life of me I cannot fix that Aussie. I give up. Subtle lighting in GIMP kicks my butt.

Next week, my greatest fear: Colour.

Gato comes back with hands

 

Hands and such part II. Internalizing the rules. 

I started friday and had to go back to work so the first sketches are stiff copies of a Gaston comic: 

The artist stresses the size of the palm so that you have a really fat palm on a tiny wrist. This makes the hands easier to read and therefore expressions easier to catch. 

 There are some Craig Thompson hands inbetween, he's fantastic with composition and purposeful drawing. There are a lot of hooks and inverted lines in thise hands, the opposite of the fleshy, round hands of Gaston. They seem delicate, young, very dancing, flowing hands. Just like the lines.

There are some hands by Virginie Augustine who mainly works with those modern animation principles which are so popular latley where you use dynamic forms together with one side that has structure and one side that has direction (structure vs. gesture). I don't like them but it's nice to know.

Then some hands by Cyrill Pedrosa who are very abstrakt. Those have a nice, fresh feeling.

In the second pic there's one page with Ralph Steadman hands which are very wonky but have all the necessary clues that a hand needs, the expression, the dimension, the volume.. they are ugly but with meaning.

The rest are all own hands. Somewhere at the bottom of page 1 I got into a flow and pushed some more exaggerated form into these hands so that the expression follows one principle.

So I use rubbery fingers or big palms when necessary, round and stiff forms when necessary. 

Then I fall back to stiffness again, then to rubberyness.

For next week, I'll do 20 more hands where I push those forms in the hands and to have even clearer expressions. Internalizing, internalizing, internalizing.

I'll also do 50 gesture drawings of people who are dancing.

And the imageshack links of course:

http://imageshack.us/f/200/haende4klein.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/f/845/haende4aklein.jpg/

A Bunch of Speedpaintings - By Jottwick

     These were all two-hour speedpaintings, mostly just from stock photo reference. I was trying not to over render everything and force myself to make as complete a drawing as I could within the time limit. I drew these in order from left to right, and I think I'm starting to improve my drawing speed. I can further improve on my speedpainting by using more custom brushes and other shortcut methods. I also need to work out the most important parts of the drawing early on, such as perspective, defining the major shape masses and values, and getting the overall composition to look good.

References used (from the top left to right):
1. http://ulvar-stock.deviantart.com/art/Horse-stock-11-74705461
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/australian-war-memorial/with/2963002903/
3. N/A
4. "Sheltering Oaks" by Maxfield Parrish
5. http://www.123rf.com/photo_9656887_zurich-switzerland--june-4-2011-a-train-with-a-refurbished-pacific-01-202-steam-locomotive-is-ready-.html
6 & 7. http://www.photo-reference-for-comic-artists.com/
8. Cover art for Ennio Morricone: The Legendary Italian Westerns. (It was originally a movie poster for Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.)
9.  http://depositphotos.com/1319887/stock-photo-Kinds-of-Petra.html

notes on the face

These are not good drawings, they're notes. Notes are never the focus; your focus is your subject, your observation, these are just points I keep in mind.

Besides the usual proportions of the face there's 3 (+1) shadow areas I concentrate on and make sure to be darkest, these are usually the deepest shadows on the face given normal lighting: The Brow, the nose, the mouth, and the chin.

The ears are a fantastic clue; they're the most important indicator as to the tilt of the head; always look for their location, if the bottom of the ear is higher than the nose, the face is tilted down. If the bottom of the ear is lower than the mouth, the face is tilted up. If one ear is larger (or obscured) that means a turn of the head is involved. The ears are the best clue as to the angles of the head.

Any tips appreciate, I'm always learning! Good luck out there!

Edit:

Some other methods of construction, for fast drawings there's the double oval

And slower studies the Bridgman Square - Bridgman loved his squares, also alcohol.

Faces - Shortwings reporting in

Is this thing on? 1...2...3.

Err, hi. I'm a little late. Regardless, here are some faces. I didn't quite reach fifty, but at least I can post the ones I did manage to draw. I've done them all digitally, and in different colors to keep things interesting for myself. You know, because I like colors.

Yeah, I know, I failed. Don't think of me badly.