Drawn in an A5 unbranded sketchpad with terrible quality paper, can't grumble, the book was free.
Starting with a self portrait. I mirrored this like crazy to check for wonkiness but I still find it hard to balance the eyes and they feel wrong to me. Tricks appreciated.
Lady photo studies. I'm a big fan of black wash technique. However wash does not work with pentel brush pens and an aqua brush anywhere near as good as sable, lamp black watercolours, and paper that doesn't bobble. I went straight in with ink, hence the faces are too long.
Studies from faces in the (free) London newspapers. Col-erase and polychromos black pencils. I really like this combination. The col-erase doesn't smudge and grease as much as graphite and the polychromos gives you deep rich blacks.
One for Gato there. Getting a likeness for known figures in drawing is difficult, you need to caricature it a bit - I'm not very good at that, caricature is hard. The couple on the left I went free form with; It's fun to go a bit cubist now and again.
Oh no! I ran out of time. Time for quickies from facebook.
And some quickies from life, London chaps.
Any thoughts appreciated, especially on caricature and balancing the eyes.
Gato of course:
AntwortenLöschenGod save Angela, the most awkward of world leaders :D
Those are very good, from the handling of the volume to the overall likeness.
The eyes will come with practice, the rest all looks really good.
The self-portrait looks good too, hmm.. the eyes maybe.. it's subtle, I don't know your face but one eye looks a bit asian-ish and the other european. It's the shape of the curve of the upper lid, left one has a slight angle, right one is flowing.
The drawing from the newspaper, the man on the left has a deep shadow around the corner of his eye, the other eye doesn't have that dark corner. That black is pushing the right eye deeper in the skull and the lack of shadow is pushing the left eye out. It looks almost like that left eye is one one depth level with the nose. Maybe it's like that in the photograph but without that black shadow on the other side of the eye it looks like his face is assymetrical in depth.
I think the eyes are practice ;/
With caricatures, try to redraw from other artists to get looser. Cartoons, caricatures or african masks, whatever you like. Then you can tone down afterwards.
Because you put so much weight on construction, a constructed but cartoony artists could be cool.. what about Matt Rhodes - you have to check the sketches because he often experiments with faceshapes where you really see the differences.
John K also did a series of caricatures but they are far more rubbery.
Also keep in mind that you know look for two different goals - values and construction is about precision, caricature about expression and exaggeration. You need a certain explosive looseness for one and a tightness for the other - keep one goal to one session.
Heh, I'm half asia. I see what you mean, but heh, that's my face... Depending on my mood my eyes can shift between asian and european, it's actually the only way people can tell where I'm from, but it's pretty subtle.
AntwortenLöschenAlso I'm not sure I agree it's a choice between caricature or construction - caricature relies on solid construction and a grasp of forms (think Leyendecker) more than anything. I think you mean a choice between caricature and pure observational drawing (aka academic drawing) - which the more I draw I notice nobody really does. The old masters certainly didn't.
When it comes to tonal, I really look up to this tutor at esag: http://www.remiwyart.com/ - Total tone boss. Draws like a printer, starts at the top left, finishes in the corner.
:D. Asian at day, European at night - I hope you use your power wisley to fight crime!
AntwortenLöschenCaricature resides on construction? Partially, think outside the patterns of what is correct or what the terms are.
Matt Rhodes I recommended relies on classical Loomis-like construction - that's what you are doing right now and you are in that thinking pattern of classical construction with caricatures and observationals.
You could construct, and push the forms heavier like classical mad magazine caricature artists.. but to get some more thought food going, Basil Wolverton is constructed but has forms that are a bit more radical than a circle with a midline and an eyeline:
http://www.linesandcolors.com/images/2009-07/wolverton_450.jpg
Ok that is radical.
Al Hirschfeld's stuff relies heavily on design and extremely little on construction but is certainly caricature:
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&cp=13&gs_id=1b&xhr=t&q=al+hirschfeld&pq=al+hirschfeld&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1680&bih=900&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
Ren and Stimpy
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/archives/renstimpyapc.jpg relies heavier on design than construction too, though there's a bigger construction part (look at my hand studies, those aren't hands that you can do with a classical construction in mind, there needs to be an extreme looseness in the way of thinking to achieve something like this)
Steadman is also more of a design guy:
http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/RalphSteadman--FearAndLoathingInLasvegas-1971-30-petit.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ERFVJNKIGsA/SmNMhd7jOHI/AAAAAAAADvk/Nj0cM6Bg9iU/s400/maggie1.gif
Gosh I hate this picture so much, I want to punch Steadman in the face C:
So yeah, caricature doesn't have to rely on a high knowledge of anatomy and construction but can soley base on good understanding of design (form, space, composition, line quality like Steadman)
That artists you linked is super sweet btw, thanks for the link.
Yeah you're talking design, which is where correct form and construction can take a back seat - when I think of caricature I tend to think along the structured painter style that's popular these days but yup, the designed style of caricature is totally legit.
AntwortenLöschenI'll be avoiding the design route for now (I get enough of that in animation) but it's certainly food for thought when the work runs off.