Mau - Art School Journey

[mau.wamp]

Thank you, @dangras-almeida & @Shellac-Belly for your feedback and tipps! I'll implement them as best as I can!

[mau.wamp]

A Study I did today. I decided to not do it digitally as I spend so much time on my computer due to the online classes...
So here we go, I tried the measuring techniques Mark shows in Nude Figure Drawing. I also shaded it, but the main focus was on getting the Pose and proportions right.
Please feel free to share some feedback.

[dangras-almeida]

Hey @mau.wamp

How was it for you doing this exercise? And especially with doing this in a traditional manner, how was to fix any errors and stuff like that?

I'm on this same exercise and progressing slowly... but steady

If I may, one thing I notice is that on your piece, the character seems to have his center a bit tilted to the right, with a feeling that might fall if he keeps this stance. What do you think?

Cheers

[mau.wamp]

Hey Danilo!
I must say that doing this exercise in a traditional manner is a lot easier for me than doing it digitally.
When doing this digitally I create an additional layer with a reference line that i can move around freely. This is a little tedious as I always have to transform, rotate and move this line.
Traditionally is a lot faster in that respect, as I can just use my pencil as a reference...
For me, drawing the figure is faster and more efficient with pen and paper, but I think if you really want to improve upon this exercise, digitally might be better, as correcting your drawing is a lot easier (by just dragging your work onto the reference image).
But this has its own downsides and benefits:
- its fast and efficient which is good
- but just dragging it onto the reference might hinder you in developing the skill of finding your mistakes by just looking at stuff like empty space, flowing lines, vertical/horizontal lines and the overall rough shape of the reference.

I hope that helps
And thanks for your feedback, it‘s true, his stance doesnt seem stable at all

[dangras-almeida]

Hey @mau.wamp,

Thanks for the reply. It makes a lot of sense. And I would have to agree with you. In the traditional space, it seems more "natural" to do this kind of thing.

I've been trying to mix both experiences in the digital space. Instead of using the line, I'm also using a pencil to find the spots and mark them on the drawing right next to it, especially to "train the eye" in finding those reference points.

Thanks again!

[mau.wamp]

According to my plan!
Term 1 ends today and I'll start Term 2 (for 6weeks).
The goal is to go through the Art school curriculum in cycles. I want to study the first 5-6 assignement till December so I'll have at least some basic skills in order to participate in Art War this year.
The plan is, not to pracise one term for tool long, but to mix it up. That way (I think) I can progressively improve my skills while not getting bored working on e.g. Term 1 for a year until I am totally satisfied with my results, if that makes sense

Limiting my time spent on a Term hopefully also makes me manage my time better and work on the basic skills more effectively without getting too attached to minor details...
What do you think about this approach? Especially with regards to the goal I have?

So here is my first assignement for Term 2 - Photoshop 2
For this cycle I'll concentrate on the stuff digital artists use, because I think that this will help me the most for Art War, graphics design and photo editing will be worked on in the next cycle probably.

[mau.wamp]

Hey guys!
Here is my first 3-point perspective assignement I am actually happy with
I know the coloring is crap and the shading is non-existent, but it's better than just a white canvas with som black lines on it...
I found it especially hard to do the first few lines, placing the vanishing points and to determine the rough shape of the wall...
the more detailed it gets, the easier (not better ) it becomes somehow.
What do you think?
Any tips you can give or any mistakes you found?

[MattD]

I feel like the image gets really distorted at the left edge of the image. Moving that top vanishing point up some more should solve that issue. Three-point perspective is really tricky to get a feel for. When its just points and lines it can look okay but then you start adding details it can start to look weird. And I say that as someone who has done a full painting and only realized at the end that I had some very weird stuff going on at the edge of my canvas.

[mau.wamp]

I can totally see that! Thanks for your advice Matt!

[mau.wamp]

Heyho, everyone!
It's time to give you some updates: I've been practising the assignements of Term2 for about 3 weeks now. Progress and time for drawing has decreased as uni has started again...
So here is my current level of skill for the facial features.
Mouths and ears seem to work quite well and I feel confindent when drawing them. Noses and eyes are a completely different story.
Especially the eyes give me a lot of trouble using marc's methods for eyes that look comletely different from those he shows in his instructional videos.

Do you guys have some tips as to how I should go about shading? I dont really have a clue where to start. Normally I just pick one part of my drawing, shade the hell out of it and continue to the next. The thing with this method is, that the individual parts never match up properly. Whats your strategy?

And one more thing (also related to shading): shading these things takes me forever. I did this assignement in 1,5 hours. Any tips on how to get faster, so I get to practise more in the same amount of time?
And what do you think of my assignement? Any suggestions?

[dangras-almeida]

Marc explains some of his coloring and shading processes on Photoshop for digital production 2 (not sure if you saw that one already) and I feel his process here could help you out. What he explains there is literally how to shade with 2 very basic brushes (default from photoshop) and, depending on the brush, how to smudge the colors. He also explains with a good level of detail how he applies gradient maps to the drawings.

With all that said, I also saw @Vonschlippe doing AMAZING shadings on those body parts you are working on right now. Any tips or tricks we could apply here?

Cheers,

[Vonschlippe]

Thanks for the kind words! I was just about to reply to this post.

Rendering takes a lot of time, and to a certain extent it can be very boring. However, just like you can increase the quality of your line-work with confident, non-scratchy lines, the same goes for rendering. I also took several hours to do my anatomy studies (each).

My tips:

• Stay zoomed out. Rendering is a black hole of time wasted zoomed in on details nobody notices or cares about. Stay far from the black hole. Stay zoomed out.

• Work at 100% opacity most of the time, and toss the diameter pressure sensitivity to the garbage can (or keep 75+% minimum diameter). Put pen pressure to opacity once you're working on a flat layer of color or value. Use alt+right click+pan to change your pen diameter on the fly if you need it.

• The soft airbrush is not your friend at all. Don't use it, especially early in the process. MAYBE you can later earn the privilege to glaze some color or corrections onto your stuff later, but to render, stick to hard edge brushes.

• Color pick and blend only on the sides which have a soft plane change. Don't waste time blending in hard cuts/folds. Keep them "painterly", if you will.

• Textured brushes are cool, but for studying, keep it clean with a very basic brush, like the basic round brush or a square one.

• For small-scale studies, I do recommend you play around with color instead of value only. It's the perfect playground to learn some color theory. Try simply matching the photo-ref without using the color pick too by picking and glazing in colors you chose yourself.

That's all that comes to mind! Keep it up!

[mau.wamp]

Wow, that's some awesome advice, @Vonschlippe!
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question!

[mau.wamp]

Here are some more facial features... I guess I have to be really patient with myself and embrace the suck...

Have a nice weekend, guys!

[mau.wamp]

Started with Term 3's Anatomy course today... My goal was to draw simplified versions of the Rib cage and pelvis and to place the scapula, clavicles as well as the hip and shoulder joint correctly. I like how it turned out.
A big challenge was getting the rib cage and pelvis into the correct position compared to each other...
I always drew the thorax first, followed by the pelvis. Most of the time, it appears to be off (as if the lumbar spine was extremly flexed to the side or rotated).

How do you guys solve that problem?
Cheers,
Mau

[mau.wamp]

Hey guys!
I figured I couldn't just do assignements all the time and as I've been watching a lot of "My hero Academia" lately, I decided to draw Todoroki Shoto as a pokemon trainer. I am really happy with how it turned out.
Tell me what you think!

[chiara.arcidiaco]

The composition is awesome!! And I like that the first thing that you see is the character's face, as it should be The only thing I could say is that the proportion of the arms is a little bit off, but the espression of the character is just great in his semplicity. Also the folds of the suit are really well done, good job!!

[mau.wamp]

First off, thanks @chiara.arcidiaco for your kind words and feedback!

Here is today's Anatomy practise with the muscles I've learned so far:
Feel free to critique and give feedback!
Have a wonderful day, everyone!

[cedricgo]

I think the main feedback I have would be for the trapezius muscles on the front view. I think they look too thick. I think the deltoids could also be a bit longer. Other than that, I think it's pretty much alright

[mau.wamp]

Thank you for the feedback, @cedricgo!
I'll try to implement it : )

Here is todays practise. A skeleton drawover is far easier than using my own "skeletons".
What i definitely have to take another close look at, are the obliques. I struggle getting the look right...
Have a great day, guys!