[somethingwonderful]

Okay, so I got a Wacom tablet about 3 months ago, but I never used it for drawing. I used it to do things in 3D (like using it for Artisan in Maya...great stuff). Anyway, I can't draw. Not for the life of me, but I always wanted to. I took a course this summer for a few weeks on drawing the human form - my first art class since high school (and you know what most HS art classes are like...so we won't go there).

Anyway, I haven't drawn anything since...that was around July. Well, coming here last night and really looking around this forum put me in the mood to try again. I have to say, I am inspired by everyone here. You're all so incredible. And the only way to get there is to practice, practice, practice! Of course, I know this.

So, I whipped out my "Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters" book and tried to draw my first Wacom picture ever to see if I could reproduce one of my favorite pictures. Henry Fuseli: Polyphemus Hurling the rock at Odysseus. I figure that it's the best way to learn: try to learn from the old masters at first and study the way the strokes are done and the general form and anatomy, proportions, etc...

Unfortunately, I do not have a scanner, so I can't scan the original in for you guys to compare it, but I'm sure that you may know it, or can find it online someplace. It's B&W sketch with charcoal and paint.

Anyway, here it is...my version, at least. I did this in about 45 mins, (listening to Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, no less). So, tell me what you think? Yeah..it isn't perfect, but hey...it's my first try.



I was trying to use some techniques that I learned in class and from my copy of the book "Drawing on the right side of the brain". And...remember...I don't draw. At least, not yet. Maybe this is a new start for me. I hope it sticks because I really enjoyed trying this out. Thanks to everyone here for inspiring me to try again and to give myself the time and spirit necessary to start once more. I do appreciate it.

Traveling Uncle Nat
[email protected] http://www.somethingwonderful.com

[somethingwonderful]

Oh..here's a litle P.S:

I didn't trace this. I did it freehand. My tablet is way too small (It's a Graphire) and I wouldn't put such a beautiful book under that messy see-thru layer. The book is actually really big. It's a great book, btw. It teaches with some beautiful examples of the old masters. If anyone wants to know the author, etc...I can post that info.

Traveling Uncle Nat
[email protected] http://www.somethingwonderful.com

[AprilYSH]

hey nat, good to see you around here.
try drawing a female next, it might be more fun

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April http://april.digitalart.org

[faustgfx]

maybe you should stick with photography nevertheless...

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sky high with a heartache of stone you never see me 'cos i'm always alone/ministry
the law of lead now reigns!@#!/earth crisis

[email protected]
icq#35983387
http://faustgfx.0wns.org
webcam trend

[somethingwonderful]

Hey Apryl.

Didn't know you switched your URL...I'll update my button today on my site for you. I actually did a little house cleaning lately on all my buttons and stuff...found a lot of dead ones.

I was going to attempt a female figure later. I actually did a lot of female figure drawing in the class this summer. I'll try it out again.

faust: Why are you being such a butt-head? You really offend me, but I don't go around saying that your artwork is crap. I just argued that your statement about photography being easy isn't true at all. I found it to be insulting to me and a lot of other hard working photographers who bust their ass every day to try to make beautiful pictures or powerful ones, sometimes even risking their own lives - like I did. Tell you what: You go to a place where bullets are whizzing by, stun grenades and tear gas canisters are blowing up all around you, people are throwing stones from all directions, molotov cocktails are being tossed off of the rooftops, and katyusha rockets are flying around you and blowing up everywhere you try to duck, and you try to see how easy it is to make a great picture with a camera...like I did when I was a photojournalist for Reuters in the West Bank or in Lebanon. Or...better yet...why don't you just come on over to try to take a simple picture of the President in the White House: do a nice little photo essay in black and white. Maybe you can show all those bigshots in the Washington Press Corps and people at National Geographic that they're really just fooling the world. As you said: it isn't the photographer, it's the subject matter. So go and find some great subject and prove me wrong. After all, you said it was really easy and that you couldn't see what all the fuss was about....

Until you do, stay out of my way, because you don't have the credentials or the experience to go around insulting me and say that my former trade is just some sort of pseudo-art.

Oh, and by the way, your use of the word "nigger" in the Art Director post was pretty darn insulting. And I'm fairly sure that I wasn't the only one who took offense to that.

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...
Traveling Uncle Nat :)
[email protected]
http://www.somethingwonderful.com

[ProcyonNine]

What's the word for you...brittle?

Faust does that purely to get reactions. I find his posts absolutly hilarious, and the responses he gets from new people even more so.

He annoys you simply to make you get pissed off on the internet.

[faustgfx]

yeah, and for the record, i don't quite like mr.somethingwonderful...

edit; now that i actually read through the text.. yeah, i annoy mr.somethingwonderful on purpose and for a reason. how bout you stay out of my way?

edit 2; hah.. how would YOU know why and what for i type stuff that i type or don't type this or that? aren't you the new one around.. and seeing as how i've never actually heard of you before or seen you around here before, i highly doubt you'd know why i do or don't do this or that...

edit 3; to make this a bit more messed up, edit 2 was aimed at procyonnine. my apologies for being a bit tired. too much beer, diablo 2 and led zeppelin.

edit 4; couldn't resist... insulting? hah. i can't really see how anyone here can take it in an insulting way that i call myself and my co-worker graphics artists niggers.. but whatever. won't hurt my day.


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sky high with a heartache of stone you never see me 'cos i'm always alone/ministry
the law of lead now reigns!@#!/earth crisis

[email protected]
icq#35983387
http://faustgfx.0wns.org
webcam trend


[This message has been edited by faustgfx (edited March 31, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by faustgfx (edited March 31, 2001).]

[somethingwonderful]

Actually, I've known faust for a while.