[janne]

two more. if i only could get some resemblance to the original... :-\



[edit. one more, i guess i should try to be a lot more unrefined still]



[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: janne ]

[Freddio]

nice Jeane and Jezebel

[Olve]

Cool thing going.
Here's mine. About five minutes. Had only 15 minutes from reading the first post till getting in out there (have to go somewhere). Guess being in a hurry is good doing those things.
Christ! Now I have to run!



Oooooooolve

[Ilmari]

moving in order and wasting far too much time twiddling details with a 60-pixel brush :|



[edit]
and the third one. same stuff as on the one above.



[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: Ilmari ]

[Prometheus-ANJ]

Made two new ones. Getting the eyes right is difficult, the eyes are the first thing we look at on a face and therefore much more sensitive for errors.
I also noticed that I tend to use too many midtones and unsaturated colors, something that I hope these excercises can help me fix.

[Grendel Khan]

Me too...

[Finer]

[Sumaleth]

I think I'm still doing these too detailed and too smooth. I'll be trying to show more of the surfaces in the next ones.

Row.

[klaivu]

[buyuu]

not so good

[Olve]

This is like meditation. Well, this time I ended up doodeling a bit longer, which is kind of against the rules here.... but anyway it was relatively a quick one.



Olve

[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: Olve ]

[klaivu]

Not so great - but with a sequence anyway.



edit : duhh - posted a wrong image ...
edit2 : quess i didn't read spooges post too closely

[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: klaivu ]

[Gecko]

bam, let's start with these.
http://members.surfeu.fi/pveik/turhatjpgt/tenfirst.jpg

[Staff Sarge]

Ok, this is for making your life easy:

Download this HTML-file and save it in your Sargent directory where you keep your gifs. Open the HTML-file and voil�, you can read the notes in one long page using your browser.

[Anthony J]

ok here's my little take on the 'heads'
lesson.

I'm sort of getting the idea of doing the work at doing the original alot larger
than the final.

i did my original at 2000 x 2000 pixels
only spent 45 minutes on it, or maybe a bit more. Just getting used to the new monitor
at a 1600x1200 res. Anyways, the final is pretty small, almost the same size as the reference.

[burn0ut]

dood u posted the original res

[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: burn0ut ]

[Snake Grunger]

I think I missed out on the goal of this exercise. Trick was to apply as few brushstrokes as possible, which is what I didn't do. But I did learn that it's important to study the shape of an object before drawing it. Anyway, here it is:


Click here for full rez.
Click here for an AVI of the last half of my drawing time.

[SuperFish]

Thought I should join in and give it a try.


[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: SuperFish ]

[Hadoken]

Aaah, I couldn't resist, had to try one of these too.

ta-daa!




turned out ok methinks, im happy. tomorrow i'll try more!

-Hadoken-

[Blakk]

Did this in 30 minutes or so.




Coolness is my game! What to play little girl.

[ June 07, 2001: Message edited by: Blakk ]

[Snake Grunger]

Here's a head I stumbled upon, I think it's pretty interesting (maybe not those weird tatoos)



(Note: That Frost pin badge was badly drawn in there by me in an effort to remove the unwanted "Corbis" like logo)

[Ilmari]

and the last of the top row

[PeZ]

[Olve]

You got me hooked:





Olve

[ May 26, 2001: Message edited by: Olve ]

[spooge demon]

I don’t have the time to crit each of these, so please forgive my giving only general advice. I did the guy Jezebel posted to show maybe what I am trying to get across. He was a good example because of the heavy textural quality, and I knew that the wrinkles where going to attract a lot of attention. Nooo…

Try to get the “gesture” of the head, and express that through careful drawing and modeling. In a sense this becomes concerned with likeness, because it should look somewhat like the person. If it is really done well, it will look even more like the person than the photo. Someone who knew them would relate to a well-done painting more than a photo, often. A photo will pick up all kinds of things many that work against a likeness sometime. Caricaturists know this well. A good likeness often has a slight feeling of caricature, because of the exaggeration of important forms and the suppression of what is by chance there.

People often ask about values, how to do them, etc. The values are controlled completely by the form. So if you know the form, you simply show that by the values.

I missed the likeness of this guy by quite a bit. I made his head much more iconic, more “roman.” His face is quite wide in the front. I did this on purpose really, because that is where my head is at right now. Romans make better pirates But notice that in all that texture and wrinkles of the forehead, I pulled the basic planes out of them. If you look for them, and know what to look for, they are there. But is it the first read when you look at the photo? No, all those wrinkles are. But what is more important? For the photo-real photo copyist, the wrinkles. Detailed pics of old people are part and parcel of that genre. But I have rarely seen one that was really well constructed. That is the whole point of this exercise, to recognize the forms in the photo, to simplify the extraneous detail, and use value to show those forms.

So you might ask, why is this better art than just doing the wrinkles? Well it is not, really. If you are a shape copyist, that is the extent of your art, and it will limit you forever. And it is just not that difficult to do. But if you learn the more basic structures, you will be freer down the road to do more and more interesting things, to put some of yourself into what you paint.

As I have said before, it does not bother me at all if someone traces one of these. I can see it a mile away, and it does not cover up lack of understanding. If a competent artist traces it and does it well, the results would be about the same as if they did it freehand. But when the shapes are very accurate but the forms are modeled poorly, it is very apparent. Probably that person would do themselves a favor by not tracing and training the eye and hand by doing it freehand. Drew Struzan, Norman Rockwell, two artists come to mind who did trace from photos with the use of a lucigraph. But they understand what it is they are doing. Drawing is not a parlor game to see who can duplicate better. That is only the most basic component.

So in general of the pics everyone has been doing, I would say slow down. Think about what you are doing. Spend more time thinking about it, looking at the model and then put a stroke down. Try this: Have your painting open in two windows, the first is 100 percent and zoomed in so maybe the eyes are the only thing in the frame. The second window ids the whole thing, zoomed out so you are seeing it from a distance. Make your source photo the same size. That way you have the control, and you can see what you are doing from the zoomed out version.

I think that I have said use a big brush has lead people to think these should be offhand quick sketches, with a lot of gestural marks and textures. They should be done slower with more deliberation, really thinking about the form. How long it takes is not really that important.

If I say accurate and careful, doesn’t that make you think of detail and rendered eyebrows? Accurate and careful big shapes and values. Ah, I just figured out how to say what I mean in one sentence. Writing this is a bit like the exercise. Sorry I wrote so much, I did not have time to make it shorter. Hehe get it?

[poxen]

Great Spoonge! very helpfull! , you rule!

[ May 27, 2001: Message edited by: poxen ]

[bellie]

wow spooge.. and everyone.. you guys rock :P
well this was realli great! man i came to luv this thread! i havent drawn for months and this made me draw! man i learnt heaps.. all these pics took quite a long time.. didnt time it but i tended to make it too smooth? like when i looked at spooges it was rough but realli nice :P i have to learn that..
well hope this works
[edit - man i did it wrong sorry guys -edit]









it seemed easier as i went.. and these should be in order in what i did them.. i added a little beast during the middle it was realil fun.. keep it up guys!

[ May 27, 2001: Message edited by: bellie ]

[poxen]

here we go!
skinner...



[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: poxen ]

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: poxen ]

[Olve]

Hello (has Sijun been down for a few days or is it me?).
Found some pics on my harddisc and picked some from corbis which I found interesting (noticed afterwards they're all female.... coincidence.....). As you see they vary in light from very flat to almost no light to very directional. Some cool shapes in some as well. I found them fun to do (about five minutes each in small scale). Have a go:



(Did the tattooed man as well )



Olve

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: Olve ]

[Zorglub]

Spooge you are the man!! At my university you'd have to pay a thousand dollars to get the info you're giving us
Well here's my take on it. It's not much and I know I should've concentrated more on form but I've learned so much and that the picture itself is secondary in importance


more are on the way

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: Zorglub ]