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Totally · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2001 10:43 pm

All right peoples, these are in order from newest to oldest

November 27

November 20

November 14

November 12

November 1

October 25

[ December 01, 2001: Message edited by: Totally ]

daz199 · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2001 10:59 pm

nice
you're improving quickly

Anthony J · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2001 4:35 pm

Totally im really interested in life drawing, and i try to go to my nightly life drawing at my school twice or three times a week. I started in september, and i've improved...but unfortunately theres plenty of homework for me to do alot of the time.

what paper are you using? its done in conte right? how long are the poses, im guessing like 20 to 45 minutes or something right ?

Totally · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2001 4:41 pm

these are sustained poses.. usually about 2 hours long. I use canson gray papers and strathmore color. The pencil I have been using is great.. it's a graphite pencil but it's very dark and not shiny.. it's called a Mars Lumigraph 8B (they use to call it something besides 8B, but I guess they wanted to make it sound more mainstream)... only place I can find it around here is Sterling Art Supply (in other words, places like Aaron Brothers don't usually carry them), so I suggest you take a look at a big art store in your area... besides, the people at aaron brothers never know what you're talking about.

In any case, I start the underdrawing with vine charcoal to get the gesture down before I come in with the Mars Lumigraph 8B and the white charcoal pencils.

Anthony J · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2001 4:46 pm

hey totally
i see that you just answered my message

in my school we're only allowed to use conte in our classes, and at nightly personal life drawing (for your own benefit, not for class)
you can use anything.
longest pose we have is a 30 minute though..

i find the shorter time, the quicker you can accurately put all of the information down you had to observe within that short amount of time.

i dunno, ill scan some of my 5 minute stuff when i get a chance...my best gestures are with the teacher, because she's marking...

i enjoy learning life drawing alot...just wish i could go more often.

damn homework, im backed up !

check out mah site !

[ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: Anthony J ]

egerie · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2001 9:15 pm

Totally those are awesome ! You improve fast.. Isn't drawing on colored paper just the best ?

About those 8B Pencils, I used to have EB from Mars Lumograph if I remember well... Those were just AWESOME but I thought they stopped making them. Maybe it's the same as 8B. I remember it was hard graphite, matte, almost as dark as compressed (unatural) charcoal and just a must for life drawing.
What you describe sounds like it's similar and I'm so glad those exists

Must have to check out local art stores and ignore what the sales people say now !

Totally · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2001 10:04 pm

egerie: yep, that's the exact pencil! One of my instructors last year told us about the pencil and told us to look for the Mars Lumograph 8B and that it used to be called (you guessed it) EB. Definitely a nice quality pencil.. last semester I used ebony and charcoal pencils for my toned paper figure drawings, but I really like how these Mars Lumograph pencils work.. there's more tonal control than a charcoal and they're much darker than the ebony graphite...

Gothic Gerbil · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2001 10:43 pm

Just of curiosity what do you prefer to use Anthony? I've come to the conclusion recently that conte is one of the evilest and vilest inventions ever, I am very partial to my charcoals and pastels and to a lesser extent my pencils. I just prefer to work faster than conte allows me I guess. I'd scan some of my work but it is too big (18"x24" and I don't have access to a digital camera either). I'll have to see if I can track down some of those Mars Lumograph pencils, I always like experimenting with them. As to the sketches it is an interesting progression. I like the rendering style, it is refreshing to see unsmudged work as smudging seems to be all the rage in my drawing class (gag me with a spoon).

Dryfire · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2001 6:53 pm

Wow man, i really like those, the one done on November 12th was really great, I liek the lighting and the blue paper. You should incorporate such dynamic lighting more.. it defines the figure a lot better. Great work though, your lights and darks are fantastic!

jr · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2001 8:00 pm

when you're putting on the highlights, don't just put them on flatly, i see from the latest drawing you're begining to see this. follow the form in the body, understand the planes of the body and go over it with the white, as if you're doing a sculpture. that'll make a stranger drawing. good luck!

Totally · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2001 10:39 pm

jr: thanks for the critique... I definitely feel the light modeling on the newest piece is much stronger than the rest, and it's because I spent much more time focusing on that than usual.. with some of them, the reason that it looks so plain is because I quickly separate the light values from the shadow before I go back in and add highlight, midtones, core, reflected, and cast shadows.... And usually i spend more time focusing on the shadows than the lights. With the newest one (and the November 12) I put a lot more focus into defining the light values than normal.