Gesture Drawings, Feb 1st!

Sketching away a toothache.  I think one of the best things I've learned recently is that when you exaggerate the pose you begin to match the energy of the model.. whereas when you attempt to match the model the pose may fall flat.

I'm not great with color.. I need to pick up a book or two on the subject. lol

Again, most of the knowledge I've gotten on Figure Drawing has recently come from the book Force:  Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators.

These particular references came from the book Art Models 6.. The book has 360 degree shots of each pose.. and I find it useful to see form/shape better.  It's not just a flat image when I can kind of rotate the model and see what's going on from other angles.

There are plenty of other free reference sites like Lovecastle, Pixelovely, and CharacterDesigns.com.  I just found Virtual Pose and Art Models to be pretty damn useful as far as the 360 degree shots go!

(If your adblock is off I'm leaving some links below to all of the books I've been using lately)

Gesture Drawings Jan 29th/30th/31st.

At some point I felt like I had forgotten everything that I had read from Force:  Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators.. but I think I just needed to lay a few strokes down to remember.  While it's not the best, the guy was actually done without a reference.  There might be flaws with it.. but from memory I think that's pretty good, and from here I'll only get better!  Just got to keep it up!  And I have to read the second Force book Force:  Character Design from Life Drawing too!

I found some amazing resources for figure drawing that I'll link after this picture!

I've been using these free websites and they've been extremely helpful: 

http://lovecastle.org/draw/

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php

http://characterdesigns.com/

..but I feel like they lack something by being just flat images.  I might not be seeing the actual form of the body.. and I can't move closer to the subject to get a more dynamic angle.. so I was extremely excited when I found these books:  

Virtual Pose is a series of books that also contain quicktime files of models you can rotate 360 degrees by just panning the image. I personally feel like it helps give you a better understanding of form in the human figure when you can see the other angles so easily.. and it's something I was lacking sitting in front of a flat image trying to sculpt the form of the body.  Now all I need is some drastic angles to go with these! (links:  Virtual Pose Duo, Virtual Pose 4 (more action/motion poses!), Virtual Pose 3.)

Also found the Art Models series of books/cd-roms full of pictures.  These also provide a 360 degree shot of each pose.  I've only seen Art Models 6, but I'm sure the others are just as good.  These have something Virtual Pose doesn't seem to have.. which is facial expressions and some shots of different angles.

(If your adblock is off I'm leaving some links below to all of the books I've been using lately)

Comic #7!

lol Of course this would probably create some sort of time paradox.. or create an alternate universe where only alternate universe me would benefit from the excruciating torment of some strange fat hairy guy threatening to kill me if I didn't read more books and draw more.

Speaking of books, I've been slowly reading Scott McCloud's Making Comics.  I'm enjoying it so far!  I've done a few of the exercises from the first chapter.. Dog Eats Dog and Choice of Frame (which I could use input on!  I have four more frames to draw.  I need you to tell me what happens next!)

If your adblock is off there will be a quick link to the Making Comics book on Amazon.  Definitely worth the price!

Gesture/figure/head drawings. Jan 25th!

Working on heads in perspective and the occasional figure drawing.  Got linked to a bunch of good reference sites thanks to conceptart.org's irc!  

Easy linkage below if your adblock is off.. Definitely worth the money I paid for them.. and I'm not even done with them yet!

 

Making Comics Exercise #5 - Choice of Frame!

Gonna need some help with this exercise from the book Making Comics by Scott McCloud.

Sketch a 16-panel grid on a piece of typing paper with a simple standing figure in the first panel.  Ask a friend to decide what your character should do in panel two.  Draw the suggestion and consider whether it was necessary to change the viewing angle.   If your character encounters an elephant, do you have to pull back?  If he she clips a toenail, do you have to pull in?  Do any of the suggestions require a tilt or rotation of viewing angle?  Do any require a change of elevation?  Repeat until the page is filled!

EDIT:  I kind of like the lineart more than I do the colored version.. so it's going on top! lol

Easy linkage to Scott McCloud's Making Comics on Amazon below (If your adblock is off).  So far it's been worth it, and everyone always recommends his books to me.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud

Reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud.  At the end of the first chapter there are a few exercises to do.  "Dog eat dog, dog burps, dog figure skates" is one of the options for the third exercise.  This is what I originally pictured in my head.. lol

If your adblock is off I'll leave a quick link to Making Comics by Scott McCloud. .  Everyone has been recommending this book to me.

I also attempted exercise #1: Choice of Moment in which you had to split your favorite movie into 16 frames.. gotta admit, this was kind of difficult. lol  I decided not to sketch it all out because it would've taken too long.  First I had over 30.. but I got there eventually.  Does it retain enough information to tell the story?

Heres 16:

Also said to try and drop that down to 8..

Gesture Drawings, Jan 19-20!

Feeling like I need to read over the Force:  Character Design from Life Drawing book again.  Might not be retaining all the information.. lol

I'm also attempting to work on heads in perspective.  I thought I always had it down, but my heads are kind of flat and trying to draw someone looking up from below is painful.  Must.. destroy.. this.. shortcoming!

If your adblock is off I'm leaving two quick links to the books.  I definitely think they're worth it.  People have been complimenting me about how my figure drawings are full of motion and action.. and I swear it all came from about a month of reading the first book.  (also I may be a slow readerlol) 

 

Gesture Drawings, Jan 17

I'm about to move onto the second Force book.. Force:  Character Design from Life Drawing.  I'm excited.

Easy linkage below if your adblock is off!  Definitely worth the money I paid for them.. and I'm not even done with them yet!

Gesture Drawing: Jan 14th & 15th.

I was disappointed in myself for only doing 4 sketches last night.. but I finished a comic and did a couple more figure drawings today so I guess I made up for it!

Got to chapter 4 in Force:  Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators.  Chapter 4 is about clothes.. so obviously, I'm working on clothes.  Along with that, I can tell you right now what I need to work on:  Heads, feet, hands.

Easy linkage of the first two Force books.  Definitely worth it.

Comic #4: Jungle Buzzard Hopkins!

For years I've had the idea for a hobo who was always scheming for money and always failing.. but for whatever reason I couldn't gather up the courage to actually make a comic.  But the last few comics have made me want to do something more substantial..  I want to be hooked to the characters, the world, and the story like my favorite movies and shows.  I hope I can manage to do that.  It may not be the best at first, but as time goes on I'm more than certain it will become something good.  Just gotta put my mind to it.

Without further ado, I present to you the first iteration of Jungle Buzzard Hopkins. Jungle Buzzard is something you'd call a hobo when steals from another hobo.

If you have any feedback, give it!  Doesn't matter if it's harsh as long as it helps me become better as an artist in some way.