The Irregulars -- A Livestream Study Group

[Shon Harris]

That sounds fine. (I don't know about the woodcuts, as this is a group centered specifically around drawing, but we may be able to offer general critiques on them?)

Woodcut printmaking starts with several drawings, sketching atop the woodblock, and drawing with a set of gouges into the block. Your lines are made with the knife, either through what you cut out of it, or what you choose to leave. You then run ink over it and press that against a surface of your choosing. It's inherently tied to drawing in a way I'd venture to say painting often feels disconnect. We could talk about that for a good long while, but I thought offering description could be beneficial.

And wonderful. I'll shoot up some photos (cell phone pictures, my apologies) tonight.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Woodcut printmaking starts with several drawings, sketching atop the woodblock, and drawing with a set of gouges into the block. Your lines are made with the knife, either through what you cut out of it, or what you choose to leave. You then run ink over it and press that against a surface of your choosing. It's inherently tied to drawing in a way I'd venture to say painting often feels disconnect. We could talk about that for a good long while, but I thought offering description could be beneficial.

And wonderful. I'll shoot up some photos (cell phone pictures, my apologies) tonight.

Ah, I see now. That makes more sense.

[Keepvogel]

And Now for something completely different.



Larger size: http://imgur.com/FvRGo

So I'm not quite sure if I will be able to post regularly and I'm also far below the average skill level here but this is the first thing I actually finished.
I'm still working out how to even work efficiently in PS.

I just would like some opinions. Especially regarding work method as far as discernible from the picture, or basic technique.

Thanks in advance.

[Brand]

And Now for something completely different.



Larger size: http://imgur.com/FvRGo

So I'm not quite sure if I will be able to post regularly and I'm also far below the average skill level here but this is the first thing I actually finished.
I'm still working out how to even work efficiently in PS.

I just would like some opinions. Especially regarding work method as far as discernible from the picture, or basic technique.

Thanks in advance.

Lurker here, but did you draw that animation in your signature too? If so, what program did you use? I myself have been trying to get into animation. If that is your work in your sig, I LOVE IT!

[Keepvogel]

Lurker here, but did you draw that animation in your signature too? If so, what program did you use? I myself have been trying to get into animation. If that is your work in your sig, I LOVE IT!

I'm afraid that I only used it as inspiration. The original comes from a dutch childrens show back in the early 00's.
The actual footage I used to create my sig with (which I did cut and paste myself into this gif) came from this episode,
which I've uploaded to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dwXhj3ghpg

[Shon Harris]

Two pieces. One soon to be finished, another I just finished the sketch of and am currently transferring over to a thicker paper, more suited for wet media (watercolour, in particular).

[Guru]

So, Updating this a bit. As I already told Holmes, the clouds and water have been bugging me... specifically the colors, but I THINK I have found something that is working for it. Looking much better slowly, though I still have quite a bit to work with on the clouds. XD

Here is some work I did with the clouds and also the coloring of the water. I also adjusted the contrast of the picture as a whole and kind of reblocked out the foreground stuff.



and later, I worked on the ocean, which is coming along nicely, much easier than the clouds for me. XD lolz

[Fieryfly]

@Keepvogel: OMG Keepvogel was one of my favorite shows when I was young! It was so brilliant. <3 Lovely drawing. I think it looks very much like him.

[Sherlock Holmes]

@ KV - That's cute, I only have a small note. The bottom of his clothing is bothering me. (It just looks slightly awkward to my eyes. Not sure if it's like that in the original or what, but I included two options to consider if it's not.) Otherwise, I like the simplicity of the style. It's fun.



@ Shon - You're having some anatomy issues. (Moreso in the second piece than in the first -- It's missing the index finger on the hand that's raised, the foreshortening of the same arm is looking off, the lower hand is looking a bit fat on the bottom when compared to the slim fingers joined to it, the facial structure needs adjusting and the features need a bit of remeasuring/replacement. [Some skull/head studies would probably be a good exercise to engage in, which is echoed by the placement of the features in the first piece, too. They're less off, but you're having issues placing cheekbones and other things that a bit more structure study would probably correct fairly quickly.] I can't tell which angle the piece is supposed to be drawn from - you've drawn his chest from straight on, his head is angled down [as if he's looking down], but his eye sockets are so high up it's suggesting that we're looking up at his face [as is the size of the upper lip and the fact that we can see the underside of part of his nose], his neck is suggesting we're looking down on him a bit more because it's hidden under so much of his jawline, etc.) You said you were looking to transfer this piece to another sheet of paper.. Just try to pay attention to some of these things when you're redrawing it. (Make sure you're really thinking about your angles when constructing the figure, so that the perspective agrees. If the pose is a tricky angle, find some reference or shoot your own -- 99% of professional illustrators will tell you the same advice; they rarely ever work without some sort of reference.)

In the first piece, again some anatomy/foreshortening issues (guy in blue - supporting upper leg under older guy is way too long proportionally for the figure [his knee should be placed somewhere behind the guy leaning on it, technically, for the size to be correct], old man's hanging forearm is curving sort of weirdly, like the bone is having issues, but I can almost excuse it as a stylistic choice -- my eye isn't getting hung up on it or anything, I'm just mentioning it in case it wasn't intentional [to remind you to keep thinking in terms of structure]. The old man's left leg (upper one) is bent like it's hanging over the younger man's, (like it would be bent like his other leg is that's supporting the old man) but there's no leg there for it to be bent over. (Kneel with one leg up, the other one has to go straight up and down to balance yourself. The old man's legs should be hanging straight in front of him. Honestly, he should really be sitting on the ground in the position he's in -- there's not enough upper body weight being supported for him to be drawn up over the younger man's bent leg because he's being held with one arm, so his ass would be hanging oddly in mid-air, neither resting nor sitting against anything.. Which means his own legs would have to be bracing him to a certain extent to maintain that half-resting position in conjunction with help from the younger man, but he obviously has no energy to do that. Try the pose yourself with a friend and see what I mean.. It would be very difficult to maintain for any length of time as it currently is drawn now.)

Side notes -- I'd make the hand of the older guy actually holding the handle of the sword -- right now it just looks like the sword is suspended oddly in mid-air. You have an opportunity to add to the story of the piece by having the older, fallen soldier gripping his sword.. He's brave to the end, refusing to let go until the very last moment.. Right now having the sword just hanging out is kind of weird. (Because it doesn't look like he's dropping it right now, if that's what you were intending. I'd either get rid of the sword altogether or just adjust the hand.) Also, their eyes aren't looking at each other at all -- I can almost excuse the older man, if he's moments from death, he might be a bit out of it, but the other guy is looking blithely off to the side as if he just doesn't care, which is conflicting with the concern in his pose. (If you're holding someone who is hurt like that, your attention would very likely be focused on them.) It's the smallest details that can change the meaning of a piece -- for instance, I did a quick paint over to illustrate the point -- All basically did was slightly change the angle of the upper body on the younger man (so that he was leaning more towards the older man) and I changed the slope of his eyebrows, the direction of his eyes, and I made their hands intertwine a bit more. Look how much the tone changes in his presentation -- see how much more obvious the concern is now for the older man? Small changes, but big ones by way of whatever you're hoping to convey with the piece, if that all makes sense. It's the details that really tell your stories.. What sort of story are you trying to tell with this piece?



Also -- watch your composition, too. Having those knees (the guy in the blue is almost literally kneeling on the edge of the canvas, the guy in red has his leg cropped almost exactly on the knee there) on the bottom of the canvas would generally be a no-no -- You want to avoid tangents like that because it adds to a feeling of awkwardness and it kills depth. (Things in real life almost invariably overlap, so when you have two edges of things touching, you lose the sense of 3D space. Try to avoid doing things like that in future.)

Final note -- I like your general watercolor technique; the sky looks pretty nice with the way the colors are sort of bleeding into one another. (Kudos! You're getting some decent value shifts, too, which can sometimes be difficult in that medium.) If you keep studying composition and anatomy, I think you'll be able to do some really awesome things. ^_^

@Guru -- Watch your anatomy. The woman's chest looks like she has a balloon stuffed down her dress at the moment. Not two separate ones (not meaning she looks like she has fake boobs), her whole ribcage is a bit swollen/bulbous looking. Her hips/butt area is also looking like it's sitting a bit low to me. The guy's extended arm looks a bit rubbery - try to straighten it out some to make it feel more solid. Make sure you're thinking about where your main light source is, too -- is it behind the two of them? (If so, darken your figures down, like I showed you in the other piece I painted over for you.) If it's in front of them (so their value range can remain the same), get rid of that single bright patch in the sky behind them. If you're not sure about lighting at sunset, try to look up some more references. Convert them to black and white and compare the values to what you have -- it may help you situate your lighting/sky a bit easier.

[Guru]

@Guru -- Watch your anatomy. The woman's chest looks like she has a balloon stuffed down her dress at the moment. Not two separate ones (not meaning she looks like she has fake boobs), her whole ribcage is a bit swollen/bulbous looking. Her hips/butt area is also looking like it's sitting a bit low to me. The guy's extended arm looks a bit rubbery - try to straighten it out some to make it feel more solid. Make sure you're thinking about where your main light source is, too -- is it behind the two of them? (If so, darken your figures down, like I showed you in the other piece I painted over for you.) If it's in front of them (so their value range can remain the same), get rid of that single bright patch in the sky behind them. If you're not sure about lighting at sunset, try to look up some more references. Convert them to black and white and compare the values to what you have -- it may help you situate your lighting/sky a bit easier.

Umm. O.o Yea. All that I am already aware of. I just haven't gotten to that. Most of my work has been the left side of the painting so far. XD