The Irregulars -- A Livestream Study Group

[Shalashaska]

The screw and the sharpener are the same material- the sharpener is a dinky little silver metal thing. Now, that's not to say that I took that into consideration at all, I was just pointing it out. XD So, let's say the source of light were coming from behind the sharpener- which is what I was going for. The shadow it casts would then be in front of the object, and darker than the object itself? So, I should shade an amount of space in underneath/in front of the sharpener in a dark shade, which steadily lightens, right?

By the way, keep in mind that there will always be others who look at your knowledge, laugh at it, and then proceed to speak what seems like Greek for hours on end. Life's a learning process, so I can confidently say that you know everything you need to and then some. ^^" Thank you for this, by the way. I've stared at that sharpener for long enough that I actually have an accurate mental image of what the drawing should look like- now comes the transfer from my head to paper... >.>

[Sherlock Holmes]

The screw and the sharpener are the same material- the sharpener is a dinky little silver metal thing. Now, that's not to say that I took that into consideration at all, I was just pointing it out. XD So, let's say the source of light were coming from behind the sharpener- which is what I was going for. The shadow it casts would then be in front of the object, and darker than the object itself? So, I should shade an amount of space in underneath/in front of the sharpener in a dark shade, which steadily lightens, right?

By the way, keep in mind that there will always be others who look at your knowledge, laugh at it, and then proceed to speak what seems like Greek for hours on end. Life's a learning process, so I can confidently say that you know everything you need to and then some. ^^" Thank you for this, by the way. I've stared at that sharpener for long enough that I actually have an accurate mental image of what the drawing should look like- now comes the transfer from my head to paper... >.>

Ah, an all metal sharpener. I used to have one of those (and I loved it), but it went missing.. No idea where it went. XD

The shadow may not necessarily be darker than the object itself. It depends on the strength of the light, the reflectivity of the surface the object is sitting on, the reflectivity of the object you're drawing, etc. For instance, you could have a single light source coming from behind -- but have the sharpener sitting on a piece of normal white paper, which is really reflective, and would take whatever light was happening to hit it, and it would bounce some of that light back into the shadowed area, making the shadow lighter than it usually would be. (A white piece of paper would be an more extreme example, but almost all surfaces are reflective to a certain degree.) This is where you start developing your eye for comparing.. Look at where you think the darkest area on the sharpener is. Is it lighter than that? Is it darker? By how much? Does it look like it might be similar in value to any other areas on the sharpener? Start trying to build a comparison chart in your brain to measure out which areas get shaded what and how dark/light, then try to shade your picture accordingly. Sometimes it helps to do a little key off to the side with different values (just colored in little blocks) to help remind you of how light you're going to shade your lightest value and how dark your darkest value should be, and what the shades in between might be. (Just to give you something to measure against when you go to shade in things. Don't do more than 4 or 5 to measure against, otherwise you get overwhelmed and you really shouldn't need more than that anyhow.)

[Shalashaska]

I was (and most likely usually will) drawing on white paper. The shadow the object casts on the surface is right next to the darkest area, so that's an easy contrast to show. Thank you very much, unless something comes up I should have another draft by tomorrow.

[Fieryfly]

Thanks for the tip Sherlock. I get where I went wrong. That is something to keep in mind really.

[Kwak]

Lots of nice work and advice here. I got some issues with proportions when drawing, especially drawing someone on horseback, even when simply drawng some cartoonish thing. Anyone got tips to get over that without having to grab some example every time just so I won't mess up proportions? Thanks in advance.

[Shalashaska]

Lots of nice work and advice here. I got some issues with proportions when drawing, especially drawing someone on horseback, even when simply drawng some cartoonish thing. Anyone got tips to get over that without having to grab some example every time just so I won't mess up proportions? Thanks in advance.

I am, in no way, the professional here, but I think that if you were to draw the object your other object would need to be in proportion with first (in this case, the horse before the human, as you probably either end up making the human look the same size as the horse or ridiculously small as compared to the horse) it might help. Now, in the event of two objects which need to be accurately proportioned coming into contact with one another, I'd advise drawing the larger object first (the horse) and leaving gaps in it where the second object needs to overlap (the human's legs/arms). For example, draw a horse as you normally would but leave the neck/mane blank and a portion of the horse's torso blank; take a moment to consider how large the hands would be and how much of the horse's neck/mane they would cover, and then add in the rest of the neck/mane that you'd be able to see around the hands. I'd advise adding it in bit by bit, so that you can stop and think, "Would his/her hands look ridiculously large if I left it like this? Or have I gone too far, do they need to be bigger?" The horse's torso becomes a harder part, as the shape of the legs needs to be rather defined; I would just leave a large square uncolored, then imagine the basic shape of the legs against the horse. Once again, when you outline the legs, give it some extra space, just in case you make them too small; it's easier to color in a bit more than to erase a precise area. Of course, as Sherlock (our resident art extraordinaire, no matter what he says) says, repetition can be the key. It can't hurt to look at a picture of a man on horseback, sketch/draw/trace it twenty times, and then look at all your works. You should note that the latest ones you do will look the most similar; the more you do it, the more you'll get a feel for how it should look.

All of the above is just what helps me; I would advise looking at some of the reference books Sherlock ever-so-lovingly provided in the first page of this thread if my method fails you.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Lots of nice work and advice here. I got some issues with proportions when drawing, especially drawing someone on horseback, even when simply drawng some cartoonish thing. Anyone got tips to get over that without having to grab some example every time just so I won't mess up proportions? Thanks in advance.

Learning anatomy and how to measure. Those are really the ultimate answers to your problem.. (The concise version, anyhow. XD)

When you learn anatomy, you'll start noticing that everything can be measured by another part of the body. (For instance, the length of the head is generally the same length as the top of shoulder to the nipples on the chest. Using that same measurement, if we go down from the top of the shoulder again, that's three head lengths to the crotch. The arm is about two head lengths from shoulder to wrist, the elbow being in the middle. If we're measuring the features on the face, we'd measure by the size of the eyes to get the proportions correct there.. Etc.) Now, once you know how to measure human proportions, you can learn the same trick for animals, too. (Which I am less proficient at, but I'll give you a rough idea of how I'd go about figuring out the size difference.) For a horse, they're apparently measured from that bump/area where their neck and back join, down to the bottom of their front hoof. The average horse size is about 15 or 16 hands tall. (The measurement for horses is literally based off a human hand). So, if we proportion our human correctly, we can then use his basic hand measurement to get the approximate scale of the horse. (It's just doing the leg work to figure out how you need to measure to get the result you're looking for.)

Now, as for grabbing reference, there's absolutely no shame in using them. (Almost all professional artists do.) I can understand that it might not always be convenient to have one handy if you're just working on the fly, but if you're looking to do a finished piece, I'd definitely recommend having a few different ones available. (Especially for something as complex as a horse -- as they're almost entirely muscle, which is definitely visible under their skin in a very specific way. A horse is an extremely complex thing to leave to chance in getting right, unless you've done a LOT of studying on their structure beforehand.)

[Shalashaska]

I've just completed a study which focuses on shading- I think I'm starting to understand it a lot better. Granted, I've been working with a single object and a single light source coming from the same direction each time, but it's a start.

[Sherlock Holmes]

I've just completed a study which focuses on shading- I think I'm starting to understand it a lot better. Granted, I've been working with a single object and a single light source coming from the same direction each time, but it's a start.

Make sure you post it up so we can see it. XD (Everyone should be posting all their studies here so we can keep a record of any improvement!)

[Shalashaska]

All of them? >.> But this one's mediocre, and was really just an experiment. I don't think it's worth posting, but if you'd like, I'll put it up. XD