@Havegum - I panic D:

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I think I'm getting the hang of this.

2 min face sketching, Structure is something i have a really big issue with. also i need to work on teeth and smiles because its something i actively avoid doing as i know i'm bad at it. so that's what i will work on next i feel.

@Zhon @BluMiu
Thanks for the feedback guys, i think i'm gonna settle with the last one, like Zhon said, it depends on her personality, so i think she would not care about lookin fabulous anymore. I added the hairband, the gloves and to try to fix that boyish look, i added those details to the bottom of the vest, not sure it works tho. Like BluMiu said, i will add more pouches and stuff, also maybe make another version with a cloak for when it's cold, but for now i'm gonna leave it alone and move on to other stuff.

@123mine123
Sorry it seems I posted my message before completing my reply! What I meant to say is it puts some focus on brush strokes, since every stroke would be 100% opaque.

@LegolaSS
The top-right face looks like she had all her features increased in size - Maybe some 2min sketches focusing on constructing the planes would be beneficial? I imagine that way the structure of the head would dictate how much room the different features could hold?

Really though, they're looking crazy good for 2m sketches! Keep at it!

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Buncha legs. Working from picture reference with separate anatomy references.

I'm starting to think of the upper leg as only four major shapes, where the red is the large muscles laying on top of the leg, green is the large ones on the outwards facing side of the leg, blue is the cluster of small muscles from the inward facing side and towards the back, and yellow are the gluteus maximus. I'm simplifying the lower leg with two major muscle shapes and the bony part.

A few general things I learned is that the muscles bulge much more outwards. I imagine this is because bulky inward muscles would make it clumsier to run and move around. The outward facing muscles are also generally larger, perhaps because they got more wear and tear? The inwards facing muscles are a cluster of long, slim muscles. Possibly for more accurate movement? The glutes have tendrils stretching towards the knee, which lays on top of the side muscles. When the muscles are tensed, the tendril pushes the muscle down along is path, making it seem like there's two separate muscles.

Please let me know if there's any major errors I'm not seeing! Maybe I'm simplifying it too much!

I feel terrible about these. I haven't had the chance to draw in over a week and it blows my mind how fast I got rusty.
Mostly 30 seconds, a couple 1 minutes, shaded one is a couple minutes. Tried using a thicker brush.

sorry if they're too jumbled together to tell apart

At 3/15/15 09:27 PM, Havegum wrote:

At 3/15/15 08:21 PM, Troisnyx wrote: Quick question. If you're drawing stuff based on a prompt book e.g. 642 Things to Draw, because you're learning to draw what's stated there, does that count as a study?

It's in a bit of a weird spot because while I believe the intention is there, I think it's a terribly ineffective way to improve compared to more conventional ways - If you're doing them from imagination then there's the chance of reinforcing bad habits, and even when using reference you're only sticking with the subject at hand for the duration of a single drawing. The varying themes makes the medium the only constant factor, so that's what I imagine you'd be getting most feedback on.

Sorry I replied late to this thing. I was meaning to say this, because I don't know if anyone has struggled similarly, and I'd like to know what to do in this situation.

I have long struggled with inspiration. A prompt off the Net, or even a prompt just said to me, without the proper drawing space, had never done anything for me. Some of you may have been following my art thread and I'd felt that prompts did little to help me -- when I needed prompts, some of you were so kind to give me some, but I still couldn't bring myself to draw. But then here it was, prompts accompanied with the necessary space to let my memories out.

Part of what makes a good artist are imagination and memories. Trouble is that I'm not even motivated to draw now because, if what I'm doing is an ineffective way of drawing, then there'd be no means to let my imagination out. I am easily frustrated, but I think it is a cycle because:

1) I see this nice work of art and deep in my heart, I believe I can get there.

2) I do studies, but they frustrate me after a while and I don't go anywhere.

3) I try to replicate the work from my imagination, or perhaps try to put my own take on it.

4) Nobody cares.

5) Frustration.

6) Repeat.

A workaround to this would be to make a bunch of preliminary studies before diving into the main drawing. Say your theme was storm, maybe find some photos of different kinds of storms and draw them - in what way is a snowstorm different from a thunder storm? Maybe use thumbnail sketches to explore how to best express the essence of what you're thinking of when thinking of a storm? Perhaps do master studies of how great artists chose to capture the concept of storm on a canvas? I think this will help build a much stronger visual library. If you do the preliminary sketches a day or two before the finished piece you might get some input on areas to improve on - this in turn can lead to more studies, or just extra awareness when doing the piece!

Most people would have thought of a thunderstorm. I thought of the Heartless storm. Would that have had no bearing on my visual library? -- I would gladly put in a snowstorm, a sandstorm, or even a firestorm if push came to shove. I had one space -- what could I have done to put every single idea in?

@Troisnyx
I don't at all mean to discredit your subject of choice - my only intention was to explain the purpose of preliminary studies and how I think it would make the prompt exercise go more hand-in-hand with the theme of the thread
However on second considerations I'm more than happy to see more faces around here, so unless someone else is very opposed to that you have my blessing at least!

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Here's some more peeps

did this earlier today, will take the feed back and work with it on the next one.

same again, 2 min sketchs and some 30sec mouths

More faces practise, this time with 5 minutes. It does seem like a lot of time compared to 2 minutes! Still getting the hang of placing stuff on the head, and side profiles in particular are pretty difficult. I'll try doing some skulls tomorrow alongside it.

material studies, not sure how much i'm retaining from the applied ones.

Daily gestures. :/

Also torso study. I think.. i got the gist of it.
Imma move on to limbs now.

At 3/19/15 08:51 PM, LuisEC wrote: material studies, not sure how much i'm retaining from the applied ones.

The leather boots are looking good. How long did you spend on them?

At 3/18/15 05:05 PM, Havegum wrote: Buncha legs. Working from picture reference with separate anatomy references.
Please let me know if there's any major errors I'm not seeing! Maybe I'm simplifying it too much!

... I think I might be dazzled by all the colours! Looks fine/sensible to me, but I'm no expert on muscles

At 3/20/15 08:32 AM, 123mine123 wrote: Also torso study. I think.. i got the gist of it.
Imma move on to limbs now.

Oh yeah, definite improvement here from your other muscle pic, and the light study is looking good. I think the two posed sketches you made are too sketchy, which tends to cover up mistakes (it's a mess of lines), and errors tend to reveal themselves if/when you attempt to tidy things up.

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Face study 6 (not uploading to thread since I don't expect you guys to comment on it)

Also did some 5 minutes skulls, which are a bit more forgiving than people faces :P

I've been envying y'all's skulls. Also I have some birthday gifts to give people and didn't want to use store bought wrapping paper.

Done very quickly while drinking with references in ink pen, felt tip pen & sharpie.

@lovingthedark
@TurkeyOnAStick
bloody nice, fellas. Makes me want to draw spooky skeletons.

@Hallu
The basic photoshop brushes can be a bit of a pain. I advice you to look for some good free brushsets from professionals.
They like to share theirs with their fans (usualy on DA).I used these brushes for quiet some time. Give them a go. Outside of that, it is always a good idea to start with a color foundation.

@123mine123
Pretty good studies. I like how you took the time to analize the muscle structure. Don't forget the back though. They are just as complex.

Idontgettodojackshitwhatswrongwithme?!

Anyways, got some gesture studies done. I dont draw enough men. Thought I might aswell have some fun with it.

I also did a value study for today.
that face doe : |

At 3/7/15 08:30 AM, 123mine123 wrote: And about your skulls, why does it looks so cute and weird at the same time. xD

@123mine123 Very late response but yeah, big heads with small chins for the cuteness as for the weird, probably because of how I was boxing it.

At 3/8/15 07:17 AM, Havegum wrote: @ZaneZansorrow
The holes for the eyes seem too small overall! Consider the width of the bone between, and the bone framing the eyes!

@Havegum Not sure I ever did that framing thing correctly ;rq

I drew more skulls during this week, spend about 15 min on them each day.

Then I just drew these today.

Edit: Then I realized I wrote the date wrong >Xo

Sup guis, so i have been doing this exercise, i just went into quickposes, put the time limit to 10 minutes and try to paint faces, pretty much to get better at painting.

At 3/6/15 03:20 PM, Havegum wrote: If you have any questions at all, we're all here to help each other - so feel free to ask if you wonder about what, how, where, or why!

I tried to post a picture i maid using a paint of a little stick figure and it wouldn't upload.

@bro1 Try uploading it to the dump instead, or an image sharing service, and posting the link. If I recall there's some limitation on uploading pictures for new users, unless I'm thinking of the wrong forum...

Also @ thread, I directed bro1 here from general - he is just starting out and could use some guidance. I recommended starting with some of the youtube tutorials, Jazza specifically.

At 3/22/15 06:17 PM, Zhon wrote: @bro1 Try uploading it to the dump instead, or an image sharing service, and posting the link. If I recall there's some limitation on uploading pictures for new users, unless I'm thinking of the wrong forum...

Also @ thread, I directed bro1 here from general - he is just starting out and could use some guidance. I recommended starting with some of the youtube tutorials, Jazza specifically.

I tried that, but i think the problem is that i can't figure out how to upload art.

At 3/22/15 06:26 PM, bro1 wrote:

At 3/22/15 06:17 PM, Zhon wrote: @bro1 Try uploading it to the dump instead, or an image sharing service, and posting the link. If I recall there's some limitation on uploading pictures for new users, unless I'm thinking of the wrong forum...

Also @ thread, I directed bro1 here from general - he is just starting out and could use some guidance. I recommended starting with some of the youtube tutorials, Jazza specifically.

I tried that, but i think the problem is that i can't figure out how to upload art.

You should be able to upload art to a forum post by clicking the "Upload" button beneath the text box as you write your post. At that point, find the .jpg, .gif, or .png on your computer that you want to upload, click it, then click "open". Click "post".

Alternately, submit a work to the art portal here. As you aren't scouted yet it won't appear to the public, but users can see you in the unscouted section and you can share a link.

faces and value practice. Starting to catch my habit of not pushing my darks enough.

At 3/23/15 08:46 PM, LuisEC wrote: faces and value practice. Starting to catch my habit of not pushing my darks enough.

I really kike the depth and value if the head in the bottom right.

Wasnt been able to draw for a few days and I already suck T^T
Also, didnt finish my 30 minute gesture.

Hair and how that crap doth flow.

I've really stop... critiquing art cuz I suck compares to you guys. So Imma just compliment you.

@LurkinMcClerkin - Looks good! Dost thou whip thy hair back and forth though?

At 3/25/15 06:41 AM, Hallu wrote: Just some foreshortening and arm sketches

I think you did it really well.

At 3/24/15 04:45 PM, JojoDodo wrote: Some warm up faces and bleeeughhh.

I can't shake the impression that your woman looks manly for some reason..
Still, I really like your art style.

@TurkeyOnAStick - I think those studies are really looking good!

@lovingthedark - Whoa. That's a huge paper. Is it on the floor?

@BazookaBonsai - All teh models are on teh front! D: I'll use pose maniacs for that I guess.

@ZaneZansorrow - yey more cute skullz.

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I was really feeling rusty, so I did 60 second gestures landmark thingy. Something I'm comfortable with.
I think I got back to my regular pace again.

This is hard. xD

im tired..

So! I am new here.. only joined today but this seems like a really nice thread with many supportive and awesomely inspirational people so I figured it would be a nice place to start posting :) I have been up for a ridiculously obscene amount of time so I apologize if I make little sense/have ALL the typos in the world in advance!

I decided to do some hair studies and to play around with the hue and saturation, to see if I could get the different shades using what I think is a pretty high contrast hair colour of red. But I'm not sure if it's worked when making the darker hair shades and I can't seem to figure out what exactly looks off... not sure if I've just been looking at it for too long or what! I also seem to struggle with the edges I think I like the softer edges in the strand bit better I feel it looks more natural but meeeeh.

All in all happy to be here and looking forward to seeing where the thread goes! o/