@SuperBastard - Nice gestures!

@Sockembop - Those looks really good though. I really like the witch design, though I do not get what her pose is doing.

@Havegum - How are you doing these things!? :0

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Not as good gestures.

@SuperBastard
Those have good energy! The motion is still conveyed without having a literal motion line in the middle.

@123mine123
Those have good variety! I feel like some of them look a little stiff because they don't have a strong line of action in them. My favs are the splits one and the one where he's lying on his shoulders.

I tried taking my time with these and making myself get to a more finished stage instead of leaving it to a minute sketch because I usually don't try to flesh them out. They're all based on pixelovely references except for the crab guy, I just made that one to try and draw without a reference.

The study of the vision ball.

@Havegum Those are looking pretty awesome yo, glad my advice was helpful :)

Yesterday i did these, not sure if this exercise is helpful or not, might do more, might not. Today i did these quick designs, but i don't consider that a study so i just leave it there like as a link. Don't have time to critique right now, maybe i drop by later and do some.

Hi folks been learning to blend paints together I normally get a good reference and then hammer the shape in with colour and blend it until im happy I really enjoy this method of painting. I used my younger bro as an example he was a magician for halloween lol.

@SuperBastard
I really like how well the texture on the clothing of the most polished pose. I really get a sense of what the materials are!

@123mine123
The ones I'm most happy about from that batch is the ones where I successfully go straight for rendering, and really get those shadows going! It's a bit of hit-and miss, so sometimes I end up with a buncha jumbled scribbles of varying sizes! It should also be noted I'm using the class mode on Pixelovely, which gradually increases the time you get per pose. This really helps as you warm up your speed with the quick ones, which lets you work faster and more efficiently down the line!

@spags
How long did you say you're taking with these? A small trick I read somewhere is that when two curved shapes meet (like parentheses), the mind tends to "lock" their shape down, stopping the flow. While if the curves are offset in such a way that they continue off of each other, there is a greater sense of flow! I'll include a picture in next post in case my terrible explanation is as confusing as I think it is - Keep it up!

@Daker777NG
Those are some rad silhouettes! What are those floating faces for?
Also I'd consider character design studies as much as any, even if it's for specific project the preliminary sketches and studies are all good here I think! This as opposed to posting WIP stages of said project.

@TheMightyCelt
If you're working in the same file, and directly on top of the original image I'm afraid the learning value is minimal! Working on your own version side by side is a much stronger exercise!

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Here's some highlights from last two days. I'll probably try to do some stuff without reference soon as well, hopefully ..

@Havegum - I can't do the things you're doing. T^T
I gave up and didn't bother doing the 11 minute.

At 3/12/15 02:23 AM, 123mine123 wrote: @Havegum - I can't do the things you're doing. T^T
I gave up and didn't bother doing the 11 minute.

You shouldn't be comparing yourselves to others, but if you do - check my thread for the path it took for me to get where I am! Sure it's a struggle some times, but stick to it. After the 11 minute one there's usually a short break, which is good too because usually I really need one by then! Quick gestures in rapid succession is really taxing, try not to value yourself by the result you produce, but the work you put in to improve!

I think your gestures are much more fluid now than earlier on - keep up the work!

@Havegum - Really? Okay.. I'l try actually finishing one tomorrow..

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More painting heads.

Today I did my very best to rather than work on top work beside a picture and bang out a portrait it resulted in it being much more challenging and fun I threw colours in I wanted for fun and am very pleased with this one.
This thread rocks and the critique and advice is well appreciated from everyone.

At 3/12/15 11:35 AM, 123mine123 wrote: @Havegum - Really? Okay.. I'l try actually finishing one tomorrow..

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More painting heads.

Awesome job buddy

Today was nose study and practicing some more eyes. A few of my biggest problems are male mouths and female noses. All noses are different but for my style I really prefer the small and cute nose. as for the male mouths I want to stick to simple mouth line with a bottom lip with it slightly shaded on the line to pronounce the upper. It looks fine to me but idk if it would work for anyone else looking at my paintings.

@JojoDodo
Thanks for the tip.

My last one for today. I am working on getting better at my painting after a comment on one of my youtube videos.

@123mine123
Good stuff! It's good to keep mixing up the studies to keep it fresh and interesting. A thing to look for in the future is edges - which edges are sharp and which are soft? The chin for instance looks like a relatively soft transition, but it slides towards a darker tone right at the transition. The glasses in comparison are very slim and sharp! You're free to use some artistic interpretation here as hard/softness can be used to convey an impression - for instance we might consider a female face softer than a male face, regardless of whether or not it actually has softer surfaces in real life.

@TheMightyCelt
Looking good! Are you eyedropping the colours from the reference? If so you should know that choosing your own colours from the colour picker has greater learning value than eyedropping as it trains your eye to see and use colours better! Also remember to post the reference you're using!

@LurkinMcClerkin
The loomis technique is very useful for getting the structure of the face correct in perspective, very important for those 3/4 side views! I did a whole buncha faces from quickposes at 2min pr face and found it does help increasing speed for establishing the fundamental structure. Also doing 10 minute faces is really good as it's just enough time to start establish likeness to the reference, but not enough to go into detail. Definitely keep at it!

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yup eyedropping next one ill try my own pallete thanks for the advice

I know you said this is only for studies, but would it be alright if I posted a sketch I'm working on for some tips? I want to get some feedback before I start adding details. It has human anatomy.

great thread, everyone's doing solid studies. These are some anatomy stuides..things marked with the star are from reference then the rest are just trying to turn it around from memory. I've been told I need to be working looser so this maybe isnt the best approach that I should be doing. I'm having trouble finding that balance between accuracy and looseness.

@LurkinMcClerkin - Those head are looking better and better! :D

@LuisEC - Whoa. Really nice anatomy studies! I should get moving to mine too.

@Havegum - I tried and I guess I did.. okay?

Day 4 tried doing some head studies using a magazine for reference went so horribly wrong =[

At 3/13/15 09:53 AM, TheMightyCelt wrote: Day 4 tried doing some head studies using a magazine for reference went so horribly wrong =[

I kinda believe in the saying, "Its better to get one head right than a hundred wrong."
Why not get a single head and try copy that as close to the reference? Just see why you did wrong and doing it over again till you think you got it right. C:

double post :/
sorry.

I did that the pain.
I see a lot of people do clean lines and den shade stuff in with 2 highlight and 2 dark tones but I love the scritchy scrachy style of lots of colours but by god i suck at it.

At 3/13/15 10:25 AM, 123mine123 wrote:

At 3/13/15 09:53 AM, TheMightyCelt wrote: Day 4 tried doing some head studies using a magazine for reference went so horribly wrong =[

I kinda believe in the saying, "Its better to get one head right than a hundred wrong."
Why not get a single head and try copy that as close to the reference? Just see why you did wrong and doing it over again till you think you got it right. C:

Just popping in quickly to say: doing a hundred heads from scratch is much more desirable since you get the experience of looking and translating from scratch on an entirely new subject every time. You re-learn each step and don't get lost in tunnel-vision on the same face, which changes it from a study to a painstaking abstract copy. After a while the object ceases to be the object, if you get what I mean. Just my opinion, but many different faces are better :P

At 3/13/15 11:06 AM, TheMightyCelt wrote: I did that the pain.
I see a lot of people do clean lines and den shade stuff in with 2 highlight and 2 dark tones but I love the scritchy scrachy
style of lots of colours but by god i suck at it.

I have to concur with Mine. Less is not more. More is more.

You shoudn't try to force out a master study right away and instead go to basics. Do plenty of simpler, more sketchy heads (among other things). Be observant about the reference: Try not to draw so much from memory and more what you see.
Gradually, your skills will improve and your studies (and artworks in general) will reflect that.
Trying too hard to get one single study right is just frustrating and won't help much in the long run.

In regards to your study: It is usualy very helpfull to start with a loose gesture sketch in the form of either quick, loose lines outlining the motive or a silhouette. Refine your sketch from there by blending in colors and color tones. Again, it's not about the details, but the basics.

You may also want to consider what you want to study. Values? Shapes? Outlines? Composition?
Working in pseudo-silhouettes for example is a great way to get an understanding for shapes, composition and proportions.

Hope I was helpfull.
Will probably visit this thread more often in the future. Looks like fun.

@SlasherCass I'd say post it, if it's for the sake of learning then there won't be a problem i believe.

@Havegum Oh those faces were just some photographs that i didn't like the gesture but i decided to draw the face. You know i'm actually considering starting a comic so i might post some of the designs here to hear how i could improve them. Btw I like how you are starting to draw the shadows in your gestures instead of sticking to simply shadowing the limbs on the back.

@TheMightyCelt Hey man, i think you should consider focusing on getting the proportions right instead of doing head studies, you could do what i did today, get objects and draw them as accurate as you can, in the website ctrl paint there's some good videos about that. But first of all you gotta have fun, so if you don't feel like doing those, any kind of study works as long as you keep drawing, so keep up the good work :)

@LuisEC Damn man those are some really good anatomy studies, i'd say the ones from imagination look pretty loose to me, good gesture, curved shapes etc... Not sure if that's what you mean by loose tho. Anyway good job keep it up.

Regarding what @123mine123 said, i think it's good to have a balance between doing a lot of small quick drawings and spending more time on others, there is really no reason to only do one type.

Okay so yesterday i did these, not much, but it's something, i gotta admit it's really hard to draw objects accurately, specially in perspective, there's a moment when i realized that drawing the perspective exactly as you see it is almost impossible, so i had to improvise a bit to make it look good, which is good too since i have to think of the object in my head. I should have done a lot more, but it's hard to find motivation sometimes.

Yeah I know diving into the deep end is not a good idea I just panic im 24 and im like ill be an old man by the time I get any good at this I know its a bit silly to think like that but I do.
I will work on shapes and forms gona be doing a lot of gesture drawings as well but I appreciate the advice will take it on board thanks folks.

a lot of hands and feet.

Here, I guess I'll post it. I am working on anatomy without reference. I'll post some other studies later too. :) For some reason it's sideways.

drapery...half lock folds/change of direction always kills me.

At 3/13/15 03:47 PM, LuisEC wrote: a lot of hands and feet.

Where you found the reference for this drawing?