Eugene - My Artistic Journey

[snakker]

Good job on these! I feel you, it’s hard

A few things I’ve learned along the way that I feel helped me a lot and hopefully help you as well

• graphite doesn’t get too dark, so have a light touch and slowly build up
• start by identifying the darkest regions and deciding what shadows to merge in order to help your composition, deciding early on this
• take a long long time on the block in, at that phase you can easily fix any proportions mistakes before committing to rendering
• fingers and stubs are great for smudging graphite

Cheers!

[Sthingz]

I am back for another art progress report! Thanks to everyone who checked out my last one. On that note, let me reply properly to those who commented:

@matthewwemes Thank you for your kind words. I try to draw as much as I can. Sometimes, I stay awake until 3 am (it is so hard to leave bed when it is time to wake up).
@mitsuki-youko Hiiii! Thanks for dropping by. I'll try to be more active w/ my posts. In fact, that will be one of my commitments this week.
@snakker Your pointers were great! I am now taking longer during the block-in stage and it has proved very helpful. I am still struggling w/ using the softer pencils as I tend to push too hard and, therefore, blend together 4B and 6B.

Here's what I have worked on for the past month (In advance, I apologize for the quality of some of my drawings. Whenever I close my sketchbook, the graphite tends to rub off easily):

Gesture Drawings (2 minutes):

Digitally Shaded Drawings:

Traditionally Shaded Drawings:

Key Takeaways:

• Either shade in one direction or follow the shape of the object for best results.
• It is okay to be messy when sketching. Just light it down when moving on to the block-in stage.
• Being "angular" in the initial drawing stage is perfectly fine. Worry about details later!
• The eye is probably the most complex facial feature to render by itself, but in a portrait drawing the eye can be greatly simplified.
• Hair is still a pain in the a$$ to render; I will need to study it next.

This Week's Commitments:

• Take photos of my work right after I finish them to avoid messy photos (I don't want to rip off the pages or stick something in between them as the very fact that graphite is messy helps me avoid being a perfectionist)
• Post the results of my work every week, not every month. Practice is great, but practice with feedback is the key to improving.
• Review the anatomy of the ear and render one.
• Learn about the subtle differences b/w a male's head and a female's head from Loomis.

[Pattu_w]

Man, you nailed those eye studies, the look really good!

[mitsuki-youko]

noice! these studies b lookin great!

[Sthingz]

As promised, imma start making a habit of posting more regularly. Today, I practiced shading ears. I gotta say, it is quite difficult to render them. Once I block in the shadows, getting the half-tones in the light side gets really difficult. Perhaps I need to go darker with my shadows?

[mitsuki-youko]

nice studies!
For the first one, the earlobe is a bit narrow/small. you could use liquify and drag the earlobe part slightly to the left and slightly down i think.

[Sthingz]

You are right! I totally forgot about that tool. Thanks for the feedback @mitsuki-youko .

[Sthingz]

I followed @mitsuki-youko suggestion and fixed the ear lobe in my digitally rendered painting. It does look better (and more accurate to the ref).

I drew 5 gesture drawing poses to get warmed up.

I then shaded an apple from ref. The first photo is how it ended up looking on paper and the second is after I imported it to Procreate and did some edits.

Please let me know what I can do to improve my shading. I believe I am now truly beginning to separate the shadow family from the light family but the subtleties kill me lol.

[Pattu_w]

I feel like the terminator line could be a tad darker, on the reference, it looks almost as dark as the shadow being projected.

[snakker]

hey there, nice work, the digital ear I feel looks good. I think the difficulty stems more in how you approach the edges. Sharp vs smooth edges. I think the picture you use as reference for that digital ear is very good to study the form. Note for example the roots of the antehelix, one is in light and then there's a sharp edge as we see shadow beneath.

The way you rendered it, it looks thicker than it actually is as you gave it a lighter shadow under a highlight. Also, the highlight on the body of the antehelix is sharply demarcated among two shadow areas and another sharply demarcated, thin dark shadow which makes the rendering seem a bit uneven there and at the same time makes the helix look inflated and making a tight notch with the antehelix

As for the apple, I think you are better served with a different light angle to practice the shading, especially in graphite as the very dark shadows are hard to render in graphite - I feel even a 10B pencil struggles - maybe combining with charcoal or a charcoal oil pencil

cheers

[mitsuki-youko]

noice! these be lookin great!

With the apple, i think your darks should be darker and lights should be brighter and there should be a bit more of a gradual gradient imo

i might be able to record myself doing a study for u later

[Sthingz]

Thanks so much for the feedback, I really, really appreciate it .

@Pattu_w and @mitsuki-youko, I will attempt drawing the apple once more. What I am hearing from y'all is that I need to make the terminator darker and increase the contrast between the light and shadow family, respectively. I will keep in mind @snakker ‘s observation about the limitations of graphite in respect to how dark I can make my shadows - I may just need to make everything lighter. Btw, @mitsuki-youko I'll take you on that offer for the shading demo but please don't feel obliged to do it.

@snakker, I have attached said ref below alongside my drawing with a couple of annotations. I think I understand what you are getting at in the first paragraph but would you mind elaborating on what you are trying to say in the second one? You are correct, the antihelix and helix look abnormally thick. What steps can I take to fix this on my second attempt tomorrow?

[mitsuki-youko]

Btw, @mitsuki-youko I'll take you on that offer for the shading demo but please don't feel obliged to do it.

Happy to do it!

tho dayum... that apple was hard to shade LMAO took me an hour real time.. the vid here is on 4x speed:

If its blurry thats cus youtube high def is still loading (since i just posted the vid - give it like 30 mins and it should be all clear)

And here's the result (if you squint it looks "good enough" lol):

TLDR its painting, repainting, repainting again, and repainting some more XD

[Sthingz]

Thank you so much!!! I will check out your video once I get home and take notes.

[Sthingz]

Here's yesterday's work that I forgot to post because I was too tired. I tried implementing as much feedback. Please let me know how I did.

Quick head study (I will attach the ref once I get home)

Gesture drawing 2 minutes

Second attempts at Sunday's work

[snakker]

haha, was about to get to elaborate but no need, great work on the second attempt! looking good all around

cheers

[Sthingz]

@mitsuki-youko I just finished watching your study - very enlightening! Your shading process and tools differ from mine. I see that you pick the colors you want to shade with rather than use pressure sensitivity (which I am accustomed to given that I mostly draw/shade on paper). However, I find your method much easier and effective but I wonder: how do you decide what shade of black or white to use? Is there a rule of thumb you adhere to? Also, this may just be a Procreate thing but...picking colors in Procreate is such a pain! Another observation I made is that, although you have an extensive library of brushes, you don't seem to use the eraser tool at all. Instead, I saw you "erase" by picking a lighter color. Smudging also appeared to be quite easy and controllable, unlike my experience with Procreate. Maybe I just have the wrong brush selected for smudging? Let me know if what I am saying makes sense or if perhaps I need to record myself painting as well. Anyhow, your demo/study was great!

@snakker glad to hear that my second attempt turned out better than my first, nonetheless, if areas of opportunity persist please kindly let me know.

[mitsuki-youko]

Here's yesterday's work that I forgot to post because I was too
tired. I tried implementing as much feedback. Please let me know how I
did.

noice!! this apple looks a lot better tha the one before! great job!

I see that you pick the colors you want to shade with rather than use pressure sensitivity

Actually, i do a bit of both. i pick colors and if they contrast TOO much, i use pen pressure to shade.

how do you decide what shade of black or white to use?

personally I just go off of my perception of the color. to be more accurate i could color pick but i try not to. just so i can get better at picking my own colors. this comes with practice

you don't seem to use the eraser tool at all. Instead, I saw you "erase" by picking a lighter color.

oh that, I'm just lazy cus i'd have to change the properties of the eraser if i wanted hard vs soft eraser. in Clip Studio Paint (CSP) theres a thing where its "blank" color which essentially takes any brush u have and makes it an eraser. I then use the brush i picked (sometimes airbrush, sometimes my custom brush) to "erase" using the blank color.

Smudging also appeared to be quite easy and controllable, unlike my experience with Procreate.

actually, I never use smudge XD - I didnt use blend here either. its all brush work - ie pen pressure

Let me know if what I am saying makes sense or if perhaps I need to record myself painting as well. Anyhow, your demo/study was great!

Thank you so much!! I am so glad you liked it and that it helped!!

if you wanna record ur process n show me thats cool too, i'd be happy to look at it if u want

[Sthingz]

I changed the subject of my work and rendered a couple of still objects. I believe it looked much better before I smudged the drawing. At the same time, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I then attempted to render a portrait. It definitely didn't end up looking like I wanted it to; nevertheless, I think it is also important to highlight my mistakes as I was initially hesitant to post it. I will certainly have another go at this one.

[snakker]

Nice work, I feel graphite is kind of unforgiving as a medium despite the eraser XD it's also really hard to get dark values. I see some artists use an oil charcoal pencil on top of graphite as an option to get darker. Also, I think it really helps to start the drawing with a smudged background to allow for highlights to stand out later down the road, then add layer upon layer of rendering slowly until you get where you want.

As far as observations specific to the portrait, id say one thing that stands out to me is the sharp edges to all the shading and value inconsistency. Also, the direction of the lines when shading, especially if spaced or squiggled is very apparent for example in the shadows of the hair

cheers, keep at it!