Kepler - Art School Journey - French/English

[bach2017]

Salut !
Hi !

My name is Ben – also known as Kepler – I'm French and I’m 45, with a pair of twins to keep me on my toes...
I’ve decided to start this thread to share my work with you.
I hope to get some help and offer a bit of feedback when I think it’s appropriate (or justified) to do so. I’m not starting from scratch, as I did a bit of drawing in my younger days (just for fun).
I started the course a few months ago, but as I don’t have a huge amount of time to devote to it, I’m making slow but steady progress… I’m currently on Term 3 without having completed everything from the previous terms.
My goal? I don’t really have one. I mainly like the idea of learning an artistic discipline (I used to do quite a bit of music before). My medium-term project is to create illustrations for a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ book... I’d also like to be able to draw caricatures of faces in just a few minutes.
I look forward to hearing from you...

On m'appelle Ben - alias Kepler - et j'ai 45 ans + des jumeaux dans les pattes...
Je me décide à créer mon topic pour partager mon travail avec vous.
J'espère obtenir de l'aide et vous apporter quelques critiques quand je jugerais bon (ou légitime) de le faire. Je ne pars pas de zéro car j'ai dessiner un peu dans ma jeunesse (loisir).
J'ai commencer la formation il y a quelques mois mais comme je n'ai pas énormément de temps à y consacrer j'avance doucement mais sûrement... j'en suis au Term 3 sans avoir tout réaliser dans les Term précédent.
Mon objectif ? j'en ai pas vraiment. J'aime surtout l'idée d'apprendre une discipline artistique (j'ai fais pas mal de musique avant). Mon projet à moyen terme est de faire des illustrations pour un "livre dont vous êtes le héros" ... j'aimerais aussi pouvoir faire des caricatures de visages en quelques minutes.

Au plaisir de vous lire...

[Tamarix]

Welcome to the forum. I hope you ll find much to learn !

[JimSt]

Welcome to the forums! I am also in my 40's and this is my third year of working through this course - just finishing up Term 5 Week 1 today. So much good stuff! I am certain that if you can be persistent, you will level up many times over! Cheers!
-jSt.

[bach2017]

Thanks for the encouragement. Here’s one of several sketches I’ve done to practise drawing the whole figure – it took about 30 minutes.

merci pour les encouragements. voici un dessin parmi d'autre afin de travailler le corps dans son ensemble - environ 30 min

[bach2017]

do you see anything new that can improve this figure ?

[bach2017]

It took just over 30 minutes. I admit I cheated a bit (by layering) to fix the legs and pecs. It’s tricky trying to add details of light and shadow; I’m not quite ready for that yet.

[bach2017]

Quick perspective study

[bach2017]

[StarlitSkvader]

Your muscle studies and figure drawings are so nice and readable! Looking forward to seeing more!

[Nosnibor]

A late welcome to the forums from me : ) What instrument did you used to play?

Great work so far, I am looking forward to seeing more

I admit I cheated a bit (by layering) to fix the legs and pecs

I feel the same way sometimes when I do this but it is a great way to see what you are doing wrong when you cant figure it out. I would say to make sure you dont rely on it all the time and try figure out what is wrong with your lines/shapes first before layering your drawing/reference as it will help with your observational skills etc. It can be a great way to learn - atleast in my opinion : )

[bach2017]

Yes, you’re right, I try to do it as little as possible, but I do it when I’m tired and want to figure out what’s not working. I also do sketches on paper and correct what I can there.

Thanks to all of you for your comments; they make me feel less alone on this difficult journey.

[bach2017]

[bach2017]

A study of the upper body muscles. If you spot any mistakes, please do let me know

[bach2017]

I’m a bit confused about the muscles that overlap at the side of the torso and those in the back around the shoulder blade. I think I’ve grasped the basics of the arm muscles, although it’s not easy to assess the position and volume of the triceps. I feel that the brachioradialis is important to position early on in the process.

[bach2017]

Well, I tried to do without any lines and just use shading. The face doesn’t look like the person, but that wasn’t the aim. The main flaw I can see is that the nose is too small (too flat). The eyes aren’t too bad, considering my skill level in this area... The hairstyle? Meh, we’ll work on that later...

[JimSt]

Great effort and good observations.
I think the biggest issue here is the midline angle. I struggle with this too, so I don't really have advice on dealing with it other than studying the planes of the face. Heads are sooo hard!

[bach2017]

Drawing faces is so hard, you’re right. If it’s not the eyes that are the problem, it’s the mouth or the nose... Copying a face really isn’t my thing, but I’ll have to get to grips with it if I want to create a comic with main characters!
Another thing I need to work on is the colours, but one thing at a time.
For this portrait, I had a poor-quality reference. It was difficult to adapt, especially for the details of the mouth (for which I cheated by using a layer, I admit, but only on that point). In fact, I’m not really happy with this mouth
I spent about five hours on it, not counting the mistakes and re-dos... Beyond that, I’m fed up, so I won’t be adding any details or making any colour improvements

[bach2017]

I like this ‘gesture drawing’ exercise. You have to find a way to capture the model in record time so that the drawing is clear to everyone. It puts me in a state of stress followed by a sense of reward in a very short time. Cortisol, then endorphins, then cortisol, then endorphins... it’s as if you had to disarm a bomb before it explodes, and you keep doing it over and over again... it’s tiring but stimulating!

[Nosnibor]

Cortisol, then endorphins, then cortisol, then endorphins... it’s as if you had to disarm a bomb before it explodes, and you keep doing it over and over again... it’s tiring but stimulating!

That is a good way of describing it lol.

You capture energy well in your gesture drawings

[bach2017]

less time for drawing but still alive...