Mason's - Art School Journey

Mason_ 2023-05-01 17:07:18 UTC #1

Wow a forum that's still running? Discord didn't manage to kill all of them then.

Hi, I'm Mason, been drawing for a long time, about seven years, but I feel like I'm stagnating. I've improved alot since I started, but I'm not where I thought I would/should be.

I've done alot of figure sketching, but not much in the way of rendering, and need to nail some more detailed anatomy and improve other weakspots, like drawing heads. I'm hoping that by following a course I can put some structure into imroving, instead of following the wims of whatever self-assigned "homework" I have at the moment.

Like many others, I have ideas for characters and stories that I want to get out. But trying to draw the same character consistently still eludes me.

patrycja.lerch 2023-05-01 18:45:01 UTC #2

Welcome to the forums Mason!

Those are nice looking gestures!

olashamala 2023-05-02 16:47:32 UTC #3

Welcome Mason Really nice gesture drawings!

Norma 2023-05-03 15:42:23 UTC #4

Welcome to the forum!

I'm curious. What is your problem with drawing the same character? Do you find it boring or do you feel like you can't get the facial features right in different perspectives?

Pattu_w 2023-05-05 19:54:14 UTC #5

Welcome to the Forums, these gestures are looking awesome, full of energy, good stuff.

Mason_ 2023-05-06 22:00:18 UTC #6

Thank you. More the latter. I tend to find my "style" shifts as I draw a character over again, the eyes become a slightly different shape, the line of the cheek more more or less prominent. This is conflated with difficulty with faces - like, you draw an eye that's just a smidge in the wrong place and it looks like a completely different person.

So practice - I gave myself an hour each for the two characters - ones the older sister from the third episode of star wars visions season 2, I tried using multiple screen shots from the show and a photo of someone in a pose as reference. The other is Maika, from the comic Monstress, a direct copy of one of the illustrations.

Norma 2023-05-07 09:18:22 UTC #7

Sigh! Who does not know that.

Mason_ 2023-05-07 21:23:19 UTC #8

3/5 Zelda!

Mason_ 2023-05-11 20:03:14 UTC #9

"Photoshop" (CSP) assignment, I don't think I understand what the tone curve or level correction tools are doing. You add a point to the curve in the middle, bending towards the top left makes the picture lighter, bottom right makes it darker. But making the graph bend in crazy ways makes the picture all sorts of colours. So I'm a bit confused.

olashamala 2023-05-12 15:10:41 UTC #10

Same! Although the second time I did it, somehow I was closer to matching the original picture.. Still, I'm doing it randomly having no idea how it actually functions!

Mason_ 2023-05-22 21:48:36 UTC #11

Some more practice. Last week was not good drawing wise. Hopefully this week will better.

Zagreus from Hades. Haven't actually played the game, but I think the art style looks cool. I'm keeping these character drawings to 50 minutes, even if they're not finished.

Practice exercises. Okay, but not quite happy with spheres. They don't look "solid."

Cylinders/skeletons over ref photos - the four columns to the left. Then some doodling from "imaginiation." Drawing over them has helped me realise I tend to draw female figures alot "bulkier" than they probaly shoudl be.

And some more. Forgot to draw on a different layer.

Mason_ 2023-05-23 21:36:00 UTC #12

Some more exercies, gestures and cylinder trace overs:

Final character draw - copied a sketch of a viking by Ramon Nunez from a book I have "Sketching From the Imagination: Characters" - it's got lots of examples of characters drawn by different artists. It was hard to pick one. This turned out a lot, lot better than expected.

Gordon003 2023-05-26 04:47:27 UTC #13

Look like you recaptured the flow and personality of that Viking. Great job!

Mason_ 2023-05-29 21:06:02 UTC #14

Thank you Gordon. It's a far cry from what I usually draw. Tried the proportion exercis, in the middle with what I might draw "naturally" without a ref on either side. I used a Loomis diagram as. reference. Needs some practice.

Also question if anyone knows. From what it looked like in the video - Marc used 8 heads for both the man and woman - but the face of the woman was shorter making her smaller. Is this right? No difference in the proprtions themselves? - i.e. 8 heads.

Pattu_w 2023-05-30 14:18:56 UTC #15

Yeap, that's the ideal proportions for the figure, for male and female. Since you mentioned Loomis here are the proportions from his book.

Mason_ 2023-05-30 21:29:55 UTC #16

Thank you! Created a 8 head guidline frame and and traced over the loomis figure for this one. I'll try a hand drawn one again tomorrow that's cleaner than the first.

Mason_ 2023-05-31 21:23:05 UTC #17

...and again. Probably cheeting a bit, but CSP has a perspective ruler for 1, 2 and 3 pts perspective. I've had CSP for several years and did not know this. Used it to draw the 1 pt cubes.

Mason_ 2023-06-01 21:28:48 UTC #18

And some more. The womans proportions this time. In both the man and the woman 8 heads seems kind of long. I check on one of Marcus's drawings and yeah its 8 heads. I'm just used to drawing more cartoony looking characters I guess.

Convergence Lines

Gestures

Traced Proportion Lady

And checking Marcus's drawing:

Mason_ 2023-06-05 21:27:04 UTC #19

And some more -

2min Gestures:

2 pt Boxes

Some cylinder people.

Mason_ 2023-06-07 21:16:59 UTC #20

Aaand more. I'm trying to keep up with the Weekly Assignment schedule, but I'm struggling. (Got alot else going on.) Will probably try and split each week into 2.

Full measred figure. As you can see, measuring the figure from side to side needs some work. I found this really interesting though. You measure it, think okay that's 3 number of heads down, look at it again and think, "Really? No, it can't be, that looks much longer than 3 heads." - measure it again, yup that's 3 heads.

Aang! From his character design in a comic, that's not yet released.

Proportion exercise.