Matt - Art School Journey

[snakker]

Nice job on the studies!

I think the smiling girl's left side is a little smaller - it does seem she has a bit of an asymmetry issue irl plus lighting and maybe a tiny bit of rotation is making her left side look wider but not as much as in the drawing. Do you start off directly with construction or do you do something else for initial measurements? I feel for me, blocking in a few lines to measure first helps

Cheers!

[matthewwemes]

Thanks for the feedback! I did begin with the construction, but I've realized that I've developed a habit of beginning to draw facial features over my construction lines on the same layer and then starting to erase the construction lines as I go. I think I'll try keeping the construction on it's own layer so I can keep it to refer to as I go. should be good to try that for my next studies to see if that helps.

[snakker]

For sure, I also tend to draw on a single layer and smudge out the construction as I start shading areas. I feel mixing some block in (just lines and dots to box in and determine proportions) with construction helps me get accurate results faster than construction alone, but your mileage may vary

Cheers

[matthewwemes]

latest study, I did keep the construction for this one, and I think it helped a little, although somehow, the angle of my reference, the angle of my construction, and the angle of my final sketch all ended up different >.<

[matthewwemes]

These were my first time trying 2 minute gestures and I have to say at first I didn't even know what to do with the whole time...

and my 10 character head study, with references:

[snakker]

Great job on these studies 😃

[matthewwemes]

Some more gestures. I really like doing 2 minute ones. I think I still need to work on my en pressure discipline though, I still draw lines too heavy too early and I think that's why my gesture drawings keep looking more sketchy than I'd like.

These are my first attempts at drawing heads from imagination. I spent a bunch of time on these so I feel like I probably went blind to any issues there might be, so I'd love some feedback!

[chomper2010]

1st off, I really like your stuff! Your portrait studies are fantastic! Haven't had a chance to look through your whole blog yet but have really enjoyed what I've seen

As for your most recent post:
For your gestures, I think it would probably help to work lighter while searching for your forms and maybe simplifying the forms down would also help eliminate some of the sketchiness, as you wouldn't have to worry about capturing the nuances of the anatomy right away. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with being sketchy with these studies at the moment but if you are looking to clean them up, then that's what helped me when I've done gesture drawings before.

As for the heads, the only thing that I can see is the eyes on the male figure on the left and then the far eye on the female on the right. The male's left eye is a bit bigger than the right eye, other than that I think its great!. Then the females far eye looks like it is almost pushing out of the eyelid, rather than being cradled by it. I think just adding a little more depth to show the upper eyelid wrapping over the eye ball will remedy it. Outside of that small detail I think you did great portraying that three quarter view and the added rotation. I've never been able to get that view right, but you've nailed it! Just awesome work!

Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff!! Keep up the good work!!

[matthewwemes]

Thanks for the feedback! I will keep those things in mind moving forward, and maybe go back to see if I can fix these. Getting eyes looking right and symmetrical has always been an issue for me drawing faces and heads.

[matthewwemes]

I was liking how this study was going, but then I realized it had been way too long since I've watched Marc's hair video and I barely remember anything from it, I want to re-watch it and then keep going on this

and on this one I sunk 2+ hours into it before I realized how squished the torso is >.< again I want to fix it but here is the WIP with reference

[chomper2010]

Those studies are looking awesome! I don't think you hair is bad, with it being wet like that, it makes it difficult and I think you did pretty good! As for the torso, when I first viewed it, I thought it was just a style preference honestly, it wasn't until I read through what you'd wrote that I noticed its squished in compared to the reference. I wouldn't sweat that too much, but good to be aware of nonetheless.

Keep up the awesome work!!

[matthewwemes]

Thanks @chomper2010!

Here's an update. I really like the lighting in the reference so I want to paint this eventually, but I have some other unfinished stuff sitting around, including the Perspective 2 video, I I think I'll leave this as it is for the moment

[matthewwemes]

Tried drawing hair on my previous heads, trying to focus on shape language like Marc talks about in his video

[chomper2010]

Adding hair really adds a lot to those faces! I really appreciate what you did with the lady on the right, it adds a lot of interest and gives her a personality. Looking really good, keep it up!!

[matthewwemes]

thanks @chomper2010!

I did some thumbnail sketches for my 3 point perspective assignment

and a study in stylization, I meant this to just be a portrait at first but I liked it and kept going:

[chomper2010]

Oooh, can't wait to see which one you decide to go with! Your 3 pt piece is gonna be cool, looking forward to seeing it when it is finished up! And nice job with the figure! You're drawing has a real heroic vibe to it, I like it!

Keep up the good work!!

[matthewwemes]

Have I really not posted on here since April? I've still been doing art and I've been active on the Art School discord, I've been kind of experimenting with ways to stay as productive as I can and avoiding the things that stop me from doing art. I am still working on that, but I missed posting on here. So I have a bit of a dump of everything I've been working on lately.

Here are the projects I previously posted WIPs of:

I ended up following Marc's cel shading video to complete this:

And then I decided to try to paint this more realistically. rendering jeans might be a bit beyond my current skill level but I like how it turned out:

and my 3 point. I might still go back and shade it

Here is some of my work from the Master Portraits Discord thread. The rules are you have to do it on paper and use a medium where you can't erase. I like having something that makes me go back to traditional media sometimes.

I did these after watching Trent Kaniuga's video about redrawing faces consistently:

I tried drawing some of the Battlefield 2042 specialists from memory:

A painting study. rendering water is very challenging

A sketch of some helmets

And finally another side project I started. as tmepted as I am to just keep going with this, I think I will go back to exercises for now, so when I go back to this it will have a better chance of turning out how I want it to

[snakker]

Bruh, that battleship painting is looking nice!

[matthewwemes]

Thanks @snakker! scenes and landscapes are still much more in my comfort zone compared to faces and figures, so that's what I'm trying to do more of

[matthewwemes]

Another portrait on paper, and my 4 point. I'd appreciate any feedback, I don't know if I like it