Pretzel's - Art School Journey

[pretzel]

Hey everyone, this is what I did this week.
First I realized that I suck at shading, so I watched some videos and did some exercises with some simple shapes.

These helped a lot. Also for the cube I tried creating a clipping mask and using Multiply for shading and I think this makes it way easier. I will try this method in my next piece.
And this is continuation of my work from the previous week.

I made some simple skin shading and tried to improve the shading in the pants.
I think I am done with this one even though its far from perfect but I am having a lot of difficulty.
The sharp corners on the fabric are especially tough. I will do more of these exercises because I think I can do better.
If you have any feedback it is welcome.

[Lockenheim]

Nice job with these! I would take a look at a reference of the basic shapes for shading, you are getting the right idea with the blending but where the light and dark sparts are are a bit off. For example the cube, each face is only going to be one shade, there wont be any type of gradient on the cube unless there was a very weak light source. So the face of the cube that is most directly perpendicular to the light source will be the lightest, and the faces facing away from the light will be in shadow. Overall you are definitely on the right track though! You might try doing the shading with a soft brush next time it may make the blending quite easier. Keep up the good work!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone, more of the same exercise this week as well.
Thank you @Lockenheim for your feedback! I understand what you mean about the cube. It makes perfect sense now that I think about it. I think the soft brush for shading is a lot harder to use, but I will try and see what I can do with it.

This week I tried something with simpler folds. The previous ones where too hard for my skill level I think.

I also tried doing line art. Its my first time doing line art. I tried to focus most on line thickness for it.

I am actually happy so far with this one. I will continue with the shading next week.

[pretzel]

Hi everyone! today I finished the piece I started the previous week.

I did the shading with a soft brush this time and I got the hang of it a little. There are still more things that I dont like. I think the more details I try to add the worse it looks, so I try to add as less details as possible while still making it look correct.
I also tried to play a bit with gradient maps to add color.

This makes it look a bit nicer but not by much.
My shading still needs a lot of work but I think I will move to the next clothing exercise for next week.

[pretzel]

Hello! This is my work for the week. I moved on to the next exercise for this week.
I picked a picture with a similar pose as in Marc's lecture so it will be easier for my first try at this.

I had some trouble with the folds in the shirt so I did two versions.

I think the second one is a bit better than the first but I am not sure.
Making the folds from my imagination was way harder than I thought so I looked at a ton of pictures and videos with similar poses to try to figure out how the folds would go.
Still I think my shading looks flat especially on the folds and I am still not sure how to fix that.

[pretzel]

Hello! once more with more clothing exercise.



I am not happy with this one as well. I tried some new things but the folds still look flat to me.

[Lockenheim]

Keep it up! For me folds are really hard in general. I have found for myself that if I shade the large forms first, then add the folds it does help add more form to the folds. I can see that you have some values for the large forms and I would try to push that further. Shading the limbs like cylinders I mean. If you give those more form I think the folds sill have some more, Keep up the good practice!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone, I haven't post these last few weeks but I continued to work. I did personal 3D projects but also I did continue my studies on 2D. I wonted to move to the next lesson but I was having too much fun and decided to do one more before I move on.

This is still not done but I wanted to post my progress. I want to fix some things and add some more details.

[pretzel]

Hello everyone! not many things this week, just finishing the exercise I started last week.

shading is still not quite there but I do feel like I am improving.

[pretzel]

Hello everyone, started a new term this week. I did the lighting exercise and started the upper anatomy lecture. These are my results.

The angles I tried where a bit weird but I think the shadows turned out correct.
And these are my notes for the hands and arms lecture.

[snakker]

Snakker here, local noob

This is just my two cents, but I think you’re going a bit too fast.. consider practicing more of the basics (drawing forms in 3D, gesture and measured copies) to improve your lines, dexterity and observation to allow you to use all the things you are learning

It’s exciting to move on to new things, but Practicing the basics, mastering them, will male you a better at more complex things as they all use the same principles or foundations of construction, line etc

Good luck and keep it up!

Cheers

[pretzel]

Thank you @snakker for your feedback. What you are saying is true I haven't been doing much of these exercises. I was hoping of picking up these skills as I draw, but I still struggle with some lines especially the circles and ellipses.
I will start focusing way more on those exercises you mentioned.

[pretzel]

This week I started with doing the exercises suggested. And I can already tell that I really needed them. I will try to keep this pace up.

[pretzel]

Happy new year everyone. I have done more exercises. Sadly I was sick the week before so I couldn't draw much but I continued this week.
2 minute gesture drawings

some face studies

a figure study

rough sketch

I watched Marc's latest video and I saw how much he importance he placed on gesture drawing. I have been mostly ignoring it but I will try to hit the goals he set for each month.

[snakker]

Nice job and happy new year to you too

Definitely, keep it up and don’t neglect those gestures, they really are like going to the art gym

Cheers

[pretzel]

Hey everyone! This week I continued what I was drawing last week. But first some gesture drawings.


I think I realized what I need to pay attention too for these. I figured that my proportions where wrong for most of these and by the end I tried for them to be better.
I cleaned up the sketch from last week and did the line art

Also I started with some shading. But I am still straggling with it so I just did some basic shading . Hoping just doing the shapes with hard edges.

[snakker]

Looking good!

Keep it up

Cheers

[pretzel]

Hello all! This week I completed the piece from last week. Also I did more gesture drawings as usual.


I also did a fast face drawing. I was bored and did it to pass the time so its not that good.

I can make a face look good if I spend some hours on it but I definitely want to get faster. I want to do more faces so I get better on it.

I discovered the Mixer brush and it helped me a lot with the shading.
I tried to think what needs to be a soft edge or a hard edge for this. But it stills looks blurry in some places. Also I tried to think what details to add and what leave out so I make it look good.
I am generally happy with how this turned out but feedback is always welcome.

[Gordon003]

Being happy about your study is the best thing you can get from your study, no matter how bad the quality is compared to others.

Gesture wise, looks noice so far. Recommend to try to make the gesture more expressive (e.g. push the line of action further or push the chest up more).

For fast face drawing, I recommend to not do shading but rather focus on basic head construction and facial placement and work from there. Eventually, once you confident then you can do shading in your fast face drawing.

But yeah, keep it up! Looks all good so far.

[pretzel]

Once again more studies. I focused more on the face this week.




The shading took so much time for this to look somewhat close to decent. I used to copy the shading from the reference but this time I tried to recreate it myself like the way Marc says in his youtube video on the topic (by shading individual shapes).