Pheonix561's General Art Thread

[pheonix561 2080]

I realized that, despite that I'm an art major in my second year of college, I have only made one thread about a picture I did for my final last semester. I decided that, since I'm now taking three art classes instead of one, I might as well start taking pictures of things during my classes and posting them for you guys to see them.

The classes I'm taking this semester that involve me producing anything are Art 3D (A foundations class), Life Drawing, and Viscom Theory. Don't expect much from Viscom Theory.

Mind you, the last thread I did was a picture I did in colour, for about fifty hours in total work time. I'm probably not going to upload anything of that quality here, but rather the studies I do in between them. Midterms time isn't for another month or so.

This is a self portrait I started today, for my life drawing class (the one where you draw naked people). Normally we would have a naked model sit up on a stool and we'd all draw them, but ours didn't show up today. So instead we got a jump start on our homework and we all started on some semi reductive self portraits. This is the result of two hours of that. This is not a finished piece.

I didn't spend so much time worrying about shading and value as I did outlining everything in my face. I wanted to make sure I had the proportions right on everything before I started putting down anything particularly black or white, since those are both time consuming to make and remove, respectively. You have to be very careful when you put anything black down on a piece of paper. I also put some gestured lines in where my hair would be, and what the shapes were (they're undoubtedly different now, but I wanted the general idea). I didn't have the materials to work with any particularly detailed values, anyways. I had my charcoal pencil, but not my eraser stick. So The only value I really bothered with starting on was the neck. It was simple enough.

I should probably post a picture of what my face looks like in the position I'm working in, for your comparison. I'll do that later, though.

[2356 23]

Charcoal stick are better imo

[pheonix561 2080]

It's not a matter of which is better; The entire picture up there was done in charcoal stick. But If I'm going to get the minute detail I need later on, I can't black with something as soft as vine, and I can't get white with something as fat as a kneaded eraser.

[2356 23]

Speaking of edges, have you seen those really cool erasers that let you just use corners the whole time?

[Sahaqiel 1232]

row row fight da powah

[2356 23]

Also, just because I like to be annoying, DOODLE WOLF.

[Knuckle 484]

Why does that little spot between your mouth and nose stick out so much? I guess this is still in an early stage, but I can't help but notice that spot a lot.

Also, how do you guys draw nekkid people? Do you draw straws to see who goes or are there volunteers or do you all take turns being the subject or what?

[pheonix561 2080]

That spot, the cleft, is an important shape that needs to be outlined when drawing the face at such an angle. It's a great way to help stop foreshortening between the mouth and nose, which is a problem I was having before I put that in. Yes, its in an early stage and yes, it does kind of look like a chaplin/hitler, Doesn't really help that I was drawing with a srs face on.

Schools pay models to come in and model. Typically they just find someone, anyone, who's willing to come in and take their clothes off for money. They get paid like they're doing an actual job. Although it seems leisurely, it's not as easy as it looks. You have to hold perfectly still for hours at a time, and people will get angry with you for so much as an errant twitch. I'm not saying it's some kind of rocket science, but I'm not saying it's some kind of easy job anyone could do, either.

Though, on days like that one, we didn't have a model come in. For some reason, it's apparently been difficult getting a hold of models for our class. One day when we didn't get a model, we just drew skeletons all day. Another day, one of us volunteered, though he kept his pants on. Apparently it's usually a female dominated occupation, where teachers have a really hard time finding a male to draw. For us, we've only had one model, and he's a dude. There was one day we had a female model, and I guess she quit.

On the topic of my face, The only reason I'm drawing my srs face is because I was drawing with a srs face on. I'm treating this portrait more like a lesson than a piece. I've done self portraits before, and I did one for the same class last semester that had me doing that final. In a situation like that, I'm much more prone to experimentation. I had a pretty ridiculous face for that one. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the actual piece, but I do have some progress shots. Try and pretend you're looking at the finished one until I find it.

Parts of it were wrong, like those hands right up there. My teacher still gave me an A though, just because I chose such a difficult pose and pulled it off. I held that face for hours at a time. It was so well received, in fact, that my teacher put it up with the other good pieces his students made that semester for the end of the year gallery thing (The place where I got that juror's award, which was cool). I like to think I don't have much difficulty coming up with content when I really want to.

That's a lightbulb I'm holding, also.

I also took some pics from my camera phone BEFORE IT STARTED ACTING LIKE A DICK of a recent project we did for my 3D class. I'll upload them later.

[Chimetals 344]

the hands dont look all that bad to me, but then again, youre the one thats been staring at them for hours at a time.

[Cirt 612]

life drawing aaaaaa

you better have drawing of beautiful backs

and legs

and more hands. omg hands

[Sahaqiel 1232]

The top hand is great. The bottom one looks stunted and deformed. ;x

I don't think a hand would look like that at any angle. The index and middle finger should be moved to the left more, and the fingers should all be proportional to one another. The pinky is way too small in comparison to the others. Even giving the viewing angle, the pinky is about half the size of the middle and index fingers, when in reality, the pinky isn't that much smaller than the index finger. The fingers also should be a bit... like, flatter? More extended? idk. But yeah, the bottom hand just looks weird.

That all being said, the hues and shades in the jacket are really great, and you did a good job recreating the contours and folds in it, as well as the texture, and the top hand is p. detailed. I like the detail on the tendons. It's p. cool.

also the coolio caricature face.

[2356 23]

I saw the caricature face and all I could think of was "why does pheo always seem grumpy?" which I don't even know where that came from -shrug-

[pheonix561 2080]

Hey look, I found a picture of the finished thing on my phone! Here let me upload it. Anyone know how to fix a Samsung Evergreen camera phone camera? I really need to get this thing fixed If I'm going to keep this thread loaded with content. I want to show you guys some sketches I did.

Pardon the weird angle I took it at. I don't typically take perfect shots of what I do. Makes it too easy to steal them. Thief paranoia etc.

I'm aware of whats wrong in the hands, though It's not like I'm about to go back and change it. I turned it in, got my A, and kept it with some of my other projects from that class.

The caricature face I actually lost points for. It was supposed to be a realism thing. Sticking my jaw out was one thing, but I drew it like it stuck out farther than it should, and pulled the skin around it into my face more than I should have. Though, honestly? It might be a trick of the eyes, but I feel like I can stick my jaw out that far. Probably not. Even so, I got a lot of good feedback for doing things like contorting my face the way i did instead of leaving myself relaxed like every other drawn from life portrait you've ever seen ever (First post included), and for including the jacket too, and for adding things like that light bulb. It made for some really interesting suggestions for what this was about in critique. Is he mad at the light bulb? Is he trying to turn it on with his mind? Is the light bulb itself the idea, and this is his Idea conjuring face? Or is he treating it like a crystal ball?

Drawing the jacket was very difficult, naturally. Wearing a jacket while trying to draw it. Every time you move your arm, the light changes. I ended up putting some very sharp contrast between the highlight/cast shadow sections and where they meet the base color of the sleeve. Lost points for that, but not as many as I did for making the bottom right look like shit. This was a thirty hour project, and the last five I did the day before it was due. I was more concerned with getting it finished than making it look good, something I probably should have worried more about with my final.

What's more problematic for me was the composition it had. There's too much negative space in the top left corner, and I couldn't think of anything to place back there. Nothing that wouldn't particularly mess with this whole body language/light bulb relation, anyways. Though, even if I did decide on something, I wouldn't have had the time to put it in. One person suggested actually cutting off the top half of the piece, and leaving just the hands and the lightbulb. Suddenly with the face gone, the only thing giving any context to the lightbulb is the hands. It makes for a very new composition, and a very interesting one. But no one wants to see the face go away, either. Gives it lots of character.

One thing I do remember is deciding that I almost took that idea, the cutting off the top half one, and taking that and using it as a new signature for my posts. I didn't want to get rid of the Lonely Dragon, though. He's too pro. However, keeping the idea for a hand and a lightbulb, I decided to apply it too... This!!!!!

This is just a lineart shot, and it's mirror image. The real deal will be flipped. It's my design for the new Website Banner! I knew I wasn't done with lightbulbs and arms, so I took some reference shots of my arm beholding a lit light bulb (In the portrait the light bulb was off and unplugged), which you can see here. This is also mirror image; My laptop camera does that. It's actually my left hand.

Take picture of arm and lightbulb, replace lightbulb with triforce. It's hanging up on my wall right now, and I've placed some pastel on it so I know where I want which colors to be. It's in a sort of development hell right now though, because I need a certain art student forum frequenter we all know and cherish to look at it with me. Not naming any names(rhymes with Waffles). But yes, I'm doing the new website Banner and yes, here is a sneak peak.

picture the above portrait, with me holding the lightbulb, making that face.

Now picture the lineart below it, with link's out stretched arm, holding the triforce.

That's right.

Thaaaaaaat's right.

Link's making the same face I am, just off the paper.

[Sahaqiel 1232]

do somn

[pheonix561 2080]

Other things that come to mind while I look at it: My face is too dark, my hair is too general, the cloth around my neck is too white, Probably should have cleaned up the smeared thumb prints before I took the picture, light bulb could have been done better, picture probably would have been more interesting if I turned off all the lights in the room and only had the light bulb as a light source. It also would have been ten dicks harder to draw like holy shit lets all draw reflective jackets in the dark with an ever trembling light source good idea right have fun seeing what you're drawing on the paper. I need to try that sometime.