Hello again!
I'm always dubious of artists sketchbook threads/blogs when they give you a weekly round up of 3 images, all nicely finished and rendered. For me, the point of a blogging my sketchbook is to become more objective about my work (cheers Badger for the vocab) and to invite intersting criticiscims and comments.
If I only post the best stuff then what will I improve from the feedback I receive?
So whilst this isnt everything that I have done in my sketchbook this week, I have tried not to just cherry pick the 'finished' drawings from my sketchbook. Some stuff I have chosen is not as succesful as others, but I am anxious to have feedback on all of it. Good/bad/constructive/offensive, let me have it all! ;)
***BTW***
The first person to tell me how to upload multiple images to Blogger whilst retaining the ability to click them to see an enlarged version of the image wins a signed copy of Nothing To Fear, my first self published comic book. My email is in my profile, top right of blog. Thanks!
A sketch of Rigel, from her photoset of the day on Suicide Girls.
A female pole vaulter, chosen for her athletic posture which I thought would help inform my drawings of Firefighter Rachel Smith, who I wanted to be tough and athletic but still feminine and attractive.
Glitch, another Suicide Girls photoset of the day. This is actually the first Suicide Girl I drew, deciding that the glamour photogrpahy from Suicide Girls would be a good resource for drawing female anatomy, with the girls tattoos and alternative apparel making them more effective character design than the models on traditional life drawing sites would offer. Also, the 'photoset of the day' feature on Suicide Girls would provide fresh material everyday, as opposed to the irregularly updated life drawin sites such as characterdesigns.com.
Bridgeman studies form lunchtime at work, and some photo ref sketches of male models posing with submachine guns, studies for the police in my forthcoming comic book.
Another model from Suicide Girls.com Lavonne, in her photoset of the day. I decided to do gestural drawings of several poses, whilst taking longer rendering and studying the forms of an unusual angle. The foreshortned legs were a challenge to draw, focusing on feet is something I have overlooked for many years, usually concetrating on making hands as expressive as possible.
A male model posing with a gund prop. The purpose of these wuick gestural studies - besides getting more ref of guys holding guns - was to spend sometime looking at how people plant their feet, and trying to make it look like the character is grounded in the drawing, and not floating in a white void.
The anatomical stuff is all Bridgeman studies from my lunchhour at work, slowly working through a page at a time is really helping to change the way I look at drawing the figure. The daily dose of Suicide Girls helps to flesh out the structural anatomy I'm learning from Bridgeman.
Gesture drawings from Suicide Girls.
Two drawings of Opale, from her photoset of the day on Suicide Girls. Above, the double page spread from my sketchbook, and below is a cropped close up of her torso/pelvis. This photoset was beautifully lit, and I enjoyed focussing on the chiaoscuro forms of light and dark that desrcribed the model's shape. As ever, trying to remember lessons learned through Bridgeman to study and analyse the model, rather than just copying the photo. ;)
And after Sorrel complained at me that all I'd been doing all week is drawing girls, and that my sketchbook was looking like an adolescent fantasy, I found a male body building website and found some meat-head-hypermasculine-gaylord to draw. I think that this might prove a usual exercise everynow and again, as the inhuman exageration of anantomy that these over-inflated idiots represent would help reinforce my understanding of the wedging of the muscles from Bridgeman, and might help improve my drawings of the male form.
Click to enlarge
