Dream Gauge

i don't have much to say about the self portraits [coz I don't know how you look] aside from spend more time on them and get a finished product. they feel lazy/quick.
I also have no idea about the bargue study, I never had any patience to learn that way. two things that jump out at me is the back of the neck is too / and needs to be more |, and it looks like the nose line is a bit too | should be more \ but it might just be the distortion from the photo, I'm not really sure...coz the angle relationships of the ear/ bangles seems off as well... I think the whole image is a bit rotated / direction...anyway the hard shadow you've got on the hair is too big. the distance between the skin and the headband is 1/3 with that shadow, you have it as 1/2 the distance almost...anyway it's really hard to critique things like bargue copies without good photos [or without being there IRL :P]

On your character though, if it's a concept for a character, you're really shooting yourself in the foot. The silhouette doesn't read [has the silhouette of a rock], and I have really no idea what he's doing/what he's supposed to be.If I had to guess, I'd say u probably ref porn a lot for your figure studies. anyway...uhmm with the char stuff, can u say a bit about what it's supposed be so we can help? I mean, I could do a paintover fixing things of what you've got there [like how the hips are totally broken...probably coz you're used to having the leg closer to us wide open for the moneyshot when doing studies...*cough*] but I think it'd be more beneficial if you could tell us what u are after.

update ! some posemaniacs 90 seconds gesture drawings, trying to do poses from mind, draw hands from life and from mind, worked a bit on the character, fixed some issues and cleaned the line on legs, and a new character design ! :wink:

thanks a lot herman for your post, yeah, i should more work on gesture ! well like i'm studying anatomy from hogarth, i'm trying to follow his advice, and start by the torso, and seriously, it rocks, because when i start with the head, i usually draw a 3/4 view, so then all the body will be in 3/4 view and it'll be boring, but when i start with the torso, i can create a lot more variations, and play withthe perspective like i want, and it's just amazing !!
i tried to apply it to my posemaniacs but i didn't have time to finish my poses, i guess i should first get the habit of this process with photo refs, then with posemaniacs . here is also a study from ref , and the wip of my 2 characters !

My personal take on posemaniacs is don't use it.

Especially when you a learning you should take however long it takes to get the study right. In a way it is harmful for people who are struggling with anatomy to do those quick studies as all you will be doing is reinforcing your bad habits as you are drawing on impulse and not thinking.

Sure there is a benefit of warming up your hand if you are just starting for the day, but you might aswell practice doing elipses and lines to achieve a similar result of getting blood to circulate in your hand.

and here is a study of 2 girls, and a wip of my alladin chow entry,i'm a bit late, but i'll try to finish before the deadline !!

here is an anatomy study they way youguys do it !! i wanna thank robert again for his help and his great advices !!

anatomy study and my first speed painting ! was working on getting used to use a lot of brushes, composition, and color harmony ! Critics are more than welcome !!

Hi,

I think the biggest issue I can see right now is just not enough time being spent to get things right. Instead of doing multiple studies quickly, spend the time to get 1 study correct and right to the best of your ability.

Right now I feel you are just churning out studies with out putting the thought required to improve and learn from. Yes practice is the best way to learn, but be smart about it - always quality over quantity.

Do not just copy the reference, look and reconstruct it - a person is a construct of many forms sitting on top of each other - get the forms right, look at how the forms sit in 3D space, look at where the center of gravity is to help balance all of those forms. Make sure your proportions are there by checking with plumb lines and negative shapes. If it's off then correct it, do not be afraid to use any possible means to get it as close to correct as you can.

Thanks Rayk and thomas ! Well i talked with herman, and he gave me some critics and advices , setting some priorities in my studies . I'm gonna study values and gesture for a long while from now .

So here is a value study from an apple. the light source is a really grey sky ( it was raingin all day long ) . It was really hard to get the volumes with low contrast . i tried to find the lightest, and the darkest values on the apple and the surroundings . I don't used to squint, so it was hard . I also tried to work on edges, tho i don't know much about it . But i'll read the edge chapter from the alla prima book .

And 4 pose studies . I took mma photos, and some sports that i quite like. I was mainly focused on the pose and proportions, and then i quickly added the main shapes. there might still be flaws .

Thanks for helping me !

hey guys, sorry if i didn't post for a while, it's just that i moved to paris to help my bro changing his apart, then i moved into my own apart at Lyon, and i don't have electricity and internet for now, there are so much issues in this building , ... that's why i wasn't able to post,hopefully the guys who have to repair gotta come tomorow, so i'll try to post before the end of the week ! C ya later guys !