mchammer's sketchbook

[mchammer75040]

Alright finally Ive gotten a hold of a scanner at school and decided to throw all my good crap here online. Some of these are not done, and I completely forgot to touch them up in PS so bear with me...
From newest to oldest:

 

[Raziaar]

Pretty cool stuff! I'm not really one to critique on anything anatomy related since I have no skills, but some of the noses look a little weird to me. Other than that, very nice!

 

[mchammer75040]

Thanks Raz! Yea Ive noticed that on a few the noses are way off and the eyes and nose are godawful on this one:

ack I didnt realize how bad it was til I posted it here :frown:.

 

[MJ12]

Pretty good stuff, what I would suggest is working on the face proportions (I know it's difficult, I myself am not very good at it) but my art teacher gave us some formulas for face structure.

The 6th and 7th drawing from the bottom of those faces (those two men) are very well done and structurally correct. So try to aim for that sort of proportion more often.

Some of the eyes are too small and spaced apart in some of the drawings, (but don't make them too big either, or too close) but if I recall correctly, you are supposed to imagine a third eye between the two eyes, and that should give you the correct length between the two eyes.
Some of the noses are a bit too long/big.

Also, watch out for shading. It can be really difficult, but once you get the hang of shading it's really simple and second nature.

What I would suggest is going online and looking at anatomy drawings, especially of faces, and study them. I have a book full of various drawn human structures, I studied them and how they shade, it really helps.
If you are into understanding how to draw the human body more, I would strongly suggest picking up an original copy of Grey's Anatomy, everything is drawn in that book and it was very helpful for me.

 

[mchammer75040]

Personally I think the 4th one down from the top is my best, although you probably cant tell since its folded to the point of crap. And yes I agree facial proportions are damn hard at times, so: noses, eyes, shading...I'll keep all of this in mind over this weekend. What do you think about the shading in my first one? I think my arm is damn good but of course he has no face and the legs look kinda off. Anyways I'll be away from a comp for a day or two but I'll have a nice update come monday morning so stay tuned. Thanks ZT!

Btw I cropped the pics in my point to make them look less shit-tastic.
:farmer:

 

[ktimekiller]

I like it, very good, detailed, but I think alot of them look a little 2dish, and stands out as a drawing rather than a life like feeling

 

[mchammer75040]

Yes, thats something Im trying to work on, but its damn hard. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this better. Im planning on starting a work that might take 4-6 weeks to try to tackle this problem. Anyways I gotta run guys..update coming monday.

 

[Krynn72]

They look very nice, glad you finally got a chance to post some of your stuff. The reason why they look so flat though, is that there is very little contrast. Some of them are better than others, but on the whole I feel that there is too much gray, and not enough blacks and whites. For example, look at the third, fifth and sixth pictures you posted. There is literally no dark in them at all. With the exception of the line work, its almost all the same shade of gray. So by using the whole range of tones, you can start bringing your drawings into a third dimension.

Also, some of your drawings are suffering from the lazy eye syndrome. Gotta make sure both eyes are looking in the same place, otherwise they get a goofy look to them haha.

Keep up the good work, all you need to do is just keep at it.

 

[VirusType2]

Thanks Raz! Yea Ive noticed that on a few the noses are way off and the eyes and nose are godawful on this one:

ack I didnt realize how bad it was til I posted it here :frown:.

this one is actually my favorite.

i love the way you shaded his face - particularly the beard, and put a shadow of his nose over his lip.

i like the large contrast of lights/darks

sure the eyes aren't perfect, but the rest of it is IMO. and besides, even statues aren't perfect. and OMG! even people aren't perfect

mostly all I draw are monsters, so I can't be any help.

 

[Crushenator 500]

Damn man, that last one that virus just posted is a cast study, you're meant to take hours over that shizzle!

I want the next one you post to look like this ;p http://www.dorian-iten.com/images/dorian-seneca.jpg

You're doing well though, just take a bit more time to really think about where you're putting your lines amd why, and to really analyse what you're drawing in more detail

Why are you drawing on rubbish folded up paper anyway? What school are you at?

 

[CrazyHarij]

Good stuff, you've got a good sense of drawing.

Some critique;
They look carbon copied, flat, work on perspective, anatomy, try drawing from life.

 

[mchammer75040]

Krynn, crush, crazy, virus:Yea this is a really big problem, I think for the most part if I just spent more time on it it would look maybe half as good as what crush posted . Im starting some month long studies today so I'll more than likely just be posting quick progress sketches. And Virus look closely at his eyes haha he looks damn retarded.
Contrast for me always looks bad for some reason whenever I put some hard darks down it just looks rushed and ugly. Maybe just more dark around the figures?
Anyways quick update from this weekend:

On this I havent finished the face or hands...mostly cause its driving me insane with how ugly his face always comes out:

A frazetta study that didnt scan that well but looks okay, Im only about 25% into it:

Just some random body sketches, nothing fancy:

..Im starting to see another big problem with mine is my inability to stick a face on a body..it always comes out of proportion or just ugly..
Anyways I'll have another in a day or so.. Thanks for all the comments.

 

[MJ12]

Those figures are well done, watch the shading of the man though.

 

[mchammer75040]

I realize the arm shading looks off but personally I really cant see what is so off about the whole shading, care to elaborate?

 

[mchammer75040]

New update: just two unfinished works from last night..
The scanner couldnt catch this fully but its only about half way done:

Same goes here, another quick frazetta study/sketch ( not even half way done):

 

[mchammer75040]

gesture sketches

study:

 

[Krynn72]

That last one is made of awesomesauce.

 

[mchammer75040]

Why thank you krynn ! You cant see how badly done the face is though , I'll have some more soon. btw when are you gonna start throwing some more models up online for all of us to check out?

 

[Krynn72]

Soonish. Ive been doing a bunch of freelance and mod work recently, but I cant show any of it at this point. I do have a few personal projects that I should be finishing soon enough though.

 

[mchammer75040]

So you are finally getting paid for doing some modeling? You bastard..you bastard..:thumbs:

 

[mchammer75040]

I havent updated recently cause Ive been working on this study that I feel like Ive finally finished..focusing mostly on values and detail...lots of detail.

 

[Raziaar]

Oh wow! That looks awesome! I really like it!

I don't know why, but I also love all the texture that is there in the black areas away from the bust itself.

 

[mchammer75040]

Thanks man I put so much time into it, its ridiculous. I probably did the background a good few times before finding that balance of light and darkness that makes it look halfway decent.

 

[Crushenator 500]

Got your PM ;p

How come the background's so uneven with all the dark splodges...?

This is good though man, the shapes look right and everything's in proportion by the looks of things.

My only problem is actually with the values. This might be partially your scanner overexposing everything, but it looks like you've been kinda scared of getting dark with it. The background tone you have now looks more like a mid tone to me, you can afford to go a lot darker over all

Do you have a pic of the original? It also looks like you were kinda scared of modeling out the face/chest properly but I dunno what they look like on your ref

Hope that helps at all

 

[mchammer75040]

Im trying to find the ref. pic right now but I cant seem to, I'll have to bring it up to school and throw it up on the scanner. As far as the blotches, Im not sure where that came from my instructor took a photograph of it so it might be overexposure. The background is actually alittle bit darker than shown there but I guess you are right I dont like working in solid black so I might go back over it and do another layer. Thanks ofcourse it helps, although Im not sure what you mean about the face and chest.

 

[MJ12]

Very nice, looks like you are improving. The Study is excellent and better than I could do.

The second one of the Woman's bust is quite nice too, but I would recommend some more contrast within the sculpture itself, such as making certain lines a bit darker especially in the crevice areas.

 

[Krynn72]

Nice work. You're definitely improving. I like the subject a lot, and I like the contrast between the foreground elements and the background.

What he means about the face and chest is that its hard to see their shape because there isnt enough contrast within the sculpture itself. My only comment is the same as what Crushinator and ZT said already. You need to make the dark values darker within the sculpture itself. There should be mid-tone values that are closer to the near-black values you have for the shadows. As it stands there is a lot of bright whites, then some mid tones that aren't really in the middle since they're too bright, and then some really dark shadows.

It will be easier to point out where if we had the original picture with the correct lighting, but use this as an example:

In this one you can see the shapes of her face because there are variations of tone. Look at this next pic. I colored in the spots where the brightest tones should be in red, and the darkest tones in green. Everything else should be a tone somewhere roughly in the middle of the spectrum, depending on how the light falls off the underlying anatomy.

Not the greatest example obviously, but hopefully it will help you see the changes in tone on your own piece.


Also, something else I noticed while writing this... her ear is quite lacking in anatomy haha.

 

[VirusType2]

awesome stuff, you have improved a great deal

I would practice faces only for a while before completing your other sketches

also your women either have narrow hips or a thick abdomen.

 

[mchammer75040]

Thanks for the crit krynn & virus I'll be putting my update up in a day or so with putting alot more dark into my drawing. Using pencils like 6b on the shading always makes my drawings look like total shit. I dont know why but I always make the blacks too strong or too light. Anyways this is a PS piece from my digital imaging 1 class cd project:

 

[CrazyHarij]

Great stuff mchammer, keep it up. The only advice I can think of right now is focus less on details and more on shapes, proportions, presentation. It's very easy to get lost in details before the overall structure is completed.

 

[Xendance]

I can see some nice ass.

 

[mchammer75040]

Thanks for all the good words guys, I'll keep updating more regularly
Portraits:

Random sketches:

Stay tuned from some stuff from imagination land..soon..

 

[Barnz]

Not bad , some figures have gigantic arms/legs. You need to work more on anatomy.

 

[Iron Kat]

A lot of those (newer ones and older ones) REALLY should be put into spoiler tags with NSFW at the top!!!! They're good, though!!!

 

[mchammer75040]

Iron kat its just the nude body, no big deal. I dont think anyone will infraction me til I start drawing napoleon riding on giant penises along a red plain.
Anyways just a quick update,:
An intial sketch of a study I just started:

Just a few quick head sketches:

 

[MJ12]

The structure of the bodies are looking nice. Need to work on the facial proportions, it's tough, I know, I'm not to good at it myself.

Have you ever taken a class on shading? I bet they have something online that could really show you how to shade.
I recently sketched a nude in my notebook at school, I wanna show you it because it has some basic shading (nothing fancy), but unfortunately the scan makes the shading look odd.

 

[Crushenator 500]

You're making the faces too big for the heads in that last post man, they have no foreheads!

Shading isn't really about how you make the marks, but about knowing where the marks need to go. That's why people say to learn the planes of the head and stuff, so you can see them as 3D objects and know where the light and shade is supposed to fall on them

Hope that helps you at all!

 

[Raziaar]

Oh god, that first one looks like Ann Coulter! <runs away screaming>

<runs back>

Oh hey on your previous works, I really think they're quite awesome! And these new ones too. I really like the one with the guy that has the skinny beard thing. For some reason he reminds me of a pretty boy pirate or something. Heh.

And that really dark vampire looking one with the black stringy hair is awesome! I love it. Wallpaper worthy for me if it had the proper dimensions.

 

[VirusType2]

for someone who didn't even draw faces before because you didn't want to ruin your sketches, you really have come a long way. Keep going. Practice practice.

 

[VirusType2]

You might check this site out if you really like drawing female human anatomy:


Warning - Completely Nude female anatomy site [not porn]

Spoiler

http://www.female-anatomy-for-artist.com/