Its an amazing show. Too bad no one in Amerika has the balls to do that.

Indeed. Except you can’t just harass the president here like you can there. Oh well.

Ho hum. Got bored last night and finished it up this morning. Note: Its not supposed to be anywhere near realistic. I just had something and ran with it.

Eh. There really isn’t anything there. No bootiful shaders and whatnot.

Here’s a collage I did:

EYES!

Sorry, I have an obsession with eyes.

Ooh, sunset.
I like sunsets.

I have moar. :3

(Except it’s technically a sunrise…)

Sorry, I have an obsession with eyes.

Me too. =)

Awesome sunsets, Jeni.

Just finished this earlier today for the AS livejournal.

Looks awesome.

Rameses II with a bow
Ahmose I with a saber
Sumerian King

Wow. That reminds me of those 90s puzzle games (Myst, 7th guest, etc.). I just want to zoom in and try to figure out the solution.

A cursory glance made me think that was real.
Now I want to play chess and drink wine.

Now I want to play chess and drink wine.

...and now I have a sudden urge to try to play chess while drunk.

Hilarity ensues.

Great piece, Virgil. :D

I agree with the others. This is très nice.

Virgil, that chess board thing is so cool. How did you do that?

But what program did you use? You might have mentioned it earlier, but I’m not sure.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a reference on anatomy (human body)?

Preferably a book, but if there are good, free sources, why not? I’ve been looking at Burne Hogarth’s books (ahem, I’ve borrowed one) and I’m interested in Dynamic Anatomy... but my problems are that I don’t know which edition to purchase and I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO DRAW FEMALES.

Are you specifically looking for faces or body?

I’m kind of looking to improve both, but at the moment, my priority is improving body. Because the bodies I draw can possess serious flaws. I’ve been thinking of just taking a series of photographs for general reference.Thanks for the advice.

My first painting in Photoshop. While I did use a tutorial, a few of the elements are mine, it was mainly something to fall back on and learn from. Enjoy.

It is quite good, I think.

Nicely done, Virgil. ;)

Hey, cool.

I looked at it and at first I was like… “A coffin? In a desert? What?” But whatever it is, it’s pretty good for a first.

On Sunday I did a twelve hour painting marathon. I painted Joan of Arc on a 4 foot by 2 and a half foot celing tile.
I’ll post a picture when I get a chance.

Here’s to procrastination. :) It was due the Friday before.

Pretty picture, Virgil. :) Me likes it.

^^That’s really good.

You can see your name on there. I’m just informing you in case you didn’t want people to see it.

Spectacular, Pearl.

That is remarkably well done, Pearl! I love it. :D

Wow, that’s super good, Pearl!

I’m using pencils, and I’ve faced a significant block.

Does anyone know any way to render the sequins in this drawing??

So should I highlight/draw a bunch of individual sequins?

Ahh. Well, when I finish this and return from my trip, I might scan it and post the sad, sad piece.

Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat (a screenshot from Disney’s Tarzan was used as a ref)

Style experimentation + color explosion = fun :D

@Kyrollac- it looks very cool, but the little round ‘light’ things in her cheeks look kind of weird, especially when the other ones are at joints like elbows and shoulders.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of drawing, so I’d thought I’d share some of my most recent stuff with you guys.

Tyrannosaurus rex

Velociraptors attacking a Triceratops

Jesus Christ

Moses from the Book of Exodus confronts the Egyptian pharaoh

For a reference on Human anatomy….. Huh. I actually don’t. I just observe people(my way of say stalking, but SHH! They don’t know that!)

Well, I’ve recently tried the Anime/Magna thing, and I kind of like it:

And this is my demented Bo Peep. Her full name is Bolivia Percivance Epivion(Really bad, I know, but I wanted the first two letters of each name to spell ‘Bo Peep’) I think I read too much Pandora Hearts. hehe.

How many of you guys drawn manga before?

What advice would you give to someone who’s just learning how to draw manga?

Erm… thank you.

raises hand as of the last few weeks

Uh, copy copy copy? And, yeah, use a basic method for getting the body, only exaggerate proportions for Manga. I’m juuuust getting into it, but I’ve done some drawing before (mainly clothing, figuring out how stuff lays and looks….and eyes…I draw lots of eyes. Darn realistic ones too…)

I’ve always shied away from doing the oval body sketch, but now it is working for me really, really well— just draw super lightly to get an idea as to what stuff looks like. Don’t be afraid to oversimplify. Be sure to draw a line graph on the face (keeping the lines rounded to account for hem circumference) so you can keep 3/4 faces even.

I’m not particularly good yet, but with enough copying, I hope to improve.

Best thing for me is to look at lots of drawing/pictures (manga and regular artwork) and break things down into simple shapes. Build from the bottom up. It’s like makeup XD
/newb

@ Kyllorac: Lovely digital work you did there with the forest trees!

Currently I’m doing some fanart for the old movie King Kong—-or more accurately, fan redesigns of the characters and creatures from that movie. Here’s some of my redesigns:

King Kong himself

The big meat-eating dinosaur that King Kong fights

The chief of the Skull Islanders (the people who sacrifice Ann Darrow to King Kong)

Ann Darrow herself

I use an F pencil for the construction, then trace over that construction with a mechanical pencil.

Why did you ask? You have any better ideas?

Yes.

Now, I’m going to tell you this only once. If you cannot take constructive criticism, then don’t even bother. Go to a supply store, get a 3B and a 6B pencil (2B and 4B will work as well). These will be the only ones you will ever work with. You may also want to pick up a hand sharpener and a decent eraser.

The biggest problem with your sketches is that they are very liney. They have the appearance of being traced right out of a book. When you draw, you should never ever ever ever ever have a definitive line in the subject. All of it needs to be shading. Never draw a solid line to define anything.

Now your 6B pencil is a very soft lead, while the 3B is harder. So, lightly sketch, or in your case ‘construct’ whatever you want to draw using the softer lead, which is naturally easier to erase and will leave less of an imprint. Your mechanical and F pencils are cutting into the paper, making it very hard to erase it or make an intentionally soft lines. If you still have trouble, hold the pencil as far away from the tip as possible, you’ll exert less force on it.

Once you have a light sketch (not an outline, a sketch), then begin shading. Now you can use your 3B. Shade in very small circles, in a random order and never in one direction if you want a smooth gradient. On a fabric, you can use hatches // or crosshatches # very small to get that ‘texture’ look to things. An important part of shading is knowing where your imaginary light is coming from and how it reveals your subject. This is where the no-lines comes in. In a sketch, everything should be revealed with a shadow.

Take a look at some stuff by Leonardo:

While his do have ‘lines’ (because you have to define where the object ends), there are no lines inside the forms (especially the horse). Its all gradients, and thats what gives things a realistic look. A ‘line’ should be an imaginary thing where a dark shade ends suddenly to give the illusion of a sharp edge.

This is just the base of it. You have a poor grasp on proportion and musculature (because those are hard, I can’t do it very well either). I would stop doing animal and human forms, and begin practicing things like cloth or set up some random objects in a still life to work on shading. Drape a sheet over the corner of your bed and have a strong light on it, and practice that way, or muss up a tissue as well.

Is this kind of drawing what you had in mind, Virgil? I did it with 2B and 4B pencils.

I showed that drawing to some friends of mine on another message board. They like most of my stuff, but they thought that particular drawing was too “etchy”.

Serves me right for listening to your “use softer pencils” suggestion.

Here’s the message board in question.

...Could you please give a direct link to the thread?

...Could you please give a direct link to the thread?

Oops, I forgot, you have to register to see threads inside the forum.

Will a screencap of one of the posts suffice?

You didn’t follow his advice, so the miffedness was rather unjustified. And no one can instantly be good at something, it takes practice. That’s why you work on skills, rather than expect them to somehow spring into existence.