Concept Art Critiques and Positions

[Manwë]

Yea, I can't do hands well. But even more, I can't do faces... The proportions of eyes and other features are hard for me..

[Guest kfmccall]

drawing to me, is a lot like writing, you have to learn to get ideas down fast and seeing the composition in its entirety instead of through a single line or a single sentence. Its more important that your confident in your defense of that composition instead of it being right, for both writing and drawing are forms of persuasive communication.

[suzerain]

drawing to me, is a lot like writing, you have to learn to get ideas down fast and seeing the composition in its entirety instead of through a single line or a single sentence. Its more important that your confident in your defense of that composition instead of it being right, for both writing and drawing are forms of persuasive communication.

*wince*

 

possibly the worst approach I've heard in a decade.

 

my old art college tutor, while explaining Life classes, gave me one peice of wisdom that I'll never forget:

 

"Listen to what others say, because otherwise you'll end up your own arse"

 

what is important is not that you're confident in defense, which is a notion guaranteed to let any art student fail miserably, but to actually pay attention to critisicm, the critic tends to have a considerably less biased eye, and all too often more experience.

 

there is no merit of fast, loose work over slow measured illustration. Each has it's own merit, but each must be accurate and follow observation, if it's not to be a failure.

 

Compare that figure study above with the one below. 90 second line drawing, defining one of my models.

 

for art (rather than design) Image is'nt important, if it is accurate. Inaacuracy is a symptom of poor draughstmanship, and a failure to observe the source material.

Design of course, is a completely different discipline, but I'll get into that in another subject someday.

 

Suzerain.

[UberBender]

Little sketch of a TIE fighter I drew. It was late and I was bored, so here it is.

[UberBender]

Another I did, this time I was inspired by my hardcover Punisher: Born graphic novel.

 

:D Take a look at the hand, they are hard!

[UberBender]

A P-40 fighter plane, WWII era.

 

The wings are a bit off.

[Kaningutten]

Nice drawing Suz... I see you're a multi-talent! ;) Specially the second one, I really like the artistic concept of a naked woman wearing mittens! :bleh: Er... It's probably not a good idea to be sarcastic towards the chief... So, hm, I didn't mean it Suz... I really did like them! Forgive me?:blush:

 

OK... back to the task at hand:

I have mainly two big problems when drawing humans... Firstly it's the eyes and the nose, and their connection. The second problem is my fantasy: The people I try to draw always end up looking like a mug-shot... I need to give them some life! So I would appreciate some hints, or maybe some "rules" for how to set up a facial drawing, from a beginners point of view. Concerning this months assignment (Oh, I feel like I'm back in school :P ) I got this great scene already envisioned with the weary travelling hobbit leaning against a great tree, walking-stick in hand, watching the sun set over the hills... I know that I am moving beyond concept art, but I can't help it :)

 

Inaacuracy is a symptom of poor draughstmanship, and a failure to observe the source material.

 

I think that is what i might suffer from... I have always had difficulties when "placing" different facial features. :blink: Is there any cure?

[Guest kfmccall]

Suzerain, i was implying that too many people are shy with their lines, afraid of making mistakes. Of course you look at others work and accept critiques, i didn't say not to, Im simply stating that being confident in your drawings is better than being shy.

 

I give the advice of being wild with sketching (does not mean you have to work fast, for that comes with time!), for you'll never learn to break the rules of perspective and the art of the norm if your always doing everything perfect. Look at picasso, he disregarded our 3 dimensions, he said a character is defined not by the single side visible, but all the faces of that character. Though he's a perfectly valid person to do so, having spent nearly the entirety of his life developing skills in fields of art other than his later abstract paintings. Has anyone seen his linework in the Picasso Museum of Barcelona? Spain is wonderful indeed, but im digressing; my point is to be wild with your drawing, making mistakes and failing leads to improvement and ideas. So make mistakes, for most of the time they're not noticed, and mistakes are inevitable; the better artist learns to turn those mistakes into parts of his drawing. Draw to communicate.

[Guest kfmccall]

Uber Bender: For your hands, look at your own. If you draw lines horizontally across your knuckles and the joints of your fingers, you'll see that they are pretty much parallel. So when your drawing fingers, first establish a line for each knuckle that goes across your hand. the finger joints will have perpendicular lines which are parallel to the knuckle line.

 

Heres a haphazard visual:

http://members.cox.net/mccallbros/Anatomy%20Guide%201.jpg

[suzerain]

Look at picasso, he disregarded our 3 dimensions, he said a character is defined not by the single side visible, but all the faces of that character.

re, picasso, etc.

 

absolutely... but you must be able to walk before you can run.

 

Picasso's observational skills were spectacular, to be able to observe boyond that stage, and any would-be artist must have a grasp of the basic skills of observaton before being able to take steps into experimentation, and not simply be going on a tangent and getting lost, so to speak.

 

S.