Lesson 3: Back to Basics

[vrt]

Time for the third lesson! And again, we'll be sketching. Lesson 2 made it clear that this is hard for a lot of people, so we're going back to the beginning. If you really want to improve your work, this is the ultimate start. Read on..


Lesson 3: Assignment:

The sketches will be different than you've done in Lesson 2, and in more than one way. The main difference, is that you will all be sketching variations of the very same creature. It's a creature I doodled up in about 20 minutes; I will post the 'final' sketch,  and an animated progress one:



As you can tell, it's some sort of raptor-esque being. What it is exactly, I don't know, but I have you all to show me this. Pay close attention to the animated progress; it shows the transition from skeleton, to muscle definition, to a rough shape, to adjustments and detailing. Take note these steps, and when you draw your sketches, use the information that the skeleton has to your advantage!


What I want to see in this assignment is the following - and mind you; both pepokish and myself might very well skip anyone not following this:

You will sketch a variation of the example creature. Give him horns, wings, make him fat, I don't care - I don't want to see the exact same creature, and I don't want to see the exact same pose.[/li] All sketches will be line sketches, done in 30 minutes max.[/li] Please do not post another sketch before receiving a reply to your earlier one. We will try to be right on top of this thread,

don't rush these!
[/li] Every sketch must show the skeleton, and muscle groups. There will be no erasing of early parts of the sketch. If we don't see a basic framework, the only comment you get might be "read the assignment again".
[/li][/list]Now, I mentioned in the opening that this is a point where you can leap forward. I meant that, but it requires effort from you, the student, to do this. This is optional for the Lesson, but it's vital for you to become better. If you start a sketch, and see it's going wrong; don't erase a thing, but keep working on the sketch until the 30 minutes are past. At that point, post the sketch and explain where you think you went wrong.


You will learn more from yourself than you ever though possible, but it won't come easy.



With the beginning of Lesson 3, the topic for Lesson 1 has been locked. This assignment will run for 2 weeks. On Monday, January 17th, Lesson 4 will start.





Good luck!

[SunnyGreens]

It became clear very early on that I picked a tough angle to sketch, but I kept going as requested. The raptor is supposed to be coming forward through the canvas but I got the proportions and angles kinda messed up. I think I kind of got the lower half to look like its further away, but the upper half looks really flat.

Sketch #1:

[Krahhl]

I added wings and a long neck. He is supposed to by flying, but I think I made the back curve upward too much. Instead, it should droop down.

[icecoldbro]

(http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd116496/Fire_Dragon_lesson_3_copy)Um yeah i dont go well with what i tried to do, i try though so i guess i get some props there, what went wrong... Just about everything i normally take hours drawing so i couldnt finish much in 30 mins
(http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd116498/Fire_Dragon_lesson_3_frame_and) (http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd116499/Fire_Dragon_lesson_3_bodier) (http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd116500/Fire_Dragon_lesson_3_frame)

[vrt]

SunnyGreens: Extreme perspective is hard, even I have trouble with it at times. The mistake you made was to not adjust the proportions to the angles. I made you a redline with a box figure; boxes are a great way to check perspective. I think you'll agree that the initial pose is where it went wrong.



Krahhl: Well on your way, here. Try to make more use of the skeleton and frame to get the overlaying detail, though. For you, a redline as well - I simply used the shapes you had in the skeleton/muscles, to define the contours of the hip.



icecoldbro: Read the assignment again.

[Tiko]

Hi everyone!

As I said before I'd like to join up in the art class. Though I haven't had a single draw in about 6 or more yrs or so, nor I have anything to do digital arts with, I loved to draw out thingies from my mind, as a kid, and seeing the vast patience and helpfulness of vrt and pepokish, I thought I'd give it a shot. Maybe they push me back on the 'right' road, who knows? :]

Anyway, I liked very much the lizardy-werewolf-like creature, so here's my try:


Yes, I know it became some zergling-like thing, but hey, at least it's not fat!

[vrt]

Tikotribe: Great job on using the skeleton, but do mind the flatness of his chest. Use the shapes you 'hang' onto the skeleton to define a bit more detail. I made a paintover for you that might help a bit. I'd also suggest adding a bit more detail to him, he's a bit bare. Considering you managed to shade him entirely, I'd say you have a bit of time left, I think that'd have been better spent defining his face an/or muscles a bit more. You're very much on the right track, though; glad to see we managed to pull you of of hiatus!

[Krahhl]

Hmm. Front view is hard. The angles look a bit weird. The chest is too big (or he's just fat?) and I probably shouldn't have gone that far up with the shadow on the right of where the neck connects to the torso.

I don't know if I set the opacity on the skeleton and muscle layers too low, but they kind of interfered with the shading.

[bored_ninja777]

(http://imageplay.net/)
so.. my quick sketch failed getting it on the right angle and pose i wanted.. the tail did not want to cooperate and his head should be looking more to the side while the body is more turned away, so we should be seeing more the back of him and the profile of his head.
sorry hard to see well .. splashup + webcam capture of pencil and paper.

[SunnyGreens]

Thanks vrt, I'll try the boxes on another sketch.

Sketch #2:

[Kamietsu]

I wanted to go cute, because reptiles have such an evil, or bad, or some kind of cool/badassery sort of reputation. I wanted to go the road less traveled Took me around 30 minutes, mainly because sketching in photoshop with a mouse might as well be torture haha. In actuality, it took me hours, but that's because I got sidetracked doing other things and watching tv. But all time spent actually working on it, didn't go over 30 minutes at a max.



I know several places I went wrong, particularly on the forearms, especially on the right arm. The legs gave me great difficulty, mostly due to the angle at which I attempted to sketch them. The face definitely came out strangely. it doesn't feel like it fits with the body, but I didn't pay large attention to it.

Another issue, I started out with a large canvas, and yet somehow ended up with a much smaller drawing XD I will have to work on something bigger after review.

[vrt]

krahhl: The main problem, is that you're trying too hard to get a certain image, and not hard enough to develop the anatomy of the creature. With the skeleton you had laid out, shapes become unnatural. Try to make the skeleton flow more, have it make more sense. In example, the twist in the neck looks off because it is simply not a natural angle. With long necks, drawing vertebrae helps a lot, as I tried to show in my paintover. I also want to emphasise once again, that you should try to develop the shapes more, make them look more attached to eachother. In pretty much every living creature we know, all parts work together to let it live efficiently. Try to show that in the fantasy creature, too.


bored_ninja777: Very hard to make out what you made, even when I upped the contrast. I think I can get a basic idea, though, and the same goes for you as it does for Krahhl: Get the skeleton right, and use it as much as you can to enhance the shape of the creature. I made you a little example, too:


SunnyGreens: Excellent sketch, technique is fantastic. I do have one point of criticism, and that's the attachment of the leg. I'll show you in a paintover, but this is much further into anatomy than I was planning to go this lesson. Well done.



Kamietsu: You already mentioned the flaws, and it seems to me like this is an issue of tools rather than training. Could you re-do this sketch in traditional media, and post it? I think you'll find it to look a lot better.