Anne-Lise Loubière
France
Freelance illustrator/concept artist
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added comment inHelp needed for eyebrow placement
@Anne-Lise Loubière Glad you've figured it out on your own! I'm sorry I didn't get to your post sooner. You seem to be doing some really cool studies! As @Teresa Bolen said well, the external aspect of the eyebrows can vary greatly between individuals (just as most superficial traits, that's why people usually rely much more on bones when dealing with proportions). But your question was fair and legitimate, I can really see how this could have become confusing to you.
Not sure if you've seen Proko's Portrait course already, but although it's a bit short compared to the others, it's quite dense and packed with helpful information too.
By the way, @Teresa Bolen, I think that's an interesting topic for us, too, I guess this kind of information can be pretty useful for character designers. I heard once that, biologically, the eyebrows are meant to protect our eyes from sweat, rainwater and other stuff... but you brought up something more, it could be really interesting to learn a bit more about how eyebrow shapes and stylings are perceived and used in different cultures.
Anne-Lise Loubière
4yr
Thank you for your answer! Sorry I didn't see your post sooner, the notifs didn't show up for some reason.
I've taken Proko's portrait courses already (first one I bought in fact!). They're really great, but I think a deeper knowledge of the structure of the skull and face wouldn't hurt me since I wish to work on character designs ^^ (and indeed, brow shapes are very important!)
Anne-Lise Loubière
•
4yr
Ha, I've figured it out (after weeks...). I thought the "hairy" brow line should follow the "bone" brow line... Erf, I feel stupid now
Thanks for your post! It's quite inspiring, because I didn't know that I didn't know about this :)
Now the bumps in portrait photos make more sense to me.
Here's a relevant page from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brow_ridge
Don’t feel stupid! It’s an interesting topic. Sorry to see this so late- I’ve been locked out of the site (password memory lapses), and I’ve been circling around the topic of eyebrows vs. supraorbital ridge, too! In Japan, you can get your eyebrows styled, have them trimmed, shaved, and drawn in to an astonishing variety of locations! It’s been on my mind so much I’ve been considering reaching out to an anthropologist colleague who specializes in morphology to see if she could explain the purpose/function of eyebrows to me - but would be a much better conversation over lunch than in email...
Hi guys.
I hope it's ok to post here.
I've been working hard on heads lately and I've taken a side trip to the Watts academy of Arts atelier classes on portraits.
I'm mostly struggling with the placement of the eyebrows in the relation to the bone structure of the skull.
On the drawings provided by teachers, the brow line seems to point downward, but on many references, it's pointing upward (I hope it makes sense, see pic below).
I'm practicing tracing the planes of the head on photos and 3D models to get a better understanding of 3D and space, but I have a really hard time adapting the planes of the brow area, I'm never satisfied with them. I'm afraid I'm doing it wrong.
I hope someone could help me ^^O
I've joined pictures without annotations as exemples, and if anyone wants to trace over them.
Thanks a lot!
This show was dope! I'm a great fan of the CastleVania games and you did an amazing job on the atmosphere. Thanks for sharing your tips with us!
Anne-Lise Loubière
•
4yr
Hello, I'm no expert, but composition wise, it's not really easy to read. The eye jumps a bit from a spot to another without much directions.
The shapes of the huge statue and her scarf merge in a disturbing way (they're catching the eye of the viewer instead of the girl. The two pikes behind her are also a bit distracting, I think there are too many strong diagonals that don't converge somewhere (the pikes, her rifle, the stones, broken fence).
I think the lighting is also a bit off : the main light source seems to come from above and that giant wing would cast a huge shadow upon her and the ground.
Maybe you should try to rearrange some of the background elements and define a clear light source. I'd recommend working in black and white thumbnails to see if your silhouettes or the action read well on a very small scale (like the size of the image preview in your post). Working small avoid getting caught up in details. Usually, the focal point of your picture should be were you have the highest level of details and contrast.
So here are my two cents on this ^^ Take this with a grain of salt though, I'm also learning :D
I tried fixing it up with all your advice. I think it really helped. It's still a long way from perfect but I think it is much improved.
Thanks. I always knew background were a problem for me. I was really not thinking about the lighting much for the background using some sort of excuse about it being foggy or overcast. But I think you are right that the lack of clear lighting really destroys the structure of the background.
I think your points about the background lines seem right also. I thought I had enough color contrast in the background to avoid any confusion with those lines but they are really just a distraction and don't contribute anything to the picture. I probably should have just deleted them.
I also remember fighting with the 'cape'. I was deleting and re-drawing that shape repeatedly. I was trying to keep it sort of dynamic and energetic but I agree that it doesn't look right.
Ironically, I had thumbnailed this all out in black in white before I did the final painting and I thought it looked better. However, I think the problem was I didn't really include most the background in the thumbnail. I was going to say I left out that background in the value sketch to focus on the foreground and midground. Saying it out loud sounds so obviously stupid I don't know why I didn't think about it when I was originally doing it.
Also I can't paint the ground. I don't know what it is about rocks and dirt but I just can't handle them. I've done a couple of landscape studies to try and improve and its not enough. Probably my difficulty with these things contributed to why I didn't give enough attention to the background.
Hi,
It seems a 3D model for the pelvis is missing. Or maybe has it been withdrawn?
It was the model combining the pelvis bone with the wireframe of the bucket.
(I can find them separately but not combined)
Thanks!
Anne-Lise Loubière
•
4yr
Hello, I think I might have found another bug in the torso anatomy lessons :
It seems that the video "Common Mistakes of Drawing Breasts" is the same as the "Anatomy Critiques – The Pecs"
Thank you
Hi Anne,
I just triple checked on the critique videos for the Pecs and the Breasts, as well as "Common Mistakes...". All lessons have the correct video.
First, congratulations Stan!
Second, that was a very interesting episode! It's not an easy question to answer. It plays with a philosophical level at that point, and I think that ultimately, it's up to you and your personal ethical values. I've always been fascinated by this whole "Good vs Evil" concept and how incredibly complex it really is when you think about it. The "Yin & Yang" philosophy completely blew my mind away when I first heard about it.
I personally agree on the whole "are other people involved in this" point.
Regarding Art and techniques, I just take what I find interesting/useful and leave the rest. There's no harm done to anyone when learning how to paint flowers. I don't know, maybe it's because I've always been interested in painting and drawing, I can dissociate the craft from the author. In other fields though, the fine line between the two may be harder to determine... or maybe it's just because I'm lacking knowledge in said other fields. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On a side note, I found Joker (2019) a really astounding movie. It definitely left a lasting mark on me and I was deeply moved by it.
From what I've heard, the movie has been very poorly advertised in the US. I mean, I understand why people were wary about it, but frankly, they got it really wrong. It's not about a psychopath clown and mass killings, it's about a world without love nor empathy. It's a dark and kinda poetic tragedy, but I highly recommend watching it.
So, I'm currently studying the structure of the skull thanks to Proko's anatomical cast, and I noticed the small holes in the bone structure... and I've found myself very dumb XD
Since they are symmetrical and quite aligned, I assumed it was some marks left due to the casting process... Until I noticed them in real skulls too.
So I'm putting this here in any case someone's wondering what they are.
Here's your random anatomy fact of the day : those are called "foramen" (plural "foramina") It means "opening" and allows muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, or other structures to connect one part of the body with another.
The more you know, eh
