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@anthony_shearing
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6d
added comment inHow to Apply Proportions to Any Head Angle
I have a question! While looking at the relationship between the shapes of the features, I sometimes find myself having to cut off from the chin to compensate for making the jaw/shape of the head too long relative to the model in the beginning. During figure drawing I imagine this would cause problems for the overall proportions of the figure. How do I deal with this? Or is it strange that I am often making the jaw too long?
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6d
I make changes to the figure all the time as I work. It's great to have a template to aim for and rules but sometimes experience and errors are necessary parts of the process. In other words, I wouldn't worry too much. You're aware of it and that's the most important thing.
@anthony_shearing
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14d
Asked for help
Done with the airbrush in krita. I changed to that thinking my brush could be part of the problem? I didn't finish the whole thing because I feel pretty frustrated by how terrible it looks. I've made many attempts at painting using this procedure but they all kind of look messy, like I just throw random values in places and just blend until something looks kind of right but still really wrong. Jon appears, to me, to put a value in a certain place and it just magically makes it look really good. I don't know what my problem is but I can only assume it is because I don't put the right values in the right place?
@anthony_shearing
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18d
Asked for help
I have a question about bocking in. Am I supposed to be very accurate? I notice that Jon applies pressure to put in darker shadows where they are dark and lighter shadows where they are lighter. The best I can do is revisiting the shapes and putting a second layer of strokes over the darker areas. Mine also looks very messy. I don't know if it is because I'm using krita and the brushes I have are different or what exactly, but I have a lot of trouble getting my shadow shapes to look as accurate as Jon's. Any ideas?
@anthony_shearing
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20d
I'm trying to recreate your procedure but I find that my brush strokes look terrible and flat. Is it something with my brush?
@anthony_shearing
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22d
I've improved my construction a lot the last few days. I've realized the obvious that I need to get the shape right first. This is my first time shading anything. You can be brutal.
Michael seemed to block off large areas of shadow and then add different levels of shadow in and around them. I've tried to do that, although I found that areas of shadow to block in on this portrait not numerous. I then constantly moved between my brush and eraser tool to add darker or lighter shadows in and around those blocks. I wasn't quite sure what to do with the hair though. I feel like I screwed up the eyes too. There are lots of little details, so I had to use a really small brush to bring the outlines out or lighten things up with the eraser.
Did I do it right? Am I missing something?
Trying another model. This is hard. I'm not sure where to go from here. Also, I feel like Michael does the core shadows really easily, with just one stroke. I need to go over a stroke multiple times in order to darken it. I'm not sure how to adjust the software to replicate that.
@anthony_shearing
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24d
Sorry about the separate images. I'm not good with the computer stuff.
I feel like I understand most of the construction, but I always feel like my drawing look a bit off or I have some issues placing the eyes in the sockets. Should the ye always be big enough to fit snugly into the socket, or is there often some struggle and trial and error to fit it? I always have the impression that the issue with the eye placement is a symptom of lousy construction. Is this construction and eye placement fully accurate?
Also, sorry for always posting the same strange reference. I have difficulty with it and wouldn't want to post something I accidentally get right.
I have a feeling you’re a perfectionist like me so you’re in danger of digging yourself in the same hole I dug myself in not too long ago - which is trying to perfect the characteristic-ness of a subject too early (in my case I was 6 months into art and a lot worse). Studies are not meant to look perfect and it’s going to take mileage between understanding something and being able to reproduce it where it completely feels like that person. It already looks much better than the previous. There’s benefit in moving on to the next one than redoing the same thing again and again because your skills won’t change very much in a day or two and there’s only so far you can take something with how your brain sees today. Unless you’re using plumb lines and take many hours to push accuracy to the max…which can be worth it for a finished work ̶o̶r̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶V̶i̶k̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶r̶c̶a̶n̶e, it will look a bit different.
My recommendation is to stop caring about likeness right now and instead create a simplified head/face mask system that you can reliably trace on top of any face anywhere quickly. This will help you see how shapes change with perspective which is a key part leading to achieving likeness. You know the system, so it’s time to break all the rules and make stuff up.
Mine consists of bony landmarks, Michael hampton’s landmarks/shapes (especially the eye area - there are some really bad versions out there for the eye area), a couple of Reilly rhythms (I only like two so I scrapped the rest), ONE single loomis measurement because I can only take loomis proportions in small doses >.> and some other divisions that are mine but I like them because it splits the front of the face planes from the side planes in all four directions. And lastly, the Asaro head a huge staple, (there’s an amazing model on sketchfab that you can rotate).
Then, imagine it’s the Elden Ring face slider and you’re moving the controls randomly.Some things will work and some won’t. Put the eyes too low or too high, change shapes, don’t worry about likeness or rules. For example, I found that the jaw angle always looks amateur if it’s 90 degrees or less. But break the rules any other way and it can add character. Having less than an eye distance between them looks terrible but pushing them too high can feel regal (and is a personal preference of mine despite being told that they have to be in the centre). They’re definitely not in the centre in the superhero from imagination I tried quickly below. And I’m willing to bet that other head has the eyeballs in the wrong place XD but it’s good enough for me now compared to the travesties I used to make.
Once you get more comfortable with the same system you’ll notice things begin to slide in a little better too. I used to care about eyeball size in perspective underneath the lids, now I just care they’re in the eye socket somewhere. If it doesn’t feel right I shift them. I know they’re too wide apart sometimes, but that will even out with time xD
@anthony_shearing
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27d
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but it doesn't look right. I try to focus on representing the skull and only using forms.
Human faces are hard because tiny differences look much bigger than they should. It’s very close imo, just a little longer and thinner than the photo. (Forgive me for using round rhythms, as I’m only now reaching this section of the lessons)