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Octavivs
Octavivs
Earth
Activity Feed
@lekolara
hello, here are some of my attempts at drawing eyes and noses. critiques welcome!
Octavivs
2yr
You seem to have a reasonable understanding of how to get things to feel 3d. You probably can make a pretty good box. But I'm wondering how much were you looking at the reference? I have a feeling you were looking at it a bit too much. How confident would you be drawing these again without/very little use of the references?
Demitri Hernandez
Hey there, unsure if I have simplified these TOO much especially in the face areas. any tips appreciated!
Octavivs
2yr
I don't think you simplified too much. The deer looks great and I'd say whatever mindset you had while drawing that one is probably your best bet to understanding how to manipulate structure. I do suggest to try to tier your lines though. Keep your cross contours lighter and your contour lines thicker. Any important lines like gestural lines (even if their "arbitrary") or cross contour could stay thick as well. Kind of like your deer drawing. This just helps with readability for both you and others.
Hofan
Challenging myself to use fewer lines, and also line weight variation to achieve the gesture. For number two, I would really like to be able to describe the engagement of core muscles in this pose. Anyone have good ideas of how to do so in a gesture ? (I started this course I few months ago, got a bit lost in the later stages; had to go outside a bit for inspiration/teaching, and now feel ready to reboot. When it comes to gesture I found Michael Hampton’s explanations, as well as Mike Matessi’s interviews by Proko to be really useful.)
Octavivs
2yr
I'm assuming by core you mean the abs? When bending over your back is largely the group that prevents you from falling. So dramatically arched back and firmly planted legs is what I see. Hope this helped
@val_val
today's gesture drawings, randomness had me draw a lot more of standing poses today haha, I tried to apply some of the feedback I had.
Octavivs
2yr
2nd and 8th look great! I've been adding a cross-hair marker under my sketches lately and it helps add a lot of weight and depth. I think you should give it a try, especially since you seem to really have a good 3 dimensional understanding. It forces a little more decisiveness when placing the feet.
Jean-François Patenaude
I made a squirrel and a fox. I simply wanted to be sure that I'm on the good path before going further into this exercise. Thank you!
Octavivs
2yr
Seems like you're on the right path. I'd say add some rounded forms with cross contours if you feel comfortable that you're not "cheating" if you do that.
@opaqueapple
Hi all, i finished some Richer Average proportion studies. They go from the order: front, back, female variant. and the final 3 attached are recalls of the actual proportion study, Any feedback would be much appreciated.
Octavivs
2yr
Tip for applying proportions during non-studies. Do thousands of quick gesture drawings. Do them loose. Do them without fear. You'll build a feeling of when things look right or not. If say on a specific drawing you can't figure out why something doesn't look right and it's really bugging you, that'd be a good time bust out another study on how to measure the proportions.
@xander
Here's my hand assignment. Any feedback is appreciated.
Octavivs
2yr
From looking at your other feedback requests, I’d say you’re trying detailed anatomy a little too early, and you keep shading your drawings which I think is distracting you.  Try simplifying forms to a very large degree. Do it to a degree that makes you think “yeah this feels like a hand,” even if it’s not anatomically correct. Try to think like an animator even if that’s not your goal. After, add what you can or would like to. Slowly build the complexity.
Octavivs
If you want to draw realistically, then yes you do need to learn anatomy quite intimately. You don’t “need” anatomy to create convincing humans though. All you need are shapes that look like convincing 3d forms, and you need to draw them as though they move purposefully and naturally. (Think good flour bag animation test) You can draw “humans” with varying levels of complexity and varying degrees of stylization; therefore, all you need are the forms that YOU understand and that YOU can create. You just have to make sure that you actually fully understand the form. You don’t start learning chess by simply copying GM”s games. You learn it by picking an opening as a starting point to build concepts from. If you can only imagine (manipulate/see in your mind’s eye) AND draw a cylinder, manipulate the cylinder to be closer to the anatomical form. Don’t be too worried of what a bicep actually looks like: be only worried about what YOU imagine to be a bicep.  TLDR; you learn only the anatomy that you can use. You never finish learning anatomy, so you kind of never start. Different parts of the body will appear to you when you can find a way to use them.
@val_val
here's two minute poses I did for warm up, I practiced gesture for a long time but any kind of feedback is most welcome !
Octavivs
2yr
These are quite good. Only thing I would say would be to have more conviction with your lines. I don't mean confidence (that seems to be quite good). I guess I mean contrast and varying values of your lines. I might mean "paint" your lines. Pick an artist you really like specifically for their lines and try to mimic those. Make a deliberate artistic decision with respect to your lines. Literally this sentiment I just gave is something I need to do now because what I've just said applies to me just as much.
Michael Brinker
Some more Mannequins from the past week, I think its going well but some feedback would be great. some of them are wonky... I thought I would try to fix them but then it just felt overworked and worse, so here they are.
Octavivs
2yr
What’s your goal? What are you trying to do? I know you’re practicing mannequinization so you’re trying to make gesture drawings 3 dimensional more or less (since that’s the point of the exercise), but what is your end goal? Basically, who’s style are you going to try to mimic (or pull what you like from)? How simple do you typically want to draw when not exercising? Cartoony? Full realism? “Some feedback would be great” is very hard to go on when I (or anyone) don’t know what your criteria for success are. All I can say to that would be a general “make things simpler so you can focus on 3 dimensionality and fluidity”.
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