Richard Gruber
New York City
Retired. Want to learn figure and portrait drawing as a hobby.
Activity Feed
Richard Gruber
•
1yr
added comment inStage 3 - Refining The Drawing - Real Time
Asked for help
Stephen,
After many failed attempts, I’ve finally produced a drawing I’m happy with. Thank you (and Stan) for getting me this far. Your courses have been invaluable.
There is still plenty of room for improvement, so I would welcome your critique and suggestions. I know the eyes are a little too big—I always seem to do that no matter how much I measure. I also need to work on my photography. The halftone transitions in the photo attachment are harsher than in the actual drawing.
Please let me know of anything you see that you think I should work on. Thanks again.
Richard
Richard Gruber
•
2yr
Hello Stephen,
Great job. I just finished watching the entire series of real-time videos and I got a lot out of it. You gave lots of good ideas about technique and things to think about while creating a portrait like this. But... at the very last moment of the final video, there's a bit of a surprise.
In the image below, the left side shows how your drawing appears throughout the real-time videos. Then, on the right side, we see the final drawing in the "Thanks For Watching" screen and it is much darker with more contrast.
Can you please tell me which one, left or right, best represents the final image? I actually like both, but I'm about to try this portrait myself and I want to mimic your approach as much as I can. But now I'm not sure what my end-state is supposed to look like.
Thanks
Rich
•
2yr
The one on the right was taken with a polarising lens. It best reflects the true appearance of the drawing.
Richard Gruber
•
3yr
I'm trying to find good-quality, acid-free paper for drawing with charcoal and graphite—but with the ability to easily erase. I've tried several different kinds of paper, but none of them erase cleanly. I'm a beginner, so not only do I need to erase my many mistakes, I also want to be able to add highlights to my shading by erasing with the kneaded eraser.
Currently, I use smooth newsprint for my practicing, which erases easily and cleanly. But newsprint is flimsy and eventually gets brittle and yellow. I want a permanent paper, but something I can erase on.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Rich
Atharva Lotake
•
3yr
Asked for help
Hello everyone! This is my submission for the Nicolai assignment. What do you guys think about the piece. Please let me know. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to help me out! Have a good day!
I'm just a beginner, so you are much more advanced than me. I think this looks great. You are very good at eyes. (I also like the drawings of Morgan and Yoni that you posted.) The main criticism that jumps out at me is with the shading of the background. To me, the background is too choppy and stringy. It has too much of its own texture and is competing with the rest of the drawing. Sometimes, at a quick glance the background even looks like long stringy hair. I think it would look better if it were a smooth, blended gradient that doesn't call attention to itself.
Summer
•
3yr
Asked for help
Hello, I am a beginner and currently on "how to draw gesture step by step". I am having trouble with getting the right proportion (leges too long, torso too long, etc). Is there a way to get the proportion right or should I just keep on practicing till I get them right? thank you!
I was (and often still am) in the same position. What started working for me was to draw the same pose over and over, constantly correcting the proportion errors. Once I got to the point where I could do a decent gesture three times in a row, only then would I move on to the next pose. My personal tendency is to make people too wide and stocky, so after making the same mistake over and over, I started "seeing" how to make my gestures more narrow and graceful.
What also worked for me was to ignore the clock. When I would attempt a 30-second pose, the only thing I accomplished was to create a terrible drawing very quickly. Now I take my time and really think about where the lines need to be. My 30-second poses take five minutes. But after I've done the same pose a dozen times I find myself getting faster and faster.
Richard Gruber
•
3yr
I feel like I understand the basic approach to drawing hair as masses of darks and lights. But what would be the approach to drawing hair like this attached photo, specifically the individual ropes of hair? Would you first draw the underlying mass of hair and then render those ropes with an eraser?
Thanks,
Rich
Hi, Richard.
Well, I think the curlier the hair the more opinionated you have to be. Drawing every single curl, in my opinion makes the hair look too busy, so you have to simplify as much as possible. Probably everyone has a different opinion on this. I'll share with you my thought process and I hope it helps.
First I would draw the volume of the head and draw a general outline of the hair. I find that drawing curls free hand makes me often deform the head or drawing the hair too big. Then I block in the curls. I try to find overlaps that show perspective and I establish an hierarchy of curls in terms of foreground, middle ground and background. The closer to front they are, the more detailed they become. The ones in the background are basically simple shapes implying form. Finally I separate the light from the dark and render. Since I do the lay-in very tight, normally I don't use the eraser very much. But If I feel that I lost the form I'll use it to sculpt the hair better.
Keep drawing and best regards
Richard Gruber
•
4yr
Hi, I'm a beginner and I wish I could draw as well as this. One critique I have is with the background. All the highlights in the background create a shimmering effect and give the drawing an atmosphere of nervous anxiety. If that's what you intended, then good job. But if not, I think the background distracts from the portrait. My eye keeps being drawn away from her face and up to the area above her head.
Thank you for you feedback, Richard.
I did not intentionally make the background that way, but I see what you mean when you say it gives of the feeling of anxiety and can be distracting.
I will definitely keep that in mind next time as I do struggle when approaching backgrounds.
Thanks again and take care,
Gino
Richard Gruber
•
4yr
Asked for help
Hi, I'm a beginner and I just started the figure drawing fundamentals course. I've been struggling with gesture. I feel like I'm reasonably okay identifying the gesture, but my proportions are terrible. I'm also getting hung up on, for example, is the crotch to the left or to the right of the pit of the neck. My 30-second poses take twenty minutes while I figure all of this out. My question is: is it better to practice twenty poses in one sitting, or is it better to practice the same pose twenty times until I get it right?
