$159
LESSON NOTES
When I was a full time student, the thing that helped me improve my line quality the most was doing master studies. In this lesson I'll show you how to approach a study of one of Jeff Watt's skulls. This is not to replicate it exactly, but rather to learn from Jeff’s technique and decision-making process. By studying a master, we can gain insights into their line quality, shape design, and overall approach to drawing. If you enjoyed this demo I did another study of Roberto De La Torre which you can find in the premium course.
Related Links:
How to Study Masters - Draftsmen S2E17
13 Types of Lines and How to Use Them
Line Weight Communicates So Much More Than You Think
How to Draw Confident Lines - The Tapered Stroke
DOWNLOADS
demo-line-master-studies-jeff-watts.mp4
1 GB
demo-line-master-studies-jeff-watts-transcript-english.txt
34 kB
demo-line-master-studies-jeff-watts-transcript-spanish.txt
35 kB
demo-line-master-studies-jeff-watts-captions-english.srt
55 kB
demo-line-master-studies-jeff-watts-captions-spanish.srt
57 kB
COMMENTS
This is so much harder than it looks. Luckily, I will be near Watt's level by 2090....
I picked a Glen Keane drawing to study. This was the hardest project for me yet. I'm not sure how some of the lines were created in the original, I can get half of the feel but not the whole lines. I probably need to practice overhand more.
So I chose Dave Malan, I really like his lines and how he uses them to highlight specific parts of the face. It's the first time I draw a face. I have a lot of mistakes obviously, but the part I am struggling the most with dimensions/measurements/proportions.
Any tips of how I can improve that , would be more than welcome :) Any feedback of course.
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9d
Fortunately the measurement lessons are coming up really soon in the course, in the Shapes section! It's going to take repetitions, so once you view the lesson video, the best thing to do is practice, over and over again. One thing you can keep in mind though to help you with faces is the rule of thirds: an ideal face has the same measurements between the hairline and the browline, the browline to the bottom of the nose, and the bottom of the nose to the chin. Real faces have some variations, which is what makes people look unique; you can see in Dave's drawing her chin is slightly longer than the idealized proportions, but it's a template to start with!
I wasn't planning on drawing during this & I kind of made a mess of it, but Stan was making it look so fun I had to try.
I did something? I’m aware my proportions are dodgy but I think I get the idea of what I was doing by studying the reference and asking myself questions as to why Dave Malan does his lines the way he does and what they convey within the art piece. Any notes would be really appreciated and helpful!
I know it’s about line weight but I hate how off one side of the skull is. Should’ve been tighter.
I only have graphite. It's quite hard to do these master studies. I thoroughly enjoy them though. I can definitely see the shapes and proportions that are off. Please feel free to offer suggestions or critique. Thank you.
I enjoyed doing a master study of Eliza Ivanova which I posted in the previous lesson/project. Got inspired to do a study of Frank Frazetta with a cool lizard-riding fantasy piece which I've posted here, along with my attempt at the Jeff Watt's line study as well
I tried to follow Olev Yurkov because it seemed fun and approachable. The other ones had realism that I did not think I have the skills for. His drawings were cartoonish and weirdly funny. I had fun drawing them. Please let me know what you think.
Another study of Glen Keane and try to use some of his vocabulary into my drawing but not quite there !
Good work on getting similar line weights.
To draw the reference more dynamically, Glen would have exaggerated the reference pose and drawn simplified forms underneath the clothes (to help with this). The Tangled illustration here is a good example of this.
But that wasn't covered at this stage of the course. You may have covered this by now. 😅
I'm studying Glen Keane's works and tried to apply his style to my drawing. It's really fun to do and it's nice when you see that some things are matching his style, will continue to do that !
First attempt on the skull by Jeff watts , this was very challenging but i enjoyed the process!
