Sketchbook: Tom Ellis
Hi there all, I've decided to start up a sketchbook thread, with the intention of using it solely for anatomy and character based work. I feel this is an area where I'm literally a beginner, and I intend to start from the beginning.
I would love crit where possible, obviously a lot of what is posted here (at least initially) will be more scientific sketches rather than artistic ones so crit would be more to do with if I get things wrong as opposed to crits on compostion for example.
I'll start with sketches on paper of muscle groups and focus on specific areas of the body, then move onto surface anatomy on paper, and probably to digital sketches with colour / shading once I'm comfortable with getting an anatomically correct sketch down. From there I will go into ZBrush and do focused sculpts on specific body parts, and hopefully in time, I'll lead up to some full body sketches/paintings/sculpts.
I should note, some of the ecorche style sketches will be taken from anatomy books, and will therefore not be my own work, but once I get to surface studies I'll use ref photo's and try to implement what I've learned, then of course crit will be most important.
Hopefully this might serve as a bit of a learning experience for others too, if you can read my scribbles that is.
So... let's get started!
I would love crit where possible, obviously a lot of what is posted here (at least initially) will be more scientific sketches rather than artistic ones so crit would be more to do with if I get things wrong as opposed to crits on compostion for example.
I'll start with sketches on paper of muscle groups and focus on specific areas of the body, then move onto surface anatomy on paper, and probably to digital sketches with colour / shading once I'm comfortable with getting an anatomically correct sketch down. From there I will go into ZBrush and do focused sculpts on specific body parts, and hopefully in time, I'll lead up to some full body sketches/paintings/sculpts.
I should note, some of the ecorche style sketches will be taken from anatomy books, and will therefore not be my own work, but once I get to surface studies I'll use ref photo's and try to implement what I've learned, then of course crit will be most important.
Hopefully this might serve as a bit of a learning experience for others too, if you can read my scribbles that is.
So... let's get started!
Replies
Haiddasalami - good idea, when I start doing some more artistic stuff rather than the more scientific stuff I'm doing right now, then yes it will indeed be a good chance to explore other mediums and practice my shading skills!
Today I tried to do some of the same muscles groups but with skin, trying to locate the same arm muscles when covered by skin.
Todays efforts:
I tried drawing some arms where the muscles were less prominent. It seems to me in this case it's more about slihouette - crests/valleys as the muscles are less defined on the surface when covered with more fat.
It's hard!
Also tried a quick figure sketch about 20 mins worth.
I gave it a shot though, hopefully with more study it'll improve!
Can't wait to see more.
Yeah I'm studying the bones also, I'm just not drawing them. I started to draw the arm bones, but it became clear that there's not a lot to them, providing you get their length / proportion and joints right then there's not much else to watch for.
I tend to draw a kind of 'stick skeletion' before I draw the muscles and I'll mentally see these as the underlying bones rather than actually drawing out anatomically correct bones.
Here's a bit more on legs, I'm trying to get my head around which muscles are most prominent from the surface as the ecorche is so complex but only 4 or 5 of the muscles are visible on the surface, even on athletic figures.
All the surface drawings are just my interpretation from photos. Mainly from Google / Flickr, some from a special edition issue ImagineFX just put out on anatomy which has a few nice action poses in.
Did some more painting today. They kinda look a little flat I think but I tried to resist pushing the levels just to get some more contrast.
I have no idea why I drew the dudes wang so damn big, either way that wasn't the focus of this exercise
I think your recent sketches are getting better, but what I notice is that you're using line in a sort of way that kills the expression of your form. What I see is that particularly on the females, the lines of the breasts and nipples are waaaaaay too harsh, which destroys the form instantly. Line is a very tricky thing to master, and its best to use it -sparingly- within the confines of the object itself. Almost 90% of whats within the boundaries of the object is mass and shapes of shadows/highlights. Your work will be much more believable if you try to see the shapes rather than try to "feel" around with your pencil. Feeling is great for construction and blocking out the form, but not so great for finishing the work. You want softer transistions and more delicate edges.
Hope that makes sense. And keep up the hard effort!
When doing anatomy studies, also try to remember where the most important muscles attach to the bones/skeleton and figure out how they are working...helps a lot.
Redpandafire -
Nice tip, thanks! I've tried to take that on board with todays sketch.
I think it has to deal with the forum description "This is used to show a progression of projects and skills or for general art dumping without regret, worry, or intent." Post the same work in the Pimping & Preview section and it's a completely different story. I'll take a few good crits over a million "cool picture bro" comments any day.
I tried to lose some of the 'hatching' from my previous sketches and attempted a male and female back. Wow it was hard. The back is made up of so few muscles and even on athletic figures it's tricky to pick up detail, on a less athletic body I'm finding it near impossible which would explain the seemingly random areas of shading on the female. I think I was 'searching for detail' and trying not to make it look so flat.
Not too happy with them to be honest but it's all practice!
I'm hoping to get this wrapped up for ComicCon Challenge which starts at the end of this week, will be a good exercise to start applying some of this new found knowledge to a real project.
So here's some hand studies along with notation.
Hands are haaaaard! Attempted a bit of sculpting, it came out better than I expected but still... wtf is with those fingernails. And it still looks like 5 fingers rather than 4 and a thumb.
I believe I left off at faces so here's some ZBrush action.
Same sculpt, first with perspective on, second with it off. It's crazy how different it looks but I'm trying to work in both to get it looking decent from both views. I guess perspective is the more 'real' one but it's easier to work in ortho.
Yeah good plan, It should help a lot actually, I often find I'll study for a few hours then when I attempt anything from memory a few days later it looks bad. I'll start doing one from memory each time I do one from ref.
Here's a couple quick sketches, one very quick study and a little character idea I had which I may or may not explore further.
A few full figure studies tonight. Two from ref, the third from memory. I had more trouble figuring out a decent pose than actually constructing it. I need to get more imaginative I think.
Also, I've been studying Bridgman over the past few days and I'm really not liking it all that much. I picked up his 'Complete Works' at the weekend and it's pretty bad. The quality of the drawings makes it barely even useful and I'm not sure his 'wedging' theory is one I 'get'.
I much prefer Loomis' works and his approach to figure drawing, as an artist, obviously there are far better, but his ideas and approaches to drawing from life from a purely artistic point of view are definitely my favourite.