SQART

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
I really like the Tarzan one and the Frazetta one.
Thank you!

I was really particularly pleased that the Tarzan one worked out since I didn't use any references for it. That's always a "self test" to see if anything is sticking mentally.

On the other hand, I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos with Jeff Watts (Watts Atelier) that talks about how important it is to copy the Masters (i.e. artists you like---but don't just stick to one). Jeff showed a whole tons of Frazetta derived illustrations he did in his sketchbooks over the years. That's what motivated me to give it a try.
 
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Malrex

So ... slow work day? Every day?
I need to find time and have patience. I bought supplies you recommended, but haven't touched it yet...sigh. Merchant stuff keeping me too busy right now...
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Just set aside 20 minutes a day to either watch a Proko anatomy video or copy a Frazetta sketch. It will eventually grab you.

Know that you have to throw dozens away, to only occasionally hit on one that is accidentally decent. Over time, the decent ones become more frequent.

Keep it loose and don't try to draw every detail --- hint at it and let the viewer's mind do the heavy lifting. :)
 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Here's my scribble exercise for today @Malrex --- now show me yours. :p

...and the far more elegant David Malan sketch I was trying to learn from. That guy really knows his hatching! He's also got a great balance of straights and curves.
 
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Malrex

So ... slow work day? Every day?
Ooooh...@squeen I love your challenge!!
Give me about 2 weeks...I just got back to work and already thrust into deadlines.
I'm settling into a new place and about half unpacked--not even sure where my drawing stuff is at the moment.
I dont even have internet yet up at my new place (and just dropped/broke my laptop..argh) and also will be performing Operation Valhalla to make my new place look as medieval as possible (gardens, axe and dagger throwing, archery, growing hops, etc.)...haha..

BUT...after 2 weeks I shall not have any more excuses and will start. Which may even be an attempt to copy what you did above.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Sounds cool. I'll try to uphold my end.

I strongly recommend watching one of the 10-minute Proko anatomy videos every day until you make it through them all. It WILL overwhelm, but any little bit that sticks will help to inform how you run your lines along the form. That's really the key --- especially in pen and ink --- knowledge of anatomy helps guide your decisions on what to mark...not just what your eye sees on the surface or the lighting shows. Those marks then hint to the observer the underlying 3D shape.

What I admire about Malan (above) is his decision making along those lines. Remember this is not hyper-realistic painting...this is line-art. It has it's own (very, very, difficult) atheistic to master which can quickly degenerate into pure cartoonish-ness if you let it (or if that's your intent).

This is why I say folks like Trampier were extremely talented artists---he was not operating in "easy" mode by any means. Much less difficult styles to start off with are (to my thinking)
(a) anime-style cartoon-isms
(b) generic color/rendered digital painting

Most modern comics and graphic novels are now using a blend of these two approaches. The artist draws very minimal lines (likely digitally) and then the colorist heavily paints them (compared to the flat-colors of yesteryear). The colorist is now carrying a lot more of the load for making things look three dimensional---because the printing process can handle it and digitally it's quite a bit easier than it used to be.

The veteran comic artist Alex Ross just finished a Fantastic Four comic in which he, an innovator in traditionally PAINTING comics, attempts to draw and ink in the old-school fashion..also applying a very limited color palette (without blending). It's almost like he dared himself to see if he would have been capable of surviving in the industry of a by-gone era (1960's).

Compare the line-art results to the painted work (almost no lines!) he is famous for

Creating half-tones (greys) and soft-edges with line-art is tricky---but it's that delicate hatching and line-wight variation that makes it so beautiful to my eye.
 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Here's another, base on a sketch by J.M. Flagg (famous for "I want YOU to buy War Bonds" Uncle Sam poster).
It caught my eye on James Gurney's blog (the retro hairstyle to be honest).

Freakin' noses! Easily 3/4 of the total drawing time. My profile nemesis.

 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Over at Proko.com, I got some helpful feedback on the Frazetta sketch --- showing how I missed the gesture (overall curvature) of Frazetta's original.
me said:
Even is this very casual sketch of his, the master designer taught me a bunch about flow along the figure. I continue to see things I missed in the translation---like the subtle tip forward of his gal's head, the s-curve of her figure, the hunched-down body-language of the wolf, etc. That man was SO good!
Steve Lenze said:
Hey squeen, Your self assessment is pretty right on. This little sketch is a master class in why gesture is so important. It elevated this little sketch to something more, something with movement and emotion. I did a little sketch to show you an analysis of what is happening in Frank's sketch, I hope it helps :)
pifalo-frazettta.jpg

Hips are my other nemesis.
 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
"Cursed sun! One of these days the Dark Lord will murder your filthy light."

Decided to experiment with (Finnish artist) Jerry Boucher's pig-faced orcs this morning. I was visiting his blog last night, and he's quite a talented illustrator. Lots of amazing vintage aircraft professional(?) work in addition to his D&D related stuff!

 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Gandalf in Moria
Today's warm-up: a bearded man that morphed into everybody's favorite wizard...plus some seriously lazy backgrounds and cheesy GIMP lighting effects. However, if you squint really hard, you might see an even better composition lurking beneath its surface---waiting for some future date to be exposed in gloriously cross-hatched ink, and not just pencil and pixel-paint.

 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Summonings by Stygian Moonlight


Some inking practice before I tackle the Wax Sentinel for Maynard. Priestess inspired by Art Adam's Hellboy poster. The rest of the hot mess is just me trying to channel Franklin Booth's dark hatching aesthetic and missing by a mile, only to have to paper over it with a gray-wash.
 
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TerribleSorcery

Should be playing D&D instead
Lord have mercy Squeen, you have improved so drastically in the past two years. It has really been impressive to watch. Looking forward to more!
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Lord have mercy Squeen, you have improved so drastically in the past two years. It has really been impressive to watch. Looking forward to more!
Thank you TS! I really appreciate hearing that. I am much too close it to be objective. I honestly can't tell if I'm actually standing still, spinning my wheel in the muck...or it just feels that way. Seriously, I sometimes think I've just learned some new technical nuance...and then look way back in my sketch book and see I was already doing that "new thing" a year ago (accidentally?). It's like you have to keep circling around, again and again, to the same information until some TBD "magic happens".

In his Twitter feed, the seasoned professional (and greatly respected) comic artist Travis Clarest says things like "I did my usual warm up today (drawing a man with a beard)...although it feels more like seeing if I can still remember how to draw."

Similarly, I watched an interview of the legendary illustrator Barry Windsor-Smith (Conan, Weapon X, Monsters) in which he say that he gets into funks for weeks where he literally cannot draw a kitchen table correctly.

The whole skill-set is super weird. Two years in, I'm probably not even at the sophomore (art student) stage because I don't do it far less than 8 hours a day. Meanwhile, the architects of Our Better Future are rendering the whole drawing skill-set obsolete via AI. Illustrators are in a serious freak-out over it.

My timing is perfect as usual. :)

Thanks again. Learning without a teacher, I am really using the feedback from fellow hobbists like yourself to course-correct. I am personally most pleased when I draw something and it doesn't look like "I drew it"---if that makes any sense.
 
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