Charcoal and Sauce drawing – Critique appreciated

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  • #441049
    xelael
    Participant
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    Hello everyone. Thanks for this opportunity to receive critiques from the community and instructors.

    Here are two pieces I would like to have critiqued. The figure drawing is charcoal, the portrait is a sauce like material (Derwent’s Charcoal XL).

     

     

     

    Thank you in advance for taking your time to say something about them. I’ll do my best to do the same in return.

    #442146
    Niels Hoppe
    Participant
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    There is not much to be criticised I guess.

    The only thing I’d change is making the limbs that point back darker instead of lighter and make the background darker as well. Currently the eye is drawn to the dark parts of the figure, I like the focus more on the lights.

    I have to admid that i’m quite impressed, especially by the portrait.

    #442667
    GaryMGaryM
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    Wow- yes, really love that portrait and have nothing much to critique at all. Maybe darker shadows in the ear…maybe but both drawings are excellent

    #443192
    xelael
    Participant
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    Thanks for the comments, both of you.

    That’s an interesting piece of feedback, Niels. I understand the sentiment, though I am generally drawn more to the opposite of what you are, that is, I prefer to focus on the darker parts of the figure, so that’s where I tend to emphasize, specially as it gets closer to the viewer. If I’m not doing a dark background, I tend to leave further away limbs in a much lighter value to get some depth. But I understand there are many schools that emphasize on a dark background and lighter figure, so I totally get where you’re coming from.

    Gary, I didn’t want to bring much attention to the ear, so I decided to tone it down a bit, but I can see the temptation there.

    Glad you guys liked the portrait.

    #443306
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Xelael,

    Do you find you like to focus on the darker parts because you like darker imagery overall and the mood it creates? or enjoy working with shadows? or both? This is important to clarify and make clear for yourself. It seems you enjoy working in a low major key = overall proportion of image is dark.

    If you have a look at artists who work with chiaroscuro, most tend to have more description in the lights, as in general the rule is that the light is more descriptive and the shadows less so. The shadows suggest form whilst the lights describe form. You can still draw the viewers eye to the shadows and create the kind of mood you want for your image by playing with your overall design matrix : your set major key and minor key (minor being the range of contrast between the dark and the lights, and the contrast within the dark group/zone and the light zone/group). e.g. setting your major key low and minor key low, will mean you’ll get an overall dark image, and low contrast so that the lights don’t contrast too far from the darks. But make sure there is a clear separation between the two.

    I hope this makes sense. Bill Perkins covers how to create your design matrix in detail in his section of the Introduction to Drawing course and his Colour Bootcamp course. I think it’s quite important to graps these concepts, which so far I haven’t found are commonly addressed or taught, but are vital in helping you to develop a very clear image to better help express what you want to say with your image.

    #443459
    Joshua JacoboJoshua Jacobo
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    Xel, I critiqued your work here:

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Joshua JacoboJoshua Jacobo.
    #444410
    xelael
    Participant
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    Hello, Josseline.

    Thank you for your feedback. Perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I thought. What I meant to say when mentioned preferring the darks is that I like the active part of the drawing to be generally that which is dark as opposed to what is light, or more specifically, that which represents the material I’m using to be the active part and focus of the drawing (in this case, it’s charcoal, so it’s dark). That creates a tendency of leaving the background, the inactive part in this figure drawing, to be lighter in value, and to also bring down the values on whatever I don’t want to emphasize, or is moving away from the figure. I didn’t mean to say I want to detail more, or bring attention to what’s in shadow. I hope this makes more sense.

    However, I do get what you mean, specially when you mention other painters and how they deal with chiaroscuro. In my case, it’s true that I like to emphasize line and design more than a strong sense of lighting or drama through chiaroscuro. I want the figure, specially in these studies, to have a very clear sense of the form and structure (which is why Joshua’s critique is so incredibly valuable for me, I’ll get to that below).

    I love your advice about the design matrix. Thank you. I’ll have to look up Bill Perkins course on that.

    #444487
    xelael
    Participant
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    Hello, Joshua.

    I have few words to express my gratitude with that feedback. I’m overwhelmed. There’s so much to unpack. I didn’t expect to get a video from you guys, let alone a 30 minute one. Thank you, truly.

    Your critique was on point. You probably touched on every part of the figure I struggled the most with, and then some I didn’t realize could have been improved in that way (the torsion of the torso, with that vertical line, is an clear one). Your understanding of anatomy is incredible, it’ll be a while until I can fully grasp some of your advice there (Do you by any chance give anatomy courses? It would be amazing to be your student). But the way I should be thinking about form when modeling, and the general advice you gave has been invaluable. I wish I was still working on that drawing so that I could immediately apply it in real time. It’s also a shame you didn’t get to the feet! (I’m joking, of course, you’ve said more than I could hope for). You also mentioned you’d like Iliya to critique it as well. Well, I have to say I would love to hear from him too, but that’s too much to ask for, specially since there are so many others waiting as well. (I’m not rejecting it, though, If he wants to critique it I’ll be absolutely thrilled)

    About the Russian training aspect, while I haven’t had any formal training at a Russian school or master, it is a major source of inspiration for me. I’ve discovered them about 10 years ago, when there wasn’t much online to look for, and have been trying to understand their method, what works and what is so appealing about it since then, through their books, their academic drawings, things like that. The fact that we now have Iliya’s course, Ivan Loginov’s videos, and so many other resources has been pretty amazing to someone who simply can’t afford to go study abroad. I have to thank you guys for that too, for putting that much effort into those videos, specially the models you did from the casts, those 3d resources are absolutely fantastic to have, everything was really high quality, so, thank you. I haven’t finished it yet, but I will. Covid-19 hasn’t necessarily given me any extra free time to study, but it’s been an opportunity to rethink some of my choices up till now. Hopefully I can do some adjustments and get back into it.

    #448479
    Joshua JacoboJoshua Jacobo
    Keymaster
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    Xel,

    You’re very welcome.

    I have taught in person anatomy courses and I have an anatomy figure I have been working on for literally years for the NMA community (the planes of the head and anatomy of the head content on the 3d area is by me).

    In august I will be recording a drawing fundamentals course. After that hopefully I can finally record the in depth anatomy course!

    #479976
    Joshua JacoboJoshua Jacobo
    Keymaster
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    Iliya Mirochnik has critiqued your work!

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