[xelael]

Thank you for this opportunity, everyone.

The figure drawing is charcoal, the portrait is something akin to sauce (Derwent’s Charcoal XL)

 

 

[xelael]

Hello, Shaun. There seems to be some problem with the text in your post, so the image isn’t appearing large on the screen. In any case, one can open it by right clicking and opening in a new tab. It’s a beautiful drawing. Very nice handling of charcoal there, great texture and values.

I would point out a few anatomical things, though. Joshua can do a much better job than me so hopefully he gets to critique it too.

The first thing that pops up is a strange protuberance on the trapezius near the rhomboid major area, as it bulges out over the spine. I don’t have means to visually point it out to you at the moment, so hopefully you get what I mean. It does look like it’s a much exaggerated form there.

Secondly is the alignment of the torso in the relation to the hips. It feels like the natural line of the spine doesn’t quite follow down to where it should as it connects to the sacrum. I see the iliac spines look correctly aligned, so perhaps the torsion was exagerated for movement, but the gluteal cleft in this pose would probably have some sort of tilt, I don’t know.

Last thing would be that foot. I can’t quite see clearly any construction or gesture, so I would prefer either some more clarity as to where it sits, or it’s complete absence in a value mass like you did in other parts instead of just having a couple of fingers barely sitting there.

It’s still a terrific drawing and looks gorgeous regardless of those things.

[xelael]

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.

[xelael]

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.

[xelael]

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.

[xelael]

Hello, ryoko.

I understand how you feel, personally. My suggestion is much the same as Joshua’s, which is: practice. However, in doing so, it’s very easy to get stuck and frustrated because the ideas just don’t come to you. And even when they do, you can’t realize them on paper without resorting to some reference.

So, how do you deal with that?

The first thing you should truly internalize, and this goes for all of us, is to not be afraid to make mistakes. To create something that doesn’t look good. It’s okay to make something truly horrible. In fact, that’s the only way forward. Be comfortable with where you are now, and then move forward from that. Not everything you do, well, most things you’ll ever do are not ever going to be publishable, and that’s normal.

Once you get comfortable doodling with yourself, you need to get comfortable with how you work, which is very personal. It’s true, some people are just brimming with creative ideas, almost effortlessly, even if to realize them they’ve obviously spent years practicing. But to some of us, that’s not the case, just as to some people, it’s not easy to analyze something visually and transfer that to paper, proportions, value and color all accurately. I assume you follow the latter tendency, good observational skills, talented copying what you see, but not really that free to create from your own imagination. You need to get comfortable with that fact, too, and capitalize on it. Don’t be afraid to copy, to use references, to get to where you want. Everything that gets you stuck is not good for you, so if you ever stop drawing or practicing because you don’t want to do it from reference, forget that idea and just do it.

What those two things will do is essentially help you develop your creativity, which is there, trust me, and help you build a visual library that you can always call upon once you’ve done enough of it. It does take a lot of practice, and it might take a lot of copying, but humans learn that way. That’s essentially how we get to do everything we do since we are born: copying other people. Study them, absorb as much as possible, but don’t forget to nurture your own creativity too so that it can use what you get from everybody else.

PS: specifically about your painting, watch those eyes, as they relate to the rest of the face. The axis looks off. Great paint handling in the mouth and nose, though.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by xelael.

[xelael]

Hello, Laura.

Great use of pastel here. It’s a wonderful medium, filled with possibilities. I will try and give you more precise feedback later when I can work over it in photoshop. There is one thing I could say immediately, though.

Notice how inadvertently, I assume, you ended up creating a great deal of contrast in a place I believe you did not intend to be the main focus of your portrait, which is the ear. There’s a very strong dark against a very strong light, and it’s pulling too much attention to it. My suggestion would be to lower that contrast so that the eye can more easily navigate through the portrait and focus on what seems to be the most important aspect, the man’s expression.

[xelael]

Hello, Rachel.

I second Mengu’s comments. Solid drawing, great value arrangement, and overall it’s very well structured. Except for two specific bits, which is where I would encourage you to work on next: feet and hands. I understand these are small and might be hard to get good detail on, but they still don’t get up to the same level as the rest of the body.

These are extremely difficult parts of the body that most people struggle with, but I’d say the bigger issue is usually being faced with its complexity and never actually sitting down and tackling the problem head on, which is really the only way to improve. Take this as a more general advice, though. I don’t mean it necessarily to you, as I don’t know you, but it might help others reading through these threads as well. The moments we struggle with are precisely those we must do our best to stop, analyze, patiently study and overcome.

[xelael]

Hey, John.

Pastel is a wonderful material, isn’t it? It’s one of my favorites to work with.

It’s hard to analyze certain aspects of it from a photograph, but I have to assume through the image provided, so.

I would first encourage you to analyze the values of the overall reference. Notice how the face is actually much lighter in value, much brighter in color. Squint your eyes and try to compare the value of the mouth with the overall value of the face, and then compare it with your own drawing. Do the same to the hair, which looks much brighter in your piece, relative to the the face, than does the reference. The green underneath gives a nice cooler contrast to the warmth of the face, so that’s pretty good if you can preserve it.

Now, I am assuming that you wish to be relatively accurate in relation to the reference, since you provided it. If not, then some of these points can be ignored if they were intentional, but I would still encourage you to look after those plane changes in the face and emphasize them with some lighter valued colors, or even perhaps add some stick pastels for some punch.

[xelael]

The section on hands and feet is being sorely missed. Any plans on releasing those?

[xelael]

Hey. Just wanted to inform that the 3d model for the Muscles of the leg isn’t opening for some reason. After I input the password and click “Ok”, it just clears the form and stays there.

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