Figure Study 6

Figure Study 6

A study from our figure drawing sessions over the weekend.
I've been really inspired by the figure drawings of Jaime Jones and Craig Mullins recently. Trying to get that raw, gestural quality of their charcoal studies into my own work.
I kept thinking to myself...how would Jaime do it...

Doodle 2

Doodle 2

Another quick doodle tonight...
Tried adding quick colours with multiply layers. Obviously I'm pretty bad at this way of working haha

Figure Study 5

Figure Study 5

Bleh...can't be bothered rendering this out fully. I should be working on assignments


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Yes, I understand the exposure combo idea, been around quite a while. People even did it before digital. Much more difficult I would guess. As far as using it for study, I suppose it is better than photos with crushed areas. Exposure limitations in photography are ONE of the reasons to work from life, though. The other, probably more important, is to prevent you from copying shapes and to internalize the forms you perceive and feel and try to describe them. Photos, unless you are really advanced, are the best way to stop yourself from growing, and they are addictive because it's easy bang for the buck and it takes very little time or effort to get good at duplicating them (relatively speaking). And if anyone quotes me on that without taking the context of all that I am saying I will hunt you down with a rusty axe. 'Mullins hates luci-jockies!' I did quite a bit of photo copying early on and it is great for learning to control your media.

Working from life can be pretty overwhelming if you are starting from scratch. It might sound strange, but working from photos are the very beginning might be a good idea, until you can control things enough to duplicate the photo, then move to life, and don't whine about the hit your art seems to take. Yes, it won't look as "photo real" as your photo stuff and you might not get as many “wowas” from people who don’t know what is going on but you are moving into a much bigger world.

The best idea is to work from casts of human forms. Why not a still life? Because the standards that are required for pulling off a convincing rendering of a human form are greater than for a can or flowers. The viewer is not as easily forgiving. And the casts don't move, they have no reflectivity, no maddening variations in warm and cool skin tones, do it at home, etc. A great place to start. You can buy them on the webJ

So before you think about using better photos, work from life more. If you have the time and resources to screw around with compositing exposures, you have the time to sit there and look.

Once you have a few thousand hours from life, you will look at photos and use them in a very different, and I feel better, way.

I hope that answers your question, it is just my opinion, and I don’t mean that in an offhand gee shucks kind of way. There are a lot of ways to learn and do art. Anyone could legitimately disagree with everything I have said here and be correct in his or her way.

There are a lot of pros around here, they have any opinions they would like to share?

- Craig Mullins via Sijun Forums


I should start listening to Mr. Mullins

Blarrggh

Blarrggh

Something quick tonight

HeliCrash

HeliCrash

Another insomnia speedpaint
Experimenting with using photographic elements and textures

woof

woof

Insomnia speedpaint

Figure Study 4

Figure Study 4

Ref from http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/

Figure Study 3

Figure Study 3

Been in a huge art slump recently D:

edit: + plein air water lily fail

Work in Progress

Work in Progress