dammit

Here's a Photoshop color study of a BG I liked... This isn't my first attempt, but the one I tried a few days ago failed miserably. This one is considerably simpler, so I had an easier time with it, though I kind of wanted to call it quits on that gray.


I hate doing studies digitally because when I am allowed to, I check for errors compulsively and end up taking a hundred million years for accuracy no one cares about.

Anyway, here's mine:


I did this in the spirit of the talented Anne Bush, who is phenomenal and fast at these studies. I, uhh... struggled a bit. I know it'll improve with time. Like Anne, I did use the eyedropper tool. Unlike her, though, my painting is mushier and not as tight in many places. A good exercise, though.

More Mickeys on the way, been doing them, but it's almost 5am and I'm a dingus for staying up this late.

Meh, it's a start

It drives me nuts when I, while trying to finish a picture, notice problems... then when I look at the finish I notice that I like the original more. The eyes don't work right in space, either.

It Happens in the Best Bathrooms

Here are some more off-the-sheet Mickeys...


Note: He's holding something. At least, that's how I read it. I have no idea what it is, but I'm pretty sure it's not his hand in the original, so I didn't draw it as if it was. He's carrying some sort of bundle, I think.






I'm noticing that my biggest issues are...

• Toning down contrasts (as always; good example-- the bottom-most drawing's hands. Notice that both of the fists needed to be tighter and angled more in opposition to each other than I drew them).
• Enlarging the cranium. It throws off everything else and makes it hard later to place features. I struggled a lot with the face in the second image posted, and when I overlayed it and realize the problem, I felt like slapping myself).
  
• When I am not being EXTREMELY careful about it, and sometimes when I am, I make Mickey's muzzle way too large. I think I'm going to do some quick facial studies tonight, but other than that I feel pretty comfortable with Mickey. Gonna do my own poses quite soon.

More

The one on the right I had the hardest time on, today. I couldn't make heads or tails of the way his face worked, and my results are less than stunning because of it.

In this one I was trying to push the line of action further again. The more experimental studies usually end up far yuckier than the conservative ones, but I think that's just part of growth. When I have more time I'll overlay and self-crit, but right now I am up past my bedtime.

Mickeymickeymickey

Getting better and faster as I get used to these (they're off the same sheets I posted yesterday). They're really fun, I think I wanna try to draw all of them. Will probably draw more tonight, but right now I'm off to lunch.

Trying to loosen up / more Mickeys

Warning: this post is loaded with yucky drawings! Sadly, this is only a chunk of what I've done trying to figure out these very appealing Mickey drawings.

Early on I was trying to do a lot of quick ones in a little time, to loosen up and get used to it... Not stunning results but it helped to get going. Not really worth critting the early ones, though.


As time progressed I started to slow up a little and investigate more and more carefully.


Here's one a few drawings in, but still not good yet. I toned down the contrasts a lot and misread some perspective. Also, I noticed I have a natural habit of drawing HUGE HEADS that I need to be more conscientious about.


Here, I'm starting to get more warmed up. It feels more cohesive than the other drawings but still has a lot of toning down. Also, I REALLY messed up the perspective on those hands.

Cranium placement quite off. Hat not solid enough.




Getting better. The angle on the legs/feet was softened, though. There were other problems... I tried to exaggerate the angles (it's most noticeable on the top half of his body), but I don't think I did it very successfully. The arm is practically straight horizontal. The hand should be more solid.



This one was the most recent one I did. I feel like I'm getting the hang of doing these more quickly and loosely, but I still have a looong way to go. I hope to keep drawing Mickeys all weekend and maybe getting some of my own poses in this week. Wish me luck!

P.S. the overlay was sort of hard to see on this one, so here are my marks removed from it:



P.S. I like regular pencils a lot and it is a lot easier to do quickly and smoothly. I'm gonna buy some softer ones soon.

Finished Mickey

I really like this picture of Mickey. John's posted a few on his blog that are obviously from the same source, and they're all so fantastically cute. I am interested in figuring out this cute trickery and stealing it for my own questionable purposes.


I don't think I did too bad of a job! I checked my errors just the right amount of times, drew LARGE, drew with a regular pencil, had a really clear b/w print of the reference.

Of course, there are still some errors... the cane is at a slightly wrong angle, the viewer's left leg is too thin, there are some small accuracy issues with the hands, and I stretched the bow tie a bit. I didn't push the mouth shape far enough-- it just needs to be "more." More back, slightly wider open, etc.

There are some wrinkle inaccuracies in the main curtain shape, and I only noticed this upon scanning but I ACCIDENTALLY MADE EVERY CURTAIN FOLD VEER TOO FAR TO THE RIGHT. I am such a shmuck. I have no idea how that happened.

Also, pianos, particularly when they are submerged in darkness, are really hard to draw. I misinterpreted some angles again, there, but I was surprised how much easier the shapes were to handle with some good ol' hierarchy.

Maybe one day I'll learn to see angles correctly. Haha.