Fun fact: I've just about finished a whole notebook of Drawing Every Day sketches!
Onward!
-the Centaur
Posts published in “Sketchworks”
Trying a continued focus on the shape of faces and position of eyes. I think it's getting better, though the tilt of the face is off a bit; at least it is decently proportioned and the eyes aren't all over the place.
This is the last of the Porsche character sheets in this series, and I'm going to dive in to finishing the hands and feet Goldman book before switching gears to faces. Still, this exercise turned out not too bad ... and I am now seven days ahead on drawing every day AND scheduling them for posting.
Drawing every day, on average, posting as far ahead as I can.
Next up: editing work on SPECTRAL IRON, Dakota Frost #7!
-the Centaur
In theory I should be writing tonight, but I'm so close to being a week ahead on drawing (meaning, tomorrow I can fully coast if I want to) that I feel like I should just power on through. More Goldman studies of how the hand flexes towards the radius or ulna.
Drawing every day, with a buffer; posting in advance when I can.
-the Centaur
Another study of a Midjourney-generated character sheet for Porsche the Centaur. (All of these similar-looking ones were generated using variations of a similar prompt; they never got much better, but they're good variations on a theme). Overall, getting better on the eye placement, now that I'm focusing on it; also the head to hair ratio is better but not great; also the shoulderpads are high or the chin is low ...
Drawing more or less every day; posting as regularly as I can.
-the Centaur
More hand practice after Goldman, this time on how the hand extends away and towards the body.
Drawing every day.
Again from Goldman. Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Reviewing my past art, I noticed that mis-aligned and mis-spaced eyes, and generally poorly placed and scaled faces, were a problem. So I tried to focus on that problem this time, and ... it didn't turn out bad.
As usual, it's Porsche the Centaur, via a Midjourney character sheet, again. Though her hair is WAY too huge ... I guess I really do romanticize big hair.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More Goldman studies, putting the hand back together from the bones, tendons, muscles and skin.
This methodical process really seems to be helping me build confidence in my art. Yay!
Drawing every day, more or less.
-the Centaur
More Goldman studies, featuring an early prototype of the One Ring that just made the wearer's flesh invisible, an effect Sauron is reported to have described as "too creepy, even for me."
Drawing on average every day, posting every day that I can.
-the Centaur
Again showing how they radiate from the wrist.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Breakdown of the metacarpals; the finger ones radiate from a point at the base of the carpals.
Drawing (more or less) every day, posting every day that I can.
-the Centaur
So, the root bones of the hand - the carpals - are mostly stuck together and can be thought of as a half-moon shape. But it is the act of dis-assembling the hand, breaking it into its component parts, identifying them, and grouping them, that really enables this act of re-integration. From 2 days ago:
It's all starting to come together. Drawing (on average) every day.
-the Centaur
Another drawing of Porsche from a generative AI character sheet (I think this one was from ChatGPT+DALL-E, which seems to be a bit better than Midjourney at taking art direction and creating centaurs). I modified the face to more closely match Porsche, whose ears are located more closely to a normal human's ears.
I've started to build up a buffer, like I am for the Blogging Every Day series, by trying to do two drawings at every sitting. I can't manage to draw for an hour and a half every single day, but if I do it most days, then I slowly creep ahead, and can put more effort and thought into each drawing.
According to my spreadsheet, I'm now about six drawings ahead, drawing-wise, and two posts ahead, posting-wise. Maybe I can take some time to, you know, write about these characters now.
Drawing (more or less) every day.
-the Centaur
And, it turns out, there's a handy mnemonic to remember all those bones: Sally Left The Party To Take Cathy Home. If only I remembered the names of the bones that the letters SLTPTTCH corresponded to ...
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Apparently it's scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, and hamate ...
More Goldman. I love what I'm learning here, but I think I'm going to need to start adding in an occasional drawing of something else to mix it up.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
So apparently fingers look longer from the back of the hand (dorsal side), where the webbing between the fingers is lower than the joins of the fingers themselves, and the palm looks longer from the front of the hand (palmar side), because the webbing obscures the roots of the fingers. Who knew?
Mr. Goldman, that's who. Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Quick sketch of a young woman with GREAT hair - I'd say almost Cinnamon-style hair, if there hadn't been a woman with almost EXACTLY Cinnamon's bi-colored hairstyle at the same Barnes and Noble about a week ago - whom I decided to sketch after finishing my last drawing.
She moved too fast through the store to get a really good picture, and from where I was sitting it was hard to see what she was looking at, but I think you've got to go beyond just drawing from practice books and start drawing from life, or you're just regurgitating other people's drawings, like an AI.
And I like AI, but regurgitating other people's drawings is NOT why I am drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Thank you, Mr. Goldman, for sharing this mnemonic for understanding the lengths of the parts of the hand. This has helped me more than anything I can think of to understand how the hand works and how to draw it. Knowing that the length of the fingers is half the length of the hand - and that the knuckles of the middle finger are half that, and half that again - has taught me more about the hand than anything I can think of.
Also, and not explicitly said in your breakdown - but something anyone can confirm, by placing one hand over the other at a 90 degree angle, or placing the middle finger over the back of the opposite palm - your diagram taught me that the WIDTH of the hand is half the LENGTH of the hand. This has been equally useful in setting proportions so, again, Mr. Goldman ... thank you.
-the Centaur
Me drawing from yet another Midjourney character sheet for Porsche. Misproportioned, and I am still having trouble on the eye placement and face proportions, something I've seen on a fair number of old drawings; once I finish the hands and feet book I think it's probably time to go back to practicing faces.
This certainly is rendered better, but if you look closely at the edges of the hair, especially where it meets the armor, it doesn't make too much sense. Oh well, it's still inspirational.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Ya know, I actually am starting to get a little bit of what's up with the anatomy of the arm. Huh.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur