Digital Cameras: Recording Progress on Drawing in One Day

[zoobyshoe]

PlantyThingy Revisited

To refresh your memory, here's "PlantyThingy" as originally presented in post #61:

Between then and now I've done more work on it:

This is common for me, to start a drawing, set it aside unfinished for a long time, then pick it up later and do a lot more work on it.

 

[Yonoz]

I had no idea either. What a talent!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Two New Portraits

I've been doing more realistic drawing the past month or so. I've had good luck in getting some interesting people to pose for me. Christine and Caleb are two 18 year olds who hang around a coffee house I frequent. I wanted to draw Christine 'cause she's just plain pretty, and Caleb cause he has a dramatic Elvis/Beat Poet thing going on with his well cultivated image.



Christine:

Caleb:

 

[Evo]

You're really very talented zoob, great drawings!

 

[Kurdt]

These are amazing Zoob! I really can't say any more for I'm speechless except i wish i found this thread earlier.

 

[zoobyshoe]

You're really very talented zoob, great drawings!

Thanks Evo. Your approbation is much appreciated.

These are amazing Zoob! I really can't say any more for I'm speechless except i wish i found this thread earlier.

I'm glad you like my stuff. Evo did me the honor of putting this thread in GD classics. I like to ressurect it now and then when I have new drawings to add.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Wow zoobyshoe these are absolutely amazing. I would not have guessed that Christine's picture was a drawing at first glace, the face looks way too real! Amazing job on both the portraits, I like the abstract work as well.

edit: Just looked through the whole thread, wow, you have talent. Very nice artwork! This is coming from someone who is hard to impress, too.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wow zoobyshoe these are absolutely amazing. I would not have guessed that Christine's picture was a drawing at first glace, the face looks way too real!

This is becoming an issue. I posted an unfinished drawing on an art forum and some people recomended I not finish it because it might become too photographic. I've been getting better at finer and finer shading with no apparent lines or hatching but it ends up being counterproductive if people can mistake them for photos. This is probably only a problem when they are reproduced and shrunk for the web though. In person the particular reflective quality of graphite distinguishes it instantly from a photo, if there's any doubt.

Amazing job on both the portraits, I like the abstract work as well.

edit: Just looked through the whole thread, wow, you have talent. Very nice artwork! This is coming from someone who is hard to impress, too.

Thank you very much.

 

[scorpa]

Wow this is the first time I've seen this thread. Those drawings are so amazing, you have incredible talent!

 

[radou]

Hey, they look great, almost like photographs! Blah, and I thought I knew how to draw..

 

[Ivan Seeking]

That is some great work, Zooby.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wow this is the first time I've seen this thread. Those drawings are so amazing, you have incredible talent!

Thank you very much scorpa.

Hey, they look great, almost like photographs! Blah, and I thought I knew how to draw..

If you want to draw more realistically from photos look into the grid system:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=drawing+grid&btnG=Google+Search

That is some great work, Zooby.

Hey, I'm really glad you like it Ivan.

 

[hypatia]

You did a fantastic job capturing the personality of Caleb. Both are a great defining the freshness of their age.

 

[zoobyshoe]

You did a fantastic job capturing the personality of Caleb. Both are a great defining the freshness of their age.

Caleb doesn't like the drawing. The breeze messed his hair up a bit and he complained that I should have told him and let him recomb it before snapping the picture. His girlfriend loves it, though, and that's better tham him liking it.

Christine was camera shy and I took, literally, 103 shots of her waiting for her to relax. We both agreed this bold gaze was the best of them. She was nervous about how I'd draw her, but when she saw it she stared at it for about a minute and then pronounced, imperiously, "I approve!"

 

[zoobyshoe]

Two New Portraits

Two more denizens of the above mentioned cafe:

"je suis perdue": Portrait of Ariel

Portrait of Eric:

 

[zoobyshoe]

This one is an attempt at the device known as "repoussoir" : "a figure or object in the extreme foreground: used as a contrast and to increase the illusion of depth."

I titled it "The Ghost Horse" but someone who knows horses said the "horse" is probably actually a pony. That's OK, I was just experimenting. If I did it over I'd hunt up a good shot of an actual horse and probably retitle it "The Night Mare"

 

[zoobyshoe]

Closeup of a drawing I did of a young lady named Javaneh. I often spend a lot of extra time on the lips.

 

[Kurdt]

Master pieces as ever. I like the guys dreads and that mouth close up is stunning.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Master pieces as ever. I like the guys dreads and that mouth close up is stunning.

Thank you so much, Kurdt. Since you like her mouth, I'll show you her eye:

 

[Kurdt]

That is exceptional! I can't say more.

 

[Evo]

Zooby, I will never take up a pencil again, you've outdone me.

 

[morphism]

Thank you so much, Kurdt. Since you like her mouth, I'll show you her eye:

I don't know if it's my screen, but damn! That looks real!

 

[zoobyshoe]

That is exceptional! I can't say more.

Thank you very much, Kurdt, I appreciate it.

Zooby, I will never take up a pencil again, you've outdone me.

I'll have to take your word for it since you've never show us your stuff. (I'm very curious.) But thanks!

I don't know if it's my screen, but damn! That looks real!

Uncounted hours of work with a magnifying glass and a sharp pencil. Working from a reference photograph, of course. I spent more time on this drawing than I ever have on any other. This is a girl (woman, I suppose, she's 27) who comes into the cafe I frequent to study. She saw me working on another drawing (Christine) and stopped to compliment it. I took one look at her and said "You're next". She's very lovely. She was flattered and agreed to let me take a bunch of photos of her for the drawing.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Currently working on:

Tiffany, photograph.

Tiffany, drawing in progress:

 

[Moonbear]

Wow, Zooby, those drawings look so realistic, I thought they were black and white photographs at first! (Well, except the one with the horse, which is more obviously a drawing...I'd say from the way it's kicking up it's heels, it's a frisky colt, too young to say if it's a horse or pony. ) Your artistic ability is truly impressive.

 

[hypnagogue]

How do you shade the skin? Whatever technique you use, it appears as if the shading follows the fine sorts of wrinkles and crevices that you'd find in a real person's skin if you looked close enough. It's more apparent in the couple of close ups you posted.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wow, Zooby, those drawings look so realistic, I thought they were black and white photographs at first! (Well, except the one with the horse, which is more obviously a drawing...I'd say from the way it's kicking up it's heels, it's a frisky colt, too young to say if it's a horse or pony. ) Your artistic ability is truly impressive.

Hey, thanks Moonbear.

How do you shade the skin? Whatever technique you use, it appears as if the shading follows the fine sorts of wrinkles and crevices that you'd find in a real person's skin if you looked close enough. It's more apparent in the couple of close ups you posted.

It's a lucky accident. I was attempting to follow the "grain" of skin as I laid down the skin tone. You never get it completely smooth or at the right value the first time and to adjust it I went over it a couple times with lines whose angle was a few degrees different. This spontaneously created an unplanned "pore" texture. It comes off as some kind of tedious work, but was a total accident. No such pore texture really shows in the reference photo:

Drawing

Photograph

 

[Astronuc]

WOW! Zooby. Those drawings are exceptional.

You need to do a showing.


"The Ghost Horse" has a great contrast.

 

[hypatia]

I really enjoy looking at your work. It just keeps getting better.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Awesome work Zooby!

You'll probably be worth a fortune when you're dead.

 

[zoobyshoe]

WOW! Zooby. Those drawings are exceptional.

You need to do a showing.


"The Ghost Horse" has a great contrast.

Thanks for the compliment, Astro. I'm actually trying to work up enough drawings of these wilder kids, Ariel, Caleb, Eric, Tiffany, (and wait till you get a load of Violet), for a show with a theme.

I really enjoy looking at your work. It just keeps getting better.

I'm glad you think so and I'm glad you like looking at it.

Awesome work Zooby!

Thanks so much, Ivan.

You'll probably be worth a fortune when you're dead.

I know. And anyone reading this may feel free to forward me a dozen million or so that they can easily recover from my post-mortem estate.

----------

Here's a shot of Javaneh as a work in progress:

It had an unintended tromp l'oeil effect at this point: a 3-d face emerging from a flat page.

 

[turbo]

I just remembered hearing on a show that when Matisse was bedridden, he would cut out pieces of colored paper and direct helpers on where to paste them on the canvas. That sounded like an interesting process, bedridden or not, and I just thought I'd mention it.

Somehow, I missed this earlier. My cousin is a talented artist and she wanders freely from realism to impressionism. When she was building her house, she accumulated paint-chip samples from hardware and paint stores, trying to come up with interesting color schemes. Looking at all those colors got her thinking about exploring with patches of pure color with no admixtures or textures, other than the shadows created by overlays. This is a rendition of a photo of her mother's flower garden. It looks like a jumble close-up, but with my near-sightedness and a few feet of separation, it is beautiful, with the poppies, the floppy daisies, etc.

I have to say that as much as I like this type of work, Zooby's realistic portraits are out of this world. My pencil drawings are junk in comparison, and unfortunately, I gave away the few really nice colored drawings that I managed to produce with a fine-point rapidograph pen and watercolors. A friend of mine had an autistic son who loved wildlife, so I gave them to her.

 

[radou]

Nice one.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Portrait of Javaneh

As I said earlier, I spent more time on this portrait than I have on any other. This was mostly spent increasing the depth of the dark values in layers. Her face just demanded this kind of richness of tone. She puts me in mind of the actress Sophia Loren when she was younger.

She's 27, a student of acupuncture of all things, and comes into the cafe where I draw to study or use the wireless internet now and then. She is the most photogenic person I have ever drawn. I took about 100 shots of her and almost every one would have been a great reference photo for a drawing.

Her name, Javaneh (three syllables Jah-Vah-Neh), is either Persian or Hebrew. (Her family has roots in both places, and I forgot to ask about her name.)

 

[Astronuc]

Zooby, another fine picture!

Your pictures seem alive!

 

[Werg22]

Nice work with the specks, gives it an organic look. Did you use a lead for that effect? If so, what was the technique? You made your gradients with a special surface, a towel maybe?

 

[Pythagorean]

Just out of curiosity, not pretentiousness:

can you draw from your imagination or do you generally need something to look at?

I can't draw at all, so you're 1up on me either way.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Zooby, another fine picture!

Your pictures seem alive!

Thanks Astro! Javaneh has a lot of life in her eyes, so it's no wonder.

Nice work with the specks, gives it an organic look. Did you use a lead for that effect? If so, what was the technique? You made your gradients with a special surface, a towel maybe?

The grainyness is not in the drawings. It is some unfortunate result of digital photography and the reflective quality of graphite. Graphite is difficult to photograph with any kind of photography, actually.

Just out of curiosity, not pretentiousness:

can you draw from your imagination or do you generally need something to look at?

I can't draw at all, so you're 1up on me either way.

Well, since you asked, here are some faces I invented from scratch:

These don't come out as finished or realistic looking, of course.

 

[chroot]

You seem to have a thing for lips, zooby!

- Warren

 

[zoobyshoe]

You seem to have a thing for lips, zooby!

- Warren

Yup. Who doesn't though?

 

[turbo]

2nd most expressive part of the face! (Eyes don't lie!)

 

[Pythagorean]

[...quality art...]
These don't come out as finished or realistic looking, of course.

that's sweet. I've always wished I could do that with physics problems.

 

[Werg22]

I see. I've never tried to take digital photographs of gray scale drawings. Though the effect of grain is appreciable... like I said I think it makes it look more organic.

 

[zoobyshoe]

that's sweet. I've always wished I could do that with physics problems.

What? Do what with physics problems?

I see. I've never tried to take digital photographs of gray scale drawings. Though the effect of grain is appreciable... like I said I think it makes it look more organic.

It's not greyscale that is the problem but graphite, which is shiney. It's very hard to light it without getting a sheen somewhere. Evenly lit areas seem to photograph with this grainy effect.

 

[Pythagorean]

What? Do what with physics problems?

draw from my imagination. It would expand visualization (especially for moment of Inertia problems). I would draw objects more than people, but I'd like to have that level of detail without needing the actual object.

Instead I resort to crappy diagrams, as if I had dissected the object all over my paper and coldly analyzed it's ugly innards, without really seeing the full physical potential of the object.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Portrait of Math Is Hard

This was first posted in a separate thread last April. I'll repost it here to keep things collected together:

Portrait Of Math Is Hard By Zoobyshoe
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=163625

 

[turbo]

Thanks for re-posting that, Zooby. She looks serene.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Thanks for re-posting that, Zooby. She looks serene.

Yeah, she hadn't started classes at UCLA yet.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Yeah, she hadn't started classes at UCLA yet.

so true.
I prolly look more like this these days.
http://www.indexstock.com/store/GetThumb.asp/ImageNum=438151&VOLID=806&gc=gc1&ss=1/Panic-438151.jpg

 

[Lisa!]

Her name, Javaneh (three syllables Jah-Vah-Neh), is either Persian or Hebrew. (Her family has roots in both places, and I forgot to ask about her name.)

Nice 1! Hope you are not cheating on me with her
Javaneh is persian as far as I know! It means sprout, bud!