Digital Cameras: Recording Progress on Drawing in One Day

[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!

 

[Math Is Hard]

Zooby, I think you should do a portrait of Lisa!

 

[zoobyshoe]

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

Wow, that's a really lovely name, then. Thanks for the translation.

What can I say? I thought she was you, stalking me under a pseudonym.

 

[Evo]

Zooby, I think you should do a portrait of Lisa!

The only known picture of Lisa! is a nose.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Zooby, I think you should do a portrait of Lisa!

(I think Javaneh IS Lisa!)

 

[zoobyshoe]

Recently Finished: Portrait of Tiffany

(The photo I used as a reference and a shot of the work in progress are posted back in post #175 of this thread.)

 

[Huckleberry]

Thank you for showing your work. I appreciate it very much.

 

[arunbg]

Zoob, you are a true inspiration. I used to do some drawing long back(I even went for classes), then with studies and all I really didn't have time any more. Now I am seriously considering going back to my old hobby, once my exams get over that is

Your portrait of Tiffany is great and I like the level of detail you give, specifically the hair and shirt. Very nicely done.
Do you do only direct portraits, or can you draw from your imagination and memory? Do they come out equally as good? Personally, I find it very hard to do that.
And keep posting your pictures, they are a treat.

 

[hypatia]

This girls got great expression! I love it.
You did well with the texture of the Demin Jacket. I noticed in the O-Pic the dark under her eyes, and the flushed ear. You did get the eyes perfect, the ear looks more shadowed then flushed. Is it perhaps because its hard, if not impossible, to make something look flushed with shades of grey?

 

[heman]

Zooby..its Enough..I think its time you tell us which secret software you use to extract sketches and thereby flattering chicks...

 

[heman]

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

hmmm...i must say i didnt expect MiH to be so peaceful and calm[rightly said lovely serene face] going by the postings of MiH