Stop Me Before I Blog Again.

Hey Artists,
I should be working on a commissioned sketch or my space bordello project, but instead I'm analyzing skull depths like some 19th century German crackpot.

Reducing the vast variety of humanity to three "specimens," I've found that what I've told you guys so far is broadly correct--if you go by these three pictures!

You decide if any of it matters to you and your style.

To review (in order to make this exercise have any value at all):

• The human head basically fits in a square.
• Black folks have the deepest crania, and Asians the shallowest. (Our representative Asian has a head notably taller than square, the white girl just taller than square, and the black guy, just deeper than.)
• Eyes are about at the halfway line. Children's crania are bigger, "pushing" their eyes below the halfway line. Our white girl has that going on too. Better to err in that direction in drawing women, I assume, unless you want to make them look older or less elegant.
• Ears are a healthy fraction of an inch farther back than the vertical halfway line. Making the skull come to its greatest height above the ears seems reasonable.
• I marked her picture, in green, with the landmarks of the Loomis "thirds" scheme and learned that her forehead is a little more than a third--not surprisingly, since she looks like a teen.

John



Wait! New data!
This normal-looking guy has a head that's way taller/shallower than square, and eyes well above the halfway line. What did I tell you guys about generalizing?!

;)

John

One more

We puzzled over this one in class. When someone looks strongly to the side, which eye opens more?



My oh-so-scientific conclusion is:

There's no rule! It must depend on several factors....

John

A Grab-Bag

Hi, Artists,

This time I've got some old-fashioned odds and ends for you.

First, to hammer home the180 rule, a couple of graphic restatements of the idea:



Next, some very nice drawings of feet from an artist named Willy Pogany, whose instructional books on drawing are helpful and appealing, sez me. He really brings out the solidity of the form and its component forms. There's is a slight angularity or blockiness that strengthens the descriptive strength of the drawings.



Next, a real-life example of the line of action--not the same line of action cited in the 180-rule graphic above, which could better be called the line of interaction, if you're asking me. We're talking about capital-A action now. So how would you draw the lines of action running through these two?






Here's my try at it:

• Notice in the case of the guy who fell, the head and neck jut forward without much respect to the direction taken by the rest of him. This isn't at all unusual. The neck writes its own ticket, you could say.
• Notice please also that the lines of action are quite different from the directions these guys are moving, which I think you can readily infer. That too is not unusual or problematic.

The line of action lives to help: Its job is giving figures "flow," and evidence of intentionality. The opposite of a rag doll thrown in the air. Even the falling Niner here is exerting some control--he keeps his head level enough that he can see what's happening. His neck and stomach muscles are much involved in that.

SEE YOU SATURDAY!

John

Clip Studio Paint

Clip Studio Paint Heads-Up

This great but curiously named software is on sale again, as it fairly frequently is. In every way that matters it is the program that used to be called Manga Studio, and it is a terrific alternative to Photoshop. It's actually made for producing comics and saves many mouse clicks relative to Photoshop. Here's an unpublished cover I inked and toned using it.

Clip Studio Paint Sale

John

February 18 Wrap-up: Assignment Recap etc.

Thanks for turning out on a blustery night, everybody.

Easy (?) assignment for next time, Feb. 25

Fire up your imagination. Ask yourself what would be your ideal comics assignment. Give yourself your dream job, but minus the money!

Name a genre, or a character, or make up a one- or two-sentence plot summary. Setting is worth mentioning...

That's it.

In the weeks ahead, we're going to be moving into producing pages.  Just a 3-5 page scene from your pet project. Or you can use a favorite character of someone else's. I'll never tell. 😁

Body Movin'

As promised, here are inspiring little nuggets again. Try a bunch of these, why don't you?

Here is a happy development

Those of you who manage to attend more than one session will earn a 20% discount on books for the week. Joseph and I haven't finalized that, but I'm jumping the gun to tell you, because I think that's likely how it will be. Ask either of us next time.

Facebook Page, you ask?

Not to brag, but I'm in the loop, I'm caught up on almost all the current crazes...  So we have this Facebook Page, which could be a good place to post your work or other inspiring visuals, and to contact classmates.

Till the 25th!

John

Homework for Feb 11, in Detail

Find three photos in 3/4 view of three different celebrities,  each with distinct head shapes, facial types. I said in class to find them online, but if you want to save yourself printing them out, clip them out of magazines. Heads should be at least 4 in. tall. You'll recall my urging you to concentrate on the gender you have the most difficulty with, if you have such.

Do a simple line drawing of each. Draw at very nearly the same size, ideally.

Then trace the photo on tracing paper or the like.

On both drawings, draw the vertical center line of the face. Follow it right down, riding the fullness of the forehead, the center of the bridge of the nose, etc.

 Compare the tracing to your line drawing. If the sizes are close, you can overlay the tracing paper and really compare. What are the differences? Did you err on some of the size relationships? You can reasonably assume that these goofs are habitual.

DONT CORRECT THE ORIGINAL DRAWING or you will get less out of this.

Please be ready to talk a minute or two about what you learned.

Good luck!

John

Artists to Follow on Social Media

Mike Hawthorne (Great feeling of dimensionality, structure, etc. )
devilpig666 = Dave Johnson (great covers)
Claire Wendling (Impossibly, she pairs the dumb, snarling force of Frazetta with an elegant design sense. Great animals)
Spacejunkees = Andrew Robinson
Otto Schmidt
UrbanBarbarian=Dan Panosian
Victor Kalvachev
Helen Mingue Chen
Matteo Scalera
Agreda, Jose Luis
Dan Brereton
Sean Gordon Murphy (A representative--along with Andrew Robinson and Dan Panosian -- of the best in current styles, says I.)

ENJOY!

John