First attempt at shading

Hi! This is my first attempt at shading during gesture practice! We have remnants of 1-min gestures on the top left, two 5-min gestures on the bottom left and a 10-min gesture on the right page! I would love to improve so any feedback or critique is very well appreciated!

Denkobu May 27, 2021 3:35pm

You did a good job in getting the motions down with your drawings, I would suggest breaking the figures down into basic shapes. That will allow you to focus more on the proportions of the anatomy. The shading is good, try to break it into sections from the darkest to lightest areas for a more 3-Dimensional look. Hope this helps ^v^

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Firi May 27, 2021 5:16pm

Hi Denkobu! Thank you for your feedback, it really helps!

Firi May 27, 2021 5:28pm

Oh, the whole message disappeared because of a heart (less than 3)...

I saw some good stuff while looking for critiques after posting this, and I noticed the "sections" that you mentioned, with some in light shadow and some other in very black shadows, and it looked very good, very 3D! As for the anatomy, I'm in ever-learning state! What were the points that weren't good anatomically so I can focus on them?

Cheers,
Firis

PS: It was kind of a rush doing the shading on top of the gestures in the same allocated slot of time! I had to cut on the quality of the gesture so I could fit in some shading practice!

Denkobu June 22, 2021 2:20pm

Hi! I'm so sorry for getting back to you so late T^T. That's great to hear, happy to see you found other sources that helped out. For the anatomy, I would focus on the arms and hands. You have a good grasp on legs so I would focus on the other two a little bit more.

Ps. No worries I'm still learning too, I'm trying to pass on tips as I improve myself. ^^

Polyvios Animations May 27, 2021 4:25pm

Nice job on how well you've rendered your bodies and poses, Firis.

Well, as I can plainly see and observe here above, I'm detecting some stiffness or rigidity of the lights and shadows. Would you like to work of the motions and movements of the lights, shadows, relationships, spaces, and edges with 163 more minutes of 30 second warm-up attitudes and poses? (163 x 60/30/9, 9780/30/9 days, 326/9=36 poses and studies a day)

The reason why you could do this critique is because, your lights,shadows, and their perceptions will become the least blandest, and the most dynamic, spontaneous, fluid, and livelier.

Good luck to you, and I hope you've found these positively and absolutely useful.

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Firi May 27, 2021 5:21pm

Hi Polyvios! Thank you for your feedback!

It was the first time that I tried rendering shadows actually so I did it on top of the normal gestures I usually draw, which added a whole lot of work in the short space of time. I will try your suggestion! I guess it will change the workflow entirely, but hey, anything for learning!

Cheers,
Firis

TheWood June 1, 2021 2:16pm

Hello, I like what you did for your quick sketches.As for shading , i suggest trying to make your dark tones darker , it will make the figure pop more (such as under the underwear and around the chest).

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Firi June 1, 2021 4:35pm

Hi TheWood!

Thank you for your feedback! Some days earlier, Denkobu (and even myself) pointed that out, and you're right: it makes the figure pop more, and I feel like it's more dramatizing! I only used a 2H pencil on the practice that you can see, which is a pretty light pencil. For that dramatization purpose, I just got myself a 8B pencil and some pencils in between 2H: very light and 8B: very dark, for variety. As you can imagine, it's awesome! But there are plenty of ways to do the shading, and yours which use the line density (i.e. more lines = darker, less lines = lighter) is great too!

Best art wishes,
Firis