Mensajes en el foro por Sdzsmith

I’m very encouraged by all the opportunities for artists that exist now that weren’t available in the early 90s. Definitely no regrets for the time I’ve had with family for all these years.

I’ll just put this out there and see what happens…

I’m in my late 50s and really motivated to revisit the art world and the possibility of a later-in-life art career after raising a family. It’s a VERY different art world than the one I walked away from after getting an art degree in my mid-20s. I share about that on another site.

Anyway, I guess I’m hoping to find other artists in a similar place to share thoughts, experiences, ideas, serious critiques, encouragement, business insights, etc.

 I work mostly in oils (usually with an acrylic underpainting) but also like to draw and colorize with watercolor. I have a love-hate relationship with gouache. I was commissioned to do a pet portrait recently but I’m trying to find my artistic voice/direction.

Thanks
Diane Ballard Smith

Hi,

I’m practicing with watercolor to try and capture value and shape. I think I caught the likeness but can’t tell if the width/horizontal proportions are off. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to screenshot the source for comparison.

How do the proportions look to you?

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Hi,

You did a good job capturing the gesture and expression. Torsos appear a bit long throughout (speaking of the human models). 

This site has a suggested process for gestures posted somewhere that I found helpful.

I start with the gesture line (basically catching the curve of the spine/torso) and the head. Then I do a line across that to define the angle of the shoulders, placing a dot (circle) where they meet the upper arm (shoulder joints). Then I add a round shape to note the rib cage. That helps me know about where to place the oval for the pelvis. Taking that approach has helped me set up better torso proportions.

Keep at it - you get a feel for it the more you practice. Great start.

Diane

This is new for me - I’m trying loosen up, stop before overworking, and explore color.  These are my first efforts at quick studies with watercolor. I gave myself a fairly short timeframe (15 min) to work with a hard-to-control medium. LOA gave me all profiles this time.

I’d appreciate feedback - hope I linked them correctly. They’re in my sketchbook 
Thanks

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Wow! I’d say you have a really good grasp of proportion in line. Since these are one minute drawings, I’m not surprised that they have a bit of a caricature feel (the more of them you do). I’m guessing you would capture more of the individual with a little longer drawing time. But great beginning to great drawings.

Nicely done. Your linework describes the shapes beautifully (particularly the 2nd and 3rd images). You did a great job of capturing the twisting forms in the 3rd - the feet are great (feet can be hard). 

I do think the heads  in both of those figures seem the wrong proportion to the bodies - they appear to be on the small side. There’s something that seems off about the back knee in the 3rd - looks like a side view of the knee, but the foot is facing more forward. It’s hard to say for sure without seeing the sources.