Forum posts by Kim

No toes stepping! I'm always happy to hear ideas, though I can't promise I'll use all of them. :)

It would be really nice to have the images centered and fit to screen. The lovecastle.org site does this and I really love it.

Definitely something in the works.

Move the Controls to the top, center of the image and add in the ability use the controls via keyboard. At least pause. If I’m interrupted I really don’t like wasting precious seconds by fumbling with the mouse to pause. This feature would be stellar. Forward, rewind, and stop are probably not as useful as keyboard commands, but you might want to code them while you’re in there.

I love the keyboard commands idea. I will have to take a look at doing that.

Give users the option to see the timer count down or leave it hidden. It could be dimmed so to not be too distracting. An option to this would be to play a ding just a couple seconds before a new pose. Maybe just a ding at the end of the timer then a 2-3 second pause to allow the user to flip a page or grab a new pencil (or reach up and pause).

Showing/hiding the timer is also in the works. :)

The ability to build your own class would be really nifty.

I have pondered this. It may happen. It would require a lot of new interfaces so it's not very high on my list of priorities for when I'm able to work on this tool.

Another feature that I think would be interesting are things like the ability to make a log of your usage of the site and comment on your drawings that day, like a journal. Some might want to do this in their sketchbooks, but I think it would encourage frequent use of the site.

Variations of this suggestion come up a lot... When I was making this tool, I was building a slideshow for my own use. It's since become a lot more and I'm more open to thinking of it as a complete bit of training software rather than a bare bones thing for my use, but when we get into this territory it becomes a whole different kind of ball game. We get into huge amounts of image upload and storing as part of the accounts, and I'm not really sure I want to get into that business.

Last feature I think many would be interested in is the ability to do a the same group of images that others do. That way it could be more like a class where everyone is drawing the same thing we can all talk about the curves of a particular figure and what was difficult or what we had fun with.

That is indeed very interesting, but I think not one of those foundational things that would immediately benefit tons of people. We'd have to have tons more in place before I'd want to start syncing... Plus, we'd probably need to finish switching to all commissioned photos, as the currently donated photos come with rights restrictions that a feature like this might be in violation of. (More about that in the FAQ and on the Support Us page)

I could probably sit and come up with these all night. If you haven’t seen the lovecastle.org site you should check it out. It has some good features which would be awesome to integrate into this website. Maybe the creator would be interested in joining forces?

I ran into lovecastle a few years back and was very pleased to see there were other resources out there!

I’d also be willing to assist, but only have a couple hours a week I could dedicate to this site. I’m also working on a site dedicated to becoming a better artist. I’m focusing on getting down a bunch of 5-10 minute exercises that can be combined together however the student believes it would best fit their needs. I’ve only just started editing it today and moving it to a more permanent site, so I don’t have much to show, but the ideas pretty much just have to be written. Once I have it more developed I’ll share it with you and maybe you’d even be interested in hosting it here. I’d be thrilled to help artists get as much free instruction as possible on the internet.

Shoot me an email with your ideas if you'd really like your tutorials and things to be hosted here, and we can talk about it. :)

Hey Tinted,

Can you speak to the process you go through to produce images like this? How long did you spend here? What did you draw first?

Awesome, DBZ girl! :D Good for you for buckling down and focusing in.

Hi Dominique,

I'm guessing that by "Kimmy" you mean me? There's a bunch of people on the forums, and many of them are much better artists than I -- perhaps they'll help you too! I'm not actually so great at critique most of the time.

I split these posts off from the "100 project" topic and moved them to the critique board where it is more appropriate to put them.

I'm not sure what you are saying sounds stupid. Starting in pencil then working in ink is a time-honored method of producing images.

Your tones are all extremely similar. Be bold! Try dark shadows and light highlights. Right now, nearly everything appears to be hanging out in the middle.

I really like that comparison between from life and from imagination. Seems like arms and hands are a bit of a challenge for you right now?

Sylvester,

I love how your "low resolution" images still manage to capture so very much inspiration. I was getting bored of just churning out pencil drawings of faces. I wonder if sprinkling in a few color attempts like those will refresh me.

Should I nag and say you came here to tackle landscapes, and encourage you to beat your head against the frustration for a little while again? :)

Thank you so very much for your kind words. I never stop being touched when someone tells me that something I built has helped them. It is incredibly motivating to keep improving!

I managed to get a few faces in between sessions of Tango Bootcamp. I apologize once again for the abysmal quality of these scans.

After the frustrations of these, I think I need to change the focus of my practice to nose positioning for the next dozen sessions or so.

Congatulations A_A! That is a HUGE step forward! You have a whole lot to celebrate, and you're an inspiration to the rest of us.

As the first to complete the challenge, would you be interested in being interviewed for the blog? :)

Haha. We can all get there if we keep to it! 100 images! Go go go! ;)

Hi DBZ girl,

I commend you on trying to work more on your anatomy skills! Many artists who are interested in a certain style, especially cartoon or manga styles, will use that as an excuse not to study the basics. When you do decide to return to your genre of choice, you will have a distinct advantage over this crowd.

I'm noticing that hands seem to be a challenge for you. I wish our hands & feet practice tool were done, so I could give you that link to help you practice! But in the meanwhile, here's a link to hand drawing tutorials, and exercises that people have found to be helpful in their own struggle to perfect hand anatomy: http://artistshospital.deviantart.com/art/Human-Anatomy-Hands-and-Feet-97090323

Hope this helps!

Proportion definitely seems to be a challenge here, especially where the head is concerned but other areas as well. I think you will have a lot of improvement with what Josh has suggested, working on mapping out the body in general shapes just to get size and placement correct before refining begins.

Perhaps you would find it useful as an exercise to spend a few of your practice sessions doing NO details, just trying to create the body through shapes that are proportional to one another.

Also, for some quick rules of thumb, you might find this video helpful: 

It's scheduled to appear in the technique blog later in the month, but I thought I'd mention it since you seem to be struggling with this issue right now. :)

Fascinating to watch. I so rarely see what people actually are doing with these tools! Do you ever do underlying structure work before starting on the outward form? I saw some rough sketches that were then fleshed out, but it looked like it was more of "what you saw" than what was under the skin.

I'm so used to drawing with pencil and paper that I was utterly tickled to see you use the paint bucket to change the background to black or grey depending on the value of the reference image.

Huh! That came out really interesting, reminds me of pixel art. I'm impressed with your sticktoitivness Sylvester. I've been allowing work to wipe me out. I have a long weekend coming up, and can't wait to get back into it!