Pencil Figure Drawing Technique

See the Blackboard Announcements for July 28th to view the 16 minute recording demo. I worked on finding some better techniques that would work in a life drawing situation. I found some hi-res images of Gil Elvgren's figure drawings on the Heritage Auctions site. I used the paper background to make a new paper that I could use as a background for any drawing. I sampled an even area of shading and defined it as a pattern. I then used the pattern stamp tool with my custom brush settings to paint back in the pencil texture. I use a fairly consistent diameter brush with opacity set to pen pressure for the shading and a size pressure brush with no opacity change for the line work. I was able to copy most kinds of drawing textures that he has fairly well.

Figure Drawing

I did the figure drawing thing with Jeff, Ryan, Dustin, & Tony on Friday. It was hard to get into it after not having done it for so long. I brought in a laptop and wacom tablet. It is a lot of fun to be able to work in layers and change things if they don't work. I like how the line work is going but shading tools still are hard to figure out.

Interpretation of DeCarlo Style

This is based on the Process Test Model image and pose from an earlier post. I think that a more cartoony style works far better than something that is so loyal to the photograph.

Old Cartoon Techniques DeCarlo

I like these old DeCarlo cartoons for several reasons. These ink and inkwash drawings are clean and simple with a great graphic quality.

Textured Halftones and Illustrator Lines

I really love the rich work of Illustrator Gary Taxali you can see his website here:
http://www.garytaxali.com/
I recorded this technique in the July 20th Lectures in Blackboard.

Process Test Model

I did a trial process based on a few of the techniques that I have developed recently. I started with some photos of models from clothing retailers. I stitched together several different models in Photoshop to get the pose and clothes I wanted. Then I redrew the figure with the blob brush in Illustrator. Then into Photoshop for coloring and brush strokes etc... works pretty good. A little lifeless because the source was a photo.

Matt Smith Illustration

Here is a study from an illustrator named Matt Smith. See his website here: http://www.matt-illustrations.com/index-kids.html
Original is on top, copy on bottom. I did the linework in Illustrator with the blob brush then imported to Photoshop for everythign else. I still need to figure out a better way of doing the lighter version of the line drawing. His has a lot of great texture that burns into the image.