Gosh darn, same problem keeps popping up
© 2023 Aunt HerbertDone as part of a practice session with poses of 1 hour in length.
My current goal is: Develop my own signature drawing style (advanced)
I aborted this study after 40 minutes. Same problems keep appearing:
a) When I mark the value of darkness of an area with a hatching/crosshatching pattern, I naturally lose some clarity over its exact outlines. If I then introduce more lines to regain that clarity, everything just becomes too dark.
b) Trying to indicate areas of reflected light as darker than areas of direct light is especially bad. If the area is too small, the eye can't distinguish the lines of the pattern from contour lines or lines indicating texture. If I then try to reinforce the contrast to neighboring zones of core shadow, I could as well start to pour ink from a bottle over the entire piece, as everything drowns in solid black.
On the other hand, if I keep areas of reflected light at the same value as direct light, the overall construction loses its illusion of mass, and flattens out to a random pattern of funny strokes without too much meaning.
I so far see several possible solutions, and I don't like either one so far.
1) I massively increase the size of my drawing to gain additional space for placing my lines. Sounds like a bit of a logistical nightmare, as I would have to change a lot of my drawing space, and pay way more for paper. Also, the costs for a scanner, that can handle those sizes would ruin me.
2) I train my line quality and hatching pattern up to literally industrial precision. Feels like it would in best case scenario take ages, and in worst case may be just an unachievable goal.
3) I switch from brush to pen, and dive into a whole new adventure of getting trained on a different medium. Don't like the idea, because of all the reasons, that made me chose brush over pen in the first place. Also, it isn't guaranteed to solve the problems I have, but it is guaranteed to reintroduce all the problems, that I got rid off by switching to brush.
4) I sacrifice a ton of potential detail by stylizing the subject way more than I do currently. Sounds maybe like the most promising attempt, but requires me to invent or adapt a convincing additional method of abstraction, of which I only have the faintest clue of how it would even work out in the final result.
Special mistake in this piece: I started to doubt my Loomis construction halfway through the piece. Shouldn't have done it, now the back of the head is way too flat.
Hello.👋
You know, Aunt Herbert, I think that you've done the finest job on switching to the most slightly different medium in ink lines for quickly drawing ✍️ a facial expression. I love how well you've slowly and carefully mapped out a Loomis cranium sphere for the 💀.
When it comes to some of my nitpicks, they could and would overlap with some of yours, as some of the ✍️ strokes and inkbrush strokes are too shakiest and most awkward for me, for they tend to float around the head too much, spatially. These lines don't seem to obey the forms and perspective of the most slightly stylized head yet. How would you please:🙏
1) Just go for our 2 hour class mode of faces and expressions.
2) Draw the most boldest and least fuzziest lines with your shoulder, while reserving your wrists exclusively for the details.
As a result, your signature style will get constantly refined and most honest with daily and consistent practice from time to time.And so, for most info, please look into Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 here?
Let's hope they've been completely and totally helpful and supportive to your goal.