I’ve been following this thread for a while but couldn’t reply. I think you are going generally well for the head.
The main area that need still more attention is the mouth. The mouth shape itself seems to be flatened. If you look at a mouth shape from a very low angle view of the head, you will see that the mouth shape forms a very pronounced curve. This is not something you can see from front and side views only. Also, your mouth area morphology does not have the meat bulge on both side of the mouth corners. This is an area where a lof of facial mucles meet and it forms a bulge. This bulge is clearly missing from the 3/4 view.
The second area the needs attention ar the brow bones over the eyes. It is way too smooth and too high.
A comment about Loomis books. They can be good references. But I would not recommend learning from Loomis exclusively. When Loomis draws or paints from live models or from photography, then his reproductions are really good with good proportions. But his anatomy theory sections where he shows rules for proportions with grids and lines are based on an esthetic for anatomy that comes from another era and his idealized men and women proportions do not fit with the modern idealized proportions. I own several of Loomis books and I like them all. I would not hesitate to recommend them. But just remember that those are Drawing books with a bunch af drawing tricks and learning anatomy by accumulating tricks is not the best approach to learn anatomy. This said, Loomis have a bunch of sketches showing those area of the mouth that I’m talking about earlier.
Personally i think Loomis books are good - if you want to learn to draw, but for anatomically references are medical books just better.
Also this guys are pure awesomeness: http://www.freedomofteach.com/products/figures
they may seem expensive, but its a lifetime investment… unless some evolutionary mutations happen in your lifetime
i am looking forward for female V3. but i guess it will be too expensive.
but the 200USD models are just fine.
@Numarul7:
I don´t know if its just a misunderstanding due to your english, but i dont like your attitude if u meant it the way you wrote it… calling someones work “badbadbadbad” is misplaced here. this is focused critique. not smash one´s ego.
I have to say, Numarul7’s post is pretty harsh. Sort of a verbal gut-punch. Ouch. I’m really doing my best to create something I can show proudly as a hobbyist, just for fun, nothing more.
Anyway, on topic, while studying drawing books is a good idea, (and I did follow that link and will read the book, BTW) I really have to agree with ypoissant and arexma that the main focus of drawing is to represent a 3D object with a 2D medium - useful, but what I really need is a live model to study. Arexma’s link is a very cool product! Wow, I’d love to get one of those things.
For the record: I do have some anatomy-for-the-artist books, and I do have a library of medical texts at my disposal. The issue here is not so much “seeing” but moving verts so they match up with what I see, while maintaining the all-important good topo and quads for animation. That’s the challenging part of CG modeling, IMO. I’ll be working more closely with medical/anotomical references from this point forward, now that I believe I’ve got reasonable topography.
A better traditional medium than drawing to build your 3D skill is sculpting, even just small clay maquettes and the like. Helps you start to think in surfaces and volumes and contours/edges that “turn.” One of the most challenging aspects of modeling human forms is not the anatomical details as much as making sure your surfaces respond to the implied underlying masses. Anatomical knowledge can help a lot, but doesn’t pass on the ability to create the proper contours that make things look correct from all possible viewing angles.
Perhaps not, but that’s very much how it was interpreted by nearly everyone but you, so it would be to your advantage to grow some tact awareness. Your words will be listened to more often if you do.
Then you should of said something instead of just saying “Bad bad bad”. You keep posting that link on everyones threads and implying that their models are a piece of crap by saying what you did. So instead of pretty much just calling a model crap you should say why, instead of trying to get people to read some books.
Spend some time looking at references of human skull structure, then think about how it would fit under the form you’ve got so far. Some of the main volumes that are created by the skull are off in your model – dome of the skull too egg-shaped, brow ridges a bit to sharp with not enough tissue above the outer upper eyelids, and not much in the way of lower orbital structure, cheekbones not prominent enough, no zygomatic arch, a lot of smallish discrepancies that add up to a sense of not quite right yet. The proportions are very good, but the volumes aren’t convincing. The mouth is still too straight a slash – from a top view it should curve around the “U” shape of the teeth more distinctly.
before getting roused up by what Numarul7 post be aware that he has been posting pretty much the same post in quiet a few peoples thread, a ‘critic’ of the anatomy and than a recommendation that they read Loomis book and do it right. My advice take what he says with a pinch of salt search for his tradition art thread it speaks volumes of how much anatomy he knows.
@Numarul7 learn some manners, when people post their work here the have an honest desire to want to learn more and improve. You been rude and cutting people down sucks.
It’s one thing to look at a book and remember formulae, it’s another to actually draw or sculpt from life. Many places (colleges, art studios) have life drawing sessions that are pretty cheap. It takes a lot of practice to really understand the figure, and some ratios of proportion are good to know, but they are a basis, not always the rule. Everyone looks different, except twins of course :spin:
That’s a tad worrying, I hope its not too serious.
back on topic you are makin some good progress with your head, look at some photoreferences of people that have been taken from various angles rotate your head to see if the various forms stick, another trick you could use, I do this a bit with my 2d drawings, is to render out some views or take the ones you have rendered and than flip them in the GIMP or Photoshop you pick up errors that you might have missed before quicker.
First thing to say - I like the look of this face. There is a lot of good work here. There are a few minor adjustments needing done to sort out the proportions - it looks like you are a little too shy of accentuating the curves - lack of confidence? The human skull is a bumpy thing and the face is pretty much stretched over it. Feel your own face, particularly around the cheeks and the outer part of the eyebrow and you’ll see what I mean.
Here’s a quick and dirty (thanks, MS paint) drawover of what I think needs to be brought out more:
more curve to the eyebrows and the cheekbones with a ‘dip’ near the eye in this 3/4 view
another dip made by increasing your chin a little and the lower curve of the cheek / muscle bulk alongside the mouth (maybe a little overstated in my example)
bottom lip usually has a thick central part which comes out sideways quite far and a little taper just near the corner of the mouth (hard to describe, sort of shown in pic)
bring the nose down. It looks a long way from the mouth. Is the septum (central part between nostrils) too low? Not sure - it might be shadow - this shouldn’t be any lower than the nostril sides.
Excellent crits, doncuan. Yes, you could say I’ve been somewhat timid with my edits to the face, but only because it’s so easy to really mess up the appearance of the face with just a few small tweaks - I found that out in a hurry just a few minutes ago, when a small scaling of the nostrils gave me Miss Piggy.:no:
Anyway, here’s the result of various tweaks. I’ve worked on the zygomatic arch, the orbicularis oris, and the eye area in general, the nose, as well as moving the jaw out and up. Lips got bigger, too. I’m thinking I’m pretty good now. Is this the face of a barbarian queen or what?! (At least, a bald, eyebrowless one…:eyebrowlift:) Gotta move on to the body now, tho - this could take forever otherwise.
OK, I thought I was done with the face for the time being, but…well, what can I say?:o More tweaks, all over the face, this time trying to really focus on making her look like my reference, but with a little more age on her. So, here she is, along with (ta da) my reference model. (This is not necessarily intended to be a portrait, btw.)
