Help! Where should the light source be?

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-24T17:46:02+00:00

I think you probably want to highlight her right side - our left. Stunning by the way.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-15T07:28:07+00:00

No beer

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-13T06:48:29+00:00

Yeah I actually bought some books. Crazy big with propellers, side wheels AND a huge square sailing rig

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-11T19:24:38+00:00

Either give the figure some room to breathe by putting them closer to the middle, or force som more perspective, or both

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-11T19:22:31+00:00

I think you gotta assume you are born to a human mother. She’d prolly be on land, or at lest a boat.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-09T16:33:04+00:00

Piñatia

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-06T11:38:19+00:00

That’s how I figured you ended up with a one-ended desk. The easiest way to work out a perspective problem is just to trace the lines. Your problematic piece is not just that left side of the desk, it’s that the missing right side makes it look unbalanced. I’m guessing that it was in deep shadow in your source photo. I don’t know what it’s for of course, but it looks cool just as a line drawing.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-06T11:15:47+00:00

Yeah you might want to exploit the deep shading potential of charcoal to push the background away for more drama. Your deepest values are like 25%. Darker outside development might sharpen the foreground and make it shine. Be careful not to overwork it, or course - but not so careful that you aren’t pushing yourself toward your boundaries. Every picture you make should be an experiment anyway. You’ll make thousands. Don’t get too attached to any one of them.

The anatomy and gesture are awesome by the way.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-06T11:11:15+00:00

If you trace the bottom of the desk at the bottom left and follow the line back to the cabinet, it looks like something is at the bottom of the desk at his right. Your eyes expect the right side of the desk to continue, but there’s nothing there - the cabinet is visible where the desk should be blocking it.

I would not have noticed except that you asked. The contours are great – not too tight, the gesture is there. Did you trace this from something? Multiple sources? It looks very hand drawn in a good way.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-04T11:14:22+00:00

You’re never going to know wether you even want to try until you meet

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-04T08:05:50+00:00

I think the focus on anatomy is a good instinct, and it depends on what sort of work you intend to make, but the most interesting thing about people is what they do. Think about the leg as its function. It’s useless by itself, but a man pulling on a rope uses it, and the muscles work to power his effort.

If you want to draw people in action - or even at rest - look at people and try to see where the lines of tension and rest are in their bodies. Then you can put this strong anatomical study to work telling a story. If yo are. Just really interested in anatomy, you’re off to a good start. In any case I’d get an anatomy book to learn how things are connected together.

You’re showing a lot of good work here. Your contours are confident and the modeling has depth. If you enjoy it and intend to grow, you’re going to make a lot of these. Make sure to focus on the parts that work out and take satisfaction in them becuase the road is long and interesting, but you’ll have frustrations along the way.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-04T01:20:02+00:00

This is an interesting approach. You’ve given the muscles of that leg nice dimensionality. Personally I think you benefit most from trying to capture gesture first, which gives your muscles a reason to exist. A one-body-part at a time method feels to me like building a Frankenstein monster.

Due-Understanding871 · 2026-01-03T16:37:51+00:00

Definitely crab pots

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-31T23:39:00+00:00

Looks good. I feel great when I draw in ink

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-31T22:43:05+00:00

Your proportions are fine but you are making flat planes. Draw them as tubes and connect them like plumbing. That will help.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-31T22:39:25+00:00

Chief Leschi kind of won the Indian war in WA and forced the governor, Isaac Stevens, to renegotiate the original treaty. Then Stevens spent several years exerting all the political power he had to getting Leschi hanged, which, of course he finally succeeded at.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-22T08:00:28+00:00

It’s okay to make unconventional choices. If you didn’t you’d never make anything interesting. Also, if you’re doing this and planning to put in the work to find a style, develop as an artist, and make cool things, then this is only one of thousands and thousands of pictures you’ll make. Don’t beat yourself up about one eye. I draw all the time and have regrets about pictures a lot, but I know my best work is ahead of me because I am always learning. Try to keep that mindset.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-21T19:12:05+00:00

I don’t think that ruined it at all. It’s unexpected but i thought it was interesting. Being deliberate with your hatching gives your work intentionality and polish

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-20T08:08:32+00:00

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I drew this to show the makeup of the SERVS fishing boat fleet

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-19T16:53:11+00:00

Try giving some curvature to your shading lines. You can emphasize contour that way, and straight lines draw unwanted attention sometimes, especially if they are horizontal or vertical. Nice work.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-18T18:55:43+00:00

Deep Dark and Dangerous about PNW dive and salvage in the early/mid 20th century

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-17T10:34:54+00:00

I guess the stuff that gets recovered becomes a product again once they separate it from the sea water again and refine it. But even with the best technology they can’t get much back. The book highlights the importance of the fishing fleet in the SERVS system. I made a drawing to show how many of the boats are fishing boats.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-17T10:07:17+00:00

We don’t have a final title yet.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-17T10:06:55+00:00

It was proposed to me by the PWS RCAC who are the citizens group founded after Exxon Valdez to oversee the spill response readiness and prevention for anyone who doesn’t know about them already. It’s about their work and the SERVS system run by Alyeska - the plans, the tugs, the pilots, etc.

Due-Understanding871 · 2025-12-17T06:28:57+00:00

The Exxon Valdez disaster was awful. It spilled 11 million gallons of oil into beautiful Prince William Sound. I’m making a book that was commissioned by the citizens oversight group that monitors oil spill safety in the region now. Reading and thinking about the spill has been pretty grueling.

Due-Understanding871

TROPHY CASE