Beautiful. Ask Crimson how he does it...some earlier ones were the most pencil sketchy looking I've seen here.

Nicely done. It looks like various mediums, pencil on the edges and then maybe guache or pastels on the fills. :-)

Yeah, Dave, I remember reading something I think it was Crimson King wrote about how he got his pencil lines. He said he uses the watercolour tool set at nearly full opacity (245-248) and on a brush size of 1. I was having fun using the pen in conjunction with the pressure sensitivity but the resulting variation in line size is too 'large' looking for the relative size of the drawing; makes it look more rough than I wanted. I just love the pose so much that I couldn't toss it yet.

When using the line variation tool, you can regulate what will be the lines thickness at maximum pressure by sliding the colored bar (bottom bar) in said tool, to the left.

Yeah, I have finally figured out how the sliders work for size and opacity. Thanks.

Almost so beautiful as the one on fearsome! Great drawing. :)

Very lovely study - the textural effects are very interesting.

a beautiful piece, my favorite is her leg twisted to the back.

I like how the right side looks like she has a man back with a big dent in it! Like her man back side was in a big bar fight one night because this one guy took all the pretzels and one thing lead to another and ole' half man back thought she should get up and do something about it but then the other guy had a friend who usually doesn't come to that bar, no he usually goes to the 4 U lounge, but he went there this time and when ole' half man back stood up he knew he had to have his buddy's back... his buddy was a man so his whole back was a man back, not like this lady's back, but anyway, so he saw ole' half man back get up to do something about something an he slammed her upper right shoulder area with an extra 4 inch lead pipe he happened to be carrying around, not his good one that he had in his coat pocket for something else, but his extra one. So that's what I like about this picture when I look at it.

hahahahahahaa ahhh ahh hahaha... -beats his desk- good ole half man back

I drew this using a reference from a drawing from a book by one of my favourite life-drawing masters. I've never seen the model in question but I do know she is an athlete. I'm making an honest effort to improve my abilities here. I don't understand this kind of attack.

Well, I could have just said something like "Hey, you got the back and shoulders all screwed up." instead of trying to soften the blow and have fun about it. But now that I've seen the ref I can point out quite a few..... ah, never mind, you don't like when people try to help. Actually, I think it all started back when you attacked my cartoon with a psycho cartoon about my cartoon, and then as I watched you comment and draw, I saw that you like to try to sound like an authority on art and that bugged me too, so that's the explanation for my "attack" as you put it. Hey, you're not one of those women who go around being professional victims of everything and everyone are you?

Wow. Watching the way your mind works and how you try to manipulate people and situations is fascinating. I wonder what happened to damage you so much. It's tragic to see a person with so much obvious intelligence and ability making such poor use of it.

terracotta: I can't believe you're serious.

"Well, I could have just said something like "Hey, you got the back and shoulders all screwed up." instead of trying to soften the blow and have fun about it."

Who's the one having fun about it? Just you :P? Cause it doesn't seem like she is. In terracotta's shoes, I think "Hey, you got the back and shoulders all screwed up," would have in fact, been better.

"...ah, never mind, you don't like when people try to help."

This....I just can't help but laugh 'at'.

well, I like it. I think it looks like an athletes back, completely! I really like the textures you achieved also with only manipulating one tool!

Marcello, I am serious. I think Dan has great talent and intelligence. I've told him so many times. I'm also serious about thinking there is an ethical imperative for a person with those qualities to act as a mentor and role model by treating everyone with respect instead of being mean-spirited, dismissive and derogatory in regard to other's efforts. Are you seriously fooled by the flimsy veil of sarcastic humour employed to camouflage insults?

Okay. Break it up, folks. There's nothing to see here.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that axil has a personal vendetta against anyone on the site. After all, that's my job.

man back.

When I first viewed this drawing, the thing that disturbed me about it was the right side of the back between the spine and the arm. The shadow/line depicting the indentation between the muscles appears to be too dark and it makes that area of the back sort of "bulge" towards the right arm. After viewing the reference photo, I see that the original artist has it correctly. I think the proportions on the rest of it are relatively close, but that part really throws it off.

Well yeah, that's what I meant to say :)

Thanks to those who made constructive comments. I'd like to clarify something; I thought I'd made it clear in my comment to Dave that I realized this drawing has problems, did not plan to work on it anymore but liked it well enough not to delete it. (the parts I like are the leg, foot and head/neck).
In no way do I think of myself as an authority or expert on Art, though I've made, observed and studied it for more than 50 years so I am bound to have opinions. I try to offer them in the spirit of "Here's my take on it, hope it's helpful." If that's ever offended anyone I apologize. It's my understanding that that is the reason for a community/site like this one.
I do not apologize to Dan for the drawing I made to illustrate how offensive I thought his Valentine cartoon was. Images that depict abusive/derisive or violent/hateful attitudes toward women are always going to illicit a strong negative response from me. Some may find them to be 'darkly romantic'. I don't. They anger and frighten me.

The one where he was grabbing his wife's breasts and saying "hows them floppers doin hunny?" The one he made specifically for his wife to see? I have a hard time seeing that as violent and hateful. If you can't grab your own wife's breasts then, well, whose can you? :P

So you're not planning to work on this further. That's good and well, but art students have their finished works formally criticized all the time. There are more far-reaching implications from critiques than just fixing up a specific picture, and given your 50 years of experience I would have thought you would know that.

She did see it and we laughed and it was fun and funny. Thanks Zack :)

There are more far-reaching implications from critiques than just fixing up a specific picture, and given your 50 years of experience I would have thought you would know that.

Sorry, Zack, I haven't a clue what you mean by that.

not a statement on the actual cartoon, nor taking a side in this debate.
zack: could not help but respond to your comment.

'If you can't grab your own wife's breasts then, well, whose can you? :P'

i assume this was meant in a joking and well humored way, but i feel the need to type my response anyway. consider this the answer: no one's, if it's unwelcome. sexual harrasment/abuse happens in marriages too, sadly. a man doesn't own his wife. (not implying anything about your marriage axil, i don't even recall seeing the cartoon in question) just my thought when i came across that comment.

terracotta: looks nice. the leg and foot are very cool looking.

Well if you didn't see the cartoon, you really don't know much about this and the fact that you lump my marriage in the same comment about sexual abuse is fucked up. And by the way, I DO own her, I paid good money for her before the wedding (that's her culture). Now go ahead, trash her culture and show us all how intolerant you really are. By the way, she loves me with all her heart, I know it, she knows it and I don't need to prove it. If I walk up behind her unannounced and cup her breasts while embracing her it's perfectly fine. Sure sometimes she may be busy doing housework or whatever and she may wiggle and turn or grasp my wrists and say something like "stop it, I'm busy." and I'll kiss her ear and make her giggle or whatever, but believe me it sure as hell isn't abuse so you can take you brainwashed politically correct warped views on what is and what isn't appropriate in the home and shove em ok? I've been married longer than you've been out of diapers so when you reach this mile marker, I may listen to something you may have to say about the subject.

I never thought I'd see the day where I agreed with Axil, but some people need to grow a thicker skin. Sexual abuse should not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of a man touching his wife's breasts! Of course that can be done abusively, but any kind of intimate contact could. Is child abuse the first thing that comes to mind when I talk about a father slapping his son on the back? Context makes a huge difference here, and to simply assume that it's an act of abuse without any contextual clue is the height of presumption.

In one of my current studio art classes, there are two key moments of critique: a progress critique, and a final critique. I find the final critiques just as useful because they analyze the culminations of my artistic vision, and I have the opportunity to see flaws that I might not have seen otherwise. Even if it was a flaw I was already aware of, the criticism sticks in my mind for the future.

If I finish a picture and am told it feels like it doesn't have enough depth and contrast, you can be certain that for my next picture I will be mindful of the depth and contrast while I work. This encourages an attitude where pictures are seen not just as ends, but as means to improve skills for the future. This attitude is widespread in artistic circles and given your 50 years of experience I am genuinely surprised you didn't understand that.

Yeah, so there.

damn, you guys type so much out :\

as for my comment on this picture, I think it looks good :D

axil, i specifically said, that i was not making a comment toward you, your marriage, or your cartoon. in fact, i mentioned abuse only in the instance that the advance was unwelcome. to accuse me of insulting her culture seems harsh, but i'll take it. wasn't intended as such. zack, i agree. my comment was a general reaction to the statement, despite the fact i knew it wasn't intended in that way.

i apologize for any harm done by my only semi-related thought.

Oh ok, well that's fine then. :)

"I like how the right side looks like she has a man back with a big dent in it! Like her man back side was in a big bar fight one night because this one guy took all the pretzels and one thing lead to another and ole' half man back thought she should get up and do something about it but then the other guy had a friend who usually doesn't come to that bar, no he usually goes to the 4 U lounge, but he went there this time and when ole' half man back stood up he knew he had to have his buddy's back... his buddy was a man so his whole back was a man back, not like this lady's back, but anyway, so he saw ole' half man back get up to do something about something an he slammed her upper right shoulder area with an extra 4 inch lead pipe he happened to be carrying around, not his good one that he had in his coat pocket for something else, but his extra one. So that's what I like about this picture when I look at it."

I'd just like to ask Zack one last question here. Is this what you call, 'formal criticism'? Of course, you could be referring to criticism given to terracotta by people besides Axil. But I'm pretty sure terracotta's posts were in response to Axil. Although, I haven't had 50 yrs of experience myself, I've never heard of giving criticism in 'tell-a-funny-story' form in any of my classes. And I can assure you, if that were the case, I wouldn't waste my money or time on such an unprofessional school.

No. What I was agreeing with Axil about was the issue of sexual abuse re: his cartoon. His critique was informal and absurd. I do not consider the issue of the picture being finished relevant to an analysis of the motivation behind any critique, formal or informal, since critiques on finished pictures are just as legitimate as critiques on works-in-progress.

The absurdity of Axil's comment speaks for itself, and to imply that he was being meanspirited for pointing out flaws in a finished picture demonstrates to me a lack of understanding of the nature of artistic critique in a learning environment. That is to say, Axil may have been meanspirited in his comment (I can't tell), but that has nothing to do with the fact that he was criticizing a finished picture.