Week four of costume studies! More armor drawings, using figure reference for the poses and all my previous studies for the armor. All the poses incidentally are from female models, but I didn’t do anything to “feminize” the armor for the female figure — I just drew the armor as-is from the reference, which I suppose makes it all “reasonable armor,” seeing as they’re all based on historic sources.

133 of 365:

Pose reference by Marcus J Ranum

134 of 365:

Pose reference by Marcus J Ranum

135 of 365:

Pose reference by Marcus J Ranum

136 of 365:

Pose reference by Hong Ly, Marcus J Ranum

137 of 365:

Pose reference by Hong Ly, Marcus J Ranum

138 of 365:

Pose reference by Marcus J Ranum

139 of 365:

Pose reference by Marcus J Ranum

Week three of costume studies, and just as promised — more armor drawings. A page of helmets, a page of cuirasses, and then a whole bunch of pages just drawing armor from reference. I’m still pretty unfamiliar with armor in general, but drawing it over and over again seems to be a good way of getting those forms into my head.

126 of 365:

Armor reference: A Knight and His Armor by Ewart Oakeshott

127 of 365:

Armor reference: European Armour in the Tower of London by Arthur Richard Dufty

128 of 365:

Armor reference: European Armour in the Tower of London by Arthur Richard Dufty

129 of 365:

Armor reference: European Armour in the Tower of London by Arthur Richard Dufty

130 of 365:

Armor reference: Heraldry and Armor of the Middle Ages by Marvin H Pakula

131 of 365:

Armor Reference: Arms and Armor by Paul Martin

132 of 365:

Armor reference: European Armour in the Tower of London by Arthur Richard Dufty

More costume studies this week (from the same book as last week, Historic Costume in Pictures), with a few pages trying to analyze the layers of clothing that make up a particular costume, although I ended up just making up the layers that I couldn’t see. And then I spent a couple of pages specifically studying armor, after A Knight and His Armor by Ewart Oakeshott, which has some great diagrams and even better explanations.

Probably going to continue armor studies into next week, as dry a subject as that might be. But I also picked up a book from the library on 1930s and 40s fashion, so I might also take a break and switch over to that if I feel so inclined.

119 of 365:

120 of 365:

121 of 365:

122 of 365:

123 of 365:

124 of 365:

125 of 365:

Let’s talk about costumes.

I draw a lot of figures. It’s a subject I really enjoy, probably more than any other. And because I’ve drawn the figure so much, it’s something that comes fairly easily to me.

But something happens whenever I try to draw costumes on those figures, which is that my mind goes blank. I struggle. I have no idea what to draw. I just don’t have the memory library to invent even the most basic of costume ideas. Everything that comes out is a half-remembered cliche, and anything I use from reference feels like I’m copying by rote. I just don’t have a strong enough visual library when it comes to costumes.

Well, this week I’m trying to remedy that. This week is costume studies from an old Dover book, Historic Costume in Pictures. Which is apparently not an accurate survey of the actual clothing of the period (if the Amazon reviews are to be believed), but I think it’ll do for my purposes, which is just to practice costumes at all, and to get into my head some of the common details that show up all the time in fantasy-ish clothing and armor.

112 of 365:

113 of 365:

114 of 365:

115 of 365:

116 of 365:

117 of 365:

118 of 365:

New digital painting! Technically my first new painting of the year, if you don’t count the three weeks of personal paintings I did back in March. In any case, it’s my first painting of the year outside of my daily pages, which makes it something of a milestone — proof that I’ll have more to show at the end of the year than just 365 pages of studies and exercises.

After a photo by Jessica Truscott, painted for her Creative Challenge #21.