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I had a lot of free time over the last two years, and sometimes I would occupy myself by drawing pictures. I thought I might share them with the board, let me know what you think. I actually wanted a calendar and because I couldn't get one sent in or dropped off or purchased, I decided to 'make' one. It's easy enough to format a set of tables in Word, but drawing the girls was the fun part. I know I have a fair bit to go before I actually get good at drawing, but this is a hell of a lot better than what I've done before. I used magazine photos as the source for many of the pictures. The first picture is Silk Spectre and Nite Owl from Watchmen, there was a photo in a movie magazine I used as a reference. Obviously it's incomplete. The second came from a J. Scott Campbell comic, so if you're familiar with his work you'll no doubt see his influence in that one. The Cavewoman girls are from a Paul Renaud comic I had. The rest of them are models.

They're not perfect (the drawings, I mean). When I scanned them the high resolution seemed to show the flaws even more so than I remembered. I didn't have a great many tools where I was, just pencil and paper. Not good paper either, but copy paper. As for the pencils, I prefer pacers but well, I couldn't get those and the pencils I did have were not... readily available anyway. (to briefly explain, you could only buy soft-lead pencils in the prison's canteen, but these were shit - the leads would break easily and the pencils weren't rigid in my hand. Let's just say I 'found' a box of hard-lead pencils and *ahem* 'appropriated' them for myself)

I'm an image hosting n00b. I would like to post the high-res scans, but photobucket resized them. Maybe it's for the best. Anyway, I'd appreciate some feedback from those artistically inclined, although I mainly posted this to show what I got up to when I was locked up. This was some of the better things I'll remember from my time (mainly because it took me outside of my confines for all the hours I spent on each drawing, which was absolutely crucial for me).

So you weren't allowed calenders but you were allowed Ralph/FHM? Pretty good!

tim31 wrote:So you weren't allowed calenders but you were allowed Ralph/FHM? Pretty good!

The rules they have in prison are absurd. Especially Port Phillip, logic had a way of... not working. It was like being in a fucked up episode of The Twilight Zone.

For example, you could have magazines, but you had to buy them through the prison, which is totally and completely different to what every other prison in the state does it (there you could have approved magazines dropped off by visitors). One month Ralph had a calendar as part of the magazine, and the bastards took it out and left it in my property box. (this is in another location in the prison that inmates have no access to)

Depending on the quirk of the wind, the whim of the gods, how the stars were aligned, some rules would be selectively enforced while others would be ignored. Sometimes that worked in one's favour. A great example of that was when they did a mass-search of every cell to a unit. Some cells would get trashed when the screws searched it, while others it seemed like they looked under the bedding and that was it. I've experienced both, but more so the latter (I find the trashing usually takes place with screws who were unfamiliar to me, the screws who knew me I imagine would take five in my cell because they knew I wouldn't be up to any mischief).

You draw great hair. I suppose you can nitpick that some of the girls' arms look a wee bit on the skinny side, but I really like the way you get the little incidental details in poses right. Good texture work, too.

They are really good, though some proportions (like the eyes and nose) are off just by a little bit, some of the titties too. But they are really bloody damn good. Just needs a little bit of polishing, really.

September 2009 is a very good impression of Keeley Hazell.

That's just crazy about no calender rules though... Sounds like something you'd expect in a gulag.

Nice drawings.

I suppose the irrationally draconian "No Calender" rule is in place to deprive the inmates of properly knowing the passage of time. Not giving innocuous stuff to inmates from outside the jug is because the guards are wary of more illicit stuff being smuggled in.

those are awesome - april '08 could use some red beans and rice, though

The Silk Spectre and Nite Owl one is pretty good (as is the Campbell-influenced one). I'd agree with some of the other posters here-- a little polish on the faces (and a tiny bit of work on a few of the bodies here and there), and I'd buy it. The poses themselves, though, are golden. You have a good eye for positioning and detail, good sir.

Your best option when using Photobucket, at least without paying for it, is to change the limit to a 1 MB file size. Before you choose a file to upload, click the Reduce to: drop-down box at the bottom of the uploader section, and select 1 megabyte file size. Then you're pretty much set except for bitmaps and large-format images with lots of different colors in them.

Don't be so harsh on yourself Stofsk. You have talent for drawing. Those are especially good. You must do more drawing and post them for us to see.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I can see what you all mean with the thin arms, but I think the bigger problem has to be the hands. Some of the hands I've drawn leave a lot to be desired.

Eyes are also an irritating thing to try and get right, especially after I've added the details like the eyelashes and the shadow of the mascara. It gets hard to go back and fix them because the eraser tends not to get it all rubbed out. Look at Miss February '08 to see what I mean: I went back and tried to fix those eyes nearly half a dozen times and each time it got harder and harder. Now she has panda eyes and the eye on our left looks bigger than the one on the right.

tim31 wrote:September 2009 is a very good impression of Keeley Hazell.

That's just crazy about no calender rules though... Sounds like something you'd expect in a gulag.

Thanks. I used photos of Keeley for a lot of the pictures. She's very photogenic.

Stosfk, wow. Your stuff is really, really good. I mean, there's imperfections here and there, but but none that really jump out unless you're looking for them. Your stuff is leaps and bounds better than anything I've ever managed to scrawl out.

And yeah, I'm in on the wtf over magazines but no calenders. Maybe it's to keep inmates from obsessing over the date? (like that'll help, but still...)

Nice stuff my man. I love how you can see a thread of improvement throughout the pictures. You definitely need to keep at it.

Also, stop putting back on to Keeley Hazel, you bastard.

Kuja wrote:Stosfk, wow. Your stuff is really, really good. I mean, there's imperfections here and there, but but none that really jump out unless you're looking for them. Your stuff is leaps and bounds better than anything I've ever managed to scrawl out.

And yeah, I'm in on the wtf over magazines but no calenders. Maybe it's to keep inmates from obsessing over the date? (like that'll help, but still...)

I think it was more the girls in bikinis or lingerie that was the real issue. They were actually considering stopping those magazines from being made available for purchase, but I think they scrapped that idea. Oh well. It's not like I need to worry about that shit now.

Ford Prefect wrote:Nice stuff my man. I love how you can see a thread of improvement throughout the pictures. You definitely need to keep at it.

Also, stop putting back on to Keeley Hazel, you bastard.

I can't help it. She bewitched me with her lovely feminine curves. (Vympel's the same as you, I got him onto Lucy Pinder)

Stofsk wrote:Thanks everyone for your comments. I can see what you all mean with the thin arms, but I think the bigger problem has to be the hands. Some of the hands I've drawn leave a lot to be desired.

Eyes are also an irritating thing to try and get right, especially after I've added the details like the eyelashes and the shadow of the mascara. It gets hard to go back and fix them because the eraser tends not to get it all rubbed out. Look at Miss February '08 to see what I mean: I went back and tried to fix those eyes nearly half a dozen times and each time it got harder and harder. Now she has panda eyes and the eye on our left looks bigger than the one on the right.

Eyes are a problem for a lot of people. One trick I learned is to do your drawing, then turn the paper over and hold it up to the light (as long as you're not working on something REALLY thick). You can really see the shape and placement of the eyes a lot better when you look at them reversed. Another is to use a really light pencil (something like a 4 or 6H lead), and draw the shapes in very lightly before using a darker pencil to go over the lines you like.

Hope that helps!


Oh... I just had to add... I don't know you, and this may not be the best thread for it, but in any case, a HUGE congratulations on your release. At least you kept busy with something... you have REAL talent.

Not bad.

You need to work on keeping your different body parts in proportion to each other. It looks like you are drawing them independently from each other then assembling them and they aren't all quite the correct size. June 2009 looks to be your best effort in keeping all of the girls body parts in proportion.

Your eyes are actually your strongest feature as I look at it. You do a good job of making it look like there is something there and don't just do the solid color that most people do.

Your weakest features are your forearms and hands, specifically, where they meet.

You have something to build on for sure, but I would suggest an anatomy book if you want to keep on getting better.

When you talk about proportions, can you be more specific? As far as the boobs are concerned, hey I'm just going by the pictures. I notice that sometimes it seems as though I draws heads a little too small in relation to the rest of the body.

The eyes sometimes look as though they're not correctly lined up with each other, which is what I was referring to. Once drawn, it can be extremely irritating to discover they're not perfect and then have to go back and redo them. But at least they look like eyes are supposed to. Would you say they're expressive?

Looking through my pictures again, sometimes I get the hands to work, but not always. And the arms do seem thin, but on the other hand the girls did seem to have petite arms.

The Cooler King wrote:Oh... I just had to add... I don't know you, and this may not be the best thread for it, but in any case, a HUGE congratulations on your release. At least you kept busy with something... you have REAL talent.

Thanks.

Havok wrote:You need to work on keeping your different body parts in proportion to each other. It looks like you are drawing them independently from each other then assembling them and they aren't all quite the correct size.

Would you say it's good practice to build figures from the inside out, over a basic skeleton, than to focus on the exterior from the beginning? Doing that seemed to work slightly better than usual for the one time I tried it, though the skull still ended up being on the small side.

Stofsk wrote:When you talk about proportions, can you be more specific? As far as the boobs are concerned, hey I'm just going by the pictures. I notice that sometimes it seems as though I draws heads a little too small in relation to the rest of the body.

The eyes sometimes look as though they're not correctly lined up with each other, which is what I was referring to. Once drawn, it can be extremely irritating to discover they're not perfect and then have to go back and redo them. But at least they look like eyes are supposed to. Would you say they're expressive?

Looking through my pictures again, sometimes I get the hands to work, but not always. And the arms do seem thin, but on the other hand the girls did seem to have petite arms.

Hope this helps for you... it's the formula I've learned over the years. It's mainly used for things like comic books, but it works for 'normal' art, as well.


The human body has certain anatomical proportions. The easist way to measure them while drawing is to use head size. The average human being is about 7 to 8 and a half heads high. The arms and legs are also usually multiples of head size. What kind of art you're working on determines what multiple of heads you use (for realistic proportions, use 7 heads; for comic-bookish ones, use 7 and a half to 8 and a half).

Here are some online illustrated examples of what I'm talking about.


Wikipedia, but surprisingly accurate

Somewhat realistic look at proportions

Not only proportions, but techniques, as well



Hope these help. They're the first few that came up in a Google search. Personally, I use the old How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way book-- an invaluable asset, in my experience.

Stofsk wrote:When you talk about proportions, can you be more specific? As far as the boobs are concerned, hey I'm just going by the pictures. I notice that sometimes it seems as though I draws heads a little too small in relation to the rest of the body.

Boobs are proportion immune. Don't worry about them. Actually, you seem to draw heads, and more specifically faces, too large rather than too small.

The eyes sometimes look as though they're not correctly lined up with each other, which is what I was referring to. Once drawn, it can be extremely irritating to discover they're not perfect and then have to go back and redo them. But at least they look like eyes are supposed to. Would you say they're expressive?

I would say you got across well what the original pictures tried to get across, which was the vacant, sultry, come fuck me look. Also, no two eyes are the same, so if they aren't exactly perfect it is OK and sometimes them being a little off adds to the realness of the face.

Looking through my pictures again, sometimes I get the hands to work, but not always. And the arms do seem thin, but on the other hand the girls did seem to have petite arms.

Petite arms are still have skin, muscle, tendons and ligaments on them. Some of your arms are so thin, they look like bones with just skin. But again, I don't think that is a failing in understanding the make up of the arm, but of just not looking at the drawing as a whole as you are going which leads to things being out of proportion.

Simplicius wrote:Would you say it's good practice to build figures from the inside out, over a basic skeleton, than to focus on the exterior from the beginning? Doing that seemed to work slightly better than usual for the one time I tried it, though the skull still ended up being on the small side.

Some people think so and I would tend to agree. I don't use "blocking" myself and more often than not, I don't even do a rough sketch. However I know that it can definitely help and there are times when I should be doing it, but I am too impatient and lazy to go through the process. For me, it is more just memorization of rules I have established for myself. I know that certain things are so far from a certain point or something will always line up with something else.

Nice stuff, Stofsk! The Decembers are Lucy Pinder and Michelle Marsh, right?

And yeah, that Keeley is really nicely done.

Phantasee wrote:Nice stuff, Stofsk! The Decembers are Lucy Pinder and Michelle Marsh, right?

Yep, good catch!

And yeah, that Keeley is really nicely done.

Which one?

2,3,5 and September are pretty damn good!
You might want to try using Flickr, it's meant for photos, but it's far less restrictive file size wise.