www.artist-reference.com

The CG Channel is an online magazine that pays homage to the industry that made watching animated movies cool – Visual Effects and Computer Graphics. A part of the Gnomon group of industries, the website itself is also updated everyday which means that it provides visitors with everything that is happening in the world of special effects as it comes.

Like the Gnomon Workshop, CG Channel’s purpose is to “inspire” artists and designers that will ultimately have a hand in taking the world of graphics design to the next level. Their claim to fame owes to the fact that they have access to some of Hollywood’s “best artists and studios for unique, insightful content.”

As far as the layout of the website is concerned, I was a bit disappointed to find that all the homepage included was stuff they had for sale. I kind of expected the homepage to have text that at the very least gave me an idea of what the website is all about without me having to click every single tab to find out. I mean I know that it isn’t exactly a B2C website, but that doesn’t mean that they do not mention anything about themselves from the start. In fact, their About page had all this and a bag of chips so I was surprised that it wasn’t the first thing I saw when I visited the website.

Other than that, cgchannel.com is a fairly well made website. It includes a standard search bar at the top of the page if you get lost. Besides that their tabs include topics such as Features, Galleries, Community, Training, Competitions and info about their online store. What the Training tab offers speaks for itself. It includes training videos that you can purchase and also has their prices on display. The videos are tutorials from professional graphics designers and artists so that explains the hefty price tags. I was glad to see that the website also offered free online tutorials. They might not be as extensive as the ones that are actually up for sale, however, watching them would still be useful if you want to get an idea about the quality of their tutorials and whether buying their other videos would actually be worth it. Chalk one up for authenticity!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Summary

+    Free online video tutorials give good examples of their work and also help in determining whether the quality of their training sessions is really something worth spending your money over.  Plus a lot of interesting information from the field of CG graphics.

-     No information about the website on the home page.

Popularity: 14% [?]

As we have been focused on Gnomon group’s websites, here we come with another one equally interesting and inspiring as the other discussed – sketchtheatre.com. As their profile says, the aim of Sketch Theatre is to expose “young” minds to opportunities that might be a great stepping stone for them when it comes to a career in digital art design. In other words, it is a place for young talents that aspire to make a career in the special effects industry in the future. Basically Sketch Theatre is a place for amateur artists to display their own works whether their art is based on comic book design, animation, films, entertainment design (like creatures, sets and props) and even music.

Let´s move to the description of what sketchtheatre.com include. The home page of Sketchbook Theatre has a standard search bar at the top as well as videos in which different artists display their own works. The best part about these videos of this website is the fact that artists actually give a sort of play by play of how they created their sketches. These “demonstrations” are also followed up by background music of the artist’s own choose. Also, the website includes instructional videos that feature sketching demonstrations from professionals in the field of character design, illustration, comics and more. Come to think of it, I did find one similarity between the gnomonworkshop.com and this one. Both sites have a forums page where artists can discuss topics related to their interests as well as competitions. However, that’s where the similarity ends.

The “Interviews” section includes, well, interviews with some of Sketch Theatre’s most talented artists, and not just any artists. The website interviews the artists who have had the pleasure of working in big budget box office hits. For example, one of the featured interviews includes that of Aaron Sims, a special effects artist that has worked on “some of the most popular, defining movies of the 1990’s” like Gremlins 2, Mighty Joe Young, Men in Black, Batman Forever and Nutty Professor too.

Besides that, sketchtheatre.com offers the latest news about industry and artists who made their mark in their respected fields. As a digital art enthusiast, I would like to keep myself updated on what is new in the world of visual effects so such information was a definite plus for me. The “Store” section also caught my attention – with sketch pieces and T-shirts on offer. Some of them went for about 29 USD. However, there were also specialized ones, like the Cameron Davis limited edition sketch T-shirts, that go for a whopping 45 USD per a piece. One thing is for sure – the quality of the sketch designs on these items means that you are getting your money’s worth.

Another thing I found interesting was a competition in which amateur sketch artists could pit their skills against each other. Winners could get their hands on exclusive Gnomon DVDs (tutorials) as well as other products offered by the gnomonworkshop.com.  Items such as these would definitely come in handy for an aspiring 3D artist so the competition is also a definite plus.

However, to tell you the truth, the News and Interviews section did not seem very different from each other, as both are featuring works of different artists via videos. I was also annoyed that I had to go to the actual website of the artist whose video demonstration I wanted to watch in the News section. As for the navigation aspect, there is nothing much to maneuver through since the site doesn’t have that much to offer, but this might have more to do with the site’s elementary theme than anything else. Overall, this site is a great place for budding artists to see what other aspirants that are gunning for a place in the 3D industry are doing.

Summary

+ This website provides a great place for budding artists to showcase their sketching talents via video demonstrations.

- One has to go to other links if  wanted to view the profiles of famous artists in the News section which is annoying.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Drawing is a type of visual expression and one of the major forms within the visual arts. There are sub categories of drawing like figure drawing, sketching, doodle drawing, thumbnail drawing and many others. Being an artist, figure drawing has always been my hobby. As I pursued figure drawing online, I found many website on the internet giving guidance on the subject but the one I really liked was figuredrawings.com. In following lines I’ll share my experience of this artistic website to help artists and CG experts to better utilize this source.

Official name of the website, as it appears on the site, is “Figure Drawings and Portraits”. It is an online marketplace of literature on making human figures, portraits and sketches. This website is spread over two platforms which are a website and a blog (figure-drawings.blogspot.com). Being more active, the blog contains latest activities and offers, which normally include newly added ebooks. In my opinion, it’s one of the most detailed website on human figure drawing and contains knowledge which is hardly available elsewhere. Ebooks are mostly placed on Amazon but some are available on Google book store as well. A short intro of all online publications is available also on the website. This website covers drawing of each and every part of human body. Moreover, it is not a place offering just tips and tricks or a re-gathered data from the internet to draw a better human figure. On figuredrawings.com you get great ways to draw high quality drawings, however most of the instructions are completely understandable only to artists because often they are written in professional style and could be bit difficult for a layman. As the drawing of human figure is concerned exclusively with human body so this website contains lots of nudism which is present in shape of nude male/female model’s images. Hundreds of real life photos from the lives of artists are present on the site to give a real insight of figure drawing as a profession.

However, figuredrawing.com is not a website meant to give you an eye-soothing effect on first glance. It is a website with plenty of text and links with not good looking buttons, navigation menus, slideshows and flash animations. It does not even contain a sidebar! There is a cream colored background which is extensively cluttered with brown text and typical blue color links. If we compare this site with similar sites of the same niche, it may take a lead in terms of stuff it offers but when we talk about layout of the content, it is highly disappointing. There is no concept of arranging similar stuff under some category or tag. Finding something on figuredrawings.com is extremely difficult except that you find your desired stuff right on the start of homepage. By merely having a look on a link you do not get any hint about where the given link is going to direct you. It is also stuffed with Google and Amazon ads which make the layout even more messy and difficult to navigate. Even if one keeps browsing this site for hours, there’s no chance to get the idea of how to find something directly.

After heavy criticism on the site’s design and organization aspects, now let’s move towards some unbeatable areas of figuredrawings.com. Forms of visual arts which are covered in never ending details include figure drawing, portrait, life drawing, sketch making, paintings and academic drawings. The knowledge which is available on this website is sufficient to become a world-class professional artist. In addition, links to various art directories, galleries and drawing sites are provided to explore more stuff online. ‘How to’ guides collection is of very good quality and every concept is illustrated by supporting images, making it easy to comprehend. There is a sense of liveliness and freshness throughout the website’s content which has been brought by number of real life professionals who are connected to this site in one or other way. I have no hesitation in stating that figuredrawings.com is one of the most authenticated places for getting know-how on figure drawings. The major advantage is that you get almost everything in one place. These are some of the major reasons for this website being famous and also the reason I have decided to review this site.

When it comes to price, figuredrawings.com offers valuable and practical literature for a nominal price. No package or membership is offered, if you want to purchase something from this site you have the option to either buy from the site directly or purchase it from Amazon and Google ebook store. Price varies from 4 USD to 60 USD per item. Three payment methods (Paypal, Google checkout and credit card) are available in case of purchasing. However, no money back guarantee scheme is provided so one should be careful while selecting the appropriate product. Ebooks are in normal ´.pdf´ format. Majority of them are very well written, however, you may find some with old and clumsy looking scanned copies of old books. To grab something really useful, it is better to get a printed version.

People who just require some literature from this website for their daily work maybe wouldn’t much complain in general, but people like me who spend hours in writing reviews will not let figuredrawings.com escape so easily. Despite of the fact, that this website should be meant for 18+ visitors who are mature enough to realize the meaning and context in which the nudism is shown here, one can find dozens of nude photos right on the homepage, without any warning or restrictions. Also no ‘about us’ page is available, making history and other details undiscoverable. These weak areas together with poor website design, lack of navigation menus, plenty of advertisement and very roughly organized content, have significantly reduced quality of the website and its content.

To briefly conclude, I would like to say that figuredrawings.com can be a leading online platform to get actual knowledge of drawing human figure but only if they get their weak areas worked on. Right now one may find stuff of his choice but would be probably annoyed while reaching his target.

Summary:

+ Highly technical approach to teaching human figure drawings with easy-to-comprehend images and guidelines.

- Poorly designed and chaotically organized website with high percentage of nude stuff freely available and spread all over the website.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Dynamic Anatomy Book Cover

Burne Hogart’s Dynamic Anatomy was my first anatomy book. I got it 20 years ago, at the age of 13. Since that time I have collected many more anatomy books and “how to” books, however when I recently decided to finally start drawing I chose this one.

The reason is that this book has the cleanest and easiest to read illustrations together with enough detail to draw perfect comic heroes. That’s probably the reason the latest updated edition has high praise from such comic artists as Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn.

It has 256 pages and 400 illustrations. The new version also has some previously unpublished pictures and several illustrations are re-done in color, which doesn’t really change anything but it looks nice

Overall I believe this is the best anatomy book to start with if not the absolute best in general if you want to learn male anatomy. On the other hand avoid it if your goal is to learn how to draw women. The few illustrations he has are not very flattering and kind of vague. Another con would be the 52 pages at the beginning about the art history of the human form. Its just my personal opinion but it’s a waste of paper. If I wanted to know something about history I would buy an art history book.

BTW: I am practicing my anatomy skills 2 hours per day and I started with this book. You are welcome to join me on CGtalk.com

Short summary:

+ probably the best anatomy book for comic book artists wanting to draw superheroes

- get another book if you want to learn how to draw women

My opinion:

Fantastic, highly recommended. 

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

You can buy this book on Amazon.com:

www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Anatomy-Expanded-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015521

Last time I checked it cost $16.47

Product Description

Praised by critics and teachers alike for more than 40 years, Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy is recognized worldwide as the classic, indispensable text on artistic anatomy. Now revised, expanded, and completely redesigned with 75 never-before-published drawings from the Hogarth archives and 24 pages of new material, this award-winning reference explores the expressive structure of the human form from the artist’s point of view.

The 400 remarkable illustrations explain the anatomical details of male and female figures in motion and at rest, always stressing the human form in space. Meticulous diagrams and fascinating action studies examine the rhythmic relationship of muscles and their effect upon surface forms. The captivating text is further enhanced by the magnificent figure drawings of such masters as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rodin, Picasso, and other great artists.

Dynamic Anatomy presents a comprehensive, detailed study of the human figure as artistic anatomy. This time-honored book goes far beyond the factual elements of anatomy, providing generations of new artists with the tools they need to make the human figure come alive on paper.

About the Author

Burne Hogarth’s (1911–1996) remarkable career spanned over 60 years. He wore many hats in the worlds of fine art, art education, and art publishing. He is most famous for his internationally syndicated Sunday newspaper color page feature “Tarzan” (1937–1950) and for his illustrated adaptations of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels Tarzan of the Apes and Jungle Tales of Tarzan. A co-founder of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hogarth remains one of the most influential figures in art education today.

Popularity: 46% [?]