Michael Mentler

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>>2691236

Also if anyone's got his book, I'd suck a dick for it.

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>>2691237
>What do you try to express in your work?
>"For me the expression is in the creative process, not the product.
The product is only a faint reflection of the original experience."

>What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?
>"Get out of bed."

>Do you have any regrets in this career or things you'd have done differently?
>"In the end, if you had a choice, you are probably not an artist."

>Best piece of advice for young artists?
>"Being an artist is not for sissies."

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>>2691240

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>>2691242

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>>2691243
Last of the dump. There's a load of anatomy, gesture and construction on Pinterest from this guy.

>>2691236
He knows his stuff, but he's a little too stylized for good learning. He used to be pretty known when he posted regularly on CA, but I guess all those images are gone now.

I've known about him. Just another one who draws sketches with some old master influence and thinks they're continuing some legacy but don't do any paintings or complete works.

>>2691236
can someone explain to me why when it's drawn on some old paper and has recognition it's revered, but when someone on /ic/ draws and posts literally the same thing quality wise it's called utter garbage ?

just because there's a shit ton of construction lines doesn't mean it's good, it's actually pretty fucking bad.

>>2691236
He just kinda vanished off the face of the Earth.

>>2691356
I can taste the salt from here

>>2691379
smell it all you want, taste it, make recipes with it and it doesn't make it any less true.

>>2691389
Mentler's got a couple bad habits and weird stylizations, and he can't do finished work at all, but regardless his little sketches like this are better than what people on /ic/ can do by a long shot and his backing of anatomical knowledge is actually really incredible.

He never made his book as far as I know. He's just some old autistic guy that draws gestures and diagrams over and over and wishes he was Leonardo da Vinci. I remember him from conceptart.org probably back in 2004 or some shit

>>2691395
>I remember him from conceptart.org probably back in 2004 or some shit
The dude had like 5 sketchbooks in different sections of the site each with like 90 pages, and in every one he was talking about how he was just about finished his book or dvd or whatever, and it was gonna come out next month...next month....next month...for like 10 years

>>2691397
"Hey Michael, are you finished with those errands?"

>>2691356
this
The guy fooled a lot of people at ca with his yellowed paper and fancy handwriting.

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>>2691497
some of his really early stuff from before he knew how to draw or write nicely and before he used yellow paper is absolutely hilarious

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Dat fucking head
I remember his posts on ca. The guy always rubbed me wrong. His speciality is teaching construction and proportions yet he is terrible at it.

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>>2691539

I'd rather learn from someone that draws like this

>>2691543
>no old paper
>no fancy handwritting
This is utter garbage!

>>2691543
I've met this guy. Really cool guy.

>>2691570
He also used to post on CA back in the day, and he was pretty young at the time (late teens/early 20's) but I remember him being so incredibly knowledgable even back then. I'm glad he's continued to grow and seems like a great teacher.

it's pretty nice to look at but all his gestures have a weird tension about them
none of them seem relaxed

>>2691240
Dude sounds fun in party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-N6zn08UB4

Looks like he came out with a book.

>>2691593
the italian masters who he tries to mimic would say "porcoddio che merda"

>>2691236
Bridgmans figure sketches aren't that good, he is mostly useful for how well he explains what matters when it comes to anatomy.

Staring at perfectly rendered anatomy sketches is missing most of what anatomy is about, except you want to render like the guy. But it still won't allow you to construct anatomy well, which is step 10 or so.

Get Bridgman if you want to learn anatomy, get the guy in OPs pic if you want to drool like a consumer whore who cares more about looking than doing. This is no different than "concept art" for consumers.

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Personally I think Michael Hampton is the best at gesture drawing and specially when it comes to teaching. All I know was through his books.

>>2691543
I don't like how he does the mouth tho. Makes everyone look like a monkey because the lips don't jut out as they do irl

>>2691392
what's the point of being good at the basics, if he can't do anything with them? That might make him an excellent student, not a master or a teacher

>>2691730
That's exactly my argument whenever someone wants to tell me Vilppu is better than Loomis. Have you seen their finished work? Loomis was a hundred times the artist Vilppu is.

>>2691740
>Have you seen their finished work? Loomis was a hundred times the artist Vilppu is.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0898449/

Don't you dare talk badly about our God again.

>>2691730
The point is that Mentler isnt good at the basics. His materials polish his shitty drawings.

>>2691237
I wonder where OP lives where humans look like they do on the top left.

This thread gone retarded very fast.

>>2691577
I love statements like these. They're always so intriguing.

>>2692452
It's just that he always arches the back way more than it should be so it looks like a lot of effort to even get into the pose

>>2692457
Wow you ruined the magic.

>>2692460
If ignorance is magic, then sure. It's good to be able to find a concrete answer to why something "feels" a certain way, because then you can avoid it or use it on purpose at your will.

>>2691764
wait wait wait... is that for real ? or just a guy with a similar name ?

>>2692501

Yes it's him.

>>2692501
It's a rare name and he's been teaching animation students for decades. I've never seen that page before but I bet it's him.

>>2692501
The moral of the story is that before you learn to draw animeshit like my little pony, you have to learn the fundamentals.

>>2692634
except in none of these did he animate characters
>background
>storyboard
>layout

So from that, human construction is good enough for bgs and doing storyboards.

Learning from Villpu can be useful, but blindly following him is as always wrong.

Mentler is not for beginner artists looking for easy guides and clear drawings. He is utterly amazing at helping intermediate to advanced artists un-learn a stiff work ethic and think more deeply about the human form, anatomy and construction. Drawing stiff forms with perfect proportions day in and day out can ruin an artist. Even Hampton exaggerates his postures to help artists remedy this; his spines technically have lordosis but it works on paper. Every line has a sense of purpose and life in Mentler's work. He is one of few artists using the cranial index which is way more useful than Loomis heads. Obviously his style rubs people the wrong way since most of you go apeshit whenever anyone infuses a bit of personality in their work. I have yet to see drawings with his sense of gravity and life from any other artist. Even his basic sketches seem to breathe.

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>>2692727
>Mentler is not for beginner artists
>He is one of few artists using the cranial index which is way more useful than Loomis heads.
>a bit of personality in their work

shit artists justifying another guy's shit. Don't do that, or you'll stay shit forever.

>>2692727
Is Mentler going to be the next Riven Phoenix?

>>2692736
Mentler for construction, Riven for rendering.

>>2692727
Seeing it like this, yes, there is merrit in his work. The only things the other anons can point out is that his heads are shit, but the gesture like drawings work like a mental massage.

>>2692727
Mentler pls go.

If you look past the yellow paper, handwriting, meaningless guide- and construction lines, random pen hatching, you are left with bad drawings. The guy is hardly an intermediate artist.

>>2691728
He's probably so used to a certain set of construction that it kind of becomes his default. There was a guy on Gnomon who was the same way. I took a class with Ron Lemen( pretty nice guy) and he was saying the best way to get around that is to play with construction rather than defaulting to the proportions you learn.

>>2691725

Hampton is a hack.

>>2692961

How?

>>2692961
lol, Nick, is that you?

>>2691356
>can someone explain to me why when it's drawn on some old paper and has recognition it's revered, but when someone on /ic/ draws and posts literally the same thing quality wise it's called utter garbage ?

i've yet to see anything near this quality posted here on a regular basis... and mentler isn't more than an intermediate artist

>>2692961
If you don't give an explanation then your statement is invalid.

>>2693046

Don't worry, I'll make an infographic and type a long paragraph why I think he is a hack. It'll take about 30 minutes to an hour.

>>2692966
no sorry

>>2692739
kek

>>2693047
>>It'll take about 30 minutes to an hour.
>5 hours later

Dr Bones (his name on cgtalk) was always about little things like the yellow paper and fancy font. IMHO there are way better anatomy teachers.

>>2691236

He has decent penmanship but poor drawing skill. That's pretty much all there is to his work, poop presented with bells and whistles

>>2691236
he disappeared and didn't make it.

>>2693308
Anon...

>>2693047
>10,000 hours later

He used to run a figure drawing workshop in north Dallas. Don't know if he still does it.

The guy went to the same art academy as Glen Vilppu. If you've ever watched any of Vilppu's videos, the proportions (upper torso split into thirds at clavicle and xyphoid for example), heavy emphasis on contour lines, etc. are largely the same. Obviously their outcomes are different, but you can tell they had the same teacher at one point.

In addition to his drawings, he had his figure paintings hanging around his workspace. Straightforward figures in dynamic poses, good blending and modeling, but he pushed the colors into weird places. Reminded me of the more weird paintings from impressionists like Cassat or Degas.

>>2691725
>hampton
>best at gesture drawing

Not hardly. See Yan.

Hampton is a good beginner resource though.

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>>2696494
Whoops forgot pic

>>2696494

Yan is literally a freak of nature though. I have never seen anyone execute a full figure drawing at the caliber he can by starting at the head and then just moving down piecemeal.

>>2691356
>when someone on /ic/ draws and posts literally the same thing quality wise
> literally the same thing quality wise

Dunning-Krueger: The post.

>>2692971
>>2696502
just go to the figure invention thread and there's already a few people better than him just in that thread. And they're not even 70 yet.

>>2696632
Nobody in that thread is at Mentler's level.

>>2696636
yeah you're right, they're all better.

>>2696638
Link even one

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>>2696642
>>2687390
>>2689970
>>2693836
>>2694138
>>2694785
>>2695843
all of these either are already better, or will be in a few months or years. years because i'm generous towards mentler. His knowledge is good, his execution is horrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWYTGWRUrLs

The guy can't even draw a semi decent skull with one in his fucking hands. it seems you have fallen for the old paper and thousand construction lines meme.

>>2696691
>or will be in a few months or years
Lol, you can say that about any one who is a worse artist..."well in a few years they can become better"

>>2696694
>because i'm generous towards mentler
also, most of these are already better.

>>2696698
His proportions are weird and his backs are broken and his heads are wonky as all hell. Yes, he has weird stylizations. He's still been autisticly drawing and constructing figures to the exclusion of all else for decades though, so he still even with those detracting points is better than people on /ic/ when it comes to the figure, especially for anatomical knowledge.

>>2696699
doesn't matter, draw is still equal to suck.

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>>2696699
>especially for anatomical knowledge.
>His knowledge is good, his execution is horrible.
I am already aware of this, that's what I just said, but that still doesn't change anything. that's exactly why those linked, are actually better at constructing the figure even though some are lacking knowledge. I mean come on now, I'm not saying the guy is fucking hitler, i'm just saying that there are people better than even here, which if you have any sense or understanding of anatomy, can see right away.

>His proportions are weird and his backs are broken and his heads are wonky as all hell
>he has weird stylizations
why is this called stylizations instead of just plain bad application of his knowledge ? since when everything wrong with someone's drawing is a "stylization" ? there are plenty of doctors/surgeons that know the body by heart, down to the little detail, to the nerves even, but that doesn't make them good artists, same with mentler.

>>2696712
Those figures are clearly stylized though. He's obviously been looking at some mannerist artists and is intentionally stretching things out and elongating them.

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>>2696728
Mannerist figures rarely ever have the kind of sickly and bony effect that the vast majority of artists who seem to be influenced by them or claim to be so have.

Even this one is exaggerated.

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>>2696752
If you measure, the limbs are actually quite thick and not malnourished-seeming at all.

>>2696752
Well fashions and trends in bodies shift. It's more the idea of stretching out the figure I think. Don't forget too that we have the benefit of like 400 extra years of art development since then that we can pick and choose what we want from. Maybe he picked up some things from people closer to our time as well, like the bony sickly look you mention was used a lot by guys like Schiele and Klimt.

>>2696755
Or maybe his drawings are just extremely lacking.

>>2696758
Or maybe they aren't lacking as much as you think and they're just not to your taste

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>>2696755
I don't really know what Mentler's take is on the Mannerist atists. If he even consciously takes after them at all. It was more in case he was, and a general take on when artists claim to be inspired by mannerism of the 1500s, which again I'm not sure if he really is. I think because they read the word "elongated" in history books make their figures as strange as they do now, and often the most direct way towards that is to make them bony and malnourished-looking.

I guess I was speaking somewhat out of topic, but it was just something I found to be interesting.

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>>2696769
Wrong file.

This guy is like a parody of /ic/.

ITT: justifying shit

>>2691236
Only thing that you guys should consider learning from him is his fancy handwritting.

>>2696875
It's tacky. Letters are more beautiful if they are even and legible.

>>2696712
This is like some silent hill concept art. This mentler guy is clearly out of his mind

>>2696875
can't read shit captain

>>2697171
His writing is nice from a visual standpoint but I agree it's illegible and since that defeats the purpose they seem kind of tacky. If you actually take the time to read what he write and decipher it you are just left with generic advice about art that is usually pretty obvious stuff anyways and not even related to the drawings.

>>2691518
Ayy

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>>2691236
>get washed out paper
>draw some shit studies
>insert unreadable notes all over the place
>fucking modern da Vinci

>>2699131
This. The Sycra old timey paperoo meme should die.

>here's a new learning resource, let's shit all over it
>why am I not improving guys pls help
You dips couldn't recognize a master even if he sucked your dick. He can fuck with the rules because he spent decades obeying them, but once it doesn't look like the 8 heads tall vanilla idealized handsome squidward meme with zero personality, it's not good enough for you.

Have fun gitting gud the hard way, Ima do some studies of this before moving on. Every stroke has a purpose, all the exaggeration is fun to mess with, gets to normal once you start rendering and leaves a nice, fluid gesture.

>>2699169

fuck you nigga, I think sepia ink + toned paper looks awesome.

>>2696502

I'm not questioning the guy's skill or knowledge, but in a vaccum if someone posted >>2691242 here he'd probably get shit on and told to slow down and do cleaner sketches.

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>>2699210
well then I'd proceed to call that person an uneducated cunt

>>2699207
>pic related

>>2699229
holy shit, it's a masterpiece

>>2699203
>Every stroke has a purpose
>mentler

Beginner pls. Train your eyes, faggot.