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Art Self Study |OT| Putting the Fun in Art Fundamentals
- Thread starter DEATH
- Start date
JinjoUnchained
Member
This thread rules, there's so much to get into and learn.
Sorry if I missed it in the OP, but were there any links/videos/books for creating sprite art, pixel-by-pixel? I'm talking about making pixmaps, as opposed to scanning drawings and zooming until you have the individual pixels.
It would be helpful to me to have some good tutorials that take a real world image (say, a mouse) and deconstruct it in 2D with abstract shapes, perspective, and color theory. Then maybe touching up the sprite with shading, tessellation, anti aliasing, and other techniques?
Sorry if I missed it in the OP, but were there any links/videos/books for creating sprite art, pixel-by-pixel? I'm talking about making pixmaps, as opposed to scanning drawings and zooming until you have the individual pixels.
It would be helpful to me to have some good tutorials that take a real world image (say, a mouse) and deconstruct it in 2D with abstract shapes, perspective, and color theory. Then maybe touching up the sprite with shading, tessellation, anti aliasing, and other techniques?
I do not have any pixel-art focused resource in the OP, but I'll help you look some up. The thing is most of the tutorials that I read before were now gone/broken links. I have to look my Tumblr backlog for them.
Please be patient. I haven't updated anything for a while due to Finals and I expect myself to go full swing again after this. Thanks for consideration.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
There are so many links. Is there a recommended vid or article to learn figure drawing? I want to be able to draw characters without a reference.
Not a vid, but a series of vids. I don't think anyone can cover all of Figure Drawing in one vid/article.
For drawing from imagination, you need to draw a bunch of reference first so you will know which looks "right". While you do that, focus on drawing gestures first, as it is pretty much putting the main idea/blueprint in the paper first. It doesn't hurt to write what you want too.
What's helped me is gesture drawing (look it up).
Look at a pose and take 60 seconds to draw the 'essence' of it. No features.
You'll gradually get better at that. As you become more and more confident about being able to lay down a gesture try to reduce the lines you use, taking you pencil off of the paper (or stylus off of the drawing pad) as little as possible.
To gain a mental library of poses (which is essential for figure drawing from your imagination) you'll then want to reduce the time you spend looking at the image you are gesture drawing from. Early on you'll be glancing multiple times at your reference, and the goal is to get to the point where you can glance at your reference for a few seconds then replicate the pose as a gesture without looking away from your piece of paper (or drawing pad).
There's a more challenging exercise still. Instead of drawing a gesture from the perspective you view it from you manipulate it and draw the gesture as if the person were viewed from a different angle (so if your reference is a photograph from the side you might draw it from the front, back, other side, slightly below, slightly above as you become more confident).
But focus on the progression of it. Start with the first step and don't stop until you feel confident about your results. Jumping to the last step will only be frustrating. As you do this exercise you'll find yourself able to draw more complicated poses in a gestural form without needing to refer to something. That is the core of your drawing and proceeding to draw completely from imagination is a matter of learning anatomy, understanding perspective etc.
If I get the opportunity I'll pose some of my exercises.
The Purple Pill
Member
DEATH;164187100 said:
Oh my, those initial Proko videos are pretty great, been struggling with figure/gesture drawing but those videos were a great reminder of key basic elements in figure/gesture drawing.
I felt very stuck and frustrated these past 2 weeks when doing daily sketching, until I saw those videos, it was like finding missing puzzle pieces, which were keeping the overall element in a fog.
I guess the term here would probably be, "If you look too far ahead, you will stumble over things, which are right in front of you".
That's how it is for me too. Proko's doing a great job teaching these art concepts great. I don't think I'll get that far in drawing if I didn't stumble on his vids...
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Also guys, I know it's still finals season for some (I still have a couple of tests left) but just a quick reminder that the art challenge deadline will be this friday!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1037194
Participate guys!
Huw_Dawson
Member
I own and use one regularly.
The good:
Well-made.
Good price.
The pen is perfectly fine with a good battery.
The bad:
Drivers can be a pain. Use the latest ones off of the Huion website.
It's temperamental and sometimes doesn't play nice with Photoshop.
I've found it hard to get a medium level of pressure out of the pen. It's either too heavy or too light.
Overall, I'd rather have an Intuos but it's the best budget tablet I've ever used.
EDIT:
Oh yeah! A book recommendation:
How to Draw Manga: Pen and Tone Techniques.
Like Understanding Comics, it's a book that uses the comic form to teach. It's also, unfortunately, flipped, which is easy to spot in the text bubbles. Nevertheless it's a great primer on drawing comic art with a dib pen, emphasising the importance of using all of your arm to draw.
The last third of the book covers the use of tone screen sheets in manga art. It's interesting, especially because I don't think I've ever seen another book cover the topic.
One good idea is to do master studies. Golden Age illustrators, renaissance painters etc have already figured out most of the problems you'll have, so learn from them.
For example here are some value studies I did. Super simple, the only point is to try and understand why they chose the value (light and dark) composition that they did.
I actually wrote down what I gathered from each one, because it helps keeps your mind engaged on learning instead of mindlessly copying, plus the act of writing helps commit things to memory.
For example here are some value studies I did. Super simple, the only point is to try and understand why they chose the value (light and dark) composition that they did.
I actually wrote down what I gathered from each one, because it helps keeps your mind engaged on learning instead of mindlessly copying, plus the act of writing helps commit things to memory.
Public Service Announcement, new Art Challenge is up!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1052744
Please participate! Just let us know if you want bigger timeline!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1052744
Please participate! Just let us know if you want bigger timeline!
OrlanisWorks
Banned
Just wanted to pop in and tell about an artist's book I just purchased. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0811871258/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Really cheap at that price and absolutely worth every penny (~US$33). It's great inspiration for any artist who is interested in pushing surreal and fantastical elements into their artwork.
Really cheap at that price and absolutely worth every penny (~US$33). It's great inspiration for any artist who is interested in pushing surreal and fantastical elements into their artwork.
Angryharlot
Banned
Working on a Ferris Wheel. Got the idea from the daily 3D subreddit. I have not gotten to to texturing and materials but finished my basic shapes and will now go back to clean up and even out a few things and then make the places where they connect a bit cleaner.
Angryharlot
Banned
I figured that this one was for progress while learning. The Art-a-Day one is for projects that you finish in a day's time and that Arts and Farts was finished works.
Or at least that is what I figured.
Cheers.
Started working on a Dark Knight Returns sculpt last night. Still trying to build a competent portfolio. Looking more and more like I'll try to make this a full body sculpt. Maybe I'll finish a Harley model to throw in as well.
Angryharlot
Banned
Cheers.
Started working on a Dark Knight Returns sculpt last night. Still trying to build a competent portfolio. Looking more and more like I'll try to make this a full body sculpt. Maybe I'll finish a Harley model to throw in as well.
That looks awesome. Most of your sculpts, that I have seen have been awesome. I am still early in sculptris. I can do cartoony faces but realism is still beyond me.
Very kind of you, thanks. It took me quite a while to get anything remotely realistic but one of the big wins in ZBrush is how relatively easy it is to get started. Like anything else, practice, practice. Hard surface on the other hand, completely lost there. Need to get a handle on Maya but end up frustrated that I can't just jump in.
Edit: Stumbling through building a body for that sculpt. Me and anatomy are not friends.
Think current proportions are off but my eyes are tired. Obliques too thin? Head too small? Need to bulk him up as well to fit the source material.
Just noticed this thread today. Amazing work OP, really informative stuff. I've been getting back into drawing lately but I'm much more of a perfectionist nowadays and finding it really hard to just draw and practice. Hopefully some of these resources will help me feel more confident drawing. Might buy a few of those books too, being near a screen for tutorials is far too distracting for me.
On a side note my cousin has been getting into manga drawing stuff and wanted a book on drawing that style for his birthday. I'd been really struggling finding a book that didn't look, well, bad, so this ended up helping me with that as well.
Again, thanks OP. Subscribed!
On a side note my cousin has been getting into manga drawing stuff and wanted a book on drawing that style for his birthday. I'd been really struggling finding a book that didn't look, well, bad, so this ended up helping me with that as well.
Again, thanks OP. Subscribed!
Smiles and Cries
Member
Sorry a bit OT I need Art GAF to help http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=166356217#post166356217
I will be posting some work soon twitter is not a good image host
this is what I have been working on for weeks
https://twitter.com/NazHz/status/602783727303925761
I will be posting some work soon twitter is not a good image host
this is what I have been working on for weeks
https://twitter.com/NazHz/status/602783727303925761
^Nice! Can't wait for it to be a full painting!
About the case, I really can't comment properly since I am a hobbyist who really haven't taken a formal art class. So I cannot comment on how cheating in an art class works...
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Also, guys can I ask for help?
http://img11.deviantart.net/427f/i/2015/154/1/3/sketch_06_03_2015_by_tullao1979-d8vxfow.png
1. First, feedback please! This is done without reference.
2. I need help in case of trying to actually do a lineart based on this. I'm currently struggling to do a clean lineart based on the sketches I have. I really do not know where to start yet since if I just draw over the sketch, the whole thing looks waaay off and I cannot pinpoint why.
3. I am currently struggling on doing value work on the actual figure too. I am confident about doing values on a simple geometric shape but struggle so much on the figure. I understand that I need to go simplify first (basic lights and shadows on the primary forms first) but then, when I go for the secondary forms (the muscles) I do not know what to do.
About the case, I really can't comment properly since I am a hobbyist who really haven't taken a formal art class. So I cannot comment on how cheating in an art class works...
----------------
Also, guys can I ask for help?
http://img11.deviantart.net/427f/i/2015/154/1/3/sketch_06_03_2015_by_tullao1979-d8vxfow.png
1. First, feedback please! This is done without reference.
2. I need help in case of trying to actually do a lineart based on this. I'm currently struggling to do a clean lineart based on the sketches I have. I really do not know where to start yet since if I just draw over the sketch, the whole thing looks waaay off and I cannot pinpoint why.
3. I am currently struggling on doing value work on the actual figure too. I am confident about doing values on a simple geometric shape but struggle so much on the figure. I understand that I need to go simplify first (basic lights and shadows on the primary forms first) but then, when I go for the secondary forms (the muscles) I do not know what to do.
There's a lot of little stuff but I don't know if it makes sense to dwell on it. You remember the details through practice.
The part that sticks out to me is the hips though. The models left leg is too far out and the whole hip/leg needs to be cut down and brought toward the center of the body. You could probably cut half a head length from the end of the model's right arm as well.
The part that sticks out to me is the hips though. The models left leg is too far out and the whole hip/leg needs to be cut down and brought toward the center of the body. You could probably cut half a head length from the end of the model's right arm as well.
Thanks! I always start my gestures exaggerated expecting it to stiffen out on the drawing process, so sometimes some parts do stick out too much. Also, I was trying for a contraposto but the legs are waay too off now that I see it.
As an action,I did some bean + torso studies. Next up is legs...
Please Critique!
Bunch of quick figures for practice. Did these last night (most from photos, few from imagination thrown in):
.
good stuff man! i would say pay special attention to the spine, it's maybe the most important part of gesture. in the bottom right one for example they don't look correctly aligned - visualizing the spine will help with that.
DEATH™;166646680 said:
good stuff man! i would say pay special attention to the spine, it's maybe the most important part of gesture. in the bottom right one for example they don't look correctly aligned - visualizing the spine will help with that.
DEATH™;166387388 said:
Looking good, yeah drawing over can be an issue. You have to try to draw it more like you are doing a drawing rather than tracing over. If you just copy over then it tends to feel empty.
As for the pose, it looks great. The only thing I would suggest is to exaggerate the tilts of the torso more and squash and stretch.
Her body looks bent over to one side and the weight looks to be on the left leg so show that more. Try making the left shoulder be noticeably lower than the right and the left hip noticeably higher than the right hip, basically tilt it more toward the "squash" created by her bending her left side of her body. It also would be a good idea to put some folds in there to show the squash if she is clothed, if not then still give an impression of something squashing but be careful not to over do it.
The right side of the body should be more straightened out to compensate for the bend on the left side.
Tilting the head in one direction or the other can also give poses more oomph and different feels. Generally, the less "straight" your pose is the stronger it becomes.
If you look at pictures of models they often pose this way and the tilts of the body are what make the poses click. It's simple but really works.
As for values, don't over think things. In particular with women, you shouldn't go overboard with muscles etc., think softer with the features or you will end up with manly figures or something over done . Look at some anime screen caps or art and notice how very simple the shading can be and still look really good. Less is often more.
An excellent way to practice the torso is with the good old sand bag, it's the way Disney teaches their animators to think in terms of squash and stretch:
The advantage here is that the form is so simple and yet so much can be done with it and you think of the rib cage and pelvis as working together instead of drawing them separately with forms. Look at what Disney did with Carpet in Aladdin:
Such strength in the poses and yet it's just a friggin carpet lol.
Monocle
Member
One general tip: There are hardly any concave lines on the silhouette of the human form. Look at some master drawings. Notice how the areas that appear to dip inward are usually made with a series of convex lines.DEATH™;166387388 said:
Random example pulled from Google:
Study the legs.
Thanks for the feedback guys!
@Servbot yeah you're right. I was just following the gesture instead of making the actual spine, most of the time I could get away with it but not this time lol. I did some sketchbook studies to correct it. Here's one...
@badwolf yeah I forgot to show the pinching on her left side. I should do that next time. I'm worried that if I exaggerate too much, it might look too unreal/broken.
@monocle Gotcha. Makes sense since muscles are convex in nature.
Also, currently studying/figuring out the structure of the knee...
It's still a bad attempt as I am not totally satisfied with it. I need to find how will I put the patella properly, and I am also having trouble at doing the bent knee. Not to mention the head of the fibula. I also am currently having problems drawing the actual shafts of the bones...
Man I still have alot to practice...
@Servbot yeah you're right. I was just following the gesture instead of making the actual spine, most of the time I could get away with it but not this time lol. I did some sketchbook studies to correct it. Here's one...
@badwolf yeah I forgot to show the pinching on her left side. I should do that next time. I'm worried that if I exaggerate too much, it might look too unreal/broken.
@monocle Gotcha. Makes sense since muscles are convex in nature.
Also, currently studying/figuring out the structure of the knee...
It's still a bad attempt as I am not totally satisfied with it. I need to find how will I put the patella properly, and I am also having trouble at doing the bent knee. Not to mention the head of the fibula. I also am currently having problems drawing the actual shafts of the bones...
Man I still have alot to practice...
I love drawing but still feel like i have a long way to go. My top priority is to learn how to master facial expressions and the things that make faces unique and distinct from each other.
I'm always drawing the same face.
Any tips?
btw, this is probably one of the most thorough and helpful threads I've seen on GAF.
Here's something I did last night when coming up with a concept character for a story I'm writing.
http://imgur.com/wvp28AL
I'm always drawing the same face.
Any tips?
btw, this is probably one of the most thorough and helpful threads I've seen on GAF.
Here's something I did last night when coming up with a concept character for a story I'm writing.
http://imgur.com/wvp28AL
Monocle
Member
Study animation and any decent artist with a cartoonish style. Disney and Studio Ghibli films, etc. Maybe stuff like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Pinterest is a good place to look for reference, and those Walt Stanchfield books in the OT are useful.
Try not to just copy reference of facial expressions, but also understand the general principles behind them. The stretching and squashing and tension of flesh pulled across the underlying forms of the skull, like a rubber sheet stretched over a ball. You don't need to memorize facial anatomy. Just take a peek at some key muscle insertions like the nodes at the corners of the mouth and learn the general directions the major facial muscles pull those key points.
Study, apply, study, apply. It won't help to learn information if you're not actively using it to solve problems in your drawings.
Thanks for that. That's an idea I can get down with - getting a feel for the rubberiness of skin. Much prefer it over memorisation of all the small muscles of the face. I'll try it.
I've got Riven Phoenix's The Structure of Man HD course. Anyone else seen it? It might be the most detailed and long tutorial i've seen on the human body and anatomy. My main issue with it is that there is so much to memorise.
Still trying to understand the secrets of drawing facial distinctiveness, though...
Monocle
Member
The most useful thing I got from The Structure of Man was probably the simple technique of setting up proportions by taking a straight line and subdividing or extending it up or down until you've found whatever length you're aiming for. (That is, draw a line, divide it in half, divide one of the halves in half, etc.) This can be repeated to a high degree of accuracy, because dividing and extending lines is easy. It's super useful for everything from direct measuring (like comparing the size of one muscle or bone to another), to eyeballing measurements when drawing from life, to accurately placing construction lines, to copying master drawings. Proportions are really important and Riven's system is all about reliable methods of constructing an accurately proportioned human body. The Structure of Man is good but very in-depth. Hard to recommend to beginners.
Understand this: Detailed anatomical knowledge is useless without tons of gesture drawing experience. Otherwise all you'll know how to do is create stiff anatomical dolls with no life or rhythm. A miserable waste of time, trust me. To avoid this you should study the figure like an animator would, with equal emphasis on gesture and form construction with simple volumes. Go ahead and study The Structure of Man too, but make absolutely sure you spend at least twice as much time on that other stuff. It seriously doesn't matter at all if you know what and where the Extensor Pollicis Longus is when you can't construct the arm and hand like a basic 3D model in any position.
Get Steve Huston's gesture and structure course from New Masters Academy. He's one of the best instructors out there. A living master who teaches extremely powerful concepts that you'll be able to apply right away. (Also check out his free stuff on New Masters' Youtube channel.)
Look up Peter Han and take his Dynamic Sketching course if possible. He teaches form building as well as anyone I've seen. Incredibly useful stuff no matter what you're drawing.
Finally, Michael Hampton's form based approach to human anatomy in Figure Drawing: Design and Invention is a huge help in bridging the gap between knowing anatomy and using anatomy.
Honestly, before you drown yourself in anatomy studies, I would do a lot of gesture drawing and basic form construction (from quickposes.com or Youtube videos, or better yet life), and refer to your anatomy books and courses occasionally when you feel like you could be more accurate with a certain aspect of the figure. Or, skim those resources all the way through just one time, then draw a whole bunch, then maybe revisit those resources a month or two later with fresh eyes and more experience under your belt. The important thing is to draw enough that you know what you tend to struggle with, so you can study with purpose later.
It's all about basic head shape and the design and spacing of the features.
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 3
- Example 4
About Facial Expressions, aside from suggestion by Monocle, I will like you to pick Faigin's Facial Expressions book (also in the front page) AND MARA3D Facial Expressions App. They will make you fully understand why a smile looks like a smile in a realistic viewpoint. It's presented in a way that is easier to grasp so the memorization is intuitive.
About facial distinctiveness, it's just a matter of changing proportions and head shape. Make a random shape and try to draw a face on it... That's a great exercise to do aside your usual loomis approach. Another way to remember is look for references. There's a pic somewhere of the differences of the average person by nationality and I'll post it up when I find it.
EDIT found it!
Thanks, that is very helpful. Much to learn, much to do.
The chart will come in handy. Thanks! Very grateful!
Yeah, I agree with this.
Look up film slides or just artwork from Disney's Nine Old Men. They mastered this.
Monocle
Member
Do studies of yourself from life (hands, head, etc.) with a limited palette and a single light source if you can't get someone to model for you. Photography can't really capture the nuances of skin, which has both reflective and light absorbing qualities that can be very subtle. Things like underlying veins and subsurface scattering (that glowing effect when light scatters inside a material, like when sun lights up an ear from behind) create a lot of variation. There's also the issue of reflected light from the environment and surrounding objects. (Look underneath someone's chin when they're wearing a bright shirt and see how the shirt color floods the cast shadow.)DEATH;167245252 said:
Pay attention to warm and cool tones. Cool light tends to produce very warm and saturated shadows, and vice versa. But the deepest shadows on flesh are almost always warm. There is no single flesh tone. Skin still looks like skin in the bluer light of evening. If your values are right you can get away with pretty much anything, color-wise, but don't forget that all local color is tinted by your light source(s). It's complicated business. Help yourself out by reducing as many variables as you can. (I bet you're starting to see why students in the old academies were made to draw from plaster casts before they were allowed to work from a living model with charcoal, crayon, and eventually a limited palette. It's tough to work with color if you're still struggling with proportions and placement and value.)
Look at how the old masters handled skin, especially in portraits, where there tend to be warmer regions (the nose and cheeks) and cooler regions (the mouth and chin area, especially for men). Often you'll see a lot of changes in saturation within a very narrow range of hue. Some knowledge of color theory regarding relative color would be useful here, because a cooler tone that looks green or blue could actually be a desaturated orange that's surrounded by more saturated tones of similar hue. You can learn a lot by going into Photoshop or something and color picking from high quality images of master paintings to see the palette they used.
Basically do lots of life studies (and master studies while you're at it!) and try to limit your palette as much as possible. If you see a purple, don't reach for the purple. Try to get it by dulling down one of your warmer hues first. And of course, always think about what you're seeing so you can make better choices. Why is there a deep red on her arm right now? Is it her dress color, reflected? Is her skin flushing? Is there a secondary light source nearby? Everything you see is telling you something about your subject or the conditions of its environment. When you comprehend why things look the way they do, you can start selecting the information you put down, modifying what you see. That's where the art comes from: how you see things and what you choose to show.
I'm not sure how much of this will actually be useful. It's all generally true as far as I know, but I can never decide how much to talk about the fundamentals, which are everything. Simplify what you see (squinting helps). Think in planes as much as possible (which direction is this surface facing and where is the edge where it turns?). Know the purpose of every mark. Value is actually far more important than color for making a thing look like a thing, because forms are just as clear in black and white.
Hmm, maybe you should just read Alla Prima by Richard Schmid and Craig Mullins' collected posts from the Sijun forums. You'll have to track those down yourself, I'm afraid.
openrob
Member
Man I am definately subbing to this thread.
I honestly don't know where to start. I have been wanting to try to get back into drawing this past week. I have done a short life drawing class a couple years ago, which I was inspired to go on after reading Bridgman's Life Drawing + Human Machine (both of which I was given).
I still have a really long way to go. Sometimes my stuff comes out quite good for what it is, and at oother times I feel I have gone back 5 years.
I honestly don't know where to start. I have been wanting to try to get back into drawing this past week. I have done a short life drawing class a couple years ago, which I was inspired to go on after reading Bridgman's Life Drawing + Human Machine (both of which I was given).
I still have a really long way to go. Sometimes my stuff comes out quite good for what it is, and at oother times I feel I have gone back 5 years.
I have Bridgman's complete drawing from life book. Overall I like it but he has a sort of unique style that can be difficult to emulate unless you have a lot of patience. He also has some wacky anatomy at times. I've been copying Loomis' figure drawing book as well, it's great but along the same lines it annoys me that his style can't be duplicated with regular graphite and drawing paper.
Go back and read the thread through the thread if you can.
More info for beginners than you can ask for!
Monocle
Member
Successful Drawing by Andrew Loomis. Maybe Ctrl+Paint.
Don't try to emulate his style. Try to understanding his thinking. Draw a limb or something from the same angle as one of Bridgman's drawings and look at how he simplified the anatomy and exaggerated its structure. The same goes for Loomis. You don't need to duplicate his drawings exactly to understand basic proportions or apply the principles he teaches.
Style is just knowledge run through the subjective filter of one person's mind. You don't have the same tastes or habits or personal quirks as Bridgman, so you can't capture exactly what's going on in his work. But you can learn from how he handled the same problems you're working through.
I'm not really looking for help just commenting. 
I can duplicate his style close enough with hatching on regular drawing paper or exactly with his setup, it's just that he makes very little of the effects of the paper and technique he uses, which can be profound. He uses coquille stipple paper (more pricey) which has a fine uniform texture and recommends using the side of the lead for shading (with a black prismacolor pencil), which can work with certain papers but not others, and certainly doesn't work for standard 80lb drawing paper, which looks grotesque if you shade with the side of the lead.
I can duplicate his style close enough with hatching on regular drawing paper or exactly with his setup, it's just that he makes very little of the effects of the paper and technique he uses, which can be profound. He uses coquille stipple paper (more pricey) which has a fine uniform texture and recommends using the side of the lead for shading (with a black prismacolor pencil), which can work with certain papers but not others, and certainly doesn't work for standard 80lb drawing paper, which looks grotesque if you shade with the side of the lead.
Commenting to put this thread in my history.
I have an art degree focused on 3D environment and prop design, but it's been squandered over the past 8ish years. Trying to get back into sketching and drawing, mostly characters now, and need the resources this thread seems to provide.
I have an art degree focused on 3D environment and prop design, but it's been squandered over the past 8ish years. Trying to get back into sketching and drawing, mostly characters now, and need the resources this thread seems to provide.
I got yah, and most of this I have already learned. What I currently struggling though is the "how" and the "how much" which is so far I'm totally lost. What I mean on "how" is, on a digital painting, how will I achieve the right things that I am trying to achieve like whether I want a sharp or softer edge etc. This is more software and digital painting skill problem and the thing is most of the tutorials online is not really aimed to help this, relying on "hey just find the brush that's right for you!" kind of thing...
The "how much" is well... how much. Like how saturated should I go or how far should I go. I am looking for something measurable.
Like for example. It's defined that local value is the natural value of your lit object. So if I want to render a object that has local value halfway between white and mid gray, I can go between that local value and black and I will get the core shadow value on a normally lit area and between that and my local value I will get my value range FOR THAT OBJECT. (Anything lesser than that will be crevice/occlusion). With this foundation I can freely go farther easier and divert from the rule if I could.
My problem when going to color is, most of the teachers do not teach color the same way. I mean, they teach by giving you THE PAINT. This totally breaks down in digital painting. I have learned alot more with HueValueChroma in a sense that they taught me colorspaces (the measure of hue and saturation), how much does different-colored light affects the color of the objects around (hence results in color-key and limitation of palettes), the difference between specular and diffuse reflection (results between differentiation of highlights, centerlights etc.) and how color change in a matte surface.
This approach is much more technical than the books by the old masters, requiring to understand light in a more scientific way. My problem now is so far, no one has any kind of research like this in terms of skin. Sources for scattering in general was already provided (thanks Prof. Garcia) but there is NO resources about skin or subsurface scattering. Like, how translucent is a layer of skin, especially with different skin colors? When I look at my arm, how much of the color is from my skin and how much is from my muscles/fat/bloodvessels/bones? How bright can the scattering go? Once I know those, I can paint skin easier, or at least make sense of my painting decisions.
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Also, some skin ball paintings today...
Monocle
Member
Honestly you're reminding me of myself here in that you seem to get paralyzed by a need to know exactly what to do before you start doing it. This isn't a practical way to work and learn, especially with art, where there's an unlimited range of things you could research or try to micromanage. In his excellent perspective book, Ernest Watson recommends a ratio of one part theory to fifty parts practice. Not 1:5. Not even 1:15. 1:50.DEATH™;167275802 said:
So I suggest you learn by doing. Simply let go and allow yourself the freedom to experiment without caring about the end result. Think and observe, and try to make purposeful choices. Do many studies, and don't put on music and zone out as you work. Engage your mind. There truly is no way around spending thousands of hours going through basic trial and error if you want to get your skills anywhere near a professional level. Theory can light your way, but it can't make you walk a single inch. You have to practice a lot, wait for mistakes to happen, and then make your best attempt to work them out.
If you're looking for specific practical advice, pick a piece of art that has qualities you want in your own work and try to capture those qualities. Copy the picture not just once but 10 or 20 times, and really think your way through every aspect of the process. Try to isolate the mistakes you're making and work on correcting each one individually, maybe during a different study session. Test what you retained by doing little color sketches from imagination between copies.
There's not going to be a reliable formula for everything. If you feel like your knowledge really is lacking, read a good art book like The Art Spirit (which is superb, not just good) and see if it provokes an epiphany. But mainly look to nature. Paint your face or fist in different lighting conditions. You don't have to grasp everything there is know about the effects of light you're seeing. You can't. What you can do is use trial and error to work out what looks absolutely terrible, what kind of works, and what faithfully represents what you see, in certain conditions, and then extrapolate from there.
Improving your art skills is a grind, and that's just the way it is. While it's true that you'll have moments where something clicks in your brain and you'll suddenly notice a marked improvement in your abilities (often after a few months of consistent study), they are rare. For the most part it will be a process of incremental improvement, day by day, in the specific area you're pounding away at. 10 hours of studying the eye in profile might help you picture that feature a little more clearly without reference. A weekend devoted to constructing staircases in 2-point perspective might result in technical drawings being just a bit less mentally taxing for you later on. There's nothing mysterious about the process. It takes time.
Thanks... I appreciate you posting this. I needed this... I really do...
