First drawing I make without lineart. Very uncomfortable but satisfactory in the end.
Tw - @DPatch45
That looks really good and is also a solid start for a more developed piece.
Thank you so much Nathan! But tbh I still don't know how to develop it further.
(Sorry about late reply, had a really bad time with Covid)
You're welcome, Rhyldur.
It looks very structurally sound as is, but I think what it may be missing is intentional lighting. The image has an overcast feel to it where it's mostly evenly lit. Maybe use this image as a base and try different lighting scenarios. I've seen a few times when people took the same image/scene and repainted it in various situations (e.g. sunrise, midday, stormy, golden hour, night, snowy, etc.). I've not tried it myself yet, but I imagine it would be fantastic practice.
Have you used much reference? It'll help you know how to light the various elements of the scene and provide a lot of information you may not otherwise think of, like the light reflecting off the water onto the underside of the boat and the subtle changes in colour temperature in the shadows, etc.
You could also practice creating thumbnail composition studies to try out different 3 or 4-tone studies of what kind of light and colour structures you want the piece to have before committing to a whole painting.
If you've not taken it yet, I'd highly recommend Nathan Fowkes' Pictorial Composition course on Schoolism -- I found it to be tremendously enlightening in gaining a good understanding of composition. I had to rush through the course due to some time constraints, but I feel I grew a ton as an artist trying to do the exercises as I had time and doing my best to soak in the instruction. I'd say what he teaches is gold for any artist willing to apply himself.
Here's a piece of a viking ship by Justin Sweet I saw a while back. It's gorgeous! There's so much going on -- from atmosphere, to colour and light design structure, to beautiful lighting in the water; I'm nowhere near this level of skill, but it's really inspiring.
I hope you're feeling better.
Thanks so much for all this info Nathan, you are always a lighthouse in a dark and misty night! Talking about light I do know I am missing lights and shadows (there is no way to tell which hour it is in the drawing) but well, aside adding a bit here and there I was clueless.
I just used historical references for the drakkar and some for the ways of transporting and preserve the ice along human History. But you know, no references for the most basic things like sea reflections, water bodies and so on due to time costraints and being covid sick at that moment. I also wanted to make the dock feel a bit more... "lively" but I had no time.
I still need to take care of a lot of fundamentals since I'm just a newbie (only has some notions on perspective and construction). I haven't even touched anything about composition, color or even anatomy but I'll definitely check Nathan Fowkes course if I have some free income in the future to afford it!
That viking ship by Justin Sweet is amazing and to be honest I see some of it on your own art, so you are not that far!!
Thank you again for your interesting and unexpectedly elaborated answer. I'll read it a few times again in case I missed something important since there are a lot of terms I am still not able to fully comprehend.
We'll keep grinding!
Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.
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