Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-10-29 01:42
Definitely looks like you might be having some driver issues for your tablet. Notice how a lot of your lines are coming out jagged and almost robotically wobbly? Looks like there's some miscommunication between your tablet and your software.
What kind of tablet did you buy?
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-10-29 01:19
I do indeed still check all the threads! Or rather, I still get notified of comments on them, which is definitely handy.
In terms of details, you're not doing too badly, but where you're lacking is form and solidity. You aren't capturing any sense of volume or dimension in your drawings, so they in turn come out very flat. I can't help but notice that you haven't submitted any homework for lessons 1 and 2 - that would definitely contribute to those weaknesses.
The first two lessons deal with the flow and integrity of lines (yours are pretty sketchy, which compromises solidity and form), and also approach how forms can be manipulated in perspective and also how they interact with each other. It's all very important foundational work.
I look forward to seeing your submissions for those lessons, and I hope you can find some paper and a pen soon! I totally understand the excitement from having a new tablet, and you should absolutely be playing around with it - but for the sake of practice, you should still do these lessons with a felt tip pen on paper. Once you've gotten through the lessons, your understanding on what you need to carry over into digital will be much stronger, and will allow you to progress faster.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-10-26 16:28
It's always good to see younger people joining up. You're not exactly right about the whole 'traditional art wouldn't be as accepted'. The only reason it isn't as common in illustration as it once was is because it is far more time consuming, which in essence is bad for business. That said, if you're as good traditionally as most are with digital, you're likely to be far more respected. Clients don't really care how a piece is made (generally), as long as it gets done on time and within their budget. The benefit however to working traditionally is that in the end you have a beautiful painting that can be sold to collectors once you get popular enough. A great example of this is Drew Struzan, the guy who did a lot of iconic movie posters - including Indiana Jones and Star Wars.
All that said, it's definitely a much tougher road to take. Personally, my experience with traditional paint is just about nil, but I do hope that once I am more financially stable, I'll have the time to push that side further in my spare time.
Anywho - good to have you with us!
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 5: Drawing Animals"
2014-10-23 19:48
Awesome work! Your forms look way more 3D now, each is conveying a strong sense of volume and space. I especially like the flamingos, elephants and dobermans. BIG improvement!
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 5: Drawing Animals"
2014-10-20 18:22
Okay, you're making a handful of mistakes in your process, mostly in your lay-in. Here's an overdrawing that explains. Basically you are being too dainty and timid with your underdrawing and in doing so, you end up with a weak, flat scaffolding. This ultimately impacts your final drawing.
Your lay-in needs to be more complete. Draw whole, clean forms. A complete ellipse, etc. I'd also like you to draw simple contour lines to help yourself understand the volume behind these forms.
Do 4 more pages of animals.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 5: Drawing Animals"
2014-10-19 18:16
Animals definitely are difficult, especially since you have to start thinking about gesture and motion on top of form, volume, contours, etc.
The ones you've shown me are a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them are pretty good (some of the panda heads, the rear view of the hippo, the chipmunk heads), but I think all of them are still showing the same weaknesses overall. They're coming out very flat.
This makes me think that there might be an issue in your lay-ins. In some cases, I'm having trouble seeing any lay-in at all - for example, the front view standing kangaroo and at least some of your black footed ferrets. For the ones where there does seem to be a lay-in, it doesn't look like you're treating those basic forms as having 3D qualities - front, side, bottom planes, etc. This is basically the direction I was moving in step #3 of my breakdown.
Secondly, there are many instances of your crosshatching/texturing/detailing going WAY out of hand. You should really be using the focal-point-circle technique that I mention in this lesson, and I know I pointed that out to you in the plants lesson. While my bigger concern is with avoiding over detailing (the big komodo dragon), it will also help keep you from under-detailing, since you'll basically be able to go nuts within that particular radius.
I'm going to ask you to do a bunch more, but before I do that, I want to see how you approach your animal drawing. Take this reference photo of a Markhor and draw it. Take photos of all 5 stages I drew out in the lesson. Stage 4's kind of iffy, so just take a photo somewhere between 3 and the final polished stage. I'll hopefully be able to use those to get a better understanding of your approach.
Good work on the volume of your work though - 25 animals is a lot, and I'm sure the practice was well worth while. We'll just sort out your direction so you can study a little more efficiently.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-10-17 06:25
Nice work - especially on the mushrooms. You'll notice that your most successful pieces were the ones where you didn't try and detail the fuck out of everything. Top left of page 7, with the spherical berrythings and the simple leaves. You did a great job of conveying the forms of the berrythings, and kept the focus on them. I would have gone so far as to leave the leaves as an empty shape (without the veining inside), but it's still fairly effective.
So as far as the detailing goes, don't just detail everything. Decide on your focal point, detail that, and leave everything else much looser. Also, when you're texturing, avoid doing anything that feels like random scribbling. Everything should carry some degree of intent, in direction, weight, pressure, etc. If you get random, it'll just end up looking messy.
I look forward to seeing your work for lesson 4! ... And I hope when you submit it, you'll rotate the images, for the sake of my neck! :P
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 4: Drawing Insects, Arachnids and Other Creepy Crawlies"
2014-10-11 17:26
Great work! I'm seeing a nice balance between areas of detail and areas of rest. Some of them are showing some excellent volume (the spider from page 2), while others are flattening out a bit much (most of page 5). Still, I'm seeing a lot of improvement over the previous lesson. Just be sure to keep the contour line stuff in mind, from lesson 2.
Onwards, to animals!
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-10-08 22:26
There's a lot of critique below, but you should be ready to move onto the next lesson.
Your lay-ins are looking fairly good, though I am getting the sense that you're approaching them in a somewhat organic fashion, letting your subconscious/intuition drive your hand. The strokes don't all look like they're driven by clear intent.
The lay-ins, at their foundation, should be shapes and forms (and a few lines/curves). They're squished and squashed and manipulated and whatnot, but for the most part they're independent components. Don't approach it as though you're doing a lay-in for a specific object. Look at the subject, see the shapes and forms that underlie it and mark those down on the page. You're not drawing a plant, you're drawing a bunch of simple shapes and forms, because that is what you should be seeing.
I'm nitpicking, of course, for the most part you're doing a good job in that stage. The ones on page 2 are pretty well done.
The cacti on page 4 are very nice. I like how they convey the round, bulbous nature of the plant. The spherical plant on page 5 is quite well done as well, especially how you take advantage of the surface texture to reinforce the curvature of the surface.
On the other hand, some of your plants are getting flattened out, because you're trying too hard to cover them with texture. There's no need for that. If you look at the far right of page 7, it comes out completely flat because of the way you decided to texture it - both applying too much texture, and also forgetting to follow the curvature of the surface, which is always foremost.
If you look at the animal drawing lesson (lesson 5, I think), you'll see me discuss drawing a circle around your focal point and applying texture only within that circle, and leaving the rest fairly simple. I think this technique will help you organize your thoughts and clarify what is important in a piece and what is less so.
The focal point/texturing issues apply as well to your two extra still lifes. The second one is fairly well done, as far as form goes. Your hatching could definitely be much cleaner in both, though. You're hatching often in a way that ends up dragging the tip of the pen along the paper when you move your hand back, before making the next mark. This comes off as sloppy. Also, in the first one, your lay-in does not look like it was done properly, since the cylinders that make up the pot and its base are not aligned properly in perspective.
For the digital painting - your first step should be to establish your forms' silhouettes, and do so cleanly. The cylinder of the pot, the leaves, each one should have a clean silhouette. Usually I'll start off messier, but the process of cleaning up requires you to make decisions about where an edge exists. Once these silhouettes have been established, you have more freedom - you can lock the transparency on these layers, or work with clipping masks, and paint within the shapes without worrying about going outside.
There's one other thing I can recommend - never paint an object in isolation. Our subjects exist within a setting, and that environment will impact its lighting and colours. The black/white gradient isn't helping you - paint in the general colours and surfaces of the area so you will gain a better understanding of how the light bounces off the ground and onto the pot and leaves. You can leave that surrounding area rough, because it only exists to help you understand - but it should still be there.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-10-02 19:36
I'm a digital artist as well, and I feel I benefited most from doing the exercises traditionally. Digital introduces a whole slew of other frustrations that can impede one's understanding of the lessons themselves. A lot of the things you learn traditionally however, will carry over. The only things that might not are the strictly muscle-memory related issues, which will also be remedied with much less effort.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Lesson Topics and Resource Videos/Books"
2014-10-02 18:51
Yeah, that'd be really neat! I'll look into dropping in a few posts like that once more people have moved past lessons 1 and 2.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-10-02 18:49
Very well done! The only ones that jumped out at me were... damn, the numbers are hard to read. The one under 108 (i think? top left corner on page 4). And the one directly beneath that. Those appear to be tapering. This is because the bottom/top face that is visible is smaller than the one opposite to it. The fact that it is visible implies to us that it is closer - but if those two faces were the same size, the closer one would be larger according to the rules of perspective. Therefore the only way for that to be possible is for the closer face to be smaller, and therefore the form would taper.
Still, everything else is awesome, and I love the exploration with the ellipses, curves and divisions. The only thing stopping me from putting this on the main post as an ideal example is that I don't want to send mixed messages about my emphasis on drawing in ink, and I'm afraid people might forget and end up using pencil to do these exercises.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 4: Drawing Insects, Arachnids and Other Creepy Crawlies"
2014-10-01 22:36
Nice work! You explored a lot of interesting creatures. Wasp #3 looks wicked, and really captures the proportions and gesture.
If I had to point out a weakness, it'd be that a lot of them seem to be very noisy. The hatching creates a lot of contrast, so the viewer's eye doesn't exactly know where to settle. In the future, consider creating areas of dense detail as well as rest areas. It's tricky at times to interpret a reference image and make those decisions, but the ability to do so is definitely a great strength. It draws the line between being a human photocopier and being an artist.
I look forward to seeing your submission for lesson 5!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-10-01 21:05
It's always a little sad to hear of a situation where parents put their foot down like that. She might have been right to do so, but it's still too bad. My original intent wasn't to go into art, but rather to move into game or web development, but after graduating, I changed my mind.
It is very risky, though, and can easily blow up in one's face. Right now I'm trying to hunt for jobs, and they're pretty few and far between, and don't pay all that well if you can manage to break in to begin with. Sometimes you get lucky, though.
I'm really happy to see that your work - especially your traditional stuff - shows a lot of followthrough and commitment. Often completing a full illustration can take hours and hours and hours, but you seem ready for that!
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-10-01 20:41
You seem to be doing the lay-ins decently, but I'm concerned about the fact that you didn't start at lesson 1, even though you mentioned that you are very new to this. All of the lessons are interconnected, with each one building on the one prior to it. Skipping to the parts that seem more fun is definitely not something I would recommend. It's best to take things one step at a time.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Lesson Topics and Resource Videos/Books"
2014-10-01 06:43
A few of my friends went to school with Kalen, or at least knew him before he got all fantastic.
In my first term, I signed up for 4 courses, but dropped one, then pretty much ignored another (because i'm an ass). My second term, I took only two courses, but that was partially because I wasn't particularly interested in any of the others available that term.
Three courses should be a good load - especially if one of those is Analytical Figure Drawing, which mostly involves attending a 3 hour class, and then the 3 hour figure drawing session (usually on sunday evenings) to do your homework. That way you can get it out of the way pretty easily, leaving plenty of time to do the work for the other two courses.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 4: Drawing Insects, Arachnids and Other Creepy Crawlies"
2014-10-01 06:37
Nice work! I find most of these deeply unsettling, so you must be doing something right.
I especially like 4, 11, and.. oh dear, your numbering's all over the place. The ladybugs are cool too. And fuck your spiders, especially 3, that thing.. god, I can't look at it anymore. Your scorpions are also quite well done, I remember having an especially difficult time with them.
Overall, I'm seeing that you seem to be more relaxed, and are able to capture the volume of forms more easily.
Onward, to lesson 5!
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Lesson Topics and Resource Videos/Books"
2014-09-30 14:34
Then you'll definitely want to take James Paick's environment design course as well. Although it's a bit of a misnomer, since it's more about environment illustration. Still, an invaluable course.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Lesson Topics and Resource Videos/Books"
2014-09-29 20:35
I'll give thoughts on being a professional when I become one :P
As for attending a school, I think there are many different approaches and they have to do with the individual as well as that person's ultimate goals. There are a lot of art schools out there, but depending on what your intent is, you may not thrive in many of the ones that push the fine art aspects of the trade. I've heard stories of a lot of schools that skirt around the practical elements, and instead focus on theory and understanding. If you're looking to go into a commercial art field, you need to be able to do what your client asks of you. Without a practical education, you'll be in trouble.
There are quite a few schools that push beyond this, however. The example I'll use is Art Center in LA. I haven't attended (only went to their campus once for their great art supply store), but I know people who have and know of many of their alumni who have made it big. The school has a lot of great instructors and a lot of great classes that will teach you how to actually produce art that is useful in a commercial setting. They also give you a lot of exposure to all sorts of media and force you to do those awful assignments that ultimately end up being very useful in the long run, for unexpected reasons. Most importantly, they give you connections that will serve you well after you graduate - not only does the name of the school sometimes get you a little extra attention, but Art Center specifically has a lot of great job-finding resources for its graduates. Even beyond that, if you're international and ultimately want to find work in the united states, the visa that allows you to attend school in the US also allows you a period of time after graduation to find a job. The downside is, these schools are REALLY FRIGGIN' EXPENSIVE, and don't actually guarantee that you'll become an amazing artist. That part's very much on you.
Then you have schools like the one I attended, CDA. It's not a normal four-year school. Instead it is a small, private, unaccredited institution (no degrees, no student visas, nothing but classes and workshops for you to attend). The great benefit of CDA is the quality of its instructors. A lot of the ones I had also teach at Art Center (conveniently, they're both in Pasadena). The courses are shorter (10 weeks), but they still convey much of the same information and the small class sizes give you much the same opportunities as you would find at a more expensive school. Furthermore, you sign up for individual courses, rather than a set curriculum. Once you're done the course though, you're pretty much on your own. Also for international students, you're stuck to what a tourist visa allows. For me, that was 6 months, for others it's only 3.
Then you've got online schools, which is a lot like the CDA situation, minus the in-class experience. A lot of people do better when they can actually meet with their classmates and instructor (never underestimate the value of classmates, they are an awesome asset). Still, there's a huge decrease in cost considering that you can do it from home, and don't have to move to LA for whatever period of time.
Some people have made it, being self taught and all - or even with experienced mentors. Ultimately I think that the biggest asset in learning this stuff is a community. A tangible community, whose work you can see, and with whom you can foster a sort of competition and camaraderie. This is pretty much forced down your throat in a classroom environment, in a way that you don't really see in the virtual counterparts.
I've been rambling much. I'll finish off with your last question. CDA fees generally hover between $600 and $800 USD per 10 week class. You can check out their course schedule for the exact prices. Aside from that, the only fee that I remember was $100 for international students' early enrollment. International students get to enroll a month earlier. Despite the hundred bucks, you get to skip the whole rush that the locals have to suffer through. Those seats disappear quickly, so often times locals end up missing out on the classes they really want. You do have to find your own housing though.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Lesson Topics and Resource Videos/Books"
2014-09-29 20:09
That's great news! You're going to love it. Any idea which classes you're planning on taking?
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-09-27 19:22
Great work! Your lay-ins are clean and purposeful, and you capture the essence of each plant quite well in your individual drawings.
I especially like number 4, which shows a great understanding of volume and form, and 9 which definitely got very complex, but you pulled through! I also really like your control of your focal point. I think you achieved a good balance of detail and simplicity.
As far as line weights and shadows go, it's the sort of thing you learn as you go along. You're doing pretty well with them, especially in the middle of your set. I usually try and focus on a hierarchy of some elements being important and others less so - and i use shadow to separate those shapes out. Also, line weight is a good way of easily conveying thickness without having to actually draw in thickness, which involves adding more lines (and thus increasing noise/contrast). On that same note, it's also important to know where to avoid using thick lines, like on the edges of leaves.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-09-25 21:14
Some are good, some are not. Lets set aside 3 point perspective for now, and assume all verticals are straight up and down. That leaves us only with the horizontal vanishing points, which all sit on the horizon.
The horizon represents the eye level of the viewer. If the horizon is low in the frame, the viewer's eyes are close to the ground (worm's eye view). If the horizon is very high in the frame, the viewer's eyes are much higher.
Each vanishing point represents the point where any given set of parallel lines will eventually converge. So in order to take a line and rotate it, you'd slide that VP along the horizon - you'd never move it off the horizon, and since the horizon is relative to the viewer, it does not change between boxes in the same image.
For #168, it looks wrong because the horizon is at the same level as the top of the 'building', but having the 3rd vanishing point above the horizon implies a worm's eye view. You have two conflicting signals.
Basically, maintain the same horizon for all boxes that exist within the same scene.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-09-25 00:22
Your drawings are coming out rather flat. After looking over your homework a couple times, I think I've come to realize what your overall mistake is-
You spend a lot more time on the polish/detailing stage than you do on the construction stage. When you block in the form, it looks to me like you're rushing through, and you're not envisioning the subject in 3D space.
You need to draw through your forms (if you're putting down a cylinder, draw the full ellipse on both ends, so you can see the parts of the line that would technically be hidden), and you need to focus on using the tricks we've covered to convey the three-dimensionality of your drawing. The details don't really matter at all, and if you overdo them they can detract from the final piece. If you look at Lesson 5, you see a technique where I draw a circle around my focal point, and I only work on the details within that circle. That may help you reduce the noise and stay on point with your detailing.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-09-23 17:07
I definitely see a steady progression through the pages - your first few (up to maybe 100) were pretty bad. The lines were wobbly and showed very little confidence, and your angles were often weird. As you went on, your mistakes became less significant, your lines became straighter, and you seemed more confident in general.
Keep it up!
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-09-22 23:17
Here's some answers: http://i.imgur.com/wewEu6z.jpg
Things you're missing, in general:
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Horizontal VPs sit on the horizon. Right now you have difficulty understanding the relationships between angles in 3D space, so keep your horizon flat to keep from confusing yourself.
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More than focusing on the VPs, think about those angles. Those angles exist in relation to each other, and while it is much harder to measure an exact angle in 3D space, you can tell what one is when comparing it to other angles in the same drawing. Our eyes figure this out for us, and they can tell when something's off even when the brain can't figure out why. Look at #121 - the big box there is simple and solid. You're not playing around with strange perspective experiments or anything - do more like that, until you understand better.
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Always remember that sets of parallel lines ultimately converge somewhere. This is what makes the further planes (the ones closer to where your VP is going to be) smaller, even if only slightly. If it's the same size, that's okay, but if it's bigger, the eye will pick that up. 3 is a great example of that being done wrong.
For the rest of the boxes, don't do anything fancy. Just draw individual boxes - no super dramatic perspective, just try and visualize what each box would look like if rotated in space. You can even just draw one box, then try rotating it in increments in your next few drawings. This exercise is not about being creative, it's about wrapping your head around the conundrum that is 3D space.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-09-22 21:17
I like that you're testing with the red pen to find the resulting vanishing points after you've drawn the box. That is a great way to self-assess, so keep doing that.
Looking at all your boxes, the most common mistake I see is the simple issue of planes further away being larger than those closer. That is the most basic and most common breaking of perspective.
It may help to draw through your boxes until you get comfortable - that is, draw the lines that are hidden as well, so you can see the far plane in its entirety (which would otherwise be occluded by the other planes that make up the box), so you can compare it with the near plane.
If you have specific questions, feel free to ask them here, but it's not always possible to make out all of the little comments you've written (and since there's so many, there's no way I'd have time to hit each one).
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-09-22 15:25
Not bad! There are quite a few with perspective issues, but you're getting there, and there are just as many that look quite solid.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 6: Hard Surface Objects"
2014-09-21 11:33
Freehand. Rulers only slow the process down, and as such, tend to limit one's ability to think creatively while drawing.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 6: Hard Surface Objects"
2014-09-21 07:09
If you haven't completed the previous lessons in this set, please do so before moving onto this one.
Notes
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Strongly recommended that this lesson be done traditionally with a 0.5mm felt tip marker. Your results will likely not be as helpful if it's done digitally. Of course, it's up to you.
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If you've done the previous lessons, you should be building up your ability to ignore the overwhelming detail in your subject and break it down into its simplest shapes and forms. This is going to be a hell of a lot more of that.
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I'm assuming most of you will do this from reference photos, but if you can find a place that has tanks or locomotives or other such things in person, do it! Just be sure to step back a fair distance, because objects of such massive scale can be overwhelming.
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If you happen to be in Los Angeles, be sure to check out Tankland which is AMAZING (the guy who runs it is awesome, and people regularly go there to draw, they even provide portable chairs and such so you don't have to stand around awkwardly). There's also Travel Town, which has lots of locomotives.
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As always, even if your drawing feels like crap, keep pushing through it. It may look like crap at the end as well, but everyone makes mistakes, and everyone needs to learn how to recover from them and save the drawing. Or how not to do it.
Bonus Content
- Here's the album of my own homework sketches. Most of them were done on site at Traveltown and Tankland in LA, which are AWESOME places to draw, if you're ever in Los Angeles. Note how a lot of them were uncertain and full of mistakes. A lot of them lacked any sense of solid construction.
Homework
- Minimum of 8 pages of hardsurface objects, preferably these kinds of vehicles, but I'd love to see some experimentation with other objects. The principles are much the same. Do proportional analyses first, then try and reconstruct them in 3D yourself. It may help to do at least one that matches your reference image, but then try and break away from it to test your understanding of the object.
As always, all questions and homework submissions go in the comments.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-21 03:39
oh how my ego swells when people say they're fans of my work.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-20 15:49
Can't wait to see your homework submission!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-20 01:26
I love to see people who are eager to dive into traditional media. There are a lot of people looking to jump into digital around here, so they tend to be a little less happy about how much I stress the importance of doing these exercises in ink.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-19 03:40
That's a very specific career goal! It's always nice to see people who have a very clear direction that they want to follow, but who are also excited about expanding their experiences beyond that.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-19 03:38
We're happy to have you!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-18 20:47
Ink is far preferable to pencil, so go with the pen. It would be best if you pick up some felt tip pens (I use the staedtler pigment liners) when you can.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-18 20:23
Nice! I like the simplicity of the cake, and the texture on the Christmas piece.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-18 19:54
Man, I love the idea of the family doing the lessons together! These are the sort of things I wish I had learned very early on - it would have definitely kept me from wasting seven years puttering around.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-18 18:43
Czar Uncomfortable will allow it! I try to encourage people to critique and comment on each others' work, but I suppose people feel rather timid. Feel free to share your knowledge!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-18 04:31
I hope you find the lessons helpful! Also, I'd still be interested in seeing some of your graphic design work - just for curiosity's sake. There are quite a few shared aspects, and in some areas (composition, balance, linework, anything involving leading the eye) a strong sense of graphic design can be an enormous advantage. It works in both directions, too!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-18 04:23
Hahaha, the old brain sharp. You're not that old, yet! But it's great to see people of all ages joining in.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-09-18 04:21
Your lay-ins are looking nice. Very simple, great summaries of the forms present. 7 looks really nice, and I appreciate that you also captured the context of the subject. You also demonstrated how we can use the rules for drawing solid forms in reverse to depict masses of leaves that have very little weight to them at all.
In number 11, you didn't quite manage to capture the volume and form of the fruit. I think it's the hatching that is not quite following the contour of the object. The result is somewhat random, so it flattens out the form.
13 is absolutely gorgeous. You've used shading and texture (and lack of texture in certain areas) to establish a clear focal point. The drawing also has a lot of dimension to it, because you've captured the orientation of the forms very well, so it looks convincingly 3D.
15 is also quite nice, but the cast shadow that falls on the water was not done very well. It looks like you'd had enough at this point (and after a lot of drawing, I can understand), and half-assed the shadow. Unfortunately, in half-assing it, you hatched it against the surface of the water. The angle of your strokes matters everywhere, and that's one of the keys that differentiates a bad messy sketch from one that feels like it's full of energy.
On that note, you're right - your better sketches do carry a lot of energy in a way that a clean, exact drawing would fail to do. That said, our overall goal here is to gain mastery over our drawing hand. If you want to make a rough, energetic stroke, you should be able to. If you want to make a precise mark, however, you should also be able to - because the need for that will arise at some point. Each one has its place.
Anyways, great work. I'm already seeing a fair bit of growth.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-09-17 16:53
As far as the pens go, the orange one seems to be about right, though I suppose it isn't really producing the range of weights that we're looking for. I use the Staedtler Pigment Liners which can generally be found at any art supply store and some office supply stores. I specifically use te 0.5.
I'm going to refer to the pages as they appear in your imgur album - meaning page 1 would be the picture of your pens.
On page 2, I really like the lay-ins for the pear-shaped fruitplantthing (bottom center), and the one on the left with the numerous bulbous masses. Those shapes cary a lot of volume with them just through the way you've captured the flow of the shape. Very good. Strive for this kind of flow and volume. Page 3 seems to be a fair bit weaker, but that's normal. A lot of my initial lay-ins were like that as well.
Your venus flytrap is very striking, nice use of graphic shadow shapes. Notice though where you use hatching on the stem portion of the plant (the part coming off the main flytrappy-spineymouth-bit and leading back to the roots), you're not hatching along the form. The way you've approached it will flatten it out. Instead try and think of them as an opportunity to achieve a similar effect as contour lines. It's the same thing when you paint - you want your brush strokes to wrap around the 3D form to reinforce the idea that you are not looking at a 2D surface.
With the very dark tree, it seems to me that your initial lay-in may have been weaker. Here's a quick demo I did many months ago. If you look at the way I approached the tree, I layed in the masses of leaves as circles/spherical forms. We want to convey that the leaf masses are voluminous.
I really like the way you approached the water surface on page 8. That piece looks really striking. The surface texture (the hatching) could have been handled better though. I've noticed this in most of your pieces, that you're putting hatching all over. In a lot of cases, it just adds unnecessary noise that stresses the eye out somewhat. When I look at this piece, my eye settles most comfortably on the lilypads, because they provide a nice rest area. It's true that noise helps establish a focal point, but if you push it too far it becomes uncomfortable.
Nice work on page 12 as well. Your hatching is flattening it out once again, but if I ignore it, I imagine that the forms conveyed a fair bit of volume before the hatching was added.
So to summarize this critique:
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Don't use hatching thoughtlessly, it will flatten out your forms
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Where you use hatching, try and make it wrap around the form and emphasize the 3D aspect of it
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Try and strike a balance between noisy areas and rest areas.
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Your lay-ins are mostly looking solid
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I like your use of graphic shadow shapes, it helps build a hierarchy of detail - you're taking certain chunks and saying, "these are not important" and by doing so, you're giving more attention to the areas that need it.
Feel free to move onto lesson 3, but keep these points in mind as they will be relevant in all subsequent exercises.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Boxes"
2014-09-17 01:03
I see what you were talking about before, with the difficulty of drawing the vertical lines. On the bright side, these boxes do look fairly solid (in terms of that whole weight/solidity thing I was going on about before). The perspective feels more correct, even though a lot of those verticals are off.
I'm curious to see what your form intersections would look like now. Do a page of them and post them to the Lesson 2 thread. When doing these form intersections though, limit yourself only to boxes and cylinders. Lets not throw all five forms at you just yet. You may want to go back to your previous set of Lesson 2 homework and look at the notes I gave you.
Since you're having a bit of trouble drawing lines at your desired angle though, try marking the points where you want the line to start and end before you actually draw the line. Then try and get your line to pass through those two points. This may help you keep from veering off unintentionally.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-16 20:45
I know where you're coming from, and you're absolutely right - even when working in 3D, 2D skills can really push your work much further. One school that is extremely well known for its 3D program, The Gnomon School of Visual Effects, stresses that all of its applicants must provide a 2D portfolio for review. I was initially considering taking that program, but unfortunately my portfolio was not quite there (this was a couple of years ago).
Having looked at your first homework assignment, I'm sure that you'll gain a lot from this subreddit. I'm eager to see your current work though, you've got me all curious with your tales of mentorships and t-squares!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-16 15:19
I genuinely believe it is best to get very comfortable with traditional media before diving into digital - I'm actually pretty thankful for the price barrier that comes with working digitally. I unfortunately jumped straight into digital, and for many years I stumbled because I lacked the grounding that a traditional skills would have given me.
The study you're working on right now is looking gorgeous - you definitely know your way around colour pencils!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-15 22:22
I really like your use of colour. Also, while I'm kind of preprogrammed to look down on anime-based styles (partially because of my own roots in it, and partially because of the massive numbers of beginners who draw anime really poorly but leave me at a total loss as to how to critique it), I love your stylistic direction. You're one of those artists that breaks away from anime and mixes it with realism in a way that achieves a really nice balance. Kind of reminds me of Dan Luvisi, except if he did anime-based work.
Of course there are issues (of the foundational sort, which is our speciality!), but they are all things that will disappear with time and effort. I look forward to what you'll be able to produce in the months to come!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-15 21:55
I noticed that you mentioned, "especially if I have not browsed intenret at all for inspiration". That is something that a lot of people do (myself included), though I have found that I do my best work when I use non-art related things as inspiration. Photographs of machinery, architecture, animals, landscapes, plants, etc. are all great sources that don't require you to worry about how much you're pulling from another artist's mind (as far as content goes).
I used to think that I was a little creatively dead. Whenever I'd try to draw something from my imagination, nothing would come out, or if it did, the design would be ridiculously simplistic and juvenile. That lead me to believe that imagination is something that a person is born with, or not.
More recently, I've learned that this is not the case at all - it is absolutely something you can train and develop over time. The more analytical studies you do, carefully observing and learning about your subjects, the more information you'll put into your visual library. These are the sort of things that will then come out as you try to draw from your imagination, since they will be saved there. The whole process of looking for inspiration helps there too, because there are so many little details and things that you can pull from reference.
In the future, I intend to write at least one lesson on this topic (integrating reference/inspiration into designs), so stay tuned for that!
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2014-09-15 21:46
Yeah, I totally understand the struggling with ego. I took a summer class at a local college several years back, and while I kept that humble outwards persona, I was soaking up all of the praise and attention. A king among fools doesn't amount to much, though. I didn't really start to grow until I joined others who had the same aspirations as myself.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 3: Drawing Plants"
2014-10-29 02:03
Wacom's drivers tend to be hit-and-miss. If you installed the ones that came on the CD with your tablet (I'm assuming they still provide drivers like that), then it might be outdated. Even if it's the most recent driver, sometimes the newest drivers are crappy.
Go to http://us.wacom.com/en/support/legacy-drivers/ and put in your model name. It should come up with two different versions, 6.3.9w5 and 6.3.6-3.
Start off by unplugging your tablet and uninstalling your current driver. Then reboot your machine and download the first driver from the link above, 6.3.9w5. Install it, reboot again, then plug in your tablet.
If your lines are still wobbly, repeat those steps (including all of the uninstalls, reboots, etc.) with the other driver, 6.3.6-3. If you're still encountering issues, then... I guess the only option is to contact Wacom.
These issues are common though, so there should definitely be a solution out there.