1 Hour Concept Challenge (Garden)

Jaykrass

Did a 1 hour concept challenge, the rush was real... Opinions, tips?
perspective is definitely off.


Reference:

lotet

Well first of I think you picked one of the most complicated subject mater you could ever find
there are no real hard or defined shapes, also a lot of advanced lighting and material definition with so much subsurface scattering and radiosity/bounce light going on.

on top of that you have an immense level of detail with all the flowers and tiny leaves. If i where you I would try picking something easier to studie for now. no need making things overly complicated

also, why rush things? at his level it only hurts you adding superficial time limits. 

Jaykrass

lotet said:

Well first of I think you picked one of the most complicated subject mater you could ever find
there are no real hard or defined shapes, also a lot of advanced lighting and material definition with so much subsurface scattering and radiosity/bounce light going on.

on top of that you have an immense level of detail with all the flowers and tiny leaves. If i where you I would try picking something easier to studie for now. no need making things overly complicated

also, why rush things? at his level it only hurts you adding superficial time limits. 

I wanted to see how far I could get in 1 hour, plus it's more of a learning experience, making poop and learning about what makes it poop. I agree though I went overboard with one of my brushes... I have a tendency to look at the hard shapes and be like, "I don't see how it fits, what is it?" I end up brushing over everything with a detailed brush, idky, but I just can't see shapes as objects, just blobs or messes, then I end up making bigger blobs and messes but detailed blobs and messes.

lotet

What I mean is the Subject matter, the photo itself is messy and dont have any defined shapes, which makes it a harder to try to paint and replicate. for example if you are struggeling with perspective, its hard enough to draw just a bunch of simple geometric objects right, taking on something like this is simply overkill.

as for the time limit thing, what do you honestly gain by restricting yourself?  like sure, you wanted to see how far you could get in an hour, but why? why is that important? isnt it better to see how far you can actually push yourself? your still learning, adding superficial constraints only makes learning harder and makes progress take longer.

Doodlok

Feng Zhu mentions the trap of speedpainting somewhere in his podcasts (which are honestly all amazing), saying that it's seemingly fun and educative especially since most of the youtuber concept artists go for it, but it doesn't really help you really learn anything in the end. (Unless you're already at the level where your technique is proficient enough)

I'm still learning and definitely am not in position to comment on neither side, but I do agree that at learning stage taking time would be more valuable investment.

Wolthera

Jaykrass, what might be interesting to try out when tackling a complicated image like this is to do 'studies' first. Like, old master painters would prepare working on a big commission by doing some oil paintings beforehand of parts of the image they wanted to paint. Like, a bowl of fruit, cloth, animals, people's faces, etc. So in your case, you could try to first work on drawing/painting rose bundles, and then different types of foliage. And then, when you start on the big image, make sure to first get the arches done and then start applying what you have learned from the studies.

Most speed-painters I know use what they know of doing studies in the past, to paint as fast as they do. So it might be beneficial to start with making studies
The 'I see things as blobs stuff' is pretty common, btw, it is your challenge as an artist to push beyond blobs and to reward your audience for looking at an image a bit longer.