Jack' learns to draw (Updated 10th June)
polycounter lvl 18
I'm sick of my complete lack of drawing skills so I'm commiting myself to acquiring some.
Heres my first step, kinda easing myself into things. I posted it in the sketch thread but it got flooded out by all the quality work so I thought I'd start my own thread
I'm reasonably happy with the result although there are a few issues here and there. Crit away, its the only way I'll learn.
More to come in the not too distant future.
Heres my first step, kinda easing myself into things. I posted it in the sketch thread but it got flooded out by all the quality work so I thought I'd start my own thread
I'm reasonably happy with the result although there are a few issues here and there. Crit away, its the only way I'll learn.
More to come in the not too distant future.
Replies
Some crits off the bat.
I think you need to work on the eyebrow shape and texture,the effect you got with that brush isnt quite right.
Another thing is (and im not sure if it was intentional)he is looking in 2 different directions, you need to make him focus on a point, maybe mess around with iris placement and highlights.
Other than that i dig it, i like the mouth and nose area you got some cool shading happening.
should be cool seeing more stuff.
Are you using reference? Or drawing from your imagination? If the latter, I think you should draw from life, or at the least from a photo. Though photos are not ideal because they're 2D already. If you're drawing from something "in-the-round," this actually helps you draw better since you're seeing the form rather than having to infer this from the photo's lighting. Hope that makes sense.
It looks ok through my bloodshot eyes but I might clean it up a bit and perhaps add some sort of backdrop tomorrow. I'll see what it looks like once I've gotten some sleep.
Apologies if this makes no sense. I'm out.
I'd recommend using just a paintbrush tool and nothing else, and just push it as hard as you can go with that. Don't use blur, smudge, anything like that.
Block out big areas of light and dark to get a general form built up first of all, then go in to detailing.
Something I'm noticing in these is lack of really consistent lighting. In the newest one, the implied ground plane with the shadows shows a strong light source off to the side, yet this is not really shown in the way you're doing highlights - a lot of the lighting on the guy, the table and chair is very blobby, blurry, not sharp or focused as if you know where the light is coming from.
For paintings like these to really work, you need to understand how the light is interacting with the 3d form. Build some quick blocked-in 3d models with a single light source to set up your scene, render it, then paint into that - it's good practise since you don't have to worry about setting up the major shapes, but you have a nice lighting base to consider detail on top of.
You've probably read it already but I'll link it again just in case - Prometheus' painting tutorial. http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
Basically try to think in volume and light as much as possible.
I'm sure you'll show a huge improvement in no time - keep it up!
I stuck the shadow in right at the end and looking at it now, it was probably a mistake but you know, 4am is not the best time for making complex decisions.
I'll strip out the shadow and have a bit more of a play with the lighting shortly.
It's nearly impossible to get hard edges (which you will need) with a soft brush, without taking the size right down and scribbling, which just gets messy and difficult.
With a hard edged brush you can get those edges easily, and also make any smoother gradients by just painting lighter/darker strokes lightly and building it up.
Oh, also, it's probably best if you work on a toned background rather than white. Choose a light or dark mid-grey, it keeps the image easier to read and more believable. Makes the highlights stand out more too. Right now the brightness of the background overwhelms the image.
Edit: Actually I did a quick paintover... I'm not a great painter, but I hope that helps pinpoint some areas you could improve in this piece - perspective wasn't very consistent, same with the lighting - I attempted to fix some of those. Feel free to disregard
I'm having some difficulty getting anything resembling a smooth gradient
The effect is kinda neat but there'll obviously be times when I want something a bit more smooth-like. I'll study the image you just uploaded for technique but any further advice on make things smooth would be useful.
Thanks for taking the time to do the paint over
That way you will tend to use broader and/or stronger strokes right from the start, and I find it gives yourself more confidence in the long run -not to mention it is also less stressful for your wrists as you don't need to press like mad to get a 100% opaque stroke, ha!-
Regardless of whether you were looking at my drawing or Mop's, Per, that image is going to be valuable. Proportions aren't my strong point although the head did look a bit on the big side. The example of simplified shading should be most helpful too.
I'll have another crack at it tonight. Cheers guys.
Nice pictures, girl is my favourite.
Keep it up.
I'll render her up later but I'll be needing some proportional crits first.
Cheers.