Sketchbook: Frell - learning2paint
polycounter lvl 11
these past few weeks ive been really trying to kick up my painting quality to do basic concepts and to just round off my art skills all together.
Im not super concerned with color, more so value and the actual technical side of laying pixels on the canvas.
*Note: Im not looking for DRAWING criticism, I plan to go deep into Loomis's books once I can shade at a decent level (actually im sort of alternating between the two now). This is my first time back to drawing for 2 years and I really don't remember any of my old tricks.
Brush settings:
Opacity - Pen pressure
100% hardness (and brush opacity)
100% flow
Airbrush
Any, I MEAN ANY!! Advice is welcomed, I've made some alright progress but its still horrid, and on some of my paintings that are better than others I don't remember how I approached it
So, here we go. This will be some semi-doodles and actual attempts at value
I've numbered the images for referral
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Im not super concerned with color, more so value and the actual technical side of laying pixels on the canvas.
*Note: Im not looking for DRAWING criticism, I plan to go deep into Loomis's books once I can shade at a decent level (actually im sort of alternating between the two now). This is my first time back to drawing for 2 years and I really don't remember any of my old tricks.
Brush settings:
Opacity - Pen pressure
100% hardness (and brush opacity)
100% flow
Airbrush
Any, I MEAN ANY!! Advice is welcomed, I've made some alright progress but its still horrid, and on some of my paintings that are better than others I don't remember how I approached it
So, here we go. This will be some semi-doodles and actual attempts at value
I've numbered the images for referral
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Replies
That psd file was some good info, but Im confused what went on between step 3 -4, where you said you blended?
Any way here were some more doodles
Obviously something value wise is making the frog look 2d.. but I cant put my finger on it :S tips?
The frogs values are all messed up because there are lights and shadows all over the place -- no consistent sense of big masses. this is full of great tips
Do you see how defining big shadow forms has more influence on the image than a lot of details?
http://itchstudios.com/psg/tuts/shadows.jpg
I even resorted to sampling the colors from the real image and it still didnt blend or look right... I have no clue why it didn't look the same
If you didnt save it, make a new one, just spend 2 or 3 minutes on it. And read the text!! The #1 mistake we all make with art instruction is looking at all the pictures and not reading all the words.
I have trouble explaining this, so try to bear with me. I sampled his colors and smudged this up in like 1minute, it's not as informative as the actual tutorial but it's more specific and HOPEFULLY addresses your problem.
[link]
Pick a light and a dark value to paint with. The dark value on your surface represents the absence of direct light on the surface. If there is not light on your surface, this is as dark as it gets. If there is light on your surface, it's brighter than this.
This is the darkest color that will appear on your surface -- once you hit the part of the form that's not in light, it turns to flat shadow color and stays that way, and gets no darker or no lighter. So in this case, the dark orange/brown that represents the cast shadow and the form shadow is a single flat color and never gradients or blends in any way. So what we do is
Step 1: we lay out our major shadow/lit forms
Step 2: we blend the lit part into the shadow as the surface curves. Light recedes into dark, dark stays solid.
Step 3: bonus, we paint in some reflections into the shadows, because they're actually another light source casting on to the 'unlit' are.
The incorrect, common mistake, is to kinda lighten and darken everything at random and not keep a consistent level of light on the object.
I know steps 1/2 seem like a huge jump, but it's actually way simpler than it looks, all you're doing is letting light recede into the shadow and keeping the shadow tones totally flat at their darkest.
edit: I keep forgetting, in 3d terms, the shadowed area is ambient only. You can mock this scene up in a 3d program extremely easily, set your ambient lighting up so the unlit cylinder is that dark orange he's got for hs shadows and throw a light on it.
A couple of things to think about:
1- Under all circumstances, the color is going to be at its most saturated under light. But as it's highlighted, it will be tinted to the light's color -- and as it' shadowed, it will be desaturated (because less light is bouncing off it and getting to the viewer) and tinted to the ambient color. So what this means in practice, typically, is midtones are your most saturated colors.
2- The Shadow communicates form, not the highlights. There are very few materials that are actually shaded on a white to black ramp, most have a ton of midtone, a lot of shadow, and a little bit of highlight. DO STUDIES AND STILL LIFES to learn more about materials under light and shadow.
I did a paintover for gilesruscoe over here that addresses pretty much the exact same issues as here, and a bunch of other artists gave him great input too, maybe that will help?
All three of these look pretty good. Paint from observation though, seriously, i can't stress it enough. I know it sounds no fun, (I don't follow my own advice for the same reason) but it's actually really fulfilling and educational. just paint anything around you accurately and you'll learn a ton about rendering every time.
Heres another one
Also try to find ways to play up your focal point, whether it's directing the lighting there, or having things physically point toward it. Look at reference for the things you are trying to draw, like if you ran out of interesting things to add to the castle, for example, look up all different kinds of castles and see what catches your eye - then try to add those things into your paintings.
Good luck :]
if you cannot produce a 'ok' image in pencil, then painting will be even harder.
For my AP Studio art class (SR in HS) we have a class set of tablets which means I am allow to paint all of my assignments! yay! This is great because I get almost 2 hours every day to work on paintings which means I don't feel like im wasting my own time (if its a bad painting)
Heres two new ones!
I also started at a wrong res
I suggest flipping your canvas horizontally so you can see how off balance some things are, it will help keep things symmetrical. Break things down into simple shapes... You should know that you require 3 values to make something look right, a highlight, bounced light and a dark part... The rest is only blending them together. So if its a cylinder or a box its simple to make it look like a cylinder or a box, you just need 3 values in the right place. Break stuff down to help you render it.
Hope something here helps... Keep it up! I think post 27 is your best stuff and revisiting what makes those work better is good.
And heres a color practice because I was having a hard time picking shades for my highlights and shadows so I did some practice and study on complementary colors
Id say im at a much more comfortable place