Sketchgarden

[Seedling]

The soil here has been tilled with good compost, the weather looks like springtime sunshine with scattered showers, and the scarecrow has been dressed up like a post-apocalyptic punk-band guitarist. Sink in your roots and make yourself at home!

(Sorry. . . I’ve got this thing for plants. . . *grin*.)

JL.Alfaro, Ellingsworth, and (hopefully) Odayga, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to start posting, er, stuff. Daily stuff, of whatever variety you want to be making. And tell me a bit about your goals while you’re at it. I’ll offer suggestions to help you reach those goals. And you can help me with mine, too, and help each other.

It’s going to be a few days before I can get my first batch of drawings uploaded. If you’re like me, and find it easier to make one big upload each week or so, no problem!

The first one to post art gets to pick the color of the chicken coop. ;)

Cheers!
-michelle

[Ellingsworth]

Hey, odayga, JL.Alfaro, and Michelle. Thanks a bunch for doing this for us, Seedling.

I have some drawings from tonight, a quick still life and some Bridgman studies along with one old Gouache painting of a sharpy. FULL on critique and advice I don't care how harsh I just want to get better and someday be a good artist. :^^: Oh, yeah here's the thread image, if you guys don't like it just let me know and I'll change it. I got it off Stock Exchange, I guess it fits the title of the sketchbook well. :)

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[Ms. Kitty]

Beautiful hand studies, they've a very nice gesture. Are you working from life?

The dark grey behind the blackness of the pen and its shadow kind of flattens out the image. Putting in a horizon line would help counter that. :3

[Ellingsworth]

Thanks, Kitty. :) I left you a reply in your sketchbook.

Some quick stuff from today. I'll add more later. Also an update on the still life I did yesterday. It's coming out shitty so I'm just going to start something new.

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[Ellingsworth]

Two more things I did today, a drawing of a human heart and an arm.

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[Ellingsworth]

Horse doodle I just did, about five minutes.

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[Ellingsworth]

Morning doodles, quick dog drawing (5 minutes) and some gesture drawings off http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/ They each took about thirty seconds. You guys/girls going to join in on the fun! :P I feel like a man left behind where's my team! Maybe I smell.

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[Seedling]

Hi guys! *phew* This weekend wiped me out.

Thank you for getting the party started, Ellingsworth! So what color is that chicken coop going to be? Heehe, and thanks for the greens.

I have not yet read any Bridgeman, but I may have to now. :) In the mean time, can you tell me a bit about the anatomy book you’re following? I think I mentioned before to you that this stuff will really start to click for you when you start drawing from life. Particularly when it comes to the smaller, weirder lumps ‘n’ bumps of human anatomy, seeing it in person will illuminate what you’ve been seeing reduced to lines on a flat page.

So what you might want to try doing is alternate a study from the book with a study of the real thing; i.e. do a page of hands from the book, followed by a page of your own hand.

Perspective! You are going to eat perspective for lunch once you get your hands on a good perspective book. Unfortunately the one book on perspective I’ve got was written a hundred years ago and is the most painfully tedious thing to read. I’ll see if I can find a better book or online resource to send you in search of, if you’d like. Once you’ve got the basics, it’ll help you nail those simple-but-tough shapes found in everyday objects.

Cool organ studies! Are you interested in medicine, or medical illustration?

Oddly enough, the eyeball diagram has reminded me that I’m hungry, so I’d better move along. Here are the drawings I’ve done this week. The shrub is a view from my window. The characters are for fun, and to see what I can drag out of my imagination without reference. The hoodie guy and head studies were from imagination, too. I missed yesterday, and I need to get a move on for today! I need to find a soft medium that doesn’t make squeaky noises the way charcoal does. Icky squeaking charcoal!
-michelle

[Ellingsworth]

Thank you for getting the party started, Ellingsworth! So what color is that chicken coop going to be? Heehe, and thanks for the greens.

No problem! Hmmm, I thought when you said the color of the coop you meant the picture??

I have not yet read any Bridgeman, but I may have to now. In the mean time, can you tell me a bit about the anatomy book you’re following? I think I mentioned before to you that this stuff will really start to click for you when you start drawing from life. Particularly when it comes to the smaller, weirder lumps ‘n’ bumps of human anatomy, seeing it in person will illuminate what you’ve been seeing reduced to lines on a flat page.

Gotcha. Bridgman is amazing, it's really fun to draw from his stuff. It has awesome drawings that show the way forms should interlock and connect to one another, it doesn't name specific bones and muscle just gives you an idea of how they go together and form body parts with blocks. It's really cheap, here's the link from amazon. (Bridgman (http://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Books-Instruction/dp/0486211045/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-0070276-9336809?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189994655&sr=8-2))
I'll start drawing my own hands and post them. I'll try to equal it out, for every book study I'll do something from life.

Perspective! You are going to eat perspective for lunch once you get your hands on a good perspective book. Unfortunately the one book on perspective I’ve got was written a hundred years ago and is the most painfully tedious thing to read. I’ll see if I can find a better book or online resource to send you in search of, if you’d like. Once you’ve got the basics, it’ll help you nail those simple-but-tough shapes found in everyday objects.

Awesome, that's something I really have to work on. Bridgman even has a lot of great info on that. Hook me up with those links, if you have them.

Cool organ studies! Are you interested in medicine, or medical illustration?

Not really, just love finding out how certain parts of the body function and how they work, also helps with learning other things. I would probably love to do game art or traditional illustrations for freelance but I can't really decide right now, some days I love art, some days I hate it. :)

Oddly enough, the eyeball diagram has reminded me that I’m hungry, so I’d better move along. Here are the drawings I’ve done this week. The shrub is a view from my window. The characters are for fun, and to see what I can drag out of my imagination without reference. The hoodie guy and head studies were from imagination, too. I missed yesterday, and I need to get a move on for today! I need to find a soft medium that doesn’t make squeaky noises the way charcoal does. Icky squeaking charcoal!
-michelle

Cool stuff, Michelle. The shrub looks good, I also hate that squeaky noise it makes. Here are some super small hand drawings from life, it's my left hand. I'll do some more from life, tonight.

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[JL.Alfaro]

well heres a few of mine... Havent gotten around to getting some more done, hopefully I will get to work at work- I get to sneak some personal time in there...and take excessively long lunch breaks,..I know...lucky me. :)

My next attempts will be of full figures and I will try to get a couple of life studies in there somewhere.

-JL

[Ellingsworth]

Very nice muscle studies, dude. Got any good links for reference? preferably ones with names for each muscle group? I have a few just looking for some more. Here are some more quick hands done from life again. It's my left hand. Where's Odayga at!? We have to get her to post some studies also! :)

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[JL.Alfaro]

+ the books I am using, at least my newest and most helpful are:
Anatomy Drawing School - by Andras Szunyoghy & Gyorgy Feher
Anatomy:A Complete Guide For Artists - by Joseph Sheppard
Anatomy for the Artist -Barnes & Noble publication
Dynamic Anatomy -Hogarth


There are a lot of unnesesary topics covered in these books, IMO. For example,(and Im not putting these studies down or anything, but I believe IMO that the study of anatomy can be done without) The mechanism of the spine, the relationship between bones, joints, and ligaments, the inner working of the body organs, Detail studies of bone structure, matter and the rendering of thereof. I honestly believe that we can do without these studies, and dig directly into proportions, and anatomy itself; muscle structure and mechanism, the relationship between bone to muscle to skin and the rendering thereof.

thats just my opinion, though...you guys can jump right into those studies if you want.

[JL.Alfaro]

AS far as links go, PM me and I can send you some PDFs of some of the stuff I got.

-JL

[Seedling]

Hi guys! I’m afraid I have nothing useful to say at the moment, because I seem to have a cold and it has addled my brains, but keep up the good work. :) I’ll be back later when I’m more coherent.

[Ellingsworth]

JL.Alfaro: Sounds good man, send me them in a PM if you can. Sounds like those books are good, even if those unneeded studies are in there, I would still do them, it's cool to see how stuff works about the human body. :)

Here are some hand and feet studies. From life. Also a quick GIMP sketch.

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[Seedling]

Good morning! I’m feeling human again today, hooray!

Odayga has been delayed by the dreaded college entrance essays.

Hey JL, I would be interested in those PDFs as well, if you don’t mind sharing. :)

Sounds like the guys at work are going to kick off a new round of weekly figure drawing soon, which I’ll get in on. They have started organizing weekly sketch-outings as well. The last one, which I had to miss due to a wedding, was to the zoo. In addition to that, I’ve got to paint a picture of a unicorn hunt before the month is out. I committed to this project months ago and I’ve been sitting on my thumbs for waaay too long, so the next time I post a batch of art it’s going to be full of unicorns, which I’m a little sheepish about. ;) Then after that, I’m going to get in on the 100-creatures CA contest. Assuming I can get the little blocks of masonite on time, I’ll be making each little creature painting suitable for sale in an Art-O-Mat. Will you guys do me a favor and help me stay on track with these? I’m a bit intimidated by the quantity of work ahead of me. :)

JL, is that a little hat perched on your skeleton’s head? And a heart. . . haha! Cool. :) Is this drawn from a photo, or do you have a skeleton model available to you? If you’ve got a model available, that would be ideal – that’s hours and hours of drawing fun! I’m a little ashamed to admit that while I’ve drawn skeletons a bit, I have never done muscle studies. (And it shows in my figures.) So I’m very interested to see where these studies take you. I also suspect you are correct about not needing to know about some of the more internal stuff that goes on in the body. When I draw figures from imagination I typically build the figure around the big rigid masses of body – ribcage, pelvis, head, etc. If you know the basic shapes of those, and how they can move in relationship to one-another, then you’re in a pretty good starting point. Being able to string the proper muscles on top of that is even better, and that’s where I usually start making ghastly errors.

Ellingsworth – eeeeggselent hands and feet! By chance have you got any friends at school who are also into art? If you do, you could each hold an interesting gesture with your left hand while drawing the other person’s hand with your right.

[Seedling]

Unicorns. . .

[Ellingsworth]

Seedling, very nice poses and motion on the unicorn sketches! lol, you little monster killing freak! :uzi:

You told us before to maybe try to push you to do that monster activity? Let's see some monsters! :) Are you still planning on doing the activity? I would do it, if I didn't suck. I'll start doing those activities next year. >:D

Here's some random doodles from life. I went out and bought one of those manikins so I can pose him and draw from it. It is made from very cheap wood and the model I got is small, but I think it will help with my life drawing a lot.

The arm is also from life, it's my left hand, I drew it on some very, very cheap tracing paper, it's fun to try and draw on different surfaces and paper. :)

EDIT: Do you guys/gals think I should purchase this guy's DVD it looks amazing, his work is also very nice, let me know what you think. I might buy this DVD set and also purchase the newly printed Bargue book, then study for the next two years solely off that and maybe some figure drawing classes if I can find them around my area.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OiSLw2LFD70

http://www.mattsillustration.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=19

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[Odayga]

yupyup. craptastic sketch :bashful:

[Ellingsworth]

Looks good, Odayga, just keep drawing them and you will eventually understand the structure of the skull, I also need to draw a lot more of them, I may even buy a skull off this site, they have some good looking ones for cheap. Here's the link if you're interested.

http://anatomical.com/category.asp?start=0&c=28&bhcd2=1190436316

[JL.Alfaro]

Hey guys, as it turns out, the files I was to send you are over the rapidshare limit- please pm me your email adresses please.

[Ellingsworth]

Thanks, man. I'll send it in a PM right away.

Here's a quick sideways head drawing, got pissed at it, proportions are off and yeah I need to do one from the front.

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[Seedling]

Michael – you should delete that e-mail addy before the bots find it. That’s a sure-fire way to get tons of spam.

I’ll be right back with comments and fun stuff for you guys. . .

[Ellingsworth]

Michael – you should delete that e-mail addy before the bots find it. That’s a sure-fire way to get tons of spam.

I’ll be right back with comments and fun stuff for you guys. . .

Oh crap, thanks, Michelle. :) I guess I'll just PM him it.

I did some more things to the portrait, it still looks hideous but I can't really fix it, that just goes to show you not to base your drawing off a disproportioned under-drawing, the more time you spend on the initial sketch I'm guessing the better outcome.

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[Seedling]

Hi guys!

I was up way late last night hitting splicers with a wrench. :) I’m trying to get in some good game time before the 100-monster project starts (no head starts allowed on this), because that project has the potential to eat all of my free time.

Speaking of which, I know there are people at CA who like to go on about how the best thing you can do is to drop everything else in order to draw. I’m not a fan of that, except perhaps as an occasional desperation measure. I’m of the opinion that if you want to be spending your life at a job that involves long periods of isolated, sedentary work, then you need to make sure that your schedule also contains time for fun, friends, and exercise.

Ellings – lol, you don’t suck. :) For the time being there are other things you could be drawing that will be less frustrating and teach you more. Stick with them and it won’t be too long before you’re firing off pages full of imaginary critters, if that’s what you want to do.

Yikes! I hope you were able to re-attach your hand! ;) That’s a good study. Another thing you can do is use a mirror to see your own hand gestures from different angles

You are right about the head – it’s the underlying drawing that is throwing it a bit off. The mannequin drawing has the same problem. So for now, try sticking with fast outlines, where the goal is 100% accuracy of proportion of whatever you are drawing. And remind me later to show you some fast shading techniques.

Thanks for the bone replica link! Oooh, I’m tempted. . . a skull, or better yet, a whole Mr. Thrifty would be a great investment for you guys if you don’t have access to replicas elsewhere.

Odayga! That’s a great skull. Yes, the proportions are a bit off. That’s okay – it’s tough to get the proportions of a skull correct, and the struggle is what teaches you how to draw. Try it again. Do some quick little outline sketches where you focus on finding just the big shapes and their proportions to one-another. Once you’ve got the big shapes mapped out, it’ll be the scaffolding on which you can easily hang all the tiny details.

JL – Did I hear somewhere that you have two mentors? If so, who’s your other mentor? I’m all curious. :) Keep me posted so I can try to keep from giving you redundant assignments.

And thanks again for getting this project going. I’m super excited for everyone involved! And I’m also amazingly pleased to see how many other people around here are keen to teach.

************** Onward! *******************


Peeking through your sketchbooks, it looks like none of you have explored perspective in-depth yet. So, if you don’t mind, I would like to help you achieve uberness with perspective.

About the skulls and anatomy studies – keep those up if you are so inclined. I can’t think of much to add at the moment that will help you with anatomy studies, other than keep looking and keep drawing. If you can get your hands on replicas of bones or other anatomy, rather than 2D images, that’s awesome – set them up at different angles and sketch them. Later I can show you how to combine perspective and what you’ve learned from drawing bones to help you draw figures from imagination.

I’m afraid this means starting with the boring perspective stuff, however. Cubes in space!

So. . . in the beginning, there was a long straight railroad track. Somebody stood on the track and noticed that although the rails were perfectly parallel, they appeared to intersect at the horizon. He was then flattened by a train and the knowledge was splattered thither and yon with his brains.

Er, sorry. I blame those violent video games I’ve been playing. ;) Anyway, here’s what you do. Draw a horizontal line across your paper – and use a straight-edge. That’s the horizon. Put a point on that horizon line right in the middle. That’s your vanishing point. Then above, below, and crossing that line, draw assorted rectangles. They should be orthogonal – that is, at tidy right angles to the line.

Then, using your straight-edge (if you don’t have a ruler handy, try using a folded sheet of paper) connect the points of those rectangles to the vanishing point. That turns them into long rectangular 3D shapes that extend to the horizon. You can then shorten those super-long shapes by adding in more horizontal lines. Voila, blocks. This is one-point perspective, because there is just that one vanishing point.

You’ll notice I’ve left lines all over my drawing. You’ll want to do this as well, because that scaffolding will come in very handy when you get into more complicated shapes. I suggest drawing lightly with a hard pencil, so that when you really mess up you can erase, and when you’ve got a line in the right place, you can make it stand out by darkening it. Also, draw your shapes as if they are made out of glass. That is, you want to be drawing the far faces of the cubes as well as the near faces. This, again, will be necessary later when you’re drawing more complicated subjects.

Try doing some variations on this cube exercise as well. Do things such as moving the vanishing point way off to the top, bottom, or side of the page, or punching holes in the boxes, or creating other shapes. The goal with these explorations will be for you to find out where this technique ceases to give good results, and get you thinking about what is necessary to accurately construct other sorts of shapes in space.


Any questions, comments, flaming bags of poo? ;)

[Ellingsworth]

Sweet, I also love Bioshock, almost beat it in a single day! but I had resorted to playing on easy mode because I sucked! I'll get right on that perspective practice and post some stuff later, thanks, Michelle. :) By the way do you have a gamertag? If you have one PM me it and if you have some multi-player games, we have to frag it up sometime when we aren't drawing. :uzi:

[Ellingsworth]

Here's my perspective assignment, I threw in a sphere/cylinder just for the heck of it, also I'm gonna do a lot more of these, keep dishing out the info, Seedling! :)

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[Seedling]

Excellent, Michael! You’ve figured out the great secret of the sphere: no matter where it is, it’s always a circle. ;) On your next one, keep all of your lines light except for the lines that you have decided are important.

What is a gamertag exactly? I may have to take you up on the offer of a frag-fest some time. (Though perhaps not until after this 100-monster business that’s bearing down on me like a mac truck. *cower*) I, too, am playing Bioshock on the easy level. I don’t regularly play shooters, so I haven’t developed the knack.

I’m heading to the zoo in a little bit to go sketching with my coworkers. I get nervous drawing with them, because they can all draw circles around me. Wish me luck!

[Ellingsworth]

Excellent, Michael! You’ve figured out the great secret of the sphere: no matter where it is, it’s always a circle. ;) On your next one, keep all of your lines light except for the lines that you have decided are important.

What is a gamertag exactly? I may have to take you up on the offer of a frag-fest some time. (Though perhaps not until after this 100-monster business that’s bearing down on me like a mac truck. *cower*) I, too, am playing Bioshock on the easy level. I don’t regularly play shooters, so I haven’t developed the knack.

I’m heading to the zoo in a little bit to go sketching with my coworkers. I get nervous drawing with them, because they can all draw circles around me. Wish me luck!

I tried to keep the lines a little lighter on this one but I think it's still too strong, also there's some wonky things going on with the perspective, I think...

A gamertag is just a name you make and you pay five dollars a month to play online the Xbox Live, so you can connect and play with other kids/people on the 360. If you ever decide to get one or check into it, we have to play some multi player, lots of the games are a blast online! Yeah, you might not want to get into that until the monster challenge is over.

Good luck at the zoo, hope you have fun! :)

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[Ellingsworth]

One more.

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[Ellingsworth]

More of the assignment, tried to make the lines lighter this time.

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[Seedling]

Good morning! Michael, I’m totally jazzed at how you’ve dived into the perspective stuff. Good improvement with the line heaviness. As long as you keep up the enthusiasm I’ll keep providing exercises. (This is a great excuse for me to review what I know, and fill in the gaps!) I got the next step – two-point perspective - drawn out this morning; I may have that ready to post some time tomorrow. In the mean time, you could take one of the drawings you’ve done and try drawing rectangular holes through the blocks; or you could switch over to anatomy studies.

JL, Odayga, are you guys stockpiling drawings to post all at once? :) I look forward to seeing what you've got. . .

[JL.Alfaro]

I dont know about Odayga, but I am...Im gonna scan it all at once and then post it. Im still waiting for that email from Ellingsworth and Odayga if you all want the "stuff"

-JL

[Seedling]

Oh yay, I'm glad to hear that JL. My afternoon went sour and I was in need of a smile. Thanks. :)

[Ellingsworth]

Good morning! Michael, I’m totally jazzed at how you’ve dived into the perspective stuff. Good improvement with the line heaviness. As long as you keep up the enthusiasm I’ll keep providing exercises. (This is a great excuse for me to review what I know, and fill in the gaps!) I got the next step – two-point perspective - drawn out this morning; I may have that ready to post some time tomorrow. In the mean time, you could take one of the drawings you’ve done and try drawing rectangular holes through the blocks; or you could switch over to anatomy studies.

JL, Odayga, are you guys stockpiling drawings to post all at once? :) I look forward to seeing what you've got. . .

Sounds good, Michelle, anything you have that you think can help me would be great, those perspective studies are great and really shed new light on something for more, can't wait to get more of them. Here's a small doodle. It's a William Whitaker painting study. I adore this man's work. It is beautiful.

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[Seedling]

Oooh, Michael, that looks pretty nifty. Could you post the original next to it for comparison?

I’ll get the next perspective assignment up tonight. I had time to photograph my recent drawings this morning, but only had time to process this one. Here’s where the unicorn pic is at. It took me more research to get to this little sketch than I expected, and I need to hustle if I’m going to make a finished painting of it by Sunday! *eep*

[chaosrocks]

seedling -- sorry to butt in..please see my notes on this in the grl forum.....
chaos

[Ellingsworth]

Oooh, Michael, that looks pretty nifty. Could you post the original next to it for comparison?

I’ll get the next perspective assignment up tonight. I had time to photograph my recent drawings this morning, but only had time to process this one. Here’s where the unicorn pic is at. It took me more research to get to this little sketch than I expected, and I need to hustle if I’m going to make a finished painting of it by Sunday! *eep*

Awesome, I'm looking forward to that assignment. :)

"Nooooooo! Papa, don't do it! I love Mr.unicorn." *Thrusts*

Cool concept for the painting, hmm, maybe instead of just a normal flat headed spear put some neat design elements into it? Maybe a few more points or something to make it look EXTRA dangerous. :^^:

I can't wait to see the final painting. Maybe you should try to post process shots?

Here's (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=5940) the original painting done by William Whitaker, here's a new version, I tried to shade better this time and get a better likeness, I still have some left to finish on it.

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[Crush]

Well, I don't know if I'm supposed to be posting any crits here... just say so and it wont happen again :P

Anyway seedling, you might want to look at the perspective of that unicorn's horn in your last post, it should be pointing more to the left instead of straight vertical like you have it :)

The only reason I would keep it how you have it is that it does actually make for a better composition that way I feel... maybe change the angle of the unicorn's head instead? (if you change anything ofcourse, it's your piece hehe)

[Seedling]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Much appreciated. I’m struggling with the image like mad.

Michael – I will explain this properly later, because I’m frothing at the mouth to get to the unicorn painting. I give you the challenge of figuring it out without my yammering. :)

[Odayga]

Skullinprogress.. :}

[JL.Alfaro]

Heres the leg studies I've made so far
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9311/legstudy001ze8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/3999/legstudy002th5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7383/legstudy003kd2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/9384/backstudy001wt6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Seedling]

Hi Ashley! Skulls! Skulls are great for learning not just anatomy, but proportions, in general, because they have such complex shapes with big forms and tiny details going in such unexpected directions. If you can get the proportions on a skull correct, you can draw anything (given enough time, patience, study, and a good radio station).

You are getting closer to the correct proportions with this one!

Here’s a sprint exercise to help you get the proportions even closer. Have you got a kitchen timer handy? Start with the skull in front of you and one sheet of paper. Divide the paper into four quadrants. (You can draw the quadrants, or fold the paper, or just imagine dotted lines where you need them – whatever you prefer.) Set the timer for ten minutes. Draw the skull in one of the quadrants. Time up! Then turn the skull. Repeat. Lay the skull on its side. Repeat. Turn it again. Repeat. Ding! Done.

Just like doing quick figure studies for the first time, you’ll likely want to dump the paper in the trash can when you’re done. That’s absolutely fine. You have to make a lot of bad drawings in order to get to the good drawings.

[Seedling]

Ooh, JL, those are great! Those muscle studies will really help you when you’re cobbling together figures from your head. (I have seriously got to do that same sort of study myself sometime soon.)

I believe I’m going to have nightmares about that anatomy instructor tonight! :) The other funny tidbits are a nice touch. Gotta do something to amuse yourself through tedious exercises!

[JL.Alfaro]

thanks seedling, I got some more but Im going to post them tomorrow.. its late

[Seedling]

Good night JL! I should hit the sack myself.

I’ll just post these and run. From Sunday’s sketch trip at the zoo, cheap-old bic pen on printer paper. The close-up of the elephant is to show you this snazzy way of sketching fast: lasso the areas of mass loosely and lightly, then darken up the most correct lines, then knock in a flat layer of shadow where it’s needed. For a more complete drawing, more layers of shadows can be added in. It's an efficient way of recording visual info in a hurry.

Wildebeests are my new favorite.

[Seedling]

Hey Michael, here's the rest of the two-point perspective thingamajig. . . cheers!


Onward to two-point perspective! This time, instead of one vanishing point in the center of the page, you’ll want to put two - one on the left, and one on the right. This time, instead of drawing orthogonal rectangles here and there, just draw vertical line segments. Try one above the horizon, one below, and one crossing over, for starters. Make sure those line segments are between the two vanishing points for now. Then, draw lines from both vanishing points to the ends of each of those line segments. (A) The vertical line segment is now the corner of a building that extends all the way to the horizon. Add in more vertical lines - the far corners of your rectangle. (B) Connect the ends of those new line segments back to the vanishing points to fill in the rest of your box. Those lines will meet at and define the furthest corner of your rectangle. And there you have it - boxes in two-point perspective.

Remember that everywhere that a corner occurs, there should be lines from that corner to both vanishing points. (And remember to leave all of those light scaffolding lines lying about. The more complicated this gets, the more you will need that information to continue your drawing successfully.)

A quick word about tools and precision. When setting up a complex scene involving buildings or space-ships, it will start off exactly like this: a bunch of simple shapes in space. If your drawing contains small errors at this stage, then by the time you are down to the details, those details will be magnified. A good picture can be ruined by small mistakes made at the outset. You may find, for instance, that in a picture of the courtyard of a building, everything on the near side of the image works, but everything on the far side of the courtyard is crooked.

The key to keeping a perspective drawing from going badly like that is to keep those vertical and horizontal lines at tidy right angles and perfectly straight. So, either you have to eyeball where you are putting your ruler very closely (and expect that some of your drawings will go terribly wrong), or you must use a t-square and board.

A t-square is a ruler with a segment that is designed to hang over the edge of a drafting table to hold the ruler perfectly horizontal. It’s typically used with a triangle and drafting table. It isn’t necessary to have a drafting table to use a t-square, but some sort of rectangular surface is necessary. The paper is taped down to the surface while drawing to hold it in place.

Here’s an image of how a t-square, triangle, and board are used: http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/21900/21986/t_square_21986.htm

I have to insert a disclaimer here – I’m being naughty and not using a t-square at the moment, because I’m drawing these demos in a hurry. You should use a t-square if you can get your hands on one, to get yourself in good habits. Later, when these rules are second nature to you, you can break them willy-nilly.

Back to the drawing board. . . Try out the exercise above, making various sorts of rectangles in space. Perhaps try to figure out other sorts of shapes. See what happens if you draw your rectangles too close, or beyond, the vanishing points. See what happens if you draw your rectangles far above the horizon, or if the two vanishing points are closer together. Mess around to get a feel for where this system works, and where it breaks.

[Ellingsworth]

Thanks, Michelle. That explanation helped a lot. I did a quick one this morning, I'll be sure to do a lot more.

Those animal studies look great, I might have to do that sometime. I need some buddies that like art, though. I had to explain to my friend for the first time yesterday why artist draw people nude, he thought it was weird and said they must have some kind of fetish... The reason he asked was because I let him look through my Henry Yan figure drawing book. *Sigh*

Nice stuff, odayga and JL.Alfaro.

I also threw in a larger version of that earlier face.


EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a cool documentary I found on Michelangelo. I thought it was neat.

http://tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/7869
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[Seedling]

Morning Michael! Wow, you’re up early. And you’ve already done a three-point perspective drawing? Holy fast! :) Looks good. Notice how the lowest rectangle looks oddly squashed? It has been drawn correctly, but it demonstrates where this perspective system starts to fail around the edges. I’ll show you tricks for dealing with that later.

Oops, I need to run. . . here's my work in progress. . .

[Ellingsworth]

Here's some more two-point perspective studies. :)

I went out and rented Knocked Up, pretty good movie, wasn't amazing but it was a pretty well done comedy. I'd probably give it a 3.5/5, overall.

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[Ellingsworth]

Morning Michael! Wow, you’re up early. And you’ve already done a three-point perspective drawing? Holy fast! :) Looks good. Notice how the lowest rectangle looks oddly squashed? It has been drawn correctly, but it demonstrates where this perspective system starts to fail around the edges. I’ll show you tricks for dealing with that later.

Oops, I need to run. . . here's my work in progress. . .

Holy crap... Michelle, that looks great so far, the final is going to look awesome. It's really great to see you putting great use to all those oil skills you obtained over the last year. :)

[Ellingsworth]

Another two-point.

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[Seedling]

Hi Michael!

You’ve picked a very challenging painting to copy, and you’re doing a good job of it. I’m impressed that you are getting such a range of values without ending up with a smudgy mess. :) (Smudgy mess is a common outcome for that sort of pencil rendering.)

I’m sire you’ve already noticed that there are two things to keep in mind in this sort of rendering: proportion and value. Proportion is made easier when copying from a 2D source, of course; but you are still faced with the tricky task of converting color into value.

Take a look at two areas on the painting while squinting: her hair on the right side of her head, and the shadow on her nose. Notice that the hair there is the blackest of blacks, and is practically flat. On the nose, notice how the shadow is basically another flat patch of a single value.

Some artists do work successfully by taking part of an image from start to finish, and then moving on to the next area from start to finish, but it’s risky because the whole image can be throw off balance by making one part too dark. I find a much safer approach is to start drawings (even drawings intended to be highly rendered) in about the same manner as that elephant sketch I posted earlier, where values are dropped in as big flat shapes. As the drawing progresses, smaller and smaller flat shapes of shadow get dropped in, or lifted out with eraser, until they stop looking like flat shapes and start looking like a rounded form.

Remind me later to draw you an example if this doesn’t make sense. :)

Good job with the perspective drawings! Don’t forget to draw in the back side of the shapes as well. It’s especially important to draw in the far, hidden point on each rectangle, because it’ll tell you how accurate your drawing is. Basically, if you end up with only two out of three lines on the back of a rectangle meeting up properly, that’s your signal that something was crooked in the drawing.

***************

Stuff blew up at work yesterday. I may have to be putting in extra hours these next few weeks, which is going to play havoc with my plans for the unicorn painting and the 100-creature project. But I went ahead and drew up the net few perspective drawings last night, so at least I’m ready to keep you busy with that. ;)

Oh yeah. . . I should get to that work stuff. . .

[Ellingsworth]

Hi Michael!

You’ve picked a very challenging painting to copy, and you’re doing a good job of it. I’m impressed that you are getting such a range of values without ending up with a smudgy mess. (Smudgy mess is a common outcome for that sort of pencil rendering.)

Thanks, Michelle. I think it's just because I was going super slow on the drawing and enjoying the process instead of trying to rush to get it done. Still I'm going to stop the drawing here and move on to something else. :) Next time I'll have to pay closer attention to the small details, like you said. Thanks for the advice.


Good job with the perspective drawings! Don’t forget to draw in the back side of the shapes as well. It’s especially important to draw in the far, hidden point on each rectangle, because it’ll tell you how accurate your drawing is. Basically, if you end up with only two out of three lines on the back of a rectangle meeting up properly, that’s your signal that something was crooked in the drawing.

Thanks again! I just noticed what you said about drawing the back part also and it helps a lot. I just did a new one and tried to include the back this time, things seem way off, but I think I'm starting to get it. Little by little.

Stuff blew up at work yesterday. I may have to be putting in extra hours these next few weeks, which is going to play havoc with my plans for the unicorn painting and the 100-creature project. But I went ahead and drew up the net few perspective drawings last night, so at least I’m ready to keep you busy with that.

Oh yeah. . . I should get to that work stuff. . .

I hope you mean figuratively and not literally! Thanks for drawing the next batch up, I'll be sure to jump on them as soon as you post them. Take your time on the oil painting you are doing, I'm sure it will look great in the end.

Well I ordered Shawn Barber's Foundation Painting a few days ago and I'm going to sit down go through the DVD when it arrives, then Get together my paints and supplies and try to produce my first oil painting! :rendered:

I also need to read over some color theory and work on my shading and anatomy more.

Here's that quick perspective drawing with the back filled in.

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If you guys want here's some recent documentaries I've been watching that I enjoyed, they go over some old master's info and give a pretty good insight into their lives. :)

http://tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/7903

[Ellingsworth]

Master copy/doodle I did this morning while watching Mythbusters.

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[Seedling]

Hi Michael! I don’t have time to explain these drawings right now, so I leave them for you to figure out. :)

Fozzy has decreed that we are not to show our work on the 100-creature project until we turn them in, so I won’t have much to show for a while. If you guys go for too long without hearing from me, poke me with a stick via PM!

Odayga, JL, let’s see some drawings! :)

Drawing and Mythbusters sounds like a good combo. I'm going to go do some of that myself.

****************
[edit] Three-point perspective info!
****************

A right-angled box is made up of three sets of parallel lines. So far you have learned that in some circumstances parallel lines are drawn on a flat surface using lines that converge at a vanishing point. But why do some of those lines *not* converge at a vanishing point?

Actually, they all do. One-point and two-point perspective are actually simplifications of what our eye actually sees. To see why, in one-point perspective, think of the lines on the box that you draw parallel to the horizon. Imagine that instead of being entirely parallel, those lines are actually just slightly not parallel – which means that somewhere, hundreds of feet off the edge of your paper, those lines actually do meet at a vanishing point, one that is inconveniently far away. The same with the vertical lines in both one- and two-point perspective. Somewhere far above or below the horizon (and off the edge of your sheet of paper) those “parallel” lines meet in another vanishing point.

So, those parallel and perpendicular lines in one- and two-point perspective actually represent a shortcut. Three-point perspective is actually quite simple: every corner (or point) making up a box must be connected to three vanishing points.

You might be wondering about there horizon. Forget about it. The horizon is something we as humans are used to seeing because we stand on the surface of the earth, and most of our life we are surrounded by big rectangular box-structures that sit neatly on the ground-plane. As long as the boxes that surround us remain neatly orthogonal, and we remain on the ground (as opposed to high above in a helicopter), then one- and two-point perspective suffice for drawing what is around us.

But if you were standing at the foot of a sky scraper and looking up at it, or flying above and looking down, you would need a third point of perspective. That third point would not fall on the horizon, but would instead be up in the sky, or down underground. So for the sake of clarity, we can throw away the horizon for now.

Draw three points on your paper in a roughly equilateral triangle. They’ll need to be close to the edges to give you enough room. These are your three vanishing points. Label them “1”, “2”, and “3”. Put a third point somewhere in the center. That point is the point of a rectangle that is closest to you in space.

Draw a line from all three vanishing points one to that first corner of your cube. Then pick a second point somewhere between the point on the cube, and vanishing point 1. That will be the next corner of your box. Draw lines from that point to vanishing points 3 and 3.

This gives you two triangles. Extend two more lines out from vanishing point 1, intersecting each of those triangles. That will give you a shape that looks like a very narrow hard-backed book. That is two of the near sides of your box.

To find the rest of your box, just remember the rule: all points on the box must connect to all three vanishing points. (I say “find”, because after the initial steps, you no longer get to decide where the remainder of the box goes.) There it all is! Now you just have to sort through the mess of lines for the outlines of your cube. Darken those up so that it stands out clearly.

**********************

Try using those same three points to draw multiple boxes in space. Look for the following things to happen:

A. Overlapping boxes. As long as you don’t get lost among all of those scaffolding lines, you can layer as many cubes over one-another as you like. The tricky part becomes deciding which one is in front of the other. That’s up to you, actually. You can also choose to turn the boxes into conjoined twins. (And as you do, start thinking about how you could make use of this to construct scenes of buildings.)

B. If you were to connect those three vanishing points, you would get a triangle. Notice what happens when a cube extends over the edge of that triangle: it behaves like a box in one- or two-point perspective that crosses the horizon. Instead of seeing three faces of the cube, you can now only see two.

This is more easily understood if you think about what is going on back on the surface of the earth. Think of a rectangular building from a street-level perspective. You can’t see the floor of the building because the walls are in the way; you also can’t see the ceiling because the walls are in the way. From some locations you would only be able to see a single wall!

C. Lastly, and most importantly, think about what is going on if all of these boxes share the same vanishing points. This means the boxes are all parallel to one-another.

[Ellingsworth]

Hi Michael! I don’t have time to explain these drawings right now, so I leave them for you to figure out.

Fozzy has decreed that we are not to show our work on the 100-creature project until we turn them in, so I won’t have much to show for a while. If you guys go for too long without hearing from me, poke me with a stick via PM!

Odayga, JL, let’s see some drawings!

Drawing and Mythbusters sounds like a good combo. I'm going to go do some of that myself.

That's okay, I'll try to get it myself, thanks for numbering and doing a great process sample.

Take your time and don't feel the need to post your work for us, hope you do well in the challenge and if you need an ass kick to get your butt into monster-making-gear, let us know! :^^:


The Mythbusters and drawing rock but you can't forget to watch some Dirty Jobs also! :)

Here's a quick review of the three perspective's learned so far, I'll do more later, because tonight I'm feeling really, really bad. :\

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[Ellingsworth]

I drew an eye from Bridgman but got bored so went crazy on the rest of his face, threw in a nose and a small cigarette.

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[Ellingsworth]

More perspective practice, I'm going to try some advanced use of it soon like Crush suggested.

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[Ellingsworth]

Value studies. HB and 2B pencils.

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[Ellingsworth]

This is a drawing from Chromosome's sketchbook, that I copied. I'm trying to copy some of his drawing so I can gain a little knowledge of cross hatching, his work is so lovely.

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[Seedling]

Hi Michael! Nice work on those value studies. And LOL at the chicken. :) I've added in that 3-point perspective info in the last post for you. Let me know what you think. Also, if you find a good resource online, let me know, because I would like to take a look myself. thanks!

[Ellingsworth]

More perspective. I need to lay off doing straight perspective studies for a bit, I'm starting to fear going back to free hand... :\

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[Odayga]

Birdz

[Seedling]

Welcome back Odayga! Is this a stuffed critter from your biology class? Looks pretty spiffy.

Are you ready to start getting into daily drawing habits? :) Drawing is so much more productive and fun when it’s daily!

[Seedling]

More perspective. I need to lay off doing straight perspective studies for a bit, I'm starting to fear going back to free hand... :\

Heehe, no worries! You've made a ton of progress. Have some fun on something else for a while.

Odayga, perhaps I could talk you into giving the perspective exercises a try? :rendered:

Happy weekend everyone!

[edit] Oh, by the way, Stevekim gave me a great idea. Dig up a few images of your most favorite artists – art of the sort you would like to be making eventually. And post it here so that I can see what you’re shooting for. :)

[Ellingsworth]

Heehe, no worries! You've made a ton of progress. Have some fun on something else for a while.

Odayga, perhaps I could talk you into giving the perspective exercises a try? :rendered:

Happy weekend everyone!

[edit] Oh, by the way, Stevekim gave me a great idea. Dig up a few images of your most favorite artists – art of the sort you would like to be making eventually. And post it here so that I can see what you’re shooting for. :)

Great idea, Michelle, Here's mine. At the moment these are some of my favorite images and would love to be able to produce art at this level someday. In no special order, here they are.

----------------------

1: Jon Foster: I can't really pick a favorite from this artist all of his work is so inspiring, beautiful colors and such unique and breathtaking compositions. His work is so beautiful in my eyes. Very vivid and powerful. Here's the three favorite pieces from the artist.

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2: Tristan Elwell: What more can I say, his work is fabulous. Here's my favorite piece from him, it very moving and has so much energy in it. The young girl looks as though she is on the run with something chasing after her, the damn cover illustration made me almost go out and buy the goddamn book just see what it was about! :)

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3: J.C. Leyendecker: After finding a thread on CA with his stuff in it, I fell in love with his work, his brush strokes are beautiful, yet so precise. The colors are perfect and the characters are always very interesting or cool to look at. One of my favorite artists at the moment.

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I believe once I learn more about art history my taste will probably change but this is my favorite kind of stuff at the moment.

[Odayga]

Seedling!
yeah that would be great! i havent done perspective for quite some time!

[Ellingsworth]

Leyendecker snail study, small study that I had fun doing. :)

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[Seedling]

Odayga, I look forward to seeing some perspective work from you. :)

You share my tastes in art, Michael. :) To my shame, I only learned about Lyendecker recently. I reeeeally should have taken that “history of illustration” class in college. Ironically, I skipped it because everyone used it as an easy A.

Hey, neat snail. Can you post or link to the original so I can compare?

I was up until 2 last night working on the 100 creatures, and today I’ve been working on the unicorn painting all day, plus a break to draw some more perspective demonstrations. I haven’t worked like this since college! :P What fun. Unfortunately I have to go in to work tomorrow. No computer games for me for a while yet. . .

[JL.Alfaro]

Heres some updates seedling let me know your thoughts.


Now as far as the images that inspire me; I'll see if I can legally snag some images from the following:
Anthony J. Ryder (http://www.tonyryder.com/a-drawings.htm)- his pencil skills are to be envied by the best here. I'd like to get my pencil skills as tight as his.
Justin Sweet (http://www.justinsweet.com/GALLERY/INDEXES/Illustration1.html)- I would love to work in his style; loose and rich in detail at the same time.
Dan Milligan (http://www.danmilligan.com/filmandconcept.html#)- another one of my personal inspiration/heroes. Id like to work like him as well, his style is tighter and very detailed when needed.
and of course, Id like to do all that with the compositional skills of...
Shelly Wan (http://shellywan.blogspot.com/)


http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5938/torsostudies002hg4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/6213/torsostudies001lu0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/1148/bodystudykv5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Ellingsworth]

Heres some updates seedling let me know your thoughts.


Now as far as the images that inspire me; I'll see if I can legally snag some images from the following:
Anthony J. Ryder (http://www.tonyryder.com/a-drawings.htm)- his pencil skills are to be envied by the best here. I'd like to get my pencil skills as tight as his.
Justin Sweet (http://www.justinsweet.com/GALLERY/INDEXES/Illustration1.html)- I would love to work in his style; loose and rich in detail at the same time.
Dan Milligan (http://www.danmilligan.com/filmandconcept.html#)- another one of my personal inspiration/heroes. Id like to work like him as well, his style is tighter and very detailed when needed.
and of course, Id like to do all that with the compositional skills of...
Shelly Wan (http://shellywan.blogspot.com/)


http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5938/torsostudies002hg4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/6213/torsostudies001lu0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/1148/bodystudykv5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I can only see one of your drawings, dude. I think you posted three, but only the guy with his leg up and the skull for a head is showing, he looks great. Maybe just work on his left hand. (Our right) :)

I really love the artists you posted, they have such great work, bookmarked and saved all their pictures to my computer! :) Justin Sweet's work is a visual orgasm! <3

Michelle: Hehe, yeah, I might try to attend some art history seminars, so if I go to college I will have a good understanding of it before hand. Have fun working on those creatures and painting, just don't burn yourself out! :rendered:

I slept over my buddies house this weekend, so I couldn't really get a lot of sketching in, but I brought my sketchbook and when he fell asleep I did some doodling while I watched a movie. It's from a magazine I had with me at the time, its from an artist named William Turner Dannot, it's just a quick doodle of his oil painting, I can't find the original online so I'm just going to post the doodle alone.

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[Odayga]

Birdies. craptastic :nohope:

[Seedling]

Those are lovely studies, JL! You already seem to be making progress – these are more elegant than the last bunch. I’d say keep pushing for elegance, because even the most clinical chunk of anatomy is full of graceful curves.

The balancing guy gives me the giggles. It’s Skeletor! Very nice job on the silhouette. He’s about to topple to the right, though. ;)

By the way, I picked up an anatomy book that you might be interested in. It’s “Drawing the Human Body; an Anatomical Guide” by Giovanni Civardi. It’s all drawings of external anatomy from different angles and in different poses, and it’s highly clinical, but also beautiful and fantastic reference.

I’ll have to check out those links tomorrow – I’m running out of gas for the evening. Michael, your doodles are impressive. :)

I’m going to toss up the perspective stuff I’ve been accumulating and call it a night. For an eventual Perspective 101 thread:

[Seedling]

Have more confidence in yourself, Odayga! The bird looks great. Just keep going. It's impossible to be delighted with everything you make. Instead, make lots. That way there's always something in the bunch that you're most proud of.

[Ellingsworth]

Birdies. craptastic :nohope:

Looks good, Odayga, the practice will pay off in the end! :)
Maybe try some of the perspective stuff Michelle posted for us? It really helps. Keep sketching. ;)

Michelle: I'm going to go through your entire "Concept Art 101" thread and do all the assignments, so don't worry about me I have stuff to do. Just focus on your creature concepts and painting, have fun! :)

------------
Here's some doodles from tonight while watching TV and listening to some music.

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[Ellingsworth]

Hey everyone, I was recently searching through Mentler's Book of Bones sketchbook and I saw he mentioned a book that caught my attention. It's called Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters.

So I go out and buy it, bring it home and dive straight in, so far it's hands down the best book I have ever bought, so much info and new ideas have been learned from just reading up to page 100, I love this book, like my own child, I'm going to take care of it and read through it forever. <3 It has taught me so much in such a small amount of time, along with the great information in it, it is CRAMMED FULL of glorious illustrations and sketches from the great masters, just waiting for you to copy and learn from. 10/10 for me. Go buy. NOW. READ. :)

Onto some quick sketches from the book, the most important thing I have learned, is to try and get better at is changing my line weight to depict highlights and darker areas, before reading the book I was so oblivious to this and now I'm going to try and incorporate it into my sketches. Or at least try to. :)

The original sketches are from Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci.

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[Seedling]

Hi guys! I just want to give you a heads-up – I may be mostly off-line until next week. Our hot water heater cracked and flooded the basement two days ago, and my parents may be dropping in for an unexpected visit this weekend. On top of that, my home computer no longer talks to the internet! (Someone in the 100-creatures thread asked me if I had a gremlin following me around. Ironically, a good friend of mine who sometimes goes by the nickname “Gremlin” moved away a few months ago.) I chalk it up to the inevitable result of having months of only good stuff happening. :)

Michael – cool. I’ll be watching your progress with interest on this great master approach to drawing. Perhaps I’ll order that book as soon as my perspective books get here.

JL – I had fun looking through the work of the artists who inspire you! You have good taste in artists. :)

Odayga – let’s see some more birds or perspective! :) Don’t be shy!

[Ellingsworth]

Thanks, Michelle. Hope you sort that stuff out, and isn't too big of a pain. :)

I went out and got some ink and a pen so I started a pencil sketch of a old master horse and a Bridgman study and ended up with this. I really like using ink, it's fun.

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[Seedling]

Hi guys! My parents decided not to visit this weekend, so I took the opportunity to be a total couch potato. ;) That, and I got the perspective thread put together. Odayga, follow the link in my sig if you're working on perspective stuff. :)

I don't remember if I told you that we aren't allowed to post our progress on the 100 creatures. Anyway, I'm still working on that. (I should have worked on that yesterday, but dang, a day of rest sure felt good.)

Cheers!

[Odayga]

MoRe WoRk

[Seedling]

Nice Odayga! That little fella must inspire you. :) What kind of bird is it?

[Ellingsworth]

Hi guys! My parents decided not to visit this weekend, so I took the opportunity to be a total couch potato. ;) That, and I got the perspective thread put together. Odayga, follow the link in my sig if you're working on perspective stuff. :)

I don't remember if I told you that we aren't allowed to post our progress on the 100 creatures. Anyway, I'm still working on that. (I should have worked on that yesterday, but dang, a day of rest sure felt good.)

Cheers!

Hehe, I bet you were happy! Sounds like a big relief. :)

I did some doodles this morning then sat down and went through your entire perspective thread and finished each of the assignments, I had major trouble with the lighting ones so I have to do some more of them. I might go watch a movie now and take a break for a couple then come back and go through and finish Andrew Loomis Fun with Pencil. I also finished reading that Drawing Lessons from the Great masters. Amazing book, you peeps should check it out if you get a chance.

Here's the assignments.

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[Seedling]

Ooh, excellent perspective work Michael! I can see where you are having trouble with the shadows: your shadows should actually end well off the page. On the one with the sun –notice the two lines that meet all the way on the right edge of the paper? That’s one corner of the shadow. Maybe try again with the paper turned sideways, the sun all the way to the top, and the box about twice the size of a sugar cube.

[Odayga]

Seedling. its a Double Barred finch or "owl finch"

[Sketch_Queen]

Ahm, so sorry if I'm butting in; but is this topic open to anyone?

[Seedling]

That’s nifty, Odayga; I’ve never heard of an owl finch. Have you got the opportunity to draw him from other angles? It would be a fun challenge to draw such a critter from the front.

Hello Sketch Queen, and welcome to CA! This is a mentoring thread, and I’m afraid I can’t take on any new mentees right now. If you would like a mentor, you should post here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106141 . You can also start your own sketchbook here: http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=41 or post individual pictures for critique here http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59 or here http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=29 . Or if you would like some assignments to try, here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81332 . :) Cheers!

[Sketch_Queen]

That’s nifty, Odayga; I’ve never heard of an owl finch. Have you got the opportunity to draw him from other angles? It would be a fun challenge to draw such a critter from the front.

Hello Sketch Queen, and welcome to CA! This is a mentoring thread, and I’m afraid I can’t take on any new mentees right now. If you would like a mentor, you should post here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106141 . You can also start your own sketchbook here: http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=41 or post individual pictures for critique here http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59 or here http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=29 . Or if you would like some assignments to try, here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81332 . :) Cheers!

Mmm... that's too bad. But thanks much for the helpful info. :)

[Ellingsworth]

Some doodles from today. I like the toe/thumb, for some weird reason.

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[Ellingsworth]

Quick hand and another take on that toe.

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[Odayga]

CHUM SALMON for Fish and wildlife class.

[Seedling]

Odayga – Fish! Yum! :) You know what’s tough about fish? They have so many subtle details. It’s hard not to simplify them into a caricature of a fish – and you succeeded in not simplifying this into the caricature of a fish! What medium did you use to paint it?

Ellingsworth – you’re right, that’s an awesome toe. Both of them! These were more copies of old master drawings? Very nice details on the hand – you’re catching those subtle little curves well. You’re making some neat progress with the shading, too.

The jar with the rectangular base and cylindrical lid – you can use the X method to find the center of the top of the rectangle, and then use that to find the position of the lid. Also, if you want to draw circles in perspective, try first drawing a (flat) square with a circle inside of it, and an X connecting the corners. Then draw a square in perspective where you want your ellipse to be. Put an X across it, and use the flat square as a sort of grid. In fact, you can draw any flat image in perspective by using a grid to distort it properly.

If that’s too much gobltygook, don’t worry about it – I’ll get to ellipses in the tutorial later. :)

My sketch group is going out to Barnes and Noble for some drawing time tonight. Assuming I can get my work done in time, I’ll be tagging along and drawing the next batch of monsters for the 100-monster thingy. I’m looking forward to showing these – keeping stuff under wraps makes me feel like I’m not actually making progress. :P

[Odayga]

Seedling i used acrylic on Bristol or illustration board. fun stuff :). did it for my fish and wildlife class. my teachers going to love it. lol since im the only artist in the whole class :D.

Yeah ive never drawn a fish in cariacture. when i was 7 i used to scrutinize the fish in my tank and sketch them. it was pretty fun. was never really into the whole cartoony look unless its incorporated into a series of paintings [ i have one in progress ]. so yeah. thanks for the critz.

Oh thats so cool that your going to barnes and noble with your sketchgroup! i wish i could come :hug:

[Seedling]

G’morning Odayga! Ah, I see – having never owned fish, I’ve never had much chance to look and look at them.

I remembered to take my little masonite boards to draw on last night, but I forgot to bring a pencil. Ironically, nobody else in the drawing group had brought regular graphite pencils either. So I did more ballpoint perspective demos instead.

My recent dungeon is getting played through and reviewed for the first time today. Here’s hoping everything in it works. . . *crosses fingers* I’m confident at making spaces look good, but making spaces fun and making them function properly are new to me. Wish me luck!

[Ellingsworth]

Nice fish, Odayga.

Michelle: Hope you had fun! Barnes and Noble is probably the most relaxing place on earth, if I could, I would live in one and sit and draw/read all day. :)

The last two days I haven't touched a pencil. At one point I almost said I was going to quit drawing, I was really pissed. That's all gone now, after two days of being a lazy bum, so I'll get on the new perspective/sphere stuff today. I guess I just needed a break, but playing some video games watching some movies and getting some nice sleep helps a lot.

[Seedling]

Everything okay now Michael? Yeah, a lack of sleep can play havoc with your life. Sleep is good! It is important to have enough rest and fun in life along with all the ambitious stuff. Ping me if you want to talk about anything.

[Odayga]

Chickadeeee!

[Seedling]

Hey hey, I know chickadees! Funny though, until recently my husband thought they were just another kind of sparrow.

I like what you are doing with the feathers. By chance does your teacher have a mounted bird with outstretched wings? That might be a good thing to try next.

One of the most fascinating birds in RISD’s nature lab is a pigeon that was freeze-dried halfway through decomposing. In its rather unpretty state the muscle structure of the wings is visible.

A less yucky way to get a look at bird anatomy, if you are interested, is to cook a whole chicken, and sketch it first. ;)

[Ellingsworth]

Random scribbles. I have more from today but not worth scanning. The one backside figure is a copy of a sketch done by artist, Matthew Archambault I love this man's stuff. I'm going to order his DVD's for some reason I think they will really help. I just need to get enrolled in some sort of life drawing class. http://www.mattsillustration.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=19

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[JL.Alfaro]

Hey guys, my apologies for the lack of interaction. I had taken a couple of gigs, right around the same time this hole mentorship awesomeness took off, and I havent been able to participate more consistently. But Im trying folks.
And I will have more stuffs soon. xheart*


-JL

*only while suplies last, limited to one xheart per comrade. variations of xheart and its implications are to be discussed in a formal, legal setting.

[Seedling]

Ellingsworth – I bet that guy’s figure drawing videos are pretty darn good. :) His work is gorgeous. Nice sketches! At some point you should take the things you’ve learned from these master-copies and try using them while drawing from life.

JL – no worries :) You were enthusiastic enough to get this whole thing started, so I have no doubt that you are using your time well. Pop in when you are free.

I’m cranky and frustrated. I didn’t budget my time well enough on the 100 monsters, and (more predictably than I would like to admit) work has spiked in intensity. I’ve bowed out of the 100 creature project, and I feel like a total wimp for doing so. Please don’t follow my bad example.

[Ellingsworth]

Some really simple hand gestures and hand constructions from Bridgman, now I'll do a page from my own hand.

Also, I'm going to post some videos from Youtube that are really awesome. It's from that artist I posted about above, I might buy his DVDs they are really helpful. :)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GGgw6efQFdM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OiSLw2LFD70
http://youtube.com/user/matthew39arch


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[Ellingsworth]

Some small color studies/value, I'll do more in a bit.

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[Seedling]

We gots hands, and we gots color and value studies! Woot! I need to hurry up and get this Bridgman book so I can see what you are working from. Could you tell me again the name of the book?

Color studies. . . excellent. One thing to be cautious of is the white background. White can be so blinding. Try this sort of thing on a neutral background and see what happens.

************

I am so jazzed. I just met my idol – James Gurney, author and illustrator of the Dinotopia books. Suddenly I know down to the pit of my quivering stomach why, when I talk to classes of students, why they sometimes get so quiet and shy. I thought I was going to trip over my feet or blurt some dumbass thing. I can’t believe I managed to speak in coherent sentences. I met my idol and he was a totally nice guy. :)

[Ellingsworth]

Awesome! What did you two talk about? Tell me you got something signed! :)

The sad thing is I tried doing more precise color studies on a neutral background color and my program crashes on me, there goes an hour, so I open it back up, another hour passes, GUESS WHAT it crashes again, I forgot to save! So screw it, I'm going to do some color studies on paper with acrylics or oils! :)

And also test out the effects of different under paintings like Jason did for that one thread.

[Seedling]

D’oh! I feel you pain. Photoshop ate a map I was working on last week. Which is odd, because Photoshop is usually so reliable compared with the other software we use. Don’t sweat it, though – if you learned what you needed from it then it wasn’t wasted work.

Myself and turbine’s trio of concept artists got to Gurney’s lecture early. I was expecting lines of people waiting to get in, but there wasn’t any crowd (people don’t know what they are missing!) and we got to yak with him before his lecture started. He wanted to know what we did and what we had studied; I managed to mumble that I learned how to paint by looking at his work. He passed his sketchbook around – a tiny moleskin with a few absolutely perfect watercolors in it – and he asked if any of us had brought along our sketchbooks, at which point we all went “aww crap!” because none of us had.

Afterwards he graciously signed my copy of Dinotopia, and he said he was flattered by the pages falling out. :)

In his lecture he mainly hit on topics that he has already written about in his blog, so if you are interested, here it is: http://www.gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/

Gurney has been at the top of my list of artists that I would like to meet for years now. Ironically, a while back I had a vivid dream about bumping into him and being too tongue-tied to say anything. Thankfully I wasn’t all that tongue-tied!

[Ellingsworth]

D’oh! I feel you pain. Photoshop ate a map I was working on last week. Which is odd, because Photoshop is usually so reliable compared with the other software we use. Don’t sweat it, though – if you learned what you needed from it then it wasn’t wasted work.

Myself and turbine’s trio of concept artists got to Gurney’s lecture early. I was expecting lines of people waiting to get in, but there wasn’t any crowd (people don’t know what they are missing!) and we got to yak with him before his lecture started. He wanted to know what we did and what we had studied; I managed to mumble that I learned how to paint by looking at his work. He passed his sketchbook around – a tiny moleskin with a few absolutely perfect watercolors in it – and he asked if any of us had brought along our sketchbooks, at which point we all went “aww crap!” because none of us had.

Afterwards he graciously signed my copy of Dinotopia, and he said he was flattered by the pages falling out. :)

In his lecture he mainly hit on topics that he has already written about in his blog, so if you are interested, here it is: http://www.gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/

Gurney has been at the top of my list of artists that I would like to meet for years now. Ironically, a while back I had a vivid dream about bumping into him and being too tongue-tied to say anything. Thankfully I wasn’t all that tongue-tied!

Sounds fun! Shame you didn't take your sketchbook. His blog looks awesome, I'll definitely check it out.

Here's (http://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Books-Instruction/dp/0486211045/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-0228725-6539137?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193383638&sr=8-2) the Bridgman book I own. Very cool book. It's cheap, too.

I was bored so I went looking for a color basics tutorials, I found a couple, so I read through them, then copied them down into my own little Color Reminder jpeg, lol. Took about an hour, I learned a lot about color I didn't know before.

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Here's what I came up with.

[chaosrocks]

the very best underpainting tutorial is infact Ilaekae. and its stickied in Fine arts and discoveries

sorry to buttin
chaos

[Seedling]

You are always welcome here, Chaos! Thanks!

[Ellingsworth]

the very best underpainting tutorial is infact Ilaekae. and its stickied in Fine arts and discoveries

sorry to buttin
chaos

Thanks, Chaos. I'm with Seedling, you're always welcome here! :)

[Ellingsworth]

Quick hand from life, while watching TV.

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[Ellingsworth]

Random Gimp doodle from this morning, came out like shit, but whatever.

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[Ellingsworth]

Just another quick/simple/stupid study.

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[Nerahla]

Just wanted to pop in and say what an inspiring, fun thread this is to watch, imma subscribe! :)

[Ellingsworth]

Just wanted to pop in and say what an inspiring, fun thread this is to watch, imma subscribe! :)

Thanks for the kind words, Nerahla. I'm sure the rest of the group appreciates it, too. :)

[Odayga]

morebirdies...

[Ellingsworth]

Did some quick edits on that landscape, still shit but I like it better now. Added some rock stock to the one mountain side to give it a gritty texture.

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[Seedling]

Hello Ellingsworth and Odayga! Sorry I’ve been a bit lax. Ilaekae and I are getting together our classroom. As soon as he and myself have finalized stuff, we can work out how you two would like to participate, if you would like. :) I think I’ll be more effective running a class than as an individual mentor, but you’ll still have me here as long as you want.

J.L.Alfaro has got himself an exciting gig that is taking most of his time, so in order to focus on that he is no longer my mentee, but I’ve told him he is welcome to drop in any time. :)

Ell, that’s an elegant hand! Good job applying what you’ve learned from the master studies. I’m liking what you are doing with the color explorations. Ooh. . . you should go read Form’s recent class on atmospheric perspective. http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=109384 You could try his assignments, or just continue to explore on your own. I suggest as a next step try doing two things: don’t use black, and avoid heavily-saturated colors. Both are extremes that are often best withheld until you really need to make something in the scene pop out. One piece of advice someone once gave me about color was that the more saturated a color is, in general, the less area it should cover.

Odayga, your birds make me smile. :) Now how can I inspire you to draw about ten times as much? This stuff is exciting, and I would love to see you diving eagerly into it on a daily basis! Have you got more free time now that your tests are over?

[Ellingsworth]

Awesome, you guys are going to be super busy I bet. Thanks for the color advice, I'll have to do some more color studies, soon.

I'm not sure I will be sticking around, though. I might just go back to doing studies on my own and only posting in my sketchbook. I think that's what I'm going to do. I'll definitely be stopping in to check out your other class, though.

Thanks for all the advice and help so far, Michelle, you have been awesome! hopefully we can still be online friends, I have your AIM, so talk to me anytime you want to! :)

I think I actually might be taking a break from the internet all together. Not sure.

I wish you the best of luck with your new class, hope everything goes great! Laterz. :)

[Seedling]

Ah, poo, okay. Work hard and have fun at whatever you do, Michael. :)

Ashley, I’ll be back later. I’ve got a 5pm deadline that I need to focus on. . .

[Odayga]

yep here it is.

[Seedling]

Okay. Now let’s see those perspective studies.

[Odayga]

*nods* mkay. workin' on it. :blah:

[Odayga]

Heres one Point Perspecive.
just a little messy. heh.

Also. seedling. if you could give me your perspective exercises that would be great. i mean i printed out the ones that i saw were done. so. if i could have more that would be great. anything you want me to do. ill do it.

[Seedling]

All right! :) Hello Odayga!

One-point perspective has three kinds of lines: horizontal, vertical, and lines radiating out from one perspective point. The blocks you have drawn are made up of lines radiating from the perspective point, and diagonal lines. So, these aren’t correct.

Try it again. This time, try drawing the blocks so close to the vanishing point that they almost overlap it. This will work better. You have discovered that if you try to use one-point perspective on an object that is too far from the vanishing point, then that object actually needs two vanishing points.

Cheers! :)

[Odayga]

Okay.thanks seedling. ill get working on that.

[Odayga]

Finally figured it out. went on seedlings perspective 101.

Sorry. my scanner is very bad. doesnt have a brain to recognize what type of image it is. gotta get a new one.

[Seedling]

Hi Ashley. Excellent job!

Scanners are just unthinking tools. You have to futz with them to get the best results, and/or use a program like Photoshop to clean up the scanned image. Heehe. . . I once tried scanning a large painting in six chunks, once. Utter disaster. Each portion came out with the colors a bit different from the rest. And I had to scan it at all directions because the scanner was up against a wall, so I was rotating and cropping and color-adjusting and cursing. I had to give up on scanning that one.

My in-laws are going to be visiting this weekend, so I may not be back until Monday. Have a good weekend! I look forward to seeing more yummy perspective stuff. :^^:

[Odayga]

Hey Michelle.
Heres some more! ignore the unually vibrant high lighter. my scanners so retarded. [ c'est tres drole....]. 2 pointerz.

Oh and in fish and wildlife we just started the bird unit. skeletons and skulls are coming in! yeah you have a good weekend too! we have 3 days off. since monday is Veterans day. lots and lots of time to do more perspective practice and to fatten up my sketchbook.

[Seedling]

Woot! You’re on a roll Ashley! :D

You can do whatever funky colorful stuff you want in the margins. This stuff is just for practice, so who cares if it’s got wacky highlighter on it? :)

In the perspective studies, you should get in the habit of drawing in the far, hidden sides of your objects, as well as the fronts. The reason to do that is to check your work. If you have drawn the front lines correctly and precisely, then the lines in the back will meet up properly. If the lines in the back don’t meet up properly, then that tells you a mistake was made somewhere on the front.

Hey, three day weekends rock! I wanted to take Monday off, but I’ve got to be present for an interview. Oh, I had some drama today – me and my coworker B. were scheduled to interview another candidate. I’m terrible at interviewing people – I get nervous, and can’t think of good questions to ask. B just went missing for the whole morning, so I wasn’t able to coordinate with him. On top of that, I realized belatedly that I didn’t have the interviewee’s resume and design test, so I had to go running around to find those and skim through them on time. B showed up just in time for the interview, but he hadn’t read the resume and doc yet, and he was so wrung out from the thing that had been keeping him busy that I pretty much ran the interview.

Cool, I know how much you’ve been looking forward to studying birds. :) Have a blast with that!

[Odayga]

Thanks Michelle!
Yeah ill start doing that just to make sure everythings perfect. thanks for reminding me! aack that must've been stressful for you to do an interview..lol try doing one in French. not easy :O . Have fun with the interview on monday! :wink:

Gotta go back to sketchin' like no tomorrow. that sketch book needs to put on 50 lbs. its gotta be overly loaded. hhaha. For my senior project i have to do at least 2 art shows before december 10th :O so i gotta finish my series this weekend and start a new one at the same time. ill upload them in 'WIP'.

I might ask my fish and wildlife teacher where he gets his exact replica animal skulls. and how much they are. because my friend mike and i were examining the wolf skull that he brought in. mikes all "does the jaw attatch here?" and im all "no. just where the zygomatic arch ends right there...if the jaw was way back there the muscles would have to be longer and the animal would have trouble eating and functioning". so. im the only one in class who knows anatomy pretty well. Its supposed to rain tomorrow. finally....california's been too dry...its not normal. and my friends had to evacuate during the LA fires and i just heard that a 10 year old made that fire....eeesh. sucks for him.

But yeah. more stuffs gonna come up throughout the weekend. i might hit the sack in a little bit. i didnt get much sleep last night.

*hugS*
-Ash.

[Odayga]

Perspective practice
Two Point - #2

[Sepulverture]

I'm not sure if forum rules say i can't post in other mentee's threads, but I just wanted to pop in and say you rule Seedling. You do so much for this community it's awe inspiring considering how busy you are with your own studies, your work schedule, and how much you give.

[Ellingsworth]

Great perspective studies, Odayga. Keep it up. :)

Here's a book you might want to check out, I recently bought it. It looks like a good read through so far: Perspective Made Easy (http://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Made-Easy-Ernest-Norling/dp/0486404730/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-5120878-9812767?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194886474&sr=1-1)

Maybe this will help you even more while doing Michelle's assignments. :)

[Seedling]

Hi Ashley! Did you have a good long weekend? I had a wonderful time with my in-laws. Also, I saw some birds that may interest you. We had four Northern Flickers in our yard. Apparently they thought the poison sumac berries were good eats. (When we cut down that evil shrub we’ll definitely have to replace it with something else that makes berries the birds enjoy.) And, sadly, I found out that we have grouse in our area because one of them died by flying into our window. (I’m amazed the window didn’t break with the impact!) I’ve got the bird in our freezer so that I can try for some photos when the sun comes back out.

Keep up the good perspective work! You’re right on track, with one exception – you need to draw in the rear edges of the shapes, even though they are hidden from sight. The reason for this is because by drawing those lines, you’ll find out whether or not your drawing contains imprecisions or errors.

I’ve added in those rear lines to show you. The two upper rectangular solids are right on track. But in the bottom one, where I have drawn a lumpish circle, you can see how the three lines aren’t meeting at a single point. That indicates a problem with that block. The problem is most likely that the vertical lines aren’t exactly vertical. Either you need a tee-square and triangle (or equivalent) or you need to eyeball those vertical lines very, very carefully.

Give this one more quick try. Bonus points if you draw a tiny little bird perching on one of the boxes!

*********

Sepulverture – Thank you, that’s very nice of you to say. :)

Ellingsworth – Thanks for the link! How have you been?

[Odayga]

Hey thanks seedling! oooh thats cool that you saw those kinds of birds in your backyard! yeah my backyard is a graveyard. my cat coco, hes a ragdoll, a really big cat, kills bluejays and whatnot. he killed his first bluejay when he was 6 months old. now hes like four. so ya.

Yes i would love pictures!

This weekend was tiring. i was working on my painting all weekend. i need to have it done real soon. we have thanksgiving break next week so thatll give me time to wrap up the series. i gotta leave for school in like 10 minutes. but im glad you had a good time with your inlaws.

Love/friends always
Ash.

[Odayga]

NOT A SKETCH
NEED HONEST criticism

sucktastic painting x.x.

[Seedling]

Hi Ashley. If you post another try at that last perspective assignment, I'll give you a critique on this bird.

[Odayga]

okay i hope this is right. at least i could concentrate with a swollen jaw.

[Odayga]

more Work

[Seedling]

Do you hear that “ker-chink”? That’s the sound of the quarter dropping into the critique machine. ;)

Birdy! This is a fun little abstraction of a bird. I bet you are wondering how, aside from adding an eye, could you make it better?

To answer that question, you first need to know what your objective is with this specific painting. It also helps to know what your larger goal is as an artist.

Let’s start with the second question. I know and you know that you want to make pictures for a living. Let’s narrow that down some more. Would you like to sell paintings through galleries? Paint novel covers? Do preproducton work for animation companies?

There are other options of course, but those options pretty much cover the spectrum. Right now, your art skills only really fit in the first category: selling from galleries. This is not a good thing. Why? Because in college you can get away with absolutely anything under the heading of “this is gallery work”. Unfortunatley the big problem hits when you graduate and suddenly you find that nobody is interested in what you make, and you don’t have the skills to be an illustrator.

A much safer road to travel is to study illustration, a la “this image is for a novel cover”. Why? Because if you can learn to do what, say Elwell can do, then at any point in your career you could decide to start selling to galleries, or you could do preproduction for movies without too much trouble.

Anyway, the point of all of that is if I were treating this like a gallery piece, you could tell me that the dots represent a troubled childhood that you are shedding, or the grass is representational of blah blah blah, and all I could do is nod along and say “sure, whatever you say”. And, sadly, you would not improve.

But if your goal is to do illustration work, then I can tell you concrete things that can help you to become better at painting images of things. For example:

Composition. The first thing that anyone sees when they glance at an image is the overall way that the shapes and colors and values sit within the rectangle. The composition is what directs your eyes around the image. If the important part of the image is the long dotted feathers on the bird’s wings, then you have successfully drawn my eyes there.

Composition is also about how pleasing the shapes in the image are. Right now, the bird is smack in the middle, which creates some shapes around the bird that are rather ho-hum. By moving the bird more to one side or the other, those shapes could be made more interesting.

Value and Color. The use of value is good. Because the bird is made up of the darkest and lightest values in the image, so my eye goes straight to the bird. The colors, though, are more arbitrary. I suspect some of their brilliance has been lost in the photography, but a good part of the problem is that you are still just inexperienced with color. That will be solved with time and practice.

Drawing – drawing in illustration is a combination of composition, anatomy, abstraction, and the representation of three-dimentional objects on a two-dimentional surface. It is the scaffolding of every painting that is an image of something. Ninety percent of the time, when someone is having trouble with a painting, it’s a problem with the drawing underneath that painting. I’ve already covered composition, so the next thing to consider would be the representation of a 3D object on a 2D surface. And abstraction factors into that: the more abstraction you want to use, the less important it is that the object seems 3D. In this case, you are using a lot of abstraction, so this bird is very flat looking. Now, that’s fine if your goal is to always make your work look flat, but it is much easier to learn how to make your work look 3D first and then later play with making images look flat then it is to practice making things look flat and then try to shift later to making images that look 3D.

Communication: Congratulations! It’s a bird! :) You have succeeded at telling the story “this is a small, sparrow-like bird in flight over grass.” It’s not a complex story, but not every illustration needs to be complex to succeed.

Finish: Every finished piece needs a layer of mark-making that is pleasing to the eye. That doesn’t mean it has to be meticulously rendered down to every last particle of sand on a beach; it just means that the surface has to have some quality that makes the eye want to linger. And it usually helps if that quality is consistant across a piece. Now what I immediately notice here is that while you have a delicate line quality on the bird, the background has the jagged look of “oh crud, I don’t know how to make a gradient with acrylics!” So what you need is to pick your mark-making type, and stick with it for the entire image. (And if it’s something technically tricky like making smooth gradients in acrylics, practice practice practice.)

Okay, so what’s the conclusion of all of this? As a gallery piece, this is is successful, because gallery pieces can be anything whatsoever. (But this doesn’t mean it’ll sell.) As an illustration of a bird, it isn’t successful, because it relies too heavily on abstraction, the composition could be improved, and mark-making is inconsistant. As a stepping-stone to a career as an illustrator, it isn’t successful, because it hasn’t challenged you to become better at drawing, composition, etc.

Do understand that a painting can be a failed illustration while still being very successful as a learning experience. What you need to do is to to set goals for yourself when you paint. Decide in advance that “this painting is going to be about birds *and* learning composition” or “this painting is going to be about birds *and* learning the colors red and green.” You will end up with some paintings that you want to throw in the trash can, but in the process your skills will improve by leaps and bounds.

*phew* The critique machine needs to go eat some dinner now. :)

For your next perspective assignment, do either the two-point or three-point study again, but this time draw in the back of the rectangles the way that I did in the above paint-over. I can’t stress how much this will make perspective easier for you when you get into the fun complicated stuff.

My in-laws and my parents are all back where they belong now, so I should be able to photograph that poor grousesickle as soon as the weather permits. (I did pull it out of the freezer to show my parents, but the bird was unexpectedly stinky!)

What’s up with your jaw? Wisdom teeth? :(

Happy almost Thanksgiving! [portal]

[Odayga]

Hey Seedling.

Thank you so much for the crit! really appreciated it!

Not all of my paintings are "flat" im not really into creating flat work, in fact i hate it. im just experimenting with it, trying something new. cartoonish, what i used to be into. when i was a child i was fascinated by birds and used to think i could fly by flapping my blanket or so called wings. heh. i was an interesting child, i used to sit for hours and hours and draw birds and tell stories about what was going on. i've always have had this "illustrator" ingrained in me. from drawing all over the walls in the house to unfortunately drawing on my dads dental magazines.

But anyways. the composition will be balanced with 3 chickadees and "the word of god" - youll see what i mean when i upload. overall. theres a deeper meaning to the painting. so far i can tell you this. the grass and slanted perspective depicts/represents freedom/wild spirit and happiness of freedom. the birds smaller wings represent an "inability" or "handicap" to get away from something. unfortunately the chicadees represent the friends i had or society chasing after and trying to destroy an individual. dots [ arent done yet ] depict distractions and drugs. the sky was done according to my reference. jagged and not blended. im actually a good blender, real good actually. just in this piece i didnt show you that. the jagged sky is tension somewhat. owl finch reps individuality and difference from society, good hearted and natured. speaks and has christ in it.

Um. the whole concept and overall idea will be more clear after its complete. its kind of hard to explain at this point.

Im sleep deprived right now, i didnt sleep at all last night. the painting, my senior project, the art show, and what i was going to do next for the last painting of my series was all on my mind. plus the next series following this one.

My jaw is fine, i just had an outbreak of hives but it was as itchy as poision oak! eek!

I've realized that i have failed on this painting, but thats okay. i embrace my failures and learn from them. ill just have to work harder and try again next time. its a good experience though.

once again thankyou so much for putting your time into critting my painting! i really am thankful and very appreciative that your my mentor michelle!

[portal]

Friends always,
Ashley.

[Odayga]

Seedling!

Yes! im back on doing many many perspective exercises/assignments! more are coming!!!!:mittenbop:

[Seedling]

Great! I can see your understanding of three-point increasing with each attempt. Each one is less crooked than the last. One important detail is still missing: the rear, hidden lines. You need to draw those in to alert you to mistakes. Go back and add in those rear lines to what you have already drawn to check your work.

Merry Christmas!

[Odayga]

Need crits on this work. ASAP.

[Odayga]

3 point perspective again with back lines.

[Odayga]

more stuff. redid the back lines and found out my problem.

[Seedling]

Hello Ashley,
I read a fascinating article recently which I would like to share with you, but (dang it) I don’t have the link. So I’ll give you the short version. A study was done on various gradeschool and high school students looking at the correlation between achievement between those who were told that they were smart (you got an A! You‘re so smart!), versus those who were told they had worked hard (you got an A! You must have worked really hard!).

The students who were told they had worked hard grew fearless of making mistakes, and used each mistake as a learning experience. Their grades went up and kept going up as they kept learning.

The students who were told they were smart grew fearful of making mistakes, because each mistake seemed like evidence that they weren’t so smart after all. Consequently, they feared making mistakes, and stopped challenging themselves. Their grades leveled off, and then went down and down.

I get the feeling that you fear mistakes, Ashley. I think you have been told how smart you are (or what a good artist you are, etc.) and I think this is causing you to repeat the same bird paintings over and over because you already know that you can paint this subject with a minimum of mistakes. I think your audience will look at the bird paintings and find little wrong with them. They are nice. There is interesting stuff going on in them that will cause your audience to wonder what story is being told, and I think such wondering can be a successful component of an image. I think you have found some techniques with the medium that you will be able to carry into future works. But these paintings aren’t challenging you any more, and it is the time in your education when your priority must be in challenging yourself.

In that article I outlined, one thing which was not mentioned is that those who have been hobbled by being told how smart they are aren’t necessarily hobbled forever. Some of the most hard-working and successful artists who responded to the article pointed out that they used to be one of those people. I used to be like that, too, and I think part of the success I found in college came from this desperate feeling that I had to make up for lost time.

Ashley, I want to see you step out of your comfort zone and make fabulous mistakes in your art. I want you to discover how fun failures can be, and how very much those failures can teach you.