Figure Speedpainting from Life Tutorials: 2 in 1 thread!

[Zirngibism]

Here's something I put together after a figure drawing session.

I hope you can get some insights about it, especially in the department of "what do I work on first?". Painting from life, even a photo, can be overwhelming. There's so much going on, there's subject, there's background-- in what order do you tackle them?

I'm always trying out new processes, so it's not always the way I work, but I think it's a logical way.

[M!CK]

nice run through of your technique, thx.

[Sgt Scruffian]

I really enjoy the process you use here. As someone who is very new to painting, this really helped me understand some of the differences in painting as opposed to drawing.

Thanks.

[burtkane1356]

I just cant seem to get painting for the life of me. Because of this I always stick to drawing.

[Zirngibism]

nice run through of your technique, thx.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm thinking of putting another one like this together, soon.

I really enjoy the process you use here. As someone who is very new to painting, this really helped me understand some of the differences in painting as opposed to drawing.

Thanks.

Yeah, painting, at least the alla prima (thick, one-layer) type, is a different way of thinking than drawing.

In my opinion, painting is more of a right-brained activity. It's more about seeing shapes and holistic composition, while drawing places more emphasis on analyzing the details and form of anatomy (thus requiring a bit more logic.) --at least in a general sense.

I just cant seem to get painting for the life of me. Because of this I always stick to drawing.

One way to ease into painting is to make a shaded drawing of your subject, then paint over the drawing in thin glazes, building up color and tone. This way, you still get to work with a drawing, while also thinking in terms of blocks of color.

(That's sort of how I got into painting.)

When it comes to painting shapes opaquely:
One thing that can help is to squint your eyes until they're almost closed, and everything is dark and fuzzy. This allows you to block out the distracting details and focus on the overall shape of your subject, just like how I dealt with the first couple steps in the tutorial.

(Though this technique is just as helpful for drawing, too...)

[StreetBehemoth]

I totally agree with your additional comment of starting with values. I have always learned to flesh out values first then work on colors. Do it the vermeer way. And if you get good enough at values the you can use the color blend mode on another layer to add color.

[Zirngibism]

StreetBehemoth: Yup! While I agree in principle, I wouldn't recommend using the color layer for a final, unless you're going for a certain look. Though it's awesome for working out a color study of a black and white image, then using that as reference for a final. But it tends to look kind of flat, because you can't rely on the "happy accident" mixing of two different colors, as it can only be "one" color at a time (if that makes sense.) Multiply and overlay, on the other hand, seem to add more richness to the image, if you compensate for the fact that they change the value.

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Mmkay, here's a new step-by-step. This time without captions because they would probably be pretty similar to the one I already posted above.

It was an interesting experience, because it was an attempt to get good color despite low lighting in the original scene. (It probably looks even darker on my monitor since my monitor is darker than average.) Also, it's a combination of natural and artificial light, which, while more beautiful and rich, is kinda tricky.

It was about 1h, 45m.

[Emiri]

Woah, nice. I've been trying some pretty similar techniques recently.

Always cool to see your newest experimentation :)