first painting in painter

[fp2]

Hi all,

I'm not classically art trained, while I was at school, my art teacher was snobby, and I learnt nothing from her. A degree and PGCE later I had completely forgotten about art; it was at college for the study of the latter that I discovered the art department.

I was hooked! I loved the thought of creating anything and started messing with paints and drawing. Since then I've brought a Wacom and started to play with Painter 8.

This is my first painting in painter - wip. I know I have a lot to learn, colour theory, anatomy etc, but any comments + crits would be well recieved. The paintings are acrylics.

The first two are my first attempt using the thick round brush, and the latter is using the captured brush. What about the colours for the latter?

http://www.fat-arse.com/temp/callaghan/callaghan1.jpg
http://www.fat-arse.com/temp/callaghan/callaghan2.jpg
http://www.fat-arse.com/temp/callaghan/callaghan3.jpg

I'm going to stick with the last image. Any CnC's?

Thanks,
fp2

[krisippa]

Looking good so far. Perhaps try using your imagination instead of a photo for reference, it will restrict you less. You seem to be afraid to paint the head past the hair, and that type of thing. maybe look on the net for some good painter tutorials. there are some great ones on this site.
I commend you on picking up on art and posting it here. Keep goin' and postin'

[fp2]

i've made away with the reference image and continued work on it.

i knew i wanted a complementory colour in there somewhere to lift the image, but didn't know where, shirt perhaps? in a moment of weakness i changed the bg color and love it!

http://www.fat-arse.com/temp/callaghan/callaghan4.jpg

will continue on it tomorrow...

what do you think?
fp2

[math]

i have to disagree with you krisippa. using reference is very good when ur still at the start learning drawing and stuff. the more references u use the more u learn to know the different tools and also the lightning and everything like that by heart. so when u mastered this or have reached a very high level at this u can focus on drawing things from ur mind. it is more difficult at the beginning to draw from mind so using references is a good thing. dont forget all the old classic artists also used ref when they painted a still life for example ;)

[Signature]

I have to add something to what math wrote.
After just copying to get to know the tools ...
(you shouldn't waste too much time doing that!)

... you first have to learn how to study from reference properly.
Analyze/understand what you draw or paint.
Working from imagination comes later.

I guess the lighting situation in the reference image made it hard to see the structure of the face!?
Everything looks flat. The eyeballs for example don't look round at all.
Copies of such images won't be very rewarding even if you copy them pretty accurately.
I think you should try to find reference images with bigger contrasts/ more impact.

[Mindflaw]

Hi I think you would gain a lot from doing this exercise he is not giving anymore crits, but he have given a lot of crits to many people that has posted there so you learn a lot from those. Its a good exercise if you want to improve.

Link: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23042

[fp2]

Thanks everyone.

I guess I need to work on the basics - really like the idea of a beginner academy - free art training!

I think my biggest prob. is the lack of knowledge about values before I start thinking about colour. What's the difference between values and tones? Is there an artist's lexicon here?

The advice offered is great and better than the 'oh man, that's awesome/crap' comments that can be found on other sites and I'm reading every thread that I can!

I'm a 56K'er, so some of the threads take a while to load :(

I've had a look at the assignments, and will start the getting started today - although I need to get to a boot market to buy some funky jars! The assignments remind me of high school but better! Will we have to do a self-portrait from a spoon ;)

Thanks
fp2

[Signature]

I guess when people talk about values and tones they mean the same thing.

The color and value wheels in that thread help with seeing and thinking in values:
color theory 1 tutorial (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17837)

There is some more text in part two. Guess that pretty much works like a "lexicon":
part 2 of the color theory notes (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9505)

Good idea with the spoon sps! Thanks.
I'll write an assignment and you'll have to get 5 of them approved for rank #3.
Great idea! >:D

[fp2]

thanks for the links signature.

do you mean 5 portraits from a spoon or 5 self portraits in total? at every high school i know the children have to do a self-portrait from a spoon...

i believe it was escher who started the craze!

i've started on the assignments, but i don't have a scanner, so i've started it all digitally. is this acceptable? i'm not using any funky digital tools - just ps and the brush / pencil, and using the eraser instead of ctrl+z.

thanks
fp2

[Signature]

I was kidding ... there won't be a spoon portrait assignment.
But there will be at least one sp for each rank.
So that we can compare them to see the progress later.

Do you think you'll have the possibility to scan drawings later?
If I were you I'd still do them traditionally as well. Even if you can't show them.

Do you have a tablet or do you work with a mouse?
I think the line quality assignment is almost impossible to do with a mouse.
Maybe we should discuss it and accept images with line weight then.
But yeah in general I want to make it so that all of them can be done digitally.

[fp2]

great news! i hated spoon portraits!

I do draw traditionally - I have a sketch book that I fill in for practise - with visits to the local musuem etc. My art teacher from college in the one lecture I had with him inspired me, and he told me to keep all the drawings I do with the date on. Good advice! Already, after 6 months I'm starting to see a bit of progress.

I've just come back from Paris and did a drawing of the Joan of Arc statue in the Madelaine church. The church is in the shadow of the Notre Dame, but highly recommended. Also has a beatiful alter piece which next time I go back to Paris...

I tried to do some gesture drawings the day before but got really depressed because they all looked crap. Anyway, this drawing took about an hour - and something I've found when drawing from a musuem / church is that people stop and look at the object you're drawing - like they're not interested in it before and they are only stopping because you're there drawing it!

Anyhow - yes, I have a very nice A3 Wacom Intous 1 which I brought about 6 months ago. It was my first tablet and instead of wasting my money with a Trust, I brought a refurbished tablet directly from Wacom themselves. I have a 2 year warranty, had 12 days to evaluate the product, and it was in near perfect condition. Can't find a fault with it and love it to bits!

It is totally different to drawing with a pencil though - I prefer pencil/charcoal because you can get your hands messy, and despite 1024 levels of pressure on the wacom the mighty pencil is better!

Wacom's online shop is:
http://www.wacom-shop.net/cgi-bin/wacom.storefront/EN

It's located in Germany, but I seem to remember that postage isn't too bad for Europe. Look for the special offers section for ex-demo / refurbished..

I draw (traditionally) for a hobby. I would like to make digital art though and I feel getting as much practise on the tablet is vital. I don't see any limit to the assignments so far. It'd also allow me to get to know the programs a lot better (esp. Painter).

Thanks
fp2
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