Post your workshop notes...

[forsaken dreams]

Post them if you've got them!

[Ismail]

So which brushes does Justin Sweet use in Painter? :D

[Jason Manley]

So which brushes does Justin Sweet use in Painter? :D

digital airbrush, sargent brush, glow, watercolor, scratchboard tool

thats the most of them....


j

[PHiLMePHLo]

ratatouille:

I'm pretty sure Ron Lemen was talking about Joaquin Sorolla (sah-ROY-ya), a Sargent contemporary. Dope painter...

-P

[twoheaded]

This is a great thread.
here's some of my notes, more comin up. Sorry if my notes doesnt contain much technical infos, Im usually more interested in the artists' philosophy.

James Zhang: Characters
-Concept art is more about great design than great artwork. Emphasize design.
-On designing characters, find reference pictures of actual people that exhibits the quality of the character you want to design. Actors and actresses are a great place to start. Mix and match their features to create the desired look. Do a layout sheet of various designs.
-Asymmetry beats symmetry.
-Personality has to be obvious even in the rough stages.
-Think about functionality and purpose, habitat, historical bg in your design.

Marko, COro and other sketchbook guys.
-Throw in random shapes.
-Go with the flow of shapes and lines, see where that takes you.
-Constantly take mental notes of how things look in nature.
-Force yourself to show diversity in your sketchbook.

Puddnhead
-Start with gesture, very important.
-The eye socket is the measure to every thing else, get it right.
-Measure proportions meticulously before rendering.

Brandon Peterson(Marvel artist)
-On sequential art: avoid sameness in the same page, try using different camera angles on every panel.
-THe biggest panel should be the focal point of the page, the most interesting part of the page.

Jason Manley
-rectangular marquee, make thumbnails. Use big brushstroke to create the mood of the piece.

ROn Lemen
-Everything in life is value, color is for conveying emotions.

Steven Assael
-Start your piece with a STRATEGY
-Adjust your STRATEGY as you work.
-The painting process is APPROXIMATION.
-In nature, everything happens because something else, things look a certain way because of the things surrounding it. Understand what you see. Build a vocabulary.
-A great work of art has great variety yet still unified. It gives the viewer layers of experience and emotions.

Justin's palette
Yellow Ochre light
Cad. Yellow Light and Deep
Terra Rose
Transparent oxide red
Viridian Green
Cobalt Blue
Alizarin Crimson

:dead: finger marathon

[James Kei]

I had asked Steven Assael what type of music he listens to while he is painting, and he replied......

"The Flaming Lips"

[Main Loop]

great notes, Twoheaded, thanks for posting em

[tinyhands]

Even though I didn't attend the workshop I can give some insight to rons palette that I'm almost certain he probably used. And yeah its sorolla. The man ron studied with is named Sebastian Capella, and old spanish painter whos teachers were students of sorolla at the valencia academy, if memory serves me right.

The palette is a rainbow spectrum. Colors are:

cad yellow pale
cad yellow-orange
cad red-light
alizarin crimson
red rose deep
cerulean blue
ultramarine blue
viridian green
titanium white

And the he probably had black and white on the side to grey colors down or paint in different keys of chroma. Like I said I didn't go to the workshop, but I'm pretty sure this is what he probably used. Hope that helps.

tiny

[JoshuaTheJames]

Jason Manley
. Use big brushstroke to create the mood of the piece.




This can't be stressed enough. And some may be neglecting it simply because their computer can't handle it. If you like to work hi-rez(300) like me for printing purposes try begining with a lower rez to allow swift movements of your large brushes. And once you have the mood and composition down you can just bump up the resolution and it'll be fine. It makes a world of different!

-Joshua James

[Form]

jtj::

can we clarify here? Are we talking in the thumbnail phase, in the finished work phase (digital), or what?? Im assuming you mean in terms of digital painting - work from large to small?

[JoshuaTheJames]

Heh.

Hey Form,


Yeah Digital but, the "Big Brush" thing applies to painting in general. And yeah Thumbnail to the Begining of the final.


-Joshua

[twoheaded]

More Ron Lemen:
From Gouache portrait demo:
-Start with a wash
-Check the graphic quality of the photo reference, the major shapes before proceeding. Also note the warms and cools of the photo.
-Start blocking in darks with relatively transparent paint/watery.
-Put in middle tone, check relationship between values at this stage, ignore the white of the eye, focus on the form of the face. ("Features are like makeup for the face, get the forms right then put the makeup on" Ron Lemen)
-Details (opaque paint) - tips: use brown for the nostrils instead of black in order to draw less attention to itself.
-finalize with hard edges around the eyes (most important area on portraits).

Andrew Jones' technique
1. start with scribbles, draw bunch of S curves when drawing creature or other organic stuff. Play music that goes with the piece.
- values: create a separate layer, set on multiply, check "pick up underlying color". use OIL PALETTE KNIFE for broad strokes to get the main darks down.
-Merge the layer down, create another layer and throw in the lights. Pay attention to the silhouette as the character begins to take form.

Tips: use a brush to apply interesting paper textures to create an organic feel.
Set the wacom pen button to eyedropper tool for speed.
use hand tool to tilt the canvas often.

Thats all I got guys, hope yall can benefit from this.

I got a question.
the colors that are listed on Justin's or Ron's palette, are those the so-called pure colors? are those the standard ?

[Ismail]

digital airbrush, sargent brush, glow, watercolor, scratchboard tool

thats the most of them....


j

SWEET!!!!! :):):) Thanks, Jason. :) And everyone thanks for sharing!!! :) Twoheaded, Tinyhands, Joshua,James,Phil, Ratatouille,. :yayca: :)

[Oblio]

Bread... ... Tank... ... :perv:

[-MonkeyBoy-]

Coro's kungfu drawing technique:
For not getting spotted when drawing someone in a public place - if they look up, keep the pen moving and just look past them - they'll assume you are looking at something behind them.

That was one of my favorite snippets of information from the whole weekend.

[twoheaded]

AWESOME! never crossed my mind. Great wisdom from Ko Ro sen sei. That will keep me from pissing off cute stuck up chicks at the cafeteria.

[twoheaded]

thanks rata, that sums it up for me.

[Andrej]

sometimes subjects are flattered to be drawn.. especially when you make them look better than they are =)

That's the tricky part.

[dorian]

oh wow this thread is awesome, lotsa thanks to everybody who already posted!! thanks ratatouille for starting it!

Jason & Ron's color theory lecture:
- light changes all the time, this has an impact to our feelings/emotions. try to be aware of this, study the world around you whenever you have the opportunity.
- oils: the use of black and white in mixing colors shrinks down your value range (I'm not really shure about this, could someone maybe quickly sum this up again?)
- mixing complementary colors results in an unsaturated color
- to get a good feeling for correct values look carefully at black & white films
- use value to define form, color to add emotions
- gray is never (or hardly ever) pure gray. it always has a hint of color in it
- contrast is spice, blackest black, brightest white, most/less saturated color are spice
- start traditional to learn how far a certain color can go, which colors mix nicely and which don't. The digital palette is like just too open and unlimited to start with

Jason Manley: (business side of being an artist)
- get.your.name.out!
- book tip: "Animation from Script to Screen" (Or similar.. Can't remember what exactly it was for, but I think he learned a lot from this book. Jason, want to drop a few lines concerning the book?)
- if you work for a very big company you'll only see very little of what's going on. In a smaller company you get way more insight of how business works, what problems can arise etc.
- in the beginning, try to get your hands on any kind of art-jobs, just anything. you'll learn so much.
- use job search organisations, job boards, internet, friends & family etc. to find jobs.

interviews:
- if a company invites you for an interview, this means they already like your work
- don't be nervous, they're human beings, too
- they look for a good artist, but it must be a good artist that fits the team. you too, want to have work-buddys that you don't mind bringing to your home, having a beer, watch a movie and hang out with
- if you don't get hired, you may be good enough but just don't fit in the team. in that case it is actually a good thing they turned you down, because this working-situation would suck anyway
- if you go to an interview, find out about the company first! if you want to work for bungie and haven't played any of their games, it won't come out very good...

Shawn Barber: (about freelancing)
- ask yourself what you really want to do. what will make you happy?
- once you're happy, money & jobs will come
- who do you want to work for/with? Dig around in magazines etc. then focus on your choices and really try to get there.
- sent portfolios to the art directors, also ask if they can crit or give comments, too. one third will send a reply, then again in about one third of the answers they actually write something substancial & helpful.
- go to the museums, draw there, learn from the masters. (He emphasized this on the personal portfolio reviews several times, too)

Kevin Llevellyn / Puddnhead: (gallery painting)
- Kevin uses his real name for fine art / gallery stuff and "puddnhead" for comic-ish work, because the last is not very accepted among gallery peeps and could actually hurt your image as a fine artist and gallery painter..
- "I emailed him [Karl Lagerfeld] and asked if I could draw him."
- "You really have to want it. If you don't want it bad enough, you won't get anywhere."
- Kev has a funky super-nice very professional looking book entitled "The Art of Kevin Levellyn" with his kickass drawings inside. He takes it everywhere, it's his portfolio for use in subtle & smart promo action :)

David Freeman: (Emotioneering)
- no clichés. -> create interesting characters by mixing traits in unusual ways (use at least 3, at most 5 traits) [the diamond]
- in a painting/image, add symbols, objects, colors, gestures that create certain associations
- combine emotional symbols in unusual ways, too
- transport emotions from one place to another, using associations. (Example: a creepy subway station could be our villain's office)
- go for a "what the heck is going on there?" / "what does this & that thing mean?"-effect
- "the innocent in danger" is an "emotion deepening technique". (Example: You see children playing on a scene where an armed gangsters and a SWAT team will clash, they obviously are in danger, this adds emotion and tension)
- show things from different points of view
- add human emotions to things that usually don't have any

wellll.. that's all, hope someone can make use of it :)

[Carnifex]

from coro:
if you don't have access to life drawing classes, type "wet " or something into a search engine and you will get tons of stuff.(i love this one)

from wes:
when doing life drawing, start with the outline and the most important lines first. then lay down shapes, and finally your shades and values.

from targete:
draw lightly. use a mechanical pencil that doesn't allow too dark shades.
draw manymany gestures. just small stick figures.
fill your pages. draw stuff all over them(not sure if that's from him)