Concept Art 101

[Seedling]

So you like drawing characters, and monsters, and swords and guns and space-ships. It has come to your attention that there are people who do this professionally for movies, television, and games. You’ve got a sketchbook in your hands, and you are wondering how to get from the sketchbook to the job. What sorts of things should you draw? What sorts of mediums should you learn? Should you draw from photos? From life? From other artist’s work? From imagination?

I can help you with these first steps. My name is Michelle Clay. I work at a company called Turbine, where I make 3D art assets for games, and (more recently) have been working as a designer building game levels. I’m not a concept artist, but I work with concept artists, and for a while in college it was my goal to become a concept artist. I graduated from RISD’s illustration department in 2000. So, I can’t tell you an awful lot about how to get a concept art job once your skills are ready for that, but I can tell you quite a bit about what you need to do to bring your skills up to that level.

This thread is a classroom. I will be posting information and assignments. As far as possible, I will assume that all you have at your disposal are a sketchbook and a pencil, but a few will involve color. The assignments won’t be any particular order. Feel free to skip to the assignments that will help you the most! If you want to participate, feel free to post your results here. Or post your questions or comments. Or, if you are a professional concept artist, feel free to share your knowledge!

For those interested, over in the Employment Discussion forum I have a similar thread on the games industry ( http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76898 ). The information there is more advanced and specialized, and includes assignments that require 2D and 3D art programs, but some of it is fairly low-tech, too.

Okay, here we go. . .

Table of Contents

What is Concept Art? (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1089226&postcount=2)
From Life to Imagination (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1089227&postcount=3)
Assignment #1: From Still-Life to Imagination
Assignment #2: From Self Portrait to Imagination
Assignment #3: Half-Imagined Environment
The Use of Photography in Illustration (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1089229&postcount=4)
Assignment #4: Concept Art from Found Photographs
Assignment #4: Concept Art from Your Own Photographs
Art Direction (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1090412&postcount=10)
Assignment #5: the Art Direction Game
Perspective, From the Beginning (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1093469&postcount=24)
Assignment #6: Cube Contortionism
Assignment #7: Cube in 3D
Atmospheric Perspective (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1095125&postcount=32)
Assignment #8: Atmospheric Perspective Still-Life
Assignment #9: Atmospheric Perspective From Imagination
Perspective from Life (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1104330&postcount=47)
Assignment #10: Furniture from Observation
Assignment #11: the Back of the Building
Color (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1122681&postcount=63)
Color Assignments (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1122906&postcount=64)
Assignment #12: Night and Day from Observation
Assignment #13: Night and Day from Imagination
Skin Tones (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1122907&postcount=65)
Assignment #14: Self Portrait in Arbitrary Colors
Drawing Humans (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1135923&postcount=79)
Assignment #15: Researching Anatomy
Assignment #16: Adding Bones to a Mastercopy
Assignment #17: Constructing Humans from Spare Parts
Still More about Drawing People (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1135925&postcount=80)
Assignment #18: Sniping
Assignment #19: Figure Drawing Class
Assignment #20: After Figure Drawing Class: Costumes
Assignment #21: After Figure Drawing Class: Spare Parts
Some Ideas for Still-Lifes (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1150148&postcount=91)
Power-Leveling for the Busy Artist (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1152438&postcount=94)
Composition (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1184042&postcount=123)
Assignment #22 - Studying Existing Compositions
More About Composition (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1186238&postcount=127)
Assignment #23 – Finding Compositions Within Compositions
Assignment #24 - Non-Representational Composition
Assignment #25 - Build a Composition with Perspective from Life
Assignment #26 - Build a Composition with Perspective from Imagination
Assignment #27 - Build a Composition with a Character from Imagination
Communication (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1195431&postcount=131)
Assignment #28 – Mood, Non-Representational
Assignment #29 – Mood, Representational
Assignment #29 – Acting, Facial Expression
Assignment #30 – Acting, Body Language
More on Perspective (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1270798&postcount=185)
Setting Goals for Yourself (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1288250&postcount=197)
Assignment #31 – Analyzing Art
What Should I Include in my College Portfolio? (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1304150&postcount=254)
Value (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1316294&postcount=266)
Assignment #32 – Many Ways to Render Value
Assignment #33 – Making Value Decisions
Assignment #34 – Shading Non-White Objects
Assignment #35 – Fun With Value
Digital Painting Example (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1382217&postcount=304)
Acrylic Painting Example (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1382232&postcount=305)

[Seedling]

Concept art is a subset of illustration.

What is illustration? Dictionary.com says this of the word “illustrate”:

1. to furnish (a book, magazine, etc.) with drawings, pictures, or other artwork intended for explanation, elucidation, or adornment
2. to make clear or intelligible, as by examples or analogies; exemplify
3. 3. Archaic. to enlighten
4. to clarify one's words, writings, etc., with examples: To prevent misunderstandings, let me illustrate.

So, an “illustration” is art that communicates something.

There is much of fine art that falls into the category of illustration. Any imagine that tells a story or represents an object is illustrative, whether it is communicating something as complex as a scene from the Lord of the Rings, or as simple a thing as “a horse” or “a man”.

What makes concept art different from illustration is that the audience isn’t the person who reads a book, plays a game, or watches a movie. The primary audience of concept art is other artists, and other people involved in the making of the final product. Concept art is the blueprint that is used to make more art. It is also used to communicate with the holder of the intellectual property rights involved in a project, and it can also be the leverage that is used to get funding for a project.

If you want a formal education that will prepare you for being a concept artist, then study illustration.

[Seedling]

So you’ve got your sketchbook. You’ve been having fun drawing Spider Man, and you’ve had some folks tell you that you should draw from life, but dang it, still lifes are dull! Why bother with them? How is a drawing of a shoe supposed to help you to draw better superheroes?

These assignments should help you to answer those questions.

*********Assignment #1: From Still-Life to Imagination************

Pick a real-life object to draw. It can be a shoe, a car, a tree – anything that is available to you for direct observation. Take your sketchbook to it and draw it. Leave space on the same page or a facing page for the second part of the assignment.

Using that first drawing as a guide, draw the same object from the same position – but change it somehow. Add an imagined element. If it’s a car, you could change the curves of the lines to make it look like it belongs in a science-fiction movie. Or turn it into a hovercraft. Or give it a crazy flame paint job and fins and monster truck wheels. Or make it steam-punk, or aquatic, or turn it into a thousand-year-old rusted wreck.

By doing this in two steps, you have both the benefit of direct observation, and you get the challenge of coming up with something from imagination and communicating that thing.


********Assignment #2: From Self Portrait to Imagination************

Self portraits are hard! They are also the best way to prepare yourself for drawing one of the most difficult and yet ubiquitous subjects that every illustrator must draw: the human. If you want to be an illustrator of any stripe, then you must learn to draw people. Don’t be afraid of messing up; just try it and keep trying it until your results don’t stink.

For this assignment, set up a mirror and draw yourself. No, don't use a photograph, use a mirror. All drawn? Great! Now add some invented element to your drawing. It could be a crazy hat, or a plate-mail shirt, or a crazy facial tattoo. You can turn yourself into a Klingon, or add faerie wings.

Whatever you add, the challenge will be to make the imagined elements look like they belong in the drawing. It should look like the entire image was drawn from observation.


*********Assignment #3: Half-Imagined Environment***********

This assignment is just like the Self Portrait assignment, except instead of drawing yourself, draw a landscape or interior space. Add in an element from imagination. For instance, you could draw a hallway in your home, but draw in a giant crack across the floor filled with lava. Or draw the buildings along your street, but give them turrets and towers and cannons. Or draw a field with trees, and add a herd of invented animals.

Once again, the challenge will be to make the imagined elements look like they were observed along with the observed elements.

[Seedling]

There are four ways in which photography can be useful to illustrators: direct copy, inspiration, reference, and inclusion.

There is a lot of talk on conceptart.org about using photographs as “reference” when what is actually meant is “direct copy”. Since the invention of the camera, many famous artists have made museum-quality art by copying directly from photographs. But what gets overlooked by novice artists is that A. these artists took the photographs themselves, B. these artists already knew how to successfully paint the subject, and C. these artists were in most cases not concept artists.

Copying photographs is a shortcut for illustrators who have already mastered a subject and who need to hurry. For a novice, a habit of copying photographs is a crutch that will hinder your progress.

But this does not mean you should never go near a photograph. On the contrary, it is through photographs that we are allowed to see parts of the world that would never be visible to us otherwise. Use photographs for inspiration liberally!

By “inclusion” I mean using a photograph directly in your art. This applies to collage, and also applies to making photorealistic textures for 3D models. Inclusion isn’t useful to you if you are trying to learn the basic skills necessary to a concept artist.

And what about that abused word “reference”? Reference doesn’t mean copying. It means using the information contained in an image to better understand a subject. For instance, if you are going to draw a manatee, and you don’t happen to have either a live manatee or model of a manatee on hand. The next thing to do would be to find photographs of manatees, and use those images to gain an understanding of the shape of a manatee in 3D. Using that 3D mental image, you can then draw a manatee from any angle, in any pose.

********Assignment #4: Concept Art from Found Photographs****************

Pick a subject, such as a llama, or an antique car, or a preying mantis. Use either the library or the internet to find photographs of that subject from different angles. Study the subject until you feel that you have a good understanding of it. Then, draw the object from a perspective not used in any of your reference photographs. Refer back to the photos at any time for information you might need, such as the shape of a preying mantis’ leg joints, or the proportions of the car’s wheels to the car’s length.

********Assignment #4: Concept Art from Your Own Photographs*************

For this, you will need a camera.

Hunt down an interesting subject and photograph it from several angles. Repeat the previous assignment using these photographs that you took yourself.

If you ever intend to use photographs as a part of your art-making process, then you need to get in the habit of taking your own pictures. The internet is full of pictures of the darndest things, but the quality is often awful – and you do not own the rights to those images. So get yourself a camera and learn the basics of photography.

[Seedling]

More to come, later. . .

[timpaatkins]

Nice, great incentive!

I gotta tell ya, when i was reading the first post, and saw your name, I was listening to Futurama in the background, and the VERY same second I read your name, Fry introduced Michelle to his unfrozen girlfriend. Made me shiver!

[Kian]

Many many thanks Seedling, I can tell already this is going to be a truly great thread.

[carlosranna]

Seedling!! You´re great! I´ll take part on this class of yours! Thanks a lot!!

[Seedling]

Woot! Thanks guys! I look forward to seeing what you come up with! :-)

[Seedling]

There are many myths about art. One of them is that art is a noble solitary endeavor. It is only sometimes noble, and in the context of illustration it’s rarely solitary. Many artists emerge from their education without ever really having confronted the idea that as an illustrator you have to work with other people who will be telling you what to do. The result is an uncomfortable clash of egos, disillusionment for the illustrator, and a headache for the art director.

So instead of waiting for your first experience with art direction to be an upsetting one, you can try it out now, as a game.


***********Assignment #5: the Art Direction Game*************

Draw something from imagination. It can be any subject whatsoever. Don’t spend any more than about an hour on the drawing. This is about getting an idea down on paper and then iterating on it.

Got it drawn? Good. Now, you will need a D-20. Or, for those of you not acquainted any of the wonderful geeky games that require 20-sided dice, instead write the numbers one through twenty on scraps of paper and drop them into a hat.

Now roll the die or draw a number from the hat. Look up that number on the chart below.

On a fresh sheet of paper, draw the same subject again. But alter it according to the directions below according to the number you picked. Don’t spend any more than an hour on the drawing. Do some research before you start if you do not know what the directions are asking for or if you need to get your thoughts in order.

Go!

1. Make it creepy.
2. Make it in the style of Art Nouveau.
3. Reduce it to utter simplicity.
4. Double the number of interesting details.
5. Redraw it in the style of a Chinese ink painting.
6. Add foliage.
7. Add horns, spikes, or other pointy bits.
8. Replace one of the major elements with something cute.
9. Replace part with an element of Japanese architecture or culture.
10. Replace part with an element of African architecture or culture.
11. Add an element of Gothic architecture.
12. Draw it again, as if it has been destroyed by something.
13. Add defensive elements.
14. Remove the item or character of primary focus, and focus on the secondary elements.
15. Pick one of the items or characters involved and redraw only that, in detail.
16. Draw the same subject from a different perspective.
17. Make it high-tech.
18. Make it low-tech.
19. Add a character or creature that interacts with the main object of focus.
20. Re-arrange the elements of the picture, or draw it in a different pose.

Try doing another iteration or two on your subject. Or pick a new subject. Or, have a friend write up a new list of twenty instructions for you to test yourself with. Have fun with this.

Art direction can either be an annoying limitation, or it can be a challenge that gives you opportunity to flex your creative muscles, demonstrate your versatility, and have a bit of fun. The difference between those two states is your attitude.

[Azurathus]

Keep up the absolutely wonderful job Seedling, your post has really helped me out!

I will try to do some of your assignment. Don't excpect much tho, I'm new to this, but hey, we all have to start somewhere, eh?

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

Yeah great thread....Bookmarked.

I wanted to mention that one of the most famous artists in 19th century art was fond of the then new technology of photographic reference: William Bouguereau!

[Justin.]

Great thread. Way to go Michelle! :D

[Beonarri]

E-GADS Seedling another information thread!

LOL at the d20 idea. Very nice. That's a good idea, even though it makes me giggle. Although I would've put something funny on number 20, like naked ladies or explosions or donuts.

But, as a semi-serious note. Combining d20 rolls works too. Like 1 + 5 + 7 + 17+ 18....in fact, I'd kinda like to someone do that.

But I have an idea, if it's alright to share.
A friend of mine cooked this up one day. Create a list of "jobs" or qualities or types, whatever it may be. He did like Knight, Pirate, Ninja, Dragoon, Undead, Long Range, Samurai...and I think Dark. So, you take this list and draw them all on their own and then combine them together, and draw all the combinations. So he would have: Knight, Pirate-Knight, Ninja-Knight, Dragoon-Knight, Undead-Knight, Long Range-Knight, Samurai-Knight, and Dark-Knight.

But there isn't a rule that it has to be jobs like Knight or Samurai, it could be anything. Mixes of cultures (Greek, Egypt, Chinese, Raver, Heavy Metal, etc. I acutally do Greek+Heavy Metal alot). You could personify color then mix them, so who/what would Green be and who/what would result as a mix with Red. Come up with races of aliens and become a mad, art, geneticist and combine them. Fun, crazy, and sometimes, strangely sexy.

Have this been said before, I kinda got a feeling of Deja Vu...
Well, if it has been said, it was said again.

Great thread!

[HunterKiller_]

Great thread. Thank you for your excellent efforts to educate on professional level art.
I'll be attempting these excersise.

LadyHydralisk: :overhere:

[fooxoo]

What wonderful info and tasks, a great read and for sure I ll try that out!!

Great job and much appreciated. Whats more ---- you care heheheh!

Cheers!!

[blacky]

I wish somebody would hand you the powers of a mod. as reward for all of your effort.
Great info, thx a lot
(although I'm still waiting for the Salary part, he he)

[O D T]

this thread is the bomb. it answers all the questions that have been in the back of my mind for ages, and is helping me on from where I am stuck right now!
cheers, n.

[Seedling]

Thanks everyone! I'll keep adding more when I can.

I wish somebody would hand you the powers of a mod.

Haha! No thanks. I have all the power I want. ;-)

[Thaelys]

Seedling, what was the link to the assignments thread you started? I had done one of your assignments a few weeks ago and I wanted to post it up.

[Tec]

thanks for this new thread seedling....i finished the first assignment today and will try to do another one tomorrow.....maybe during class. this stuff is great to practice one's traditional drawing skills and can be accomplished in a short amount of time....really nice stuff <3

[jdeegz]

this is awesome, exactly what will help me along, i cant even talk haha, thanks again! subscribed! :)

[Seedling]

You’ve probably tried some basic perspective by now – you started with a cube, and perhaps you went from there to a street scene or a castle. And at least one person has told you that you’ve got the perspective wrong. It’s hard. How do you get from a basic understanding of perspective to the point where you can sketch out a complex scene with accuracy and ease?

Let’s go back to that cube and do it a step at a time.

(Need to learn the basics of perspective? Try Perspective 101 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108180).)



***********Assignment #6: Cube Contortionism*************

Draw two or three cubes sitting on a plane. Each cube should use two-point perspective, and just to keep things fun, none of those cubes should use the perspective point used by another cube. In other words, whoever left these cubes lying on the living-room floor didn’t line them up neatly.

Don’t do any shading just yet. Focus on getting the perspective points at the right distances from one-another to make your cubes look like proper cubes, and not like funky rectangles.

Once your cubes look like cubes, subtract rectangular pieces from one of them. Make it look like the Borg’s version of Swiss cheese. Make sure every hole is drawn properly in perspective.

To the second cube, try adding rectangular extensions. To the third, try whatever you like.

Then draw a sun into the sky and use it to cast shadows from your abused cubes. See if you can get the shapes of the shadows on the ground to be shaped accurately. No blob shadows allowed.

I know, it’s not as exciting as a full city-scape with flying cars, but you’ll get there. . .



***********Assignment #7: Cube in 3D*************

Draw another cube using two- or three- point perspective. Add some rectangular holes and extensions to it. Keep it simple, and don’t fuss with shading. Now, on the same page, draw the same cube again, but rotated around to another position.

Are you familiar with 3D modeling programs? The way they work is that in the center of the 3D space is your model. The virtual camera that you look through to see the model gets rotated around, so that you can see the model from all sides.

With this exercise, I want you to do the same thing in your head. Build a mental image of your cube-shape. Understand how it exists, not in two dimensions, but three. Then, use your sketchbook to capture what you imagine.

The drawing isn’t the important part of this process. The important part is holding a 3D image in your mind, and using your paper and pencil to communicate that shape.

This is what concept artists do when drawing characters, environments, and other things destined to exist in 3D.

[Seedling]

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone! I’ll just keep adding stuff here as it comes to me. Feel free to make requests or throw fruit.

The first person brave enough to share their efforts gets a cookie! Or a beer, if you’re old enough. :-)

Azurathus – Not only does everyone have to start somewhere, but I’m fairly certain everyone has to start at the beginning. ;-)
LadyHydralisk – glad to be of service! I will have to study up on Bouguereau one of these days.
Justin O. – Thanks. :-)
Beonarri – If you would like to make up an alternative d-20 list and post it here, I think that would be spiffy.
HunterKiller – Thanks!
Mike C - :-) I’ve discovered “late” in life that I love to teach. I don’t think I could do it in front of a classroom. This is about the most perfect setting I could ask for.
Fooxoo – I care very much, and I love being able to share what I’ve learned. :-)
Blacky – Salary? Heehe. . . if you want info on what concept artists get paid, you’d better ask an actual concept artist.
O D T – oh goody!
Thaelys – it’s in my sig. . . I look forward to seeing what you’ve made!
Tec – rock on! *happy dance*
Jdeegz – aww, thanks. :-)

[jadefoodog]

as a tattoo artist i think these excersizes could help anyone and everyone that has anything to do with art . im doing the perspective stuff tomorrow if its slow at the tattoo shop

[Tatsuki™]

sankyuu! *bookmarks*

[max xiantu]

Great thread Seedling. You can postmark that imperial pint of Guinness to New York :P

Anyways, I started sketching this but then the bulb on my scanner blew out, so I had to use photoshop. Which I just basically started using to paint, so please excuse my noobieness. I learned tons about painting, composing a single object, and I realized the more my technique improves, the more free my imagination becomes. Thank you for this opportunity.

First I painted up a Ficus bonsai I picked up from Walmart, then I did the alien planet version. All crits more than welcome. Thanks!

[Thaelys]

Seedling, that's the game thread you have in your sig. Didn't you make a seperate one a while back, just for assignments?

[Pesmerga]

Wow, great thread :) How could I have missed this?

I might give some of your assignments a shot. But I should probably start by reading it all lol.

[Seedling]

W00T! Max, the beer's in the mail! :-)

Thaelys - Oh, you mean the practice thread (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79065) that I keep forgetting to check back to? ;-)

Pesmerga - It's new and easily overlooked. ;-) Thanks!

[Seedling]

Atmospheric perspective is one of several ways to give your paintings and drawings depth. If you are unfamilliar with the term, it means that the farther away a subject gets from the camera, the more gas you are looking through to see them. So, the farther away the subject is, the more it becomes the color of the atmosphere.

It is easier to understand atmosphere if you think of a thick fog. In a thick fog, your hand looks perfectly normal one or two feet in front of you. The highlights are still bright, the shadows are still dark.

Look at someone’s arm twenty feet away, and the values and colors are all going to be a little closer to the value and the color of the fog.

Farther away still, and that arm will be just a silowette that is the color of fog, but a little darker and a little bit skin-colored.

Atmospheric perspective occurs on even the clearest of days, which is why distant mountains become blue or purple. The color they become is the color of the sky, darkened by the color of the mountains.

You don’t need to work in color to practice atmospheric perspective.

***********Assignment #8: Atmospheric Perspective Still-Life*************

Find two objects of the same variety: two forks, two bishops from a chess-board, etc. Set them up on a table-top so that one of them is as close to you as possible, and the other is as far as possible. Then arrange yourself so that you have an eye-level view of the table-top. You will want to be able to see those objects as close to overlapping as possible.

Now, unless you are living on Jupitor or are on top of a mountain in a cloud, you’re not going to really see any atmospheric perspective to draw. You’re going to have to make it up as you go along.

Hint: sketch in both objects lightly. Then darken the closer object.

You don’t have to get into crazy shading to do this assignment, but some shading is a bonus. There are two ways to handle the shading: either assume that the paper is the color of the fog, and darken all shadows down from there accordingly; or assume that the paper is the color of the highlights, and shade the empty spaces down to the level of the fog. (Or work on toned paper, using a dark meduim and a light medium.)

The goal is to make the second object appear to be properly far away, rather than looking like a smaller version of the same object.


******Assignment #9: Atmospheric Perspective From Imagination********

Try assignment #8 again. But this time, draw two characters from your imagination, or two robots, or two dragons, or. . . you get the idea.

[sishir]

question if i were to do each assignment starting now( sorry i am late since i was too busy with school) can i post me results here? or can i pm them to you?

you said that i can post them here in your first post, but that would be annoying, with me posting late work while you giving me new assignments.

[Beonarri]

Leonardo DaVinci said that atmospheric perspective happened because as distance increased, there was literally more atmosphere between objects. That's sorta logic-in-motion. There is more air between objects that are further away. Since there is more air, objects further away become tinged by that air. I'm most cases blue, because of the way light travels through the atmosphere.

[Thaelys]

Seedling, just noticed you posted the link to the practice forum...thanks and I'll put my stuff there from now on.

[Ledd]

Seedling really cool exercises here !.... I suggest that you put everything in a PDF file And use some images as example... Really thank you for this sharing knowledge

[Seedling]

Hi Everyone!

Sishir – Sure, you can post the results of assignments here. You can do them in any order you like, or skip any you don’t care to do. I’m not grading anyone’s work or expecting anyone to use these in any specific manner. They’re just suggested assignments for sketchbook progress.

Ledd – I’ve got my hands full writing this stuff at the moment, but thanks for the suggestion. :-)

[Pound]

Nice to see this is still going, I should have my thigns up pretty soon.

This stuff is awesoem Seedling, you are a real asset to this community.

[crisis]

Hi

About how much time should i spend on each assignment? This is a 20 minutes pic for assignment nr1..

[sease]

This is a GREAT thread. I'm going to try to do these. Here's mine for task number 1:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/dhaydu/ex1.jpg

I want to learn oils, too, and I really liked your idea about a 1 hour study a day. Think I'm going to start doing that.

[Seedling]

Hey, nice work you two! You get bonus XP for being brave and sharing. :-)

Crisis, I would put the upper limit at an hour for now , but the time limit is pretty much up to you. Spend as little or as much time as it takes for you to learn something and make the exercise worth your while.

Sease – sweet! And good job with the rim of that lamp. Foreshortened circles are a royal pain.

Pound, thanks! I look forward to seeing your work.


Wheee! Thank you, whomever quietly stickied my thread!

There’s more of this yet to come. . .

[HunterKiller_]

So we can post our results for the excersises here?

Foreshortened circles are a royal pain.

I'm glad to hear that foreshortening circles is infact tricky, because i've been drawing for awhile now, but only recently have i realized that it's difficult to reproduce an accurate foreshortened circle from life. :S

[Seedling]

Sure H.K., posting here suits me fine. :-) And yes! Foreshortened circles are one of those simple-but-killer-hard things that can pull the rug out from under a piece of art. I did a bunch of paintings of round objects in my sketchbook recently because I'm not so good with them myself.

[crisis]

Here's a picture for the second assignment. It's a selfportrait with android features. I'm not so sure it looks like me though, but that might be because of the sudden hair removal. I crushed the timelimit with an hour, but i couldn't stop, didn't want to post it when it was to sloppy.

BTW seedling, this is a great thread, it CAN be fun painting "boring" things. Never used real life for reference in this way before, but of course it's a great practise to make stuff look more realistic.

keep this thread going

[Seedling]

Haha! Crisis, that's great! The time limit is just a suggestion, really, to help get people into the habit of drawing in volume. Heck, everything here is a suggestion. :-)

[DARAF]

These are great exercises. I will have to start on them when I get home. Keep them coming.

[Seedling]

Q: How do you make that jump from cubes, in perspective, drawn from imagination, to items observed in the real world, drawn from perspective?

A: Loosely sketch the basic shape of the object as you see it, without worrying about vanishing points or whatnot. Once that is established, get out the ruler, and start laying in lines until your squiggly drawing meets all the requirements of perspective. Then, once your observed object has been cajoled into being a tidy set of lines, start working in the details.

The first few times you try this are likely to be sloppy, tedious, and perhaps disastrous. Turn the page and try again.

Well, honestly, this may work better on big loose sheets of paper than in your sketchbook, what with the unwieldiness of a ruler bonking into the sketchbook binding. But work with what you’ve got.

For more on perspective, try Perspective 101 (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108180).

***********Assignment #10: Furniture from Observation**************

Furniture is ubiquitous, and generally boxy, so find yourself a chair or dresser or shelf. Draw it from at least two angles. You don’t have to get into crazy shading – just focus on getting the proportions correct in proper perspective.

Then, based on what you observed, draw a similar piece of furniture, from imagination, from at least two angles. So, if the first time you drew a Mission-style dresser, maybe the second time around make it a dilapidated and defaced dresser made by Orcs. If it’s a school desk, you could turn it into an elegant Elvish writing desk complete with inkwell and calligraphy set.

************Assignment #11: the Back of the Building**************

Pick a building in your neighborhood that you can only see from one side. Draw it. Good.

Now, imagine what the back of the building looks like. It could have a simple porch that matches the style of the front of the building. Or, it could have a third-story loading dock for dragons. Make it so!

[DARAF]

Seedling , again awesome exercises. This is so cool of you to keep coming up with interesting ways for us to practice.

[Ryan DeMita]

seedling, this thread is something i've been looking for for a long time now! im printing these out and will complete what i can from assignment 1 on. im currently studying industrial design at the university of cincinnati, however i come from a heavy fine arts background and im trying hard to keep the fine arts part alive.these assignments would be a good thing for practice outside of school on my spare time to fine tune my "other half".

thank you for doing this.
keep them coming
-ryan

[RobHughes]

What a great thread...

I'm gonna have a go myself...

Rob

[Pascallo]

Hey Seedling, very nice and helpful thing you created here!
Great that you spent your time for helping us - this time is not wasted at all :-)
I will go through your assignments slowly step by step.
Thank you so much for your efforts!!

[crisis]

I got a spirit in my house and I know it ain't no mouse
I got a spirit in my house
In my house in my house in my house
Oh no

hehe.. This assignment was a pain in the ass. I'm really bad in painting enviroments and I wanted to make an outdoor pic, but since i live in sweden it's completely dark outside when i come home from work. So I ended up painting my kitchen table. By the way, the lamps are the invented stuff, all the other things are often seen in my kitchen. ;)

When i have some spare time on a weekend or so i will try making an outdoor image too, cause i need so incredible much practise on enviroments. I'll probably do most of the other assignments over and over again too. Great practise. cya

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Seedling why aren't you a professor? This is awesome! My respect for you definately doubled. tripled.

[Seedling]

DARAF – thanks! :-)

Ryan DeMita – I’m glad to be of service. :-) Feel free to skip around – there’s little rhyme or reason to the order I’ve been writing these.

RobHughes – I hope you will share your results!

Pascallo – Thankee. :-) It’s okay to sprint through exercises, too, if you start feeling bogged down. Work at whatever speed keeps you going and learning.

Crisis – Woo! A picture! Hmm. . . judging by your neighbors, I’m not going to move to Sweden any time soon. ;-) That’s a good light study, particularly on the faces. I love how the fingertips of the left-hand creepy dude look pressed against the window. You really picked a challenging subject: the real portion is full of wide, flat surfaces, while the faces are small and intricately textured. It’s hard to get two so different subjects to play well together. Good job! One quick suggestion: try dabbing in some pure white in the center of those lamps. I bet they could be made to glow a bit more that way.

ArtEdGradStudent - Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww :-) You’ve made me blush. Hey, if you’re so inspired, I bet this forum would be a great place to test out class-plans or teaching strategies or anything else you might be inclined to share. I know I would be interested in a tutorial on oil-pastels, myself. . . hint hint. . . ;-)

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Comin right up! Here's a study of a Renoir where I show how I use Van Gogh oil pastels. I know it's just a copy, but the main thing is the general order in which I used oil pastels. Man, I should do more of these for other techniques, I'm really best with water.

Before I get to stages here's the basic principles I use:

1. Since every color in nature is really some combination of brown, I try to put a bit of each primary color into everything. People generally warn against this, that it'll muddy your colors, but it works for me, with these pastels. I mostly try to put a touch of red in everything, no matter how blue, green, or yellow a thing looks. I think it helps connect all the parts together, and add vibrance/intensity to my colors - especially shadows.

2.Since you can go over and change just about anything with Van Gogh oil pastels, they're forgiving, so don't worry about messing up, just throw the pastels around and work them up in layers. You can fix just about anything. Craypas are harder to mix and change, and I usually don't use them.

3. The only exceptions to rule no. 2 are areas you want pure white or pure yellow. If that's the case, then carefully clean those colors and then lay them down first - the first color that touches the fiber of the paper stains it, and you'll never completely get rid of it. Another option is to leave the paper blank for white areas, as with watercolors. It can work, and I do it, although rarely.

So stage one is to first pick the dominant colors and lay them down on the paper. I'm trying to quickly lay out the image, and build all areas up together. I got more into working with layers of color after a course on multiplate color etching, although once in awhile I'll also "draw" with the pastels, putting in strong outlines, etc. Those work well for animals and people.

In this work the dominant colors (present throughout the entire image) were green, blue green, and lemon yellow. Sorry I don't know the exact names, but I usually tear off their paper and rub them sideways across the page. So these three images are all just from this first stage:

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step1small.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step2small.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step3small.jpg

Remember, the initial colors could be anything. On gray days I might start with gray, sky blue (cerulean), and pink. On hazy, sunny days I might start with sky blue, pink, and a cream color (light orange). There was one master copy where I just started with cadmium red and dark, phalo blue, and then went in with warmer colors for highlights.

So, stage 2, I put reds in early, just to get them in the picture. If you put in a tad too much now (so it looks strange to you) this'll be good for adding in other colors later to shade it back a bit.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step4small.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step5small.jpg

Now that I've gotten the basic proportions of the image, I can safely draw darker colors - I know they'll be in the right place. If I were wrong, I could fix it, but why waste pastels? So here's that dark pthalo blue

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step6small.jpg

Now, because some areas are really thickly built up, and others seem whispy and unconnected, I start to look for lighter, atmospheric colors. These I can lay thickly around the dark areas, and layer over into them, to blend it all together. For atmospheric colors, I think of light blues, yellows, oranges, and pinks.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step7small.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step8small.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step9small.jpg

Note that I didn't use white yet. I like to try and find subsitutes for both white and black to get more vibrant colors, before resorting to them, although I do use them on occasion - white more often than black. So up to now, the work looks kinda good, and passing fair, but there's still no fine detail. So here in the final stage, I put in some white for highlights, I put in the details of eyes, clothes, etc. I also lightly brush a darker pastel (rubbing on it's side) over the water, so the paper fibers pick up some of it, and it looks like ripples. All the previous stages took about an hour all told, and this stage took me another hour. Note, this work is only about 9x12". A larger work takes much more time.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step10small-1.jpg

[Seedling]

Wowwie! Cool. And thanks!

Hmm. . . this is good stuff, and it is going to get overlooked in here. You should copy all of that into a fresh thread. Then you can link to it in your sig, and point people at it whenever the topic of oil pastels comes up, and perhaps encourage others to try it out. :-)

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Meh, lately I don't feel good enough to start really bragging about any of my work. My latest drawings are, I guess what I'd call intermediate level. They'll look good in a portfolio for any non-artist interviewer, but a real atelier master would see I'm still just a student of anatomy. Then again, this is the first time I've got serious about learning it, so it'll take time... I'll post em later, when I can empty my digicam memory card.

[Pegahoul]

This is a really great thread! After viewing your assignments, I suddenly get lots of ideas. The possibility is limitless! Definitely gonna try it!

[Miles_]

These are awsome, thanks for the comment in my sketchbook, I will try one of these out immediately. Plus I will bookmark the thread and give you 5 stars

[Seedling]

HI guys! I haven’t forgotten about this thread. In fact, I have a bunch more stuff to add to it; I just haven’t had the time to get it all written down. In particular I have some color assignments to add. . .

ArtEdGradStudent – You don’t have to be the World’s Best Rubberband-Ball maker to write a good tutorial on making rubberband balls. :-) There are lots of folks here who don’t know the first thing about how to use oil pastels, and what you have put together is a great tutorial! There’s no need to be shy about sharing it.

Pegahoul – thanks! I look forward to seeing your work. :-)

spazazo – Woot! And thanks, that’s very nice of you. Happy drawing! :-)

[Miles_]

when I said I would try one out immediately I meant it, heres a go at adding A sci-fi element to a self portrait. I don't know whether I will shade it.

[Seedling]

Wow! Spazazo, that was superfast! And what a fun drawing! :-)

You could do a really quick shade-job just to see what happens. Don’t labor over it – just knock in some values and see what happens. And don’t be afraid to ruin it. You have to ruin a lot of art to learn the ropes.

Have you got a way to scale that down? Your image is a lot larger than it needs to be.

[Seedling]

If you don’t have PhotoShop, there are a variety of physical color mediums that you can use in your sketchbook.


Dry Mediums

Colored Pencil This medium is dry and tidy, which is ideal for sketchbooks, but has the unfortunate problem of being a tiny, tiny drawing point.

Caran d’Ache This is a fancy name for crayon. It’s pigment held together with wax, that comes in the form of a stick. It’s not great for details and it works best on a paper that is mid-toned – such as postal paper.

Oil pastel These are sticks of pigments held together with oil. They are vibrant, but have the annoying property of being permanently smeary unless sprayed with a fixative. (See ArtEdGradStudent’s awesome tutorial on the previous page for more info.)

Marker Markers can be good for quickly throwing some color into a sketch; the down side is that you have to own a giant set of them to have a good range of colors to choose from. These aren’t likely to wrinkle your paper. Be sure to work in a ventilated area.


Wet mediums

Watercolor When used in a sketchbook, expect your page to get wrinkly. Watercolor is a difficult medium to use, because once you put a color down, there is usually no way to cover it up or erase it. However, it makes a good sketch medium because it forces you to put down your brush and move on!

Gouache This is opaque watercolor.

Inks These behave similarly to watercolors.

Acrylic paint This is pigment held together with acrylic. It can make a decent sketch medium, but like watercolor, it will wrinkle your sketchbook page. It is easier to use than watercolor, because once a color has dried, you can paint freely on top of it. You also have the option of working either opaquely or transparently. Acrylic paint can be thinned with either water or acrylic medium.

Oil paint Don’t use oil paints in your physical sketchbook, unless you want to set the book aside for a few weeks to dry! Oil paints can make a good sketching material, but you’ll have to work on individual surfaces, such as loose gessoed paper. If you are using oils for the first time, read up on them first.


Combinations If you have multiple mediums on hand, don’t hesitate to mix and match! Sketchbooks are an ideal place to experiment. You may find that one medium is awful on its own, but wonderful in combination with something else.


PhotoShop If you haven’t figured it out already, PhotoShop and programs like it are amazingly versatile color sketch mediums. Such programs allow you to fill up a lot of space with color very quickly. You can work transparently or opaquely. You can change the color of a layer that isn’t on the top, you can make multiple versions of one image, etc. Get in the habit of using layers. Get out of the habit of drawing on a white background. Get a tablet. Get used to drawing with the biggest brush possible. And GO! :-)

[Seedling]

To learn to draw a thing, the best way to go about it is to draw it from direct observation. But there’s no good way to paint a moonlit landscape from observation, because it’s too dark to see what you are drawing. Let’s say you want to paint a scene with a ninja on a rooftop at night. . .


******** Assignment #12: Night and Day from Observation*********

Set up a still-life lit by a strong direct light-source. Sunlight is preferable, but a lamp will do in a pinch. Paint it or draw it in color, doing your best to capture the colors accurately. Remember, this is a sketch, so don’t spend more than about an hour on it.

Once that is done, start a new image. Paint your still-life a second time. This time, don’t use “accurate” colors. Use the same value information in your image, but substitute blues and greens for the original colors. Turn that sunlight into moonlight.

If you are using PhotoShop, you can do this quickly by fiddling with the colors of the original painting; but for a better understanding of the colors I recommend starting from scratch.

This can be repeated with any subject from observation.

******** Assignment #13: Night and Day from Imagination*********

Repeat assignment 12, but instead of working from a still-life, draw something from imagination – such as a ninja on a rooftop. Paint the subject first lit with sunlight, and then lit with moonlight. Use what you learned about colors from assignment 12.

[Seedling]

The big secret to painting skin is that there is no single “skin tone”. Skin is made up of different colors depending on the setting. Whether skin looks correct has more to do with the values then with the hues.

********Assignment #14: Self Portrait in Arbitrary Colors********

Set up a mirror and a light-source so that you have a view of yourself with one part of your face lit, and one part in shadow. Then, pick two colors, one warm, and one cool. One of those colors is going to be your shadow color, and the other will be your brightly-lit color. Adjust the values accordingly – lighten the “brightly-lit” color and darken the “shadow” color. Add a little of another color to one or both of those, if necessary – I find I almost always need to add a bit of yellow. Then, use the two resulting colors to start painting a two-color sketch of yourself.

Once you have what is essentially a full monochromatic sketch, then you can try adding in little bits of other colors, such as red for the lips and ears. But don’t forget: this is just a sketch. Don’t get caught up in painting details. The goal is to get the colors to work as skin tones.

As you work, think up different possible scenarios in which such a color scheme might be useful. Red shadow and blue highlights? That’s a figure standing on the rim of a smoldering pit of lava at night, lit by the sharp glow of a crystal ball. Green shadow, red highlights? He’s in a jungle, lit by the setting sun. And so forth.

This assignment is best if repeated three or four times with different sets of colors. It is also a wonderful opportunity to practice sketching crazy expressions.

[Miles_]

I shaded the self portrait. It looks better but I think I rushed the shoulders and the chest.

[Kubushas]

Here goes the first assigment. Gorilla toy.

[Seedling]

Spazazo – spiffy! Don’t worry about rushing – it’s just a sketch, and sketches are for quick experimentation and learning. Some tidbits to think about: eyeballs and backgrounds can get shaded, too. Lips stand out from the skin by being darker, so for better results you can draw the shape more with shading and less with an outline. And hair – bleah, I haven’t figured out what to do with hair myself. ;-)

Kubushas – Fun! And lol! :-) Some things to think about: if you shade in just the barest hint of a shadow under your object, then it will look a lot more grounded in the picture. Suddenly that blank paper will be a location. If you are interested in shading, try pointing a desk lamp at your subject, or use some other light-source. Having a good light-source on your subject can really help to make it look 3D on paper.

Let’s see some more! :-)

[Kubushas]

Self - portrait. Did this from a photo, and turned out fast as for my self, less than hour, ussualy I draw for a long time, but well I haven't tried a portrait before :)
My shading sucks :[
Also added shades to gorilla.

[JustinBeckett]

Seedling~

Great thread my friend! I am so happy you are doing this. Once i get more time i would be more then happy to take part in this. I do alot of drawing/painting etc, more based towards fine arts, but im not sure how to draw concept art :)

~Cheers.

[Rolo]

wow so interesting im gonna read some more and! thanks for the link here!! i feel honored to have been replied by a pro in the industry of ART

[carlosranna]

Wohoo! I got myself a scanner! Here´s my first try on the assignments! Hope i have the time to make all the others!

[carlosranna]

Another go. It´s being funny!

[solidcube]

Hi guys, here's my first post here.

Thanks to the hostess, by the way, for doing this. Very kind of you to spend the time.

Here's a try at the self portrait. It didn't end up looking much at all like me, but it's just a 15 minute speedpainting and sketch I guess.

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/4313/2692/1600/130264/selfportrait%20copy.jpg

Maybe I'll stick with these assignments, what the heck.

Here are a couple of unrelated matte paintings:

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/4313/2692/400/755979/nuruins%20copy.jpg
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4313/2692/1600/neotokyo%20copy.jpg

These are all done in Peeshop. I learn a great deal with each matte painting I do.

[bunny]

Assignment numba two...
I should take more care with my shading next time.
I actually learned something whilest doing this - that hairlines aren't, like, vertical equators down the middle of the scalp. Learning is good!!!

[crisis]

Doinferno, That lighter is really funny.. so stupid :)

[carlosranna]

Doinferno, That lighter is really funny.. so stupid :)

Hehe... Thanks Crisis! Fact is, i do believe it would be functional... Crazy... :nohope:

[Seedling]

Wow, you guys have been busy! Awesome! I’ll have to comment on your drawings later; for now, here’s the latet batch of assignments. . .

Hey Solidcube – I’m seeing red X’s in place of your images. You might want to check those. . .

You guys rock!

[Seedling]

People are hard to draw. They are also the most common subject matter in representational art. Between those two things, it is a good idea to practice drawing people.

The following is by no means a comprehensive list of exercises for learning to draw humans. It’s just a few things to try that maybe you haven’t thought of yet, in an order that may or may not be useful.

********Assignment #15: Researching Anatomy********

There are a number of books out there that teach methods for drawing humans from imagination. These methods often involve sketching limbs as basic shapes, or starting from some sort of simplified skeleton. There’s no one right method. Try one for a while, then try another, or invent your own.

Keep in mind, however, that in order to get the most out of these exercises, you also need to spend time drawing humans from observation, and you need to spend time studying muscles and bones – also from observation, if at all possible. It does no good to sketch a human from the skeleton up if you don’t have a basic understanding of the human skeleton.

Cadavers aren’t a dime a dozen, so medical models make a good substitute. Medical models aren’t cheap or easy to come by, either. So, you need to get creative. Does your school own a plastic skeleton? See if you can schedule some time to draw it. One skeleton can provide hours and hours of sketching fun. Draw the skull, draw the rib-cage, draw the limbs, draw the whole thing. If you ask very nicely, the school might even let you take the skeleton off of its hook and lay it on a table or set it in a chair.

You can also do some research on plastic models of skeletons and skulls. With a little searching, you might find some that are reasonably priced. You could ask for some bones for Christmas. . .

Then there are textbooks. Gray’s Anatomy is a classic, but there are others, meant either for artists or physicians. Do some research, ask other artists for suggestions. Diagrams on paper aren’t as good as models, but they are better than nothing. Study those muscles; copy them into your sketchbook so that you can build a virtual model in your head of the complex shape that makes up a human being.


********Assignment #16: Adding Bones to a Mastercopy********

This is based on an assignment that I did in college.

Pick out a piece of art with a human in it. The more anatomically correct, the better; and also, the more foreshortened or contorted the position, the more fun the assignment. You can use comic-book figures or you can use a Michelangelo – it’s up to you.

First, draw the figure in your sketchbook. Focus on keeping the proportions correct.

Then you have three choices: use tracing paper, draw right on top of your drawing, or do a second drawing. If you use tracing paper, then tape it to your page or paper-clip it down. Then draw the skeleton onto the figure. (Or next to the figure, if you use the third option.) Use whatever reference you have available to you. See if you can make the bones work correctly in space.

The funniest version of this assignment that I ever saw was Hello Kitty turned into a skeleton. Okay, it was an awesome drawing, but if you wish to really learn anatomy, stick to a realistic figure.

********Assignment #17: Constructing Humans from Spare Parts********

So, about those techniques for drawing humans from imagination by starting with basic shapes of some sort. Great! Leap right in and give it a try.

To really give your brain a workout, try this: draw a human from imagination sitting in a chair. Don’t get too worried about details just yet. Focus on proportions; focus on getting the basic building blocks into place.

Good. Now, draw the same figure, in the same position, from the side. And then try again from the top. Focus on understanding the figure in 3D.

Don’t forget: there are about a thousand ways for a human to sit in a chair, and there are a thousand types of chair. This doesn’t have to be boring.

[Seedling]

********Assignment #18: Sniping********

Take your sketchbook to a public place with lots of people, such as the food court at a shopping mall, or a sporting event. Find a strategic place to snipe-draw, and start attempting to catch heads or whole poses on paper.

You may want to start by sketching people who are holding still and absorbed in some task that doesn’t involve much movement. But the really fun part is trying to capture people in motion. For that, try to catch a mental snapshot of someone in action. Then, blot everything else out of your mind, and try to get that snapshot down on paper.

One trick to this is to draw until your mind runs out of real, remembered details. Then use that scribble you did manage to capture as the starting point for a character that is made up by your imagination.

It’ll be very clumsy for a while. You’ll get lots of scribbles and wasted paper. But don’t worry about that – it’s all part of training yourself. The paper can be thrown away, and you will improve.

********Assignment #19: Figure Drawing Class********

It is unavoidable: the best way to learn to draw people is to lock yourself in a room with a naked sample.

Check your local community colleges, continuing-ed courses, adult courses, art centers, art leagues, etc. Somewhere near you is an opportunity to draw from a nude model. If you are underage, they very well may take you if they get your parent’s permission, even if they don’t specify that in the class info – so call them up and ask. Do everything that you can to get into one of these courses or open-drawing studios. Life drawings are the best possible thing to have in your college application portfolio.

********Assignment #20: After Figure Drawing Class: Costumes********

Once you have access to a figure-drawing class, you will find yourself with piles of sketches of naked people. Now for something a little more fun! Copy those figures, and add costumes. Go crazy! Historical dress, armor, fantasy chain-mail silliness, stylish fashion drawings, mech exoskeletons, superhero costumes, grafted-on animal parts; whatever floats your boat.

********Assignment #21: After Figure Drawing Class: Spare Parts********

Take one of your nude drawings and copy it over – only this time, use your “spare parts” technique to rebuild the pose. Use this to reverse-engineer the spare-parts technique. Where does the technique work? Where does it over-generalize? How can you change the process to build a better human from scratch?

Try to come up with a technique that works best for you. Don’t stick so slavishly to someone else’s instructions that you are limited.

[carlosranna]

About assignment #15, here is a link that might help a lot:

http://link.library.utoronto.ca/anatomia/application/index.cfm

And i mean A Lot! =]

[crisis]

Hi

The "Concept Art from Found Photographs" assignment is hard. I really see the value of these excercises now.. but damn it's hard :)

So i decided to give it a try but lack of time made me do it kinda quickly, at work. This morning at breakfast i googled two wolf pics and i made a quick sketch of them (the ref. sketches). Then i headed of for work and scribbled a few minutes here and a few minutes there. I'm not satisfied, but it's a good as it gets for now.

Doinferno, I've been lookin for a anatomy site like that, thanks

[Pound]

Here is mine, it took me about 45 minutes or so. It's a bit unoriginal, but I didn't know what else to do. My imagination is where my art fails me. I think I'm too afraid to elaborate.

Sorry I said I'd get it done ages ago, i had some problems with my scanner, and can't draw with a mouse from reference on Photoshop. I have done the other lesson with the still life though, i just need to find it.

[Seedling]

I hope you guys have been having fun with this stuff. :-)

Kubushas – Haha! I had nearly forgotten that one of my application drawings to RISD was a self-portrait with zipper. :-) Nice work. Next time, try a mirror instead of a photograph. It’s harder, but you’ll learn more from it and ultimately, it’ll get you a better self-portrait.

JustinBeckett – Thanks! :-) There really isn’t any significant difference between fine art and concept art. The big leap is in figuring out how to get the observational work helping out the from-imagination work. As far as I can tell.

Rolo - :-) From my perspective, being a “pro” artist is just an everyday thing. But I remember all too well being a student and being scared that I wouldn’t get here, so I’m happy to help others get here, too.

DoInferno – Haha! Fun stuff. The lighter made me laugh. Next time, use a mirror for the self-portrait. It’s harder than using a photograph, but that’s part of the point. Keep going! Oh, and thanks for the anatomy reference link! Awesome.

Solidcube – Foo, your images aren’t showing up at all. Try attaching them through “edit”, “go advanced”, and then “manage attachments”.

Bunny – teehee! Tattoos and antlers – some of my favorite things to stick on people. That’s a good self-portrait under the extras! You’ve got nice line-work. Try adding the tattoo in the same medium as the rest of the drawing next time

crisis – wolfies! :-) Good job with those! If it’s hard, that means you are pushing your boundaries, which is exactly the point! Next time, you could try going for the basic shapes under that fur. Try to puzzle out what basic 3D shapes your subject is made from. Then you can build it up from those shapes from any angle.

Pound – believe it or not, originality is over-rated. :-) Especially when you are learning, chances are your art is going to look a whole lot like everyone else’s art who is learning the same skills. Don’t worry about them – just focus on doing the best possible job on whatever task is at hand. And you’ve done a nice job with your self-portrait! You did a good job with the shading and caught your emotional state well. (Which is tricky with the blank “I am drawing myself” expression. ;-) Hey – you seem to have some wiring loose there. . . you might want to pay a visit to a mechanic.



Keep up the good work everyone!

[saturniaus]

Hello,

I just checked out your sketchbook and they are amazing. My life drawing and sketching ability has been a bit rusty lately, seeing this thread gives me the motivation I need right now to improve my skills. Keep up the good work, and I'll put some of my sketches online once I get enough practice (and doing some of your assignments). Thanks!

[Kubushas]

A bricky train vagon, done while traveling :) For the third assigment. Next time I'll definately drar some lines from perspective points, cuz it's pretty messy here :[

[Paolo13]

It`s study time... will try to do them all

[Peter Stapleton]

I think this thread is a great idea, Seedling. Please continue to help us all out.
We appreciate it very much.
Here's my exercises 1 & 2.
If anybody feels like giving some critique that would be awesome.
I really wish to improve :painting:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/teabags4every1/Shoes.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/teabags4every1/Portrait.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/teabags4every1/PortraitMod.jpg

[Coinpurse]

Hey Seedling, thanks a bunch for starting this thread. Learning things a bit differently here, really opening up my mind. Its 3:00am and i cant sleep, if i would have known about this thread earlier i would have participated a bit more. About the crap attached below, Just messing with layers upon layers upon more useless layers lol.

[Seedling]

Awww, you guys make me feel all warm and fuzzy. :-)

Saturnaius – Thank you! And good luck with that. And io saturnalia! (That’s the traditional greeting for the holiday of saturnalia. ;-)

Kubushas – Haha! That’s a funny train. It must take a ton of fuel to get it moving with all the weight from those bricks. It looks like you got pretty close to proper perspective just eyeballing it. That’s good – part of being able to use all that mechanical perspective stuff is being able to see what looks right. Keep on truckin’!

Paolo13 – welcome! And haha! That’s cute. :-)

Peter Stapleton – Wow! If you hadn’t told me that the velcro shoe was drawn from a modified lace-up shoe, I never would have guessed. That’s nicely done!

And great work on the self portrait! Woot! Nice job with the colors and lighting. I love the expression on the masked version! Some things you can try if you wish to continue with these: the skin at the edges of the mask could be just a bit more shadowy. Since it’s a slick mechanical device, some of the edges could be improved by getting them mechanically straight. (Or conversely, make the mask look old and weather-beaten) And in the skin-tones – you could try introducing other colors – a bit of red on the nose and ears, blue or green around the eyes and chin.

Thestjester – messing around with a medium can be a great way to figure out what to do with it.

[Seedling]

If you find that the objects around your house or your room aren’t all that interesting to draw, then go on a scavenger hunt. Go outside, and look for discarded junk or natural objects. Or, rummage in the fridge. An egg or an orange or a leftover drum-stick are all good subjects to draw either as-is, or bit/broken/sliced/cooked. (If it’s particularly perishable, be sure to throw it away when you are done.)

Lower-end antique stores can be good sources of inexpensive and interesting junk. Many have boxes of old keys and other miscellaneous odds and ends that can be bought for under a dollar. And even better are yard sales. The last yard sale I visited yielded two baskets and two antique glass bottles, all for a couple of dollars.

Know somebody who owns an interesting object? Ask if you can borrow it.

If all else fails, make something! Fold some origami. Crumple up some paper. Use cardboard scraps and a glue-gun to construct a castle model.

As they say in Katamari Damacy – “The world is full of many things!”

[Peter Stapleton]

Thankyou so much for the feedback Seedling, I'll redo the portrait and add in the variations of colour like you suggested. I like to do paintings from scratch instead of modifying paintings because I feel it helps me to improve.
I finished the third assignment but I dont think my hallway was a real difficult environment to do and I focused on characters rather than evironment changes. The kid looks crappy anyway. Guess I'll give it another go.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/teabags4every1/Monsty.jpg

[Seedling]

Peter – Hahaha! That’s fantastic! Really, it’s okay to modify something that you already feel finished with. Think of it as doing a paintover of someone else’s work – it’s a way to test variations without investing loads of time.

I love the light in this one. If you were to carry it along to a more finished state, I would suggest working on the roundness of the tentacles, and maybe finding some pink laundry detergent to paint a still-life of to figure out how to handle those gooey puddles. :-)

I’ve gotta get my butt downstairs and paint now – cheers!

[Seedling]

Not a lot of people are in a position to devote eight or more hours a day to grinding their way to professional level skills. For most of us, if you want to develop your skills, you’ve got to shoehorn the practice into your already busy schedule.

Think of art-making as music-making. Anyone who has learned an instrument will tell you that you have to devote daily practice to it over the course of years. There are a lot of repeated, technical exercises to go through – scales, chords, fingerings – stuff with an almost complete lack of creativity involved (at first glance). It can be downright boring. From day-to-day it is hard to see any improvement in your skills. All it takes is one look at a better player and you can find yourself in a funk – your motivation smashed, you can go from slow progress to no progress.

So right off the bat, you have to prepare yourself for the slow pace and the danger of losing your momentum. If looking at the work of better artists is going to smash your confidence, then spend less time looking at the work of better artists. (This is something that I have to do myself.) If you are likely to get distracted by, say, television or games or the internet (as I am currently being distracted right at this moment) then do what you can to avoid the temptation.

And at the heart of it all: get yourself on a practice schedule. The most progress that I ever made at the piano was when my teacher had me practice for an hour a day, every day, with no days off. I now apply this to my oil-painting habit. And as with the piano-practicing, much of what I do with the paints is technical. I have been focusing on color, value, manipulation of paint, and so on.

I have found that a particular time of day works best for me: first thing in the morning. I get my hour of painting done, and then afterwards I go to work, run errands, exercise, and play.

Different schedules are going to be optimal for different people. Maybe you’re more productive before going to bed. Maybe three hours every other day suits you better. Maybe you’ve got a bus schedule that gives you fifteen-minute increments twice a day that you can use to draw. That’s great! Figure out when your “power hour” is, and stick to it. Keep a log of the time you invest – it’ll help you get regular and turn the activity into a habit.

If you want to get even more specific with your practice time, then try this: pick a weekly goal. For example, “this week I am doing self-portraits”, or “this week I am doing color studies of light as observed on real objects,” or “this week I am drawing robots using perspective.” Put your goal in writing. Put your daily hour or equivalent towards reaching this goal. And if you want to do any additional art above and beyond the drill, then you can do that – after you have done your daily hour.

I would think up some catch way to conclude this, but I really need to get my own butt downstairs to do my daily painting. Happy art-making!

[Lhune]

Seedling, I want to thank you VERY much for this. I'm only 16 years old and not a well known artist yet. I'm doing my very best in getting better, and when I compared my own artwork to that of a greater artist, it both motivated and demotivated me. In the past few months the demotivation took control and I pretty much stopped practising on new things, feeling as if I didn't make any progress at all in what I drew. I kept looking at the better pictures and just thought I'd never get that good. You just reminded me that progress doesn't come in huge leaps but by just doing it (whatever it is you want to get better at) a lot :). Also you inspired me to start picking up my study on animals and their anatomy again :).

Here's my version of assignment #4, an animal I have never drawn before, the gecko. It was harder than I thought it would be, and I don't really like the third one. But it was educational either way, so thanks :).

[Diablooo]

WOW your guys/girls have come far! lolz I´m only on step 1 ......(will start in 4 days when I´m back from my girlfriend):D

and seedling your teaching them really good I hope I can draw good to when I´m coming on step 13 or more;)

I´m 16 years now and I hope I can draw some cool stuff when i´m 17.
but I thing seedling will learn me how to do it:)

[Seedling]

Lhune – Awesome!! Glad to be of service! And good job with those geckos!

Diablooo – Thank you. :-) You don’t have to do the exercises in any particular order. I’m just writing down ideas as they come to me.

[stalsby]

cool thread! thanks for spreading knowledge!

[Seedling]

cool thread! thanks for spreading knowledge!

Knowlege is particularly tasty when spread on whole-wheat toast with strawberry jam. ;-)




I think I may have frozen my brains while out taking pictures. . .:dur:

[Jarri]

Amazing thread, hopefully I will be doing some of these exercises.

[PeteStewart]

Assignment #1.1, 1.2 --- fun stuff. 16 minutes total.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/Cheesypete/DSCN5607.jpg

Assignment #2.1 --- First mirror drawing... gotta say in all honesty, 'tis quite the bad representation. Oh well! I'll keep tryin'.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/Cheesypete/DSCN5608.jpg

Assignment #2.2 --- And by now I've decided I officially hate my face, as it looks even less like me. ---2.1 and 2.2 took 'round half an hour together.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/Cheesypete/DSCN5606.jpg


I'll try to make 'em darker next time... low-quality scanner doesn't pick up everything... AAGH! These excersizes are good, they make me hate my art!!! Which means I'm gonna have to practice the hell out of it!

[halley42]

Wonderful, Seedling... my New Years Resolution will be to follow these classes.

[PMaz]

Thx Seedling for refering me to this class. I really need some basis in life drawing and you gave me the motivation to get my assbusy at it.

I did a few assignment but still nothing that im proud of. So here is the less carpy one i did so far. Assignement #2

7089770898

[Cup of Joe]

Wow, great thread Seedling! I'll be sure to read through the whole thing when I get a chance.

Skipped temporarily to Project 2. No much, but hey, I've got a thing for flatcaps:) . Original followed by modified. I might go back and fix the tiny hand.

[Seedling]

Wow guys, great work! *happy dance*

By the way, the assignments aren’t really in any order. You can totally skip through to assignments that seem like the most useful to you.

[boost]

This is a perfect thread. I'll work on an assignment.

[Brett Allen]

sorry if you have mentioned this already, not able to read too well at the moment... you say you are from turbine? as in the major company that was running Asheron's Call 2? (dont know if ac1 also, just used to play AC2 before it went down)

I always wanted to learn how to do concept art :D

[Godo13]

In response to assignment #1:

Summary: Did a still of life of my wife's hair clips with hair band the other day as part of my New Years resolution to draw every day this year. Unbeknownst to me, these objects had been infused with sentience by an arcane force of unknown origin. The elastic band coiled and wrapped over and into itself, growing in size along with the hair clips, transforming into a writhing organic mass of musculature animating the once benign objects into a shambling spider-like being of destruction... Enjoy! :wink:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/godo/Other/hairClips.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/godo/Other/hairClipWalker2.jpg

1st drawing is pencil, 2nd is wacom with Alias SketchBook 1.1

Strengths/Weaknesses? Crits plz. :)

[Seedling]

Godo13 – Hahahahahaha! :-) Good for you for making a New Year’s Resolution to draw daily! And good for you for having such fun with it! One thing, though – it’s a bit difficult to tell that those are the same hair clips in both images, because the first ones are so dark.

Boost – Sweet! :-) I look forward to seeing what you make!

Brett Allen – Yup, that’s us. We’ve come a long ways since AC2.

[Wasker]

Assignment_1

http://www.wasker.com/a1_candle.jpg

[Wasker]

Assignment_2

http://www.wasker.com/a2_me.jpg

[ManikinDesign]

Thanks for the info seedling! I'll be watching this thread and doing as many of the assignments as possible. can i post them on here??

[carlosranna]

Wow guys, great work! *happy dance*

By the way, the assignments aren’t really in any order. You can totally skip through to assignments that seem like the most useful to you.

Yeah... I imagined it wouldn´t be necessary, but i was willing to make it in the given order. Bad idea tough... Some are much more fun to do than others, and when you are very busy, it´s better to work on the things that you think are fun...

[Seedling]

Hi everyone!

Wasker! You caught the colors of the brass and wax nicely. And I don’t know what it is about that burned little match, but it has a lot of character. Since you are working digitally, be sure to always double-check those ellipses by making a circle and then squashing and scaling it. I don’t know if it’s my monitor or yours, but whatever is in the background is getting lost in the dark. (BTW, a general rule about colors that I’ve been using at work for years is, as far as possible, “make sure the work looks good on a variety of monitors.” If a detail is so subtle that it can only be seen on a particularly well-tuned monitor, then by default a percentage of your audience won’t be able to see it. But then, it’s hard to implement this if you don’t have an IT department who can supply you with a craptastic secondary monitor. ;-) ) Oh, and the eyes in your self-portrait are following me around the room, I swear! They’re beautifully sparkly and alive. You could try for more colors or highlights on the skin, and also that soft edge you have going on the face could be carried up into the smokestack. LOL, smilies!

ManikinDesign – Cool! Yes, you are welcome to post your results here.

DoInferno – I would love to hear your feedback on which of these assignments are the most fun, and why. :-)

[Wasker]

Hehe,
Thansk Seedling, I appreciate your critique. I believe the match come out pretty good aswell. The thing in the background that looks like a box is my amplifier and isn't standing out very much against the even darker wall. Since I was drawing the candle I never payed much attention to it, but perhaps I shouldn't have included it at all instead of confusing the viewer. Choices and choices ^^

I've realised the face is a bit skewed, a friend of mine says it's because I had the mirror next to me instead of infront of me. And it probably have something to do with experience aswell. It could use more hightlight yup. I'll fix it in my 2nd selfpotrait which is yet to come.

assignment_3

Inspiration caught from a café I know of and the Moscow train station. Added pillars and ornament and trashed it.

http://www.wasker.com/station_1.jpg

[carlosranna]

DoInferno – I would love to hear your feedback on which of these assignments are the most fun, and why. :-)

Ohh... I just believe each person has their favorites... That´s what i meant. The assignments are great, and they all push us a little more, so we can get ourselves better!

And Gosh! I need to find me some time to work on more of them!

[Kale]

Assignment #1:

I've started a sketchbook and I hope to encorporate some of these assignments into it... here's my first try:

7682576826

I don't just make up stuff out of my head very often, so this is a big step... :[
Thanks for the great assignments and all the advice!

-Kale

PS. My Sketchbook (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1173456#post1173456)

[Wasker]

The pencil of the guitar is very nice Kale. The digital picture is not equally good. The anatomy is abit off. Check up on anatomy :)

Assignment 4 and ref below it. Could a horse look more emo?

http://www.wasker.com/Horse.jpg

Reference photo here (http://www.sxc.hu/photo/674978)

[Kale]

My first attempt was pretty crappy but I really liked the concept, so I redid it. Although I ended up using a photo ref for the arms (and look at my teeth in a mirror), everythiing else is imagination. :\

7870578706

Sorry about the double posts... I'm just much happier with this version. :)
Onward to... Lesson #2!

[Kale]

Inspired by you know who... 'nuff said.

7920579206

Next lesson #3... (maybe I'll skip around a little bit)

[Faye Yong]

Thanks Seedling. You really cleared up all the ? ? ? I had about concept art & how it "works" in the 'real (working) world'.

I've always wanted to draw more fantastical art, and of more variety (than just the usual skinny pretty girls I draw), your pointers really have given me a clue how to go about it.

I'm still not sure whether Concept Art is the "career" for me, but damn it does look interesting!

[Seedling]

Pardon my absence! You folks have been busy! Right on!

Wasker – Oooh, nice light coming through that door! Something to look at: the ceiling looks like it is sloping downward to that door. If that was intentional, then you should consider adding in some other element to make it clear that it wasn’t a mistake of perspective, such as a topping element on those pillars that clearly show they are intersecting the ceiling at an angle. And the “emo horse”. . . haha! :-) I don’t think that a dark mood automatically makes things “emo”, but the idea of communicating an emotion with an image of something random, like a horse, is a great exercise. In fact, you’re giving me ideas. . . Good job with the horse, by the way. I think you succeeded particularly well with the colors. It’s a challenge to properly shade something that is a very dark color. Something that could help you more – throw something in the environment to fill up the space and give the eye something to compare the horse with. It could be as little as drawing a shadow under the horse in an otherwise blank gray space. That shadow gives us information about where the light is coming from, what color the light is, and the intensity of the light. Great job!

Kale – Haha! That’s a fun image, particularly the teeth and eye enhancements. Doing research to improve an image you have already started is fantastic! I can see that you learned some good anatomy in the process. Something that you didn’t carry over from the observed guitar drawing is the side of the guitar. That is a very important detail. The frets are also just crooked enough to look a little funky. But, you really caught the tuning knobs nicely. Ooh, and what an ambitious self-portrait! You captured a good strong mood in the unaltered one. I don’t see much of a resemblance to you in the altered version, but you did get a much more realistic character out of it than you would have if you had done it entirely from imagination. I would consider that to be a success. :-)



I'm still not sure whether Concept Art is the "career" for me, but damn it does look interesting!

I think it’s safer to consider “illustration” as a career path than it is to just consider “concept art”, anyway, if you are interested in making images for a living. If you learn what it takes to be an illustrator, that opens up many career doors, including that of concept artist.

Cheers everyone!

[Seedling]

Composition is the art of working within a rectangle (or other shape) with line, color, value, and form, for the purpose of making an interesting non-representational set of patterns.

Composition is non-representational. That is, a good composition can contain representational objects, such as people or buildings or monsters, but it doesn’t have to. It can be nothing but smears of color, and still be effective. A good composition grabs your attention and makes your eye jump to specific parts of the picture. A bad composition makes you want to look away, or directs your attention to the wrong thing.

********Assignment #22 - Studying Existing Compositions*******

Go pick out a favorite piece of art. It can be the cover of a novel, a page from a comic book, a still frame from a television show, or a painting by an old master. (But for now, don’t pick a sculpture or other 3D work – this is all about 2D.)

Do a sketch of this piece of work. It doesn’t have to be a meticulous ten-hour labor; half an hour should be ample. Leave room around the edges, because you are going to take notes.

Take a look at the original. Where does your eye keep returning to within the image? Chances are, if there is a story being told, then your eye is being drawn to parts of the image that tell the story. If someone is menacingly wielding a knife at a dog, chances are your eye will most often go to the face of the attacker, the knife, and the dog. This is not an automatic result of there being a story told here. Your eyes are going to those focal points because the artist has arranged things in the picture to assure that those are the most important bits.

Consider that this same knife-and-dog story could be told in a setting of a lush green forest with a waterfall and a giant levitating glass castle glittering off in the distance. But what good would those extra details do if they were just there for decoration? Either that castle had better be important, or it had better not be there, because a floating glass castle is going to steal the show from a guy wielding a knife at a dog!

Anyway, back to your image. You can see the important places that the artist has directed you to look at. Or, maybe the artist didn’t do a great job, and you find yourself repeatedly looking at a boring rock. Either way, take some notes on what you see. You can even draw big arrows pointing from your notes to those details.

Now, why is it that your eyes go there? What tricks did the artist employ, or fail to employ?

Chances are those focal points are high in contrast. All sorts of contrast, too. It might be that the value (dark-to-light range) is highest there. The darkest darks and the lightest lights are right next to each other, whereas the rest of the image huddles in a grey area. Or there is contrast in the hue (color). Perhaps the dog is bright orange, the knife is purple, and the rest of the image is much muddier in hue. Perhaps the entire image has been made with little dashes of color – except for the faces of the characters. Because they contrast in texture, they are where your eyes go.

Or, maybe there are shapes or lines within the image that lead your eye around like railroad tracks leading a train. The important areas interrupt these lines, and act a bit like train-stations. Or, perhaps the focal points are like islands – your eyes drift continuously around until they bump into solid land. Or, perhaps there is another reason why your eyes are going where they are going. Figure it out and write it all down.

This won’t result in a pretty sketchbook page, but it’s a good way to start wrapping your head around the idea of composition.

[Vaejoun]

A very nice threat, its very usefull, even if you already have some experience.

I think the hardest part is (what you already said) to force yourself to draw.

When it comes to me, I always had (and still have) problems with girls and so I started to read Mangas and comics with nice and good looking women inside. I took my sketchbook and made a really fast sketch, just looking on proprotions. No shading and no details.

this is very useful, I can use this thumb-sketches for later pictures as inspiration without really copying from another artist. Its just the pose. now I have about 2 or 3 sketchbook just about female characters and I think I get the right feeling how to do it.

Maybe I post something later.

I would love to hear something more about Layout and composition. I am just working on a poster and I would like to hear your oppinion.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87910

[Sanest]

How could I have missed this!?! Seedling you are a true genius, I will have fun reading through the rest of it. I will definetly have to start working through the assignments...like now!

[Vaejoun]

Well Im not a beginner any more, though I will start this lessons from the start.

Here is the first one and what I came up with.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Vaejoun/shoe.jpg

[Seedling]

********Assignment #23 – Finding Compositions Within Compositions********

This assignment requires glue, scissors, and a magazine.

Within every composition are a dozen other compositions. Find a full-page advertisement. Cut out a postage-stamp-sized rectangle from the advertisement, and see if you can make what is on that tiny rectangle be a complete and interesting composition on its own. Glue it in your sketchbook

Fill two pages of your sketchbook with these tiny found compositions. On one page, glue images that contain recognizable features, such as an eye, a tree, or a word. On the other, glue only compositions that are more unrecognizable – perhaps the folds in a shirt and a bit of skin and a bit of some other color. Try for a range from minimalist to details-galore. Try rectangles with different aspect ratios, from square to tall and thin to short and wide.

Take notes on what works compositionally and what doesn’t, and why.

********Assignment #24 - Non-Representational Composition ********

Say you’ve got a hankering to draw a lone figure rappelling down a vast cliff. Or a group of ninjas fleeing across an intergalactic garbage dump. Or, a giant ramshackle space-station. Each one of these things consists of patterns and marks that almost don’t represent anything at all. Aside from the challenge of making a cliff-face look recognizably like a cliff-face, how do you make the pattern of it look interesting, and how do you make it compositionally nifty?

Use a ruler to draw a series of tidy rectangles on a page or two of your sketchbook. The size is up to you – maybe two to a page suits you best, or maybe a dozen thumb-nails. Each of those rectangles is going to be a complete composition. Using your medium of choice, start filling those rectangles with marks. The only rule is this: don’t draw any recognizable images. This is an exercise in non-representational art.* That means that marks and colors themselves need to look good, without the added burden of also having to look like something else.

Use line, value, pattern, hue (if working in color), shape, and anything else you can think of to make these rectangles into interesting things to look at. Use this to explore what works and what doesn’t – which of these rectangles would you want to pin to a bulletin board to look at again later? Which would you want to throw away? And why?

Use this to find out what your favorite medium is capable of, while you’re at it, because chances are you’ve never fully explored the range of uses for that pencil or those water-colors. You can use PhotoShop for this, but don’t use any funky filters for now.

If you want to get really methodical about this, then do a longer series. Do a batch of images that focus on value, then another that focuses on line, etc. Try to identify which element you are the least comfortable with – and then try to improve at that one thing.

Oh yes – and don’t agonize over any of these. They should be fast and fun. Spend exactly as much time on each as you feel you need to, and no more.

The next time you want to try speed-painting an intergalactic garbage-dump, you can use this approach to build an interesting composition before agonizing over what sort of garbage such a dump would be made up of.


* I am avoiding the word “abstract” here because abstract implies starting with a recognizable object and then simplifying or changing it.


********Assignment #25 - Build a Composition with Perspective from Life********

Say you have to draw a building in perspective – and you also have to make a good composition out of it. That’s two large technical hurdles to overcome at once! How do you do it?

Start with a chair, or cardboard box, matchbox, lunchbox, or some other object that is made up of basic rectangles. Toss it in the middle of the room, and sketch it. For now, stick to pencil outlines – but do use a straight-edge and your knowledge of multiple-point perspective to get it as accurate as possible.

Then, once you have a correct image of your object, use your straight-edge to draw a rectangle around it. Study the relationship between the object and the rectangle – does it make a stronger composition in the lower portion of a square, or the left of a horizontal rectangle? What happens compositionally when the rectangle slices right through the object, cropping it – is the composition improved by showing only part of the chair? Has the negative space, the space around your object, become as interesting as the object? If so, that’s good!

Repeat this quickly a few times, drawing the object from different angles and then bounding it with different rectangles.

******Assignment #26 - Build a Composition with Perspective from Imagination*****

Repeat exercise 25, but using an imagined subject. Start with something as simple as the object that you drew from life, such as a pirate’s chest, a throne, or a simple building.

******Assignment #27 - Build a Composition with a Character from Imagination*****

Repeat exercise 25, but with a character from your imagination. Bend and twist and pose and crop your character to make the negative space interesting. A well-designed character is great, but a well-designed character in an eye-catching composition is even better.

[carlosranna]

Hahaha, Vaejoun! Very cool and very well done!

[Seedling]

Hahaha, Vaejoun! Very cool and very well done!

Totally! :D (Sorry, I meant to reply sooner.)

[Chizome]

Seedling, you are the epitome of awesome. I've started up on those assignments (they're pretty challenging...), and I've gotten the first one done. Tell me what you think, please?

(By the way, ignore the one in the 'middle'. It was a dud.... and the original is a piece of candy I snogged in 7th period.)

[Seedling]

Communication – that’s the whole point of illustration. Some examples of communication in illustration: “this is a guy with a sword”, “this book contains medieval romance”, “this dragon’s wings could conceivably bear its weight in flight”, “this is George Bush”, “this is a sleek new car design”, “this is a landscape that invokes sadness”.

Communication in images includes everything from conveying the idea of a material (grass, stone, flesh, etc.) to acting, to conveying a mood through non-representational marks.

******Assignment #28 – Mood, Non-Representational*****

Pick a simple emotional state – happiness, sadness, anger, etc. Without using any representational or symbolic imagery (meaning no pictures *of* anything) try to convey this mood. Use color, shape, line, value – whatever you want.

For best effect, do at least two, so that you can compare one to the other.

There is no “right answer” to this assignment. And if you feel intimidated by the idea of just drawing marks and shapes – don’t be. There are artists who have made a career of making marks and shapes, who would be intimidated by the idea of drawing a superhero; and there are illustrators who would shy away of drawing non-representational art. But the most versatile artists are the ones who can do both. If you can do both, then you can use the marks and colors and shapes to reinforce the mood that the superhero is in.

******Assignment #29 – Mood, Representational*****

Set up a still-life, draw a landscape from observation, or draw something else from direct observation. But before you start, pick a mood to convey. Perhaps you are drawing a pear, or your shoe. Make it a sad pear, or an angry shoe. Don’t add anything from imagination to this one – no sad faces or angry rusty spikes. Use changes in color or shape or mark-making to communicate the mood. Perhaps the pear slumps a little more in your image than in reality; perhaps the colors have shifted to moody blues and grays. Perhaps the shoe is rendered in reds with jagged strokes.

If you have done assignment 28, you can try applying the same mood and technique to this representational image. For instance, if you drew “sadness” using soft swatches of shades of blue, then draw your “sad pear” using the same colors and types of marks.

******Assignment #29 – Acting, Facial Expression*****

When you include a person in your image, that person doesn’t just sit there like a piece of fruit. That person becomes an actor. You are the director, and it is up to you to tell that person what they should be communicating, and how.

Pull up a mirror. Imagine yourself in a fantastic setting where something dramatic is happening. You are being abducted by aliens! You are leading a charge across a battlefield! You have just won the lottery! You are about to see the fruit of years of malicious planning!

Got a good facial expression? Good. Have you got it lit dramatically? Light from below can add creepiness. A bright, sharp warm light, with a weak blue secondary light can mimic sunlight.

Draw what you see. Then show it to your friends and have them guess at what is going on in the image. Write down their reactions in your sketchbook for later, like a journal entry.

******Assignment #30 – Acting, Body Language*****

For this assignment, you will need a buddy. You will be drawing one-another. No, you don’t have to take off your clothes.

Start by writing down a list of dramatic scene ideas. For instance, you have just stepped in a pit full of snakes! You have defeated your nemesis in battle! You have lost your wallet! You have just failed to save the world from a terrible doom! Keep these ideas handy, because if you have never posed as a model before, it is easy to get embarrassed, or get a case of the giggles, or otherwise wonder “what the heck am I doing here?”

Now, take turns sketching each other. For the model: make big, dramatic poses! Use every part of your body. If you can only hold a pose for thirty seconds, then tell your friend to sketch quickly! For the one drawing: don’t bother drawing facial features, and don’t get hung up trying to render details of clothing or hair. Try to capture the whole body – arms, legs, torso, head, hands, and feet. Try for something that is more substantial than a stick-figure, but if all you can manage are generalized shapes, that’s s good place to start. Hands can be simplified to mittens; the direction of the face can be indicated with some quick marks for the location of eyes or jaw-line or nose.

Don’t forget the really fun poses – flying! The model can get into crazy horizontal or upside-down poses using a chair or by lying on the floor. Draw outside on the grass if there is a danger that your pose may result in falling. And use props if you want – a broom-handle makes a wonderful sword, cane, tree-branch, light saber, pool cue, baseball bat, etc.

Be sure to try drawing foreshortened poses – that means draw with a view looking down at the top of the model’s head or up at his feet, instead of drawing from just the side.

Have fun!

[Seedling]

Hey Chizome, that’s fun! I would say that the biggest obstacle here is that it’s darn hard to visually communicate the idea of a cellophane-wrapped sphere. By the time your candy has become part of a fancy weapon, there isn’t really any detail left to hint that it is a ball of candy in a wrapper. But it was a good attempt, and you made a nice weapon-thingy out of it. The imagined object has a nice shape, and I dig the feathers!

[Seedling]

So, who will be the first brave soul to try a more recent assignment? The first person to try an assignment gets a virtual cookie - or a beer if you’re old enough. ;)

[Chizome]

I'd love to, but I have a bit of an OCD so I'm forcing myself to go through them in order... and I'm stuck on the self-portrait. Your parents are your worst critic.... I was just fine with it until dad said it looked nothing like me! Subsequently, I stayed up until midnight trying to get the lips right.... and then I ended up scrapping it anyways.

This could take a while. ._.

[Nerahla]

^^ Chizome, then don't do a self-portrait, do just a portrait and then mix it up -- that's what I did (since technically I already did it via self portrait months ago heh)

Anyway, I actually did these two for this, might as well show them.

http://www.aequinox.com/paintings/model.jpg http://www.aequinox.com/paintings/model2.jpg