Gundersen Mentors in... something

[Gundersen]

Mentor: Gundersen
Mentees: Vibhas & Yinteck

Ok so you managed to trick me into teaching the tiny bit of knowledge I have. Hopefully it can end up as an art journey together rather then one man pointing where to go. So I want us to work fairly loos, trying this and that together and see where we end up. Don’t take what I teach for granted, listened to a lot of people and see what others do as well.

Well lets start off with some easy stuff. It’s the basic of an environment piece, so even if its fairly quick to do once you get the hang of it, its most important to understand it. We are going to work on composition now in the beginning I think. There are several steps here we will look at during the first weeks: perspective, repetition, scale… well ill think of more later J

You have already done some perspective studies, feel free to post them here if you want to. I want to keep working on perspective studies but instead of random chaos cubes we will go a bit more into detail.
I don’t want to post up to many examples quite yet, I want you to explore a bit first, and then I can rather use examples when I am explaining a bit more later. So here is the first assignment:

- In every piece add a man or woman for scale, doesn’t need to be more then a contour
- Add the same element several times for repetition. This will show scale in your image. (will maybe have to show you that one)
- DON’T detail anything almost, you can add stripes to a cube to show it’s the same one going backwards into the image or similar. But no detailing
- Don’t rush the images, you are not in a hurry. Plan them out and make sure they show what you want!


1. Make three images looking from above
2. Make three images looking upwards
3. Make three images on “street level” not looking up or down (is that one understandable? Basically it will cut of parts of your “cubes”)

There nine images id prefer you create with pencil and paper, take an A4 sheet of paper and divided it up like I have shown bellow in the attachment. I will also do all the assignments.

The deadline has been removed. As soon as you have all nine images in a way I like we move on hehe

[Gundersen]

heres the way id prefer you to make the Perspective drawings, aka the 3 diffrent images on a a4 paper

[buchvecny]

just trial

[Gundersen]

As you can see on yours probably yourself its very distorted, If you want to use 2 point perspective and make it look more beliveable, you need to put the 3rd point FAR off teh canvas you have choosen, The longer away the more beliveable

Here are two examples of what i meant. Useing the same shape over again to create a composition. Try it out, see what you get. Try to make a foreground, midground and background element. To pull our eyes into the image

[buchvecny]

yea i figured in the meanwhile now i will just force myself to do it !

[Gundersen]

Come on guy+girl, you dont learn from sitting on your asses doing nothing

Lets show stuff as soon as we do it. Keep updateing

[buchvecny]

I am really sorry for missing everything... one of craziest week this year.
O well now theres my perspectives, i drew only three out of nine i know i will make more when i return on Saturday. Hard critique please!

[Gundersen]

Nice to see an update Buch. Its ok to have a bussy week, dont be sorry for that. I am just here to push you hehe

I like your update, these are better then the perspectives you did before. Remember what i said about 3 point perspective. If you dont want it to look so distorted you have to put the 3rd point even farther away.
I would recomend you to look at your lineweight, your lines that goes into the VPs and the cubes have the same lineweight, this makes it slightly hard to see your cubes sometimes. Try to make the cubes lines a bit darker If you already know alot about lineweight then you can try to add the darkest lines in front and the thinest in the back. To create the illusion of atmospheric perspective...

[yinteck]

Here is some of my assignment.. Hope is ok ..
Will finish other tomorrow.

[Gundersen]

Yinteck: Nice to see some of your work. Your birdswiev are realy nice and seem correct. Some of the objects are "flying" but thats ok if its what you want them to look.
When it comes to the "looking upwards" images there are some mistakes you can look into. Unless everything, included the people are flying you should always place the "base" of the building below the horizon line. If you place it higher up it is flying. The second one where the man is standing outside the building cant be made like that. Cause if that man is standing on ground camera would be below ground level

[yinteck]

Thanks Gundersen. I will keep that in mind.

Here is another one. No that satisfied but dont mean i dont like it.. Just everything is simple. Dont know what to add to make it more interesting..
This always happen to me when it comes to building and perspective stuff....

[Gundersen]

Nice updates here yintek. Dont worry about the complexety atm, it will come later when you get the grasp of the basic. Here is comments on the three images:
1. This one is as simple as this excersise should be. But the object you have used has no similarity, so its realy hard for the viewer to determin how far away things are and how big they are. Useing the same object over again create a rhythm in the image.

2. Here you are getting more complex, and its a realy good image to show whats happending on streeet level. Maybe make some of the buildings taller to create the feeling of a new york street. Also the point about repeating object here.

3. Ohh you are doing the flying objects again hehe. But you have added in a floor level there, which no makes sense. The man on the far right side seems to be to big for where he is standing. Minor mistakes like that will change the scale and look of your image.

[Gundersen]

Yinteck assignment 1:

[yinteck]

Here is one of the part 1 of the assignment. Happy with this 1 point.
Will do more tomorrow.

[Gundersen]

Looks realy nice yinteck. You have handled the one point perspective well here. It reads good as an interior space. no critts on this one. Look forward to see the next ones!

[yinteck]

Ah... Finally done with this one. I feel nth special bout this one. Just another normal 2 point .

[yinteck]

Here is the 3 point perspective. I can see that there some odd block due to where i put the third point.

I have a question - If i want to put the third point way lower. Should i use another paper to join the paper that im' drawing? Cause i find that this is not so convenient. Do you use other technique to solve this problem ?

Will do the second part soon.

Thanks

[Gundersen]

Nice updates again Yinteck, you seem to be getting a good understanding of perspective.

- 2 point perspective (have attached a file to show what i mean): You need to remember that if you use the same element over again it needs to be smaller in the distance. Not only shorter, it also needs to be thinner. Atm the picture is a bit confusing since you have a shape in the front, and the shape is being repeated into the distance, but its not the same size as the front one ..
Appart from that your 2 point perspective dont have any mistakes as far as i can see.

- 3 point perspective: This one looks good, and its nice to see you have learned about the 3rd point. If its placed on the same paper it creates a big distortion. If you are useing A4 paper i would tape the paper to my desk and then just make an X on the desk somewhere. You can just rub it out afterwards. The reason for tapeing the paper to the desk is so you dont move the paper and get mistakes in the perspective.

(writeing a bit about perspective, hope it will answer some questions you have)

Perspective

Perspective is very important for environment design. It is the most basic thing of the drawing. Its very simple, but small mistakes can easily ruin your picture. Our eyes always see in three point perspective, that doesnt mean you need to draw in this.

1 point perspective: Often said by many people to be the "interior" perspective. That is in some sense correct. But its basicly just easier to draw then two point or three point perspective, thats why people do it.

2 point perspective: This is deffenatly the most used one. Unless you do a realy good three point perspective, this is the easiest one to do good. Feng Zhu is one of the artists that strongly use two point perspective when building up his images. What i like personaly about two point is that it dont look distorted, and its quicker to do when you work. You dont need to have a 3rd vp FAR off canvas.

3 point perspective: As i mentioned this is the perspective our eyes see in, and to be honoust i very rarely use this perspective. But if you are creating a massive canyon or some cliffs, this is a realy good perspective to create the feeling of large scale. So deffenatly practice this one, the more you can use it the better!

[Gundersen]

Buch: When are you posting your first assignment? The 9 perspective drawings.. As soon as your done ill give you your next assignment.

[buchvecny]

I have just arrived, so when i get a bit of sleep i will start! I cant be beaten by girl!! jk

[Gundersen]

He is a guy hahaha

[yinteck]

Assignment 1 -part 2
Traditional Painting 1

I found this in http://www.voytek-art.com/oil-paintings.htm .This artist personal website. If you visit his website you'll notice most of his drawing (color and mood) is kinda like this- yellowish and down.

I like the piece because of the dramatic lighting used. In this piece i like the color the most then the detail. Besides that, I like the way how the artist uses light to pull our eye into the painting.

Nth much to say bout this one. 2 thumb up.

Traditional Painting 2


This is a meaningful piece. Found this in http://sunsite.utk.edu/FINS/Democrac...ns-DRN-01.html.
This is drawn by Pieter Brugel the elder. Name - The 'Little' Tower of Babel.

According to what i read in the website , the tower was build during the 19th and 20th centuries due to the elite property owners tyranny. Is all about corruption, economic inquity, bloodiversity and so on.

What i like the most in this paining is the details. The texture and details given to each level of the building.

Besides that, the way the artist used of color which is the 2th thing that stand out the most. The redish and moody (down color) suit well with the situation of the people were living in. I also like how the artist illustrated
the activity of the people around the building. It help show how huge and massive the building is ( scale ).

If i'm not mistaken the artist used 3 point perspective to show the huge building. I'm a total beginner ,dun know should i have say this ( i mean the perspective is a bit off ?) And ya! the building is a bit slanting. I think the artist wanted to show a downfall of life in that time.

Contemporary image 1

From http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=111068

Awesome digital painting. The thing that catches me is the color and the design of the environment. I dont know why the artist choose something pinkish to be the main color. ( i totally NEED so color studies ).

The composition of the images is good and balance.
Not sure what kind of perspective is the artist using. Two point i think..

Contemporary image 1

Found this some where in concept art but i forgot where it is.

Definitely 3 point. I like the angle use and the composition. I also like the lighting of the image and the way the composition and the lighting above lead us to the focal point of the painting.


After some analysing thingy. I found that most traditional painting emphasize on some meaning behind the painting. Whereas digital show more design. Lastly most of the environment use human figure to show scale and size of the environment. Just my thought though...

Hope you understand my bad english

[yinteck]

Here r some painting...
I harder than i thought. Run out of time to correct some mistake i made - color, drawing.

I'll redo the drawing that is not finish. but with other image of course . This has to much detail, not ready for this now. I happy with the snow mountain pic, although there some mistake - need to push more on my observation more.

[Gundersen]

Try to look away from all the details. Start off with painting in the main colors. Block in all the shapes quickly. Dont bother to do all the small details that are not necesary. Try to make them simple

[yinteck]

Ok .. here are them. Found other easier ones to paint. Did my best in time given.

Well, in this assignment, the hardest thing is to really capture the color correctly. Sometimes i just spend to much time in this part. At the same time this is what i learn. Hard but quite fun.

[Gundersen]

I will write up comments and critts on your entire first assignment later + a new assignment!

Great work so far!

[buchvecny]

Goddamn i just cant catch up , any tips to work faster? Im just cripple when it comes to my hands. Well there goes the birds view!

[Gundersen]

I have never asked you to work fast. But work hard. A big difference
I want you to invest as much time as you think is nececary, This is your chance to steal as much knowledge you can from me, not that i have alot...

When you have posted up all perspective drawings i will comment on them

[Gundersen]

Yinteck: Ill go through step by step on your assignment

Part 1 a:

One point perspective: A realy nice perspective, I can easily read it as an interior space. I also guess that the squares on the right side are windows. You will probably not use 1point perspective a lot, but its good to have some knowledge of it

Two point perspective: As I mentioned in last critt be careful when using the same element over again. If the shape is not correct made it makes your image look distorted. But it’s a good stab at perspective, and there don’t seem to be any lines going off into any crazy directions

Three point perspective: By placeing your 3rd point as close as you did, you almost get a fisheye effect on your image. I think the middle part of the drawing is the best, the shapes are not to distorted there and gives a feeling of tall buldings. Next time just remember to put the 3rd point farther away, it will make your image look a lot better. And if you nail a good 3 point perspective it will look very very good!

Part 1 b:

Traditional Image 1: This has a realy nice and warm feel. To me it almost reads as a forest fire. If you look at the people in the image, there is a lot of details in the nature around them, more then any other place in the image. This helps the painter to draw our eyes into that detail.

Traditional Image 2: To be honoust I am not sure if I like this image . There is a lot of details, and clearly the tower is the focal point in the image. The red part on the top draws my eyes in. It contrast the cold colors used in the rest of the image. Color contrast is very useful when you want to bring the viewer into the image.

Contemporary Image 1: What I like about this image is how the painter has used elements to bring our eyes to where he wants us to look. The “bridges” goes from every direction into the image. And if you start looking at the man, there are several elements that takes our eyes int othe image and around. There are some slight color contrast in the image. The image has a warmish pink color, but the windows or lights that comes from the buildings have a cold icy blue color

Contemporary Image 2: This image is from Turok. The first time I saw it I was realy impressed aswell. As you pointed out it’s a great three point perspective that gives us the feeling of being in this messy forest/jungle. I am not sure if the main focal point is on the man, or the skeleton hidden under the plant. I think the painter wanted us to see the man first, then move our eyes down to the skeleton. A Lovely picture indeed. Great use of color and light.

Part 2:

When it comes to these paintings they where more for fun, to relax a bit and practice your painting skills. They are not bad at all. But try to use a round hard brush set to opacity on pressure. This will sharpen up the edges. Block in the colors, and don’t worry to much about all the details. Good work, we will do more of this.


Good work on first assignment, will now write up the next one. Will be a two part assignment aswell!

[Gundersen]

Yinteck, here is your next assignment. If you have questions, ask here or on msn!