To The Top [Study Group]

[Vella C Raptor]

Aww man, I'm embarrassed to even post these abominations.
A video I watched suggesting making your grid, then doing the boxes in crayon.

And ugh. What a mess, I need to do like 20 more sheets of these. xD'
I knew it was bad, but not THAT bad haha. The colors really help all the fail stand out. Which is a good thing because now I can see what needs corrected/worked on.
The good news is I enjoyed doing this.

[Nimalij]

@Vella

Some perspective exercises I did yesterday:

I just gotta ask, that tetris block in perspective with the question mark beside it, is that 4 point perspective by any chance?

[takashmen]

hah i guess so ;D

hmm it can be use when object in 3 points perspective reflects in water

but i wouldn't do that

[Nimalij]

Never posted here before so not sure if itll come out right.

ASSIGNMENT 1:







ASSIGNMENT 2:

[Nimalij]

Sorry for the size, its zoomed in big time thats why its grainy.

[cloudcan]

@Vella Haha funny doodle xD Anyway these are not bad, I would just, advise you to at least sharpen the crayons because it's hard to do perspective with thick lines (unless you're drawing really, really big) I would try sharpened color pencils instead, and also try using a ruler, or practice doing straight lines. And try drawing your own perspective guidelines too

@Nimalij lol I don't know, I was seeing how same thing looks in diff point perspective and wondered if there was a 4 point. I think it would be a fish eye ? but not sure, thanks for reminding me to look it up.
About the assignments that you posted.. don't contour shade shadows or they begin to look like forms themselves. Also make sure to get straight lines and near perfect ellipses if you want a professional look. As for your flat compo .. please look at the assignment again and the explanations/links associated with it.. purpose is to form a balanced composition with abstract elements. Looks like you didn't read up on rhythm, tension, etc Also, use a ruler if you can't get straight lines freehand!

@Takashmen good point haha never thought of it that way xD

Today's update: Here are some abstracted composition practice in 3D .. abstraction is so hard for me >_< I keep thinking in terms of realism (like oh lets make a streetful of buildings) rather than pure composition/placement.. but I'm still working on it so hopefully I get better



And.. tried to do an enviro using principles I learned so far. Very rough and still feels off in a few spots.. any crits are appreciated

[takashmen]

cloudcan you did great!
for next compos in 3D try to do some with dominant and dynamics

enviro
hmm, you forgot about perspective in this pic,

color choice is kinda nice, but something is missing

maybe start with more simple shapes and don't be so chaotic



what you say about that (very quick over to show you what i mean)

i will do some stuff tomorrow

[DarthArtist]

Hi guys, I'm 15 and I'm just startin to get really serious about art. I love drawing environments and designing sci-fi type works. I'd say two of my biggest weaknesses as of right now are rendering and character design. I can draw a decent sketch but I get kind of freaked out when I actually have to paint it. I get hung up on color choice and lighting and then I don't know how to blend the colors in my piece so it doesn't look "cheesy". When it comes to characters I always feel like my proportions are off and that I can't accurately draw a human body, which is why (for better or worse) I tend to draw robots and mechs. Video game type concept art really interests me. I'm looking forward to sharing and drawing with you guys

[Nimalij]

@ Cloudcan:

Cheers for the reply. Will work on the ellipses and the shadows.
Your enviros are awesome. Good job on all of them.

[takashmen]

finally get it done



DarthArtist welcome
it's never too late, don't hesitate and do previous assignments

[cloudcan]

@takashmen I'm trying a new version of that enviro as your paintover suggested, simpler forms and such. (still working on it cuz I'm a slowie and had such a bad day) Thanks, great crit as always! Loving your latest 3D compos, I have been inspired to try some more xD

@DarthArtist Heyhey slow down xD one thing at a time.. you will get better in time.. going from drawing to painting can be a huge jump. Try starting from greyscale as to 'not be attacked on all fronts' (think it was noah who said that) You should start a sketchbook, to get some good feedback

@Nimalij Thanks ^_^ still long ways to go, but I'm improving, slowly but surely..

Tiny update of the day - just more perspective application, and trying to use simpler overall shapes. Can't-Draw Day today :c

[Clockwork Frog]

Been looking into what is perspective and doing little sketches etc..
How does our perspective to the surface effect the representation of perspective we've created. Since we view the world in perspective, including the surface of our image, what techniques can we use to manipulate this.

Perspective is created by the angle the objects surface is to our eye, so as we move our eye around the page the edges of the image are bent into our eyes perspective. What are the implications of this onto our created perspective in our image?

(maybe this is more for another subject, but its gotten me thinking.)

[Clockwork Frog]

Just very quickly done studies.

Edit: More of a composition question:
- do you think in a piece you should show more than one vanishing point, i dont mean have the environment only be effected by one but have only one in the scene with the other out of the scene.

[Nimalij]

Some more stuff. Looks better on paper unfortunately.

Comp and small tumbnail.


Perspective

[cloudcan]

@clockwork frog Deep dude.. didn't really understand xD About whether to include vanishing points, it's really all about the effect you want to create. Good start on your perspective exercise,too, btw

@Nimalij Great start! The flat comp isn't very strong, you need a focal point and direction (horizontal, vertical, diagnoal, rectangle, spiral, whatever) The city looks fine, I'm guessing some perspective errors are because the buildings are facing different ways?

No updates for me, I've been doing random portraits today

[Little-Maiden]

hmm ill join here since the other study group has calmed down a little bit and is seeing a bit of inactivity.

Do I just jump in? (after doing Assignment 0 ofc)

[Nimalij]

@clockwork frog Deep dude.. didn't really understand xD About whether to include vanishing points, it's really all about the effect you want to create. Good start on your perspective exercise,too, btw

@Nimalij Great start! The flat comp isn't very strong, you need a focal point and direction (horizontal, vertical, diagnoal, rectangle, spiral, whatever) The city looks fine, I'm guessing some perspective errors are because the buildings are facing different ways?

No updates for me, I've been doing random portraits today

Cheers. The buildings werent parallel to each other so you're right there.

[Little-Maiden]

1. introduce yourself:

The username is an old one, I registered on it intending to only get a few tutorials here and there but ended up staying. LM works just fine as a nick.

My real name is Daniel, i'm 23, and i'm looking to get good enough to get into a design school (specifically TAD or FZD). From there on out i'd love to get into either illustration, commercial industrial design, or should I be good enough- eventually break into concept art. What I would like to study is foundations, primarily mastering them well enough so that I can focus on the more fun side (details, composition and creativity/stylisation). Pretty Girls would be too obvious (who doesn't like drawing a sexy chick ? ). I like portraits, and character design, but feel the need to invest alot more interest in Matte paintings. I prefer sci-fi to fantasy but only by a hair, I feel equal love for both tbh.

My weaknesses: definitely colour, if you look through my sketchbook you'll see that i'm pretty crap at using colour and every time i try it seems to eventually turn into a muddy mess. Proportions i'm getting better at but again like all things it takes practice to truly do intuitively. Right now, I feel like i'm not really getting much creativity through my work, since I feel like my lack of understanding of basic foundations is really the main reason to not really being able to invest much into a piece.

Strengths: heh, This i'm not sure of, I would say that others would be best suited to judge my strengths, personally so far it seems like drawing chaotic things (clouds, trees rocks) comes easier to me than I expected.

cheers
-LM

2.
@cloudcan

I think you've got a nice range of colours in your work, and as others have already pointed out, you do have a messy chaotic line quality which for me could certainly use a little direction (purpose) but could certainly work in your favour. I've seen alot of seemingly "messy" works that somehow build alot of order out of the feeling of chaos.

@takashmen

you've got great colours, like Cloudcans SB, and a few of your enviros are really nice. Though again, your line quality should certainly be more tight, I don't mean the edges, you seem to vary between blurry studies and very crisp, almost vector like pieces.

[Nimalij]

1. introduce yourself:

The username is an old one, I registered on it intending to only get a few tutorials here and there but ended up staying. LM works just fine as a nick.

My real name is Daniel, i'm 23, and i'm looking to get good enough to get into a design school (specifically TAD or FZD). From there on out i'd love to get into either illustration, commercial industrial design, or should I be good enough- eventually break into concept art.

Welcome and good luck.

[Little-Maiden]

hmm a question to those doing digital perspective studies, how do you guys form your straight lines? so far I only use freehand or by holding down shift in PS. The vector line tool is accurate but it takes alot longer and provides less practice than freehand. However I am interested in how some people achieve such clean lines without consuming too much time.

[Clockwork Frog]

Welcome LM

i just use Shift click, i do wish there was a better way; or eve just to see the line before i click so i can visually inspect it before drawing.

EDIT: update doing an enviro to help me with perspective, should note i never do environments. So early stage hoping i can get some help on it.

[takashmen]

CWF at this early stage i recommend you to focus on basics
leave "environments" for a while

week passed and time to finish this assignment
(if sb. needs more time let me know)

Assignment 3

100 VALUES any technique you want, also any subject

personally i think i will manage to do it in a week will see

write what you know about values/hues/and so on
and do at least 10 works a day

[Vella C Raptor]

100 values? As in value drawings?
If so, I did an apple today. :, D
I was going to try a plant pot I've got on my table tomorrow. :3


Ummmm what I know about value...range from lightest light to darkest dark and everything in between. xD'
Hues -> Color
Intensity = saturation -> amount of pigment a color has....yeah basically I just know definitions. :c

[Nimalij]

A bit dodgy on this.

Value : the lightness or darkness of a colour.
Hue : the varying presence of red, green and blue in a specific colour.
Intensity : what Vella C said

And here's my apple with a peach and lemon to boot. Still from life. Didn't do it specifically for this group but its a very recent work and i was studying the shades also.



Edit: I know its a little blurry. Will probably repost this one later.

@ Vella C: I like the the shades. Very well done. I think you could make the shadow under the apple a little darker though.

[Clockwork Frog]

I presume we should be discussing value and lighting?

[takashmen]

Vella you did very nice and yes value drawings/paintings
Nimalij try to widen range of gray scale
this three fruits has nearly the same value
diversify them more

CWF what do you like to know? please give specific questions

[Little-Maiden]

Lets see, what I know about values:

Its been explained to me before as the "three dimensions of light" Hue, Saturation, and Value.

Hue being the amount of Red/Green/Blue present.

Saturation being the intensity of said colour grey being a desaturated colour and the extreme being an intense colour.

Value is the amount of light being reflected by the object. As I understand light reflects off/bounces off the surface of objects and this, generally under normal lighting conditions the part of the object facing the viewer will have a lighter value than the part facing away. Ofc this will not completely apply if there is a strong direct light source.

----

Study of a Clementine, The texture is difficult to do though.

Second is also a value study of an apple. Certainly came out better than the clementine

[cloudcan]

@Little-Maiden Welcome As for your question with straight lines... I hold shift if vertical or horizontal, otherwise I do freehand (rotating the page so its easier) sometimes if its an important line, I do click-shift method or I just draw a line and transform it to the right angle. Still haven't gotten the hang of it yet xD
And thanks for the info on hue/saturation/value Apple does look nice, I guess the only reason the orange looks bit off is the top shading seeming to come forward, offing the depth.

@Clockwork_Frog The enviro looks quite unbalanced! Try looking up some composition guidelines. For one thing, that tank is weighing the image down to the right, and the sense of scale (quite important in an enviro) is unclear

@takashmen wow I have lots of drawing to get to then.. xD!

@Vella nice apple

@Nimalij Looks a little flat, maybe get basic forms down before attempting to do texture

And, here are my failed value studies. I'm rather quite unhappy with these. But hey you can't improve without failures along the way :p
(pencils from photo, bottle from life) I will count these as 3/100 .. ohdear

Also a tiny study I did yesterday semi related to value: how color affects value or the perception of value

[takashmen]

cloudcan don't worry i'm unhappy with mine too (4/100)

[Kharnaghe]

Awesome work so far guys. I'm just dropping to let you guys know that it's the ending of my first semester here, so I've been busy. Just wanted to let you guys know that I didn't abandon the group. My semester ends Friday and I get a two week break, so I'll be more active then.


takasmmen I'm just giving a quick critique here. Drawing from life with pencil is different than painting. You have to be more conservative with your lines, as well as needing to learn anatomy.

Also, for a beginner, it's recommended that you just focus on the form of the object when beginning. You can add value later.

Also, when drawing in real life, blind contour drawings as well as drawing without lifting your pencil helps immensely with line quality.

And your drawings seems a bit off, proportion wise, that is. Hopefully by Thursday I can discuss sighting techniques for beginners.