clouds

[kuzey]

These clouds are from my imagination, and speed paintings.

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

They are ok, but you can do a lot better if you study some good references, and indeed lay in the grass outside and watch them for a while, how they evolve and bunch up and then spread or dissipate. Its not easy to do clouds no matter what anyone says, because if they look odd it buggers up the rest of the image.

keep em coming you are on the right track matey

[kuzey]

this is new cloud I think I understand the point, I drew this in 10 minute

[Lightship69]

I dont think you get what I mean matey, its pretty but not real. It looks like the special effect thingy from war of the worlds.
Ok here is a challenge for you, paint a sea side scene or even just a sea and sky scene then do it three times for fine but windy to give some decent waves, cloudy and dull, for more complicated lights, and then stormy and dark. Once you have studied that lot and the required reference images and then tried to convey that lot to a viewer you will understand a lot more and gain valuable experience at the same time. Just painting clouds for the sake of it isnt really gaining you a lot.

Hope you get what I mean, go for it mate and challenge yourself, all the best with it.

[Artfix]

Now this is just my opinion and I know some traditional folks would disagree. I dont think learning to paint clouds digitally is worth the time because you can easily overlay photos or paint on top of photos.

Its a bit like doing math on paper when you could easily use a calculator. Sure, maybe you dont learn to do the math, but who cares because youre getting it done with the calculator.

Clouds are infinitely complicated and only photos can come close to being realistic. Why not just paint over photos? But paint over them--dont just use them as-is.

On the other hand, if you consider your art real art, and you have the devotion and you love to improve it, then thats different. But you have to be fast in this digital painting business. And making a living is very difficult. Shortcuts are your friend.

Anyway, yeah paint something else now like lightship said hehe.

[shiNIN]

I disagree with Artfix. I'm quite sure painting nice clouds isn't that hard (well it depends on the cloud type and how realistic we wish to be) and when we paint them ourselves, we can arrange them to make the composition better. Reference photos are fine though, of course.

I didn't criticize the cloud paintings here because I could't say anything useful. They are definitely not good enough, there are some nice points but the strokes make them unrealistic. I wish to learn to paint clouds and I collected zllion nice cloud photos, I will paint them and get some idea how clouds work. It's a nice topic. Even if Artfix was right, I wouldn't care, it's fun to paint clouds.

[Lightship69]

Ok now Artfix, lets just set this straight right here! I have been told by just about everyone in here that it all has to be my own work and using Photos is bad! you can be sent to artist hell for it!! lol

(Sorry I cant resist the urge to be a bit of a cock sometimes) anyway I do think the guy should try to paint them and understand them first before taking short cuts.
You gotta understand something before you use it surely. I also think that the guy will get a lot out of having a go at painting a scene with loads of cloud in to understand the moods of nature sort of thing, and lighting. Clouds aint just the fluffy white jobs in the sky, there are loads of colours, shades, depth and even silver linings so I would definately still say learn them first and short cut later.

all the best guys

[Artfix]

Fluffy white jobs in the sky lol. OK, ok, learn them first, use shortcuts later. Deal

[Lightship69]

I love you Man!! LOL

[kuzey]

this is an other speed painting dont hesimate boat

[Lightship69]

Have you painted over a Photo??
The perspective and shape of the boat are all over the shop dude and the texture of the water and the colours look real! I think you need to do as I do and get the pencils and paper out and draw till your hands ache.
Practice everything, shapes, perspective, textures, lighting amnd the list goes on and on. when you think you have a handle on something or need some help then post it up and someone will help you out. I dont think throwing speedpaints together is helping you at all mate go for a slower and more structured approach, plan your drawings and where the lights are and what the values are etc. This will pay off later and your work will improve day by day.

I hope this helps you out mate and i wish you all the best with your work.

[kuzey]

I said that ignore boat, I painted this by looking an photo, thanks for criquites, they are realy usefull, but sometimes ı realy wonder that whay I Must do about references, when draw paint by looking an photo is very easy, bu twhen I try paint from imagination it is hard but nice, which one is ipmrove me?

[Saramel]

Drawing from life and references will help you improve much faster than spending more time on imagination drawing. You can still jot down ideas from your imagination, but until you have a library of what things look like in your head, the stuff that comes out of it will be wonky. And don't copy photos, figure out what is going on with each element in them (i.e. don't try to copy the flat image of the boat, understand how it is shaped, how it is sitting in the water, how it is tilted, how the light is hitting it, and how it is receding into 3D space with perspective). Like Lightship said, speedpaintings probably aren't what you need to improve right now. Try drawing that boat, and a hundred other simple boats with pencils on paper, and when you start out, don't try to do fancy shading or color yet, just draw them as simple shapes first, and then add the details. If there is a marina near you, you could go draw real boats, which would be way better, because you could look at them from multiple angles, and your eyes would be able to understand their form better.

Edit: and the same goes for clouds

[Eelis Kyttänen]

Drawing from life and references will help you improve much faster than spending more time on imagination drawing. You can still jot down ideas from your imagination, but until you have a library of what things look like in your head, the stuff that comes out of it will be wonky. And don't copy photos, figure out what is going on with each element in them (i.e. don't try to copy the flat image of the boat, understand how it is shaped, how it is sitting in the water, how it is tilted, how the light is hitting it, and how it is receding into 3D space with perspective). Like Lightship said, speedpaintings probably aren't what you need to improve right now. Try drawing that boat, and a hundred other simple boats with pencils on paper, and when you start out, don't try to do fancy shading or color yet, just draw them as simple shapes first, and then add the details. If there is a marina near you, you could go draw real boats, which would be way better, because you could look at them from multiple angles, and your eyes would be able to understand their form better.

Edit: and the same goes for clouds

It's important to not to let your own compositional skills to wane either when doing life studies. For example, painting loads of small thumbnails is rather good practise while focusing heavily on life studies.

[wunts]

its probably the most plain sky/clouds ive ever seen, but it looks like you could get "real jollies" out of it.

[SCrane]

I love that you are painting clouds! I spent half my grad year in university doing the same, although they were abstracted and not realistic at all. One of my best profs in art school spent some time painting clouds as well, and he said "if you really want to learn how to paint, paint clouds" and I agree. I also think that no matter how amazing you may be at drawing or painting, you will always need references! The human mind tends to make things generic as it simplifies imagery and that is why we use references, so that we can discern all the organic details that make imagery realistic.

Keep them coming, I think you have a really good start!