Every final stroke you leave on the canvas should be hand-mixed, not picked from the canvas.
You have to observe the hierarchy between the most important colours/values when doing a study. Put the most important ones down first.
If you mix the wrong value of a colour and you need to "transpose" it higher or lower, don't forget to adjust the saturation accordingly. It rarely stays the same when you make a colour lighter or darker.
When you can't quite mix the right colour, make a light stroke erring on one side of that colour, then make another light stroke erring on the other side. As in, if the colour you pick first is too blue, move the slider a tiny bit towards yellow, and make another light stroke. Mix on the canvas.
When you're nervous, you try to prevent your brain from analyzing yourself into oblivion. You talk fast, make a lot of random movements, eyes dart around, breathe quickly etc. So the way to not be nervous is to stop the analysis. Somehow. That's hard.
As artists get bigger, more and more people compete for getting in touch with them. How do you win?
- Start early
- Have something to offer
- Never think that you're beneath somebody, but be humble instead.
Always find a positive justification for what you're doing, even if it's not entirely true. Then make it true. If you can't do that, then don't do it.
Let it be. Do your own thing. Be tolerant and respectful of others, even if you can't find anything to respect them for.
Only after you have experienced the horror of the worst case scenario are you able to judge things rationally.
If there is enough information, reasoning will be productive. Otherwise it will be emotional and negative.
Assuming your aim is to get better, every time you give yourself to something and it looks like crap, you have done the right thing. The trouble is, if your work looks like crap all the time, you don't want to do it at all. But you have to keep going.
Everyone is too busy playing their own game to notice how you're playing yours.
When blocking in, don't try to put down exactly the colour you see from the start. Put down the jumping off colour, i.e. what you're gonna mix all the hues and variations from.
Why am I left with the feeling, you are working over other illustrations and photographs?
ReplyDeleteNot mearely referencing a photo, but working over it.
I'll take that as a compliment. :D
ReplyDeleteCheck out this journal entry by Johannes Voss (Magic card illustrator): http://algenpfleger.deviantart.com/journal/39248016/
But it's not a compliment. You are simply tracing, and have become a very good tracer. As for your link, well, it's clear that artist in question is doing the same thing. He's not just referencing an image, he's basically taking an existing image, and adding his own touches. In fact, in the one of the kneeing knight, he's even copied the reflection.
ReplyDeleteSo, what have you learned? You've learned how to trace. What's to respect for doing that? Nothing.
I'm glad you returned, but I can see that you are probably going to live in ignorance forever, which is a shame. If only you opened your mind to the things that you can achieve with practice, my friend.
ReplyDeleteGuilty people are quick to go to insults and put down.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between referencing a photo, and reproducing or copying a photo. But you wouldn't understand that, because that's all you do is copy. You copy other artists, you try and copy how they got good, you copy other peoples knowledge and pass it off as something you discovered and same with philosophy.
You seem to think the only way you can get good is to copy. But all you get good at is copying, that's all you are practicing. You won't actually be doing anything interesting. And when you do try and add your own elements, like in that last picture the girls tacked on hair do and braid, it's going to be even more obvious.
And art directors can spot a copier.
To be honest, I don't think these studies are good enough to be confused with real life or even a photograph. I still need to work on my values, colour placement and textures. If you want to see really sweet work, go to Hannes' sandbox: http://algenpfleger.blogspot.com/
ReplyDelete