My kinda gal

So pretty...

Don't edit form, just get better at simplifying. Average your transition values, then add your high-value points. It's a lot easier than editing low-value points over and over. That's how the masters did it. Building up.

There are two ways to render -  airbrushy, and hard edges. Know when to use both. Make conscious decisions where you want to smudge and where you want to keep your planes sharp, because edge sharpness affects values as well. Choose your big gradients the same way you choose your big edges.

Break your image into less than 10 swatches. Then mix in and out of them. Oil painters have to mix everything by hand, so they simplify the palette as much as possible. Trouble is, in digital colours don't mix so smoothly....hmmm..

Photoshop is a big distraction, because it has so many tools and options. Paint as efficiently as possible. Don't get lost in editing. Do it all in one stroke.

Keep your painting mostly dark, then add one area (no more than a sixth of the painting) where all the bright values are. eg. Brom.

Thanks for your advice, Josh. I'm still really bad at it, but hopefully it'll help. :D

Form..

I forgot how.

Selfy

Values are relative. Don't try to measure values when you're trying to sculpt form. After you rough in your planes, just control and refine gradients until it looks correct.

The more a plane faces the light, the less value change you need to "bend" it.

Probably gonna get some animal skulls to still life it up.

Ugh.. could not get that cheek/forehead to look right for the life of me. I'm so sorry.

More More More...

 So I was doing these today:

And then holy shit, I just realized I was doing everything wrong. I was focusing more on the drawing rather than the planes and form, which is actually what i'm trying to learn.

Here's how you do it:

Identify plane most important planes---> Put the right flat value on them ---> smear it into other planes

And then:

Learning!

Gnomon Live Will Change Your Life

It's over. I've had enough procrastination and complacency. It's time to get better. Talking with and listening to the dudes at the Gnomon Live Workshop this weekend finally put my head in the right place. After so many months.

Came to work last night and did these. Working on form and facial struture:

Rekindling the Flames

He's coming back.

Kooki Kotaku

These are the notes I took from Kekai's demo at the Gnomon Live Workshop. I recommend all the people to go next year, I learned a lot. I'm trying to translate them into normal speak the best that I can, so I apologize if they're hard to understand.
*disclaimer: He didn't say most of this, it's just a summary of my personal revelations.

It's all about values.

Start with big brushes, and put most of your brush strokes in areas of focus. You don't need that much anywhere else.

Smudge shit together.

It's all about finding cool shapes. Have your own library of details and designs that you can pull out on any piece to add that little bit of coolness.

Minimal colour. Add it later.

When in doubt, do a portfolio piece. Don't explore at work.

Always be aware of your strokes. There's a lot that goes into every stroke.

Turn on scatter for your smudge tool in the brush presets.

Transform ->Warp gradients

To add dynamism, draw your figures like athletes. They're in the middle of action and always off balance.

Learn how to draw horses, and riders.

Be a curious human and act on your curiosity.

Develop your shapes by building up your brush strokes. Choose what to exaggerate and what to play down. Keep in mind the flows and ratios. Choose your implied lines and commit to them. In the end, it's all about making cool shapes.

 Getting faster is about skipping steps and doing several different things with as few brushstrokes as possible. Decide what the important shit is, and "merge down" your process.

Modify your overlay or colour layers with colour balance. Easier than doing gradient maps.

Pure black adds more punch and contrast. Makes your illustrations more impressive from afar.

In brush presets, check the texture box, but make sure your texture is in "subtract" mode.

Filter - Polar coordinates. Makes shit round.

When you know an idea is good, but nobody else can see what's good about it, draw it again. If they still can't see it, draw it until they do. You will probably come up with your best ideas that way.


When your eye flows around the image, it should be like Morse code: _._._._.  (dots are details and underscores are areas of rest)

Concentrate your effort on the focal points only. You actually don't need to render everything else.

Build up the design of your focal points organically, the same way you do values, colour balance, detail spread etc. Your design should get more refined as it approaches areas of focus, and more loose as it moves away from them.


HOPE THIS HELPS!