Is there a way to replicate the look of tempura or acrylic digitally? Looking for something like this.
img snip
Corel Painter is a really good program for making digital paint look close-ish to traditional, usually...but if you're aiming to mimic the piece of art you posted, you could probably do it with some canvas texture applied to the piece here and there...a soft brush to do the underlying color, and a line-brush on top (set to "Shape Dynamics: Angle: Direction") to mimic the subtle hatching you can see on the sleeve + shirt.
https://www.anatomynext.com/ has a free trial membership thing. If you sign up, you get to have a look at their Anatomy for Sculptors book, which is neat. Some good, clear delineations of muscles, along with their functions and what they look like in different poses. There are also some sort of 3d wireframe overlays that, I think, are very helpful in communicating the forms and bulk of body parts.
There are also a couple of pages on boobs and how they aren't solid spheres stuck to the torso!
there's been some talk about fans getting uppity or harassing artists and creators. None of the art is mine, but I just want to link this post because I feel its important for newbies and vets alike:
Some points to remember as an artist who is getting harassed over content:
The Harasser probably isn’t an artist, otherwise they would just make the content they wanted to see, and would understand art and artists enough to know that content controlling is bullshit. The button that silences this person has more power than this person will ever have. Use it. Blocking people who upset or offend you is A-okay. And the only way you can see them getting their diapers in a twist is if you go looking, which is on you. You control what you see and do, no one else. These people wouldn’t do this in person, so remember they’re cowards behind a computer thinking they can just get what they want. They can’t. They’re not allowed.
You worked years for what you have. Have it.
I’ve been doing it and i have like, 0 hate on my inbox :>
I came from the days that blocking meant you were a whiny idiot who can’t “take criticism” so its nice to see this. There’s nothing wrong with cleaning the junky people out of your life.
I've started having some pain in my drawing hand. Just like a slight ache and/or soreness... Anyone have experience with this? Will stretching sort it out most of the time?
Anatomy360.info has a bunch of full body scans that make for pretty good reference bases if you're doing some character design junk or anatomy studies. There are naked people so it is NSFW. There are also clothed people and the way that the scanning and lighting delineates the drapery makes for some good study times.
I've resolved to do at least the first portion of the Bargue Drawing Course, but I'm getting some mixed signals when it comes to the procedure.
The way I've been attempting to approach them is pretty close to how it's described in the book: place drawings next to each other, take measurements from a few feet back, plot in the top, bottom, left and rightmost points, then the outline, then the interior. My housemate insists that it'd be better to just rough in the drawing quickly then adjust the measurements by eye. That seems to defeat the point of the course, but I'm also not sure whether sticking strictly to Bargue's method has much value for someone who isn't aiming to become an academic painter.
How have you guys approached doing Bargue drawings? Also what media did you use? Some people insist on sticking with charcoal, others prefer graphite.
I've resolved to do at least the first portion of the Bargue Drawing Course, but I'm getting some mixed signals when it comes to the procedure.
The way I've been attempting to approach them is pretty close to how it's described in the book: place drawings next to each other, take measurements from a few feet back, plot in the top, bottom, left and rightmost points, then the outline, then the interior. My housemate insists that it'd be better to just rough in the drawing quickly then adjust the measurements by eye. That seems to defeat the point of the course, but I'm also not sure whether sticking strictly to Bargue's method has much value for someone who isn't aiming to become an academic painter.
How have you guys approached doing Bargue drawings? Also what media did you use? Some people insist on sticking with charcoal, others prefer graphite.
@Flay: I would stick to using careful measuring, personally- after all, IMO the primary reason to study Bargue is to hone one's skills when it comes to accuracy of observation- training the eye to naturally pick up on all those angles and proportions. Provided that is your desired personal goal, being meticulous in your measuring is going to hone those skills quicker than just estimating.
This is not to say there is no place for working loose and roughly in drawing- working out compositions, gestures, and general idea work, or for the sake of stylistic effect, that roughness can add a lot of life and vigor to the work. In fact, if all you had ever done was Bargue method drawings, I too would suggest you try to loosen up and work more roughly to avoid stiffness in your personal drawings and ideas.
But! If you're drawing from Bargue, or from cast models, then accuracy of outline, form, value, and edge is naturally going to be the paramount concern; and therefore it makes sense to follow those procedures that will drive your attention explicitly towards those concerns. If the purpose was to have a very lively drawing, on the other hand, you'd be better off drawing directly from a model than working from these sources.
Now, you mentioned that you're not sure of the application of this methodology outside of academic painting; it's a fair point- after all, if you're working from imagination, and you have no model to measure from, what good is that skill going to do you?
Personally, I started off, when I first got kinda serious about art, drawing and painting very very roughly- both in study and in working from imagination, always trying to sort things out later on. And while that did get me a certain distance down the line, what I eventually found is that sorting things out later is always much harder than I thought it was going to be, and thus ended up with work with too many ambiguities and problems I never got around to solving, and every problem fixed revealed yet another. I didn't have the grounding that came from slowing down and working things out carefully to actually achieve what I wanted, only getting kinda-sorta close and hoping that my inaccuracies came off as stylish somehow.
Only after making the deliberate effort to be more precise and meticulous in study did I feel I started making any real headway in working out those same problems in my imagined work. I may not have a model to measure from when working from imagination- but now when I put down a line it's done with a lot more deliberateness and confidence, there's a lot more forethought and visualization before I put it down, as a result of this training. (Disclaimer, I still draw rough as hell to the point I am super embarrassed if anyone looks at my sketches- but I've gotten a lot better than I used to be, believe me.)
But as with all drawing exercises, procedures, and training methods, the value there isn't, "THIS IS THE WAY TO DRAW, DO IT TO BECOME BEST DRAWER!". I saw a hole in my knowledge and skills, and this method was one that helped my fill that hole in a bit. If you're like me, or everyone else for that matter, you're going to have to try out all sorts of things to fill out all sorts of holes over your career. So I'd throw back at you- is this a hole you're trying to fill, does what I've described in terms of the purpose of the exercise align with what you feel you need to be working on? If so, hopefully that gives you enough clarity to tell your housemate that you're doing this exercise using this method for these reasons, rather than getting your wires crossed with suggestions of other methods that certainly have their own points in their favor, but do not serve to achieve this one specific purpose as well.
Now, I've only done relatively short studies out of Bargue on my own time (most of the aforementioned training was done in life drawing classes, though they employed mostly the same principles as Bargue uses (I realize that not having worked from it extensively, perhaps I should not reference it as much as I do- but it's such a good resource for explaining concepts that it's hard not to bring it up)), so I can't give you a real solid rundown of what the 'best' or 'right' way to study it is. But if you're going to put forth the commitment, I would suggest doing as recommended in the book and go with charcoal, and some nice paper to achieve the smooth gradiations indicated. I suggest this not out of any preference or anything, but simply because performing the sort of edge manipulation indicated might be a bit easier to achieve with the more easily blended charcoal than with pencil. (@lyrium, you did a lot of awesome academic cast drawings, so you'd probably have a better insight into these things than me on what the best way of going about doing these would be. Any suggestions?)
Thanks Bacon, you always make the best responses. That clarifies just about everything I was unsure about.
One more thing: drawing the horizontal and vertical measuring lines in this plate freehand seems impossible. Should I be using a ruler, or if I should stick with it until my control improves?
Sure @Bacon, I'll throw in my 2 cents, though it seems like you did a really thorough job answering @Flay 's question!
It's understandable that your roommate would be skeptical- doing all of that measuring may seem overly tedious and far removed from natural, practical drawing. However, it is not a method for day to day drawing, but a method for training your eye. So eventually, when you do what your roommate is saying to do, you will do it much better!
The purpose is, as Bacon said, to train up your observation skills. I believe that going through that process will help tremendously whether you are trying to be a realist painter, a heavily stylized cartoonist, abstract sculptor, or anything in between. By pushing yourself to observe subtler and subtler qualities of shape, gesture, edge, etc, you are making yourself more sensitive to those visual ideas. By diligently reproducing a specific set of those ideas, you are making yourself a more technically capable artist with a hand that is better at transcribing what your mind wants it to (because when you have a reference, you can easily look over and see when it's going wrong). These copies are also challenging but acheivable studies, which certainly doesn't hurt with regard to discipline either. All of the measuring and guidelines are to make things easier for you while you build up these skills (and yes, use a straight edge for the guidelines!)
Though I didn't have to do Bargue copies specifically, I had to do some charcoal cast studies (which are basically the same thing but with 3 dimensional references), and I saw my teacher guide a few students with less drawing background through some Bargue copies. We all used charcoal on good paper (sturdy but smooth), but only because charcoal can get a better value range and is a little more forgiving with how much correcting you can do before the paper gives out. “Blend” is a four letter word in that studio, haha- my teacher is way too much of a hardass for “shortcuts” like that which compromise accuracy :P
Good luck, enjoy, and please post them!
Cool, then I'll stick with the way I've been doing them.
One question: you mentioned using smooth paper. General consensus is that a toothier paper is better for charcoal, but considering how smooth the transitions in Bargue's drawings are it seems to me that a smoother surface would be better. Until now I've been using smooth newsprint.
Could you elaborate on the type of paper that you used? The charcoal papers I've seen have been relatively rough.
Has anyone here made/sold prints?
I would like to start producing art prints because I have a friend with a screen print shop and I have all kinds of questions.
How important is it to stick to standard sizing, thoughts on run size, alternate colors, etc.
Is this the right place to post this question or should I start a thread for it?
Ya, I was planning on setting up a simple bigcartel shop and trying to get them featured on some blogs or something? The last part is the part I'm definitely the worst at. It would mostly be mondo/gallery 1988 style pop art stuff.
Standard sizing will help people if they want to frame your work, which is probably a plus although I'm not sure how much it really affects anything. If you're printing locally and through a friend, you can probably afford to do a small print run and see how that sells before committing to a large one.
Cool, then I'll stick with the way I've been doing them.
One question: you mentioned using smooth paper. General consensus is that a toothier paper is better for charcoal, but considering how smooth the transitions in Bargue's drawings are it seems to me that a smoother surface would be better. Until now I've been using smooth newsprint.
Could you elaborate on the type of paper that you used? The charcoal papers I've seen have been relatively rough.
Ah, sorry not to check back and see this until now. I should have specified that yes, you'll need to be using paper meant for charcoal, which is definitely toothier than an actually smooth paper like bristol. I meant smooth for charcoal paper, and to use the smoother of the two sides of the paper that you get. We used large sheets at the studio and I believe it was the mi tientes stuff that Canson makes?
The cheaper options is almost always going to be the local option, You just cut out so much in terms of being able to see their results, shipping, and all that.
If you want to make it as easy as possible, then you'd need to look into a print on demand service like Society6. They'd then be handling fulfillment, and honestly if you don't need to have your own stock (Like, you don't plan to sell at cons,) it's not the worst option. Print on demand stuff just ends up being a bit too expensive for my tastes, but I currently don't ship out my stuff to sell it.
The cheaper options is almost always going to be the local option, You just cut out so much in terms of being able to see their results, shipping, and all that.
If you want to make it as easy as possible, then you'd need to look into a print on demand service like Society6. They'd then be handling fulfillment, and honestly if you don't need to have your own stock (Like, you don't plan to sell at cons,) it's not the worst option. Print on demand stuff just ends up being a bit too expensive for my tastes, but I currently don't ship out my stuff to sell it.
I have an old society 6 lying around but I am not a fan of their pricing structure and it generally feels hollow in comparison to artists that sell their stuff directly via big cartel or whatever.
I'm in Los Angeles so I'm sure there is stuff around but I'd rather have someone I could talk to/trust off the bat. I recognize the printing of these things is part of the craft/art.
You'll probably just have to try the waters a little bit, I'm not sure that we have anyone here in LA specifically that could advise you. If you want to really get into it, go to some event/gallery in town and ask around. But, local places being what they are, I would just find a couple, get 5 or 6 test prints, and go from there.
Unrelated to that, posting this here because I need to reference it:
You can also export files from Sketchup and import them in Blender, but it can be a little messy. Weird triangles and whatnot all over the meshes, which could make UV mapping and applying fancy textures and whatnot in Blender a hassle.
Sometimes you can export the Sketchup file as a .dae and it will import fine.
Other times it is a gosh darn mess.
A quick fix I use:
Step One: In Sketch Up File > Export > 3D Mode l> (Export your .dae)
Step Two: In MeshLab File > Import Mesh >( select the .dae) then File > Export Mesh > (export it as an .obj file)
Step Three: In Blender File > Import > Wavefront (.obj)
There are a bunch of good resources on Youtube available if you type in "Blender (insert problem area here)."
There are a couple of advanced architecture tutorials here and here that you might want to try following along with once you've gotten a bit more comfortable with the interface and whatnot.
Are there any tutorials or exercises, beyond life drawing, to develop spatial reasoning? Increase the ability to think in terms of 3D space on a 2D plane?
Are there any tutorials or exercises, beyond life drawing, to develop spatial reasoning? Increase the ability to think in terms of 3D space on a 2D plane?
You can do still life drawings as well. Put a bunch of objects on a table and try to draw their relative positions.
Are there any tutorials or exercises, beyond life drawing, to develop spatial reasoning? Increase the ability to think in terms of 3D space on a 2D plane?
Sure- I think what you're asking for is to develop an intrinsic understanding of space that can be employed when using your imagination and not just working directly from life, yes? That being the case, step 1 is to really work to get a very solid handle on perspective- mastering 1-point, 2-point, 3-point perspective on a formal level (laying out vanishing points, and using rulers, learning how to employ each effectively. Once learned on that formal basis, practicing freehand and working to ingrain those concept in your head to the point where you can draw reasonably believable perspective without having to draw out a whole perspective grid every time.
Good practice to develop this, is just sketching scenes of boxes- practicing various perspective exercises, such as drawing one box and then drawing an identically shaped box back in space, creating an evenly spaced row of columns, rotating boxes in space, etc. There are all tricks to these, that I don't have the time to go over in great detail here (Book-wise I'd recommend Scott Robertson's How To Draw for a great resource on perspective drawing; if that's too expensive you might try Rex Vicat Cole's Perspective For Artists- which is very thorough, but a bit less accessible just because it was written in 1921, so there's a lot more dense text to wade through, and less step-by-step tutorializing.) If you can draw any box you want, at any angle you want, under any perspective setup you choose, then you should be able to tackle most spacial reasoning problems you'll come across (that said...that doesn't mean that tackling them will be easy, but that you should be able to do so with enough effort.)
Another exercise that makes for good practice- and hopefully this illustrates the benefit of all that box practice- is to first do a drawing, to the best of your ability, of an object from life. Could be a figure, or a car, or a teapot, or even that whole still life scene Brolo posted, taken together- whatever. Draw an imaginary box around the object, that indicates the perspective.
Once you're satisfied that you've drawn this object accurately to the best of your ability, take out a new sheet of paper for another drawing. Imagine viewing your original object from a different perspective- maybe the object is turned 90 degrees to the right, or you're viewing it from above or below. Now, redraw that box from your original drawing from this new perspective you've imagined. Using that box as reference, draw the object fitting in it, in that perspective. For example, if you know from your original drawing that the hips are going to be located dead-center in the box, you'll be able to locate that point on your new drawing, if a finger is touching a plane of the box three quarters up vertically, and a two thirds across horizontally, you can pick out exactly where that finger is going to reside, spacially.
This is a pretty tough exercise that can tax your brain for how much checking, double-checking and analyzing needs to go into doing this well, but it's great for forcing your brain to really grasp how objects exist in space, and making sure that you understand them as constructed volumes, rather than simply copying what you see from a single perspective. If you really want to be ambitious you could do this exercise as a flipbook, seeing if you can create a convincing turntable animation of an object, maintaining the object's perspective perfectly as it turns in space.
There are other variants of the exercise as well- taking a given figure and modifying the pose, for instance. If a figure is standing and you tilt the ribcage forward to be bowing a little bit, you can work out the problem by articulating the rib cage as a box, figuring out how that box changes in perspective- ditto for the attached head and limbs, which of course would follow the ribcage. This sort of exercise allows you to appreciate the figure as a series of volumes existing in space, and with practice allows one to believably modify, exaggerate, or create poses for stronger effect.
Hey guys, I'm Dankest. Since I have found Penny Arcade, I have been teaching myself to draw better. I purchased A Parblo a610 to draw on my pc with. I am having a problem in Manga Studio 5. It seems that the pressure sensitive part isn't working right. I can draw, but the pressure I apply does not adjust my lines. Just wondering if anyone out there has had the same problem, or have an idea to fix it. I have tried re installing drivers from Parblo's site to no avail.
Hey @DankestFiber, moved your question here. Threads in the AC are for gettin crits.
I haven't heard of your tablet before, but the amazon reviews that are on the low end seem to indicate this is a common problem and there's not much support. can you still return it? You might be able trade it for a monoprice tablet or a small wacom for a better experience.
Frenden is the reason I bought a yiynova and despite one hiccup with my hardware I've not regretted it. The Yiynova is out of your price range (its a tablet monitor that goes for about 800 now) but the mono price and huion tablets he reviews are mostly under 200, and monoprice stuff is at least well known and supported. With non-wacom tablets the key is to research well and check their compatibility with your specific software.
Question to anyone that can see this: what's the best way to cut down on your construction lines in your art? A common critique I get from my life drawing professor is that my drawings are sort of overburdened with construction lines and not enough values. Anyone here have a similar problem and now a good way around it or how to wean yourself off so many construction lines?
You'll need to be lighter with your hand, or use harder pencils (but make sure you aren't then indenting paper, as well). Being economic with your construction will also help. Try to not just put down lines, but to think first, and very lightly draw your first strokes.
To cut down on construction lines, you need to be able to simplify the form further. Bargue's drawing course has a tonne of examples of taking relatively complex subjects and reducing them down to their essential elements. Alternatively, practice reducing whatever you're drawing to geometric shapes (look up proko's videos on mannequinisation for example. Aside from that it really just takes practice.
Hi. I have to draw a lot for work (window displays, sign boards, etc) and I've decided I'd like to improve my (limited) skills. I prefer to work from a book than an online tutorial but I'm totally overwhelmed and don't even know where to start. I'd love some advice please.
@L-J Well, are you drawing a general array of things, or are there specific subjects that you need to lock down on? Are you looking to improve your skills in something like, hand lettering? Or are you trying to, say, draw fruits and veggies or people?
Its certainly a broad problem to try and take a swing at, but knowing what direction you need to go in would help.
@Iruka, I have no experience really to speak of. Actually until recently I thought I had no hope of being able to draw. ever. I'm quite skilled in lettering, illumination, zentangles type thing. I'm pretty good at copying children's picture book characters (I own a children's bookshop so I have to call on this skill often). However I'm hopeless at anything vaguely realistic or shadowing. I'm dreadful at hands/feet, faces and eyes. I'm rather taken with the manga style, but after reading up I have realised it's important to learn basic skills. There aren't many adult classes in my area (and as a single parent with my own business it realistically wouldn't happen). So I figured the next best thing would be to learn on my own from a book. I prefer books as it's easier to take with me and refer to as and when I have time to do a little bit of sketching.
Maybe this might help explain things better...it's part of a window display I recently did. I think my lack of skill is very clear.
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Corel Painter is a really good program for making digital paint look close-ish to traditional, usually...but if you're aiming to mimic the piece of art you posted, you could probably do it with some canvas texture applied to the piece here and there...a soft brush to do the underlying color, and a line-brush on top (set to "Shape Dynamics: Angle: Direction") to mimic the subtle hatching you can see on the sleeve + shirt.
There are also a couple of pages on boobs and how they aren't solid spheres stuck to the torso!
Big screenshotted preview image linked for big and there's also a boob in it.
spoiler for a series of pics:
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
anatomy360.info/anatomy-scan-reference-dump/
The way I've been attempting to approach them is pretty close to how it's described in the book: place drawings next to each other, take measurements from a few feet back, plot in the top, bottom, left and rightmost points, then the outline, then the interior. My housemate insists that it'd be better to just rough in the drawing quickly then adjust the measurements by eye. That seems to defeat the point of the course, but I'm also not sure whether sticking strictly to Bargue's method has much value for someone who isn't aiming to become an academic painter.
How have you guys approached doing Bargue drawings? Also what media did you use? Some people insist on sticking with charcoal, others prefer graphite.
@Flay: I would stick to using careful measuring, personally- after all, IMO the primary reason to study Bargue is to hone one's skills when it comes to accuracy of observation- training the eye to naturally pick up on all those angles and proportions. Provided that is your desired personal goal, being meticulous in your measuring is going to hone those skills quicker than just estimating.
This is not to say there is no place for working loose and roughly in drawing- working out compositions, gestures, and general idea work, or for the sake of stylistic effect, that roughness can add a lot of life and vigor to the work. In fact, if all you had ever done was Bargue method drawings, I too would suggest you try to loosen up and work more roughly to avoid stiffness in your personal drawings and ideas.
But! If you're drawing from Bargue, or from cast models, then accuracy of outline, form, value, and edge is naturally going to be the paramount concern; and therefore it makes sense to follow those procedures that will drive your attention explicitly towards those concerns. If the purpose was to have a very lively drawing, on the other hand, you'd be better off drawing directly from a model than working from these sources.
Now, you mentioned that you're not sure of the application of this methodology outside of academic painting; it's a fair point- after all, if you're working from imagination, and you have no model to measure from, what good is that skill going to do you?
Personally, I started off, when I first got kinda serious about art, drawing and painting very very roughly- both in study and in working from imagination, always trying to sort things out later on. And while that did get me a certain distance down the line, what I eventually found is that sorting things out later is always much harder than I thought it was going to be, and thus ended up with work with too many ambiguities and problems I never got around to solving, and every problem fixed revealed yet another. I didn't have the grounding that came from slowing down and working things out carefully to actually achieve what I wanted, only getting kinda-sorta close and hoping that my inaccuracies came off as stylish somehow.
Only after making the deliberate effort to be more precise and meticulous in study did I feel I started making any real headway in working out those same problems in my imagined work. I may not have a model to measure from when working from imagination- but now when I put down a line it's done with a lot more deliberateness and confidence, there's a lot more forethought and visualization before I put it down, as a result of this training. (Disclaimer, I still draw rough as hell to the point I am super embarrassed if anyone looks at my sketches- but I've gotten a lot better than I used to be, believe me.)
But as with all drawing exercises, procedures, and training methods, the value there isn't, "THIS IS THE WAY TO DRAW, DO IT TO BECOME BEST DRAWER!". I saw a hole in my knowledge and skills, and this method was one that helped my fill that hole in a bit. If you're like me, or everyone else for that matter, you're going to have to try out all sorts of things to fill out all sorts of holes over your career. So I'd throw back at you- is this a hole you're trying to fill, does what I've described in terms of the purpose of the exercise align with what you feel you need to be working on? If so, hopefully that gives you enough clarity to tell your housemate that you're doing this exercise using this method for these reasons, rather than getting your wires crossed with suggestions of other methods that certainly have their own points in their favor, but do not serve to achieve this one specific purpose as well.
Now, I've only done relatively short studies out of Bargue on my own time (most of the aforementioned training was done in life drawing classes, though they employed mostly the same principles as Bargue uses (I realize that not having worked from it extensively, perhaps I should not reference it as much as I do- but it's such a good resource for explaining concepts that it's hard not to bring it up)), so I can't give you a real solid rundown of what the 'best' or 'right' way to study it is. But if you're going to put forth the commitment, I would suggest doing as recommended in the book and go with charcoal, and some nice paper to achieve the smooth gradiations indicated. I suggest this not out of any preference or anything, but simply because performing the sort of edge manipulation indicated might be a bit easier to achieve with the more easily blended charcoal than with pencil. (@lyrium, you did a lot of awesome academic cast drawings, so you'd probably have a better insight into these things than me on what the best way of going about doing these would be. Any suggestions?)
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One more thing: drawing the horizontal and vertical measuring lines in this plate freehand seems impossible. Should I be using a ruler, or if I should stick with it until my control improves?
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On the plus side it was a good motivator to improve my hand-eye coordination.
It's understandable that your roommate would be skeptical- doing all of that measuring may seem overly tedious and far removed from natural, practical drawing. However, it is not a method for day to day drawing, but a method for training your eye. So eventually, when you do what your roommate is saying to do, you will do it much better!
The purpose is, as Bacon said, to train up your observation skills. I believe that going through that process will help tremendously whether you are trying to be a realist painter, a heavily stylized cartoonist, abstract sculptor, or anything in between. By pushing yourself to observe subtler and subtler qualities of shape, gesture, edge, etc, you are making yourself more sensitive to those visual ideas. By diligently reproducing a specific set of those ideas, you are making yourself a more technically capable artist with a hand that is better at transcribing what your mind wants it to (because when you have a reference, you can easily look over and see when it's going wrong). These copies are also challenging but acheivable studies, which certainly doesn't hurt with regard to discipline either. All of the measuring and guidelines are to make things easier for you while you build up these skills (and yes, use a straight edge for the guidelines!)
Though I didn't have to do Bargue copies specifically, I had to do some charcoal cast studies (which are basically the same thing but with 3 dimensional references), and I saw my teacher guide a few students with less drawing background through some Bargue copies. We all used charcoal on good paper (sturdy but smooth), but only because charcoal can get a better value range and is a little more forgiving with how much correcting you can do before the paper gives out. “Blend” is a four letter word in that studio, haha- my teacher is way too much of a hardass for “shortcuts” like that which compromise accuracy :P
Good luck, enjoy, and please post them!
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
One question: you mentioned using smooth paper. General consensus is that a toothier paper is better for charcoal, but considering how smooth the transitions in Bargue's drawings are it seems to me that a smoother surface would be better. Until now I've been using smooth newsprint.
Could you elaborate on the type of paper that you used? The charcoal papers I've seen have been relatively rough.
I would like to start producing art prints because I have a friend with a screen print shop and I have all kinds of questions.
How important is it to stick to standard sizing, thoughts on run size, alternate colors, etc.
Is this the right place to post this question or should I start a thread for it?
I've only ever sold prints at cons, do you plan to sell them online?
The coolest.
Ah, sorry not to check back and see this until now. I should have specified that yes, you'll need to be using paper meant for charcoal, which is definitely toothier than an actually smooth paper like bristol. I meant smooth for charcoal paper, and to use the smoother of the two sides of the paper that you get. We used large sheets at the studio and I believe it was the mi tientes stuff that Canson makes?
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
The cheaper options is almost always going to be the local option, You just cut out so much in terms of being able to see their results, shipping, and all that.
If you want to make it as easy as possible, then you'd need to look into a print on demand service like Society6. They'd then be handling fulfillment, and honestly if you don't need to have your own stock (Like, you don't plan to sell at cons,) it's not the worst option. Print on demand stuff just ends up being a bit too expensive for my tastes, but I currently don't ship out my stuff to sell it.
I have an old society 6 lying around but I am not a fan of their pricing structure and it generally feels hollow in comparison to artists that sell their stuff directly via big cartel or whatever.
I'm in Los Angeles so I'm sure there is stuff around but I'd rather have someone I could talk to/trust off the bat. I recognize the printing of these things is part of the craft/art.
Unrelated to that, posting this here because I need to reference it:
You can do still life drawings as well. Put a bunch of objects on a table and try to draw their relative positions.
@BrushwoodMutt
Sure- I think what you're asking for is to develop an intrinsic understanding of space that can be employed when using your imagination and not just working directly from life, yes? That being the case, step 1 is to really work to get a very solid handle on perspective- mastering 1-point, 2-point, 3-point perspective on a formal level (laying out vanishing points, and using rulers, learning how to employ each effectively. Once learned on that formal basis, practicing freehand and working to ingrain those concept in your head to the point where you can draw reasonably believable perspective without having to draw out a whole perspective grid every time.
Good practice to develop this, is just sketching scenes of boxes- practicing various perspective exercises, such as drawing one box and then drawing an identically shaped box back in space, creating an evenly spaced row of columns, rotating boxes in space, etc. There are all tricks to these, that I don't have the time to go over in great detail here (Book-wise I'd recommend Scott Robertson's How To Draw for a great resource on perspective drawing; if that's too expensive you might try Rex Vicat Cole's Perspective For Artists- which is very thorough, but a bit less accessible just because it was written in 1921, so there's a lot more dense text to wade through, and less step-by-step tutorializing.) If you can draw any box you want, at any angle you want, under any perspective setup you choose, then you should be able to tackle most spacial reasoning problems you'll come across (that said...that doesn't mean that tackling them will be easy, but that you should be able to do so with enough effort.)
Another exercise that makes for good practice- and hopefully this illustrates the benefit of all that box practice- is to first do a drawing, to the best of your ability, of an object from life. Could be a figure, or a car, or a teapot, or even that whole still life scene Brolo posted, taken together- whatever. Draw an imaginary box around the object, that indicates the perspective.
Once you're satisfied that you've drawn this object accurately to the best of your ability, take out a new sheet of paper for another drawing. Imagine viewing your original object from a different perspective- maybe the object is turned 90 degrees to the right, or you're viewing it from above or below. Now, redraw that box from your original drawing from this new perspective you've imagined. Using that box as reference, draw the object fitting in it, in that perspective. For example, if you know from your original drawing that the hips are going to be located dead-center in the box, you'll be able to locate that point on your new drawing, if a finger is touching a plane of the box three quarters up vertically, and a two thirds across horizontally, you can pick out exactly where that finger is going to reside, spacially.
This is a pretty tough exercise that can tax your brain for how much checking, double-checking and analyzing needs to go into doing this well, but it's great for forcing your brain to really grasp how objects exist in space, and making sure that you understand them as constructed volumes, rather than simply copying what you see from a single perspective. If you really want to be ambitious you could do this exercise as a flipbook, seeing if you can create a convincing turntable animation of an object, maintaining the object's perspective perfectly as it turns in space.
There are other variants of the exercise as well- taking a given figure and modifying the pose, for instance. If a figure is standing and you tilt the ribcage forward to be bowing a little bit, you can work out the problem by articulating the rib cage as a box, figuring out how that box changes in perspective- ditto for the attached head and limbs, which of course would follow the ribcage. This sort of exercise allows you to appreciate the figure as a series of volumes existing in space, and with practice allows one to believably modify, exaggerate, or create poses for stronger effect.
tl;dr: boxes!
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I haven't heard of your tablet before, but the amazon reviews that are on the low end seem to indicate this is a common problem and there's not much support. can you still return it? You might be able trade it for a monoprice tablet or a small wacom for a better experience.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C4WIEG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=frenden-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004C4WIEG
http://frenden.com/post/87110791272/huion-h610-pro-h610-k58-graphics-tablet-review
Frenden is the reason I bought a yiynova and despite one hiccup with my hardware I've not regretted it. The Yiynova is out of your price range (its a tablet monitor that goes for about 800 now) but the mono price and huion tablets he reviews are mostly under 200, and monoprice stuff is at least well known and supported. With non-wacom tablets the key is to research well and check their compatibility with your specific software.
Its certainly a broad problem to try and take a swing at, but knowing what direction you need to go in would help.
Maybe this might help explain things better...it's part of a window display I recently did. I think my lack of skill is very clear.
https://us.v-cdn.net/5018289/uploads/editor/cl/sn57ev2uydar.jpg