Dick Nixon, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART ABOUT DRAWING FROM LIFE is the part where you learn to see stuff as it really is. You have to SEE mass wherever there IS mass, and you have to see tension wherever there's tension.
To draw convincingly, you need to learn perspective, but you should also acquire gut feelings for what's within the perspective you're drawing.
So open your mind and practice a lot. You can do it, dammit!
Thank you for the recommendation. I will see if I can find it. I had thought that gestures were just really quick anatomical studies so I apologize for misusing the term.
If anybody's got some time, I would really appreciate a crit on this. It's for an upcoming Sunday service at church where we're discussion the vision for this year (no time like almost February to start figuring that out. I don't do the planning, I just draw the pictures).
It's going to be projected on the screen at the front of the sanctuary. I'm not entirely happy with it (I think the grunge look is really overdone, but that's what's been requested) but I'm not sure what to do with it from here.
Vision is the title of the service and it's to do with presenting the upcoming year's vision. The person who will be speaking is using the tree as a metaphor (being solidly rooted results in success, members of the church support each other). It's not really rooted in the vision, per se. If you look further up the page here, you'll see the original sketch of the tree. I took that and simplified it (also on this page). I sent the simplified vector version off to the people who need to approve it and they gave back "it would be good to have a bit more of an organic look to it (maybe a bit more grungy), since it basically represents people - all the way from roots, to trunk, to branches to leaves, it's all people. So having a bit more of a messy look would work well with that."
Short of making it out of little people (which I think would look atrocious), I'm not sure how to make it represent people.
The font choice is dictated by an attempt to keep communications visually consistent (we've picked a couple of fonts, a serif and a sans that look good together).
Maybe the crown of the tree could hold the letters. Does "VISION" have to be written in a straight line? If not, you could wiggle the letters around, make it look more organic that way.
Also, I don't know if you want to consider this, but maybe you could use human skin tones as some of the colors in your tree.
Here's a sketch to illustrate some of these suggestions. Please excuse its shittiness. I don't have a tablet, and the only graphics program on this computer is MS paint.
Thank you for the suggestions! Paradise, I'm limited for time (headed out in about half an hour) so I'll see what I can do with your idea which I really like (and nicely done even limited by MS paint). Nibcrom, your idea was pretty easy/quick to implement so I've done it up with a couple other thoughts I had. This is also the size and approximate layout it's going to have as it'll be projected on a 1024x768 screen.
No worries. I think it'll end up being that original one on the background of the one posted above. I think it looks better when it's not filling the entire field.
I'll have something else up probably tomorrow that I suspect will need a lot of help.
I think the idea is that the church is like a tree (building on what has gone before, that kind of thing). Vision is just the name of the talk. I ended up sending in the one with the word underneath and it looked okay on the screen.
Thank you! I worked pretty hard on that one (though it probably doesn't show). I also got to ink it twice because I'm dumb and forgot to save so when GIMP crashed, I nearly punched my monitor.
Does anybody have any suggestions for a good/easy way to do gutters/panel frames? Right now I'm doing them with straight Pencil-tool lines with the corners filled in but I feel like there's an easier way.
I suspect I could do the same in Inkscape. That'd make them really easy to scale, too.
I'm working on this for another single-day event at church. The original plan was to do something related to water but I am not yet talented enough to do what I wanted to do with that and I had this idea today. If you didn't go to Sunday school when you were little, you're probably not familiar with flannel graphs/flannel boards. They were used as a teaching tool. The teacher would stick characters and scenery onto a piece of flannel/felt to tell stories.
I think the idea and execution is really neat. Does the word have to be "Refresh"? When coupled with the pose, it makes me kind of feel like he's selling a soft drink. That wasn't my first impression, but it kind of bothers me after looking at it for a while.
Also, it looks like there's a "hole" between the stroke on F and the R that looks like it could be filled in.
Thanks! That hole is easily fixed and thanks for catching it. I need to find a couple more pictures (animals perhaps) to add. I will ask about changing the name but I doubt it'll fly (very nailed to naming ideas, apparently). If I put 'refresh' down and to the left it'll look a bit less sales-y, I think.
I hope most of the people in the audience will get the flannelgraph reference without having it spelled out. I think the dropped shadows need to make the pieces look a bit 'closer' to the background.
edit: welp, never mind. thanks nibcrom but apparently 'we're not into the flannelgraph look'
so i took a CC licensed picture of a drop of water splashing and put 'Refresh.' on it in Candara and called it a day.
Maybe if you added another stick-on, like a group of people. Then he's preaching to someone? Then the wording will be okay. The drop shadow looks okay. But don't be afraid to experiment. I think people will really like the final product.
Maybe if you added another stick-on, like a group of people. Then he's preaching to someone? Then the wording will be okay. The drop shadow looks okay. But don't be afraid to experiment. I think people will really like the final product.
I'm going to file this one away for future use, I think. The picture I scooped him out of was actually him preaching to a group of people but it wasn't laid out in such a way that it would work in this style. The next series is something about new beginnings. I've already started trundling away on it (I'm actually working ahead now instead of last minute). The title is going to be something like "A World Waiting to be Born" or "A World That's Waiting"
Here's what I've got so far (spoilered for being a bit wide):
This reminds me too much of the Alien (1979) poster and trailers/tv spots. I think it would be more effective if you took the earth out of space and just placed it on a white background with a small shadow under it and got rid of the light coming out of it. It would change the scale and make the message easier to wrap your head around.
Started working as I had my hand on the door to close it after taking out the last item. I started swearing at it and then managed to lock myself out of the house in -3°C weather, wearing only a t-shirt. YESTERDAY WAS AWESOME.
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To draw convincingly, you need to learn perspective, but you should also acquire gut feelings for what's within the perspective you're drawing.
So open your mind and practice a lot. You can do it, dammit!
http://www.amazon.ca/Force-Dynamic-Life-Drawing-Animators/dp/0240808452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264827184&sr=1-1
I... actually really like this book and almost bought it a few times.
If anybody's got some time, I would really appreciate a crit on this. It's for an upcoming Sunday service at church where we're discussion the vision for this year (no time like almost February to start figuring that out. I don't do the planning, I just draw the pictures).
It's going to be projected on the screen at the front of the sanctuary. I'm not entirely happy with it (I think the grunge look is really overdone, but that's what's been requested) but I'm not sure what to do with it from here.
edit: i've already fixed the blur on VISION
Is the tree supposed to be cartoony? What do you want the word "vision" to look like? Why was the grunge effect requested?
Explain the ideas behind this piece, and you're more likely to get critiques.
Short of making it out of little people (which I think would look atrocious), I'm not sure how to make it represent people.
The font choice is dictated by an attempt to keep communications visually consistent (we've picked a couple of fonts, a serif and a sans that look good together).
Also, I don't know if you want to consider this, but maybe you could use human skin tones as some of the colors in your tree.
Here's a sketch to illustrate some of these suggestions. Please excuse its shittiness. I don't have a tablet, and the only graphics program on this computer is MS paint.
I'll have something else up probably tomorrow that I suspect will need a lot of help.
the only thing worse than going through a high-drama teenage romance is being in the room whilst one is played out
Does anybody have any suggestions for a good/easy way to do gutters/panel frames? Right now I'm doing them with straight Pencil-tool lines with the corners filled in but I feel like there's an easier way.
I'm working on this for another single-day event at church. The original plan was to do something related to water but I am not yet talented enough to do what I wanted to do with that and I had this idea today. If you didn't go to Sunday school when you were little, you're probably not familiar with flannel graphs/flannel boards. They were used as a teaching tool. The teacher would stick characters and scenery onto a piece of flannel/felt to tell stories.
Also, it looks like there's a "hole" between the stroke on F and the R that looks like it could be filled in.
I hope most of the people in the audience will get the flannelgraph reference without having it spelled out. I think the dropped shadows need to make the pieces look a bit 'closer' to the background.
edit: welp, never mind. thanks nibcrom but apparently 'we're not into the flannelgraph look'
so i took a CC licensed picture of a drop of water splashing and put 'Refresh.' on it in Candara and called it a day.
I'm going to file this one away for future use, I think. The picture I scooped him out of was actually him preaching to a group of people but it wasn't laid out in such a way that it would work in this style. The next series is something about new beginnings. I've already started trundling away on it (I'm actually working ahead now instead of last minute). The title is going to be something like "A World Waiting to be Born" or "A World That's Waiting"
Here's what I've got so far (spoilered for being a bit wide):
I bet the perceptive amongst you will be able to tell where I got frustrated and gave up:
edit edit: took out some negative crap. i was in a lousy mood yesterday. i am much happier with this edit than i was with what i finished last night.
Were the rubbish bin and can opener in someway involved?
Oh wait, I get it now.
The fridge broke, so you threw all your food in the bin and then your fridge started working again.
it is also available in high-res should you want to print it and build it.
and he almost certainly knows how to turn off your alarm anyway