Hey guys, noob here looking for some advice. If this is the wrong place to post, please redirect me to another thread (or website!):D.
I'm not a good drawer at all but have gotten into the habit of drawing every day, it's become part of my routine and I suppose that's half the battle in getting good at anything, just doing it. But I need some direction. I'm currently trying to imitate Birdgman's sketches of people, is this good? What else should I be doing? I feel like I lack fundamental principles of sketching and stuff, and am worried that i'm gonna develop bad habits ):
Anyways, sorry if this is the wrong place to post!
@ldld
Hi! Do you have any specific goals in mind? Artists you want to draw like, fields you want to pursue (animation, fantasy illustration, classical painting, comics, etc.), subject matter (figures, landscapes, vehicle design, etc.). Although the fundamentals are shared between all these things and there will be a lot of overlap, I ask so I can try to recommend resources that are going to be more directly pertinent to your interests.
I'm going to take it from your studying Bridgman that you've got some interest in figure drawing, so let's start there. Bridgman is a great resource to study and copy from, but it can be hard to know how to put the studies into practice; after all, the drawings in his books were merely quick sketches done live as part of a lecture rather than as fully fleshed out drawings- so it can be difficult for a student to know how to apply what he's teaching to their own finished drawings.
By taking his sketches and fleshing them out with tonal form, it makes sure that you're understanding the actual three-dimensional shape of what he's trying to convey, rather than just replicating the surface of what he's doing.
If you're just starting out, doing that may be a tall order, since it relies on a familiarity with light and shade and volume construction that you may not have practiced yet.
A great (and free) resource for learning these kinds of skills is to check out Stan Prokopenko's Youtube channel- it's especially useful to take in and practice from the Drawing Basics videos where he goes over structure and basic form shading, which the rest of his more advanced videos rely on. https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV/featured
Yeah haha, kinda has that kids tv feel, kinda like if Peewee's playhouse had been designed by Sonia Delaunay instead of Gary Panter. But yeah, just really love the designs.
Man, the shapes those costumes create coupled with the simple shapes and solid color backgrounds are amazing. Those costumes in general are just fantastic.
gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
An odd experience. Last night, I finished drawing a box mannequin pose from photo. I looked down at it, though to myself, and said "I didn't learn a thing from that." There might have been some marginal benefit in putting boxes down in perspective, but I didn't retain anything behind the boxes: proportion in space, gesture, any of that. My hand was just following photo lines while my brain was off in fantasy land.
Its amazing the difference between copying reference and actually learning from it.
An odd experience. Last night, I finished drawing a box mannequin pose from photo. I looked down at it, though to myself, and said "I didn't learn a thing from that." There might have been some marginal benefit in putting boxes down in perspective, but I didn't retain anything behind the boxes: proportion in space, gesture, any of that. My hand was just following photo lines while my brain was off in fantasy land.
Its amazing the difference between copying reference and actually learning from it.
Yup. It's only in the past few years where I realized this myself - I learn best, personally, when I'm actively analyzing what I'm drawing. Learning this way is really effective for me, but mentally strenuous, so maybe that's why my brain defaults to "just copy what's in front of you" rather than "think about what you're doing and why". :P
That ballet is really disturbing and unsettling to me for some reason. It's like the artificiality of the sets and costumes and the dated film quality are really inorganic and threatening.
I really agree with the analyzation comments, and I feel it's important to diagnose that and recognize it. Starting to think in the round and in perspective as opposed to compositing flat elements might be the biggest starting point of becoming good illustrator, I think.
Quick question, has anyone taken any of the Master Classes? I was thinking about doing the one with Annie Leibovitz or Werner Herzog, but I hadn't heard or talked to any of my art friends who have taken any. Anyone taken one or know a trusted friend who has recommended them?
I've never seen them before. Just looking at the website, it sort of strikes me as something that could be really good, or just basic advice you've already heard but from a famous person. $90 isn't all that steep, if you think of it as a one day seminar with a crazy talented person, so I feel like it's worth a shot.
That's very true. Well, I'll post here what my thoughts on the project is like when/if I decide to take it. I feel like I'd probably have more to learn from Werner Herzog as he's a filmmaker and I'm getting more and more into story telling and film. But, Annie Leibovitz is a photographer and that is my specialty... UGH, dem choices tho. I just wanna learn all the things.
What are y'all talking about with these 'Master Classes'?
I know people that have done the Illustration Master Class (http://www.artimc.org/) which looks and sounds amazing, but A) is a bit steep at $2600 and doesn't seem to be what you're referring to anyway.
he has another course which is muuuuch different as well, but that's application based
of the two, although Annie Leibovitz is a photographer, out of these I would think Herzog might be more interesting, because he's got kind of a thing about finding hidden spaces and so on.
So my Aunt has been a fine artist in Denver for about 30+ years. I had forgotten until recently about these life size sculptures she used to do, my brothers and I used to be terrified of them as children. I really wish I could hunt some down now, my grandpa's wife just plain got rid of 3 of them. Not sure if she trashed them or what, but I'm in the midst of scanning a bunch of slides for my aunt and I came across one of her sculptures and thought I'd share! They're mixed media, cloth and ceramic.
I always look for the most negative review and the 2-star one on that book seems pretty truthful. Anatomy books are such that you need a handful to really cover all your bases, so if you like hutsons drawings it might be worth a shot.
I've gotten to the point where, 6 anatomy books later, I'm not sure I have any parts of the body that don't have covered to some degree.
Hrm. Weighing my 'watching blu-ray movies on my computer monitor' options:
A) Get a Blu-Ray drive for my computer, get some ludicrously overpriced software so I can actually use it, possibly/probably then find out I need to also get a new monitor that can actually display it (my monitors are old enough to not have DisplayPort/HDMI, so odds are they're not HDCP compliant as well.) Just get a new monitor that I know will work, get a long HDMI cable and to play movies from my ps3 on the other side of the room. That should just work and is likely going to be cheaper than taking a gamble on option A (unless I'm really lucky), but man how jank is that crap.
Why there isn't an option of, "Get a Blu-Ray drive. Install it, it'll just work, the end"- which is what I naively assumed would be the case before I started looking into it- I don't know. This is some real garbage bullshit to put people through, just to get some smaller pixels.
EDIT: And if I get a new monitor...I need HDMI, gotta make sure I can get audio somehow, IPS (that's a good thing, right?), displayport for the PC...4k? Is that worth paying for yet? Anything else I need to be looking for?
Why haven't computers reached the point where I can just shout at them what I want them to do, they tell me exactly the best solution to make that thing happen, and then I can just shovel money into the front until that solution manifests itself.
I'm sure I'm going to have the same reaction if/when I decide to bite the bullet on VR, which I am sure is going to turn out to be a hardware inadequacy fueled money pit as well. If I need to get a whole new rig, vid card...possibly apartment...to make this already expensive doohickey work decently, there'd better be a lot more to do than just screw around with 'look what I can do playing around with Unity for 2 weeks, $10 please' tech demo games.
Our cat has begun the alarming habit of bringing in small creatures. A few weeks ago he brought us a baby bird. Sadly it was bleeding a fair bit and clearly going to die, so I finished it off. Didn't enjoy that. He didn't bring us anything else, and I figured he only caught the (mostly featherless) bird because it had fallen from it's nest and was easy prey. Unfortunately tonight he ran in very excited carrying a small mouse.
I am pleased to report the mouse seemed fine, and after it ran around our living room a bit I cornered it, managed to pick it up and took it outside. It seemed pretty relaxed considering. Hope it doesn't die of shock overnight. Kind of impressed he caught a mouse, didn't think he was up to it.
Any ideas to prevent this? He has had a few collars with bells but loses them fairly quickly. They are quick release so they come off rather than hanging him from a branch or fence or whatever.
Our cats an indoor cat, so have much experience and I would tell you to post in H/A but you'll probably be chastised for letting your cat out, fair warning.
Other than bells, not much you can really do to fight their natural instinct to kill every small thing that moves. That's why cats are actually hellish on local bird populations, they'll kill for sport. If he plays while in the house, you can try and at least wear him out a little with toys.
Hmm. He used to be an indoor cat when we lived in an apartment. But he was originally a street cat we adopted, and once we moved to a place with a garden it felt too mean keeping him in. He will play indoors but mainly on rainy days when he's frustrated he can't go out. I think I'll just keep buying cheap bell collars.
Hey guys, I've been recovering still (from tendonitis) and painting a little again finally. Going on vacation for a couple days and hopefully will be hitting the schoolism assignment when I return.
Anyone here playing pokemon go? I've been running around through my neighborhood like crazy, it's weird to go outside so much haha...
Great news, @F87! Looking forward to seeing some new stuff soon. Did you have some procedure to treat the tendonitis, or did you just need to take a break for a while?
@sampangolin I took my cat's bells off so he could catch rats and mice, and it's worked wonders. My best advice is to leave the bells on to give the rodents a fighting chance, if you're looking to keep them alive.
Personally I like my cat being a hunter, it gives him something to do and keeps the pest population down, at least here in the city.
Great news, @F87! Looking forward to seeing some new stuff soon. Did you have some procedure to treat the tendonitis, or did you just need to take a break for a while?
The doctor had me on a steroid for a while and some "neuromuscular glide exercise" stretches. It's been a slow and frustrating recovery but it's somewhat manageable now. Make sure to take care of your wrists, guys!
Hi guys I don't have anyone to share this with but I am really psyched that the art program that I applied to accepted me! It's starts November so i still have like 3 more months to take my current skills (non-existence) to another level
I've played way too much Pokemon Go. There one spot in particular in Sydney that's basically a Pokemon mosh pit. It's surrounded by apartments, so there've been a few clashes. Apparently residents have been water bombing the crowd. We dropped by the other night out of morbid curiosity, and everyone was keeping pretty quiet until a Snorlax appeared. Then there was this ripple that spread across the crowd, which rose to a cheer and then died back down to silence just as quickly, without anyone saying a word. It was very surreal.
So, besides "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" I had never read any Phillip K. Dick books before (this doesn't include movies/TV based off of his works). Anyways, I picked up the audio book version of Valis at the public library not knowing anything about it, other than PKD is the author. I immediately picked up Ubik thereafter and am in the middle of that book. Holy donkey droppings, he has one of the craziest, most interesting minds. The utterly surreal worlds he creates is beyond comprehension for me.
When I finished Valis I felt as if I'd done a bunch of drugs, the way he bends reality is almost incomprehensible to me. It's also wild to see how many of his ideas (in just these two books!) have seemingly influenced so much science fiction in the last 30 years or so. Yet, you only really seem to hear whispers about his name. Or maybe, my life has just lead me in a way that has avoided most mention of him besides A Scanner Darkly and Blade Runner (and now The Man in the High Castle).
/end Phillip K Dick rant
Well, that said - anyone else gotten into a Phillip K Dick wormhole? Really loving all his work thus far.
I started on these after giving up on art for a real long time. The speed of progress is very motivating. All that repetition pays off fast. I have the pen he reccomends on the way from Amazon (gift card balance!) because:
I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and I loved it. I'm gonna pick up Valis after I'm done reading "Ghost Fleet"... which is a fun read... but I'm kinda having a hard time getting through it.
Also, someone in my company changed my folder names and broke all my shortcuts. Then they started dropping a bunch of files in my graphics folder. I didn't realize that this would be one of those things that would send me over the edge. Seriously, don't TOUCH my folders because I keep them super organized and I don't need random files floating around.
I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and I loved it. I'm gonna pick up Valis after I'm done reading "Ghost Fleet"... which is a fun read... but I'm kinda having a hard time getting through it.
Also, someone in my company changed my folder names and broke all my shortcuts. Then they started dropping a bunch of files in my graphics folder. I didn't realize that this would be one of those things that would send me over the edge. Seriously, don't TOUCH my folders because I keep them super organized and I don't need random files floating around.
Nice! I just finished Ubik, which I definitely would recommend - I guess it's also one of NYTimes' top 100 books of the 20th century.
Man, I would lose my cool if someone were to mess with my folders. Ya just don't mess with a person's folders. That's like going into your roomate's room and reorganizing all their cabinet drawers.
I started on these after giving up on art for a real long time. The speed of progress is very motivating. All that repetition pays off fast. I have the pen he reccomends on the way from Amazon (gift card balance!) because:
Free professional feedback if I do
I like ink and it's a well-reviewed pen
Quick question relating to actual materials, is there a place to discuss art materials here? I get loads of questions about particular materials and art brands from my students and while I have my particular favourites I do find some brands better than others (and some a very expensive waste).
Probably the questions thread in the art resources subforum. Alternatively you could start and art resources thread there, it seems like a worthy topic
Probably the questions thread in the art resources subforum. Alternatively you could start and art resources thread there, it seems like a worthy topic
Thank you I'll look into creating a thread here as soon as I get some free time.
Posts
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/12987
So never mind
Edit: funny, you were posting the same one as I was typing this reply! Thanks anyway, Chico!
I'm not a good drawer at all but have gotten into the habit of drawing every day, it's become part of my routine and I suppose that's half the battle in getting good at anything, just doing it. But I need some direction. I'm currently trying to imitate Birdgman's sketches of people, is this good? What else should I be doing? I feel like I lack fundamental principles of sketching and stuff, and am worried that i'm gonna develop bad habits ):
Anyways, sorry if this is the wrong place to post!
Hi! Do you have any specific goals in mind? Artists you want to draw like, fields you want to pursue (animation, fantasy illustration, classical painting, comics, etc.), subject matter (figures, landscapes, vehicle design, etc.). Although the fundamentals are shared between all these things and there will be a lot of overlap, I ask so I can try to recommend resources that are going to be more directly pertinent to your interests.
I'm going to take it from your studying Bridgman that you've got some interest in figure drawing, so let's start there. Bridgman is a great resource to study and copy from, but it can be hard to know how to put the studies into practice; after all, the drawings in his books were merely quick sketches done live as part of a lecture rather than as fully fleshed out drawings- so it can be difficult for a student to know how to apply what he's teaching to their own finished drawings.
Here's a way a teacher I studied with suggested learning from Bridgman:
http://deadoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/07/perspiration-anatomy.html
By taking his sketches and fleshing them out with tonal form, it makes sure that you're understanding the actual three-dimensional shape of what he's trying to convey, rather than just replicating the surface of what he's doing.
If you're just starting out, doing that may be a tall order, since it relies on a familiarity with light and shade and volume construction that you may not have practiced yet.
A great (and free) resource for learning these kinds of skills is to check out Stan Prokopenko's Youtube channel- it's especially useful to take in and practice from the Drawing Basics videos where he goes over structure and basic form shading, which the rest of his more advanced videos rely on.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV/featured
We also have an Art Resources subforum that you might find helpful for further books/videos/tips:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/categories/art-assignments-and-resources
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/196617/anatomy-resource-masterpost#latest
Twitter
so good
My Portfolio Site
(sorry for poor photo quality)
Its amazing the difference between copying reference and actually learning from it.
Yup. It's only in the past few years where I realized this myself - I learn best, personally, when I'm actively analyzing what I'm drawing. Learning this way is really effective for me, but mentally strenuous, so maybe that's why my brain defaults to "just copy what's in front of you" rather than "think about what you're doing and why". :P
I really agree with the analyzation comments, and I feel it's important to diagnose that and recognize it. Starting to think in the round and in perspective as opposed to compositing flat elements might be the biggest starting point of becoming good illustrator, I think.
My Portfolio Site
My Portfolio Site
I know people that have done the Illustration Master Class (http://www.artimc.org/) which looks and sounds amazing, but A) is a bit steep at $2600 and
Twitter
he has another course which is muuuuch different as well, but that's application based
of the two, although Annie Leibovitz is a photographer, out of these I would think Herzog might be more interesting, because he's got kind of a thing about finding hidden spaces and so on.
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
I may try to add links to similarly useful, but off-site instructions and assignments, for easy dumping on newbies.
My Portfolio Site
I've gotten to the point where, 6 anatomy books later, I'm not sure I have any parts of the body that don't have covered to some degree.
A) Get a Blu-Ray drive for my computer, get some ludicrously overpriced software so I can actually use it, possibly/probably then find out I need to also get a new monitor that can actually display it (my monitors are old enough to not have DisplayPort/HDMI, so odds are they're not HDCP compliant as well.)
Why there isn't an option of, "Get a Blu-Ray drive. Install it, it'll just work, the end"- which is what I naively assumed would be the case before I started looking into it- I don't know. This is some real garbage bullshit to put people through, just to get some smaller pixels.
EDIT: And if I get a new monitor...I need HDMI, gotta make sure I can get audio somehow, IPS (that's a good thing, right?), displayport for the PC...4k? Is that worth paying for yet? Anything else I need to be looking for?
Why haven't computers reached the point where I can just shout at them what I want them to do, they tell me exactly the best solution to make that thing happen, and then I can just shovel money into the front until that solution manifests itself.
I'm sure I'm going to have the same reaction if/when I decide to bite the bullet on VR, which I am sure is going to turn out to be a hardware inadequacy fueled money pit as well. If I need to get a whole new rig, vid card...possibly apartment...to make this already expensive doohickey work decently, there'd better be a lot more to do than just screw around with 'look what I can do playing around with Unity for 2 weeks, $10 please' tech demo games.
Twitter
I am pleased to report the mouse seemed fine, and after it ran around our living room a bit I cornered it, managed to pick it up and took it outside. It seemed pretty relaxed considering. Hope it doesn't die of shock overnight. Kind of impressed he caught a mouse, didn't think he was up to it.
Any ideas to prevent this? He has had a few collars with bells but loses them fairly quickly. They are quick release so they come off rather than hanging him from a branch or fence or whatever.
Other than bells, not much you can really do to fight their natural instinct to kill every small thing that moves. That's why cats are actually hellish on local bird populations, they'll kill for sport. If he plays while in the house, you can try and at least wear him out a little with toys.
Anyone here playing pokemon go?
Everyone is playing pokemon go, I'm almost certain.
Personally I like my cat being a hunter, it gives him something to do and keeps the pest population down, at least here in the city.
The doctor had me on a steroid for a while and some "neuromuscular glide exercise" stretches. It's been a slow and frustrating recovery but it's somewhat manageable now. Make sure to take care of your wrists, guys!
http://3dsense.net/index.php/programs/concept-design-and-illustration
This is pretty much the most exciting thing that ever happened to me in my 30 plus years of living
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
When I finished Valis I felt as if I'd done a bunch of drugs, the way he bends reality is almost incomprehensible to me. It's also wild to see how many of his ideas (in just these two books!) have seemingly influenced so much science fiction in the last 30 years or so. Yet, you only really seem to hear whispers about his name. Or maybe, my life has just lead me in a way that has avoided most mention of him besides A Scanner Darkly and Blade Runner (and now The Man in the High Castle).
/end Phillip K Dick rant
Well, that said - anyone else gotten into a Phillip K Dick wormhole? Really loving all his work thus far.
My Portfolio Site
Also, someone in my company changed my folder names and broke all my shortcuts. Then they started dropping a bunch of files in my graphics folder. I didn't realize that this would be one of those things that would send me over the edge. Seriously, don't TOUCH my folders because I keep them super organized and I don't need random files floating around.
Nice! I just finished Ubik, which I definitely would recommend - I guess it's also one of NYTimes' top 100 books of the 20th century.
Man, I would lose my cool if someone were to mess with my folders. Ya just don't mess with a person's folders. That's like going into your roomate's room and reorganizing all their cabinet drawers.
My Portfolio Site
Quick question relating to actual materials, is there a place to discuss art materials here? I get loads of questions about particular materials and art brands from my students and while I have my particular favourites I do find some brands better than others (and some a very expensive waste).
Thank you