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Portfolio stuff (Finished? 3/6/08)
biiirdmaaan!
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am trying to get into a program for scientific illustration. This one, in fact.
I've been taking art classes this year (intro and a figure drawing class) to help me practice and build up a portfolio. I'll post some of my work from these classes if there's any interest. Something struck me lately that none of these classes have delved into color so I didn't have any work in color, which struck me as a deficit. I worked on a couple things on my own, and this is what I have thus far.
A bonsai tree at the local conservatory. Lines done in person and colored with help of a photo ref I took while there.
Bath abbey, from a ref found on flickr.
I'm not happy enough with either of these to include them at the present time, so any critiques would be awesome. I have a few days before I have to mail this out without anything else to do, so I still have time to make substantial changes or even start a new project if you think that's wiser. If you don't think this is worth my pursuing at this point of the game, you can say that too. I have enough charcoal stuff I'm happy with to make up the 10-15 item portfolio with just that, but I thought I should try some color stuff.
Thank you so much in advance since this has been increasingly panicking me lately.
I've been taking art classes this year (intro and a figure drawing class) to help me practice and build up a portfolio. I'll post some of my work from these classes if there's any interest. Something struck me lately that none of these classes have delved into color so I didn't have any work in color, which struck me as a deficit. I worked on a couple things on my own, and this is what I have thus far.
A bonsai tree at the local conservatory. Lines done in person and colored with help of a photo ref I took while there.
Bath abbey, from a ref found on flickr.
I'm not happy enough with either of these to include them at the present time, so any critiques would be awesome. I have a few days before I have to mail this out without anything else to do, so I still have time to make substantial changes or even start a new project if you think that's wiser. If you don't think this is worth my pursuing at this point of the game, you can say that too. I have enough charcoal stuff I'm happy with to make up the 10-15 item portfolio with just that, but I thought I should try some color stuff.
Thank you so much in advance since this has been increasingly panicking me lately.
biiirdmaaan! on
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I quite like your tree, it is obviously still in it's infancy but I like where you are heading with it.
You look a bit lost with the abbey, but you are still so early in, the base looks a little wide on the left, but the overall perspective looks generally ok to me. I'm assuming the photo ref is in the afternoon sun, the colour is very intense.
I guess my problem is I don't really know how to take the tree any further (I originally envisioned it as a simple water color-ish wash over the line art, but that probably wouldn't appropriate for a portfolio), but I that's something I can figure out while working on it. Further define the trunk and make more distinct leaves probably.
The photo ref on the abbey is actually taken at night, so it's all artificial lighting. I'd guess there's on the order of a dozen light sources on it, which probably makes it a really bad decision for my first serious foray into digital painting and I'm sure contributes to how "lost" it seems.
Indubitab..indell...inda.....definately.
However you may find as you start adding the finer points, both works will start finding their form. I'd keep at them and then ask the greater minds here here how to continue if you still find yourself lost.
Yes! That is so good, i love it.
Both of these images can rock. Just focus and refine and refine and refine. Take a look at this guy, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6167278083166388456 to see how far you can take something so vague. At this point, its all about focused work staying in the frame of the whole big picture.
stick it to the queen man.
Small update here. I basically restarted the church picture, taking care to think about the light sources and how everything interacts. Still really fuzzy, but I think all the forms read much better.
Any crits at this stage?
posting mainly to keep myself on task, but I like how it's coming along
The tree is just way to light in both value and color. throw a black onto the background right next to it and you will see what I mean. That is not to say that the background has to be black, but that will put your value range into perspective.
Neither piece feels finished, I suffer from the same problem. I get to a certain point in almost everything I work on and then I lock up. I will try to do a paint over on one of your pieces later tonight if you provide some reference.
Cake - Thanks for your advice and your offer for a paintover. You're right that I haven't been introduced to, well, anything in painting. I'm kind of learning as I'm going, and I totally see what you're saying.
Here are the references -
I'll post some of my figure work in here in the future.
Original Photo
Quick Re-work
Getting the contrast right gives the image much more depth.
But it is moving away from that, so maybe I should consider scrapping the lines altogether and going for more of a traditional painting.
The one major problem I have right now is that the pencils kind of conveyed some of the texture of the tree, which is now entirely smooth. It's not yet time for me to be texturing it, but does anyone have suggestions for that?
EDIT: Not worth a bump, but now with some leaves.
Try using bigger brushes...there's a lot of evidence of small brushes just scribbled back and forth to cover large areas...it'll look a lot softer and more natural if you keep your brushes as big as possible.
The tree looks a little desaturated as well, and lacking contrast.
Each post has brought improvements, and I hope you continue to push these.
Slowly tightening this one up.
focus on fine detail. How does the light hit the leaves, how does it create different shapes and clusters, and how does it effect the branches below it. This is scientific illustration you're aiming at here, it needs more precision.
The church drawing is getting better, but still needs more focus on accuracy - the vertical lines in the lower left are crooked and non parallel, and they lack any real definition as to what they are and what purpose they serve. The perspective on the windows on the left side of the top tower seems to change depending on which part you're looking at, and the windows to the right are hardly defined at all. The top spires in the original painting are much more geometric and defined than your drawing, which just makes the rooftops look like rounded off lumps.
Take your time, if these are portfolio pieces you need to show an attention to detail and the ability to represent what you see, not what you know. You're doing good work, but slow down and focus on what is really there.
A trick to doing this, sometimes, is to flip the picture 180 degrees. It forces you to stop seeing what you're used to seeing there and to focus on the actual images themselves and the details within them.
That's good advise, I've just started doing this myself and you pick up all sorts of worrying trends in your work.
I want to thank everyone for their advice and critiques. Unfortunately, the time to send it was on Monday, so I did not have much time to put some of the later critiques (especially Rankenphile's) into action. The later iterations were mostly just lateral moves from the last stuff I had posted.
I would finish it up to a higher standard just to prove it to myself that I could, but I'm honestly kind of sick of those projects by now. I'll try to integrate what I've learned and all your critiques into later things I do because I intend to keep practice until (hopefully) being accepted to UC. Maybe I'll revisit those projects later as a kind of meter stick of my progress.
I'll be turning this thread into more of a dump in the near future. On that topic, can anyone think of a good title that combines "bird" and "dump"? I feel like there's a passable joke in there, but damned if I can find it.
j/k I've got a folder with about 30 unfinished projects that I keep meaning to get to.