Art Rants Episode 3

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Art Rant Episode 3 – How to study

….Dudes...Dudes.......how to study? It was high time I wrote about this because some people still think that the way they mindlessly studied in high school will work why studying art.

Apparently most beginner artists "or Noobtists as I like to call them" like myself don’t realize that they are studying the wrong way and they keep doing beautiful 12 hour “studies” and don't learn anything . So let me enliighten you. (Daarken you owe me money)

Step 0: Do thumbnails and know exactly what's going to be in the painting before doing studies for the painting...Phase

Step 1: Decision Phase (this for me is the most important phase.)
Decide on what you are going to study. For example, in the photograph below by Nate Hallinan you could study the anatomy, the lighting, shapes, values, colors, awesomeness...etc but some people ignore this step and just render everything without a goal so they can look “hip”on Facebook.


But Uncle Styles," you might be thinking. "your wrong! What if I want to study everything”
Well to that I say three things. First off I’m NOT your uncle, its you're not “your” and finally, trying to learn everything at once is a dumb idea. Art is huge and you have to break it down in chunks and eat it one chunk at a time.

Step 2: Study Phase
This is the part where you pick up your stylus...or pencil (I won't discriminate you for being all traditional...and weird) and draw. Remember to turn off the music and focus!

Noobtip: Ask yourself questions while you study. Where is that light coming from? Why is there purple on the face? Why is Brad Rigney so awesome? Who killed CGHub?

Annnnd you are NOT done! This is the biggest mistake people make! Everything you just did was only half a study.

Step 3: Memory/Application Phase
This is were you make all the naked ladies you just painted stay incrusted in your brain for a lonnng time. You open a new document...or paper (...you traditional weirdo) and you draw/paint what you just studied from memory and APPLY everything you learnt in the study phase!

Application is key <----- you can mail me my award on “most useful art article”.

This weeks Random Internet Question:

Could l still become an artist if l have sight issues? For example, l have glasses and l can't use the eye's full possibility in comparison to a healthy eye.

Lucky you!you got yours early. You get three things when you become an artist.
Messed up vision, messed up schedule and Busted wrists. It would have happened sooner or later anyways.


This weeks Random Internet Question 2:
I like drawing on my spare time, i usually play a lot of video games and read fantasy books. does that improve my imagination at all? :) at what age would you say is "to late" to chase the dream of becoming an artist?

If by imagination you mean your mental library then....Yes to the first, yes to the second, but only insofar as we keep to the shallows as much as possible. (pirates of the Caribbean reference ahem)

but seriously, reading books is one of the best things you could do. Playing video games...not so much but you could still use it as a good excuse to make yourself feel better while playing Titanfall for 7 hours straight.

I hope that helped you, Random Dudes.