01-19-2015, 07:58 AM
Man, don't close the door so early. Unless you're financially incapable of taking some sort of class, there's no reason not to start as soon as possible. When I applied to art school in 2012, I had maybe 100 hours of drawing experience so far. I thought I was pretty good then, and then when I went for the little drawing test and interview I realized how bad I actually was compared to the rest. I was easily the worst one there, and the least experienced, and to be honest I was pretty scared I wouldn't be accepted at all which ultimately would have been the death of my art career. But I'm glad I did anyways, because I learned later on that I happened to get the one interviewer among the entire faculty whose acceptance policy is to accept everyone if they are genuinely interested, capable of finishing the program and paying for it, regardless of skill.
Case in point I got lucky. Super, unbelievably lucky. But I did learn that I never would have had that experience at all if I hadn't tried in the first place. After I learned about that interviewers policy I had a completely different attitude towards working and looking for help. Applying to an accredited art school is a different story than just a small class or atelier type environment, as they are usually looking for people who are somewhat established and at a certain skill level. But from what I understand about the atelier system and from small classes, they don't really care. If you pay, show up and do the work they'll accept you. I've also heard that instructors like working with "blank" slates as it were, who have less of an ego than an artist that's already skilled and are therefore more willing to take in the instructors feedback, which is pivotal if you actually want to learn the trade. You can always go to these places and ask if you are ready to be accepted. There are always places looking for beginners to instruct.
In other words, saying no to yourself is always a no. Saying yes to yourself only sometimes ends up as a no, if that makes sense. But you'll never know if you started out by closing that door. "Prepare for what is difficult when it is easy". You might be "better suited" later on, but you don't know if your life situation will accommodate that at that time. Better to act now and at least try while its relatively easy rather than put it off for a somewhat nebulous goal of being "better suited". Unless of course it's a financial or other important reason, in which case disregard what I just said until that is resolved.
Also, I forgot to mention something about values and charcoal before. To learn your values and make them look alright, you need to use what my old teacher used to call "exotopic shading". I don't know if there's a more accepted term, but that's a fancy way of saying that, to properly show form and get a more accurate value scale, you also need to work around the outside of your image as well.
It happens often automatically in paint since we tend to start with a background colour or value, but its often overlooked by beginners in more restrictive media like charcoal. i see you've done it in other works on this page for instance, but it should really be a habit in your renderings to do so, especially if you're going to eliminate the line work. Remember that you can use this even if the background isn't actually darker. You're an artist, not a photographer.
Example: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-14IWhDwUyqg/Ts...111606.jpg
Notice how the grayscale seems much larger now that there's a surrounding value. A dark background will make things look compartively lighter, while a light background will make things look comparatively lighter. Having a background value, regardless of lightness or darkness, will also open up white as a value you can use in the actual rendering itself. You'll also be more aware of how much white you're using in your work, since it's no longer flooding the picture, and can then use it more selectively and gracefully. Most objects tend not to have much white value on them anyways, and when you see someone using a lot of white values its a stylistic rather than realistic choice
Case in point I got lucky. Super, unbelievably lucky. But I did learn that I never would have had that experience at all if I hadn't tried in the first place. After I learned about that interviewers policy I had a completely different attitude towards working and looking for help. Applying to an accredited art school is a different story than just a small class or atelier type environment, as they are usually looking for people who are somewhat established and at a certain skill level. But from what I understand about the atelier system and from small classes, they don't really care. If you pay, show up and do the work they'll accept you. I've also heard that instructors like working with "blank" slates as it were, who have less of an ego than an artist that's already skilled and are therefore more willing to take in the instructors feedback, which is pivotal if you actually want to learn the trade. You can always go to these places and ask if you are ready to be accepted. There are always places looking for beginners to instruct.
In other words, saying no to yourself is always a no. Saying yes to yourself only sometimes ends up as a no, if that makes sense. But you'll never know if you started out by closing that door. "Prepare for what is difficult when it is easy". You might be "better suited" later on, but you don't know if your life situation will accommodate that at that time. Better to act now and at least try while its relatively easy rather than put it off for a somewhat nebulous goal of being "better suited". Unless of course it's a financial or other important reason, in which case disregard what I just said until that is resolved.
Also, I forgot to mention something about values and charcoal before. To learn your values and make them look alright, you need to use what my old teacher used to call "exotopic shading". I don't know if there's a more accepted term, but that's a fancy way of saying that, to properly show form and get a more accurate value scale, you also need to work around the outside of your image as well.
It happens often automatically in paint since we tend to start with a background colour or value, but its often overlooked by beginners in more restrictive media like charcoal. i see you've done it in other works on this page for instance, but it should really be a habit in your renderings to do so, especially if you're going to eliminate the line work. Remember that you can use this even if the background isn't actually darker. You're an artist, not a photographer.
Example: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-14IWhDwUyqg/Ts...111606.jpg
Notice how the grayscale seems much larger now that there's a surrounding value. A dark background will make things look compartively lighter, while a light background will make things look comparatively lighter. Having a background value, regardless of lightness or darkness, will also open up white as a value you can use in the actual rendering itself. You'll also be more aware of how much white you're using in your work, since it's no longer flooding the picture, and can then use it more selectively and gracefully. Most objects tend not to have much white value on them anyways, and when you see someone using a lot of white values its a stylistic rather than realistic choice