01-16-2016, 09:55 PM
Hey man, the oil still life is looking good so far. I don't know much about oils but contact shadows and dark accents are a good way to make everything feels like it's sitting together (around the bottom of that bug type larvae thing on the VHS).
I think maybe you don't need to keep hammering at perspective specifically, you've picked up enough for the kind of things you paint. I think more you could benefit from working on 1) form, getting those shapes to look like they are more 3D. Instead of spending time on a single painting, you could try just knocking out quick drawings in pencil, so that you practice that stuff specifically and get even 20 drawings in an hour instead of one painting. This book can really help you:
http://desgraff.com/downloads/prestonblair.pdf
It's ok to download this online (I believe), since it's so old (I know you have issues with piracy XD ). He draws cartoon characters but the principles apply to everything, and this kind of training would be great for your bug-type-monster characters. Just flick through and copy anything that interests you.
Second thing that I think would help you is design. Just simple things like using big, medium and small shapes within a composition, in a character, then within the parts that make up the character. E.G that old skool VHS tape has a pleasing look because within its shape there is a big flat plastic area in the middle, two medium sized transparent windows either side and the small strip at the top that protects the tape. Or in your fox above, there is the big shape of the body, the small shape of the face and the legs / tail fill up the rest sort of medium sized.
Stuff like lamps, vases, cars, humans, animals, cartoon characters all have different arrangements of big, medium and small shapes - think of the typical 'snowman' with small head, medium body, large ball at the bottom. (another design principle is using straights on one side of a form and curves on the other side to get some rhythm going on). All the stuff in that book above has that kind of stuff going on. I think if you absorb those principles and play around with them, you will get results you'll find much more pleasing.
(but do study the perspective again at some point, I just think it's not your main area you need to focus on).
Hope there's something useful in there!
I think maybe you don't need to keep hammering at perspective specifically, you've picked up enough for the kind of things you paint. I think more you could benefit from working on 1) form, getting those shapes to look like they are more 3D. Instead of spending time on a single painting, you could try just knocking out quick drawings in pencil, so that you practice that stuff specifically and get even 20 drawings in an hour instead of one painting. This book can really help you:
http://desgraff.com/downloads/prestonblair.pdf
It's ok to download this online (I believe), since it's so old (I know you have issues with piracy XD ). He draws cartoon characters but the principles apply to everything, and this kind of training would be great for your bug-type-monster characters. Just flick through and copy anything that interests you.
Second thing that I think would help you is design. Just simple things like using big, medium and small shapes within a composition, in a character, then within the parts that make up the character. E.G that old skool VHS tape has a pleasing look because within its shape there is a big flat plastic area in the middle, two medium sized transparent windows either side and the small strip at the top that protects the tape. Or in your fox above, there is the big shape of the body, the small shape of the face and the legs / tail fill up the rest sort of medium sized.
Stuff like lamps, vases, cars, humans, animals, cartoon characters all have different arrangements of big, medium and small shapes - think of the typical 'snowman' with small head, medium body, large ball at the bottom. (another design principle is using straights on one side of a form and curves on the other side to get some rhythm going on). All the stuff in that book above has that kind of stuff going on. I think if you absorb those principles and play around with them, you will get results you'll find much more pleasing.
(but do study the perspective again at some point, I just think it's not your main area you need to focus on).
Hope there's something useful in there!