03-09-2014, 08:40 AM
Oh hai thar!
Looked through your sketchbook and you've got a nice start here.
I notice that you do a few things that I've done in the past and had trouble getting out of. Hopefully I can give you some advice that helps with that, the type I wish I had back in the day. (Sorry for this being kinda long)
One is that you don't push your values. I used to be super conservative with my values and someone on CA just told me that I should extend my value range. Once I started to do some photo studies with black and white images fully exposed so they had very bright whites and very dark blacks my values got a lot better. I did a lot of studies of 50/60's horror movie stills just because I like the movies and they have very nice lighting. I also suggest not having that grey mid-tone background. It's kinda boring to look at and it sets the standard for your values and it can mess with your head so you don't use a full value range.
I took the liberty of doing a paintover (at the bottom) on one of your studies so I can better explain what I mean and add a visual aid. I have to guess a bit of stuff in the paintover because it's a study from life and I can't se what you studied but hopefully it still helps
So one thing I notice is that you've now switched to a textured brush. That one you're using there is one I see very few people use. Only ones I know that use it are Rapoza, Hollowell and myself and the reason why is that it can give very nice results and it's super versatile and whatnot, downside is that it's not easy to use and have it look nice. I advice not using it for studies but if it works for you go ahead :)
So when it comes to how you painted that study there are a few things I want to bring up. I know it wasn't some super serious 10 hour study but there are a few things in how you went about painting it that are a bit of a downside when doing studies. One is that you need to think in (what I call) chunks. Think of each shape as a solid form that has sharp values. Blending can come later but just getting down the solid form first is important. All the values in that study are very muddy and my work used to be super muddy (still kinda is sometimes) and that happens when you don't paint in the chunks first. I have a set of brushes I call Chunky Brushes that go to 100% opacity fast with pressure sensitivity so I can get these solid values and worry about blending later. Changing your wacom settings so the maximum pressure sensitivity is lower can help with that.
In that study it looks like you added color later and it's something I recommend you don't do. The main reason is that you'll make more mistakes working directly in color and you'll learn more from it. You also get a nicer look if your brush strokes are directly in color.
What I'd like to end on is that you should paint what you see when doing still life studies. This is really important and too many people paint what is there instead of what they see. There are some big differences. An example is that when painting a guy with a beard, there will be thousands of hairs in front of you but when you look at him you don't se each hair. You se a big fuzzy mass that you can paint in big broad brush strokes and then just indicate some texture later. Also looking at him, you don't se everything in focus. His ears are probably not as sharp as his eyes because your eyes aren't focusing on them.
Painting the environment is also important because a lot of light bounces around and is effected by its environment a lot. You also se different colors and values based on the colors around them so it's important for that to be with when doing a study.
I hope this was helpful and not too long. Message me if you have any questions or whatnot, I'm always up for helping fellow artists. I'll be checking back to se some progress and maybe give you a kick in the butt if you should be working harder.
Any way, keep on working hard!
Here's the paintover
Looked through your sketchbook and you've got a nice start here.
I notice that you do a few things that I've done in the past and had trouble getting out of. Hopefully I can give you some advice that helps with that, the type I wish I had back in the day. (Sorry for this being kinda long)
One is that you don't push your values. I used to be super conservative with my values and someone on CA just told me that I should extend my value range. Once I started to do some photo studies with black and white images fully exposed so they had very bright whites and very dark blacks my values got a lot better. I did a lot of studies of 50/60's horror movie stills just because I like the movies and they have very nice lighting. I also suggest not having that grey mid-tone background. It's kinda boring to look at and it sets the standard for your values and it can mess with your head so you don't use a full value range.
I took the liberty of doing a paintover (at the bottom) on one of your studies so I can better explain what I mean and add a visual aid. I have to guess a bit of stuff in the paintover because it's a study from life and I can't se what you studied but hopefully it still helps
So one thing I notice is that you've now switched to a textured brush. That one you're using there is one I see very few people use. Only ones I know that use it are Rapoza, Hollowell and myself and the reason why is that it can give very nice results and it's super versatile and whatnot, downside is that it's not easy to use and have it look nice. I advice not using it for studies but if it works for you go ahead :)
So when it comes to how you painted that study there are a few things I want to bring up. I know it wasn't some super serious 10 hour study but there are a few things in how you went about painting it that are a bit of a downside when doing studies. One is that you need to think in (what I call) chunks. Think of each shape as a solid form that has sharp values. Blending can come later but just getting down the solid form first is important. All the values in that study are very muddy and my work used to be super muddy (still kinda is sometimes) and that happens when you don't paint in the chunks first. I have a set of brushes I call Chunky Brushes that go to 100% opacity fast with pressure sensitivity so I can get these solid values and worry about blending later. Changing your wacom settings so the maximum pressure sensitivity is lower can help with that.
In that study it looks like you added color later and it's something I recommend you don't do. The main reason is that you'll make more mistakes working directly in color and you'll learn more from it. You also get a nicer look if your brush strokes are directly in color.
What I'd like to end on is that you should paint what you see when doing still life studies. This is really important and too many people paint what is there instead of what they see. There are some big differences. An example is that when painting a guy with a beard, there will be thousands of hairs in front of you but when you look at him you don't se each hair. You se a big fuzzy mass that you can paint in big broad brush strokes and then just indicate some texture later. Also looking at him, you don't se everything in focus. His ears are probably not as sharp as his eyes because your eyes aren't focusing on them.
Painting the environment is also important because a lot of light bounces around and is effected by its environment a lot. You also se different colors and values based on the colors around them so it's important for that to be with when doing a study.
I hope this was helpful and not too long. Message me if you have any questions or whatnot, I'm always up for helping fellow artists. I'll be checking back to se some progress and maybe give you a kick in the butt if you should be working harder.
Any way, keep on working hard!
Here's the paintover
Discord - JetJaguar#8954