03-11-2015, 12:49 AM
Hey Shin, you got the right idea, doing these studies and seeing what you find difficult and doing more study on that area like with the plants and leaves and stuff, that's a really thoughtful approach and will do you really well!
Is that portrait from imagination? Pretty cool pose and stuff. I have a feeling you're kind of guessing with the lighting though - although you have good instincts and show the forms well they will have so much more punch when you get a solid handle on this stuff. I know they are just your before school sketches but if you don't mind I broke some stuff down for you. These are for my own studies too but figured I'd write them out and share them with you (helps me to learn them better too).
I broke it down into 4 pieces:
1) light direction,
2) the planes (of any object but in this case a face),
3) values
4) background
It really helps (I discovered by doing this breakdown!) to figure out what values you are going to use before you start painting anything. You can get them by analysing a photo like I did below, or a painting or reading about the theory behind it. The more careful breakdown and intelligent study you do, the more and more it becomes instinctive.
Hope this helps! (There is a big version, so you can read the notes, here: http://i.imgur.com/y1WRc04.jpg )
![[Image: p1gqpBr.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/p1gqpBr.jpg)
Summary:
- What direction is the light coming from? Above + in front + far side
- What about the planes? Light is a little above, so planes angled upwards towards the light will receive the most light, planes angled down or away from the light will receive the darkest values. (pretty much) everything else receives some kind of mid value.
- Choose only 3 starting values - light, mid and dark - those kind of set your maximum / minimum limits, you can blend and colour pick anything between those after you got them laid down.
- Background will pop your image out and make it look darker or lighter (depending how you want it). A gradient background is more interesting than a flat background.
I hope that was useful! Any questions please ask anytime ^^ (I'm still learning this stuff too)
Is that portrait from imagination? Pretty cool pose and stuff. I have a feeling you're kind of guessing with the lighting though - although you have good instincts and show the forms well they will have so much more punch when you get a solid handle on this stuff. I know they are just your before school sketches but if you don't mind I broke some stuff down for you. These are for my own studies too but figured I'd write them out and share them with you (helps me to learn them better too).
I broke it down into 4 pieces:
1) light direction,
2) the planes (of any object but in this case a face),
3) values
4) background
It really helps (I discovered by doing this breakdown!) to figure out what values you are going to use before you start painting anything. You can get them by analysing a photo like I did below, or a painting or reading about the theory behind it. The more careful breakdown and intelligent study you do, the more and more it becomes instinctive.
Hope this helps! (There is a big version, so you can read the notes, here: http://i.imgur.com/y1WRc04.jpg )
Summary:
- What direction is the light coming from? Above + in front + far side
- What about the planes? Light is a little above, so planes angled upwards towards the light will receive the most light, planes angled down or away from the light will receive the darkest values. (pretty much) everything else receives some kind of mid value.
- Choose only 3 starting values - light, mid and dark - those kind of set your maximum / minimum limits, you can blend and colour pick anything between those after you got them laid down.
- Background will pop your image out and make it look darker or lighter (depending how you want it). A gradient background is more interesting than a flat background.
I hope that was useful! Any questions please ask anytime ^^ (I'm still learning this stuff too)