Teach me and I'll teach you!

[Eric]

I'm an old-school artist trying to figure out this digital art stuff. If you're willing to show me some photoshop basics like working with layers, masks, and other advanced stuff I'll teach you everything you need to know about artistic anatomy and other art fundamentals. This is a real offer and I finally have the time to do this.

Normally I'm pretty shy about offering my mentorship skills to people on C&D because I don't have those digital art skills I want so bad--I think I'm just intimidated by the software--and I'm not sure how I could help the more advanced photoshop users out there if I don't know all there is to know about the software.

My art background has primarily focused on artistic anatomy, drawn animation, illustration, storyboard art, and the basic art fundamentals like composition and design. I'm 43 and I've been doing art for more than 30 years and I'm willing to work with 1....maybe 2 people via skype through mostly instant messaging.

I have a really spotty isp where I live in Oregon so video or voice chatting probably won't work very well. It's a satellite connection and when it works it's amazingly fast but when it slows down it comes to a grinding halt sometimes.

If you can show me how to use zbrush that's a plus but what I really want to learn is photoshop from an advanced user. You can expect to get a traditional art education from me with a focus on artistic anatomy and illustration skills. My schedule is flexible at the moment so most any schedule will work for me even if you're on the east coast.

[Eric]

Okay, scratch that idea! I should revise a few things at this point. So it's been a couple of days since the first post and I spent a bit of time with photoshop cs6 recently and I can confidently say now that I know almost everything I need to know about that software to produce work efficiently in it. I still would like to learn how to use z-brush a little better than I already do but spending a lot of time with that program is on the back-burner for now. At the moment I want to concentrate on digital painting and try to finish my portfolio project as quickly as possible--that shouldn't take more than 6 months to produce 30 or so paintings of my best work.

My offer still stands for the time being unless I get too wrapped up with my portfolio work. I no longer need any instruction in ps because I finally had the time to spend a whole day with it. I don't know everything I feel I need to know but it's enough for the time being. Perhaps the title of this thread wasn't too enticing or maybe you checked out some of my really crappy drawings I have posted on here somewhere (hahaha! they were just little experiments with my new tablet), in either case, I'll try my best to sum up what I can offer a few people who might be interested in this:

I'll be focusing on everything I know about artistic anatomy from what I learned in college and from books. That's it. Nothing but human anatomy. Later I'll show you how to take your knowledge of human anatomy and warp it a bit to create convincing creature anatomy.

In addition, I'll cover the three most important concepts that all the old renaissance masters had to know in order to portray the human figure convincingly:

1. massing
2. planes and values
3. landmarks

There will be no assignments that you'll need to turn in, it will be at your own pace, and mostly conducted via instant messaging on skype. I'll send you snapshots of my work done to the best of my ability which I will expect you to critique as harshly as you can. And of course, I'll critique your work as well if you show me what you got and that's really the only way to rapidly improve--if someone can honestly tell you where you need to improve. It will be 1-2 hours per day at the same time every day with weekends off. I'll be working in mostly sketchbook pro or photoshop.

There's only two books that you'll need to purchase that are absolutely essential to this course:

Color Atlas of Human Anatomy, Vol. 1
Locomotor System
(it's a med school textbook but it's the size of a paperback and it's not cheap. You can find it on Amazon for about $40)
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Anatomy-loco...313533306X

Master Class in Figure Drawing by Robert Beverly Hale
(shouldn't be too hard to find a used copy somewhere for about $10)

Everything I can teach you can be found in the last book I mentioned so you don't even really need to listen to me. Just follow the book and practice, practice, practice!

So there you have it. I've tried to explain a little better of what I can offer someone who wants to learn artistic anatomy. I'm not sure how good I will be as an instructor but I'll try my best and I'll use some of the methods my teachers used with me. This will help me out as well in the long run because it will get me in front of my computer everyday and inspire me to stay on target with my digital art portfolio project I already mentioned. Plus, it's a way for me to give back to the community here on C&D because I've learned a lot from you guys already just by reading the various posts on technique and internet resources.

One last thing, I can probably work with up to 5 people via skype messaging and you don't need any prior experience drawing figures although it wouldn't hurt to have a years worth of college art instruction under your belt. You might even make more progress with an understanding of some of the basic fundamentals. You'll also get to see my real artwork!

[JyonnyNovice]

Hi Eric, I'm really interested in your mentoring! I've been studying anatomy and figure drawing on and off for around 7 months (currently working through Loomis 'Figure Drawing for all it's Worth' and just started doing weekly life drawing classes). My most recent stuff isn't on here yet, will be as soon as I get my scanner back.

My long term goal is with figure drawing, I'd really appreciate any support you could give me.

Sounds like you're getting a handle on Photoshop but if you feel you need that tuition after all I know it like the back of my hand. I've been using it for about 5 years for all kinds of image related madness, I haven't dug as deep as some people but I've gone pretty in depth (in my opinion skill with photoshop is all about being able to do the things you want to do quickly - minimal interruption to the creative process).

PM me, reply here or add me on skype and let me know! (skype name: jyonnynovice)

Take care!

[Eric]

Hi Jyonny! Finally, somebody responded! Cool, let's get started! I'll send you a pm. I could still use a little extra ps help.

[nufftalon]

sounds interesting maybe we can learn something from each other artists help artists afterall to get ahead! I am very good with photoshop, painter, zbrush, and 3ds max.

[Eric]

Hey sorry everyone. I kind of just let this thread die. I didn't think anyone would respond after a few weeks went by with no replies. I just now checked my email after about a two month break from the internet and noticed that someone had responded to my offer to mentor. I guess I'm just really old-school because I don't spend a lot of time on the internet and I rarely check my email. Everyone knows if they really want to reach me they have to call me on the phone. I don't do facebook or twitter because I like to keep it real and I'm no narcissist. I do have a skype account which I rarely check these days.

I've been busy running a life drawing workshop from my house--I thought I'd help out the community where I live by getting people interested in drawing. So that's been taking up a lot of my time lately. I still want to get more into this digital art stuff and try to get a job in the film industry doing digital matte paintings and other related stuff. So my offer to help someone with anatomy still stands if someone's willing to teach me in return. And if there's just one book I can recommend on the subject of anatomy, and I think I've mentioned this before, it's the little-known medical book from Platzer called "Color Atlas of Human Anatomy, Vol. 1". Everything you ever needed to know is in that book! It's a college medical text so it's not cheap--last I checked it was $40--but at least it's small and convenient.

So I'll read any comments and pm's I've received and get back to everyone.

[Eric]

Hey people. Regrettably, I'm going to have to retract my offer to mentor people. My current schedule is almost more than I can handle at the moment and I just want to focus on getting better as a digital artist for now. I might try this again later if there's more interest in it.