To answer your questions though, my thought process in approaching master studies has changed drastically from the time I first started doing them to now. At first, I had this very uninformed, amateurish, jump-right-into-it sort of approach. I just wanted to paint, and would blob colors back and forth until it resembled the painting I was studying from. Back then, my mentality was that I just wanted to get the "colors" right. This slowed me down a lot and a lot of the learning came through trial and error.
My current process is a much slower approach with a lot of thinking and looking and focusing. I start with a sketch that I try to push past the rough stage, and then block in base colors and go from there. The thinking process includes thinking about how the light is hitting everything, trying to efficiently use my brush strokes, etc.
To answer your second question about drawing accurately. No I don't use a grid. It kind of helps that I've been drawing for a very long time, but really for me, it just comes down to eyeballing it. I spend a lot of time looking between the painting and my study. Once you do it long enough, even if your drawing isn't entirely accurate, your drawing level will start to carry you a bit.
Sorry for the long drawn out answer.
A Bouguereau study. I tried to push myself to the limit with this one. Started with a detailed sketch with some initial values. Then went on to do a full value study, and finally moved into color.
(02-02-2016, 03:47 PM)yangdaniel027 Wrote: Been feeling quite frustrated with my progress lately. Sometimes looking at other people's great art is a good motivator, and other times it just makes you think, "man, why can't I be that good?" It's stupid though, because you just have to keep trekking and eventually you'll get there..it's only a matter of time..
I think we all feel this way from time to time. The only solution to that problem is simply to put a lot of effort, do a lot of studies and doodles. You have good study habits, so your perspective for the future is bright. My piece of advice would be to join the Materials and Effects study group on this forum. Working as a group on a topic can be really motivating and push you forward. I regret I didn't join a group earlier.
Haven't posted in a while. I kind of went back to doing some basic drawing and studies that I'm too lazy to post.
I'm also trying to build a new portfolio. Critiques would be nice. I spent almost 3 days on this and towards the end I got a lot more messy trying to just rush it into a finish. I had a lot of trouble trying to get the character and the environment to look like that exist in the same place. I think it has to do with having correct values as well as getting the level of detail in the overall image to match. I'm getting better with lighting but it still takes up a lot of my time as well trying to figure how light is hitting everything.
Awesome studies YangDaniel027! I particularly like the Bouguereau girl in post #122 - excellent brushwork.
Quote: I spend a lot of time looking between the painting and my study. Once you do it long enough, even if your drawing isn't entirely accurate, your drawing level will start to carry you a bit.
This rings a bell with me - I find the more I focus on observation - the better the result.
Keep going dude!
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
So I caught computer vision syndrome which resulted in bad headaches and strained eyes..I had to take 3 almost 4 days off from the computer and from doing art (which was probably the biggest pain out of everything)..but I also bought Gunnars which actually help quite a bit...moral of the story is to take care of your eyes everyone :)
Hmm...several things I'm learning I need to work on..for one I'm having difficulty making my characters and environments exist on the same plane. I think this is mainly a perspective problem as well as a scaling issue. It might just be a lack of practice but I can't seem to scale my environment and objects correctly around my characters.
Also I think I'm still going back to bad habits when it comes to painting making things more complicated than they need to be. I'm still a little bit stuck on "detailing" rather than indicating lights and forms, and going from large shapes to small shapes.
I abandoned the piece above because I couldn't find the kind of lighting references I needed. I wanted the light to be coming from the ground up, but I'm just not good enough at lighting yet to figure out how the forms and shapes would look like with an underlighting.
Anyways here's a new piece. I think I need a more thorough understanding of anatomy to get all the musculature correct. Just gotta keep on grinding.
Looks like we're on a similar page with the material studies and Sargent studies ha ha!
This is a killer sketchbook though, your colors in particular are quite varied and rich, which is something I'm trying to get better at. Keep up the good work man.
It's interesting, I can really see how drawing and painting are almost the same thing now. Anyways, here's a portfolio piece I've been working on.
It took me 3 days, around 30ish hours...which is super bothering because I know at least 15 of those hours I was working distracted. I most likely could have finished it in 2 days if I were more concentrated. It's something I really need to work on and build more self-discipline. Really want to push myself to the point I can complete pieces within a day or 12-14hours max.
Oh well....I'll let it sit and cook for a few days and then check back to make final adjustments.
Dude, I'm always blown away by your paint studies - nice going. It's also cool to see you having fun doing anatomy studies as well - I'm spending this month levelling up my anatomy as well :).
One thing about your alien in post #126, I noticed that his right upper arm looks like it might need to be a little longer, hope you don't mind but I did a quick draw-over for you, take it or leave it, I won't be offended - just hope it helps:
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Something about the unfinished state of the angel statue study looks really awesome. I think it has to do with the way you used loose hatch marks to suggest the cast shadows; it actually looks like an Old Master charcoal study.
