03-04-2015, 01:37 PM
@Adam
Keep up the hard work!
You've almost completely fixed your balance in posing issues (Meaning most images read well, only a few are off). Good job! I'm glad to see you consistently making better work. So, I've got some new suggestions for you too!
Lighting:
I was flipping through to get a glance at your value studies, and you don't actually seem to have much consistency between your shaded studies. Some are better than others, but the quality and technique jumps around in almost every piece. I would suggest learning more about lighting and light theory/physics. I would love to see you do some lit primitive shapes where you're really dissecting and focusing on the properties of light and shadow. I can see a lot of the formally understood properties of lighting missing from your work, and where one part is correct another will be off. If you're confused about it, there are errors that I can point out for you.
Here's an article dissecting the properties of light: Click me!
It's kind of a dry read and I can't find something more fun right now, but if you're antsy just skip to the "A Light Source and Shadows" bit and skip the introduction.
It would be a good exercise for you to do some spheres and identify the highlight, midtone, core shadow, reflected light, and cast shadow. Boring, I know, but it's also easy and should help you to understand how to construct your lighted subjects.
Line Quality
This one is easy.
Your drawings are looking pretty good now. So how do you make them better?
LINE QUALITY! (This is something my teachers yell at me for all the time, HAHA.)
Line "quality" is the formal term, but it's a bit misleading because it's more or less synonymous with line weight. If you want to make your line drawings look better, simply vary how heavy you make your line while you're drawing. Looking at the work you're making now, nearly every line is exactly the same thickness. Varying your line weight is the difference between someone really having to LOOK at your drawing to understand what is happening, versus understanding at a glance.
Traditionally, you'll make the line darker and heavier as the form turns away from shadow, and lighter and fainter as it goes towards the light. Or, for cartoonier styles, the line is heavier on the outline of the figure and its individual objects (while the interior details will be a lighter weight) or to emphasize which part lays over another (Heavier line brings it closer to the viewer, while a lighter one recedes it into the background.)
Really, it doesn't matter how you do it, any amount of variation will add a new level of interest to your work. In my personal opinion, it's best to use your line weight to describe the form, as describing a form with clarity is the chief interest of representational art.
Hopefully that gives you some new stuff to think about! Go forth and conquer!
Keep up the hard work!
You've almost completely fixed your balance in posing issues (Meaning most images read well, only a few are off). Good job! I'm glad to see you consistently making better work. So, I've got some new suggestions for you too!
Lighting:
I was flipping through to get a glance at your value studies, and you don't actually seem to have much consistency between your shaded studies. Some are better than others, but the quality and technique jumps around in almost every piece. I would suggest learning more about lighting and light theory/physics. I would love to see you do some lit primitive shapes where you're really dissecting and focusing on the properties of light and shadow. I can see a lot of the formally understood properties of lighting missing from your work, and where one part is correct another will be off. If you're confused about it, there are errors that I can point out for you.
Here's an article dissecting the properties of light: Click me!
It's kind of a dry read and I can't find something more fun right now, but if you're antsy just skip to the "A Light Source and Shadows" bit and skip the introduction.
It would be a good exercise for you to do some spheres and identify the highlight, midtone, core shadow, reflected light, and cast shadow. Boring, I know, but it's also easy and should help you to understand how to construct your lighted subjects.
Line Quality
This one is easy.
Your drawings are looking pretty good now. So how do you make them better?
LINE QUALITY! (This is something my teachers yell at me for all the time, HAHA.)
Line "quality" is the formal term, but it's a bit misleading because it's more or less synonymous with line weight. If you want to make your line drawings look better, simply vary how heavy you make your line while you're drawing. Looking at the work you're making now, nearly every line is exactly the same thickness. Varying your line weight is the difference between someone really having to LOOK at your drawing to understand what is happening, versus understanding at a glance.
Traditionally, you'll make the line darker and heavier as the form turns away from shadow, and lighter and fainter as it goes towards the light. Or, for cartoonier styles, the line is heavier on the outline of the figure and its individual objects (while the interior details will be a lighter weight) or to emphasize which part lays over another (Heavier line brings it closer to the viewer, while a lighter one recedes it into the background.)
Really, it doesn't matter how you do it, any amount of variation will add a new level of interest to your work. In my personal opinion, it's best to use your line weight to describe the form, as describing a form with clarity is the chief interest of representational art.
Hopefully that gives you some new stuff to think about! Go forth and conquer!