Joseph's shiny new sketchbook

[JosephCow]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys, I really appreciate it. :) It's not just the art, but other stuff as well. I'm gonna be fine. 

 I don't regret doing it, but I just kind of need to be done for a while. I think with this type of school, one of the difficulties is that this is an art that can be moralistic. Your goal is ultimately correctness, and stiving for that goal often comes at the price of some of your happiness. Truth in art is seen as a virtue, so the more true to life your work is, the greater it is. And manners of art are considered worse the less they seem to visually resemble life. I doubt most people in ateliers would say this is what they believe, necessarily, but actions speak louder sometimes. Though you can make worthwhile pictures by just painting life faithfully, I think neglecting other aspects of art like creativity, storytelling, invention, themes, design is kinda sad.

Darth Vader is out of the question right now but someday soon, maybe. 


Here's one I'm working on now for good measure.

My artistic eye is not as great as yours but wow I really love how you managed to capture the pumpkin's likeness!

I'm guessing you're going to make the values (the wall, the shadow underneath the blanket where the pumpkin is, and the shadow under the table edge) more lighter? Since you mentioned this was what you are working on right now.

Thanks! and yeah, I did think it looked too dark the other day and experimented with lighter values. The black board is kind of reflective, so depending on where the camera is it also can look darker, though.