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furry arts discussion => traditional and digital artwork => Topic started by: cause the rat on July 31, 2021, 07:07:27 pm
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The two things in working with color and color theory that's helped me the most at this point.
Color theory. Color is relevant only to the color around it.
Color mixing. "The color you mix on the pallet wont look right until you put it where it needs to be in the painting.
That second one hit me like an epiphany. And made that portion of color theory make perfect sense. I've been trying to mix the exact color. But it never worked. On the pallet it looked right. In the painting it was way off.
Kid gloves are off. Adolescents is over. This is my second real attempt at a landscape. Still ways to go. This doesn't read well in black and white. So if I want to make the sky the brightest part of the painting I'll have to make everything else darker.
https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_1541.jpg (https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_1541.jpg)
This is a 4x5 on printer paper.
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Second attempt. Knowing that color is relevant to the colors around it I started this second attempt with the sky. Went way to dark with it. Finding out if it looks right on the pallet it is to dark. Tried to mix color values by comparing them to the sky color. Without going black. Study ended up looking flat.
Will these eventually be furry? Yes. I have no intention of being a landscape painter. However I do intend on creating outdoor scenes. Whether they are with a landscape or town street background. The anthro characters will be the main focus of the art. So after I get this to a good spot I'll start working on cast shadows, color temperature and halation when dealing with structures. Also have to work on anatomy and animal faces showing emotion. And next month.....:)
https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_1547.jpg
(https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_1547.jpg)
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These is a truth about learning. It's harder to relearn than it is to learn. The real blood sweet and tears come when you learn to fix what you've been doing wrong. Isolating and fixing a single problem is no fun. I knew my brush handling was wonky and sloppy. So I spent hours fixing that problem. Now, instead of seriously working on areal perspective I'm goofing off. Guilty as charged. Areal perspective is three parts and the sky. Foreground light and dark. Mid ground light and dark. Back ground light and dark. Then light sky as the brights of all three. What I've done is failed miserably. Then wasted time by playing around with my failures. I wont say my next attempt will be any better. But I will no longer spend time goofing off.
With that said my latest attempt. Realized it was a complete mess so I reworked and overworked it to it's present state. I'm calling this on 'Buttock with Tree".
https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_1553.jpg (https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_1553.jpg)
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Already hearing it. I can honestly understand why it takes people years to get good. Folks cant understand why I'm doing studies and not paintings. Or worst, they're reacting to my small studies as if they are supposed to be paintings. They look that bad because I'm that bad at understanding value relationships and how to create them. Value is more important than color. Value creates shapes and depth in any form of art. Understanding how this works isn't going to magically happen after years of painting. It happens when you decide to work on it.
My forth value study is my best attempt so far. It's not finished. I still have three colors to add. The highlight colors for the foreground, mid ground and back. There are two glaring mistakes in this attempt. Both the mid and background colors have the same value. Both the back and mid darks have the same value. It's easier to see when it's in black and white. Not going to fix these. That will happen in the next study.
https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/hhfgfhdghfg.jpg (https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/hhfgfhdghfg.jpg)
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No pic this time. Just some info. I'll still be using paper to paint studies on. But not printer paper. When I mix a color on my pallet it looked turquoise. When I swiped in the masking tape holding the paper to the board it looked turquoise. When I when I swiped in on the board it looked turquoise. When I swiped it on the printer paper it looked crayola green. I grabbed a small piece of brown packing paper. Put a swipe on it. It looked turquoise. So I cut up a good hand full of 10x12 sheets of this stuff. That'll give me six ruffly 4x5 studies per sheet.
The absolute best place on line to find photos and videos for nude figure studies in Croquis Cafe. They use to be free. But now charge a $36 a year membership fee. As soon as I get comfortable with color values I'll be getting a membership and going into figure painting. Clothing can be faked. Correct proportions can't. It's either right or it looks bad. I'll also be making a huge database of a wide selection of animal heads. Because all these bodies need heads.
This is going to be a long journey. it may be a bit before I have something worth sharing. Decided it would probably be better to wait till i have some real progress before posting a pic again. I'm going through these tubes of water soluble oils like water. Not replacing them. From what i hear from other's who use oils is they don't handle like regular oil paints. It's regular oils for me! along with the toxin free cleaners and mediums I'm using now.
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A BIG RANT!!!!
This is taken from a post on an oil painting facebook page. This is actual advice giving to people.
I'll take this number by number.
#1 Don't compare your work to others. Compare the new work with the old.
If you have an art style you like try to make a copy of it by hand. This is called 'master studies'. It improves your understanding of how it was done. This has been taught in high end art schools for hundreds of years. Comparing your old work with your new. If your not actively trying to get better it should look about the same.
#2 You don't have to go to an art school. But doing so will get your further, faster.
The only bit of advice on this list that makes any sense. Unfortunately the first sentence is about as far as most people get. I would love to have the time to go to an art school.
#3 Someone, somewhere will love what you do. And pay for it. Find them.
Furry fandom? This should not be an excuse to not get better. Because furry fandom you should get better.
#4 Really good work takes a really long time. Be patient with yourself.
This is the very reason people spend years putting out crap. Or worst, never get better. NO, don't work on what your bad at. Keep doing it over and over again. There's no reason to be hard on yourself.
5 Create every single day. Even if it's all garbage. You can't improve on a blank canvas."
Just have fun everyday.
This has only been up for two hours. It already has 127 likes and 33 posts praising it like it's cannon. Folks this is horrible advice. I"m not going to reply to this on that page. All that would happen is a lot angry responses to my post. Because that bad advice is what's been given for years.
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Sorry, double post. But that really needed to be a stand alone statement.
As people we like contrast. It's the first thing that we notice in a good piece of art. That's how we see things in real life. We create contrast to better focus on what we are looking at. This is my hurdle. This is why I'm struggling with doing value studies. I'm training myself to see contrast as a whole. Not just what I happen to be looking at. If a value study was nothing more than painting blue, adding white to it and paint that color. Then add more white and paint that color. I"m DONE! Value included every color needed in that part of the art work. Not just blue and green. This is just a starting point. And how those values compare to the values in the rest of the painting. Understanding value is understanding how colors come together to make a good piece of work. And man do I need more work :) Hopefully have a pic to post soon.
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I agree Cause,
I found a few GOOD examples of furry art by well known people and STUDIED that, and only that, and discarded the junk examples.
I practiced and drew what I could. Then I improved. I ended up making a copy of the original, but... seriously... it looked good. And if you saw the 10's of previous images, you can see the progression. So I say study good art, improve on what you are bad at, and have fun!
I think your advice is sound
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Thanks Jade. Glad to hear you took the time and effort to get better. Now you know you can get better faster just by breaking your drawing down and only working on the problem area. Then go back and do a real drawing. it wont take 10's to get better.
I would like to add to my response to #1. Actually started thinking about this at work.
Always compare your work with where you want to be. Never compare what you do today with what you did yesterday. The idea is to get better by comparison. Where you where yesterday no longer matters. Progression is never achieved by looking behind you. Looking behind you may reinforce bad habits.
That list of horrors doesn't just come from folks on line. It comes from teachers and people with 'how to do art' youtube channels.
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Jade, In my last thread you asked about color shift in oils paints. Came across a video on Titanium White. Apparently titanium will yellow if it's not exposed to natural light. However if it does yellow all you have to do is expose it to a window without direct sun light. In a few hours it turns back white. It's like the blue sky will bleach it.
Nothing yet to show. Just a gab thread. I've had two value studies that almost worked!!! :) After doing this for a bit its becoming easier to see value ( the shade of the color ) instead of just the color. Even better is I'm to the point where when the value is wrong I see it right away. Judging one color to the next has gotten me a lot farther than I was. However I think I'm hitting a wall. So I'll continue doing value studies. Because just how much fun could anyone possibly have by painting seven stripes of color by value? Ya, that's about the jest of it. Like the brush control exercises I continue to do. Boring, tedious and mind numbing. Am I getting better because of it. Yes. Anyway, back to the wall. Going to do partial painting studies. Try to copy very small sections of actual paintings. Choosing these small sections for their value and contrast. then judging my copy both by how well it matches what I'm looking at. And how well the color values are working with each other. Even if the colors are off. Value, not color, is what makes a painting.
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I know, still noting to show isn't exactly what everyone wants to see. Just another gab post.
Did a few things this week. First a few partial painting studies. You know your going tin the wrong direction when you pay more attention at what your doing instead of what your trying to copy. :) Did learn two important things. Both the halation effect and blurred shadows have to be done subtle or they start looking like lines around objects. Disappearing edges is still something I'll need to work on. And learned this by trial and error. Because the sky in a landscape is the main source of light it is also used as the light effect color. This has made doing a value study with landscapes to easy. If i want something lighter that looks like it belongs in the painting all I have to do is add the sky color to it. Going to switch gears and start a new set of value studies. I'll be mixing a color. Then mix a second color and try to match the value to the first. The idea is to be able to look at both colors in black and white and have them appear as one shade. Why? Because value is everything in art.
Also bit the bullet and got a hand full of regular oil paints. I've read and heard over and over again how water soluble oils handle differently. How there is a learning curve if you switch from regular oils to WSO. Ya, ya, ya, over and over. So? Huge difference? Yep, they were right. Will this help me? Nope. In reality no it wont. Still need to learn how to use them. There is a real difference in the way these two oil paints handle. Learning to push and pull things around with paint will be a lot easier.
And bit another bullet. Joined 'Croquis Cafe'. Been using what I can find on line. 99% of them fit, chiselled and perfect shape. What the cafe offers is real people. All adult ages and shapes. Going to go full into figure drawings. Still need to find a good way to put animal heads and tails on these bodies. Thinking of using figurines. I'll be able set them up to have the same lighting angle as the body. Be scouring yard sales and resale shops.
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Trying a more complex value study. In four colors. Painted with a single size one filbert. There's plenty wrong with this. Values are a lot harder to keep right when your dealing with a more complex scene. Glad i did all the value studies before this one. It could have looked a lot worst. :) The most glaring mistake is the hill side in the back needed to be a slightly lighter shade. There's no need for me to fix this. Do it and get to the next one. Brush work is still wonky too. Getting better.
https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_1632.jpg (https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_1632.jpg)
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Starting my second attempt at this kind of value study. Yes. The cut to size piece of paper is stuck right to the undried first study. Choosing to do a composition slightly harder than the first.
And now for some reasoning. Hoping to make better artists in the fandom.
I'm not keeping any of this stuff. These are studies. You would never ask someone learning a musical instrument to play like they did two months ago. OK, I realize that didn't make much sense. Stick with me, it will. Just as you learn to do things right you also learn to make mistakes. It's inevitable. It's a part of learning. Looking back enforces those mistakes. Everyone is narcissistic. We all look for things we do right. And we all can get into the habit of justifying the things we do wrong. Always compare where you are to where you want to be. Piano players always listen to players better than they are. Guitar players always listen to people who play better than they do. That's why it only takes a few years to get good at playing a musical instrument. And ten years to get good at art. Let's break this down even farther. Yes I could have taken the time to fix the mistakes in my first study. Let me tell you why that is a horrible idea. I'll use what I see on line. Paint, fiddle, fiddle fiddle fiddle and then paint. Then fiddle and fiddle and fiddle. The best excuse I've heard. "You always have to adjust your values to the values you add to your painting." Let's slap the cold hard filter of reality over that statement. "Don't worry about putting down the right values in the first place. You can always spend hours of your life correcting your mistakes." Why would anyone fall for this? If I'm playing the guitar in front of an audience and make a mistake that mistake is over with. I can't stop playing and say, " I'm going to play that part over until I get it right. And your are all going to listen to me doing it." Everyone from Da Vinci to Van Gogh. One brush stroke and done. Fix the small stuff. Because it happens to everyone. Don't waste your time learning to fix your mistakes. Learn not to do them.
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/236872358_1171366773374068_4339783569629650291_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=b9115d&_nc_ohc=iOw7vvBAW4gAX_6Jqym&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=c37c83ef1574379022296c1fc1313089&oe=61401B48 (https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/236872358_1171366773374068_4339783569629650291_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=b9115d&_nc_ohc=iOw7vvBAW4gAX_6Jqym&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=c37c83ef1574379022296c1fc1313089&oe=61401B48)
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Because I had to. There are still mistakes. Like what happened to the road?? Chimney is two light and shadows in the midground are two dark. And wonky perspectives.
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/235639754_1171499966694082_647655283138082687_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=825194&_nc_ohc=y0c5ecb207oAX_g_i_9&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=e39ddba04970a344e90194e85a62bf0f&oe=6140A24E (https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/235639754_1171499966694082_647655283138082687_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=825194&_nc_ohc=y0c5ecb207oAX_g_i_9&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=e39ddba04970a344e90194e85a62bf0f&oe=6140A24E)
edited to get a closer looking pic.
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With all that going on I'm starting up figure drawing. Focusing on the torso, legs and hands. Breaking it down to focus more on the size comparisons. I know there's a thousand different ways to approach figure drawing. From things that actually work to the wacky. Don't do the head size thing. in the end all your figures will end up looking the same size. Right now I'm using the same drawing technique I did from the start. Drawing what i see by judging angles and size from what's already on the paper. So I don't have a bunch of circles, triangles, squares and squiggly lines to erase. No this is not the easiest way of doing this. Will have to put a disclaimer here. Yes. I can already draw. If your just starting out use the circles, squares and squiggly lines. Treat these like the paper you learned to do your ABC's on. The dotted line between two wide lines. You never went back to using that. Once you get the basic idea of the actual size and angles in a figure never go back to use those crutches again.
Some tips I've learned that's helped me. Most common mistakes. Head's to big. Hands way to small. Legs two short.
Here's an exorcise. Doesn't matter what your working on. Looking at a reference pic and draw it the best you can. Choose one thing that's wrong. Doesn't matter how many mistakes were made. Just choose one. Delete or cover up your first attempt. Draw it again focusing on correcting that one mistake. Keep dong this. Draw, compare, delete. Until that one mistake is fixed. Now choose the next thing that needs working. Do the very same thing again. Draw, compare, delete. Always compare your drawing to where you want to be. What you drew earlier does not matter. You will get better faster by always looking ahead. We are all nostalgic. If you want to keep your first attempt then do so. But only look back once you are where you wan to be. Because we are also complacent and easily justify ourselves.
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Sorry. Nothing to show again. This is a following what I preach thread. Was getting into my next landscape value study and stopped. Tossed my already mixed paints and walked away from it. I found myself doing the same mistake over again. They are not really mistakes. Just not the type of art I want to create. I know that needs some clarification. So here we go. In modern 'alla prima' style art they follow the rules of angles and subsequent values to the T. We are talking abstract or impressionism paining. I don't have any desire to paint that way. The laws of subsequent values state the sky is the brightest plane of the painting. This works for that style of art. In the art and style I want to mimic the sun is the brightest thing and what ever it's shining on is brighter than the sky. Just as it is in real life. Both the intensity of shadows and lights do follow the laws. Just add the sun to the equation. So from this point on I'm doing two things. Continuing my figure drawing studies. And now I'll be making 5x6 study copies of the painting style I like. To see what I'm looking at when I paint do a search for 'Hudson river school of art paintings". Weird right. I don't want to be a landscape painter. Yet that's were were I put my starting point. Until I get more confident in my skills in copying the human body I have to start somewhere. Might as well be on the backgrounds. I'm interested in creating anthro characters as the main focal point. With landscape and buildings nothing more than eye candy behind them.
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Hoping to inspire you to get better wile I'm getting better. Cutting through the nonsense and the unnecessary.
Yep, another nothing to show thread. This is more about art and why art purists are morons. I'll keep this one on learning to draw. Because without this skill it's kinda hard to go on. Well, maybe not. Every hear of Johannes Vermeer? Everyone uses his painting "Girl with the pearl Earring" as a tool to prove the golden ratio is a thing. He used a device called the Camera Lucida. Wile looking threw this device he could trace out the outline and details of what he was looking at on the canvas. Then paint it. His art hangs in museums. There is another artist who used actual photos and painted over them. Don't know or remember his name. But his paintings hang in museums as well. Tracing. The good, bad and ugly.
The good for both digital and traditional artists. It a great tool to use to learn about how color interacts. The color of light and shadow. Learning color harmony, value and all the rest of what color theory has to offer. Get right into it without using something wonky to work with. Using a device like the camera lucida allows you to set up your composition. Draw it out and begin working. Yes. There is a digital version of this tool.
The bad for both digital and traditional artists. Don't have to talk about stolen art. Just don't do it. Without having something to trace your out of luck. Even using the camera lucida you would still need something to trace out to have something to draw.
The ugly truth about tracing. You will never learn to draw on your own. Without this skill you will limited what you can create.
So is tracing art? Yes. Or there would not be paintings of tracing hanging in museums. Art purists are morons.
Traditional art techniques for both digital and conventional artists.
Drawing out your composition. If your studying art like me you have heard this before. " In order to draw correctly you need to learn to draw vertically. With your arm out in front of you and holding the tool at an angle." OK folks. This is not only a waste of time but it's not even historically correct. If you can already draw with a pencil on paper you have all the drawing skill you need. This re learning to draw is a total waste of time. And in the end will do nothing for you. Ever hear of Leonardo De vinci? There is a long list of names I could add here as well. The idea for the painting was drawn out first on paper. By holding a device just like you and I hold a pencil. Then transferred to the painting surface. There were two transfer method. Both would take to long to explain. So here's a modern video with all you need to know. Step three on this video is one of the exact methods used by historical painters. Only they used a pointed stylist. Not a pencil to transfer the drawing. So they wouldn't obscure the original drawing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJU0IEaDSRc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJU0IEaDSRc)
I honest believe that this total waste of time was developed to keep people in art schools longer. Drawing loosely translates to. "We are going to teach you to use as many unnecessary muscles as possible. Making this technique as hard to learn as humanly possible. And change the word sloppy into loosely so you feel better about it." Don't waste your time.
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Thought it would be better to post proof of old art techniques. Ya, I know "Great, Another post with no art. What are you thinking???" Showing my bad art isn't going to inspire anyone. However posting to prove what I said is the truth will. The link below is a video on the documented history of the use of drawing devices. The Camera Obscura predates the Camera Lucita. So in truth I was wrong about what tracing device Vermeer used. However it's still tracing. And his art is still hanging in museums. It's a bit long winded. He uses historical documents to prove a point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvOGoMol5m4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvOGoMol5m4)
Please note I'm not promoting tracing only. Learning to draw will allow you to be more creative and expand your art. Also please keep in mind you will not learn to draw by tracing.
The vid link below is from the same person. He demonstrates from historical documentation the act of tracing a drawing onto a paint substrate. Just like the link i used but whit historical tools used bu the same people who's paintings are hanging in museums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDACNcHkt8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDACNcHkt8)
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WOW, OK I know it's been forever and a day. Not cat fishing, just not being able to paint as much as I want. Not to mention I'm trying to learn this on my own. Shifting through a lot of bad advice. Plus family, physical and other things keep cropping up. So guess it's best to say what I've been up to and where I'm going.
Before i go any farther I want to say something. Positive I'm going to make some of you angry. To bad. A great example of how so many of you would benefit to take so little effort to making your art better. Here's something I've seen recently. A blue green dragon on a blue and green background. A good amount of skill went into drawing this dragon. Really nice shading and colors that made up the dragon. No effort was made what so ever to make over all art look good. The dragon would have looked better on a white background. Simply put the over all art was bad. Even the simplest basics of color theory would have made this art better. All the effort put into making this dragon was a waste of time. Cartoon? Nope. Even cartoons use color theory to make their characters stand out. Someone could have put half the effort in that dragon. Painted the background using color theory and contrast. No mater how much effort was put in the first dragon the second would look 100 time better. The furry fandom is full of bad art.
So this is what I've been up to and where I'm going.
Value studies. I've said it before and i'll say it again. A gray scale is a waste of time. Doing a black and white value study based on the values of the colors seen in the objects or scene is how to do it right. Basing your value choices on a predetermined scale is like pouring milk into a bowl of cereal and expecting to learn how to cook a stake. Gray scale studies are like the scales in music. Once learned you don't have to practice them over and over again. Time to move on to color.
Color value matching. Every time you turn around your going to hear "value is more important than color. If the value is right the color could be wrong and it will still look good." That's all fine. But no one has any lessons or techniques to get good at this. So I had to come up with something I could do. These are the two exercises I did to make this happen.
Matching the value of three different mixed colors. The idea is to train your eyes to see the value ( how light or dark a color is ) instead of the color itself. This was mind boggling, frustrating and made me want to pull my hair out hard. But after some real effort I'm to the point where I can get it right most of the time. I mix three different colors. Then I view them using my camera in black and white. If they all look like the same shade of gray I did it right.
Mixing colors to make a nine part value scale from dark to light. Thought matching three colors was hard? Probably a lot easier on a computer. Mixing paint and judging how light or dark it is compared to what you've already mixed is ruff. I'll post soon on how to do this exercise.
Where am I going. Master studies. Going to start by painting portions of paintings done by artists I like. Figuring out how they were done. The techniques and brush work used. Learn as much from what they did before I make messes of my own.
Yes, I still wipe off or toss everything I've done so far. Not going to fall into the trap of justifying my mistakes. Yes I still stand by science and say the 10.000 hour thing is proven wrong. It's proven learning the basics, breaking things down and learning things in segments, taking the time to get good at what your bad at, is the right way of learning art.
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If you haven't read the above post read it first. Posted twice in one day.
My own life has proven to me the 10.000 hour belief is bad advice. I went from starting the guitar to playing jazz in three years. I would have had to play 9+ hours a day. It's not the time. It's the effort that counts.
Explanation of 'color value'. The value of a color is how light or dark the color is. Viewing a photo in black and white will show the values of each color in that photo.
All three exercises. Yep, three. The first one you should get good at is the black and white nine step gray scale. I got this off the web. Not sure if the youtube channel I got from is the original creator. Need to give credit so the link below is to the youtube video that started all of this. This exercise is the same as the Psycho Scale Exercise but in black and white only. Get good at this before starting the color exercises. Great way to start training your eyes to see value.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WowABJEpm1c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WowABJEpm1c)
An explanation of the two exercises I came up with and the rules to follow. Because they're mine I get to name them. Psycho is kind of short for psychedelic. And very close to how your going to feel hours into these exercises. You will need a camera or phone camera that can be set on gray scale to do these exercises.
Psycho squares. Three colors of matching value. Goal. To mix thee different colors with matching values. When viewed in gray scale they appear as one shade of gray.
Any three different colors. As light or dark as you want to make them. First mix your main color. Then mix second color and judge by eye if it's value is the same as your first. Check this with your camera on gray scale. If the two values don't match judge them again with your eyes and try to see the difference in value. Change the second mixed color according to difference and judge it by eye again. Then with the camera. Repeat these steps until you get the first two colors right. Then mix a third and repeat the process all over again. Get to the point where you can mix two of the three right judging with your eyes and all three extremely close in value the first time before starting on the second exercise.
Some encouragement. When I started this I would spend twenty or more minutes judging and remixing the second color alone. Why do this? Every artist I've seen on Youtube that gets thousands for each painting says the very same thing. "Value is more important than color. " Seeing the value instead of the color is that important.
Psycho Scale Exercise.
Make a nine step scale from the dark to light using mixed colors. Important. Before you do either of these exercises with color get good at this exercise using only black and white paint. The rules and procedure are basically the same
This exercise uses three different scales. A three spot, five spot and nine spot scale. Each of these scales is depended on the colors you mix for the smaller scale before it. Mix a different color for each square. An example. From dark to light. Red, blue yellow, green, orange, purple, gray, yellow, green. Never use the same color next to each other. Mix each color individually. Never use two of your mixed colors to make an in-between color.
Start my marking out all three scales. I keep mine around a half inch square for each color spot.
Starting with the tree spot. Mix your darkest color. Now mix the lightest. Pint the darkest color in the first square of each scale. Paint the lightest color in the last square of each scale. Now mix a new color that, to your eyes is directly in the middle of the values of the dark and light color. Try your best to get this right by eye alone. Now use your camera to judge your results. If you are positive this value is directly in the middle of the other two paint it in the middle square of the three spot. The third square in the five spot and the fifth in the nine spot.
The five spot.
The idea is to mix the two remaining values. Each one directly in the middle of the values of the ones around them. First judging by eye and then with the camera. You will instantly know if this exercise is a failure. All three scales depend solely on the middle color of the first three. The exercise is a failure if all five values in the fiver spot are not evenly spaced when viewed in gray scale. Do not go past this until you get this extremely close or right without using the camera to judge. OK, you can go ahead and fill out what is possible in the nine spot for practice.
The nine spot.
Paint the value in the second square of the five spot into the third square of the nine spot. The value on the fourth square goes into the seventh slot of the nine slot square. Mix the remaining colors. Use the camera to help at first. But by this time you should be good enough at seeing values to get it very close by eye.
Is this possible to do? Yes it is. Why put this much effort into it? Because your art is worth it. Spending perhaps a hundred hours or more on this is far better than nine thousand on slop. Learning color theory, contrast, composition and all the rest are easily found on the web. All these techniques are far easier to put into practice once you learn to see values. If value is more important than caller than this skill should be learned first.
Something that will also help. Once you got good at a nine spot black and white value scale try painting in black and white. Base your exercise on something in full color. Do this exercise without viewing the photo/object in black and white. Then judge your results by viewing your work and what you based it on in black and white.
Something else that will help speed up your progress. Do not keep any of your exercises. Do not look back at them. Do not compare what you do now to then. We all justify our actions. Good and bad. It's automatic. It will put the brakes on you getting better. Remember what you did right and how you got there. Thinking about what you did right and the actions you took to get there is how you train your brain. And it's scientifically proven to be just as effective as doing the actions.
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see if this works. It's a learning thing. Trial and error. And I took error into a whole new realm. What's really got my goat is I knew not to do what I did. Not even going to call it a beginner's mistake. Nope, just plain dumb on my part. But I did learn something from it. The two different painting techniques I want to learn do not work well when put on top of one another. The one is dragging wet paint through wet paint to create texture. The other is using colors with the same or close to the same value to create texture. Spent an hour painting the first layer. Just to spend two plus hours turning half of an exercise into what looks like clown vomit. The other thing I learned was spending all that time painting a first layer wasn't necessary if I want to use either of the other techniques. Now I'm going to spend time scraping half of this exercise off and starting that section over. Working on both texture and shadow color. The area I turned to clown vomit is supposed to be wood planks. Still have a stone and brick wall to play with. Along with a cobbled street.
Push yourself. You may get more oops than Ah HA moments. Always compare yourself to where you wan to be. Never keep your mistakes. I Cant' say this enough. If your learning never keep what you did. Remember what you did right and go on. Looking back will hold you back.
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To be truthful the above posts started as an attempt to get a picture posted. Couldn't get the pic on site so I ranted instead. I'll find a way to show off my clown vomit.
Discipline.
I just got done teaching myself something. Something that any time I hear someone talk about is "One of the hardest things for an artist to learn". In all honesty I spent more than a hundred hours learning to see value instead of color. Learning to match values with color. So what am I doing now? I'm forgetting everything else I've learned or heard. Recklessly throwing paint. Instead of discipline I'm happily sliding down the other side of the mountain I just climbed. Creating more bad habits I'll have to stop before I can start up the next side. It's a proven fact that it's harder to fix bad habits than it is to learn it right the first time. Time to get serious again. Discipline. So I spent hours looking at how artist depicted painted planks of wood. Now I'm going to spend hours trying to recreate what they did. Find a tough spot? Fix it. Every time you do this the process gets faster. Don't waste any more of your time hoping you'll get it right on the next project.
A little fun fact about values
So your anthro character is majestically sanding with the scenery stretching to the horizon behind. A landscape is broken down into three sections. Background, mid and foreground. Each of these sections have their own value scale of dark, mid and light. These values depend on whether the object is upright or if it's the ground. So every upright object in the background has a different set of three values that the ground around them. The same goes for the mid ground and the foreground. None of the values in one plane can be repeated in the next. The sky has it's own set of values. Again can not be repeated. So even before you get to your majestic anthro character you have four separate sets of three values and three of one value each. Why is value so important to learn? Value is what creates form and depth in art. Now when someone see's your anthro character it will be standing out from the landscape around it.
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Time to start working on the next step. Simplifying values. Simply put breaking down everything into three values. Dark, medium and light. This is the next hard thing to learn. Because it goes against what our brain is wired to do. We see contrast in everything. When you look at the room your in you see all the contrast of that room. When you look at a single object you see all the contrast of that single object. The room disappears. What's needed to learn is to see everything but only give contrast to the single thing. The focal point of the art. Going to put the oils away for this one. Break out the acrylics. Because there's only three colors involved I can use any three. As long as they are different in value. No mixing required. And using colors instead of black and white helps train my eyes to see value instead of color. Keep that going as much as you can. Use three colors close in value for a condensed study. Or three colors that are far apart in value. Focusing on the value of the color instead of the colors themselves. Thee colors only. No matter how many object.
So my self study so far
Back and white value study.
1 seeing value instead of color.
2 match all the values using only black and white.
3 Do not use a pre made gray scale. These are a crutch that will cripple your art for life.
Values. Learn to see value instead of color.
1 mix colors to match their values.
2 Use my Psyco Scale Exercises to make value scales using different colors.
And now,
Break everything down to three values.
In truth this is where I should have started. This should have been the first thing I learned how to do. No matter how good I am at the above skills. Without knowing how to do this my art looks bad. Learning what's needed as I'm learning.
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Well, that didn't take long. Perhaps the order i learned things was right after all. It works. The hardest part is thinking of your painting in this way. Your focal point is the brightest. Has the brightest highlights. What ever is left and is still bright is the mid values. Everything else, even if it's not an actual shadow or dark aria is the dark. Easiest to explain if you look at a tree under a bright blue sky. The sky will be your light. Everything that's hit by sunlight on that tree is your mid tone. The brightest areas of your mid tone are not as bright as the sky. Everything else. Even the branches within the tree are your darks. Even the highlights on the branches within the tree are considered dark. Because it can't be brighter than the mid values. Art is not a photo. What works in a photo will not work in art.
When doing the actual piece it's the values within each of the three arias that make up the art. Keeping in mind that each area has it's own value of light. They can share the same medium and dark values. Never the same light value.
Art is now and will always have rules that can be broken. Values are an exception to this. Understanding how they work and using that knowledge will make your art sand out. Just a reminder. The 10.000 hour thing was scientifically proven wrong right after it came out. It's not the time you put into something. It's the effort, seriousness and determination that gets results. It's breaking things down. Working at what needs to be fixed until you get it right. Once it's right put it all together and find the next area that needs working. Start the process over again.
The order of learning values.
Start out by doing the black and white version of the Psycho Scale Exercise.
Do a black and white study painting. Matching every value within your subject. No mater how subtle they are.
Mix and match three different colors with the same value. No matter their chroma or hue.
Do the Psycho Scale Exercise in color.
Break down a picture into three values. Light, medium and dark.
Value is what makes art. Color gets all the credit.
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Rules can be broken. Values can't.
I've repeated the 'laws' of a landscape a few times. "There are three plains. Each has it's own set of values. The sky is always the lightest." Happy to say that's a modern rule used by plane air painters. For the other 500 years of oil painting that wasn't always the case. You see a vast sweeping vista with the sky above it all. Sunlight streaming through to strike the ground where the focal point of the painting happens to be. The focal point is as bright as the sky. And it works. Because the focal point is not touching the sky. There are darker values separating them. One of my favorite painters, Antione Bovard, painted buildings brighter than the sky. But always separated by darker values. Your focal point doesn't have to be the brightest thing in the art. Monet did that in a few of his paintings. Again because of the contrast. His focal point was in front of a bright area of the painting. However within any of these works of art the values are limited to the idea of the three value planes. light, medium and dark. This brings up the next important thing to learn. Contrast. Contrast is a tool. It's used to bring out the focal point. If one side of the focal point is bright the background behind it is dark. If the other side of the focal point is dark it's background is lighter. Or it can fade into the dark. Art does not need reality to be good. Contrast makes things stand out. This all works as long as the values within each of the three planes are correct. The brightest values of the light plain is always brighter than the brights in the mid plain. The mid plains brightest values are always brighter than the dark plain. So how does this help if your focal point happens to be a back wolf? Contrast. Keep the darkest values to your focal point. Separate your focal point form the rest of the darks with lighter values.
Yes, rules in art always have exceptions. Values don't. Color gets all the credit. Values do all the work.
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Trying a new art form I'm battling the same thing the rest of you are. Doubt is easy to overcome. All you need is determination. I'm talking about the two killers of wisdom and knowledge. Impatience and frustration. It's what kicks in when you start having trouble. Somethings not working right. Instead of stepping back and thinking about what you've already learned impatience kicks in. We go into the 'Let's try this' mode. Then there's frustration because that's not working. Impatience kicks back in. Instead of stepping back and thinking it through we try something else. Making a bigger mess. Skills learned with zero execution. This habit is what stumps us. I've done two studies. Both fell victim to 'let's try this'. Determination means this will not happen again. Recognize and stop this before it becomes a habit. When you run into a problem step back and think about it. Correct yourself if your going against what you've already learned. If it's a skill you don't have then you've found the next thing you need to learn. Recognizing when frustration leads to 'let's try this' is a skill. A skill that will keep you from making this mistake over and over again.
Yep. I made another mess. if you would like to view it the link is below. Despite it's glaring mistakes I'm going to finish it. Painting the fountain and retaining wall and adding the flowers to the garden. This will get scraped off or tossed. Going to spend some time practicing foliage and trees. I don't want to be a landscape painter. But there are times when a landscape would help tell a story.
https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/IMG_0086.jpg (https://s29608.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/IMG_0086.jpg)
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I actually like that painting Cause.
And honestly what you said about frustration and impatience being killers of wisdom, should be framed on the wall! IT'S TRUTH.
I see exactly what you described happen over and over at work.
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Thanks Jade. All I could see is what I did wrong and why it happened. Didn't finish it. Every time I looked at it all I wanted to do was correct what I did wrong. Honestly the only real way to fix it would have been to start over. Not a total loss. I learned things. About myself and my approach.
Doing value scale exercises again. Going to strengthen this skill. Also going to set up a still life box. Cardboard, black spray paint and some black material. Got plenty of things around the house I could use. Even fake grapes. And I"m continuing my body studies. Renewed my subscription to Croques Cafe. Using a brush to block in. Eventually getting away from using a pencil.
I know the style I like. I know what I want to paint. Now I need to learn to stop putting a square peg into a round hole. :D
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Every time I do something I find something that needs attention. It all boils down to two things. Discipline and observation. Honestly glad I went through all the frustration with learning values first. What I see now makes sense. Because i can see the values along with the colors. Why they work. I would be completely lost without this knowledge. Right now I'm fighting me. I need to be more disciplined in my approach. I've already learned the "hardest" thing. Now I need to learn to use it.
Things I'm working on.
Abstraction. Using the direction of the paint stroke along with vales to create the illusion of texture and 3D.
Stop putting the horse before the carriage. In my constant quest of knowledge I've learned a lot of things that I really cant use right now. Get the basics down. Then add the whistles and bells.
The responses I get from the art community really surprises me. Why should I do an entire painting when I can learn to fix what I did wrong in a two inch square? If your having trouble with eyes painting an entire face is a waste of time and materials. Keep paining eyes until you work it out. Then paint a face. This is why it takes some artists forever to get good at anything. Instead of wasting time doing what your good at spend that time working on what needs to be improved.
One very important rule in art I haven't talked a lot about is temperature. 99% of every youtube channel or thing I've read has been great advice on this subject. They all say the same thing. Some are way more in-depth. Generally stay away from anything that advertises to be easy. Color temperature is important to know. It will help you with highlights and shadows.
Now here's a fun fact.
Norman Rockwell used black and white photos for his subject matter. He didn't what to be influenced by the colors. All he needed were the values. He chose the colors he wanted. Used the values in the black and white photo as a road map for the values of the color needed. So if the photo was of a blond kid wearing a blue shirt he could paint a red haired kid wearing a green shirt.
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Still finding it hard to sit down and paint something. Did as few value studies. Struggled a few times with them. But it all came back quickly.
Today I want to talk about advice. Not going to shine a light on me. Said all I need to. I'd like to talk about the web and the type of advice you should stay away from. it doesn't matter how much you like their work. Or who they are. If you start listening to someone really pay attention to what they are saying. If it took them years to get where they are now there's a reason for it. If they are struggling or avoiding things there is a reason for it. Don't get caught up in their bad choices. Or bad advice. It's unfortunate. These well meaning artists are giving out the same bad advice that kept them struggling. Justifying their bad choices. "Taking years to finally getting it" is an excuse for never really working on it to begin with. There is a reason why some artists rise to the top quickly. It has nothing to do with talent. Everything to do with working on what they were bad it. Not letting self pride or justification get in the way of struggling to get it right. Learn what you can from their techniques. Their style. Not their mistakes. I brought this up because I just dumped another Youtube channel. Another "don't worry about it. You'll eventually get it" channel that promotes really bad advice.
and now to rant and talk about myself.
There is no such thing as natural talent. It's an excuse. A lie that creates a divide between those who are successful and the rest of us. Talent is a word that means your good at something. The word 'naturally' is a slap in the face. An insult. Treat it as an insult. Not a fact. I can say this from my own personal experiences. I have what's known as Relative Pitch. It's a step below Perfect Pitch. Basically means that if I hear a note in music I instantly know what all the rest of the notes payed after are. This is an ability. Not a talent. As a student just learning how to play did this ability help? No. I had to learn to play the guitar. The techniques, music theory, everything. Just because I could pick out a single instrument in an orchestra. Then memorize each instrument. Then play it all back in my head did not help in any way. This ability only helped me after I learned how to play those notes. After I learned how to play the guitar. Can someone be taught to do the ability I was born with? Yes. That makes me no better than any other musician out there who took the time to learn what i was born with. What i could do on the guitar is what separated me from others. It wasn't natural talent. It was the hours struggling to get things right.
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Welcome back to the everything that can go wrong has gone that way thread! I'm now doing my best to spend a good hour on painting a day. Still concentrating on techniques. The four basics I'm working on now.
Cast studies. Creating 3D forums with light and shadow. Doing this with paint and not a pencil.
Drawing. With brushes and paint.
Value. Continuing value studies. I want to be able to use complimentary colors within a field color and not change the over all value. Keeping the illusion of form intact.
And finally Master Studies. Copying paintings you like is a great way to learn how they did it.
Right now I'm concentrating on cast studies. Doing two small studies next to each other. Doing two studies allows me to see what I did on the first attempt. Then make improvements on the second. Scrape both off and start a new set. I've kept my first set but haven't looked at them sense. The difference between them are night and day. I'll give myself a month or more before I look back. Once I get to a comfortable place with these I plan on doing a different study each day.
Sorry about the delay folks. Life happens when you plan on doing something else.
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Just wanted to give everyone still reading this a link to the best book on cast studies. 'Charles Bargue and Jean-Leon Gerome: Drawing Course' . Vincent Van Gogh and John Singer Sargent studied form this book. This book is free from the Internet Archive. Or you could pay up to $70 for it on Amazon.
https://archive.org/details/C.BargueDrawingCourse/page/n1/mode/2up (https://archive.org/details/C.BargueDrawingCourse/page/n1/mode/2up)
Cast studies
Decided to have some fun. Every object is nothing more than a collection of smaller shapes. You can divide any complex object into three values of shapes. Light, mid and dark. Look at your hand. Now start picking out the three values as individual shapes. Try to make these shapes as large as possible. These shapes can be broken down into smaller shapes. The more you break these shapes down the more realistic your rendering becomes. But it all starts out with the three value shapes. I have a yearly subscription to Croquis Cafe site on Vimeo. They have a feature called 'fast sketch'. You can set the timer to 15, 30, 45 seconds. One, 2,3,5 or ten minutes for each artist pose. Made all my pose selections and set the timer for 15 seconds. Hit start. As the pictures of models flew by I chose a single body part. Arm, leg, torso, neck. Whatever caught my attention first. Instead of drawing an outline I drew the shapes that made up the area itself. I did this with a pencil. The more i did this the easier it was to find the three values that made up the over all shape. And the better I got at it. By rendering these three value shapes I was actually getting the over all shape. Without starting with an outline. Eventually slowing the timer to one minute to get larger areas of the model. Still keeping the shapes down to three values.
So I know what your asking. "Why are you using a pencil"? Fifteen seconds is just enough time to load a brush and bring it up to the canvas. And it usually takes more than one stroke with a brush to get a completed line. A 'W' with a brush takes four strokes. Compared to one stroke with a pencil. Using a brush would give me more time to think than I wanted . Working fast is a way to force yourself to see the shapes that make up the object. When I go to do the actual cast shadings I'll do that with the brush.
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I want to explain why I did this. When doing cast studies using the folds of draped material I found myself looking at the entire object. Not at the shapes that made the object up. I knew I had to break that habit. After spending some time with this I can now instantly look at any complex object and see the value shapes that make it up. Well worth the effort. Time to pick up the brush and start the cast studies all over again.
It's very important to be true to yourself when learning a new skill. Getting good information from trusted sources helps. Unfortunately for every good source on the web there are 99 total disasters. As you watch me fall on my face I hope not only to inspire you but continue to be a source of good information. I'm not above correcting myself and apologizing for being wrong.
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Reading threw this free book I learned why the original teacher chose casts and statues for these studies. Two words for my fellow furrys. 'Animal Statues'. Find pictures of them in white or marble. They have already been simplified in form. The form will be as easy to follow as a ball. If your new to this, like i am, do small areas first. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to do the entire thing at once. Do the eye, jaw, mouth or nose. Like the original studies take as much time to get both the shape and shading correct. This isn't an exercise that can be rushed.
As far as taking measurements and getting proportions the video below is the best I've found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-PWjlah7dw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-PWjlah7dw)
This guy has a unique take on painting realistic.
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An update. A place to follow my progress. And I need to move this thread to the proper section of this forum.
Still waiting for the printer cartridges to arrive.
I plan on using my thread at Wetcanvast as a blog. With pics. If you want to watch I'll be at the link below.
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/restarting-with-studies-2/ (https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/restarting-with-studies-2/)
If you can't get in with the link go to Wetcanvas/ forums / oil painting and look for a thread called Restarting with studies by wet rat.
Because this thread isn't about finished art I'll be starting a new one in the Artwork Techniques and Tutorials section of this forum.
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As promised I started a new thread in the correct forum location. So this will be my last post in this tread. Hoping to both teach and inspire you to become a better artist. Or at least be entertaining. Nothing like watching someone fall flat on their face over and over and ..... :D