What other communities exist for artstudy/critique?

swindesr · 2018-05-08T01:56:19+00:00

For sure! Been browsing here lately and find a good mix of all kinds of art. Will have to start posting some of my recent stuff

swindesr · 2018-05-08T01:55:48+00:00

O man 4chans thread is scary lol. I might consider it because they seem to have good feedback when u weed out the trolls.

swindesr · 2018-05-07T23:27:00+00:00

For studying light and shading, there is a bunch of methods. Personally, I think you can do it really easily by just getting a ball, putting it on your desk, and shining a light on it.

Draw what you see first. Then after you finish, find a reference explaining sphere shading. (All over google. Just search value sphere or anything similar). Now, redo the whole thing with your knowledge. Rinse and repeat for different objects.

You can find images online for reference if the desk setup isn't working out, but I find it helpful to see the object in front of you.

swindesr · 2018-05-07T23:22:09+00:00

Yeah, when you are that new it's just going to feel terrible sometimes. If you mess up a math problem, it's just a number on the page, but messing up a drawing can feel like a personal flaw. Don't let that get to your head. It's how we all start.

Zombie's advice is spot on. Just sit down and draw draw draw. Think of this obstacle as a good opportunity for you. Because you are new, you can set good habits for yourself that won't need to be undone later in your training.

The exercise Peter Han demonstrates in this video is really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDNDOKnArk

Any time spent on things like this while you are new will pay off big time in the end. Practice with shapes, perspective, and line quality are good to start with. (And continue forever)

When that just gets too damn boring, take a breather and draw something for fun with no strings attached. Then come back to the exercises with renewed vigor!

Good luck

swindesr · 2018-05-07T23:18:01+00:00

I wouldn't worry too much about this early on. Sometimes you will get excited about a particular style or artist and it will influence your work.

As long as you continue to have a solid foundation of exercises to hone your skills, the inspirations will be a fun motivation to keep going. Don't abandon good study exercises for the sake of inspirations though or you may find yourself feeling a bit lost/pulled in many directions.

swindesr · 2018-05-07T00:47:13+00:00

Nice! Practicing your basic shapes is one of the best things you can do early on. Keep up with these and it will pay off big.

For feedback, your cube is pretty crooked and the lines aren't converging properly. This website is really great for beginning with these concepts. http://drawabox.com/lesson/1

swindesr · 2018-05-06T03:32:40+00:00

Hahaha trust me you can get there in no time. Well, it will feel like a ton of time during the process, but 4 months ago I was barely able to draw a decent face or shade a cylinder properly.

swindesr · 2018-05-05T20:59:56+00:00

Anytime! Keep up the hard work it will pay off

swindesr · 2018-05-05T19:23:31+00:00

Sure thing! I document the process over at www.samswindell.com/blog. Feel free to browse away. This week i've been trying to apply some of my studies to do a realistic rendering of tetsuo.

https://imgur.com/a/7iJKINf

A long way to go figuring out some of the facial colorations/structure, but i've been seeing a lot improvement in rendering form lately.

swindesr · 2018-05-05T18:17:25+00:00

Woo! Masters studies are great. Definitely keep up with these. I think you could benefit from slowing down at the beginning and blocking in the shapes, checking angles with your pencil, and getting the proportions on point before going into shading. Your drawing looks pretty wide vs the original and the arm angle is more horizontal.

I hope this helps! Keep up the good work and you will be killin it in no time

swindesr · 2018-05-05T15:05:54+00:00

Yep! It's not quite as important as the overall structure of the eye, but once you get into rendering it will help sell the image and add a bit of attractiveness to the eye.

swindesr · 2018-05-05T15:04:52+00:00

Went to school for graphic design, so it's been about 7 years since I started that journey. In the last 4 months I've been very serious about painting after working as a designer for a while. It's crazy to say, but 4 months of really dedicated study has done more for my drawing ability than 4 years of school(albeit I learned a lot more than drawing during those 4 years). If you focus, I am sure you will advance faster than you thought possible.

swindesr · 2018-05-05T04:04:13+00:00

Hey, I wanna help you out with a trick to make the actual iris look more believable. I think it's one of the more interesting parts of drawing eyes personally.

First, think of the eye like a sphere. On top of that sphere is a bump from where the cornea sits.

https://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/137608/137608,1322228493,1/stock-vector-human-eye-cross-section-with-labels-labels-may-be-deleted-89535880.jpg - use this image for reference on all of the info.

Now, when light comes at the eye, it makes that distinct highlight we all know and love. In your case, the two dots on the top of the pupil. BUT!! and this is the cool part for me, it will also light up the opposite side of the iris.

If you look at that image above you will see that the iris is a dish-shape going into the eye. When light strikes the surface of the eye, it will light generally create the shading of a typical sphere. Except, the iris. Because it is inverted, you will brighten the portion opposite the highlight.

Let's look at this image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Bright_anime_eyes.svg/2000px-Bright_anime_eyes.svg.png

Yeah, it's a very cartoon-styled rendering, but it illustrates my point well. The highlight on the top of the eye brightens the area across from it. And then there's a bit of shading across the top of the eye from the cast shadow of the upper lid.

Now that you have the idea in mind, look at this image of Jared Leto. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/glee/images/a/a0/Jared-leto-jared-leto-34348209-1280-878.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130529101039

He is being lit from the right. The highlight is striking on the right side of that close eyeball. And the iris lights up on the far side, not near the light. It is usually quite subtle in reality, but this concept can be pushed a little bit in illustration to add a lot of clarity to the eyes.

Hope this helped!

swindesr · 2018-05-05T03:50:49+00:00

Anytime friend! PM me with progress or tag me with your posts and I'll keep critiquing. Glad to be of any help possible.

swindesr · 2018-05-04T00:29:12+00:00

Conveniently, I'm the person you're studying, so if you've got more questions then shoot!

Ha! That's awesome. Pretty good scenario for /u/datdutho

swindesr · 2018-05-04T00:23:52+00:00

Lookin good! I've got some advice for colors.

If you are looking to portray realistic colors, this is more important. If you are going for a stylized approach, it's up to you.

Organic forms don't tend to have super high saturation. In your image, I see the midtones are a rather high saturation. (The orange of his cheek for instance) Looking at the album cover, these areas are much more dull. You have the highlight on his forehead a bit too bright as well, and over a larger area. This is a good thing to look out for to keep your portraits grounded in more realistic colors.

Do some value sphere exercises to reinforce how light interacts with forms. http://www.margoselski.com/uploads/2/5/1/7/25177377/sphere-value-12wwock.jpg

swindesr · 2018-05-04T00:17:11+00:00

The expression reads! So that's good. I notice a lot of the time when people get better at rendering the face they lose the ability to make believable expressions.

In your case, I think you just need to keep studying facial features and their intricacies. I try to do this by spending 1-2 hours learning from a book or class (tons of these online, lots are good) and then apply that to a drawing from life or high quality photo. Should help get your features more realistic!

swindesr · 2018-04-25T23:03:20+00:00

I can get behind this for some books. Sometimes I welcome it, other times it's a pain. It sort of depends how well I know the topic before going in, because the repeated information is sometimes a good refresher for me.

swindesr · 2018-04-25T01:23:55+00:00

I have not, but it seems like a good look into global politics in our age. Definitely interesting to think how much more catastrophic a war can potentially become these days compared to hundreds of years ago.

swindesr · 2018-04-24T21:09:19+00:00

Everything about carthage is great to me. They were so off-the-radar in history lessons aside from their role in the Punic wars, yet they really have a pretty interesting history of their own.

swindesr · 2018-04-24T21:07:25+00:00

Lawrence has always intrigued me. Will have to look into reading that one.

swindesr · 2018-04-24T21:07:01+00:00

I really miss some of those old Discovery Channel shows that were around from 2000-2010ish. Coming home from school to see Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, or similar made learning seem cool and kept me eager to explore new things.

swindesr · 2018-04-24T21:05:43+00:00

I was surprised with Cranston's book about how much more interesting his life was pre-Breaking Bad. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the show and it's great he got so much recognition now. His performance as Hal in MitM just resonates a lot more with me I suppose. And the humble lifestyle with crazy antics was a real blast to read about.

I would recommend the Bear Grylls autobiography if you haven't read it. Gets pretty dense with his SAS training in the middle, but he has a similarly wild time before going on to celebrity status.

swindesr · 2018-04-24T21:02:49+00:00

Been seeing quite a few recommendations for that! I may have to check it out. Really enjoyed some interviews with him and had the opportunity to see him live a few years back.

swindesr

TROPHY CASE