Part 01:
Part 02:
MAC
Mark McDOnnell: Warming Up (Trust me . . . it's important)!
A two-part video on the importance of warming up and why it's important in the morning, in front of a model or from behind your desk.
Part 01:
Part 02:
MAC
Part 01:
Part 02:
MAC
Louie del Carmen: Rhythm and Spacing
I hope you find this informative and useful. It's rather basic and straightforward but It's one of the more fun aspects of composition.
David Colman: Design From Life 2 figure Composition
Here are two parts of a demo on Character Design from Life:Using the Public as Inspiration (2 Figure Composition)
Florian Satzinger: Picking Colours And Form
You can't beat good source material: I picked not only the colours but also the shape from that wooden sculpture for the pack monster.
Because Jack and Katie were asking: I just used one of those common brushes which come with Photoshop CS4...
Photo: Wikimedia
Btw, here's another (older) piece about the same issue... about picking colours, shape and inspiration.
Mark McDonnell: The Importance of a Good Silhouette
The importance of a good and readable silhouette is of extreme importance no matter in it's simplest basic forms or in the complexity of a highly illustrated visual development piece! A clear readable silhouette will allow you to speak without words and to answer anyones questions . . . even if you're not in the same room.
But where does it come from and why is this so effective?
MAC
But where does it come from and why is this so effective?
MAC
Rad Sechrist: What is drawing?
I'm constantly adapting and learning, but this is how I think about drawing right now. This information goes all the way into rendering with light and shadow. All the shadow shapes must be designed well and reinforce the direction with overlap.
Sam: Lights and Shadow
Shadow comes in two forms, form shadows and cast shadows. I talked about form shadowing in my last post, referring to the way light darkens around the form and finally terminates when the forms turn away from the light. That's a simple explanation, but the location of the terminus and the way the light falls off depends heavily on the light source.
Cast shadows are caused because photons striking one object (and being absorbed or deflected) necessarily can't pass through that object. So if you can trace a line through space from the light source to the edges of the object, you'll know exactly the shape of the shadow being cast onto objects behind it. Again, that's an overly simple explanation because like form shadows, cast shadows depend a lot on the light source.
So let's look at how light sources affect form shadows and cast shadows. For most lighting schemes, you will use one of three light types: Spotlights or distant sources, nearby sources, and large or diffuse sources.
Spotlights, Sunlight, and Distant Sources
These lights give you soft-edged form shadows but hard-edged cast shadows, because the photons are essentially flying parallel because of the distance from the source. Remember to think in three dimensions to work out where the shadows fall!
Nearby Sources
As light sources approach an object, the cast shadow grows in size and the terminator approaches the light source (to the point where the planes on the object are parallel to the photons travelling from the light). Remember that any other objects around the light will have a different center light location and terminator. If the light source is small then the cast shadow will be hard-edged. This is the hardest light source to paint!
Large or Diffuse Sources:
The larger the light source is (relative to the object) the more the terminator moves away from the light source and the softer-edged the shadow becomes. This is because A) light radiates in every direction from everywhere on the source and B) only portions of the light source are effective as you approach the area behind the object, since the object is blocking photons from getting through to that area.
Finally, remember that cast shadows aren't black---they're filled with light from the rest of the environment. Sometimes in complex lighting situations, I figure out what the object looks like under the main light source before I paint in the main source, and that helps my cast shadows feel more true to the scene.
Cast shadows are caused because photons striking one object (and being absorbed or deflected) necessarily can't pass through that object. So if you can trace a line through space from the light source to the edges of the object, you'll know exactly the shape of the shadow being cast onto objects behind it. Again, that's an overly simple explanation because like form shadows, cast shadows depend a lot on the light source.
So let's look at how light sources affect form shadows and cast shadows. For most lighting schemes, you will use one of three light types: Spotlights or distant sources, nearby sources, and large or diffuse sources.
Spotlights, Sunlight, and Distant Sources
These lights give you soft-edged form shadows but hard-edged cast shadows, because the photons are essentially flying parallel because of the distance from the source. Remember to think in three dimensions to work out where the shadows fall!
Nearby Sources
As light sources approach an object, the cast shadow grows in size and the terminator approaches the light source (to the point where the planes on the object are parallel to the photons travelling from the light). Remember that any other objects around the light will have a different center light location and terminator. If the light source is small then the cast shadow will be hard-edged. This is the hardest light source to paint!
Large or Diffuse Sources:
The larger the light source is (relative to the object) the more the terminator moves away from the light source and the softer-edged the shadow becomes. This is because A) light radiates in every direction from everywhere on the source and B) only portions of the light source are effective as you approach the area behind the object, since the object is blocking photons from getting through to that area.
Finally, remember that cast shadows aren't black---they're filled with light from the rest of the environment. Sometimes in complex lighting situations, I figure out what the object looks like under the main light source before I paint in the main source, and that helps my cast shadows feel more true to the scene.
Florian: Thumbnail Drawing
Update: I love playing around with drawings - in this case I added a sort of living vehicle. In the next post I will discuss the clean-up and colouring process of this piece... see you then! Btw, I declare this very critter to be my official "art center character". I will use this character for all of my future "art center shows" in various ways...
Photo: Wikimedia
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Here's the original post:
A small scratchy sketch can work like a road map to your final drawing...
Sam: Lambertian Reflection
A lot of aspiring painters have a hard time with accurate rendering, whether painting from life or just out of their head. So my first few posts will address some key properties of light and surface.
Some people seem to get this stuff intuitively. I'm not one of those people, so I often have to figure things out. One thing I've found that helps is working like a 3-d rendering program: thinking 3-dimensionally, rendering effects in passes, and in general isolating problems to deal with them separately.
So let's start with Lambertian Reflection, which is when a surface reflects light in a way that each part of the surface looks the same from every angle.
I purposefully used an ambiguous shape here, because what's important about this way of thinking is that you can solve literally any form in this way. In the next few posts, I'll talk about different light sources, and then how this line of thinking applies to shadows and reflections.
Some people seem to get this stuff intuitively. I'm not one of those people, so I often have to figure things out. One thing I've found that helps is working like a 3-d rendering program: thinking 3-dimensionally, rendering effects in passes, and in general isolating problems to deal with them separately.
So let's start with Lambertian Reflection, which is when a surface reflects light in a way that each part of the surface looks the same from every angle.
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