Dario Mekler
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Illustration artist and graphic designer
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Dario Mekler
•
3yr
added comment inHelp fixing painting appreciated
I think the level of rendering and your technique work in general. The problem is in the composition, the disposition of shapes, It needs more variation: Different sizes and angles for the heads. Different levels of detail and contrast. For example, you could soften the water´s edge to lighten the contrast between it and the background.
Tobias Höglund
3yr
Thanks for pointing that out, makes sense. I need to learn planning my paintings better.
Dario Mekler
•
3yr
The drawings are very good anatomically and proportionally. I might add one more thing (I already see a couple of good advice comments) If you want to avoid the stylised look you shouldnt make the line the principal source of contrast. Yuo can still use the contour line but try to build the sharper contrasts in the mass shadows of the face for example. In the horse drawing I see the contour line being darker than the patches of shadow in the body and that flattens the drawing.
Thanks a lot! that makes sense, I will consider next time the balance between line weight "inside" the drawing vs the contours. Cheers!
Dario Mekler
•
3yr
The shapes and the character design are really interesting, moreso if you didnt use a reference. I dont see problems with the color scheme. What you really should check out is the relationship of contrast. I would say that is the case 90% of the time when a composition isnt working. Leave your main contrast for your center of interest (I would guess her face, and secondary her hands) and then design a hierarchy of diminishing contrasts for the rest of the details. I attach an untidy overpainting, but hope it illustrates my point. Hope this helps.
Yeah I definitely see your point! It makes a lot of sense, I think that would give the piece a more 3d sense to it and help with lightening, Thank you!
John Guy
•
3yr
I've been trying to figure out how to study composition and how to teach it in my classes. It's a tough one because it is so subjective. I don't want to tell my students that there are 'right' and 'wrong' ways to compose an image.
I like to start with a goal then work backwards. What does mastery of composition look like? What can an artist do when they've mastered composition that they could not do without that knowledge and skills? Unfortunately I don't have an answer for those questions yet. I still have much research and thinking to do.
What I have been doing is taking a logical approach and trying to come up with a mental framework for understanding composition. The first step is defining composition. I've defined it as: "The arrangement of visual elements of art in order to communicate in a clear and satisfying way." The next question that follows logically from that is 'what are the elements of visual art.' For that I'm using line, shape, value, color and proportion. How can I arrange them in order to communicate in a clear and satisfying way? Clarity and satisfaction are both very subjective, so there is no easy answer there. What are my options for how to arrange them? They are pretty much infinite so I need some sort of principles or categories to organize how to organize them. Based on my research and thinking on the subject, I've come up with the principles of emphasis, contrast vs harmony, repetition, rhythm, balance, and unity. Now I can look at how each element can be arranged by each principle. I did this a couple months ago and wrote out this whole logical framework. It's about 40 pages with small illustrations to test out each point. I think it's helped me but its just the beginning. I need to understand how to put it into practice to make my art better and how to teach it in a way my students can apply it. I'd be happy to share this writing with anybody who's interested. I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on this idea.
As I see it, composition is not that subjective. For example the principle of contrast is pretty much universal. We evolved to perceive it. The greater part of humanity will know where to look at if they see a black dot in a white piece of paper. You can control that. Contrast of shapes and sizes works in the same way.
Dario Mekler
•
3yr
This is a great effort. You surely seem motivated. Gesture is something difficult to grasp without some fundamentals of the body first. In my opinion you should focus first in the relationship between the torso and the hip bone. The so called "bean". You have some proko videos refering to this concept. Leave the extremities aside for this task, at least until you feel comfortable with just the core of the body : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqxPHew5bGQ hope it helps.
Well, the route I decided to follow is a two and a half year syllabus put together by someone in reddit, which was mentioned on the Draftsmen podcast (2nd season, one of the first 5 episodes I think). The very first part is the Proko Figure Drawing Fundamentals course, which has a free version on youtube. I think I'll dedicate this week to draw gesture, then another week to the bean, one to the robo bean and one for the rest, before moving on to the next part of the course.
I do not say this as a dismissal of your advice, it's just that I'm not yet knowledgeable enough to know where I oughta go, so I'd rather stick to one route.
Hi ! I thinks that the way to go, im studying like that as well, from the figures i believe you're using Sketch Daily right? i liked the sketches a lot man! If i can share some tip that i do, i normally draw the chest then a circle as the lower part, then as lines for the limbs before putting some shape, i think that helps to visualize the figures.
Dario Mekler
•
4yr
Some Illustrations done in graphite pencil and digital colorization.
Cuzco - Lobster Siren- Systems of the World
Dario Mekler
•
4yr
Congrats, Its a really cool design. But I would say most of the details you carefully added in there are kind of lost due to low contrast. Its really difficult to appreciate them. I think you should add some lighter patches of tone in there so as to give the eye something to hold on. Some middle values to contrast with the darker ones.
@afeegorr
•
4yr
Asked for help
Hi Jon and hi everyone, totally excited about this art community thing. I really struggle with color, value and rendering to a specific level. Any advice, Tipp, Tutorial or whatever are totally welcome, please help, kiss kiss and much love!
You should pay attention not to the values in itself but to the relationship between them. This is called Contrast. An image is a map of contrasts where each shape has an asigned value. The eye of the seer will go where the sharper contrasts are first and then notice the softer ones in declining order. In narrative imagemaking the rule is that the main contrast should be in the center of narration because thats where the eye will go first. In the coffeemaker illustration your main contrast should be in her hands preparing the machine, no other contrast should overpower that one. In the second image your main contrast should be wherever you want to center attention. My guess would be his face, but it could also be his shirt for example. It depends on your intention.
Edit: I added the overpainted image. I softened contrasts in the whole image and enhanced the relation between her face, the border of her shirt and the coffee.
Dario Mekler
•
4yr
The reason leaves are guiding away from the beatle is because of contrast. Eyes tend to follow naturally the sharper contrasts first. In this image the dark tone of the leaves creates an extreme contrast with the light tone of the paper. On the contrary the light tone of the beetle creates a softer contrast agains the tone of the paper. To solve this you could make the surrounding space to the beetle darker so the yellow pops up more. Or you could soften the tone of the leaves so it resembles the one of the background. Hope it helps.
