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Jason Arizona
added comment in25 Clouds (2/2)
11mo
21. First off, let me say, while you may have unintentionally deviated from the reference in terms of color, Id say that the values are more than likely spot on, and the colors you did pick are very pretty. My issue with this one is that the brushwork and shapes seem a bit... unfocused, for lack of a better word. There isn't a logic to which edges are hard and soft, and why in the lights. In the darks, the soft and lost edges make sense, but in the lights, the mismanaged edges make it more difficult to discern the clouds' form.
22. Apply the same praising of values to this one. I think, and I could be wrong here, that you, knowing that the light families were the focus of the painting, laid in the darks with a big, soft, probably round brush, and then used smaller and finer brushes to paint the light families. This is a good approach, but the shapes feel, again, unfocused. The shapes don't feel designed, but more circumstantial. There's no real rhythm to it. The big light shape in the center of the canvas doesn't feel like an intentional big ol' light shape, but rather a bunch of tiny shapes glued together. Also, the cloud in the upper right hand corner seems to be lit from a different, direction for some reason?
23. Again, values good, seemingly unintentional scribbly brushwork could be improved. As a guy who works in digital, the thing that sticks out to me is the odd yellow highlight. Now, don't get me wrong, yellow in a cloud is perfectly fine, but the problem is that the apparent value seems to darken where the yellow hits. I imagine you took a yellow colored brush with a layer modifier attached (not sure which one) and painted it to indicate some warm light hitting the very top of the cloud. However, in effect, the yellow comes off as cold. (For reference, a warm yellow has more of an orange tint, while cold yellow has more of a greenish tint.) In the future, I'd recommend a brush set to overlay for that purpose, or using a warm off white, with a sort of reddish pink as a halftone.
24. The clouds in this one are pretty darn good. Values are solid, colors are harmonious, brushwork seems intentional. I think you could have gotten away with exaggerating the darkness of the foreground to draw attention to the clouds, but that's more of a composition thing and not a study thing. The other far more major problem is that the clouds are lit from the wrong angle. They're supposed to be lit from behind, if they're in front of the sun. (Keep in mind, the sun is millions of miles away, so clouds will never be behind the sun in a scene where the sun is in frame, see attached reference by Julien Di Majo)
25. First of all, if it works, it's not cheating. Doing something like that won't help you learn, necessarily, but it'll fly in a professional setting. However, I agree that the way you've done it does create an odd, unintentional effect where the surface of the water is perfectly, uncannily still. However, this isn't a set rule. For example, in "Here Comes The Flood" by Magical Realist Rob Gonsalves, the surrealism of that is the point. Also, you can flip the canvas, and then come in with a hard brush to form the ripples.
Overall, I think that a good exercise would be to limit yourself to one or two hard brushes for at least a few studies.
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@dredd
10mo
I appreciate you for taking your time to write your thoughts on this! It is very insightful :)
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Need critique on the foot!1yr
I want to draw in a style that is semi-realistic, so I thought of studying some in-depth anatomy. I chose 10 foot poses that looked interesting and I tried to trace them over with a simplified bone structure. My head hurts.
I'm struggling on visualizing the bones and when I look at my tracings in here, I can sense that there's something wrong, but I have no idea what it is and how to fix it.
I have watched Proko's tutorial on the foot bones, but I mostly focused on the tarsals and metatarsals.
1yr
dredd, I applaud your efforts here, clouds are hard! people think they are just big puffy shapes, but they are so not.
They have mass, they are dimensional and they are translucent sometimes. This makes them a real challenge to paint convincingly. You did a good job on these, but man you couldn't have picked a harder background element to start with :)
1yr
You have a point, haha. I could have started with an indoor setting like an apartment bedroom, which I like to use in a lot of my drawings and just focus on perspective and spatial awareness (I am quite a fan of Kim Jung Gi). What's done is done anyway.
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25 Clouds (2/2)1yr
The final five.
The 21st piece was painted with a reference (I think some would recognize it since the reference is quite popular). Man, I had a hard time with color accuracy. The reference felt humid. It felt soft yet vibrant. I tried to replicate that feeling but I failed, haha.
The 22nd piece uses almost the same color palette as the 21st since I thought the colors were actually interesting despite its failure.
I think I painted the 23rd quite well, until I added the vibrant yellow. I think was trying to add a reflection of the color of a morning sun, but I think that I overdid it. I also added a little bit of purple because it seemed interesting to do so, but looking at the result, I'm not sure about that decision.
24th was painted with a reference. It was supposed to feel darker to represent a sunset/dusk. But I'm still proud of the result.
25th took longer than expected. I kind of "cheated" by copy-pasting half of it and flip it vertically to imitate a reflection on the water. I think I should have refrained from doing that and painted it manually. I think it would look more natural that way, and I would have more freedom to articulate the ripples.
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25 Clouds (1/2)1yr
I had challenged myself to paint 25 clouds. I was not confident in my ability to paint backgrounds and I wanted to improve, then thought of clouds as my starting point.
It was difficult.
I began the first 10 on grayscale, aiming to study the value and structure of clouds. I found that clouds also have gesture and it affects the composition of the piece.
From painting 11 to 25 was colored studies. This hit like a truck. I had extremely little experience with color and brush work. Getting my colors and values accurate to my reference was not easy. Even after finishing he challenge, I still think that something is off in the most recent paintings.
Most of the pieces are done at around 30-60 minutes. There are some that took 2-3 hours especially the final 25.
This is merely 25 little paintings and I have told myself that it would only serve as a milestone in my art journey. I still have a long way to go.
P.S. Some are painted with a reference and some are from memory. It was also done digitally.
1yr
Wow, 100 hands! Way to go! 👏👏👏
I’m curious, how was this experience to you overall? And how to you self-assess your own work after having gone through it?
1yr
Good question. It was stressful because I always had a hard time drawing hands from memory.
Looking back on it, if I would try this again, I would:
- Probably focus on the gesture. I laser-eye-focused on its structure on most of the pieces and I was wondering why it felt stiff, but I never realized.
- Practice the poses and angles that I would most likely use in my drawings. I regretfully did not consider this when I started the challenge.
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