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Ethyn
•
14d
added comment inProject - Simplify from Observation
Asked for help
This was a tough but fun project - it's pointed out a lot of things I need to work on! I will need to keep practising to hammer home the things I've learnt.
I struggled seeing and simplifying some of the values, especially in the portrait - in particular I mistook the darker halftone on the cheek and neck for a shadow value and ended up assigning three values to the shadows instead of the light.
Watching the demos and critiques really helped, so I gave it another go.
I also spent a long time trying to measure on the second time around!
Smithies
11d
These are great! Lots of character
John
•
18d
Asked for help
This assignment has me feeling like the kid in the back of the class who asks the teacher "Did you collect the homework for today?". Luckily I feel like I'm in a classroom with other students excited to draw lines and circles!
Thanks for the advise and challenge, Marshall. Here's a few attempts I made: some lines were accurate, most not. Regardless, I had fun practicing. I am starting to see what Peter Han said about correcting a line that isn't quite right.
My biggest takeaways:
I tried to stop resting my elbow/forearm on a hard surface when drawing lines. Resting on my chair's arm or the table gives me a lot of stabilization, but I do want to get better at drawing lines regardless of my environment.
Pulling towards my body almost always resulted in a cleaner line, while pushing away resulted in a more gestural line, which I found interesting.
Using a Helix circle is hard when you haven't tried it before! I started to get the hang of it, but definitely need more practice.
Circles are my favorite shape. They are just so beautiful!
"Time is a flat circle" - Rust Cohle
Nice practice, good job!
You've reminded me of a circle-based lyric I like, from mewithoutyou:
"All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin
But only in their leaving can they ever come back round"
Ethyn
•
20d
Asked for help
I always rotate the paper when drawing straight lines!
In other words, I'm in much need of this exercise.
Some observations / thoughts during my first attempt:
○ Drawing the lines without rotating the page was less uncomfortable than I was expecting - I definitely need the practice though!
○ If the first few lines don't quite go through the centre, it throws all the other lines off.
○ I have a habit of bending lines to meet a specific point if my initial direction is off.
○ If I instead lock my line in and aim for the centre, continuing the motion through the other side, then I'm finding the measurements I place around the circumference to be off. This means the direction I choose to draw the line (from one point or the one on the other side) would show a different amount of error compared to the angle I'm trying to create.
Self-critique:
○ Try to get the lines to cross more neatly through the centre.
○ Take my time and double-check the angles that I'm marking on the circumference (maybe trying to see the circle as a whole).
○ Ghost each line from both directions as a test of the angles I've marked.
I'll definitely be adding this as a warmup exercise - I think it'll help me gain more control over my lines and seeing / marking consistent spaces / angles.
Second attempt - similar thoughts and self-critique as yesterday.
I need to be careful with my line weight - another lack of control identified!
It would also probably be useful to try and evaluate which lines are off before using the template to compare.
Ethyn
•
20d
Asked for help
This is a wonderfully informative video!
I've posted my submission as individual replies to this comment below.
I found the exercise really helpful for solidifying the five ideas in my head, and seeing how other artists apply them.
Also, I decided to give some thought to how they might affect the piece in relation to the composition (or at least what I felt the focus was as a viewer).
After going through this exercise, I feel that I now have a more concrete awareness of the tools and how they could be used, and be more controlled, in my own art to suit the objectives of each piece. I could see how making this into regular practice also could be helpful for a building a visual vocabulary of perspective ideas.
A follow-up exercise I might try out is to draw a scene with a specific focus, then try different versions that emphasise or downplay each of these five perspective ideas (and see what effect they have on the chosen focus).
Piece by Armand Serrano
Viewpoint:
Deep space.
Close.
Just inside the action
Normal field of view.
Diminution:
Present.
Most noticeable in the pipes and buckets in the foreground, compared with objects in the background.
Convergence:
Present.
Visible with lines on the floor, on the walls, and the cabinet.
Foreshortening:
Present.
Most noticeable with the pipes in the foreground.
Overlapping:
Present.
Particularly with the pipes.
Atmosphere:
Present.
Light emitted from the window in the background, and there's light falloff towards the foreground.
Shown with darker values and greater contrast in the foreground, lighter values and less contrast in the background.
Thoughts:
Focus:
The focus appears to be the rundown nature of a makeshift room that's still being used.
Diminution:
Similarly to the other pieces, the diminution really helps with the depth of the piece.
For example, the bucket in the foreground is bigger than the whole sink area in the background.
Convergence:
This helps map out the floor space, and the verticality in the piece (looking up at the pipes but down at the buckets).
Foreshortening:
The pipe on the right-hand side in the foreground leads the eye into the piece, but also the foreshortening makes it feel as though the pipe in coming right towards or just past the viewer. I think this helps up feel closer and more inside the piece.
Overlapping:
Lots of overlaps help provide depth.
The water overlapping the pipes feels really important. The water drips vertically into the buckets placed on the ground. This really helps us understand where the pipes are in space. If this overlap wasn't there, our perception of the depth of the pipes within the room might be more ambiguous.
Atmosphere:
The atmospheric perspective helps push the background further backwards, and brings the pipes and buckets (and therefore the fact that they're leaking) more in focus.
Ethyn
•
26d
Putting in some practice, getting used to using the triangles!
I noticed I need to be more careful with where the lines start and end when being this precise.
Ethyn
•
28d
I'm trying to make more of a habit of warming up before drawing or painting, normally I just jump straight in!
So far I've found it's a good way to loosen up but I think it'll also be really helpful for working on weaknesses, in a small but consistent manner.
I'm looking forward to adding some more warmups from this lesson, and as the course progresses!
Ethyn
•
1mo
Asked for help
For this assignment I was trying to focus on the effect of:
- Changing the viewpoint position (on the picture plane: up vs. down / left vs. right).
- Changing the overlaps to show depth (placing objects in front vs. behind).
- Contrasting these effects against each other.
- Transitioning / leading the eye between sections with these contrasting effects, on the same object (excluding the use of gradients for now).
Initially I scribbled out a lot of ideas on plain paper, then turned to using graph paper to pull out these ideas more precisely.
I would like to come back to some of these on plain paper, and draw them a bit bigger using some tools (especially after seeing all the drawings in the community).
Also, it would be interesting to try out something more representational or compositional whilst keeping the illusionary effects.
In case it's helpful for anyone, when looking for examples to reference I came across a site that has a lot of images of this type. The figure library on this site has a good library of objects that might be helpful as a starting point to reference.
https://im-possible.info/english/index.html
I found the assignment to be a lot of fun - there's so many choices to explore!
I think I'll add this as something to continue exploring going forwards.
•
1mo
Ethyn — thank you for the work and for the link.
Ethyn
•
2mo
I love the idea of splitting the works into sub-categories to study specific things from; I feel like this could be useful for any project!
Me too! I was getting the feeling that my choices were very composition focused! Having that validated, being offered a solution, and being taught how to find good references instead is awesome!
Lanna
•
5mo
Asked for help
I’m super excited for this course and can’t wait to get started!
What I would like to achieve:
-Have the ability to depict life accurately and from all angles.
-Use perspective to create more interesting, engaging and complex compositions
-Perspective will help with presenting animals and characters clearly and with the correct anatomy
Images:
1: Kenneth Anderson (https://pin.it/1M692vOJr)
2 and 3: Soyun Park (https://www.behance.net/gallery/52184619/The-Nutcracker)
4: Sheryl Yap (https://www.behance.net/gallery/133931813/Nimbos-Hickory-Dock-%28Complete-art%29)
5: KatiStarSoul Art (https://pin.it/69jlFeU2f)
6: Mengxuan Li (https://pin.it/2bPqX3q1m)
7: JaeCheol Park (https://pin.it/4UrntUiA9)
8: Armand Serrano (https://pin.it/5vrCVTBt2)
