Activity Feed
Nicole Drews
•
6mo
added comment inAssignment - Materials
Asked for help
Really enjoyed this assignment. It was challenging but satisfying watching the lil monsters become various materials. I tried out one bonus material cause it looked like a lot of fun, but I honestly had no idea what I was doing when it came to rendering glass and I think it shows haha
madiko
5mo
Wow! Amazing. Love all of them! 💛
Nicole Drews
•
7mo
Thanks for all these in-depth examples and demos. Material and lighting is super interesting. I was just wondering if this course will still have assignments or if I should be making some for myself throughout it? :) Thanks
•
7mo
There will be an assignment coming out with the next demo video!
We've got some news regarding the digital painting course.
First off, the not-so-great part - Jon Neimeister won't be able to wrap up the remaining lessons of the course. We know many of you have enjoyed his insights and teaching style, and it's a bummer not to have him finish up the course. However, life throws curveballs, and we're committed to delivering the quality education you signed up for.
The good news - we've put together a team of digital painting instructors to take over and finish this course. We selected artists that specialize in each remaining topic. It will move much faster since multiple artists will be working on videos at the same time. Producing this course is at the top of our priorities right now.
Stay tuned for more updates about Jon's replacements, and as always, we're here if you have any questions or need a hand with anything.We appreciate your patience and understanding,
Stan and the Proko Team
Definitely bummed, Jon Neimeisters' the best art teacher I've had. I'm not sure what exactly worked but the things he taught just seemed to click for me, and I constantly find myself applying tips and techniques he taught throughout all of my illustrations since then. That being said, I completelyy understand life throwing curveballs and I wish the absolute best for Jon, and am incredibly grateful for what he was able to teach and share with us <3
I appreciate you guys continuing the course and putting it at the top of your priorities
Nicole Drews
•
1yr
Asked for help
Easy Assignment: Relatively easy. Blending super subtle transitions was hard for me though, even with a soft airbrush it felt jagged and muddy
Intermediate Assignment: The first page went okish although I struggle with cast shadows. 2nd page feels all wrong but idk how to fix it
Advanced Assignment: Also feels wrong but I'm not sure what. And I'm still not great at painting faces so the guy looks more like a brother or a cousin to the ref
•
1yr
Hi @Nicole Drews, nice studies!
- In some of the drawings I feel like the values in the light get a little mixed up with the values in the shadow. In the box in image 3, for example, the left side of the cube feels a little light, like it's breaking out of the shadow group, becoming a dark halftone. You usually want a clear value distinction between light and shadow. So as you start a painting, think of the two groups, and get that set in your lay-in. Then as you flesh out with values, you try to make sure not to break those groups.
I hope this helps :)
Matthew K
•
1yr
When I watch this, I'm experiencing lots of backwards skips of about 1.5 to 2 seconds where the video acts like a scratched record. Is anyone else having this happen? Previous videos have had a slipping and video distortion that needed to be reloaded to correct. I know this isn't a huge issue, but it is distracting as it keeps happening.
Hey Matthew, super late reply but in case you haven't figured it out already. The video is completely fine but I know what you're talking about with the backward skipping, it happens when the video is buffering and changing back and forth to different qualities to keep up. To fix this just turn your video quality off of 'auto' to something your wifi can handle and it'll stop doing the skips.
Nicole Drews
•
2yr
Ayy, welcome back:). And thanks so much for the critique. Some of those tips are immediately helpful for an illustration I'm working on right now. Also now I kinda just wanna go and paint some magical effects haha
Hey, everyone! I hope you've all had a fantastic start to the new year and are excited to dig into the next segment of this course. I wanted to give a quick update on our plans for this year as there's been a slight change to our production schedule. I've accepted a new job on Hearthstone which is very exciting but also means I have to move across the entire country, which has been consuming every waking moment of the past month or so. As such, there will be a bit of a delay in the release of the next episodes until I can get settled into my new place and re-establish my recording setup.
We have a LOT of great content coming for the course this year that I'm super excited to share, and I want to be sure I give it 110% effort rather than squeezing it in between a million other things. I do apologize for the delay, but I can promise the next section is gonna be awesome and well worth the wait. Thank you so much for your patience, and I can't wait to continue painting with you in 2023! <3
That's awesome! Thank you for the update. I hope the move goes smoothly for you. The first section has already been welll worth it, so I'm super psyched for the next ones
Asked for help
I don't think I have too much to say about this one.
I feel like I learned a lot more about adjustment layers and blending modes with this piece and am more comfortable with them, which feels really nice.
(also it wasn't as frustrating as the last assignment since I'm not so confused about AO anymore)
I ended up not rendering this one much and just kept it as a rougher colour study, hopefully that's ok. I think all the important elements are there though so it reads fine
Nicole Drews
•
2yr
Asked for help
Alright, a little late but here's my assignment.
Not really sure how I feel about this process. In theory I like the step by step and organisation, but having a bunch of layers with a bunch of different blending modes got confusing and overwhelming for my lil add brain. Probably I just need more practice with this kinda workflow though.
Also I kinda got confused with the term Ambient Occlusion, I thought it was the darkest part of shadows where no light or reflected light could reach? But it didn't seem to be used like that in the demo. So my AO and Core Shadows kinda got mixed and messy. Maybe I'm just overthinking it though. I think next time I'd just combine the two into one layer.
That being said, I'm really glad we're going through all these different workflows. It's nice learning different processes and figuring out what you like and don't like as well as having different options/solutions for different pieces. So thank youu, I'd probably never learn these or think to try them without this course
Hey @Nicole Drews ! I'm still an apprentice so don't take my word as gospel but I wanted to sprout my opinion here.
The first time going through a process like this is always confusing, but I've tried it on a few more paintings by now and it definitely gets easier.
Also, over time, you will naturally think of ways to simplify / change some steps and make it more intuitive to you.
On Ambient Occlusion.
I was also taught that at first, but no, AO doesn't only affect crevasses. A lot of artists just simplify it that way.
AO is a trick used by 3d softwares. Whenever two objects are close to each other, it gradually darkens both and often (faintly) affects a large part of an object.
The darkening is not linear, but accelerates with proximity. Along with ambient light, it is what gives the illusion of form "in the shadow side".
When rendering an image, a 3D software will do an "ambient occlusion pass", rendering all the AO on its own, to later add it in the final render.
Checkout "3d ambient occlusion rendering" on an image search engine to see some examples
It is mostly visible on forms illuminated exclusively with ambient light, hence its name. It is negligible / "invisible" on forms lit by a direct light source.
Marco Bucci has 2 excellent youtube videos on ambient occlusion/light for painters. If you're interested, he will explain it far better than I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fLV5ezO64w and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwLQ0cDb4cE
Anyways. We're not 3d softwares and there's no need to do an actual AO pass.
The goal of this layer is to create the illusion of 3d form to trick YOU to help you make better decisions in the following steps.
Also, stylisation plays a big role in how dark and how much shadow you want to put.
So, keep in mind the theory. But cheat, have fun and experiment.
Even Jon mixed some form shadows with AO. And he put AO in places that would be lit by the light source, as if they were halftones.
Finally, I wanted to give some feedback on your assignment.
On the positives :
Overall I think you placed the shadows pretty well.
I like your work on details.
I also like your balance of soft and hard edges.
On things to improve :
The figure in your painting feels quite stiff. I know, the reference is just as stiff.
In similar situations, here's a few ideas of things you can exaggerate in the future :
curve the skirt (I overdid it in my assignment, you don't have to go that far)
curve the folds on the skirt
rearrange the folds so that they give a feeling of "pointing towards the face (focal point) from different angles" (don't make it too obvious either)
spread the feet (I just copied Jon for this lol)
Also, to me (personal taste), I think you are overusing "black".
In most lighting setup, the "shadow side" is illuminated by ambient light. I suggest you give it a color and pull your shadows towards that color instead of pulling them towards black.
If this is confusing, checkout the 2 videos from Marco Bucci I mentioned earlier.
Hope this helped :-)
