Roadblock in my process
3yr
Elias Lemus
I am looking for some advice. I'm having issues turning my painting ideas into actual work! When I want to do a portrait or something where the reference won't be drastically altered, I can do it no problem. The issue arises when I want to paint more complex/imaginary scenes. Say, for example, a girl running away from a crocodile or something. I can sketch up the idea pretty good, but then when I'm gathering reference, I hit a brick wall. It is very difficult to piece different references together. I may need one for the girl, then the crocodile, a few for the background maybe and let's not forget the lighting! Ahhh! This is where I get stuck. Turning all the reference plus my original idea into a cohesive, believable painting is where I get stumped. Any ideas on how I can overcome this? Do I just need better reference ? Better form manipulation skills?.. I can copy a picture no problem and even use a couple pictures as reference, but when it gets a little more complex I fail. Please help! Sorry for the rambling
Another poster mentioned James Gurney, he painted the Dinotopia books, often made models of the imagined scenes to get the lighting and work out the composition, you may want to try that. There are inexpensive models available to use as reference figures. Children’s action figure toys spray painted grey work great too. You can usually find them at the dollar stores . Pose the figures and light them to create the lighting reference and then use other reference for details as needed.
It sounds like you need better understanding of form, light and shadow. Direct from reference means you don't have to think about that, just copy the colours and tones present. For a scene, you pick where the light sources are and make sure the forms within it are lit correctly. Check out some of Marco Bucci's youtube vids (or his course here): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsDxB-CSMQ0Vu_hTag7-2UQ
James Gurney is another great resource, also Scott Robertson's 'How to Render' book.
Hope that helps.
