Study the Problems Away, Week 1
Last Thursday I wrote a draft that was supposed to go up today but ended up scrapping it for this one instead, a study focused post. I have a tendency to cringe towards my own writing and end up deleting everything before it sees the light of the internet, akin to 99% of my tweets. It was about a long struggle feeling like such an inadequate artist and a disheartened spirit that everybody is familiar with. Perhaps I’ll save that longer rambling for another post.
Anyways... Lately I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom… It’s that year when everything seems to be going well in the beginning but started to get really crappy by the end. And it just hit me with no warning.
So yes, studies. It’s like a good bottle of beer to make the problems go away. Except I know and believe it actually works. (p.s. no I don’t drink, not even on occasions, nor do I condone excessive consumption. I know. I've been told I need to live a little.)
So here are some stuff I did this week. (Dump post ahead!)
Below are some photo studies. I saw pictures that attracted me, they were very pretty for some reason, I wanted to know why.
Some things I keep in mind and little tricks I use with studying color and light: a. Figure out the prominent colors first and immediately just put it down on the surface. b. Take note of the main forms, its shape and structure and how that affects the shadow casts. c. I'm not worried too much about tiny details, just the general silhouettes of the objects. d. Ask myself why the colors are the way they are. While studying I try to guess the colors, most of the time I found that I am almost always wrong. From there I try to figure out what the actual color is, why I thought it was another color, and how do I learn to predict the correct colors if I'm going to start an image from scratch. e. Color relations, and thinking in general temperature. How does it affect the palette and how come the palette seems limited yet able to create an interesting mix.
Some human studies, in digital and traditional pencils. Full bodies; Head angles; Something I really need to study extensively since I really suck at it. (I used pixelovely for most of the refs, great site!)
Trad inks and pencil. Mini study of Flagg's ink work. And Paul Bonner's characters. I love his shape choices and how he makes very interesting characters.
Ending it with a master study of Mian Situ. I love the pastel light colors vs. the strong subjects that creates amazing contrast. I really struggled with this one. He had a complex palette and it took a while before I figured out the prominent colors. Though the main subjects were mainly warm, as well as the front of the landscape, he managed to balance it towards on a cooler temp by using light purples and a lot of it leaning towards more to grays.
I’m focusing on the essentials of human characters for now, more especially color and light, and some environment aspects. But soon, I want to tackle other subjects like materials and creatures. Very soon. One step at a time. It’s going to take a while… humans and its form are very complicated!
Anyways, that's it for now. I realize this is so few for a week. Guilty as charged. I need to study more. I only got to start in the middle of the week, but next week it's definitely going to be a full sched. No excuses!
Bye for now! See you next Sunday.
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