#tips&tutstues

[clockwaysarts]

WTF Shoes.

I had someone on a discord I’m in ask me about how to deal with feet and shoes and so since they got an impromptu tutorial, so do all of you! Check it out under the cut.

SO first things first I had better just start with a few general ‘this is my process' and then can do some feet/shoe-centric stuff.

I start with basically a gesture drawing: loose, main lines, trying not to worry. Then I compile references and do one paying attention to anatomy. More. I always start drawing my people naked usually they end up clothed I’m looking at you, mostly naked Link.

I've taken to doing my sketches in orange cause it's a weird brain trick to take them less seriously. Also if I'm WISE I do them in a loose pencil brush or I get overly detailed... I was not wise here. Depending on how much I've fucked up I may do a second pass. I'm not worrying about hands or feet too much here, drawing them as blocks mostly.

This is another refinement pass on the left and then the same drawing on the right where I start working out the clothing! Clothing I mostly focus on A) where it adds bulks (esp useful for shoes) and B) where folds are showing the body's bends and overlaps.

If a body part is being a PAIN esp with pose or foreshortening is a real thing, I'll do this technique with circles to think of the mass and bulk of the body part and how it bends (esp with foreshortening). I'll also often do a more detailed pass at fingers and boots here where I start actually figuring them out! (Seen here over my lines just cause I was having to work backwards through this making sense to tutorialize it.)

In these stages I have zero qualms cutting and pasting parts and scaling them. This a place digital has a real advantage over physical. I resized these damn legs so many times.

LET’S GET FEET SPECIFIC

Here's a very rough way I think of feet and legs and how I think of going about drawing them with shoes. Since I know my hand writing is ffffzt

1) Start with a wedge at the end of the leg tube.

2) Detail it out with specific attention to the ankle and arch

3) Add bulk for the shoe (some shoes add more like hiking boots and tennies, some less like flats)

4) Add shoe details on that base! (Almost ALL shoes have a sep heal detail and side seam- some heels are exceptions to this! Side zippers or buckles can be really cute details instead of just laces too)

Now I start with a wedge cause it’s what my brain defaults too, but really I’m skipping a step! The box~ But if need be think of a leg stuck into a kleenex box, draw said box, and turn into a foot! And then a shoe! Using the previous steps.

The other thing to keep in mind is that a foot can, of course, bend. The stiffer the shoe the less bend it can do outside of the shoe (usually the bigger the sole the stiffer but high heels are the exception to that rule).

So, uh, this is a bit rough and tumble, but go forth and shoe?

[clockwaysarts]

Today, by request, we’re looking at photographing products! We’re going to explore this in three tutorials. The first one today covers the basics of the back drop, the second will be light set ups, and the last will be photo settings and editing.

(Please note this has become bi-weekly because of the time they’re taking!)

Read all about it below the cut!

There are many ways to take product photos from on models to with props to plain white and everything in-between. I usually lean to the white or grey background with possibly some props. In a large part, this is my preferred way because it really highlights the item. There’s no background for the object to compete with and you don’t risk loosing a sale because someone doesn’t like your home decor. The other benefit of this is that it helps with the color balancing because you have white to queue off of (more in the third part).

Backdrop:

For the back drop, any sheet of white paper that is solid enough to NOT be able to see through it when it’s lit from the back works. I’ve used scrap matt board here for this, but a poster board is really rather a better option and on the whole cheap and easily replaceable. You can also use fabric but a) it often needs to be double or triple layered to be solid enough and b) wrinkles/folds/etc will be your bane. I would only say go to fabric if you are photographing exceptionally large items.

You want your paper to sit in a curve, as seen below. The top sits against a wall, the bottom against the floor/table/surface, and it curves between. This helps alleviate the sharp shadow as it transitions, giving your piece that nice feeling of being in a white void. The large distance of a curve you can achieve, the better for the shadows. Ideally you want space behind your object before the curve and in front of it before the edge. 

You also want your paper to be at least half again as wide as you think it needs to be. My example here is far too narrow and should of been at least three times wider, but I was using scrap. If you are shooting more top down, you can curve it the other way to create a bit of a false sense of distance.

Outdoor Lighting:

Now you’ll notice by the background I was shooting these photos outside. (Please ignore the serious need of pressure washing on my patio. It was a slightly damp day.) Sun light can actually be one of the best lights to shoot in if you remember a few things!

Avoid direct sun light! You don’t want brightest part of the day clear sunny shiny day! It may seem like it but that can actually wash out your photos and cause glares and harsh shadows. Your best days to shoot on are over cast days. Over cast days the light bounces around in the clouds creating a soft box effect- which basically is where there’s a lot of ambient or ‘bounced’ light. This gives everything a nice soft light while still getting a good sense of form.

Camera Set-up:

You can shoot with a cell if it’s all you have. For close, still shots cell phones are getting better and better. The automation though and cell thinking it knows best can cause issues. Cell phones also have horrible focal length which can cause distortions of your image! The poor lighting of the above photos were thanks to my cell deciding it needed to be all cool toned. I could of edited these of course but trying to give the truest sense of the process here! I use a Cannon Rebel T3i right now to shoot and it’s a good base level DSLR. (We can go more into cameras later if you all would like.)

I put that camera right on the ground. I want my pieces to feel big in the shot and have a real presence. I was also shooting items with a face and wanted that to be clearly seen. So many people shoot to high and loose the life of the piece.

I had the tip propped up on the camera lenses cap to keep it stable shot to shot. Books, short boxes, all of these will be your friend when need to raise the camera on a surface. Just make sure it’s big enough for your whole camer’s body AND the lenses to avoid disaster. Since I can’t look through the camera at this angle, I have the view screen on. I’m not going into details here abut my settings yet, but I have it in full manual to get just the shot I want!

Here’s a raw, unedited shot (other than resizing it):

Not bad already! You can see I prefer to frame the shot a little wide and crop it in when editing. You can always take away, you can’t add to! Everything is a bit blue toned here too. This is because of the cloudy day I shot in. I honestly didn’t compensate my white balance (the setting your phone or camera  sees as white) because I knew I’d be editing in post.

TLDR:

Clean white, opaque backdrop set at a curve.

Shooting outdoors on a cloudy day.

Setting the camera at the piece’s ‘eye level’ and keeping it stable.

These tips will already help you a lot! But we’ll go into indoor light options next time!

[clockwaysarts]

Today we’re looking at the next part of product/item photography! If you missed it, the first part is here. Today we’ll talk about photographing indoors without the sun! The advantages of working indoors is you can really control your lighting and shoot any time. The disadvantages is you’ll need to invest a bit of money!

Next time we’ll be talking camera at least and likely some editing!

If you like my tutorials, you can help support me by buying me a ko-fi!

Set-Up

(For shooting indoors, the backdrop talk from the first tutorial still holds true! Please read through it for important information!)

When you’re controlling the lights, the set up is very important. The most basic set up is a Two Point Light Set-Up- meaning you need two lights. The easiest of these is the 45°, 45° set up.

The basis of this set up is that the lights sit at a 45° angle based on an imaginary line from the camera to the object. This makes sure that both sides of your object is evenly lit, preventing shadowed sides that are hard to see! If you can control it, usually one light is your Key Light or the brighter light, and the other is you Fill Light or the the light that fills in the shadowy area! (Lighters, they go for the obvious names). You can change the brightness by turning down the light if yours have a dial, moving them further away, or covering the fill light up*.

The simple variation of this is the 30°, 60° set up.

Usually the 30° is the Key Light and the 60° is the °Fill Light. This set up allows for a little more personality as the lights are less even and so the photo ends up a less flat or ‘samey’. The same notions apply here.

The next level up from this is to add in a third light to be a Three Point Light Set-Up. This third light is called a Rim Light. The goal of a Rim Light is to add a bit of a halo of light from behind the object- think like the halo of light someone’s hair gets when they’re standing in the sun. The Rim Light is placed behind the object.

In project photography, the Rim Light isn’t often needed. It’s best if you have a busy background as the Rim Light’s whole point is to separate an object from the background.

The last type of light to talk about is a one light set up. This could be a single lamp or a window. While this decreases the number of lights you need, if actually is harder to work with usually and you will need a Bounce Sheet. A Bounce Sheet is a sheet of a reflective material that bounces your Key Light into a fill light! This can also be used outside on sunny days.

Bounce Sheets can be a bright white paper with a bit of a glossy surface light foam core, a piece of cardboard covered in tinfoil, or even a sheet of metallic scrap book paper! Please note that if you use tinfoil or colored paper, it will effect your color!

Bounce Sheets work best with lights that have a wide spread to them, like the sun, as you need the light to both hit the object and hit the bounce sheet. The angle can be tricky to get right. Remember whatever angle the light hits the Bounce Sheet at is the angle it bounces off at!

Lights:

In a pinch, you can get away with a desk lamp or such as your lights. But they can be hard to control and need a place to sit.

The ‘old school’ option that I still use is clamp lights. These are cheap metal domes used in workshops that you can put any type of bulb in. The good: they can attach to most anything. The bad: they get very, very warm. If you know someone in your lift you can borrow these from they’ll work, but I wouldn’t recommend investing in them.

A tip if you do go this route, you can alligator clip wax paper to the front to help soften or dim the light*.

In this day and age, LED light set ups are so very cheap that if you’re starting out new, get yourself a set. They’re even on my eventual investment list. A set of table top LEDS can be as cheap as $20 for a desk set and $60 for a rather nice stand up set. Of course what you invest makes a difference in the brightness, quality, and longevity. Anything floor standing really look at reviews on stand quality! Just search ‘light sets’ to find one!

Bulb:

The color of your bulb matters! If you’re buying new lights or bulbs for lamps/clamps you have, avoid ‘blue’ or pure white LEDs! These will make your product look cold and bland. Like wise if you go for lights that are too yellow or ‘warm’ your colors of your product will look off to your customers! If you can go for bulbs labeled ‘daylight’ or natural!

*Please be very safe covering any lights! Lights produce heat and you can start fires! Make sure that you are in the room with any lamps that are on or still warm. Always make sure the top and bottom or the sides are open on any covering to allow air to flow!

These Tips and Tutorials are posted bi-weekly and are based on questions from my followers! If you have things you’d like me to cover, drip me a line! If you like my tutorials, you can help support me by buying me a ko-fi!

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST.

[clockwaysarts]

I covered Monster Clay, my new favorite clay, here. The one down side, is it comes in five pound blocks. That’s great if you’re working on a mask or such, but for my scale that’s far too large to want to deal with. On top of that, scrapping it up and warming it to use is hard on my hand.

To make my life easier, I’ve melted some if it down into easier to use blocks!

Read about it below the cut!

One of the magical properties of Monster Clay is that it melts at about 170 and then hardens as it cools.

I scrapped off the main block and pressed together till I had a ‘ball’ curls of the clay. I tossed these in a microwave/oven safe container. In this case, I ended up buying a ceramic meant for melting chocolate because I knew it would be safe and it had a good pour spout.

This was my small test batch, but you can fill it up more. I stuck it in the microwave oven at half power for about 45-60 seconds. I gave it stir with an skewer old spatula I was ready to sacrifice to the clay and popped it back in for about 15 more seconds or until it’s completely melted. It will look a bit like a nice hot chocolate!

Be very careful though, this is hot clay and you don’t want to let it splash!

Once it was melted, I poured it into a silicone tray meant for making chocolate truffles or candies. You want silicone to be able to pop it out easily later!

Let it have a good cool. You can shove it in the freezer if you need, nothing will be hurt by the freeze/thaw in this group, but I just let it sit and cool for a while. Once it feels cool (careful of warm middles), pop it out for a nice brick!

I find that a brick or two is just the right size for one of my sculptures. Because of the size I can hold it to warm it up in my hand with ease or cut off chunks. While I still have the hand strain when getting clay off the big block to make these bricks, I can really limit that with this process. These sizes are also perfect to take on the go, like when I’m sculpting at lunch!

[clockwaysarts]

If you’re going to start sculpting, you need some tools! While some tools work better on others, I’m going to cover a few basics here!

First, if you’re doing any sort of crafting, get yourself an Exacto. They can be basic to nice and padded and the first one you buy should come with extra blades. Buy another set though as you’ll want to be able to change them out anytime you’re doing precision work. This allows much more control than scissors or a box cutter.

Next, if you’re just starting out I’m going to be honest- get the cheap tools. I still have tools from the $5 plastic set that I use. You can see a few of them below. This will let you see on the cheap what shapes and types you like.

Usually at craft stores you can also find wooden sets like the below. Wooden sets can be prone to absorbing oils and are best used with only similar types of clay.

If you’re upgrading in the tools you have, you can go with plastic topped sculpting tools. These have some give to them, so are really nice for gentle shaping and smoothing. I’ve been very fond of mine. These are Royal Sovereign brand and should be listed as clay shapers.

If you’re going to be doing a lot of subtraction sculpting- digging out bits of clay- you’ll want some of the loop tools. They can come in a great deal of different shapes and sizes. You can also make your own (something I’ve yet to foray into). They are prone to falling apart though.

If you’ve got large chunks to carve off you may want a wire cutter. Or when in doubt, just an old knife.

If you’re working with clay that can be smoothed with water, acetone, or alcohol you’ll probably want some sponges and brushes. Synthetic sponges are best with only water but are smoother. Natural sponges are great for texture. Brushes are good for detail places.

Another option for smoothing are rubber or metal tools. Again, size and shape varies greatly. Some of these are from the painting section but still work great here.

And last but not least as a larger investment, if you’re working with finished/hard pieces, is a Dremel. These things are love and come with all sorts of attachments. The can sand, carve, cut, drill- all the things! I could probably write a whole post on Dremels alone!

So that’s a very brief overview of some sculpting tools! I hope this and my other tutorials help you get started! If people are interested, I may try a little follow along tutorial sometime soon.

Do not repost.

[clockwaysarts]

A quick tip today because if you’re working with polymer clays this will save your soul and your hands. Get a pasta press.

You can pick these up at most craft stores. They aren’t cheap- mine was about $25, but any box store has that constant 40% off coupon so use that!

A pasta press is useful for mixing clays or applying pressed stencils or such. I’m using mine for mixing and it seriously makes the process 90% easier.

The clay needs to go in semi flat so I cute mine and stick it together into strips. Then you just turn the handle and go!

I’m using mine on the second to largest setting so it’s decently thick. Since I’m mixing that’s alright.

I can keep this in the rough mix and just roll it and use it like that if I’d like.

It looks amusingly toothpaste like. If I want, just a hand full of quick passes though the machine can also mix it completely. After it comes out each time I mush it quickly with one hand and shove it back in.

The press can mix it anywhere in between the two stages depending on how many times you run it through and how much you handle it. Seriously though this saves your hands strain and that’s important! Keep those hands health and ready to do the fun parts of the sculpting instead!

Please to not repost.

[clockwaysarts]

Still continuing the look into the different types of clays out there.

In this tut we’ll be looking at never dry clays. These are clays that never go permanently solid or dry out. This doesn’t mean that the clays can’t go bad mind you! Some things things don’t go as they’re supposed to after all. There are three main types of never dry: oil, petroleum jelly, and wax. Some clays are combinations between all or some of these.

Since these clays never dry, they’re great for studies with the re-usabilty. On the down side, if you want a permanent piece, you’ll need to be able to cast the sculpture.

Read about these clays below the cut!

Type: Plasticine

Plasticine is probably the most popular of the never dry clay for two reasons:

It’s very safe for children. If you used clay on elementary or middle school this was probably it.

Stop motion animations such as ‘Wallace and Gromit’.

Plasticine, while a brand, has several knock offs and can come in many colors- though the most common is a chocolatey brown. It’s basically calcium, oil, and petroleum jelly- aka Vaseline.

Handling:

Pro: Since it’s always very easy to manipulate, it’s great for things like stop motion.

Con: Plasticine is very prone to finger prints and tool marks.

Tip: Wetting your fingers can help the work ability!

Use water, acetone (may dry out the clay) or oil (may overly soften the clay) to smooth. 

Strength:

Con: Because it never dries, it’s easy to ding if not very aware. It’s strength is basically non existent.

Environment:

Con: Plasticine is very prone to dust and pet hair! Keep it covered when not at work on the piece.

Type: Wax

Like many things bees give us, wax is an amazing substance. It can be molded from it’s pure form all the way to combinations of wax and oil or such. Wax hardens when not warm and melts as it’s heated. When fully heated, wax becomes a liquid and be poured or cast.

If you’re going to work with wax, you’ll likely want a wax pen/hot wax tool. This is a heated metal stylus that allows for working of the hard wax.

Handling:

Pro: Wax lets you work on a more carving type process when it’s hard, sculpting when it’s soft, or casting when it’s wet.

Con: Getting it and keeping it in a state you like work it in can be hard.

Tip: Both the microwave and your freezer will be your friend. If you’re using a microwave to melt it be very care! Hot wax can burn.

Use an alcohol torch/lamp or even a hairdryer to heat the surface for smoothing.

Strength:

Con: Wax can be very brittle even when hard and may snap easily.

Environment:

Con: As anyone who’s ever owned a candle knows. Wax very prone to dust and such and when liquid even more so! Keep it covered when not at work on the piece.

Type: Monster Clay

100% honest Monster Clay is my new true love. Monster clay is a bit like if Plasticine and Wax had a baby clay- it’s some oil and some wax. When it is room temp or colder it is hardened. As it heats it softens and, if heated to about 170, can be used to cast.

This is a brand name clay and you can find it’s maker at this site.

As I note, I’m using the medium firmness.

Handling:

Pro: Monster clay lets you work on a more carving type process when it’s hard, sculpting when it’s soft, or casting when it’s wet.

Tip: Both the microwave and your freezer will be your friend. If you’re using a microwave to melt it be very care! Hot clay can burn.

Use an alcohol torch/lamp or even a hairdryer to heat the surface for smoothing.

You can melt and make easier to use, small blocks if you’re sculpting massive work.

Strength:

Con: Can’t take a large amount of abuse. Use armatures as needed. 

Environment:

Tip: When melting Monster Clay down for reuse, strain it through a cloth mesh like cheese cloth to get out some of the contaminated bits of dust or casting material.

If you’re planing to cast Monster Clay, and need to make a two part mold, use water clay to form your walls!

The piece at the start was done in  Monster Clay.

DO NOT REPOST.

[clockwaysarts]

Another storage tip today! While I shared that kitchen utensil trays make great storage for pens and such, I like to keep my favorites close at hand. I also don’t like to store paint brushes in trays and they can shift and get squashed. To that end I re-purpose glass jars!

Most of these are rescued post holiday dinner or jam jars. The less the jar tappers from the opening/lip the better as you can use all the space and nothing gets stuck. To dress them up a little I bought some washi tape.

Washi is decorative tape originating in Japan. While I stuck with a monochromatic theme, there are tons of colors and patterns to make your scheme and personality! I wrote on mine with a white paint pen or a sharpie would work just as well. Make sure it’s a color that will show up! The tape is an easy add to make them a little more special with the added bonus of labeling the jars!

I store my jars on a picture shelf as you can see in the photo. The nice lip keeps the jars in place and most types fit just perfectly.

Thank you for the patience as I get back into the swing of this post Harvey. I have two more clay type write ups in the work that should start next week!