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@elkad
@elkad
Long time art hobbyist finally learning the fundamentals :P
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@elkad
Loved this exercise! It's such a joy seeing how effective the simplified the shapes and brushstrokes are at conveying the subjects, especially when watching it take shape as I paint the study 2.5 hours on the first painting, about 45 on the second and third
@elkad
2mo
Back from the week 5 critiques and decided to redo the assignment because there was a lot I missed I did a revised study of each reference, particularly to: * To properly understand the forms and brushwork * Capture the soft and hard edges and understand the focus of the piece, which I previously missed * Generally better values and value groups Then I did a new speedpaint of each pic, particularly to: * Simplify more - being more conscious of what information I'm conveying with each brushstrokes and how to do that in less brushstrokes * Paint in fewer, more authoritative brushstrokes for clearer forms * Paint faster/more efficiently
@elkad
Assignment done! Got carried away with rendering again and didn't simplify as much as I'd like, but I think I did okay for likeness
@elkad
Asked for help
That was pretty difficult! I found painting directly to be a lot to juggle all at once (shape, value, hue, saturation etc), but I can definitely see how refining big to small makes things manageable. Just need more practice I guess (and to refrain from jumping into details too quickly!)
@elkad
assignment finished, yippee
@elkad
4mo
Back after watching the week 4 critiques. My biggest area for improvement was with value groups and making them read clearly. The saying "the lightest dark is darker than the darkest light" and vice versa is a good guideline and definitely applies here, there were a few instances where I didn't follow this guideline which I had to correct. I simplified some shadow groups and toned down the secondary light slightly so that it wouldn't distract from the primary light family of values. The changes are kinda subtle but i think it makes it easier to read especially at a distance or when squinting
@elkad
Got way too carried away with rendering but I finally finished, fun exercise!
@elkad
4mo
Back after watching the week 4 critiques. I think this exercise was mostly successful in experiment with different colour palettes and applying them in different contexts. Main things to work on were: * Getting the values right, since they are foundational for colours - and also for the painting to read well * Hue shifting in dark/light, particularly for the more complex palettes. I think I got too caught up in staying accurate to the palette instead of following my eye and applying the previous lessons Did some paint overs on pieces I felt could most do with some improvement
@elkad
Asked for help
Finally done! Feedback is welcome :)
@elkad
4mo
Back after watching the week 3 critiques, the main take aways for me were: * first and foremost make the paintings read well, this may involve deviating from the reference or accentuating certain features * make the light and shadow families obvious and readable, start by simplifying the big value groups and work your way to smaller ones * be thoughtful using highlights and don't over do it I did some paintovers of my assignment, I notice the chin area of the 5 min paintings were a little sloppy and not reading well. I upped the contrast on the cropped features to make them pop. I also tried painting a marble sculpture as an exercise for simplifying value groups, I found it pretty helpful
@elkad
Asked for help
I don't want to see another skull again lol Looking back, I think the biggest improvement I made was the cranium and jaw proportion and positioning. I was also finding it easier to visualize the skull in more extreme angles. Still making mistakes (particularly with the face features), but I think I've gradually improved To check against reference I used 3d skull (thanks Nio@): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/male-skull-1e54622b84ab46fd9f4518c47fa60929 For anyone interested in seeing my notes and comparison to reference: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BP-_OFwXHfBikhXLyK_b-HNfNM8_WqYm?usp=sharing (google drive cause this site compresses images quite heavily and it might not be readable)
@elkad
5mo
Back after watching the week 2 critiques, I'm not doing new revisions cause the exercise itself involved self critiques and iteratively drawing. Its a bit tedious but this method is super useful self improvement
@elkad
Asked for help
Here's my skulls! I think I got decent at rendering the planes and overall forms but I still have a lot to learn with all the little anatomical details and the organic shapes I also tried doing the hard mode challenge but I'm far too inefficient to do it under 5 minutes and struggled even doing it in 10. I think I'll come back to it when I'm a little more efficient/better at simplifying
@elkad
5mo
Doing revisions after watching the week 2 critiques. Main areas for improvement were: * Having clearer light/shadow value groupings * Increasing contrast for better readability * For the invented skulls, the cranium tended to be too boxy, the jaw too small/squished and didn't extrude out far enough I did some paint overs, and I think they're looking better now!
@elkad
Asked for help
That was hard! I'm usually quite slow painter so learning about brush economy and becoming more efficient was really challenging, but I managed to dramatically improve my time by building big to small. It's cool to see how much you can simplify but still convey form and also seeing how repeated painting helps with designing and simplifying
@elkad
1yr
Doing some revisions after watching the critique video In my assignment I was a little caught up with the timer and wasn't as thoughtful with how I painted. I didn't push the colours as far as I could've and generally didn't experiment enough. As suggested in the critique, I did some studies Karen O'neil (awesome artist) and learnt a lot about not only colours but also brush work and values. Highly recommended giving it a try. I also did one more iterative painting with a pear, about 10 minutes per painting. I still didn't push as far as I'd like but I think its still a noticeable improvement over the previous ones
@elkad
Asked for help
Colours are fun! I liked the tetris piece exercise quite a bit, imagining all the shadows and different colours of reflected light was a nice challenge
@elkad
1yr
Doing some revisions after watching the critique video * I accidentally coloured one of the tetris pieces blue instead of yellow lol * Pushed the hue shifting in the shadows so things look more vibrant * An exploded cube!
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