My Road To Mastery

#241

err.

Man.

I was so involved with all the other stuff I have been pushing this year (it will be 2008 for another 23 hours and 39 minutes where I live) that all the times thunderbird informed me that there’s an update in “My Road to Mastery” I just let it slip by.

Now, that I spend a little time again here I notice that I checked your thread roughly some twelve months ago.

And

  • dear forum etiquette gods close your eyes and let me capslock this one single time -
    WHAT THE F&%§K?! is this?

Last time I checked you were already good. You were eager. Your stuff was interesting, nice to look at, your enthusiasm charming.

But now, your accumulated knowledge and skill which I had to take in in one go from page I don’t know what til here crushed me like an avalanche of awesome and power!

I just can’t believe it.

Your analytical curiosity alone.
I mean, most of the stuff you squeezed out of your Craig Mullins analysis I had already read a dozen of times, but I’ll be damned if I said that I have actually grasped its meaning half as much as you did by figuring it out by yourself.

The diligence, the dedication, it’s been like having to down a bottle of excellent wine all on my own by just browsing through it all: befuddling and enjoyable, but way too much.

Nothing can stop you. You have become one unstoppable force of nature and I just realized again how wonderful it is when things yield fruit. I mean, I had my own share of that this last year, albeit on totally different fields.
But I had to neglect drawing and painting for a long time in order to put as much energy into that stuff as was necessary and it’s a good reminder where renewed dedication into art will take me.

Long story short: inspiring.
Shit.
Replace everything above with: I am speechless.

good night, sir.

#242

Good heavens, Mu, I think I’m the speechless one. I really, really appreciate your kind words and encouragement. Being self taught, being in an environment where I’m the only one I know for a few hundred miles who’s into drawing or painting or what have you, and the fact that I don’t have the internet at home to browse places like this (which are so helpful for inspiration) really adds up to some lonesome vibes sometimes. To be able to come back here and read such an encouraging note really helps to remind me that, as you said, stuff bears fruit if you put work into it. And I’m very happy that you found some interest in the Mullins dissection or something of that nature. It’s it my nature to get every detail about something understood as best as possible, and it’s equally high on my priority list to share it with as many people that I can. So I’m glad somebody thinks it’s at least sort of interesting when I start going on and on about some technical thing or whatever. It’s easier to stay motivated when you’re not the only one doing it, hey? I suppose that transcends art, really…
Again, from the bottom of my heart, thanks. And happy new year!

Trying to pump out as much drawing mileage as I can so I can improve… still have a long way to go before I’d be worth anything to an art department! Pros are so good… @__@!

A tree down the road. PS, about 45 minutes.

My grandmother’s garage from last year, before the rebuilding. PS, about 40 minutes.

A sketch of some friends having a birthday party at a wedding… PS, 18 minutes.

I recently bought some oil pastels for myself. I’d never tried them before, and I’ve developed a strong appreciation for Degas recently, so I thought I’d see what they were like… Tough. Tough is what they’re like, haha. If anyone knows of any good resources for learning how to use oil pastels, please let me know!
From life, oil pastels, not timed.

I also bought a new portable sketchbook the other day and started working from life inside it, but I want to fill the page a little more before uploading stuff. But now you know… life sketches in pen coming soon!

#243

hey staticpen,

I know what you mean by lonesome vibes and support through an exchange of thoughts like in this place.

It’s the beauty of the 21st century, regardless of all the things that suck in our age. It partly rocks, you know…:smiley:

happy new year.

#244

Mu - haha. Yeah, I know what you mean. Thanks for dropping by again. :open_mouth:

So, I figured out what the deal was with the pastels… I bought cheap ones, haha. They’re not particularly soft, so it’s a bit like treating a watercolor in the sense that you have to know where your highlights are going to be beforehand. Apparently with better brands like Sennelier the consistency is more akin to lipstick than a crayon, so the white (or whatever highlight color you’re using) basically melts off the stick onto the canvas. I guess that’s what I get for buying before researching, heheh.

From life, in PS, not timed:

#245

Hey man every time you upload new images I’m in awe!
Looking forward to see more pastel stuff! (I would buy some too if they weren’t so bloody expensive… and I will one day but not just yet, spending money on other things now ^^)

Love that tree btw and also that old lady you drew with your DS!

#246

Johan - hahaha. Thanks, man. You’re too kind. :smiley: But uh, an old lady I drew with a DS? I don’t remember drawing an old lady for a long time, and I haven’t ever drawn anything with a DS. There must be some miscommunication somewhere. :stuck_out_tongue:

Here is a process image for a painting I’ve been working on. I did it from a reference photo that consisted of three individually stitched photographs, so the perspective was all broken. There are some very evident errors if you’re looking at it right, but I’m not too bothered by it. I really just did it to get more experience in PS, as well as the usual reasons of improving with value and proportion and all of that.

And this is what it looks like after the dressing layers:

I go to bookstores fairly often, but I recently decided to take my tablet along with me for some environment painting in PS. I figure it’d be good for me in regards to developing more chemistry with PS, which is what so many professionals use these days. So it just made sense to start painting in it much more often than I usually do.

So, here’s a bookstore in PS. 2 hours.

In case anyone wants to know how these ‘dress’ layers actually stack up, I made an image of the effects of each layer along with their position in the layer queue:

I also figured I needed some work on hands and controlling line in PS, so I decided to rummage through some photos and just draw all the hands with the tablet.

#247

I also did some pastel sketching during the playoff games this past weekend. I’ve realized that it’s very difficult to control values with these things… Unless you have the perfect colors in your set, you basically have to add a very dark color/black and smudge stuff around to get something darker. I suppose I should learn to adjust to the medium instead of trying to make it adjust to my needs. Like pens, for instance. You have very limited value with them… maybe I should just treat these pastels like colorful pens, haha.

Aside from those, here are some life drawings I did in the last couple days.


Also, if anyone knows a tool or a good way to create a precise, curved line in photoshop, please let me know. In that stooping panorama, the perspective is a little distorted in the photograph. Like, curved. I just couldn’t think of any good way to get precise, curved perspective in PS. So yes, if you have an idea other than “draw slowly”, I’d be glad to hear from you. ;D

#248

Hi Staticpen,

If you need a curved line that’s perfectly smooth and adjustable, you should look into using the pen tool and beizer curves.

For drawing freehand, I’ve found that it helps to zoom in a lot and have a second view showing the full image in another window, preferably on a second monitor so the first window can be as big as possible.

Using a large tablet would probably make it easier to be accurate as well.

#249

velenosangue - Thanks for the tip, man. I tried messing around with those pen tool variations though and only found ways to make shapes, not lines. i even found an old photoshop tool booklet, and that didn’t help me much either. All I can do is make anchor points. When I let go of the click, a shape is made. Hmm…

Alright, let’s see… Sorting out a week’s worth of stuff is not my style, haha. I’d update daily if I had the internet.

I guess we’ll start with the life drawing:

I also spent a couple days reverse-storyboarding a short I made with some friends a few years ago, just to see how many I could do in a few hours. I got through about 20-25 in a 2-3 hour sitting. I didn’t really time myself, so that’s just an estimate. Plus, drawing your own frames with a ruler over and over is really tedious, haha.


I also downloaded some chapters of Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura, who I feel is really great for studying hands and feet with a lot of structure. He draws them with a lot of… hmm, character? Anyway, here’s a page of that in PS:

And here’s some figure practice in PS. It’s pretty much from my head except for a few checkups in DAZ posing software.

#250

wow. i’ve been very entertained by your last page of updates…well done sir! Between your varied mediums i’d have to say the clean confident line work of your life drawings are my favorite.

As for the photoshop tip, Veleno started you out in the right direction. For creating precise curved lines in PS, use the pen tool/bezier handles to create a path. The path WILL be your line… you just have to figure out which brush to apply to it. Once you have created the path with the pen tool, switch to the brush tool, adjust the brush to desired width/hardness/opacity etc,. then you need to find your “path” window (usually grouped next to layer window)… make sure your path is selected, then hit the “stroke path with brush” button near the bottom of the window. There is a shortcut for this command which i can’t think of at the moment, but this should do the trick for you.

Cheers!

#251

Hi!
I admire your flowing line, I’m trying to train my hand in this direction, it’s not easy but your improvements make me want to continue :smiley:

The hands are amazing, I must consider to download it and try the same exercise!

And the last picture is really nice, the line and the hues are sweet.

Goooood work, thank you for the inspiration!

#252

Nice story!
The only crit I can give is that the package seems rather big to come out of his inside pocket
You should do a comic I’m sure you’d be great at it!

#253

I really like the hand updates. I think you’d love Lone Wolf and Cup, btw. Do you know it?

The storyboard is great and also a good output rate, isn’t it?

what is this, btw:
“DAZ posing software”?

#254

Rabid - Thanks mate! I really appreciate you taking the time to give me the details on this path/brush stuff. I’ll give it a try next time I’m in PS.

alice - thanks very much! I’m glad you like them. Samura is a really great line artist. You can definitely learn a lot about stating features from different angles from him.

Johan - Thanks dude! The package he whips out of his jacket is actually drawn in the correct size. :stuck_out_tongue: It’s a silly movie, and the actual footage is of him magically pulling a big box out of his coat. :wink: About a comic… I might try someday. They’ve always been interesting to me. We’ll see!

Mu - Lone Wolf, yeah, I’ve heard of that. I’ve picked it up a few times, but I never got around to reading it. It’s good?
I spoke with someone who has worked with storyboards professionally, and he says the number of frames needed varies greatly depending on the studio and their needs, but if averaged out, studios usually need 25 frames or so per day. So that’s good for me, knowing I can push out 25 in a few hours. All that’s left to do is really tighten up as much as I can while still maintaining the speed.
DAZ studio is 3d posing software - for free! It’s pretty versatile, too, so it’s very handy in checking general angles. You can check them out here: http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/studio/download?_m=d
Let me know if you come up with any questions. :slight_smile:

A quick page from the life book.

#255

I sell products for the DAZ/poser community, so if you need pose packs for the daz studio figures, just let me know and I gift them to you.
Keep up the good work! :smiley:

#256

Love the updates, Jason! Especially the interior pieces, very well done. Something I haven’t really tried. Should make myself give a go after seeing these. Fun thing you might try with these is making the same interior differently, that is painting a night version of it, for example. Or a ruined one, burnt, devastated, all taken over by nature/plants or aliens,…The list can go on, but you get the idea. Again, that’s something I wanted to try but still haven’t. I will, someday!
Life drawings are always great to see. And do. Nice job on those!
I like the digital painting of a girl a few post back. Are you planning on working more on her?

#257

Alice - Awesome! Thanks so much for the offer. :slight_smile:

Razz - Hey man, thanks for stopping by. True, interiors are awesome for practice. I hadn’t considered messing with them in fantastic ways, though, so that’s a thought… I’ll keep it in mind!
The girl? She was really just fun with contour, and practice with the tablet pen. Even after all these years, it’s still pretty slippery, heheh. But no, I had considered putting her into a full on painting once, but there are too many anatomical errors to bother in my opinion. She was referenced from a 3D model, so there are areas like the shoulders which don’t fold and scrunch the way a real woman’s would. So I just threw some watercolor-ish stuff on for lighting and called it a day.
Thanks again!

A few life drawings, first:

I also did a Henry Yan copy last night in charcoal pencil. My instincts from graphite hatching took over, which was a bit of a problem, because graphite doesn’t smudge as freely as charcoal. So it took some getting used to… I hope to be able to go back to a charcoal pencil sometime soon and pay more attention to how I’m using it.

This morning I did a Rembrandt copy in pen. I feel like I’m learning a lot through my life drawing and hatching exercises, because I was noticing my technique mistakes very quickly and was able to correct them before I covered too much paper. I was also making pretty decent spacing decisions, which I noticed were better than they’ve been in the past. So hooray for improvement, hey?

And last night I did a cartoony sketch of a couple friends and myself from imagination in a style I used to draw oekaki in.

#258

Damn Jason, every single image you post lately is such a joy to look at!
I love how you seem to be able to fit all those nice figures nicely composed. Like a jigsaw puzzle that is finished :slight_smile:

The longer studies are really beautiful.
Sure there are minor issues here and there but tell me, is there a perfect drawing? :slight_smile:

I must try to find those charcoal pencils… can’t find them here anywere, which is really weird!

Thanks for sharing!
very inspirational stuff!

#259

Johan - Hey man! Thanks so very much. :slight_smile: I really appreciate it. Hope you find those charcoal pencils! I’d love to see what you can pull off with them. They’re a little tricky, but they are a lot of fun everything considered.

I did some work in a tutorial yesterday on specular points in spot lighting. Just drawing the diagrams helps to cement the ideas in my brain.

And then I copied some Capcom art as a celebration of my 25 day drawing streak. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a full 25 days in a row of painting or drawing something. I’m hoping to be able to paint something for 50 in the future!

#260

Huh?

I want to see a 250 days drawing streak!! :bounce: :arteest: :twisted: