Praeclaris Digital Mentor

[Rags of Ash]

I'm in agreement with the general feeling of "holy crap!" at the new assignment.

And I'm not entirely sure I understand, but one must try. The switching off of "this is an apple" is new to me. Heck all of this has been new to me.

But I'm quite excited as I've never learned anything like this. I've been taught things must look like the original and get it as close to a picture as possible to where when someone looks at they think it's a photogragh. So this exercise is quite a breath of fresh air and gives me something other than: it must be a photo worthy or cartoon-ish.

But now it's time for bed - if I can sleep after thinking about the new assignment. Ah, I can't wait....  

[Errol McGillivray]

It's new for me too.

As for switching off...

The assignment isn't really about the apple or the egg. It's about interpreting colour, value, and how their relationships describe form. Forget about the object. Analyze the relationships between the elements.

At least that's how I was taught to draw a figure. Overall shape, then blocks of value. Then start to refine values and how they interact will mold the forms.  

[praeclaris]

Don't worry, I know it seems bad, but if need be, I'll make it a 3 week assignment, complete with paintovers and step by step instructions.

It seems like a lot of painting, but really isn't, I want you only to paint in the light area, and none in the shadows because shadows and light both tend to wash out details.

So what I'm looking for is a good figure, I will make sure to do complete drawovers if need be, I want it to look as clean and easy to color as possible. The second step is block in light and shadow according to a light source YOU pick, I'll help you with that, but keep in mind, lighting from the bottom, much harder than lighting from the top but may be very good practice. And shadow areas, I don't want any detail, all the rendering and color has to be in the light.

The basic colors I'll help you with, and I think it might be good for you guys to get a Trial Photoshop, you don't have to if you can get the effect of these brushes :


(Forest Brush not needed, I just cheat a lot with it, lol)

Also, even if it seems scary, it's easiest just to dive in, and do it, you'll be very surprised with what you can do. I was scared shitless of gouache, and I threw away my first assignment with it. But, for the final project, I chose gouache instead of Oils or Digital, because I knew if I just went for it, it might not look great, but it would have taught me something. It turned out better than I thought and it was the highest graded of all my assignments that semester.  

[Elsiane]

i've found a script that will let me do rotating brushes for gimp - if you can put together a brush pack or link me to appropriate brushes i would happily run the script on all of them smile

hmm, is it kind of like what i've done here?:

but in those I'm just playing with light effect etc... and they're not very presentable just by themselves. also, i'm cheating by using an addition layer.

oh wait, the first part is just to draw the outline smile
okay i can do that, heh. or at least try :k

Quote:

There are two broad spectrum color schemes :

Red-Orange-Yellow - Blue-Green- Purple
Green-Blue-Purple - Red-Orange - Yellow

what does this mean?? xD sorry D:  

[praeclaris]

What I really want to teach is, warm light cool shadow, cool light warm shadow. Which is why I've listed the compliments as color schemes, just because they're the easiest to handle. Just finished brush pack, uploading soon, I'll edit the link!

I added more than I usually use to let you guys see how I get variety in strokes, soon you'll find staples that you like the best, I have two or three that I rely on almost exclusively smile

These are photoshop brushes, but should be compatible for Photoshop 7+ I did include some rotational brushes, but those can be used with regular pen.

http://rapidshare.com/files/274583993/sampleset.abr.zip.html  

[Elsiane]

oooh! thanks heaps!!

hmm, so does that mean one in the left top row should be matched with one in the right top row? or one in the top row with the same one in the bottom row?

edit: i mean, in reference to the colour scheme. oops.  

[Crimple]

Oh hi Praeclaris, I posted earlier, but I couln't find your reply (gosh, hope I didn't miss it >__<). Just a quick question about participating in your assignments and if I'm allowed, how best to?
Thanks!  

[praeclaris]

Crimple

Oh hi Praeclaris, I posted earlier, but I couln't find your reply (gosh, hope I didn't miss it >__<). Just a quick question about participating in your assignments and if I'm allowed, how best to?
Thanks!

Oh I'm sorry, I must have missed it, I didn't realize we were on a third page, lol.

Yeah, sure, if I have time, I'll try and critique yours as well smile Go for it.  

[Crimple]

Awesome!
Would you prefer I post here, or link to my mentee thread?  

[praeclaris]

Here's good, but you're welcome to post it anywhere.



The mini Brushes tutorial, it might be a little hard to understand... but just post any questions!

http://praeclaris.deviantart.com/art/Page-1-135617781
http://praeclaris.deviantart.com/art/Page-2-135617804
http://praeclaris.deviantart.com/art/Page-3-135617830  

[praeclaris]

Elsiane

oooh! thanks heaps!!

hmm, so does that mean one in the left top row should be matched with one in the right top row? or one in the top row with the same one in the bottom row?

edit: i mean, in reference to the colour scheme. oops.

Nooonooo, just a color scheme. Orange light, Blue shadow. Yellow Light, Purple Shadow. Red LIght, Green Shadow. I typed it like Orange Yellow Red because it's all the warm tones, and all the Purple Green and Blue because it's all of the cool tones. So all I want is Warm Light - Cool Shadow, OR Cool Light - Warm Shadow.

Just chose two colors that kind of compliment, like an Orange-ish light, to Bluish Purplish shadow. I realize that sounds crazy but, the compliments are sorta a guide, I almost never use it Orange Blue or Yellow Purple, usually Orange to Purple or Red to Bluish Green.


Also, this assignment is more like the second one, but replace the warm shadow with a cool shadow smile

This is a crash course color theory assignment!  

[Rags of Ash]

Aaah, I was wondering what was meant by the colors... the more I think about it the more I think I might understand it.

May we use white at all or would you prefer we stick to just two of the colors?

And to clarify - this may seem a little "duh" but.... you want us to use only two colors just different 'shades' of those colors to make a rounded picture?  

[tirbutt]

*___* just a heads up that I'll try to participate in your assignments as well, time allowing <3~
(it'll be on my own time etc, so don't feel pressured to pay me any attention rofl )

Awesome job here!  

[praeclaris]

@Tirael - go for it smile

Slow As Christmas

Aaah, I was wondering what was meant by the colors... the more I think about it the more I think I might understand it.

May we use white at all or would you prefer we stick to just two of the colors?

And to clarify - this may seem a little "duh" but.... you want us to use only two colors just different 'shades' of those colors to make a rounded picture?

Not just two colors, I want you guys to start color picking you're own colors. You see how there's two base colors, an orange yellow skin color, and a cool shadow color? On the edge of the shadow to cool, there is a patch of saturated reds and oranges along the form, this is a commonly used way of painting shadows, and I want you to paint from a RANGE of light warm colors, from yellow to orange to red, to cool light colors light blue, purple, and greens. But I want you to leave the shadows one flat tone. Shadows wash out details, this creates a rather cool effect, but also, it helps with your shape design of shadows.

Don't worry, I'm planning to post a step by step coloring process.  

[Elsiane]

praeclaris

Not just two colors, I want you guys to start color picking you're own colors. You see how there's two base colors, an orange yellow skin color, and a cool shadow color? On the edge of the shadow to cool, there is a patch of saturated reds and oranges along the form, this is a commonly used way of painting shadows, and I want you to paint from a RANGE of light warm colors, from yellow to orange to red, to cool light colors light blue, purple, and greens. But I want you to leave the shadows one flat tone. Shadows wash out details, this creates a rather cool effect, but also, it helps with your shape design of shadows.

Don't worry, I'm planning to post a step by step coloring process.

I think I understand what you mean. is it what i think of in my head as "the yummy effect" where things look glowy? like:
- which goes from purple through a transition of pink before it gets to white, which makes it resemble what the eye thinks of as reality?

Anyway, getting started - the first part of the assignment is just straight anatomy, right? just a line drawing of "a dynamic figure" - i guess this means i cannot just do a generic standing pose smile