Hello, Hivers! A very merry Xmas and happy new year to you all. May this year be peaceful and... less sick.
Instead of just showing and explaining the steps to how I make art, I thought I'd try something different, a little general advice thing, see how it works out. So without further ado, let's jump in!
WARRIOR OF KRAETHE
I love horror and all thing weird, in case it wasn't obvious from my previous posts ( 😝 ) and it always bleeds into my work. Always! Like here, the tentacles, the strange mountains, the warrior whose armour doesn't hit anything know in Earth's history. It all points to something alien, otherworldly. And that's part of storytelling in art. Set the scene.
» EXPERIMENT
The best point to be absolutely free when making art is in the sketching phase. Now, making a sketch to work off of isn't a rule for artists to follow, but it is what seperates amateurs from professionals. A sketch allows the hand and imagination to go wild, discover the character and scene, figure out the dynamics and lighting, and all that jazz.
The casual observer sees nothing but a sketch while the artist sees the future potential when they look at it. Here's a tip for making a sketch: learn anatomy and use line weights. Line weights can help you figure out how light hits objects before you even start painting. I.e: thick lines are shadow areas while thin lines show light areas.
» SPLASH AROUND
With sketch in hand (or on file, rather) the next important step is figuring out the colour palette. A colour palette is a collections of paint blotches showing different shades and colours that you want to use for your painting. You use them to create mood or ensure a colour balance and contrast. Those splashes of colour gradients above are the palette choices I made for this painting. Notice how they're all warm and earthy, until you hit the green and suddenly it's ice cold water on your eyes? That's deliberate.
But why? Palettes are not necessary, surely. I can just adjust the colours as I see them until it looks right. Right? Well, technically, you can. But colour palettes give you a superpower: you become immune to optical illusions! At least, where your painting comes in. Because that's a part of painting no one talks about. Some colours and shades, when close together in a painting, mess with the brain. For some people, the brain blocks out certain colour combos while enhancing focus on others, and vice versa. Effectively, you could be blind to how well or poorly your colours mix if you go by sight alone. A colour palette sorts this out for you.
» LIGHT IT UP
The trick to spectacular art is in the lighting. Dramatic lighting creates the best effect, appealing to the eye because it gives a definitive focus for the eyes. And everything everywhere has light, and where there isn't light, you can't see so it matters not. A midnight scene with no moon can still have lighting, because the night is never fully dark. Objects still cast shadows with the light the stars give, even if it's difficult for us to see in reality. So you need to focus on where your light source is in order to give your art the best lighting.
This is also where making light studies come in handy. Study how light hits various objects. Try metal, leather, fruit, hair, skin, everything, and see how different light sources behave with those. Also keep a look-out for reflective light, when light hits something else and bounces back to a different part of an object, like how water bounces light. A person standing in a pool will have light from the sun reflecting on them as well as reflective light from the pool.
» THE VALUE
Now it's time to think about perspective, how we see the world. Planets are spherical and thus have a curve. We perceive this curve by the change in size, visibility, and value of the objects further from us. Adding that curve to art is easier than it sounds. Like with most art techniques, the curve is suggestive. We can suggest this curve, and thus create distance and perspective, by playing with colour values.
Colour value is how much of the colour comes through. For instance, a brown in the foreground will have full value of brown, the brown in the midground may have less brown and instead have another colour in it, like blue (because our sky is blue, it will show as a bluish hue), and anything brown far in the background will have very little brown and be mostly blue.
In my painting above, the sky is green which suggests that the air contains something other than a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere so the mountains in the background will have a greenish hue added to their low-value browns. And now they look like they're very far away. And the same value change is added to the clouds, where they lose their colour value the further away they are (or the closer they get to touching the horizon as we perceive it).
» DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
And here we are by a topic that is divided. To detail or not to detail, that is the question. A quick look at your favourite artists will either show most of them using a lot of intricate detailing, or that they're using very little (if any) detailing. So, which way do you go? Which is the right way? And which way will get me more attention for my art?
Well, there is no answer to those questions. Sorry, not sorry. It boils down to your preferences and your style. If you do concept art, detailing too much might not work. If you do realism or semi-realism like I do, details are a must. And in abstract or cubism? Details are like turn-signals on a land-raider: for the lolz.
But if you're still trying to find your style, use some detailing, in a suggestive manner. Try only detailing where you want people's eyes to focus, like on the intricate engraving of a steel plate helmet, or the face of a beautiful wood nymph, or the eyes and wrinkles of a wise old sage hidden in the shadows, and so on. Also try to go wild. Make a painting with no detailing, one with half-detailing, and one with full detailing. Play around, see which fits your style better. This can also be an excellent challenge for established artists and it's wonderful practice.
» THE GIFNESS
» ART INSIGHT FOR THE WEEK
The trick to figuring out a style and preferences and techniques is to just do. Practice, study, experiment, and don't hold yourself back. The more you art, the better you become.
Thanks for stopping by and reading and supporting!
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