/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>3274615
first

are there any resources/sites that give you pictures of black and white to study value?

I'll draw when i get home

>>3274615
starting...

meh

>>3275015
blocking values..

>>3275080
nice hands fag

>>3274615
What is the purpose of a study?
Let's say I know every muscle and bone in the human body, and have a working model to construct from in my head.
Whenever I need to do a work, I can look up reference photos, and practice any texture I need at the time.
What would I get from copying a picture?
I've never understood this, but I do believe there is some purpose.

>>3274824
u can do them yourself, take colored pictures and turn them into bw

>>3275126
this is probably the most /beg/ thing i've read all day.

>>3275134
If it's /beg/, then explain it.

I'm new to art.

>>3275126
In the case of this picture, the main point would be to practice values. If I don't practice values and attempt a work where the values need to be correct, I'll do a bad job working from whatever references I pick up, because this is the first time I;ve tackled this problem. If I've already practiced. I'll be faster and I'll already have an idea of what I;m doing, so the result will be better.

>Let's say I know every muscle and bone in the human body, and have a working model to construct from in my head.

Well you don't, and observing from life/photos is how you learn that working model in the first place.

Secondarily, often people will use a study like this to focus in on practicing one particular skill. This >>3275080 anon got shit on because his hands look kinda derpy, but I can tell that he was just focussing on picking the right values and less so on correct anatomy. By doing this, you can focus on particular skills without having to produce a finished piece. There's less pressure, and your focus isn't divided among all the other skillsets required to make a finished piece.

>>3275126

You have to feel the form by understanding it, not trying to only copy. By doint that you can start play with them, manipulate them and create new images that makes sense with reality. If you want to only copy you can be one of these human machines who draw portraits of shit artists in pencil. Its still lucrative since brainlets normies love that.

first pass...ill try to clean it up tomorrow

>>3275141
>The main point would be to practice values.

Let's say you also know how light works to a certain extent, and you can divide it up into portions.
Ambient occlusion, direct hard light, etc (fig 3).
What would be keeping you from painting a form based on that knowledge?

>Well you don't, and observing from life/photos is how you learn that working model in the first place.

Right now I'm using a combination of anatomical photos (fig 1), and Burne Hogarth (fig 2).
I can't see under a person's skin, so it doesn't seem all that useful to learn anatomy by looking at nude photos.
Recognizing muscles under the skin is useful, and I do that in addition to the previously mentioned methods.

>>3275151
>feel the form
Elaborate on this.
When I say form or working model, I mean the general volume, and shape of a material.
That way you can bend and contort them in your mind to find new poses/positions.
Is that what you mean?

>>3275173

Ignore this guy: >>3275141 he seems kinda dumb.

Just because you know how light and anatomy work doesn't mean you know how it should look or how to turn that knowledge into art. Also, you don;t really know if you know how things work until you try and make a picture out of it. I mean, what do you mean by "know" in your hypothetical? Do you mean you looked at anatomy drawings and copied them until you understood the structure? Or do you mean you read a lot about it? Because if it;s the former, you're just doing what we're doing but with a different reference, and if it;s the latter, you don;t actually know jack shit.

You aren't drawing muscles, you're drawing muscles with skin and fat over. Musculature and skeleton are great to know, but that alone won't allow you to draw a good looking figure.

I guess if you;re really good, then studies diminish in value, but the person who went through the effort to get that good would know the value of studying, having had to do so in order to get good!

The important thing here is that you have to study to know.

>>3275173

Ignore this guy: >>3275151 he seems kinda dumb.

Just because you know how light and anatomy work doesn't mean you know how it should look or how to turn that knowledge into art. Also, you don;t really know if you know how things work until you try and make a picture out of it. I mean, what do you mean by "know" in your hypothetical? Do you mean you looked at anatomy drawings and copied them until you understood the structure? Or do you mean you read a lot about it? Because if it;s the former, you're just doing what we're doing but with a different reference, and if it;s the latter, you don;t actually know jack shit.

You aren't drawing muscles, you're drawing muscles with skin and fat over. Musculature and skeleton are great to know, but that alone won't allow you to draw a good looking figure.

I guess if you;re really good, then studies diminish in value, but the person who went through the effort to get that good would know the value of studying, having had to do so in order to get good!

The important thing here is that you have to study to know.

>>3275173
>initial sketch
Fuck, just go with that. Why do all that work for a little more sharpness and perhaps better colors. Just paint on bigger canvas.
Is this autism?

>>3275173
go make something with that knowledge and no practice. That'll shut everyone up

>>3275295
I know, the finished piece looks even shittier and less stylized

>>3275293
I think you are projecting a lot of things he/she didn't say into that post. It said that it is not just about copying but understanding why things work so you can apply it elsewhere. Then you start talking about fat and skin over muscles as if that was what was talked about (It talked about form). Calling the poster dumb was make you seem extra dumb when it's coupled with that tumblr tier arguing.

>>3275404
I did not reply to >>3275151
I replied to >>3275173

Do try to keep up.

>projecting

Nice meme you got there.

>>3275453
>I did not reply to >>3275151

>Ignore this guy: >>3275151 he seems kinda dumb.

Idiot... I don't care if you replied to somebody else when that was obviously the post you were talking about. Both going by the above and the content of your post.

>>3275457

So if you look carefully, you'll notice that >>3275173 was responding to advice from >>3275151.

I thought >>3275151 was dumb and nonsensical, so I prefaced my response to >>3275173 by telling him not to listen to it.

If you look at the rest of the post, it's clearly talking about >>3275173. I ignored the details of >>3275151, and for good reason because they made no fucking sense.

Welcome to the world of internet forums.

>>3275484
I'm not sure if you are mostly confused or mostly stupid.

It's such an /ic/ thing that a study thread would be full of arguing instead of art.

>>3275488

Dude, read >>3275173 and >>3275293. >>3275293 is talking about >>3275173. How is that not obvious?

Wait, are you >>3275151? Is your wee witto bum hurt that I told anon to ignore your stupid advice?

Please stop making this thread harder to follow than it already is

>>3275496
Let me try and help clear up some of all your confusion (Yeah, right. lol).

>>3275502
My whole post was about >>3275173, but >>3275404 (You, I assume?) thought I was talking about >>3275151. Obviously I wasn't, so I said I wasn't, what else you want from me man?

>>3275173
I'm this guy ^

I feel kind of bad for derailing the thread earlier.
My point really just boils down to not copying the source material directly, but understanding it so you can reproduce different drawings later.
It seems like that could confuse a lot of beginners because even in some of the sticky links it tells you to do this.
My suggestion would be to take a reference image, but paint it in a different pose.
That way, it's much easier to tell if you're lacking in skill.
You can't copy the image directly that way.

Don't have time to finish it. Close enough.

>>3275517
what did you learn?

>>3275518
Time will tell

Any reason for you asking?

>>3275518
How idiotic can you be

>>3275517
clean edges. how did you work the edges anyways?

>>3275521
I just design a brush for it. Half of it is stroke technique though. Remember to turn off anti-aliasing if you don't want a brush to blend with opacity near the edge.

>>3275519
Any reason why you did this study?

Is this the type of work you want to do?

>>3275523
I did it to practice. I needed a break from some color practice. If I get good enough then it could be nice being able to turn it into a job since I enjoy doing it but it's not like that's my goal. If you specifically meant if I wanted to draw studies as a job then no I don't.

>>3275526
study should be done with a goal in mind, not just because.
if painting in greyscale figures in the dark with a single light source is your goal, then i feel sorry for you. no one's gonna want to see your artwork.

>>3274615
What's ic's opinion on using grids? Laying down 2x2 or 3x3 grids significantly improves my accuracy than without it.

>>3275533
...
Anon. Are you trying to berate me for participating in this practice thread? I think I'm already managing studying fine without your input.

>if painting in greyscale figures in the dark with a single light source is your goal, then i feel sorry for you. no one's gonna want to see your artwork.

What are you even talking about. I think I should just had ignored you.

>>3275541
don't mind him, he's just a NGMI

>>3275540
grids are a crutch, might as well trace

>>3275540
if you have to use them for now, try to ease your way out of using them.
Crutches are a thing to avoid

Plenty of stuff I still need to learn. Any feedback is welcome.

>>3275548
>Any feedback is welcome.
if you want it to look less flat then you will want to use more if the value range.

Any good tips/tutorials on how to set up such a study?
Tools, Programms, etc.?
/beg/ tier here


Thanks in advance!

>>3274615
thoughts so far?

>>3275548
It makes sense. Thanks for the input anon

>>3275580
Meant for >>3275553 obviously

>>3274824
just look for old glamour photos.

>>3275684
Or just take any photo and reduce the saturation to 0 in any image manipulation software.

>>3275517
cool stuff! where can i follow you?

>>3275094
rendering...

boy this thread took a beating.

>>3275540
be wary of becoming dependent on it
use it until you don't need it anymore. like training wheels

Here's my quick sketch. I have some old grey tone markers that I don't know how to use. I'll post that one next

>>3274615
would other anons be interested in posting time lapses of their studies? it's something i'd be interested in seeing from others for sure, but what about the rest of you?

>>3276006

>>3275540
Grids are great for learning to observe shapes and measure relative distances in an objective way, great for breaking through that "drawing what you think you see instead of what you see" problem. I went back and forth drawing things with them then without them to train and test my accuracy. Like the other anons have said, just don't become too dependent. Going back and forth between using and not using them was how I avoided that and that's what I'd suggest.

god damnit i made the head too big again

>>3275985
Complete. There's a little surprise for you guys.

>>3275173
>Lets say you know all the skillz already, y would u practice?

I guess you answered your own question.

>>3275533
>literally criticizing someone for practicing

Holy fuck I hate this board

>>3276285
It's an anonymous imageboard. People can act out their own demons if they need to

>>3276231
This is appropriate for some OPs well done

>>3276231
i just got jumpscared

>>3275518
>>3275523
>>3275533
Lmao I can see where youre driving at but boy youre the most pretentious sounding anon Ive laid my eyes upon this week.

>>3275533
>>3276285
>criticizing someone for practicing

>>3274615

>>3276465

>>3275533
Actually fuck off

>>3276231

Thisis great

first time ever painting and i gotta say theres gotta be some tutorial on actual painting techniques and things to help right? this is pretty depressing

>>3276465
This looks so effortless that I have to wonder if it's even worth doing these kinda exercises at your level.

>>3275533
a single directional light source + fill light is literally the most commonly studied lighting situation in fine art for a reason. Not sure what crazy lighting setups you use for your work, but you shouldn't have such contempt for the fucking basics.

>>3276691
for starters, don't paint on white background. Should be atleast 50% value (halfway between white and black).

>>3276719
There's like a difficulty multiplier on original art compared to studies, but grinding studies makes the original art easier. There's also a neatness factor (well, I suppose insufficient rendering/rendering knowledge or being too lazy to lineart first) that the crazy pros in the thread have
>>3276691
This was a tip that someone gave me which works very well. (Photoshop has good textured brushes for rendering but sai is more fun and easier to paint in)
1. Start with the canvas super zoomed out until it's just a thumbnail and the reference right next to it
2. Then I just fill in the background with whatever clr is in the study
3. Then you just block in the details so the thumbnail kind of looks like the study subject, then keep flipping rotating until it looks right, then you zoom in and add details.

Dark background also makes everything much easier!

>>3276465
It's a nice diversion from your usual furry stuff. Good job.

>>3276770
>There's like a difficulty multiplier on original art compared to studies,
I used to think this too, until I got a better understanding of the fundamentals, now they are both just as easy, the only difficulty comes from coming up with an idea.

>>3275173
>Let's say you also know how light works to a certain extent, and you can divide it up into portions.
>What would be keeping you from painting a form based on that knowledge?

Nothing, if you know everything that there is to know about light you don't need a reference or a study. The point is how do you got that knoledge without ever studing how light works in the real work by copying it?
Also, as everyone said before, you don't know everything there is to know about light, because not even pros know everything about light. There is always a next level of complexity that you can only get to by studying the real world. Thats what studies are for.

>Right now I'm using a combination of anatomical photos (fig 1), and Burne Hogarth (fig 2).
>I can't see under a person's skin, so it doesn't seem all that useful to learn anatomy by looking at nude photos.

You don't seem to understand what its the point of understanding anatomy. Drawing something that looks like the nude model is the end goal, it isn't learning to draw a skinned human. That's why you study your end goal, it has information that the mental abstractions you are working with lack.
Of course you need to know muscles first, but it is understood that somewhere along the line you will study how skin works on top of those muscles, the texture of that skin, the variation in colors it has, etc.

>>3276784
You're probably mistaking me for someone else anon, I've not really drawn any animals in the past two years, in the painful pursuit of drawing people better.
>>3276785
That sounds amazing. Hopefully with mileage the difficulty factor will decrease.

>>3276809
You just need to develop a solid workflow or process of constructing your images, and then put it into practice and always find ways to refine said process. This is a huge factor in determining your art style.

>>3274615
>20-30 minutes in
>CSP crashes
It was acting funny the whole time now that I think about it. This has never happened before.

btw I really like the reference image

>>3275574

>>3276908
learn to save (ctrl+s)

redo it instead of making excuses. It's not like it couldn't be better.

I decided to do something else with it hue

if this was on paper it'd look 100 times better but I want to get good at digital

please advice me

>>3276367
>>3276444
>>3276685

happy to be of cervix

>>3277100
more details

>>3277088
its really tacky

jesus, no one in here knows how to control their brush strokes and values.

>>3277176
post work, let's see your brush strokes and values

>>3274677 The subtlety on the eyelids and nose are nice, and I like the blocky shapes, but you;re abusing the hell out of those textures. Looks like she has foam on her hair and is holding a rock.

>>3275080 Try a base drawing first? I like how you're indicating the hand behind the orb.

>>3275517 This is real nice, I like the variety of strokes. Hand anatomy cold be better and I wish the orb was more circular.

>>3275548 It's a good start, good for a quick study, maybe push values more.

>>3276033 Don;t exactly know what you;re aiming for, but this is messy as fuck.

>>3276211 Giant head...

>>3276465 Nice strokes, reminds me of Boldini.

>>3276691 Maybe work on the drawing a bit more first, and yeah, a nice dark background will help.

>>3276935 Quite a bit of symbol drawing here, squint and blur your eyes a bit to focus on just the value patterns and see if you can reproduce those shapes.

>>3277088 I guess it's a little tacky like that anon said, but I thought it was clever. The vague shading of the fabric is the weakest point.

>>3277100 Work on the underdrawing a bit more. The head is really tiny and sticking way out on a long neck. Hand anatomy def needs some work. I'd say start again, but try to summarize the image with only 3 values, really try to nail those basic shapes, don;t worry about drawing a "hand" or "face", you're trying for too much detail before the structure is even there.

>>3277176 Yeah, post ur work faggot.

>>3277200
Thanks for the critiques anon

>>3277151
>more details

>>3277200
>you're trying for too much detail

>>3277300
Lol don't go into more detail at this point, you'd just be polishing a turd. Try to get the structure right, use a hard round brush, 3-5 values, and don't worry about blending.

>>3274677

Blog?

>>3276465
Blog?

>>3276231
Blog? This is amazing

>>3277346
http://christianfrederiksen.tumblr.com/

Danks a bunch, anon.

>>3277369
>the cool foreshortened figures in pastel guy is the same guy who does the cool graphic illustrations
Damn, fucking nice.

>>3277346
>>3277369
samefag shilling like this is too obvious, why can't you obnoxious spastic fucks be just a little more subtle about it?

>>3277382
Lol shilling on 4chan? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. What, are anons going to buy my shit? You know, with all that money they have? XD

I'm just here because I'm lonely and bored.

>>3277200
Thank for the feedback anon!

>>3277369
Dank

i think it's cool how you can interrupt the different light and dark shapes to build up textures.

>>3277481
what do u mean

>>3277580
This is nice :D Only thing that really bugs me is the thin white lines next to the black.

>>3277580
Fucking sweet.

>>3277580
blog?

>>3277408
>Lol XD

No wonder your art isn't good. At least not yet anyway. Quit memeing and draw more

When doing studies such as this, am I supposed to construct it or use negative space for the initial sketch? (loomis vs dodson)

>>3275506
Wtf is wrong with you?
Stop these fucking horrid posts
Just on the basis of your way to reply to people I can tell you are a shit artist and will not make it

>>3277623
This is dope

>>3277884
construction is the most traditional method iirc

>>3277884

Depends what your focus is. I would personally recommend a impressionistic shape and value focused approach for a low-key (and low resolution) photo like this. Focusing on structure/form is easier with well lit high-key photos where less guesswork is involved. Pic related is more suitable for practicing construction.

>>3274615

rough blocking

>>3278025
>those delicious brush textures on the face and hair
Really nice edges, too.

>>3277586
>>3277623
>>3277706
Thanks a bunch - I appreciate it! Blog here: >>3273587

>really bugs me is the thin white lines next to the black.
Totally understandable. This was more of a stylistic experiment than anything else. The 'thin white lines' are actually just me separating the red, then applying Layer Style > Emboss, trying to give it a bit of a 3D effect. Felt like it fit the aesthetic I guess.

>>3278025
blurry garbage

>>3277508
>what do u mean
Darkening light shapes and brightening the dark ones..
like you can interrupt a light shape by putting darker shapes inside of it.
if you look at my brushstrokes all im doing is just blocking in a shape with a big brush and then fucking around with it using smaller strokes.
If you get used to working in limited value ranges, then you can see the shapes as keys and render them even further.

idk how to explain well desu

>>3277088
>>3277580

wtf is the point of posting here besides to just snowflake for (You')s

Wish i had a smaller white pen

>>3278446
wish you could rotate your fucking pics

>>3277100
i like how you did her chin.

At least did something.

>>3278513
Sorry. Sometimes they rotate when i upload them. I think it's only pictures from my camera roll that rotate, so in the future I'll be mindful of that.

>>3278562
>sometimes they rotate when I upload them

That's literally not how software works dude. Rotate your pics you fuckin tard.

>>3278602
https://www.daveperrett.com/articles/2012/07/28/exif-orientation-handling-is-a-ghetto/

>>3278602
It happens a lot, actually. Have you ever uploaded from mobile?

Don't cut yourself on those edges.

>>3278602
>REEEEEEE PEOPLE ARE POSTING THEIR ART SIDEWAYS!!!! ON MY /ic/!???!?!?!! OH MYYY GOOOOOOOODDD!!

>>3278615
>>3278602
>>3278562
4chin automatically strips out exif data. The reason why it does this is because a year ago some retard uploaded photos from their phone without stripping the exif data and they got doxxed. Phone camera photos are by default embedded with exif data that includes such interesting facts as your current gps co ordinates and the make, model of the phone amongst other interesting things.

Applications will also embed exif tool, for example something I painted has the application used to create the image (photoshop) and text layer text/name, original document ID etc embedded inside of it.

This is why if you use pirated tools to create images, you should always try and strip the exif data out of it if you aren't uploading to 4chan, imgur etc and why if you want to setup your own website for your portfolio you should mass strip all the exif data out of your photos because if you disagree with an autist online they might actually be able to come over to your house using your tracked GPS location and stab you.

>>3278776
How to strip exif data

>>3278788
I'm using exiftool because that's the way I learned off /g/
http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/~bogdan/
select your image
go to modify/remove metadata
tick -remove ALL metadata

You can also do it from the exiftool command line version but the gui is easier

>>3278776
I thought it's been a really long time since 4chan uploaded EXIF data, which is why we've seen mobile posters upload unrotated photos (since most default photo editing apps on mobile only change the EXIF data) for years now.

Also I never thought about Adobe or other software companies looking into your EXIF data to check whether or not you used a cracked copy. Thanks for the heads-up.

>>3278795
I just had a look in the archive and it's been around 4 years or something.
>Also I never thought about Adobe or other software companies looking into your EXIF data to check whether or not you used a cracked copy
Probably a bigger worry for bigger corporations who crack the software and the software just keeps reporting to an online server because they didn't block the software's online access using firewall or hosts file or something. /gd/'s fontshare thread is enough to give anyone a huge run of paranoia though, but I'm PRETTY sure it's just a meme because /gd/'s board culture is massively different from the rest of 4chan.

might as well upload my lazy attempt

>>3278776
>>3278794
>>3278799
>>3278795

This is actually informative. Thanks for the dialogue

>>3278794
why not simply right click file>properties>details>remove properties and personal info ?

>>3278776
Wait, imgur strips exif data too? What else does? How can you check if it does anyways?

>>3278818
To check it, upload an image with exif data and download the image from the site. Then drag the image onto exiftool or open it in the program and it will display any of the fields. iirc tumblr does and so does 4chan, imgur should.

/beg/ here, Is this enough to start applying shades and values to? When adding the valuea is it best to use the largest brush possible?

Criticism on it is welcome too, I used a little bit of construction for the head and negative space for the rest of the body

>>3277481

those darks are making me nut

>>3277481
So that's the secret to making textures.

>>3278830
>>3278776
>shilling exiftool tracker malware

>>3278794
While we're on this subject, hide text files in your images so anyone that posts them can be DMCA'd easier.
http://embeddedsw.net/OpenPuff_Steganography_Home.html

>>3274940
This was fun.

>>3278776
i am considerably less safe than i thought. fuk.

WAIT SO I DO THIS BUT I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW EVERY TIME I PUT COLOURS ON IT IT STARTS TO LOOK SHITTY AGAIN PLEASE HELP waa

>>3279823
Turn the light grey into medium grey (how much light grey/white do you see? Very little). Then look at the thumbnail again and witness a shitload more of blacks and dark greys. It's in the hair and clothes. So you start painting that in and keep flippin'/rotating as you go.

I am trying to learn how to block in values. Any feedback is appreciated.

>>3277200
I am new what is symbol drawing?

>>3279951

>>3275701
Photoshop lets you turn a layer black/white and it's much better.

>>3280383
>Photoshop lets you turn a layer black/white and it's much better.

...by reducing the saturation to 0. Like the 1 step process the post you quote described.

You are on /ic/. At least learn the difference between value, hue and saturation.

>>3279954
this is a nice copypaste. is it from this board or somewhere else?

>>3276801
>you don't know everything there is to know about light

There would be absolutely no need to.
Do you want me to trace the path of each individual photon?
I've studied the techniques that make photorealistic 3d graphics for about a year now.
I'd say I have a damn good understanding of light, and how it works on different materials.
More so than I could ever use in digital painting.

>Drawing something that looks like the nude model is the end goal, it isn't learning to draw a skinned human.
Why do you think I'm studying Hogarth?
I just wanted to see the actual thing.

The end goal of this argument is that portrait studies are useless without any technical knowledge behind them.
I never said that they were useless as an exerciese, just that you should have a good reason for doing them.
They are supplementary exercises, meant only to understand the concepts that you studied earlier.
When I asked in this thread, "Why do you do portrait studies?," all I got were vague answers.
"feel the form"
"study value"
You cannot expect to learn anatomy, rendering, or color theory in an efficient manor by studying nothing but photos.
They are an application of your knowledge.
I asked this because that seems to be the attitude you have towards beginners.
That's what you tell them.
If /ic/ is a community built around helping aspiring artists, why does every meme center around distracting people with misinformation?

first time doing one of these threads
I had fun.

>>3281143
That's really nice, has a lot of accurate detail

Good warm up

>>3279926
The blocking is decent, especially with three tones. Try to stay in proportion with the original photo. Do not make things up that are not in the photo.

eh,fuck it

>>3282216
Kek

>>3278378
Ive seen that before where the color is missing at some part, i think if you do it at the front too then it will look a lot better

>>3282216
Senpai, use parallel and horizontal lines to see where elements line up to get more accurate measurements.

Like the bottom of her lip is nearly at the very top of the sphere or her thumb and nose tip are on the same 'line'.

>>3281902
Not the guy you've been talking to, but you seemed to come into this conversation with a boatload of unnecessary assumptions that you kept unnecessarily obscured.
No one ever said "draw the OP picture because reasons, it's all you'll ever have to draw, congratulations you are now a master artist." Of course it's application of knowledge. Application of knowledge is an important part of being able to integrate that knowledge into your work.
This is a study thread, not a "how to study" thread, the implication is that people understand what their purpose is and don't need it explained, it's simply presentation of a quick opportunity to study a provided image selected by a stranger whose interests and tastes may challenge your own and expose you to new things, and to do it among a plethora of fellow artists who have their own tastes, skill levels, techniques etc, providing an opportunity to compare and contrast and pick up things you might not have noticed on your own.

/ic/ isn't a community or a class, we're not educators, we're a collection of self-driving individuals who gather for the benefit of resources, mutual observation, and potential feedback (of very varying quality, which one needs to vet for themselves as to whether it's worth taking on board).

If someone wants a teacher, they should go to a school, not a cantonese finger painting auditorium. I don't know why you expected "how to study 101" from a staple thread with 5 words in the OP.

So this is where all the cool kids hang out.

>>3282404
kek

>>3282404
So just take the resources from the sticky, and run?

I'm new, but take a random comment in a thread and the majority are bait, purposeful misleading, or memes.

Was it ever better than this?

>>3282699
Like I said, if you want a teacher, go to a school. A congregation of strangers has no obligation to teach you anything, much less do it competently, and you're only doing yourself a disservice if you approach things with that expectation.

>>3282157
Nice one

>>3282216
Draw before painting. That's very fucked up, but I guess you already know

>>3274940
I used a more narrow value range on purpose.
Struggled with the hair though...

>>3282111
comfy
maybe be less indulgent with the pencil lines, adds too much focus where there isn't supposed to be any

>>3282699

>>I'm new

You don't say.

>>3282216
best one ITT

>>3282145
make the background dark like in the pic it looks boring like that.

>>3275080
she looks quite upset by whats in that crystal ball.

>>3274615

Thanks OP, you chose a really nice image to practice on. It was great fun and made me do something with focus and dedication.

>>3276231

This is accurate and has some nice contrast. How long did you work on it?

>>3276465

Nice brushwork!

>>3282111

Blog?

>>3274615 (OP)

Thanks OP, you chose a really nice image to practice on. It was great fun and made me do something with focus and dedication.

>>3276231

This is accurate and has some nice contrast. How long did you work on it?

>>3276465

Nice brushwork!

>>3282111

Blog?

>>3274615 (OP)

Thanks OP, you chose a really nice image to practice on. It was great fun and made me do something with focus and dedication.

>>3276231

This is accurate and has some nice contrast. How long did you work on it?

>>3276465

Nice brushwork!

>>3282111

Blog?

>>3283003
Nice! Is this with just a hard round?

>>3283206

Yeah... I'm too noob with brushes to dare use something else. I come from traditional and I just can't seem to get a grip on more "advanced" brushes. Have watched ctrl+paint to get some info, it helped a lot. I'd be happy to receive any suggestions where/how to learn.

>>3283003

>This is accurate and has some nice contrast. How long did you work on it?

Thanks, yeah, I notice you actually captured the dark darks properly as well, something I noticed most people don't do for some reason. It really makes the rest of the values more convincing.

Took 2.5 hours in 45 minute sessions over a couple days.

>>3283323
I see. Don't feel bad for just using the standard brushes though. One of the most common pitfalls for people starting with digital is jumping straight into custom brushes, and getting buried brush packs from this artist and that.

A hard round, a soft round and a flat are everything you need to concern yourself with starting out.

no bully pls

>>3282160
So I took your advice and looked at my sketch again. The proportions were really fucked up like you said, so I redid the sketch. Looking for any feedback before I try to block in values again.

>>3282763
Very nice rendering, it's got a soft fuzzy look to it. Arms are kinda sloppy though; her left arm is super thick and right is super thin, and the right hand is too short. Also sharpen the chin a tad bit.

>>3283612
I like this a lot, but where the white blurs and is choppy on the sleeve is distracting me from anything else

other than that is good imo

>>3283624
i've never seen such a low effort post before

>>3283632
Well, i feel extremely tired

>>3283614
>using guides on a reference
this mother fuckin- why
>using guides at all

>>3283736
Anon, he's a fucking beginner. Learning to measure consciously helps make it easier to see proportions innately. It's pretty dumb to shit on him for doing that.

>>3282763
How to get as good as you?

>>3283614
Good on you, keep it up

>>3274940

WHY do my females end up more broad and older-looking than the ref when I'm not focusing super hard on the body?

Thanks for the fun ref anon!

>>3275514
>not copying the source material directly, but understanding
You won't understand shit.
>My suggestion would be to take a reference image, but paint it in a different pose.
Go ahead, try this. Also post you attempt here so we all could see how useful it is.

>>3275514
>My suggestion would be to take a reference image, but paint it in a different pose.
>That way, it's much easier to tell if you're lacking in skill.
But that's fucking retarded.

>>3283905
because everything about her back, neck, shoulders, sharpness of body makes it look like a dude

>>3283905
just liquify until it looks right
her whole body just looks way too broad

>>3283905
The body looks not bad, but focusing super hard is the whole point.

I think what would help you most is making the head a touch bigger, dropping the chin, this will make the rest of the body seem more petite.

>>3283614
>>3283858
here's the block-in. I'm not sure what to do next since I've never gotten this far.

>>3284220

Continue to blend the margins of the values. You blend either hard or soft, depends on the kind of light and shadow that falls on the shapes.
Then you do all the details.

>>3284231
Two questions before I start:
Should I increase the picture resolution?
What opacity and pen pressure settings are "good?" (80%? 100%?) I've seen people do all sorts of different settings so it's really confusing.

>>3283905
This looks normal to me, but that's also pretty close to my body type.

>>3284256
yes increase the resolution
in photoshop have the opacity at 100% and flow low around 50% to get less "pigment" per stroke, pen pressure size is up to you

>>3284256

Best of luck anon :) Actually looking forward to see the results!
If you feel lost in the middle of it, take a break and watch some basic ctrl+paint videos on the beginner brushes.

>>3284283

Same here. I don't like my own body frame and will never be a qt petite so it's really annoying that my mind passively directs me to use the shapes I dislike the most.

>>3284256
Learn to use the soft round and hard round, as the other anon said with 50% flow or less to explore the shapes you want. You'll be using combinations of new layers, soft round, and hard eraser to control your edges and blending.

God dammit
Haven't been trying to git gud for more than 2 days, but actually studying for once makes me realize how truly shit I am.

How are you guys so clean in your work even in the early stages of a piece?

>>3284368
slow down and block in more. it's hard to feel any of your values are correct when you've only filled a small part of the canvas (even if the values are correct). less details so early until you are confident in your abilities to place them.

>>3284396
Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't originally planning to do the rest but figured I would after the fact.
Better than all my other stuff thus far by quite a margin. Aside from the fucky hand, are there any blaring problems that I'm not noticing?

>>3274940
Pencil sketch of this.

>>3284463
The face is worse than the hand, the main problem with the hand is just that the thumb is huge. The face is all pinched and pushed down to the chin. Next time, or if you want to try again, do a more careful underdrawing, then put in 3 values only with a hard round brush. Push it to 5 values maybe. You will learn the most by placing the drawings and basic values carefully and spending a long time on that then you will rendering and blending, don't bother rendering and blending yet.

>>3284602
Is underdrawing absolutely necessary? I seem to be far worse at sketching than I am at just making adjustments on the fly

>>3284622
Well it looks like shit when you do it on the fly, so why not learn to get better at drawing? You won't have to rely on "luck" for your painting to be good but will instead have a skillful process that you can repeat.

>>3284622
No, you can just practice by painting freehand. An underdrawing will make things both easier and better because when you are painting you can focus on values and brushwork instead of values, brushwork, plus structure/placement, drawing, all that shit. It's kind of like painting a grisaille, then colouring it with glazes: you break up the painting process into more manageable steps. Even the underdrawing can be broken into steps, say, gesture, proportions, details, or something.

I suppose you could also choose to make the study about something else, for ex. just purely values, and not worry about structure. In that case, your darks need to be darker.

>>3284622
>I seem to be far worse at sketching than I am at just making adjustments on the fly
Then sketching is what you should practice until it's not a weak spot anymore.

>>3276465
what's your god damn blog

>>3284220

>>3284289
>>3284316
>>3284319
WIP this is hard

>>3284220

>>3284231
>>3284289
>>3284316
>>3284319
WIP this is hard

>>3275096
You don't know shit.

Some of those look like over painted photos.

Thanks for the exercise, OP! This was much harder than I expected, you've made me humble.

>>3286340
No they don't, you're just blind. Give it 3 years.

cool pic

wipbump thx for the challenge hadn't drawn in almost a year

>>3276231
who is in the sphere

>>3286886
A lot of fucky bits but that hand is great. good job

>>3286894
son.... i am disappoint

>>3286914
please i need to know who is in that orb

>>3286951
It is the one true LMS.

>>3286439
blog?

>>3286439

Nice choice of brushes and values but the oversized head ruins it (at least for me).

I wish I was less autistic about details and rendering. It was still fun though.

>>3287904
muh dik

>>3287904
looks amazing anon, hope to post mine in a couple days.

fun but I'm not very pleased with the result

First time doing a paint study. It was fun.

>>3286894
ngmi

>>3274615

>>3287904
This is really good. Social networks?

>>3287672
I recently started a Tumblr, so you might just be my first ever follower.

bibabonanza.tumblr.com

>>3287674
I didn't even notice, thanks for pointing that out.

>>3278528
this is mine, could someone pls crit?

>>3276465
messed with yours some. your values/brushwork were real nice to make this edit

>>3289153
Gradient maps are usually easier and make it look better, anon-sama, like in the mohrbacher videos.

>>3289960
that was a gradient map. then the green done with other modes

How do you guys do those blocky texture thingies ? I mean like this >>3276465 or >>3278543

Is it a custom brush on photoshop?

>>3276818
Any advice on how to approach that? Can you share your workflow?

>>3289153
Were you just applying a color/overlay layer on top of his values?

I'm still trying to figure out how to bring an image from greyscale to color.

Testing brushes for Clip Studio.

Hard to use but funny.

>>3291797
Anon-sama, I used basically only this brush (it's in pretty much all big brush packs) on photoshop. I hope it helps.

>>3292048
which brush did you use for this image?
nice btw

>>3292136

>ufile.io/mj09f

>>3292166
If you have a Clip Studio account they are also here:

>https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1692034

>>3292117
It helps my good fella. Thanks. I mean, I'm still figuring out photoshop brush settings but I can take it from here.

>>3274615

>>3292421
That is awesome

>>3292042
i did a combination of both gradient map and overlay/multiply brush modes.

>>3275096
real helpful. if you wana be an asshole there are other boards for that, people here are just trying to improve.

>>3286894
No spark.

I drew some lines, what the hell do I do now?

>>3277580
best in thread so far.

>>3294568

>>3296213
honestly pretty helpful, seems obvious but i needed it spelled out for me. Been struggling a lot with digital and I psyche myself out a lot when it comes to rendering.

thanks!

i just cannot stop scribbling.

>>3298765
You can you just haven't tried.

>>3298765
Use a bigger brush and don't shrink it until you need to refine details. When you shrink the brush, use as few strokes/movements as possible to convey the information you want to convey.

It's a little off but I'm overall happy

>>3298808
thanks I will do this. Lost all my presets and having a hard time finding nice solid brushes, but maybe i should stick to the round brush.
>>3298797
I feel like ive gone backwards desu. Some people use tiny strokes and end up with hairy looking lines, I make circular strokes to find the shapes I'm looking for with similar success... Would rather be a hairy line painter at this point, getting out of scribble habit has been hard - dont see a way past it yet. many tears of frustration. went to life drawing tonight though.

>>3274615
99% certain only the head of this image is a painting. the rest is photomanipulation, especially the hands.

>>3300069
it's a publicity(?) shot of lillian gish, a 1920s actress

Why are you studying from photos? Study from real life or master paintings only.

>>3301267
NGMI

>>3301267
Get out

>>3301309
ebin

>>3300053
Maybe try some traditional, acrylic paint would work. It would fit your brushwork better imho

I tried

>>3274615

First digital painting, much harder than you'd expect - looks like I've got a lot to work on

Drawn on a Wacom intuous draw tablet

>>3301356
thanks. ive gone back to some pencil and paper sketching and studies, on photoshop it feels like I have just fallen into a scribbly habit. Need to remember to think every stroke counts! (without reverting to uber careful noob erasing tactics and short hairy strokes ofc)

Can I ask if there is a kind of essential go-to resource for light/shadow, value, rendering etc. Kind of like the Loomis meme for anatomy but for value and rendering?

Thanks!

>>3303577
Just a technical correction, anon: Every Intuos (not counting Pro models), apart from size, is exactly the same. The "Draw" part is unnecessary.

>>3305509
There's Scott Robertson's How to Render but you don't even need to go there until you want to specialize even further. Rendering is actually rather simple, 18-23 should show you the process with charcoal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anQRcIrMwis&list=PL3aPoNPQSJnSJVw2_GUVR7jC0nbnksq6F&index=19

Build your structure, draw the shadow lines, fill in the shadow shapes, then midtones, then transitions and highlights. Try to work with a limited number of tones between 3 and 5 when you block in and use them opaquely. Don't start blend until you've got all the values down because values need context in order to evaluate whether you've matched them properly.

>>3303577
you made her really masculine , for example there's no nose hump

>>3294568
update

how do i get faster at this digital shit, this is taking me forever

>>3308849
How long have you spent on this so far?

>>3308865
not sure, probably 6 or 7 hours of work broken up over two weeks.

>>3309478
Instead of going from block-in all the way to finished on one part at a time, do the whole piece every time you get to the next step.

neat

>>3309490
Not OP but whats the benefit of this?

>>3309490
noted, thanks.

update

Necro'd

Graphite

>>3313509

>>3274615

how did I do?
I used 80.000 layers, just like our lord and savior Ruan Fifa

i barely do studies but tried anyway

>>3309761
it's more cohesive and also easier to change if you get something overall wrong in the picture