Photo Studies & Anatomy Practice

22 Oct 2013 - photo studies of children and old.     27 Oct 2013 - study from Star Trek into Darkness.

29 Oct 2013 - woman photo study

30 Oct 2013 - some more sketches. politicians above and a huntsman beneath.

Phtoshop and the Perspective Grid

3-Dimensional Thinking

In able to create better and more convincing depth in one's artwork, 3-dimensional thinking is a core aspect to study and improve upon. Below Rene Aigner showcases some of his artwork and how he uses line work to convey this 3-dimensionality.

Image by Rene Aigner

Vanishing Point

I also discovered the "Vanishing Point" tool recently which is available in newer Photoshop versions. It can be found under the filters menu and it is without a doubt a very useful tool for future projects. For the following painting I however created my own perspective grid in an extra layer to correct my pencil sketch.

Creating the Perspective
Firstly I set the horizon line of the painting and then chose a vanishing point on this line. It is also fairly easy and quick to create and the advantage is that one can easily add further vanishing points for a two point perspective for example.

I then started to correct the perspective of the image before filling in the value. The art piece was now solid and the values could be applied on top of the line work as described in the previous post "Painting on top of Line Work".

Reflection

The final artefact depicts a mountain village with some ice cold water flowing through it and the yellowish background/horizon soothes the image with some warmth. Overall there is only little colour contrast and the highest value contrast is on the horizon, guiding the viewers eye towards this ridge and letting thoughts form on what could be behind it.

Depth

In able to create more depth most of the strong outlining in the distance was removed and painted over while the harsh borders remained visible in the foreground of the image. The perspective grid clearly helped achieve a convincing perspective for this project and was not very time consuming. 

Life Drawing No.2

20 min pencil sketch of man sitting down

15 min pencil sketch - Face study

Painting on top of Line Work

This is a very well known and probably the most common way of painting in general. The line work can be done both traditionally (and scanned in) or digitally and new layers with value and colour are placed above it until the lines disappear and a painting forms. Beneath is a nice example from sketch to final artwork by the artist Rene Aigner.

Image by Rene Aigner.

Tim von Rueden also presents his work process nicely. To see his approach of scanning a sketch and getting it it ready for painting go ahead and watch the video beneath. It includes scanning, cropping and separating the pencil line work from the background.

There are plenty of methods how to paint over sketches, but for my next project I chose to use the multiply setting and slowly add colour to build up the scene.

I started off with a basic paper sketch which I scanned in and imported to Photoshop. 

After adding some quite standard colours I decided the scene was looking to boring and needed something different to make it more atmospheric. I therefore decided to change the lighting and go for a darker mood and feeling.

The new lighting allowed me to play greatly with value and saturation and I particularly like the way the red roofs in the sunlight turned out. Furthermore a mysterious lighting from inside the building creates tension in the image.

The lighting is definitely the strongest aspect in this artwork and the perspective is off quite badly. For the next piece I would therefore want to spend more time on planning on the proper perspective before jumping into the painting process.

Project Overview

For the module Low Poly Modelling & Textures I will focus on exploring 3D methodologies to facilitate, speed up and improve the output of concept art. Through research, exploration and particularly practical tasks I hope to find the best work method (for me) to incorporate into my workflow.

Life Drawing No.1

20 min sketch of man sitting in "thinking pose"

20 min pencil sketch -> 20 min revision adding armour and improving the pose

20 min pencil sketch of man lying down