The Uncanny Valley Most people have heard of "The Uncanny Valley" by now. I've heard people refer to it in two contexts in the animation industry: characters that are almost lifelike but are just enough off to be creepy, and stylized/cartoon characters who have an off-putting amount of realistic detail. I want to talk a little about the second one because I've run into it more often recently when artists have asked me for critiques. I don't think there is a hard and fast rule for this type of uncanny valley. When I watched The Adventures of Tintin, at first I was really bothered by the cartoon characters with realistic eyes and hands. But by the end of the film I was engaged enough in the story that I didn't notice so much anymore. However, until the kids who prefer a Robert Zemeckis zombie-fest become the norm, artists who want to add realism into the animation industry are going to have to be sensitive to the issue. Does this mean you can never define the forms around the nose?
Free art lessons, learn to draw sketch paint surface fragments: How the Old Masters created the look of Gold in Painting The detail (above) from Van Loo's painting, Marie Leszczinska Queen of France, is fascinating to me. I've been trying to figure out why I think his rendering of the gold table is unsuccessful. Though he's obviously a meticulous craftsman and clearly spent ages with a magnifying glass in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, there's something overwrought about the brushwork. Local color and value are notoriously hard to read, so I took color samples from the sword handle, (a) through (e) above, and then de-saturated them to get their values. The values are all gathered tightly around the bottom of the spectrum, between Value 1 and 3. I knew that medieval painters, when planning to include gilding in a painting (say, on a halo), would map out their value composition as if the gold leaf was a dark element. I tried the same experiment on another sample, this time a much brighter 'gold', taken from Le Brun's Hall of Mirrors painting in Versailles... Yikes! Let's look at it more closely.
Cartoon Fundamentals: Create Emotions From Simple Changes in the Face There are millions of eyes, mouths, noses, ears, chins in the world, each with their own characteristics. However, to draw faces in a cartoon style, you just need to understand the basics of them. Once you have mastered these concepts, pay attention to the depth, make sure that the head of your characters give the impression of being three-dimensional and you have mastered the technique of drawing them from every imaginable angle. If you can do that, great! But if you really want to draw attention to your art, you have to master the technique to bring them to life with facial expressions! Practically anyone can draw a face. The various expressions of the human face, like the different tones of voice, can be changed with ease. If I ask you to describe exactly what kind of feelings do you identify in the image below, what do you say? I know what, you'll tell me that the figure gives you a sense of calm and reflection. That's OK if you use this expression everyday in your drawings.
3) The Block-In, Part One « Georgetown Atelier Abrieviated steps of this tutorial (click to enlarge) To view a high resolution file of the finished drawing click Here. I like to approach any drawing or painting project in these simple terms: 1) Envision what you want to express and what is most critical to communicate. 2) Work towards that vision, and take advantage of any unexpected discoveries that further it. 3) Solve the problems that are compromising your vision. In constructing a figure drawing, depending on the pose I will use different variations of a technique commonly referred to as a ‘Block-In’. Learning to work from the ‘Broad to the Specific’ is a reoccurring theme and educational cornerstone of the curriculum I teach. The design structure of the block-in (left) translates into the rendered version (right) Take notice of how the block-in on the left is a simplified or ‘distilled’ version of the further developed image on the right. Some design themes highlighted (click to enlarge) 2 ten minute quick Block-Ins (click to enlarge)
Best Cydia Sources/Repos of 2014 for iOS 7.x Tweaks and Mods Although we may be jumping a little early on this one, it’s time to boot up Cydia and make sure you’ve got the repos added. The list isn’t new but it’s worth revisiting every year as new jailbreak software comes out. As you know, Evasi0n7 was released this Sunday. Call it a surprise Christmas gift even though things aren’t looking great for the tweak community as such due to compatibility issues. Nevertheless, here’s a list of the most popular and most useful iOS 7 Cydia repos / sources of 2014. (Note: some more repos are mentioned in this post: Best Cydia Repos (2013) for iOS 6.x) Best Cydia Sources/Repos of 2014 for iOS 7 Repo: BigBoss Source: BigBoss is the single largest source of most popular tweaks. Repo: ModMyi Source: Right next to BigBoss, it’s ModMyi (although some folks would argue the opposite). Repo: Rpetri.ch Source: Repo: iSpazio Source: Rogue Repos
Royalboiler — 18 tips for comics artists by Moebius "brief manual for cartoonist " 20 Tutorials for Learning Digital Painting Techniques I’ve always loved browsing the insanely detailed and realistic artwork created by digitally painting in Photoshop, so this year I’m planning on setting aside some time to learn the basics myself. I’ve read through numerous online tutorials and have hand picked the best to share with you today. All the tutorials showcased in this post describe the step by step process and offer useful tips to help you get started with the art of digital painting. Despite being an extremely popular subject it’s pretty difficult finding guides or tutorials that actually explain the process in detail. Dianae Digital Painting Tutorial Zombie Portrait in Photoshop Colouring in Photoshop Wonder Woman Pin Up Digital Painting Tutorial Complete Digital Painting Tutorial How to Draw a Portrait in Photoshop Kikisaurus Digital Painting Tutorial Hannsaki Digital Painting Tutorial The Making of Rest Basic Photoshop Painting Tutorial Seiorai Digital Painting Tutorial Making of Equilibrium Digital Painting 101 Video Tutorial
OutWit Hub :: Firefox Add-ons Hour of Need -By Jesper Ejsing This is a magic card illustration for the set called Journey into Nyx. It is a setting much like the ancient Greece. I was asked to paint a card showing 2 sphinxes with tiny riders on the back charging down from the sky. When doing 2 figures on an image that is going to be as small as a magic card I always try to focus on one character and make the other less significant. When I got back to the studio the day after and looked at the sketches on my table, a cold feeling of mediocre crept into my stomach and I checked the mail to see if I had already gotten an approval for any of the three. When the sketch is so loose and unrefined as it is, you cannot help to see all kinds of things in there in you mind, that is not necessarily put down in line in the initial sketch. you mind fills out the missing part and create an incredible painting, and sometimes getting that gridy sketch refined and made right is causing you more problems than needed.
40+ Digital Painting Tutorials You Should Study If you’re one of those designers who aspire to create digitally painted artwork like these, we think you’d learn more than a thing or two in this collection of tutorials. Read through them, study the variety of techniques they employ, and come out an accomplished digital painter in your own right! Painting Wavy Hair Learn how to paint wavy hair digitally. Spacecraft Prototyping This tutorial will show you how to make this prototype from start to finish. Advanced Tutorial: Creating Broken Link Learn how to create the highlights and shadows on this mutated version of Link, from the Legend of Zelda. Suberb Tutorial of Digital Painting President Obama Learn how to create a digital painting of President Obama using Photoshop and a graphic tablet. Equilibrium Learn how to paint a realistic female digitally starting from grayscale! Paint Realistic Looking Lips Learn how to paint lips that are sensually life-like. Making of Spanish Girl Making of Cold Sky The Custom Brush Guide: Fabric and Costume
Temperature Structure -By Dan dos Santos A few days ago, I discussed a basic Value Structure technique. I showed how we can emphasize the spacial distance between Foreground, Middleground, and Background by restricting each area to a specific part of the value scale, either Black, White or Grey. That very same principal can be applied to Color Temperature as well. Try breaking your composition down into three distinct temperature ranges: Warm, Cool and Neutral. Just like value, restricting certain areas to a particular range of temperature will create a more legible composition and a greater sense of depth. By using tryptic schemes for both color temperature -and- value you ensure focus and legibility in even the busiest of compositions! Once I've decided on the basic value structure, I reinforce that with the same tryptic structure of color temperature. As I paint the image, I incorporate a lot of different colors into each of these areas.
Why Beauty Matters | RCL Video Art Why Beauty Matters <p>JavaScript required to play <a hreflang="en" type="video/mp4" href=" Why Beauty Matters</a>.</p> Philosopher Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives. In the 20th century, Scruton argues, art, architecture and music turned their backs on beauty, making a cult of ugliness and leading us into a spiritual desert. Using the thoughts of philosophers from Plato to Kant, and by talking to artists Michael Craig-Martin and Alexander Stoddart, Scruton analyses where art went wrong and presents his own impassioned case for restoring beauty to its traditional position at the center of our civilization. (For low bandwidth connection) Why Beauty Matters <p>JavaScript required to play <a hreflang="en" type="video/mp4" href=" Beauty Matters</a>. Like this: Like Loading...
Loomis's Scheme for Tonal Organization Illustrator Andrew Loomis developed a practical scheme for organizing the tonal values of a picture. In his book Creative Illustration he presents squares of four different tones: white, light gray, dark gray, and black.If you let one of those tones dominate, you can arrange them four different ways: 1. Grays and black on white, 2. Nearly any sort of picture can fit one of these plans. For example, this sketch of kids and sleds on snow fits the second plan. These sketches of a mother and a baby near a window follows the third plan.