Hey all.

Before you read through this and comment, take this bit of info;
What I am about to type is meant for those dediated and serious about art, those who intend to do it as a career, not those who do it just for fun, just to impress, or whatever reason. A big part of becoming a pro at anything art related (not including the modernism movements including Concept Art (As opposed to Preproduction art, wich is also referred to as Concept art), Post modernism, etc.) ANWAYS, as I was saying. A big part of becoming a pro is being DEDICATED. If you don't see yourself able to do art for a few hours a day just to improve your skills, than you will probably not gain much out of this thread.



I know I've only been here for 2 days, but from lurking alone I have found one of the biggest things people lack is the ability to see. It's not stupidity or anything, but it's a lack of understanding that which is around you. People will wonder how to color certain things correctly, and look for a tutorial. I was once directed to one of the most (excuse the language) Bullshit tutorials I have ever seen. It was on PolyKarbon. I hold nothing against PolyKarbon, but this was the worst thing ever. It was a tutorial on how to "create Realistic skintones." How was this common problem solved? By using the color picker on photos.
I might get flamed for this, "The colors on photos are realistic DUHR!"
So what? What in the hell do you LEARN from taking colors from a picture? You don't look at where it is on the Hue slider, how saturated it is or it's temperature in relation to other colors, you just do it because the tutorial said to. You don't know the theory behind it, you don't realize why skin is the color it is, you just accept it and do what you think is right.
And yet, the ultimate irony is that you see people's faces every day, all day, and you don't even realize why it is like it is.
A part of being an artist, a SERIOUS one, not "just for fun", is learning to SEE, to OBSERVE what's around you, and to gain knowledge about how it works. By keeping an observational mindset, you can look at a face and judge why it's colored the way it is. It's not just the blood underneath, nor is it the melanin your body produces, nor is it the makeup or sunburn or tan or oil on your skin, but one of the BIGGEST influences on the color of skin are it's surroundings. Outside, whether you can see it or not, all the "shadows" (Places where the sun doesn't hit) are blue. Look at the road. Look at the sidewalk. It's blue!
Now you say "I know that, because it reflects the sky, I'm not stupid."
But this is usually where logic stops. They don't continue to inquire, or to make of any special note that the sky makes them blue.
The reason the sky makes them blue is because it is a lightsource. It is a lightsource every bit as much as the sun, but it's less intense and it's blue, not yellow. It contrasts the sun's temperature (colorwise.) Anyways, once you REALIZE this, you can apply it to your art so much more, and it adds a whole no dimension to what you do. It also tells so much about how good you are as an artist, not only by the quality of your work, but by the understanding of the environment around you.
Observing is half the battle. When you are anywhere, even right now, as I type, I am watching the bones in my hand, on the upper side of my palm flinch and raise and dip, and I can see where they are. Next time I draw a hand, I will have a better understanding of what is underneath my skin in that area, and how my fingers are connected to my hand. I am also looking at the shadows, and I noticed:

I am in a teal colored room. A window to my right, it's 7:53, still daylight, sun is about to start setting. From the bottom part of my finger to the left side of my finger, it goes like this

castshadow from fingeron the right of this one>ale highlight from sky>reddend midtone from subsurface scattering(blood underneath skin in capillaries> tealish shadow from refleced light off the walls>reflection from life of next finger over.

Now, to take it a step beyong, I realize this; The reflection from the next finger over provides proper CONTRAST for me to define the finger to the left, where it starts again with a cast shadow from the other finger.

I can then apply this theory to other parts of my body, which I can apply to my art. If I need to add contrast betwwen 2 areas, I will find a way using shadows on one part, then sharp highlights on another.



Another thing to observe are the planes of the body, especially the face, and how they are lit in groups. Can't explain much, just get a Mirror and a lamp or a flashlight, turn off the lights, and observe where the light hits your face when you hold the light at different angles, and how close/far you hold it.


Color analogies are also really fun to look at. When I looked outside this window to observe something random, I noticed. The Skyline is orange, a WARM COLOR. The houses across the street are in the blue, sky colored shadow. That's the COOL houses against the WARM Sky.

But then I remember what it looks like during the day; The sky completley blue, a COOL color, but the houses, now illuminated by the yellow sun, are all WARM colored. You will find SO many instanced of that relation, where if a Highlight is COOL, the shadow will be WARM, and if the Highlight is WARM, the shadow will be COOL.

I could ramble for hours, continually going off on other tangents and digressing from, then forgetting my point.

Anyways, to sum it up, To become a skilled artist, drawing from life will only get you so far, but once you start OBSERVING things around you, and learning how they work and WHY they look like they do, and then recording these in your mental vocabulary, (Alongside things like ANATOMY AND PROPORTIONS) by drawing them, you will grow SO fast.

Here is where I branch off and mention a bunch of other things quickly that I feel like saying.

When you are drawing from anatomy books or pictures or whatever, where the focus is on ANATOMY, you MUST, and I stress MUST NOT SETTLE FOR "OKAY". Trace the damned thing a time or two before you redraw it if you have to, but DO NOT GET ANATOMY WRONG. This will totally defeat the purpose of studying anatomy in the first place. Your mind will record the wrong information, and retain that. Then you are back to square one.

General *****ADULT****** proportion laws and some phsycology behind them;

Realistic proportions, good for realism, mordbid scenes, things depicting the negatives of humanity, anything meant to potray humans in a Modern/satiric way.
7.5 heads tall.
Ideal Proportions, good for realism, heroic scenes, optimistic scenes, characters, robots, etc.- anything meant to look cool, really.
8 heads tall
Fashion, self explanatory.
8.5 heads tall
Heroic, used by early sculptors and painters to portray great leaders, or great legends, creates an almost "column" like imposition. Use as more of a "florentine" or "roman" or "greek" style, than as anything else.
9-9.5 heads tall.

*1st Headlength- The head.
2nd-The nipples
3rd-Navel(bellybutton)
4th-Bottom of the crotch
The rest, legs.
*These rules should be exagerrated for fashion or heroic styled proportions.

Head is divided into a some equal parts.
Forehead to Brow=
Brow to bottom of nose=
Bottom of nose to CHIN

The eyes are indeed in the center of the head, but only when you are looking DIRECTLY AT A CAMERA.

The elbow, when standing upright, is aligned with the bellybutton. The wrist is aligned with the crotch.

Each finger is approximatley the same length as the palm.

Your foot is as long as your forearm.


That's as much as I can think of right now. Here are some very helpful tutorials;
(FredFlickstone)[link]
(Prometheus|ANJ)[link]
(Linda Bergkvist)[link]

If anyone has anything else important to add,
(Please no "I got something! Anime proportions are Xxxxxx", there are no definite anime proportions, for one, and for 2, anime is BASED on REALISM, so I don't see why you need seperate proportions.

I would like to keep this unopinonated as well, so try not to do things that would normally start with "I think". Please google it first, find a reliable source to make sure that it's credible, thanks! Last thing we need is innacurate info


I finish this post with my quote;
"Reality is the best inspiration for your imagination."

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Rag-tag is fun.
_________****LEARN TO OBSERVE! FOLLOW THE LINK****_________________
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