Paula’s 100 Day Art Challenge: Animal Studies

[Paula B]

Thank you, Zhi Su! 😀

[Paula B]

Day 044:

[Natacha]

Amazing Paula! Your posts are always a pleasure to watch 🙂

[Paula B]

Thank you, Natacha. Yours as well 😀

[Paula B]

Day 045:

[Paula B]

Day 046:

[Paula B]

Day 047:

[Paula B]

Day 048:

[Iliya Mirochnik]

Hi Paula B,

I think these animal studies are great! I like that you can see the focus and understanding that’s going into them, and I look forward to seeing more of them on your thread. I do think that you’re composing the pages well too. For the most part, they have a clear focal point that you’re controlling through gesture and size. What I want to recommend is also to add different degrees of finish and value distribution. Since you’re doing these digitally, this should be particularly easy. I think these pages would look even better if, for example, some of the animals were kept in a higher tonal key, while others worked on in a full range of values from white to black. Right now, they’re all a little too much the same. But even more importantly than that, I think that you could push the finish (or polish) in some of them as well. For example, in the Griffon one, the main Griffon with wings outstretched could not only have been more substantial and more gesturally striking, but also more polished, with more considerable edge variation, cleaner halftone distribution, and more intricate highlights. Now that’s not even the end of it. Ideally, you could design the whole page in a way in which no one part is like any other in terms of finish, and by that, I mean not only an animal as a whole but a part of the animal. So, for example, starting with that same Griffon, for instance, a part of the wing and head, let’s say, could’ve been maximally polished, then there’d be al title fall off on the rest of the bird. Then one of the other birds would have the same kind of variation within it but also as a whole be subdued to the main bird, and so on. Now I know that sounds a little crazy, and possibly too much to think about, but take a look at sketch pages or design paintings/drawings of any serious Old Master painter or draftsman. It’s all there. Now the secret is that you need to do one or two pictures where these things are conscious, and seeking out that hierarchy of finish will begin to enter your intuition, and you’ll have a hard time doing the drawings any other way from then on.

Keep up the excellent work!
Iliya

[Paula B]

Hi Iliya,

Thank you very much! I was starting to feel like I needed to somehow take the drawings to the next level, so I’ll definitely try to incorporate those things into my work! I’ll experiment with it for the next few days and see how it goes.

Thanks again!

[Paula B]

Day 049:

[PaulDidier]

Wow, Paula, you just keep cranking out amazing drawings! So inspiring. Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it, but I also really like your self portrait sketch you use for your Avatar!

[Paula B]

Thank you, Paul! It’s actually not a self portrait but glad you like it! 😀

[Paula B]

Day 050:

[Paula B]

Day 051:

[Author]

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