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  • in reply to: Patrick Stewart #441105
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Multiple light sources and Conte are both tricky to work with! I have to repeat myself over and over such things as I wrote above, and I still make mistakes. There is only so much we can focus on at any given time. I think that is one of the biggest challenges- to be very deliberate. No worries! I think it is trying to not allow our brains to tell us what we are seeing, but learning to shut it out and focus on seeing what is actually there. Our brain is so use to assuming the fact, as it is easier day by day to see the world as “things are like this on average” – it would be outstandingly impractical to observe everything in our visual field the same way we aim to do when we sit down to draw something. But because we’ve spent a lot more time seeing to nagivate the world, rather than seeing draw the world, we default to what we’ve practiced most – that’s part of what makes drawing challenging! The simultaneous training and untraining of the brain that has to occur.

    I think though there would be multiple light sources, there should still be a net average of a light and shadow side. Even an object with a single light source will still receive light from any of surrounding object/s or surface/s. Think of the basic sphere on a flat surface. The flat surface will reflect onto the underside of the sphere, lighting it to create the reflected light area. That area is in the shadow. It will be lighter than the core shadow, but still darker than the darkest lights. The wall will reflect onto the sphere, and so on.

    Have you done Mark Westermoe’s section in the Beginning Head Drawing course? He helped me to grasp a lot of these concepts. He has a structured and methodological approach to drawing, which I found great for learning.

    As for getting the expression right, have a look at Charles Hu and Westermoe’s sections on expressions in the same course. Charles emphasizes pushing the expressive gestures, finding the longer lines of gesture rather than just zoning in on one specific feature/area, the pull and drags of facial features. Westermoe has you understand the musculature that contribute to the expression to be able to better see the effects on surface anatomy – skin and features – to draw them more effectively.

    Indeed!

    in reply to: How can I be creative when I’m not? #441092
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Ryoko

    I struggle a lot with drawing from imagination too – it makes me feel the most uncomfortable than any other artistic practice.

    I think for me one of the struggles is when I think of what I want to draw, my mind can’t focus on anything specific, as it is trying to draw out of an immense pool of imagery so everything just blurs to nothing. I am focusing on drawing what I know most, what I’ve observed most when drawing from reference, which for me is heads. I also focus on what interests me most. Both are important. I wouldn’t be fair to ask of myself to draw a tarantula if I have never or have little experience drawing one from reference, but if I’m not interested in drawing them in the first place, my ability to persist would be low.

    Also, remind yourself there are MANY ways to be creative. You don’t necessarily have to create something that doesn’t exist or hasn’t been done before. Remember that the greatest artists draw ideas and lessons from each other, and combine them in different ways. The way you use and combine colours, the way you express line and colour, the way you apply paint, the way you compose an image, the subject matter, these are all examples of the many ways to be creative.

    Study your art history, learn how other artists developed their styles, collect images of what you like to try find common themes. Analyse your favourite artists – take note of what aspects of their work you like. Really try to break it down, be specific. This’ll all help to inform you to give direction towards developing your own style.

    Most of all, don’t force it and stress over it 🙂 your style will express itself in time.

    I have no style as of yet, but I am sure it will develop the more I learn and practice 🙂

    Good luck!

    in reply to: Acrylic landscape – Bush scene #441075
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Rachel

    I think it would be similiar in the detail idea for this painting. A bit more detail in the foreground and bottom of trees, decreasing as you go into the background and going up the trees. I think it could amplify the sense of height of the trees.

    I definitely could have not painted this as a beginner! I could maybe now – I feel my skills have upgraded from a preschooler to a kindergartner with my painting!

    in reply to: Acrylic landscape – feedback would be great #441074
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Rachel, this is a great little painting. I would have been overwhelmed trying to paint a landcape like this! You’ve pushed the overall warmth in the image which is nice. Gettting the values right in all the masses would have been tricky for this – well done! All I can think of is maybe a bit of detailing on the bottom right foreground, reducing the detail as your eye moves from there to the back left hand corner. It’ll help emphasise the overall gesture of trees and help to direct the viewers eye more across the image. I hope that makes some sense.

    in reply to: Patrick Stewart #440673
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Gary

    TNG is one of my favourite series and Patrick Stewart surely is one of the  most handsome actors in cinema – least I think so! The likeness is definitely there.

    I think watching your edges would be useful. Consider the type of form/plane changes/value you’re working with to control your edges appropriately. For example, more angular forms = harder edge; more rounded forms = softer edge. The shadow side suggests form whilst the light describes form. Hard edges can be too descriptive for the shadow side. The light side is more descriptive.

    Remember what is dark isn’t necessarily in the shadows. Your darkest lights shouldn’t be as dark as your lightest darks.

    Focus on form before texture.

    These are all things I need to work on, among, well everything for portrait drawing.

    Keep up the practice!

    in reply to: Acrylic painting, 30 x 30 cm linen canvas #440653
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Birgith

    I haven’t come across any ram paintings before I believe, so this was a pleasant surprise! I think bumping up the shadows to help create more dimensionality could be good, and a bit more saturation in the ram to help make him more the focus of the piece. I really like this piece and it’s inspired me to sometime try tackle painting an animal – I find the idea daunting.

    in reply to: Still life, oil on paper, critiques welcome #440639
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Alon

    Lovely still life. I think working on the saturation/chroma could be useful, as the items fall a tad into the background. Bumping up the saturation a bit for all the objects will help, a bit more for the lemons and less so for the pot. More warmth in the shadow sides too, as it seems from the light side you’re working with a neutral to cool light. Overall a real nice piece.

    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Dan and welcome!

    It agree it can be overwhelming, as all the courses are very in depth and fantastic. I started here with the Beginning Head Drawing course. My skills excelled throughout the course, and this is coming from someone who has very little drawing experience – I can imagine you’ll be able to get even more out of it! The way the course is structured allows for a good progression of understanding and gets you exposed to a number of instructors. Each has their own unique way of approaching structure and construction, which I found quite useful as some things clicked more for me and others, as well as they all build on and support each other.

    Alongside it I did Bill Perkin’s Colour Bootcamp course as I wanted to be able to improve my colour theory knowledge and practice, to be able to improve my painting – it sure has! by miles. Highly recommend this course for your future studies.

    Having done both simultaneously was very challenging and in hindsight it would have been better to dedicate myself to one course at a time, as I found it difficult to get lots of extra work done.

    Let us know how you go with your first course 🙂

    All the best

     

    in reply to: Hello from Ft Lauderdale, Florida #438702
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi!

    Nature is simply too magnificent to not express with paint.

    Have you seen the Introduction to Landscape Painting with Ben Fenkse? I’ve watched some of the theorectical part, I am excited to undertaking the practical components later in the year. The Animal anatomy course could also be fitting for you 🙂

    All the best

    in reply to: Hello from Sweden #437104
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Cecilia

    Thank you for voicing solidarity. We shall all keep creating. Even if some days will be more difficult than others, even the smallest of creations bring us a sense of joy. Take care

    in reply to: Still life and Landscape Oil Paintings #435615
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Craig

    Firstly, thank you for being so generous with this feedback, and additionally including a drawing to help compliment what you’ve critique.

    Understanding the objects as more basic shapes at the beginning I think will help a lot. I used the comparative method to get the drawing in, but reflecting back it does make me think of the object directly, rather than simplifying it even more, which I think I need to focus on more given where my skills level is currently at.

    So many elements of my painting process that I can see more clearly now is that I am not focusing enough on simplifying as much as what I could and should be.

    I will make sure to do as you suggest to shift the values a bit more in each direction when working with a similar ambient kind of lighting setup. Do you have a preferred way to approach the order which you apply for painting the background vs. foreground vs. objects for still lifes? I painted the back and foreground first, followed by one object at a time, and then made a few adjustments to the back and foreground (so in total 5 shorter separate sessions).

    I made myself look too specifically at each bit of colour hue, value, saturation and temperature shift I saw for all and each and every one of the most smallest of changes in the vegetables, which I found very overwhelming. As such, I began to get muddled up and became a bit lost with it all. This manner of approaching application of paint I obtained from Mark Carder from Draw Mix Paint. I think given that I was painting this from life without a strict  and stable lighting situation made that task more difficult and possibly overall too specific of an approach for me.

    I will absolutely repeat to myself again and again when I paint to see each element of colour independently. I started off that way, but again got lost in the process. Would 1) value, 2) hue 3) temperature 4) saturation be an ohk order to analyse?

    Oh, the blending part – yes absolutely resist! What I found happened was that if I didn’t get a colour right, I would apply paint on top to correct it, but in doing this I spread it over rather than being incredibly deliberate if I wanted to keep painting that area alla prima (which is what I wanted to do for this painting). Then to correct that spreading I ended up moving the paint more again than I know I should and argh! the frustration. I will keep fighting that urge.

    Thanks for letting me know about how previously gouache was used to learn. I can absolutely see how it  would teach you to be deliberate with each and every stroke you make. I don’t currently have gouache but I do have some acrylics. I could try those out, given they dry quickly, it could function somewhat similarly.

    I wasn’t overall I wasn’t happy with the painting, the back and foreground bothered me most. I had to move onto something else to not permit and allow myself to feel entirely defeated by this still life. Nevertheless it was a valuable exercise, as each and every painting is.

    Thanks again for your feedback!

    P.s. I just finished watching Iliya’s critique of your painting. I actually saw it earlier in the forum and I was floored by it. I couldn’t bring myself to leave a comment because all I could have said was this is brilliant! and not anything constructive, which is what I know we need as artists.
    Anyway, I thourougly enjoyed the video critique, I learned so much from it. Thanks for sharing your incredible piece with us all.

    in reply to: Portrait in oil #435130
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Hi Diane,

    Don’t let the inconsistency of the paints throw you off in professional quality paints. This is often because they only use the pigment and carrier oil, usualy linseed, so this allows for each pigment’s unique qualities show through. For example, I have two Michal Hardings paints – Transparant Red Oxide and French Yello Ochre. The Transparent is a bit more fluid than butter, but overall very smooth, whilst the Ochre is quiet gritty.
    Ah great. It’s ohk to use OMS if you are doing an underdrawing, but then in the first painting, a very small quantity of OMS is ohk. The next layers should be minimal linseed and further layers you can add more, even transition to a stand oil. I don’t have much experience with stand though. Liquin is another popular medium, but for me I want to stick to as minimal mediums as possible and keep it simple – painting is hard enough as it is!

    I’ve not tried the Zorn palette before, though I think it would be good for me too. I developed my palette following Bill Perkin’s one that he shared in his Colour Bootcamp course. It is a fully saturated one using white and black, the most saturated warm and cool primaries, and a phthalo green. It is difficult to work with, but I like his philosophy that this way you have full saturation range to work with. Having said that the simplicity of the zorn palette would be good for practicing colour relativity and as you said less to think about.

    He gave wonderful and very practical useful feedback. I’m sure it will help improve you painting even more. Self-portrait will be great practice! A task every artis must undertake I think 🙂

    It is titled Still Life and Landscape Oil paintings. There are two now, the one that’s further down the forum has all four that I shared 🙂

    Cheers

     

     

     

    in reply to: Still life and Landscape Oil Paintings #435097
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    To clarify, the second post I tried to load and was unblocked, which is already on this forum, has all four of the paintings I wanted to share. This one only has one of them. Probably best if anyone sees this to head to that post, titled the same as this one, so that I don’t have to reshare the paintings here. Cheers

     

    in reply to: Still life and Landscape Oil Paintings #435042
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    Thanks Joshua

    This was my initial post 🙂 I submitted another, both were blocked, but the second one was unblocked before this first one. I’ll post the other images I shared on the other so there’s at least consistency across both.

     

    in reply to: Sylvan #433491
    Josseline JeriaJosseline Jeria
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    No worries! You’ve done an amazing job with it, especially given it was your first shot at it. Ah yes that makes sense why the lighting read a bit differently there. Thanks for sharing your work 🙂

Viewing 15 posts - 256 through 270 (of 296 total)