Norma - Art School Journey (New: I'm stuck with my landscape study - Norwegian fjord)

[patrycja.lerch]

Well you can always pause and take a photo with your phone and some movies have lots of screenshots out there

I listened to some artists (don't remember who) talked how well executed Godfather is. I am planning to watch it (I just checked how long it is huh I can't even watch 1 hour movie in one sit.)

I am on my way to watch classics. I focused lately on older animations from disney and ghibli.

Some modern productions lost its magic and focus mostly on action nand a tone of flashy effects. I binged Star Wars movies and I appreciate how the first ones were made.

I watched John Wick (my brother wanted to see the newest one so I had to catch up) there is more action than actual plot but I love lights and colors used in them. They have good composition too. Whenever we see John walking somewhere he will be shown in the centre alone in a huge empty environment where everyone could take him down. Soundtrack is probably my favourite part.

Arcane is great from artistic point of view. But it is series and It is only on netflix. Apart from unique art style it has great composition which shows how characters change overtime. There is a lot more to say about it but I have to rewatch this with my current knowledge. And it is not only for League of legend fans

Do you have any reccomendations? I will gladly add more classics or other films to my list. I will try to think about other films I suddenly forgot everything

[mitsuki-youko]

Do you have any reccomendations? I will gladly add more classics or other films to my list.

Well this isnt a film per say bit its an indie animation project i found on youtube.. It's called the Missing 8 by Fuzi (Fuzi worked with some people from an anime studio)

It's in episodic format but Fuzi did compile a full 1 hr ver by stacking all the eps together.

Here's the playlist if ur interested. (EP 4 was my fav, i rewatched that so many times loool)

While i watched it mainly for fun (and because Punk is cute lol) I also studied the fight scenes as that is something i want to get better at animating - as well as the compositing which is also something i wanna get good at..

Fuzi also has a few youtube shorts where she(?) shows a glimpse of the animation process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6yM4DpIeuc&list=PLQP7quc5eb3ppJu-34YDmTDon0IDjhKof&index=1

[Norma]

Do you have any reccomendations?

I don't know that much movies. Star Wars (the originals) yes! I would absolutly watch them to educate me. I avoid the others. Maybe they are good from a visual point of view. But they don't correspond to my idea of a space opera.

Maybe try Dune. In my opinion, the story has been filmed too many times. But out of curiosity I watched the first part of the new series. I found it visually quite successful. I think you can learn a lot about light and shadow.

In the contamporary field I love Wedding Date, especially the women's clothes.

And: Valerian and the city of a thousand planets is optically an opulent mix. Worth seeing!

Arcane:
Actually I have not a Netflix-Abo but I may in the future as soon as my husband and I have found enough series there that we want to watch.

[Norma]

Exciting plot idea!

[Norma]

This week I did some more head construction. I'm really struggeling with the Loomis head approach to this task. It helps, when I shade the circle to give him a more spherical appearance. I'll probably just have to sketch a lot more heads before I get the hang of it.

My this week's watchlist shows more of Marco Bucchi's tutorials and a David Finch's head construction video. Mark Crilley sketched a male and a female head out of one picture. It was fun and informative to watch.

Kyle T. Webster is the creator of the Photoshop brushes, but he is a good illustrator and teacher too. I recommend his video "The secret to effective stylization".

Just for fun I put the one minute time-lapse video "seed to cauliflower" to the list.

Norma's Watchlist KW 21 20230527

[Norma]

Beach trip:
I draw a picture from last year again. (I was lazy with the background and reused him.)

[patrycja.lerch]

That's an upgrade! and dog is lovely

Great job

[Norma]

Hello everyone!

Almost all of my artistic activities stopped a few months ago in the summer for various reasons. Occasionally I consoled myself by letting my Sim visit a beautiful in-game location where she would then paint a picture. I took a screenshot of the same motif and painted it too.

I found that comforting.

Then I came up with the crazy idea of painting every picture from the Sims 4 Artist Career. I'm currently close to finishing the third one.

The Sims 4 paintings aren't really suitable as references. I see them more as inspirations and look for my references outside of the game.

I'm curious to see how long I can last. In any case, the Sims 4 Artist Career offers a lot of pictures and I could theoretically spend years on the project.
(The Sims screenshots are one the left side each painting.)

[mitsuki-youko]

Occasionally I consoled myself by letting my Sim visit a beautiful in-game location where she would then paint a picture. I took a screenshot of the same motif and painted it too.

LMAO i did not know that was a thing XD

these studies look nice

[patrycja.lerch]

Welcome back!
Good job on studies! Waterfall looks really nice

[snakker]

Heh that’s a cool idea

Cheers

[Norma]

LMAO i did not know that was a thing XD

Yes! There is an option in the game to let the Sim paint a picture of your own choosing. Unfortunately, it only allows screenshots within the game. It would be great if you could also use your own pictures. Technically it is certainly not difficult. Maybe the game company doesn't want indecent paintings being exchanged in the public gallery.

[Norma]

@patrycja.lerch Thank you! The falling water cost me several hours. I probably should have included a better reference from outside of the Sims, but so far drawing this motif was a satisfying experience for me.

@snakker

Heh that’s a cool idea

Thank you!

[Norma]

My next Sims-inspired image is a still life with a watermelon and apples. For the shading, I recreated the objects in Poser and placed the light source over the fruit.

I had a hard time reproducing the surface of the melon resemble like nature. Finally, two brushes from Marc helped me, one for the melon and one for the apples.

Using these custom made brushes feels a bit like cheating. I decided to only work with two brushes, my sketch brush and the soft brush. In the end I was just happy with the result.

Sneaking the one minute time laps video in: https://www.tiktok.com/@normabanzi/video/7306850856132021537/

[Norma]

Did I mention that gesture drawing and I aren't friends? And this is said diplomatically. BUT: Recently I decided to draw a book illustration with a vineyard landscape and a bunch of people, sitting in a garden and listening to a devotion. The sketch of the family was terribly bad. So I have to swallow the bitter pill of having to deal with gesture drawing on a regular basis in order to better fit the people into the planned picture.

I have two problems with gesture drawing:
1.) The models' looks distract me from drawing. It doesn't matter whether they are aesthetically pleasing or not.
2.) I find most of the poses ridiculous. I want to draw everyday situations and not superhero poses or fantasy scenes.

So I searched for more abstract models and found on Pinterest some pictures named Mangaposes. I gave it a try and enjoyed gesture drawing the first time ever. Here are the first sketches. I did not trace the models. I put them AFTER the exercise behind my sketches to check my work.

Have a nice Sunday!

[mitsuki-youko]

these look nice!

Only thing i'd recommend is using cylinders on top of your lines say for the arms too when you have more time

1. hmm.. what about them distracts you? like is it just the face? if so I'd recommending you download/screenshot the references and draw a box where the face should be in the correct perspective. (good persp practice)

2. I'd say google the pose you want to find (sitting, walking, etc and try to use some references there as well. Personally I use line of action which has a mix of chill and dynamic poses

https://line-of-action.com/

hope that helps!

[Norma]

Do you draw or doodle some Christmas kitsch? I did so far, some greeting cards and a christmas tree. I have no idea how to abstract these green pine needles, probably like hair. Unfortunately, I'm not particularly good at painting hair either. But I had fun drawing the tree and the Christmas spheres.

How I did it (1 minute short: https://youtube.com/shorts/D6dKA0EcaxM)

@mitsuki-youko:
To answer your question: The proportions of real people are real and not ideal in an artistic sense. Of course, that doesn't bother me at all in real life. But when doing gesture drawing I always stare at the model and wonder why her/his arms/legs are too short or too long etc. That distracts me (a lot).

[mitsuki-youko]

But when doing gesture drawing I always stare at
the model and wonder why her/his arms/legs are too short or too long
etc. That distracts me (a lot).

Ohh XD I see.... idk what to say about that XD

your tree looks pretty tho!

Do you draw or doodle some Christmas kitsch?

personally i dont draw any "in season" stuff, just whatever i feel like - mostly my characters

[Norma]

I'm stuck with my landscape study. I have already completed three steps:
1.) The line-sketch,
2.) values,
3.) blocking the colors in.

The unfinished picture looks way too flat. I have an idea why that is. I should see the mountains more as objects like pyramids, cylinders, etc. I can draw these objects on a sketchpad, but as soon as I want to apply this knowledge like with this Norwegian fjord, I am faced with more question marks than solutions.

I miss more information about abstraction in Marc's course. What tutorials or materials can I use to learn more about it? Ideas?

Have a nice sunday
Norma

[funslub1996]

Maybe its because the termination line between plane and lack of contrast and saturation. Suggest use mixed brushed (Photoshop) to mix between so it look gradient-ly transition from brighter green to darker green.
- Or you can use this 3 brushes paint between the line by dot dot dot method.
-Opacity by pressure
-create new layer and change layer to maybe overlay or something instead of normal, then paint on it.

Then lower the saturation behind the primary mountain, in real life there is oxygen so the further object the lower the saturation or contrast.

I learn this by Marc course from Term 9 Matte Paint classes, so maybe you can check it out. Goodluck Norma, I look forward into.