OpaqueApple - Art School Journey

[OpaqueApple]

@Kosmonaut definitely right with the plane of the nose. I'll bump it up on the darker value.

Also, when i was working through this i thought of using an airbrush but i'm pretty sure photoshop doesn't have one, it has a soft brush to which i got those results but its wasn't as soft as what an airbrush can produce. Maybe there's a brush preset in photoshop with softer edges. Either way, you're definitely right on using an airbrush or something alike, i'll scavenge around to see what find and use for next time.

Edit: photoshop definitely has one :P, it's in the presets

[Kosmonaut]

I was about to say it was one of the default brushes, but you got it so nvm lol

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all,
I've ended up finishing the 3 point perspective assignment from term 2;

It came out pretty messy and took some time but i enjoyed it, the hardest thing was the actual environment since nature is quite organic.
I'll also make a note to not mash so many ideas together into 1 piece since it seems a little chaotic now that i look at it. Either way, that's a lesson to put to practice next time i do this!

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all,

I ended up finishing perspective 2 by doing the 4 point perspective character;

The task itself was tricky, especially since it's a figure. The figure ended up a bit goofy looking (and a bit messy) but it served well since i realized a few things. I actually made the 4 point perspective narrow and not too curved so it doesnt really have that much of the 4 point perspective effect. Nonetheless it was fun to do this!

I actually have a question. Marc said that this is important to learn and it is used a bit however i've only seen a sparse amount of artwork that uses 4 point, especially with characters. Is it worth putting time into the final section of perspective 2 with 4 point? If anybody has an answer, it would be much appreciated as usual.

I'll probably end up doing some basic blocks in 4 point before i move onto the next section.

[Da_Bingus]

Hey great job on the 4 point perspective!

Honestly, there are no real uses (as far as I have seen) for 4 and 5 point perspective its mostly if you want to draw impossible scenes which if you are not into then I wouldn't bother with those classes.

I skipped 4 and 5 point perspective classes because I will never draw with it and I want to be able to draw characters asap so I'm focusing on the anatomy classes
(I still watched the classes I just didn't do the exercises) BUT atmosphere perspective is very useful so I recommend you practice that

[Kosmonaut]

as far as I know, I asked in the discord if that exercise was worth doing and someone said not really because it isn't too practical of a 4 point exercise you use often so hope that answers your question. I did everything else in the video lesson though, and I felt that doing the last part would just be for me challenging myself to see if I could pull it off

[OpaqueApple]

@Esem19 yeah i think you're right. Thank you for the recommendation, i actually forgot about atmospheric perspective. it kind of went over my head! (Definitely think that would be more worthwhile than 4 point.

@Kosmonaut Definitely answers it, i don't know if it is really too practical either. Maybe the main part really was just the challenge.
Thank you both for your time and answers

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all,
It's definitely been a while since my last post, since this is the last day of the year i thought i'd make a post to say happy new years to everyone! I hope the coming year will be a good year for all of us.
I've been pretty busy with art recently and am going through the photoshop assignments which i'll post in here soon enough.
Thank you to all the people who have kindly given me any kind of critique or advice, i'm very grateful.
Finally i'll dump in my end of year work since i don't want to leave this post too empty;

I hope everybody has a happy new year!

[LesleyCarol]

Happy New Year!!

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all, i hope everyone had a good day coming into the new years.

I've ended up finishing the first series of photoshop assignments for term two. I'll going to crunch it down into one post since i don't want to clutter the thread with posts everyday;
I had a ton of fun making these, the idea originally was of a simple panda but i expanded that a slight bit, the outcome was a bit goofy but i enjoyed messing around experimenting with the shapes to create the panda.
I'm very close to term 3 which i'm excited to get into! If anyone has any feedback for these exercises, they are more than welcome.

[OpaqueApple]

Hey all,
I've gone ahead and finished the second part of the photoshop assignments;

I had a bit of trouble with the blending exercise, mostly because of the smudge tool but that's probably because i need a lot more practice with it & blending stuff in general. The exercises were quite fun, i had alot of fun making the chain brush.

As usual, if anybody has any critiques on anything, feel free to point anything out.
Onto Term 3!

[_Sasha_]

Nice studies, the only feedback I can think of (and might be advanced compared to the task) is that your light sources seem to be more like a fuzzy laser beam, where usually you want to consider light sources such as sunlight as a sheet of light and the parts of the model that that sheet hits first will be your brightest spots. (orange circles)

Also something to keep in mind, areas that have other things near them (like cavities or dips in the shape) will make it harder for the light to escape, making those spots slightly darker (brown circles) That effect is usually called ambient occlusion.

These 2 points are probably not the point of the exercise, but it's good to keep them in mind for future. Hope this is useful feedback for you! ^-^

[OpaqueApple]

@sasha0wood I agree with the laser beam analogy, i can definitely see in your example that i focused on one a certain area instead of considering the things being hit around it. Thanks for pointing out the spots where ambient occlusion would play in. i didn't consider that as a part of the exercise when i probably should have.
Now looking back on the shading exercise, this has actually opened up my eyes to a few things that i did wrong, thank you for your detailed feedback!

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all, it's been a bit since my last post.
I've gone through anatomy 3 and am slowly making my way through the assignments;

The 3 are for the muscle tracing exercise, this was a bit more difficult than it looked, the pecs muscle is pretty confusing so i'll keep carrying on to figure it out. The first pictures pec area was a bit of a mess so sorry about that. i'll also try and work on models with less muscle definition.

The next thing is the skeleton;
I don't really know if i used the right shapes and forms for the skeleton, any critiques / tips would be much appreciated for both of the muscle tracings and the simplified skeleton.

Finally, i applied @sasha0wood 's feedback a little while ago;
the cross contour on the third one kind of gets in the way (it was on the same layer and i couldn't be bothered to remove it ). I hope i applied the feedback in the right way. If i did make a mistake again, critiques would be much appreciated.

Posting will probably slow down a bit more as i work my way through anatomy. If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time!

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all,
I've been busy with anatomy stuff and have gone ahead and finished anatomy 2 with this;

Some sides i ended up omitting some of the muscles so the ones usually covered by them are visible.
the skeleton is a mix of both Marc's and whatever i came up with myself. Anatomy 2 was really fun. I'm going to jump into anatomy 3 instead of one of the next sections in term 3, i feel like grouping all of the anatomy sections might be better.

If anybody has any useful links or critiques, they are welcomed as always.

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all,

It's definitely been some time since i made the last post. Firstly i hope everybody in the forums is doing well!
I ended up finishing the lower anatomy section of term 4;

I felt like there was a lot of information this time around but it was pretty fun learning this.
The only thing i'm slightly confused about is the quads group and the muscle fibre directions of that group.
If anyone has any critiques, please feel free to put them in.

[OpaqueApple]

Hi all,
It's been some time since my last post. Firstly, i hope everyone is well! I ended up finishing the anatomy section of art school;

The study i've done is extremely close to Marc's own version. I enjoyed the shapes he used for a lot of the muscles. Either way this wraps things up for the anatomy section. Onto the next!
also i'll dump a complimentary figure study to make this post a bit more interesting;

posts will probably be pretty slow, Thank you for taking the time to read!

[playforwho89]

Nice to see you posting again miscles look solid i especially like the forearms, and the drawing bellow looks awsome i find it very dificult to capture the totation of the stomach area in to the hips laying on the side in similar poses but your work captured it very nicelly. I really like the flowing lines of her legs. Great job keep it up.

[Lockenheim]

Welcome back! These are lovely, I really lof the flow and the energy of the bottom drawing! Great job!

[OpaqueApple]

@playforwho89 @Lockenheim thank you both of you for the kind words. I can only hope to improve more!
I've checked out both of your posts and you guys are doing a ton of great work. May we keep growing as artists (و •̀ ᴗ•́ )و
@playforwho89 since you mentioned you find it difficult to capture rotations i wanted to link this vid; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0660Fuih7qo
It's definitely been a while since i've done anything like the bean exercise however i do remember it being somewhat helpful in twist, lean and tilting motions (especially twist, that gave me a pretty hard time). As long as you keep the 3d form and gesture in mind of this bean thing then you'll be good to go. Try it if you'd like!
(Post note; i'll probably do some myself as well!)