Pretzel's - Art School Journey

[pretzel]

Hey everyone, I did some studied another artist this time.
This is an image from kmpym

The left one is my first attempt and the other is a more cleaned up version.
I tried to experiment with the line weight for this. I started with thick lines and used the eraser to make the, thinner where I wanted.
Not that happy with the face or the hair, but I run out of patience so I couldn’t polish it any more.
Thank you for reading! Have an nice day!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone! This week I was busy and didn’t get to draw. But I managed to watch the color and Light 1 lecture and did some studies for color harmonies.
This post will be pretty long because I wanted to express my findings and thoughts on the topic.
I got some art from characters and artists that I like. At first I ignored the character skin in the palette but later on I saw that different skin colors and shades gives different feel in the picture so I am not quite sure what to make of it yet.
Also I noticed a lot of art uses the colors black and white. I classified these colors as neutral and did not include them in the palettes I made. Most common combinations I noticed were white with blue and black with red.
First is a picture from Magui https://twitter.com/_magui3/status/1688999947239297024?s=20
and from FadingzZ https://twitter.com/FadingzZ/status/1678768849091694595?s=20

Here I had some trouble with the picture on the right. I couldn't find a color harmony if I added the colors of the background so I thought that maybe the character and background can have different palettes. I am not sure if this is correct but I mostly ignored any backgrounds after this first picture.
Also for both of them I chose the key color based on what had the higher saturation. This is what Marc recommended in the lecture.

First the image on the left has an Analogous harmony. For this and all of the Harmonies I coundn’t get the exact values right so I chose the harmony that was the closest to the values that I was searching
Next the image to the right I found Split Complementary harmony.

The next images is from yunimaru
https://twitter.com/YU2MARU/status/1684005890586972161?s=20
https://twitter.com/YU2MARU/status/1670597270591643648?s=20

Next are some images from Gretel Lusky
https://twitter.com/Gretlusky/status/1687482868686069760?s=20
https://twitter.com/Gretlusky/status/1677384617530392576?s=20
https://twitter.com/Gretlusky/status/1678519210639499267?s=20

This one was hard because it was not so clear what the key color was and even if I got the key color, finding the harmony was hard. I am not sure if my choices are correct here but this is the closest I could get.

Next are two more images by FadingzZ
https://twitter.com/FadingzZ/status/1685929765612716032?s=20

Next is some images from Min lona
https://twitter.com/MinLona_/status/1683505041641181185?s=20
and neon
https://twitter.com/neonneon321/status/1688910561256554497?s=20

For the one on the left I think shades is correct. For the right one on the right it is split complementary. but I have some trouble getting both pink and yellow because the angle is set between the colors. That is why in all of the studies I did not attempt to be exact but I was choosing the harmonies based on the closest one I could find.

Next pictures is from Mika Pikazo
https://twitter.com/MikaPikaZo/status/1652624638642618369?s=20
https://twitter.com/MikaPikaZo/status/1686680357205311488?s=20

I think this was the hardest one. Mika Pikazo uses very high saturation colors so it was not as clear what the key colors were. From all of her works I chose these two because I thought they would be easier.
The left one was easy. Three main colors so in the beginning I thought the harmony was triadic but I think it is split complementary. The right one was way harder. While I found that the harmony of it was triadic as well I still don't know what the key color is. I think all three of them are key colors because of how they are placed in the image.

Finally the last artist I took a look is Dino
https://twitter.com/Dino_illus/status/1653532797091414018?s=20
https://twitter.com/Dino_illus/status/1672065464611090432?s=20
https://twitter.com/Dino_illus/status/1670979534382850049?s=20

Dino generally uses low saturation colors so this was a bit easier to figure out the key color.
The first two didn't give me much trouble. But while I thought the last one was complementary at first I couldn't quickly found out that this was wrong. The only way to make this harmony was to put it to triadic harmony and put the third one in the middle. Not sure if it's correct though.

Generally I found it harder that I thought it would be to figure out the harmonies. And today I didn't even take into account the backgrounds of the image. I am not sure if any of these are correct.

Final thoughts are that Analogous and shades harmony is easy on the eyes with one of the colors or shade being higher saturation in order to draw attention.
The strength of complementary is that while most of the image is one color there is a splash of the opposite color which is eye-catching.
Split complementary and Triadic are very similar. From the images I studies these were the hardest because they were very busy and for many of them I wasn't sure what the key color was.
You would think that Tetradic or square harmony would be hard and busy as well but from these images I saw that at least one of the colors is used in very small amounts. But not all images were the same though. some had a clear key color some not. I think this gives you the most amount of freedom but it's also easier to make mistakes.
I think all this is really surface level though. I still don't understand why the artists choose the colors they did.

Thank you for reading this huge wall of text.
I would love any feedback you can give me for this, and I wish you a nice day!

[patrycja.lerch]

Color harmonies can take a while. In some cases you immediately tell what you see and sometimes it is more subtle. When I was studying art from card games I noticed that background is often in complimentary colors to the characters to make them pop.
Black and white doesn't need to be pure white and black it can just seem to be. And there are values

Also harmonies don't need to be strictly followed so some artists can make decision you don't really understand but somehow it works and looks really good. It takes lots of practise

After more studies you will know why they choose their colors. I learned colors from Marco Bucci and he changed the way I see colors a lot. I would try to colorpick more colors (if you can)

Have a nice day too!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone! Thank you @patrycja.lerch for the tips. I also checked some videos of Marco Bucci about color. It was pretty interesting and I understood how complicated color is. It definitely needs a lot of time to understand.

This time I watched Anatomy 3 upper. It’s all about arm and hands. These are my notes from the lecture.

I watched this lecture alongside the figure drawing book by Michael Hampton. It definitely helped and I noticed some differences from Marc’s and the books methods, especially in the hands.
Hands where not as hard as I thought. But even small mistakes are visible so it definitely needs a lot of practice. For me the finger width is the hard part. I either make them too thin or too fat.

Thank you reading! Have a nice day!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone, This time I tried some coloring exercises. I did a new portrait for it since it’s been sometime since I did one.
I wanted to show my sketch for this as well since I feel it looks better that the actual clean version. I especially don’t like the hair. On the clean version I also didn’t play with the line weight because I wasn’t too sure where to increase or decrease the line weight.
Any way for the coloring I picked different harmonies and colors based on what I found pleasing so there was not any theory behind it. I tried to use low saturation colors because this is what I usually like. And played a bit with different brightness and saturation between them.

I the end I didn’t like any of them. But I don’t actually know what looks good.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

[pretzel]

Hello again! This time I did a portrait.

Don’t have much to say this time except that I tried to keep it simple with this one.
Thank you and have a nice day!

[snakker]

Good job, you capture the essence well, even the gingival smile. Maybe widen her mouth just a bit more and add a hint of her cheek participating in the smile for more effect

Cheers!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone!
Thank you @snakker for the tips! You are right showing the cheek would improve this a lot. Also for the mouth. If I compare it with the eyes I can now see that it needs to be wider.
Did another portrait no shading this time.

Nostrils give me a lot of trouble. I spent so much time on the nose for this. Don’t know how to make it to look better.
Also I can’t seem to focus on drawing the last few months. I want to draw more but I seem to need breaks very often.
So my question is how do you keep focused on long sessions?
Thank you and have a nice day!

[snakker]

Hey there!

So, notes on this one, her right orbit is a bit large and square (note how it kind of rounds down more, hugging the eye, the glabella is a bit wide, chin small and neck webs a bit too close to her chin. As for nose, are you using a little pyramid construction for it?

I feel you on energy, it can be hard sometimes and “life”gets in the way. When things aren’t going as planned I need to take a step back, if possible block agenda and take some days off of everything!

It’s essential to double check the basics: healthy food (low carbs/good carbs, plenty of veggies, fruits and hyrdation), exercise, good sleep, keeping good relations, cleaning clutter, avoiding energy sinks (games books media or anything that you’re doing just because you started or paid for it - but is not really giving you joy or is not a priority atm). Being mindful and practicing gratefulness - just letting yourself really enjoy and being grateful for the things you enjoy, the little simple things in life, like a delicious moka pot coffee in the morning or nature in an afternoon walk) I feel these basics can make or break you (if neglected) and have a HUGE impact. Of course also keeping in check any health conditions with appropriate professionals as well since any illness or lesion can hamper your efforts

As for time working on one thing, I think your ambient has a lot to do with it and your personality so I think everyone will be different in this respect. I love working on art in cafeterias, in my office at the clinic or in my gaming/art room at home. I usually listen to music while doing art and start myself up with some gesture or doodle/exercises. If i need inspiration i look at some art online or open an art book (James Gurney!)

Cheers!

[pretzel]

The right eye was hard since it was a bit of a weird shape. I also noticed some differences with the left eye. I can now see the mistakes on the neck and chin thanks for pointing them out. About the nose I am usually using the construction method but lately I want to see how far I get without using it. But maybe I still need it, cutting corners is probably not good.
Also about food and exercise I think I am good since I go for morning runs and lift some weights, but I think you are right about studying in a different place. Since I am working from home and drawing on the afternoons I spent all day on my office. I will try changing space to see if it works!
Thank you for taking the time to write all these great tips! I will also continue to work hard!

[snakker]

My pleasure mate! And yeah, construction is very helpful, also don't be afraid to redraw, draw over or smudge and draw on top of constructions - these are things I do a lot in the initial block in and makes drawing much more forgiving and malleable, more like sculpting than being super careful of getting perfect marks from the get go

cheers!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone! This week I did a portrait and studied some hands. These are the results.

I have started to love making portraits since I have most of the basics down it is much easier and thus much more enjoyable. Hair is still difficult for me. Some strands are too stiff.

Hands are tough of course. I still struggled with each one trying to make it look correct. I also struggled with making the guides correct. It seems I don’t understand them as well I need. Most common is making the finger thinner or thicker than it is but that is easy to fix.

Thank you everyone and have a nice day!

[snakker]

Looking good!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone! I was a bit burned out so I took a small break, but I am back now! I got into a light novel series called “Ascendance of a bookworm” and I couldn’t put it down.
Now I am back and ready to continue drawing!
This is what I draw in the past couple of weeks.

These were all very fun especially the last one.
For many of these I had to overlap the sketch with the picture to figure out and fix some mistakes I had done. So I still have a long way to go!
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

[snakker]

Looking good mate! Constructions are looking solid, as you keep rendering you can get to a point where you can start hiding or deleting the construction lines for better effect

cheers

[pretzel]

Hello Everyone I a back again! I have been moving houses this month and didn’t have as much time as I would like, it I finished a few pieces.

I have been doing mostly the same with all of these. Trying to improve my anatomy and trying to learn better line weight and line quality in general.
Thanks or coming by and have a nice day!

[pretzel]

Hello everyone! Long time no see!
I have finished with my and trying to build up my drawing habits again.
For this first one I am really unhappy with it I couldn’t get it right no matter what I did. I enjoyed making the background but I couldn’t do the anatomy and rendering right. I even debated to not posting it but since I spent so much time on it I decided to show it.


When I am having trouble with my work I procrastinate sooo much. Not sure how to break this habit.
After this I made two sketches of portraits. The first one was so hard to do. The lips and the curly hair was a challenge.I tried to simplify but couldn’t make it look good.

The second one came out a bit better. When I compared with the original I noticed that the scarf and hair were much larger than my drawing but since it didn't look too bad I left it like this..

Finally I made another full body one which I think came out better.

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you have a nice day!

[Pattu_w]

Good work on the studies my man, full rendering something is a huuuge challenge, so much so that i'm so terrified of it that i stay the hell away from colors for now lol Yours came out good to my eyes, so great stuff!

When I am having trouble with my work I procrastinate sooo much. Not sure how to break this habit.

I know that feeling, when that happens to me i usually try to tackle something really easy, like drawing a cube rotating for instance, just to keep the daily drawing habit.

[pretzel]

Hey everyone! Back again and I completed my sketch from last time!
Thanks @Pattu_w for your nice words of encouragement! And also thanks for the tips!
This is the completed result

Once again I tried to play arount with line weight. Not sure is it looks good.
Are there any recommended settings for pressure sensitivity? I havent played around with them much.
Next are the flat colors:

For this I mostly color picked from the reference image
And for shading I tried to go for a simple style this time. I went a bit crazy with the lighting near the end but I cleared up most of it because it didnt look that good and this is the final result.
For the background I used painting very simple lines and colors and then with a gaussian blur. And I think it looks good.

Not sure what I should do with the lineart in the final image. Should I color it or should I leave it like this?
Not sure if I am happy with the result but this is what came out

Thanks for reading! And have a nice day!

[patrycja.lerch]

Nice work! You can always experiment with lineart and see what you like
Background looks nice; simple to do and it works