Spencer - Art School Journey

blacksmith8254 2023-08-25 14:44:46 UTC #23

Thank you so much!

I actually had my "training" via Mission Rennaissance where you start out with a big pencil and a nice huge pad of paper, holding your pencil so that you can't really do much wrist movement with it and it's all in the shoulder. I still try to take the spirit of those techniques when applicable, but yeah I agree--doesn't really work with digital art as often.

blacksmith8254 2023-08-25 14:49:10 UTC #24

Just realized when doing my pen control for today that I forgot to do the dividing lines yesterday. So I did it twice today.

I'm definitely noticing that when I go for stronger strokes I get straighter lines, and that with circles, when just going for a circular chape in the general size of the outline rather than trying to follow the line exactly, I usually get better line and shape quality.

I think I'm seeing some slight improvement, so I'm definitely encouraged!

I started the image manipulation, but can't remember how to just select and manipulate the different parts of a single layer on their own, so I'm rewatching the tutorial to try and get a handle on that. Might need to bleed that into the weekend though.

Day 3

blacksmith8254 2023-08-25 14:50:21 UTC #25

Day 4

snakker 2023-08-25 15:41:39 UTC #26

Nice keep at it. I do note some overshoot with your line practice, just something to look out for if you are aiming to improve accuracy

Cheers

blacksmith8254 2023-08-27 23:14:17 UTC #27

Thank you!

I'm definitely aware of the overshoot. I've noticed at this point if I don't overshoot, I tend to swerve when trying to stop and don't make a straight line, so that's something that is definitely going to be a more gradual process.

blacksmith8254 2023-08-27 23:21:16 UTC #28

Pen Control W1D5.

Yesterday got away from me, so I didn't do the exercise, but I did 2 today. I noticed that the skinnier lines (even by 1 pixel) made me fee like I had a bit less control.

blacksmith8254 2023-08-27 23:24:30 UTC #29

W1D6

I noticed that doing 2 exercises in a row made me a bit more confident on the second one.

Is there a setting that I need to adjust to get flow variation instead of opacity or flow/opacity? So far I'm only able to get flow and opacity, or only opacity variation.

blacksmith8254 2023-08-27 23:30:25 UTC #30

W1 Assignment 2:

I somewhat messed up on this one, as for all but the first pair of circles, I modified circle B instead of circle A. It worked on most of them, though. Uploading this, I now see on some of them I wasn't as accurate as I thought, but it looks like I was pretty close. I think I did a decent job with levels editing, but curves seemed a lot less intuitive. The Color Balance was very intuitive. The bottom one, though, do we get any more practice images like that, or can you recommend any other tutorials with practice rounds like this? Is it worth just messing with all the settings on a bunch of images, putting them in a folder after exporting, and then later trying out this exercise?

I feel like I've already learned more in this first week than I have in the past year of trying to figure things out as I go. Excited for the rest of the course!

snakker 2023-08-28 01:51:39 UTC #31

Hey

that last color thing is pretty hard. Just iterate a couple of times and get an idea on how the different settings work as they can be helpful i guess

as for the flow, you could try using a size jitter that responds to pressure when doing the lines to get a taper on both ends like when drawing with a thick soft pencil or charcoal, just make sure to ghost the movement a couple times first really close to the surface before commiting

cheers!

blacksmith8254 2023-08-28 21:25:56 UTC #32

Thank you! Things like the size jitter are terms I wouldn't really have even known to look up!

blacksmith8254 2023-08-28 21:28:10 UTC #33

Today's Pen Control, W1D7.

I'm noticing an issue with the pressure control--I don't know if this is a sensitivity thing, or just a learning curve, but there's a definite point in the pressure flow where it drops off/up sharply.

Anyway, Week 1 complete. I'm excited for Week 2!

snakker 2023-08-29 01:23:56 UTC #34

I see what you mean. If you are using wacom, go to wacom tablet settings and test different pressure curve settings. Maybe use a linear one for direct changes or use a "harder" feeling setting if you are heavy handed

blacksmith8254 2023-08-31 01:28:31 UTC #35

Thank you!

blacksmith8254 2023-08-31 01:29:59 UTC #36

Whoops!

Almost forgot to post for the second day in a row!

I haven't had time to start the figure drawing exercises yet (still watching the video), but I've made sure to keep up with Pen Control!