Friday, April 8, 2016

Feet

Here are some points to note about the foot.

The inner ankle is placed higher than the outer ankle, which is also farther to the back.



The little toes curl down, the big toe may curl up a bit. 



The pads on the outer side tend to bulge out a little.



When drawing the underside of the foot it will look much better if you leave the sole open.


Usually only the pads touch the floor.



Different views



Well, that's it for now  
Don't let feet be your Achilles' heel ;)

Thursday, March 31, 2016

TV Tropes

If you love storytelling you'll find this website to be a real treat. I enjoyed reading through many tropes.
Tv-tropes oh and there's also this awesome Periodic Table of Storytelling.
It's a great resource

I think next week I'll make a post on feet since it's kind of relates to the "hands" post from last week

have a great weekend!



Friday, March 25, 2016

Hands

Hands, drawing them gets easier with practice.
These are some points to remember when drawing hands.






  • The thumb reaches to the second joint of the index finger.
  • The pinky reaches to the third joint of the ring finger.
  • The thumb axis is placed at the palms' base.
  • The thumbnail does not face the same direction as the fingernails.




The palm side is concave. 

The back of the hand is slightly convex.
In a fist the fingers are pointing toward the middle.
The alignment of the finger-pads in relation to the knuckles. 

The best way to learn to draw hands is through practice and observation.
That being said I hope you found this post... handy :P


Thursday, March 17, 2016

Hotel Transylvania 2 - Lighting

An awesome video I had to share about the lighting in "Hotel Transylvania 2" and the thought behind it.
They talk about having a clear read, strong mood and a bit about camera effects.



Thursday, March 10, 2016

Creating the Illusion of Depth


Depth is awesome! It makes a picture feel like a window to another world or something cool like that. Here are a few ways you can add depth to your paintings.

Perspective (no surprise here)
things appear smaller the farther they are and lines converging to a point on the horizon, are good ways to show perspective and convey a sense of space


Overlapping forms
It's not just the separate things that can overlap one another, but also the forms within a single thing



Lines that "describe"/follow the form
On figures it's usually the clothing


Shallow focus/Small depth of field
Choosing an area to focus on and blurring the rest.


Gradations
There are many reasons for gradation to happen in nature. Regardless the reason, It's rare for things to stay the same color and value all throughout.

Aerial perspective/Atmospheric perspective
With the increasing distance, objects fade into the background, lose contrast and details 



That's all for now
Take care!

  

Thursday, March 3, 2016

More Tips on Composing for Mood

Previously we looked at using light and shadow, and camera placement when composing for mood
This post is about some of the other ways to evoke emotion in a painting. 

Noise
Adding some visual noise and clutter to an image will give an action a bit of a boost,
Omitting noise can help "slow down" an image.
  


Lines
Angles tend to seem less "friendly" then curved. 
This can be used to make a scene feel scary, serious or sweet depending on how far you take it.
  


Atmosphere
I find that atmosphere whether it's fog, mist, dust or whatever it may be, really useful in creating mystery. 
It's also a good way to enhance perspective. 


Time of the day and weather 
Are also important to consider when composing an image.
  


Well that's it for now
Hope you found this helpful, maybe your friends will too ;)



Thursday, February 25, 2016

Using "Camera Position" For Mood

Continuing the composing for mood posts series... thingy from last week.
So, apart from light and shadows, we can use the "camera placement" to evoke or enhance a feeling in a picture.

To the examples!: 

Low angle 
Placing the eye level low, will make things appear big, powerful, imposing, in control, or important and looked up to 
 

High angle
Placing the eye level high will make things look small, weak or in distress 
 

Closeup
It's really good for showing facial expressions, it lets us see what a character feels or think. It's also useful for showing important details. 
 

P.O.V - Point Of  View
If closeup lets us see how the character feels, P.O.V, puts us in the character's shoes. This can be used for a lot of different purposes 
 


Tilted view (Dutch angle/tilt)
This is a fun one. Tilting the image, gives an unbalanced look, which really helps when you want to get a bit more action from your image, or to just create an uneasy feeling.
 
 

You should experiment with where you place the "camera", you may find something that works and unique, which will improve your composition.

I hope this post benefited you.

Next time other tools that can help us evoke a feeling in a painting.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Light and Shadows


Mood, in my opinion is really important for a painting, especially if it meant to convey a story point. Light is a very important tool to use when creating compositions for your paintings. How you light your scene influences the mood of the image.

Low amount of light (low key),
usually is more sad, creepy or mysterious.

 

While high amount of light (high key),
tends to have more happy, calm mood.


We can use the shadows to add or omit information.
Here the shadow adds information we know there's a teddy bear in the room

Here the shadow hides the figure. 
To me it makes it seems creepy or mysterious because we can't see who it is 
 

Just to play with this idea, I painted in the figure and brighten the shadows.
Much less mysterious.

Soft diffused lights are better to show beauty and well... softness.


while hard lights tend to be more dramatic


There are other ways to use light to create mood, such as its direction - different angles create different effect and its sources - for instance candle light vs sun light



Yeah it's fairly obvious and simple, but it useful and it isn't that much discussed.
That's all for now. I hope you found this helpful or a least entertaining :)
Next time Using "Camera Position"  For Mood