Digital Experimentation

Artists like Matt Kohr and Sycra have repeatedly emphasized the importance of still life drawing to get used to measurement and construction. The first time I drew still life was in an art class senior year of high school (~2009). I have a few art pencils and charcoal sticks in a 21-piece artist set and gave it another go last week.

Measurement was made difficult by my proximity to the subject (my own legs are in the drawing, so you know it's close). Having so many dispersed objects without a uniform vanishing point makes this extremely tedious, which is why most artists 1) Carefully set up their subject, 2) Stick to either geometric or organic shapes in a piece, and 3) Step back. The way objects warp towards and then away from the viewer is the reason I decided early on to study Field of View and lens behavior. But this is a technical subject I'll have to study later on. In any case, that isn't the problem. The problem is medium. Graphite is messy, and I like to keep my hands clean (you may notice the smudge marks on the monitor screen).

So, I've decided to stick to digital painting-- at least for now. When I start classes again, perhaps I'll have the skills to draw in lectures like I should have done last year. Below is my first attempt at a head drawing in Photoshop CS6, using Digital Painting Techniques (Masters Collection: Volume 1) as a guide. I've practically memorized proportions; my emphasis here was on texture.

 The first attempt, with effort, came out half-decent (though I hadn't thought as much at the time). Coming back to it two weeks later, my second passing attempt to master the brush techniques I've seen so many artists and speedpaniters use ended in failure. The bottom painting was a semi-success, but herein lies the problem: Success should not be a matter of luck. I will not consider myself a fully trained artist until even my failures are passable. I wish I could work on that and then speed, but the two are intertwined. My technique is flawed, simply put. It's going to take a lot of effort to cast off my own bad habits and adopt the better techniques of the masters.

And as for continued still life practice? I think that is what progress comes down to. Everything else (without a visual subject, like the paintings below) is play.

06/26/14

07/12/14

07/12/14