Finishing Drills for a Chronic Dabbler.

[animatosoor]

@MichaelaH Hahah my intention was to have her talking to the lady in the picture - that’s where she’s supposed to look. I wasn’t intending for her to look at the clock at all, but I think my previous picture wasn’t very clear. Is this reading clearly?

Thanks for the note on the rendering! Ditching the line work was making me a bit nervous. I’d love to see your explorations without lines as well!

[MichaelaH]

Maybe it is the bodylanguage, she is talking to the lady in the picture, but her right feet is back, usually if I am talking left, I put my right foot also infront that I am more aiming for the lady. What about doing some small magic, making the lady in the picture little bit brighter? Like shining from the ghost light?

[animatosoor]

Ohh my, thank you so much for these tips, @MichaelaH! Great ideas that I'd not thought of. Here's my altered version after taking that feedback into consideration:

[demotlj]

Adding the white to the eye of the lady in the picture really helped because I hadn’t noticed the direction of her eye before. I agree with @MichaelaH about the body direction but when you changed it, I think you changed it in the opposite way she was suggesting though I may not be able to see it clearly on my phone. Her body should be angled slightly toward the picture so her right foot would be farther to the right, with the left foot slightly back. The eyes, however are much more clear.

[animatosoor]

@demotlj You're right - I only realised after posting it that I'd put the opposite foot forward from what @MichaelaH had suggested, haha.

Just so I'm clear, the suggestion is to angle her body a little bit more towards the picture, and also to have her right foot forward, yes? I shall experiment with that and post an update soon.

[MichaelaH]

Yeah her right foot forward and left behind, so that her stance is toward the picture lady. I would make the picture lady little bit more glossy

[demotlj]

I don't think you need to angle her much because you don't want to lose the view of her face. I really struggle with camera angles like this when the character is standing between the "camera" and the thing he/she is looking at. Even a 3/4 back view loses so much of the character's face. I think shifting the feet slightly as @MichaelaH said would be enough. It's such a charming picture overall.

[animatosoor]

Thank you, @MichaelaH and @demotlj!

@demotlj You're right about camera angles to effectively show both the character and the thing they're interacting with. 3/4 back-views definitely show too little of the character's face. I feel like the ideal camera angle in these situations would be either over one character's shoulder (as in movies), or if the character's expression is crucial, almost a full-on side view. The angling, then, can happen in the perspective of the environment, a little bit of twisting of the body, etc.

This is my latest update. I'm nearly done!:

[animatosoor]

Insecure journal entry incoming:
My art - for a project I’d completed half a year ago - is displayed at this event, and I wish I could go back and improve on it, but it’s too late. All I see are the flaws, unfortunately. Great project, though.

[Darian]

@animatosoor that's alright! It helps you see how far you have come now Can we see it? ( It's perfectly ok if we cannot )

[MichaelaH]

@animatosoor It looks beautiful, love this "highlighted" lady in picture, now you see their communication much better. also the feet, great work as usual...I think I have to start this also, week or 2 for one picture and my portfolio

[animatosoor]

@Darian That's true, and I've got to try and keep that in mind. Thank you so much for the encouragement.

Yes, I can show you the work I was referring to. They were a collection of portrait paintings for a local history book. In my opinion, some of the portraits turned out better than the others, and I cringe at some of the bad ones. Some of the paintings I did for this book last year are over here: link.

[animatosoor]

@MichaelaH Thank you! Both the "gloss" on the lady in the picture and the ghost girl's stance were your ideas - you really helped with your feedback (as always).

Yeah, I didn't know at the start whether this goal of completing at least one finished painting a week was going to work out, but it's been really helpful to do this. If you end up doing it as well, you'll have my full support and encouragement! It'd be awesome to see what you come up with.

[animatosoor]

Yay, it's Monday here!

There was previously a tangent where the ghost's head was touching the oval ornament on the wall. I've fixed that.

Final:

Note to self on pain points to learn from in the next piece.:

-I don't understand cast shadows.
-Some areas still look muddy.
-Floor could be designed better.
-Explore gesture further.

[Heather Boyd]

@animatosoor

Pain points to learn good good.

[Darian]

It's Monday here too! Where you from @animatosoor

[animatosoor]

@Darian I'm from Singapore - a very sunny island (for the most part).

[Darian]

@animatosoor that's cool! how are you figuring out your colors after you decide the values? do your values stay the same after the color stage?

[animatosoor]

@Darian I'm still at the stage where I'm learning a lot of the basics about assigning the right values and colours to the various elements in each painting I do. I find that I'd sometimes get to the colour stage and push some of the values further if necessary, even if those decisions weren't previously made in the value studies. I think I'd be able to learn to make better decisions with these once I've gotten a lot more mileage in finishing my work.

As for colour palettes, I'd first think of what I'd like in my painting that would best fit the mood I'm shooting for, and then gather references (photos and other paintings) to draw from.

How about you - what are your approaches when it comes to value and colour?

[animatosoor]

Week 5!

This is a sketch I'm working on for my next painting in the series, "Our Little Ghost."