Dream Portfolio and growing as an artist.

[Chip Valecek]

@peteolczyk yes I plan on posting them here.

[Chip Valecek]

First master study and its a fail LOL. After I was done and I put them side by side I saw so many things wrong from the construction of my drawing all the way to the technique. I thought I should fix it all. But then I would spend hours trying to fix it. So just like any sports team, you lose you get back up and play again. So with that I am going to take this one as a loss and do another. Hopefully the more I do the better I will get and hopefully win one. So here it is.

[NessIllustration]

@Chip-Valecek said in Dream Portfolio and growing as an artist.:

After I was done and I put them side by side

Are you not doing the study with the original picture already side by side with your white canvas?

[Chip Valecek]

@NessIllustration Not side by side, i think that is were I went wrong. I had it on another monitor and I think I used it more as a reference then a copy

[NessIllustration]

@Chip-Valecek Don't beat yourself up! It's really hard to do a master copy not side by side so you did amazing, plus next time you know what to do to make things easier on you I also suggest you use the color picker to see what colors the artist uses. You may be surprised! On the creature's arms and legs, there not a lot of actual green. It's a lot of grey and yellow that only looks green because the rest of the picture is so desaturated.

[Zachary Drenski]

@Chip-Valecek This is pretty good. You're starting to capture the painterly quality and the mood of the piece. This is a cool dream portfolio also. Keep at it!

[TessaW]

Eh, only you can say whether it's a failure or not, but I think you are being too hard on yourself. You've got the overall comp, values, proportions, and rhythm down. Comparing and contrasting between your piece and the original can still be really valuable. Arguably more so than if you had gotten everything perfect, but had been thoughtless while doing so.

[Inge Permentier]

I think this wasn't a failure at all. I think it was a solid try toward copying the masterpiece. I really like how you captured a lot from the original. So don't beat yourself up :). Having it right the first time is rare if not improbable. I want to see your next try ^^

[Judy Elizabeth Wilson]

@Chip-Valecek Really cool Chip. Nice collection. You can see how your work will move into the direction of these pieces. This past month I started thisproject and what I'm doing now is looking and at each piece and making mental notes on a laptop just before I go to sleep. Some how, where I want to move towards is starting to sink in, it's a long journey ahead of course. Good luck with this and your journey.

[Chip Valecek]

@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson long journey indeed. I am glad so many of us are on the same one right now. Feels good to be with other artists traveling the long dark path together

[NicolaSchofield]

@Chip-Valecek I think this is great! you've hit all the main components - just small differences in tone and detail - and I bet you've already learnt so much from the process!
I really should try and do a master study...

[bugeyefly]

@NessIllustration I think this could be really valuable. The copy is warmer and more saturated, which is also the standout difference between the dream portfolio and the images in the OP, as you noted Chip. I heard recently a piece of advice about fixing work which stuck with me: instead of trying to fix everything at once, ask what the biggest problem is and tackle that first. Rather than a problem it's just a difference in this case, but you might get satisfaction tackling this first?

[Heather Boyd]

@Chip-Valecek You chose one with a mighty amount of small details, but don't consider it a fail. Fail is not trying at all, which sounds redundant. I like your version, it's softer but I see areas that if you pushed more to get his/her edges around the head/face, feet and hands and the white water. Take a break from it but return and try those darker edges on your work like they have in theirs. But it's up to you.

[Heather Boyd]

@NessIllustration I tend to try and find the colour, and then colour pick and learn how the real colour was chosen- I did that for my first fox one months back.

[NessIllustration]

@Heather-Boyd That seem a very valuable exercise!

[Meta]

I think it's a good first try on a copy. It's not easy at all! There are many things in the original piece that you don't see, namely the process! Before you start your next master copy, you could go and see if you find out how the artist uses to build up the image. Some artists post process videos. So you see if and how they use layers, if they change colors and so by manupulating curves after drawing. I saw artist who use a layer for local colors, another one for shading, yet another one for highlights ... You couldn't tell how to do this just by looking at the ready image.
Keep on going!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Chip-Valecek this is amazing for a first master copy. Your version kinda needs more texture but over all, the forms, the values, and the colors are amazing. Great job. You’re getting there.

[Chip Valecek]

@Meta I have a few process videos on how Matt Dixon goes about painting. His process is sorta hard for me to do. The process you speak of is the process Aaron Blaise uses. I learned how to do that from him and find that is the easiest way to paint but not always are the colors correct when I do that. I learned that lesson on one of my last paintings where all the shadows got muddy.

I am trying to stick with how Matt Dixon process is for my next master study. So far its working. I hope to finish it this week.

[Meta]

@Chip-Valecek Did you play around with hue and saturation of the shadow layer to see if it turns out less muddy?

[peteolczyk]

@Chip-Valecek it’s really great to see your progress Chip. Did you go straight into painting or did you start with a sketch layer?