Loose vs unfinished/ rushed
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@MarcRobinson I think your style is beautiful! I don't think you need to adjust at all. Your illos are totally picture book ready.
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@AngelinaKizz too kind, thank you.
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@AngelinaKizz That's cool... Marco Bucci and Aaron Blaise often pair up together to teach loose, yet "buttoned up" rendering which I do see some elements of Therese Larsson's techniques, all so inspiring.
Keep up the good work! -
@AngelinaKizz I agree with you, @MarcRobinson your work is phenomenal and reminds me also of Brandon Dorman. So talented. You could teach a course yourself...
Erin Richardson
instagram.com/erinrichardsondesigns21
www.erinrichardsondesigns.com -
@ArtistErin I swear you guys are gonna make me blush! I've had such a warm reception here on the forum. Such a welcoming community.
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@MarcRobinson LOL Oh I forgot to congratulate you for winning Critique Arena!
Erin Richardson
instagram.com/erinrichardsondesigns21
www.erinrichardsondesigns.com -
@ArtistErin I'll let you off this time... Just don't let it happen again
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I find that a lot of the illustration can be loose as long as the important details are not. Faces, especially eyes, facial expressions, hands. The background? That can be hella loose, except any areas or props necessary to the understanding of the story. This loose/finished contrast can even help direct the eye towards the important bits. The eye will tend to skip over blurry, loose, or less detailed areas.
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@AngelinaKizz On loose vs. finished, John Singer Sargent comes to mind. Sargent would reportedly paint the same subject and then scrub it down for days in a row until he was satisfied. In the end, having worked quickly, it would look spontaneous. But by the time he had done this "spontaneous" painting, he knew where every stroke should go, or at least felt it in his fingers. This technique, at least as applied to oils in his time, was called alla prima painting. Marco Bucci has a similar style, BTW.
Another way to look at it is, you might have loose strokes, but you have a strong sense of structure.
And yeah, @MarcRobinson, way to go in the Critique Arena!
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@LauraA Sargent is the GOAT... And thank you!
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I like drawing 'loose'....too loose sometimes.
It's hard finding that balance. My inspirations are pretty obvious. Watercolour and ink legends like Quentin Blake, Tim Burton, Ronald Searle...
They all draw loose and lively, and colour their images haphazardly. I practiced doing the same for months and months.I think it's all about drawing interesting, lively facial expressions with good designs. It's not a simple thing to get good at. I've filled about 13 sketchbooks so far trying
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After 6 hours of intense learning with Marco Bucci today, I feel like a bunch of light bulbs all turned on at the same time. Things that should be obvious, I'd totally missed, like harder edges where there's importance, and deliberate areas of lost edges. I'm totally inspired to take previous works and start them over based on what i learned today, and I still have 12 more hours of learning time with him this weekend.
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@AngelinaKizz That sounds like the way I feel so much of the time, have to take tutorials in segments to integrate it all... Thank you for letting us know how you are doing
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@kylebeaudette You definitely inspire me... I love your stuff!!!!
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Something that has helped me loosen up is not using layers while I’m drawing. I’ll still separate line and color layers and whatnot but working on drawing layer and simply lightly erasing and redrawing things rather than having a rough sketch layer and then s clean sketch on top has really helped me.
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@AngelinaKizz Ooooh, I can so relate to this! I'm always trying to push my work to look less realistic and less polished. It's been a long and slow process so far. The thing that has helped me most is studying the art of artists I admire, and practicing the way they draw things. Master study type stuff. I feel like if I could find more time to devote to master studies I could probably progress faster. I'm curious about using your non dominant hand. Is that a way to loosen up? I feel like if I drew with my non dominant hand everything would end up looking like chicken scratches!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirsten.mcgonigal.art/
Portfolio Site: www.kirstenmcgonigalart.com -
@kirsten-mcg
I draw with my non dominant because I had an accident in 2020 that permanently damaged my dominant. I can’t hold a pencil or my wrist dislocates. I fully ruptured an important ligament that holds the hand over the arm bones at the wrist, but because of covid lockdowns, I wasn’t able to get diagnosed until it was too late to repair. That paired up with a broken bone that was never reset (because they missed that too and all imaging was cancelled) that is now bent and too short, and no ligament, if I hold my arm pointing upwards, my hand “falls off”. I jokingly refer to this as my circus trick. I’ve had to have a prosthetics specialist make me a brace like contraption with hinges, to hold the hand in the right spot at the wrist and still have some mobility, so that I can continue to work, and even play some piano again, but I still can’t use a pencil. Gotta be a lefty now. -
@AngelinaKizz Oh wow! That is quite a story. I admire your determination in not letting this get you down and continuing to create anyway! That must be so frustrating knowing it could have been prevented. I'm glad you've been able to regain a little use of your hand though. Being able to play the piano again must be nice. I play too, so I know how hard that would be to give up!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirsten.mcgonigal.art/
Portfolio Site: www.kirstenmcgonigalart.com -
@kirsten-mcg thanks, it’s been a rough go, but I’m finally at a comfortable place. Still tons of daily pain in my dominant, but so grateful for some function back. My left is still often shaky, and very slow to work with. I find the slower I work, the tighter the art gets. So it’s a weird balance for sure.
