Before and after SVS
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@smceccarelli I will switch immediately to that class - i am going through "Lighting for Story and Concept Art" why i did not start with "Fundamentals of Lighting" i do not know - thank you!
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@Kevin-Longueil wow thank you so much!
Yeah like @smceccarelli said, "just about everything" haha
I think that “everything” boils down to value structure. (I don’t mean to say that everything else is irrelevant but rather that the value structure is so important.)
This entails how light works with objects & environments but also how the visual response can be driven through the way values are used.
Objects & Environments:
Light works differently on a matte surface vs. a glossy one, or works differently with translucent material vs. opaque. It works/looks differently at different times of the day and when it is a different colored light source on different colored objects or if there is one vs. more light sources. When it encounters atmosphere or dust or the edges of light fuzz, etc. etc. etc.
The point is that the values within a piece for the objects & environment are dependent upon how light works with those objects’ attributes (color, texture, material, translucency, distance from light, etc.)
Knowing how light & color works, is pretty important for representing things believably (I say “believably” rather than “realistically” because caricatures & monsters are not real but can be painted believably)
Visual Response:
This is more the artistic aspect of painting rather than the representing reality/fantasy in a believable way. It is more “emotional” or “existential”.
Here one is attempting to communicate something and perhaps elicit a response from the viewer (whether a particular emotional or intellectual response or increased engagement with the art piece)
The way the values are positioned within the canvas/object/etc. determines how the viewer’s eye moves through the piece and what impression is given.
The eyes move through the piece because values can play off of one another: “White looks more white when next to black” So if you really want something to pop, that’s a sure fire way to do so. But, you have to use it responsibly, because just like how hot chili peppers can give some zing to some food, too manny peppers and now all you taste is chili peppers and not the food. The same is true with “popping values.” By using values, one can draw immediate attention to the primary area and then lead the viewer through to secondary, tertiary and other areas, back into the primary area again.
For giving impressions, just like how light looks different at twilight than at high-noon or the middle of the night, one’s emotional & intellectual response changes with such. For instance, if you want a somber or dreary piece, you probably won’t be doing high contrast values or even a brightly lit piece.
I know that right now, I am personally struggling with me seemingly often relying upon a darker midtone foundation popped with lighter values. It might make a single illustration nice, but I feel that it leaves my portfolio of work on the dark side (even though my subject matter isn’t “dark” but “light”). (BTW, I haven’t re-checked his site but that is Will Terry’s approach with his much of his work too.) My push is to diversify my pieces and do more that are of a lighter midtone foundation popped with darker values.
With all of that said, color, line, shape, composition, etc. are all instrumental here just as much as value, but it seems to me that increasingly knowing how light & color works and how to create a compelling value structure to an art piece is a highly significant foundation.
Sam Nielson’s first class is strongly about how light & color actually work (from a scientific foundation), which is I guess why I liked it so much.
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@Kevin-Longueil let me slightly expand upon what i said about my work:
While I am pushing to diversify my pieces in their lighting structure approaches, I don't mean to say that doing a structure with a darker midtone popped by light values is wrong or creates bad art. I am simply saying that I want to have more value structure diversity to my artwork so that I can approach a diversity of moods & such. I personally want to err on the side of lighter midtone foundation popped by dark but I think that I tend to be personally impacted by art I see where it is a darker midtone popped by light (such as many pieces by Rembrandt)
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@smceccarelli I wish I would have recorded those classes....lol...don't tell anyone...yeah, I agree with you I think Sam Nielson's first class on there is the single best class I've ever taken and I didn't take it live. I would stress watching those extra videos where he crits the live classes there is as much helpful info in those as there is in the course work. He was suppose to publish a book with all the info from that class but it never happened. And I did the same as you I re-watched those classes over and over again because there was just so much info in there. I let my subscription there run out this year and I sort of regret because it was a great reference but I couldn't justify the expense since that was really the only class on there I watched. I didn't get much out of any of the other classes. (how much fun was it to paint that fuzz effect the first time....I was like "This is SO AWSOME..." lol...
