Tuesday
Feb282012
Form, Value, and Light
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 8:26AM If I was only allowed to talk about one topic to a beginner digital painter, this would be it. Form, value, and light are truly the foundation of a painting education.
in Drawing, Drills, The Basics
Drawing, Drills, The Basics
Reader Comments (33)
Thank you so much for your videos like this one, they are so encouraging! I love the \\\"pencil mileage\\\" term as well, it makes a lot of sense.
It use to be drills like these that I would hate to do but in the long run I have come to enjoy them. My art has taken a huge leap just by doing studies and drawing every day.
'Not just practice but CAREFUL practice!'
Nice point. :)
Just like how they put it in another way - not just work hard but work smart.
Thank you again Matt, you have re-ignited my love of art and just looking at things... I had lost that for over 15 years and now I have it back thanks to you and your series. I know take a sketch book and pencils with me everywhere just to sketch odd stuff when i have a free minute or more.
you are BANG on though!
Hi Matt
Where do you get all these excellent value study material - done a few of your spheres and skull one. This one looks pretty fun too.
The lighting studies video from the other day was great, and what was really helpful was all the keyword hints you posted to find similar imagery.
That would be great for your still life and value study images.
Thanks again for the incredible site.
-Steve
it looks like the \\\"painting explained by solid snake\\\". great work ;)
I could punch myself that I needed over 10 years to realize what you are talking about here. The only thing I did was coyping, not really paying attention to WHAT I am actually drawing or painting. It was at the end of 2011 that I decided to take a completely new direction - and hopefully the right one. Since I'm trying to understand everything "beneath the surface" and do a lot of basics like drawing circles and cubes and give them form I get better much faster than before.
Your videos are always so encouraging, thank you very much, Matt.
Great tutorial Matt. You are definitly right. Drawing without understanding what your drawing, will only slow your progression.
Once again Matt is spot on with what he's saying.
Here are two pictures that I think help to illustrate his point. The first is a Photoshop/chop - a simple cut and paste of various images that I found around the net to make a finished product (I did it for a PS Contest about 6 months ago, well before I decided to try digital painting): http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/vv356/theotherbilly/swansps.jpg
The second is a digital painting I made using all the knowledge I've acquired since last December (most of it from this awesome site): http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/vv356/theotherbilly/swansfinal.jpg
I could have never painted the second picture without practicing the basics over time. I practice every single day.
So to anyone who might be discouraged, keep going. Right now, for me, drawing cups and fruit and skulls IS fun (as Matt said it could be). It's in these objects that we can look back over time and see our progress reflected.
Do I consider myself a master of digital painting, not at all, but I'll keep learning and practicing and I KNOW that studying the fundamentals will make me an overall better artist in the long run.
Thanks again Matt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNkMFlmTduE
a good video about form by scott wadell
Matt this is awesome. But you talk a lot about good digital art having strong roots in traditional drawing. I know you do the control paint unplugged but i haven't seen one in a while and i think you should do a 10 dollar lesson in the store about traditional drawing and where to start to learn how to draw and stuff. I would totally buy it, it would really help me and hopefully others out.
This is the exact topic i was looking for. i was wondering what you normally set your opacity and flow to while doing these type of value studies? Thanks again Matt for the videos this helps a lot. I like how the video is longer than usual. :)
Hey Matt, another great video, but there was one important thing that you did not mention outright: the power of observation. That was something that you mentioned in the Basic Photoshop Rendering; that statement gave me a lot of confidence in terms of how I approach my work and reproduced what I saw. I just prematurely went over the content in the Basic Rendering Series and it was not as pronounced as I’m making it seem or maybe that was one of the parts that I rushed through. Any way the point I got from the statement was that, the whole point of the study and using reference was to enhance that ever important scene on observation.
And, arrrhh... I think Jude makes a crude point, the digital could not exist without the traditional. All the examples you brought up about traditional painting including the unplugged series really turned me on to traditional painting techniques and gave me a deeper love and respect for the art form. So a series encompassing varying technical degrees would have my support, and don’t forget about that Concept Art and Design series I keeping seeing In the Achieve Tab. Just playing, but looking forward to it. Thumps up!
are you blending strokes in this video? i just cant seem to paint like you do....
@ Matt P
He is laying down value with pressure then erasing out to the right shape. He uses either a soft or hard edge eraser depending on the edge he wants. I think Matt likes to lay down shapes/blocks of value before doing any blending.
If you search back a few videos you will find a video on painting a frog. This should help you out a lot.
great tutorial! I think a sighting tutorial after this digital or traditional will be awesome I always wonder how to improve my eye in measuring accurately in the right and most efficient way
man thanks to these videos i feel positive for my artwork
Great video Matt! It is always great to see how different artists approach drawing and painting. I need to remember to use the eraser more. I tend to only paint my forms instead of allowing the eraser to act as a painting tool.
Watching you do these is mind blowing, but it makes me want to practice and improve. Thanks Matt!
thank you so much for your great videos!
Thanks for the encouraging words Matt! This touches on one of my major problems, rendering. Sharpening a mass, into defined shapes without lineart.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is the best source on the internet. When I saw that thread over at conceptart.org, some reason I kept watching and waiting. I knew this was going to be huge.
This is the very best place for counter balancing allllllll the misinformation on the web. If only I had this 3 years ago.
I'll definitely be purchasing your custom brush series very soon. I hope everyone knows how important this place is. Our community needs you dude!
I bought the basic rendering course and it was worth every penny. Thanks for these videos.
Great tutorial Matt!
I have to say this takes a lot of time but I will be trying it out.
At the moment I am doing a personal 30 day challenge to produce certain characters just to push my creative boundaries.
If you get the chance, I would really appreciate some feedback. My artwork is on my blog. It'd be great if you could drop some critiques when you have time. =D
I love how you do what everyone art teacher needs to do: you share the thinking of the artist, not just merely show the art. Art is logical, and there are people starving of artistic confidence simply because they don't really have an idea of what to keep in mind. They don't have any thoughts towards the drawing process as being a series of strategies that you practice ("careful practice," as you well put it), and instead of focusing on solutions, they get overwhelmed with their problem. Thanks for these videos, Matt! They not only help in showing some of how one can go about many of these things, but how they can go about thinking about them as they do these days and understand what they're looking for as well. Sometimes, even with some things I understand something about already, I like to hear it put a new certain way that makes me understand it even better. More than just demonstration, you help bring resolution. (And I definitely plan to get that video on custom brush design.) Thanks, again!
More!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pLS!!!!!!
Nice video! I was looking for a good way to start my drawing because they all seem amateursh, like you said. And still life seems a good way to start. I'll get to it!
Excellent video.
I want to thank you so much for these. They have been very helpful.
This has to be the best site ever for digital painting I've come across.
Hi,
I got a question! While doing studies on the value and light of objects, do i have to care about reflections? Because basicly everything has got refletion in some ways. But some do more and some less. And the reflection overall has nothing to do with the shape of the object but with the material. I find it hard to differenciate between those aspects.
I have three different ideas:
-I could imagine the shape of the object, and try to render the light myself, not by looking at the reference. That might be a way to bypass the reflection problem, but I won't end up with the real light setting and so won't learn much about "real" lightning behavior
-I could copy all the lights, including reflections. This is very hard, as I currently got some problems on reflections (yes I have to do studies on them then :P). Also, this wouldnt give me enough vision of the real shape and value of the object.
-Or should I try to use less reflecting objects (harder to get the right reference then).
I hope to get some answers :) Thanks in advance!!
German Artist,
What I recommend in the basic rendering series is to get some basic objects from the thrift store (preferably small ones) and spray paint them gray with a matte finish. This will remove any reflectivity, and make the rendering more basic.
I did this ear. I'm a newbie in "classical drawings" bevause I usually work in 3d.
I need tips. There something that yuou think I should change or improve in my drawing skills?
I overlay a texture at the end of the draw because I feel it yoo "smooth" and usually a texture will add more interest.
Here it is:
http://www.giannisoldati.com/gallery/lavori_3d/orecchio.jpg
great advice, thanks matt.