[Jerry]

Wow! I can't remember the last time I've posted on this forum... last time was so long ago. Well here I am and here's my post... comments and suggestion very welcome... pls...


[1758x2000][700x796][94 Kb][KARN]

[Striker]

hey jerry, good to see you back and posting, I remember some of your old stuff and you are getting better, stick with it.

Anyway, I haven't exactly posted much art here so I don't know how much people listen to my critiques, but I'll just offer some comments on areas I think you need to work on in the future. First of all, the girls body parts seem to get smaller and smaller in proportion as you move to the extremeties. This tells me that you're focusing on one part at a time, finishing it, and then moving on. To make sure the proportion of your figures stays consistent, don't forget to go back and look at what you've already done and ask yourself if it is in proportion with the part you are currently working on. A quick way to do this is to just hold the drawing out away from your body a bit, or step back from the screen.. and look at it as a whole. Most problems will be fairly evident after doing this, and you'll have a good idea on how to fix it.

This next part is something I need to spend more time with myself too, yeah yeah.. I'm lazy, hehe, there just never seems to be enough time. Anyway, lemme just get to the point here.. Remember Freds cube exercise?? Yep, that's it, once again the cube exercise comes back into the *light*, hehe. Ok ok.. lame.. I know. But seriously, as Fred taught us all last summer, everything is composed of a few basic shapes/objects such as cubes, spheres, cones.... If you learn how light reacts/interacts to/with those objects you'll then be able to apply the same principles to the complex parts of a figure, a gun, or anything. I can see that you've already begun experimenting with form and light because I can see where you've scratched at the surface of this concept in several places in this picture. Whether consciously or not, you've identified an area you need to work with to improve, and you've attacked it. Thats great! Keep it up. Critiques from others can help point you in the general direction you need to go at times, but the best teacher of all will be yourself. Constantly evaluate and re-evaluate your work and identify problem areas that you need to work on. Hey, the greats of this forum do it, two perfect examples are micke and joachim, they constantly push eachother and themselves to work on their weak areas and always strive for improvement. I say if it worked for them, it'll work for me, and I'm sure it'll work for you too.

Another thing to try is merely to observe the world around you, analyze how your mind interperets what you see. I'm continually amazed at how many times we are decieved by what we see. I'm always catching myself saying oh, that object is *whatever* color and then after closer inspection I see that the true color of the object is not 1 color, but a combination of colors that our eyes percieve and then our mind simplifies or generalizes as one single color when in reality it is not so, and this happens all the time, in virtually everything you see. Once you truly begin to realize just how much color variation there is in everything you see, you will be amazed at how much your work improves. I know I am. And if you look at the work of accomplished artists you'll see that this is something they use in each and every piece they do.

So to sum it up, study form, study light, and most importantly study the world around you, there's so much you can learn from it if you just open your eyes. And also study the work of the great artists that frequent this forum, and study the *greats* as well, you won't learn everything from them, but every once in a while you can pick up a little trick here.. or a new technique there... or merely a different way of approaching something that will open up so much more for you to play with.

Anyway, sorry for being so longwinded, I hope I haven't overstepped my bounds. This is really as much for you as it is for me, as even though I've been going over these ideas and experimenting with these ideas for months or even years, it helps solidify the thought by putting it into words. So, I hope you got something helpful out of this, and I hope to see more from you. You are improving and I have the feeling you are on the verge of moving to the *next level*. I'll be looking forward to your next post.

Aaron

[ASHBURRN]

Pardon me if I say too little .. but I like the logo at the bottom right corner.



[ April 23, 2001: Message edited by: ASHBURRN ]

[Jerry]

Striker I really appriciate you spending your time commenting on my work really helps me out. Yeah, I should check out more of the work here but I've been lazy now and then too. I do check out most of micke's work but I don't really know the other guy but if you say he's good... he must be...

Yeah, Ashburrn I like my tag too... but that's not the thing I spent hours on