[Fred Flick Stone]

Hey yall, the head tutorial is about another day or so off from here, this is going to get wordy, so here goes...welcome to part 1...



Hello all, here is part 1 of the Paint along with Spooge, er um, Fred�

I know you are all looking at this image and wondering, uh you lost it or something? I see no fancy colors, no stylized brushwork�ugh argh�why waste my time with this? Well, as I had already mentioned before, I think you�ll all be surprised in where this goes�so here we go�

The thought process behind all this is simply, simple form. All great painters of the past worked with this formula. Either by understanding the understructure of the object painted(anatomy), or by the way the form is lit in an environment(surface).

The problem most everyone seemed to have with the head painting was they painted colors that they saw in a photograph, but they didn�t paint a guy, a 3 dimensional man. The construction was substituted by fancy colors that matched the photo, with a lack of understanding as to why these colors were being painted in the first place.

So what I have done here is construct in 3D, the four basic shapes that make up just about anything the artist is going to draw or paint, the cone, sphere, cube and cylinder. The reality of it is, everything has dimensional form, usually comprising one or more of these basic shapes. The human head isn�t just one of these basic forms, but a blend of several of them, creating a very complex form. For example, The skullcap of our old man isn�t just a simple sphere, but a spherized cube, with many subsurface planes that we will discuss in later installments of this tutorial.

If you look at all these objects in the photos, they are 3d objects photographed 2 dimensionally, i.e. a flat picture plane. All things in depth are now compressed into one depth of field. To the beginning artist, the thought of seeing 3 dimensionally into a photograph seems almost preposterous. There is so much stuff happening in the photo to make any beginner nervous, that the concept of 3 dimensionality doesn�t really connect or jive with them at this point. So many beginners take the photo and try to copy the shapes of the colors they see, but forget that these dark and light shapes are actually interconnected to all the other little shapes of color or value till they all combined create a head, or a tree or a car or whatever the photo has recorded�You need to start seeing a photograph this way. Do not just look at the flat photo, look at what is going on in the photo, and try to draw the dimensionality of the objects that you see in the photo. This is why drawing from life is so crucial. Understanding form in 3d is the key to great painting and drawing. This is also going to be a very difficult task, one that could literally take years for some to grasp. Hopefully we will all grasp this stuff much sooner�

Moving onto our shapes; the sphere, cone and cylinder are all rounded in form. They have what is known as a form shadow on their surface, otherwise know as a core shadow. This shadow edge separates the light side from the dark side. Where this shadow starts is where the form of whatever this object is at its widest point perpendicular to the light source. Refer to the images�The dark side of these forms usually have what is known as reflective lighting on them. This lighting is caused by the surrounding surfaces of the object bouncing our light source back at the object, obviously with less intensity than our direct source of light. There is a gradation of value on this side, usually lighter at the back edge of the object, and darkening toward the core of the shadow. This core is so dark because it is absolutely perpendicular to the light, the only plane that is not directly lit or reflectively lit. This is just a phenomena in nature I cannot explain. You would think some bounce light from the surrounding surfaces would also illuminate this edge, but it doesn�t�On the directly lit side of our rounded objects, at least in the direction I lit them all, the hottest or brightest planes are in the middle of the light side, again, note the images. There is also value transition on this side. Only it is darker toward the edge of the object, and usually lightens as it approaches the core shadow. WITH THIS IN MIND, IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT WHEN DRAWING OR PAINTING, THERE IS A LIMITED RANGE OF VALUE YOU USE ON THE LIGHT AND DARK SIDE OF ALL THINGS DRAWN. WHEN WORKING ON THE LIGHT SIDE OF AN OBJECT, WORK IN THE VALUE RANGE OF 0-4 ACCORDING TO THE CHART AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE. 0 BEING ABSOLUTE WHITE. WHEN WORKING ON THE DARK SIDE OF AN OBJECT, WORK IN THE VALUE RANGE OF 7-10. values 5 and 6 to be avoided so as not to wash everything out together in half tone. The biggest problem most people have is that they don�t paint in light and dark. They muddie up pictures in the middle value range, not giving the image any dynamic lighting or depth in the object. Just a lot of pretty cartoon colored objects. Most prime time cartoons work in this pallete, with no significant shadows or lighting.

With our cube, we have defined planes, with no soft transition between them. Thus, we have no core shadow any more, just a sharp plane change with a very hard edge. While this object isn�t round, it still has value banding on each of it�s surfaces. On the direct light side, you can see the values go from very hot in the upper left had corner, and a bit darker in the lower right hand corner. The same with the dark side and the secondary light plane. Unless the light is very large, say like a sun, there is always going to be fall off from the most intense spot of illumination. Look at lights at night, brightest at the bulb, and quickly falls off in a circular halo surrounding the hot spot, and quickly fades to black.

And finally we have a cast shadow eminating from all these objects. Everything on this planet, save vampires and other undead ghoulies cast shadows. No light can pass through our solid mass, thus the mass casts its shadow on whatever form it is near, if that object stands between the light and the surface�

How do all these relatively basic shapes fit into our picture of the old man? Well, I quickly threw together all the basic shapes we have together to show you the simplest construction of this image. Given, his head is much more complex than the image I created with the primitive shapes, but this complexity is based upon the muscle bone and tendon structure under the skin that make it so. But the root of all this begins with absolutely basic shapes, like the ones I created. This guy has depth, this guy has form, and the light is directly hitting, or reflecting back onto him. The light values on the light side never compete with the lighter values of dark on the dark side of him. He is not directly lit, he is indirectly lit in a fairly bright place, so he has a lot of reflective color bouncing into his skin tones. These colors are what they are, and the value that they are based on the planes of the head, and which way these planes are facing the light sources mentioned above. He doesn�t just have technocolored skin, like so many of the paintings had in them�

Your assignment if you so choose, is to recreate the four basic shapes you see, light them, and find their volume through the use of light and dark hitting the surfaces of the primitives. This is really an important assignment, although it may sound very elementary. Elementary basics are what most people lack, and that is why we are doing this. I don�t want you to create them in a 3d application though, really draw them. And be creative, light them from different angles than how I lit them, and draw them from other perspectives as well. I will draw a set of them as well and post them when I get a chance. The object here is to find all the correct types of light and shadow, from the core shadow to the cast shadow, to the value banding happening across the surface. Then I will evaluate how these things look. When it looks like everyone involved in this tutorial has a good grasp on these objects, we will then move on to part two of the tutorial.

Another part of this assignment, I want everyone to go out and look at everything surrounding them, find what objects interest you most, and see if you can break them down into their bare basic forms, overlooking all the surface details. For example, an airplane is comprised of a cylinder, a cone, and several flattened boxes for the wings. Absolute basic shapes. This will start you thinking in basics, which you really should always be doing first when making any image�

Touching upon that word, perspective, that is what you are doing here when you are finding the full volume of a shape, you are finding its perspective in 3d space. Sometime here soon, everyone should go out and purchase a book on perspective. It can be learned in about two days of really hitting the book and recreating some of the perspective imagery you see. Oh yeah, read the book too�The best one I have found is by Dover called Creative Perspective for Artists and Illustrators�I am telling you, this directly ties to what we are learning right now�

The final image on the tutorial image page is where we will begin the next tutorial. We will take this primitive form, and start to flesh it out a bit more, still concentrating in black and white only. But we will be recognizing all the crazy plane changes going on in the form, and how the light affects these planes.
As I mentioned before, Craig and I discussed going very slow, so as to get everyone up to speed, from the absolute beginner, to the advanced pros. Eventually we will all be working in unison on the same anatomical problems, but before we can tackle such complexity, we must first know how to break it down into its simplest forms.

SEPARATE THE LIGHT SIDE FROM THE DARK SIDE. Light side using 0-4 on the value scale, and 7-10 in the dark side. NO LIGHT VALUE SHOULD EVER BE AS LIGHT AS THE LIGHT VALUE ON THE DARK SIDE, AND NO LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE SHOULD BE AS DARK AS THE DARKEST LIGHT ON THE LIGHT SIDE OF THE OBJECT. Think about this a bit, it makes perfect sense, and is absolute for we artisans�

Good luck with your assignments, and I look forward to seeing the progress�happy arting�


Fred F.S.

a.k.a. Ron Lemen

[DuKEZ]

like whoa :P

[Plop]

God damn i wish i could take off to an art school.

[CapnPyro]

/me falls over

*bump*

ill.. uh.. do it after i get muh wacom... next week..

-CapnPyro-

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http://home1.gte.net/capnpyro

[Joachim]

Absolutely awesome lesson 1. Great job Fred (-and spooge ?), and I wish I knew what I could do to show how much I appreciate you doing this for me/us. It's so much better doing stuff like this on a forum with feedback, instead of just reading a book.
I just hope this whole lecture will go through successfully and as many as possible will participate. As you said, it's very easy to jump over these first important basics, just because the result looks more fancy with more detailing, etc...So, I really hope no one at this forum hides away from this, fooling themselves to think they don't need it. So, make sure to keep the thread alive, since there is so many new topics all the time and lectures like this can take some time before everyone gets the time to join in.

Anyway, great job.. How much time do we have before the next step ?



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Joachim
web: http://home.sol.no/~jbarrum/

[Lange_Pisang]

Question(s)...

Is this meant for drawing on the comp.?
Or, is this also possible for using only pencil and paper? I don't have a digital pen(cil), so.......

BTW, great tutorial! I didn't know such things! Great!
I will print every tutorial here on the board so I can put them in my archive...

I'm always wondering why my art teacher at school don't learn us such things...
I'm learning here more in a week than I learn a whole year in art class...


[This message has been edited by Lange_Pisang (edited May 24, 2000).]

[sfr]

Excellent lesson, this stuff is exactly what I need! A big thank you to you and Craig for dedicating your valuable time to this - I just hope people will participate, so you'll get to see the fruits of your work in 6-12 months as the skill level in this forum rises

I wish I could see the image though; I loaded it once but I was stupid enough to press reload and now I'm just getting that nice little red cross (seems to be a Geocities problem... sigh). Could someone post the image on another server so I could see it again?

Saffron / Sunflower

[sfr]

Hey, I have to ask because I'm having trouble deciphering this sentence:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Fred Flick Stone:
NO LIGHT VALUE SHOULD EVER BE AS LIGHT AS THE LIGHT VALUE ON THE DARK SIDE, AND NO LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE SHOULD BE AS DARK AS THE DARKEST LIGHT ON THE LIGHT SIDE OF THE OBJECT.

---

Do you mean that the lightest values on the dark side should always be darker than the darkest values on the light side, and vice versa?

Saffron / Sunflower

[geelimp]

[AliasMoze]

Fred has obviously taught before. Hehe. This is a great lesson.

Hey Fred, do we have a couple days to do this (I'm a workin' guy)?

[This message has been edited by AliasMoze (edited May 24, 2000).]

[Binke]

Luuke..Luukee, you must seperate the light side..from the dark side..
j/k
great tutorial fred, looking forward to the next one.

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http://binke.gamesquad.net

[Francis]

I bet we have a few days.

Right now (and I hope Fred doesn't mind my mentioning this) Fred is in hell. He's got quite a pile on his table at work, since we're attempting to make up for the lack of a third conceptual designer for Myst, while still keeping on (a very tight) schedule.

Also, Fred does a lot of freelance work after hours, plus now he's house-hunting in Southern California at the beginning of the summer, which is pretty much the worst time to try to find a place to live around here.

Oh yeah, and he teaches an art class at night.

Anyway, I also would need more than a day or two.

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TeamGT Studios

[Gimbal]

Now I see the error of my ways on my first attempt. I did a quick and dirty outline of the guys head and then thought I could place color and shadow in afterwards to give it form. My problem is that I didn't have a clear idea in my head of the shapes and forms of the face in order to render it properly afterwards. Not to mention I have nary a clue when it comes to painting technique, I've been a pencil and paper kind of guy for too long.

When I see the steps of a painting done, I usually see the artist block in a shape with color and almost magically add a few brush strokes of different colors to transform it into something lifelike. The artist obviously has a clear conception of the shape and form in his mind and he is painting over it, so it almost seems like a skipped step since I don't see the image in his head before he paints over it.

I'll get started on my assignment as soon as I can. Can't wait.

BTW, on the subject of books: I picked up a book some time ago from the discounted section at Barns & Noble called Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life. It helps a great deal in breaking down the anatomy of the human body into shapes. I would have liked a bit more text in the book, but what it lacks in discussion it more then makes up for in pictures (over 1,000). By the time you look over the pictures you have a firm grasp of what the text will say.

[Visigoth]

Bridgman! His book is great...I bought it a while back and it's great...If the rest of you are looking for good life drawing books, I highly recommend the following:

Jack Hamm: Drawing the human figure
Burne Hogarth: Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Figure drawing, Dynamic hands, Dynamic Light and Shade

All the above books have helped me immensely...Not to mention taking several in-classroom life drawing classes with live models

~{V}~


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Oh god my eyes!

[Fred Flick Stone]

Visigoth and Gimbal, here is a list of books I recommend.

Andrew Loomis-Figure Drawing for all its worth
Andrew Loomis-Creative Illustration
Andrew Loomis-Fun with the Pencil
Andrew Loomis-Drawing the Head and Hands
Andrew Loomis-Successful Drawing

Anatomy
Bridgeman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life
Stephen Peck-Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist
John Vanderpoel-The Human Figure
Fritz Schider-An Atlas of Anatomy For Artists

Perspective
Dora Miriam Norton-Freehand Perspective and Sketching
Arthur Guptill-Sketching as a Hobby
Guptill-Sketching and Rendering in Pencil
Ernest Watson-Creative Perspective for Artists and Illustrators

The Famous Artists Courses from the Fifties to the early 1970's

I would tend to stray away from the Hogarth books, only because what he does is purely inventive, not using real models or anything for his basis of structure. As a result, his images tend to be a bit too sinuey, rubber like, and just not quite right. Bridgeman though is a bible that no artist should be without.

As for the lessons, they will be spread out about every 7-10 days, so everyone can get a chance to work on it.

SFR- yes, the light side and the dark side should never compete with one another in terms of value. Light side stays in the value range of 0-4 and the darker 7-10. If you creep a value 4 into the shadow side of the object you are painting or drawing, you are confusing the matter. Why would there ever be a light as light as the light side in the dark field, unless it was lit too, which would no longer make it dark. The big problem here, is that color has value to it, and most people don't associate this with the image they are doing, or don't even rocognize that color is also value. So, with our indian man, most everyone was painting the colors on the light side of the indian, and the dark side of his face with the same valu of color, thus loosing the 3 dimensionality. Color is another subject we will try and cover, as for now it is far too advanced to even think about.

Good luck everyone and I can't wait to see the posts...

[Sedone]

I see the light!...and dark! This is pretty cool of you, Fred. Sooo, when's the book coming out?

[nori]

Am I getting the right idea? The box looks screwed to me.. I tried to make it look like the light source was right above it (where the glowing dot thing is)

nori

[ElectroTechno]

Ok, Andrew Loomis really pisses me off. Everyone say that he was THE ultimate guru of figure drawing, but his books are next to impossible to find.
THAT IS WRONG !
How long copyrights last ? Guy died over 40 years ago so it would be fair to have his work available to public for educational purposes. It's possible that 100's of promising artist lack something cos they can't study Andrew Loomis art.
Someone should do CD-ROM or high quality pdf series from those books.
Damnit ! http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/loomis.htm

E/T

[Affected]

Right, this is all great of course. Thank you, Fred.

[Nex]

nori: i think you got it wrong.. look at affected's shadow line and then on yours.. see what I mean?

[Fred Flick Stone]

When I get a chance, I'll go over the work posted here, probably after work tonight. Also, about the loomis books, they are tough to find, but there is a two book set by Walter Foster, a condensed version of the figure drawing book, and of the head drawing book. Both can be ordered through bud plant comic art catalog. Call their 1-800 number for it...

[Plop]

I could get "figure drawing for all its worth" and "creative illustration" scanned if there is no copyright issues.

Otherwise you can find those books at bibliofind.com.

[Lange_Pisang]

uhhh...

Affected??

...did you made that with pencil and paper?
If so, well, I quess that'll be an answer to my question which haven't been answered yet!!

................

Aah well, no worries...
I hope to post my pics tomorrow then...

[mOO]

http://members.xoom.com/mOObio/csb.jpg

[nori]

I think I see what you're talkin' about affected. I gave it another go, what do you think?

[Plop]

Here is my try

[Frost]

As usual, I do very poorly in following assignments -- it's like being back in school all over again. I'll try to make a more pertinent attempt next time, as I went *way* overboard and I probably did it WRONG on top of it all. Sorry Fred - hope you got a sense of humor.



frost.

Oh, btw Fred. This lesson is awesome! Both you and Mozeman are real great to spend time teaching us the good stuff -- you're both doing an excellent job of going about it too! Huge cheers!

[This message has been edited by Frost (edited May 24, 2000).]

[freddy flicks stones]

Frost, amazing. Taking the game to a new level. I have no problem with that.

Nori, the second attempt is getting much better. One thing though, about your round shapes. Youare transitioning your values incorrectly. You have these objects going from light, to, medium then to dark. It should actually go light, dark, then the middle, reflective value. Look closesly at the shapes in the tutorial. You might not have your screen calibrated correctly to see the reflective tones in the darks. You might have to set your monitor at a higher contrast. Regardless, your second attempt is much better. Try to get some of these drawn on paper, I think you might have better control drawing the shapes with a pencil or pen, versus the wobbly wacom or the nasty mouse. I only say nasty because I literally saw the light when I finally got on a wacom a year and a half ago. I will never draw with a mouse again. Try another attempt with the proper lighting iterations.

You guys should try the second part of the exercise too, finding objects around you and breaking them down into their simplest forms, that is, the shapes up above.

Sorry this first step seems so primitive, but as I said, we are going all the way back to square 1. I think to speed things along, I will post part two over memorial day weekend, since I will be working anyway...

Keep on truckin...

[freddy flicks stones]

plop, nice job in the rendering. The only thing I would say about it is the shadows need to be deepened in their values a bit more.

The rendering is great, going with the forms. I see the shapes, 3 dimensionally. Now, maybe try some more, at different angles, and position the light in different locations. Very nice...

[spooge demon]

Please thank Fred for all the work he has done on these tuts. I made a few suggestions, he is the one who bled.

The least I can do is give a crit.

Warning, there is harshness below, just a warning. And I could go on. Boot camp time. I care enough to give you hell

Nori, no linework. The worst insult i can muster is "linedrawer" Stick to cubes at first. We will get to cylinders and cones later. Choose a different light source for your cube, the above light source is confusing and does not give you the best sense of form. The traditional lighting direction is from 45 degrees up and somewhat perpendicular to the line of vision. Include your cast shadow.

Affected. Third VP is confusing. Be more precise with your values. You are going to dark in the halftones of the lit side, causing your forms to feel reflective. The dark tone on the receding plane of the cube is a good example of this. Core shadows are too dark, this also adds to the feeling of reflectivity. To get this much vertical convergence, you need to be looking further off the horizon. But don't worry about this yet, use simpler perspective.

Nori version 2

Try to make objects sit on same plane and inhabit same space, you will have to work and think harder to do this. Shadows not black. Darker than reflected light, but not black, to simulate some atmospheric or bounce. Values are 0-hightlights 1-3 halftones, 6-7reflected light area, 8 core shadow and cast shadow. Notice that all shadows would be the same without reflected light! REflected and ambient fill are what prevent shadows from being flat black.

Plop, No refected light in shadow of cube, no modeling of half tones in cylinder. Be more precise in modeling your forms. Good value releationship between light, shade, cast shadow. Ellipse of shpere shadow too open, also not sharing same light source as others. The angle of light is different. Clean up eelipse on bottom of cone. Wait, only cubes at this point, that's right.

Frost, Just matte cubes for right now. Cast shadow of cube darker than shaded side of cube. halftone of sphere is flat, no wrap to form, too dark to be white. Cast shadow from foreground sphere should be slightly more open than shadow from larger sphere. Otherwise, shadows well contructed. Lack of reflected light on fg sphere.


If you guys want a specific assignment; Two matte finished white cubes sitting on the same white endless matte plane. Show planes with value, no linework. Two point perspective. MATTE Finish. Sunlight as source. The big idea is to use value to show form. No details, fancy perspective, cool materials, multiple light sources, radio aerials, etc. You have to entertain the eye by the simplest of means. Once you get good at this, the other stuff will look a lot better.

here is an example




fullsize PSD file with constuction lines


[This message has been edited by spooge demon (edited May 24, 2000).]