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ObsidianSerpent In reply to ??? [2022-07-24 11:59:02 +0000 UTC]

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to TrekkieAvenger95 [2017-11-01 20:06:23 +0000 UTC]

Definitely reference photos.  For me working without reference photos leads to a more stylized likeness, it can definitely look like them but in a more...generic way. Now that is absolutely great if that is what you are going for, but if you are going for a more earthy realism then I really think reference photos are the way to go.  (And I don't think this just applies to faces but to everything...unless you have had enough time to devote hours and hours and hours drawing hands in all different positions, (and I work full time, so I'm struggling to find time to squeeze any art-time in amongst my "real life"),  then you will not be able to draw a realistic hand without a reference photo of the hand in the right pose.  You can learn the way to put hands together using cylinders etc and create a properly proportioned hand, but to me, (unless you are really terrific at it, which I'm not), it still doesn't look like a "real" hand, it looks like a "well-drawn" hand.)  (For instance looking at a photo of a hand holding a glass, there are a multitude of little details that you will notice, like the way the fingertips distort due the pressure on the glass, the way the fingers aren't evenly distributed but the person has done this thing of quirking his little finger under the glass....little things like that which you wouldn't just think of without actually looking and noticing it.)

And that is just a hand, a face is infinitely more complex.

I've watched lots of art programes on the TV with professional portrait artists doing their thing, and they tend to make some sketches from life to get a feel for the person, and then take lots of photos and work from the photos back in the studio.  (And they will work from a photo of the person in the right pose...they won't take a photo and then imagine them turned 20 degrees north or something and draw them from a completely different angle.)

Having said that, if you are doing fan art, then you might want to go beyond just copying a single photo. Obviously we can't have an actual sitting with the actor and pose them how we like (I wish!    )  So then it's a matter of combining different reference photos as seamlessly as possible in order to create the image you want to make.

There's a lot of snobbery about using reference photos, but used well they are just another useful tool. One thing I am still learning is not to get "stuck" on the photo, I can be a bit pedantic and follow a reference photo too closely.  Use the photo as a kick off point but then feel free to change the colours and content and whatever you want. 

But all of that is completely from the point of view of the style that I paint in.  If you are creating more Manga style images for example then none of that applies. 

Sorry, that answer was WAY too long and boring.  And I'm only an amateur painter so really what do I know anyway!    But that's my tuppence worth on the subject anyway. 

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TrekkieAvenger95 In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2017-11-08 14:20:03 +0000 UTC]

This. Is amazing. Thank you so much for your reply!! It was super helpful 😁

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to TrekkieAvenger95 [2017-11-08 20:21:39 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad it was helpful. I'm always happy to offer my half-arsed opinion on any subject. 

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to Tr1nks1e [2016-01-03 15:59:46 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much...the suit is rather dapper, (and wasn't half as hard to paint as it looks.)

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Tr1nks1e In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2016-01-03 16:36:26 +0000 UTC]

Hehe I myself struggle with clothes, so I need to practice more, I guess.

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to Tr1nks1e [2016-01-03 23:11:02 +0000 UTC]

One of my bugbears is drawing people facing away from me, (which sounds an odd thing to paint, but sometimes you want to paint the back of someone talking to someone else or something), and I find it impossibly hard to get the backs of people's heads and shoulders to look right.    As you say, it's all practice.  It also really irritates me that I can't paint landscapes...I haven't worked out quite what I'm doing wrong yet, I just know they're not good.

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Tr1nks1e In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2016-01-04 11:45:32 +0000 UTC]

Landscapes are my least favourate too.

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to ArielKnight [2014-04-22 21:50:32 +0000 UTC]

He does look quite dapper in a suit.  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to adsullatta [2014-04-04 19:03:03 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much!  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to GenkiPuck42 [2014-02-26 22:17:32 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for such a nice comment, I'm so glad that you liked it.  

I hadn't thought about the similarities to Connecticut Yankee, what a great idea.  It is coincidental, but now that you say it, it does sound as though it fits well.  

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GenkiPuck42 In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-02-27 23:34:05 +0000 UTC]

I'll admit I am a total sucker for anything that pairs BBC Merlin with Connecticut Yankee. I actually strongly suspect that the characterization of Arthur on Merlin was heavily influenced by Twain's portrayal of him: pompous, self-absorbed, not the sharpest tack, but intrinsically brave and noble when it comes down to it. (And perhaps some of Merlin's snark owes a bit to Hank Morgan as well.)

This is Hank on the subject of Arthur:
"The king looked puzzled - he wasn't a very heavy weight, intellectually. His head was an hourglass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time, not the whole idea at once."

And, even better, (when Hank and Arthur are touring the kingdom, disguised as peasants):
"If you have ever seen an active, heedless, enterprising child going diligently out of one mischief and into another all day long, and an anxious mother at its heels all the while, just saving it by a hair from drowning itself or breaking its neck with each new experiment, you've seen the king and me."

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to GenkiPuck42 [2014-03-02 18:03:53 +0000 UTC]

I shall have to read that again, I've got a book of all Mark Twain's stuff upstairs.  Your quotes from it are so good, Twain was so brilliant at turning a phrase.

What you say about the similarities do ring true, certainly with very early BBC Arthur.  But I do like my Arthur a bit more brainy AND noble, a bit more of the Mallory Arthur.  I think BBC Arthur matured a lot and grew a lot as the series went on, which I really liked.

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GenkiPuck42 In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-03-04 05:30:15 +0000 UTC]

Twain's Arthur does have his moments of sublime greatness and nobility as well. The scene in the smallpox hut, in particular, made me fall a bit in love with Arthur Pendragon before ever I saw him played by Bradley James...

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to FlowersBreAtH [2014-02-11 20:46:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much.  (Though sometimes the likenesses work better than others, there's a lot of luck involved.    )

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to Hoichun [2014-01-30 18:19:18 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much, you're very kind

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to wonder-follows-me [2014-01-17 23:42:45 +0000 UTC]

Thank you.

Awwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I loved that story beginning and the banter between them.  Although of course, NOW I want to know what that leads to.  Even if you don't actually want to write the story, d'you want to give me a hint of what happens next and why the challenge is cast down?

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wonder-follows-me In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-01-21 06:34:29 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad you liked it. I'd write it right now but I'm not fully sure how it goes although I know somewhere along the lines they end up in a compromising situation. (As yer do.)

The book Arthur is holding leads me to believe that magic is not unheard of in that universe. I would say that Arthur knows of magic but has never seen it done. He has no negative feelings towards it. He did not know Merlin had magic. Arthur being Arthur in every universe sasses and teases Merlin and Merlin finally has his fill. A mixture of teasing and ust will do that. He's tired of hearing Arthur goading him about his sporting physique and how boxing with him would be like punching a leaf. He can't resist showing Arthur who really has the upper hand. (In a mature rated fashion.)

Arthur is thrown off his guard by the change of events but approves of a rather predatory Merlin. (This idere feels like it will be next proper Merlin fic I work on.)

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to wonder-follows-me [2014-01-30 18:21:49 +0000 UTC]

That scenario sounds great, I really like it. 

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wonder-follows-me In reply to wonder-follows-me [2014-01-16 18:57:13 +0000 UTC]

DA needs a thing to edit comments. (The grammar. *Van Gogh "The Scream" face*) Rushing and tiredness leads to regret.

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to harmonia [2014-01-13 19:04:58 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much, I'm really glad you like it.  This is meant to be one of a group of three, (though there will be a gap before I get a chance to do the other two.)  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to letrainblu [2014-01-09 19:47:03 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much, I'm so pleased that you liked it.

I only found out about Leyendecker myself just recently, I'd seen and liked his paintings on greeting cards and things, but not realised who it was and put a name to them.

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to TinBramble [2014-01-06 16:57:48 +0000 UTC]

Thank you  

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TinBramble In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-01-07 02:55:10 +0000 UTC]

You're very welcome!  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to VampKate95 [2014-01-05 22:10:52 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much.  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to summerartistart [2014-01-05 10:39:01 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much.  Trying to copy someone else's technique did teach me a lot.  I can see why they used to make artists copy other people's work in order to learn what they were doing.

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to LarienWang [2014-01-05 10:40:52 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for such a lovely comment.  I'm really pleased that you liked it.  Yeah, it is meant to be a magic book, (I don't know the neverending book you mentioned.)

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LarienWang In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-01-17 11:55:00 +0000 UTC]

This one : upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to LarienWang [2014-01-17 23:40:56 +0000 UTC]

Oh wow, I see what you mean, there's a definite similarity going on there.  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to altocello [2014-01-05 10:36:58 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much.  The whole thing has come out a bit dark unfortunately.  I copied Leyendecker and started off with a grey underpainting, and while he obviously has the skill to put on enough paint to completely overcome that and still make the painting vibrant, I apparently don't.  I think I'll stick to the underpainting colours I usually use in future.  Still, I came away with a lot in interesting knowledge from it, and I will use his idea of building up thin washes for the shadows in future, as that worked pretty okay.

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altocello In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-01-07 05:36:40 +0000 UTC]

 I do like the way the white of the background really pops off of the grey of the underlayer, but it does kill the other colors a bit, doesn't it.  I did notice that the skin tones on the hands were a bit greyer than usual (though their faces look just fine!), but I still think you pulled this off with considerable flair. And I still adore the expressions you found to put on their faces.  <3

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to altocello [2014-01-09 19:02:44 +0000 UTC]

I wondered if a cream background might help, but I didn't want to lose the patchy effect, which I liked.  The recipient of it did want me to change it to cream though, so I did.  It didn't help unfortunately, (and now I've lost the patchy effect).   Still, live and learn.

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altocello In reply to ObsidianSerpent [2014-01-17 20:59:50 +0000 UTC]

Aw, that's a shame.  Yeah I think if you wanted to warm the skintones up you'd almost have to do a cream underpainting for all those areas if you didn't have time to do a lot of layers.  

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ObsidianSerpent In reply to altocello [2014-01-20 18:25:00 +0000 UTC]

Normally a do a warm flesh-toned underpainting, and it does warm the skintones up nicely.

I used grey this time, because that's what he always used.  What I forgot to allow for, is that he was using oil paints. not acrylics, and they have a much denser, thicker coverage than acrylics, so they cover the grey more effectively.

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