Thursday, May 22, 2014

Studies!

Studying how to paint, more strokes, less sculpting. Also focusing on light, experimenting with edge-hardness. The Incredibles, best 3D-animated movie ever :)



3 comments:

Dado Almeida said...

Each update I can see that you starting to get more "free/fluid" with the manipulation of the painting. That´s good man.

I´d like to try studies with this mindset too Johannes. In the past I was eager to see a post from you teaching how to render illustrations with that huge sense of polish (like the ones for Gunblasters).
But I realize by myself (and some practice), that there´s no much secret on it. It´s just about patience. : )

But, when playing with a more brushstroking (new term?) mindset, this indeed gives freedom to the painting/study and it feels less like 'drawing'.

Can you give Dado some OK-GO on to join this bandwagon ?
If Yes. here´s my first attempt: http://goo.gl/ymbfni

Johannes Helgeson said...

Yeahyeah, you're right! Gunblasters is all about meticulous time-consuming sculpting. Zooming in, working with some selections and soft airbrushes etc. I do have a bit of a technique with that, like doing ambient occlusion in a layer etc. Here, I just stole this technique from Sam Nielsen> http://theartcenter.blogspot.de/2010/03/sam-nielson-painting-process.html

The downside is that the style takes a lot of time, and I personally find the rougher-looking stuff more visually appealing. It can also feel a bit robotic, rendering in passes like a computer. So I guess you can say the path I was on had the end goal of Bougereau, whereas my new path goes more towards Zorn. That make sense?

Yeah man! Do it! I think you did a really fine job on that one. Great choice of reference, nice composition and dramatic lighting. I think perhaps the rimlight sub surface scattering on Sully's fur is more emphasized in the original, and you're losing a bit of that dramatic effect. Also pay attention to how that haze behind him is emphasizing his silhouette, you're losing a bit of that by making the values of his silhouette and the BG too similar.

Have you tried painting with the smudge-tool? I think these excercises provide a great space to play around with new brushes and tools. I'm using the brush-set that I stole from Shaddy Safadi at the moment! It's great :D

In the end, I don't feel I'm qualified enough to give profound advice and pointers, but I'll do my best when I have the time and energy :) Keep on rocking man! Level-up time!

Johannes Helgeson said...

And by using the smudge-tool to paint I think you could get a better "fur-feeling". Right now it's a bit too hard imo.