Digital Painting Lesson 7 with Bobby Chiu: Speedpainting

 

Part of the challenge for this assignment was to try and capture as much of the reference image within 20min as accurately as possible. I feel satisfied with the result however I feel I should have gone more with hard edged brush with high opacity before committing to any subtle value transitions. Twenty minuets was challenging but a good indication of where my painting time can be used more efficiently and effectively. One main thing I definitely took from this exercise is to focus on the speed of thinking and not how fast we execute with a brush but rather how we apply strokes more efficiently without having to backtrack and fix errors frequently.

Digital Painting Lesson 6 with Bobby Chiu: Sketching (20

 

The objective of this assignment was to practice digital sketching for 20mins from reference and capture the value structure and essence of the subject.

Ref

20 min sketch

For this first 20m sketch I particularly struggled with identifying the form of the microphone and feel I should have put more time in that first. 

However I feel I got the feel and structure of the boy singing pretty well considering that I usually struggle with profiles. 

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Sketch:02 

Overall I feel I have captured the gesture and form of this bird in the 20min i set myself. However I feel I could have simplified and give the background a bit more clarity and shape.

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Sketch:03

The third subject matter I felt the most excited yet some what challenging as it had clear figures in the shot. I love the composition and how the values are structured, which I feel I could have pushed more and add a tiny bit more contrast and separation of values.

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Sketch:04

The last 20min sketch I struggled the most and felt that I did not have a clear focal area. I consider it to be possibly the most challenging out of the four due to the complexity of forms and architectural environment. However i had a lot of fun and was the most rewarding trying to tackle the image.

Digital Painting Lesson 5 with Bobby Chiu

 

For this assignment our task was to paint from this reference for 7 days each day making different artistic choices and trying to gain as much knowledge. 

Day 1 was to paint the reference accurately using values from a base silhouette and practicing subtle gradation utilizing opacity and flow to apply confident smooth transitions and planes changes.
 

Day 2 was to accurately replicate the reference with good proportions and values without the aid of a base silhouette.

Day 3 assignment was to paint the reference again with limited time and less time looking at the image. It also gave me the opportunity to experiment with stylistic proportions.

Day 4 was undoubtedly one of the most challenging as it involved painting the subject matter flipped or mirrored without changing the orientation of the reference.

Day 5 bestowed the challenge of now adding colour on top of that flipped too. Which added extra difficulty and I found most challenging out of the days.

Day 6 was one I had most fun with as it gave me flexibility to experiment with proportions and have fun stylizing the shapes with out becoming to attached to the reference. 

Day 7 was the most exciting and somewhat challenging as it involved painting entirely with no reference and the freedom to paint the subject entirely any artistic integrity. It was a great opportunity to experiment with my subject matter and practice applying fundamental concepts.  

Digital Painting Lesson 4 with Bobby Chiu: Colorizing Black and White

 

This was the second time ive have completed this assignment. The first time I attempted this class was back when I was still studying in Vancouver. I find this painting process to be some what challenging due to the fact that when colorizing the image you also need to be aware of the saturation and value beneath and may need to be adjusted to achieve the results or vibrancy I'm looking for. Each process has its pros and drawbacks however working from greyscale to colour does enable great flexibility as and easier to build a strong foundation and structure without the distraction of colour to early on. Working in values also has the benifit of a non-destructive element as you can easily adjust the tones with adjustment layers without losing detail or information underneath. Sometimes I often find my self overpainting same areas with layers of paint too many times without making a conscious decision about why I placed that colour or value. Working for greyscale helps me to break down the individual elements and gradually work the image up without getting to overwhelmed in the process.

Digital Painting Lesson 3 With Bobby Chiu

 For lesson three our tasks was to paint using only the hard round brush on the adjustment layers with flow/opacity. Both studies limited to only hour each without any breaks was a great test of my patience and concentration to gradually build the transitions slowly and with accuracy with confident brushwork and mark making. I particularly quite enjoyed this process of painting however had a difficult time distinguishing mid tones and areas of  what should be in the light group and shadow.

Overall this was a fun exercise and a great way to revisit some basic foundations and use of the brush tool.

   

Lesson 2 Digital Painting with Bobby Chiu

 The second assignment of Bobby Chiu's class was split into a 2 part painting exercise, learning how to apply subtle value transition using only flow and opacity to make make smooth gradation, which was also a great opportunity to practice edge control. The challenge was to utilize only the hard round brush and no soft or textured brush to achieve certain soft gradations. 

I found the flower petals and the ear to be quite challenging and feel I could have pushed the lighter tones further to increase the contrast and definition of the form to achieve a clearer graphic statement.

I found painting the flower petals to be the most enjoyable out of the three subject matters due to its range of values and the flexibility to pushed the lights and dark accents. 

End of 2020 and revisiting fundamentals

 

Digital Painting with Bobby Chiu: Lesson 1 

Brush Basics and getting familiar with digital painting.

This assignment was a great test of my confidence in my brush strokes and using only the hard round brush to blend without the aid of soft or smudge brushes. The biggest challenge in this assignment was that we could only use the swatches of values provided in the pdf and optimize flow and direction to achieve a nice blend of tones. This exercise also taught me the value of of just using hard round brush to maintain crisp solid edges before developing any further minor details or strokes with the transitions of values.

Further more i found this exercise to be a great warm up before getting to my painting for the day and great for exercising those muscles as well as to just experiment with brush control. Personally i discovered that I'm more confident painting diagonally or horizontally than vertically using big strokes at the beginning and slowly adding tighter transitions of detail. Broad strokes then cut into with either eraser or another value of paint to make more confident marks without worrying about edge control. Optimizing the flow of paint has really changed the way I control and move the paint around the canvas. I found that I like to stick within the 10%-20% flow range as I feel most comfortable when blending paint together also avoiding extreme value changes has helped with blending values. This has also taught me that everyone has a different level of sensitivity they are atoned to or comfortable with when painting. This assignment was very insightful and quite challenging, however I look forward to taking everything I learned from this lesson and applying it to my future work as I start to hone in my process.

I applied this technique of using one hard round brush with optimizing flow and opacity on my own studies to build my own confidents in the strokes and develop my brushwork and brush control. I learned a great deal but also found it super challenging to achieve the results I was looking for.