nathanaardvark

Tutorial 109 - Gestalt Principles of Design

Here's a quick overview of some of the most commonly considered design principles derived from gestalt psychology. 

Gestalt psychology is an attempt at understanding how we are able to simplify the complexity of the world around us by grouping elements or relating parts to each other. 

Gestalt is particularly concerned with the phenomenon "the whole is other than the sum of it's parts" (note "other" is often mistranslated to "greater") and attempts to explain...

Tutorial 108 - Gliding Movements of the Joints

There are a few places in the body where we can find the gliding types of synovial joints such as the ankle, foot and the hand.

The carpal bones will glide against one another whenever the hand moves at the wrist joint. These bones fit together forming a complicated interaction of multifaceted geometry. Each bone will slide into a variety of positions that allow the hand to change form for various actions. We'll talk more about the wrist and hand in future tutorials as it's a hig...

Tutorial 107 - Circular Movements of the Joints

Circular movements of the joints are called circumduction. Any ball and socket joint can make this kind of movement. Obvious examples are the hip and the shoulder but many other body parts are capable of circumduction, such as the head, the hands and fingers, or any part that can trace a circle. 

Be sure not to confuse circumduction with rotation. Both the femur (leg) and the humerus (arm) can rotate on their own axis making these bones quite unique. 

Any part that is c...

Tutorial 106 - Rotational Movements of the Joints

For the limbs, rotation can occur toward the body or away from the body. 

Medial Rotation

Rotations toward the center of the body are called medial rotation (or internal rotation). 

Lateral Rotation

Rotations away from the center of the body are called lateral rotation (or external rotation). 

These rotational terms apply to a bone turning on it's own axis. However, there are a few other...

Tutorial 105 - Angular Motions of the Joints

This is one of four tutorials on anatomical movements; Angular, rotational, circular and gliding. 

Angular movements change the angle of a joint between two adjoining body structures.

Note: Remember, when discussing these terms we refer to the body in the anatomical position. That is, the body standing upright, arms at the sides, palms facing forwards. 

There are two pairs of angular movements. 

Flexion and Extension

Tutorial 104 - Three Anatomical Planes

Anatomists have developed a system to refer to the position of body structures, and angular and rotational movements of the joints. Anatomical planes are used to describe these location and movements in reference to the central axis of the body.

It's important to know this system refers to a body standing upright with palms facing forwards. 

This tutorial is to simply illustrate the terms used in this system, though we will go into a little more detail in upcoming tutorials.
...

Tutorial 103 - The Cartilaginous Joints

The cartilaginous joints are made of cartilage and therefore a bit more movable than fibrous joints, though not as movable as the synovial joints.

Synchondrosis

Almost no movement at all, these joints are found between the ribs and sternum.

Symphysis

A little more movable, these joints are found in the intervertebral discs of the spine and between the pubic bone.

The fact that some joints are able to assist in certain motions and others are...

Tutorial 102 - The Fibrous Joints

Fibrous joints are held together (fixed) and therefore not as important to us artists as the synovial joints, but still noteworthy. 

These joints are connected with fibrous tissue of varying length.

Fibrous joints are notable because they join some important bones together.

The three types of fibrous joints

Sutures 

So-called because they look similar to stitches, suture joints are found between the bones of the skull, the "suture...

Tutorial 101 - The Synovial Joints

Here's a breakdown of the most important joints for the artist studying anatomy.

The Synovial joints are six types of joints that artists need to understand because these are the most movable types of joints in the body.

We’ll know how to draw them on the human form if:

• we know what these joints look like
• how they move
• how they effect the tissue surrounding them
  

Synovial joints, so named for the synovial fluid that fills the joint ...

Tutorial 100 - The Color Blue

Keywords: Calm, Serenity, Spirituality, Truth, Loyalty, Vastness, Sadness, Loneliness, Cold, Chilling, Authoritarian. 

The most beloved color blue has numerous connotations, both positive and negative. In it’s positive light, it is associated with calm and serenity, spirituality, truth, loyalty, and expansiveness. But blue also implies sadness and loneliness, and can be used to convey the cold, melancholia, and the authoritarian.

One of the things that makes the col...

Tutorial 99 - The Color White

Keywords: Innocence, Purity, Integrity, Neutrality, Cleanliness, Clarity, New Beginnings, Hope, Ignorance, Emptiness, Exposure, Isolation, Sterility, Boredom.

White contains an equal balance of all the colors of the spectrum, inherently implying equality and neutrality. Most of white’s connotations revolve around being unsullied, untainted, devoid of corruption. Traditionally, white has been associated with purity, cleanliness, innocence, new beginnings, and peace (e.g. a white do...

Tutorial 98 - The Color Yellow

Keywords: spirituality/enlightenment, cheer, happiness, optimism, energizing,

cowardice (Western culture only), caution, hazard/emergency, illness.

Yellow is the lightest and most luminous color on the spectrum. Because of it’s brightness, yellow is the most easily perceptible color to the human eye, appearing in our visual periphery before other colors. 

The color yellow has an energizing, stimulating effect (typical of ...

Tutorial 97 - The Color Black

Keywords: Mystery, Infinity, Death, Formality, Power, The Unknown, Elegance, 

Sophistication.

The color black primarily represents mystery, the unknown, and the concept of infinity.

For ancient Greeks and Egyptians, black was used as the color of the Underworld, where souls go after death. It is similarly the color of mourning.

Black was a popular color in fashion for European nobles in the Middle Ages, when it was worn to denote autho...

Tutorial 96 - The Color Red

Keywords:  Anger, Passion, Courage, Sacrifice, Lust, Attention, Sin, Joy.

Red is described as being the most brilliant color. It has the longest wavelength, and affects us physiologically, with the ability to increase our heart rate! 

Red seems to stand out against other colors and demands our attention, alerting us to the subject. Red might be used to indicate that an area or person is important or distinguished. For this reason, film makers often show ...

Tutorial 95 - Line of Gravity

The line of gravity is the middle or average point of the weight distribution. If standing upright, it runs from the tip of your head through the middle of your body and to your feet. You can feel your center point shift across the sole of your feet, your support base, if you stand and lean forwards or backwards. 

If the center of gravity shifts outside of the support base then the structure (or character) will fall. This is what happens during a walk cycle. Every time a leg is thrown for...

Tutorial 94 - The Horizon Line

Here's a really simple tip to give you some composition and perspective options, which can have dramatic effects on a character in a story, for instance.

The character in the image on the left appears somewhat less heroic than in the image on the right. The middle image, somewhere in between. This is mostly communicated through the feeling of being above, below or level with the character's eye line.

Note, these three images can be presented sequentially:

<...

Tutorial 93 - Cool Light, Cool Shadows

"Warm light cool shadows, cool light warm shadows" teaching

Most painters are familiar with this teaching. However, a warm or cool primary light source will not always cause shadows to take on a complementary hue. What if our ambient light is the same or similar hue? That hue will still make it into the shadows. 

Though in general, it’s favourable to create images that at least feel like there is a color temperature balance (some words on balance in tutorial 81: (2016-04-03 18:07:54 +0000 UTC View Post

Tutorial 92 - Grey in the Shadows

I struggled creating this one as it required deconstructing my illustration, which was created fairly intuitively, into a logical explanation of what's happening pseudo-physically. So, I don't think it's by any means perfect. Though hopefully it's sufficient enough to help us form an understand of what's happening when we see grey appear in shadows sometimes.

Tutorial 91 - Cool Light, Warm Shadows

This scene is the opposite lighting setup to the scene in tutorial 90. 

This time the primary light is cool and the ambient light is warm. It might be unusual to find this situation in nature. Perhaps the red autumn leaves (warm) of a forest lit by the moon (cool) would create such an effect. Or a the cold light of a flashlight in a red brick alleyway. 

Important to know, when a colored light hits the surface of an object which is similar in hue to the light source, we see ...

Tutorial 90 - Cool light, Warm Shadows

You've probably heard about warm light giving the illusion of cool shadows and how this can be reversed in the opposite lighting setup. The shadows become cool because of the ambient blue light (the sky) making it into the shadow. The sky acts like a dome of light. Wherever the sunlight is not hitting directly the light from the sky, and objects also reflecting or bouncing light, is influencing the shadows. The shadows will appear grey in some areas, a neutralising effect of additiv...

Tutorial 89 - RGB and CMY triads

This explains some areas in color theory that we need to aware of as digital painters. We might expect that the software we use would mimic the way color is mixed traditionally, though this isn't the case, so we need to change our way of thinking a little. We have to think in an additive and subtractive way. See tutorial number 88 to see those words defined visually. 

Traditionally we're used to a Red, Yellow, Blue color wheel, which we're usually taught very early in li...

Tutorial 88 - Two Types of Color Mixing

Color can mix in two ways, subtractive and additive. How they relate is a very interesting and elegant part of color theory that we’ll touch on here. It's worth knowing, especially if you’re like me and have struggled with color in the past.

Additive color 

Additive color mixing is a system we use to describe the visible effects of combined light sources, before any object reflects the light. It’s the system all of our screens use to create color.

...
2016-03-29 10:31:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Tutorial 87 - Thumbnail your Painting

When you get a new project brief or that first wave of inspiration, thumbnails are where you begin. They are the result of a brain dump. Many terrible sketches and ideas should be drawn and not judged! Make as many thumbnails as you can dream up (time considered, of course). Share the best ones with the client for direction, hide the ones you're not happy with. Burn them quickly before anyone sees you can't draw hands perfectly every time. Just kidding. Keep them for reference later.

Tutorial 82 - Relative, Absolute & Local Color

This tutorial should have been posted a few days back but as Patreon has been having problems with their servers it seemed to have not been posted! So this is 1 of 2 that I'm posting today.

Anyway, let's talk a bit more about color. 

We can try to think of color in these 3 ways to help us understand how to bring a believable sense of realism in our paintings. 

Firstly, as artists, we have to become aware that our eyes play tricks on us, ...

Tutorial 86 - The Concave Iris

This tip really helped me to understand the structure of the iris and therefore paint it effectively. 

The iris is not actually concave but it's best to think of it that way. It's a striated muscle, thin enough to be illuminated under certain lighting conditions. It's the lens behind this muscle bouncing light around the iris, making it appear to glow from the bottom part (if the light source is located above). This could be described as subsurface scattering, which we've explored ...

Tutorial 85 - The Biggest Secret

Ok, you're going to kick me when I tell you the biggest secret to making progress in your drawing. 

But, if you're interested, please read on, it's important and I can't state it in one simple sentence. 

It's often easy to feel like we just can't draw, or we don't know what to draw, or the stuff we are drawing is simply uninspiring. Personally, I struggle with this feeling, almost everyday. It's so frustrating! But this is really just a negative mindset. 

Tutorial 84 - Analogous Color Schemes

Generally, analogous color schemes will guarantee color harmony, though they may lack a certain vibrancy. If we find this to be the case in our painting we can introduce an accent to some areas. Cool accents may be added if the painting is generally warm, and warm accents for paintings that are generally cool. Use a complement to the dominant color. 

In the example, I've put some faint blue/purple on the chest of the deer.

Tutorial 83 - Complementary Color Schemes

Complementary color schemes are one of many harmonious color schemes available to us. Here's a link to a previous tip on color harmony: https://www.patreon.com/posts/tutorial-36-4345676

To find out what color is complementary to a selected color we can do a few things: 

Draw a straight line across the color wheel, starting from your selected color, passing through the center until you ...

Tutorial 81 - Warm Lighting

Unless your image is following a monochrome color scheme, you'll want to try balancing your warms with your cools. When I say balance, I don't mean equalize, I mean to weigh warm and cool against each other. One should be dominant over the other. 

When starting out, we must decide whether our light is cool or warm. This choice is made based on the mood we're going for. Generally, warm lighting is romantic, pleasant, dreamy, natural. Cool lighting is generally indoors, or moon lit, and coo...

Tutorial 80 - Color Temperature & Depth

Color temperature can have a really strong impact on our spacial perception. Though, value also has a lot to do with it, as noted in a previous tutorial (see tutorial 16 www.patreon.com/posts/tutorial-16-4166200).

It's not only extremely useful to be aware of this effect for landscapes and environments, with any level of depth, but also for our compositions. Film makers often make use of this trick. You'll notice in crowd scenes the protagonist is wearing red while all other charac...