The January 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[Gare]

Good morning and it's time once again for Art Lessons!

To keep an artistic "balance" in your work—to prevent one property; contrast, relative size of areas, colors—from dominating a composition, traditional painters have adopted a work approach. It's a sound one, and digital artists should use it, too.

Always work from the general to the specific.

Example: When I was 12 or so, and The Fates had already cast me as a Career Illustrator, I'd envision something, and then work a small area to completion, then choose a different area and work that to completion, and so on.

My finished drawings looked like highly detailed quiltwork. This was because I had no grand vision, no general map of how the whole of the composition would come together.

You work from the general to the specific.

What I (generally) posted a few days ago is an outline of a cardboard box. I myself began with a cube shape (you don't get more general than that!), then to make it asymmetrical, I folded three (not four) of the top flaps out. Next, I considered how the box should be lit. This took more time than anyone would realize to get it "right". There are a near infinite number of possibilities for lighting this box, but the one I chose was a light and shadow setup that "revealed" all the aspects of the box. Think about this one: isn't it possible to light the box differently, perhaps more dramatically, but the downside could be that one flap falls into the shadows? I used lighting to "reveal" enough aspects of the box to make it look dimensional.

Viewer's angle? I chose a 3/4 view, and I do this quite often. Why? Because a 3/4 view, not front-on, not from the side, helps to visually explain a 3D object. A box has six sides, right? Because we face such an object, we can see no more than 3 of the 6 sides at any given moment. So why, as artists, should we cheat ourselves out of one or two sides of view when we only have 3 at maximum to begin with?

Then I chose canvas dimensions in Xara, and placed the box asymmetrically in the composition. It "works" artistically because the box has a lot of severe, straight angles that really calls attention to itself, so it could be anywhere on the canvas and it would still "own" the scene. So me? I said, "Hey, why not put it off-center in the composition?" Asymmetrical compositions, depending on what the subject is, can create a sort of dynamic tension in the audience's mind. Call this my personal style, and if and when you choose to make an asymmetrical composition, don't let it be the only trick in your artist's bag! Don't fixate on one effect, or one technique, okay?

Finally, there's shading and texture.

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Do you see now how the method of general art considerations --> specific ones....keeps a composition balanced?

I think what Stygg did is quite remarkable with the textures, one component of the scene. Do you see that the shading on the box is subtle? The transitions between light and dark are gradual and not very pronounced, as we, the viewer, would expect if we were looking at a dimly lit scene. "Contrast" is ALWAYS something artists overdo, because our brains lie to us about "distinctions". We are naturally inclined to make things different, separate, it's in our nature as humans, and something we need to fight for the sake of accuracy in our artwork.

Well done in that respect, Stygg!

Gold star, gold star!

—Gary

[jvila]

Gare,
This thread is becoming artists holy bible, I never thought It was going to be as productive as it is, all the things you've been teaching were completely unknown to me, those are the things I tried to mention I didn't know about drawing, these things really make the difference between a great drawing and a ordinary one.
Now I'm into account that a new component appears "Composition" and how we should create it, that's completely unvaluable.
Thank you very much.

[Gare]

You are welcome, Javier.

Hey, this is the sort of stuff we used to sit around discussing during lunch hour when I worked at an advertising agency back in NYC.

People ask questions, experienced people provide answers and we all learn by listening and doing.

I feel a good forum should do the same thing, no?

My Best,
—Gary

[jvila]

Gare,
my apologies, I wrote unvaluable intead of invaluable.
Thank you very much

[Gare]

No es nada, Javier!

I understand the "__valuable" part of what you wrote!

—g

[stygg2003]

Thank you for your encouraging words Gary, I did'nt expext to get the box drawing correct at the first attempt, I just wanted to have ago and learn and I did. The zone is becoming the place for all levels of skills to participate and discuss each others work and efforts and as Javier has said it's becoming the Holy Bible for Xara users and any non-users, it's the place to be at if you want to learn

Stygg

[Barbara B]

I might be a little bit biased , but I absolutely agree with you stygg!

I'm sure there are a lot people just getting started with Xara Designer—who haven’t joined in— because they think that they aren't "good enough" yet to compete with the often stellar work that does get posted on TalkGraphics. I imagine that there even some folks on the other end of the spectrum who feel they are already masters, and have nothing to learn and it would be “unfair” to post their work.

But this forum isn’t about competing. I know Gary is going out on a limb to make sure the community is addressed, not just novices, and not just power users. tg is about learning and sharing. Art (as well as life) is always a work in progress.

Be human. Get noticed. Pipe in and pipe up!

And at the risk of going totally overboard here – It would be great if you like what is happening here, to spread the word. Tweet about this thread, post to Facebook about it or even tell other artists you know, even if they don’t currently use Xara, that they really need to join the incredible community we all are building here.

[stygg2003]

Here's my update on the box, I completely forgot the box flaps and that they would have a shadow so I've added these to replace the blob I had in the first drawing. I've made them light to dark running from the front corner of the box as that's where I think the light is coming from, front and raised light, getting to technical for myself here but that's what the zone does to you, makes you think!

Stygg

[Gare]

You did good, artistically figuring out and tracing the light to arrive at the shadows, Stygg.

Now, let me go back to my sermon a few posts ago about going from the "general" to the "specific".

1. )Do you really want the finished piece to have an almost symmetrical plane in perspective?
2.) I don't think so, which suggests that you didn't crop the image above that you posted, as you want it seen, Stygg.

Always consider "The Big Picture". Stand back and see how your composition sits in its completeness.

Now, please understand that I'm not being silly or snarky with the image I've attached. I'm often the fool online, but I'm dead earnest about your picture that I cropped, put in a frame, and hung on the wall. Do you see that there are various levels of "The Big Picture"?

I asked myself, "Hey, this is a good study in light. I wonder how it would look up on the wall? The wall is the generalization, the specific item being your art. So I cropped the image, and I like the way it's composed now.

I'm sure you can do better, Stygg. I'm not taking your idea away from you, but rather I'm prompting you, now that you're doing good with the shading, to see more general aspects of this as a composition, and what you can to to enhance its presentation.

I'm not saying, "put it in a frame." Because I've already done that, and it isn't the point.

The point is you've been there, done that with a specific composition detail—shading—and you did it well. Now move on to a critical evaluation of more general aspects of what you're doing.

Sometimes exercises produce very nice art by just massaging and playing. Think of this as an experiment you actually might be paid for if you spent the time, thought, and examination of where you might like to take this.



My Best,
—Gary

P.S. This area of the forum has grown from support to the monthly Xara Xone tutorial into something else. And I like it, but I cannot continue indefinitely to be its sole support. I encourage others with art experience to come forward and chime in, because I need to do stuff to pay the rent, and sort of get cracking on the February edition of The Xara Xone.

Anyone know how to clone people?

[stygg2003]

Wow! that's some picture Gary, you have completed that great. I will do as you say and see what I can come up with, and no more posts from me until you've done the Feb. edition of the Zone. Don't want you to miss the rent Thanks for all your help and encouragement.

Stygg