Mental Blocks

New England Journal of Micro-Medicine - June 1995
"On closer inspection of those individuals seemingly afflicted with a lack of artistic talent, micro probing has revealed a slight blockage of several creativity synapses by an unknown beta-blocker. Although unidentified at this time, the blockage problem appears to be completely reversible with a daily application of Painter."
Dr. T.J. Smith MD

Point is, that aside from maybe some use of composition, placement, and space, very little artistic talent was needed to create the 3 or so yr. old attached image (which I considered a keeper). No graphic tablet or drawing, just some mouse dragging.

In my opinion, with a little effort, almost anyone can create a viable piece of artwork in Painter. Whether or not this is a good thing is still a debatable subject. Then again, in many circles, there is still debate whether digital art is really art! Look how long it took photography to become a viable art form, and still to this day....

Done in Painter 4. Used a pattern called Elephantine as a background, which I tinted then washed out with brightness to get a milky effect. Blocks are simple filled selections with different size & drop shadow settings to add depth. Used a clouds image hose for, you guessed it, the clouds, and slightly covering the small block and large blocks shadow for more depth. The electric lines with glow filter and evenly placed lens flares were done in Photoshop.

BR......

New England Journal of Micro-Medicine - June 1995
"On closer inspection of those individuals seemingly afflicted with a lack of artistic talent, micro probing has revealed a slight blockage of several creativity synapses by an unknown beta-blocker. Although unidentified at this time, the blockage problem appears to be completely reversible with a daily application of Painter."
Dr. T.J. Smith MD

Point is, that aside from maybe some use of composition, placement, and space, very little artistic talent was needed to create the 3 or so yr. old attached image (which I considered a keeper). No graphic tablet or drawing, just some mouse dragging.

In my opinion, with a little effort, almost anyone can create a viable piece of artwork in Painter. Whether or not this is a good thing is still a debatable subject. Then again, in many circles, there is still debate whether digital art is really art! Look how long it took photography to become a viable art form, and still to this day....

Done in Painter 4. Used a pattern called Elephantine as a background, which I tinted then washed out with brightness to get a milky effect. Blocks are simple filled selections with different size & drop shadow settings to add depth. Used a clouds image hose for, you guessed it, the clouds, and slightly covering the small block and large blocks shadow for more depth. The electric lines with glow filter and evenly placed lens flares were done in Photoshop.

BR......

Hello BR!

I like that image. I can understand why you thought it was a keeper. (I do wonder when you named it mental blocks or if mental blocks was just the title for this thread.)

I like the way that you used the elephantine background and used the glowing dots and lines to mimic (I imagine) synapses. That is way cool. And the rectangles for the blocks is also neat.

I waited 'til I had exhausted my available resources to find the defintions of those 3 art words that you used (composition, placement and space) I'm going to try to talk about those three in the following post.

I just wanted the focus of this posting to let you know that I like the image . And I definitely like your comments above. Thank you for telling us the mechanics of how you built the image. But as you said:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> a daily application of Painter. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

that is more than just humorous. It is so true. If someone wants to get better at Painter, they have to use it (or practice using it) often.

And thank you for reminding us that you don't have to draw to make artistic images.


Athena
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Hi there art fans!

BR (aka Bruce) used the words (composition, placement, space) to explain some of the art concepts he used in his picture above (no drawing skill required [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] )
<DL>
<DT>We'll start with placement</DT>

<DD>The way I understand placement is that to make an object look closer to you, place it lower in the picture to help that illusion along. As you can see the larger of the two blocks is lower than the smaller of the two blocks. The things that you want to look like they are farther, you place them higher on the canvas.

Bruce also used size to help the illusion, the block that is lower is also actually larger and this also helps to make it look like it is closer. Think about it, two blocks of equal size would not have had the same effect as having the closer (lower) one larger.

BR also overlapped the bottom shadow with the clouds. And he also overlapped the 2nd smaller block at the top with the clouds. This overlapping also helps the illusion of depth. (Size and Overlapping are also art concepts BR used)

Simple, obvious stuff you might say. Sure it is, but maybe it isn't so obvious when you're staring at a blank canvas trying to remember how he did it.</DD>

<DT>BR mentions space </DT>
<DD>I'm not exactly sure of the exact meaning of "space" but it reminds me of a word I've heard called negative space. I always think of that as "wherever your drawing is not" -- that also has shape. The most classic example of negative space I can think of is this image:

http://www.nol.net/~athena/paintutor2/negspace1.gif

From what I understand, positive shapes are what you draw and negative space is what is left over of the canvas after you have drawn on it. So if I had a square canvas and drew a diagonal line from corner to corner, the line is the "positive shape" but the line has in fact, created two triangles on the canvas. The two triangles would be the negative space we have created by the diagonal line.

Often the viewer's mind fills in the negative space which is why you can see both the chalice or the two faces. Your mind has filled in the negative space.
</DD>

Finally, we have the toughest of the art words that BR used.

<DT>composition</DT>
<DD>This one took me the longest to find and even now, I'm not sure this is the best definition but we'll try.

I think that the best explanation and illustration of composition came from (believe it or not) How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema

In their book, p 110, they preface some fabulous illustrations with this statement

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The one crucial rule you should never forget is -- the simpler the design, the easier it will be for the reader to understand and enjoy it. Make your designs exciting, startling, powerful -- but keep them simple <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Their images that follow that passage have the major parts of each panel shaded so you can see the basic shapes of the image's "composition".

And to be sure and de-mystify this, they also say on p110

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The shape is never drawn first, with the elements then squeezed inside of it. Rather, the picture is originally sketched out with the shaded area taking form in the artists mind. Sometimes after a picture is drawn, too many important elements fall outside the basic shaded area. In such instances, the artist changes his drawing until everything falls within a pleasant unified mass. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you think of those fabulous Where's Waldo? cartoons. The intent is to put so much in the image that the important things are obscured and you have to hunt for Waldo.

Most people want a simpler message. Hopefully to clarifiy composition we'll look at my cat photo once again (his name is Peppie -- sounds like peppy).

A photographer might say that the composition of this photo could use some help. They might suggest cropping it.

so that it goes from this:
http://www.nol.net/~athena/paintutor2/pepsi62.jpg

to this:
http://www.nol.net/~athena/paintutor2/cropepsi62.jpg

That would improve the composition by getting rid of the empty space to the right of the cat (and trimming out some of the stuff behind the cat).

But not all empty space is useless. I sometimes leave empty spaces in my photos so I can put words along the side. (someone else would have good reasons for taking photos their way)

http://www.nol.net/~athena/paintutor2/pepsicomp1.jpg

Now here, I'll borrow the idea of highlighting the shapes in the image from Stan Lee and John Buscema (their images are really great examples). But we'll improvise with what we've got.

http://www.nol.net/~athena/paintutor2/pepsicomp2.jpg

The blue and pink highlighted shapes show the basic shapes inside of these images.

http://www.nol.net/~athena/paintutor2/pepsicomp3.jpg

Those are the kinds of shapes you are looking for when you look for strong composition
</DD>
</DL>

Well, those are my attempts at sharing what I know about the three art words that BR used. I welcome any corrections or additions.

Athena

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[This message was edited by T. Athena Hatton on October 02, 2000 at 12:10 PM.]


[This message was edited by T. Athena Hatton on October 02, 2000 at 09:25 PM.]

Well, I guess I didn't get any nibbles on my attempt to stir up a heated discussion on digital art and artists. Perhaps on another thread I'll bring up the joys of spreading Art and the creative process to the masses v.s. the massive proliferation of 'instant' digital artists/graphic designers/web designers due to digital 'creation' software.

Anyway, glad you like my 'Mental Blocks' Athena. When I get those little mental blocks late at night, I do some, what I call, 'textural exploration' in Painter to stir up the juices. This was a product of that. Sort of a digital version of a technique I learned from an art instructor at the Univ. of Hawaii back in 76', where we would take a piece of pastel paper and tape it to a wall, sidewalk, garage floor, or any interesting looking texture, and then rub, smudge, smear it with pastel chalk till something interesting took shape that we could work with. Sometimes things start flowing, and sometimes you end up with a mess. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]

Usually, since it's late at night and I'm exploring somewhat aimlessly, the images tend to turn out rather dark and gloomy. Will have to post another one of these to see what you think. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]...

[This message was edited by BR on October 03, 2000 at 06:26 PM.]

Athena, great job of touching base on some of those basic principals. Just thought I'd throw a couple more Art "buzz" words into the mix, like prespective and balance. So we have; the balanced placement of positive and negative space, in proper prespective, to form an interesting composition.

When I mentioned placement, I was talking in general terms, but your right, it is of most importance in relation to prespective. You said that "to make an object look closer to you, place it lower in the picture" and "things that you want to look like they are farther, you place them higher on the canvas". In general this is true, as our standard view of the world is foreground, distance, horizon (about in the middle), and sky with sun in top left, but it really depends on the prespective of the image and where the horizon line is. Things start going in reverse above the horizon (generally). The larger, closer bird, would be higher on the canvas, and the small bird in the distance, would be lower. Objects should generally get smaller the further away they are and the closer they are to the horizon line. I've attached below a recent (poor) shot of the Oakland Bay Bridge, but a good example of prespective. The horizon line is in red and the prespective lines are in green. Notice the size and placement in relation to the horizon of the similar objects marked with yellow boxes.

And yes, when I mentioned space I was refering to positive and negative space. But in looking at the chalice and faces image, what exactly is the positive and the negative? It certainly is balanced as it is symetrical, but picture if you can, a large white canvas with a big black dot in the lower left corner. Would this be balanced? Well it would if you gave equal weight to both positive and negative space. Something to ponder [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

I must agree, with Stan Lee.... Keep it simple

BR....

BR,
I am glad to see you and Athena handling some of the basics. You are both doing a great job of getting someone started on the right road, far better than I could do.

I am also glad to see you bring up balance and weight. In addition to balance of shapes and placement of objects I look for balance in line weights, color and hue. I probably could name a lot more areas of balance but I need to scoot.

To me, these are almost Zen qualities in Art making. When I feel balance in the work it seems to flow, when the balance is off it is like pushing a rope. That may sound kind of strange but I don't know any other way to put it.

Have to run, you folks are doing great.


P.S.
I will take you up on the spreading of Art in the Digital Age another time.

Greg,
Doesn't sound strange to me, and I love that "pushing a rope" analogy. I've pushed some rope in my time, but the feeling when everything is flowing & in balance surely compensates. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Perhaps you could share some of your thoughts on balance & weight in relation to line, color, hue, etc., if you get a chance. Looks like some folks are reading in and hopefully taking some points to heart, but personally, sometimes it feels like I'm pushing a rope when trying to view or post to this forum. Never quite sure if something took.

BR...

Hi Felix,
Good to see you back and glad to see you are alive and I hope well. Be carefull doing that manual labor stuff, you sure don't want to get anything out of joint.

BR and All.
Attached is a doodle that may explain what I was referring to in regard to balance and weight. This doodle was done in Illustrator and color and texture was done in P6.(Done in a hurry and not well but I hope it works
Balance in colors, cool and warm.
Balance in line, Curves and Straight.
Balance in hue, all of these are about the same value. Had I been doing something with more dimension and depth I probably would use various hues of the same colors to accent or heighten the dimensions.
Balance in texture, flat color and textured areas. The next image has some texture applied.
I guess, all of these areas can come under the heading of contrasts. I generally try for balance in these areas so that one element does not over power the rest.
These are generalities and I know that there are times when I don't or can not stick to them. In most cases when I am working, it is a feeling rather than knowledge that dictates what happens in the works.(Some time it works, Some time it don't)
At any rate I hope this does not muddy anyone water and makes some kind of sense. As I have stated you folks do far better job of presenting this stuff than I.

Athena,
I still have not figured out the html way of this thing yet.