Preserved Topic: portrait-artist.org :)

http://www.portrait-artist.org/

fyi ~Vp~

Nice link VP. Thanks.

Give the man a cookieeeee!!!!!!

. . .

Hey! What a great board! I am glad I discovered it!

This is the webmistress of portrait-artist.org. I found out about this site from my site stats. Thanks for the link! Bless your hearts!

I just started this site about a month ago, and am still adding to it. (I hope to do a lot more with the Photoshop and anatomy sections.) If you could, pretty please, fill out the poll (http://www.portrait-artist.org/poll1.html) and also, just let me know what you think? What should I have more of? Anything else I should do? Enhance? Improve? Tell me now, before I burn out on this thing!

(Naw...I won't burn out. It's too much fun. But my "energy level" is at a peak right now, in regards to creating this site.)

Madess takes its toll - please have exact
change

[This message has been edited by bearsclover (edited 03-25-2002).]

Wow! heh Welcome to the Asylum Bearsclover!

I discovered your site from one of your posts over at were-here forum, and I was that impressed with it that I wanted to share it with the 'crazy's' here!

I havent had time to fully view your work and tutorials yet, but will be doing so in the next several days. From what I have seen so far , it looks like it will be an exellent resource.

There are many artists/aspiring artists here, and instructional websites are few and far between. Stroll the hallways of the Asylum and I think your find some interesting work.

oh yeah, brekfast is at 8.00 sharp, straight jackets will be issued shortly, and watch out for your black pills , Eyezaer will have them!

Thanks vogon poet!

Yeah, I just changed my site URL on were-here to portrait-artist. I had listed my other site (bearclover.net, mostly Yosemite photos, with some Photoshop stuff) but I thought portrait-artist was more "arty", and more appropriate.

I am glad I found these forums. I always could get more advice about digital software (like Photoshop) web design, and much more. I think these forums will be very helpful to me!

Hey hey! Welcome, bearsclover, glad to have you here. I just followed the link above and flipped through every one of your pages, in detail on the head drawing sections, and just briefly through the figure drawing sections. Great stuff! All too often people trying to teach art and drawing urge "practice practice practice", but really, sometimes just knowing what you *should* be seeing helps you see things properly. We've actually been planning on creating a forum just for learning to draw, or a "digital painting" forum, something like that, it's just too useful. (See DarkGarden's thread or Weadah's thread, we've got a few people here already talented in this arena, and a lot of others who could benefit! (me included. ;-))

Again, great site, truly a useful resource. Kudos!

Your pal, -doc-



[This message has been edited by DocOzone (edited 03-25-2002).]

Thanks DocOzone! What beautiful tutorials! Indeed, some very talented people here. I am going to enjoy exploring all the forums!

anyone referencing this book as a resource has my attention. I learned a ton from this book (actually the first version probably), my favorite teacher I ever had used this as a text book and taught us to "draw what you see as opposed to what you know"

I will cruise your site thoroughly

Jason

edit UBB

[This message has been edited by JKMabry (edited 03-25-2002).]

Thanks JK!

Betty Edwards' book is the BEST. She has helped so many people learn to draw. I think if more people knew about her methods, they wouldn't struggle so much, or get so discouraged with drawing.

Nice to find another fan of her book!

quote:

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they wouldn't struggle so much, or get so discouraged with drawing

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so one can learn to draw/paint? I always look at ppl (eg) Dark Garden and Weadah, and yourself as being "naturally talented" (born with the ability persay).

Is it really about learning techniques, or do some ppl just draw/paint without ever reading a ref book?

curious

~Vp~

Some artists figure out how to draw without reading a book. I loved to doodle when I was 4! But, I have known people who didn't know they had any talent until they attended some sort of art class as an adult. They studied, took more classes, and became REAL artists! I believe that almost all artists can benefit from study, even if they were born being able to draw well. (That's how it worked for me. I was doing OK before I went to art school - selling my artwork, etc. But some of those classes at school really BLEW my mind! I improved dramatically.)

You need to read "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"! Yes, anyone can learn to draw. They can learn to draw much better than they ever imagined. It's a skill, kind of like learning handwriting. Now, granted, talent is also an important element, and the more talent you have, the more drawing flexibility you will have. So, a person with less talent won't be SUPER insanely great, but they'll still be able to draw better than they anticipated. The secret is learning how to really "see" what you are drawing, instead of drawing what you think you see. (The book explains this much better.)

I have always said, give me a 'mediocre' talent who WORKS really hard to develop the ability they have, over a "naturally talented" person who is lazy, and won't push themselves too hard. Most artists who have a "natural" talent for art have to put a certain amount of practice in, work, study, and so forth. It's a rare artist who has a full-blown talent right away. It needs to be cultivated, like any other talent.

For instance (and I mention this on my website) I have almost NO (zero, zip, nada) talent for throwing pottery on the potter's wheel. I SUCKED SO BAD in my pottery class. Everyone else was throwing these lovely things, and I was making lopsided thimbles (I am not kidding). But because I didn't give up, I finally got better, and better... I had to work hard, but I did it. Granted, I am never going to be as good on the potter's wheel as someone who has a lot of natural talent for it, but I have made the most of the (meagre) talent I that had. And now people would never guess that I have NO talent for the potter's wheel. I've sold a lot of my pottery, gotten it in galleries, the works.

Pottery is a skill, like drawing is a skill. Of course they aren't identical skills, but I think the comparison can be made. The more you work at it, the better you'll get.

The book makes drawing enjoyable (in my opinion) but the thing you have to realize (if you decide to learn to draw) is that it is a skill, like learning calligraphy, or something. It takes practice. Not everything you will do will be perfect right away, but the bottom line is, you WILL do better than you ever anticipated.

The book shows some "before" and "after" examples of students who were taught these methods of "seeing". The "before" drawings of the students were pretty sad. The "after" drawings (done about 2 - 3 months later) were DRAMATICALLY better. Amazingly better. So, believe it. You can draw.

(Yes, I am a pontificating windbag! Well, that's what prompted me to start the site. I just had to share all this stuff!)


[This message has been edited by bearsclover (edited 03-27-2002).]

VP, this book shows techniques for COPYING stuff, if I recall... it gets you mind into the practice of drawing what is there, what you see, as opposed to assumptions about what is there that your brain will throw in.

there are techniques explained like
? grid stuff: layout a grid over your reference photo/painting/subjectmaterial and then take an identical grid on a blank sheet and just fill in the contents of each grid, 1 at a time
? contour line drawing: with subject in view at 12:00, place paper at 3:00 (if you're right handed) and draw the subject with one continuous line, never taking your eyes off of the subject (or looking at the paper). Results are not perfect of course, but you're conditioning your brain
? drawing unknown subject: someone hands to a line drawing, but upside down. You draw it upside down, while trying not to consider what it actually is

I dunno, been a long time since I read the book, 15 years? But it's good conditioning.

I play soccer. One thing I do in training is to touch the top of the ball with the bottom of my right foot, then the same with the left, alternating just touching the ball, not moving it, just touching it with the bottom of each foot, trying to pick up speed as I go. This conditions my body (or is it my brain?) into a better sense of balance. I may look like a 6 year old child doing an excersize that grown men laugh at but it helps beat my body and mind into synch. Lo and behold, I can use my left foot as well as my right, and balance and turn with the ball at speed in either direction! Whereas before doing these types of excersizes I was heavily right footed and minded.

Same kinda deal I think.

Jason

One of my favorite exercises is drawing a photo that is upside down. Mind bender.

quote:

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JK wrote:
VP, this book shows techniques for COPYING stuff, if I recall... it gets you mind into the practice of drawing what is there, what you see, as opposed to assumptions about what is there that your brain will throw in.

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EXACTLY!

Learning how to copy what you see is the key to drawing. When you draw enough things by looking at them (copying them) you start to "memorize" the way things look. Your brain shifts into a whole new gear.

By doing a lot of drawing, you train yourself to be able to draw the same things that you've been copying, only in your own way. I learned to draw faces from drawing lots of movie stars (which I then sold to movie fans ) and from drawing my friends. You do enough of that, sooner or later, you can start drawing faces from your imagination! It's conditioning, and practice, practice, practice. Same with anatomy. You draw enough figures (in Life Drawing class, or from life, whatever), sooner or later, you can draw figures from your imagination.

warjournal: Yes, drawing something upside down is something! Amazing difference it can make!

My design 1 class did a grid drawing of a regular 8 X 10 picture of an old salior execpt we each did one rectangle out of the grid at 3' x 5' or so, about the size of a short person with broad shoulders. I ended up with a section of his sweater and a little background. Anyway when the thing was finished the prof put it together with string and hung it on the outside of the Fine Arts building. It was a great project because you had to get with the people around you to make sure you had everything matched up right. Then the whole campus got to see it. It was like one of those huge drawing by that guy who drew himself when he just woke up, or with a cig hanging out of his mouth, Chuck something or other I think. .