Any serious artists on FOH?

[canadianbeaver]

Hey @Wookie pleasure to meet you. Yes I am an award winning illustrator and kookie drawer on my iPad too. I stopped painting a few years back when I broke my arm really bad. Interesting times but cigars never changed!

Cheers!

CB

Here is what I do:

www.BullShirtCo.com

www.lisarotenberg.com

[Wookie]

7 hours ago, joeypots said:

Bobby Orr. What better subject for a painting ?

What’s the medium for Bobby Orr? Is that watercolor, acrylic? The fabric looks great, nice highlights and nice reflected light. 

[Puros Y Vino]

On 8/8/2022 at 4:49 PM, Wookie said:

What’s the medium for Bobby Orr? Is that watercolor, acrylic? The fabric looks great, nice highlights and nice reflected light. 

I believe it's watercolors with varying degrees of thickness with the paint..  thanks!

[Bill Hayes]

I studied graphic design at university and majored in illustration because I was a good drawer as a kid. Swapped over to a writing role in advertising and unfortunately lost my skills. I never really reached any great heights but remember the difficulty of swapping from drawing to painting and even life drawing. I found it hard not to continually draw lines. No lines in nature, just light and dark, colour and shade. Unfortunately for me, art and drawing reminds me of work struggles so I never felt the urge to take it up again. Probably why I like to escape below the sea. All the best with it and please post up your efforts as you go. It would be great to see your work. Cheers.

[Wookie]

9 minutes ago, Bill Hayes said:

I studied graphic design at university and majored in illustration because I was a good drawer as a kid. Swapped over to a writing role in advertising and unfortunately lost my skills. I never really reached any great heights but remember the difficulty of swapping from drawing to painting and even life drawing. I found it hard not to continually draw lines. No lines in nature, just light and dark, colour and shade. Unfortunately for me, art and drawing reminds me of work struggles so I never felt the urge to take it up again. Probably why I like to escape below the sea. All the best with it and please post up your efforts as you go. It would be great to see your work. Cheers.

Funny, I find my drawing is starting to improve by focusing on drawing shadows/mass…..as opposed to line. Especially with drapery. Im trying to apply this to paint. Dark to light in oil makes this easier, but getting the color blending is a challenge. I gotta believe a pure illustrator would have the toughest transition, but I also think the best illustrators are the best at human form. The comic artists are incredible. I’m working on classic figurative work myself.  Cheers to you. 

[MrBirdman]

4 minutes ago, Wookie said:

getting the color blending is a challenge.

By this are you referring to blending the transitions from dark to light or the actual color matching? 

[Wookie]

42 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

By this are you referring to blending the transitions from dark to light or the actual color matching? 

Maybe both.  I understand shading, core shadow, reflected light, cast shadow etc. I can render eggs, spheres, etc.  But good oil painters talk about warm light/cool shadows and vice versa(which is a very real thing in reality, but perhaps more illusory in painting?) So that is one thing to tackle/learn on canvas. The other is just rendering with paint.  That just takes time I think/hope. Also getting to know why cad yellow light is better in the mix than ochre, or aliz crimson vs cad red….and how to use them on the fly. I need the reps. The online academy teachers I’m working with, some started as Disney illustrators, all amazing…..they all talk about putting in the time to become competent with oil.  But drawing is the foundation. I’m enjoying the process. 

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Wookie said:

Also getting to know why cad yellow light is better in the mix than ochre, or aliz crimson vs cad red

This is a very common frustration, and the instructional books I've read through don't do a terribly good job explaining the technical fundamentals of color mixing - why certain pigments will affect mixtures in one way or the other. They tend to just suggest a pallet, outline some exercises, and expect you to figure it out yourself. Having actual instructors to answer questions is something I wish I'd had, so take advantage of it!

Addressing your specific examples will hopefully be helpful and illustrative. The most important factor in how a pigment will mix, aside from its hue, is its opacity. Cadmiums are quite opaque, whereas yellow ochre and alizarin are transparent. Opacity has a number of effects on any mixture - e.g. opaque pigments tend to retain their value more than transparent colors, which can get darker when mixed together (in fact alizarin and pthalo . This is all a result of how light interacts with the pigment. 

Also as you alluded to with shadows, the temperature of colors is also really important (cad yellow light and alizarin are cool, ochre and cad red are warm,) Don't mean to cover stuff you already understand, I just know that lots of people (myself included) struggle to master the above when starting out. As I mentioned in my first post, understanding the nature of materials in painting is a hurdle everyone has to deal with.

Once you get the hang of it you'll be set, although it's something where one never really stops learning.

[canadianbeaver]

Wow just reading more of this now. Such interesting text. I mixed all my paint from basic colours on styrofoam plates and then painted large canvases or wood panels. Best part was if I wanted to change it, I just waited till it dried and painted over it. My art studio here is also my cigar cave😎 🥰

Here are a couple about cigars

 

CB

[Wookie]

13 hours ago, MrBirdman said:

 

Also as you alluded to with shadows, the temperature of colors is also really important (cad yellow light and alizarin are cool, ochre and cad red are warm,) Don't mean to cover stuff you already understand, I just know that lots of people (myself included) struggle to master the above when starting out. As I mentioned in my first post, understanding the nature of materials in painting is a hurdle everyone has to deal with.

Once you get the hang of it you'll be set, although it's something where one never really stops learning.

LOL..I understand everything you are talking about.  I just can’t implement yet.  I still need to seek guidance on whether to go transparent or opaque, warm or cool.  And I need to look up what’s cool/warm.  And I couldn’t tell you warm from cool between two reds or two yellows. Like you said, I need to get the hang of it.  I’ll keep mixing! Appreciate the feedback! 

[liquid360]

No, but I do know some sad ones.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kitchen]

On 8/7/2022 at 1:57 PM, Mikeltee said:

I find "painting with light" fascinating! Do you have a link to some work that you wouldn't mind sharing? I spent about 10k on a D4 and the f2.8 holy trinity a long time ago, and then another 10k on a D500, a bunch of primes and a f2.8 120-300. A fancy camera does not make one an artist! I have some pretty good shots of my 4 kids playing sports though. 

 

Also, I am curious to know if you went mirrorless? The latest and greatest blows my mind with the speed and ISO.  No way in heck I would ever upgrade though unless my glass was compatible. They knew what they were doing! My kids never played indoor sports and now I have one into basketball. It's tough to get good pics with my older gear at higher isos. I suppose I could use a flash, but I already feel like a weirdo with my 70-200 at a 4th grade game. Lol

 

Edit: Can you recommend software to eliminate noise? 

Where to start?  

Well, I have been mirrorless for the last 24 years.  I learned on a 4x5 camera and currently work with a Phase One digital back on an Arca Swiss RM3Di technical camera.  I only know leaf (Copal) shutters.  To be honest though, the camera does not make photograph, but it can certainly help.  You really want the camera to be an extension of your hand, and given your genre, how your hand looks can be quite different.

With that being said, dont go out and buy my camera, or any other top of the line professional camera that is $50K+.  The features on them are so advanced you could not even begin to understand what they do after a week long class.  Your D500 is good for your lifetime.  

Insofar as lenses, an f/2.8 is great for someone who does portraiture, but I could care less about it.  I want lenses that are super sharp with great depth of field around f/11, and, most importantly, have a large image circle allowing for a great amount of shift and tilt.  I photograph architecture, interiors and landscapes, so maintaining the perspective with shift is what is important to me.  For someone in film though, they may want pop with (hard to explain but different) depth of field effects that can not be simulate in post and warm tone lenses, like what Cooke lenses produces.  Google "The Cooke Look" and watch some vidoes, and you will know what I mean.  (Cooke produces the best cine lenses in my opinion.)  It is all relative.  

With that being said, my dealer took a Schneider medium format projection lens with a fixed aperture at f/2 (130mm) and had a custom mount for it made for the Phase One XF camera, and it is hands down the best portrait lens I have ever seen.  

Insofar as noise, I really dont think about it.  I am more concerned about color, which you loose at high ISO regardless if you can somehow control the noise.  (The why gets very technical, but rest assured there is no solution to it.)  So the highest ISO I shoot at is 400, which works for almost all situations I work in.  Others, have different priorities.  

To be honest though about noise, noise is a part of life.  I like noise, to a degree though.  I dont want to produce a noise free image that looks like a piece of plastic.  I want life in my work, and noise is part of that.  

My architectural website is www.josephmkitchen.com.  All of the light in those images did not happen by happenstance, and a lot of extra light was added to the interior.  

I also just started a new business with a partner, www.precisionbackdrops.com.  A different kind of work, but still very technical.