The following post is an interview of Amanda (for the sake of anonymity on the web I won't be revealing her real name). I considur her a credible interviewee because she has experieince in the arts. Her experience in art comes from Greiner Middle School, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (both are schools that specifically help develop artistic skill). The school, or rather University, that she currently attends is Southern Methodist University (SMU). At SMU, Amanda majors in engilsh; however, she continues to work on her drawing, and does so in her spare time.
Me: Do you have any experience in drawing?
Yes.
Me:How many years have you been drawing?
15 years.
Me:How many of those years would you say were spent developing the skill?
8 years.
Me:How have you applied this skill?
Mostly character design and webcomic projects.
Me:What do you think makes a good artist?
The fact that I want to improve; I feel like you can't be a good artist if you don't want to improve or listen to criticism.
Me:Do you think natural talent automatically makes someone good at art, or does it only give the person with the talent a head start?
It just gives the person a head start.
Me:Do you think practice plays a role?
Yes.
Me:Have you ever followed an art tutorial (it can be something like, a photoshop tutorial, or a literal how-to-draw tutorial)?
Yes.
Me:What specifically did they teach?
Ummm, it basically helped me improve coloring techniques, to help me remember about light sources, learn new things for certain types of art techniques I wanted to try
Me:Did you think they were helpful, and if not what would you have changed about it?
No, I think they were helpful.
Me:Did you find it easy to follow (meaning: too much or too little info)?
Yes.
Me:What do you think makes a good tutorial in general?
It has to be informative, have pictorial examples, and the artist has to have a fair amount of skill. Like, if your art is low-quality that makes you a bit less credible.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tutorial Critique 1: Coloring
Hello, everyone. Well I thought I get the main point of my blog started, i.e raoming around for tutorials and following them. Naturally I went to deviantART to find a tutorial (I go to deviantARt a majority of the time mostly because it's familar, and I know all the navigations, etc). Anyway, there is an artist that I follow on the site. I love the way he draws, his technique reminds me of American comic books (which interestingly enough he draws covers for a comic called Morning Glories.
Now on to the tutorial. He posted what I would considur a tutorial (step by step on how to do something specific, but it should be noted that he himself was unsure whether it should be noted as a tutorial). The tutorial shows someone how he colors faces, specifically for photoshop users.
I followed the tutorial word for word. It had it's flaws, but it was also helpful.
Pros
Cons
All in all I think the tutorial was effective.
And here is my final product...
© All rights for the above image reserved
Cited Works
deviantART. (2011). deviantART. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.deviantart.com/
Esquejo, Rodin. (2011). cakes on deviantART. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://cakes.deviantart.com/
Esquejo, Rodin. (2006). how I do a face. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://cakes.deviantart.com/art/how-I-do-a-face-29184892?q=gallery%3Acakes%2F6521042&qo=108
Image Comics. (2011). Morning Glories Vol. 1 HC (MR) Deluxe Collection. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.imagecomics.com/comics/4389/Morning-Glories-Vol-1-HC-MR-Deluxe-Collection
Now on to the tutorial. He posted what I would considur a tutorial (step by step on how to do something specific, but it should be noted that he himself was unsure whether it should be noted as a tutorial). The tutorial shows someone how he colors faces, specifically for photoshop users.
I followed the tutorial word for word. It had it's flaws, but it was also helpful.
Pros
- It was specific about what photoshop tools to use, like whether the edges of the brush should be hard or soft, opacity of the brush, etc.
- It gave image, and even more important mulitple images. This helps the person following the tutorial compare their own progress with his to see if they're on course.
- He gave the specific tools that he uses in his comments, i.e. the photoshop version, and the type of tablet he uses.
- He self corrects the tutorial based on comments he receives.
Cons
- It didn't show how to texture the hair, although the tutorial was specific to the face (and hair tutorials tend to be seperate anyway, at least from personal experience).
- The tutorial assumes that the person understands the concept of value, tone, and shading, meaning this is most likely for people with prier experience in drawing.
All in all I think the tutorial was effective.
And here is my final product...
© All rights for the above image reserved
deviantART. (2011). deviantART. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.deviantart.com/
Esquejo, Rodin. (2011). cakes on deviantART. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://cakes.deviantart.com/
Esquejo, Rodin. (2006). how I do a face. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://cakes.deviantart.com/art/how-I-do-a-face-29184892?q=gallery%3Acakes%2F6521042&qo=108
Image Comics. (2011). Morning Glories Vol. 1 HC (MR) Deluxe Collection. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.imagecomics.com/comics/4389/Morning-Glories-Vol-1-HC-MR-Deluxe-Collection
Friday, October 14, 2011
Art History
Drawing can be defined as the representation of form with the use of lines.
The history of drawing is a long one, and has been around since the existence of the human race. The earliest drawings are those found in France in Spain dating back to 30,000 to 10,000 B.C.. These drawings were found on the walls of caves (Refer to image 1). There are various speculations as to the purpose of these early drawings, with no finite answer.
image 1: An early cave painting in Lascaux, France
Naturally, like most things, drawing too has evolved over time. During the early years of drawing paper was not available. When paper did become available during the 1100s it was expensive. Drawing (or art in general) has been through many trends over the years, like the baroque period, neoclassicism, romanticism, realism, and others.
One notable era of art would be the Renaissance (beginning from around the 14th century and lasting until the 17th century). During this time there was an increase in drawings. This was mainly due to the fact that paper had become more readily available an art had been reborn as a cultural movement. Art was used to study things such as light, nature, human anatomy and so forth by many artist such as Leonardo da Vinci (Refer to image 2).
image 2: A da Vinci drawing study
Nowadays art has melded with technology to create various products, like animated movies, special effects, commercials, designs for various things, and so much more. This also means that art as become more ambiguous, meaning that art can be just about anything. Still, despite arts many stages of evolution, it is still thriving.
Cited Works
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Heilbrunn Timline of Art, Retrieved from The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art (14 October 2011)
Mules, Helen B.,The History of Drawing,Retrieved from The History of Drawing (13 October 2011)
The history of drawing is a long one, and has been around since the existence of the human race. The earliest drawings are those found in France in Spain dating back to 30,000 to 10,000 B.C.. These drawings were found on the walls of caves (Refer to image 1). There are various speculations as to the purpose of these early drawings, with no finite answer.
image 1: An early cave painting in Lascaux, France
Naturally, like most things, drawing too has evolved over time. During the early years of drawing paper was not available. When paper did become available during the 1100s it was expensive. Drawing (or art in general) has been through many trends over the years, like the baroque period, neoclassicism, romanticism, realism, and others.
One notable era of art would be the Renaissance (beginning from around the 14th century and lasting until the 17th century). During this time there was an increase in drawings. This was mainly due to the fact that paper had become more readily available an art had been reborn as a cultural movement. Art was used to study things such as light, nature, human anatomy and so forth by many artist such as Leonardo da Vinci (Refer to image 2).
image 2: A da Vinci drawing study
Nowadays art has melded with technology to create various products, like animated movies, special effects, commercials, designs for various things, and so much more. This also means that art as become more ambiguous, meaning that art can be just about anything. Still, despite arts many stages of evolution, it is still thriving.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Heilbrunn Timline of Art, Retrieved from The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art (14 October 2011)
Mules, Helen B.,The History of Drawing,Retrieved from The History of Drawing (13 October 2011)
Me, Myself, and My Blog
Hey everyone, my name is Michael. I am currently a college student majoring in Arts and Technology, or ATEC for those of you who like shorter words. For anyone unfamiliar with this, ATEC is basically a degree that’s focuses on video game design and animation (even more specifically it delves into the individual job applications for those career tracks, like a sound designer, special effects artist, and so on).
The degree requires that we in this major take drawing and design classes. Now, I have been drawing since I was very young—around the age of five or so (maybe younger) — and have shown an interest in the subject ever since. I mostly went off instinct and natural talent up until the 5th grade. That’s when I began to hone my skills as a visual artist.
A lot of the time I will be on sites like deviantART, and I will come across someone giving tutorials on how to draw (usually in the poster’s own style). I feel that as an artist one can always learn more about something and if I like the poster’s work I will give the tutorial a look over. Unfortunately, not every tutorial post is good at its job, i.e. teaching the audience how to do what the poster does.
This brings me to the topic of my blog. For my blog I will be looking at tutorials, specifically ones that are about art (drawing, coloring, texturing techniques, etc). I will follow the steps of the tutorial, post my results, and evaluate the pros and cons of the tutorials’ ability to teach. By doing this blog I’m hoping to both get a better understanding of what makes a good tutorial, and further my skills in visual arts.
The degree requires that we in this major take drawing and design classes. Now, I have been drawing since I was very young—around the age of five or so (maybe younger) — and have shown an interest in the subject ever since. I mostly went off instinct and natural talent up until the 5th grade. That’s when I began to hone my skills as a visual artist.
A lot of the time I will be on sites like deviantART, and I will come across someone giving tutorials on how to draw (usually in the poster’s own style). I feel that as an artist one can always learn more about something and if I like the poster’s work I will give the tutorial a look over. Unfortunately, not every tutorial post is good at its job, i.e. teaching the audience how to do what the poster does.
This brings me to the topic of my blog. For my blog I will be looking at tutorials, specifically ones that are about art (drawing, coloring, texturing techniques, etc). I will follow the steps of the tutorial, post my results, and evaluate the pros and cons of the tutorials’ ability to teach. By doing this blog I’m hoping to both get a better understanding of what makes a good tutorial, and further my skills in visual arts.
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