Post by PitYak Studios on Sept 1, 2005 15:38:56 GMT 12
#1 Paint what you can see.
... not what you think you can see.
Eh? You're thinking. I'll try and explain what I mean with some examples.
An art tutor once told me this; most people when trying to draw a face will draw a vaguely triangular shape in the middle as a nose, as everyone knows that's what shape a nose is. Now look in the mirror. You can't see this "nose" shape, but you will see shadows under the nose, the lower edge will be defined and any irregularities in the bridge will be seen. Unless you're that newsreader off tv3 who looks somewhat catlike to me, you can't actually see the edges of the nose, they blend smoothly into the cheeks.
I once read an interview with Boris Vallejo the fantasy artist, and he explained one of his tricks. If painting an arm for example, the "what you know" part of the brain tends to overpower the "what you see" part, and you will tend to paint how you imagine an arm looks rather than how it actually looks. Boris gets around this by turning his canvas upside down, so he is no longer painting an arm, but an abstract shape that he then has to consciously paint correctly rather than allow his brain to trick him.
Human flesh is probably the hardest element of a paint job for me (not counting the fire elemental I once painted, no pun intended, that was bloody difficult) and I suspect I am not alone. What you really have to do is "unlearn what you have learned". Look at real flesh. Or pics of real flesh if you don't get out that often. It's transparent, the colour we see is down to blood vessels beneath the surface. (I'm talking caucasian skin here - other racial types aree a whole different story) Some parts of the skin have a blue tinge, others red, sometimes these are subtle, othertimes very obvious. (I won't go into too much detail here, I'm sure you can imagine parts of the body that are different colours). It's definately not the peachy shade you normally get in model paints, and definately not the same the whole body over. Another artist (or maybe Boris again) said when painting a character such as tarzan, who is mostly naked and running around in the sun all day, it would be fair to assume he had a regular all over tan. However, real life people rarely have all over tans, arms will be darker than torsos which will be darker than derrieres and so on. So if you are painting a tarzan, he's going to look a lot more believable if he isn't the same shade all over.
When it comes to blemishes, scars, tattoos and other markings "in" the skin rather than on it, bear this see-through factor in mind. your figures will look more realistic if you introduce this feeling of translucency into your work; black tattoos aren't black, blood vessels aren't red, five o'clock shadows are just that; shadows.
... not what you think you can see.
Eh? You're thinking. I'll try and explain what I mean with some examples.
An art tutor once told me this; most people when trying to draw a face will draw a vaguely triangular shape in the middle as a nose, as everyone knows that's what shape a nose is. Now look in the mirror. You can't see this "nose" shape, but you will see shadows under the nose, the lower edge will be defined and any irregularities in the bridge will be seen. Unless you're that newsreader off tv3 who looks somewhat catlike to me, you can't actually see the edges of the nose, they blend smoothly into the cheeks.
I once read an interview with Boris Vallejo the fantasy artist, and he explained one of his tricks. If painting an arm for example, the "what you know" part of the brain tends to overpower the "what you see" part, and you will tend to paint how you imagine an arm looks rather than how it actually looks. Boris gets around this by turning his canvas upside down, so he is no longer painting an arm, but an abstract shape that he then has to consciously paint correctly rather than allow his brain to trick him.
Human flesh is probably the hardest element of a paint job for me (not counting the fire elemental I once painted, no pun intended, that was bloody difficult) and I suspect I am not alone. What you really have to do is "unlearn what you have learned". Look at real flesh. Or pics of real flesh if you don't get out that often. It's transparent, the colour we see is down to blood vessels beneath the surface. (I'm talking caucasian skin here - other racial types aree a whole different story) Some parts of the skin have a blue tinge, others red, sometimes these are subtle, othertimes very obvious. (I won't go into too much detail here, I'm sure you can imagine parts of the body that are different colours). It's definately not the peachy shade you normally get in model paints, and definately not the same the whole body over. Another artist (or maybe Boris again) said when painting a character such as tarzan, who is mostly naked and running around in the sun all day, it would be fair to assume he had a regular all over tan. However, real life people rarely have all over tans, arms will be darker than torsos which will be darker than derrieres and so on. So if you are painting a tarzan, he's going to look a lot more believable if he isn't the same shade all over.
When it comes to blemishes, scars, tattoos and other markings "in" the skin rather than on it, bear this see-through factor in mind. your figures will look more realistic if you introduce this feeling of translucency into your work; black tattoos aren't black, blood vessels aren't red, five o'clock shadows are just that; shadows.
So that is why i paint arms faces elf flesh and just dry brush , bronzed flesh across cheek's / nose and top of knuckles / hand's 8/10 times it looks all right o k 
should look good on his back ) ,