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Showing posts with label Educational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Educational. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Chris Moore - Master of Composition
Just added a link to another great artist. Chris Moore is a famous illustrator, known for the marvellous compositions of his paintings. He is one of the masters analyzed and featured in Charles Bernard's Arttrek series. I truly recommend visiting his site and spending some time in his galleries. Inspiring and educational.
Friday, 16 October 2009
Simplified Fantasy Drills, exercise 1
Welcome to the first exercise in the very basic "Simplified fantasy drills" series. The focus of this series is to give you some ideas and getting you drawing while at the same time practicing some basic techniques.
Let's start with a very simple citadel, shall we?
First, you can practice drawing the basic geometrical shapes that will be used in this simple drawing,
1. Draw circles (keep practicing each shape until you feel satisfied - my own versions are deliberately left as rough as they were when first drawing them)
2. Draw squares
3. Draw rectangles
4. Draw triangles or cones
5. Put these basic shapes together to form a citadel or castle (experiment and build your own structures - this is just a quick example of one way to do it)
6. (Optional step - don't move on to this before you're comfortable with drawing the basic shapes and basic building in 5.)
What makes the drawing in #5 look flat and lifeless is that there is no sense of depth. As a last step you can try developing the forms somewhat and add shade in order to suggest depth. Some suggestions:
A. Use diagonal lines (hatching) for shading areas that are furthest away from the lightsource (here the circle)
B. Use crossing lines (crosshatching) for darker shadows, like the cast shadow
C. Try varying the width and "weight" of the line by making the lines farthest away from the lightsource much darker and thicker.
D. When finished, don't forget to add your signature any original drawing - this will add more personality, give the drawing a more complete, serious impression and actually makes you feel more like a "real" artist. I always write which year I made the drawing as well, but there are as many ways to write a signature as there are artists. You have got to find what works for you.
Hope you enjoyed and learned something from this and that it inspired you to draw more.
Please post comments and feedback to help me improve this lesson further.
Don't forget to eventually read the "ordinary" drawing lessons as well.
Happy drawing!
(This lesson last updated: October 2009)
Let's start with a very simple citadel, shall we?
First, you can practice drawing the basic geometrical shapes that will be used in this simple drawing,
1. Draw circles (keep practicing each shape until you feel satisfied - my own versions are deliberately left as rough as they were when first drawing them)
2. Draw squares
3. Draw rectangles
4. Draw triangles or cones
5. Put these basic shapes together to form a citadel or castle (experiment and build your own structures - this is just a quick example of one way to do it)
6. (Optional step - don't move on to this before you're comfortable with drawing the basic shapes and basic building in 5.)
What makes the drawing in #5 look flat and lifeless is that there is no sense of depth. As a last step you can try developing the forms somewhat and add shade in order to suggest depth. Some suggestions:
A. Use diagonal lines (hatching) for shading areas that are furthest away from the lightsource (here the circle)
B. Use crossing lines (crosshatching) for darker shadows, like the cast shadow
C. Try varying the width and "weight" of the line by making the lines farthest away from the lightsource much darker and thicker.
D. When finished, don't forget to add your signature any original drawing - this will add more personality, give the drawing a more complete, serious impression and actually makes you feel more like a "real" artist. I always write which year I made the drawing as well, but there are as many ways to write a signature as there are artists. You have got to find what works for you.
Hope you enjoyed and learned something from this and that it inspired you to draw more.
Please post comments and feedback to help me improve this lesson further.
Don't forget to eventually read the "ordinary" drawing lessons as well.
Happy drawing!
(This lesson last updated: October 2009)
(Revised!) Learn to Draw, Lesson 3: Fantasy beast/animal introduction
Learn to Draw, Lesson 3:
How to draw a Fantasy Beast - Introduction
Time for another part in the "Learn to Draw" series. First, have you gotten into the daily habit of drawing ANYTHING yet? If not, I suggest you go back and review the first and the second lesson and try establishing a drawing routine. Don't give me the "I don't have time" excuse. Grabbing your sketchbook and filling one page with scribbling doesn't have to take more than a minute a day!
One minute drawing every day is better than not drawing at all.
"But honestly, I work all day and when I get home all I want to do is sit in the couch and watch all those awesome TV programs", you might say. I hear you and I do understand - have two toddlers of my own - BUT most awesome TV programs have commercial breaks, right? There, a golden opportunity to turn off the sound and doodle for a few minutes. Surely you could skip ONE commercial break in order to practice something you want to learn? (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this in the first place, would you?).
The reason it's so important to draw something continuously is that:
By drawing something every day you familiarize yourself and the muscles in your hand with the media (pencil, ink pen etc.) you have chosen. This will lead to a much better control when trying to make those lines actually work together in order to construct an image.
Ok, I assume you are fed up with my preaching, get the point and really feel like drawing now? Great, let's take on a grand, challenging and fun project then: How to draw a fantasy beast/animal. Be aware that this is a real challenge. "How to draw an elven boot" or "How to draw a tower" would be much easier for you to draw and for me to teach. But, although figurative drawing (any drawing including a living creature) is the most challenging of all subjects, it is also the most popular. Finding a finished fantasy painting without any figures is actually really hard. We will make it a somewhat less daunting by drawing from reference however.
How to learn to draw a fantasy beast or animal
Note: This is just an unfinished example from a recent project of what such a beast might look like. For these lessons I will draw a completely new beast, starting from scratch.
I figured we would use the following approach to arrive at our goal for this first project: To do a finished drawing of a fantasy beast or animal. (This time only focusing on the creature, that will be quite enough as you will see).
Here is how I'll teach you how to draw such a creature:
1. I'll pick a reference (for this one probably a plastic model of an animal) and do a first, very rough sketch. The reason we use a reference is that as a beginner it is much easier and instructive to try to "copydraw" something and make it look good instead of trying to come up with something from imagination that looks right. Another reason is that I will use this reference as a foundation when turning the animal into a more fantastic beast.
2. I'll make a finished sketch of the reference as an ordinary animal
3. I'll distort and exaggerate features of the animal, turning it into a finished drawing of a fantasy beast (no background/scenery drawing in this project. One step at a time...)
Ok, by then we will have arrived at a finished fantasy beast drawing. This is where the real teaching starts:
4. I will break down the creature into the basic forms (sphere, cube, cylinder, cone) it consists of
After that:
5. I will teach you how to draw those various forms (including basics in line drawing)
6. I will explain how basic perspective works
7. I will teach you how to use knowledge of perspective in order to construct and shade those various forms in order to create a sense of volume
8. I will apply the same approach in order to explain how to draw and shade the entire figure
Told you it would be challenging, didn't I?
Yes, in order to draw fantasy - which is arguably one of the most challenging art forms - you must be prepared to put in quite some effort in order to learn the very basics. The good news is that:
I do encourage you to eventually read the entire "Learn to Draw" series though and actually making sure you have fully understood and tried the suggestions/exrcises of a lesson before moving on to the next one. Remember:
How to draw a Fantasy Beast - Introduction
Time for another part in the "Learn to Draw" series. First, have you gotten into the daily habit of drawing ANYTHING yet? If not, I suggest you go back and review the first and the second lesson and try establishing a drawing routine. Don't give me the "I don't have time" excuse. Grabbing your sketchbook and filling one page with scribbling doesn't have to take more than a minute a day!
One minute drawing every day is better than not drawing at all.
"But honestly, I work all day and when I get home all I want to do is sit in the couch and watch all those awesome TV programs", you might say. I hear you and I do understand - have two toddlers of my own - BUT most awesome TV programs have commercial breaks, right? There, a golden opportunity to turn off the sound and doodle for a few minutes. Surely you could skip ONE commercial break in order to practice something you want to learn? (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this in the first place, would you?).
The reason it's so important to draw something continuously is that:
By drawing something every day you familiarize yourself and the muscles in your hand with the media (pencil, ink pen etc.) you have chosen. This will lead to a much better control when trying to make those lines actually work together in order to construct an image.
Ok, I assume you are fed up with my preaching, get the point and really feel like drawing now? Great, let's take on a grand, challenging and fun project then: How to draw a fantasy beast/animal. Be aware that this is a real challenge. "How to draw an elven boot" or "How to draw a tower" would be much easier for you to draw and for me to teach. But, although figurative drawing (any drawing including a living creature) is the most challenging of all subjects, it is also the most popular. Finding a finished fantasy painting without any figures is actually really hard. We will make it a somewhat less daunting by drawing from reference however.
How to learn to draw a fantasy beast or animal
Note: This is just an unfinished example from a recent project of what such a beast might look like. For these lessons I will draw a completely new beast, starting from scratch.
I figured we would use the following approach to arrive at our goal for this first project: To do a finished drawing of a fantasy beast or animal. (This time only focusing on the creature, that will be quite enough as you will see).
Here is how I'll teach you how to draw such a creature:
1. I'll pick a reference (for this one probably a plastic model of an animal) and do a first, very rough sketch. The reason we use a reference is that as a beginner it is much easier and instructive to try to "copydraw" something and make it look good instead of trying to come up with something from imagination that looks right. Another reason is that I will use this reference as a foundation when turning the animal into a more fantastic beast.
2. I'll make a finished sketch of the reference as an ordinary animal
3. I'll distort and exaggerate features of the animal, turning it into a finished drawing of a fantasy beast (no background/scenery drawing in this project. One step at a time...)
Ok, by then we will have arrived at a finished fantasy beast drawing. This is where the real teaching starts:
4. I will break down the creature into the basic forms (sphere, cube, cylinder, cone) it consists of
After that:
5. I will teach you how to draw those various forms (including basics in line drawing)
6. I will explain how basic perspective works
7. I will teach you how to use knowledge of perspective in order to construct and shade those various forms in order to create a sense of volume
8. I will apply the same approach in order to explain how to draw and shade the entire figure
Told you it would be challenging, didn't I?
Yes, in order to draw fantasy - which is arguably one of the most challenging art forms - you must be prepared to put in quite some effort in order to learn the very basics. The good news is that:
Once you know the basics (basic shapes, perspective, shading etc.) you can apply that to anything you wish to draw, that is - you can draw anything you see (or can imagine)!
So in the next lesson I'll present a first, rough sketch and talk about how I got there. After that we'll break down the figure into it's diverse building blocks, learning how to draw them from scratch.
"Nooo!!!" I hear you scream. "Have I been reading all this and now he's just referring to the 'next lesson'. I want to draw something. Show me something to draw. Now!" Ok, I know that feeling, that frustrating desire to just skip ahead, past all these foundational stages and just start drawing. The problem is that you don't know what to draw (if you do - by all means, stop reading and start drawing. The only way to improve!) Therefore I have also begun writing a more practical series of simple fantasy drawing exercises, in order to get you drawing that elusive SOMETHING right away. At the same time approaching the more complex shapes that will be demanded in the figure drawing. A "Learn to Draw" Light. I call it Simple fantasy drawing drills and the first exercise can be found here:
I do encourage you to eventually read the entire "Learn to Draw" series though and actually making sure you have fully understood and tried the suggestions/exrcises of a lesson before moving on to the next one. Remember:
First get into the habit of daily drawing before trying to tackle more advanced subjects. Or be prepared to deal with quite a few frustrating results as the house collapses due to not being built on solid foundations. That's ok - mistakes is what you learn most from - but it can give you an unnecessarily unpleasant start on the way to learning how to draw.
By the way, as soon as you're ready I strongly recommend you to join an online art community and upload your work for feedback. One great, friendly place is the ImagineFX forum. There you can also join the Sketchstorm thread I've initiated in order to provide suggestions on drawing subjects, as well as download great tutorials for free.
If you are already an experienced artist, I can recommend art communities such as ConceptArt and Epilogue .
Best of luck with your practice, don't forget to post comments and feedback so I can improve/change/clarify these lessons.
Happy Drawing!
Happy Drawing!
(This lesson last updated January 2010)
Friday, 28 August 2009
Sketch Of The Day - Gesture drawing (nudity!)
Focusing on drawing the human figure I have done some gesture drawing lately for exercise. Don't know what gesture drawing is? Fantasytree to the rescue!
Fantasytree tip #12: If your looking for a really good introduction to gesture drawing from a great art teacher (and brilliant artist!), you should take a look at Glenn Vilppus article at Animation World Magazine. It can be found at:
AWN:s Vilppu drawing online
All his articles at that site are amazing and actually make an art course in themselves. Much recommended!
Here is my favorite of my recent gestures - 2 min sketch with a 6B pencil on A4, trying out the "under palm" grip for looser arm movement:
2 min gesture drawing
Fantasytree tip #12: If your looking for a really good introduction to gesture drawing from a great art teacher (and brilliant artist!), you should take a look at Glenn Vilppus article at Animation World Magazine. It can be found at:
AWN:s Vilppu drawing online
All his articles at that site are amazing and actually make an art course in themselves. Much recommended!
Here is my favorite of my recent gestures - 2 min sketch with a 6B pencil on A4, trying out the "under palm" grip for looser arm movement:
2 min gesture drawing
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Soon here at Fantasytree: Learn to Draw the Way I Learned It!
As my readers have noticed, I've been drawing a lot lately and really made some progress with my drawing skills. At conceptart.org, I have been running a thread on "Drawing basics" and have decided to share the posts I've written there by turning them to lessons here.
I hope there are many beginners out there who feel like learning to draw that will benefit from my journey towards becoming a fantasy artist. (A visual representation of that odyssey can be found in the short YouTube movie I've made, Way of the artist). Or more experienced artists who feel like brushing off - or never learned - the very basics of drawing.
I can't promise that I'll turn you into a professional artist. What I can promise you though, is that if you follow the same path I've done and is willing to make drawing one of your daily habits - you will make considerable progress.
Just to give a hint of what I'm talking about I will show you a drawing from when I began practicing in a structured way - as well as a drawing I did 3 months later. If you feel like starting to developing your own drawing the same way, then you should definitely check out my
Learn to draw lessons (coming soon...).
So, do you also feel like going from
to
in 3 months, then you should definitely come back and hear what helped me to take such a leap.
Hope to soon post my first lesson - and that you'll feel like taking it. Every lesson I will also try to recommend a book that has helped me to become a better artist.
I hope there are many beginners out there who feel like learning to draw that will benefit from my journey towards becoming a fantasy artist. (A visual representation of that odyssey can be found in the short YouTube movie I've made, Way of the artist). Or more experienced artists who feel like brushing off - or never learned - the very basics of drawing.
I can't promise that I'll turn you into a professional artist. What I can promise you though, is that if you follow the same path I've done and is willing to make drawing one of your daily habits - you will make considerable progress.
Just to give a hint of what I'm talking about I will show you a drawing from when I began practicing in a structured way - as well as a drawing I did 3 months later. If you feel like starting to developing your own drawing the same way, then you should definitely check out my
Learn to draw lessons (coming soon...).
So, do you also feel like going from
to
in 3 months, then you should definitely come back and hear what helped me to take such a leap.
Hope to soon post my first lesson - and that you'll feel like taking it. Every lesson I will also try to recommend a book that has helped me to become a better artist.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Finding a Good Free MMO Game Online - A Step By Step Guide Part 1
As soon as you leave the city behind, the sounds of carefree birdsong fills the air. Walking into the shades of the trees you soon reach the old cottage. Inside the wise old man awaits you and soon he begins talking to you about some of the things you have always wanted to know more about...
o you dream about finding that breathtaking MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game that will give you unforgettable experiences of a fantastic world, challenging quests and friendship? But you aren't ready to pay anything for it, since there are so many free games available out there on the web? Then you have come to the right place.
Trust me when I tell you that trying to find a good free MMO game is like entering a jungle. Many choices have to be made as well as some research if you are to find the brightest sparkling gems in the enormous heap of available games out there.
If you are ready to put in some time and effort, I first recommend you to join a forum with other MMO gamers. This is one of the best ways to learn more about different kinds of available games, tips and tricks and find new online friends. The number one such forum I have found is OnRpg.com. I can warmly recommend you to become a part of the community found there.
But what if you don't have the time and don't feel like registering at any forum? Do not despair, Fantasytree to the rescue! By following the step-by-step guide provided here you will be able to find your way through the jungle and be part of an amazing MMO game world sooner than you might think.
This guide will through a number of posts guide you through the different choices and steps that are necessary to find and start playing a free high quality MMO.
Step 1: To download or not to download, that is the question...
The first thing you have to decide is whether or not you want to play a game directly in your web browser (from now on referred to as A) or if you would like to download a game client from a game's homepage to your hard drive (will be referred to as B). Generally I would say that downloadable F2P (Free To Play) games have a higher quality than browser based ones. However a F2P is not available from EVERY computer with an internet account in the world, as a browser-based game is.
Consider this and decide whether you are looking for:
A1 A Browser-based MMO or
B1 A downloadable F2P game
In the next post we will look at how the system requirements of a game will limit the number of different game types you can choose from.
To be continued...
o you dream about finding that breathtaking MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game that will give you unforgettable experiences of a fantastic world, challenging quests and friendship? But you aren't ready to pay anything for it, since there are so many free games available out there on the web? Then you have come to the right place.
Trust me when I tell you that trying to find a good free MMO game is like entering a jungle. Many choices have to be made as well as some research if you are to find the brightest sparkling gems in the enormous heap of available games out there.
If you are ready to put in some time and effort, I first recommend you to join a forum with other MMO gamers. This is one of the best ways to learn more about different kinds of available games, tips and tricks and find new online friends. The number one such forum I have found is OnRpg.com. I can warmly recommend you to become a part of the community found there.
But what if you don't have the time and don't feel like registering at any forum? Do not despair, Fantasytree to the rescue! By following the step-by-step guide provided here you will be able to find your way through the jungle and be part of an amazing MMO game world sooner than you might think.
This guide will through a number of posts guide you through the different choices and steps that are necessary to find and start playing a free high quality MMO.
Step 1: To download or not to download, that is the question...
The first thing you have to decide is whether or not you want to play a game directly in your web browser (from now on referred to as A) or if you would like to download a game client from a game's homepage to your hard drive (will be referred to as B). Generally I would say that downloadable F2P (Free To Play) games have a higher quality than browser based ones. However a F2P is not available from EVERY computer with an internet account in the world, as a browser-based game is.
Consider this and decide whether you are looking for:
A1 A Browser-based MMO or
B1 A downloadable F2P game
In the next post we will look at how the system requirements of a game will limit the number of different game types you can choose from.
To be continued...
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