Saturday, October 27, 2012

pencil (and pen!) sketches-

Pencil... And pen? Whats the difference, you ask. Well, pencils traditionally use a kind of lead or graphite, whilst pens use ink. Mixing the 2, especially when the ink is coloured, can create quite fancy effects! I used my trusty red pen to clearly mark that brain out, and create a nice contrast. It does pull the eyes, though. Theres only 2 things you pay attention to while looking at the picture below, and that is the dark red brainy stuff, and the eyes.

Thats because those are the greatest contrasts, and naturally they will pull your attention. Artists classically use this in especially landscape paintings and large depictions of crowds for example, wherein something is supposed to catch your attention. A couple ways beyond just creating large contrast in brightness is using contrasting colours, like Yellow and Black. Yellow and black almost sting your eyes when used together, and most certainly pull your eyes and attention to them.

Now, now, dont go sploshing your pictures with yellow and black. Those 2 are bad. Kinda taboo. Dont use them. Something that is more acceptable, and that ive written about before in my entry about colour theory, is the blue-orange contrast. Its used almost everywhere. Take your favourite 3 action movies, and look up the cover arts. Youre bound to find atleast one in which they use orange-blue contrast. If this does pique your interest, go look up my entry about colour theory.


Religion notebook! It has absolutely no meaning behind it!


History notebook! Almost political, man!


So yeah, school notebooks. I draw ALL the time. My education may suffer from it. Thats ok, though, right?! I get to impress people!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Rayleigh, and a pencil sketch-

PROPER TRADITIONAL ART

ERMAHGERD, FINARRY


I've been promising to show you guys traditional hand drawn graphite-based art for like, what, half a year now? Mh, finally got around to it. Its not really much to show though, I was just drawing for the sake of the blog entry. Its just a regular three-quarter view face, with no reference to speak of. Holy mother of hairshits, though, that is one baller haircut. I guess im biased though, I have a certain affection for large mops. On heads, exclusively.

Myeah. In critique of myself, the back of his head is kinda... Missing. I mean, this guy really does have no cranium. Ive gotten too used to drawing people in this pespective, and I do it wrong. The back of his head should extend further. Its not really a difficult fix, but its something I dont realize when im drawing, because ive always done it like that. Anyway, in this particular drawing, the disproportionality of his hair in general accentuates the issue, normally it wouldnt have been a problem in this drawing, if only he didnt wear his quiff with such swagger.

Yeah, Quiff. Thats what that kind of hairstyle is called. I wear my own with great pride, like a beautiful lions mane. Haters will hate. And no, its not the same thing as or even remotely comparable to a queef.



OH YEAH

RAYLEIGH.

Rayleigh was an old english fellow. A lord, actually. Thats about all I know of him as a person, but I do know he came up with what is known as Rayleigh scattering.

Rayleigh scattering is, in short, what makes the sky blue. The principle is based upon elastic scattering, which in essence means light is scattered without any loss of energy. Elastic scattering occurs when radiation of long wavelength crosses particles of a smaller size, and the ray is redirected. This also means that different parts of the visible spectrum of radiation will react differently to the same matter.


Thanks,  Wikipedia.

As you can see, blue light is affected wayy much more than red light. Aha, do you know why the sky is blue yet? No? So, the small particles in our atmosphere catch and scatter the blue light, which is part of the white light our beautiful sun graces us with. While the other wavelenghts of light go straight from the sun to our eyes, the blue, shorter and more energetic wavelengths are instead splattered all over the sky. This means the sun will look orangeish, and the rest of the sky will be blue. 


Well, what happens at sunset then? The sky turns bloody red! Yes, very fascinating, is it not?! Why? Well, it goes red, because the length of atmosphere that the rays have to pass through increases exponentially when the angle increases. I can actually provide you with a peripheral but fairly simple and versatile mathematical formula for that. Its smaller because its less important.


h/Cos(α)= L, where h stands for the height of the atmosphere, α is the angle between the incoming ray and the surface normal, and L is a measure of the lenght of atmosphere in which the ray will have to travel to reach the surface of the earth. The formula can be explained as such; 

The value of Cosinus of angles nearing 90 degrees will go towards 0. Cosinus of an angle of 0 degrees is equal to one. This means the height will be divided by a value between one and zero. Dividing by values lower than one will multiply the divided value. 

Example; 10m/cos (60)  --> 10m/0,5, because cos (60) gives a value of 0,5. This means that passing through something that is 10 meters thick at an angle of 60 degrees from the normal vector (which is equal to 30 degrees between the incoming path and the surface itself.), will force you to pass through (10/0,5 =) 20 metres of said area/matter! If the angle were 90 degrees, go fuck yourself, because we cant divide by zero, and logically the path would become infinitely long. If the angle is perfectly perpendicular to the surface, we would only have to pass through 10 meters of matter, because cos (0) is one.

Well, to be perfectly honest with you, the formula not applicable in this case. For a range of different reasons. I just think its an interesting formula, because it can be used as a shortcut in a range of different geometric situations. ANYWAY


Since the path which the ray will travel through atmosphere increases (Into infinity), so does the amount of scattering which occurs. When more and more blue light is discarded, for example back into space (which is why we can see the earths atmosphere as a bluish light from space.), only longer wavelengths of radiation persist. That means we have a shortage of blue, and a fair amount of green and yellow light, and an abundance of red photons --> BAM, REDDISH* ORANGE* BEAUTIFUL SUNSET. 

*(I coloured the words so you know which colours im talking about..!)

Rayleigh- and elastic scattering also explain why a bunch of lonely lightrays or sunshafts can be visible hanging in the air, if in an otherwise dark environment. Think discolights and lasers. In a disco theres often more than the components of normal atmosphere in the air though, so the scattering will be different.

Theres also something called Mie scattering that occurs in the atmosphere, which is a refractive phenomenom that has to do with how light is refracted in water droplets and dust particles in the air. But more about that on someone elses blog, I think thats enough sky-science for today.


Myep, some of you who lack base knowledge of how electromagnetic radiation works may experience difficulties grasping all of this, but atleast you now know that the sky is blue because some old english fart named Rayleigh came up with a theory about elastic scattering in the atmosphere.

I implore you to research further, and subscribe to this blog, because theres a whole world of stuff that you dont yet know about!

(ERMAHGERD TYP TUSEN ORD)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

elvis, hitler and base values-

Hrn, I believe it is every artists deepest wish (Artistically?) to be able to churn out high quality like some factory-ish treadband. Always something cool, something badass, something completely tubular (Surfer slang is interesting stuff). Nah, we cant do that. Every once in a while, we succeed, but everything inbetween that feels kinda drab. Atleast thats the way I often feel. Especially when theres little feedback.

On the topic of feedback and killing time, I just want to say something about just that. 

I dont care much if my grandmother, who ive never seen wield a pen, thinks im a great artist. The most common piece of feedback I hear is; "Whoah, youre way better than me.", or "Shit, when I try to draw, I often end up with feces smeared all over my face and body.". No, that doesnt really mean alot. For anyone who is ever in the position to support an artist, just tell this person: Gee, youre really good. 

Its better that way, ok? Telling someone theyre better than you might appeal to the most competetive bastards in the universe, but really? Id rather just hear im great at drawing. And what the hell do I respond to something like "whoah, i could never do that"? Im supposed to tell him -"Well, you suck at drawing so go figure"..? Is that what im supposed to reply? Because it certainly is what im thinking.

Yeah, I suck at taking compliments.


ANYWOU


I drew this dude, and hes totally wearing a leather jacket. Whooah. Elvis or something? Im not quite sure. I just felt its been a long time since I drew a regular painting of a regular dude standing in a regular pose.


PRE SCRIPTUM: A VALUE IS THE SAME THING AS BRIGHTNESS FOR A SPECIFIC THANG

As you can see from this (holistic) sketch, I often like to establish good base values before I start adding details. A base value is, I guess you could say, the mean brightness of a certain area. For those of you not so well versed in English vocabulary, a mean is MEDELVÄRDE. Once youve established this mean value for selected area, e.g. that jacket over there, you can easily go on about drawing as usual. Ive seen artists who draw everything in this monotone weird kinda porridgeoey mess, which is entirely compromised of one very simple range of brightnesses. 

Its not cool.


Heres an example. As you can see, the darkest value in the mouth-thingy, is about the same value as in the crevice above the eye. Its not cool. The range of values is not nearly large enough. Its completely weird. In order to make that look ok, back when I drew it, I had to overlay-layer the fuck out of it. I mean seriously, that was a mess. That is why I want you people who are just getting into digital drawing to establish those damn contrasts BEFOREHAND. Its easier to do it sooner rather than later.

I also recommend starting out your paintings greyscale, and then later on working colour into them. It helps you see how the lighting is supposed to work. A possible side effect might be that you start drawing greyscales exclusively, as sadly has already happened in my case...

TAKE COVER
HITLERTANK IS HERE


Huhuh, yuh, I drew a tank, with a hitler-ish face planted on the grill. What the hell is wrong with me? Oh, right. Civil Science quiz on political ideologies tomorrow. About that, I need to start reading...

Anyway, yeah. It looks quite interesting. Im just going to say right now, its just a drawing of a battletank, with a strange face on it, and it just so happens to have that infamous mustache. I do not support fascism in any way or of any sort, I do not condone hitler-stuff. Although the earth is becoming quite overpopulated as of lately...


ERHHM YEP. Quick sketchdumpish writing-release entry. Keep reading, people! Also keep commenting, keep subscribing, keep doing your thing.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

neighbouresis and definitely not stuff

Guh, stuff just hasnt seemed to go my way recently, not at all. When I came home today, I found a letter of complaint from my fellow neighbours and the flats booker. It seems that, even after trying to be quieter, I still am making too much noise. Guests in the night, and music too loud. Living a bachelors apartment life is simply not as glamorous as people seem to believe, I cant listen to music after 10, it seems I cannot bring friends over, as if that werent bad enough, its not like my neighbours are a great joy to talk to regardless.

What will a man do? Besides the music, I dont see what I could change in order to be quieter. What bugs me the most is that I havent heard any complaints from any of my neighbours for months and months, and all of a sudden, I get a warning? Please, take my phone number, or come talk to me, knock on the door, hell, knock on the wall, just tell me when I am making too much noise so I know what I shouldnt do, and so I can improve. Its not much to ask, the neighbours obviously have no interest in making me shut up better, theyd rather just have me expelled from my own apartment, never to return.

Thatd mean id most likely be forced to move back to my parents place, switch schools, and go back to all those halfwit fucks I knew back there. Yeah, that doesnt sound very appealing to me. Ill simply have to stop the noise. Oh gueh, these kinds of things can be so fucking frustrating.


For today, I drew this caricature. It doesnt portray anyone in particular, is it then really called a caricature? Its actually not, caricatures are portraits in which you exaggerate certain essential features and defining visual elements of certain individuals. I cant label my own portrait a caricature, because I exaggerated the features of an imaginary person, so in truth it is not a caricature, but simply a picture of a man with an anvil chin and weird creepy features. Its just inspired by and drawn in accordance with caricature style.

It kind of reminds me of myself in this dire moment. I spent the night at a lan party, im afraid I didnt get very much sleep. It feels like I havent showered in weeks (The reality is almost as grim).



Saturday, October 6, 2012

egopics, beauty and stuff




Huh, whos that sodding knucklehead?

HAHAHA

Oh, puns, how much fun you can be sometimes. A knucklehead is the same thing as a blockhead, a nincompoop, a schmuck, a plonker, a pillock, a gobshite, a deficient, a cretin, a plank, a dork, a twit, a dolt, a tool, a prat, a jerk, or an oaf, might be an ass. Yeah, im quite clever for knowing all these words for stupid person, arent I?

Friday, October 5, 2012

holism, facewalls and stuff-

Whoah whoah hoea hoe, holism? Yes, holism. Holism is a psychological term which caters to totals, groups of smaller parts, general entities, as opposed to, well, I dont really know. Some would call it reductionism, but that sounds pretty stupid.  None of this actually makes a lot of sense, but I will try to explain it as best I can.

In essence, the difference between the kind of holism im referring to and its counterpart, whatever we label it, can best be explained with an example. When I first learned about holistic approach in psychology class, we used learning as an example.

A holistic approach to learning something new, say, how a sequentially structured 3 part object with a certain function works; A holistic person would learn as much as possible about how it works as a whole, would learn about the objects basic function. Once he has a solid grasp of how it works as a whole, he will start refining his knowledge in all areas, and he may start researching about how the 3 advanced parts that together compose it work on an individual level.

A person who does not learn holistically will instead find out the sequence, and then he will research about the first part. Once he has learned all there is to know about the first part, he will move on to the second part, and after that the third part.

Both ways of learning eventually lead to the same result, they are merely different ways of approaching the issue and aquiring the knowledge. In a nutshell, holistic learning is highly iterative; it starts out by sketching out a little bit of everything, then refining this information time after time. Reductional learning would break the subject into many different parts, then go through them one by one. Its difficult to say which one is "better", and I dont think theres a definite answer to that question. Both have their advantages and disadvatages, but how they affect your learning depends on what you are trying to learn.

This example I gave also shows only pure holistic process or not at all. People are not strictly holistic, they adapt the level of holism in their thought processes automatically depending on the task before you. Sometimes a holistic approach is right, sometimes is definitely wrong. Imagine, for example, reading 2000 random sentences in a book. This would give you a very vague overview of what the book is about, and this is the holistic approach to reading a book. Once you have read these 2000 sentences, you would keep on reading random sentences until you will eventually have read every sentence in the whole book. Gee, wtf, thats not how were supposed to read books, we read them word by word, chapter by chapter! Holistic reading sucks!

Well then, why is this holism-gibberish important?


That is because its important to think holistically when you are drawing. Im not saying your art will be shit if you draw systematically from the top to the bottom, some people do that, but it is easier to make great art if you at first establish a good base, mark out where everything will be, and create a structure. This is easier because a) it gives you a good idea of where everything should go, proportions etc will be easier to get right. b) its easier to plan composition this way. c) you get a good idea of how it will look way before it is done.

Lets imagine we interrupt 2 people in the middle of their portrait drawing sessions. One is purely holistic, and one does not have a single holistic atom in his whole body.
The holistic guy will have already drawn the whole face, whats seen of the body, the background, and nose, ears, mouth and eyes are all clearly distinguishable. It does look a little rough around the edges though.
On the other hand, the other man will have drawn exactly half the face, in all its full glory and splendor. It cuts off right at the nose, though. Hes drawing left to right, scanline style. The holistic guy is sketching out ALL THE THINGS, just not very precisely, and thats the difference.


I draw holistically. First, I sketch out all the contours, then I shade everything in an approximate manner, then I start drawing all the details, and I think this is the right approach to drawing, most skilled artists draw like this. Beginners tend to get stuck on certain things. If you want to make progress, read some more about holistic approach, and start drawing this way. It especially applies to digital art, since its very easy to go back and redraw stuff.

If I do draw systematically, I often face problems such as the different parts dont fit together right, and I cant make the transitions between areas smooth. This is one of the reasons i have for shunning a systematic approach. Not saying it might not work for you though, some pull it off.


ANYWAY


mandatory art stuff


ITS A FACE STUCK ON A WALL AND THE GLASSES MAKE IT RESEMBLE A FRIEND OF MINE.

So yeah. Holist sketched everything, beginner drew the nose first.

Much text, little art. I havent been drawing alot lately :/ It appears i have fallen into a phase of not being able to motivate myself enough, but fear not, there cannot be cycles if there are no phases. Take world litterature for an appropriate example. Read holistically, its the right approach for this subject.