A time long ago

Some early work from a time long ago. If a young person was going to make a dime off of their art it was simple ink work done for newsprint. And, newsprint could bleed so that had to be keep in mind along with they could run it at any size. Anyway I somehow pulled a B in this class in a small community college. A generous grade given these renders I might add. I think the instructor took pity because I was working the second shift in the shipyard while attending classes. God knows it sure looks that way to me now.






Apparently you can only post three pictures now. So less see if this will work. And, end up in sequence.




Yeah without a doubt the old man was generous with that grade. Even in a class where we were attempting to create art to sell something not needed at a inflated price. All the courses were commercial art after all. And, down the hall were the photography students who would rule in the coming years with reference to advertising. But, now there is a new player in town called CG art. One which makes my little efforts look like child’s play. Hell I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sadly newspapers are on their last legs. So what was taught in that particular class is some relic of another time. Big smile and laugh here thinking about young artist facing the same thing we did. Business mind, the mind of anyone attempting art. One is attempting to make art and the other is out to screw you at every turn. Now I’m back to the forum to see some really amazing art.

If you mean that these are your old drawings and haven’t drawn since, maybe you should get back to it. There’s so much right in these characters that it probably wouldn’t be a huge leap to get more refined versions now.

For a common guy these might not look very impressive but the simplicity hides a lot of things and can be even harder to achieve. The first picture for example, you’re either tracing from a photograph or you know about form, proportions, anatomy, foreshortening, and how to abstract all that. The perspective is wrong on the cup but very good overall.

All the characters are posed which makes them interesting even if there are minor issues. Getting those fixed and making a rendering with traditional/digital 2D tools will only add to the interest/quality because it’s harder to screw up a good base. Not that there’s anything wrong with flat black&white as is, and certainly not to be frown upon as a start for something else.

Many say they started with 3D because they can’t draw. It’s a bit funny because a lot of 3D deals with the same fundamentals as drawing and painting.

JA12, thanks for the comments. Actually the first one was sketched in the dinner as the owner was delivering a cup of coffee. Then done with pen and ink. And, something just occurred to me. Her and her husband were planning retirement at fifty having run that place for years. However she died at forty nine. I hadn’t thought of that even when posting the little drawing.

I have occasionally taken out a little tablet and attempted some 2d work with Krita and might again. But, you very quickly realize it is not like riding a bike. There is some amazing work in this section. And, I hope the artist keep pursuing it. Because it is not something to be laid aside and picked up fifty some odd years later. I couldn’t agree more with your observation about the same fundamentals as drawing and painting. Happy Blendering.

I also have a small tablet and I’ve concluded it’s not suitable for freehand linework at all, for me at least. Working with a tablet can be hard because of the separation in hand-eye coordination, so it’s not like working on paper, but the size of the tablet also has a role in how easy it is to overcome that.

The tablet surface maps to the screen. Having a big screen and a small tablet means that the eyes have to follow big movements and hand has to follow very precisely in miniature scale. Or, when looking at a endpoint for a line on a screen, the hand has to hit a specific spot with a very small tolerance or it won’t be nowhere near.

With that configuration, drawing small is a bit easier. Could zoom out but that’s not the solution to the problem. Tablets are so sensitive that they pick up the path very precisely and any anomalies on the drawn line then gets magnified, so even small scratches on the tablet surface becomes a problem. Digital tools like Krita has functionality to help stabilize the lines as they’re drawn, but having so huge difference in scale means having to adjust the stabilizer constantly and it often has so much to correct that it’s nowhere near freehand anymore.

So I’ve concluded that it’s a pain in the backside at best and can’t recommend line drawing with a small tablet for anyone. Will need a bigger boat for that. There’s a lot of knowledge in your drawings and you’ve learned 3D since, so if you want to get back to it maybe sketch/draw on paper. To refine those digitally, could then scan those, clean the line drawing from its background and then paint to get it rendered. Painting is not as bad with a small tablet.

Even a simple render with light and shadow creates differences in value which reads as 3-dimensional form and could get an updated look relatively easily. It’s the drawing that requires most skill.

Something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MhSQlPwtd4c#t=2021
Again in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ5ulFxA-eA
Note that he has drawn his whole life and has digital tools that closely match drawing on paper, so only the painting/coloring/rendering bit is relevant.

Nice style!

JA12 once again thanks for the informative comments and links which I just watched. Had a audio problem which somehow has self corrected.

I was wondering if I was the only one struggling with the smallest Wacom tablet. And, the scanning idea sounds promising if I ever finish a animation project which is seeming to lead into eternity. I think I even remember seeing several pads of visualizing paper around the place here which I could dig out. As you might know visualizing or tracing paper was the closest thing we had to layers back in the day. Where you could rotate or flip and trace your own work with adjustments.

Once again thanks and your comments might indeed be the biggest take away from this thread for viewers. Which is how a thread seems to work anyway. I think some of the talented folks in this section do use a small Wacom so a relative new comer struggling with one for line work might simply give up. Whereas your comment about scanning is probably how many professionals might still work even through owning the larger damn expensive Wacom tablets.

VISUALIZING PAPER: A white drawing surface with a tooth and just enough transparency where heavy lines can be traced. A alternative to that would be relatively cheap bond paper bought loose and a el cheapo light table. Some HB and 2B drawing pencils and you’re in business. http://www.amazon.com/Bienfang-Layout-Visualizing-63-16-Charcoal/dp/B00TE9U0UI/ref=sr_1_186?ie=UTF8&qid=1448886206&sr=8-186&keywords=bienfang

It seems nothing to do with photography or art is cheap. But, then for all we know some of the Old Masters were sketching on rags they picked up in the street. White bond paper will do just fine.

Mikael K thanks for the comment, guy. JA 12 while riding with the old gal yesterday she visited a chain arts / crafts store. I walked in with her looking for a few drawing pencils. HB and 2B of course. Now I realize if you need art supplies the big New York warehouses might be the place to go if they still exist carrying art supplies. That being said the prices floored me.

Are they nuts or is the business model the extreme of what we will pay. Then I walked down the isle with tablets. Sketch, watercolor, bond, etc. And, while insane much more in line with what I remembered. God knows I never looked at water colors or acrylics much less brushes. My point is Krita might be a blessing for anyone but a fine arts painter. The cost of traditional art supplies might be out of reach for some young people now as well as me. So once again open source seems to shine. With access to a computer and their imagination it is accessible to them. God bless the developers, women and little children. On second thought f… um.

@theoldghost I must say, I always appreciate reading your posts, whether you are posting artwork, or talking about life and way-back-when and whatnot.

ctdabomb you are to kind. Or, old like me. Like me you have noticed the art work on this forum no doubt. Many of these youngsters might go on to build ships with a rewarding hobby in the back of their minds. Then some might go on to a career in art. But, Blender made all of that possible did it not. So kudos to Ton and the developers along with the developers of Krita, Inkscape, Gimp and so many programs making this possible for some young person with computer.

And, while a interest in graphics can be a two edged sword for some young people you have to rely on them and their parents to strike a balance. The graphics field is tough and always has been. And, as the cost of a secondary education has sky rocketed young people are understandably looking for a field to at less pay off college debt. The arts is not one of those fields for most.

Which is a damn shame really. So most of the talented young artist in this forum will find their way into a field which can simply feed the pooch. Where they can raise a family while maybe working a job they hate. It is simply what we do. But, that time with Blender creating something will always be in the back of their mind as they look at the kids drawings so precious to them. And, then years later when the children are gone who knows. Maybe a download of Blender and off to the learning curve from hell. Once that idea is implanted it never leaves. It simply never escapes you Blender buddy. You are coming back in spite of hell.

Mikael K let me rephrase my comment about yours. Thank you very much and you are way to kind. For those who haven’t seen Mikael’s work the link is below. Why I didn’t pull it up when he posted I will never know. Go on with your bad self fellow Blender Head. Or, Krita, illustrator or whatever. I haven’t visited every nook and cranny of your site yet so that is a treat pending. Just amazing work.

http://mikaelkallioniemi.portfoliolounge.com/portfolio/illustrations

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Thanks for posting these amazing drawings, Ghost. You are an artist with many talents.

I like the clarity as well as how focused and reduced they are. No clutter to distract the viewer, as in a good photo. Take the waitress, for example. Not much more than a silhouette and yet it is complete. The viewers imagination adds all the rest and nothing more is needed. Very simple and very effective. And that is often the most difficult result to achieve.

And the play with light and shadow is very appealing. Take the golf player. You can clearly see how strong the light of the mid day sun is. And where the lines vanish into white it gives a kind of overexposed impression.

Can’t wait to see more of your upcoming studies :slight_smile:

Thank you my talented German animation friend. Like most anyone attempting art I found pure line drawings a bitch. After all you only have the weight of the line to indicate shadow and everything else you might like the viewer to see. And, you are asking the viewer to accept something completely false. After all we do not see outlines in our daily life.

However, most traditional artist use line to start any artistic endeavor. But, that is not the only way. Some artist begin sketching in tone including several talented artist on the forum here. The 3d version of that might be flat shapes with a value being simply moved around to find a composition you can live with. No lighting or texture at that stage. Just feeling out the composition if you will. Size, placement, etc. Thinking like a concept artist comes to mind without brushes.

Now minoribus obviously I’m not talking about our animation attempts. We can however determine where the camera pauses. With that same line of thinking as you have done time and again. Where the camera pauses is composition the way I see it. And, then of course you have characters moving in and out of the scene. Way more ambitious then my little efforts. For those not familiar with the minoribus experience go to the WIPs.

Awesome work here theoldghost! I particularly love your head and shoulders pencil drawing of the girl - nice one.

Thanks Artloader. That one was actually done with a brush and a black watercolor paint. It seems to me that was called Lamp Black which reproduced well on course newspaper stock back in the day. The illustration board was inclined for the wet work like any watercolor. And, like watercolor you worked with a wet and dry brush. As you might know controlling watercolor takes some getting use to. I couldn’t reproduce that today if my life depended on it. Not that the effort was that well executed let me quickly add.

Hey Ghost

Been hiding these talents from us have you? What struck me right off the bat was the fact that proportions are spot
on, you do not see that very often, a lot of stuff here on Blender and on other sites show drawings that are very disproportionate.

Your grasp on perspective and depth is also excellent.

Since I have got back a bit into some art in the last while my eye has picked up on that again, funny how when you do not use something that you lose it.

As minoribus said you have given the viewer just enough for them to fill in the blanks, I have done quite a bit of mental filling in on the waitress as I have been going through this thread. :evilgrin:

Ghost these drawings are really good and I would love to see some more ASAP.

Regards

Shaun

Very nice work, Ghost. And a touching, if sad story about the Diner owner. Thanks for sharing.

Shaun I can assure you there will be no more drawings ASAP old buddy. I put a HB drawing pencil to paper several weeks ago and while not like the first time the results were disheartening I guess would be the word. Plus Blenders viewport is always there with a unfinished project. But, thanks for the comments.

SterlingRoth thank you. That ladies younger sister was a high school classmate and with the advent of e-mail we keep in touch. She never got over it and sadly she too left us over a year ago. I called her Sunshine because her e-mails were exactly that. A little something to look forward to several times a week. Oh, well part of getting old. An old actress once said getting old is not for pussies.

I was watching this and thought you might also be interested theoldghost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGsvLSlA69U

JA12 Thank you for the link. I use to enjoy the old school graphite drawing pencils occasionally although they were not water soluble. We used a fixit which removed the shine graphite was known for. I’m looking forward to searching out the same effect in Krita hopefully.

I’ve been busy helping the daughter retouch her photographs using Gimp in my case. And, my modest Wacom tablet which does just fine for that purpose. The daughter, on a Mac, doesn’t have a professional program yet but is seriously thinking about Adobe Lightroom.

Anyway between that and attempting a logo design for her there hasn’t been much time for traditional nor Blender actually. But, I believe even the tablet work in Gimp is helping that hand - eye thing we encounter when first using a tablet. By the way I’m delighted Gimp is really responsive with that tablet in my case. I can feel what I’m doing and see it in real time. As you know anything else is a bitch.

Once again thanks for the link. Definitely a look I would like to pursue when time permits.

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