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TreeClimber In reply to M3rcaptan [2011-12-15 22:59:55 +0000 UTC]

tell ya the truth, the only thing I EVER learned in an art class, was the concept of a vanishing point and horizon line (required for sketching 3D objects like buildings and perspective). Everything else is self taught.

I've had very poor vision 90% of my life (lazer surgery jumped me back to perfect vision for abut 6 years, and in the 7th, it started to degrade due to my eye's shape changing a bit...which is normal between the age of 18 and 25), so up until the age of 5, when I got my first pair of glasses, everything I could see, was up close and in my face; once I had glasses, depth was doable, but I still preferred to remove the glasses and look at things up close.

This inability to see far away, allowed me to look at the details of surfaces and how everything minute holds its place in the 'larger picture' - when I am working on a drawing/painting, I NEVER see the whole image, only the lines and textures to which I'm trying to achieve in one small area.

One of the things that was 'taught' in art classes, was, "don't try to draw the object, simply fill in the negative space." This is a true concept, I'd already been doing it, but didn't really know how to word it, until I had a teacher say it. Some people choose to draw people or items upside down, so that they can force their mind to not recognize what they're drawing. Others will draw out a measurement grid across a reference photo, and draw it out to proportion on paper. For the most part, I've been doing it long enough, I can eye out the multiplier ratio (1x1 inch explodes to a 3x3 inch area of paper).

I've got footage of one of my works as I went about it...just had so much to do, that I haven't had time to compile it all

As I put it once to a coworker: When a typical person looks at a tree, they see just that, a tree...woopdi-doo; I will see the individual leaves, their reflection of light, how they curve away from the branches, how their rustling in the wind holds a pattern, how they move due to the thickness or thinness of their stems; I will see the hue of the leaf, how it contrasts with the tree trunk, how my perspective of branches changes when moving side-to-side or toward/away from the tree. I will notice the texture of the bark, where it knots and curves, question why it did, notice sap drips and THEN I will look around it, and see maybe why its slightly bent, see the scene that it sits in: is it on a cliff with high winds, is it doubled over due to lightning strike or years of drought, is it flourishing and others nearby wilting, does it act as a home to birds, and what kind if any...

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M3rcaptan In reply to TreeClimber [2011-12-16 09:41:26 +0000 UTC]

Wow, what you wrote is exactly what an artists point of view is, when I look at the trees however, I think about the cells, the chemical reactions inside and the structures, all the way up to the macroscopic level, (which is why I think I chose to be a chemist, can't help it!!), actually,Once I was thinking about how to draw faces, and what happened was that I stared at everybody's faces in the subway and all the details in them (which I think made me look crazy!)...

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TreeClimber In reply to M3rcaptan [2011-12-16 21:41:00 +0000 UTC]

ooooh...I've gotten used 'that' look...that "oh mygaaawd...whattheFUCKare you doing!? ...weirdo." and really...I'm squatting and leaning off to one side, with my head upside down to get the right angle for a photograph XD

I'm a people watcher...sad part is, most of my reaction to people's interaction with eachother is, "wow....you guys are pretty dumb."

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M3rcaptan In reply to TreeClimber [2011-12-16 22:02:44 +0000 UTC]

well, most people I see (especially in subway) look very tired, kinda depressed... and they don't interact with each other very much...

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TreeClimber In reply to M3rcaptan [2011-12-16 22:33:02 +0000 UTC]

I will often go to a coffee shop, snag a mocha, and sit in the corner of an open plaza, and just watch people go back and forth like drunken ants...the really enjoyable time to watch people, due to their "hurryHURRYOMG MOOOOOVE!" mentality, is to sit in a mall in front of a big store's doorway, and just watch the chaos. The expressions and patterns you'll see in people and their behavior is pretty phenomenal

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TreeClimber In reply to celdragon [2011-10-25 14:55:38 +0000 UTC]

that's the odd part I think, is that the lighting to which the two were put in, is a rather close distance; I will fix the shading on the sheets behind her and see if that shadow still needs help...sometimes working on the opposite side makes a difference on shadow intensity

I will keep that in mind though! (besides, sometimes artists have to embellish the image a bit for 'depth' right? ^_^ )

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