Perspective Challenge - Samples

We're going to be having a perspective challenge on Illustrated ATCs, and these are samples I'm using in the thread.

Here is my sketch to illustrate one-point perspective:

Here is a video in which Mark Crilley shows how you can make this using one-point perspective:

And here's another example of something he did with one-point perspective:

Here is my sketch of two-point perspective:

Here are two pieces made with two-point perspective by the inimitable SL Scheibe, aka Amerasu:

Here's a piece of Star Wars fan art that Mark Crilley created with two-point perspective:

Art Doll Challenge - Up in the Air

Here is my first art doll for the challenge: A feminist superhero. There are more coming soon, so stay tuned!

April Art Doll Challenge

There's an Art Doll challenge running right now on Illustrated ATCs, and I thought I'd post a few examples before I dig in for myself.

An art doll is commonly made of paper but can be made from just about any medium - and I have to say "just about" because "sloth saliva" might be a viable medium, but then again, IT MIGHT NOT.  Art dolls can be drawn, painted, collaged, sewn, glued, hammered, welded - you're getting the idea, right?  I've almost maxed out my verbs for the day.

Some examples:

A sewn doll that's also been painted
(By Amerasu)

Cloth bodies.  Clay faces.  Paper Legs.

Sweet, lovely, happy clown made from paper
(By Cindy Blair, aka Cindyjob)

Or rather, PAPER AND EVIL
BECAUSE IT HAS ANOTHER HEAD
AND IT IS SECRETLY EVIL AAAAAAAAAA

If you're wondering how to store art dolls, well, you shouldn't.  You should display them, perhaps like this:

I'll be posting my own art doll creations as I make them!

Day 30 - David Bowie

After painting Marie Antoinette, I was eager to try another 5x5 watercolor using a reference photo.  I opened a picture of David Bowie in Photoshop and increased the saturation, the better to reduce glare and really look inside the shadows.  Then I printed out the photo and traced the shapes of some of the shadows on the paper, primarily to stop my eyes from going OMG DAVID BOWIE and make them break down the face into shapes, colors, negative spaces, relationships.

After that, however, I still had to make the jump.  One can do whatever one likes on a printed photograph; it's another thing altogether to take a brush to a blank white square.  I don't sketch when I do watercolors; I just go.  I took lots of deep breaths, put clean water in my jar, and jumped in.

Here's a look back at the whole challenge:

Day 29 - Marie Antoinette

After enjoying some modest success with watercolors, I decided to push myself to do a larger piece - a 5x5 of Marie Antoinette.  As a rule, I use reference photos, never an illustration or another artist's painting as my source and inspiration, but with an historical figure who predates photography, well, there's not much one can do.  So.  I decided to use one particular portrait of Marie Antoinette, treating it almost like a Master Study so that I could learn lessons about painting in general.

And here's what I noticed.  Like, immediately.  It's much easier (for me) to see shapes in paintings, rather than photographs.  That drove home for me how much I need to keep training my eyes to stop seeing cognitive units and see only the shapes they comprise.

Second - and this is big, too - the shadows all had colors.  Blue gray.  Rusty brown.  Slightly green.  How had I never thought to look for a range of colors in shadows when looking at photographs?!  (This is what happens when you're self-taught: You are always late to the damn party.)

This was super instructive, though, as I'll explain in the next entry.  Meanwhile, here's Marie, or rather "Let Them Eat Cake Doughnuts":

Days 27-28 - Mod Duo

My husband purchased some 3x4 canvases for me to help me reach the goal of completing the challenge, and after spending two and a half hours on a portrait (then pitching it in the trash can amidst a shower of swear words(, I made a decision to pare down and try a mod style, which is not anything I've ever done before:

What amazes me every time I try something new is how quickly I learn things.  Don't make big steps between values on a painting of this type.  Don't go halfway with a lean when you could go all the way with a Dutch angle.  Don't overcomplicate something, thinking that you HAVE to swear and suffer or it can't be done.  It can be.  It's cool.

Days 24-26 - Three More Small Watercolors

Again, I am writing this post after finishing painting 30, because I had neither time nor will at this point in the challenge.  I pushed ahead with small watercolors.