Applying basic light theory to your art (aka “how to make ridiculously shiny stuff”)
In this mini-guide, I’m going to more or less explain how the heck you apply basic light theory on your art. But with a bit more exaggerated effects.
I am going to start off by using a reference photo I took myself in a museum I visited the other day.
This is a piece of Pyrite (aka “Fool’s Gold”) which is very reflective, and is pretty cool.
I used this as a reference and eye-ball copied it. Since most of the colors are pretty saturated, it wasn’t that hard to guess the colors. (I did not color pick from the photo - unless you are colorblind, you should learn to pick color only by observation. It’s good for your artistic eye.)
Here’s my painting of the pyrite. It’s not as textured or detailed as the reference, but turned out good enough. The orange light comes from a piece of table/wood beneath the pyrite that is not visible from the photo.
The shape of the object is a nice variation from the regular “sphere” that you always see in light-theory.
Now let’s apply there light sources on a portrait - makin it shiny shiny!
But first we should look up another reference!
This picture was done by the AMAZING Virtual Lighting Tool where you can add several light sources, change the placement of the “lamps”, even add colors and all kind of nice gadgets. This screenshot contains more or less the same lightsources that we got from the Pyrite painting.
Now this time I did use the color picker - but not from the photograph, but from the painting I did earlier. This was a really fun experiment and a great way to practice shiny objects.
Fantastic hybrids of menswear and corsetry by Sylvain Nuffer.
Design seems a little clumsy in spots, but I love this concept.
(via haunterhaunter)
Crystals Progress Tutorial
and
Crystal Progress
respectivelyBoth by *Pikishi
-
I saw some tutorials for crystals on my dash, so I though I’d share these, since I remembered them.
(via zimiestef)
Handy Art Link Megapost
I take no credit for any of this, all I did was assemble them togetha’.
Hellooo friends, I was just handed a couple of useful links from a talented friend, and seeing some posts on Facebook and around the internets inspired me to share them all with you in this handy place.
Bookmark them all, or bookmark this note, idc, just keep track of ‘em!
ALSO IF YOU HAVE MORE TO ADD PLEASE LET ME KNOW. (Also, apologizes for the wall of text. I CANNOT SEEM TO GET THE “READ MORE” BUTTON TO WORK.)
ArtsyPoses - http://artsyposes.com
Relatively new, but very cool. The 30 second drawing tool seems to be glitching a little but that could be my computer being a dumb. Lots of unique poses and they’re looking to expand to other body types (if you read the FAQ they even said there are too many fit models haa)
PoseManiacs - http://posemaniacs.com
Everybody knows this one! Great poses, you can interact with them (rotation, etc) and has a very cool 30 second drawing tool. Also I belieeeve this is available on iOS.
Pixelovey - http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php
Another fantastic drawing tool - I prefer it over PoseManiacs’ but I can NEVER FIND THE LINK :( Lots of options here, too.
CedarSeed - http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/tutorials.html
The drawings here aren’t great but there is so much information here. SO MUCH.
Color Is Value - http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2010/09/color-is-value.html
Handy coloring tips and things!
Ctrl+Paint - http://www.ctrlpaint.com/
So many digital painting tutorials. SO MANY. Ridiculously helpful in everything ever, and constantly updated.
Lackadaisy Expressions - http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=333
This artist is incredibly talented and even though they are cats there is so much to be learned here.
+ more - http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/210/1/5/lackadaisy_construction_by_tracyjb-d422uo7.jpg
The Angry Animator - http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2010/11/26/tutorial-2-walk-cycle/
Because come on, all sorts of handy animation tips. I linked directly to the walk cycle because I found it to be most useful but there are other things floatin’ around there if that’s your thing~
Constructing the Head/Face - http://amberblade.tumblr.com/post/11177240121/tutorials-done-by-stanislav-prokopenko-who-is-an
Done by Stanislav Prokopenko, an instructor. Also really seems to know what he’s talking about. Saving images off of Tumblr seems to be hit-or-miss so keep this link handy as it may not save correctly. :(
And so begins the dumping of handy tutorial images that should all be on your harddrives soon :
How to Draw All Kinds of Shit - http://coelasquid.blogspot.com/2009/01/muscle-tutorial-thinger.html
Some of you may remember this from all of James Phegan’s classes ever! Super handy, and this is a printable version of the giant jpg he used to e-mail us.
How to Draw Beef - http://coelasquid.deviantart.com/art/Abdomination-How-to-draw-beef-132538271
The same artist; she’s really damn good at drawing beefy dudes.
Drawing people in perspective and other handy things - http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/125/9/9/IFX___Strike_A_Pose_by_WarrenLouw.jpg
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Fellas-Tutorial-104865472 - Fellas Tutorial
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Ladies-Tutorial-98311607 - Ladies Tutorial - NSFW
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Pose-tutorial-72010406 - Pose Tutorial
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Expression-tutorial-77399204 - Expressions/Head Tutorial
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Hand-tutorial-83785318 - Hand Tutorial
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/Foot-tutorial-90158269 - Foot Tutorial
Resources :
http://lockstock.deviantart.com/ - Nude models and drapery!!
http://ictoa.deviantart.com/favourites/42274937 - Lots of nude models in all sorts of poses
http://www.japanesestreets.com/photos/ - All sorts of clothing styles!
http://tobyshelton.blogspot.com/2010/10/ive-got-to-hand-it-to-you-2010.html - Amazing amazing hands
http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m148/squidsmanphotos/?start=all - Coelasquid’s “manbucket”
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsmtnfmnJV1qa8bb7o1_400.jpg - haaands
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lshg8hi59P1qjozoyo1_500.jpg - HAAANDS
Other neat things :
Color Scheme Designer - http://colorschemedesigner.com/
Allows you to quickly and easily create specific color schemes for a wide variety of purposes! If you’re like me and terrible with color, this will help.
Make your brush in Photoshop look like Flash or Paint Tool SAI - http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/ResultGraphics/screenshot20100331at728.png
Things to keep in mind while gesture drawing - http://hospitalvespers.tumblr.com/post/8712840616/gesture-drawing-basics
Super Obvious Secrets I Wish They’d Teach In Art School - http://philmcandrew.tumblr.com/post/5588480161/super-obvious-secrets-that-i-wish-theyd-teach-in-art
The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck - http://inoveryourhead.net/the-complete-guide-to-not-giving-a-fuck/
How to Steal Like an Artist - http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/
Also, psst. - http://www.mediafire.com/?z7c401x9fdwqx - Ten art books that we should all own already.
(Sorry this is so long, tumblr won’t let me un-indent all the things without messing the hyperlinks up BLUH. So press J to skip.)
I just went back through over 900 liked posts and dug out all the art tutorials so i can keep track of them. I guess this might be helpful to some of you guys, so here you go.
Some of these were gutted from posts where the original was deleted and so can’t be linked to in the masterpost list - especially one by Tumblr user melkh who has since either deleted or changed their url, so props to them.
Here we go then!
Freeware
Alchemy- this is a really fun program. You play around making abstract shapes until you start to see something in them, kind of like a Rorschach test. Then you use the shapes as a base to draw it from.
MyPaint- a pretty decent painting program that also has the benefit of working on Unix systems.
openCanvas 1.1- I haven’t used openCanvas in years but it was a nice program with a pretty unique feel to it.
ArtRage- Only used this a couple of times donkey’s years ago just before I got oC, but I’ve heard good things about it.
The GIMP - In a similar vein to Photoshop, but free. I couldn’t get on with it when I tried it out a few years ago, but it’s pretty popular and is available on Unix systems and Macs.Not-free-ware
Photoshop- Standard painting fare. Probably the most flexible program (particularly the latest versions) but not designed to act in a “natural” way. If you’ve used it for painting versus something like Painter you know what I mean. Who the fuck pays for it though? Google “Photoshop tumblr masterpost” and take your pick.
Paint Tool Sai- Far more affordable and definitely worth paying for if you can. The brushes are very decent (especially when they’ve been tweaked a little), the gui is simple and intuitive, and I dare you to find a program with which making smooth lineart is easier.
Corel Painter- My program of choice for most things. More tools than you could ever possibly use and pretty cheap on a student license, providing that you can prove you’re a student! It’s got a few bugs but if you want realism or a more natural feel than PS or SAI this is the program for you.Anatomy
anatomy and rotation of the head
Expressions
emotions and facial expressions
expressions from different angles (love this site)
Poses
Skin tones
paint some life into your skin tones
Colouring
gamut mask tool(very nice!)
5 easy ways to improve your colouring
fucking gradients, how do they work
achieving a painterly look in SAI
kuler(more colour schemes)
Brushes
a very nice setting for the sai acrylic brush
photoshop fur brushes (and tutorial)
Other peoples masterposts
love your fellow artist (anything from prompt generators to animation background here, very nice)
e books
art e-books (mediafire download)
even more e-books(including human anatomy, animal anatomy, cartoons, animation, composition, design, scenery, perspective…)
Tutorials
a pretty extensive general art tutorial
tumblrs
criminallyincompetent (check out their #reference and #tutorial tags, they’re gold)
Thanks for featuring me. :D Lots of good references on this list!
oh wow





