Category: General Art

Introduction to shading

Very often, I encounter starting out artists who consider line art drawings and shading/rendering work as two separate things, the second one being more professional, harder, more demanding, etc. I don’t understand that division, since both are just a method of representing three dimensional objects in the 2d space. They require the same knowledge – what exactly?

What you need is the awareness of the 3d forms behind what your drawing – especially, the planes, which compose those forms. It’s easier to think about them in case of angular figures, but what about spherical or cylindrical forms? Exactly the same as the others. As you probably remember from your maths class, a sphere has infinite number of planes. As an example of this, here’s an computer rendered example of an angular shape, progressively expanded into something more spherical, but still not a perfect sphere. It’s easier to think of simple objects first – and simple objects can always be expanded to be more complex or smooth ones.

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Introduction to art tools – pt.2 digital art

Tools

Let’s take a step into the digital realm, in the part 2 of this article! This part is obviously shorter, since there’s only the aspect of software and hardware, being the graphics tablet. The choices are pretty limited too, compared to amount of different art supplies, and brands that make them!

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Introduction to art tools – pt. 1 classic tools

Tools

This was supposed to be a quick introduction to classic art tools, but it’s still pretty long due to the amount of material! ;) I’m writing down most common tools/mediums, my opinion and experience of it and sometimes even some brand recommendations. Highly recommend if you’re getting started, and jumping over from computer-made art (I actually did, few years ago).

This is a very broad and subjective subject, so in the end, you’re best off experimenting and trying out stuff on your own! Remember that the tools serve you and your vision, and will almost never make a picture for you! You’re the master of them, and your skills lie at the core. Also, I’m an advocate of the approach of looking for the items with best “price-to-quality” ratio – both buying very cheap and expensive might not be the best choice. Personally, I’ve learned the hard way, that expensive equipment doesn’t improve your skill, so keep that in mind. If you’re ready, read on!

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