Workshops

Artist insight

BECOME A
BETTER ARTIST!
Get to grips with fundamental skills you need
to improve your art. 40 unmissable tips on
colour, tone, anatomy and lighting
o become a great artist, you
need a solid grounding in
the basics. Theres no point
trying to be a comic artist
for instance, if youre knowledge of
anatomy isnt all that. Similarly, how
could you ever expect to be a concept
artist without an understanding of

colour, tonal values and lighting? Learn

the basics first and get them right
and your opportunities as an artist,
both personally and professionally
are certain to grow.
In order to help you start your artistic
journey, or simply refresh your memory,
weve enlisted the services of four top

Rebecca
Kimmel
COUNTRY: US
Rebecca
Kimmel runs
the Artistic
Anatomy and
Figurative Art
forum on CG Society.
Her website has become
a valuable resource for
artists studying life
drawing. Artists of all
levels are welcome to
take part in workshops.
http://forums.cgsociety.
org/forumdisplay.
php?f=177

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June 2007

digital painters Rebecca Kimmel,

Marta Dahlig, Michael Dashow and
Philip Straub.
Over the following pages these
artists show you some of the basics
through snippets of essential advice.
Then its up to you to continue your
development as an artist

Artist insight Become a better artist!

Michael
Dashow
COUNTRY: US
Michael
Dashow
balances his
time between
illustration for fun and
profit and Art Directing
at 3D avatar site Meez.
com. He loves painting
humorous science
fiction, fantasy and
childrens images.
Michael lives in Oakland,
California, USA, with his
wife and newborn son.
michaeldashow.com

Philip Straub
COUNTRY: US
Philip Straub
is Art Director
for games
company
NCSoft. Hes an expert
in colour theory, and has
worked with Universal
Studios in the past.
www.philipstraub.com

Marta Dahlig
COUNTRY: Poland
Marta Dahlig
was born in
1986. She is a
talented artist
and freelance
illustrator, and is a
regular contributor
to ImagineFX.
www.marta-dahlig.com

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Workshops

TOP TEN
COLOUR TIPS
Art Director Michael Dashow shares his favourite tips
for effective use of colour in your artwork
1 CONTRAST
Colours on opposite sides of the colour
wheel stand out against each other.
Use this contrast to call attention to the
focus of your painting. Balance intense
colour with more muted other colours
in the background.

2 COLOUR VARIETY
Objects in nature incorporate a variety
of colours. Paint natural objects with
many similar colours. Especially keep
this in mind when painting skin. Areas
where the blood is closer to the
surface show more reds. Areas around
the eye reveal more purples.

3 COLOUR MOODS
Choose colours that best convey the
mood youre aiming for.
Strong reds get the pulse
going, and impart a sense
of drama or danger. Cool
blues and greens have a
more calming effect.

The bright, warm colours pop

against the cooler, whiter
blues and greens.

7 BOUNCE YOUR LIGHT

To really set a mood for your piece,

choose an appropriate colour for the
sky. I rarely stick with the traditional
blue. Instead, I opt for colours to
heighten the drama and emotions
that I want the piece to illicit.

Shadows pick up bounced light from

the environment. Pull in your ambient
colour, such as the colour of your sky.
Light bounces off other parts of your
scene, too. Grass, for example would
add greens into your lower shadows.

Colours on opposite sides

of the colour wheel stand out
against each other
6 AERIAL
PERSPECTIVE

4 ADD A LITTLE MAGIC

Were used to seeing light in warm
colours such as red from light cast by
the sun. Blues are familiar from light
reflected from the sky. That leaves
green and purple as colours we dont
normally see. Incorporating them can
give a painting a mystical air.

5 DRAMATIC SKIES

The sky is orange so the

buildings further back appear
more dull orange too.

When theres more distance

between you and other
objects, theres more
atmosphere between them.
Add more depth to your
painting by bringing your
atmosphere colour into
objects that are further
away. Traditionally, this
means making them more
blue and less saturated.

8 SIDE LIGHTING
Rather than just using a single light
source, consider adding more light
from a different direction. The
additional light helps round out the
forms more, and can also have an
exciting colour impact.

9 CHECK YOUR VALUES

Its important not to neglect
the values while youre
working with colour. If
your colours are all
of a similar tone,
your painting will
have less impact.
Checking the
image in greyscale
can help you here.

10 TEST IT OUT

Using several test thumbnails

will help you to come up with
the correct colours.

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June 2007

Dont expect instant

perfection. Just as sketches
are important for drawing
a finished piece, theyre
equally helpful for colour
composition. Make some
colour thumbnails before
jumping into your painting.
I try out different palettes
by using my paint programs
layers to block out areas of
colour and shift their hues.

Artist insight Become a better artist

TOP TEN TONAL

VALUE TIPS
My editorial illustration, below, is a simple
example of the importance of light.

Need some help with tonal values?

Philip Straub shares his secrets
1 LIGHT All objects in nature are

6 POSITIVE/NEGATIVE

made visible to us by some form of

light source. The form of all objects in
the world simply wouldnt be apparent
without light.

Positive space is usually defined by the

areas of a painting or drawing that are
occupied by a form. Negative space is
the areas of the painting or drawing
that are not occupied by forms. Its
important to remember the balance
of positive and negative shapes.

2 SHADOW If an illuminated
object is more or less opaque,
when the light is obscured by
that object, the resulting shadow
is a darker version of the objects
colour. By virtue of shadow, all
objects of nature assume form
or shape.

3 HALFTONES Halftones
that utilise texture and colour
should be used in the area where
light affects the surface of an object
and should be made brighter than they
appear. Those that describe form
should be applied to the shadow area
of the object and should be darker.
4 FORM Its possible to have form
without line, and to have
line without form, but
usually where one exists so
does the other. Id argue
form truly defines the
shape of an object.

5 CONTRAST Contrast is derived

from a comparison between two or
more elements. Most concept artists
will create the highest point
of value contrast at the
focal point, or the place
where they want the
viewer to look.

7 UNITY Like contrast, unity is an

element that describes a relationship
between two or more elements or
objects within a composition. Unlike
contrast, however, unity usually
describes such relationships within the
context of the composition as a whole.
Unity can be said to define how any
one element or group of elements is
related to the rest of the composition.

The consistent visual

language used in the shapes
and line within the image
below shows unity at work.

8 HIERARCHY Its one of the

most important qualities to consider
when dealing with value structure, yet
the implications of hierarchy are often
forgotten. Put simply, hierarchy
answers the question what is
important? in a composition. By
making his painting hierarchical, a
painter places the greatest emphasis
on those things that are most
important, and the least emphasis on
those that are less important.

9 BACKGROUND, MIDDLE
GROUND, FOREGROUND

An example of applying the

use of line in unison with your
value structure.

Thinking of your value structure as

three separate plains in space
background, middle ground, and
foreground will simplify how you deal
with your overall value structure.

10 LINE

Most drawing relies heavily upon line as a means of defining

objects. While painting also uses line as a means of
definition, it often relies upon it as a sort of infrastructure
upon which the rest of the value structure is built. This
infrastructure of line may be hidden in the final painting,
but its influence dictates what the viewer sees.

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Workshops

6 SHADOWS

Marta Dahlig reveals ten of her favourite pieces of advice

on how to tackle lighting in your painting
1 HALO EFFECT
If you want to create an aura behind a character, place
the light source behind it. This way, the hair will seem
to be glowing. Shading hair like this is different from
usual because, aside from the typical shading of the
strands in ambient light, you have to take into account
the additional light source, making the outer edges of
the hair lighter then run over the outer strands with a
moderately sized transparent airbrush to add glow.

7 STRONG LIGHT SOURCES

While the general, ambient light is a
good basis for a picture and it might be
enough for simpler portraits, you might
sometimes want to spice things up a
bit. Theres nothing better than a strong
light source to add some drama.

8 GOLD EXPLAINED

Placing your light source behind your character helps if you

want to achieve a halo effect in your painting.

3 COLOUR CHOICES

2 LIGHT AND FLESH

When painting a body part

thats lit from the back, dont
limit yourself to merely adding
a white outline around it (0).
Remember the light will also
beam between all the lit
objects, creating rays (1).
Furthermore, the light will also
shine through the skin and
flesh. To depict that, simply
make the softer parts of
the body part more
saturated (2 and 3).

In general, there are two types of

shadows: form and cast. While the
form shadow (1) is naturally generated
by an object in range of the light
source, the cast shadow (2) is created
by another object, placed in front of
our primary one, blocking the light
from the source.

While it doesnt matter what basic

colour you choose for the skin of your
character, its extremely important to
pick shadows and highlights correctly.
Basically, when you choose shadows
and highlights for your midtones, make
sure theyre not only of a different
brightness, but also a different hue.

4 CONVEXITY
Sketch an objects most convex places
(red lines). After you choose a light
source, mark the highlights
(white lines). The most
convex areas are going to
be the most highlighted,
and will also create a slight
shadow (blue lines).

A common mistake in painting gold is

to only use colours from the yellow
palette to render it. Analyse a golden
object and youll see hints of grey,
brown and green, and remember that
metal is reflective.

9 SKIN TONES MADE EASY

Use Photoshops Colour Balance tool
to match skin tones,
highlights and shadows if
you have characters lit by
a boldly coloured, strong
light source.

10 TEXTILES
Different textiles react differently to
light. Silk highlights are bold and
strongly separated from the shadows
with a fast, smooth transition. Linen
highlights are much more diffused
and the transition is seamless.

5 REFLECTED LIGHTING
One of the crucial things for a painter to remember is that all objects interact with
each other by reflecting light rays that fall on them back on to other objects. In
practice, you can easily implement this effect by adding some extra coloured
shades with a low opacity brush (see arrows below for examples).
Here you can see, by following the arrows, how the dress
interacts with the skin and the skin with the dress. This was
done by adding some extra shades with a low opacity brush.

To depict rays of light between the lit

objects, I ran over the hand with a light
transparent airbrush.

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June 2007

Artist insight Become a better artist!

TOP TEN
ANATOMY TIPS
Learning to draw anatomy is a lifelong process. Rebecca
Kimmel offers some wise words to get you started
1 BASIC SHAPES

6 SKETCH ANATOMY

Always think of big, basic shapes

instead of anatomy. The major forms
of the body the head,
neck, torso, pelvis, arms,
and legs can be broken
down into spheres,
cylinders and boxes.

Draw large with charcoal to understand

whole forms and gesture, but draw in a
sketchbook with ballpoint pen or pencil
to learn anatomy. Copy drawings from
various anatomy book. There is no
shortcut to understanding anatomy
and drawing: you have to practise .

2 LIFE DRAWING

7 MASTER COPIES

Its always best to draw from life. Try to

spend as much time working in front of
live models as you can. If
you cant draw from a life
model, do a series of selfportraits to ensure you get
a grasp of life drawing.

A master copy is using a great artists

work as reference, doing your best to
imitate that artists form and style. Use
your eye to develop forms on the page.
Studying master work enables you to
pick up how artists denoted form and
to incorporate this into your own work

3 OUTLINES DONT EXIST

8 IMAGINE

Think across form instead of in terms of

a forms outline. Outlines dont exist. Try
doing several cross-contour drawings,
in which you map the topology of form
by drawing what you might think of as
an ants tracks across the form. This will
give you a better feeling for depth.

Intersperse your drawings from

reference with drawings from your
imagination. Test yourself by seeing
what you know without using any
reference but whats in your mind.
Youll be surprised at what you know
well and what you dont.

4 STUDY GESTURE

Gesture is the heart of drawing

if the gesture has no life, then
the drawing wont either.
Gesture is about quickly finding
the essence of the pose. Its an
art form to capture something
quickly and accurately.

5 TIMED POSES
Draw and paint in timed
exercise sets of two, five, ten
or 15-minute poses. Usually a
rendered drawing turns out to
lack the life and vitality that a
fast sketch captures.
Remember that you are half
of the life in a life drawing.

9 BUILD A SINGLE VISION

Look at figurative work and build your library

of mental imagery. Find the Renaissance
masters that you love and analyse what makes
drawings and paintings work for you. Figure
out what you want to say as much as how
you want to say it, and combine your artistic
goals into a singular vision over time.

Test yourself by seeing what

you know using only whats in
your mind as reference
10 THINK NATURAL
Draw organic forms that arent
human, things that twist and have
human-like characteristics. I
wrote an article for the
CGSociety called Opposing
Curves, which describes how
offset curves interact to create
form. Notice how there are rarely
in nature curves which are
related to one another as
parentheses; rather curves in
nature are offset in a DNA/
double helix fashion. This
perspective will change the
way that you draw.

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