July 2007

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How to be a hack artist, or “amazing portrait secrets!”

July 28, 2007 in Editorials, Process, Techniques | No comments

Got your attention? Good.

The topic of cheating may surprise non-artists. Artists are those whiz kids that could pick up a pencil and bang out a realistic drawing in no time flat, while our stuff was barely above a toddler’s first scribblings, right?

Wrong.

A surprising number of artists actually do most of their work by “cheating.” I’ve seen quite a few methods, including:

  • tracing
  • gridding (grid method)
  • camera obscura
  • opaque projectors
  • carbon transfers
  • digital image printed directly on canvas

I could probably name more but these are the most common ways to cheat. Have you seen those Google Adsense ads saying “your portrait from your picture, just $75, done in 2 days?” Most of these places use one or a combination of these techniques. Amazing portrait secrets, indeed.

  • Tracing
    Tracing typically involves a “light table” that’s a piece of plexiglass (semi-opaque) on top of a box with a light in it. You place the original on the table and your paper above it, and you can typically see just enough (with some peeking under the top sheet to make sure you’re staying on track) to get a great likeness. Then you finish the shading, etc., on your own.
  • Carbon transfer
    A variant of tracing is using a carbon transfer. You place tracing paper over the original photo and trace, similar to the light table technique. You clearly don’t want the finished product on tracing paper, though, so you would then place a sheet of carbon paper between your final drawing surface and the tracing paper, then re-trace over your lines on the tracing paper, resulting in a perfect likeness on the high quality paper (or canvas, if you so choose).
  • Grid (gridding technique)
    Anyone that’s ever done a “Skillogram” in a crossword puzzle book will be familiar with this technique.
    Gridding is BY FAR the most common technique I’ve seen used and taught to students. Heck, it was even a project in an Art 101 class I took in college! What you do here is you either directly grid over your reference image or place an acetate/transparency sheet with a grid on it directly over the reference image (secure with tape or whatever). Then create a similar grid on your final surface, be it bristol board, sketch paper, canvas, or what have you. You can have equal size grids or you can have different sizes to enlarge (or reduce) the final image.
  • Camera obscura
    If you don’t know, a camera obscura is simply a box with a pinhole and a mirror, reflecting onto a glass surface. You can put a grid onto the glass surface to create a variant of the grid technique. Some examples don’t cite a grid, in which this is a variant of the tracing cheat. Some people will attempt to assuage their guilt by saying “it’s been proven that Vermeer used a camera obscura so why can’t I?” Others will say “the great masters would use grids to enlarge their work, so why can’t I?”

    • You’re not a “great master” of the Renaissance
    • The “great masters” spent a great deal of time learning to see properly, and learning to draw properly
    • The “great masters” used a grid on THEIR OWN WORK, not on a photograph
  • Opaque projector
    I don’t remember where, but I read an article about a portrait artist that used an opaque projector. He would take reference photos (his own or the client’s) and place on them on the projector, which would project onto his canvas. Here’s the trick: blur the projector entirely out of focus, then lay in your foundation colors. When dry, focus 1/4 of the way and paint in additional details. Do it again at 1/2 focus, 3/4 focus, then finalize at full focus. Voilà! Now you have a perfect likeness, even with subtle colors and maybe even a perfect replica of that difficult sofa pattern! Amazing portrait secret, huh?
  • Digital transfer
    A decidedly modern way to cheat at drawing is to simply send off your photo to a lab that will print the image onto a canvas for you. You just take it home and paint directly over the printed image with oil paint, pastels, etc. Another amazing portrait secret.

My thoughts on “cheating”
I’m sure that professional artists (defined as working artists that are making money) can pump out some fairly high quality images pretty fast using these techniques. These techniques probably make the artists a lot of money – and for a lot of people, making money as an artist is very fulfilling and they don’t mind the cheat. Then again, I’d hesitate to really call them “artists,” and I’m sure that’s bound to really irk some people that use these techniques. But that’s how I feel so take it for what it’s worth.

Does it matter?
We’ve all seen those Google ads promising a quick portrait in oils from your photo. I really believe that most people are completely satisfied with the end-product and really couldn’t care less about the method employed getting there. If it does matter to you, then look at some samples of the finished product compared to the reference photo. If the likeness is dead on, without a stray hair’s difference between the original and the final “work of art,” then move on. You can tell by the lifeless gaze, the carbon copy work if the artist employed a cheat as the primary method of doing the portrait. The old adage applies, “you get what you pay for.”

Okay, smartie-pants, how’s it done, then?
What *I* do is the sight-size method. I hold up my pencil and relate, compare, mark out guidelines, and gradually work up a portrait. It is not easy and it takes a long time. I dare say that because it takes a long time, I would have to be much better than I am now to do this as my full time job. And therein lies the hitch: do it the “right” way and create some beautiful works that you can really be proud of, or “cheat” your way to success and profits. Perhaps there’s a middle ground.

A great way to “learn to see” is to actually step back and do the basics, which I’ll cover in a future article, including blind contours, modified blind contours, full contours, and moving on to advanced stuff like doing the Bargue plates (you can see examples at the appropriately entitled site, Learning to See).

I’m going to do a series on “cheats,” actually employing each cheat that I can (I’m not sending off to have a photograph printed on a canvas) and hopefully I can get some people to post their results along with me. Barring that, hopefully someone tries the technique and gets hooked, wanting to learn how to do it right and sets off on their own art adventure.

How to use Linux to free your inner artist

July 24, 2007 in Editorials, Linux, Tools | No comments

I freely admit that I’m a Linux addict. I first tried Linux in 1995… fast forward to today and I’m running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn right now. Linux fills my art needs quite nicely, a fact that would be a deal breaker if it did not.

I’m not going to start a religious war about Windows vs. Linux vs. MacOS or anything like that. I’m just going to lay out what I do in hopes that you will also be able to live freely, knowing full well that artists aren’t exactly rolling in money.

First, you need an operating system. I heartily recommend Ubuntu. This is coming from an IT guy (that’s my day job) that has used all the major distributions and I’ve only moved to Ubuntu a few months ago – until then I was a die-hard Slacker. I still like Slackware, but with a full time job, a wife, a house, a boy, and trying to fit this blog in there, I just don’t have the time to tinker on my Linux box like I used to. I still use Slackware for my NAS (network attached storage) and it’s still on my webserver (until I migrate entirely to a hosted environment).

Anyway, I digress. The important thing is that I recommend Ubuntu.

Okay, now let’s get to the good stuff:

  • Photo editing: The GIMP (similar to PhotoShop – get the GIMPShop package if you can’t give up your addiction)
  • Vector graphics: Inkscape (similar to Adobe Illustrator – though Illustrator’s layer handling is superior)
  • Desktop publishing: Scribus (similar to Adobe InDesign, though I actually prefer Scribus and I’ve used both)
  • Web browsing: Firefox, duh
  • Simple photo alterations (cropping, lightening, etc.): Google Picasa. Works fantastically in Linux. ‘Nuff said.
  • Blogging: WordPress – it’s free, it’s open source, it’s written in PHP, it’s extensible, it’s themeable – what’s not to like?
  • Google Docs: you could use OpenOffice.org, but why restrict yourself? I wrote my business plan in Google Docs and now I can access it from anywhere, share it instantly with friends, even export directly to a WordPress blog (see previous post on that subject). Web-based apps are where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned

I have some customizations that are due to some limitations. My scanner (Canon Lide 80) is not supported in Linux (Canon, why have you let down countless Linux users? Do you not want to make money?). Fear not, brave Linux Artist, for there is an answer: VirtualBox. A lot has been written about VirtualBox, and a quick Google search for “virtualbox feisty” will get you what you need. Suffice to say that you can take that copy of XP that you’re not using any more and relegate it to a safe, virtualized haven on your Linux box. From there, I *can* run my scanner; simply install XP in VirtualBox and then download/install the Canon WIA driver, make sure the scanner is plugged in to a USB port, ensure that the scanner/USB device is enabled in VirtualBox, and then use your favorite image software – I recommend Irfanview. Next time I’ll be sure to specifically research a scanner that has a working Linux driver to avoid the middle man. (UPDATE 7/28/07: I found some scanners that work well in Linux, including relatives of my Lide 80 (Lide 25 and 60), on eBay for a decent price and this could potentially eliminate even my virtual Windows environment.)

**If you’re reaching this page from a Google search for getting your LiDE 80 working in Ubuntu, then I recommend either swapping for an LiDE 25 or 60 or using Windows 2000/XP inside VirtualBox**

Set up Samba file sharing in Ubuntu to share files between your virtual Windows and your Linux powerhouse (remember, Google is your friend), and you’re set. Now I can fire up XP, scan in my stuff, drag it over to Ubuntu, and then brutally kill Windows (bwahahaha!). Your mileage may vary.

I could also use my Canon EOS Digital Rebel (this time, Canon did NOT let me down – I absolutely LOVE this camera) and plug it in via USB instead of scanning, but scanning is much easier.

So there you have it – a quick run-down of using Linux for your art needs. Had I purchased the scanner with Linux in mind, I might be totally free of Microsoft but I’ll take the workaround until I stop being too cheap to buy another scanner.

10 steps to Learning to See

July 21, 2007 in Creativity, Process | No comments

I developed and occasionally teach a class I call “Learning to See.” This is my “beginning drawing” class, and I like to emphasize that this is NOT a class about learning to draw.

Huh? A beginning drawing class that’s not about learning to draw?

Yes, that’s right. Because I *can* teach you to see properly but I *cannot* teach you to draw properly. Seeing involves training your eye to look critically and to avoid what you brain is trying to decipher at about 100 billion cycles per second, vs. what’s really there. Drawing involves teaching your muscles and nerves to move your hand properly to make the mark.

To wit, the “art” is the thing in your head, not the thing on the paper. A million child prodigies in art don’t impress me. A genius that is struggling to get the ideas out onto paper does impress me – but even moreso if the stuff that hits the paper is actually good. The reason is that one is the savant, blindly putting things on paper with little intent, is akin to a photocopy machine. I’ve seen lots of kids that can whip out a fairly realistic likeness in no time flat. So what? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the candor? Where’s the insight? What are you trying to say? You can be a realist and still be expressive.

Okay, back to the steps to learning to see (not necessarily in order):

  1. Tell your brain to shut up. Really. It sits up there, all cocky and arrogant, saying, “hey, I know what an eye looks like, buddy!” and other such nonsense. Don’t listen.
  2. Nothing is real; the sooner you get over that, the sooner you can move on to Zen-like knowing that you don’t know, drawing by not drawing, and seeing by not seeing. I’m not saying that you have to bust out the Bodhi tree or anything, just accept some things. Richard Bach’s Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah is a good read if you’re struggling here.
  3. Lines do not exist. That’s right, they don’t. Edges don’t exist, either. All you really have are optical illusions brought about by shaped objects extending into perspective.
  4. Your eye, like your brain, will try to fool you. Ever seen those optical illusions where the room gets smaller and the man standing there appears to get taller, but he’s really the same size? Similarly, perspective doesn’t really “exist,” it’s just the way we see the world. Objects that are far away are not really smaller than close up objects (well, not necessarily). All that one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective stuff from high school art class is just a good way to represent the way our eyes see the world. Think about this: you have 2 eyes merging 1 vision, upside down, reflecting on a curved inner surface of your eye (sphere), trying to interpret a curved outer world (sphere of the earth). It’s amazing we get around at all!
  5. Now that we’re past the tough stuff, what you have to do is train your eye to move with your hand. That’s right, for every millimeter your eye moves over the surface of an object, your hand should do the same. This is why those “silly” scribble drawings a la The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study by Nicolaides and Drawing on the right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards are routinely prescribed. It’s been called many things, but “learning to see” is what I call it. You can also call it “muscle memory.”
  6. When you’ve graduated from those blind, modified-blind, and pure contour drawings, it’s time to move on up. Now you need to learn to see what most people call “form.” Form is simply a 2D representation of a 3D object, drawn to resemble the 3D object. You might know it as shading. The Renaissance artists used something they call “chiaroscuro,” which is just a fancy name for light and dark. Traditional chiaroscuro has five points that you should learn to recognize on objects: highlight, half tone, turning, reflected light, and cast shadow. I’ll cover these in a future post.
  7. Negative spaces are the area between things, not necessarily the object itself. Sometimes it’s easier to draw that weird horse-head shape formed by the arm of the chair and the seat of the chair than it is to try to get the curve of the wood just so. Either way, you can catch yourself making big mistakes if you pay attention to what you’re NOT drawing – specifically by drawing what you’re not drawing so your drawing comes out better. That’s a mouthful but it makes sense. Negatives will definitely save you in portraiture – you can find all kinds of negatives on a face, like around eyes, between bone structures, in the hair, etc.
  8. Measure twice, cut once. Or so say most carpenters and handymen that I know. And it’s sage advice, coming from years of experience. Now, in portraiture, you’re not going to have an expensive scrap of walnut if you make a mistake, but it’s good to get it done right by measuring because sometimes you just can’t seem to erase something fully. This means comparing, comparing, comparing. See my previous post about tuning a guitar to itself. You can measure relative distances, relative heights, relative widths, or relative angles. Or any combination therein. It’s up to you. Just keep your arm at a full arm’s length, not bent at all. Don’t forget to do that silly artist’s squint thing, too. It’s fun and people look at you funny.
  9. Color is always a challenge for artists new to portraiture. I can’t tell you how many glowing orange portraits I’ve seen with bright white eyes and teeth. Yikes, that’s not good unless you’re trying to write a new comic book about some sort of irradiated super hero. Use a viewfinder for colors – a little piece of cardboard with a small hole cut in it. Isolate a color and figure out that color. It’ll be tedious at first but your eye will get better and better at it. Pinky promise. An alternative is to digitize your picture and use the “eye dropper” tool (you can do this right in Firefox or use a free image editor like The GIMP) and then paint a large area with that color. Wow, you’ll wonder where that color came from and you’ll remember that you made the mistake of believing your eye and picked pink instead of that muddy mauve color for the lips. Remember, humans are really a semi-transparent yellowish bag wrapped around reddish muscles, with blue and red blood flowing through our bodies. Those colors mix together distinctly for flesh and transparent layers are the best way to get “glowing” skin.
  10. Lather, rinse, repeat

Stay tuned as I elaborate on these topics (with image goodness) in future posts.

How not to draw a portrait

July 20, 2007 in Editorials, Process, Tutorials | No comments

The [tag-tec]human head[/tag-tec] is pretty consistent across the ages, across gender, across race, etc. We’re all human (except those that aren’t) so we all fall within some pretty narrow confines.

Take, for example, the eyes. We all have 2. Okay, we’re all supposed to have 2. You may have heard that the head is “5 eyes” across – and that’s a good rule of thumb, but drawing a portrait from rules of thumb will almost always leave you with a lifeless scribble that you’d rather bury at the bottom of the trash can. Under some stuff.

The point? Don’t draw a portrait based on what you think it should be because your 10th grade art teacher told you it had to be that way. Or because you read some drawing book and it seemed to work for that guy. Well, you’re not that guy. And neither am I.

So how do you do it properly? I’d like to preface a future post – about “cheating” when doing portraits, always a hot topic – by loosely quoting a phenomenal artist, Virgil Elliott, who said that, yes, you can “cheat,” but by not learning to see properly in the first place, you’re just cheating yourself and you’ll never really become a great artist. He said that, or words to that effect, on WetCanvas, when the topic of “cheating” came up for the umpteenth time.

“Properly” drawing a portrait (or painting one, for that matter), involves roughing in based on what you know to be true about proportion and the human head in general with what you actually see. Yes, you have to actually look, examine, re-examine, and maybe even erase and start over a bunch of times.

Drawing a portrait is a lot like tuning an instrument to itself. What I mean by that, for you guitarists out there, is if you don’t happen to have perfect pitch or access to a pitch pipe or tuner, you can adjust one string so that it’s close and then adjust the other strings to that string. Thus, the guitar isn’t at concert pitch but it’s close and it’s in tune with itself so most people (especially me) would never notice the difference.

Extrapolating, if you keep your portrait relative to itself, measuring, re-measuring, erasing, etc., until you’ve captured the nuances, and keep the rules of thumb on the back burner, you’ll actually come out with a really good portrait. I think that this portrait done for a group session on WetCanvas came out very good (though I see all the mistakes every time I look at it) even though I almost completely ignored all the stuff I learned about the head and just told my brain to “shut up and draw.”

Portrait of young woman

More to come on cheating, turning off your brain, learning to see, proportions, and other topics intimated in this post.