Critique Corner - Persephone by Maria

For today's Critique Corner, we have an image by Maria Arnt.  Check out some of Maria's other work before we get started!

 

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The image up for critique is "Persephone". Maria's main concerns were on the use of line width and anatomy, specifically the eyes.

The paintover.

Sketch Diary: Persephone Queen of the Underworld

Recent days of self-critique have had me determined to push my fundamental skills even more this year.  To that effect, CGhub's CharacterForge challenges have proved a really fun and loose way to play around with a predetermined concept for my own whims (while also giving me the incentive of a deadline).  The latest CharacterForge challenge was to design Persephone Queen of the Underworld.

There was just enough physical description given that I had a few concrete elements to work with while the rest was left up to my imagination.  The kidnapping of Persephone and the turning of the seasons has always been a myth near and dear to my heart, so I couldn't resist trying this out!  It began with thumbnailing to work in the Challenge's requirement that the image be laid out as a book cover.

REVIEW: Noah Bradley's The Art of Freelancing

During random  internet exploration of the fabulous critique site, WiPNation, I stumbled across a blog post featuring an article about Noah Bradley's Art of Freelancing.  I was instantly intrigued by the prospect of learning 'what the art schools didn't teach' and decided to give Noah's video a try after seeing a positive review at ArtOrder and listening to the free preview of the first 30 minutes posted on the site.

I was sold in that first 30 minutes with Noah's very up front approach to the hard truths of what freelancing really is.  It is oftentimes hard work, sleepless nights, and low pay, but most importantly one CAN make a living as a freelancer, if one is persistent!  Noah addresses commonly asked questions from novice freelancers, including but not limited to:

Critique Corner - "Tiger" by Kim

For the very first post in my 'Critique Corner' column, we have a piece by Kim Ravenfire M.  Have a sampling of Kim's other work, for starters:

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The piece up for critique today is "Tiger":

Kim's main concerns with this piece were basic proportions and how to make her images look more realistic in Photoshop.

The paintover:

In Need of Critique?

Well it seems I'm at a sort of impasse with this journal.  Lately, I've been returning to the basics to try and work on a few problem areas of my own art, which means working on many life drawing and technique studies.  I don't really have anything polished enough to share, so sharing of art processes has been less of late, which leaves me with only reviews, analysis, and advice to post here currently.  I'd love to get back to the Games as Art series, but that would mean I'd need to make time to play (or replay) the games I intend to analyze, which will have to go on the backburner till I have more time.  Never fear, for once I have a few more collections of studies, I'll certainly share them here along with what I've been learning!

For now, I'm wondering if any of you might be interested in a critique feature?  Do you have any images you're working on that have you stumped?  Or are you just looking for feedback to help improve a particular piece?  I'd love to help you get some extra exposure here with my readers in addition to critique, while also helping me to sharpen my visual problem solving skills.  It is my firm belief that to grow as an artist, critique (and self-critique) are some of the most important skills we can develop!  Practicing giving critique would be helping me out as much as it would be helping you out.  I can also put a few of your other finished pieces in the post so it's a nice little feature of your art, in addition.

Where critique posts are concerned, I would be doing a complete in-depth description and paintover/redline based on what kind of critique you're looking for in the piece.  I am hoping to do this at least once a month, if not more (should I get enough images to critique).  This is a nice option for those of you who do not feel quite ready for the full portfolio review just yet and would rather concentrate on a single image.  Be warned though. This is for serious critique only. If you have a fragile shell, you may not want to apply as I intend to be very straightforward with constructive criticism.

For a sample of how my critiques usually go, you can peek at my critiques on DeviantART.

TO APPLY:  Send an email to angela (at) angelicshades.com with the subject line "Critique Corner" including the following in your message:

• Your art in an attachment (or a direct link to the work)
• A brief description of the kind of critique you're looking for (focus on anatomy, composition, etc.)  If you're unsure, you can just say 'seeking general critique'.

FOLLOW UP: If you'd like me to feature your completed work that was featured previously in Critique Corner, feel free to send me a link to it once it's done and I'll feature it in a future Critique Corner post!  It'd be fascinating to see how you implemented the solutions suggested in these posts, or springboarded onwards to your own ideas.

So tell me. What else would my dear readers like to see in this blog?  What are your favorites posts or subjects so far?  I'd love to know so I can keep talking about what you guys want to hear!

Book Review: The Art of Shadowscapes Tarot: Minor Arcana

Some of you might remember my review of The Art Shadowscapes Tarot: Major Arcana.  I've had the companion Minors book for some time and finally have a moment to put the spotlight on this colorful tome!  Minor Arcana follows a similar formula to the last Tarot collection, with the final paintings presented after a page or so dedicated to the developmental process of each piece.  The final paintings, all beautiful watercolors, are taken from the Tarot deck developed by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

The creative process of the artist presented in this book has always been the strongest selling point for me.  Pui-Mun combines a healthy love of mythology intermingled with the thought processes which went behind the revisions of each piece before it reached its final stage.  She discusses what was working with each piece (and what wasn't), which is perhaps the single most useful thing you can learn as an artist!

Minors takes this process a step further by also going into the creation of the Tarot deck as a whole.  This is especially helpful for those of us who might be planning our own Tarot decks, or any large series of images, on our own. For instance, Pui-Mun discusses establishing a particular color palette and defining symbols to characterize each particular suit so that each suit has a unity of theme and appearance threading through it that allows it to differ from the other suits.

Another advantage of this discussion is that once you understand Pui-Mun's thought processes on numerology, color, and symbols, it makes for an interesting second look at each final painting.  After the book, I was able to look at each painting in a whole new light to pick out the threads that bound each suit, which is quite a treat if you own the Tarot cards as well!

All in all, I would say have this book in your library because it's beautiful, artist or no.  For The Artist, this book is a great learning tool for the important skills of brainstorming, developing sketches, and learning to tie narrative themes into your work.

You can purchase this book directly from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law at her website.  Be sure to get the sketch option to make this even more of a lovely addition to your collection and to show your support of the artist.  I did and it's worth every penny!

A preview of a few pages of the book:

More at Pui-Mun's website.

Escaping the Void: Loneliness and the Artist

This particular topic has been nagging at me for the longest time.  I've talked about Work at Home Blues when I first started the freelancing life.  Now, a few years into this, I'm realizing some important things via introspection and talking to others in the same business.  Prolonged time alone is not conducive to creativity.

For as much as I thought at the beginning 'hey it would be cool to be left alone to work on all these projects', that just has simply not been the case.  I've had enough time to sit and think about what really drove my creativity when I was younger and that was being in the presence of like-minded people (artists and otherwise) during my college years.  We did plein air painting in class, where we would sit outside and reproduce a drainage ditch in watercolor.  Painting outdoors got us out of the monotonous classroom and forced us to think about the colors of the world and how they related to the colors on our palette.  The art students and crazy anime club people had a lunch table where we'd all gather, chat, and draw en masse every single day.  Talking to other artists got us excited about our ideas, and oh the jokes that pervaded those sacred lunchtime hours!

But college days are done and after those golden years of childhood come to a close, we are left to our own terrible devices.  There is no teacher over our shoulder saying 'today you will continue to study and improve your work!'.  There's no one to drag you outside and make you observe your own world and how it can improve your art.  It's so tempting to stay inside and avoid going out because you're going to 'get more work done' or 'gas costs money'.  I find myself making those excuses on a daily basis and it's led to a lack of motivation and inspiration more than once.