What do you all study when you’re doing art studies??
Heeeeeyyy, I love me a good fucking STUDY
for environments:
shot deckis a massive database of film shots searchable by grading, tod, shot type, characters and content! Studying from films really helps improve your values and composition as the shots are usually very carefully constructed! It helps you find ways to maintain realism while still packing mood and narrative into your work!
master paintings! I recommend the orientalists like Jean Leon Gerome in particular their environments had great compositions and throw around a ton of colour and light! I like the modern artists Craig Mullins and Richard Schmid also, as there is so much impressionist lost detail and simplicity yet the environments feel so real.
The 1960s era disney background artists like eyvind earle are a masterclass in stylisation and simplification and make a wonderful choice for studies. (That being said modern disney visdev artists like Nathan Fowkes are just as fantastic to study for the same reason)
architectural photography can be a great resource too- I love to look for work by urbEX people!
thumbnailing and comp studies- trying to break down a photo into as few values as possible and still have it be readable- this really helps train your brain in the relationship between light exposure and local value.
Im begging you if doing it in colour is too hard to start with just do it in black and white!!!!! Greyscale painting is an essential step in learning to paint and understand lighting scenarios!! Colour is hard!!!
there is no substitute for going outside and doing some plein air painting- really looking first hand at how the light effects different materials and objects, how it bounces around, what edges your eye naturally loses in certain lighting scenarios. Just go outside and draw and try to notice stuff.
for characters:
figure studies!!!! from life if you can but if you cant there are a ton of great resources out there- personally I lovecroquis cafe and posespace, but if you can afford it (and are interested in intense anatomy study) then scott eaton has a site calledbodies in motion which is fantaaaastic. I think by now everyone knows nyx and senshistock, I also use a lot ofgrafit studio photorefs to study more complicated poses!!
Master studies (again). I particularly like to study the work of John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, Edwin Austin Abbey, Alphonse Mucha (his le pater compositions are out of this world), any of the New Rochelle artists (e.g rockwell, tom lovell, those 1950s illustrators REALLY knew their shit).
I literally have a resin skull on my desk that I’ve used to do quick studies with different lighting, just 10 mins a day back when I was doing it and it levelled up my skill a lot!.
Material studies are essential to leveling up your character painting!!! Look at fur, look at metal, look at the way something embroidered reflects light vs tooled leather!!
gesture studies! Look at a dynamic pose and see how you can exaggerate the motion in away that captures the sense of movement. This is tricky to start with but its really worthwhile especially when you combine it with other exercises. Mixamo is a cool library to look into for this kind of thing as you can pause and rotate the models in the middle of their actions!
breakdown the work of artists you admire- it’s ok to study other living artists (and try to reverse engineer how they are making their decisions) it’s a very effective learning tool! Really figure out what it is about that persons workflow you like, and how you might incorporate that element into your own. Obviously, dont post studies of living artists work!
The most important thing is that when you do a study you go into it knowing what you want to learn. Dont try to do everything at once! It’s ok to focus on the muscle structure and not give a damn about the gesture. It’s ok to focus on the texture of the fur and completely ignore the characters face.
The best way to keep doing studies is to find refs you like- things you are interested in and that capture your imagination! Follow your curiosity and remember that just a tiny little bit a day makes a huge difference.
Gunna take a sec to recommend the tutorials of Devin Korwin. He talks about how to study and how to breakdown art fundamentals in a way that is at once both very advanced but also digestible. I highly recommend his pdfs!
Sketchfab is a fantastic resource for environments/props. It’s a huge database of models people have made for fun that you can rotate and turn. I usually rough out a shot and then use sketchfab to approximate angles for vehicles, streets, interiors. While not always in the style I need it’s super helpful for learning perspective and adding depth to drawings. It’s fantastic to use in conjunction with film studies & shotdeck to make/study compositions for storyboarding.
yeah, this is my pet knight, she’s a rescue. i gave her a brief act of mercy and she followed me home and sat outside my door to guard me from intruders. she swore her undying allegiance to me in exchange for a gift of grace and now she sleeps at the foot of my bed and weeps when im late coming home. and yeah, she only eats wet food because she’s a snob, also.
Honored to be in @fiddlefordmcgucketzine it was so much fun to work on!! Please please please go check it out. Sales are open now til May 9th and the proceeds all go to the Appalachian Helene Response Fund <3
hey it’s probably a really good idea to download a copy of your Master Promissory Note since most of them stipulate that your loans are *specifically owed to the Department of Education* and if you intend to dispute the debt in the wake of the DoE dissolving that will be really good to have
log in and then go to My Documents and download a copy of it. i’m serious. if trump dissolves the DoE entirely it may make the debt uncollectable depending on exactly how they do it, and he’s too stupid to listen to lawyers that tell him when he’s breaking the law. worst case you have an extra PDF on your computer. best case your student loans go away because you signed a contract to pay DoE and no one else. go download a copy.
Love the spirit of this, but they will probably use a debt assignment to legally transfer the debt to a new entity.
Always a good idea to have a copy of your note, though! And the proper transfer process is described in the FDCPA (an act of congress), so if the new debt owner fails to provide appropriate notice, you may have relief options there. (Potentially dependent on the CFPB continuing to function, which it….might not…)
~not legal advice, just work experience in finance~
I stated this elsewhere but the Higher Education Act has specific language about when debt is allowed to be sold - they can’t just sell it at any time for any reason, and all the terms of the Act would still apply to the loan since in most cases the MPN stipulates as much (since the actual terms of a promissory note can’t be altered without consent even if the payee changes). Specifically, they cannot sell the debt if it “result[s] in any cost to the Federal Government”. Reassigning the loans to another agency would incur a massive cost since that agency would have to hire new personnel and build new infrastructure, eliminating the possibility of a sale within the government, and a sale to a private third party would made debt validation very tricky for that party since FERPA would prevent disclosure of a borrower’s SSN, student ID number (ergo, the account number), and the itemization of the debt without written consent, meaning in that scenario the borrower could most likely* refuse this disclosure, dispute the debt, and win pretty easily.
*not a lawyer
the bottom line, if they attempt to reassign your loans anywhere… REQUEST DEBT VALIDATION BEFORE PAYING A CENT.
