Digital drawing - Jensen

[amberdreams]

Ok, so I thought I do another digital drawing, of a promo shot of Jensen.  Now I have a question.
Digital over painting/over-drawling.  Is it cheating or is it a valid art form?  I feel like it's cheating, but maybe I'm being too sensitive.

Comments

[yohkobennington.livejournal.com]

Awesome. And I dont think it's cheating xD

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Heh heh, thanks...
....But it's like using tracing paper, isn't it?

[yohkobennington.livejournal.com]

Kinda. But if that is going to help you learn more about drawing then it's not cheating. Or if you do it over your own sketch, totally not cheating too.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

If you do it over your own sketch.... you know when I was a kid I used to do that all the time!

[geckoholic]

It looks amazing, BB!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Aw thank you ♥

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Wow, the whole 'cheating' conversation is a biggie in the art world. No, I don't think it's cheating as long as you don't lie about it. It's not uncommon for illustrators (including professionals) to do a quick sketch over a photo to get basic proportions established, then draw by hand from there. That being said, it's more difficult to actually learn and digest the information when you're tracing.

I've always encouraged a combination of photoreferencing and pulling from your imagination. You'll get a lot of accuracy using photos (sometimes to the exclusion of creativity), but your innate style shines through more endearingly when you don't use the photo as a crutch. And sometimes there's photographic distortion that can be copied by accident, which can make anatomy and perspective look wonky. That's when you have to put the photo aside and trust your own eye.

All this being said, I love your lines! And if you're having fun? That's more than half the battle!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It's funny that I am only just learning that what I would have called 'legitimate' artists would use photo references in that way, when I was always brought up to draw freehand because tracing was cheating.

That being said, I did used to trace sometimes, and thought my freehand drawing improved afterwards - something to do with training the hand and eye to look for the right proportions, maybe?

I guess I get frustrated with my 'endearing' quirks as they feel too much like inaccuracies!! (Though I am happy to see other people drawing endearingly - I like it a lot when other people do it!)

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Well, I can see why they might hesitate to totally condone tracing for students, but here's a list of artists who have done it to some degree:
~Maxfield Parrish
~Norman Rockwell
~Donato Giancola
~Picasso
~Degas
~Mucha

There's a saying: "An artist's style is not about what they do best, it's about their mistakes." Or something like that. Work back and forth, just as you're doing! Do photostudies, then try to draw from imagination or w/o tracing. You don't have to show the ones you don't like to the world, but it all contributes to PROGRESS. :D

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Ah now I can believe that Mucha did - there was a photographic quality to his work (which I always loved) without any hint of photorealism.

Anywho, thanks for all the cheerleading; I aim to continue misbehaving!

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

That's gorgeous. Freckles on top of freckles on top of freckles.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

FRECKLES RULE.

[nanoks.livejournal.com]

You have an amazing talent!! His eyes are so captive!!

Stunning job, sweetie!!!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thanks Kat :D

[marciaelena.livejournal.com]

Stunning, bb! And don't listen to anyone who tells you that tracing is cheating, it's a valid technique.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Ha ha It was me telling myself so that's ok, I can ignore me!
And thanks a lot :D

[dolnmoon.livejournal.com]

OMG Amber... so NICE.. gorgeous, spot on. I love it. His eyes are so expressive and love the mouth. Freckles are a definite plus.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It's amazing what a little highlighting will do for the eyes! Thanks Dol ♥

[reapertownusa.livejournal.com]

It annoys me when people do paint overs and don't admit it only because folks striving to get into art are given a false impression of what a freehand drawing looks like and can get frustrated with their own attempts, but I think it's fine if they mention. And this isn't a paint over like I've seen some others do - where they're actually just doing brush work on the photo itself.

This looks like a piece done with a grid, which isn't uncommon, especially in portrait art. My style preference is for realism and I was taught to do portraits via grids, which is what I still do. As long as you're using the original photo(s) just to get the correct proportions, paint overs like the gorgeous example you have here aren't fundamentally any different than the grid technique and are definitely still fully valid as art.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That is an interesting point about using grids - I never did that either. I am starting to wonder what on earth I got taught at school in my art lessons now! One thing our art teacher was really keen on for his own work was projecting colour slides onto big sheets of hardboard to work from in building up his acrylic paintings of boats. I used that technique once, it was strange.

My style preference is realism too (and yes, I get frustrated drawing freehand when I can't get something as realistic as I want it)

What I did with this one was had the photo as my original layer, did a sketch outline of the face and areas of shading (which I'd darkened on the original photo to increase the contrast) then got rid of the photo layer and drew/shaded from there just using the photo as reference. So I don't know if that is a digital 'paint over' or not really.