Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Come and Get it Travel Time


Traveling action

Visual Vocabulary for Comic Books, Graphic Novels and Comic Strips

When you have big travel, keep it consistent with the compass or geography.

If your story requires an airplane to travel from San Francisco to New York, then draw your plane traveling from west to east (left to right).

Keep travel in your story consistent. If your chase scene starts off left to right, then maintain the action in that direction until you show a definite change of direction.

If a character is going into a building, we don't need to see the whole process as in film. At a minimum we show character leaving current location, exterior shot of destination and character has arrived - this may be inside an office or on the roof for example.

to be continued…

read next - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books Part 1
previous - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books


Time to Catch Up

I got side tracked from this, so here are links to what I've discussed so far:

Layout, Panels and Grids

Balloons and Captions

Sound Effects

Next I'll be discussing:
Glyphs

read next - Come and Get it Travel Time
previous - Gentleman Color Theory

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.


copyright 2013 H. Simpson

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Drawing with The Blob and Calli - Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

Vector Drawing Part One


Tutorial showing how to draw and create brushes using using Adobe Illustrator software. How to use the pen tool, blob brush and calligraphic brush.




Remember to share this knowledge with others. Publicly follow so they know you like it. +1 it.

to be continued…

Keep reading and +1 this blog. Share with your friends. Please comment.

Remember… Just Create!

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

Monday, May 6, 2013

Gentleman Color Theory


Color Theory

Knowing color theory is important to give direction and focus to your compositions. There are three elements you must know to create color harmony. If there is no harmony, then one or more of these is out of whack.
  • Hue - The name of the color. (Red, Yellow Blue, etc.)
  • Value - The light or darkness of a color. (Dark Red, LIght Red, etc)
  • Intensity - Level of brightness or darkness of a color. The amount of light reflected or transmitted

Color

Red, yellow and blue are the  primary colors for ink/pigment and red, green and blue are the primary colors for light. A primary color cannot be made from any other color.

Secondary colors are made form a combination of two primary colors.

Tertiary colors are made from a combination of three colors being primary or secondary

Color Descriptions
Saturation - The level of white, black or gray, ranging from neutral to brilliant.

Warm colors comes forward and cool colors recede.
Warm -Yellows, oranges, and reds.
Cool - Greens, blues, and violets.

Tint – Base color plus white.
Tone – Base color plus grey.
Shade – Base color plus black.

These are the basics you need to know to start making sense of color and to begin a  more thorough study of color theory.

That completes our brief look at composition and color theory.

Now, I also took a detour when I began discussing visual vocabulary, so I will get back to that.

BONUS LINKS for detailed information on Color Theory!

Basic Color Theory

Basic color schemes - Introduction to Color Theory

How to Master Color Theory

The fundamentals of understanding color theory

to be continued…

read next - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books
previous - Dark and Light

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Dark and Light


Use the previous exercises and widen the lines. Another opportunity for brush practice. Draw the wider lines in one stroke. There should be no line that stands out.  Whether there are few or many lines they must all contribute to the whole harmony.

to be continued…

read next - Gentleman Color Theory
previous - Practice, Practice, Practice

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

Friday, May 3, 2013

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice makes perfect.

Work with the 5 principles of Opposition, Transition, Subordination, Repetition and Symmetry as  long as you need to in order to understand them. Become aware of how they appear around you in nature and architecture. Practice all kinds of line arrangements. Don't just look at them, really SEE them.

SQUARES and CIRCLES

Create an enclosed shape and break it up into harmonious groups of smaller areas with lines. Squares and circles work best because of their unchangeable boundaries and allow you to focus on the interior lines. This is a good time to practice your brush work and draw lines of  equal weight.

Make some pencil roughs first and select the most harmonious and then ink them without a ruler.

The purpose is to create harmony.

RECTANGLES

Squares and circles only allowed you variations of the interior lines. Rectangles  now add many variations to the exterior lines.

Next… Dark and Light

to be continued…

read next - Dark and Light
previous - Composition is NOT...

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Composition is NOT...


What composition is NOT!

Composition is not about using the Rule of Thirds or the Golden Ratio. There is no rule or formula that will help you to create a great of even good composition. 

Rule of Thirds

Golden Ratio


You can't draw 9 squares of whatever and place objects on it and think you are going to have a good composition.

You must develop your eye to be sensitive to relationships and let that guide the procedure and form of the composition. Find examples in nature of Opposition, Transition, Subordination, Repetition and Symmetry. Draw them using line.

Copying nature will not help you to create a great of even good composition. 

Wow, I'm just full of good news, huh? So what is this all about then? It's about becoming sensitive to and developing an appreciation for harmony and spacing relations. Appreciation for the beauty and fineness of relations are something you must own. You can't get this academically and then execute what you've learned. It must become a part of you. The mystery of spacing is revealed to the sensitive eye and the appreciative mind.

Well, now that I've dropped that bomb on you, what's next?

Next… Practice.

to be continued…

What Is Composition, and Why Is It So Important in Drawing?

The Design Elements of Composing a Drawing

12 pro tips to improve your artistic composition

read next - Practice, Practice, Practice
previous - Crush the Composition

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.Keep reading and +1 this blog. Share with your friends. Please comment.

Remember… Just Create!

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

When you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Crush the Composition

Composition Déjà vu

I started composition and interrupted myself with perspective. So I'm going to do this again, which is good because I want to present it differently. So let's begin.

Composition is ultimately putting together lines, masses and colors to create harmony.

Line design and drawings are created with your tool of choice. Not much can be done until lines are arranged in a space.
Masses are created with light and dark spaces.
Color, in this case, is about the quality of the light.

The following 5 principles are the methods of creating harmony and all are dependent on the principles of proportion and good spacing. Spacing is the foundation of composition.

1. Opposition. Two lines meet to form a simple and extreme harmony.


2. Transition. Only a third line needs to be added to two lines which softens the opposition and an effect of unity is created. Radiating lines produce transition also.


3. Subordination. A complete grouping is formed with secondary objects attached to or related to a single dominating object.

Principal and subordinate are made in three ways:

a. Group around an axis, e.g. as leaf relates to stem or branches to tree trunk.

b. Radiating as in flowers and vault ribs.

c. By size, as in a group of mountain peaks ands tree clusters.


4. Repetition. Create objects again and again in a rhythmic order with equal or unequal intervals.


5. Symmetry. Place two equal lines or objects in exact balance.


Once again, there is much more to be studied on this subject and this is only an introduction.

to be continued…

read next - Composition is NOT...
previous - Gangnam Picture Plane

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

What Is Composition, and Why Is It So Important in Drawing?

The Design Elements of Composing a Drawing

12 pro tips to improve your artistic composition

copyright 2016 H. Simpson