Alright probably like 90% finished but I’ve slowed down a lot reworking the same areas. This medium is tough and I’d rather move on to a second study than spend a ton of hours cleaning up small details so I’ll just post what I have now. One day I’ll finish it and post the final.
Pro tip: I couldn’t find out why the colors looked so blown out compared to GIMP and then realized my browser isn’t hard forced to sRGB. Can do it in Chrome with this:
chrome://flags/#force-color-profile
Holy shit that’s good. Did you do that from scratch?
we speak your name!
Yeah that is my first attempt at gouache painting or really any painting that isn’t digital. Basically a mashup of Menswear Dog with Jack Nicholson’s Joker.
Getting some of those subtle color gradations was just ridiculously tedious. I was working from a limited set of white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green. So I would mix what I thought would be plenty of a color only to run out and then have to try and recreate it. That was, uhh, difficult and probably not something you wanna do with this paint.
Gouache is just like watercolor except it’s opaque. You can add just a little water and have a thick, creamy consistency, or add a lot of water to the point where it’s extremely diluted and flows. The latter of those two options turned out to be very difficult to control. And since it’s water-based, if you want to paint over an area you messed up, the water reactivates the underpainting and fucks everything up. It also dries darker than the wet working color, so I was basically just guessing how much darker they’d dry and trying to wing in just enough light or dark to get a subtle change.
They use this paint a lot in advertising, illustration, and fashion design sketching and mock-ups because it dries quickly and to a matte finish, making it ideal for scan and photography. I learned about it reading the blog of the late sports illutrator Bill Vann (RIP).
https://billvannart.blogspot.com/
I found out about Bill Vann because my brother collects interesting beer distributor pieces for his mancave and I got him this lighted sign a few years ago. Saw it was signed BILL VANN and I liked that style–reminds me of vintage Atari game box cover art.
The fun part of this paint is making the strokes when it’s thick and creamy. I went for the good stuff so the pigments are quality and the colors pop. Playing around with beautiful colors and heavy weight watercolor paper is pretty relaxing. I’d recommend just painting some basic shapes like a Rothko and trying to get a nice color mix as a way to relieve stress and pass some time. Getting technical with it was frustrating because I don’t really know wtf I’m doing lol.
Cliffs: Gouache paint. It’s fun but not recommended for beginners. Like watercolors but opaque. Use heavy (watercolor) paper. Cheap synthetic brushes are the best for this.
Yeah to me that’s pretty incredible. I can’t even draw a stick figure well. I genuinely thought you must have many years of painting experience under your belt.
Another point is you don’t need supplies to make art. A computer is good enough. Phone is doable I suppose but probably limited. Pixel art is one of my favorites because it constrains you. Just need to a learn a few of the basic rules which are plastered all over the web. The genius of it is that at low resolution, every pixel matters a lot. You’ll respect classic video game artists way more. This one had tough shadows.
Chimpanzee With Green Eyeshade, 2014
You can make digital collages or hack up some clip art like David Rees or even make algorithmic art. The first piece of computer art I made (1991) was a Q-Basic program that rendered polygons and graffiti on the screen. Some of the visualizations for the data analysis scripts I write can be oddly pleasing. Here’s one showing all of the minutes played by every player in the NBA a few seasons ago:
Nah I was born with it and I’m not really sure I can explain it. Like I had no doubt I’d get a decent render down, it was just a question of how much I’d have to fight the medium. I’d feel the same way about any other medium.
But regarding stick figures, to that I’d say you don’t even want to draw them. Try to do something you find aesthetically appealing that is within your ability and is original. It helps to learn the basics like value, perspective, that sort of thing, but you can pick it up along the way. Drawing itself is more of a fine motor skill that takes practice to develop. Painting is an illusion that’s more forgiving and more open to stylistic interpretation.
yass
<=== yaassss
So much good stuff in here. Including one on game design. All free courses now 
Lawnmower_Man, do you do commissions? Perhaps you’d start in these quarantined times for Unstuck patrons?
Eta: When I get two vastly different posters confused 
Hell of an honor to adopt that painting as your profile 
An hour is a pretty good target if you’re not used to riding a road bike.
It’s a pretty nice one, btw.
Lol, I hear you. Maybe try them under regular shorts/pants. They really do help.
Nice! Yeah, definitely grab a helmet and let 'er rip.
The Feds will be around in no time.
