Friday, May 07, 2010

Episode 64--Are we done yet??

This week we join the North American crew as they discuss a listener's question about knowing how to tell when one's work is done.
Then we are whisked away to Europe for the Foreign contingent's weighty discussion of improving one's work while in the throes of freelance professionalism.

http://mchughstudios.com/ninjamountain_podcast/episode_64.mp3

Make sure to Subscribe to the Ninja Mountain Podcast, or be prepared for a visit from Dark Lord Baggadix!

The Visual Artist Podcast Network

8 comments:

Gordon Napier said...

Funny that Whistler comes up in the context of finished work. Whistler actually sued the famous critic John Ruskin for suggesting that Whistler's work was not finished enough. The trial proceedings were quite amusing and farcical.

Patrick McEvoy said...

Yes! I think I may have mentioned a quote from that trial in the past (probably the episode where I recommended a Whistler book) where the lawyer from the other side asked why Whistler charged so much for half a days work. And Whistler said (paraphrasing) "No, I'm charging for the experience of a lifetime". Great stuff. :)

And the amazing thing is, all of this was over "Noctourne in Black and Gold", arguably one of the greatest paintings of the 19th century, both historically and technically. An amazing chapter in art history indeed.

Anonymous said...

Dark Lord Baggadix: let me tell ya, Internet, he showed me his STAFF OF STRIKING +9, and my, was it POTENT!

Alonso said...

The Euro brigade was talking about not having a shortcut for chainmail. I assume you've seen Daarken's trick and it doesn't fit your style, but just in case you haven't, here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJL-HGjqsRo

(hope those links work)

Jan said...

@Alonso: I think Jon mentioned making custom brushes. It is a bit of a shortcut, but it doesn't work well for large pieces of mail, like if you have a whole hauberk showing. You have to consider perspective and foreshortening on the mail links, otherwise it's going to look flat and like a texture.

The brush itself can't do that (yet?), so sometimes it's almost equal to painting all the links by hand. A good compromise would be custom brush for areas directly facing the viewer and hand drawn links for the perspectively warped areas, but it's difficult to make the hand drawn ones look like the custom brush. :/

Anonymous said...

I try to draw a shirt, or a pennant, or part of a horse, over any chainmail that happens to be called for. Either that, or I put only part of the chainmail in sharp focus, with the rest implied, or lost in shadow.

The page rate is probably going to be the same, whether I draw just enough chain links to suggest that an entire suit of mail is there, or every single one. Also, a texture as busy as chainmail can be needlessly distracting, so it often looks BETTER, if you avoid overwhelming the eye with too much of it. (That really depends what you're going for, though.)

Patrick McEvoy said...

That's pretty much exactly how I do chainmail, only *I* stole it from Kieran Yanner! ;)

Jon Hodgson said...

Hey, here's a very nice mail brush for Painter X, amongst some others: http://morgalahan.deviantart.com/art/My-Painter-Brushes-131880949