The legends spent a lot of time and effort to make their work look fresh and loose. John Singer Sargent was known for painting and repainting things to get that fresh look. He would paint a hand several times. Painting it and repainting it again until he had the fewest brush strokes to convey exactly what he wanted in the most eloquent way. We can do the same digitally - visually "solve" difficult parts of image by overworking it if necessary, then go back and optimize and repaint it to look spontaneous. Ideally you do it fresh the first time, but sometimes you need that "solving" stage to figure out the best way to apply the paint most concisely. The end result a well-thought out image that looks spontaneous and loose.
I love how you have described this. I couldn't agree more - I think of this as faking looseness :) Ideally, it would look free and expressive the first time, but I end up spending extra time at the end of a painting to give that impression. Spending more time to make it look like I spent less time
I've only started using this technique in going in w/ the silhouette first and the results so far have been great. The resulting work definitely has that 'cool' factor that you mentioned. Thanks for expanding on this topic further, it's really helpful and informative :)
Ive been a pencil illustrator for many years , so when doing digital art i just grab a pencil brush, put my tongue out , and draw and draw and draw for hours on end. Then, after and half dead! I paint it! I decided to try using silhouettes after watching a video of yours. I did in 2 days what would have taken me 4 or 5 days easily ! You're giving us gold here! Thank you so much, both for the lectures and for the amazing paintings you create! So inspiring.
That is so awesome. I had a similar journey and it really was a lightbulb when I realized that there were all of these steps that I could skip! I'm glad this was helpful :)
I can see you're loosening up your paint strokes even compared to stuff you were doing just a few months ago! Always awesome to see the pros you love evolve and develop new aesthetics. Great video Hardy!
Hello Hardy! Thank you very much for your wisdom. I really like the vibe both your art and videos have, they have such comforting and dreamy quality and feel unique. Also music choice and pace of the video add to this effect. Thank you for what you are doing and wish you all the best!
This was spot on! Listened to it while eating. The part where you spoke about letting go and breathing life into the painting was by far the best advice ive heard. That and managing which parts of the drawing you render more
Hardy, I wish that you would talk more into the technical and practical aspects of the work, like what you are doing with the layers and what brushes you are using, etc.
Hi! I totally get that, I know most of these videos are pretty philosophical and fuzzy. I teach classes on the specific principles and techniques involved. This mech is actually part of a project tutorial kit - not trying to put on the salesman hat but if you're interested I can certainly link this.
Haha, super eloquent of me :) That should be the actual corporation name in James Cameron's next sci fi epic. Seriously though, I love how grounded his stuff is.
From my experience, Anthony Jones.. Robotpencil... was the 1st to talk about the 'cool factor'. Shape painting and the design are key IMO. I found personally if you don't get the design right from the start, it never works out. Ever.
Uuuuugh Hardy this design is so badass!!! I've been getting more into hard surface design, designing with big shapes and thinking about striking silhouettes first, bit the major thing i'm stuck on is color, and how to apply it without looking terrible. I love to render, but color is definitely a weak point that i need a lot of help with.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I know what you mean - color can be tricky with hard surface. One approach that I find pretty workable is going pretty achromatic to begin and then adding those pop colors with layer modes later. For example this one was mostly gray until those bright orange multiply layers and overlay blooms went in. Good luck!
So unbelievably gorgeous, Hardy. If I were at home, I would have immediately rushed to my laptop to start creating something myself. However, for now, I'll just let this video continue to inspire me for tomorrow's work instead 😉
Pexels or unsplash are great photo libraries that are free to use. If I’m just looking for images to get inspired or study for details, I just surf Pinterest.
Thanks. That's something that I made. It's just a diamond shape that I squashed flat. I think pen pressure is set to size jitter. Other than that, it has a few texture dynamics.
Thanks for yet another great piece and the explanations. TO me personally, the hardest part is those "loose finishing strokes" where I have to literally destroy the edges I've been working on so hard. I find myself at ease when I paint things with traditional media - this way I don't have to imitate brushstrokes and can concentrate on the details. But I am limited to the resolution of the canvas and cannot use liquify, lol. How do we get the best of both worlds?!
Great question and very tough to answer. I'm not sure if there is a way to really get the best of both worlds. I think that trying to keep things loose and textured takes extra work in digital art BUT you certainly get those nice benefits of all of the safety nets and ways you can rework everything. My advice is to grab a few of your paintings that you like and make some copies of the flattened final product and then just experiment with fun ways to mess them up :) It's actually really fun and you might bump into a method that you want to apply to future paintings.
Yeah, I definitely edited this one down since it was such a long project. I can definitely include that in a future machine video, but it's basically just adding multiply and overlay layers to add those color accents.
I definitely spend some time getting inspired by real world stuff and other art before getting started. Kind of shopping for ingredients to reassemble over my own shapes. From there it's shape carving (following a formula that works really well) and trying to evoke things like human posture in this case.
may we see your old portfolio one day? i doubt you putting time in the rendering would make the piece less "alive". Maybe other factors you mentioned in the video is needed too, to make a cool piece. I think i get what you mean by saying it's not about rendering things to death. Just putting this here ,hoping to see your disection of your old works.
Oh that's an awesome idea. I do a bit of that in my academy curriculum (just showing examples of what I thought a concept artist should do and how I later learned how wrong I was), but that would make for a great YT video. Thanks!
The legends spent a lot of time and effort to make their work look fresh and loose. John Singer Sargent was known for painting and repainting things to get that fresh look. He would paint a hand several times. Painting it and repainting it again until he had the fewest brush strokes to convey exactly what he wanted in the most eloquent way. We can do the same digitally - visually "solve" difficult parts of image by overworking it if necessary, then go back and optimize and repaint it to look spontaneous. Ideally you do it fresh the first time, but sometimes you need that "solving" stage to figure out the best way to apply the paint most concisely. The end result a well-thought out image that looks spontaneous and loose.
I love how you have described this. I couldn't agree more - I think of this as faking looseness :) Ideally, it would look free and expressive the first time, but I end up spending extra time at the end of a painting to give that impression. Spending more time to make it look like I spent less time
The cool guy himself teaching us how to make cool designs? I’m in. Nice work!
Haha. Yep, that's me alright! :) Thanks man.
I've only started using this technique in going in w/ the silhouette first and the results so far have been great. The resulting work definitely has that 'cool' factor that you mentioned. Thanks for expanding on this topic further, it's really helpful and informative :)
That's awesome to hear! I love that technique - you just kind of scratch around until something just clicks into place.
Ive been a pencil illustrator for many years , so when doing digital art i just grab a pencil brush, put my tongue out , and draw and draw and draw for hours on end. Then, after and half dead! I paint it! I decided to try using silhouettes after watching a video of yours. I did in 2 days what would have taken me 4 or 5 days easily ! You're giving us gold here! Thank you so much, both for the lectures and for the amazing paintings you create! So inspiring.
That is so awesome. I had a similar journey and it really was a lightbulb when I realized that there were all of these steps that I could skip! I'm glad this was helpful :)
I can see you're loosening up your paint strokes even compared to stuff you were doing just a few months ago! Always awesome to see the pros you love evolve and develop new aesthetics. Great video Hardy!
Thanks man! I really appreciate that and thanks for noticing :)
This looks so good! The lighting is perfect :D
Awesome - thank you!
i don't know what was more beautiful, you talking about art or the painting.
Oh wow, thank you :)
Hello Hardy! Thank you very much for your wisdom. I really like the vibe both your art and videos have, they have such comforting and dreamy quality and feel unique. Also music choice and pace of the video add to this effect. Thank you for what you are doing and wish you all the best!
Thank you so much!
"Edgy" and "Cool" video! Many thanks, Hardy for these great points of good design!
I'm so glad you liked it :)
This was beautiful, almost emotional. I loved it, thank you for the great content!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for letting me know
This was spot on! Listened to it while eating. The part where you spoke about letting go and breathing life into the painting was by far the best advice ive heard. That and managing which parts of the drawing you render more
I'm so glad to hear this! That was such a lightbulb moment for me and made such a different in how much I was enjoying and being satisfied by my work.
Seriously great teacher. Sometimes I just listen to your videos as a soothing kind of exercise lol.
Oh thanks :) I think I sound like I got hit with a tranquilizer dart but I appreciate it :)
@@fowlerillus lol
Amazing video! I love to see your process too! Keep the great work on, Hardy!You are my new friend and artist teacher😍
Thanks! I'm so glad you liked it. Cheers :)
Hardy, I wish that you would talk more into the technical and practical aspects of the work, like what you are doing with the layers and what brushes you are using, etc.
Hi! I totally get that, I know most of these videos are pretty philosophical and fuzzy. I teach classes on the specific principles and techniques involved. This mech is actually part of a project tutorial kit - not trying to put on the salesman hat but if you're interested I can certainly link this.
Great video as always
So many learnings in a single video thanks for posting the quality content
My pleasure and thanks for checking it out
Your channel is so COOOLL thank you for your tutorialsss
Glad you like them!
Amazing video!!
"Space faring profit company" got me so goood ahahaha
Haha, super eloquent of me :) That should be the actual corporation name in James Cameron's next sci fi epic. Seriously though, I love how grounded his stuff is.
Thanks man this motivated me and made me smile a lot
Glad to hear it Exactly what I was hoping for.
From my experience, Anthony Jones.. Robotpencil... was the 1st to talk about the 'cool factor'. Shape painting and the design are key IMO. I found personally if you don't get the design right from the start, it never works out. Ever.
Yes! He is such a legend. I agree with your point too - no amount of cool rendering can save a flawed design.
Amazing video! I love to see your process too! Keep the great work on, Hardy!
Thank you! Will do!
Wow your art is amazing, keep up the amazing work! 💖🙌✨
Thank you so much 😀
This piece is SIIICK!!!
Thank you! Glad you like it
Uuuuugh Hardy this design is so badass!!! I've been getting more into hard surface design, designing with big shapes and thinking about striking silhouettes first, bit the major thing i'm stuck on is color, and how to apply it without looking terrible. I love to render, but color is definitely a weak point that i need a lot of help with.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I know what you mean - color can be tricky with hard surface. One approach that I find pretty workable is going pretty achromatic to begin and then adding those pop colors with layer modes later. For example this one was mostly gray until those bright orange multiply layers and overlay blooms went in. Good luck!
the man the myth , the legend
😎
It helps a lot to watch your process, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Damn, That looks incredible. Thanks for this
Thank you! Glad you liked it.
Wooooow sooo cool I love it
Thanks! Glad you like it.
awesome video, ty! I plan on working these concepts into my games
I'm so glad! Thanks for letting me know.
So unbelievably gorgeous, Hardy. If I were at home, I would have immediately rushed to my laptop to start creating something myself. However, for now, I'll just let this video continue to inspire me for tomorrow's work instead 😉
Thanks Bas! That's so nice to hear. I hope you're doing well!
@@fowlerillus Living the life!
Very cool!
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
It looks nice... one question, where can you find the finishing references? images for references...
Pexels or unsplash are great photo libraries that are free to use. If I’m just looking for images to get inspired or study for details, I just surf Pinterest.
what's that square shape brush name? it looks so cool for blocking and sketching!!
Thanks. That's something that I made. It's just a diamond shape that I squashed flat. I think pen pressure is set to size jitter. Other than that, it has a few texture dynamics.
Very helpful advice and drawing process!
Sweet! Glad you liked it.
Thank you for such great content!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for yet another great piece and the explanations. TO me personally, the hardest part is those "loose finishing strokes" where I have to literally destroy the edges I've been working on so hard. I find myself at ease when I paint things with traditional media - this way I don't have to imitate brushstrokes and can concentrate on the details. But I am limited to the resolution of the canvas and cannot use liquify, lol. How do we get the best of both worlds?!
Great question and very tough to answer. I'm not sure if there is a way to really get the best of both worlds. I think that trying to keep things loose and textured takes extra work in digital art BUT you certainly get those nice benefits of all of the safety nets and ways you can rework everything. My advice is to grab a few of your paintings that you like and make some copies of the flattened final product and then just experiment with fun ways to mess them up :) It's actually really fun and you might bump into a method that you want to apply to future paintings.
dude i love your vids, can you teatch us how you use your masks?
Thank you! Yes, I can definitely do a video on that. Thanks for the suggestion
thank you so much
You're welcome!
can you perhaps show the process from greyscale to color/early rendered image? there is a big skip between those steps lol
Yeah, I definitely edited this one down since it was such a long project. I can definitely include that in a future machine video, but it's basically just adding multiply and overlay layers to add those color accents.
Oh man I miss Titanfall.........................................Oh and yeah, the video is awesome, I'm just here wondering if my Ronin and Ion miss me
I know! Me too :)
mate im begin, whats the brush
Brushes are available for free in the Freebies channel of our Discord community which can be joined here www.digitalpaintingstudio.com/community
Do you use any kind of reference while making these robotic arts? Or do you make it straight from you mind?
I definitely spend some time getting inspired by real world stuff and other art before getting started. Kind of shopping for ingredients to reassemble over my own shapes. From there it's shape carving (following a formula that works really well) and trying to evoke things like human posture in this case.
may we see your old portfolio one day? i doubt you putting time in the rendering would make the piece less "alive". Maybe other factors you mentioned in the video is needed too, to make a cool piece.
I think i get what you mean by saying it's not about rendering things to death.
Just putting this here ,hoping to see your disection of your old works.
Oh that's an awesome idea. I do a bit of that in my academy curriculum (just showing examples of what I thought a concept artist should do and how I later learned how wrong I was), but that would make for a great YT video. Thanks!
El gato
Si
@@fowlerillus in the negative space.
@@LiamRomanis Oh my god! Now I get it. I swear that was unintentional. Haha-amazing!