Photography and other creative stuff.

[PoppieSkat]

Thanks xordaii, Ill go add you at Deviant. And that picture never got done, its was an image I did for my photography course 2 years ago, but my computer crashed and all the backup files went missing so i couldnt ever really fade the mask into the skin like i intended =/

Will go check facebook as well dude =D

[Carlwashere]

I don't do any photography.
1. I don't have a camera that I personally own.
2. I don't have the ability to go out and take pictures on my own.

And asking my mom to drive me to all the awesome photo-esque places around here would be a big waste of her time. Not to mention annoy her.
What I can do, though, is draw. That's basically free. (I don't have any quality materials though)
But anyway. Here's what I've been up to. The eye on the right lost it's highlight when I was blending a bit. And it's extremely hard to erase that tiny. I really like how the left eye turned out. This one's not quite done yet. But I hope you guys like how it is so far!  

For anyone interested, the source photo is from stock.xchng
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1215436
(I don't think this is hotlinking, since it doesn't go directly to the picture, but if I'm wrong, please correct me.)

[caffeinated.joy]

I use a kneadable eraser for stuff like that. You can form it into the shape you need and erase only what you want.

It's looking good so far, but I do have one question. What pencil are you using? Do you use pencils of different hardness or just one type all the way through? Using different pencils will allow you to get a better range of depth to your drawing. If you used a softer grade pencil in the dark spots of her eyes and along the lash line if would really make her eyes pop. I'd show you some of mine so you could see what I mean, but I don't have a scanner and the only art I have scanned is some line work I did for a project. I'd love to see the finish project!

[Carlwashere]

Thanks!
I would love to get some better art equipment. But I haven't been at Michael's since I got some Prismacolor colored pencils.
So right now I'm pretty limited. A mechanical pencil loaded with #2 and a half decent eraser.

This drawings all #2 and regular printer paper. I need to ask my mom to bring me shopping. I could use that kneadable eraser.
I'll definitely try that out when I get my hands on a different grade pencil, the eyes are the focus of this piece! 
All the art experience I've had is 3 years of art classes in school. And since Exam week is over, I felt like relaxing by seeing how I am at drawing again.

[Hullabaloo]

All the photographs are great!. PoppieSkat, your pics are awesome. Carlwashere, you draw wonderfully. I'd like to post mine but I'm afraid they are not as good as yours by far. 

[caffeinated.joy]

The other advantage of using pencils of different hardnesses is you do can your blending with the pencils by going from hard (light) to soft (dark) instead of using a smudger, which can tend to make a graphite picture grey. I started drawing when I was a toddler. My mother used to sit me down and make me do it because my right eye was patched in an effort to make my left eye work. It didn't work, I'm still legally blind in my left eye, but I love to draw. I took art all throughout high school and took illustration and life drawing in college.

If you ever get a chance to get yourself some good drawing paper, do so. You'll notice an immediate difference in the way your artwork turns out. Oh, and here. I was clicking links (pricing art supplies for myself and always on the lookout for new toys ) and I found a site showing exactly what I was talking about regarding the effect you can get with using different pencils of different softness/hardness to do your work. Here. The onions were done with one pencil, but the first three pictures were done with a variety of pencil grades, and you can see the depth and range of light tone the artist achieved. You can't get that effect with one pencil.

[Carlwashere]

Thanks Hullabaloo!

Yup, It's official. I need to get my hands on REAL art materials. Those drawings are amazing.
I understand what you mean. It gets blended too much for my liking.

Your like my mom with the eye problem, except the opposite. Her right eye doesn't work and her left is perfect.

I wish I didn't have to drop art classes, but I wanted to double up on language and maybe a couple technical classes.
I'll grab some good art stuff the next chance I get. Then when I'm done, I'll upload here.
The fabric is going to be a challenge, I can see that.  

[Katie]

Wow... you drew that?! I'm amazed! That is the best drawing I have seriously ever seen, I mean... no one I know can even draw at all!

I love it! 

Okay, I found it!



I'll admit that one is by far not the best ^

the distant ones aren't any good... hrumph...





then again, maybe that's me being far too critical of my own work, I wouldn't know.





I did the focus really weird on this one:


Dead flowers outside the senior center:


nothing is photoshopped or anything by the way





the view of sunshine behind a fire hydrant is always quite a sight:




something a little bit... different about this shot... I'm drawn to it:








That's all for now... might post more later, or tomorrow

[Carlwashere]

Thanks Katie! I wonder why this thread wasn't in my unread posts thing...

I love fall! It's so beautiful! Your pictures definitely show that.
Are you by chance taking pictures with a digital camera? With those you gotta trick the camera into focusing, if you don't, it'll focus on whatever's in the middle.

I took some pictures of the foot of snow we just got here in Virginia (Not to mention spend a total of 20 hours outside this weekend  )
I love the snow. Maybe I'll post here a bit later with the pictures, but I have to admit, your pictures are better than the ones I took. 

[Katie]

Yeah, I know... I purposely focused all of those... But now looking back at the first one I wish I would have focused it more in the front on the big ones, with my camera it's all a matter of zoom... and settings 

I have a ton more to show, but I'd have to dig them up first...

I met my photography idol today, man, not only is she brilliant she's also beautiful!

[Carlwashere]

That would be who? I would like to know who the beautiful photographer is! 
I'm about to get kicked off, so I only got time to post one pic. I hope you like it!
More later, but I'm not to good with photography! 

[Katie]

Oh, I also forgot to say thanks! :O

That picture is pretty good, only suggestion I would have (and please don't take this the wrong way) would be clear up the focus a tiny bit on the shed in the back, gives the eyes something more to look at. I truly love this picture!

Her name is Wendy, she took some BRILLIANT pictures of my niece, and she is a close friend of my sister's she was at my niece's party today- I'll go find her site

[Carlwashere]

Yeah, I would have loosened the focus, but I was using a digital camera and I don't think it has anything other than auto-focus. Stupid digital camera lol.
I figured out that pressing it down, but not completely, let's it change it's focus without taking a picture. So I did that, but it was still completely focused on the branch. Because it was still autofocus. I wish my parents owned a dslr. (is that what you call those cameras?)

[Katie]

My camera is mostly auto-focus, but in "Scn" mode you can pick the setting, which changes it a little, it also has a small "face-focus" scroll on it, but it hardly works, and I'm still unsure of the direction to turn it... I do the button thing a lot, also different angles get different light, which can change the focus

[PoppieSkat]

Haha I feel so technical minded with you guys talking about auto-focus, since im doing a photography course I had to learn how to use the old film cameras with manual focus and aperture (depth of focus) since then ive never looked at photography the same again .. I kind of have to confess that Blak and White film photogrpahy has become one of my most favourite mediums =)

Carlwashere that picture is gorgeous .. Im too impatient to draw faces with pencils. haha