Jason Maranto

ZBrush 4 - low-poly geometry with high-poly polypaint workflow demonstra...

2011-08-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

The importance of Bridgman.

2010-10-10T18:03:00.003-04:00

George B. Bridgman wrote several books on the subject of life drawing, all of them excellent. But they are not books for simply reading (though they can be read), rather they are books that should be drawn from. If you simply look at the art in the book you will not gain much... by re-drawing Bridgman's drawings you are forced to look much more in-depth. I certainly did not make up this, rather I learned it from the great fantasy artist Frank Frazetta who would re-draw Bridgman about every two years to keep his anatomy sharp.

I don't really feel that simply drawing Bridgman is the best course of action, as useful as it is... but rather combine the copying of Bridgman (and reading of Bridgman) with drawing from life and/or photos.

From Bridgman we gain an understanding of how to simplify and see the larger masses of the body and how they interconnect. From life we learn about detail and about the subtlety of reality -- putting the two together results in work superior to following only one or the other method. When I say “copy”, there is a very specific method that I use to teach(and learn) both from Bridgman and from photos. It is a method that I gleaned from my own observations and from the book “drawing on the right side of the brain”. The process is very simple -- we want to see the art or photo from every side and redraw it from every side until we see it accurately for what it really is.

I have a simple formula that I use when teaching: good drawing/painting is the right value, in the right shape, in the right place.

What this means is everything must be in proportion to everything else. The values must all be in an appropriate relationship with all the other values in the picture. The shapes must all be arranged and shaped appropriately and in the proper relationship to everything else (including the edges of the paper or canvas). And the placement of the values and of the shapes must all be in the proper size relationship to one another to create the illusion that everything is in proportion.

To achieve this I start by drawing very loosely -- looking at the art in its normal orientation and pressing very lightly on the pencil. After a minute or so I rotate the art and my drawing 90° so they're facing same direction -- and draw again right over the top. Repeat this process of drawing and rotating (lightning, but not erasing, the drawing with an kneaded eraser as needed)... you will be surprised to find that each time you rotate you can view the source with new eyes, seeing the value shape and size relationships more clearly.

One thing I will say about this method is that very often while the results can be absolutely accurate, it can look wrong -- the reason for this is an absolutely accurate drawling will not look accurate unless all the values and colors are also accurate. Often times you will find that in order to “look right” something will have to be drawn or painted incorrectly.

But it always helps to know precisely what the truth is before you tell a lie.

Doing a couple thousand drawings in this method will result in rapid improvement of your drawing skill. Once you know the rules you are free to break them at will.

This is really the sum total of my teaching method for the first few months with any student and I confine them to the simple problem (*ironic pause*) of human anatomy until they gain at least a basic mastery of being able to draw what they see with a modicum of accuracy.

I do not concern myself with issues of style, taste, or technique until these fundamental issues are resolved.

How I teach art.

2009-01-31T09:03:00.001-05:00

From time to time I have taken on somebody to mentor as an artist – usually based on a need for instruction and a lack of ability to get it elsewhere. I have had good success with my teaching philosophy in terms of the students having a greater understanding of visual “truth” than they would have had otherwise. My approach is not a “fast track” and it requires strenuous effort to make gains but the end result is there is less of a ceiling on how far you can go with the work over the course of your career.

I have found very few places that teach the way I do which is based on the apprentice style philosophy and practice of the old masters – one school I would highly recommend is the conceptart.org atelier.

You can learn these things by yourself – after all I have, but it took me being completely removed from everything I found familiar and thrust into a situation where nothing I already knew mattered to get me to rebuild myself and forget the “tricks” I had spent years accumulating.

Without further ado, I present:

How I teach art

The primary goal of art should be to communicate effectively with the viewer.

In the course of my artistic wanderings I have learned a few things that I think are important and which I would like to pass on to anybody who reads this. First and foremost, I think "seeing" is a vitally important skill that is often overlooked. As young people most artists are taught to look inward, only thinking about personal expression and not worried about the outward appearance of the world around them. While this approach has much merit I think it neglects an important truth. Because our perceptions are based upon our five senses we cannot escape identifying with the tangible physical world. Any and all art that we see or we perceive is based upon our perceptions of the tangible world. Therefore if we attempt to make up our own reality we essentially divorce ourselves from all of our physical tangible experiences in this life, very few people are capable of making that leap... most of them have been on some variety of mind-altering drugs.

So the problem of seeing is one of perception, or more distinctly the ability to perceive in-depth. The depth of our perception is very shallow in general; we all hear the stories of a blind person who can begin to hear much clearer upon losing his sight. The reason this happens is the removal of the distraction the lost sense (sight) once posed, now faced with less distractions the other senses are free to become much more deeply attuned. To become good artists we must force our vision to become much more acute -- essentially forcing our body and mind to behave as if we have lost our other senses to the benefit of our sight. This requires much practice and a critical eye. The goal of the student should be to reproduce what he sees as accurately as humanly possible. While I do not advocate photo-realism as an artistic style of merit, I do find that has value as a teaching tool. Especially for those artists who are concerned with storytelling, after all telling a story requires a firm grasp of reality to force the reader to "suspend disbelief". There is no way that I know any better system for learning what reality appears to be than by drawing it as it is. Stylistic diversions are all well and good and I highly advocate that you develop your own in time; however style in-and-of itself does not have much merit… it is simply the vanity of "I".

Being a spiritual man, I find a great deal of joy in the opportunity I have as an artist to explore in-depth the wonderful creation of God. I believe that we were created in our Creators image in-as-much-as He being the ultimate creator is reflected in our actions as artists. I believe to be a creative person is to express your appreciation of the divine. Once one gains a deeper appreciation of this reality that was so well constructed by our God, it leads one to put much more thought into how we represent it in our work. This is particularly true of the human figure, which is commonly considered God's crowning achievement. The form of man is indeed miraculous machinery. But much like learning to disassemble a car and learning what all the parts are will not help you drive faster, learning the minutia of muscles and bones will not necessarily aid you in being able to see the broad bigger picture when working with the figure. Which is truly the important thing, after all very few people will come up to you and say "your pectoralis major muscles are looking mighty good today." We are considered a whole organism regardless of the parts. Individual pieces may pose significant challenges however the real challenge is putting it all together and making it work as a whole. With that said I wholeheartedly endorse studying anatomy texts as much as you can, just be clear that what they are discussing is a simplified & idealized conceptualization of anatomy parts... real-world anatomy rarely looks like anything you'd see in anatomy texts. And the larger issue of how the whole body interacts with itself and forces acting on it are left mostly to the student to decipher in their own studies. What they teach is useful only in-as-much-as theory behind the practical application of life drawing, not as a substitute for the real thing.

To that end I recommend intensive and extensive drawing of live models and/or photographic nudes. I believe one can never get too much practical time with reality when it comes to the human figure. The goal that one should keep in mind when drawing the figure is to try to see as clearly and deeply as possible into the subtleties of what makes a human being look like a human being. What I mean by this are the subtle rises and falls of the contour of the three-dimensional form. These are usually defined by value but can sometimes be defined by contour line as well and so we must study both principles. After all the human eye is invariably drawn towards edges which we commonly refer to as the contour line, and one cannot deny the power of light to define the form which we commonly refer to as value. So truly all we're really looking for is edges and light, which really have very little to do with muscles and bones. In my opinion there is no difference between drawing a rock or a tree or a person, all objects contain the same ingredients of light and edges. And so that is where my focus is as a student and teacher.

Draw the figure from as many different angles as you can possibly find reference for, and from as many different models as you can find. Only by studying the way light and edges change from model to model and from position to position and you begin to develop a knowledge base of what gives the appearance of reality, which I term "believability". When dealing with fantasy it is important to create a sense of believability to sell the reader on the fantasy as a real thing. In illustration the most important object you're likely to draw on a regular basis is the human figure and more particularly the face. With that in mind I would spend the bulk of your artistic training on those things, mastering the face first and foremost and the form of the figure as a primarily important object in your studies.

If you can draw the human figure well you are very likely to be able to take those same skills and draw anything else that you might want to very well with limited practice.

The question of how much work is needed to gain an understanding comes up sometimes, and the answer is not easy -- a lot of it depends upon you. But I would say that it is a good goal to draw at least a thousand figures from life or photographic material before you consider tasking yourself with anything additional... remember though, the point is to gain a deeper understanding of the light and the edges even unto photographic reproduction. As a matter of fact, I myself have often set forth the goal to try to create a painting or drawing that is indistinguishable from the photo in every way just to expand my ability to do so. I have never yet succeeded, and I don't really expect to, after all I am only human… but the process does teach you about how much you are not seeing if you don't observe carefully.

I have spent in excess of 100 hours on several different pieces with expressly that goal, and while these pieces were often impressive to others my joy in learning was far more impressive to me. So do not be afraid of spending a long period of time on an individual piece of art. It is indeed encouraging to me to know that in art I have found a nearly inexhaustible well of learning opportunities -- there is no good reason to be bored as an artist. As it is sometimes said "Art is long and life is short".

Sharing Some Art Wisdom (not mine)

2009-01-13T09:33:00.001-05:00

This was written by Howard Pyle who is a famous American illustrator... it was used as part of Andrew Loomis's creative illustration book (which can set you back over $150). Loomis took a great deal of time expounding upon this, it was obviously important to him and it was obviously important to Howard Pyle.

The language is a bit hard to understand to our modern sensibilities but the content is right on -- It really is the basis for some of the things I said in my last post.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Light
All objects of nature are made visible to the sight by the light of the sun shining upon them. The result is that by means of this we see the colors and textures of the various objects of nature.

From this it may be seen that color and texture are the property of light and they do not enter the property of shadow. For shadow is darkness and in darkness there is neither form nor color.

Hence form and color belong distinctly to light.

Shadow
As the object illuminated by the sun is more or less opaque, so when the light of the sun is obscured by the object, the shadow which results is more or less black and opaque, being illuminated only by the light reflected into it by surrounding objects.

By virtue of shadow all objects of nature assume form or shape, for if there were no shadow all would be a flat glare of light, color and texture... but when the shadow appears, the object takes form and shape.

If the edges of an object are rounded, then the edges of the shadow becomes softened; if the edges of an object are sharp, than the shadow is correspondingly acute. So by means of the softness or acuteness of the shadow, the roundness or sharpness of the solid object is made manifest.

Hence, it would follow that the province of shadow is to produce form and shape, and that in itself it possesses no power of conveying an impression of color or texture.

I have tried to state these two facts because they are the foundation of all picture making: for in the corresponding mimic separation of light and dark, the mimic image of nature is made manifest. So the function of all art instruction should be teach the pupil to analyze and separate the lights from the darks, not technically but mentally. That which a pupil most needs in the beginning is not a system of arbitrary rules and methods for imitating the shape of an object, that what she needs to be taught is the habit of analyzing lights and shadows and of representing them accordingly.

Halftones
1. Halftones that carry an impression of texture and color should be relegated to the province of light, and should be made brighter than there appear to be.

2. Halftones that carry an impression of form should be relegated to the province of shadow and should be made much darker than they appear to be.

This is the secret of simplicity and art. The equation might be represented thus:

Light
(i.e. Texture, quality,color)
Highlight - Tint - Halftone
1 - 2 - 3

Shadow
(i.e. Form and solidity)
Halftone - Reflection - Shadow
3 - 2 - 1

This is, as I said, the foundation of technical art. And, until the pupil is entirely able to separate those two qualities of light and shadow from one another in his perception, he should not be advanced beyond the region of elementary instruction -- no matter how clever and fetching his work may appear to be. And, during this progress of instruction that people should be constantly encouraged with the assurance that what he is doing is not mere drudgery but it is a necessary process by means of which -- and only by means of which -- he may be able to manifest the beautiful thoughts that lie dormant in his imagination.

I may say here, in this connection, that the pupils who come to me are always so confused as to those two qualities of light and shadow, and their habit of exaggerating the halftones has become so confirmed, that it takes often times several years to teach them analysis and simplification, yet without this power of analysis and simplification, it is, as I say, impossible to produce a truly perfect work of art. For that separation is fundamental to the laws of nature, and until it becomes a habit of thought, no spontaneous work of art can be produced.

Some Art Truths

2009-01-11T14:15:00.001-05:00

I have been teaching and learning about art for quite some time and while I don't understand everything there are a few things I have learned (from my own experiences and the experiences of the previous generations) that are useful to me -- It occurs to me that it may also be useful to others... so without further ado I present:

Truths I have learned while learning how to be a better artist:

1) Do not try to simplify/stylize something until you are an expert on it, knowing it intimately down to the smallest detail -- the old saying is "you have to know the rules before you break them".

2) Be critical of rules -- rules are a form of simplification and therefor are only useful if you are not seeking mastery of your subject.

3) Mastery takes as long as it takes -- repetition is the only way to really learn.

4) Don't fear failure -- it will keep you from finishing, or worse, from even beginning.

5) Creation and our connection to it through our five senses is the source of all art -- therefor learn from life, not by emulating other artists.

6) The visual artist is appealing to the audiences sense of sight, therefor the artist must be able to see deeper into the source (ie: life) than his audience -- the constant work of the artist should be to try see more clearly and deeper into the visual mysteries of creation.

7) The only rule for truthfully representing reality that is always true is the artist must place the right color (hue-saturation-value) in the right place (proportion) and in the correct shape (contour) -- every other rule is at least sometimes wrong, many are often wrong... but as they say "even a broken watch is right twice a day".

8) Everything in relation to everything else -- don't lose the forest for the trees.

9) Bring everything up to the same level of finish at the same time -- you paint yourself into a corner by finishing one part first.

10) The most common mistake the artist makes is emphasizing (by trying too hard to camouflage) what they do not understand -- if you don't understand something leave it alone... or better yet take the time to learn about it.

Feel free to add your own -- I'm always looking to learn.

Best,
Jason.