nathanaardvark

Tutorial 105 - Angular Motions of the Joints

This is one of four tutorials on anatomical movements; Angular, rotational, circular and gliding. 

Angular movements change the angle of a joint between two adjoining body struct...

Tutorial 104 - Three Anatomical Planes

Anatomists have developed a system to refer to the position of body structures, and angular and rotational movements of the joints. Anatomical planes are used to describe these location and movements ...

Tutorial 103 - The Cartilaginous Joints

The cartilaginous joints are made of cartilage and therefore a bit more movable than fibrous joints, though not as movable as the synovial joints.

Synchondrosis

Almost no movement a...

Tutorial 102 - The Fibrous Joints

Fibrous joints are held together (fixed) and therefore not as important to us artists as the synovial joints, but still noteworthy. 

These joints are connected with fibrous tissue of varyin...

Tutorial 101 - The Synovial Joints

Here's a breakdown of the most important joints for the artist studying anatomy.

The Synovial joints are six types of joints that artists need to understand because these are the most movable ty...

Tutorial 100 - The Color Blue

Keywords: Calm, Serenity, Spirituality, Truth, Loyalty, Vastness, Sadness, Loneliness, Cold, Chilling, Authoritarian. 

The most beloved color blue has numerous connotations, both pos...

Tutorial 99 - The Color White

Keywords: Innocence, Purity, Integrity, Neutrality, Cleanliness, Clarity, New Beginnings, Hope, Ignorance, Emptiness, Exposure, Isolation, Sterility, Boredom.

White contains an equal bala...

Tutorial 98 - The Color Yellow

Keywords: spirituality/enlightenment, cheer, happiness, optimism, energizing,

cowardice (Western culture only), caution, hazard/emergency, illness.

Yel...

Tutorial 97 - The Color Black

Keywords: Mystery, Infinity, Death, Formality, Power, The Unknown, Elegance, 

Sophistication.

The color black primarily represents mystery, the unknown, and the co...

Tutorial 96 - The Color Red

Keywords:  Anger, Passion, Courage, Sacrifice, Lust, Attention, Sin, Joy.

Red is described as being the most brilliant color. It has the longest wavelength, and affects us physio...

Tutorial 95 - Line of Gravity

The line of gravity is the middle or average point of the weight distribution. If standing upright, it runs from the tip of your head through the middle of your body and to your feet. You can feel you...

Tutorial 94 - The Horizon Line

Here's a really simple tip to give you some composition and perspective options, which can have dramatic effects on a character in a story, for instance.

The character in the image on the le...

Tutorial 93 - Cool Light, Cool Shadows

"Warm light cool shadows, cool light warm shadows" teaching

Most painters are familiar with this teaching. However, a warm or cool primary light source will not always cause shadows to take o...

Tutorial 92 - Grey in the Shadows

I struggled creating this one as it required deconstructing my illustration, which was created fairly intuitively, into a logical explanation of what's happening pseudo-physically. So, I don't...

Tutorial 91 - Cool Light, Warm Shadows

This scene is the opposite lighting setup to the scene in tutorial 90. 

This time the primary light is cool and the ambient light is warm. It might be unusual to find this situation in natu...

Tutorial 90 - Cool light, Warm Shadows

You've probably heard about warm light giving the illusion of cool shadows and how this can be reversed in the opposite lighting setup. The shadows become cool because of the ambient blue...

Tutorial 89 - RGB and CMY triads

This explains some areas in color theory that we need to aware of as digital painters. We might expect that the software we use would mimic the way color is mixed traditionally, though this isn't the ...

Tutorial 88 - Two Types of Color Mixing

Color can mix in two ways, subtractive and additive. How they relate is a very interesting and elegant part of color theory that we’ll touch on here. It's worth knowing, especially if you’re li...

Tutorial 87 - Thumbnail your Painting

When you get a new project brief or that first wave of inspiration, thumbnails are where you begin. They are the result of a brain dump. Many terrible sketches and ideas should be drawn and not judged...

Tutorial 82 - Relative, Absolute & Local Color

This tutorial should have been posted a few days back but as Patreon has been having problems with their servers it seemed to have not been posted! So this is 1 of 2 that I'm posting today.

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Tutorial 86 - The Concave Iris

This tip really helped me to understand the structure of the iris and therefore paint it effectively. 

The iris is not actually concave but it's best to think of it that way. It's a stri...

Tutorial 85 - The Biggest Secret

Ok, you're going to kick me when I tell you the biggest secret to making progress in your drawing. 

But, if you're interested, please read on, it's important and I can't state it in one simple ...

Tutorial 84 - Analogous Color Schemes

Generally, analogous color schemes will guarantee color harmony, though they may lack a certain vibrancy. If we find this to be the case in our painting we can introduce an accent to some areas. Cool ...

Tutorial 83 - Complementary Color Schemes

Complementary color schemes are one of many harmonious color schemes available to us. Here's a link to a previous tip on color harmony:  2016-03-24 12:26:06 +0000 UTC View Post

Tutorial 81 - Warm Lighting

Unless your image is following a monochrome color scheme, you'll want to try balancing your warms with your cools. When I say balance, I don't mean equalize, I mean to weigh warm and cool against each...

Tutorial 80 - Color Temperature & Depth

Color temperature can have a really strong impact on our spacial perception. Though, value also has a lot to do with it, as noted in a previous tutorial (see tutorial 16 www.patreon.com/posts/...