neolateral

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Dear Reader,

As a novice, I do not produce great art. At most times I produce works which are difficult to look at 😉. So what keeps me going. Well I have a goal in mind - it is vague and it shifts from time to time. But I would like to make professional quality illustrations and paintings, good enough to be able to make a decent comic book.

Now this goal pulls me towards itself. For this magnetic force to not frustrate and …

Dear Reader,

I would like to add a new type of post to this blog going forward. Looking at the great or famous pieces of art, or at famous artists from a noob’s perspective. This is also one form of master study. I’ve read that this greatly helps the development of one’s own skills.

I will start with artists in the comic book or illustration world, as this is what interests me most and then move on to other areas. I might start with Burne Hogarth or Frank Frazetta or Loomis.

Hogarth did a lot of drawing …

Today a new version of timed-themes vscode extension was released and published to the vscode marketplace. Timed themes switches between a dark and light theme based on a schedule. The schedule can be set using time ranges in the settings. The dark and light themes are also configurable. Version 0.3.0 includes two minor bug fixes as well as package updates to the dependencies.

Here's the link to the extension at the vscode marketplace - Timed Themes

Hi friends,

Today I want to talk about the learning of art, or in fact any other skill. I believe that in the early days of learning, we will not be so good. The embarrassment, discomfort or shame that we may feel about our own drawings or paintings - is a serious impediment to moving further and faster. The very thing we are concerned about - fussing about it makes overcoming it more difficult.

We must maintain an innocence about our sketches and paintings, a neutral stance, neither proud nor ashamed. The faster we can get through the early stages of learning …

A new version of the homepage site is now live. It's a static website generated with Pelican. The website is still work in progress, I'll add back all the old content alongwith a new structure over the coming days. However, I want to keep the site simple and uncluttered.

More on this to follow!

Hi Guys,

In this post I want to discuss my personal journey over the last few years learning to draw and paint. I’m learning from books and online resources, but I have not enrolled in a course. There are areas where I have made steady progress, and then there are areas where I’m almost at a standstill and have made not much improvement. Along the way I’ve also learnt to do a few things differently. I want to record this and share it with you and a future me.

Fundamentals

When I started learning, I had no …

Hello amigo,

Once we’ve identified the words of the language - shape of hair, shape of head, the neck and upper torso (specifically shoulders), we should think about what these words can convey. What language is created from these words.

Movement versus Stability

Diagonals signify movement.

• If the hair is flowing in the wind, or as if the person is moving fast and hair follows, the

• The head is usually inclined during movement. Especially during fast movement like running. And when describing movement when have to show it going across the scene, otherwise it becomes hard to describe a sense …

Heads and faces are the most recognizable objects for humans. We have developed an acute sense of the silhouette of the head and features of the face to recognize fellow humans.

Today I’m just going to talk about the silhouette of the head. At a distance the head aids the most in recognition, and when developing an illustration or drawing of the head, the silhouette should be kept in mind. If the silhouette is not “right”, the viewer will have the feeling of something being wrong, although they might not be able to articulate.

At a distance the head …

Hi there,

I want to continue of this theme of still life in this post and why one should draw and practice with still life.

Drawing What You See

Over time as we look at the same thing over and over again, we build a simplified version of an object in our head. And since most of the seeing is done in the brain - we start looking at the world as caricatures. For those not used to seeing the face in all its complexities, the mental model of a face is similar to a caricature (like a smiley) than the …

Dear Reader,

In this rather longish discussion, I want to talk about why everyone should draw still life - and what we stand to gain from this practice.

Train your eyes to look

Our brain uses a lot of shortcuts while looking. We make very quick judgements about what we see based on things we have seen before. And most of the time we spend as little time as possible on a single object. The brain might build a simple caricature of what we see in our head and move on. This might be enough interacting with the world in our …