Shark in cubism style

[k-drive]

I am currently going through the Lynda.com 21 Day Drawing Challenge. The current project I am working on is do something in the cubism style. From what I read on a few museum websites, cubism is reducing something to geometric patterns in a two-dimensional way. The artists who developed the style wanted to view a work as an almost two dimensional object using the limitations of the page. So, in order to show different sides of something, you would have to render those sides. I wanted to do that with a shark. 

When I looked at photos of sharks I was seeing geometric patterns. So, it was easy to transform them into a cubist way. From the top, sharks are very dark. From the side, you can see their two-toned appearance. From below, they are white. This is thought to help camouflage them when they hunt. I think my drawing reflects that as you can see the dark top view (on the top section of the piece), the side view (in the middle part) and the bottom view on the bottom part of the work that is white with the black tip on the fin.

I drew the sketch in pencil. When I finished the final design I could see that I wasn't going to get the sharp lines and flat fill colors that I wanted with a pencil. So, I imported the drawing into Inkscape. This vector program was perfect for getting the sharp geometric lines and shapes that I wanted for a cubism design. And, I only transformed the final drawing. I didn't actually draw it in Inkscape.

There is a course on Lynda.com on the essentials of Inkscape, too, if you know anyone who wants to explore the application and get a good demo of it.



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[brynn]

Interesting about the course on Lynda.com.  Is this what you're talking about?  https://www.lynda.com/Design-training-tutorials/40-0.html?category=inkscape_7712

I can't find anything about a 21 day challenge.  And I don't have time to sign up for a free trial right now, if the above is actually what you're doing.  But if you wanted to write a review about it, other users might find it interesting (including myself).

I'm not sure if such a review would be good content for the much discussed, but so far not created, user article section of the website.  Or maybe a News item on the website....well, probably not that.  I know they like to avoid promoting 3rd party things on the website.  Personally, it seems entirely suitable to me, but I'm not sure what others might think. 

But since our main focus here on IC is tutorials and user support, I'd be glad to find a way to use such a review here.

If that's not the 21 day challenge you mentioned, can you give us a link?

[k-drive]

This is the 21 Day Drawing Challenge. Can you get to it?
https://www.lynda.com/Design-Illustration-tutorials/21-Day-Drawing-Challenge/164144-2.html
There are other shorter drawing challenges, as well.

Anything by Von Glitshka is good.
https://www.lynda.com/Von-Glitschka/189112-1.html

At first I wasn't sure about some of the lessons. But, I quickly realized that practice is practice. It was beneficial to do a cat drawing even though that wouldn't be my first choice. So, I am doing them all with no skipping.

I will also say that there are some lessons that I did "incorrectly". That is, when I watched the solution video after doing my drawing, I saw that the author was going in a different direction. But, I think Von didn't want to explain too much to allow some freedom in the projects. And, one can always go back and do the lessons again. I didn't want to watch the solutions before doing my assignment so I didn't get any of Von's ideas in my head. And, that has worked out for the best so far. I am on Day 7 right now. Since I don't have a computer at home, I print out the exercise files two at a time.

I have posted most of my drawings to the Twitter account Von suggests. You can see some of my other work there. But, you won't see my cat unless I redraw it. lol

[brynn]

Yes, drawing challenges, imo, are the best way to learn and grow as an artist, or just to improve skills (in my case).  That's why I started out with challenges here.  But it was always just me and Lazur, so there wasn't much of a skill base to learn from.  Not that Lazur isn't skilled - he's super skilled!  But I mean that a lot of different kind of skills and styles would make for a richer experience.  I'd love to get them started up again, if we had more people interested.

Do you get to communicate with other people who are participating in those challenges?  You know, like ask how they did this or that, or give/receive tips, etc.?  It does look really interesting.  But it's only a 10-day free trial.  And I just can't see paying money for that.  I think the only time I might pay for an online course, is if there would be some kind of certification or license or something, awarded at the end.  Or maybe if I were younger, and had more disposable income, haha.

[k-drive]

There isn't a community for that drawing challenge through Lynda.com. There only seems to be that Twitter list. I searched on Flickr, too. A few people posted there in their Photostreams. But, there isn't a Group where people can exchange comments. The release date on the course is August 4, 2014. I wonder if there was a group back then. I can't expect the instructor to maintain some kind of feedback group especially when he doesn't know when someone will take the course.

I don't know where you live. But, check with your public library. Ours have the courses online for free. When I found them a few months ago I started going through anything and everything because the instructors are all top-notch. The courses change because the technology changes. And, they seem to improve the courses. The general intro for graphic design used to a little bit more than 2 hours of videos. The new intro course is 6 hours.

Most of the courses have a certificate of completion. You can upload that to your LinkedIn profile since Lynda.com is associated with LinkedIn. The certificates can also be printed out.

I will also add that most of the courses I have completed don't have much in the way of exercises. Of course, if you just watch the drawing videos and don't practice, you won't improve. Same with the programming, HTML/CSS web design stuff. If you don't practice them, you won't learn them or keep your skills up. I have taken classes to just to learn about things like different programming languages that I am not familiar with. I know I learned about a few features in Inkscape when I went through that course. It was pretty much a menu by menu run-through demo. It wasn't a class to learn how to use the application.

[InkChris]

Never tought about competitions in order to push myself to get better Brynn. Good idea. And also the shark looks cool K-Drive. Good job! 

Any suggestions for a newbee for abit easier stuff?

[brynn]

Welcome InkChris!

If you're completely a beginner, I would suggest opening Inkscape, and go to Help menu > Tutorials.  The first 3 of those -- Basic, Shapes and Advanced -- are really good!  Don't worry, even though the title of the 3rd one is advanced, it's not.  It's meant for beginners.  Those 3 tutorials are where I first started to learn Inkscape.

If you look on the Home tab (on this site) you'll find loads of tutorials (well, links to them) which I've attempted to sort into beginner, intermediate and advanced, along with a few other categories.

If you're someone who likes to immerse yourself into studying a new endeavor, I would suggest Mark Crutch's incredible series of tutorials in Full Circle Magazine.  This is the first, and they're meant to be worked from start to finish:  http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-60/.  He hopes that someday the magazine will release a collection of his tutorials, so users don't have to open a new magazine for each new lesson.  But in my opinion they are worth the effort anyway.

You can look in the Challenges and Contests board in this forum.  They aren't really competitions, and are meant for anyone to participate, on whatever level they find themselves.  People with more advanced skills would probably create more advanced drawings.  But beginners can also participate, and draw with whatever skills they have.  The whole point is to practice and learn and improve your skills.  If you want, you can post your results, and get comments and tips from others.  In my opinion, that's a valuable resource.  People only post positive or constructive comments.  No one will criticize.

Happy Inkscaping!

[k-drive]

Thanks, InkChris.

I was looking for some kind of assignment. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with a project. The on-line class gives me fresh ideas in the assignments. I wish I could remember my assignments in my Illustrator class from many, many years ago. They were designed for us to learn the tools. I hope that Brynn can give you a good sequence in which to learn them.

I think the Pen Tool is #1. When I wanted to get a refresher on the Pen Tool, I went to Google search and looked for children's coloring pages. I imported them into Inkscape and traced them. They are usually simple line drawings with straight lines and curves. Big block serif text is also good to outline with the Pen Tool. This tool and the Edit Tool are important for both creating and manipulating linework/paths. Precise paths are vector applications biggest strength. The Edit Tool has a lot of options. That is good. That means it is powerful.

Next, I think are the Shape Tools. You want to know how to change them into paths.

Assigning Fills and Strokes are something to learn early.

Layers are also important to learn up-front with simple projects. They will become very important in more complex projects. They not only help you organize things, but you can lock, duplicate and hide layers. You can create different versions of parts/pieces of a design, and then turn them on and off to see which you like better.

Gradient Fills and the Gradient Tool for adjustments are also some things you want to learn early.

You also want to know how to use the Preferences window to set up your workspace specifications.

Next, I think you want to learn the Path Tools like Union, Intersection, Difference, etc.

I do remember one of my first Illustrator projects was an ant. It was good fairly simple project for linework/paths and for gradients/shading/highlights. And, since it didn't have a lot of parts, I learned to use layers.

I hope this gets your creative blood pumping because Inkscape is so full of features and powerful. It may seem overwhelming. But, once you start a few projects, you will learn tools and processes because you want to know how to do something like, for example, outlining parts of an ant, and then making the body parts look 3D with gradients. That reminds me: I'm sure you will want to learn how to import a bitmap image like a photo of a drawing you made to lock on a layer and use as a guide.

Best of luck. Hope to see your work here. Don't be afraid to post it and to ask for help. That's what people are here for. And, ask questions...especially to Brynn.