Today I'm going to be attempting the coloring page challenge.
That's where you take a basic children's coloring page and a famous work of art by someone who knew what they were doing and you kind of try to
mush them together into one illustration.
Let's see how it goes!
This is the coloring page that I decided to go with, it's just
from Disney's website, you can download it yourself if you want to
color it, I'll have a link in the description.
It's of Rapunzel swinging in her hair and, uh-when I
first saw it the first painting that I thought of was the swing
by, and I'm going to embarass myself trying to say his name,
Jean-Honoré
Fragonard
Uh maybe? Feel free to laugh at me-it's fine, I really don't know how to pronounce it. But!
I thought of this painting of the dude looking up the girl's skirt
that we studied in college, like, yeah
*Laughs*
so that is the one I decided to go with and basically,
for the challenge I just had to sort of apply these colors
to the coloring page and I actually taken a *ff* step further
later on. But, the first thing I really kind of
tried to do here was a background and,
backgrounds are very, very difficult for me, and something I kind of avoid.
Because I scares me, because it's something I need to practice.
*cute giggle then sharp breath intake*
And the only way to get better is by doing it! so.
Here I am.... Attempting a background, and what I basically did-
was first I just sort of colour swatched, and grabbed colours
from the painting and blocked out the shapes of
everything. Uhm... And this was basically just to make
sure that, the character, so Rapunzel,
would still stand out and wouldn't bend in too much,
so, I'm really worrying about the shapes. I'm not copying,
exactly the painting. Because obviously that painting
is at a different angle, and like, the composition is different
so, I'm really just trying to use elements of that painting and-
apply it to this one,
and still kinda trying to make my own composition in a way.
I also kinda just copied it, but
I was trying to think of it
in a way that like
I wanted Rapunzel to have like the blue behind her,
and have her stand out from like the greens and things like that
but yeah I think I learned a lot doing this,
it was very very interesting.
*sharp intake of breath*
I definitely need to continue to practice to draw backgrounds
because this is some- this is definitely
one of my weaknesses
I kinda just gravitate towards drawing girls and like
I really need to expand my artistic vocabulary
and backgrounds is definitely something I want to improve upon
so this was definitely an interesting exercise.
*laughs* once I was happy with the overall sort of shape and
blocked out colours of everything I actually added a gaussian blur to everything
and then zoomed in on this bush and started
detailing and props to anyone who can
spend three hours detailing a bush
I am not one of those people.
*laughs* this entire process
of drawing this bush, this like
one bush with like
these little blue roses,
this made me really contemplate and think
about "what is it that I love about art?"
and I came to the conclusion that it's not drawing bushes. *laughs*
I got a little bored, I- I'm not gonna lie
I feel a little guilty saying that and I don't know why but I do,
Because, I really wanna get better at all of these
different techniques, like backgrounds, like I mentioned, but
I don't know, there's just something holding me back, and I-I really
need to like, break that barrier.
Today wasn't that day, but I really really tried, I spent a long time on
this bush, *laughs*
I know I felt guilty because I told myself "Oh,
I'm just gonna take a break from the background, come back to it later after I do Rapunzel."
and then I didn't, so, yeah. Anyway, now we're working on Rapunzel
And I was looking back at, um,
like other peoples' attempts at this challenge,
back from 2009 when it was going around DeviantART
and I noticed that they seemed to recreate
the coloring page in their own style, *breath* um,
and I'm not entirely sure how they did it, because none of them did speedpaints of this.
But I decided to use
the coloring page as as sort of like, that first sketch layer
and then I added another sketch layer on top of that.
So I basically used the coloring page as a base
and then created my own drawing on top of it.
And it kinda looks like that's what everyone else did, so...
I guess I feel fine about doing that. *laughs*
One of the main reasons I decided to go for it and
just add my own sketch layer was because
with "The Swing," the painting I'm imitating, um,
it's very flowy, and like the skirt is like a very
important part, I feel like, of that illustration of just like the motion.
So I kinda wanted to imitate that in my own sketch.
So...I'm not sure if I really accomplished
it, but It's definitely a little bit more flowy
than the coloring page was, because the coloring page is based off
the Tangled animated series, which is
the animation's a little bit stiffer than like, say
the animated movie that came out, you know that was in theaters.
So, I wanted to try
and pull away from that a little bit and make it a little
bit softer. So this is actually another sketch
layer, *laughs* so I had- what I had the coloring page then I had
my first sketch layer, and now I'm adding another sketch layer cause I just
wasn't quite happy with that. But yeah, I'm trying to like, get the-
that skirt is really where I was having a problem, and
what I decided with that was that I'm like
"Oh well I'll just make her skirt big and poofy, kinda like the painting,"
cause we don't- it- I think people will be able to tell it's Rapunzel,
I don't need to have her slim-fitted skirt
and I wanted to more, you know, capture
the painting that I'm imitating, so I made her skirt super big and poofy. *laughs*
And then this is the basically final
version of that sketch layer. I just added some little
basic shading to everything, um,
that I will then apply to the painted layer,
because I'm slowly learning how to do this digital painting thing. *laughs*
It's definitely an experience, and I'm enjoying the
not-knowing-what-I'm-doing aspect of it,
um, a lot more than the not-knowing-what-I'm-doing
aspect of doing backgrounds. So...
Slowly taking baby steps here *laughs* slowly improving,
um, but yeah I-, one thing that I definitely forgot
to do here, and it
kinda drove me nuts, I wish I had thought about it earlier was
basically before I should've-
what I do is I merge the sketch layer with the color layer
of Rapunzel, that way when I'm doing the painting
I can just use the color picker, just grab any color
and just paint over top, and I don't have to worry about multiple layers.
Um, but before I do that, I was supposed to like,
block in all the colors, and I forgot to...So...
Yeah...Rookie mistake, *laughs*
um, but I had merged the layers. I did have old
layers, cause I keep old layers, but I had really
liked the way the painted face was turning out and I was like
"I don't really wanna lose that," cause I don't know if I'll be able to redo that
as well as I did it this time, but I definitely think
my favorite part about painting is just doing the face, um,
so, I think I spent the most time on the face.
What I'm learning is like the biggest difference between digital painting and like,
the way I used to do digital art, with like line art and everything, which I
still do, but like, I'm like- *laughs* just the difference
between those two different styles, um, is
that digital painting is just a whole lotta tweaking, and
maybe it's a longer process, I'm not entirely sure if it takes longer,
feels like it takes longer, but I think it's cause I don't know what I'm doing so I'm like,
analyzing each little step. *laughs*
But, it's just a whole lotta tweaking, and undo button,
and like trying to figure out what works well and what doesn't,
and...Yeah that's probably definitely mostly
just my inexperience, and my learning process. *laughs*
But it's a lot of fun, and it's- it's
just an enjoyable process. And I think I've said this before but
basically it like looks really bad before it looks
good, and you have to kind of be okay with adding in
those blocks of colors and having it look bad. *laughs*
And like slowly tweaking it, which...has definitely been...
*sighs*
difficult for me. *laughs*
Another thing I'm doing is like constantly, not constantly, but
occasionally, I use like the color balance tool
or other Photoshop little manipulatey things to like
adjust the colors to make sure nothing's getting too muddy.
Cause that's just something that I really hate about
my traditional art is that is always ends up being muddy so I'm like,
"Well in digital art I have more control over this." *laughs*
Well, like easier control, I guess "noobish" controls, I don't know. *chuckles*
Um,
but I think I use that to the point
where it became a flaw,
because I think everything ended up too saturated,
and too bright. So it's almost difficult to shade because with painting sometimes it's-
you want to be able to add highlights and like everything's already
too blown out, so I can't add any highlights, and like I'm not
entirely sure how to darken it without it getting too...
gross.
So, it's like- it's a weird battle for me that I definitely need to look more into and experiment with
in the future.
But you'll see just like *laughs* the painting just keeps getting brighter and brighter, and it's like
so blown out by the end, but I tweak it at the end,
and I think it helped a bit, but *laughs* it's definitely just
something of a crutch of mine that I need to, um, you know, *laughs*
experiment with in the future.
What I really like about making like, this video in particular is that
I'm able to address, like, the problems that I'm having and like,
be able to *chuckles* voice them to myself and
I can, maybe then, work on them in the future. And THEN
the other thing that's really really cool is I've looked back at like old
videos, and I really suggest that all of you make some
kind of documentation of- and like keep your art, because
when you look back at it, and you see the things you were struggling
with, and you see the things that you needed to work on,
when you actually applied yourself,
and started working on those, and like,
you can see the difference in your art! And like
the improvements that you've made, and it's just- it's so encouraging, and like
it really inspires me to keep going sometimes...
when...things are a little bit rough is to like look back
and like, see like, yeah, maybe
you're not improving as fast as you want to but look how far you've come! And like,
just keep going! *laughs* Cause it's,
yeah, I mean a lot of the times you don't need that encouragement, but sometimes you do,
so that's what I like about having like, even the commentary
in my videos is like, hearing how I've
struggled and like, hearing the things that I want to work on, and then
looking back and being like, "Good job, you actually did it!"
Or, "Ooh dang, I forgot I even wanted to work on that...
*laughs*
I really let myself down on that one." *chuckles*
But, I mean, it goes both ways.
And that definitely like, encompasses the fact that like art is definitely a
journey, and it's not really someplace we want to get to,
it's more the journey of trying to improve
ourselves, and get better,
and going at our own pace and like,
doing what we love, and, you know, that whole
shebang. *laughs*
Oh, and here I'm working on these hands, these were a bit of a
struggle, I- I don't know if I've ever drawn hands
in this specific angle before, but...it was
actually kind of interesting looking at the hands
a different way than I normally would, because- so I'm
trying to do it as a digital painting, and not as line art, so I
don't have to draw every specific line, I just have to sort of
create the illusion that their fingers are there,
and like, use the painting. I think I did end up going back to my crutch of like
line art, but it was kind of an interesting
experiment, like *laughs* trying to create the hand without drawing
every little detail of the hand.
Yeah, that was kind of interesting.
And then basically here I'm just sort of adding some little final things
that I felt were necessary, like strands of hair or whatever.
But I really reached sort of a road block, because I wasn't entirely sure what to do to improve
the painting at this point, and maybe
this will come with experience cause I kinda....
had to just step away from it and be like "okay, like this the best
that I can do for now." *laughs* Um, but I
need to figure out like how to take it to the next level.
Because I think there's a lot of detail that could be added,
but I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing it.
Yeah, but here is basically my finished
uh, attempt at the coloring book challenge!
Yeah. So, thank you guys for watching! I would love to see if you attempt
this as well. I'll have some links in the description of some of my favorites
that I've seen on like DeviantART
of this challenge if you want to check those out, and uh, yeah.
Thank you guys for watching! I'll see you guys all next week.
And I hope you have a delicious evening full of waffles! Byeeeee!
Oh, and thanks to AJ for emailing me and suggesting that I color a coloring page,
which reminded me of this challenge. Thank you, like
*laughs*
This was so much fun, thank you. :)