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How to study art, book recommendations and finding appealing shapes


Hey hey!

Another mixed bag this week from finding appealing shapes and how to study to understanding the muscles of the face and understanding the anatomy of the upper arm! So let's get straight into my resources, thoughts, 'aha moments' and announcements from this past week.

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- Resources

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Website - James Gurney's Top books on color and paintingā€‹

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Want some more art reading material? Then look no further.

As the title says, it's simply a list of James Gurney's top books on colour and painting.

I love hearing about resources and books that influence artists I look up to so here they are if you don't have time to click the link! Although it's worth checking out because he gives some context as to why he likes each book...

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Video - Loish on shapeā€‹

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Learning different and appealing shapes is something I'm currently spending some more time one, and this little short from Loish came at a great time.

She mentions that you should look at and study real world objects and shapes you find appealing as well as other artists shapes for inspiration, and by doing that a lot, they'll naturally start to weave into your own work.

This is more of an 'intuitive' way of thinking about learning, which is something a bit different. Worth checking out!

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Video - [How to study](

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This Video by Anthony Jones (Robotpencil) is an oldy but a goody.

It's Anthony's thoughts on how to effectively study art and he outlines the difference between mindlessly copying and studying.

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Something I try to be really conscious of when studying from reference or other artists.

It's super easy to just start 'copying' and have it feel like you're learning something (you probably are, but not as much as you could be).

A great little watch for sure.

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Website - Muscles of the faceā€‹

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I wanted to get more familiar with the muscles of the face, I did my usual look through anatomy books and videos etc, but I thought I'd do a quick google search for some online 3D visualisations and BINGO! Got this cool little site.
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I'm fairly familiar with the skull, but I want to know more about how the muscles 'fill out the face'. More study to be done, and I'll be using this link for sure!

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Video - An explanation on titlingā€‹

I've mentioned titling in past newsletters and posts when it comes to my more 'painterly' illustrations. And this is a nice little video of Jeff Watts of Watts Atelier explaining tiling.

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Video - [The upper arm](

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When this man posts a video, I watch! This is a new one from Michael Hampton and it's all about the upper arm. I love how he breaks down anatomy.

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I highly recommend you checking out his videos AND his book 'Figure drawing, design and invention' they both go together really well.

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ā€‹Announcements/updates...

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My first stream in 2 years

This past week I did a little test live stream on twitch for the first time in two years. You can check out the full recording here.

It was a challenge to get used to drawing and talking at the same time, but I started to get the hang of it near the end.

I actually started to really enjoy talking through my process as I was sketching and was cool to get questions as I went and branch off into tangents and little demos.

Something I might do every now and then but I'll be sure to give some notice for future streams.

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Annnnd that's all for this week!

And as always... stay consistent, use reference, have fun with it and remember, it's only pixels baybee!

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Cheers,

Ben

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Have any questions or just want to say "hey"?

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Email me at b.eblendesign@gmail.com or simply reply to this one.

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