[justinbeckett]

Hey everyone,

I think this is my first actual post I made asking a question, I am feeling kind of lost, as what to work on lately. I mean I am doing a bunch of studies of everything.

Anyways, my main question is, how do you get really good/pro at painting/drawing environments from your imagination?

Is it just drawing everything, rocks, mountains, buildings, things, other artists work etc and then it all comes together into your mind creating your imagination?

I can draw mountains and rocks and landscape type pieces right now from my mind, but where I really get stuck is how do you make up worlds? How do I get the information in my head to create a fantasy scene, or a sci fi scene? Do I just draw/copy other artists sci fi work for a week lets say?

I understand you need to know the basics, composition, values, shapes, perspective, color theory etc, and I do know much of this, its the imagination stuff I am not to sure of, like to get to a level of a professional who you look at his environment work and he can do anything, and it will blow your mind away!

I am kind of lost, I would greatly appreciate your help??

Hopefully someone can help, thank you so much!


Justin

[Yesysh]

It's all about understanding, just focus on undestanding more rather then mindless copying, if you understand something you can draw it from your mind.

Heres a few books: David Chelsea Perspective for comic book artists, jack Hamm drawing Scenery seascapes and landscapes, and for composition and other stuff this may help, Dream worlds Production design for animation by Hans Bacher.

[happyfish]

Only the further understand what you think,you can will them complete expression. Anything need more time to practice .

[haitianroi]

Love this post

[Papaya_Pig]

I focus a lot on environments at the moment whilst I practice anatomy, and I rarely copy photos. At the beginning I did copy some, just to get the feel of things. Now I make things up as I go along, I often find working to a brief is best. Hence why I joined this forum, so I could participate in the weekly competitions.

Before you begin a painting, just have a think what it is you want to draw. I know it sounds silly but this step is quite often missed by many. Whilst you think draw some thumbnails of ideas and then pick the one you like best. Then begin painting with an idea at hand, you can use references to help you of course. But you don't want to be copying them, just using them to help you get say the textures right or the general shapes right.

[andreasbech]

I can only second Papaya_Pig on the point about thinking before painting. Although mindless scribbling can turn into some really cool stuff, most of the time I just gets frustrated when it does´t turn into something I like.

As I understand your request, it sounds like your problem lies in a combination of "lacking" imagination and/or knowledge of how things work.

Feng Zhu, amongst others, talks about Visual Library and Inspiration in some of he's free tutorials, I would recommend you to check those out. Dylan Cole, an excellent Matte painter has created a series called something along "Introduction to Landscape Matte Painting". You're probably not looking for vids on matte painting, but he has a really interesting way to sketch and create landscapes that might help you out.

Personally, I think having read a ton of fantasy and sci-fi, combined with a lot of movies and a bit too much video gaming have helped me to come up with new stuff. Not that it should take focus off of the actually drawing. It has done that for me up till now, but from here on out its done with gaming, more or less.

Hope it helps, and good luck

[arttorney]

You talked a lot about painting from imagination. You said

I understand you need to know the basics, composition, values, shapes, perspective, color theory etc, and I do know much of this, its the imagination stuff I am not to sure of, like to get to a level of a professional who you look at his environment work and he can do anything, and it will blow your mind away!

which leads me to believe you aren't seeking an answer of "Draw a lot from Life." right now. Those other guys have drawn a lot from life I am pretty sure.

You should think of the place you are making as a real place instead of as a drawing. Who lives there? Do they draw on the walls? Do their horses poop all over the street? Do their flying machines leave contrails? Are they having a Free Fair? Are they having a civil war? These type of questions will help you add appropriate details.

[justinbeckett]

Thank you everyone, this really helps! Totally appreciate your input! Keep the info coming if anyone else wants to share! I will go and work harder now!

[mjtrickster]

I find reading about the topic to be very helpful. I personally find it hard to find quality books, so try doing research on what other people have found good so you can filter out the dime a dozen ones.

[Saig]

It's pretty easy to guess what you need to paint realistic environment, so much harder to do so...

Right now I'm learning a lot about environment because of my current job, so I did some research. I'm not so pro, duh, and right now painting not-so-realistic-fantasy-style but I think i could help a little.

Very basic things is:
- color values
- foreground, middleground and background difference in values
- realistic textures
- realistic lighting
- perspective, especially air perspective

I don't have time to paint from photography just to study, so when I'm feeling not confident I'm immediately searching for the right reference.

I'll recommend not to use brushes from the internet, you should always make your own textured brushes for deeper understanding for what you will use this brush. In other case myself starting to playing around with a lot of texture brushes just trying to guess... ofc loosing time etc.