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The Pitfalls of Speed PaintingI've been meaning to write about this for a while now, but recently a video popped on up Ctrl+Paint about the same topic and it encouraged me to finally talk about it. It's a practice that's been misconstrued and misunderstood for a while now, so I wanted to help people get a proper understanding on the subject.
Speed painting has been something of a fad for 4 or 5 years now, even back when I was first starting digital work. Like many artists out there, I thought, "Sweet, I can do really cool work, really fast!" And like many artists out there, in the back of my head I was probably thinking, "This is easier than learning the normal way!"

Well, here's the main problem in regards to speed painting. Any of those really cool, realistic and well done speed paintings you see are done by professionals who have been painting for years and years. These a

Online Figure Drawing AidsIf you're like me, you might have gotten lazy when it comes to practicing figure drawing. Sometimes it's difficult to find decent photos to reference, to do gestures or otherwise, so it's easy to do a couple drawings for practice then throw in the towel.
Well, there are a number of sites out there that I've come across over the years that help with that sort of thing. They pull stock images and such from different sources and give you a randomizer and timer and other features, or show anatomical structures that you can manipulate. Below I'll list some of the ones I've come across that might help you. Some of them have the same images, so you can probably just pick a couple favorites.
Pose Maniacs
An oldie but goodie. I've used this site for ages and it's only gotten better. On it you'll find 3D models of poses that you can rotate around, and they all show the musculature. You can browse the poses, or use the random viewer, or the timed v

Is Reference Bad?I feel like I've addressed this before at some point, in some other journal, but I find myself either discussing this with people a lot, or coming across people who on their work proudly claim to have "used no reference."
The biggest problem, and misconception, regarding references is that people feel like it's cheating or that it somehow cheapens their work. While I can understand the sense of accomplishment coming from using no reference to finish a painting or drawing, people who consistently do it are only hurting themselves in the long run. So in short, no, reference isn't bad.
Artists have been using reference since the days of the old masters. They would reference life, whether it be landscapes, objects on a table, or models standing in a studio. They would even reference their own sketches or other people's work in order create convincing paintings.
For some reason, a lot of people today seem to think that in order to be a good artist, they have to be able to do things without

How to use DPI properly.This is one of the biggest problems I see other people running into, and I've had to explain it a countless number of times. The bummer is that it's really quite simple, but if you don't know how it works it's easy to get mixed up.
The following is more or less what I'm going to tell you, but in a less comprehensive fashion. So if these 2 main points make enough sense to you, then you can decide if you need more information and explanation:

You only need to set DPI when working with actual dimensions like inches or centimeters, etc. So if you're working directly in pixels already, it's useless.

Therefore, the only time you really need to set the DPI is when you need to ensure good print quality, and know your real world dimensions but not the exact pixels. The program will set the pixels for you based off the other information.
First and foremost, you REALLY don't need to work in real world dimensions such as inches or centimeters unless

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A look at my Hunger Games work!

Journal Entry: Mon Feb 27, 2012, 8:52 AM

Hey guys! A new Hunger Games trailer was released which finally shows some of my work on the film. I took a screen grab from the trailer which you can click below to make it larger.

I spent 3 months last summer helping to design the look of the control room as well as the holographic elements and desktop interfaces you see in action. I'm excited to see the full sequences and find out how much of my design the final FX ended up retaining, but from a quick glance I can see quite a lot which is really cool. You can see it a the 0:19 mark in the video below as well.

I'm not sure when I can officially show the work I did, but I'll be sure to find out soon. It might have to wait until the movie comes out at the end of next month.

Anyway, take care!

122 Comments

A look at my Hunger Games work!by `Rahll

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*Miso-tai Jun 16, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

You must be very intelligent( and lucky

) for the creators to pick your fantastic artwork ITS WONDERFUL!!!

~NINFlA Jun 7, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Wow! That's amazing! O:

=Darketh90 Jun 5, 2012 Student General Artist

That was oddly one of my favorite parts of the hunger games xD just how they control it all...._{_{Screw the people in the arena 8D}}
That's really awesome that you're one of the ones who helped design it!

*dedizenoflight Jun 5, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

YOU DID WORK FOR THE HUNGER GAMES.

I WAS WONDERING WHO CREATED THOSE *LOVELY* HOLOGRAPHS

god you are the perfect human being.

~stealthyninja664 Jun 4, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Oh I loved this in the movie. It was one of the qualities that made it the best movie ever! Usually changes like this makes it worse but i loved it!

~reincarnationOFfoxes Apr 13, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I had no idea you were behind the Hunger Games at all, and it's really awesome to see what it's like from your personal perspective! Awesome work

~Breedthecancer Apr 1, 2012 Hobbyist Artist

ggggreat work!

~AMcreations Mar 28, 2012 Student Digital Artist

I just saw the movie last nite, and waited til the end of the credits to see if their was an extra scene at the end (was my girlfriend idea). And i saw your name under concept artist and went buckwild, nice work!

`Rahll Mar 28, 2012 Professional Digital Artist

Haha, thanks! I always wait til the end of credits to see if there's something else, plus I sometimes see people I know in the credits which is always fun