Saigas

Some loose (lazy) and quick lighting studies, because I hadn't done them in a while. Pls welcome the Saiga antelope, this is one cool critter. I do plan to do one more, the "fantasy scene", but right now I have 4 scenes and that is a nice, balanced number, 5 will kick it up to the high skies.... or I will do a 6th one too.

Okay, so what do we have here (beside severe depression):

1. Yay, sunny day! A nice, very basic lighting setting, the sun being behind the saiga, giving more cool light a chance to lit his head and neck a bit. This is a lame piece, bc it was my first one.

2. Yay, sunny day with a tree! Slightly different setting, because I just love dappled light and now the Sun is above the saiga. Otherwise, this is kinda the same as the first one.

3. Hello darkness my old friend. I never really painted an overcast setting, it was an interesting one. Overall this lighting is just so flat to me, I love the drastic changes between light and shadow os a sunny day. However overcast is a more stable lighting that shows actual colours and I really wanted to give it a try - and t was harder for me to hold myself back from overdoing my shading. Plus my shadows have no colours! it is just... a darker version of the base colours. Very soft shadows, no blue in them, the core colours are mostly untouched, besides some very-very light, almost silvery reflected light. However, the colours themselves can really make this setting pop - well, if you don't pick a brown animal on a brown field xD - but for example if there would be a red or a blue or even a yellow something - like a parrot - that would really sell this setting. Plus it would be easier to me too, because I don't have to struggle with the sunlight too - with these mentioned colours, especially with red, there is a point when you cannot make them stronger anymore. So when everything is in warm sunlight there are limits how much I can make something pop with lighting. I definitely wanna experiment with it further!

4. And then finally - for now - the forever epic sunset with rim lighting scene. I cheated a bit and added more blue to my shadows here or there, maybe they stand out a bit too much, but that's okay, I am fine with that. To be honest this much blue rather shows in the shadows on a sunny, very clear day, not at the sunset - sunsets have blue in their shadows, but a lot softer, not this strong. I also pushed my rim lighting too, letting things develop further than in nature - sunset rim lighting is rather warm orange, not yellow, but oh well, i need my drama. I played by the rules with the first 3 pieces!

I really loved doing this exercise, even though I felt ab it rusty. And how am I otherwise? I have good days and bad days, today is a bad day. Overall, I am slowly getting better though. I draw a lot in my sketchbook, I even started to use my papers, naming them the "Book of Skulls" - because I loosely paint skulls in them and only skulls - and I don't mind literally wasting materials on my wonky brush pen paintings with horrible highlights. It feels good to draw on an actual paper.May 28, 2024

#study

#lighting

#antelope

#nature

#field

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