Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Sketch to Finish




When Logsdail went from the smaller version (above) to the larger finished version (below), he added a dog and a kid to the lower left of the composition. He brought the vehicle at the left edge and the man with the newspapers closer up.

He made the street more slick and shiny, and to judge from the reproductions, he warmed up the colors from the gray of the sketch. Which is better? It’s a tough call.


(Note from Jeanette:
I am not computer literate, and I'm sorry to say that I don't have any idea how to move the pictures around on these posts that Jim has prepared. Sorry, and thanks for your patience.)

18 comments:

Erik Bongers said...

Thanks for the post.

I think your doing a great job Jeanette. And it's ok if the pictures all end on top of the article. Moving around that ilegible computer code can be difficult if your not used to cut-copy-and-pasting text fragments.
But if you do want to copy images around: make sure you copy everything between <A and </A>

You can always "Preview" the result. There's a button for that.

And now for something completely different.
I believe it's voting time in the "US and A" as Borat would say.

Now who should a true Dinotopia believer vote for? That's a personal choice, but let me tell you a little story!

Many years ago, James Gurney replied to a letter from a young admirer, wanting to know if Dinotopia - a place where man and dinosaurs live together - really existed.

Well, we don't know what he answered, but...if you think about it, there's only one person he could have answered it to !

So, vote for the person that you think send that letter so many years ago ! The only truely believing candidate!

Erik Bongers said...

Another approach on the picture problem :

1. Start with inserting the LAST picture only.
2. Add some blank lines ON TOP and insert the previous picture. This will again go on top.
3. repeat 1 and 2 as necessary...

4.If all goes well, you have the pictures in correct order, with some blank lines in between.

5. Insert the text inbetween the pictures.

Erik Bongers said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Erik Bongers said...

Darn, I forgot the link to the James Gurney interview in the first comment :

JG interview

(Jump to 3:01 if you're in a hurry.)

Unknown said...

There is something really moving abut the sketch. I think it has a richness not in the final, that's pretty subjective of course. It used to almost reduce me to tears when someone said they preferred my sketch to the finished piece. Now I understand better the attraction to something spontaneous and with beauty that is not contrived. Now I search for that spontaneousness. I thin k that's where originality is.

Bowlin said...

I like the composition in the second one much better. The little girl is a better focal point in it, though in the first one it appears more "real life".

But I'm always curious why some artist make such elaborate study sketches. It looks like it was painted on site, so perhaps there is no tightly rendered drawing? In other words, do some highly skilled artist's methods just involve study paintings and finished paintings with no drawings involved?

Jen Z said...

Compositionally, I can agree with adding more figures to the scene, but the sketch is in my opinion more beautiful and real in the 'sketch'. I also like the way these two images animate the scene, like taking two photos a few seconds apart.

Ranjani Sheshadri said...

There is one way to do it, but it will result in the two images extending a bit below the text, and it's a bit complicated. If you want to do this, add < div style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;" > (without the spaces between the brackets and the word "div" and the quotation mark and the last bracket) just before the first image and < /div > (without the spaces) just after the second image.

Or you could always stick the text between the pictures :)

Lovely article, and thank you :)

Ranjani Sheshadri said...

Actually, ignore that first comment! The pictures are a bit too wide for that to work, and the text will be sandwiched between the pictures and the border!

Sorry! I'm not awake enough yet :(

Moai said...

Personally, I find the warmed colors of the finished version to be overdone and unnecessary. It ruins a lot of the subtlety and depth that you see in the first version. Perhaps the warmth of the colors has just been exaggerated in this reproduction of it, though.
As for whether the composition improved, I really don't know enough to comment on that.

Patrick Waugh said...

I like the additions in the 2nd one but I like the colors in the
1st one a lot more.

Tracy Flynn Art said...

I find the sketch to be the better image or at least my favourite of the two. It has a rich vitality of the moment that the other seems to be missing.

I think your doing a great job.

Tracy

The Annotated Barbarian said...

I like the top one better.

The Annotated Barbarian said...

Erik, good point on choosing who to vote for, but what about this:

Some of us may have voted for the candidate who actually was around when dinosaurs walked the earth!

Padum-pum!

Darren Kingsley said...

Here's a color correct version of the final painting from the Tate. (If the link works)

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=8958&searchid=18104&tabview=image

James Gurney said...

The link worked, Darren, and thank you for the correct color version. Wow, what a difference.

Leslie Hawes said...

I much prefer the top picture.
I am interested in the picture because it seems to place emphasis on the flower girl, contrasted to the subdued feel of all else.
It captures 'time' better, I think.

A. Riabovitchev said...

I prefer sketch.