Artistic style prompt #1.
Note that this is just for artistic practice only and is obviously not an anatomical reference post.
The Style: Pointillism is generating an image with only dots. Typically, a “single” pigment is actually composed of several, meaning that if you’re standing a distance from the image, it would look like one colour, but once you examine it up close, you’ll see three or more in that same spot. People may start a certain pigment with the lightest colour, then add more or less of the second darkest where desired (to generate a basic depiction of highlights and shading), and then finish with a generously applied dark colour. Others make clusters of each “dot” (meaning they will make dots of all three pigments touch to form a super-dot), and each pigment will be a different size in that dot (meaning, if you’re colouring in a shaded section, the darkest colour would be largest in the cluster, and the lightest the smallest). You can have a space between the dots (meaning if you’re drawing on white paper, you can see the white in between) or you can limit it to only those colours (you may not get a coloured sheet of paper as a substitute for making dots… you must manually add all three pigments as dots). There is the type where you don’t mix the colours and simply utilize one pigment for shading and so on, but you may not do that for this exercise. Mixing the colours and making them work is part of the challenge. Usually, very different colours are utilized for a single pigment (like in the above example, where the person utilized green, yellow, and blue for one subject), but we’re not doing that for this exercise.
The Challenge: You’re more than likely acclimatized to working only with lines. If you thought structure was difficult before, now you don’t get to connect anything. For this challenge, you may NOT sketch out a light structure with pencil first. You must only dab it out with marker as you go along. No lines are allowed on this image. You know what? Pointillate your signature, too. No. Lines. (Okay… you don’t have to pointillate your signature… but it’d look cool.) There are two lighting sources on the skull; one from the right, and one from the left. There are two provided pallets; in each pallet, there’re two horizontal rows. Pick one row to be the lighting for the right side, and the other row for the left (doesn’t matter which is which). You may not mix pallets or pigments in rows. The light source might come at a 45-degree diagonal from the front, or they’ll come directly from the sides (however you prefer that), but don’t go beyond 45 degrees. You can makes the lighting come from above/below, left/right, all the diagonals, etc., but they are required to be directly opposite one another. Like mentioned, the skull can be human, an animal, or some creature not of this earth (be you so bold). Whatever it is, do NOT choose something basic (like a jellyfish skull [yes, I know jellyfish don’t have skulls… that’s… that’s the entire joke… I gotta acknowledge it because I’ll otherwise get loads of people saying “Hey dumbass, you know jellyfish don’t have–” yes, I know jellyfish don’t have skulls… now it’s not funny anymore ‘cause I explained it all, so you ruined it for everybody. I hope you’re happy]). Go with a bull or lion or dinosaur or human or unicorn or whatever. Do not make a cartoon skull. Or, if the skull is cartoon-derived, make a realistic version of it (I advise sticking to non-fictional skulls, unless you think this is all too easy and you want to make something… not of this world. Make it as detailed as realistically possible (depending on how detailed you’re willing to go, you may want to look up the texture of bone). Now… you can be daring and add carvings or paint or something decorative (like feathers or beads or whatever) if you’re finishing early and/or want more of a challenge. You may not, under any circumstances, utilize any decoration to cover up a part of the skull you don’t want to draw (designs may not obstruct the anatomy of the skull any more than 8%). The only possible exception to this is if you make an irreversible, permanent mistake (like if you’re working with ink or something)… THEN you may work some design over it. You’re the judge of whether you’re doing the challenge properly or not. (And, of course, all designs are to be pointillized as well.)
Time Limit: You will likely make mistakes and want to start over. If you start over once or twice, the time limit will reset to three days for that piece of paper. But once you are on your third attempt, you are stuck with that final three day reset (meaning if you start over a third time and you’re on your second day, you’ll only have one day remaining). Don’t spend your three shots experimenting; practice the dotting techniques on a separate piece of paper.
Tips: Make the lighting appear natural (meaning the colours will comingle in certain areas). Know how you dot the image (with larger dots or simply by using more of a certain shade) so you are aware of how to express shading and highlighting.
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This challenge is not for a prize or anything. This is simply a fun activity for individual practice. Challenge yourself, tumblr artists! Good luck!
When you finish your creation, share it with everyone by reblogging this post and pasting the URL to the art into the text section. I’m excited to see what you’ll create!
