mdawrcn

1. How much time, on average do you usually spend drawing a picture?

There are so many beautiful pictures here that have taken a lot of effort on the artists part. Is anyone doing anything with their pictures once they have been created? Such as editing with other software, printing, creating displayable art in any way? I have been playing with mine in photoshop a little. Just curious.

Do you ever delete pictures after they have been put in the gallery? again just curious, or some might say nosy.

Thanks

mdawrcn

Oops, in wrong category. Sorry.

polenta

I must spend between 45 minutes and one hour 15 for each picture if it's elaborate. If it's for fun maybe a quarter of an hour. I must be about two hours a day on Think Draw, while I'm "watching" (actually listening) TV or listening to my favorite morning radio program where I hear the news and the interviews I like.
I can't explain it but for me, PUTTING ONE THINK DRAW PIECE NEXT TO THE OTHER is very relaxing like knitting or embroidering could be for someone else. It's like playing computer games.
I haven't deleted pics as far as I remember but I sometimes use the CLEAR button because the pics are really a disaster.
I'm nosy too. LOL

Shanley

Hmm...I don't mind spending all day thinking about what I'd like to draw and not even 2-3 hours trying to match the result to what I had in mind. But those are rare cases, when I can actually afford the time.
Depends pretty much on the pic I'd say. If it's just a copy, then the goal would be to come as close to the original as possible. If it's a portrait, then it's likely I'll get stubborn on the evey detail I can recall.
Then again it may be just a study, when I allow the drawing to get as good as it can. If it doesn't too bad....it will still take about an hour, lol.
About editing: most artists add the link to their profile .:)

Qsilv

What a well-put question!

And Polenta's answer is fascinating. (Especially since those times for such gorgeously strong pattern-work make me want to weep....) I'll be curious to hear other people's replies too.

My own times are all over the place and not really predictable by watching Playback, either. Some obviously have a kajillion pieces and those just have to have taken a while to set in place... but what's stunning to me is watching a dinky short playback time of just 11 to 18 seconds or so when I know I spent 3 to 4 hours on the silly thing! It all depends on how much I've tinkered, using undo, to get the look that feels "right" inside me... and THAT doesn't even include time spent just growing images in my head while I'm doing totally different non-TD stuff.

Because my mind works differently somehow when I draw with pencil, I also work out sketches on tiny square Post-Its that wind up tucked amid my To-Do notes stuck all around the rim of my computer monitor. Those get cleared out monthly, with the business stuff going into my desk calendar pages, and the drawing/painting ideas placed in an "art" folder. Yeah yeah, I keep daydreaming that I'll have enough time to do large scale real-life stuff.............. ;>

And yes, I do manipulate stuff in PaintShopPro. Portraits, especially, I often re-do because the constraints of TD just don't get the subtlety I want. More often tho', I use screen captures to keep an eye on the development of a thinkdraw piece as I go along... it forces me to "see the whole" (rather like a painter stepping back from his easel now and then) and helps emphasize how it will look in the tiniest size in forums.


Q-the-terminally-curious

mdawrcn

Thank you all for sharing your methods. I agree with you Q regarding Polenta's time spent on her beautiful patterns.

And what a great idea this is -

"I also work out sketches on tiny square Post-Its"

I find that if I try to do something from my mind, with nothing to look at, it usually tuns into something completely different from what I had in mind. And I am really lucky to be able to copy something with the limitations that we have in TD. More often than not, I clear it because I get frustrated when unable to produce what I want.

Dragon

My times are all over the place too. Some I'll spend 2 or 3 hours on, others are just for fun and I'll spend something like 20-23 minutes on. I too keep a file with Think Draw idea that I'm hoping to get to. I have an awful lot in there though.

Dragon

That should have read 20-30mins not 20-23. I'm not that anal about count my minutes spent. hehehe

mdawrcn

lol

mdawrcn

I started numbering and then forgot. There are three questions there.

Dragon

Ah yes, I don't do anything outside of Think Draw with my pictures because I'm not clever enough with computers to figure out how. I sometimes can manage to post my pics on Facebook but they never post properly and I can't figure out how to get them to.

I occasionally go through my gallery and delete pictures I don't feel are relevant anymore or that I just wasn't happy with. I don't delete much though, if I got a fairly good response I usually keep it.

mdawrcn

Thanks Dragon. I just went through your gallery for the first time. You have some great stuff in there and I had a good laugh! You are funny!

I also tried to put a pic on Facebook and couldn't get it to work right. It wanted to put a link and not just the pic.

mdawrcn

I just added some pics to facebook page by copying them from my file where I have saved them instead of directly from TD. Worked much better.

inked_gemini

That's how I did it too, md. I save my pictures to a file, and then I just upload them to my facebook instead of trying to link them directly from TD.

I can't remember the last time I actually did an entire picture in one sitting. I almost always save my progress and work on it again later (I do a lot of crossing my fingers as I hit the "load draft" button). But if you added it all up, I bet I spend somewhere around 3-5 hours on a picture.

I don't do anything with my pictures outside of TD besides post them to a facebook album. Well...actually...I did use a photo editing program to put my Kitty Cat picture together so it would be all one piece. But that's pretty much it.

I haven't deleted a single picture from my gallery. I've thought about deleting some of the earlier ones, but I think it's much more fun to see how much I've evolved and learned since I created my very first drawing.

inked_gemini

Q's remark about a painter stepping back from his easel now and then made me giggle. I will physically roll my chair waaaay back away from the monitor as I'm drawing so that I can make sure I'm progressing in the right direction.

The reason my pictures take so long is because I am a lover of fine details. If you'll notice, most of the pictures in my gallery are close-ups. That's because I'm trying to cram every line, every shadow, every wrinkle, every reflection into a tiny space and with limited parameters. When I'm working on a specific detail, I tend to lose sight of the picture as a whole. So I'll move away from the picture to see if the colors are blending the way I want them to. If it's proportional. And to give me an idea of how it will look at a smaller size once it is posted to the gallery or as a thumbnail.

sheftali52

Oh inked gemini, I am SO glad you do not delete any of your pics. I, for one, am a huge fan of your drawings, and I appreciate the time and detail you invest in each one. I would gladly view your drawings in a brick and mortar gallery, but barring that, this is as good as it gets!

Dragon

I love your work too inked_gemini! Your attention to details really does shine through. I'm not surprised that your pics take hours to do.

polenta

It seems to me that the more we use a theme (fruit, avatars, gothic, etc), the easier it is or maybe the more quickly it is to complete a pic. I do not usually choose gothic because it scares me a little and to draw an average pic according to my standards would take much more.
I am also kind of discouraged to draw real portraits or landscapes (really real ones) because they usually look awful. Many of these attempts have never been in the gallery because it's when I use tha CLEAR button.

five

Anywhere from a couple minutes to an hour, usually 20 or 30 minutes, I think, but I am not good at tracking the time spent. I find it relaxing. I spent close to a couple hours on one once -- a copy of Van Gogh's Night Cafe -- and lost it. There are probably a couple others I did that took more than an hour of total time. I can't imagine spending 3 or 4 hours. My fingers hurt thinking about it. But it does produce truly wonderful work from those with the patience to dedicate that kind of time. I suspect if I spent that much time, the pic would be worse than if I only spent an hour because I would almost certainly overdo the drawing. I almost never delete, and I submit most of what I draw, even the silly doodles. I usually don't safe draft (that's how I lost Night Cafe. frown. I really do miss that one). I'll sometimes leave pics open on my computer if I get interrupted and come back to them.

Shanley

The 'save/load draft' has a great number of 'victims ' in its club. couldn't help remembering a couple of hours spent on a Che portrait which got deleted sooo quickly (it was made under a shared account, easy to access by everyone). Time tought me the draft button is still worth giving a try. Detailed pics take too much time for one sitting. Nice to read about how others deal with that.