Morrel

Amorte is correct. Those circles and squares are the first things they teach at art schools. Here is a link with all the information you need... great (free) Andrew Loomis books for learning how to draw. The're old books but I like them a lot. [url="http://www.houseoftutorials.net/Zfleamarket/index.php?album=Loomis-Books"]Loomis books[/url] Or you can download them all six at once on this page: [url="http://www.placidchaos.com/AM/index.php?title=andrew_loomis&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1"]6 Loomis books in pdf [/url] I use tracing to work fast but correct. It's just being lazy Just the outlines, so that I have a basic form to start from. "fast" is still 2 hours or more for an avatar. It also keeps the drawing rather fresh, without helplines. I made a lightbox , a rectangular wooden box with a lightbulb inside, one side of the box is plexiglass. if you make one, don't let the lightbulb touch the wood!, it gets very hot. I then place a printout from a composition i made in photoshop on the lightbox , and over that a sheet of paper to draw on. Tracing is not as easy as it sounds, it's very difficult to keep the drawing spontanious, usually you can see right away when someone used this method. Vermeer and other famous painters used a camera obscura to trace. Michelangelo punctured little wholes in his drawings to tranfer them on the ceiling of the chapel. Try to use as little lines as possible, or even just some points. keep them very light so they don't show in the finished work. This depends on the way you like to work of course, there is a beauty and feeling in spontanious sketches you can't get this way. But if you want a more photorealistic effect this is a good way. both ways are very different from each other. A sketch is more like the MD drawings, rather loose lines, and visible pencil strokes. Of course, if you really want to learn how to draw, you should draw from life as often as you can. Here are some of my sketches ...(no tracing) [attachment=509:face_red_800.jpg][attachment=510:naakt1.jpg] [attachment=511:Study01.jpg][attachment=512:portretman_01.jpg] [attachment=516:1996nude.jpg][attachment=515:Charcoal.jpg] Here are some more realistic ones... (using tracing to get accurate measurements, contour, height, width, key points..) This one took about 50 hours..(father in law, the reason his eyes are not the same height is because of a stroke.) I have a question about this one: It's a grayscale image, but on my new flatscreen monitor I see [b][u]yellows [/u][/b]as well, in the hair and shirt. do any of you see that as well? These new monitors are really annoying to work with graphics... Original size : 21 x 30 cm [attachment=513:rafael.jpg] As you can see on this close up, the detail isn't really that high... It's putting lots of layers of shading that took most of the time. first layers with a hard pencil (light in color) then softer and more black pencils. So instead of putting more or less pressure on my pencil, I just use different hardnes of pencil to get tone. [attachment=517:eye.jpg] A commissioned portrait of "Ducky" (rather strange name for a dog) I'm not a big fan of poedles... [attachment=514:DuckyVoo..._10_2006.gif]

You know you've been on MD too much when... -You start saying 'Greetings' instead of 'hello' when you answer the phone. -When people say 'hi, how are you' you answer: 'I think war is upon us' -You go to church, count the people there and shout 'YES, I have more worshipers then you' -You change the name of your daughter into Marind. -Start collecting wooden boxes -You keep printouts of your inner magic documents in a safe at your bank -You start vacuuming your house every day because your afraid of dust. -When asked for a copy of your curriculum vitae, you start printing out your personal page -When you think your biggest achievements in life are : won a drachorn, did phrogs quest, won a head hunting competition and reached mp6 -When filling in papers, you write 'Warrior' as your main occupation and No Man's Land as place of birth -Whenever you see a beautiful sunset you think about Bootes. -When you see the word 'Dragon' you sigh and think : 'They spelled it wrong again...' -Hospital security drags you out of a patient's room while your shouting Prot-Heal spells -Say 'Hello' every time you pass a tree. -You replaced your 'No Trespassing' sign with 'This Path is closed for mortals, only gods may pass' -You see a beautiful woman pass by and ask your wife if you can use a wishpoint ...

[quote name='wynken vanaril' post='16438' date='Sep 11 2008, 03:13 PM']You claim that reality is a function of the perception of the majority. That notion is actually a logical fallacy, argumentum ad populam.[/quote] actually even scientists are wondering about that too. One of the most amazing things is that we seem to be changing 'reality' just by observing. In quantum mechanics an electron can be both particle or wave. only by being observed the waveform collapses into a particle. The quantum world is full of 'magic', particles being at 2 places at the same time, disappearing at one point and reappearing at another at the same instant. communicating with each other at speeds faster then light.. and many more strange things like that. It hard to find understandable explanations if your not a scientist.. If interested look for Thomas Young or Richard Feynman the experiment is called the "Two Slit Experiment." or "double slit experiment" That's a weird one, but the experiment is easy to follow.

Chewett, thank you for making that clear. The left brain right brain myth shows again how we can be fooled in another way. How many things that we believe to be true are in fact false? I'd think we'd be amazed if we knew. Another thing is that there is lots of 'reality' that we simply don't see... [u]The blind spot of the eyes[/u] It's the point where the optic nerve connects to the eye. that part doesn't give any signals to the brain and we actually don't see anything there, not even darkness. Our brain fills in the missing pieces... Look with your right eye at the cross (close the left eye) place yourself so that the cross is right in front of your eye. Now move closer or further from the monitor (for me it's about 25 cm) At a certain point the black spot on the left will disappear Test it by moving closer and further away from the cross. The spot will appear and disappear as it moves in and out your blind spot (be sure to focus on the cross) [attachment=458:blindspot.gif] To test the left eye look at the circle, close the right one and place your eye in front of the circle, move up and down until the cross disappears. This is [i]not [/i]a illusion from the screen, it's made right in our brain. No matter how hard we try, we don't see that blind spot without a test like this. I think we may agree that our visual system, and/or our interpretation can't always be trusted to tell what is true or not. Insects that see UV light show us that there is information out there we don't even notice. in fact visible light is only small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Once I saw a documentary about this stuff. at the end was a final test. some persons were asked to dribble a basket ball, they had to count how many times the ball touched the ground while going in a circle. A man dressed as a gorilla walked trough the men to the other side, only one or two had seen the gorilla walking around. In fact I didn't believe It. But then... The host told me I had missed the gorilla 4 times during the show, and it was true. Once he drove by on a bike, another time he was playing football in the background, he even passed on the sidewalk right behind the host. How could I miss something like that, it was a very serious scientific documentary? I didn't expect a man in a gorilla suit at all, so I didn't see one. This experiment had a big impact on how I think about what I see. (or don't see) Thank you all for contributing to this topic. I think this concludes what I wanted to say about the [u]visual [/u]part of this so called reality Please don't tell me that you don't believe me, until you've seen it with your own eyes...

I didn't speak of magic or make many arguments, just one, I'll repeat: I state that reality is an illusion, I don't mean it's a 'dream' or doesn't exist, just that what we think is reality is in fact not. Also, this is only one step in the point I'm trying to make. It's only purpose is to proof that what we see is not reality. Think of my statement as a statue, we start with a block of raw stone, and this post is my way of chiseling of a piece of stone. Don't throw it away yet because you cant see the statue yet. When it begins to take form, you can tel me if its garbage or beautiful. In this post I'm chiseling at the eyes.. I agree on the chemical processes, What i mean is that our brain is very creative and makes things up, even without LSD, and that we can't trust that what we see is reality. Those illusions are just a fun way of proofing that. And it's nice to see you can stop the illusion, just by using your concentration. So they're not really consistent I think. Oh, and the letters... If you start notepad, with black and white background then the letters are black and do not send you 'real' information (light waves). what you see is the negative form. the white of the screen determines their shape. (a lesson learned in art school) Edit : I just stumbled on this in wikipedia ! Seems someone had the idea of optical illusions before OK, now I'm getting goosebumps...

The general opinion seems to be that reality is the collection of what we experience and see in the world 'outside' I state that reality is an illusion, I know that is difficult to understand, I would like to start with small steps to show you what I mean. So please just answer the questions. Note: When I say reality is an illusion, I don't mean it's a 'dream' or doesn't exist, just that what we think is reality is in fact not. Here is something I'd like you to try before answering. below are some optical illusions you can find on the Internet. But I'd like you to use them for something different then amusement. This animated gif is a girl dancing clockwise or counterclockwise. If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Try to make her dance in the direction you want in an instant, without thinking. Try and not have her rotate at all, so she just moves her leg. What part of your brain is telling you the truth? Is there even a picture of a girl spinning there? OK, it's a cheap illusion you might think, but even while you are reading this your mind is making things up. Are you sure you are seeing these letters? Try to read the following sentence real fast. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Next The 2 squares A and b are the same shade of gray. Exercise : Look at the picture until you actually can see that. It's not easy. you have to get rid of the illusion. Finally: stop the picture from rotating Questions : Are the illusions inside you or outside on the monitor, or is it something else? If it is something else, then what? If it is outside, how come you can change it just by concentrating? If it is inside, How can you say reality is what you see? Can you find a real life example like the word jumble ?

About the Dreams, they are called Lucid dreams. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

Yes, I thought of this since I read the book called "The incredible shrinking man" when I was a kid. Maybe because of that I shrink myself until the ant looks huge. I've also seen the "50 foot woman" and "inner space" I think writers use this a lot. (And Magic Duel people of course) What if I was...a Hero, a killer, an alien, how would i see the world, what would I do? As for the fist part... I used to do that, they call it empathy I believe. I was helping people, forgiving ... At the end most of them tried to take advantage of that (and did). Too much empathy is not good unless you know how to handle it. Now I help them by planting a fist back and asking "How do you think that makes me feel ?" Just a little sarcasm, that last part. I couldn't resist it

See what happens with short answers.. Please throw the other glove as well so I'll have a pair You jump to the conclusion here that your 'self' is your 'personality'. I didn't say throw your 'self' away. I refer to the next topic for that, the sound of an empty mind. So If we can't know reality because our personalities are part of it, then what? Then we have to throw away those layers of thought, memories and even individuality. Once you do that one can see reality. The second line is made to make you think about reality, if you understand the first line then the second will show you that your personality exists of illusions.

Letting my thoughts flow by is difficult enough. First the coherent thoughts dissolve into fractures of thoughts, then I try and let them flow by like a river, without paying attention to them. It is possible. If you can do that your ego can shatter into pieces and you can be enlightened or get very very scared. Or a mixture of both.

Short it will be. Reality is what's left over if you trow away your personality. Personality is an illusion created by reality.

I'm working on it Shot 7 bunnys to pose for me. (they wouldn't sit still)

On a throne of bones Khalazdad sat, In his hands a brand new skull Just a little trouble that he had, But his fights are never dull