[Basic] Skill of the week: Artist

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by sungnif

As far as I'm concerned, hard work won't get you very far in the visual arts, without the talent to back it up.

It's also not my experience that talent is particularly medium or tool dependent. I'm sure there's a ridiculous extreme or two, but generally, it's just a question of getting used to the newness, and that doesn't take very long at all.

To the first: Talent doesn't necessarily mean you don't get frustrated with something and quit, leave a project unfinished to start doing something else, destroy your own work because of a flaw only you notice, etc. The discipline to finish something and finish it by a deadline is a big deal in determining whether or not you will be successful.

On the second note, yeah, Talent transcribes across things. I normally work with pencil and paper, but I can easily paint a detailed image quickly, or rough carve stone or rock, or do some needlepoint, etc. Some of this is probably a bit of high manual dexterity, but the ability to visualize an image and then execute it is the same.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by DavidSev

For computer art, I'd say using a graphics tablet would just be a familiarity of Drawing. Doing vector art with a mouse is completely different and should be it's own speciality.

It's not just a Familiarity of Drawing. The Blending of Colours and Shading are done totally differentially and not just the colour while but any professional drawing program will have layers which opens whole new processes in achieve effects, any supplier gradients.

[simply Nathan]

I draw with the mouse and the Paintbrush/Pencil tools on a given art program, usually flooding the colors I like from my palette into the spaces with the Fill tool. I'm pretty sure I have a point put into doing this, but I also usually take whatever skill penalty Artist(Drawing, Digital) would be for making a piece in one hour.

When not doing that I draw on paper with pen and pencil, then color with crayon or scan in monochrome bitmap and then flood-color with the above method.

[johndallman]

Another couple of Artist specialisations that seem to exist in the real world:

Font Design: The design of fonts for typesetting, which is surprisingly complex and subtle. Unlikely to be needed by adventurers, except when dealing with the dawn of printing, or when preparing for a very comprehensive propaganda campaign.

Page Design: the design of pages for books, and similar printed matter. Large bonuses to default skill are available if you are aware of and follow established conventions. Contrary to many people's belief, this does not have a default to Computer Operation, or to Writing.

[Tinman]

I've used it in my games for tattooing: Disguise & for RPM spells as 1 shot conditionals and for permanently imbued spells bound to the tattoo.

I've also used it for piercings. For Disguise & other reasons.

[Celti]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Font Design: The design of fonts for typesetting, which is surprisingly complex and subtle. Unlikely to be needed by adventurers, except when dealing with the dawn of printing, or when preparing for a very comprehensive propaganda campaign.

I think I might rule Font Design a modern familiarity of Calligraphy. They both at their core deal with creating pleasing letter-forms, one just creates reusable letters instead of a single unique text.

[johndallman]

Another specialisation: (Engraving). It's clearly close to (Drawing), but requires particular styles, and extra technical knowledge.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Another specialisation: (Engraving). It's clearly close to (Drawing), but requires particular styles, and extra technical knowledge.

Actually it's not the close. Drawing is an additive medium, Engraving is subtractive. Also Engraving is partially 3 dimensional where varying the depth of the engraving will produce effect you cant get with drawing. Sculpture probably has more in common with Engraving than Drawing does.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Another specialisation: (Engraving). It's clearly close to (Drawing), but requires particular styles, and extra technical knowledge.

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Actually it's not the close. Drawing is an additive medium, Engraving is subtractive. Also Engraving is partially 3 dimensional where varying the depth of the engraving will produce effect you cant get with drawing. Sculpture probably has more in common with Engraving than Drawing does.

As someone who whittles, carves, and occasionally does woodblock carving (which is a sort of engraving) I can tell you for fact that it's related more to sculpture than drawing (though being able to draw is REALLY useful if you want to create more than one of a kind pieces - I cannot draw so replicating my own work takes FOREVER).

[SRoach]

I took a semester of Mechanical Aided Drawing in my last year of high school, and Computer Aided Drawing the following semester.
Both I used somewhat, but never professionally.

I took a semester of CARTOONING about three years later. (I was thinking Flash games, or rather edutainment programs, but never got past the thinking stage... and a semester of how to draw cartoons.)

From my perspective, I didn't get a lot of benefit from my MAD days when drawing characters with brush and pen. To me, they are very different skills.

Also, while I have let my drawing skills lapse back to Int/Dex default, I can still use a 2D CAD program with some faculty and feel I could competently produce an orthographic image using MAD, still.

Of course, these days, I'm more likely to doctor a photograph in GIMP than I am to produce an orthographic drawing of some solid with a pencil and straightedge.