[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka In his defence, Lewis Carroll was a mathematician, a photographer and an author rather than a painter.

But to his credit, he understood his shortcomings in this area as well: his illustrations were only in the original manuscript that he gifted to Alice. After that, for publications, he used the services of a professional illustrator to draw the images that he wanted.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka But that being said, I have to admit, I think this cringy drawing of his adds a certain something to the overall ambience of Alice as well.

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot Do you have a fictional story the Tarot of which you'd want to have most? Witcher has a Tarot deck, and so do Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings and Star Wars and Star Trek. But maybe there is a story you'd especially like to have a Tarot form?

[DracoTarot]

@DoctorEldritch A Lord of The Rings deck would be nice to have. I really want a Diablo deck and saving up to buy one from Amazon.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch Oh yes, definitely. I just gave my honest opinion regarding the drawing.

Anatomy is difficult. I've seen many drawings that were really good in terms of colouring/brush technique, but there was something off about the arms or legs (as an example).

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot I seem to remember you mentioning it before, I remember pictures being very crimson in colour. Please do share when you get one, it will be nice to know and see.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka I find it interesting how he was a photography enthusiast instead. Back then photography was not as widespread as it is today (everyone has a camera in a smartphone these days...), so you needed to be quite dedicated to this activity to have your own camera. I wonder if he took photos because he liked the artistic component of it, or maybe he also did want to try and improve his drawings this way.

But there is another question I am thinking about. I do not draw, so it is hard for me to say, but from your point of view, is it much harder to draw imaginary things? This is a drawing of fictional Alice, not the real one, so he only had his imagination to use as a reference. I know some painters use those wooden figures even when they draw imaginary things specifically to get the anatomy right. I wonder if drawing real things in front of you makes a big difference in how easy it is to keep the right proportions?

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch It's always useful to keep a reference, but one can actually combine multiple sources and build their own drawing based on those, it doesn't have to be a single source. But an inexperienced artist without any references is bound to make more mistakes indeed.

I actually did use some references when making my "second skin" drawing. For example I had pictures of real me holding a wooden sword, and some screenshots of the in-game model of a lightforged Draenei, to get their features right.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka Even with references you can make mistakes, sometimes costly ones. Maybe you remember some time ago we were talking about tattoos with @DracoTarot, and I used this meme there:



This mem is fictional, but I have since learned, to my surprise, that it may have been based on a real event. Here is an actual tattoo fiasco that really did happen:



This happened back in 2019 in Denmark. The artist claimed to have used a "trashy" style deliberately, though, but it still shows that choosing a good reference is half the battle, you also need to choose a good style, especially if you're drawing on someone else. 😅

It is interesting how you used several references, both real and "fictional" when making your drawing, the result was interesting. Is it hard to mix real photos and fictional images?

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch Hm, I don't think it's hard to mix. After all I don't blend them in a picture, but draw based on what I see - but modifications, of course, still apply. For example, I needed one of the references to see how light plays with specific shapes and didn't use it for anything else.