[Garth Herrick]

[QUOTE=Patt Legg]
By the way, Garth, how do you OVERLAY each item on each other in Photo-shop? I assume you did that in Photo-shop. I am just now learning how to do some things in it.
/QUOTE]

Hi Patt,

Good work! I agree with Alex and Grethe. It's not cheating, and you won't always want to use a grid or trace ( I certainly don't want to often), but these are tools to aid in visualization and internalization of the imagery. Look, if it was acceptable for Thomas Eakins to use a projector and measue to death 130 years ago, then one should not feel guilty following in his tradition today when needed. Even if you grid, trace or project, you STILL have to paint it, and it still requires considrable skill and practice to do this well. As long as, as an artist, one observes from life too, one should be in good stead with these occasional aids. I myself have gone absurdly high tech at times, and I've gained much from doing so; interestingly I feel more drawn to work from life now. As Alex says, as long as one does not use these tools and techniques as a constant crutch, there is nothing to be ashamed of. As Grethe suggests, measuring a lot helps you to see more important nuances and relationships.

Sometimes one can draw better and capture the shapes and relationships when seeing things from a different context or viewpoint. Drawing a portrait upside-down could help in this regard. Also by checking one's progress in a mirror from time to time, one can easily see and react to something being really off in the drawing or proportions.

The "overlay" you ask of is a GIF format animation, indeed done in Photoshop. I do not know which versions of Photoshop include Animation, but I am using CS2. If you do not have this animation tool, then you still can overlay another Layer of a second image, which can be very useful. By using the slider to adjust Layer Opacity, you can find the comparison you want.

Garth