Colors Gallery, meet tall73!
@tall73 is an artist who not only enjoys creating fantastic realistic art but they also enjoy a good conversation! They are one of the co-creators of the well known #rdconest tag which encourages users to practice realism techniques and the realism discusion channel on the official colors discord where users can chat and receive feedback as they learn more about art fundamentals. Be sure to check those out but first let's learn about tall73's amazing backstory!
What's your story? When did you pick up art?
"We had art classes in school. I never really got much out of it it, other than being impressed by one of my teachers sharing how the reason he was hard of hearing was that he served in a heavy artillery unit, and went through such shelling that his ears would bleed. It was cool that he survived and got to spend his life doing what he enjoyed."
"The first time I really remember doing self-motivated art was in my teen years. I liked to read fantasy novels, and they always had epic paintings on the cover. I remember trying to copy some, and the results were fairly comical. But eventually you start to get a bit better. I also enjoyed trying to draw photos from National Geographic magazines. I am old, so we didn’t have the internet back then! Now I would recommend folks practice using free stock photos that you actually have a right to use! That was all foreign to me at the time (for those wanting tips on where to find reference, check my #talltips reference tips.) Folks really need to appreciate what a help the internet is to artists. Though it can also be discouraging because you see fantastic artists everywhere, and everyone has to go through growing pains in art. But it has tons of stock photos, resources, and free art instruction that just wasn’t easily available when I was growing up. Despite this interest in drawing, I then went through a long stretch of not doing art at all. My family of origin was not into art. And I was never in the habit of drawing all the time, just when the mood struck me."
"In college I took one art class, and it was the wrong one! I signed up for watercolor painting because it sounded great, and we had a professional artist teacher who sold paintings for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. I figured I could learn a lot. Also, I was dating my now-wife who liked to do watercolors. Let’s face it, that probably factored in a bunch. But I didn’t realize how challenging watercolors are. A lot of people think of them as kids paints because of Crayola watercolors, etc., but they are a very challenging medium. Once you lay down the paint they are hard to re-work. They have to be planned carefully because you have to work from light to dark, because of the transparency. I would have been better off taking a basic drawing course. I was impressed by the teacher’s ability to turn student mistakes into a fantastic bird! But I didn’t take him up on it as I would rather just make my own mistakes. I still did pick up on a few basic aspects of how values figured into painting, which was important later. I still am impressed by those who do watercolor well."
"It was years later that I again took up an interest in art, this time starting due to participation in video game forums. I liked making signature banners for people. So I started learning some of the programs. I eventually got a pen tablet (an old one with a serial port, try googling it!), and used Corel Photopaint (similar to Photoshop, but declining in popularity in recent decades), and Corel Painter (emulates traditional painting mediums). This phase lasted a while, then I stopped art again. What really got me into art the next time was teaching my kids how to draw. Which ties into the next question!"
I noticed you have your kids colors accounts on your profile description. Are you are an artistic family? If so, what's that like?
"From the time the kids were fairly little I taught them to draw. It was a fun activity, and teaching something makes you learn it better! Since I had three kids I would have them do contests to see who would draw a particular theme the best (particularly large animals, which they seemed to enjoy). And then later, as they got better, we would do actual learning exercises. One of our favorites, which we are now repeating with my son-in-law and daughter-in-law, is to take a shoe, or a photo of a person, etc. and draw it in pen. The pen helps you to commit, as you can’t undo it. And the goal is to draw it as well as you can, then critique what is different between the drawing and the object, or photo. They would explain to me what they saw that was off, and I would also note things to improve. Then they would draw from the same reference again, and again, and again, repeating this each time. It really trained them to see better. And they would make great improvement the longer they worked at it. Much of drawing is really learning to see. You have to see whether the line curves sharply, gradually, whether it is convex, or concave, how one part of an object relates to another, etc."
"People think of drawing as a free-spirited, creative endeavor. I think it can be once you develop some skill But a lot of it is just learning to see what is actually there, rather than imposing what you think you see. This is why one tip I taught my kids is to turn the reference upside down. Our brain thinks of a shoe a certain way. But it is not familiar with upside down shoes! So it is easier to see the actual shapes if you turn the reference (or shoe) upside down instead of imposing a pre-made thought. Another aspect that was important in their learning is constructive self talk. As an artist it is tempting to say things like “this looks terrible” or “this isn’t working”, etc. Art is hard. Especially early on. But more helpful talk relates to how to make it more like what you are drawing. Is the hand in line or above the knee in this pose? How steep is that curve?, etc."
"As I saw them get better at art, it kept me interested as well, and art became a great family activity. We would watch a youttube instructional video, or go out and paint outdoors, etc. Some of my paintings on colors recall moments when I was out in nature with the kids, or were inspired by our art lessons at home. Interesting note, my wife has an art degree (as well as another degree), but perhaps does less art than me or two of the kids! But she does join in at times as well. Another interesting thing that came out of this is that we saved the artwork (and other interesting notes, cards, etc. ) that the kids made and put them in a book which we now have to remember!"
"My kids also started painting cards with scripture or prayers for people who were sick, or struggling, and would correspond with them. This was not only great practice, but helped encourage people as well, and taught them concern for others. One of the most frustrating things about art with my family is that digital art is my favorite style, and their least favorite! They much prefer traditional art, whether watercolors, acrylics, pencil drawings, etc. Some of the better colors pieces by my kids came about by me bribing them to paint in digital!" A proud moment a bit over a year ago is when a local art community asked the kids and I to display our art in the vestibule of a local gallery. My kids all got married and moved out last year, but we just recently started an art night once a month, and we post our art in a family Discord So art with the family continues to be great fun."
You seem quite fond of all things realism. What inspired you to host/co-host the #rdcontest tag on the colors gallery and the realism discussion channel on our discord? Did you feel there wasn't enough conversations about realism? What are your favorite aspects of it?
"At the time I joined the colors gallery the 3ds era was starting to wind down. I remember seeing the featured artist category with fantastic works of the past. There were a number of great realistic paintings. But the gallery at the time I joined was dominated by less realistic depictions, with a few notable exceptions. One of the folks doing realistic work was @Acchan, and he noted how hard it was to be a realist artist in a community with a different focus. So when the Colors Discord got started a few of us began discussing techniques and such, at the time in the WIP and feedback section. Eventually I had the idea to start a thread to discuss realism. After over a year of that thread staying active we were given a channel. The channel seems to go in bursts of discussion, followed by long periods of silence. But some of my favorite moments there were getting feedback from folks like @Madwurmz, @Acchan, @smallpoly, @Twarda, etc. in how I could improve specific paintings."
"We soon realized the limitation of just posting in the Discord. Colors tends to have quite a few young users, just learning digital art. And in a number of cases they didn’t have permission from their parents to post in discord, which I could understand. But they really wanted to learn. So the #rdcontest was a way to bring the emphasis on realism to the gallery, without having to go to the Discord. Along with the contests we would do tip tutorials to help people learn some concepts. By the way, thanks to @Acchan for noting that my original tag, which was something super long was clunky, and suggested #rdcontest! It has worked out well."
"One of the earliest influences in the realism discussion group from the beginning was @Madwurmz. Both in discussion and planning, and just cranking out fantastic paintings, he has been a real help. And many others have helped to host a contest, contribute to the tags, etc. It has been a lot of fun, and I think has helped people to try realism. Another great aspect about the #rdcontest was seeing people who had not posted much realistic painting before really embrace it. In particular @brettzter started rapidly getting the hang of the tools, and putting out fantastic work. And you could see the progress artistically. I think he reached that point where you can reproduce a cool photo well, but you want to inject your own improvements to the idea, or composition, and add in some elements that are not just making a copy of a photo."
What Colors art are you the most proud of?
"Well, it is a bit awkward, but the one I am most proud of is also the only sensitive content painting on my page, so few will see it. It is a depiction of a nail driven through the hand of Jesus during the crucifixion. My ultimate goal in painting is to get good enough to depict biblical scenes. And this came out better than I thought it would. The problem with having such a goal is you don’t want poorly done Biblical scenes! So I keep trying to improve to get to that point."
Another painting I really like is this one that used my daughter’s photo of a goose as a reference:
I love painting sunsets, and animals, and this brings them together. And it reminds me of walks to look at geese with the kids.
Bath Time by tall73
One of my other personal favorites that I wish got more attention is this one:
Early Start by tall73
"It is not terribly original. In fact, I adapted it from another photo reference I found online, changing the composition and colors to something I liked better. But the fringe lighting on the ant was very difficult to pull off, and the blending was very subtle. I still think the end result was great, even if it has few stars."
Top 3 favorite Colors artworks?
"I could list many, many favorites. But I will just list one. The painting I gave my first superlike to was one that really inspired me early on regarding what could be done on colors. And I was even more impressed later when I found out that the artist, @mcollins, did all of his paintings on a tiny ipod touch, with his finger!"
snow leopard by mcollins
"Also, @mcollins has been my most consistent encouraging poster, who will also give actual feedback on areas of improvement. Thanks for being there throughout my colors experience! (and actually long before I arrived)."
Favorite Colors and non-Colors artist? How do they inspire you?
"I hate to make a full list, because I will leave out people who have been really great. But I will focus on a few who stand out in specific areas."
a. @mcollins for having a variety of subject matter (animals, people, landscapes, etc.), and doing it all through finger painting. And as a fellow painter who is beyond the teen years, he has to balance all his painting with real life time pressures. In addition to digital work he is developing his oil painting!
b. @Acchan and @Twarda for the absolute commitment, showing what it looks like to put in the time. People frequently ask @Acchan for tutorials, tips etc. But the biggest factor is the sheer amount of practice. And it is not just on colors, as Acchan also does watercolor. Twarda also puts in tons of work. And it is spread out over traditional and digital media. If you visit Twarda’s other art pages you will be blown away by the sheer number of high quality pieces.
c. @Hailsss is willing to try a variety of styles, and does well at all of them. She also shows an awareness of design and composition.
d. @Madwurmz always pushes me to use a more professional, planned approach. I only sometimes listen, but his attention to detail is obvious in his paintings. And he is fun to talk to if you are on Discord!
"As to non-colors artists, I follow some epic artists on Instagram. But I am more inspired by those who teach lessons that help me. You can find some tremendous pro artists on Youtube, which I really wish we had when I was younger! My two current favorites are :"
Marco Bucci
https://www.youtube.com/ @marcobucci/videos
"He gives fantastic, focused, short lessons on concepts in painting. Start with his old videos, and watch a new one now and then when you get a few minutes!"
Ian Roberts, Mastering Composition:
https://www.youtube.com/ @IanRobertsMasteringComposition
"He explains how to make your painting more compelling from a design element, and how to draw the eye to what is important. Very helpful content on a topic that is hard for many artists to grasp. Again, I would start with his earliest videos, and just watch ones when you get time. If you feel you want better art skills, start with composition. Even modest art skills with a well-thought out composition can be striking. While very detailed, refined rendering can fall flat without composition."
You post pretty frequently. Are you immune to the disease known as art block? How do you overcome it?
"I don’t bother overcoming it. I post in bursts. I sometimes paint every day. And I sometimes go months without painting. I don’t really worry about it. Part of it is deciding what your purpose is for painting. I love the experience of painting, the process of seeing, inventing, experiencing nature, etc. When I am painting I am in the zone, and time seems to fly by. And when I don’t feel like painting, and I have free time, I just engage in one of my other hobbies. Over the years I enjoyed basketball, disc golf, whistling (all of my kids whistle as well, and we do duets and such!), discussing the Scriptures on forums, etc."
"Once I decided that I was not likely to be a professional, and was just doing it for fun, I didn’t feel any pressure to try to paint all the time. I just paint when I want to paint. At the same time, there are moments when I don’t feel like painting, but I still feel like advancing my art. So I just watch a video, or read a blog, or a book, etc. about art. Sometimes these lead directly to more inspiration. Part of it is also knowing how you personally work. I have one kid who is inspired by seeing great master paintings. And another kid who is demotivated by master paintings for a while, because she says she feels like a “slob” in comparison! So if you are motivated by instructional videos, or seeing great art, then seek those out. If not, you still want to look at some of them, but do it when you have time to recover some of your self-esteem before painting!"
"A lot of the art process is about dealing with the inner doubt. Art is hard. And when you first start your work is likely to not be that interesting to anyone. You have to enjoy it enough to keep going through that. There is a lot that is good with the internet for motivation, such as teachers, online sharing and community, etc. But it can also be intimidating when you see great artists, and everyone appreciating their art. But you are struggling, and just trying to figure it all out. For me the enjoyment of the process, if not always the results, helped me to keep going. And eventually you start to like the results better. But with artists I think there is always a desire to be better than you are at any moment. It is when you look back at how far you have come that you get some perspective."
"Many artists will be afraid to post their work at all online. I have the opposite approach. I tend to post it, then regret it, and take it down. Usually then I regret that because I lost comments from friends, etc. But I always find something to fix. I have tried to be better about uploading it privately first to see how it looks on my TV. I see things easier that way that might be an issue. But even then I find that when I have been wrapped up in painting for a long stretch, I can’t see the painting as it actually is until later. It helps to flip the painting, or I even rotate it in another program. But ultimately it is when some time has passed that I can see it better."
"Still, at least this way I post my art, even if I later take it down. I also find that some paintings I just can’t fix in colors. So I do so in an image editor, like Krita. If I really messed up some proportions I can usually fix it there. It bugs me to not have it in the Colors gallery after working on it, but at least I have a painting I still like. And I can post it in the Discord. For those who have followed me a long time you can find many of my improved, rescued, or taken down pictures you may have caught for a few moments on the gallery over the years here, especially in the scraps section: "
https://www.deviantart.com/m7feettall/gallery
https://www.deviantart.com/m7feettall/gallery/scraps
"There are also some early pencil works, pen drawings, and even some poetry!"
Advice for beginners and for artist in general?
"Folks can check out my #talltips . But the biggest thing I would say is use reference. Even people who can draw nearly anything from imagination have usually gotten to that point because they studied lots of reference, whether from life or photos."
How does Colors compliment your workflow? Do you use any other software or mediums?
"Now days Colors is by far my favorite way to do art. I think it is largely because of the simplicity. I tried out Colors when my son bought me a 2ds xl to play Monster Hunter. And picking up a digital art tool for 8 bucks was an unbelievable find. I have a pen tablet, and professional level software. But something about the 3ds and Android version, which I now mostly use, really works for me. It only has a hard round, soft round, bristle brush, and eraser. And I found that simplicity really helped me focus on the art, and not the settings, brushes, tools, etc. in more ambitious programs. At the same time the smaller screen forced me to plan my composition more. I previously would paint something on a large canvas and just crop to whatever size I wanted, not thinking through composition enough. That is not an option on a 3ds Colors painting! And that was really good for me."
"Now that I use Android (I have an LG Stylo, with a pen, but not pressure sensitive), I have my phone with me all the time, and can just paint whenever the mood strikes. Lately I have been posting more because I can paint in my downtime at work.I also love that I can sit in my recliner, with my reference on my TV across the way, and can be completely comfortable while painting. I line it up so that my screen is in front of me, and I just have to barely look over the phone to see my TV. Because the reference is at a distance I don’t have to worry about every detail. It is a bit more like painting from life in that regard."
"I think the new features in Colors Live are fantastic. But it is the simplicity that I really love about Colors, seeing what can be accomplished with the most basic tools.If I do art other than Colors, it is usually brush pen, ball point pen, fine liner pen, etc, without pencil lines. It is the opposite of my colors painting. Colors can undo, change anything by painting right over it, etc. I paint without lines most of the time, just painting in values and areas. Pen drawing is the opposite. It is often very much about lines. You just have to commit and go at it! And I find that fun. It depends more on dexterity. And usually the drawing is done in a few minutes."
You're quite active on both the gallery and our discord. What do you like best about the Colors community? Any changes you would like to see?
"I love having an easy one-stop place to go to see interesting art work, get advice from friends, and just have a place to hang out. Colors is active enough to be engaging, and small enough to fit in. A few changes I would like to see involve the web browser version of the gallery. I spend a lot of time in the gallery, but almost all of it is on my computer, or phone, not in the Colors app. I find it easier to interact that way, and you can post longer messages!"
1. Set up the online web gallery to include superlikes.
2. Set up the online web gallery to include @ messages!
3. Set up the online web gallery to include featured tutorials.
4. I understand they couldn’t include it in the switch due to concerns about community content, but I would love it if they would bring the featured artist category to the web gallery, where Nintendo concerns are not as pressing. Seeing the old masterpieces done on the platform is fantastic! And some newer artists on Colors deserve to be on there as well.
"Now that we have a Windows Beta version I am hoping more artists will stay in the community even if they get more professional tools, such as a pen tablet, etc. And perhaps the IOS and Android apps will eventually be updated, which also give avenues for people to stay in the community, and still use top tools. Making the web version of the gallery have the additional features present in the Nintendo versions would help keep people involved."
Outside of realism is there any other types of art you enjoy?
"I enjoy just about any type of representational art. I am not as enthused about abstract, but if it is well designed that can be good too. The reason I don’t do other styles on Colors is I am terrible at line work on Colors! I know some do it well, but I can’t get the hang of it. So I don’t bother. I just paint with shapes and tones. I even enjoy doing and looking at pixel art, but I don’t have a switch to do it on. And while I have the Windows Beta, which I enjoy, I recently migrated my computers to Linux because Windows updates were driving me crazy!"
Anyone you want to shout-out? Not necessarily a favorite artist or friends.
"I have to shout out my kids of course. All three posted for a time under the name @Bigftninja, and then one moved on to start a new account, @sasquatchsamurai"
That wraps up our interview with @tall73 ! It was awesome hearing the story of such an active and helpful member of our community! We at The Colors Team would like to thank you for the interview. Colors Gallery, I recommend checking out not just tall73, but also #rdcontest, and the realism discusion channel on our discord to see more from them.
You can find our interview with the 4th artist of the week @OliviaSativaBlu here http://colorslive.com/page/Meet-OliviaSativaBlu
For those who may need a reminder
The Artist of the week will be posted every Friday so be sure to tune in! Prior to that, the artist may be contacted via email or other means at least a week or more in advance so be sure to check your emails( and spam) so you don't miss out on a chance to be featured. If you don't reply within 48 hours another artist may be chosen to be featured for that week instead and you will be in a future artist of the week update.
The announcement of who is the upcoming featured artist will be announced at least 2-3 days in advance or eariler so look out for that too! If you would like for any of your questions or comments to be featured in an upcoming interview please check out colorslive.com/discord and visit the official artist of the week channel to submit questions/commentary for a chance for those to be answered before Friday.
#wc499 "Forgotten Mascots" ends on Sunday April 23rd, 2023. Represent your favorite lost icon!
Stay creative!
Zyik & The Colors Team
