Cut and blend target practice

O

OzAirbrush

Guest
Hi All, following on from fiddlemans great idea for dagger stroke practice, here is what I use for practicing 'cut and blends'.

View attachment Airbrush Target Practice.pdf

There are unlimited ways to use this sheet but my main use is to practice cutting in on edges with a blend away from same edge.
I start on the outside ring at one segment and blend inwards towards centre, miss a segment and so on all around. Once I get back to the start I then fill in the empty segments then onto the next ring in gradually until I get to the centre.
I then repeat this but cut and blend away from the rings so I'm cutting the outside of the curve.
The benifits here are that you are always cutting and blending in differnet directions as you goaround the circle.

This is quite difficult to do and get nice clean blends that start and stop at the segment lines. It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete a sheet so 3 or 4 a day will have you improving in no time :)
When I get time I'll post up some examples.

Another way to use it is to parctice dots at the centre of each segment line or the intersections, curved lines that start and stop at segment lines, wherever you choose, it's all good target practice ;)
 
Time to bare all :)

Here's my practice for today showing how I use the target. It's pretty obvious I need a lot of pratice :) Bare in mind that I did these with one hand without the aid of my other one for steadying. I figure that if I get good one handed it will be a breeze with 2 ;)

The first sheet, first pick shows staggered blends, the other shows finished.
IMG_20120319_171819.jpgIMG_20120319_172234.jpg

Here's my 4th and last sheet for the day
IMG_20120319_180246.jpgIMG_20120319_180943.jpg

As you can see they did get better. I can see that I'm not going past my start and finish lines enough and it creates blotchy lines where it should really be more like a double ebded dagger stroke.
The other problem I have is rushing, by the fourth sheet I had slowed down a bit but still a bit hairy but practice will help.
The idea is not for the line/blend to land 'exactly' on the start and finish segment lines (we can mask for that ;)) but to have the segment area consistently shaded without too much overhang. When filling in the last segments you find it a lot easier and smoother as you don't worry so muchabout the overlap.

Back to practice!
Mick.
 
Just taking a break, half way done with the circle for the first time. It's a really great worksheet because you have to blend at all 360 degrees as well as haveing to be more controlled as the circle gets smaller. Ill post my results when done.

Good Job OzAirbrush
 
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