Experiment: Got a book of Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimeters Per Second) animation backgrounds on a whim, and it mentions that about 40% of the BGs are painted directly over reference photos, changing the light and color and sky and style to fit the needs of the shot. Figured I'd give that idea a stab with a photo I had lying around- though there's still a part of me whenever I try to directly use photographs in my stuff, in spite of knowing that this is a really really common thing that's essential to many professionals' art pipelines, and in spite of however much time and effort and modification I may put into it, I always still feel like a sneaky middle schooler who thinks they're so clever because they got their hands on a bootleg version of Photoshop and now is trying to convince people they're an amazing artist because they've managed to apply a Rough Pastels filter to a photo.
You can crop them a bit more to get rid of the wasted whitespace, but even around 600-700px wide they should be fine. Keep a larger one for yourself though.
I always still feel like a sneaky middle schooler who thinks they're so clever because they got their hands on a bootleg version of Photoshop and now is trying to convince people they're an amazing artist because they've managed to apply a Rough Pastels filter to a photo.
One of the senior concept guys at work gave a photo-bashing demo the other day, and there was one thing said that stuck out to me. "You don't have to build the legos yourself to get credit for building something with them. The skill is in making something interesting." Or something to that effect.
You're still flexing all the same creative brain muscles. You're just using some of the more complex, specialized pieces. Sure, you could build something really cool with the super basic blocks, but why not save some time and use your brain power for more interesting problems.
Angel of Bacon, I ordered that background book and it arrived the other day. Really good stuff.
Flay, I like the atmosphere. I would like to take that composition and the colors and do a picture of Grimlok from Transformers kicking some ass.
My ability to use photoshop brushes leveled up! I forgot to erase the "3 hours" thing. (this definitely took way longer than that all together) Don't tell anybody that I didn't really get Pidgey's colors 100% correct...or maybe you didn't even notice.
for this one I was trying to get an oil paint type effect using the photoshop brushes. Still a complete digital art baby, of course. I would like to learn more about soft/hard brushes, and making my own brushes. I guess I'll just watch some tutorials and whatnot.
Messing with some colors. WIP!
You can see the reference photo I was using. I didn't color pick at all, just tried to use my eyes to match them as best I could.
17 hours of artwork this week, if I wasn't on probation I would drink a beer to celebrate (Some of my files' are being weird and not cooperating, apologies)
I got kinda sloppy on this Sioux chief so I just threw a bunch of ink everywhere and called it a day.
John Steinbeck!
I really enjoying drawing First Nation people. They have a lot of cool facial structures and a pretty wide array of interesting clothes and accessories. Except the beads. Fuck drawing beads.
Five clones, created for the purpose of, trained from birth for, and tasked with exploring a newly discovered dimension. Turns out, it's a huge white void, and they are trapped.
OR
Its onetime occupant now long dead, the (functionally immortal) in-suit AI of a lost astronaut drifts through space. After about 1000 years, It begins to hear things.
Doing some faces...this is the first one I've gotten near completion with - they don't take super long but I'm going to nap on this and see what it looks like to me tomorrow before working up the others.
been a while since I drew something on the computer
This is really cool, and I love the colors. I agree with Projeck that some of the colors could be a little more saturated on the main subjects, like the lizard, gun, and main jet-man. Seems to be some wonk in the perspective of main jet-man's hand, too.
Those faces look tight ND! The first one you did looks like it turned out the best; the others look a little bit less tightly rendered to me.
Thanks! And yeah, that was intentional. I actually rendered the first face too much in the first go (I was intending for these faces to be quick and not super rendered), so I decided to just go with it and clean it up even further...and just make sure to not over render the rest.
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I am getting my feet wet in photoshop finally. Just some basic things I'm doing to try and learn about coloring.
I think that maybe with the popularity of Pokemon Go, whoever draws the most Pokemon is gonna have the most money.
P.S. how do you guys save your files so that the pics are so small but they still look OK?
One of the senior concept guys at work gave a photo-bashing demo the other day, and there was one thing said that stuck out to me. "You don't have to build the legos yourself to get credit for building something with them. The skill is in making something interesting." Or something to that effect.
You're still flexing all the same creative brain muscles. You're just using some of the more complex, specialized pieces. Sure, you could build something really cool with the super basic blocks, but why not save some time and use your brain power for more interesting problems.
Just my two cents on it.
Still plugging away at these daily spitpaints.
30 minutes, theme was 'surviving dinosaur'
Flay, I like the atmosphere. I would like to take that composition and the colors and do a picture of Grimlok from Transformers kicking some ass.
My ability to use photoshop brushes leveled up! I forgot to erase the "3 hours" thing. (this definitely took way longer than that all together) Don't tell anybody that I didn't really get Pidgey's colors 100% correct...or maybe you didn't even notice.
for this one I was trying to get an oil paint type effect using the photoshop brushes. Still a complete digital art baby, of course. I would like to learn more about soft/hard brushes, and making my own brushes. I guess I'll just watch some tutorials and whatnot.
Messing with some colors. WIP!
You can see the reference photo I was using. I didn't color pick at all, just tried to use my eyes to match them as best I could.
17 hours of artwork this week, if I wasn't on probation I would drink a beer to celebrate (Some of my files' are being weird and not cooperating, apologies)
and this as well.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
What kind of medium did you use for this
I really dig the soft looking shadows
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
Pencils, 2b, 4b Thanks Peas!
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
I thought it was some kind of charcoal
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
Here is my favorite dog/friend Zeus.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
'Ink', 30 minutes
I did 3 but the second one got all glued to another page oops
Edit: spoilered for kinda big
Night Carriage Ride, 30 minutes
Sorry for the bad photo.
Roughly based on this. Spoilered as it's large and my resizing efforts have failed.
Will post yesterday's drawing later on.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
Another daily spitpaint. Weeding the Garden, 30 minutes
A Niitsitapi guy with a real cool fuzzy hat.
I got kinda sloppy on this Sioux chief so I just threw a bunch of ink everywhere and called it a day.
John Steinbeck!
I really enjoying drawing First Nation people. They have a lot of cool facial structures and a pretty wide array of interesting clothes and accessories. Except the beads. Fuck drawing beads.
Thanks! I think I may actually work that one up into a finished illustration
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
The prompt was 'cloud machine'
Edit: this feels more dynamic.
old version:
Five clones, created for the purpose of, trained from birth for, and tasked with exploring a newly discovered dimension. Turns out, it's a huge white void, and they are trapped.
OR
Its onetime occupant now long dead, the (functionally immortal) in-suit AI of a lost astronaut drifts through space. After about 1000 years, It begins to hear things.
Spitpaint, prompt was Human Evolution
it might be my monitor but u could probably play up the chroma ina few places here and there, esp the yellows and pinks
This is really cool, and I love the colors. I agree with Projeck that some of the colors could be a little more saturated on the main subjects, like the lizard, gun, and main jet-man. Seems to be some wonk in the perspective of main jet-man's hand, too.
Thanks! And yeah, that was intentional. I actually rendered the first face too much in the first go (I was intending for these faces to be quick and not super rendered), so I decided to just go with it and clean it up even further...and just make sure to not over render the rest.