WIP of a portrait of a friend (previous iteration here)- think I'm going to put this on hold/abandon it at this point because I've stared at it so long I can't really see what I'm doing anymore, probably need to move on to something else so I can come back to it with fresh eyes. One thing's for sure though, he looks significantly more sinister here than he does in real life.
Still..i probably shouldnt have spent half an hour on a doodle of a monged out head. argh, I swear I need to do an actual study soon and stop just doodling!
Nice paint bacon. Sinister is better.
Severed Head, I didn't think it was a fungus at first. Maybe rocks or embedded eggs or something. At a large scale, fungi have stalks and stuff, if those are supposed to be groups of small fungus seen from a far, there's usually a lot more fractal randomness and texture in stuff like that.
Here's what I'm picking away at. Man-faced birds just look better.
I've mostly been doing figure studies in my sketchbook, but I have managed to do a bit of work on Jackie Chan
Also Neil Gaiman
I haven't really focused on the neck and shoulder areas so much, I've just got them kind of roughed in there, I'm looking at a bunch of different light references and figure pics for what I'm going to do with that
EDIT: also here's a gif of the differences between Jackie Chan before and how it looks now:
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I think it was loomis who advised artist to try to stay away from celebs for portrait drawing. You'll end up focussing too much on the likeness and too little on the drawing. Because as you see the parts of what you draw are pretty good, but the placement/ proportions knocks 'em down a notch sometimes.
Also, i'd have used a smaller brush on Gaiman's hair. Perhaps only try to draw the mass you see when you squint? check out Zapattack or Bacon's portraits above. There probably would be stray hairs everywhere (esp on the bird-dude), but those aren't really crucial for the drawing.
Was dicking around in photoshop with the pencil tool and made this for my profile pic for both here and DeviantArt, because the more I looked at the old one, the more I found wrong with it.
Same thought.
Also, yesterday I discovered this neat videogame Alan Wake, where you have to kill shadow things with a flashlight. Not that original but I think is fan-art worthy.
I think is missing something to give the impression of overwhelming darkness.
F87 nice charater once again, i like how u have such a consistent style with those. the legs might be a bit short.
sweet pencil rendering on the mma guy.
practice session!
The way a character holds something is the main way we can perceive it's weight. The way she's holding the staff with only her left (our right) hand makes it seem like it's either made of foam or weighted heavy on the top (like a sledgehammer)
I'd curl her fingers on her right hand to give the staff some more weight. Something like this:
Go find a Stick and hold it as you'd hold the weapon. That always helps me
Hey Frank, you might want to consider pushing the colors on the girl a bit- your recent environments have shown a more bold sense of color usage than you have in the past, and it'd be nice to see it brought into your character work as well. Specifically, you tend to leave your skin tones fairly desaturated, when you could go for a richer warm tones would likely sell the complexion more. (This could be the result of usually working off a grey background.)
Quick paintover- tried to move skintone more yellow/orange, with more reds in the shadows, and moved the shirt to be a warmer tone of blue and more purple in the shadows. Also tried to make the hair less reliant on white highlights (which will cool colors of any color mixed with it) and more on straight lemon yellow, with red/orange shadows. These are pretty subtle changes, but a little variations in color temperature can make a big difference in overall effect.
Made a colour sketch for what is decidedly a concept for an Earthbound fanart piece.
Made a little gif of it as well.
Edit: it's also best viewed when listening to this.
And like I say it's just a concept piece, so I'll likely do a more fleshed out take over the next couple of days.
Hey Frank, you might want to consider pushing the colors on the girl a bit- your recent environments have shown a more bold sense of color usage than you have in the past, and it'd be nice to see it brought into your character work as well. Specifically, you tend to leave your skin tones fairly desaturated, when you could go for a richer warm tones would likely sell the complexion more. (This could be the result of usually working off a grey background.)
Quick paintover- tried to move skintone more yellow/orange, with more reds in the shadows, and moved the shirt to be a warmer tone of blue and more purple in the shadows. Also tried to make the hair less reliant on white highlights (which will cool colors of any color mixed with it) and more on straight lemon yellow, with red/orange shadows. These are pretty subtle changes, but a little variations in color temperature can make a big difference in overall effect.
A big difference indeed. After seeing your paintover, the original girl looks sickly. Thank you, Bacon!
Only suggestion I might make is to soften up some of the orange strokes on the face/neck so they blend in a bit more; a really subtle, minor point, but they do stand out just a touch at the moment.
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I don't know. I've just been in good headspace for drawing fiddly shiny robot things lately, I guess.
[Edit] Oh, oops
Severed Head, I didn't think it was a fungus at first. Maybe rocks or embedded eggs or something. At a large scale, fungi have stalks and stuff, if those are supposed to be groups of small fungus seen from a far, there's usually a lot more fractal randomness and texture in stuff like that.
Here's what I'm picking away at. Man-faced birds just look better.
instagram.com/stevenzapata_art
Vlad Tepes?
Fuck yes.
Also Neil Gaiman
I haven't really focused on the neck and shoulder areas so much, I've just got them kind of roughed in there, I'm looking at a bunch of different light references and figure pics for what I'm going to do with that
EDIT: also here's a gif of the differences between Jackie Chan before and how it looks now:
Also, i'd have used a smaller brush on Gaiman's hair. Perhaps only try to draw the mass you see when you squint? check out Zapattack or Bacon's portraits above. There probably would be stray hairs everywhere (esp on the bird-dude), but those aren't really crucial for the drawing.
Was dicking around in photoshop with the pencil tool and made this for my profile pic for both here and DeviantArt, because the more I looked at the old one, the more I found wrong with it.
Same thought.
Also, yesterday I discovered this neat videogame Alan Wake, where you have to kill shadow things with a flashlight. Not that original but I think is fan-art worthy.
I think is missing something to give the impression of overwhelming darkness.
Reworking a character
I want her to be a mix of that staff girl from Xena and Zoey from Firefly.
I'm not a fan but I do know to don't mess with that guy.
sweet pencil rendering on the mma guy.
practice session!
Hiking Essentials
I really dig this. Can feel those muscles.
Update on this character
Need to figure out her staff and hands...
The way a character holds something is the main way we can perceive it's weight. The way she's holding the staff with only her left (our right) hand makes it seem like it's either made of foam or weighted heavy on the top (like a sledgehammer)
I'd curl her fingers on her right hand to give the staff some more weight. Something like this:
Go find a Stick and hold it as you'd hold the weapon. That always helps me
Quick paintover- tried to move skintone more yellow/orange, with more reds in the shadows, and moved the shirt to be a warmer tone of blue and more purple in the shadows. Also tried to make the hair less reliant on white highlights (which will cool colors of any color mixed with it) and more on straight lemon yellow, with red/orange shadows. These are pretty subtle changes, but a little variations in color temperature can make a big difference in overall effect.
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Made a little gif of it as well.
Edit: it's also best viewed when listening to this.
And like I say it's just a concept piece, so I'll likely do a more fleshed out take over the next couple of days.
A big difference indeed. After seeing your paintover, the original girl looks sickly. Thank you, Bacon!
Edit: Update:
Do the color temperatures look better?
I think I'm improving with these, but results vary wildly
Only suggestion I might make is to soften up some of the orange strokes on the face/neck so they blend in a bit more; a really subtle, minor point, but they do stand out just a touch at the moment.
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Watercolour, ink and some digital work.
The Scoundrel & The Bastard
My Comics Thread
Just sketched out a little concept for a robot while listening to the M.U.S.H.A. soundtrack
EDIT: made this too
Hiking Essentials