awww, if theres ONE (or two) things I expected from a magma succubus, were nipples... is she from the prude part of hell?
btw, Im still loving this thread.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
awww, if theres ONE (or two) things I expected from a magma succubus, were nipples... is she from the prude part of hell?
btw, Im still loving this thread.
But there does appear to be three hidden away. That's gotta award the prudish hell some points.
Two things on the lava chick. Her lava boobs are sort of striking me as a weird confederate flag rash. I would increase the contrast, pick a "core" where the heat is highest and then fall off into orange as you get away from it.
Second thing, her eyes. All of your eyes are super flat, left over from more anime style drawing. You are getting better at making characters with different eye shapes, but they are all on this weird flat plain. In this lighting situation, the underside of her lid would be catching light, (though maybe not as bright as here). In general, as you get more painterly, I think you need to make some more apparent choices about your eyes. If you want some cartoon stylized qualities, go for it, but I think you need to make it more decisive.
I feel like when you get to hot girl (and people in general, but girls especially) You stop thinking of them as form and shape and start thinking of them as "hot girl" the quality of painting around the girl, and the quality of painting of zit guy is somehow ten leagues better than the girl. Don't worry about girl hotness over painting quality.
I have to second what Iruka said. Love, love love the gross zit dude. Lava girl, I like less. She seems a lot less refined, and for me falls somewhere in between the cartoon-y and realistic. The lines are cartoon-y, the painting is realistic but not quite there yet. The face is the biggest detractor here, and I can't give much advice other than suggesting to either tighten up the linework, stylize it and go cartoon-y, or get more painterly, work the planes of the face in hard, and detail it out. If she's in a pit of lava, every angle on her face is going to count.
Is an area of horrific scarring/searing magma/ground beef and shredded cheese nacho topping over one's nipples really more classy than just some regular, human style nipples?
In my opinion- which you can take or leave- either the lava body patches thing should be integrated into the rest of the body's design in a more thought out fashion that looks more naturalistic than "PG-13 convenient", or just ditched entirely.
In my opinion- which you can take or leave- either the lava body patches thing should be integrated into the rest of the body's design in a more thought out fashion that looks more naturalistic than "PG-13 convenient", or just ditched entirely.
Further this, but rather I suggest molten rock arms that expand at the forearm. Your characters look best when you exaggerate forms I think. You can do much better with the hot chick + horns + magma concept.
Of course that's just a suggestion. You got the goods either way.
The blister berserker has some cool things going on with it, it's just too clean at the moment. If the concept is for something kind of unsettling and grotesque, the skin is too smooth between the blisters, and the blisters themselves are a too compartmentalized. I would push it more by adding some clusters of blisters to break up the monotony of "here's a blister, here's a bigger blister". The blisters around the neck especially are just too uniform. I honestly thought it was a necklace at first glance.
Here is a quick one before lunch. I'm trying to design a simple combat training droid that can be equipped with different non-leathal weapons. My plan is to make it as simple as possible while still being cool. Going to model it possibly.
I didn't worry much about the perspective yet, but do you guys think I chose the most interesting thumbnail out of the 3 there?
I did some model sheet type drawings for the droid:
Deathbot! (from tutorial on youtube)
Could you guys take a look at my new website? (none of the images are correct/ready yet)
I just wanted it to be simple and clean. http://www.f.oceansend.com/test/index.html
Also, cross post of a question I have:
I've heard from others that it's a good idea for a concept artist to be well versed in 3d art as well. I was wondering if you guys had any insight on how much I should try to learn and what sort of things I should create for my portfolio?
I feel like I need to at least know how to model correctly and faster. Then learn how to texture, because I have yet to try that. As for what to include in my portfolio: A couple simple props (Crate, barrel, etc), a character or two, and maybe a creature or building? What's the best way to learn? Do tutorials until I feel comfortable enough to model my own things?
Great sketch! The only problem that jumps out at me is that his left knee seems a little lower than it should be, and the ankle seems to be at an awkward angle.
It's doesn't look too D&D to me but what's wrong with D&D? :P
The belt-thing looks very perfectly round, which is fine but it could look more interesting being a bit warped or weathered, along with the cape-thing behind him.
Also, his empty hand looks off-set from the forearm. You might consder a more natural hand position.
You might consider shortening the arms for a more balanced-looking form but I noticed that you enjoy large arms. Making them thicker wouldmake them look fitting.
I took a few minutes to make a terrible example of what I mean here:
It looks more like a WoW orc to me, as I recall from the AD&D compendium, orcs were pretty misserable, they had like 1d8 hitpoints, no bonuses or anything.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
Im sure I still have the monster compendium at home Ill look for the orcs and half orcs... but when you see the art they used for it, you wont be happy. I think the illustrator for that compendium is now making webcomics about geek furries.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
That looks pretty solid, bud.
I notice in most of your work that you could really benefit from paying special attention to how you position and draw hands. Something that helps me is to take a few pages and use full-body reference pictures but just draw them from the forearm down through the hand. While you're doing it, look around at different artists' styles and see if you can imitate a few. I don't draw feet very well so I'm doing it the same thing over but with ankles and feet.
P.S.: Drawing simple characters with giant emphasized hands forces you to form them in a way that looks balanced and functional.
I'd say the house has some perspective issues going on. Not that the perspective is executed wrong--'cause it's not. It's just designed ineffectively. The vanishing points for the building are too close together, so it looks really horizontally squashed. The horizon line looks a bit too high, too, because of the scale of the fence and the little post things looking like tiny figures walking up to this house on an incline. Also, it's not interacting very naturally with the surrounding landscape (in that the rest of the image doesn't have the too-close-together vanishing points problem, so it exacerbates the effect on the house. You could make them both match one way or the other and it'd be effective). The painting and drawing are really pretty, though, and props for starting with the construction and then building upon it.
I'd say the house has some perspective issues going on. Not that the perspective is executed wrong--'cause it's not. It's just designed ineffectively. The vanishing points for the building are too close together, so it looks really horizontally squashed. The horizon line looks a bit too high, too, because of the scale of the fence and the little post things looking like tiny figures walking up to this house on an incline. Also, it's not interacting very naturally with the surrounding landscape (in that the rest of the image doesn't have the too-close-together vanishing points problem, so it exacerbates the effect on the house. You could make them both match one way or the other and it'd be effective). The painting and drawing are really pretty, though, and props for starting with the construction and then building upon it.
Oh man, thank you Toji! I could not figure out why I liked the house, but at the same time something just seemed really off. You're completely right about the squashed look from the VPs being too close. Also, I painted a simple background, then drew in my perspective lines for the house and sketched it out. Not the right order! :P I'm going to do it again and but this time give the perspective more care.
SeveredHead - Thanks : )
Edit: I learned a interesting new technique (sort of) and I did 2 quickies to test it out!
Oooh, that it a very interesting style. Where'd you learn that?
The high contrast works really well, very graphic. It's a little hard to figure out how far away the snow in the background of the second image is though, it seems to blend in to the midground. Otherwise I like them a lot.
Awesome! I'm happy to find some other D&D art test entries here. Since I'm also participating I've given a lot of thought to it. Hope you don't mind if I go in depth with some critiques.
Solid drawing! It's brimming with personality. The proportions are accurate to the reference.
The skull's dome needs to be smaller, and his right arm looks unnaturally, rigidly posed. Based on Schindehette's crits, here's what I can suggest:
-Let the viewer know why he is a shaman by
• Artifacts
• Physical handicap
• Costume
Right now I would guess that he's a warrior. He looks muscular, has excellent posture, and the closest shaman element he has is a skull, but it's presented as if it were a pauldron—typical warrior faire. Don't give him a weapon. If anything, look at Keun Chul's entry on the art-order page: it was a bitchin' staff with an animal spine on the top! On a tiny nitpick, my entry had fur trimming that was pushing white, but I should have kept it more drab. Don't make this guy look clean!
This guard, like the orc, is a great drawing. It's a cohesive design. But I wouldn't associate this with the references for the art test.
Here are some notes I jotted down when I was reference-hunting:
Concerning the Nomadic Soldier:
•Lengthy, tall forms
-Right angles
-Occasional diagonals.
•Plating, including long fabric
•Eclectic colours
•Fur, fabric, rarely leather
•Layers
-Warmth + aeration
-Mobility
•Minority/guest element: pattern
-Pale skin
-Horse?
-Symmetry
Look up Mongolian and nomadic cultures. If this doesn't read as nomad you need to tweak it. Based on the only two coloured references we received, these guys are supposed to look a little Goodwill. This guy looks too classy to be nomad, with his limited colour pallet and awesome shoes.
Your biggest problem, in short, is that your designs are too good. :P
@Wahay - Thank you so much for the in depth feedback! You are definitely considering aspects of these designs that I'm not. I didn't know about the artorder blog either, thanks for that as well! You have inspired me to start over with these!
@Wahay - Thank you so much for the in depth feedback! You are definitely considering aspects of these designs that I'm not. I didn't know about the artorder blog either, thanks for that as well! You have inspired me to start over with these!
Thanks! If you don't have an account on WIPnation, that'd be a good place to continue as well. (check out the custom tag "ao art test")
Awesome, great info! After looking through about 80 other shaman entries, I'm not feeling too good about my newer sketch. I need to take a break from that.
Here is a new painting I'm starting! I did a handful of thumbs and sketches to get to this point and I'm pretty happy with it so far.
Edit: Wahay's explanation on the next page is much better, but I'll leave my stuff her.
If I could add an amateurish opinion, I've been reading a lot of these how-to's by people like Stan Lee on how to ink, and one thing they stress as part of an image to portray motion is a more dynamic pose. In your picture it isn't clear what action is happening. Is she jumping up, forward, toward the creature, or dodging, where is she jumping from? That seems awfully high to be jumping from a puddle of water. As it is her pose seems flat, without dynamic. I propose one of two solutions, either finding some sort of motion blur thing to give us the direction she's traveling or find an alternate pose.
I did a pretty shitty draw-over cuz I don't good at the digital yet, trying to articulate what I mean. Maybe this isn't the correct pose for the composition, but it's just an example. I think honestly just rotating her to the right 10 or 15 degrees may also be a solution. The yellow are where the eyes are going. With her current pose the eye is led in an awkward direction off the page and out of the circular composition.
Current
A suggestion
This video and a lot of his other videos better articulate what I'm trying to say, and explains things with examples of good and bad composition. Please don't misunderstand, I'm terrible at this and I don't assume that I'm more experienced than you are, but maybe these will help you, maybe they won't.
Edit: If I could quickly add one other observation. In your thread I see many pictures of people, and they're typically doing one of two things, (though there are one or two exceptions) Standing or Brandishing, square on their two feet, there isn't any real action happening in your other character centric drawings as there is with this one. What I mean is that it appears that you are avoiding drawing pictures such as this one, with motion and action. This may be an area for improvement.
And please understand I'm saying these things from lack of experience and observation only, so please don't be offended :O
Posts
btw, Im still loving this thread.
But there does appear to be three hidden away. That's gotta award the prudish hell some points.
Two things on the lava chick. Her lava boobs are sort of striking me as a weird confederate flag rash. I would increase the contrast, pick a "core" where the heat is highest and then fall off into orange as you get away from it.
Second thing, her eyes. All of your eyes are super flat, left over from more anime style drawing. You are getting better at making characters with different eye shapes, but they are all on this weird flat plain. In this lighting situation, the underside of her lid would be catching light, (though maybe not as bright as here). In general, as you get more painterly, I think you need to make some more apparent choices about your eyes. If you want some cartoon stylized qualities, go for it, but I think you need to make it more decisive.
I feel like when you get to hot girl (and people in general, but girls especially) You stop thinking of them as form and shape and start thinking of them as "hot girl" the quality of painting around the girl, and the quality of painting of zit guy is somehow ten leagues better than the girl. Don't worry about girl hotness over painting quality.
In my opinion- which you can take or leave- either the lava body patches thing should be integrated into the rest of the body's design in a more thought out fashion that looks more naturalistic than "PG-13 convenient", or just ditched entirely.
Twitter
Further this, but rather I suggest molten rock arms that expand at the forearm. Your characters look best when you exaggerate forms I think. You can do much better with the hot chick + horns + magma concept.
Of course that's just a suggestion. You got the goods either way.
I plan on finishing these up soon, I'm not sure I've ever spent this long on one thing.
Also, a new one I'm starting. From one of the earlier thumbnails.
Thanks everyone for the critiques
Love what you're doing.
Thanks, Faded Sneakers @_@
Or of this:
Here is a quick one before lunch. I'm trying to design a simple combat training droid that can be equipped with different non-leathal weapons. My plan is to make it as simple as possible while still being cool. Going to model it possibly.
I didn't worry much about the perspective yet, but do you guys think I chose the most interesting thumbnail out of the 3 there?
Deathbot! (from tutorial on youtube)
Could you guys take a look at my new website? (none of the images are correct/ready yet)
I just wanted it to be simple and clean. http://www.f.oceansend.com/test/index.html
Also, cross post of a question I have:
I've heard from others that it's a good idea for a concept artist to be well versed in 3d art as well. I was wondering if you guys had any insight on how much I should try to learn and what sort of things I should create for my portfolio?
I feel like I need to at least know how to model correctly and faster. Then learn how to texture, because I have yet to try that. As for what to include in my portfolio: A couple simple props (Crate, barrel, etc), a character or two, and maybe a creature or building? What's the best way to learn? Do tutorials until I feel comfortable enough to model my own things?
My Portfolio Site
Edit: Orc Shaman sketch!
Does this Orc seem "D&D" to you guys?
The belt-thing looks very perfectly round, which is fine but it could look more interesting being a bit warped or weathered, along with the cape-thing behind him.
Also, his empty hand looks off-set from the forearm. You might consder a more natural hand position.
You might consider shortening the arms for a more balanced-looking form but I noticed that you enjoy large arms. Making them thicker wouldmake them look fitting.
I took a few minutes to make a terrible example of what I mean here:
Edit: Still fixing up the orc, but I've started this now as well:
Still needs a lot of work.
I would rather not scrap this completely. If he looks like a WoW orc, I have to fix that somehow.
A guard concept WIP:
I notice in most of your work that you could really benefit from paying special attention to how you position and draw hands. Something that helps me is to take a few pages and use full-body reference pictures but just draw them from the forearm down through the hand. While you're doing it, look around at different artists' styles and see if you can imitate a few. I don't draw feet very well so I'm doing it the same thing over but with ankles and feet.
P.S.: Drawing simple characters with giant emphasized hands forces you to form them in a way that looks balanced and functional.
Oh man, thank you Toji! I could not figure out why I liked the house, but at the same time something just seemed really off. You're completely right about the squashed look from the VPs being too close. Also, I painted a simple background, then drew in my perspective lines for the house and sketched it out. Not the right order! :P I'm going to do it again and but this time give the perspective more care.
SeveredHead - Thanks : )
Edit: I learned a interesting new technique (sort of) and I did 2 quickies to test it out!
The high contrast works really well, very graphic. It's a little hard to figure out how far away the snow in the background of the second image is though, it seems to blend in to the midground. Otherwise I like them a lot.
Well, a very very simple version of it. Here is a full explanation: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201403
Solid drawing! It's brimming with personality. The proportions are accurate to the reference.
The skull's dome needs to be smaller, and his right arm looks unnaturally, rigidly posed. Based on Schindehette's crits, here's what I can suggest:
-Let the viewer know why he is a shaman by
• Artifacts
• Physical handicap
• Costume
Right now I would guess that he's a warrior. He looks muscular, has excellent posture, and the closest shaman element he has is a skull, but it's presented as if it were a pauldron—typical warrior faire. Don't give him a weapon. If anything, look at Keun Chul's entry on the art-order page: it was a bitchin' staff with an animal spine on the top! On a tiny nitpick, my entry had fur trimming that was pushing white, but I should have kept it more drab. Don't make this guy look clean!
This guard, like the orc, is a great drawing. It's a cohesive design. But I wouldn't associate this with the references for the art test.
Here are some notes I jotted down when I was reference-hunting:
Concerning the Nomadic Soldier:
•Lengthy, tall forms
-Right angles
-Occasional diagonals.
•Plating, including long fabric
•Eclectic colours
•Fur, fabric, rarely leather
•Layers
-Warmth + aeration
-Mobility
•Minority/guest element: pattern
-Pale skin
-Horse?
-Symmetry
Look up Mongolian and nomadic cultures. If this doesn't read as nomad you need to tweak it. Based on the only two coloured references we received, these guys are supposed to look a little Goodwill. This guy looks too classy to be nomad, with his limited colour pallet and awesome shoes.
Your biggest problem, in short, is that your designs are too good. :P
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
Thanks! If you don't have an account on WIPnation, that'd be a good place to continue as well. (check out the custom tag "ao art test")
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
Here is a new painting I'm starting! I did a handful of thumbs and sketches to get to this point and I'm pretty happy with it so far.
Here's a quick and dirty balancing job in PS.
If I could add an amateurish opinion, I've been reading a lot of these how-to's by people like Stan Lee on how to ink, and one thing they stress as part of an image to portray motion is a more dynamic pose. In your picture it isn't clear what action is happening. Is she jumping up, forward, toward the creature, or dodging, where is she jumping from? That seems awfully high to be jumping from a puddle of water. As it is her pose seems flat, without dynamic. I propose one of two solutions, either finding some sort of motion blur thing to give us the direction she's traveling or find an alternate pose.
I did a pretty shitty draw-over cuz I don't good at the digital yet, trying to articulate what I mean. Maybe this isn't the correct pose for the composition, but it's just an example. I think honestly just rotating her to the right 10 or 15 degrees may also be a solution. The yellow are where the eyes are going. With her current pose the eye is led in an awkward direction off the page and out of the circular composition.
Current
A suggestion
This video and a lot of his other videos better articulate what I'm trying to say, and explains things with examples of good and bad composition. Please don't misunderstand, I'm terrible at this and I don't assume that I'm more experienced than you are, but maybe these will help you, maybe they won't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1McYZX6KScg
Edit: If I could quickly add one other observation. In your thread I see many pictures of people, and they're typically doing one of two things, (though there are one or two exceptions) Standing or Brandishing, square on their two feet, there isn't any real action happening in your other character centric drawings as there is with this one. What I mean is that it appears that you are avoiding drawing pictures such as this one, with motion and action. This may be an area for improvement.
And please understand I'm saying these things from lack of experience and observation only, so please don't be offended :O