Mustang you did it wrong. The whole point of that exercise is to create something you can look at to remind you of the direction you want to go with your work. You just put a ton of people that are all great, sure, but they don't create a 'direction' for you. That's why some squares are supposed to be bigger than others, because they are to represent different levels of influence on your work. That way when you look at it in the future while you are struggling to paint some guy like Frazetta you can glance at it and go "oh right I am actually trying to go more in the direction of Paul Bonner...why am I doing this?"
If everyone made them like yours they would practically all look the same, doing nothing to actually describe the person who made it.
The lack of light is to show mood
He is employed to wash the dishes in a restaurant, and he is treated pretty much like a slave working for minimum wage. He cant just get another job because not many places want to employ an old person. He's just trying to work his way off struggle street, and these guys insist on taking advantage of him. Having him work in the dark is a way to put him in his place - a way to show their authority
To clarify: using lighting as your vehicle to convey a mood in a situation where lighting is universally (out of functional necessity) bright, overhead and fluorescent... seems like a bit of a silly choice. I don't know about you, but with that lighting set up, that character is asking "Did we blow a fuse?!" And ... what kind of strategy is it for someone to stamp their authority over another by... turning the lights off? I mean. That might have worked on your brother when you were both below the ages of 10......
I worked as a dish washer in high school. They very clearly stamped their authority over me by putting me in a soaking wet back-corner called "the dish pit", surrounding me on four sides by rotting garbage cans, towers of dirty dishes, scolding hot washing equipment, and making me work in a sink of what was essentially, magma vomit.
It was hot, it was cramped, it was greasy, it was smelly, it was noisy, and it was wet. It was not dark.
From the looks of this guy's gig, it seems positivly cosy as far as dish-washers go.
Looks good! Thumbs up on the video too gibs. Picked up a few handy tips! I want to make my own video! I will impress everyone with my inability to correctly handle computer programs!
edit: should have asked what program you use to make those video things.
hmm i tried to record a demonstration thing of me painting/drawing this... but i ran out of commentary after about 5 minutes and then started listening to music. so i deleted the video, but here's the drawing:
Mustang you did it wrong. The whole point of that exercise is to create something you can look at to remind you of the direction you want to go with your work. You just put a ton of people that are all great, sure, but they don't create a 'direction' for you. That's why some squares are supposed to be bigger than others, because they are to represent different levels of influence on your work. That way when you look at it in the future while you are struggling to paint some guy like Frazetta you can glance at it and go "oh right I am actually trying to go more in the direction of Paul Bonner...why am I doing this?"
If everyone made them like yours they would practically all look the same, doing nothing to actually describe the person who made it.
Noted...I probably made it more as an inspiration thing than an influence thing (or a list of people to steal from), but I definitely get what you're saying.
Okay I think we need to officially have a "Black Isle Character Portrait" thread, full of smouldering elves and such, if you guys are going to do stuff like this.
uhhh something constructive: wck i actually really like your more stylized faces
fix the lighting so its even or, if you really want a dark mood, make the place look run-down so as to warrant the lack of lighting
broken lights, higher dishes and grime everywhere would help it make sense, though i dont think you were going for such a forlorn scene going by your round, childish character design so i'd reccomend making him look more depressed than surprised at the entering guy (and adding more dishes, LOTS OF DISHES) to make him seem overworked
Thanks for all the comments guys. Going to be doing more stuff like that soon, but for now I did one of those influence maps. though some of these on here are pretty obvious.
Keith_E on
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MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
Pay more attention to the type of the edge you're making Mustang. The left cheek is rounded, so there should be a nice soft edge, for example, same to parts of the cast shadow from the chin where we see a soft edge around the hard cast edge from the jaw line. The Asaro type head is particularly great for showing this because we have pristine examples of what a hard edge looks like compared to a soft edge (right side vs left side)
Also, try mirroring it and you may notice some slight skewedness. If you aren't, I would be flipping this thing back and forth often.
I think this sort of thing makes for really great study. I encourage you to keep refining it and get it looking as good as you can.
Scosglen on
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MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Thanks Scos, getting those soft edges has always been a bit of an achilles heel for me. I'll keep at it.
Cakemikz
I'm not the biggest fan of measuring in heads but I made this to illustrate what I think is off with that image:
But then Loomis tells me that people are supposed to be 8 heads tall. So now I don't know what to think and I have to default saying it looks wonky. Could be because the rendering is so much clearer on the face, but I think that head is too small.
Looking at it now maybe I think it looks odd because the white is so bright on his cape and hand and sword and Mr. Stark's head looks like he could be lit by a fluorescent bulb in the copy room. I know it's loose so maybe this isn't the best time to crit. Nice job on the armor. Totally got the flavor of the books.
He's not even 8 heads tall, closer to 7. You cut the head off above the bottom of the jaw and even overlapped some of those heads. The reasons his head feels small are numerous, but balancing solutions with creating a 'feel' can be delicate. First of all, his arms are too long. That will make his head feel smaller. Second, bulky armor makes he head feel smaller. Third, we don't have even one other place on the figure where skin is showing, so all you have to compare the head to is armor/drapery. Fourth his hands are probably too large, even with armored gloves on. That will really make his head feel small. There are a lot of issues, but the actual size of his head isn't the cause. If anything...the head is too large for a heroic archetype. But thank you for your thoughts, I have definitely already been considering the issue and debating how I want to deal with it.
He does have sorta meaty hands going on; his right (our left) is the most bothersome, I think, because we can see more of his finger structure, and it's minimizing that massive smassive sword with its bigness.
Your grasp of value and color always makes painting look so easy, Cake.
Fourth his hands are probably too large, even with armored gloves on. .
Well, yeah, his right hand could envelope his own skull. But I figured you did that on purpose - there seemed to be some deliberate giganticism going on.
Yeah the relationship of heads and hands is the most common issue for making one or the other feel small, at least in my experience. I am not sure why we link those two things so much in our mind, there is actually quite a lot of variation in actual people. But in artwork we subconsciously accept very little.
Thanks for the compliment squid.
rts on
skype: rtschutter
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NakedZerglingA more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered Userregular
And yeah, perspectives are a bit fuggered up. I'll have to go back in an fixem.
These are weapons for the facebook game I work on for another... 4 days.
Posts
If everyone made them like yours they would practically all look the same, doing nothing to actually describe the person who made it.
~Jeremy Clarkson
Bling!
To clarify: using lighting as your vehicle to convey a mood in a situation where lighting is universally (out of functional necessity) bright, overhead and fluorescent... seems like a bit of a silly choice. I don't know about you, but with that lighting set up, that character is asking "Did we blow a fuse?!" And ... what kind of strategy is it for someone to stamp their authority over another by... turning the lights off? I mean. That might have worked on your brother when you were both below the ages of 10......
Again. What the hell.
I worked as a dish washer in high school. They very clearly stamped their authority over me by putting me in a soaking wet back-corner called "the dish pit", surrounding me on four sides by rotting garbage cans, towers of dirty dishes, scolding hot washing equipment, and making me work in a sink of what was essentially, magma vomit.
It was hot, it was cramped, it was greasy, it was smelly, it was noisy, and it was wet. It was not dark.
From the looks of this guy's gig, it seems positivly cosy as far as dish-washers go.
At least then the bad guys wont trip over shit when they bring in the dishes.
Oh god you've even painted in the lights on the ceiling.... they're RIGHT THERE. Aaaaaaaaaagh.
edit: should have asked what program you use to make those video things.
Specifically the part where you start running out of commentary.
"The thing about it is.. yeah."
Also, I dig the hair. Not many can pull off hair like that.
artistjeffc.tumblr.com http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistjeffc
If this RPG rulebook of mine ever gets off the ground. I am totally gonna tell my publisher to consider your artwork. Because damn.
Noted...I probably made it more as an inspiration thing than an influence thing (or a list of people to steal from), but I definitely get what you're saying.
Okay I think we need to officially have a "Black Isle Character Portrait" thread, full of smouldering elves and such, if you guys are going to do stuff like this.
uhhh something constructive: wck i actually really like your more stylized faces
fix the lighting so its even or, if you really want a dark mood, make the place look run-down so as to warrant the lack of lighting
broken lights, higher dishes and grime everywhere would help it make sense, though i dont think you were going for such a forlorn scene going by your round, childish character design so i'd reccomend making him look more depressed than surprised at the entering guy (and adding more dishes, LOTS OF DISHES) to make him seem overworked
Also, try mirroring it and you may notice some slight skewedness. If you aren't, I would be flipping this thing back and forth often.
I think this sort of thing makes for really great study. I encourage you to keep refining it and get it looking as good as you can.
edit: doh i forgot to have the cigarette cast a shadow. woops.
I'm not the biggest fan of measuring in heads but I made this to illustrate what I think is off with that image:
But then Loomis tells me that people are supposed to be 8 heads tall. So now I don't know what to think and I have to default saying it looks wonky. Could be because the rendering is so much clearer on the face, but I think that head is too small.
Looking at it now maybe I think it looks odd because the white is so bright on his cape and hand and sword and Mr. Stark's head looks like he could be lit by a fluorescent bulb in the copy room. I know it's loose so maybe this isn't the best time to crit. Nice job on the armor. Totally got the flavor of the books.
Your grasp of value and color always makes painting look so easy, Cake.
Well, yeah, his right hand could envelope his own skull. But I figured you did that on purpose - there seemed to be some deliberate giganticism going on.
Thanks for the compliment squid.
hell yes!
i love you stuff. the digital gives it a a realish creepy vibe i'm digging.
did one of these influence maps:
Are you doing all these item designs for something in particular, or just for the funs?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow
And yeah, perspectives are a bit fuggered up. I'll have to go back in an fixem.
These are weapons for the facebook game I work on for another... 4 days.