re-working this image. bottom pic is the new one, top is the old. adding purple to the shadows. might help the piece to come together. *probably wont
Okay. You're not following your own rules of perspective. Think about where you are, as the viewer, in the scene.
Look at the horizon.
Remember that any horizontal line BELOW the horizon should accompany a surface above it. Any line ABOVE the horizon should be accompanied by a surface below that line.
Look at the building on the right of the scene.
The horizon runs directly through the windows.
You should be able to see the surfaces that create the indent in which the window sits, the sill and the ceiling. So what were you thinking about when you drew these windows? :P I'd also try to avoid curves right now, they're quite difficult to get right in proper perspective.
You have a guy named Roast Beef in your campaign? Is he from Circumstances?
That is my character, and the dude is from circumstances, yes. That is actually what my character backstory says on my character sheet, "The dude is from circumstances." A friend of mine who didn't have time to join this campaign wanted to make a Ray Smuckles as well so we could tag team it up, but it didn't work out that way.
jpeg on
so I just type in this box and it goes on the screen?
Okay. You're not following your own rules of perspective. Think about where you are, as the viewer, in the scene.
Look at the horizon.
Remember that any horizontal line BELOW the horizon should accompany a surface above it. Any line ABOVE the horizon should be accompanied by a surface below that line.
Look at the building on the right of the scene.
The horizon runs directly through the windows.
You should be able to see the surfaces that create the indent in which the window sits, the sill and the ceiling. So what were you thinking about when you drew these windows? :P I'd also try to avoid curves right now, they're quite difficult to get right in proper perspective.
HEY MAN. BACK OFF! I make up my own rules for perspective!!! You cant tell me those windows are wrong. Its sci-fi. it doesnt have to make sense!!!! People like me who are great at perspective can afford to break the rules!
Feel free to use the applet if you want. I suggest old school paint bbs. It's limiting, which I find lets me forgive myself and be playful, rather than photoshop where I feel like i should be polishing things.
I painted this, I never really did any digital painting before so I had a go at it. I'm kind of pleased at how this came out. I didn't really focus on any details, but mainly just some silhouettes and the lighting around them.
i like the colours. establishes a really cool mood to the piece. Even though just a test, i think if you added a little more darker tones to the buildings, it will make the piece look better.
Nice Oekahikis there Iruka.
Looks very peacefull RCagent.
Atramental Ghost... yes well, creep on creepin' on.
My scanner was lost in a great flood (not at all) and I couldn't get it running until recently.
SO
What do I use besides pose maniacs? Just draw from photos? I have no real transportation right now to speak of.
EDIT CAUSE IM DUMB: I should draw myself, shouldn't I?
Drawing yourself is always good. Also, if you have a patient friend or two, you could ask to draw them.
If you're in walking distance of a cafe or anything, that's also a good place to draw people (usually quick studies, though, as they end up moving around so much). Just be aware that if anybody notices you drawing them, they usually get very uncomfortable. :P
Ghost: The lines look a little scratchy, but it could just be in the developing stages or whatnot
I will admit that I'm still a noob when it comes to painting/drawing in photoshop. I really have a hard time with drawing straight, clean lines with my wacom tablet.
It looks like it's drying too fast for you to really blend 'em. You can buy stuff that slows down the drying time for acrylics (don't just add water). It's not expensive, and you could get a small container of it. It also looks like you're painting wet-in-wet, which is notoriously difficult. Try waiting for some areas to try solidly before painting on top of them. Think of painting in layers - you could paint your "flats" first. Highest level of detail should be the topmost layer. In acrylics, you need to get your gradients and blending down very fast. If you work in layers, this kind of works in your favor, as you have less to worry about at any one time. This is opposed to, say, getting down the basic color, all the subtle gradients, the details, etc in all at once, while all the paint is still wet.
I think you hit the nail on the head. I always want to complete something all at once as opposed to building it up slowly. I also have this problem with oil painting. I think I'm going to try again except this time I'll try to use layers. Thanks!
WCK: Maybe you should make that quote below the picture of MJ giving the bird a pull quote, where you make it really big and put it somewhere in the story to grab people's attention, as opposed to below the picture where it is just serving as a caption and not really pulling people into the piece.
I love oil paints, but I am also impatient with them. It's even more frustrating when I'm trying to build something up in glazes and dammit I can't do anything else to this piece because it's all wet paint again now and I've only spent 15 minutes doing this set of glazes and dammit now I have to wait for three days and repeat the process
wck, i don't like the fact that you've used a sans serif font to draw the reader in with the opening paragraph, but then switch to a serif font for the big quote line under the picture
i'd say make the quote line under the picture sans serif as well and maybe bold or make the text bigger in the opening "grabbing" line so it pops a bit more.
i personally think rags look better than the other options of either having every line fit perfectly without using hyphens, thus fucking with the kerning royally, or using hyphens. hyphens are so ugly.
i would fix your rags though.
particularly the top left column on the second page.
it's really jarring up there.
just go in and mess with your kerning on lines a little, you should get a nice "clean" rag if you work at it...
edit: i see you are using hyphens
if you're using them and aren't having your columns fit a certain space, then i'd say you're using them with no good reason, you should take that shit out.
I had basically decided I wasn't going to change the sprite for the main character after all the work I'd put into it, against the advice of Manovon, McGibs, and a few others. But when I know something can be improved, I can very rarely leave it as it is.
So I'm going to redo the character sprite. The first step was to not make the gun vanish when the character ran, so I started to think about how he would hold it. There were already problems with the gun and how it was held when firing, so I went back and lookd at McGibs' gun tutorial.
While a lot of the mechanics aren't applicable, I still wanted to style the gun relatively realistically with regard to recoil and ergonomics. I started with a rough paintover of the reference pic Gibs posted of the hand held grenade launcher and came up with this:
The revolver chamber doesn't hold the ammo of this gun, but is where the game powerups are stored - hence, no hammer. I'm sure there are more realistic applications of the pseudoscience involved, but I honestly don't care to pursue that level of realism. If I could do that I'd be a weapons engineer.
You can't fire while running, so the pose shown will probably transfer 1:1 to the sprite. The real challenge will be the jumping/firing animation. There aren't too many reference pictures of people leaping 30 feet into the air while aiming and firing a two handed firearm. Crouching should be better, because I can at least do that in front of a mirror.
The shape and everyone on that gun gives its some nice character. You should really try using illustrator though for your sprites if you haven't been already. Would help with the whole cell shaded aspect.
Delz, that gun looks much better. I think it would look way cool if you had a hammer, and animated the hammer and the rotation of the chamber with each fire, though.
I would also lower the chamber and add a sight above it, so that he is squinting and looking down the sights, instead of squinting and looking at the back of the gun.
Also, have you thought about having the force of the gun blast counteract the inertia of the character jumping through the air? It could add some interesting platforming elements of gameplay, the proper use could give you the ability to jump up and around something backwards.
Wak, those are awesome. If I had any money, I would commission a series of sexy and sultry paintings of assorted celebrities, fictional characters, and personal acquaintances.
If you wanna do one for free, Queen Latifah's at the top of my list.
Wak, those are awesome. If I had any money, I would commission a series of sexy and sultry paintings of assorted celebrities, fictional characters, and personal acquaintances.
If you wanna do one for free, Queen Latifah's at the top of my list.
You dont have to draw her specifically, wak, but it'd be nice if you drew some one who wasn't pasty every now and then. I don't think you've drawn a black chick like, ever. And yeah, I realize this is as dumb as the "lol draw some dudez" comment.
GreatNation, I think high up and looking down at an angle is possibly one of the more useless ways to photograph a painting. Love the sketches though.
Hey Wak, you ever think of doing a video tutorial or something to show your workflow?
Moss: I think the best thing about your designs is just the simplicity of your ideas, they always lead me to a "why didn't I think of that" reaction. You're always really inspirational.
Dmac, is that digitally inked or a vector or just your smooth ass amazing lines?
All hand drawn in pen and ink.
I tried uploading a new version with some adjustments to the shading but for some reason it doesn't seem to be showing up yet. Sometimes my hosting does weird stuff. If it still isn't there by morning I'll try again.
Edit: Here's the adjusted version. I just uploaded it under a different name.
Posts
Okay. You're not following your own rules of perspective. Think about where you are, as the viewer, in the scene.
Look at the horizon.
Remember that any horizontal line BELOW the horizon should accompany a surface above it. Any line ABOVE the horizon should be accompanied by a surface below that line.
Look at the building on the right of the scene.
The horizon runs directly through the windows.
You should be able to see the surfaces that create the indent in which the window sits, the sill and the ceiling. So what were you thinking about when you drew these windows? :P I'd also try to avoid curves right now, they're quite difficult to get right in proper perspective.
That is my character, and the dude is from circumstances, yes. That is actually what my character backstory says on my character sheet, "The dude is from circumstances." A friend of mine who didn't have time to join this campaign wanted to make a Ray Smuckles as well so we could tag team it up, but it didn't work out that way.
Added our cleric, Stunts McKnubbs. And a rough logo thing.
HEY MAN. BACK OFF! I make up my own rules for perspective!!! You cant tell me those windows are wrong. Its sci-fi. it doesnt have to make sense!!!! People like me who are great at perspective can afford to break the rules!
http://lauramakesart.com/oekaki/index.php
breaking it in.
Feel free to use the applet if you want. I suggest old school paint bbs. It's limiting, which I find lets me forgive myself and be playful, rather than photoshop where I feel like i should be polishing things.
I painted this, I never really did any digital painting before so I had a go at it. I'm kind of pleased at how this came out. I didn't really focus on any details, but mainly just some silhouettes and the lighting around them.
might make a painting of this later on.
Looks very peacefull RCagent.
Atramental Ghost... yes well, creep on creepin' on.
My scanner was lost in a great flood (not at all) and I couldn't get it running until recently.
SO
What do I use besides pose maniacs? Just draw from photos? I have no real transportation right now to speak of.
EDIT CAUSE IM DUMB: I should draw myself, shouldn't I?
If you're in walking distance of a cafe or anything, that's also a good place to draw people (usually quick studies, though, as they end up moving around so much). Just be aware that if anybody notices you drawing them, they usually get very uncomfortable. :P
my nose needs some fixing..
I am so bad at acrylics. We had to do a painting for school, how on earth are you supposed to paint with these?!
My subject was surrealism:
Sorry for the bad photo quality, my camera is terrible.
I will admit that I'm still a noob when it comes to painting/drawing in photoshop. I really have a hard time with drawing straight, clean lines with my wacom tablet.
It looks like it's drying too fast for you to really blend 'em. You can buy stuff that slows down the drying time for acrylics (don't just add water). It's not expensive, and you could get a small container of it. It also looks like you're painting wet-in-wet, which is notoriously difficult. Try waiting for some areas to try solidly before painting on top of them. Think of painting in layers - you could paint your "flats" first. Highest level of detail should be the topmost layer. In acrylics, you need to get your gradients and blending down very fast. If you work in layers, this kind of works in your favor, as you have less to worry about at any one time. This is opposed to, say, getting down the basic color, all the subtle gradients, the details, etc in all at once, while all the paint is still wet.
i'd say make the quote line under the picture sans serif as well and maybe bold or make the text bigger in the opening "grabbing" line so it pops a bit more.
i would fix your rags though.
particularly the top left column on the second page.
it's really jarring up there.
just go in and mess with your kerning on lines a little, you should get a nice "clean" rag if you work at it...
edit: i see you are using hyphens
if you're using them and aren't having your columns fit a certain space, then i'd say you're using them with no good reason, you should take that shit out.
So I'm going to redo the character sprite. The first step was to not make the gun vanish when the character ran, so I started to think about how he would hold it. There were already problems with the gun and how it was held when firing, so I went back and lookd at McGibs' gun tutorial.
While a lot of the mechanics aren't applicable, I still wanted to style the gun relatively realistically with regard to recoil and ergonomics. I started with a rough paintover of the reference pic Gibs posted of the hand held grenade launcher and came up with this:
The revolver chamber doesn't hold the ammo of this gun, but is where the game powerups are stored - hence, no hammer. I'm sure there are more realistic applications of the pseudoscience involved, but I honestly don't care to pursue that level of realism. If I could do that I'd be a weapons engineer.
You can't fire while running, so the pose shown will probably transfer 1:1 to the sprite. The real challenge will be the jumping/firing animation. There aren't too many reference pictures of people leaping 30 feet into the air while aiming and firing a two handed firearm. Crouching should be better, because I can at least do that in front of a mirror.
and some wipdawoops
these two are nsfw
http://wakkawa.iseenothing.com/pictures/pic121.jpg
http://wakkawa.iseenothing.com/pictures/pic118.jpg
I make sketch for t-shirt:
I would also lower the chamber and add a sight above it, so that he is squinting and looking down the sights, instead of squinting and looking at the back of the gun.
Also, have you thought about having the force of the gun blast counteract the inertia of the character jumping through the air? It could add some interesting platforming elements of gameplay, the proper use could give you the ability to jump up and around something backwards.
Wak, those are awesome. If I had any money, I would commission a series of sexy and sultry paintings of assorted celebrities, fictional characters, and personal acquaintances.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04qCLbcbn8A
There's plenty wrong in the video that I'm well aware of, but I wanted to show the rate of fire.
been awhile
You dont have to draw her specifically, wak, but it'd be nice if you drew some one who wasn't pasty every now and then. I don't think you've drawn a black chick like, ever. And yeah, I realize this is as dumb as the "lol draw some dudez" comment.
GreatNation, I think high up and looking down at an angle is possibly one of the more useless ways to photograph a painting. Love the sketches though.
(And thanks)
Moss: I think the best thing about your designs is just the simplicity of your ideas, they always lead me to a "why didn't I think of that" reaction. You're always really inspirational.
witty as always, Moss
@DMAC: Amazing! Everything you do is so clean! I'll second ori's shading comment though.
All hand drawn in pen and ink.
I tried uploading a new version with some adjustments to the shading but for some reason it doesn't seem to be showing up yet. Sometimes my hosting does weird stuff. If it still isn't there by morning I'll try again.
Edit: Here's the adjusted version. I just uploaded it under a different name.