I actually was going for a 'blob' sort of look to the marionette because I thought.. ohh its not being played with so the head will droop and the hands will be resting on the ground/hanging down.
I forgot about making the drawing look half interesting once i got that idea in my head. Ill try out your technique and post it up thanks
just got 10 minutes of sketches before racing off to work. I think i like seeing things as black and white before adding detail. It does make shape structure allot easier but probably mostly on simple shapes.
think about gravity, dude, and the weight that each part has, each of those looks as if they are holding their heads and torsos up on they're on, and have their arms and legs propped up as well.
I went to the art store... I ended up buying Ink and paints. I started out painting this guy in ink. First time using ink and I loved the result. I then was like.. ohhh Ill use white paint for highlights and then i was like.. now the blacks arnt dark enough so then i used black paint over the top.... ahaha
Messing about. Its my second ever acrylic painting. It took about an hour all up including the ink then paint over the top. I think I really love painting traditionally now haha. the control and textures are awesome.. aghh i feel like painting now but its midnight and i have work tomorrow morning lol..
anyway.. here. Its only an hours work so I havnt put in detail. I dont think I will either. Im just messing around at this point seeing what you can do with paint and a brush
I was cold calling design firms today with emails. I am very activly seeking a job now and I want one soon. I got a responce back already so its looking promising
Hey guys. Ive spent about an hour on this so far and I need some advice on layout, depth of field etc. is it boring? what should i do? paint overs and feedback reallly welcome thanks i want to go for a old school ninja sort of showdown look with buildings and street behind him.
I was going to say something kinda similar to what WCK is saying.
There is a huge disconnect between elements of your painting as far as scale and proportion are concerned. I did a quick paintover to show what I mean (even now i realize he's still probably too big)
Things I did was:
1. Made his head smaller, it was too big for his body, watch out for that!
2. Shrunk him, he must have been standing 9 feet tall in your first rendition, his relation to the door next to him made it really obvious how big he was.
3. I got rid of your highlights on his costume. Those straight white highlights did not add to the form of the character and seemed to make is look like he was wearing a shiny shirt.
4. Squared up the perspective. You obviously did no perspective planning, I left the lines in to show you how easy it is to set it up. It really helps to give depth to your images.
5. Pushed the background further back by giving it more misty effect, this is just a simple way to add depth, it might not have been the best decision but it was a decision :P
6. Changed position of character. By moving him further into the image we are drawn into it, adding depth and intrigue. I also flipped him so as to no have the action going off the page and rather into the middle to allow for the viewer to study the image and not have to fight their way back in from off the page.
7. Tried to unify the lighting by giving everything a unified lightsource. Something that your original was lacking. It unifies the piece and lets the viewer know how to read the image.
I probably did more but that's a good starting point for you to start thinking about some revisions.
Edit: Also, you seem to use pure black for shadows. Be very careful with this. I don't buy the whole, never use black argument but if used incorrectly it can really flatten your images. For an environment I would sincerely suggest against using pure black.
Hey guys. Ive spent about an hour on this so far and I need some advice on layout, depth of field etc. is it boring? what should i do? paint overs and feedback reallly welcome thanks i want to go for a old school ninja sort of showdown look with buildings and street behind him.
1) Watch Yojimbo and take some screenshots, use as reference. Be sure to pay special attention to the architecture.
2) I think before getting into "layout, depth of field etc.", and all the technical issues WCK and Deelock are addressing, you need to step back and answer: what the heck is going on here?
Dude with two swords (one of which he doesn't seem to know what he's doing with) yelling, flailing around- but there's nobody else there? And he's looking at the ground? Why's he facing the camera straight on? What's he up to? Is he attacking someone near the viewer's location? Is he in a drunken rage? I can't figure out what the idea of the drawing is beyond, "Hey, some buildings and a samurai", which is vague enough that it won't help inform the decisions that need to be made when planning a composition.
Without having a clear central idea of the drawing, it's difficult to give advice one way or another on how to approach the composition to most effectively communicate that idea. I see a man alone raging alone: is that idea central to the idea, or is it coincidental or an unintended idea? If it is intended, you could push the camera up and out, showing his smallness in relation to the buildings and the ground, making him feel alone in the picture. Is he supposed to be imposing? An shot looking up at him will make him seem larger and more intimidating. Is he raging at something, or someone? Put that in there. Is the idea his rage against the calm of his surroundings? Is he meant to feel menaced by a force known or unknown? Is the tone of the piece drama, or comedy, or action?
The success of the composition will depend on having answers for all these things- and I've found, that if you have the story and the mood and whatever artistic issues you want to get across mapped out coherently in your head, the composition starts to work itself out purely by virtue of having thought about those answers, and being able to push the piece in whatever direction you need to make it go to communicate those things.
EDIT: actually if you go watch Yojimbo take some notes about how Kurosawa is getting across information through composition, since he's really good at it any everything.
ok... Ive read everything you guys said and have decided to re-do the composition. hopefully this one is better. I think its more on the right track... I still havnt found any good references so im hunting some down now
The latest ninja one doesn’t make sense. You had a solid concept on your previous concept, you just needed to take it back a step and plan it out. I liked where you where going. It seems like you abandoned the concept because you weren’t sure how to go about doing it. That all goes back to doing thumbnail plans. Most illustrators, whether digital or traditional, always plan out their compositions as little thumbnails and see what works, picking the best ones, and further refining them till they have something that they want to render up. Your ideas are good, but you’re rushing into rendering them. Take it back a step dude. You have the ability, you just need to have patience in the planning stage.
BTW, don’t expect many feedback comments at night. The US is something like 5 or 8am in the morning at the moment
an update on this project. I started doing a bit more, fiddling with textures, details and colours. im getting more happy with it 6 hours into it probably
i think it looks a little odd atm because the camera angle looks like its looking DOWN at the ground, while, at the same time, its looking at the dinos and eggs from the side. Its like youre doing two different perspectives in the one image.
heres a paintover
it makes a little more sense because a horizon line has been established
thanks guys. WCK i thihnk yours makes it look more like a brontosaurus (one of the big ones) they are smaller raptors and the idea was a stone nest in a forrest. Ill try to define that a bit so it helps. the perspective
Hey Guys. Can I please get some feedback on my new website. I made it today and yesterday. Coded it through Text Editor. I did it to try to help me get a job interview tomorrow in more of a web design field. Just some comments on the way its run, layout etc. I know it takes a while to load I need to compress the thumbnails a bit more. All the coding is by hand and is done in text editor to attempt to get full accessibility for all browsers and consoles. I guess some feedback on content set up and layout would be great. Does it look professional enough? I thought I needed to make a new website to show my coding skills and what better client than myself.
It looks very amateurish. I could tell just by looking at the jaggies on your thumbnails that you compressed them using code. Use Photoshop's save for web feature, it will allow you to control the amount of compression in your images.
Leggs, I don't want to sound mean, but.... if I were to hire you based on this web page, I probably wouldn't. When you go to Contact and then Sketches, the link is broken, also the coding is very basic and I didn't see anything that hints at this page being friendly for anything other than a computer screen (it's gonna be horrendous on cellphones). Not that basic codes are bad, and not all web pages have to work on phones, but if you say "I want this to showcase my coding skills... ah, I hand coded everything so it works on all browsers and consoles", you'd better live up to those expectations.
Also, when you design, you have to take time out and think. Don't just throw things together,make them look cool! Your menu's for example could look 100 time better if you gave them a little love. There are images that are big enough for people to get an idea as to what they look like, why not use them as part of the background and keep the other thumbnails.
Hey. Thanks for the feedback. You dont sound mean. I have been thinking about some of the stuff you said before I put it online like spending some more time on the navigation buttons so they are not just plain text.
I have a few more websites that are more viewable under smaller res screens. I didnt really want to justify making my website tiny because the images would be harder to arrange. I really like your idea of putting more things into the background like the ray example.
I have some polishing up to do on it. Ive only spent about 6 hours on it in total including putting some of the images together and I havnt had time to do thumbnails for the pages.
Also, I was only informed after I put it up one of the links didnt work. It worked on a mac but not PC base as I had a fullstop in the page name. It should be fixed now.
Its still got a while to go to be polished I know. Ill look at making the backgrounds better. I wanted to show some table skills etc.
also toaster- it would sort of work on a cellphone as it has a simple CSS to but yeah not well. I have another website that demonstrates that better linked to an online buying page.
chiming in on what Magic Toaster said. For anyone with a larger monitor the website is static and stuck in the top left corner of the window. I click your link on this forum and expect to go to your home page but instead go to a splash page. splash pages take your users one click further away from your content. and you essentially have two splash pages. we live in the age of web 2.0, employers expect web sites to be content driven, you would be better of designing a template for a wordpress blog or similar.
still updating a few things, fixing a few mistakes. Im working on a new navigation system that might look more professional/ sleek I cant think straight right now unfortunately. Gona have another crack at it tomorrow morning. I did leave it to late for this but I am not convinced this person is after me for my web design skills anyway. I just want to beef up this part of my folio a bit more
There doesn't appear to be any actual 'design' to your design. It's not thought out and the content is not organised in a way which is relevant to potential clients or is even very useful.
There's no list of previous clients, or no indication of the sort of work you've done before. There's little personal information on yourself. There are typos in your copy. The alt-text suggesting how many hours each piece took is nonsensical.
I used my Web Developer toolbar in FF and disabled the CSS and images, and the resulting 'content only' site left quite a bit to be desired... Links should be set out as Unordered Lists for starters.
I am by no means a web expert but this site tells me you can create div tags and use Lightbox and not much else... If I were a paying client looking for a web designer, I would have more faith in a single page of contact details, nicely designed logo, and use of a considered and thought-out colour scheme.
Sorry to be critical, no offence is intended, it's just that this appears to have had no thought gone into it at all. o_O
No worries - I dont get offended easy. As much as it can hurt sometimes I tend to bounce back better than before. I continue to post here for a reason and that is because of the harsh/ truthful critique comments.
When I got contacted by this person I was worried as to what they want from me and I instantly went into panic mode and was like.. I havnt made a website in 2 years.. quick quick quick.
Although turning off CSS will also turn off the simple CSS which is designed for more simple displays I havnt programed this one well for accessibility. It needs polishing but I have it together. I can always start to polish it now in my own time which I look forward to strangely enough. The text giving the hours isnt alt text but I know what you mean.
Ill certainly re-do it but Not this morning unfortunately Im contemplating not showing this now.
Turns out they wanted me for my flash/director coding and film editing skills.. kinda strange since its a design firm but they are expanding in that area and need some help. Interview went well. I will hear back in a few days. I was kinda relieved they didnt want a web design role I dont enjoy it as much as editing and movies
Mustang - no they didnt.. There is no job allocated for that position yet. Basically what happend is I cold called them at the right time and the director is looking to expand into the interactive environment sort of direction and my resume happened to land on his desk at the right time.
I wont find out until they decide if they would hire me full time, contract or freelance. Then I can negotiate in terms of my skill and experience in video editing, flash and scripting.
Leggraphics on
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MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
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i know what you're saying but... i can't see it
oh god i just saw it
HAHAHA
well i mean it wasn't meant to be some masterpiece of character work, it was a quick demonstration of not blocking shapes together
I actually was going for a 'blob' sort of look to the marionette because I thought.. ohh its not being played with so the head will droop and the hands will be resting on the ground/hanging down.
I forgot about making the drawing look half interesting once i got that idea in my head. Ill try out your technique and post it up thanks
DAMN YOU TO THE FIREY PITS OF WIZARD HELL
LMAO!!!! maybe it is? I see it now to...
bwhahaha!
Twitter
Messing about. Its my second ever acrylic painting. It took about an hour all up including the ink then paint over the top. I think I really love painting traditionally now haha. the control and textures are awesome.. aghh i feel like painting now but its midnight and i have work tomorrow morning lol..
anyway.. here. Its only an hours work so I havnt put in detail. I dont think I will either. Im just messing around at this point seeing what you can do with paint and a brush
1 hour speed-paint of a prawn
quick paintover
OMG this is bad
But yeah, kinda has a bit more of a sense of scale.
Its a cool idea, so keep going. but really think about the scaling before you invest loads of time rendering.
There is a huge disconnect between elements of your painting as far as scale and proportion are concerned. I did a quick paintover to show what I mean (even now i realize he's still probably too big)
Things I did was:
1. Made his head smaller, it was too big for his body, watch out for that!
2. Shrunk him, he must have been standing 9 feet tall in your first rendition, his relation to the door next to him made it really obvious how big he was.
3. I got rid of your highlights on his costume. Those straight white highlights did not add to the form of the character and seemed to make is look like he was wearing a shiny shirt.
4. Squared up the perspective. You obviously did no perspective planning, I left the lines in to show you how easy it is to set it up. It really helps to give depth to your images.
5. Pushed the background further back by giving it more misty effect, this is just a simple way to add depth, it might not have been the best decision but it was a decision :P
6. Changed position of character. By moving him further into the image we are drawn into it, adding depth and intrigue. I also flipped him so as to no have the action going off the page and rather into the middle to allow for the viewer to study the image and not have to fight their way back in from off the page.
7. Tried to unify the lighting by giving everything a unified lightsource. Something that your original was lacking. It unifies the piece and lets the viewer know how to read the image.
I probably did more but that's a good starting point for you to start thinking about some revisions.
Edit: Also, you seem to use pure black for shadows. Be very careful with this. I don't buy the whole, never use black argument but if used incorrectly it can really flatten your images. For an environment I would sincerely suggest against using pure black.
1) Watch Yojimbo and take some screenshots, use as reference. Be sure to pay special attention to the architecture.
2) I think before getting into "layout, depth of field etc.", and all the technical issues WCK and Deelock are addressing, you need to step back and answer: what the heck is going on here?
Dude with two swords (one of which he doesn't seem to know what he's doing with) yelling, flailing around- but there's nobody else there? And he's looking at the ground? Why's he facing the camera straight on? What's he up to? Is he attacking someone near the viewer's location? Is he in a drunken rage? I can't figure out what the idea of the drawing is beyond, "Hey, some buildings and a samurai", which is vague enough that it won't help inform the decisions that need to be made when planning a composition.
Without having a clear central idea of the drawing, it's difficult to give advice one way or another on how to approach the composition to most effectively communicate that idea. I see a man alone raging alone: is that idea central to the idea, or is it coincidental or an unintended idea? If it is intended, you could push the camera up and out, showing his smallness in relation to the buildings and the ground, making him feel alone in the picture. Is he supposed to be imposing? An shot looking up at him will make him seem larger and more intimidating. Is he raging at something, or someone? Put that in there. Is the idea his rage against the calm of his surroundings? Is he meant to feel menaced by a force known or unknown? Is the tone of the piece drama, or comedy, or action?
The success of the composition will depend on having answers for all these things- and I've found, that if you have the story and the mood and whatever artistic issues you want to get across mapped out coherently in your head, the composition starts to work itself out purely by virtue of having thought about those answers, and being able to push the piece in whatever direction you need to make it go to communicate those things.
EDIT: actually if you go watch Yojimbo take some notes about how Kurosawa is getting across information through composition, since he's really good at it any everything.
Twitter
BTW, don’t expect many feedback comments at night. The US is something like 5 or 8am in the morning at the moment
EDIT. couldnt sleep so i did a couple before bed
like with the babydino intersecting biggerdino
heres a paintover
it makes a little more sense because a horizon line has been established
http://leggraphics.50webs.com/
It looks very amateurish. I could tell just by looking at the jaggies on your thumbnails that you compressed them using code. Use Photoshop's save for web feature, it will allow you to control the amount of compression in your images.
Leggs, I don't want to sound mean, but.... if I were to hire you based on this web page, I probably wouldn't. When you go to Contact and then Sketches, the link is broken, also the coding is very basic and I didn't see anything that hints at this page being friendly for anything other than a computer screen (it's gonna be horrendous on cellphones). Not that basic codes are bad, and not all web pages have to work on phones, but if you say "I want this to showcase my coding skills... ah, I hand coded everything so it works on all browsers and consoles", you'd better live up to those expectations.
Also, when you design, you have to take time out and think. Don't just throw things together,make them look cool! Your menu's for example could look 100 time better if you gave them a little love. There are images that are big enough for people to get an idea as to what they look like, why not use them as part of the background and keep the other thumbnails.
THis is what I mean:
Modify your images to fit your needs!
I have a few more websites that are more viewable under smaller res screens. I didnt really want to justify making my website tiny because the images would be harder to arrange. I really like your idea of putting more things into the background like the ray example.
I have some polishing up to do on it. Ive only spent about 6 hours on it in total including putting some of the images together and I havnt had time to do thumbnails for the pages.
Also, I was only informed after I put it up one of the links didnt work. It worked on a mac but not PC base as I had a fullstop in the page name. It should be fixed now.
Its still got a while to go to be polished I know. Ill look at making the backgrounds better. I wanted to show some table skills etc.
also toaster- it would sort of work on a cellphone as it has a simple CSS to but yeah not well. I have another website that demonstrates that better linked to an online buying page.
There's no list of previous clients, or no indication of the sort of work you've done before. There's little personal information on yourself. There are typos in your copy. The alt-text suggesting how many hours each piece took is nonsensical.
I used my Web Developer toolbar in FF and disabled the CSS and images, and the resulting 'content only' site left quite a bit to be desired... Links should be set out as Unordered Lists for starters.
I am by no means a web expert but this site tells me you can create div tags and use Lightbox and not much else... If I were a paying client looking for a web designer, I would have more faith in a single page of contact details, nicely designed logo, and use of a considered and thought-out colour scheme.
Sorry to be critical, no offence is intended, it's just that this appears to have had no thought gone into it at all. o_O
When I got contacted by this person I was worried as to what they want from me and I instantly went into panic mode and was like.. I havnt made a website in 2 years.. quick quick quick.
Although turning off CSS will also turn off the simple CSS which is designed for more simple displays I havnt programed this one well for accessibility. It needs polishing but I have it together. I can always start to polish it now in my own time which I look forward to strangely enough. The text giving the hours isnt alt text but I know what you mean.
Ill certainly re-do it but Not this morning unfortunately Im contemplating not showing this now.
Mustang - no they didnt.. There is no job allocated for that position yet. Basically what happend is I cold called them at the right time and the director is looking to expand into the interactive environment sort of direction and my resume happened to land on his desk at the right time.
I wont find out until they decide if they would hire me full time, contract or freelance. Then I can negotiate in terms of my skill and experience in video editing, flash and scripting.