Pushing things further back with line width and added the forest on the right to suggest scale... It helps a bit, but I'll be able to handle it further when colored. I'll finish this panel (and hopefully get to the rest of the page) tomorrow. It's tough when I only have 2 hours a day to work on my personal stuffs :P
@SeveredHead, I've meant to say this for the like, last 4 pics you've posted and then I thought maybe I should think out more of an explanation and then forget about saying anything, so fuck it I'm just gonna spit it out.
You could really benefit from just using what you've got as a sketch layer and re-inking over top of them with a smaller brush. The really thick lines are really working against you putting in some subtle indications of foreshortening/details/shape design that would really sell the drawing. With the thick lines things start tangenting and melding together, and the form of the objects can get lost or flattened.
I'd also say it's probably not terribly useful making your sketch lines so dark. Starting with lighter lines and building up can help you more easily figure out where you want your lines to go and what you want them to look like.
I think I'd really benefit from some serious hand studies, maybe try and work some texture into things and build up a bit of library, i find it hard to get details in my studies and get a more lifelike feel.
I'd also say it's probably not terribly useful making your sketch lines so dark. Starting with lighter lines and building up can help you more easily figure out where you want your lines to go and what you want them to look like.
hey guys, its been ages since I last doodled or logged here.
PS: My scanner is like that.
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
thanks a lot for those comments guys. i usually try to not make my lines too clean or else the energy from the initial sketch gets lost and starts to look lifeless and sterile and just boring. but yah those lines are definitely way to thick and messy.
its tricky to know when to thicken/lighten up lines, is it how heavy the material is? how close it is to viewer?
here i tried to implement the crits!
@Severedhead: That's definitely an improvement, but I still think your lines are unnaturally thick, and the lack of line variation makes your drawings look more flat than they are. I'm terrible at linework so take my advice with a serious dose of salt, but I'd suggest you keep your lines only as thick as they need to be for you, and to relax and let variations in thickness occur naturally - it should give you a more organic looking image
@SH: My point really wasn't about being messy- after all, my own inked stuff is not exactly precision tooled or anything (and I'm not sure if would be actually improved if it were). My concern was more about how the overthickening, or even just overemphasizing, the linework is really going to work against you taking your work to the next level. Your sense of structure is all pretty solidly there in the initial sketches, the linework just needs then to be pushed back and worked over with some more finessed decision making.
Let me try this with a drawover, it may make more sense that way. What you should notice is what I'm not doing here is really tightening down with heavy, math-precise lines, or trying to thin lines just for the sake of having them be thin (frankly I can't pull off smooth linework worth a damn, so I'm not going to knock my brains out trying since it's not really that important to the point anyway). All I'm really doing is going over your established structure, and using the extra real estate that the thinner lines afford me to clarify the form. In the original, the line thickness means there's no room to indicate an oblique, there's no room to indicate the tricep, there's no room for the separation between the pecs- that's the sort of thing I mean when I say that the thick lines can work against you.
Taking your previous orc dude (forgive my shit handwriting):
What you've done in the latest drawing is you've made things cleaner and more detailed, certainly- but more in the sense that there's just more stuff there: more lines in the armor, more nubs and flaps and whatever. What I'm talking about is more the subtleties that sell the form.
A good example would be the greaves on her right (our left) leg there; because the lines are still fairly thick and uniform throughout, it's hard to grasp just how the front plate of the shin interacts with the calf part; is the entire thing one solid piece separated by a painted on line? In the calf wedged in behind the shin, or is it raised above? If the calf part a part of the armor, or is it part of the pants and it's showing through a whole?
Or, take the 2 pouches on the belt they're both shown straight on, flat to the camera; but given the curve of the belt on which they're placed, it would make more sense to show more of a side plane, and have one overlap the other just slightly; a very sublte difference, but one that would go a long way towards selling the form of the pouches and therefore the overall form of the belt and character; and one hard to get across with uniformly thick linework.
These are all things that initially seem like nitpicky little things, but when added up across a whole drawing they can go a long long way.
i tend to press down quite hard when i draw so i guess this is where all those bold lines come from i get scared that the drawing wont hold with out them.
i am seeing that i got kinda shitty readability from my latest attempt, i was considering on making some of the lines even thicker to establish things better, but then like you said i will lose detail opportunities if i thicken up too much and its just gonna look unrealistic as shit.
i guess it all comes down to knowing how to hold the form without going crazy on the line thickness. i will practice this.
i cant thank you enough for that awesome insight, my hat is off to you.
Those two win everything.
(including a date with Fug's sexy robot, yeah).
Also here's some pixelart I'm making! (hint: if you've got the latest firefox, view it on a separate page, looks better on a dark background).
That robot looks about ready to repair one SERIOUSLY metal guitar amp.
Fug, do you ever do livestreams? I'd love to watch your process.
I do sometimes, usually just to show someone a WIP. I might see about doing a timelapse or something in the future. I just feel weird about doing tutorials and videos since I get huge performance anxiety and I suck at explaining anything ever.
That robot looks about ready to repair one SERIOUSLY metal guitar amp.
Fug, do you ever do livestreams? I'd love to watch your process.
I do sometimes, usually just to show someone a WIP. I might see about doing a timelapse or something in the future. I just feel weird about doing tutorials and videos since I get huge performance anxiety and I suck at explaining anything ever.
A timelapse would be awesome.
Battlemans: DiscoCabbage | Elite: Dangerous: Aleksandr Khabaj
Okay I know you guys prefer original stuff to fanart, so here are some faces I improvised with my fleshtone markers
Still getting the hang of using them. Figure study with same
I decided to color a sketch I did while testing my faber castel pens a couple days prior. I realize there's a lot of stuff off about it, etc. I was just playing with a couple different tones, but the lighting doesn't make a whole bunch of sense, and those calves are horrible.
Nic, I like those studies... I mean, studies are always good. But I have two things that I find odd about them.
1- if they are studies of human figure... why not include hands and feet?
2- if the point of a human figure study is to "study", why use such a non-flexible media like markers?
Having said that, I must add, that I love all forms of ink, markers of all kinds included, and good luck with your figure studies (thumbs up emoticon)
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
there aint much I can do for this particular doodle, but crits are welcome for future pieces.
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
Posts
EDIT: Whoops, sorry.
Sometimes I'm not sure if I'll ever really get the hang of digital art, but I'll keep trying.
Man, I've always loved your black and white concept pieces. You should do more. Definitely would like to see more of that duder especially
My Portfolio Site
Well damn, now I wish I had a story about this dude...I guess I better make some shit up.
Twitter
More.
here's some spaceman spiff fan art
Hiking Essentials
YES. And keep the dog in there too.
My Portfolio Site
Battlemans: DiscoCabbage | Elite: Dangerous: Aleksandr Khabaj
You could really benefit from just using what you've got as a sketch layer and re-inking over top of them with a smaller brush. The really thick lines are really working against you putting in some subtle indications of foreshortening/details/shape design that would really sell the drawing. With the thick lines things start tangenting and melding together, and the form of the objects can get lost or flattened.
Twitter
I drew a Royberdito
And Severedhead - Listen to these guys, what they say is the truth!
I think I'd really benefit from some serious hand studies, maybe try and work some texture into things and build up a bit of library, i find it hard to get details in my studies and get a more lifelike feel.
y'all really enjoyin shiny surfaces huh
Fug, do you ever do livestreams? I'd love to watch your process.
Battlemans: DiscoCabbage | Elite: Dangerous: Aleksandr Khabaj
PS: My scanner is like that.
its tricky to know when to thicken/lighten up lines, is it how heavy the material is? how close it is to viewer?
here i tried to implement the crits!
Let me try this with a drawover, it may make more sense that way. What you should notice is what I'm not doing here is really tightening down with heavy, math-precise lines, or trying to thin lines just for the sake of having them be thin (frankly I can't pull off smooth linework worth a damn, so I'm not going to knock my brains out trying since it's not really that important to the point anyway). All I'm really doing is going over your established structure, and using the extra real estate that the thinner lines afford me to clarify the form. In the original, the line thickness means there's no room to indicate an oblique, there's no room to indicate the tricep, there's no room for the separation between the pecs- that's the sort of thing I mean when I say that the thick lines can work against you.
Taking your previous orc dude (forgive my shit handwriting):
What you've done in the latest drawing is you've made things cleaner and more detailed, certainly- but more in the sense that there's just more stuff there: more lines in the armor, more nubs and flaps and whatever. What I'm talking about is more the subtleties that sell the form.
A good example would be the greaves on her right (our left) leg there; because the lines are still fairly thick and uniform throughout, it's hard to grasp just how the front plate of the shin interacts with the calf part; is the entire thing one solid piece separated by a painted on line? In the calf wedged in behind the shin, or is it raised above? If the calf part a part of the armor, or is it part of the pants and it's showing through a whole?
Or, take the 2 pouches on the belt they're both shown straight on, flat to the camera; but given the curve of the belt on which they're placed, it would make more sense to show more of a side plane, and have one overlap the other just slightly; a very sublte difference, but one that would go a long way towards selling the form of the pouches and therefore the overall form of the belt and character; and one hard to get across with uniformly thick linework.
These are all things that initially seem like nitpicky little things, but when added up across a whole drawing they can go a long long way.
Twitter
i am seeing that i got kinda shitty readability from my latest attempt, i was considering on making some of the lines even thicker to establish things better, but then like you said i will lose detail opportunities if i thicken up too much and its just gonna look unrealistic as shit.
i guess it all comes down to knowing how to hold the form without going crazy on the line thickness. i will practice this.
i cant thank you enough for that awesome insight, my hat is off to you.
OKAY
EDIT: Dammit I keep forgetting to say I love that robot, Fuggly.
Twitter
(including a date with Fug's sexy robot, yeah).
Also here's some pixelart I'm making! (hint: if you've got the latest firefox, view it on a separate page, looks better on a dark background).
I do sometimes, usually just to show someone a WIP. I might see about doing a timelapse or something in the future. I just feel weird about doing tutorials and videos since I get huge performance anxiety and I suck at explaining anything ever.
Battlemans: DiscoCabbage | Elite: Dangerous: Aleksandr Khabaj
Still getting the hang of using them. Figure study with same
I decided to color a sketch I did while testing my faber castel pens a couple days prior. I realize there's a lot of stuff off about it, etc. I was just playing with a couple different tones, but the lighting doesn't make a whole bunch of sense, and those calves are horrible.
1- if they are studies of human figure... why not include hands and feet?
2- if the point of a human figure study is to "study", why use such a non-flexible media like markers?
Having said that, I must add, that I love all forms of ink, markers of all kinds included, and good luck with your figure studies (thumbs up emoticon)
YOU SO SMALL IT'S FUNNY TO ME.
TF2 used to be a nice game, now it's all hats and shit.
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there aint much I can do for this particular doodle, but crits are welcome for future pieces.