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Kaeldahn's illustrations, comments and crits appreciated!
Kaeldahn
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey guys
So I recently took the plunge and quit my profitable but boring career in favour of somehow producing art full time (I appreciate that not everyone has the luxury to do this). At the moment I'm producing websites and promotional material for people I know to be able to get some income, but I'm looking towards some sort of freelance illustration gig as I go forward.
I've been reading these forums a while and have found the discussions very informative, and would welcome some feedback on what I'm producing. Note that none of the images below were produced for anyone else, they're all purely for my own practice/amusement.
So yeah, not big on the colouring yet, but I've been focusing on value and form so far. Feedback appreciated!
So I recently took the plunge and quit my profitable but boring career in favour of somehow producing art full time (I appreciate that not everyone has the luxury to do this). At the moment I'm producing websites and promotional material for people I know to be able to get some income, but I'm looking towards some sort of freelance illustration gig as I go forward.
I've been reading these forums a while and have found the discussions very informative, and would welcome some feedback on what I'm producing. Note that none of the images below were produced for anyone else, they're all purely for my own practice/amusement.
So yeah, not big on the colouring yet, but I've been focusing on value and form so far. Feedback appreciated!
Kaeldahn on
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If you're going to be a full-time artist, we need to see some of your original work, I think. Your Garrus is great, though.
What kind of freelancing are you aiming to do?
We need to see some original stuff. Sketches too.
I will also third Mully and Zergling's notion that you really need to get some original, imaginative works in there. It's wonderful that you're doing photo studies, but ultimately they're only studies. People are going to hire you to bring their ideas into a visual medium, not to reproduce already existing images.
Some quick things that are popping out to me
You're off to a decent start in terms of observational skills. You really need to work on edge control and material rendering. Right now, most of your materials look pretty much identical. There's not a lot to really differentiate skin from metal from cloth.
You also need to pay a little more attention to how you're using shadow to define the forms. Wolverine's deltoid, for example, has these really dark shadows cutting into it making it look like he's got these deep gashes in his shoulder.
Both of these are basically the result of not quite getting the values and value transitions right. That is, how bright your lightest lights are, how dark your darkest shadows are, and how quickly you transit between the two. Referencing the photo you studied from, you'll notice the transition between the highlight on Wolverine's pectoral and the darker areas is a bit more gradual and soft than what you've drawn. Same with the bicep/deltoid. You'll also notice in both of those that your values of your lights and darks aren't quite accurate, particularly in the bicep example. These quick transitions between very light and very dark are giving him a metallic look.
This problem is also being exacerbated by the fact that you didn't include any of the (very dark) background, which makes the extreme darks of the shadows all the more awkward.
I'm picking on this one piece in particular, but the other two have similar issues with value, contrast, and transitions.
My prescription is lots of practice. If you're planning on really going whole-hog and doing this professionally, you should be practicing like it's your full-time job, particularly at your current skill level (that's not meant to be a diss. You just have some ways to go before you're up to an entry-level professional standard). That means drawing 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week.
Draw from life, in addition to your photo studies. Photos can distort objects and reproduce colors and values inaccurately, particularly outdoors. Drawing from life will provide you with a much better sense of how an object is constructed. Assemble some still life setups and draw those. Find some figure drawings sessions in your area. If you have paint, go outside and do some plein air studies. If you don't have paint, at least do some charcoal studies.
Gather a ton of photo references of things with different materials and try to render those really accurately, and really pay attention to how light interacts with cloth vs flesh vs fur vs chrome vs brushed metal vs concrete vs satin vs burlap vs dry leaves vs etc.
Do a lot of imagined works. This will allow you to flex your creativity while also reinforcing all of the lessons you've learned from your studies by putting those lessons into practice.
Invest in some art books. This thread has a list of great resources. Invest in a class, either locally or online. I can personally vouch that Noah's Art Camp provides a pretty excellent, well-rounded foundation for learning, and it's pretty cheap to boot.
And if you aren't already, start working in color ASAP. Color is basically one half of painting, and until you're good with it, you can't expect to find work.
That said, good luck. You've still got a lot of work ahead of you, but you're off to a good start, and if you really focus on your studies and take them seriously, you'll get there sooner rather than later.
Thanks for taking the time to draft out that response Fugitive, I appreciate it (and to Mully and Zerg too).
Points definitely taken, and the comments about the differentiation between materials was certainly justified as I haven't been able to figure out the best way to accomplish the effect - do you guys generally put down some value and then apply a texture over the top, or paint it in as you're adding the lights and darks (I know it's also about how the light bounces off the materials differently, but at the moment I'm more confused about how to apply texture)?
Time to crank out some original work!
NO matter how many times i see this i still love it. Its so good.
You might be surprised how much legwork is being done just by the way light interacts with materials. You'll notice rubber, ceramic, brass, felt, and so forth, don't really have a lot of "texture" to them in the sense that you seem to be thinking. By that I mean, zooming in and rendering out the bumps and crevasses, or overlaying a texture file, doesn't really describe the actual material itself as much as the interaction of the light does.
It's important to understand that texture (or, more specifically, detail) and material aren't necessarily the same thing. A lot of texture can be implied just based on how you've depicted the lighting (how you're painting the edges of the form is also a major consideration). As an example, the artist Bumskee was brought up in the chat thread a few days ago. His work is a great example of how, by just varying the way you use soft-brushes, specular highlights, and define the edges of your structures, you can depict an easily recognizable forest without having to define the blades of grass or the exact texture of the bark.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with being detailed, but my point is that texture isn't nearly as important as you might think when it comes to depicting materials. I would argue that super detailed texture is probably not something you should even be too concerned with unless you're trying to create a really polished piece, but that's just my opinion. I would definitely argue against using photo-textures at this stage, until you're feeling really confident in doing it by hand, since its really easy to go overboard.
The art_tut.htm link Bombs posted might be the single best general tutorial I've encountered, and it lays all of this out in a way that's really easy to digest.
Looking forward to seeing your progress.
I'm going to try and apply the tips on materials to this picture (especially the shirt), but I wanted to know if there are any glaring errors I need to address or any general advice before I continue adding those details and tidying up
Also, a bonus sketch that I might turn into a proper pic:
This video is also great:
Progress on professor sparklehand, would welcome anyone's input/advice!
Digital painting isn't my forte, but what I would say regarding the image you've just posted above is that the lighting seems a bit off. I think part of the problem is that all the light is coming from the same direction (screen right) and there's not really any fill or rim lights to speak of. Also, the shadows on his clothes don't seem to correspond to the light source, although that could be me mis-reading where his hand is supposed to be in relation to his body. Drawing-wise, it looks very clean and confident, but one of the things that stuck out to me was the way the folds in his shirt go. For example, on his right arm it looks like the material is pinching up at the bend in his elbow, rather than hanging down. There's a similar problem with the folds in the left arm in that they don't seem to hang down in the way that they would in this pose. This is a fantastic document all about drawing folds and creases in clothing: http://punchandbrodie.com/leo/FamousArtistsCartoonCourse/facc_09.pdf
One other comment would be about his upper body. The folds around his chest help to show the form of his torso, but the fact that the strap on his right side seems very flat kills it since it doesn't curve round in the same way that the left strap does. I'd also suggest that it feels a bit too near the centre of his body.
That's about it, for now... I'd also second (or third) what the other guys have said about studies and so on. Just keep on keepin' on, you're off to a strong start.
Comics
No specific critique at this juncture. Keep it up!
As for energy-hand guy, I agree with McD, particularly on the point that compositionally, you should avoid having two strong light sources coming from the same direction and competing like that. At least, I'm assuming there's another light source in addition to the purple light, since you have a lot of neutral light hitting the face and body.
Got frustrated with that last one, so decided "fuck it, I'm gonna get this one"
Progress in spoiler:
My first time doing a portrait, and especially messing with colour like that, so pretty happy with how it turned out. However, I've looked at this one too much and can't see it anymore, so I'm open to crits (I'm thinking the chin doesn't jut out enough, and the colour of the lips is wrong, but the colouring in general is really new to me so I'm not gonna stress on it for this one).
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
I might have one suggestion for a study to try. You made a pretty admirable effort on a full color 3/4 head study there, but that lighting situation with the blown out white rimlight and the rest of it being lit by subtle indirect light can be really tricky and there is still a lot of knowledge-juice left to squeeze out. I think it would be useful to try something similar to that again, but this time try reference with a less extreme light, and with the light more directly illuminating and casting shadows on the planes of the face-- something like this.
Learning how to handle subtle indirect light is definitely important, but for someone at your stage in development, mastering those fundamental structural cues of the head and face is a higher priority and something that is more easily accomplished when you can easily see the light falling across those planes, if that makes sense.
Challenge accepted!
I already know I'm gonna hate doing that hair...
How's this looking?
Can I get some opinions on this please - have I gone overboard with the highlights and spores, how does it read? It's late and I'm pretty sure I've gone cross-eyed...
Edit: Oh, and this is a portrait of someone's Guild Wars 2 character, so not an original character design but the pose, lighting, etc is all from imagination
Other than that, it looks like it's on a solid track but could benefit from sharper rendering all over (another pass with a smaller brush). Hope you keep at it and would love to see it continue to evolve.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods