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My Digital Art thread. Critiques Highly appreciated.

MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
edited September 2007 in Artist's Corner
3) My third one and last one for a good a while. I'm gonna spend some time practicing and applying some of the suggestions you all have given, but until then I would just like to present what is by far my favorite piece of work. :D

n9203440_33862191_8361.jpg

This piece was actually based off an original sketch I had posted in this forum earlier. This is the original for those interested
Serpent__s_new_pet_by_AdventDawn.jpg



2) Here is another painting I just got finished with. You guys have been really helpful giving me some heads up advise and I would love if you could disect this piece as well.

The_Face_of_the_Serpent_by_AdventDawn.jpg

1) So after about a month now of experimenting with photoshop, i scanned one of my old sketches and decided to start work on my first digital painting. I was kinda intimidated at first, but once i got the hang of things it was breeze and hella fun! This is the finished work:

Roland_by_AdventDawn.jpg

Everything you see there was done by hand using a wacom tablet. After scanning my sketch all I had essentially used it for was a point of reference. Ultimately, I had over 20 layers going on to make sure i get the specific details i wanted, which is my noob way of saying "experimenting w/out screwing it up." I used some layer affects to spice it up, in particular with the flowing lights on his suit. Ultimately I was unsatisfied with his awkward pose, so I did my best to sort of warp into into a more comfortable position.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
Mykonos on

Posts

  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited September 2007
    This is really good for your first time! You have some good detail going and you managed to fix some of the anatomy from your sketch as well.

    It still looks a little unfinished (his pants, the gun), and I'd recommend you stay away from trying to work with too many layers simultaneously - while it's great for preserving details and letting you go back and try effects with the ability to undo later on, it can really screw around with your ability to have your paints blend and merge into one another, which is really important for getting things like tone and coloured lighting correct (this is even more of an issue with Painter than Photoshop).

    Brolo on
  • MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    hey thanks. I remember when I first bought my wacon tablet I jumped into photoshop thinking I was gonna own this, but I was so blown away and mind boggled that I didn't touch the tablet for six months, instead I just pencil sketched. Then I decided I wanted to make a webcomic, so i bit the bullet, bought how-to books, and practiced several hours a day on photographs until I got used to the system. This painting took be about five days to complete, and I had very low expectations how finished project would turn out. But then I finished it and was utterly amazed. I still can't believe I managed to pull this off, but I guess it proves with enough practice that ne one could do it :)

    Mykonos on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
  • furiousNUfuriousNU Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Looks nice, especially for someone's first time.

    I'd work on modulating your highlights.

    Your highlights, midtones and shadows all change in value as you move towards or away from your light source. So do a little touching up and don't make your shadows and highlights all of similar brightness/darkness.

    edit: this explains it way better

    I roughly blocked in a few corrections to help you.

    Untitled-1.png

    If my corrections offend you for any reason I can delete the pic.

    You also might want to consider putting a few highlights in the hair. Hair is shiny.

    furiousNU on
  • MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    hey furiouse, i definitely appreciate the advise, and i love that you actually took the effort to do some editing yourself to show me. I'll definitely consider those detail on my next artwork.

    Mykonos on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
  • Angel_of_BaconAngel_of_Bacon Moderator mod
    edited September 2007
    Furious, I've got to take issue with your post; not so much because it's necessarily inaccurate, but because is incomplete enough that it could end up doing more harm than good. So let's be thorough, shall we?

    Now the thing is- and I'm not sure if this is because of how you understand it or just of how you chose to articulate your point- you seem to be advocating indicating light and shade primarily based on the proximity of any given point to the light source. Closer, brighter. Further away, darker. Well and good, it makes sense so far.

    But a couple things. First off, in your diagram you've indicated the idea of a light source, as well as the progression from light to dark, as a primarily two-dimensional phenomenon. Put your light source on the right facing left, make all the stuff on the right side real bright, all the stuff on the right real dark. Unfortunately, When dealing with three-dimensional objects and lights that do not just come from left, right, up, or down, but in front and behind as well, this simplified understanding falls apart. For example, If a light source is shot dead center on an object you'll find the center lit up brightly and darkness cropping on on all sides. Now, this still corresponds to what you wrote to certain degree, but not the diagram you drew. You can see this is what he actually did on the right leg (his left)- you can see it doesn't really work correctly, and is a very common mistake among people just starting out (which is why I'm railing on about it the first place, because I'm sick of seeing it).

    mykonos.jpg

    Also, this understanding seems to imply that the idea of creating form through light is primarily a function of the light's falloff. And while, yes, a light's intensity does indeed fall off over distance- and this is something that can be used to indicate form to a certain degree and in certain situations, this knowledge pales in comparison to understanding the idea of indicating form through plane. After all, unless the primarily light source of a scene is a candle or some other very dim light source, the falloff over the distance of say, a human being, tends to be rather negligible. If you stand outside in the daytime, your head will not appear appreciably brighter than your feet simply because it is technically closer to the sun- some other way has to be used to indicate the form under such lighting conditions.

    Understanding how the tone changes as the form turns away from the light is essential to creating convincing form. This requires more than simply assuming a tonal value based on the distance from the light, or distance from the nearest edge, but a thorough understanding of how the object is constructed as a three-dimensional object.

    mykonos2.jpg

    Now, maybe none of this is coming as news to either of you folks here, but well.

    I have to admit I am a bit of a no-holds-barred grade A anal retentive dickhole when it comes to lighting, so pardon me for my rants. :P Just don't want anyone to get off on the wrong foot because of some solid, but incomplete knowledge, like

    Rant:
    All those fucking hippie art teachers that tell their students to not use black paint because' there is no black in nature' when there is in fact a whole everloving shitload of black in nature and the only reason anyone thinks otherwise is because fucking Claude Monet decided not use black because he wanted to do a bunch on sunbathed pastel outdoor scenes that didn't NEED black and if he wanted to get a dark he mixed them up out of other pigments, not because there is 'no fucking black in nature' you stupid fucking douchebags, LOOK OUTSIDE! Just because it happened to be valid ONCE does not make it valid EVERY SINGLE TIME. Stop repeating this fucking nonsense that you take as God's own word because you heard it from your goddamned retard art teacher, goddammit, ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!! :x :x :x :x
    <phew> Nothing personal. It just cheeses me off.

    In any case, it's still a lot better than the first crap I did in Photoshop, heh.

    Angel_of_Bacon on
  • furiousNUfuriousNU Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Mr. Bacon-

    I purposely did not provide a completely reblocked piece because I have had problems with people stealing my corrections and calling it "their work" in the past. That's why I only painted over a section of his picture.

    (I was also posting this rather late which probably didn't help me)

    Secondly, since, the OP was having problems blocking basic lights and darks and the unfinished nature of the picture made it hard for me to determine the exact location with light source. I also felt there was no good going into reflected light, light/darks within shadows because the basic lights and darks weren't all there.

    At any rate the OP now has some good notes to work from.

    OP:
    You should also consider looking up some pictures of body armor to see how light falls on it and practice drawing from life. Looking up Anable's weekly posts on basic drawing may also prove helpful since you have some proportion issues. The dude's right hand isn't attached to the wrist at the right angle and you need more definition around the pelvic area so his legs look like they're turning with the top half of his body.

    furiousNU on
  • MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Thanks for all the advise guys, i really appreciate it. BTW, Bacon, what filter did u use to get that affect on the drawing? I really like it.

    Mykonos on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
  • Angel_of_BaconAngel_of_Bacon Moderator mod
    edited September 2007
    Uh.

    I didn't use any filters.

    Angel_of_Bacon on
  • furiousNUfuriousNU Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Uh.

    I didn't use any filters.

    Perhaps he meant brushes?

    furiousNU on
  • MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    oh i just thought he may have messed around with some filters, which was what i've been playing for the last several hours. I just loved how, whatever he did, really sharpened some of the details. Right now i'm still in a sort of experimental stage hoping to zone in on my style.

    Mykonos on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
  • furiousNUfuriousNU Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Mykonos wrote: »
    oh i just thought he may have messed around with some filters, which was what i've been playing for the last several hours. I just loved how, whatever he did, really sharpened some of the details. Right now i'm still in a sort of experimental stage hoping to zone in on my style.


    Filters are fun but they don't have much of a place in serious illustration or photo manipulation. Mr. Bacon (seems) to just have a lot of practice drawing the human figure which is why his picture looks the way it does.

    Regarding your second piece:

    I think you should take some more time blocking in the figure because even the parts of him that aren't melting into the background are hard to discern. Follow the technique Mr. Bacon linked in the longer post.

    Also, are you putting your background and figure on different layers?

    furiousNU on
  • MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    furiousNU wrote: »
    Mykonos wrote: »
    oh i just thought he may have messed around with some filters, which was what i've been playing for the last several hours. I just loved how, whatever he did, really sharpened some of the details. Right now i'm still in a sort of experimental stage hoping to zone in on my style.


    Filters are fun but they don't have much of a place in serious illustration or photo manipulation. Mr. Bacon (seems) to just have a lot of practice drawing the human figure which is why his picture looks the way it does.

    Regarding your second piece:

    I think you should take some more time blocking in the figure because even the parts of him that aren't melting into the background are hard to discern. Follow the technique Mr. Bacon linked in the longer post.

    Also, are you putting your background and figure on different layers?

    Ah I see. Yeah after looking over what he did I noticed the actual changes which could only be done by a brush or something.

    As for the second one, yes, i had created two layers, one for the character, and the other for the background. With this one I cropped out the character from another painting I was working on, and added the layer ontop of the background layer. I then went ahead and changed the color balance to replace the white with red, added a heavy brush filter. I then flattened the image and used the smudge tool to try and blend him in the background. I wanted to have a sort of nightmarish, chaotic feel, so i went a bit messy with the smudge.

    Mykonos on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
  • ScosglenScosglen Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    At this point, you're probably doing more harm than good by fiddling around with smudging, color correction layers and filters.

    I recommend you sit down with one or two hard round brushes and one or two layers and learn how to get by with just those before you start trying fancy shit.

    Scosglen on
  • MykonosMykonos Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Scosglen wrote: »
    At this point, you're probably doing more harm than good by fiddling around with smudging, color correction layers and filters.

    I recommend you sit down with one or two hard round brushes and one or two layers and learn how to get by with just those before you start trying fancy shit.

    Yeah That's pretty much what I did with the final piece I put there. I used only two layers, one for the characters and one for the background, and just used black and white at different opacities. I did use some smudging though to refine the little details, but besides that i stood away from everything else.

    Mykonos on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
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