hey aru, i remember seeing an old thread of urs a while back and gotta say you've definitely improved overall. I'm liking the heavy ink lines and slouching posture especially.
oh and mayday, try making urself an airbrush, low opacy, soft edges, large size, and go for some blending with a mid tone color. Also, u may wanna check out some photos to nail that perspective a bit. It seems the nose and lips are a bit off. As for the hair, which i suck at when doing large portraits, i always get the best luck by experimenting with different brushes till something works - which doesn't happen very often but when it can be suprising at times. I just made myself a nice textured horizontal and flat brush witch seems to be working ok for me. For misc, I just read about using a low opacity speckled brush for texture.
just some ideas to throw ur way
Mykonos on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
Actually getting somewhere? Little help, you guys...
Mayday, man, this is going to be more sympathy than advice, but I'm in that same goddamn boat. Every stroke seems to go wrong and each new one makes me cringe. I'd give you tips, but everything I've come up with has failed. Fuck this painting shit.
I'm going to try and do life studies to see if it helps.
dude, try imagining how frustrated i was for the first few weeks when all I knew how to do was change the brush size. Just about gave up entirely...coulda had a normal life after that too now that i think about it
Mykonos on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
Actually getting somewhere? Little help, you guys...
Looks like you are starting to just obsess over individual features- the eyes, the area under the cheekbone- and as a result they're becoming a bit blown out and exaggerated when you step back and look at the thing as a whole. Example, look at the eyes- dead white. They aren't taking into account the shade afforded them by the eyesockets, which make them appear to glow and pop out unrealistically.
Sure, these bits and pieces might be refined, but you need to be paying more attention to everything that is NOT a feature, the overall form, the overall light. Pay attention, for example, to the area between the bottom of the nose and the top of the lip- the light would indicate that a shadow from the nose would be cast over part of that area. Where is it? Everything has to work and make sense together, not just the parts you decide to take particular interest in. If you find yourself obsessing over tiny areas, just walk back 3 or so meters from your monitor and look at it, so for a moment you can only see what's going on in the big picture.
Also, in terms of design, since this is such a humanoid kind of design in a basic sense, you run the risk of things becoming ambiguous as to what is intentionally non-human and what will just read as "off" to the viewer. Particularly here the design of the eyes, it becomes unclear if the circle of shade in the sockets is supposed to be shade or a discoloration of the skin, since the light on the overall form is not put forth as clearly as it might. In my example I tried to pull it back to a more 'humanish' kind of look, but this may not be what you were aiming for at all, I just had to guess which direction you were going for- and that's the problem, the viewer should never have to guess your intention when it comes to the rendering of form.
Also, short aside: I'm kind of sick of seeing all these paintings with palette splotches all over them, because it seems more often than not the artist sticks to it so damn rigorously that it starts to feel like they think sticking to their arbitrarily defined initial palette is more important than what the final product, or reality for that matter, actually friggin' looks like. It's supposed to be a TOOL, not a GOAL, guys. If something needs to be darker, don't be like "but I can't go darker my palette doesn't go that dark" or "maybe I should add a darker palette splotch", JUST PICK THE FUCKING COLOR AND DO IT ALREADY, JESUS! Who GIVES A DAMN if the color is on your palette splotch array or not, good lord.
Maybe that's not as helpful as I was hoping to be. :?
I wanted to thank you, Bacon, for your valuable help... I don't treat the palette all that strictly, I just wanted a picture with less dramatic lighting... which, in retrospect, wasn't a good idea. And I wanted him to have normal eye sockets.
I guess I'll have to work on references more
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Here are some studies anyway. The first thing I've scanned in ages.
Yeah. I'm never going to get around to it am I?
That was fun, and that guy does look like a retired duke nukem, you're right...
bottom right head is .... tiiiiny ...
face is a little borked...
edit: TOTP (correct me if i did it wrong)
I'm also working on a color scheme that uses shades of blues and purples, too, so clearly I'm still experimenting with it.
Raven, you're looking more and more like wakka, and that really can't be a bad thing. =D
WIP:
too bad she sounds like a dude.
mine was a jackal.
It's not poisonous is it?!
fuck yes it is winter break whcih means massive draw time
How can this be improved?
oh and mayday, try making urself an airbrush, low opacy, soft edges, large size, and go for some blending with a mid tone color. Also, u may wanna check out some photos to nail that perspective a bit. It seems the nose and lips are a bit off. As for the hair, which i suck at when doing large portraits, i always get the best luck by experimenting with different brushes till something works - which doesn't happen very often but when it can be suprising at times. I just made myself a nice textured horizontal and flat brush witch seems to be working ok for me. For misc, I just read about using a low opacity speckled brush for texture.
just some ideas to throw ur way
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
present for brother x-posted from chat
Twitter
Mayday, man, this is going to be more sympathy than advice, but I'm in that same goddamn boat. Every stroke seems to go wrong and each new one makes me cringe. I'd give you tips, but everything I've come up with has failed. Fuck this painting shit.
I'm going to try and do life studies to see if it helps.
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
I can do colour, but hell I cannot blend my colours, and even following a tutorial turns out shit
Looks like you are starting to just obsess over individual features- the eyes, the area under the cheekbone- and as a result they're becoming a bit blown out and exaggerated when you step back and look at the thing as a whole. Example, look at the eyes- dead white. They aren't taking into account the shade afforded them by the eyesockets, which make them appear to glow and pop out unrealistically.
Sure, these bits and pieces might be refined, but you need to be paying more attention to everything that is NOT a feature, the overall form, the overall light. Pay attention, for example, to the area between the bottom of the nose and the top of the lip- the light would indicate that a shadow from the nose would be cast over part of that area. Where is it? Everything has to work and make sense together, not just the parts you decide to take particular interest in. If you find yourself obsessing over tiny areas, just walk back 3 or so meters from your monitor and look at it, so for a moment you can only see what's going on in the big picture.
Also, in terms of design, since this is such a humanoid kind of design in a basic sense, you run the risk of things becoming ambiguous as to what is intentionally non-human and what will just read as "off" to the viewer. Particularly here the design of the eyes, it becomes unclear if the circle of shade in the sockets is supposed to be shade or a discoloration of the skin, since the light on the overall form is not put forth as clearly as it might. In my example I tried to pull it back to a more 'humanish' kind of look, but this may not be what you were aiming for at all, I just had to guess which direction you were going for- and that's the problem, the viewer should never have to guess your intention when it comes to the rendering of form.
Also, short aside: I'm kind of sick of seeing all these paintings with palette splotches all over them, because it seems more often than not the artist sticks to it so damn rigorously that it starts to feel like they think sticking to their arbitrarily defined initial palette is more important than what the final product, or reality for that matter, actually friggin' looks like. It's supposed to be a TOOL, not a GOAL, guys. If something needs to be darker, don't be like "but I can't go darker my palette doesn't go that dark" or "maybe I should add a darker palette splotch", JUST PICK THE FUCKING COLOR AND DO IT ALREADY, JESUS! Who GIVES A DAMN if the color is on your palette splotch array or not, good lord.
Maybe that's not as helpful as I was hoping to be. :?
Twitter
We've been together since 24-Hour Comic Day!
Woooo!
good luck in your relationship
Wait, where do you two live?
EDIT: Man, what, I thought I edited this post!
I wanted to thank you, Bacon, for your valuable help... I don't treat the palette all that strictly, I just wanted a picture with less dramatic lighting... which, in retrospect, wasn't a good idea. And I wanted him to have normal eye sockets.
I guess I'll have to work on references more
Well, you've got a 50/50 shot at guessing.
I believe it's the one ironically blushing and lifting 'his' foot.