Scribbles, sketches, and WIPs

hehehe 8)
(well, the more different techniques you experiment with, the sooner you'll hit on the one that's just right for you!)

new wip of the cuddly pic:

added more light effects because I wasn't happy with the palette... I don't like making art with normal lighting. xD;; (I TRIED I SWEAR)

(here's a bonus angry troll)

Mlen, that's a neat character! Sounds like a fun project.

I've been reading through this discussion and it's interesting to me. It reminds me of a problem I've been having with my own art. Whenever I go to clean up a piece and colour it, it seems like my sketches always lose something. Er, not even just "something", but a major part of the feel of the piece. It's hard to explain. But it seems I can never recapture that feel of the original sketch in the final piece. This is one of my major frustrations and part of the reason I haven't finished a piece in forever.

I had actually been considering maybe leaving some of the sketchiness in there. But I wasn't sure how that would go over, if it would still feel like a "finished" piece or not... anyway, reading your discussion makes me tempted to actually give this a try. Maybe having super crisp clean finished work just isn't for me. x.x

Honestly I think super-clean art is a lot harder to pull off well. xD;; Some people can do it and make it look good but I don't see it very often... and I know it's definitely not for me either. (I've noticed that many artists actually seem to move away from that as they improve... then the challenge becomes how you manage to incorporate detail into the rougher style.)

Dusk- *twitch* I'm sorry but I...just love grumpy characters. I know I am supposed to be focusing on the sweet image of a child being held with the well designed characters but... *fangirls and hugs your troll* He's so cute.

I think the other piece looks great with that lighting, it fits the piece well. Interesting lighting usually works well in artwork. Plus I love cool colors so... A+

Kynale- New Kynale art? Yes please! Your art is often adorable. Just leave the sketch in there and draw on top of it/under it. You don't have to throw anything away unless you want to. If you refine what you have enough it ceases to be a sketch and becomes a piece in its own right.

haha, understandable xD his grumpy frowny face is so fun to draw! (he's a character from homestuck, incidentally-- I forgot no one on this forum reads it and didn't say anything xD;;; )

more messing around...

MAKING WIPS FASTER THAN I CAN FINISH THEM U:<
(that character is the same as the derpy firebreathing one in my icon xDD )

.......I should just do my homework already. 8'C

Mashimizu wrote:

Your art is cute Mlen. You're working on a video game project in class? That sounds interesting/fun. Sorry you're stressed.

Comes with finals, I suppose... XD

And thank you~ Yep. My major focuses on video games and digital work.
Looking at all these pretty WIPs makes me wanna experiment more~~ (Not now, but when I have more free time~)

Dusk: Beautiful WIPs! And yes, I suppose both methods come with their own challenges. But you make a good point.

Mashi: Aw thanks, I appreciate it. And that's probably good advice and something I will try. Can't wait to actually have some time to draw again and play around. About 10 more days til my break...

still working on this one too! I'm.... actually starting to enjoy digital painting???
(wiiiiiing poooorrrrrrn)

Unngghhhh just doodled this up for Dusk (of Tenziel):

heeheee I like this a lot! <3

ummm I haven't worked on/scanned anything new since the last comment... xD;;; here's an older doodle instead?

(dude with tail is a mad scientist inventor; lady is a witch!)

Just a doodle to see if my markers are completely dead or not.

You're starting to enjoy digital painting? Welcome to the dark side Dusk. It's very warm and friendly here. I like your character designs in general. They're pretty. It makes me want to go read your stories. <3

And varethane...you're amazing. I have nothing else to add.

dflsjfdkl i wish i had good stuff to post up here ;_; you guys are all amazing...

noo aaawhyme, you can post anything you want! this is the 'scribbles, sketches and wips' thread, after all. xD

I'm glad you think they're interesting, mashimizu! :'> (I couldn't get into digital for the longest time because the medium just never felt right to me, but I feel like I'm finally finding a style that works for me c: )

Agreed, feel free to post your sketches aaawhyme! Plus I've seen you have some really nice art lately on your dA.

Pretty arts everyone!

This is a mock-up done in photoshop. I've been painting my mother's white bench at her request and after showing her some different combinations to match the colors of the rest of the room this is what she decided on. I have the basic colors painted and just need to add the little murals.

woah Mashimizu, hardcore on the art! Sounds so professional ;_;

here's something I've been working on... I want to get better at painting ;_; I am going to colorize it after I've finished shading... I think that's how it works, yeah? Is that a good method?

Spoiler:

I like that piece, it's very charming.

Colorizing a black and white piece can end up a bit flat if you aren't careful. Creating an underpainting is a very traditional way to go about painting and it works with digital artwork as well. I've never actually tried it but if you look for tutorials there are definitely some out there. What program do you use?

You also always have the option of just painting right on top of the old painting.

Here are some for photoshop:

Using colorizing: http://nortagem.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Painting-Tutorial-181414467

Painting on top with colored transparent colored layers (skip to step six since the first five are photograph manipulation): http://www.digitalimagemagazine.com/blog/featured/tutorial-the-making-of-five-chicks-named-moe/

Painting with semi-transparent layers on top of a monochromatic underpainting (this one is nice for skin I think): http://thornwolf.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Underpainting-Tutorial-85364343


with a landscape, selective coloring: http://alexiuss.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-Photoshop-painting-74699956

with anime figures: http://omar-dogan.deviantart.com/art/Colouring-Tutorial-72826280

showing colorized skin: http://jinx-star.deviantart.com/art/GRAYSCALE-COLORS-262600731

more from a sketch, stylized portrait: http://juliedillon.deviantart.com/art/Mini-Painting-Tutorial-58099272

another portrait fantasy: http://zhourules.deviantart.com/art/Hud-1-Tutorial-253544423

another portrait: http://cynicalcoffee.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Under-Painting-211086630

Mashimizu wrote:

I like that piece, it's very charming.

Colorizing a black and white piece can end up a bit flat if you aren't careful. Creating an underpainting is a very traditional way to go about painting and it works with digital artwork as well. I've never actually tried it but if you look for tutorials there are definitely some out there. What program do you use?

You also always have the option of just painting right on top of the old painting.

Here are some for photoshop:

Using colorizing: http://nortagem.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Painting-Tutorial-181414467

Painting on top with colored transparent colored layers (skip to step six since the first five are photograph manipulation): http://www.digitalimagemagazine.com/blog/featured/tutorial-the-making-of-five-chicks-named-moe/

Painting with semi-transparent layers on top of a monochromatic underpainting (this one is nice for skin I think): http://thornwolf.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Underpainting-Tutorial-85364343


with a landscape, selective coloring: http://alexiuss.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-Photoshop-painting-74699956

with anime figures: http://omar-dogan.deviantart.com/art/Colouring-Tutorial-72826280

showing colorized skin: http://jinx-star.deviantart.com/art/GRAYSCALE-COLORS-262600731

more from a sketch, stylized portrait: http://juliedillon.deviantart.com/art/Mini-Painting-Tutorial-58099272

another portrait fantasy: http://zhourules.deviantart.com/art/Hud-1-Tutorial-253544423

another portrait: http://cynicalcoffee.deviantart.com/art/Digital-Under-Painting-211086630

Oh my gosh thank you so much for all the tutorials! *____* yes I use photoshop. I'll give them a try and post what it looks like next! Thank youuuu for your help!!!! <3

well, I need some advice from awesome artists

what can I do to make this picture better? - I'm currently working on making the waterfall softer, but this picture needs more umph. what should I do?

Spoiler:

hmmm... well, I assume you want a misty feel for the picture, so my usual solution might not apply. (I'm a big fan of strong light-and-dark contrast, especially in digital art where you can really push it.) But if you do want to experiment with a sharper light source, you can up the brightness behind the monster (colossus?) and put some sharper reflections in the water, deepen the shadows on the rocks and give them some highlights, more dynamic shading on its face and highlights on the edges of its fur, etc.

The main thing I'm noticing is that the texture on the rocks is too sharp for the softness of all the other shapes (ie, the edges of the rocks are more misty and blurred, which makes the texturing look too sharp-- the cliffs on the left side stand out to me most).

One thing to keep in mind is that human eyes naturally perceive the most detail right around the focal point-- your peripheral vision is less distinct. If your picture seems 'flat' it may be that your levels of detail are too similar across the entire image. Generally the sharpest and most detailed part of an image should be right around the focal point.

I've also discovered that it's really easy to over-render digital paintings. Some of my digital stuff looks really rough and sloppy at 100% zoom, but when you scale it down it looks fine. When I've tried to put a lot of detail in at 100%, most of it disappears in the scaled down version and just looks indistinct and stiff. But that's also partly personal preferenceI suppose.

/textwall
(hopefully something in there helps...????)

Duskglass wrote:

thank you so much for the detailed critique! I really appreciate it!

What if I add in some blur to the closer up rocks and such. d'you think that'll help the rocks blend in a bit more, and the colossus to stand out? If I add in some red tons to the colossus- people's eyes get drawn more to red, yes?

Well, either way, I'm going to continue to play around with it, thanks so much again for all the help!!

I'm a bit leery of blurs actually. I was referring to softening the texture while keeping the edges of the shapes themselves as they are, or even sharpening them a little.

I dunno about the red thing. It could be true? But you want to be careful not to break out of your palette too much unless you introduce a warmer/reddish light source. (And the colossi themselves tend to be greys and browns, muted earthy tones-- that isn't to say you should never break 'official' colour schemes, but in most cases you still want to maintain believable lighting and palette. It all depends on the intention behind the piece.)

If you want to try for a warmer palette, you could make it a sunset and push the shadows more-- light source behind the colossus so it's backlit, with the glowing eyes standing out in a shadowed face. (....honestly I'm really bad at more neutral lighting like you have here-- if I can find an excuse to make it crazy and dynamic I will. xD;;; )
Though either way, you have the brightest point of the picture right behind the colossus; don't be afraid to throw some sharper shadows in. With painting you don't have a lineart to provide definition, so highlight and shadow are a lot more important as a means of defining form. One trick you can do is to put the picture into greyscale; if it looks indistinct once you take away the colours then odds are using stronger light and shadow will help give it more 'umph'.

How about some atmospheric perspective?

I've been working on this forever xD
I've only been dabbling in it for a few minutes every time I remember but it's a real pain in my side because I accidentally worked realllllly small. Now when I zoom over 300% it goes super pixellated on me.

Spoiler:

I've scaled up and painted over small art on many occasions... sometimes because I made the original too small, but I've done it intentionally too!

Here's my current WIP; a submission for webcomics tarot!