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At 1/19/15 06:22 PM, LurkinMcClerkin wrote: Photoshop is a pixel based program, but unless you are working with really thick brushes or your DPI was very low. Most new files in Photoshop start at about 72 Dpi so if you want your lines to be alot smoother, then you should work between 300-600 (higher the dpi the higher the file size).

To expand upon this. DPI stands for "Dots per inch" and refers to how close the "pixels" will be when printing it. Another way to more directly change the canvas size is to press the unit of measure (cm, mm, inches), and change it to pixels. Personally I generally start working at 1400 x 1000px, and scale up as I go. You can scale up with "image > canvas size", or "image > image size", or alternatively use the crop tool to expand your canvas.

As for starting out with digital painting? I'd suggest studying the properties of light, internalize using perspective, and plenty of figure drawing. There's so many free resources out there so I'd just start by looking at what you wanna focus on and what way of practicing it you think will be most efficient!

At 1/27/15 07:49 AM, 123mine123 wrote: A few changes. Thanks Legolass.

Parallell lines converge to the same point on the horizon - use the symmetry of the face to create landmarks to aid you in nailing perspective! I've drawn lines between some of those landmarks - Some of these aren't always going to be parallell (ears, shoulders), but in this case it seems they should align.

I find that starting out by mapping perfect perspective creates very stiff and dead figures, so I personally I think the best aproach is to start out eyeballing it and then warp and fix and push pixels untill it makes sense. Flipping the canvas is usually very helpful here.

Hey man, that's exciting news!
What are you up to these days anyway?

At 1/26/15 02:32 AM, 123mine123 wrote: Ehh..

In retrospective - it's almost always after frustrating periods I found I improved the most. To counter the stagnant feeling, try breaking the pattern and doing completely different approaches, or different ways of practice entirely.

One example would be to try to capture the energy, completely disregarding the actual physical figure - the swoosh of the arm, the curve of the leg and the bend of the hand. Try to feel where the body is pushing out and capture that in simple strokes. The result might not actually look anything like a person but that doesn't matter - the abstraction is the focus and you can later apply the idea of abstract energy to anything!

Another aproach could be to change exercise entirely - get a spotlight and a mirror and do a self portrait with a controlled light source - maybe you can do skeletal studies, or technical anatomical studies - perhaps work on line weight and mark making - maybe do some colour studies - or maybe there are live figure drawing classes in your area?

At 1/24/15 01:28 AM, 123mine123 wrote: stuff. failing. i think. aoienfbosjew bgf

Far from it! Each failure is one less frustration towards being just that much better! Keep up the pace, it's paying off great!

At 1/24/15 01:28 AM, 123mine123 wrote: Also, entrance exam for the college im going to is tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Gonna take BFA Major in Painting.

Go for it! I have no doubt you'll get in!

At 1/23/15 05:07 PM, Havegum wrote:

Also some gestures

At 1/22/15 05:32 PM, Havegum wrote: Thanks! It got a bit weaker as I was working on it - I'll work more on getting the colours I want tomorrow ..

Still not quite there, but at least not so muddy. Also changed the weather around to make the sparks pop more, though I think that still needs some work pushing it even further.

At 1/22/15 07:17 AM, Luis wrote: I really like the shading and colors on the upper left in that drawing of that semi humanoid WIP

Thanks! It got a bit weaker as I was working on it - I'll work more on getting the colours I want tomorrow ..

What's the context for having to form an outline of an anvil with assorted fruits? Maybe you could tweak the game mechanics slightly to allow for solid shapes.

At 1/21/15 06:48 PM, LurkinMcClerkin wrote: Do you often use that color range bar? Or is the color picker your default choice?

This would be the first time, though it's only really there as a quick note to myself for when I come back to it tomorrow. It's just a basic gamut mask sort of deal and I usually just do that with the colour picker on the go.

WIP for COW 4 which theme was "Electric"
Very humanoid, but I didn't like any of the other ideas I had.

At 1/21/15 08:55 AM, Luis wrote: be obvservant of when limbs are 'locked'. When arms / legs lock, they tend to not lock in a perfect straight line, but rather bend a bit in an unusual manner. So like elbows/knees start bending inward or what not, even though we tend to be hard-wired to have that sort of thing 'look wrong' when you draw it on paper.

Thanks for the feedback - I'll try to be more aware of that in the future!

At 1/20/15 05:29 PM, Havegum wrote: Here's an embarrassingly weak study

In contrast I like todays gestures

Back from that - thanks for a great time @luis and @rucklo!

--

Here's an embarrassingly weak study

At 1/14/15 05:45 PM, inkveins wrote: Awesome gestures, btw! Great flow.

Thanks!

-

Here's today - probably won't get any more done until Tuesday

At 1/14/15 02:38 PM, inkveins wrote: It's all subjective obviously, but I feel like hard edged brushes gives realistic painting styles a lot more character. Stjepan Sejic is a pretty good example, that dude is a machine.

That guys work is totally rad! thanks for sharing!

Anyway here's todays gestures

At 1/14/15 12:30 AM, inkveins wrote: You use your digital brushes really well! Great texture.

Thanks! Personally I think it always turns out too rough and messy - I think I need to work on cleaner strokes in all steps of the process ..

Here's another COW - One-eyed pearl hunter

I believe some stream services have the option of dowloading your recorded sessions. If you have some sort of video editing software you can speed it up with that!

Park bench
Lamp post
Fence
Hot dog stand?

Just so you know the forum isn't empty! I'm keeping up with the thread but I don't have anything useful to say

Regardless, I'll say I'm envious of your lovely anatomy and colours! Do you have any fun ways or resources to study either of those you could share?

Guess what?
POSES

COW #2
The danger of the woods

Here's another selfie

Here's some of that acrylic stuff + bonus charcoal

Your sketching looks really solid!
Do you have any more refined studies or projects to share?

I'm still drawing but I'm experimenting a bit with traditional stuff. I'm aiming to have some acrylic work popping up here every now and again throughout the year!

Here's something from today. I'm trying out a different approach to colour. It's a WIP of the first Character of the Week challenge, Behorned Ice-eater!

Your biggest challenge will be the competition. From what I understand there are very few jobs and a lot of interested candidates. Note how concept artists and animators are ridiculously good artists - that's your competition and you need to match or top that to get in on the action. Studying animation can be ridiculously expensive, the cost of a four year education at RISD is $245,816. As way of comparison, the cost of a diploma from Harvard Law School is a mere $236,100. On top of that there's no guarantee in getting a job just by having a degree on the subject. Worst case scenario you end up with a ton of debt and no job.

If you have a burning desire to capture the interaction of light, form, and motion then you probably won't be swayed by my input, but if you're having doubts I recommend you check out safer alternatives. You can always have animation as a hobby.

At 12/30/14 01:32 AM, LurkinMcClerkin wrote: Trying to make my paintings look not as smooth, a little more work :)

I spy with my little eye ...
.. Stronger values!

I definitely see a bunch of improvement already! Keep doing those studies they are definitely paying off!

As for darker .png files I believe it has to do with mismatching colour profiles. I don't know how to solve it but it only happens occasionally for me.

At 12/29/14 02:59 AM, JPversus wrote: Listened to the podcast where CM Punk explained why he left WWE.
Liked him when I started watching wrestling again.
Drew this kind of as a tribute and he always has the best facial expressions.
Done with blue colored pencil.

This portrait sticks out in my opinion in that it shows a stronger understanding of light and values. Try adopting that value control in your other works as well!

Seeing as you draw a lot of characters, I'd recommend doing some deeper anatomy studies as well as drapery studies. With studies like those you will have a strong fundament for learning about the complex form of the human figure, as well as how light catches those forms.

Hey! I just want to say that drawing is essentially projecting a 3D world onto a 2D canvas. In order to draw accurate lineart and shading you need to understand the form and volume of what you're drawing! A line is no longer just a line, but a specific stroke that marks the shifting and turning of forms in 3D space!

Studying form and colour from the real world is probably the most common and efficient way of practising this, but whatever works for you is fine - just try to keep in mind that in order to make your illustrations believable, they need to make sense in 3D!