Hi! I'm relatively new here, and a fairly new artist. I haven't been keeping up a whole lot with drawing, mainly because I haven't had the motivation to improve, since I rarely receive any kind of input regarding my art. I posted some stuff a while ago, but for some reason it never occurred to me to drop by the forums.
So, here I am, and here's some of my stuff!
Is this the full piece?? Also you should post other works (if you have more) in this thread as well. I appreciate your attention to detail, I'd like to see more.
Art is vast as Love is deep, Trying to Explain the two is like trying to discover everything there is about the ocean.
Sure thing, thanks for the interest! That one is the full piece, it was essentially just a doodle, so it evolved without much regard for composition.
This picture is from about the same time as the first. I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see the little knight on the bottom left, but I have a higher res version in my gallery. This piece was an attempt at drawing an actual background, since I'm severely lacking in practice with them. You can probably tell.
And this one is a bit of a different style. I figured I'd throw this in seeing as this page is starting to look a little too orange. You can see my extreme lack of background finesse here, too.
...and back to orange. I really hope it's alright to post copyrighted characters, but if not I have no qualms with removing this. This one's in the same style as the blue dragon above.
For some reason I'm having trouble finding any of my art that isn't dragons and dragony stuff.
Copyrighted characters are okay, although not encouraged for obvious reasons.
The first image of yours reminded me of something I saw while ago and thought you might find it useful - Droemar's scale tutorial
TL;Dr - you don't have to paint out every scale.
On a second note, it also has problems with a light source. The scales suggest that ther is one towards the top-left. However, for that to be true, the dragon's forehead shoul be illuminated. As it is here, his head is just evenly illuminate all over.
At 9/8/11 01:20 PM, SuperBastard wrote: Hi! I'm relatively new here, and a fairly new artist. I haven't been keeping up a whole lot with drawing, mainly because I haven't had the motivation to improve, since I rarely receive any kind of input regarding my art. I posted some stuff a while ago, but for some reason it never occurred to me to drop by the forums.
So, here I am, and here's some of my stuff!
Fire looks real. Dragon scales look very good. The eye looks like it's looking to the right like it didn't breathe fire on something. It also looks like this would be good as a dragon posing in mid air breathing fire causing mass destruction.
At 9/8/11 02:56 PM, SuperBastard wrote: Sure thing, thanks for the interest! That one is the full piece, it was essentially just a doodle, so it evolved without much regard for composition.
This picture is from about the same time as the first. I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see the little knight on the bottom left, but I have a higher res version in my gallery. This piece was an attempt at drawing an actual background, since I'm severely lacking in practice with them. You can probably tell.
The sun doesn't look like a sun. The smoke looks like a bad after effect. And the little people I think that's what it is is too small and hard to see.
At 9/8/11 02:58 PM, SuperBastard wrote: And this one is a bit of a different style. I figured I'd throw this in seeing as this page is starting to look a little too orange. You can see my extreme lack of background finesse here, too.
Nothing I can say bad and the only good think is it looks great.
At 9/8/11 03:02 PM, SuperBastard wrote: ...and back to orange. I really hope it's alright to post copyrighted characters, but if not I have no qualms with removing this. This one's in the same style as the blue dragon above.
For some reason I'm having trouble finding any of my art that isn't dragons and dragony stuff.
All I can say about this is it looks weird.
Formerly Known As J-Rex
At 9/8/11 03:14 PM, Re2deemer wrote: Copyrighted characters are okay, although not encouraged for obvious reasons.
The first image of yours reminded me of something I saw while ago and thought you might find it useful - Droemar's scale tutorial
TL;Dr - you don't have to paint out every scale.On a second note, it also has problems with a light source. The scales suggest that ther is one towards the top-left. However, for that to be true, the dragon's forehead shoul be illuminated. As it is here, his head is just evenly illuminate all over.
If I remember correctly I was trying to play off of the fiery background I had given it, and tried to imagine how so much light would reflect off the figure. I was attempting to imply that it was surrounded in flames without actually having to put flames in the foreground, but I suppose that was a failure. I'll try to use more definitive light sources in the future, thanks for the critique!
Thanks so much for all the input!
At 9/8/11 03:31 PM, J-Rex wrote:
Fire looks real. Dragon scales look very good. The eye looks like it's looking to the right like it didn't breathe fire on something. It also looks like this would be good as a dragon posing in mid air breathing fire causing mass destruction.
I suppose I was trying to imply with this that the dragon had either just finished breathing fire or that it had done so earlier.
The sun doesn't look like a sun. The smoke looks like a bad after effect. And the little people I think that's what it is is too small and hard to see.
These were a few of the main concerns I had with this piece myself. I drew the sun and smoke myself, but I suppose, especially for the smoke/clouds, that I didn't use a good brush or brush setting. There's only one person in the picture, and he's riding a horse.
Nothing I can say bad and the only good think is it looks great.
Well thanks!
All I can say about this is it looks weird.
Yeah, I was experimenting with manipulating anatomy a little bit to create more dynamic poses, this one ended up being a bit on the extreme end of that experimentation.
I really hope this post looks fine, I tried to quote only what J-rex had written in his post, but I'm not entirely sure how the quoting works on these boards and there doesn't seem to be a post preview button.
Oh, here's something that's not a dragon! My roommate last semester did a sketch of this thing, and I figured it would look neat in color, so we scanned it in and I went to work with Photoshop.
And here's some kind of zombie thing. In a sandstorm. With mouths where its eyes should be. This one was a pretty quick one, I don't recall spending much time on it.
An old self portrait from like 18 months ago...
Just lines, I didn't feel like doing anything else with this one.
Here's a pretty quick one that I did in about an hour. There are a lot of issues I have with it, but I'm not really accustomed to working quickly yet.
Ok so I have a bit of a confession to make... This is all pretty old art. I haven't drawn anything since November of last year and I made this thread hoping people would give me the drive to start being creative again, since this seems like the perfect community for it.
I'd love to start hearing a bit of feedback and get suggestions on what to practice to improve, so please give me some kind of reassurance that I'm not just posting silly old pictures in this thread for no reason! :P
Lol nice confession! but yeah everyone is feeling neglected and unloved as of late.(Sad face) with school back in session in all people tend to be very busy with that. But hmm, how about this! start a new piece and maybe we can help you from there. (by we i mean me) don't want to speak for anyone else, and from the looks of it i assume you like dragons (A LOT!).
Now about your pieces i can't really judge of where you stand now, since these are all close to a year old. i am interested in what you can do now, these pieces are good and there is not much more i can say about them because i haven't spotted anything that can use some improving.
Art is vast as Love is deep, Trying to Explain the two is like trying to discover everything there is about the ocean.
Thanks for the reply! That sounds like a really solid idea, actually, building a piece with input from you guys. I'm probably still at where I was a year ago, considering I literally haven't lifted a finger to draw anything like this since then. I do like dragons, but they're really the only thing I'm comfortable drawing, so I guess I feel stuck with them. It's not that I would prefer to draw them exclusively, it's just that I lack the ability to do much else!
I really like the lighting you and the textures you create in your work. I hope to see some of your new stuff soon. Get to it.
I'm actually working on a dragon piece at the moment I have a WIP of it in my thread. But you should try a little of some things so if someone asks can you do "this" then you can respond with a "yes I can" rather than a "no I can't ."
Art is vast as Love is deep, Trying to Explain the two is like trying to discover everything there is about the ocean.
Thanks, Sockembop!
And yeah Ramatsu, I really should. It's just tough to get out of a comfort zone like that. I'd never say "no" if someone asked me to at least try something, but it would be a lot more convenient if I was confident I could do it well!
At 9/11/11 08:44 PM, SuperBastard wrote: Thanks, Sockembop!
And yeah Ramatsu, I really should. It's just tough to get out of a comfort zone like that. I'd never say "no" if someone asked me to at least try something, but it would be a lot more convenient if I was confident I could do it well!
Well you must start somewhere. If you don't try you never learn, mistakes will happen but that's what you learn from. The greats weren't always good they started out somewhere trying things out and experimenting with new ways and techniques. It's how to adapt a new found skill but first you have to overcome that comfort zone because right now it has a major hold to your success, put it in it's place and show it who's boss! The first step is the biggest!!!!
Art is vast as Love is deep, Trying to Explain the two is like trying to discover everything there is about the ocean.
So I'm not dead, but I haven't had the chance to do any serious arting with all my classes taking up so much time. I'm working on a flash game for one right now and I figured I could at least post a picture of some of the characters.
The little black blob on the right is the player character, and the white knight-looking guy is an enemy grunt.
Any friendly advice or constructive input on the design of the characters I've posted so far? I understand they're a bit simplistic, but that should make them less complicated to critique, right?
Hey, I drew something today! It's a dinosaur :D
The thing in the lower left corner is my attempt at drawing my friend's dinosaur. He drew his alive, though.
Damn, those are some pissed off dragons. I dig it, I for one can't draw dragons wortha shit but you add so much detail into them, I can sense the hard work you put into them. My only main concern is that they all seem a little flat, try adding more depth or mre shading or something like that. Other than that keep up the great work! I can't wait to see more of these awesome firespitting dragons!
"Make art, not war." - Shepard Fairey
I have come out of lurking to say:
This thread has dragons, therefore I approve of this thread.
Unfortunately, I'm a terrible artist, so I can't really help critique, so you'll have to make due with my praise.
Audio/BBS Mod
News: Bye bye Skype - Music: Tonight Will Be The Night- Art: Kira
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Thanks for the encouragement, guys! It really does make me want to keep working at it!
gman, I'll try to get more depth in my drawings. Do you have any advice on techniques that can help with that, aside from just darkening my darks and lightening my lights? Maybe some advice on backlighting? Thanks!
At 10/26/11 10:25 AM, SuperBastard wrote: Thanks for the encouragement, guys! It really does make me want to keep working at it!
gman, I'll try to get more depth in my drawings. Do you have any advice on techniques that can help with that, aside from just darkening my darks and lightening my lights? Maybe some advice on backlighting? Thanks!
Well, I have a question. What are you using for your shadows and highlights?
Are you using the burn and dodge tools?
I find that using actual colours to shade works out better than using those tools in most cases.
Here's a painting tutorial in PS, might give you a hand with that.
At 10/26/11 10:54 AM, big-jonny-13 wrote:At 10/26/11 10:25 AM, SuperBastard wrote: Thanks for the encouragement, guys! It really does make me want to keep working at it!Well, I have a question. What are you using for your shadows and highlights?
gman, I'll try to get more depth in my drawings. Do you have any advice on techniques that can help with that, aside from just darkening my darks and lightening my lights? Maybe some advice on backlighting? Thanks!
Are you using the burn and dodge tools?
I find that using actual colours to shade works out better than using those tools in most cases.
Here's a painting tutorial in PS, might give you a hand with that.
I've been doing the shadows in grayscale and then splashing color over everything. I've tried a few different methods of coloring, but I enjoy the grayscale one the most because I'm lazy. Thanks for the tutorial though, I'll check that out and draw something according to what it says!
I use both lighter/darker colors and the the dodge and burn tools. It works out alright for me changing the exposure and opacity can help out with how dark or how light you want the highlight or shadow. Well, I am still fairly new to the whole tablet and Photoshop thing.
Art is vast as Love is deep, Trying to Explain the two is like trying to discover everything there is about the ocean.
I tried big-johnny-13's tutorial suggestion and came up with this. It's fast work, so it's not great, but I'm glad I checked the tutorial out. I plan on trying to do more stuff like this in the future.
