Preserved Topic: So I'm Painting.... (Page 1 of 1)

...when I think "Damn, I need some perspective on this." Yet I never think of posting WIP (works in progress) in the Asylum. Nope, I post them elsewhere, or check out ICQ for an opinion I trust.


That can't speak too highly of a place where I've wanted digital painting to become more mainstreamed.

So with that (and probably just for Jamie, Andre, Michael, Izzy and Weadz) we'll play the WIP game and see WTF I'm working on.




With the lineart of the lovely and talented Briareos as the base, this is becoming a greyscale nightmare, soon to be a fully coloured nightmare. Ahhh joy!

Lineart reference::




Peter

You do that lineart great justice

Did you sketch out the line art and then upload it to PS? Or was that PS generated line art? Looks more like PS line art but I could be wrong...

Uhhh.... Ok I don't want to hurt anyone/anything... And I know I am not the people listed above... But I'll just uhh, critique anyway... ~Holds Breath~ Weew....

Ok, at first when I saw the lovely blue painted archer, I was gawking in fear (and I mean fear). I thought omg, that has to be the best computer painted image I have ever seen... Then I went to the link you proposed and soiled myself! Anyway, it's lovely truly amazing and I'll bet you'll have nothing but good results from this.

Now for the critiqing...

Ok I don't know how much time you put into this (looks like a shit-load of hours but knowing your talent, I could be way off), but it has plenty of room for improvement! I'll start off with the archer... Over-all her painted body looks a tad, too smooth mind me. It would look much more efficient if you added some realistic texture. The archers? forehead is a little opposite of what I just said, it's a little more stroked upon as opposed to reflective light cast upon her gaze. Now that I think of it, if you're going for impressionism, ignore everything I just said . Although you might ignore it anyway...

Ok the backround... It looks very admirable. You added depth in such a way that its? eye candy and my perceptive way of interpretation just want to drool at it all damn day. The grass... This ties into how ever much time u put into this, I think the grass looks a tad bit lacquered and not naturally textured. I would love to see your airbrushing skills go a long way in making smooth/rigid strokes and patches of grass, much like nimraws? and shiizs? ps pong match.

Wow, awesome. Great luck , and don?t kill me.



_____________________
Prying open my third eye.

~shakes head~

quote:

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With the lineart of the lovely and talented Briareos as the base

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Honestly, DG didn't write alot for someone to lose information in a mass of text.

~nods to dg shaking head and sighs~

i thought i might try

can I benefit from this lesson too Pete? I paint some. Guess which finger I'm holding up? :P

the only bugs I would pick at right now would be the 'thickness' of her main garment, looks almost like it was fashioned from modeling clay; and the light source is a little off and not real distinct, this could be since she's under a canopy of trees, or cuz it's wip or or or. But the light on the outside of her right arm looks very inconsistent with the rest of the above left source (which would be eminating from what? a tree?).

really cool so far I think, I envy your abilities to make up what is not there to begin with.

Jason

Peter, this is nice. This is very nice. <continued praise>

With that out of the way, lets get down to brass tacks. The realism on the elf is great. The realism on the closest tree is great. The background looks like plastic wrap. I really want to see more glow from the spaces in the trees in the center. I'd love to see it beam out into more of it. Fuck realism here - I want drama. Give me some more motion in her, too. She's standing there, and that's great, and all, but she's not saying anything to me except "what's HER problem? (spoken like a true queen)"

Her clothes annoy me a little bit. I imagine you're trying to go for a leather feel (as the style is leather-like), but it's too shiny. I think you should dull it down some, darken it, and give it some wear.

That's all I can think of now, puddin'

s t e p h e n

Darn that's a nice picci...

I'm glad you?re sharing your WIP, I too would like see more of threads like this around these parts. For all it's worth, I'll dump my thoughts on the table...

I'm assuming your still working on the background however, where the stream runs down the middle and hits the bottom of the frame it appears to wide. It looks as if her right leg would be in the stream itself.

About that right leg, it appears a little too thick to me. Maybe it's the light or maybe it's the line drawing. Although when compared to the thickness of her waist, upper arms and her left leg it looks a little fat to me.

The shading on the elf itself is very nice. Although, it seems as if she is all made out of the same kind of material -- hitting the same high tones and low tones regardless of the material. I'm also still seeing a lot of the outlines from the line drawing in there which seem to be flattening it out a bit -- mostly around the outside of her right arm and along the right side of chest and waist.

The face is bugging me a bit too. She looks like she's pouting, at least compared to the rather neutral facial expression of line art.

Well, that's my amateur opinion in any event. I hope it helped in some way and I hope you share more of your WIP here in the future. I just can't wait to see this when it's finished!

[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 09-10-2002).]

Looks great man. I agree with all that twitch had to say, the only other thing I had a problem with are the two locks of hair that fall in front of her face and hang in front of her upper chest. It seems to me that those locks should come to rest against her chest. Right now they look like they're just suspended in the air and in the absence of lots of hairspray or orc-grease that would seem unlikely to me.

The facial expression is bugging me as well.
Coming off like she's demure in serious need some of lingerie.
No stern sense of reality or survival, even mildly.

lovely, way beyond anything i can do!

i disagree on her right leg looking too big. it's poised at an angle and the musculature does look different from that angle.
the detail that got my attention was her right hand. the fingers wrapped around the bow look odd - i tried holding a few objects and the middle finger always extended beyond the index finger when the thumb was positioned like the one in the pic.
also the right breast looks bigger than the left one..

thanks for posting your wip, it's a pleasure to see your work

[edit- fixed spacing]

[This message has been edited by velvetrose (edited 09-10-2002).]

Before I knew that it was a drawing of a person put on top of a background, it looked to me like a drawing of a person put on top of a background.

The problem is that the perspective doesn't really match up. In the picture of the girl, you're looking straight on at her. In the background, you're looking at a slight angle downwards. You can see this because the horizon is near the top of the picture and by the bottom of the picture you're looking entirely at the path just in front of you. It might be too late to change now, but that's the main flaw I see. So it looks like a 2d sprite of a girl in front of a nice background. Though it's bound to look like that at least a little bit, since she doesn't interact with the environment at all; her feet can't be seen on the ground, for instance. There's too much of a separation between foreground and background here.

I agree there is a good deal of seperation between background/foreground, but that is easily explained by the fact that the foreground has obviously been worked on far more than the background.

I disagree very much about the angle/perspective though Slime. You seem to be assuming that everything is on a flat plane - which I notice that people who work a lot in 3D programs tend to do a lot .


Now, presonally, I like the thickness of the leather - it's one of the things that made me like the picture. It's not unthinkable for it to be so thick....it's armor after all.

I would very much like to see the way the color gets worked into this before commenting on the lighting - it is a bit vague and scattered, but as JK said that can be explained by the trees overhead.

So...just get cracking on the background and get some color worked in....and we can all be a lot happier

Drac: Not a stream....a path. I knew that one would come up though. It'll darken down and get a "grassy" feel as the background gets worked. Good eye Drac...and thanks.

JK: Uh...pinkie finger? Yeah...that's it. heh. Bang on with the canopy of leaves. I'll try and bring up the visual of that when I hit the colour stage. Thanks man.

Stephen: Aren't you a developer?

hehehehe

The "skirt" is rapidly becoming chainmail, and the texturing should soften the flow of the fabric a bit at least...hopefully. As for the background, yep, yep, and yep. I want that spooky/fantasy glow going on with that tense feeling of watchers in the trees. We'll see if my lazy ass manages it. The background is about two hours behind the figure right now...and she's probably got a good hour or so left before colour, so it's in for some overhauls.

Krets: Touching her chest eh? You're staring at her tits, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?!? sick bastard.

~cough~

warjournal: The passivity of the original lineart isn't doing it for me, so I'm playing with her expression. I want a certain innocence so it becomes a draw....she's dangerous. We know she's dangerous. She doesn't need the trademarked scowl and drool to communicate that I'd hope. I'm reviewing it though, maybe sharpening her angles a bit. Thanks.

Slime: Jamie nailed this one. My background isn't a flat plane, it has a rise to the hills in the back. That should come out more when I can play with the lighting in the bg more. I agree that the separation is there, but a big reason for that is the existence of the linework on her that's lacking in the bg right now. I'm leaving her linework in. I'm quite fond of the thick outline of it. So I'll be integrating that "dark line" feel into the trees, shrubs, and grasses. That should make it a bit more cohesive.

A big thank you here, as I'm now thinking of pulling some shrubbery up into the foreground for a bit of interaction. Just a branch across her arm, or leaves right overhead. We'll see. As for it being a "pic on a background", well, the lineart existed, yeah, but the background and foreground were painted at the same time. I roughed out the outline of her, and then roughed in the bg too. Basically they progressed together, until I started getting to details...then I left the background and worked on just her...that's where the big schism is.

Jamie: cracking right now.



Thanks guys, hopefully there will be progress shots soon...and new threads from you folks too.


Peter

I really have nothing to add at this pont, exept a thanks.

As far as her, she looks like she is falling over backwards. Kind of tipping to the side.

Really want to see more progressions on this one. yum.

                                                           

quote:

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I'm now thinking of pulling some shrubbery up into the foreground.

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BRING ME A SHRUBBERY!

And when you do, set it aside this one only slightly higher creating a two level effect with a little path running down the middle <chanting>A PATH! A PATH!</chanting>.

Ok?

Oh and one that looks nice!

Oh and not too expensive!

NOW GO!


_____________________
Prying open my third eye.

Well now I'm going to give you my sophisticated review:

Hrmmm... *cleans throat* Lala lalalaaaa *Prepared to speak loudly*
Man she is HOOOOOOT! *WOOF* *WOOF* *WOOF*

Edit:: *WOOOOOOOF*

[This message has been edited by OlssonE (edited 09-10-2002).]

Looks really great.

I think you might enjoy looking at some of Hawkprey's work as reference. He's got a great line art and shading style that you might be able to learn from.
http://www.hawkprey.com

Actually I know of James' work. He does some great design. As stated, this wasn't my lineart though. I have a distinctly different style.

Thanks for the link anyway. He has great work that the other inmates might appreciate.


[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 09-10-2002).]

That's cool.. where have you seen his work before?


A small mind is a tidy mind.

I didn't jump on this thread quickly, so I'll keep my comments short, and mebbe expand with my opinion on progressive images.

First off, I think it's looking pretty well at this stage.
<fill this area with comments about the bg not being fleshed out.... and also noting that this is an early stage... and you've not gotten to it yet>
She's not promoting the "dangerous" feel you spoke of. I see the route you're trying to go with her expression, and it's just *not quite* happenin'.
Hmm..... ya see how her left eye has that subtle closure, and her right eye is fully open.......... I'd like to see how it'd play out if they were switched. Somehow it seems like that would convey a better message.......... tough to tell, of course... just my opinion.
I *have* to add that the "leather" of her main garment looks absolutely fabulous from where I sit. Really.... .. ..*bravo*.. .. love it.
It looks thick.... it "feels" thick.... I *want* it to be thick.......... yep... good stuff there.

One last thing I'd like to note.........
She may be an archer.... and I realize you didn't make the sketch........
But that bitch needs a dagger.

Cheers man...
good stuff........ i hope you found some use of this chatter.............
and i hope this starts a bit of a WIP trend around here.

one other thing... is she looking up??? I cant really tell... she looks like she is facing down a tad but looking up.

what happened with this?