Preserved Topic: WIP - Viking

i liked cfb's speed painting topic and i did some googling learned alot about them

so heres my chicken scratch

thirty minutes worth.. im slow so im usually only getting the feel for it at 30 min.
2hrs later..(or thereabouts i lose track of time easily)

went on working after my 30 min was up added some color fixed some bad anatomy problems with the face and the hat wasnt sitting quite right (still isnt actually)

so give me your best shot
my first WIP post not to be my last. im manic about these things sometimes and i take direction well ive been told
i wanted to illustrate the ferocity of the viking as they were raiders, and generally down right nasty dudes.


*edit: been working on this for several hours now and heres what ive come up with

its pouring rain! or it should look that way .. at this point alot has changed ive been fiddling with different brushes and layer blending its 14 layers of madly thrown together colors and highlights, tried to fix the hat and it looks better to me but still off and hes still too flat

*Optimized for Dialup surfers!

[This message has been edited by EzRa-D (edited 01-18-2003).]

Looks to me like you`ve got too many colors, too far apart (tone wise) Work on blending , smoothing. Reduce the splatter effect.
It`s easier for me to blend the shades earlier in the process, but everyone works differently. The feel is coming along nicely, but the abrupt color changes bothers me. (may be a personal thing) It does remind me of an artist I saw at a street festival in Florida. His brushes never touched the canvas. He flung paint at it from about a foot back,and it looked pretty cool, but he worked on 4x8 foot canvases.

I like the splotchyness, but the sword could do with some more detail, it looks just like a greyish smear.

thanks, ive worked with your suggestions



i reduced the splatter and sharpend the sword a bit

*edit: one more revision before bed




[This message has been edited by EzRa-D (edited 01-18-2003).]

You should listen to DB's comments.... he's spot awn. =D

Too much splatter for even an "interesting" composition. Even some splattering needs some transitional attributes.
Look at the right portion of the helmet....... you've practically dithered that thing. Nothing wrong with dropping some colours in there... but you really do need some transition and smoothing.
Colours are a great thing, but unless they flow, you're going to end up with something that would get hung on mum's refrigerator. =))

I like this piece. It's got some flavor in it... and has a lot of potential. I'm diggin' it so far.. but I'd certainly like to see it go a bit further.
As far as 'flatness' is concerned.... you've got a lot of it.... as you know.
Consider the light source...
we've got some flames in the background.... So what would that do to the figure?..... it'd drop all of his values... and start leaning towards some silhouette/shadow type grooviness.
The eyes definately have to lose their glow.... teeth too.... cause I don't think this guy would get a chance to brush, gargle, and floss everyday..... know what I mean?

For the overall composition... I'm not sure I dig where the sword is. Just doesn't feel right to me.
The little portion in the lower right corner is all blurred nastiness... what are ya doin' down there?

That's all I've got for now.
Keep on it. =)


FAQs n' Bits: Michael

thanks everybody for your replies ive taken your suggestions and worked it out more

heres where im at on this

after talking with michael on the q i decided to change the sword placement, looks a little better, im still tooling away at the face flattening the splotchy color and trying to make it more uniform ive reduced the amount of layers so its easier to work on there are two light sources one in front of him and to the left and a weaker further off light in the back and to the right so im working on highlights

im having alot of fun with this

[This message has been edited by EzRa-D (edited 01-18-2003).]

[This message has been edited by EzRa-D (edited 01-18-2003).]

I don't particularly "like" posting this sort of message...
but here goes...

I think in some respects.... you've taken a step backwards here.
I like the previous iteration in comparison to the most recent.
And here's why...
1. Composition. It was much more intriguing with the viking face right up on us. Now it's set back further to probably better work on the image and view it as a whole, as well as incorperate that other light source, but the other crop job was more appealing to me.

2. Technique. Although there were a lot of colours.... it wasn't fuzzy like the more recent iteration is. Have you been using soft brushes? When you post up your next bits, tell us what sort of brushes you're using.... what opacities.. and what sizes if you don't mind. I'm curious.

3. Non-focal Elements. The sword, once again. While we did have that discussion on Q about the sword.... I feel like you've gone in the wrong direction with it. It's in a really awkward position now. The only way I can really see him holding this, is if he's walking towards the right of the canvas... and he's looking to his right, which is directly at us. Very weird.
A quick suggestion: save you work... and then shrink it down 50% or so..... then increase the canvas size, and sketch in his upper body and arms. This will allow you too see what will work for sword placement, and you can make adjustments from there.... and then thump it back in at normal size.



FAQs n' Bits: Michael

nothing wrong with that message though its not what id like to hear, in fact you didnt touch on alot of things that i thought were way off, the colors where just not working too many, too much ahhh, then i came to the asylum and read some posts dl posted something that helped me understand something, a question asked by amerasu about painting techniques, hard brushes and different modes and transparencies.. you know i think he may be on to something there

you ask what brushes and what transparencies i used well i was all accross the board using different brushes but i didnt fully understand that you could also change the mode and transparency of the brush so every brush was 100% and i would try to use the smudge tool (*ducks) and it just came out all crappy and fuzzy as you noticed. Then i kept getting confused by the amount of layers (because of course im too lazy to name them) and where i had put what higlights and strokes ... fuckn nightmare..

enter enlightenment...
too lazy for thumbs sorrily
so i first i did what you proposed regarding the sketch of the arm and sword placement
Sword Placement

at this point i realized you were right.
the composition was wierd .. to say the least, anyway long story short i took the above crappy sketch and salvaged some parts of the face, namely the eyes and some parts of the nose, using DL-44's techniques i redid the face
The Face
an interesting note here is that i also used a technique i learned from DG's water droplets tutorial and steves pen tut.. Man masks are great!!

So im feeling pretty good about the face taking little steps at a time sketched in a little hair and a beard
Teddy Kazinsky Viking
this look displeases me on to the next one
Bald Chief Viking
and a possible stance for him, i thought in light of recent events id put a pint in his hand rather than a sword
Have a Beer!

this will be in progress for awhile im thinking of adding a background as well, perhaps a tavern

so comments and fish slappings always welcome fire away

quote:

---

...of the brush so every brush was 100% and i would try to use the smudge tool (*ducks) and ...

---

*throws blunt object in your general direction*


Great job man..... really...
wonderful. People could take a tip or two about learning from this thread....
.... lovin' it... lovin' it... lovin' it..

I don't have much to add at this point...
I think you're headed in a solid direction... Keep at it.

=)


FAQs n' Bits: Michael

Oh, I just love the one with the beer in his hand! That one is great! I think they did more drinking than fighting, heh heh!


There are so many viking graves here where I live. They even say that there's a viking king burried near our church with his large viking ship. So last summer I read an interview with a man and a woman from my town who had red hair, and the man said that tourists always wanted to have their picture taken with him. He couldn't understand why until he heard one guy call him viking, lol! He reminded them of one since he was a large man with long red hair and beard.

i don't like his expression.. in a story sense, he would be the character that's about to be chopped off in two by someone with a better drawn expression. That's all i could come up with, lol