Seeking a mentor for creating dark sci-fi images

[Sceletor]

Hello,
my name is Moritz (or Morris in english), Im 28 years old and living in Germany, currently working on my bachelor in computer science.

My love for video and computer games has led me to the idea to create one myself, and the need for a good artist at no cost has led me to the discovery of my own passion for drawing and painting.

Im practicing penciling and coloring for some time now, and I also bought a wacom and the necessary programs to paint with it.

Whenever I have time I try to do some images for my game, but Im feeling a little bit lost at the moment and so Im searching for someone with a similar (most notably dark) painting style to guide me a little, so I can develop my skills faster.

So, if you like to share some of your knowledge, feel free to contact me, I don´t want to give a point to start from, I would be happy to learn whatever my mentor thinks is most urgent for me to learn.

[arttorney]

If you couldn't find anybody in the stickied thread about seeking a mentor, I'd suggest giving some kind of examples about what you consider dark science fiction.

Are you more interested in "noir anti-hero goes around having a series of life threatening adventures" or "group of hapless people trapped in an enclosed space with a monster" just to name a couple of the standard plots that keep getting used over and over again.

[Sceletor]

Stickied thread about seeking a mentor?

Do you mean "Mentor thread signup" or "Mentors lounge" or one of the others?

And for your second question:
"Tough explorer corps Soldiers walking through century old ruins of cities and industry trying to regain long lost technology" would be my theme..

Im more interested in showing armys or cities than showing a hero and his adventures.
And for examples: One might say the artwork of Warhammer 40000 from Games Workshop might be an example, but I like it more technology-oriented, so maybe the movie "Chronicles of Riddick" might be something similar to what I have in mind...

[arttorney]

I meant the Mentor thread signup sheet one. If you already went through that one and can't find anybody to help, well then we are taking the next step. I'm pretty sure I am not the person to help you. Still if they know your desired direction/style somebody else might pop by who is in a better position to help.

[Sceletor]

Okay, I read the whole mentor thread now and checked most of the sketchbooks of the people there, but I didnt find what Im looking for, mainly because Im looking for someone to help me colorize, and most things in the sketchbooks are black/white (pencilwork).

So, do you have any idea who I could ask directly? Help would be greatly appreciated!

[Gundersen]

maybe you should post some images to show your skill level. So people can decide if they can teach you something.

It sounds like you want to run before you can walk atm

[Sceletor]

Well, maybe youre right, Gundersen, but as I said, Ill do whatever my mentor thinks would be best, Im not limiting this request for a mentor to a specific subject.

It would be great if my mentor could teach me coloring digitally, but if he or she thinks that I need to learn less difficult things first, its perfectly okay for me.

I included also an unfinished piece of mine to show what I can do and what not, I hope this helps all of you to get an idea of where I need to improve.

[arttorney]

For the meantime, there are forums of support and tutorials for both Photoshop and Painter near the bottom of the general forums page. In those subforums you can pick up tips for how to use those programs but not so much interaction about stylistic matters.

Most of the people who will tell you how to color will start with a discussion of values which can be taught in monochromatic mode (e.g. grayscale). I think from this example you could benefit by such discussion. If somebody helps you and they want to stay black and white for a while then bear with them. Of the three components of colorizing, value is perhaps the most important. Having some highlights on the edges leading into the light won't really make this image seem any less dark to the viewer but it will really make the three dimensionality of this image pop. The image will get much more dramatic and depending on how you handle the blending of the shadows you can ease the image in a scary direction or a more serene direction. I'm sure you would prefer to head in the scary direction, but I am just remarking about how much information can be imparted by value alone before you even get into hue and chroma.

[Sceletor]

Thank you for your remarks, arttorney!

To show you (and the others) how much I understand about value, here is another image of mine...

[arttorney]

OK. Maybe nobody will ever show up here for you, and my digital skills are not good. In those Photoshop and Painter forums you can piece together the "how" of digital coloring. At this thread: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=112049 You can hopefully find the "why" of coloring. There is an internal link in the first post that will lead you to the major tutorial.

And if you are using the Gimp I guess you need to read tutorials on the Gimp's page: http://www.gimp.org/

[Sceletor]

Heres a TRY of a painting, I cancelled it due to lack of composition, but I think it gives a hint of what kind of athmosphere I try to create...