myart

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

Please take a look! I REALLY want to be an awesome artist so constructive criticism as well as encouragement are welcome. I'm going to get into the habit of posting, so hopefully there's more to come!

[elwghee]

The head on the figure in the first one looks a bit large. Good start though, post more .

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

yeah now that you mention it, it kinda does.
more stuff....

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

[attach=config]1605987[/attac

please critique!! I must improve!!!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

I posted these in no real order older junkier pics with (hopefully) newer better stuff. Before I start to use textures and photos and such I want to be able to paint well without those and so I haven't for 99 percent of the time.( although for the tower pic i started with a photo and the shield idea i used a texture). I haven't anything against those of course, and someday hope to use them well!

[Fungus]

Wow, such a volume of quality work. Your digital paintings seem a little bit fuzzy, pay close attention to your lines (that is when where one colored surface meets the next). I can't tell how you work from the finished products, but I would suspect you use mostly smaller brushes? Try starting a piece with a large brush to block in the general shapes, and only when you're satisfied with that start working with progressively smaller brushes. Looking forward to more!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

Thank you sir! I'm not sure how to address the fuzziness factor. It's been bothering me for a while. I usually start off with larger brushes in the rough(I might want to consider that more tho in my work process, I'll definitely think hard on that) I've been considering edge control and brush handling (stroke visibility or whatever you wanna call it) a lot lately (I'd really like to get a bit of a painterly feel into my art), I've been trying for something loose that still reads really well, but I'm quite a ways off of that! But I'll get it eventually! My work process started off really haphazard and I've been slowly improving it over the last couple of years.

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

[Streben]

I like the colors in that pic of the castle, i´m not really in the position to give advice but anyways, i think you could overcome the "fuzziness" of your picture if you put more contrast into them. I learned from observing the pics of the masters on here, that they give their pictures alot more depth by starting out on a pretty dark background and gradually adding lights. Maybe put the right half of the castle, or basically everything that´s near the observer in an almost black environment, just my 2 cents.

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

I've been reading up on composition lately. In that last post, with the castle I tried an L shaped composition. This one was more self-forming. I think, perhaps,that perspective heavy drawings with a visible vanishing point lead the eye into the picture nicely. if you have an opinion on composition in perspective based drawings I'd appreciate your insight. Critiques and comments, as always, are very appreciated!

[akildee]

I'm not sure if you're doing this on paper in digital, but either way you need to establish exact lines for your vanishing points. Just draw a bunch of straight lines from your vanishing points across your image and use them as guides. If this is in photoshop, use the line tool. If this is traditional use a ruler to establish the perspective, then sketch freehand using your whole arm to layout the basic form. That way you'll get nice fluid lines. Right now all the lines are going to different vanishing points. I think this one change will make a huge difference in your work. Good luck!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

i did use a grid, with a 3 point perspective. the 3rd point being below the horizon. It seems to mesh fairly well, but i was a bit sloppy. I'll be more conscious of this in the future though. And I definitely do want to improve my digital line work! Thanks for the comment!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

This is the perspective grid i was using for this drawing. The blue line is the horizon
I really tried analyzing this to see my mistakes, there WERE a bunch of really wonky areas. I tried fixing them. I cropped it a bit,threw a bit of color on it, and straightened out the horizon, but my eye has gone blind to the remaining mistakes I think. Heh point em out if you want!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

A bunch of thumbnails working on composition.

[Clu]

I'm pretty terrible with landscapes/backgrounds/environments, but I think maybe, to work on the "fuzziness" you can try to be more clear about where your edges are. Sometimes places where there should be clear definition (obviously not in places further back or forward where it's supposed to be less defined/blurred) are not separated from the background with as much confidence as they should be. Also, on some surfaces, you seem to use some diffused patches of different color where it's not really necessary. Try to make smooth areas more smooth and blended and areas with texture more sharp maybe? After you've established where things are with a kind of blurry/textured brush, try using some hard brushes to really make it clear. Same for your people. And for people, try to avoid reflecting things over. Even though our bodies are pretty symmetrical, usually it's hard to make a realistic looking body/face when you just have something mirrored over. Try to just be more aware of proportions.

Also, even though some of these are pretty quick sketches, there are some white spots showing through that make them feel more...amateurish? I guess. It's mostly on the borders between different things (for example around a lot of your grass parts). Maybe try filling the background in with some other solid color so you don't have white where you don't want it.

Anyways, I really like where you're going with all your stuff so don't stop

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

Some metal studies and a crappy sphere too lol.

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

some thumbs for an illustration idea and a rough comp. a spaceship, some mucking about with ellipses in conic sections, and a speedpaint

[Heyriel]

I'd say you're still going into detail too quickly with the colored stuff -eg in the last there are light scribbles on the patth, which is really not necessary. If you think logically and consider the distance (lack of detail, lack of shadow, lack of saturation) you wouldn't see any texture on that road. (And, this is just a guess, but could it be that you used the smudging tool in the previous paintings? That would explain the fuzzyness.)
Otherwise good work so far, keep working! c:

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

A study from a concept artist pic(not sure who)

A study from a photo

I'm trying to work out what Harold speed was talking about when he wrote about the beauty of simple tone values in a painting. But I also like detailed realistic paintings. I really need to figure out this balance!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

a speed paint and a study of a photo with a little creativity added.

a couple of studies of shadow construction

[akildee]

Sorry, I'm so busy at the studio I missed your reply. In the case of the environment we were talking about before, if you want this to be a finished painting, use the line tool in photoshop or use shift click with a round brush to get straight lines. If this were a real painting, you would need artist tape and a ruler. Same thing for digital. Get a the digital ruler out and make some crisp lines. We all have to work on our freehand drawing, and thats fine for rough sketches and thumbnails, but when you want to make a real painting and a line is supposed to be straight, make it a 100 percent straight. Especially when the environment is technical and futuristic looking. I like the corrections you made though. However, a 3 point perspective futuristic painting with a tilted horizon line is tough, even for professionals. Actually it really doesn't get much tougher than that because of all of the lens distortion! But anyway just try to do 2 point perspective environments for a while. After you get really comfortable than slowly move up to the really tricky stuff. Plus you only us a tilted horizon line on shots where you want the viewer to feel off balance. Like they are being tossed, or hit, or thrown in a vortex. A simple shot of a futuristic environment where people are just walking on walk ways doesn't need a tilted horizon. It just confuses the viewer. Anyway just my two cents. Keep up the good work man, and I'll try keep up with my responses. Cheers!

[akildee]

Oh and one more thing,(I just saw the pic with the ellipses) make sure that the degree of the ellipse goes down as it comes towards the viewer, and up as it goes away from the viewer. Thats why that cylinder construction looks a bit squashed. Scott Robertson explains it best: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/trogu/420/re.../ellipses.html

[Morkai]

Wow, you have a lot of raw talent going on, I love how you work with colors in your painting, and you achieve some nice textures. The perspective piece cleaned up really well, (the one you re-worked with the perspective grid overlay) but I'll just reiterate the comment before me: use whatever tools it takes to achieve the results your painting needs. I abuse ellipse guides and french curves all over the place, partially because my arm and tablet just don't let me get that accurate, but also because it's quick and makes for a clean result. I'm blown away by how much effort and time you're putting in to reach your goal, keep at it, you're creating some really killer stuff already!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

@akildee:I've had this aversion to using the line tool and the shift click method of getting straight lines for a while, i kinda felt like it was cheating. but ive been working on it lately. And ive been spending about 20 to 30 min a night working on freehand lines and circles/ellipses cube construction for the last couple of weeks on newsprint. but yeah, thats all really good advice. Hah, I've always made things way more complicated than they need to be. Anyway thanks for the advice!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

@morkai: thank you very much! lol I really wouldn't call it raw talent tho. I've been drawing with pencil for a long time copying things, and done a bit of digital painting for about four years. But drawing/painting from your imagination is a whole different monster! About a year and a half ago I decided I'd get serious tho and spend anywhere from 2 to 7 hours a day doing some sort of art, hah, unfortunately I seem to learn only about half as fast as most people so the only way I'm gonna get good is with sheer willpower and puttin in some crazy hours! Which I WILL do heh!

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

A few roughs for Sinix's sunken city challenge, hah the top one has a horrible tangent in it.

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

Some roughs, a study, and some silhouette work.

[xxshadowedsoulxx]

a speed paint and a study from a movie still

[akildee]

Those last 2 are working pretty well actually for speed paintings. I think another 10 minutes into the one from the movie still would be worth it. Just adding some quick detailed edge work would make it really nice without too much effort. As for the "cheating" with the line tools and ellipse guides, just remember not to use those things while you sketch. Keep the forearm loose and try to hit your lines. But AFTER the sketching phase all bets are off! Feel free to tighten up as much as you want or use any tool that will give you the best result. I feel like the best paintings kind of show a bit of the history of the initial sketches and design. But the line you want to read should be the cleanest and the darkest. Nice job this week dude.