Frost

[Dreyra]

One of my characters, Frost.
Digital painting is new for me. I've never done it before so I hope I can learn a lot from the comments.
Critique is welcome, so I can learn how to do it better. I know the weak points in the painting (like the nails), or things that can better but I don't know how to do it better. I have to get more experience, just try try try.

[Grief]

when coloring digitally its a good idea to try to avoid using the dodge and burn tools. tint and shade are forms of value which are the addition of white or black respectively to a hue. while having a strong value range is a good thing, it gets easy to rely on purely dodging and burning to render the entire image.

use the brush tool and experiment with adding a more complex color palette. the edge quality of the brush will also add an aspect of surface texture that you arent quite achieving with the diffused value shifts.

goodluck, and dont be afraid to experiment, you have ctrl+z if all else fails.

[stoph]

establish your light source first and foremost. its spraying from all directions at the moment, but its cool, youre learning. try to steer away from the smear/smudge tool as well, as its not doing you any favors (its use sticks out like a sore thumb and is generally a no-no for entire paintings).

as Grief mentioned, use your basic round brush with varying sizes, opacities and hardness levels to get the look youre after. when painting hair and fur, its a good practice to do it in stages, and not get bogged down with a laborious (and unrewarding) strand-by-strand render.

heres a quick little gif i made up to demonstrate to you the process you'll want to use in future works.



1. block in a dark colour with a big brush.
2. decrease your brush size, randomly skim the surface with a slightly lighter colour than that of the base coat.
3. continue to decrease your brush size, and lighten your colour.
4. cut back into the mass of strokes with some shadows. be as random as you can, avoiding patterns.
5. use the dodge tool (SPARINGLY) set to highlights (around 10% will be plenty) to give a little bit more luster.

annnnd away you go!

[Dreyra]

Thanks for te comments! It will help me very well, thank you guys.

@ Grief: I think the next time I try to use more colors. When I started with drawing (I "really" started at the age of 13/14, now I'm 16) I had the same problem - I was afraid to use colors, I thought they would make my paintings not better. But then on a day I draw a couple of animals with only color (red, yellow and blue, and mix them) and now I can't draw without color. But that's with traditional materials like paint, marker and pencils.
So I think I've to go the same way like that with digital painting. So I'll try it the next time. Thanks for your comment! And yes, the holy Ctrl + z-tool (why there isn't such a thing in traditional painting - not an eraser - haha)

@ stoph: that's a good advice. I shall steer away from the smudgetool.
And thanks for the gif! That will help me very well.

Thank you both!

[egerie]

Where is your main light-source coming from? Teeth and eyes are luminescent?

(P.S.: Not trying to be a c$&# here, just asking questions you are going to be asking yourself when you get better and start a new painting )

[Dreyra]

That's a good point egerie. Just like stoph says, I will look better at the light the next time. Thanks!
And the teeth/nails are the things I didn't like the best in this drawing. But, with the help I've got I can do it the next time better I hope.