Katanasoul- Really needs help with colour...

[purb36]

the second background works pretty nicely...for the future, i would definitely recommend against black as a ground to work off of...it makes it a little richer if there's a discernible hue (like dark purple, or dark orange, or something). g'luck with the chow, dude, looks like it's coming along nicely. the way the perspective is, her far breast should be lower than the closer one...would moving the closer one up and out a little help? what think ye? take care!!!

[Lewis-Long]

Wow such lovely pencil work. I can see your problems with colour, I think it's the same as what you said to me, just a lot of still lifes under different lighting conditions. A lot rides on the drawing and values anyway so if you are painting in colour from scratch (without underdrawing or black to white values) then it's really a case of controlling the value depth with your colours remembering that a red and a yellow that are picked at the same brightness level (in photoshop using HSB colour sliders) will actually have different values when compared to each other. Maybe doing a master study would help with a colour sketch first? Trying to get the colours exact through observation? Or trying to paint colour over a grayscale (grisaille) painting so you have your values worked out first? I'm not really one to give advice about colour though haha! Keep them coming!

[BlackDelphin]

Thank you very much once again!

Now about your colour problems, i think you have more of a value-saturation issue, rather then a colour problem! That is the impression your peach still life gave me. But as a side note, it would be nice to use some purple or dark blue in your shadows, yes

I really like how you rendered this second portrait of yours and the skin tones are so nice!! Especially the highlighted area. Perhaps add a bit more purple instead of ocean blue-green to your shadow to make the skin look more healthy and alive?

And be careful dear!! Where are your proportions!! I know it's 3am but still!! Look at that ear and that forehead!! They are soo off compared to the eyes for example!! Move your finger from your ear to the middle of your face and you'll definitely hit an eye!!

About me..i have a thousand questions, and none
If you can just pay me a visit once in a while i would be more than grateful!

[Caban]

I really like your animal drawings. Really nice studies.

[geeshin]

Very nice sketch book overall! I enjoyed looking through your animal sketches as well as your pencil renders. Cross hatching FTW! Your painting seems to be coming along well. Just keep goin at it.

On a side note, the last portrait you made, I feel the eyes are a bit small. Unless that's what the person's eyes look like. Anyway, great stuff!

[Katanasoul]

Thank you all very much for you helpful advice! I´ll do my very best to become better and avoid those mistakes!

Oh my, I really should watch the clock when practicing... It´s 5 o´clock in the morning! Oo
Well... A Sargent study. A friend of mine recomented doing that, so I tried. Proportions are again a bit of, eyes too small... I should work at the day and not only watch out for colours even though it is a colour study.

[Kailaan]

That Sargent study is gorgeous. I also like you chow piece.

[drgnelf]

I really like your use of hatching and crosshatching in your pencil sketches. It adds a certain degree of confidence to your drawings.

[BlackDelphin]

Ooh my!! 5 in the morning?! That is really..did you have work afterwords, or did you have all the time in the world to sleep?
Why do we tend so much to draw at strange hours like 2.30-3, even 4.30am

Really nice study so far and i most certainly love those colours.
I hope you'll update this soon!

[Katanasoul]

@Kailaan: Thank you! I will upload the finished piece soon.

@drgnelf: Merci! I try to become more confident. Values go! go!

@BlackDelphin: I just can´t sleep in these days... I stay awake until 5am, then fall in bed and stay tired all day long. Actually, I stay at home at the moment, so that it won´t kill me, but I don´t like it. And thank you very much for your nice words!

I´m trying to work from imagination a little bit more. I have to find out what I have learned so far. ^^

A quick try if it would work at all. It lacks composition and all that stuff, but I felt more confident after doing this.


My rought colour sketch for Chow. I want to try to submit a coloured piece this time! Chaka!

[Melfey]

I love your work on colours. You should keep it on!

With your self-portrait I think you tend to draw your eyes (and maybe also your mouth?) too small. I tend to do the same mistake, because I fear to make me more beautiful on a self-portrait than I actually am. But that's stupid. It helped me to make a copy of my eyes on another layer and to transform it, experimenting with their size and comparing them with what I see in the mirror. It was then when I've been realizing my fault.

To the work from imagination: I think the highlights in her hair are a bit to bright and saturated. Try to paint those light reflections more greyish and brownish. The colours if her face are excellent. I can see Sargent in them.

[MoKhi]

The proportions on the Sargent study don't look all that off too me. I know what you mean about staying up too late when painting. It's so hard to stop.

Keep working on your colors, they're looking better and better. Do you do a lot of work with fabric and drapery? I'm just wondering if the straight and uniform effect on the dress in post 100 was intentional. Maybe you should do a study or two of fabric draping over things, or maybe a figure? I find the jist of fabric doesn't take long to pick up, but it's good to keep refreshing periodically.

[BlackDelphin]

If you are staying home right now, i think you should make the most out of it and REST!
Get yourself together, because i somehow feel your tired mood in the colours of your last two wips, especially the first one..that green back light and the tone of her skin..it just feels like they were done by a tired person lol
Although i must say they look good, and i really like the colours in the first one, but the composition is not so great..

But hey! They're wips
So i'm awaiting your next post, and i hope it will be soon !

[Katanasoul]

@Melfey: You´re so right... I feel like I tend to do the eyes too small. I believe I have small eyes, and with that in my head, I think I have to draw them smaller.
And yeah, that Sargent study helped so much! He really is one of the greatest masters there ever where. I need to copy some of his dresses to learn about fabric...

@MoKhi: Thank you, that´s motivating!
I really should work on fabric. Here I didn´t get to render and work over the dress, so it´s pretty undefined yet, but I still know I need to practice here.

@BlackDelphin: I´m glad you like it! Working in sunlight is a good idea, I should try that. XD
I didn´t like the composition either, so I decided not to work on that anymore. It was a doodle to see if I remembered Sargent and if I can try to work from imagination. And I tried! ^^

Sooo, these are two Chows I tried!
The first one is The Morrigan. I was afraid of colours, so it´s just pencil.




This is The Dragon´s Egg. My very first digital picture from imagination! There are still lots of things to fix but I´m still proud that I finished it. I am learning!

[merrycarousel]

nice painting, dude! it reminds me of this fairytale book that i had ages ago... loved that book because the colours are pleasing to the eye (like yours!). the dragon is darn cute- and the little fire is just awww! what's the boy looking at?

[BlackDelphin]

Ooh WOW!! You certainly outdone yourself with this CHOW!! I mean look at that forest! And the characters seem so fitting in the landscape!

you really, and i mean really should do more like this one!
The colours and values are good, and i certainly think that blue in the background is a mood maker! You shouldn't be afraid of colours AT ALL!! i think that morrigan would have had such a lovely mood too if you would have given her some colours!

Ps. may i ask you how you did such beautiful grass? i can't really tell from your steps..custom brushes?

[Katanasoul]

@merrycarousel: Thank you, I´m glad you like it!
But she´s a girl! But who can tell that at this age... *hihi* I had trouble with her face, I started zoomed in and then zommed out. This is not recomented, I guess... Everything gets lost.

@BlackDelphin: I´m always so happy when I see you here!
I will do my best to do more if deadlines are not killing me... At the moment, I feel like they do. Still, I will work hard!
And it´s sooo cheering what you say! I feel motivated! *goes working*

As for the grass:
You see that in the fourth step, I had basic colours put in and blended them so that from very far away (I tend to remove my glasses from time to time to see if light and general shapes are ok), they look about right. Then, with a normal, very small hard round brush, I painted the grass stroke by stroke. That´s step five.
Later on, when I wanted to define the light source a bit more and wanted to finish it, I chose a hard round again. A little larger, I turned on colour dynamics and brightness jitter at about 5%. (I hope the names are ok for the English version...) This way, I painted over all the grass, colourpicking and increasing brightness and saturation at where the light falls on the grass.
Yeah, that´s about it, just the default brushes.
Adding some flowers really helped, I guess. And I have some turquoise areas in the background where some ambient light falls.

I hope that was understandable? If not, please feel free to ask again and I will specify. (And ask someone to write for me who is better at English that I am...)

[mariasun]

I really like your Morrigan, such a nice composition!

[BlackDelphin]

Well i am glad i could be of any help to you!!
Now let me see those new results of yours next time you post!

About the grass, i think those are the names, and you explained quite well, thank you.
But i'd still like to make something sure, when you say hard round brush do you mean one with pen pressure and other dynamics on, or not even that? And by colour dynamic, you mean the option from the layer, no?

And now that you mentioned it, there is some turquoise grass in the back too, yes! I missed that!!
Well you certainly made your mood and got great lighting in this one, that's for sure! And you didn't even work in grayscales! yey!! you showed me that it is possible!! i see A LOT of people starting out with a value study of what they do and i am soo not made out for that i just love colours to much! you're surely an inspiration to me~

Take care and get plenty of sleep

[purb36]

it came out nicely. great job!

[BlackDelphin]

Where are you?

[soros]

Nice Bridgman studies!

[Katanasoul]

@mariasun: Thank you very much!

@BlackDelphin: I´m back!
Yes, I mean hard round with pen pressure and other dynamics on. And no, I didn´t mean the layer options, but the brush settings.
Did that help? By the way, how are you doing? Everything´s all right?

@soros: Thank you! I should definitely do more of these...

Hey folks!
I´ve been pretty busy these days, working on my comic book and other stuff. I will be able to show off pages soon, and I will finish this project by the end of october. That´s about when college starts... Well, I´, looking forwards to that.
As I don´t like huge postings, I´ll drop my stuff here piece by piece- well, or at least not all at once.



This is a wedding present for a friend of mine.
It shows Freya, goddess of love, with the brisingamen and her cat. Did that pretty quickly, and I am happy that they still liked it.

[BlackDelphin]

and she dose them all by hand
lovely forest environment!

good to see you back in here!!!
looking forward to see those pages

[Katanasoul]

@Artpole: Yes, I´m back!
I`m so happy you didn´t forget me. How are you, dear?

I know I wanted to show comic stuff (not to speak about scaning sketchbook pages, which I should really do someday...), but today, I did a quick brush test and feel like I need to show it off.
Did anyone here play Skies of Arcadia? I love Pow. I so do.

[Joe824]

thanks for stopping by my sketchbook! i really enjoyed browsing through yours. your studies on the first page are pretty inspiring.

AvisNocturna left a really good reply though, the contrast in those original pieces is lacking, though wow, that was over a year ago?!

Your animals have a nice touch to the rendering also. Looks like you could do some more facial studies, but i'm really liking the progress i've seen. i'm keeping an eye on this :-)

[BlackDelphin]

Of course i haven't! How have you been?!
I'm good now, thank you. Been through some rough times, but all is well.

Now lets see you post some more art!! See some more action of your new brush

[Katanasoul]

Here are the last two chows I was able to finish. I dunno, why do clients always call and want last minute work right when I´m working on a chow piece? I don´t get it, but I´m certainly happy about it.

I did a CD cover last year and will show you when I´m able to take photos, and I have a new blog I´d love to present to you:

http://katanasoul.tumblr.com/

Please take a look. If you wanna know something, feel free to ask and I´ll gladly cover that topic in my blog as well.
Right now, you can find some of my comic pages there. My favorite ones, of course.





I like the mermaid, but I´m not so happy with the pinup one. I didn´t plan the image well enough, so it´s not very interesting. I will watch out for that next time!

[kojot]

If you wan't to improve your color skill try to hardbrush painting with still lifes

visit my sketchbook if you don't understand what I'm talking about

cheers and keep it up

[Katanasoul]

@kojot: Thank you for your advice, I should really try that. I think I´ll do some environments, that´s what I wanted to practice anyway.

These are two pages from my comic book that was released in Germany last year in december. That means you could order it via amazon or just check out your (German) bookstore.

These two are some of my favorite pages. I did my best to work as good as I could, and the 180 pages in about a half year were quite a challenge for me. I worked alone, so no inker/ penciller exept for me.