A buncha swords!

[Fulgrate]

The proportions of the sword on the left are intentional. It's center of gravity is meant to be different from that of a normal sword. The middle sword I probably have some mistakes on since its suppose to be a normal, tapering, medieval sword. All done without references in case anybody is wondering, so somethings might not be accurate, like the placement of the katana's rivets.

http://api.photoshop.com/v1.0/accoun...=1356906785000

[enkithrice]

The reflections don't really look like metal to me... Especially the one on the far left where it bleeds into pure white. Maybe you could study a pocket knife in a couple different lighting positions to get the feel down. Placing the swords on a colored background (maybe a rather loose sword rack?), and defining a specific light source and its color, might help as well.

Edit: on second glance, the handle on the katana is lit equally from both sides, and the blade only from one.

[sone_one]

The proportions of the sword on the left are intentional. It's center of gravity is meant to be different from that of a normal sword.

why? and in what way? in general swords work like they work because they turned out to be working.

IF your design doesnt follow principal function, at least give it some design. you can get away with this in a wow-, finalfantasy-, darksiders- (most believable), whatever- setting, but give it some design! right now its just an unwieldable heavy blade on a stick.

[sone_one]

doh...

[Frida Bergholtz]

So you wanted to paint an ordinary medieval sword and a normal katana, then why not use a reference? By going about it this way you are not adding anything interesting from your own mind and you are not lending any credibility to it by using the real deal. A sword in a picture doesn't have to be interesting but this is nothing but swords.

[Fulgrate]

enkithrice: Thank you for the advice. I'll try to look at a real sword or knife up close and study the way light reflects. I heard that studying an object up close constantly until your dreaming about it is a good way to be able to draw without reference.

soneone: Yeah, hen I look at that sword, it does kind of look terribly designed due to the thin hilt. It was suppose to have distal tapering to counter-act the parrallel blade in all versions. The original design is actually of a sword half that length, but because the large version had the most work on it, I included it instead. Initial sword design: http://i.imgur.com/ugXER.png I guess the concept behind it is that it's suppose to be a weapon that requires different training to use. For some reason, I was trying to think of how to evolve a sword into a different weapon, sort of how swords just developed over hundreds of years, giving birth to new types in the process.

Frida Bergholtz: I don't know who it was that trained me into this or if I came up with it, but I like to do a lot of "draw without looking". I guess I enjoy it. And the reason I chose swords is because I really love things from the medieval era, such as knights, armors, fabled dragons, and so on.

[enkithrice]

enkithrice: Thank you for the advice. I'll try to look at a real sword or knife up close and study the way light reflects. I heard that studying an object up close constantly until your dreaming about it is a good way to be able to draw without reference.

I've found that myself to a certain extent. Think about it, if you can dream up an object realistically, then your mind knows precisely what it looks like.

[enkithrice]

enkithrice: Thank you for the advice. I'll try to look at a real sword or knife up close and study the way light reflects. I heard that studying an object up close constantly until your dreaming about it is a good way to be able to draw without reference.

I've found that myself to a certain extent. Think about it, if you can dream up an object realistically, then your mind knows precisely what it looks like.

[Velocity Kendall]

"All done without references in case anybody is wondering...I like to do a lot of "draw without looking". "

its not working. use reference, mix references together, etc will up the realism. after the piece gets to a certian point you ncan bin the ref and fly solo, or it will dominate the image, but up till then always have ref around to check proportion, surefaces etc.
they look ok, but as has been mentioned without small details they look a bit bland.

i found these in Finally Finished, by Kozivara, which i thought were good. i like how they have strong individual themes, unique outlines, nice detail scale and distribution, etc. there are loads of game developers who need this kind or work.