Various (Finished and Unfinished) Artwork

[Eisenkreis]

Hello.

I'm new here and I admit that I'm still extremely green when it comes to the finer points of artwork. I've been doing my best to do high contrast studies/etc in terms of color, and have only recently gotten to a point where I feel like my skills with color are going somewhere. I use primarily Photoshop and, at times, OpenCanvas (which means I desparately need to switch back to traditional mediums someday) and have been 'stuck' doing anthropomorphic work since it pays the bills. At the moment, those are the best examples of the work I've got, so there you have it.

The first, 'Tokyo Ghost Stories,' is lacking a concrete background even though I feel like the lightsourcing itself is relatively sound. The commissioner is willing to accept it as 'finished' but I'm not so sure I do. This started as a pencil sketch and got colored over in Photoshop CS2. If you saw the original version you'd laugh your collective asses off.




The second is 'Seven Lives' which is still a work in progress. I admit that I'm deadlocked on whether or not dodging the blacks is a good idea in this case. This was originally an inked piece, scanned in at 600DPI so scanning it in lineart wouldn't make it look excessively choppy, and the lines were colored in.




This last one is 'finished' but it looks so muddy that I can't help but want to change a whole lot about it. This is 100% digital, sketched, inked and colored in Photoshop.




That's about it for the immediate moment. Any comments and/or critiques would be highly valued, especially if you intend on ripping me a new asshole in the process. If redlining works, go for it.

~Eisenkreis

[Snarfevs]

Ashryn (I assume)?! Last person I'd expect to see on CA!

1st:

The figure is great, lighting really solid. Maybe build up the highlights to pure white along all of the leading edges of the figure as with the hair, really thin to pop it out further. You also might want to experiment with subtle light blooming on the edges of the hair and fighting claws to convey the brightness of the light source.

However, the light source itself looks really cop-out. Sacred duty for quick backgrounds it to at least make sure the words 'circular selection tool -> feather selection -> 10px' aren't going to mysteriously spring into viewers' streams of consciousness.

The rocky bits she's standing around could really use some up-sprucing with either your trademark vexelly impressionism or some kind of texture.

2.

I think dodging the blacks may be absolutely necessary. Otherwise the eyes get caught up trying to work out what's at his feet, whether his gun arm is in front or behind, what's on his other palm etc.

3.

A joy to look at. Shading is great, judicious speculars reinforce her dimensionality in all the right places. As you said, muddiness is an issue in particular places. shading on parts of the tail is very recognisably smudged. The knife just doesn't look right shading wise, as well as the hilt appearing skewed. Some of the straps and bits have very awkward shadows, such as the bit of strap drooping down off her left forearm. Some of the rings holding her top together look like they are missing outlines. Could use some specular shading on the fingers, especially to seperate the two middle fingers on her left hand.

uh, that's all. thanks for being a continual inspiration, and for leading me to more recherche musical tastes.

[ruzkin]

Yo Ash, awesome to see you on here.

I agree with Snarf on the first two but am actually forced to disagree on your third piece, I look at the gradients and it feels cheap. The two hands are the absolute worst example of this, the gradient leaves them looking totally flat. Colouring this ala your first pic posted would be a huge improvement in my eyes.

Keep on truckin'.

[Bai Fan]

Stick a color other than white behind the 2nd one and it might feel a bit better to you. The start contrast between the white and black takes away from the character.