CGMythology's Sketchbook

[RottenPocket]

Oooo I like the thorny devil -like scales. Not entirely sold on the forearm fins - they don't match aesthetically with the rest of her features. I am also not sure if those are horns or tentales. They appear to be organic and take up a lot of surface area. Other than that the environment will look amazing with the lily pads and koi.

[cgmythology]

RottenPocket:  Thanks!  I worked on the elements you described, hopefully they work better now that they're painted!

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I finished up the image!  The painting process went very smoothly thankfully, and I'm pretty satisfied with how the illustration turned out.  Of course I'm open to feedback, so if you feel something is off please let me know!  Below is the final image followed by some steps for those interested!

[darktiste]

You are a natural now this was certainly a smooth one.

[cgmythology]

darktiste:  Thank you kindly!

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Time for a new illustration! I finished up a sketch for 'Lady Atlas', pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Figure was referenced from here.  Tried my best to recreate the general pose while coming up with a fairly simple character design, as I want her to appear fairly nude.  Any feedback before I begin on some color tests would be highly appreciated!  Below is the sketch.

[CBinnsIllustration]

new piece looks very nice!

Couple things on the new piece. I would go back and take another look at the reference for the hips and crotch section. I would give the hips a bit more rotation and expose a bit more butt cheek. this would give you more room for the crotch which looks awkward at the minute. the underwear are not believable and do not fit at the minute and getting the anatomy right will help a lot ton. this quick is an example of how i might approach that area. just my two cents but with this area being a main focus, even your expertise in rendering may not be able to fix it later . keep up the great work.

[darktiste]

I which we felt she was actually carrying something rather than feel like the planet was a ''beach ballon''

Not sure if that a comission but i think that would be an opportunity to practice the principle of balance and weight.

For example rather than have just the finger holding it i would say make the hand sit flat and rest the planet on the shoulder rather than float over it.

Did you look for reference on atlas or perhaps strong man carrying boulder on there shoulder?A piece is as strong as the reference that support it.

I leave one here i find as alot of what i am talking about.

[cgmythology]

CBinnsIllustration:  Glad you like the new illustration!  Excellent feedback as always, really appreciate the time you took to draw that out, was extremely helpful.  I incorporated your input as well!

darktiste:  Great point regarding the sense of weight.  I don't want her to appear to be struggling however so I don't want the earth to feel too 'heavy' for her.  Rather I want her to radiate confidence, which is a contrast to how Atlas is typically drawn.

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I updated the sketch based on the input received and did some quick color tests.  Most of them came out looking pretty similar so I'm not sure which one to go with at the moment.  Any opinion is welcome on what works best!  

[darktiste]

I think you need to put some light on earth you already did that on the moon it might help you pick.I think for illustration it a bit harder to choose color because there alot of light interaction therefor color interaction contratry to my branch (concept art) where we test color not necessarly with much concern over pattern of light and shadow.

[cgmythology]

darktiste:  In general I don't want to waste time rendering the image for the quick color tests, as I always use flat colors for the early stages and start to add shadows and highlights as I go along, and I don't want to mess up that pattern as it works quite well for me, generally speaking!

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I finished the image, it was a bit oversaturated I think but I toned it down in the final steps.  Overall I'm fairly satisfied with it.  Of course there's still time for some minor changes and such if something is really off, so please let me know any input you may have!  Below is the illustration followed by the steps for those interested.

[darktiste]

I think this could use some reference specially for the night section of earth you would clearly not see much of anything in the shadow side just because there isn't anything around close enough to bounch light to the back of it.But that just an observation on realism vs idealize ultimately it up to you to decide.Personally i like contrast strong contrast but it not always right for the material so it very much depend on how you want the eye to move around.I think we see enough of the planet to figure out the rest it would not lose much of it storytelling aspect.

Other than that i think it a pretty strong piece.

[cgmythology]

darktiste:  Thanks, I added a bit more detail on the shadow side of earth, hopefully it looks more appealing now.  Also got rid of the harsh outlines on the continents as that flattened the image a bit.  I'm glad you enjoy the illustration!

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I did some final work on Lady Atlas, minor stuff but it made a bit of a difference I hope:




Next up I want to move on to a new illustration, featuring an archer and a wolf (the wolf will be made of magic).  I wanted to try something dynamic with the perspective, hopefully I pulled it off.  The figure's general pose was referenced from here as well.  Any input before I begin some color tests would be appreciated, really want to get the linework right so I don't pay for it later during the painting process, which usually takes much more time than fixing things up early!

[lvlingArtist]

The gifs, where one can see all the steps from sketch to finished, are the coolest thing!
It's very interesting.

Also the latest sketch looks like it will be very good, because of the perspective it already has a higher appeal than the ones before!

[CBinnsIllustration]

The last piece turned out very nice! Well done again pal.

In the new sketch I would just revisit the wolf a little bit to clean it up. Right now I’m not a fan of the length of the toes, right now it kind of has a werewolf feel were they are a little too elongated. Another issue for me is the top fangs, I would try to not have them bowed in together and have them more parallel in how they protrude out of the mouth. The lower teeth appear to be on separate planes and it looks like the mouth would struggle to shut correctly. And all this affects the far eye and how it structures the face.  I would snag some reference for the face before going a little further and really mail it down as I know your rendering is gonna be tight. Good luck with this one looking forward to seeing your progress.

[darktiste]

One question why not add an artstation to your signature i am sure it doesn't hurt you to be on as much platform as you can be but i understand that presentation can take some time to when you post the same thing over and over.

I was just wondering how you make sure to have a steady amount of client and how you get people to see your work.If that something you have the time for.

By the way the next piece look promising there a good amount of leaning and jumping.Personally i am no a fan of the weapon the shape it wonky and i don't like the spike.The arrow look execessively long i never seen such long arrow maybe it just the perspective.

[cgmythology]

IvlingArtist:  Thanks, glad you dig the animation/steps!  Glad you like the sketch as well!

CBinnsIllustration: Thank you!  Excellent feedback as well, just implemented it now and the wolf looks much better I hope!  

darktiste:  Excellent point regarding my signature, just added an ArtStation link.  I'm happy with the bow design but I agree about the arrow, so I fixed that.  Thanks for your input as always!

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I made some changes to the line art and did some color tests.  I think they all work fairly well, hard to decide so I'll take a break from the image and see it with fresh eyes later on.  I'd love to hear what you feel works best so please let me know!  Below are the color tests.

[darktiste]

If you don't feel like a pick look more obvious than an other you might want to explore i know you might have a few color you want to stick with but really is the color of the stone and sky the most important aspect?

I think it be more interesting to have enough color variation to have a clear favorite that mean playing with every element in the picture rather than a few element .The bow,cloth,leather,hair,eye,skin,the wolf they all offer a great deal of possiblity i think the trap is to settle to early for color we would expect rather than to try to push for color that break the expectation of the viewer.I think if you look at your picture 3 second each there isn't enough of a difference to pick it up on what are the difference they blur into being almost identical.

Try to think of hue and saturation and contrast.I like to think it not a bad idea to reserve high saturation toward the eye and hair and keep the rest fairly desaturated.

Also i gotta agree on the mouth but i think what would be cool is maybe trying some sabertooth type of teeth instead.

[CBinnsIllustration]

There are improvements but I would really want that face tighter before you go too far on color. That being said with how fast you progress you are probably already done :)  but either way I did a quick sketchy paint over (hope that’s ok) with how I might have approached the wolfs face. There are many ways to do it and with you saying it will be made of magic there are no rules but just my two cents to get it a little more realistic .  A saber tooth would be cool too! :) good luck dude

[JosephCow]

I think I would agree with darktiste. These 4 thumbnails are essentially the same compostions. Of course I see the color differences, but in terms of the big idea, they are not that different. I think there should definitely be a step like this where you figure out the local colors. But it can't be divorced from the lighting. The lighting is going to change the colors and values so drastically that it may not even matter. Especially because the color we actually paint is going to be light source color+local color. If the light source is pretty strong it's going to end up washing out the local color and value. So that's why I say you can't just figure out flat colors and then put just any lighting on top.

So for example Here's a couple lighting thumbails, spending just a little bit on each to get the idea. The spheres represent the number of different light sources, their color, intensity, and orientation to the subject. So like A would be a dusk painting where the strongest light is the wolf. B  is sunlit with a shadow over the bottom half so the wolf doesn't have to compete with the lit wall behind. And then C, just tried out for fun, night time, adding a light source from below so that the arch is actually brighter than the sky. I didn't think it would look good, but actually It's pretty cool so you never know unless you try. As I was painting these I realized I may need to change how I do certain elements, like the magic wolf, in order to make it work in the new context, so that's why I think it's pretty important.

And these three could easily be 8 different lighting keys, and those 8 could each be pushed different directions. Not necessary to do that many if you already know what you're going for, but just goes to show you can literally do anything, there's so many options. so be gutsy and give yourself actually substantially different possibilities to pick from.

[cgmythology]

*edited - missed new page of comments**

darktiste:  Great suggestions regarding colors.  I opted for desaturated tones on this one for a more natural look as I continued to progress  the image, I'm very happy with how they turned out overall (see below).

CBinnsIllustration:  Great suggestion, I will update the face a bit after the below update (I missed your message, wasn't aware there was more comments so I apologize for that!)

JosephCow:  That's an excellent suggestion!  Excellent thumbnails btw, love the lighting schemes you came up with!  I will implement that technique for my next illustration, thanks again!

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I finished up the painting process!  Lots of fun with this one, spent a lot of time on the detail and texture work and aimed for more natural looking colors, save for the 'magical' elements which was intentional to make the pop a bit.  Overall I'm quite satisfied with the image but I'm always open to feedback, so please let me know if something looks off or can be improved.  Below is the final followed by the steps for those interested.

[cgmythology]

And here's another update based on the input received.  I'm fairly happy with the image so I'll be moving on to a new illustration shortly.  Thanks again to everyone for the awesome feedback!