Danger Zone

[rafa zanchetin]

@Archreux Thank you. :)

@Suira Yep, http://500px.com/photo/63759941/maravill...?from=user. It's kinda hard for me because I do not want to recreate in a realistic way, I'm trying to do it in my own style but it keeps going back and forth and it doesn't look that good in the end, have to practice more.
They got invisibility devices which turn crimson when they're in the progress, I tried to show 2 silhouette on faint red, maybe I should bump it up a bit more.

Ok, day 2 managed to keep up, I moved to chow piece a bit further but it's not worth showing yet.
I changed a bit the portrait as it was coming out on a direction I wasn't liking, too soft, so I went back to it to give it a render that I like, I have to remember when doing more portraits.

[Suira]

Hell yeah man! Keep up the rythim, rape some asses! xD

It's cool that you interpret the reference man, I think it has more merit to it, and you really learn because it goes trough the filter of your mind. Plus that balance is hard to keep at it, when you get it you'll be an unstoppable killing machine :)

I like it all man, specially the enviros and the guy's portrait. Line drawings are awesome, but that's already a granted with you haha. Anyway man, keep at it, hopefully I'll recover soon and get back into gears to try and shame your work ethics! MUAHAHAHAH!

[Olof]

Love your lineworks and gestures, keep them up!

[lungcell]

I've been off the forums for a few months and when I come back you've transformed into a beast! Damn Rafa, haha :D Really loving your WoW work, especially Rua Greenshield. Keep pushing it dude, you're doing amazing!

[rafa zanchetin]

@Suira Thank you, yep, the toughest nut to crack.

@Olof Thanks man, will try!

@lungcell Hahah, not that much, thanks!

Gotta work on those pesky landscapes I suck at them, so here's a bunch. I have to cement in my brain that I don't have to make it realistic, just gotta get the setup right and make it cool, doesn't matter if it doesn't stay true to the reference.
Oh and the chow stuff.

[Fedodika]

RAFA When i get back from my trip sept 1st i'm gonna be bangin out some stuff like youuu bud!! les get SOME PPL MOTIVATED MORE DANGER UP IN HERE!!

[LaleAnn]

Wow! Loving those portraits!! And the landscape studies, especially the ones from #302 are looking awesome! You're really great at capturing it with hard and simple shapes and colors.

[AngeliquevdMee]

I think i've already said this 5 times before, but it's really inspiring how much stuff you get done in a day. *clapclapclapclapclapclapclap*

[Lyraina]

Wooo that ChoW's so cool! Love the glooooowww. ALthough the first thing I was looking at wasn't the head but that sexy glowy red dot on his heel (small+intense+high contrast). Not sure if that's intended :p

For landscapes, make a postit note somewhere around your desk that says "make it SEXY" as a reminder to not stick to the ref too closely? In some of them you need love your values a bit more - while you do have some atmosphere in there, in some areas you have leftover-darks in the background, flattening it out (i.e. the first one).
Nice to see you tackle different subject matters again!

[Suira]

Dude, the more I practice line control in the tablet, the more I admire yours, it feels like fucking impossible, yet you manage to acomplish these GORGEOUS sketches every time, do you do them as is? or do you do a previous planing layer or something? I ask because if you do them as is, it' freaking impressive , loving them for real.

On the environment practice I like the confidence on the construction with high opacity and hard brush, although I have to agree with Lyraina about the values being a bit confusing, still I'm sure you'll nail it soon enough :)

My only real crit for today is about the CHOW piece, there's one big issue with the chest armor piece, it comes out really flat, it doesn't follow the shape of the chest, and I feel you need to overpaint that to really follow the form or hint more at it, because that's really hard to fix with just transitions, it's a minor tweak so it shouldn't take long. Also, needs more transitions in the upper area ( helmet, etc) since so much of the figure is invisible you're gonna have to nail thar part so it comes out as a strong piece. I still like the direction you're headed though.

Overall, really happy to see you put so much effort lately, really huge updates with tons of goodies, keep up the awesome job man!

[JacobJanerka]

Ooo, got some really nice dynamic figures dude.

[rafa zanchetin]

@Fedodika Hahahah, yes! Yes! Hide yo posts, hide yo sketchbooks!

@LaleAnn Thank you. :) I'm not very good at landscapes yet, the beast is hard to tame.

@AlgeliquevdMee I don't mind, hehe. I'm trying to ramp up the studies gradually, I think I can do even more.... unless my arm breaks off or something.

@Lyraina Thanks! No, I was just testing things out. Yea, those are the times when I stick too much to the photo and it messes me up, perhaps some real plen air painting would help me, but I'm scared of outside. First one the tops where darkish, I think it was somewhere in Iceland where the rocks are really dark but gives a nice contrast with the grass but I couldn't recreate, maybe some day!

@Suira Yep, I do a ribcage for the body but I do more guidelines for portraits. I do them on grayscale though, so in reality they're more subtle than what I post here. When I paint the bg white I duplicate the line layers a couple of times to be more visible.
Gotta sweat on those landscapes man, they are my Mody Dick.
Totally agree on CHOW piece, I've been tweaking the armor for easier readability and it's screwing up the perspective, should be fixed on next post though.


@JacobJanerka Thanks man, appreciate it!

"Kinda" slow day for me, calling it early today so I can give my arm a rest for tomorrow and saturday. Been struggling with landscapes but after I gave a shot doing my own weird ones I kinda like them, definitely going to that direction.

[Suira]

Cool stuff man, simple enviros are always a good way to go when getting an initial grasp. I TOTALLY recommend you to check out Shaddy Safadi's tutorial on youtube. You don't need to follow the method cause it's a mayuscoulous pain in the butthole, but he shows how simply you can get super accurate stuff that looks very good and helps to understand the basic principles behind environment painting. You just need to be patient and swallow the 7 videos ( about 2 and a half hours) and it pays off, have patience really, I wanted to close them by the 20th minute, but if you give it a good chance it pays off.

Loving those caricature/realist/cool portraits man, super nice but I have a complaint: WHAT'S UP WITH TEH DRAGONS!??? HUH???? NO MORE GOATS FOR ME??? Don't you love me anymore!?? xD

Also looking forward for the CHOW final man, I know you're gonna blow my mind! ;D

[rafa zanchetin]

@Suira yea, I watched the first 3 ones, althought it is good it's not where I am lacking really, my rendering on them are shit of course, but right now I'm trying to learn the atmospheric shit, which I can't still grasp. And here you go some more goat dragons!

Day 5, still sucking hard at landscapes, have to change my method of studying. :(
Tomorrow will be fun times, whole day to finish the chow piece.

[Fedodika]

U DRAW GIRLZ HOTTIEZ <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[Suira]

Dragon-goats!!! YEASHHHH YEAAAAAAAAAASHHH!! Soon ALL GOATS WILL RULE THE WORLD !!!! Muahhahahahaha!

Don't beat yourself man, some of those afmospheres are coming allong already. Specifically that boat scene is freaking nice! I've heard that painting bright daylight environment scenes is the worst scenario for atmospheric effects, I think it's Feng Zhu who said it. Give a try to more nightscenes and foggy places, rainy situations etc. They're the best for learning that stuff, and when you master that you can jump to daytime stuff which is the more advanced type of deal by what I hear.

Anyway, you already know this is about face and banging your head against the wall enough times until you get how it's done. Loving the line art and the boat, keep banging!

[Adrian]

I SO love those goat dragons <3

You'd better shove some in there when you get your dreamjob xD.

[Samszym]

Dude love the face sketches as always! Enviros are looking nice to me, not much I can think of in the way of critique..snapping some photos yourself and painting off of them might be a cool experience, you'd get to experience the lighting firsthand instead of it just being a photo from the internet :/ of course, plein aire painting would be the best. Kinda making me want to do some of that XD
keep posting awesome stuff!

[Lyraina]

Ahaaaaa, now that's what I call a quick learner! Wayyyy better value control in the last batch. (Except for some almost-blacks in the midgound). Next step, think about how everything reflects on everything else and picks up color from surrounding areas.. depending on which way it's facing (towards sky, towards grass, towards random wall or rock, ...) and how warm/strong your light source is. That helps with the atmosphere stuff as well. Keep 'em coming!

[BenFlores]

Nice! Keep up those environments and like you said, trying different methods and failing a ton is where the learning is at. I found studying the impressionists to be the best for landscapes, try it out :)