@Pubic Enemy I think your decisions on how to treat the AI situation in the forum are great. This direction of things gives the opportunity to still evolve as artists using the new AI technology but very much still leaves us to create the images on our own which I feel is still important. It's the idea of using a calculator or being able to do the math the long way by means of writing and showing the work. I think that keeping things traditional in that sense of classic concept art forum will really give us all some type of advantage in comparison to those just using the AI as a complete problem solve.
I'm glad you like how I work my backgrounds and the reason behind that is, is that I feel that if a background can be included then it can help describe and tell the story of that character all the much more than just having something generic, or nothing at all. I know some character designers are so good that they can hit the ball out of the park with just designing a character on a white background, but I strive to put in that background to create more detail, and believability in the character, it's also good practice in learning how to draw and paint things outside of just the character, including use of perspective, continued lighting situations and color, and experimenting with different textures in the work, in which I like to try and hand paint as much as possible and not really depend on texture overlays.
-=LESSONS THROUGH GRAFFITI ART=-
In addition to all that, I learned the power of backgrounds through graffiti art. When others and I would just paint or draw our names elaborately it was a cool form of abstract art, but it was hard to relate to it unless you added a character. Once a character was added to the graffiti name piece, now suddenly the whole thing started to make more sense and have a theme, that now even the general public could relate to, not to mention a character is a great way to grab a color palette to be used in the actual graffiti piece itself so things are harmonious. Incorporating a background into the equation seals the deal in letting the viewer really immerse themselves into this glimpse into a fantasy world that may be hard to understand but is still fun to look at. Abstract backgrounds will complement the graffiti piece but as long as they are not too complex to take the focus of it, and same goes for a more actual organic background with nouns in it that is not too overdone or detailed to take the focus away from the character or characters. Backgrounds also always helped tie in group efforts visually, so if there was a train or wall that multiple artists were painting on, applying a background, complex or simple, would help bring everything together cohesively.
-=MULTIPLE SELECTON TOPICS=-
I'm really glad the multiple selection prompt could work well to motivate you to get back in the groove and create. I feel sometimes with the single prompts that it can kill the mood of wanting to do something that you're really not into. A single prompt given by an art director to do whether you're into it, or not, is one thing when you are getting paid for it, but in order to really want to sacrifice the time and effort to do things pro-bono, learning or not, one really needs to be able to get into the topic that they are going to invest a part of their life into. I think multiple choice topics for forums like this are a way to keep things fresh and exciting for the users. This was something I was going to implement into my own forums, but I just don't have the time or desire right now to want to try and build that up more although it's still available as back up on my site if all else fails online, like when conceptart.org went under. I love what we all have going on here and our little community and am really happy that something like this could help give an incentive in being more pro-active to the cause and productive.
-=YOUR CHARACTER DESIGN=-
Your piece is really looking great, and I really love the composition and the negative space shapes around the character. I also like that you went with the 3/4 presentation because it enables one to put more emphasis on detail by being able to allocate more real-estate of the picture are to the character itself. I also love how you too a traditional route by drawing this with what seems to be charcoal or very dark graphite, maybe even a black colored pencil. A good traditional combo seems to be a 4B pencil combined with a classic Prismacolor black pencil for your darker areas, a concept artist named Bobby Rebholz demonstrates this on his YouTube channel while drawing creatures.
I like the character you've created because he has a vampire kind of feel to him like a Morpheus meets Nosferatu kind of thing going on and with an 80's haircut. That's definitely a great call on the oversized hands and long nails, because that could play directly on how the character could infect people in close proximity. Very cool mentions of the city in the background too, it's awesome how the grain of the paper serve as a natural form of atmospheric perspective. You've definitely inspired me to want to take a more traditional drawing approach in the near future here and get away from drawing into the computer as much. Honestly it might be a good thing to just start doing traditional entrees all together where time and money permit. Great work and will you digitally paint into this or complete it via analog methods?
Bobby Rebholz Creature Drawing featuring Graphite + Color Pencil mixed medium method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBJJ27M2STo
I also wanted to share this fantastic character design tutorial that just came out 4 days ago from Christophe Young:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTwJv7m3Pk
I'm glad you like how I work my backgrounds and the reason behind that is, is that I feel that if a background can be included then it can help describe and tell the story of that character all the much more than just having something generic, or nothing at all. I know some character designers are so good that they can hit the ball out of the park with just designing a character on a white background, but I strive to put in that background to create more detail, and believability in the character, it's also good practice in learning how to draw and paint things outside of just the character, including use of perspective, continued lighting situations and color, and experimenting with different textures in the work, in which I like to try and hand paint as much as possible and not really depend on texture overlays.
-=LESSONS THROUGH GRAFFITI ART=-
In addition to all that, I learned the power of backgrounds through graffiti art. When others and I would just paint or draw our names elaborately it was a cool form of abstract art, but it was hard to relate to it unless you added a character. Once a character was added to the graffiti name piece, now suddenly the whole thing started to make more sense and have a theme, that now even the general public could relate to, not to mention a character is a great way to grab a color palette to be used in the actual graffiti piece itself so things are harmonious. Incorporating a background into the equation seals the deal in letting the viewer really immerse themselves into this glimpse into a fantasy world that may be hard to understand but is still fun to look at. Abstract backgrounds will complement the graffiti piece but as long as they are not too complex to take the focus of it, and same goes for a more actual organic background with nouns in it that is not too overdone or detailed to take the focus away from the character or characters. Backgrounds also always helped tie in group efforts visually, so if there was a train or wall that multiple artists were painting on, applying a background, complex or simple, would help bring everything together cohesively.
-=MULTIPLE SELECTON TOPICS=-
I'm really glad the multiple selection prompt could work well to motivate you to get back in the groove and create. I feel sometimes with the single prompts that it can kill the mood of wanting to do something that you're really not into. A single prompt given by an art director to do whether you're into it, or not, is one thing when you are getting paid for it, but in order to really want to sacrifice the time and effort to do things pro-bono, learning or not, one really needs to be able to get into the topic that they are going to invest a part of their life into. I think multiple choice topics for forums like this are a way to keep things fresh and exciting for the users. This was something I was going to implement into my own forums, but I just don't have the time or desire right now to want to try and build that up more although it's still available as back up on my site if all else fails online, like when conceptart.org went under. I love what we all have going on here and our little community and am really happy that something like this could help give an incentive in being more pro-active to the cause and productive.
-=YOUR CHARACTER DESIGN=-
Your piece is really looking great, and I really love the composition and the negative space shapes around the character. I also like that you went with the 3/4 presentation because it enables one to put more emphasis on detail by being able to allocate more real-estate of the picture are to the character itself. I also love how you too a traditional route by drawing this with what seems to be charcoal or very dark graphite, maybe even a black colored pencil. A good traditional combo seems to be a 4B pencil combined with a classic Prismacolor black pencil for your darker areas, a concept artist named Bobby Rebholz demonstrates this on his YouTube channel while drawing creatures.
I like the character you've created because he has a vampire kind of feel to him like a Morpheus meets Nosferatu kind of thing going on and with an 80's haircut. That's definitely a great call on the oversized hands and long nails, because that could play directly on how the character could infect people in close proximity. Very cool mentions of the city in the background too, it's awesome how the grain of the paper serve as a natural form of atmospheric perspective. You've definitely inspired me to want to take a more traditional drawing approach in the near future here and get away from drawing into the computer as much. Honestly it might be a good thing to just start doing traditional entrees all together where time and money permit. Great work and will you digitally paint into this or complete it via analog methods?
Bobby Rebholz Creature Drawing featuring Graphite + Color Pencil mixed medium method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBJJ27M2STo
I also wanted to share this fantastic character design tutorial that just came out 4 days ago from Christophe Young:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTwJv7m3Pk
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination)
"Everything has been done, but not by you"
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination)
"Everything has been done, but not by you"