Needing Help Identifying Common Problems

[jeshields]

I recently came into digital painting less than a year ago, despite the fact that I had been using Photoshop for years. Most of the art I have done over the years has been line work and greyscale and very much comic book influenced. Because I was mainly interested in pencil work, I never focused on color until I wanted to start coloring my work. Even then I kept the two separate in my head. Until these past few months, I have been alone as an artist, not really realizing there was a community out there that I could TAP into. Now, here I am, diving straight forward into the art world and realizing how far behind I really am but feeling so full of potential yet with so little time to develop myself. As a husband and a father of four, I am trying to finish my masters thesis (that goes slowly, btw) while doing correspondence courses while trying to work freelance art (which we all know takes more than the standard 40 hour work week) while trying to improve as an artist (and still have SOME time for myself - a few hours every other week or so).

I would really like some help identifying my weak areas. My progression as a digital painter can be tracked from December to now in the attached images. Save for a handful of images, they are the only works of digital painting that I have done in that time frame. If you want higher resolution of any of the images, swing by jeshields.deviantart.com.

Any feedback is welcome.

[Mike086]

Hello! I critiqued your work on a livestream for you to watch. hope it helps, really great stuff for being 4 months in on digital painting.


http://www.livestream.com/mciii

[jeshields]

Hey Mike,

Thanks so much for the over all critique. Hit home on a bunch. Wish I could have been there to provide context for much of the art... but eh, such is life. :) You nailed it on Hellboy. I was using turning one of Mike's pieces digital. Also did the same for Liz Sherman (the girl with the flame) which accounted for some of the issues with it... but your critique helped me see how I could have translated his line work better. The first four pieces were intentionally monochromatic as they were studies but I appreciate the time you went into them because they helped me with my approach to digital painting. Although I love Dave Rapoza's (and many others') approach, I more readily grasp getting the line work/greyscale down before the color, so thanks for detailing that direction. I've been doing that to some degree but without a real understanding of it. Also, something I wish I had included was that the images linked were in chronological order, so I would have preferred more time spent on the later pieces as I feel I have jumped pretty far in that short time. Would you be willing to go more in depth on my color problems (I assume they are color problems) on my last 6 or so images in your next stream?

Either way, a BIG thanks to your time. It's been a boost to my esteem when I needed it and has inspired me to pay back when I become a better artist... hmm. Perhaps that's a wrong way of thinking as I know I have much I could offer artists less experienced than I. I digress. Thanks so much, again. And you were very close on the name. It's j e shields. :)

[Mike086]

I can do that, no problem!

[Mike086]

Check my livestream for a follow up video, should be titled jeshields2


had some issues with the stream at first so I go in depth on one piece out of the 6 and show you how I found the color issues in the value of the images.

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actually it didn't appear to upload, I'll add it onto my youtube account.

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Okay actually it did upload, you can find it on my live stream channel linked in my signature.