Tyger sketches

[Tygerson]

Thank you everyone for all the feedback! Sorry I haven't been on here forever. I finally got a chance to start making fixes based on everyone's great suggestions. Also, the mass of black shirt was really me covering up shaky structural understanding. So I tried making some structure lines and building some clothes over them. It was kinda fun.




I tried rotating the face, but the eye looks kinda alien. I think it's something about the lower lid. I've changed it back and forth, and it's still super weird.

[Adzerak]

Nice to see you progressing on your character. The face is really smooth and nice while still maintaining good edges, really nice! It's cool to see you analyzing the different aspects of the image when you're working on her, not being afraid to change things around etc.

When I'm doing a similar approach myself I feel that I often get very afraid to "kill my darlings", I work slow and just noodle away at the image. Maybe you don't have that mental block issue that I get when I devote time to a painting that I want to get just right, but in any case, doing some sketches and faster paintings in between might feel good anyway, in order to not feel bogged down, so the image won't feel like some impossible task before you. I'm just curious btw, speculating with my own approach as reference, not trying to imply anything heh. Kinda hard to come up with critique, keep working hard at it!

[Tygerson]

Some more costume design. I tried a few, then ended up combining two of them. On the side I've been studying Barbara Bradley's book on drawing the clothed figure, and trying to understand how clothes are constructed to fit on the body.

I finally had my husband snap yet another reference shot, so I'll be tearing up her face some more later.

[clockodile]

Though I am always reluctant to take reference so early on, I think you've be working with it very well with how you have been drawing through everything, and constructing the figure through gesture and form so thoroughly, so kudos for doing that. It looks like an excellent way of learning to think things through from the ref rather than becoming a slave to it.

I know you probably haven't hit this point yet, but when you get a chance, try shooting some reference for that arm as well, preferably doing some of them whilst holding/suspending something (fairly light, from experience I can say holding up a bird of prey is no significant strain) as well. It could also help to get some shots of your arm tilted and rotated at slightly different angles around the one you want. Possibly also try rotating the torso slightly to change the arm orientation a bit too, and see how the shoulder enters into view with that. It will make it a bit easier to interpret what is going on, as this is a rather tricky arm pose to get right, though with how you break down your reference, I think you'll learn a lot.

I really admire the effort you are putting into this piece though, and how prepared you are to go back to fix things. Good luck!

[smrr]

Great wip Tygerson! Seeing a vast improvement up in here as well (: I can't crit you because you're already ahead of that haha

Can't wait to see this piece progress-!

[JyonnyNovice]

You know, I really love her expression in the current one, makes me feel that she's been waiting for some important message from the hawk and is anxious about whether it's good news or bad. She looks concerned but doesn't want to speak so the hawk can tell her as quickly as possible.

Or else, it's a reversed situation and the hawk is actually master of her, not the other way around, and she is anxious over whether he is pleased with her or not.

That's what I get from it anyway - amazing to be able to produce something that makes people think about the story behind the image.

[ZombieChinchilla]

Awesome stuff, love the see the progression of this piece. I agree with Jyonny, I love her expression and I definitely think it tells a story by itself. Can't wait to see it finished!

[Craig Paton]

Face detail is looking nice. Although I find it's best not to focus so much on detail until a later point, keep the same zoomed out level of detail until things are in place, then get right in and tidy up. :)

You were asking me about the Foxbane cover I made. It's a fantasy novel, a sequel to a book called Feylander, by the same author, Liz Noble. You'll find the original around online no problem, but Foxbane won't be out until later this year.

[Tygerson]

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Hi, I'm Tygerson, and I burned myself out.

Anyway, I'm back again, and took a commission to remotivate myself.

This is Amity Sunbringer, a warrior turned gardener while in hiding. In the costume and tool design, I tried to make everything hint at both fighter and farmer.




The final version had World of Warcraft style eyebrows and glowy eyes as specified by the client.




It took close to 40 hours, because of all the trial and error. I think it would take maybe 8 if I knew what I was doing!

[Lyraina]

Sorry to hear about the burnout - tough one. I hope you took good care of yourself… all the best to you!

Commission is looking great. I love the subtle warmth in the skintones on the left. Don’t worry about speed - it’ll come with practice, the most important thing is sticking to it and learning by struggling. And you did that, so all is good :)

[Triggerpigking]

Damn sorry to hear about the burnout.

The commision looks really good, like what you did with the eyes and nose.

[CoreyH]

Hey man. Know dem burnout feels. Just jump back on and keep going. Last one is looking pretty great! Nice commitment with the 40 hours. Take all the time you need. As people have said, speed will come with time.

[Heliux]

miss seeing your posts! come baaaaack! :D

[Tygerson]

Life took over yet again!  Thing is, there are all these images/ideas trapped in my head, and I don't yet have the skill to get them out on paper.  Drives me bonkers!

I spent some months in Robertson's "How to draw book," and got really hung up on ellipses.  So I'm coming at perspective from a new angle by doing the "cube to cathedral" class.

Week 1 assignments:

[Artloader]

Wow, you're a real OldSkooler! Welcome back :).

Those perspective exercises are looking good, keep it going!

[Triggerpigking]

Tygerson! long time no see, good to have you back!.

Those assignments are looking good.
About the ellipse thing, if you're having issues with putting them into the plane boxes, I think it's just a matter of repetitive practice, there's an excercise on drawabox i've been doing for that.
It seems to be a good skill to learn though, as I recall from robertsons book once you know how to do that you can figure out a perfect sided cube from any angle.

[Tygerson]

Thanks guys!

Here's the start of the week 2 assignment, part 1.  (It's horizontal on my computer--not sure why it rotated here.)




I ran into some problems on part 2.  I first tried drawing a building with pen, but it was a mess!  So now I'm trying on photoshop.  Problem is, it hurts my wrist after half an hour.  I can draw perspective stuff on paper no problem, and paint in photoshop no problem, but something about trying to do precision work in photoshop is painful!  

Anyone else have this, and find a way around it?

[John]

I can draw perspective stuff on paper no problem, and paint in photoshop no problem, but something about trying to do precision work in photoshop is painful!

About precision, check out this plugin for PS, Lazy Nezumi: https://lazynezumi.com/ The main problem with PS is it's hard to do line work on it because the way it marks a stroke tends to be too zippy. You could tough it out on PS or try out other software like SAI, or the new Manga Studio. Both have stroke stabilizers.

Perspective: I used to do it manually on PS way back when. Now I use Manga Studio since it got perspective rulers you can slap on and figure out the perspective for you. If I need to do perspective work on PS, I just copy and paste a perspective guide and place it on top of the piece under a low opacity. You can try Freddie William's perspective path which you can DL for free: http://www.freddieart.com/quicktools/ind...category=2

Good luck! Don't blow your wrists off!

[Tygerson]

Thanks John, I'll have to try some different software out for perspective.  I tried out a surface tablet, hoping it would be better with a stylus directly on the screen, but ended up drawing the rest with a mouse.  No pain, but it was a slooooow process!  So different software is probably the answer.

[Tygerson]

Thanks John, the perspective line tool works really well!  This took half the time!