CGMythology's Sketchbook

[cgmythology]

darktiste: Excellent input, thank you! I'll try to keep these things in mind for future illustrations.


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I'm beginning work on a new illustration, exploring a sci-fi theme this time. I went for something a bit simple, but I want to play up the details during the painting process. Here's the sketch:



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Any feedback is always welcome as always!

[cgmythology]

I began painting the alien with magenta tones and didn't like the results, so I ended up repainting it again. The colors were very challenging in this piece, probably because I'm not used to painting Alien skin tones, so this was a welcome challenge. I worked on the image a great deal, pretty pleased with how it's turning out so far. Feedback welcome as always!

[Fedodika]

Well the biggest issue is all of your edges are hard, you tried to add a blur effect to the left side but it still reads as a hard edge. the way the brush strokes on the right side of his head, his cranial area do not follow the form of the "skull" i assume he has. Your strokes go concave and flatten the shape of his head, so try to wrap the strokes "around" his head, think like how the skin wraps around an onion.

Id also reccomend getting a reference for the hand, and adding some gnarly details. Aliens/monsters can have some crazy features you can work in, just google "Monster hand," theres plenty of cool stuff to reference. Also the deltoid/collarbone area is whacky, maybe you can get away with it, but take that pose yourself in the mirror, youll still be able to see a little bit of collarbone, and youd have to lunge your body forward to conceal it. I made the same mistake on an old piece of mine actually;

https://www.deviantart.com/fedodika/art/...-657488222

Might redo that piece soon, i really like the pallette and coposition, its just im more aware of the anatomy problems as years go by.

Also a lot of the lines you use in the finished painting really flatten the image, specially in the nose area, and you should try to paint edges where you have those lines. Some people can balance lines in their work, but even those lines have a super attention to edges, like artgerm for example

[cgmythology]

Fedodika: Great input regarding the brushwork and edges. I worked on the image and tried to implement your input, although I'll be more conscious of this in future works as it's a bit too developed now. I really enjoy the image you posted as well, some very strong brushwork there, had a very traditional feel which I enjoy.

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Current update, it's almost there! Going to take a small break from it then finalize it, want to push the detailing a bit more before I call it done:

[Fedodika]

one thing you could try, i mean i know its late in this image so i understand if you dont try it on this one, but is to to a depth of field or very intense blur on the entire image, then go in and find your sharp edges, so you are making concious choices about which edges you want to show. Master studies of old paintings will give you more of that information than photos. Thats a trick i always use in digital painting and it always bumps the realism way up

[cgmythology]

Fedodika: Excellent feedback, as always. I applied the technique you mentioned, albeit very subtly as I prefer a more crisp look than a blurry one, but I'll definitely keep what you said in mind when handling depth of field for future illustrations.

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I just had the time to finalize the image; Worked more on defining shapes, details, and textures. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and it was a ton of fun working on an alien character, so I'll definitely explore this theme in the near future. Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with this image, very much appreciate it as always :)

[darktiste]

Why are some of the element not blending with tht rest as if they where not meant to be on the same image?Great rendering btw but i think you want to fix black border that make your thing both comic and realistic with those dark edge that make it look out of place.Here what mine would have look like.Of course with bit more accuracy on the smudging job you could get better result but it give you an idea.I also have run a sharpen to bring out the texture inside those strange scale like shape.

[cgmythology]

darktiste: Thanks for you input. Thanks for taking the time to post the paintover as well, interesting results although some parts appear much too sharp for my taste (I prefer a softer look for my work). I think I'm done with the 'alien' image for now, although I plan on creating another one in the near future and applying all I learned from the input I received. Should be fun!

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I started on a new illustration. I wanted to depict a strong female warrior (or a bad bitch, as the kids say), so I chose Joan of Arc as the subject. I'm going for an iconic feel with this one. I had a reference for the general pose as well: https://beta-static.photobucket.com/imag...fit=bounds

Below is the current sketch; The armor took me several passes to get right, as I wanted it to look powerful but feminine at the same time, which was a bit tricky. I have a strong idea for the color palette as well, going to go for a rich golden look, with magenta tones as complementary colors to give the image more 'pop'. Will post an update soon with the first color pass, but feel free to leave any input for now, would be greatly appreciated as always:

[Fedodika]

i feel her lower hand is too small, and her other arm is an awkward pose. like, take that pose yourself, specially how close it is to the body, with a platebody, id move it out a lot more, particularly because i cant see how the bicep connects to it, maybe because you want to avoid that tanget that would happen if you drew it.

For the face, you seem to be drawing it tilted up, and nose reflects that, but the eye to the right side should be higher, else it appears to be sagging off the center line. Id get reference for this pose if possible, its subtle, so all the more important to get right.

The arm to the right side of screen, like this is the problem with drawing things in flat perspective, is you really need to nail the other perspectives to pull it off. So, the sword in her hand is a graphic shape basically, the hilt is not turning at all in space, which is possible, but considering the other hands, everything points to it tilting.

The way the way the hands are place makes them feel close to the body, and it feels like the sword is against her chest plate, but i dont feel the volume of the chest plate, its like a flat shape that bends over the sword to accomodate the hands position.

Her head and neck have a dynamic energy, but her body feels stiff, like that armor really stiffened out the pose youd found earlier. anyways, dont be afraid to start over and sort those things out, even if you go with the same composition and pose, it'll benefit you more drawing these things and solving these problem instead of trying to save it with rendering

[cgmythology]

Fedodika:  Thanks for your honest feedback as always.  I did have a reference photo for the general pose which I tried to stay close to (I think there's a link to it on the original pose) so I think the pose itself looks fairly natural.  Good point about the eye, will fix that as soon as I flatten the layers.  The pose is a bit stiff as you mentioned, that's actually a common challenge for me to overcome with my drawings, so in the future I'll try to exaggerate the gesture more for a more dynamic result!

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Photobucket is acting weird again so I wasn't able to upload yesterday's and today's updates, so I'm attaching them directly in the forum.   The image has come quite a long way and I did my best to incorporate all the great input I received.  I think I'm gonna go for a bit of a darker and grittier feel for this image as I think it'll make it more believable, so I added some battle scars on her face and will add dirt/rust/etc. on her armor and sword.  Below is yesterday's update followed by the more recent one.  Feel free to let me know any feedback as always!

[Fedodika]

I think if youre gonna make it gritty, like reaaally make it gritty, having a cut face and squeaky clean armor doesnt make sense, but i see youre gonna go for that.

Also her hairline seems to be receding, so id move it up just a little

[cgmythology]

Fedodika:  Yes, I was aware of that, just wasn't at that point where I applied the texture work to her armor!

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Finally had the chance to finalize this piece.  I spent quite some time refining and doing a ton of detail and texture work to help bring it to life, so much so that I'm a bit exhausted from working on it, haha.  Special thanks to everyone that took the time to provide feedback for this illustration, it was a great help and the image is that much better for it, so I'm very grateful!

[chubby_cat]

Just for next time - careful with how you render the sigil/pattern on the flag. You had it correct in your WIP with the shadows falling in the folds of the fabric, but in the final piece it's like the shadows are going in the opposite direction of the flag.

Also, I know we've all been guilty of this, but if you're going to put a texture over something then you need to make it fit to the form. You can tell with the flag a static texture has been placed over it... it doesn't move with the flag like it should. A quick minute using the liquify or wrap tool would help.

Last thing, there seems to be a bit of conflict with styles in the image. The face and hands have been fully rendered, but there's thick black line art throughout the armour and even behind her. This breaks the flow of the imagine and is something to keep in mind for you next piece.

[cgmythology]

Chubby Cat:  That's some excellent input, I'm guilty of a lot of things for a lot of my illustrations I admit.  In general I like to blend the linework with the painting as it goes along, although it seems I need to do a bit of a better job!  I'll keep everything you said in mind for my next piece, thank you!!

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I just finished some fairly complex illustrations for a client, so I decided to take a bit of a break and paint something a bit more simple.  I started on a portrait for a friend.  I did my best to capture her likeness in the linework, and will hopefully be able to do her justice with the painting.  

I'm going for a soft, ethereal feel to this one.  It's not obvious yet as I'm working almost exclusively with hard edged brushes at this point, it's just easier for me to define form and lighting working this way.  The light source is from the bottom, and I intentionally chose this as it's more challenging than the standard front or top light sources.  Attached the final line work, and the beginning of the painting process, as well as the reference photo I'm referring to.  Any input is always welcome and appreciated!

[cgmythology]

I worked on the image a great deal, pushed values and lighting further and introduced shading with soft edged brushes, which is giving me the look I had in mind so I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out so far!

[Fedodika]

i dont think it resembles your subject matter, you stripped away all the plumpness in her face and skin, her eyes are wider apart in the photo, and smaller and her head isnt such a perfectly circular shape. in the photo her jaw has more fat around it, which in the photo she's much more attractive than what youve drawn; also the brushwork youve used is really plastic and lifeless, and the anatomy of her neck and shoulders has a lot of problems, like the neck is way too big in comparison with the shoulders, which cause her to look like some sort of poorly sculpted barbie doll

My advice, as usual, is to stop painting for a long time and just draw with a pencil, learn how to indicate anatomy, form and perspective accurately, and stop wasting tons of time polishing pieces with photoshop tricks that dont have strong foundations

[darktiste]

I feel like that ''head band'' could wrap more aroud her head and right now it look more like a tattoo with a bit of relief than an actual object sitting on her head note how the object as not cast and shadow on her forehead at all it pretty much the same value all around her forehead.I Tried to fix some issue but overall i think mine doesn't bring the joy joy feeling your was able to pull off.Mine on the other end use light to bring out certain feature and element such as the eye and the ''head band'' i also tried to put her body going away from us more in shadow to create a sense of deep.I will have to second fedo about the plastic doll feeling not only is the expression plastic but the head feel really big compare to the body.

[cgmythology]

Fedodika:  Thanks for your honest feedback;  I'll rework the face a bit to tackle those problems and the general anatomy you mentioned.  I agree about doing more anatomy studies as well in general, so I'll focus more on building the foundations after I complete this painting.

darktiste:  Great input!  I like your suggestions regarding the lighting in particular, will rework that aspect a bit by the next update and work on the issues stated.

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Here is the current update, it's getting there!  I'll focus on fixing the flaws present in the image and then finalize it soon.  Any input is appreciated as always!

[darktiste]

I think you just could to add some pore her skin and some beauty mark but that just for extra realism.Also since you seem to have some light source i would try to incorporate those yellow and red reflected light into your skin.

I am still impress with the result just make sure to get more anatomical reference for the next one.Your still doesn't go well with to much simplification of the body in my opinion.

[chubby_cat]

Okay, a disclaimer: I probably went to far with the paintover, and pushed it a bit back to the lifeless/plastic feel Fed was mentioning, destroyed your lighting, etc. but I thought I would share it anyways to demonstrate a few issues. 

Aside from what Fed mentioned about the drawing itself, there's several main issues that stand out painting wise:
- Her lips have a feeling that they still have lineart on them, so they don't quite fit in
- The eyes also have the same effect. The whites of the eyes are also so light in value compared to everything else
- When painting women (and trying to paint attractive women) being subtle is really key. There's a lot of strong lines painted in around her jaw and mouth, which really ages her and takes away from the overall appeal. It's totally cool to do smile lines and the philtrum, but it is a case of less is more when you're trying to make things look attractive. 

In the overpaint I:
- changed the values of the eyes and added in soft edges to make it more 'realistic'. Also made the eyes smaller
- softened her lips
- softened the lines around her mouth area
- made the overall face values less intense

Hope it helps!