As I mentioned my my intro I have really been working on making coloring a strength instead of a weakness. I have already made it to step 1…making coloring a fun step in my art and not a dreaded part. I have picked up a few techniques over the years the work decent for the 2 styles I like to create in. (comic with line art, and more painterly with no line art) but I still want to get better and I hope to make this sketchbook a diary of that with y’all help :)
On this weeks piece and to kick this off (apologies for the beaten-to-death subject matter but the colors are too good to not play with) I wanted to push multiple light sources, one intense (muzzle blast), one atmospheric, and one secondary focus (gloves) I know things can get a bit muddy and distracting with this many light sources but I wanted to push myself.
Any CC are most welcome (and not just on the coloring, improving everywhere is the goal also)
I think you should avoid turning the line art into rim light to me it not something i have seen in professional work but if you can find example of it i would certainly be interested to see some example.For the material i think you need to be think more about the difference in reflectivity of each material and use one against the other to compare so that they don't end up reading as the same texture.Specially the metal which look like matter plastic and the leather which is to white in the highlight i recommend a few study on that. The Vi glove look mmore like latex in term of reflectivity.
Last thing to note perhaps is if you think of working for riot and not just fanart would be to take in consideration that riot artwork is painterly not linework.
The example below is and example of what normally seen in lineart when dealing with rimlight.
Thank you @Darktiste, very much appreciate your critique!
For the rim light with line art, its was more experimentation than anything else, comic art uses color holds on Line art quite a bit to show depth and on highlights (your example shows this to a slight degree) and just pushed this concept with this for an extreme stylized effect. But i can appreciate it may have been over the top…live and learn
Your comment on texture resonates a lot with me. I am guilty of jumping into shadows and highlights too quickly without much thought on texture at times and i get into trouble when trying to go back later. This is something i hope to work on :)
As for working for Riot…well that would be nice ha! But no, I’m afraid I’m a humble free time illustrator at the minute with no intention of going pro this is just for fun and and self improvement.
Thank you again for the detailed critique! I will take it all on board
That's a really cool piece, man, and complex. The characters are very well drawn and proportioned. I see what darktiste is saying about turning the line-art into rimlight, but it works for me, personally.
The only thing that sticks out to me is the completely sharp edges on some of the shadow terminators (like on the pink lady's face and the blue lady's temple), but it looks like a side-effect of your technique rather than something intentional. If unintentional, I'd just watch for those more carefully and make sure the shadows are blended in a consistent way.
Thank you @PublicEnemy I’m glad you like it. I see what you mean about the main shadows. I do tend to use a hard line if I’m trying to push a more intense light source but you are totally right about the faces. I pushed them back and blended and it looks a lot better. I am also a fan of the rim light as i felt it gave it a unique look but i eased it down a bit so it didn’t look so unrealistic. Still not sure how i feel about it…
On this update I just made a few small tweaks ( rim light, shadow blending) as well as some texturing to some of the flatter elements (gun, gloves and shirt) shouldn’t have been too lazy to do this the first time around :-)
Thanks for all the comments guys! I didn’t realize how much i missed this stuff
My issue seem to be with the flash of electricity near jinx machine gun which i have no idea why it there.It not a zap gun as far as i know so the story there is kinda confusing for me there.So i think it not always as clear as we might expect the story to be to the people who look at what we done so always good that you are looking for feed back before calling it done.
There seem to be a problem of lightining consistency on the vi arm pulling back the top section why is there light on top of that cylindricalish shape if there a glove that should obstruct any lighting coming down and there isn't a top light source?
Other than that i think thing are clear and balance and still show a really dynamic pose so it really not much left to worry about.
@Darktiste I am very appreciative of any and all feedback, there truly is no such thing as bad feedback. The idea behind the lightning emanating from Jinx's gun was more me taking some artist license and not necessarily staying true to the show/game. The idea being the Gatling gun was spooling up before firing and the energy created from that action was emitting a small energy field. I appreciate I may not have delivered that intension clearly and the effect is confusing. Thank you again for this, its good to know how your art is interpreted so to get multiple perspectives. :-)
Started a new piece last night. Being a RA Salvatore fan I have always found inspiration from his creatures when i need something to draw and one of my favorites is Lady Lolth (dark-elf/spider hybrid) on this one i wanted to have a little fun with her crocheting perhaps a small sweater for her expected spawn out of her…thread :-)
I’m quite a few hours into this and not finished yet but wanted to get a few takes on it. Are the light sources reading right? My goal was to have 3 light sources ( 1. background pink being an atmospheric light, 2. the pond being a more intense light from below and 3. her “sack” having a subtle glow as it prepares for birth) Anything obvious im not seeing that can help with the readability? I still have a few more hours to go on this one and will be adding more texturing and details to her face.
PS i hope NSWF is ok here but they dont make bras in her size
The only thing i wish we would see a little bit more clearly is those corpse hanging from the ceilling.I am not to fan of the hair style i think a more hag like hairstyle obscuring the face would add to the spooky vibe as i don't see how she could maintain a well keep hairstyle such as this one since drider are living away from civilisation.But i have also seen official art which show drider with well kept hair and armor so it seem as if there is the possibility that they retain some of there previous belonging.Adding a net to keep her hair this way would probably make sense and it would add a repetition of the theme of web.
I provided example.Of possible direction to explore.
In term of skin color it not accurate if you want to follow the DND canoon.
If i can add something of value it would be to learn more about the base creature(spider) and the lore(Drider).The idea being that Design follow function. Where does the web come from that the big question as a viewer i got problem answering ?
For thr NSFW you can add web like shown in the picture below if you want to have 2 version.
Cheers for that @Darktiste! totally get what you mean about the hair. I did play with a few different styles but settled on an elongated cranium with some slicked/pulled back do. With Lady Lolth essentially being a goddess I would like to think that affords her the luxuries of perfectly coiffed mop :-) I will revisit and see what I can do to get her more suitably styled.
Im not interested is holding to cannon for the most part, just creating some interesting pieces to practice art on, thinking more "inspired by" DnD and then apologize for the liberties later :P
This might be subjective and useless feedback but these are my impressions:
I think the light sources work and read well. The only thing that bugs me a little bit is that I think you went too uniformly light in the highlighted parts or maybe just too dark in the shadows. It's hard to tell what the local color of her skin is. In the mid-tones and shadows it looks like a purple color of middling brightness, in which case the light areas shouldn't be so uniformly bright white (except for speculars).
In this paintover I tried to make the areas of bright cyan more constrained. But to be honest I'm not even sure if I'm full of baloney or not after doing this, so judge for yourself:
(12-16-2021, 09:48 AM)Pubic Enemy Wrote: This might be subjective and useless feedback but these are my impressions:
I think the light sources work and read well. The only thing that bugs me a little bit is that I think you went too uniformly light in the highlighted parts or maybe just too dark in the shadows. It's hard to tell what the local color of her skin is. In the mid-tones and shadows it looks like a purple color of middling brightness, in which case the light areas shouldn't be so uniformly bright white (except for speculars).
In this paintover I tried to make the areas of bright cyan more constrained. But to be honest I'm not even sure if I'm full of baloney or not after doing this, so judge for yourself:
I solid paintover indeed, I take this feedback on board for sure as it touches on something i was struggling with on this one and gives me something to focus on. No bologna this time my friend :-)
update to this one, put some more attention on her head and face. I like the idea that she is slicking back her hair to cover her grotesquely deformed and elongated cranium. I dropped the FG light source (pond) and moved the focus/intense light to the webbing source (the bulbus orifice) and adjusted the surrounding shadows and some reflected light. plus some other small details.
Happy New Years all. Managed to carve out some time over the weekend to flesh out an old sketch of mine that i never got around to, and in all honesty i just wanted to draw a Dragon and a cheeky naked damsel, because why not? :-)
Pretty sure i may have over saturated this one a bit, crits welcomed.
Spider lady piece is delightfully spooky. The more close and intense light source makes the very bright highlights work better.
The new piece is delightfully cheesy and Frazetta-like. I don't think it's over-saturated at all, unless you wanted a more muted look. It looks like a big leap forward in terms of painting skills compared to your previous posts. Really nice midtones and rendering all around.
(01-05-2022, 07:22 AM)Pubic Enemy Wrote: Spider lady piece is delightfully spooky. The more close and intense light source makes the very bright highlights work better.
The new piece is delightfully cheesy and Frazetta-like. I don't think it's over-saturated at all, unless you wanted a more muted look. It looks like a big leap forward in terms of painting skills compared to your previous posts. Really nice midtones and rendering all around.
Thanks very much for the kind words @PubicEnemy! anytime someone mentions Frazetta-like in regards to my work I know im on the right track as all his work inspired the heck out of me. You made my day with that :)
Yeah I wasn't going for the muted look its more that I was paranoid from staring at it too long that i may have over done the bright parts. usually in my process I tend to over saturate my base layers to show contrast then dial it back after when i progress to lighting, and I never really dialed this one back. Maybe that means Im getting better at judging my base colors... ha! more likely just got lucky
I would tone down the spike they are to dark in my opinion they woulld need to blend a little more
Her left leg seem to be out of proportion it not reading very well for me.I don't know about you after it being point it out do you feel the same?
The anatomy of the beast is strange instead of having the muscle come out of the cylindrical shape it coming from under it which would not be the case if this creature crawl which is serpent like suggest.Very hard to read what going on.I would find it useful to see a concept drawing of the creature to see if i misunderstood the anatomy. But the point being is clarity and anatomy might need more attention. Always try to find a creature from the real world you can use as you base to start from. It should be somewhat easy for the viewer to say oh that look like something i know without them going like oh no what going on here i got no reference point i can't picture how this creature might move. For example here you could have taken creature from the lizard&serpent family as the base.
It might not be that you have big problem with foreshortening or creature anatomy but you might get a level up just pushing those two thing with study instead on focus on bigger piece. As a illustrator you have to balance your illustration with a good deal of study in between or else your fundamental aren't taken care of and they might stagnate and start to be more apparent as you progress. It surprising me that we don't see any thumb nailing in the sketchbook yet which to me is a mistake because to me that just mean you commit to early and you might not be giving yourself the option to see what work and what doesn't.By thumbnail i mean more than the doodle that serve for the final.
As always thanks @darktiste for the in depth critique, your time taken to break it down is very appreciated. I take your guidance for reference in and I am no stranger to looking at the world around me for help, however when it comes to designing and creating something other-worldly like a cave dwelling dragon i tend to limit reference and work from imagination as much as possible. My idea behind this guy is he is a wingless dragon that instead has a collapsible and ribbed hood that stretched from neck to flank that allows him to glide for limited ranges ( just enough to surprise a non-suspecting meal below). I appreciate my piece may not have shown enough of him and what i did show was perhaps too confusing to get that concept across. The quick doodle below gives the rough idea of what i had in mind for him.
You are right about the spikes! I wasn’t happy with how they turned out in honesty and will revisit to tone them down.
I’m not sure about the left leg on her though, im torn. I went for an ambitious foreshortening on that leg and perhaps I didn’t pull it off like i wanted. Might work with the lighting to perhaps pull the heel back a bit to show the right angle.
And i hear what you are saying about the thumbnailing. I do work many options before jumping in normally, this piece was a special case that i wanted to take to finished. I tend to not want to clutter the sketchbook with too much process but perhaps that’s the interesting part I should start to include.
The way you designed the wing would not permit it to gliding in my opinion it would offer little to no air resistance as it should for itself to glide safely you want to have covincing cartilage or bone in between each section of membrane to renforce the air resistance.
Right now it look more like a floppy sheet of skin with weak cartilage or bone and it doesn't look to me like it could hold the weight of the dragon if he would fall it look more like it only serve for underwater aerodynamism because of how small and thin the bone or cartilage look.It also doesn't look like he could us is wing to take off due to the position of the hood as you call it. Video research for design and function https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBVgbxTkEuo
For a design stand point in nature a hood is generally use as a scare tactic to look bigger to a predator. Video research for design and function https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxC_BNYrXG8
I provided example of what i would consider glider/flying type creature example taken from monster hunter and D&D to illustrate my point.
