Crimson Daggers — Art forum

Did some caricatures for my Nephew and his mates
caricature is real fun and has been really good practice for anatomy and rendering.
give it a go sometime if you haven't and if you have give it another go.

Did some outfit concepts for the main character of a comic I'm making called 'Real Eyes'
I've got allot of the story worked out, just need time to draw it all out 

Hey bro wanted to give ya a quick crit, So basically take your hand and put it at the bottom of your ear, feel where your jaw connects to your neck; IE the sternomastoid. I see a lot of people have this problem with necks so don't feel bad haha; Just remember to place your head on those neck muscles, especially in this more realistic style you're going for. In anime you can get away with the super thin neck that has little foundation but in realism it looks weird. 

Also make sure you take into account the muzzle of the lips, even asian women have these even if they are pretty and less pronounced. do make sure to rock the center line to ensure your features are lining up on the structure of the form as well, like the nose/forehead etc, some of them are skewed. A good exercise for that is getting the skull and tracing over it, finding the simplest possible forms for each major part, then drawing the simplified versions from memory, helped me a ton!

Also don't skimp on the collarbones, they can really add to a womans charm!

Hey thanks bro,
yeah I didn't pay enough attention to the anatomy,  i did fudge the neck and i had a ref where the ear was showing but since i didn't follow the shape exactly it didn't come across the same.
I agree bout the clavicle too and i should have given her some shoulder tone for sure haha
It was a bit of a rush job but ill probably open it up again later and refine it and try make it bullet proof ;)
cheers for the crit

here's a bit o progress with this one
tweaked some composition

Some portrait lighting swap i did while streaming
https://www.twitch.tv/andrewgibbonsart
If you wanna follow my stream and hang out sometime..

did this as part of a monthly challenge i set for my mentor group
the hastily names Get Good Group
anyway just trying to transfer the lighting from the right on to the facial planes  of the left face

Here's a time lapse of it if your'e into that sort of thing

Added first tutorial to my Gumroad:
https://gumroad.com/andrewgibbons

did 104 min commentary over the vid
good practice talking to myself lol



here's the final of it
fun working in this straight to color method
while my other works can take me months and years sometimes..
its nice to know I can crack out something ok in an hour or two also

not bad my man!

So I rushed to finish this board game box art for an art contest.
turns out i had 5 days longer than i thought so..
any crits or comments since i still have time to make changes?
am going to render further depending on the time i have free
basic brief was for a family friendly adventure game in a non realistic style

Well this is unusual (for me to criticize colors) but i actually think your color choices could be more cartoony/vibrant to match the stylized nature of the piece. The colors you picked would work better with a more realistic illustration, but a fix could be as simple as bumping the saturation and kind of dulling it down in areas where its too strong; also increasing the contrast.

Some examples:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o8a3k
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LO8Nw

One thing to think about when making a pose, is to actually do it yourself, like take the pose that the girl is taking rn. If you were being attacked by a horde of mummies, do you think your hands would be in those exact positions?

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/50/72/d5/5072d...ox-art.jpg

Always remember the fulcrum of a pose; especially ones intended to transfer energy. She looks like she's casually sliding the scimitar like a dust mop and her other hand is just waving hello to everyone to be cute. I like the guy with the dynamites pose, he's into it, the dude with the guns is in the right direction but would be even better if he had already stomped a mummy and in the other hand was blowing anothers head off. Naw'mean?

Those caricatures are priceless! So full of life, and a bit of mischief!

Really love the subtle outdoor colors on the portrait you made for the tutorial! Those are "better than a photo" colors.

Nice work for tomb of the sphinx--agreed that the guy on the right is way into it!

The costume concepts look awesome. I actually really like the white dress, even though it's very basic. The tunic with the red dot looks is the most fashionable for sure. To me, it seems to need some sort of leggings/leg protection to balance it out. There's something about it that almost looks like she meant to put on pants, but forgot. It looks potentially like it could be the best fighting outfit, which is probably why you gave here a sword there. I'd like to see it with boots, or some sort of laced up Japanese gladiator-ish sandal.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

Just saw the image of the dragons fighting--what great snakey twisting forms!

Thanks for the crit, I pretty much agree and yeah, I struggle with saturated colors
always a fight against muddyness for me
i had the girl with both hands on the weapon before and maybe that looked a bit more force in the swing
i took one off to make it look a bit more elegant but i agree it lacks power.
didnt do a blown up mummy head cos tryna keep it kid friendly for the brief though it would be possible
thanks for the mika azaevido links, i think looking at his stuff will help for this
I'm so slow and everything beyond a character on a plain background reminds me how little i know about everything
i think i could nail it if i had a year to work on every painting..
ahh need to study more..lots more..
cheers for the speedy feedback Febro

@Tygerson

thanks for all the nice comments and taking the time to look at my stuff
yeah i had the idea for the all white yukata and just felt better not adding any colors to it.
i know its not practical at all but i like having the legs so out there, maybe ill bring it down a bit in the comic.. but maybe itl go higher..will see :P

so just little bits of progress of a few pieces

I have a habit of making things ever harder for myself so in continuing this tradition i have added a few more girls into this scene. not sure if this will be the final number but i am going to try detail some of them up and see where i want to go from there.



After some feedback from Clint Cearley this is the direction im taking this game box cover piece
has been a struggle painting recently. cant keep my mind into it.
But will keep on keepin on..

[img=0x0]https://sta.sh/01jpp8axdly8[/img]

2017 self portrait day

and the progress since I started on git good road
I missed last years portrait day

so finished up on some paintings I had on the back burner for some time

VERY HOT MY MAN!

Slowly finishing up some older paintings
here's Gwenom I started like half a year ago

Hey Andrew, your Gwen is a cutie for sure! I think the image could pop more with some better value arrangement. The hair, the teeth and the face are all very similar in value and the only contrast is the black in the background and the lettering. I tried painting over it but at this point i cant know exactly how to improve it, but i suppose it's something i'd let you know i noticed. I turned the saturation off and that made it clear what I'm saying. Also try pushing some cooler colors since all the colors you used are warm. 

Maybe make her skin brighter and smoother with less texture, as textured faces rarely makes women more beautiful. 

My face artist bouguereau is so good at tackling that issue with temperature and value in a composition of the face

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d7/a1/2d/d7a12...ntings.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QLo49ss91dg/Ur...tail+2.JPG



He's like strategic with the textures and hue changes he's using so it makes more ideal contrast vs the background and the rest of the skin tones. And there's this thing about hierarchy i was learning on NMA like... Values can be whatever you want them to be. Andrew Loomis talks about this in Creative Illustration, like you can alter the matrixes of images to suit a different mood or feel. You can take a high contrast image and sink the contrast and it instantly becomes more mellow and somber, and the opposite makes it intense and engaging. 

your piece has like values that are almost pushed in contrast. The teeth around the hood don't all have to be a uniform value and color, you can play with all that stuff. You can play with like a window or shade lighting where that is an object interrupting the light from hitting the whole form. Like with Dappled light they did this in Bambi so they didnt have to animate shadows on the cartoons and the forest made this fake sense of depth

https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/image...S-4105.jpg

This might seem unrelated but just look how the placement of the cartoons with their original local value looks against different background values

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/3...00-281.png
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/pooh...0913215821
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/dis...0127205313

Super interesting and def worth studying, sorry for rambling lol keep it up m8!

@Febro

Thanks for taking such time and thought,
I agree I could do better with value arrangement and with colours.

I got to the point where I was tired and satisfied enough.
I've been wanting to finish up some old pieces and not be too precious about every detail.
I just tell myself i can always go back and alter it when my ability increases

That said, I agree with what you've said.
I love Boug's paintings and his control is amazing. I have some paintings in the works where I want to attempt something closer to that idealized look of beauty but I'm ok with this one looking a bit more harsh and textured

There are allot of things I need to get better at and more comfortable playing with.
I got a bit burnt out with this one but I'll be keeping your notes in mind for coming pieces

Thanks allot for the crit!