Shadow Stream: Personal Art Thread - OG Myth-Weavers

Notices


Creative Corner

Post your creative works here and show off your talent!


Shadow Stream: Personal Art Thread

   
Shadow Stream: Personal Art Thread


Introduction
Hello, ShadowStalker here. I've been drawing for most of my life, though I've only recently begun to look at art as a way to make money. I've been painting digitally for only about a year or so, but my normal medium is pencil and paper. I am considering going to school for art, but in the meantime I busy myself with studies of anatomy and character art. I've really only ever drawn characters, but I'd like to get into environments and creature design.

Purpose
The purpose of this thread is to have one location where I can "showcase" my sketches and open them up for comments and critique. All of these images are original works of art either from imagination or observation. Some of the photo-refs used were taken by myself or my wife. For those of you who are artists, technical critique is welcomed. For those of you who are not, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the image (composition, weakness, strengths, mood, etc.). What I do not want to hear, is pointless criticism and/or harassment about my work.

Equipment
Digital
Bamboo Fun Wacom Tablet 3.7 x 5.8
Intuos 4 Large Wacom Tablet
Adobe Photoshop CS4

Traditional
Mechanical pencil 0.5
Black Hard-Covered Moleskine Sketchbook 3 ½” x 5 ½”
Kneaded eraser

Favorite Artists
Adam Rex
Alan Lee
Collywobbles
Donato Giancola
Eva Wildermann
John Howe
Justin Sweet
Kieran Yanner
Marko Djurdjevic
Todd Lockwood
Wesley Burt
Zach Graves

Sketches / Work In Progress / Finished


Maps
Attached Images
File Type: jpg shadow_stream_banner.jpg (46.8 KB, 0 views)
File Type: jpg Rethel.jpg (64.8 KB, 0 views)
File Type: jpg Swordsman.jpg (83.5 KB, 0 views)
File Type: jpg Knight.jpg (71.9 KB, 0 views)

1) You're faking the perspective your drawing the figures in.

2) Your photoshop skills are above your drawing skills right now but we've told you as much on ConceptArt.org (you have a distinct way of rendering right now that I'm sure I recognize it because of it). I know, it seems strange at first but digital rendering is one of those easy things to learn and looks good (especially with all the touch ups you can do at the end) - but difficult thing to do quickly. Once you have something drawn, you can render it out for hours and it will look good. Getting the foundation drawing down is usually the hard part because people skip things like perspective or composition and just start drawing.

That said, you're rendering each section individually. So you render the belt, then the breast place, then the head, etc. No. Bad SS Treat it like a painting. Tone the canvas first and come in an render everything at roughly the same pace until you get your graytone or basic colors established. Viewing the digital work at 10% should look how you want the final to look.

3) The knowledge of the anatomy seems to be there but keeping the perspective constant across the body isn't, keep drawing and you'll get it. In particular, your at the point I was when I discovered that drawing towards realism was suffering from the law of diminishing returns. Our eyes automatically correct alot of things in regard to perspective and form - and rendering it to that extent does trigger that blindness to the subtle mistakes we've made. At this point, I highly recommend looking towards very animated artist like Rodguen. Get your figures moving around some! The life of characters doesn't come from rendering, it comes from the acting.

I like the maps. I'm curious what you would come up with on a battle/encounter scale.

I have absolutely no art skill what so ever, so I will simply say that these all look great and that I wish I could draw >.<

Quote:
Originally Posted by Valiyn View Post
wall of text
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowStalker View Post
@Valiyn - Glad you like the maps, thanks.
I cracked up so much, thank you for that

SS, I'm pretty sure I know why you replied the way you did, but honestly, I do think this was a good point.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Valiyn
Get your figures moving around some! The life of characters doesn't come from rendering, it comes from the acting.
Those pics were good, but if one of those guys were swinging a sword/axe/brick down at my head, it'd be that much better. The second pic, IMO, would be really nifty if he had a bow w/ arrow nocked and ready. Just sayin'. Props, regardless.

@dystmesis,

@Khakhan, I agree. I guess when I started the drawing, I was unsure where I wanted to take it. I think more than making it an entire illustration, I was more focused on the character concept. I've been trying to do more "gesture" figures, but my knowledge of anatomy becomes very strained when I start trying to twist the body, haha. Without formal training, most of what I know is just from repetition, memory, and observation.

'Preciate it, though.

I am not art critique but I did rather enjoy your work. Please continue working on your craft and make me a banner!

Nice WIPs and awesome maps. Very Tolkienesque.

Peace,
-Darakonis

@Shroudeye, Thank-you! Banner?

@Darakonis, I appreciate it. Tolkien is a huge inspiration of mine; good eye, good eye.

Update
Here's a piece of crap from tonight. I got sick two nights ago and I've been at home, puking and miserable. I started this one the other day, but I rushed through it tonight due to lack of patience. I'll probably go back and change it up, but here it is anyways.

Attached Images
File Type: jpg Shadowrunner.jpg (52.8 KB, 0 views)




 

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Last Database Backup 2024-03-19 03:32:24am local time
Myth-Weavers Status