Art Discussion

[misea]

Gwenno said she'd like to see a tutorial from me earlier, and then I remembered that I saved a jillion different versions of my drawing of Alethryia's SSSSona, Johanna, so bad explanations about things here we come!

Spoiler: show

I make a sketch and then clean it up:
  -->     

Cleaning up the sketches gives me a better idea of what I want my lineart to look like. Generally I don't do lineart for the background 'cause it messes with my focus and I'm trying to get better with lineart-less landscapes. Any notes I make about stuff pertaining to the painting either gets put on a sketch layer (as you can see with the galdrastafur) or, if they're colors, get put on a color layer and then are erased before I call the piece finished

Then lineart!:
   
The first one's in the middle of inking (if you can call it that--I don't remember the term). I do lineart for different parts on different layers so that if I screw up I can erase without worrying too much about erasing lines I want to keep. (Am I a person who loves layers? YES. I usually wind up with ~20 different layers, ~6 of which are backup lineart/color layers because I like being able to go back to the original layers and ~3 of which are sketch layers)

Flat colors and background + adjusted colors:
   
I don't start coloring until I'm mostly satisfied with the lineart, and I use refs for the backgrounds. This is the big what-the-frick-is-color-okay-let's-see-if-this-works stage; color theory is nooooooot my strong suit so you're on your own here (but there is this handy explanation that someone--I think it was videovance?--posted earlier in this thread)

Piece in progress that's like 85% finished (because I never remember to save another version before doing coloring/background touchups, ever):


Et voilà:
   

Wooh! Done! C: Now go do other things, you've been staring at the same piece for like two or three weeks (if you take actual breaks--which is very good--and/or are in a dratted art block) or four days (if you like to throw caution to the wind, draw for at 8 hours a day for three days, and then pull an all-nighter (another 6 hours) on top of 12 hours of drawing because why not you're already sleep-deprived... and this is why you should not follow my example when it comes to drawing habits). Really. You should read a book or go outside, or sleep. Sssslleeeeeep... ZZzzzzzzz

[Gwenno]

Gwenno said she'd like to see a tutorial from me earlier, and then I remembered that I saved a jillion different versions of my drawing of Alethryia's SSSSona, Johanna, so bad explanations about things here we come!

Spoiler: show

I make a sketch and then clean it up:
  -->     

Cleaning up the sketches gives me a better idea of what I want my lineart to look like. Generally I don't do lineart for the background 'cause it messes with my focus and I'm trying to get better with lineart-less landscapes. Any notes I make about stuff pertaining to the painting either gets put on a sketch layer (as you can see with the galdrastafur) or, if they're colors, get put on a color layer and then are erased before I call the piece finished

Then lineart!:
   
The first one's in the middle of inking (if you can call it that--I don't remember the term). I do lineart for different parts on different layers so that if I screw up I can erase without worrying too much about erasing lines I want to keep. (Am I a person who loves layers? YES. I usually wind up with ~20 different layers, ~6 of which are backup lineart/color layers because I like being able to go back to the original layers and ~3 of which are sketch layers)

Flat colors and background + adjusted colors:
   
I don't start coloring until I'm mostly satisfied with the lineart, and I use refs for the backgrounds. This is the big what-the-frick-is-color-okay-let's-see-if-this-works stage; color theory is nooooooot my strong suit so you're on your own here (but there is this handy explanation that someone--I think it was videovance?--posted earlier in this thread)

Piece in progress that's like 85% finished (because I never remember to save another version before doing coloring/background touchups, ever):


Et voilà:
   

Wooh! Done! C: Now go do other things, you've been staring at the same piece for like two or three weeks (if you take actual breaks--which is very good--and/or are in a dratted art block) or four days (if you like to throw caution to the wind, draw for at 8 hours a day for three days, and then pull an all-nighter (another 6 hours) on top of 12 hours of drawing because why not you're already sleep-deprived... and this is why you should not follow my example when it comes to drawing habits). Really. You should read a book or go outside, or sleep. Sssslleeeeeep... ZZzzzzzzz

Yayyyyy ^_^ I'm so glad you had these saved up, thank you! I'm just starting to learn how to do digital art and tutorials like this are such a huge help

I'm having a bit of trouble seeing one of your pictures (http://i.imgur.com/29v6Z1K.png), but I'm not sure if that's just my computer being old? Also, no wonder your pictures look so good if you spend so much time on them, although the 'caution to the wind' approach sounds exhausting! Hopefully now that you're finished with that one your sleeping schedule will be kinder

[Lenny]

DRAGONS.

Someone said dragons.

Have a very sketchy dragon tutorial that I drew up just now:

(Yes, I will clean this up, and probably use a text tool, and also draw up a second part... but later! For now I only hope that my handwriting is somewhat legible...)

(Also. If you in any way can, pick up some of Jessica Peffer's -aka Neondragon- books on dragons. She is extraordinarily good at explaining how dragons work. Her tutorials are excellent.)

Spoiler: show

Few main points on dragons:

• Skeletons are important. Need to know where the hips are, ribcage, joints, etc. etc. etc. There's no way on earth that you can get it 100% realistic or anything, because there are no dragons to copy from, but you still need to know where all of those things are, so you can properly pose dragons.
• Wings are like an arm! You can use your own for easy reference, but best is probably a bat's. Unless you're into feathered dragons (which are awesome things) - then you need to go search up how a bird's wing functions. Depending on the style of flight you want your dragon to have, sea eagles are good, swallows, hummingbirds... If you're into underwater dragons, try looking at sea horses and sea dragons and fish and things, see if you can design a wing type that would function well for swimming purposes. Certain sea birds (penguins, for example) are good to study, too. You could even replace it with fins instead.
• After the skeleton/structural things are settled, the rest is all up to you. Want a lizardy-looking dragon? Check what makes a lizard look like a lizard and add that (stubby legs, hand-like feet, folds, scales, bellyscales, flat head...). Sea dragon-like dragon? Study sea dragons and sea horses. Seriously cool stuff there - very delicate facial structure, lots of decorative membrane, very bony looking and ethereal. And so on and so forth! The sky is the limit.
• Seriously. Dragons are probably the coolest thing to draw ever. Have tons of fun, practise a LOT (I've been seriously drawing dragons for 7 years now), and use your imagination.

[misea]

Yayyyyy ^_^ I'm so glad you had these saved up, thank you! I'm just starting to learn how to do digital art and tutorials like this are such a huge help

I'm having a bit of trouble seeing one of your pictures (http://i.imgur.com/29v6Z1K.png), but I'm not sure if that's just my computer being old? Also, no wonder your pictures look so good if you spend so much time on them, although the 'caution to the wind' approach sounds exhausting! Hopefully now that you're finished with that one your sleeping schedule will be kinder

I'm glad it's helpful! c: And the versions of that picture are all on a 4000 x 6000 pixel canvas, so I'm not surprised you're having a hard time viewing it (my computer, which isn't that old but got dropped, takes a good few minutes to load it in SAI). Hahaha, I don't even notice until around morning when I stay up drawing; I followed the take-a-break approach this time though 'cause art block is very blocky

[Krisse Kovacs]

some tips about colouring when someone draws an other person's character/oc/whatever with their own. (digital art)

Spoiler: show

so basically it is about colourings, when two person draws completely different colour palettes and if one draws their one and draw the other with the other's colour palette (picking up the colours) it could look weird in some way.


in my way, my palette is really pastel and bright, but some colours with really bright and colourful arts. (example)
#1 my palette, pastel for both
#2 mixed, brighter-ish, but still a bit pastel for BOTH
#3 both is colourful and bright coloured.

I don't know much about colours, I never studied colours this much, I just use my eye???

[Curry]

I did a tutorial paint because KicknRun asked about hair and hair is my jam
Finished product:



Time spent: 2 hours

Spoiler: ♡hair painting tutorial♡ • show

Alright, so start out with your face and bod painted and your hair sketch complete!


Get your base color down! This is the mid tone color, and I'll be highlighting and shading on top of this. I color right over the sketch. No regrets. You can do this all on one layer or you can also keep the sketch on a different layer below it. "But I can't shade without lineart," you say! No worries, we'll be adding some of that good stuff in the next step!


Here is where I map out all the strands of hair so I know what's up when I begin coloring! I color each strand individually for maximum impact.


Here, you take a darker color (NOT BLACK. never shade with black. it will weigh down your drawing, take all the life away, and make it look very desaturated and metallic. Not the best for hair or skin, or really anything on a normal human being) and color the general areas of where light won't hit as strongly - don't do this at full opacity, you'll be further darkening it later


Take your midtone/base color and blend out the edges. Go right over the lines. You can do it and everything will be okay.


Now we're moving on to individual strands - take a lighter color (NOT WHITE! don't use white for large areas of highlights for it will make your picture look frosted and washed-out. instead, take a lightened tint of your color and highlight with that. for example, a tint of red would be pink and that's what i'm using here) and gently start to lay out the highlights. I usually do longer highlights on the edges of each strand and then shorter ones connecting that with extra highlights at the edge of each ridge in the hair.


Go in again with the same color. Hit the brightest spots (the edges, for me)


That was looking a bit too bright for me, so I take the midtone on a low opacity and soften the edges of the highlights a bit.


Now I take my shadow color and shade the darks, focusing on where light would not be hitting. If there's no light, then it's dark. (wow.)


Again, that was also far too harsh for my liking, so I go back in with my midtone and blend the heck out of it. Soft colors, soft transitions, make it easy on your eyes.


For the rest of the hair here, I repeated the last four steps. Note: if you add too many super-bright highlights, it can be a strain on your eyes. Therefore, for most of the other highlights, I went ahead and took a lighter color in between the super light highlight and the midtone for the rest of the highlights further away from her face.


Speaking of trying to be easy on your eyes, I hated the relationship between the face and shirt colors and the hair, so I made them much darker and more saturated and desaturated the hair so that it would mesh better.


I thought the shadows were too desaturated so I went back in with a dark, saturated wine red and went over all the shading to make it less awful-looking. I also messily brought the highlights back out again with a large brush on low opacity, as you can see. Between this picture and the final image, I went back in and re-added the lines in my saturated wine red and blended the messy highlights back out again. Voila! Hair!

[KicknRun]

I did a tutorial paint because KicknRun asked about hair and hair is my jam
Finished product:



Time spent: 2 hours

Spoiler: ♡hair painting tutorial♡ • show

Alright, so start out with your face and bod painted and your hair sketch complete!


Get your base color down! This is the mid tone color, and I'll be highlighting and shading on top of this. I color right over the sketch. No regrets. You can do this all on one layer or you can also keep the sketch on a different layer below it. "But I can't shade without lineart," you say! No worries, we'll be adding some of that good stuff in the next step!


Here is where I map out all the strands of hair so I know what's up when I begin coloring! I color each strand individually for maximum impact.


Here, you take a darker color (NOT BLACK. never shade with black. it will weigh down your drawing, take all the life away, and make it look very desaturated and metallic. Not the best for hair or skin, or really anything on a normal human being) and color the general areas of where light won't hit as strongly - don't do this at full opacity, you'll be further darkening it later


Take your midtone/base color and blend out the edges. Go right over the lines. You can do it and everything will be okay.


Now we're moving on to individual strands - take a lighter color (NOT WHITE! don't use white for large areas of highlights for it will make your picture look frosted and washed-out. instead, take a lightened tint of your color and highlight with that. for example, a tint of red would be pink and that's what i'm using here) and gently start to lay out the highlights. I usually do longer highlights on the edges of each strand and then shorter ones connecting that with extra highlights at the edge of each ridge in the hair.


Go in again with the same color. Hit the brightest spots (the edges, for me)


That was looking a bit too bright for me, so I take the midtone on a low opacity and soften the edges of the highlights a bit.


Now I take my shadow color and shade the darks, focusing on where light would not be hitting. If there's no light, then it's dark. (wow.)


Again, that was also far too harsh for my liking, so I go back in with my midtone and blend the heck out of it. Soft colors, soft transitions, make it easy on your eyes.


For the rest of the hair here, I repeated the last four steps. Note: if you add too many super-bright highlights, it can be a strain on your eyes. Therefore, for most of the other highlights, I went ahead and took a lighter color in between the super light highlight and the midtone for the rest of the highlights further away from her face.


Speaking of trying to be easy on your eyes, I hated the relationship between the face and shirt colors and the hair, so I made them much darker and more saturated and desaturated the hair so that it would mesh better.


I thought the shadows were too desaturated so I went back in with a dark, saturated wine red and went over all the shading to make it less awful-looking. I also messily brought the highlights back out again with a large brush on low opacity, as you can see. Between this picture and the final image, I went back in and re-added the lines in my saturated wine red and blended the messy highlights back out again. Voila! Hair!

hhaha i wans't actually expecting a response thank you

but uh
um
frickylie diddle waddle
frack

_{i still have no idea how hair works i suppose i have to practice that,}

[Haiz]

_{i still have no idea how hair works i suppose i have to practice that,}

it was time i reposted the """tutorial""" i drew for the self-insert thread a million years back
not that it's actually helpful but hey. fwoosh

[Curry]

I mentioned getting some supercute stuff in the Little Moments of Happiness thread, and here I am with better pictures!



They're resting on my computer because currently my computer screen is the brightest light in this house. They're both mechanical pencils and that little square case is the spare lead :3c I'm so happy with both of them, but I prefer using the blue the most :0

[daiseerose]

I mentioned getting some supercute stuff in the Little Moments of Happiness thread, and here I am with better pictures!



They're resting on my computer because currently my computer screen is the brightest light in this house. They're both mechanical pencils and that little square case is the spare lead :3c I'm so happy with both of them, but I prefer using the blue the most :0

ohhhh! where did you get them from?

[Curry]

ohhhh! where did you get them from?

There's a new store in my mall with lots of Japanese candy and anime trash merch and these were some of the many mechanical pencil options! It was a really hard decision to make, tbh, because there were so many cute ones. My friend m-ew went with me and they got a pink pencil like mine (we match ) and a super cute thicker pink pencil with chicks on it :0

[viola]

I had a bit of money left over from my trip to Iceland, so what did I do with it? Buy art supplies. I got those really awesome paint brushes full of water and they are really awesome. I also got some watercolour pencil crayons which are fun to use. I am going to end up on the street in a pile of books and art supplies one day

[Daéa Reina]

I mentioned getting some supercute stuff in the Little Moments of Happiness thread, and here I am with better pictures!



They're resting on my computer because currently my computer screen is the brightest light in this house. They're both mechanical pencils and that little square case is the spare lead :3c I'm so happy with both of them, but I prefer using the blue the most :0

I don't know what is cuter in this picture: the pencils or your keyboard.

[Curry]

I don't know what is cuter in this picture: the pencils or your keyboard.

Eeee, thank you! I actually got the keyboard cover at my museum It matches my computer case (which is also teal and covered in stickers)

[Alethryia]

starfallz, I like the portability of your supplies! I need that kind of flexibility.

Feartheviolas, I see an uncanny amount of overlap in our art stashes, we could probably be crafting buddies! 

Curry, Trinka has those cute little guys too, she comes home with all the cutest school supplies from the Japanese store called Tokyo Living in our local mall.