164 replies to this topic

[Aliya]

Such realistic clouds!

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Ooo! That's REALLY neat!
Good colors, particularly like the wing & tail-flap fringes. This time the texture looks right too. Very neat indeed. ^^

Thank you so much WeeR! It really was so painful to create this one , that for a moment I felt so dissapointed and i was afraid i wouldn't finish it. The fact is that when i started, i was working for some hours. Then hours turned into days as i progressed. And with that one, it's the first drawing that i was working for 1-2 weeks (about 1-6 hours per day). I know maybe it doesn't show but it was very difficult for me. The thingy is that with such detailed work, i kinda loose the fun of creation and even the very promising result isn't enough. But some support really helps!

[Choo Choo]

Whoa. It's been a while since I checked this thread and MAN, you've improved lots!

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Such realistic clouds!

I tried to make a strange mix of golden-blue sky, so that it would fit the dragon (btw, gold as a color is very hard to blend with a kinda blue background) I think that after some hours of experiments it turned out quite well! Do you like the dragon?

PS: Damn, i wanted them to be more fantasy than realistic. lol

[WeeRLegion]

Thank you so much WeeR! It really was so painful to create this one , that for a moment I felt so dissapointed and i was afraid i wouldn't finish it. The fact is that when i started, i was working for some hours. Then hours turned into days as i progressed. And with that one, it's the first drawing that i was working for 1-2 weeks (about 1-6 hours per day). I know maybe it doesn't show but it was very difficult for me. The thingy is that with such detailed work, i kinda loose the fun of creation and even the very promising result isn't enough. But some support really helps!

Man, I know the feeling, sorta why I rarely venture beyond the safety of my half-arsed comic styles and speed-colorings. x]

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Whoa. It's been a while since I checked this thread and MAN, you've improved lots!

Thanks Choo Choo! I think the help i've got from the Spellholders was very critical to my progress. Hope that with such great support i will progress further! And i hope to see you more often! So which one do you like?

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Man, I know the feeling, sorta why I rarely venture beyond the safety of my half-arsed comic styles and speed-colorings. x]

Still I wonder how some great artists draw amazing stuff with speed-paintings (about 2 hours). I will never reach that level. Instead of improving my time, it increaces about 300% with every painting. I am DOOMED. XD

[Choo Choo]

I loved the most recent two, the dragons - they're great!

[WeeRLegion]

Speedpainting takes a different kinda style I think, as well as a good intuitive grasp of colors and shapes. I'm no good at it either, really, my best quality work methods are rather tinkerous. @_@

But eh, it's something of a different skill. You'd have to specifically practice it to get it right. o_o

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

@Choo Choo
Thank u! I love dragons!

@WeeR
I think you're right. It's something very difficult to master. Anyway, i'll keep trying on my style. I have many things to master in it before i try speed-paintings.

[Epantiras]

Don't worry about time spent. It increases as you get better because you learn more but also make mistakes, but as soon as you'll learn not to make these mistakes again, you'll spend less time. However, as your skill increases and learn new techniques, time spent will increase again and so on.
If you remember my Kivan picture, it took an incredible amount of time (around 12 hours) but if I'd paint the *same* thing today, it would take me less time. However, I'd also make something better and this improvement would suck me more time 9_9
I've read the comments of some super artists at DA, some of their amazing stuff can take even 20 hours to be finished.

By the way, I've seen your golden dragon ;-)
the dragon looks nice, I like the folds of the skin on his body. Do you usually resize your pics? I'd suggest you to work on bigger pictures, it makes you learn fast.
Did you paint the clouds or did you use some stock pictures? Because, well, they don't blend well with the dragon as it is painted in a less realistic way. Plus, there's a strong light beam on the left which screams "Photoshop filter!". Its is good to use them at the beginning but an experienced artist can notice that, especially because they don't look good compared to what you can acheive by painting them yourself. Sorry if I sounded a bit rude, I'm trying to give some costructive criticism ;-)

[Jarno Mikkola]

Gold Dragon
I'd love to hear your comments!

Can you change the dragons traveling angle so the head is more down? As I can't see the spinal fin to be in that position unless she is diving in a spiral into the darkness.

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

@Epantiras
Thanks for your words about the time spent. It's good to know i'm not the only one having problems. lol Maybe it's because I progress so fast, that i have so great time problems. I managed to work for about 20+ hours for the dragon... I sure do many mistakes and i always try new thingys. Maybe that's why time is always increacing...

As about the gold dragon, it was much bigger size (even of the one available on DA). I worked on very high zoom, even if it doesnt show. I used cloud brushes for the clouds, but i added them above my own clouds in which i was building with variant color tones from blue to gold. That's why they seem so cool! They are close to realistic-fantasy clouds! Unfortunately I couldn't make a realistic gold Dragon... I'm not that good yet lol As about the lightbeam, I know you're right and don't be afraid to sound rude, i know you're tryng to help! I really appreciate constructive criticism! Do you think i'm able to draw my own lightbeams? I'm really at the beginning and i thought it was hard to achieve by my level. I will give it a try on new paintings. I still have so much to learn!

@Jarno
I'm afraid i can't do anything for it now, You know i'm still learning and i do many mistakes. Anyway, i like the "diving in a spiral into the darkness" ! lol

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Info: Also known as shadowdrakes or darkwyrms, Styx dragons haunt the putrid waters of the River Styx throughout its nearly infinite length. One of the few creatures immune to the harmful effects of the river, Styx dragons swim with impunity across the top layers of all the Lower Planes, feasting on fiends and any other creature they can find and catch. (Draconomicon)

I tried a speedpaint-like technique on this one. It has no great details but I think it's more artistic and of course a really pleasure to make! I think i'll keep to that technique and i hope i will get better with practice.

Made in May 2009

Styx Dragon


I'd love to hear your comments!

[Aliya]

You should add reflections on scales and fins from the moon.

[Epantiras]

You should add reflections on scales and fins from the moon.

You've got sharp eyes Aliya! I knew there was something missing but I could not figure it out myself ;-) even if they're putrid waters there should be some reflections.

If you want the creature to look "wet" as if it's just risen from the water, I suggest you to add small WHITE dots, water reflects light completely. If you look at a picture of a snake or a worm you'll see the very same effect on their skin.

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Thanks for the feedback! Well, here's the new version. I know it's not a masterpiece but i hope you like it more now!

Edited by Silinde Ar-Feiniel, 14 May 2009 - 08:36 AM.

[Aliya]

Ok, maybe this will help.

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Thank you for all the guidance Aliya! It really means a lot to me! I hope you won't get offended if I have different thoughts on this, because I really appreciate your help! The problem is that i think it's better not to add the stronger lights because some lights are already there (the pale blue ones are meant to be from the moon). Maybe you're right about adding stronger lights (it would seem more magical) but that could mess the pic, because it's meant to be the secondary light. In other words, the "moon lighted parts" will "come out" with a greater light and they will kill the depth of the pic. You know, the tail was meant to be on the image somewhat more in the background, that's why the (should be stronger) lights fade a little. I guess i could increase both light sources but that could overkill the pic. As for the moon, i think i was trying a kind of manga style moon. It's fantasy, isn't it? Let's do some random mixes of styles. lol I'm not so sure about it. Now that you know that it was intended, could you please tell me you sincere opinion about it? I wish other Spellholders tell me their opinion too, so that i know if I should change it or not.

[Epantiras]

I agree with Aliya regarding parts what should be brighter. If you don't feel like adding lights on them, you could make the moon look less bright (let's say, put some clouds or mist on it), otherwise trained eyes will notice that there's something missing.

Regarding my older post about "white" dots for making you feel the creature is wet, I'm stealing Aliya's idea of using MS paint to show you what I mean ;-)

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