112 replies to this topic

[Icendoan]

Text is a *tad* small...

Otherwise it is great, but the colours don't really fit an underground city full of undead, imo.

Icen

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

As, you recall, I started drawing people. Only a month or so, ago, and I'm still practicing, as you see. So. I you can tell everything, I won't be hurt!

You're making real progress! I 'd never like to hurt u! WeeR's advise is great. If i had something to add....let's see... try to use short lines in creating hair (basicaly in creating everything) and add some lines (not too many) with slightly different directions in order to make them feel more natural and less linar. As time goes by, i see that you add more details in your drawings and that's really awesome!

Edited by Silinde Ar-Feiniel, 17 November 2008 - 12:21 PM.

[WeeRLegion]

Uhm... Aliya. say after me, please.

-Blur does not make up for low detail.

-Blur makes things look crap when not applied with care.

.p


So, don't use the blur effect, and try to paint as much with a hard edged brush as possible, just to avoid unnecessary blurriness.


Sorry, but there's quite a few things wrong with that comic page.

-The picture is HUGE, WAAAY too large for a single comic panel, even if it's meant to fill the whole 'page'.

-The text is scattered here and there with no speech-bubbles or anything of the sort to draw attention to it.

-And then. there's the blur.


Ummm...
Ya wanna see how I'd do that page? ,p

Edited by WeeRLegion, 17 November 2008 - 02:46 PM.

[Aliya]

@ WeeR - *repeats* If you want. And you won't be hurt, if I... take the comic page... . I s**k, at coloring...

@ Silinde - Ok, I'll do second page, with sharp edge brush.

@ Icen - Thanks! Only with full view you can see text... xD

Edited by Aliya, 18 November 2008 - 05:50 AM.

[WeeRLegion]

Watch this:

Think it might be educational, help you figure out a few tricks. @_@
It's a fast-forward paced recording of some guy working on a digital portrait pic.

If you search you tube for 'speedpaint' you can find more stuff of the same kind. Damn ,there's some really awesomely skileld people out there. @_@



And don't start giving up, like you said, you just started. You've made some good progress, but to be honest, I don't think you should yet proceed to such grand projects as a comic.
Sure, you'd learn a lot, and you'd learn a lot fast, but it's a whole new world of trouble considering the panel layouts, speech-bubbles, dialogs...
Don't look at my comic; the layout there is utter simplicity and crap, it's a parody comic, and that's it's only real selling point, look at Doxxy's fancy squares, or Flysoup's, they've got the layout down real nicely.

Anyway, I'm getting derailed; I think you should still for a while focus on mastering the basics with single characters, scenes, and the sort. Pictures that you can take as much time as you like with, with no pressure of moving on to the next picture.


And, just try it; try taking more time with your pictures, grab a tiny brush and go draw in some barely visible details; the overall quality of your drawings will improve greatly.

EDIT: This ones real good too, actually, this one is better. the guy even later on uses blur and other effects on it, for GOOD effect. Whow. @_@
http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

Edited by WeeRLegion, 18 November 2008 - 06:33 AM.

[Orthodoxia]

Here are some tips for mastering the basics of drawing:

1) Have favorite characters and draw them like mad -> quick easy to toss away sketches, no one needs to look at those but you.
2) Find professional pictures you like and copy them for practice, trace them even. In the beginning, I'd often look at other people's drawings and copy from them. It helped a lot.
3) Until you're certain you've managed to get human proportions right you will draw characters looking like they have a stick up their a**. Alas, that is the only way.
4) Learned From A Super Teacher And So True: No amount of painting, coloring, graphical programs can hide a sloppy drawing. Before moving onto color learn how to draw and learn it well <- I'm still struggling with this one >.<

1-3 tips are the way I learned to draw before staring school for design. Tip 4 I've learned much later but it's so very important. If you really want to do a comic do a short one with no color and just clear lines or sketches. It is a good way to start thinking about paneling.

Keep moving up that hill Ali, it'll be well worth it in the end

[Aliya]

*reads attentively* Ok, I've just figured that my parents will present me a tablet, at the new year holidays... >_<

[WeeRLegion]

That doesn't really change much. If you're going to start using a tablet some day during your drawing career, you might as well start using one early on. :]


I'm working with a mouse, but that's mostly just me being too lazy to seriously get to getting myself a tablet. .p
Many digital artists pretty much swear by their tablets.

Edited by WeeRLegion, 18 November 2008 - 08:44 AM.

[Aliya]

I recognized the horrible truth... My drawings s***!

[Orthodoxia]

Your drawings do not suck. You need to practice more and develop whatever talent you have.

I recommend first learning to use a regular pencil before hurrying off to use the tablet. It is better than a mouse but it by it self won't make your drawing better. Only you can do that.

[WeeRLegion]

You can't expect to rock the world with your first try. .p
There's some people who'll stubbornly keep talking about things like 'talent', but the thing is, 90% of you skill at ANYTHING consists of countless hours of practice and learning, nothing more.


So take a look at this:
http://img.photobuck.../sadgoblinJ.jpg

This:
http://img.photobuck...id/ahaehahe.jpg

And this:
http://img.photobuck...d/hippieelf.jpg

Those are some of my works from soem years back; they suck, utterly. And to top that, I quite exclusively used burn and dodge for the shadows and highlights.
The first one is just plain stupid and pointless and blueh, and shaded to hell and back, and the second is blurry, the perspective is screwed, and there's a general lack of detail abotu everything.
NOW: In the middle of things, I've taken looong breaks from drawing, so with more focused practice, I could have gotten where I am right now (shamefully near to where I started, actually .p) in MUCH less time.
Maybe shave off some 80% of the time...

Now, fast forward a little...
http://img.photobuck...blinFacetJP.jpg

It's an ancient avatar image of mine; never used it at SHS.
It's crap; If I recall, I was still using burn and dodge (it did do a half-arsedly decent job at making metal parts shiny though), but the green face part lacks any detail whatsoever.

And this, from just a few years back...
http://img.photobuck...mOfScytha1J.jpg

What can I say? The shading is pure suck, and the texture looks more like toilet paper than anything. No depth whatsoever. .p


So, that's the essentials of my gallery of horrors; everyone starts out drawing, coloring and painting by drawing, coloring and painting countless pictures that they'd later on rather burn in a furnace than show to anyone else. .p


And to add just the latest; http://img.photobuck.../HARKEMONL1.jpg
I think I've actually posted that one here, in one of my ancient better-left-for-oblivion scribble collections.
Gawd, what an failure at perspective that is... And the anatomy, the anatomy, and the play-doh hair, and moth eaten face... x_x
The sky in the background is actually a blurred photo. xP
And as you can see; still using burn & dodge. .p

Edited by WeeRLegion, 18 November 2008 - 09:14 AM.

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Hey Aliya, Doxia is right! Your drawings do not suck! Please continue practicing, you're getting better every day! You sure have many skills!
Btw, forgive my ignorance but what is a tablet? ???

Edited by Silinde Ar-Feiniel, 18 November 2008 - 09:23 AM.

[Icendoan]

Uhm, a tablet is well, this.

Yeah, you show more and more promise every time, and you are really improving. I could name nearly a hundred people who would envy drawing like that!

Icen

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Uhm, a tablet is well, this.

Yeah, you show more and more promise every time, and you are really improving. I could name nearly a hundred people who would envy drawing like that!

Icen

:0 ! OMG, i had never even imagined that such a thing existed! How much does it cost???

[RedTyga]

Uhm, a tablet is well, this.

Yeah, you show more and more promise every time, and you are really improving. I could name nearly a hundred people who would envy drawing like that!

Icen

:0 ! OMG, i had never even imagined that such a thing existed! How much does it cost???

Cheapest ones you can probably find for $60-$100. The most expensive one (and rightly so) is the cintiq, which is basically an LCD screen that you draw on. It's like your actually drawing on paper, only you know, digitally. That one is $2000. Here's a link to someone using the cintiq:

Edited by RedTyga, 18 November 2008 - 11:10 AM.

[WeeRLegion]

...
*wants a Cintiq* T_T

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Cheapest ones you can probably find for $60-$100. The most expensive one (and rightly so) is the cintiq, which is basically an LCD screen that you draw on. It's like your actually drawing on paper, only you know, digitally. That one is $2000. Here's a link to someone using the cintiq:

Thank you RedTyga! This is so cool! WeeR, I want one too! lol Mmm, but maybe later. It is expensive but i think it worths it's money. For now i'll concentrate in traditional drawing and if i see that i make great progress (...and if my financial goes well) i'll buy a cintiq!

[Shae]

Cintiqs are awesome (especially the huge ones) but oh so expensive. I haven't actually tried using a normal tablet much (someone gave me a cheap one years ago, I used it for 10 minutes, got annoyed and switched back to a mouse) as I jumped right after the sortof cheaper (though still fairly expensive, certainly more than a normal tablet) alternative: a tablet-pc.

Though it can be frustrating, you don't actually need a tablet to make great digital art. I've seen some pictures that left me gobsmacked which were done with a mouse.

You've made an absolutely amazing amount of progress since you started putting drawings up here Aliya. It probably took me years to make the progress that you've made in considerably less time And you have a wonderful tool right here to help you: the internet. As you're on deviantart I'd highly encourage you to find as many tutorials as you can (make a folder and save them to it for easy access). You already seem to practice frequently, but if you're ever running out of ideas find random photos and try drawing from those. Or as Orthodoxia suggested copy other drawings, even parts of other drawings (like how someone does eyes, or mouths for example).

Just keep practicing and you'll keep improving As WeeRLegion said, it has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with a lot of practice. Try to sketch every day (or second day) if you can, even if it ends up just being random bits and pieces.

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

Cintiqs are awesome (especially the huge ones) but oh so expensive. I haven't actually tried using a normal tablet much (someone gave me a cheap one years ago, I used it for 10 minutes, got annoyed and switched back to a mouse) as I jumped right after the sortof cheaper (though still fairly expensive, certainly more than a normal tablet) alternative: a tablet-pc.

Though it can be frustrating, you don't actually need a tablet to make great digital art. I've seen some pictures that left me gobsmacked which were done with a mouse.

I think a good tablet-PC is even more expensive than a good tablet. And i need a strong PC with much power and good stats at everything, because i run really heavy programms concerning music production and mastering. A tablet PC with such properties would cost at least 4000-4500$. Maybe in my case a tablet would be a better choice. In the future maybe... I'll try some digital drawings to feel familiar with digital drawing and if i'm happy with the results, i'll seriously think about buying a tablet in the future. Until then i have many things on which i sould make progress!

[Aliya]

Lots of encouragement, people. Thank you! So... I'll continue!