My first post.

[John P.]

Hello. :)

This is my first post at these forums. I've been lurking for a while though, to see what's going on.

I was introduced to these forums by another artist who goes by the name Mr.Magnetichead over here.

I have to say that with the kind of talent you have here, I felt a bit 'numb' and weak in the knees after seeing all the great art, and not sure if I should post anything of my own at all...

But then I thought 'what the heck'...


This first thing I'm posting is also the very first full image I've done on my newly acquired Intuos tablet. I've only made sketches on it so far since I bought it ten days ago.

Then I started on this one right away, and have worked on it 'till today.

This is pretty much the first full image thing I've ever done, as I have mostly done pencil sketches, and then scanned them in, but kept them in their original black and white(there are some at my website).

I have done a lot of Photoshop image editing though, so I know my way around PS.

I have always been drawing, but haven't gone to any art school whatsoever, and I regret that now. I'm kinda "old"(29), and wish I had gone with what was my main passion back then.
But I'm taking up drawing again now, and this Intuos tablet has really made me want to draw again.

This is done completely in Photoshop, and completely from scratch; no references at all.
The only things I haven't made from scratch are the textures on the blade and his skin.

I don't know how long you pros use on your projects, but I've spent waaay too long making this, seeing how it ended up.
But I've kinda had to learn as I went along, so..

About 24 hours all in all I think....!

Anyway, here it is:

"small" version:

http://home.online.no/~johmoe/images/green_dude_concept_small.jpg







Larger version:

http://home.online.no/~johmoe/images/green_dude_concept.jpg



¤ N G ¤ aka John-P. Mørk


Wow...120 views and no replies. Sucks that much, huh... :( Oh well. Practice makes better...

[Mr.Magnetichead]

Nice work mang!

very different to your usual work, nice to see you expanding your horizons :D

[Hudnut]

John-

Nice piece, glad to see you got up the courage to post. I was looking at some of the drawings on your website. Very nice work. Those portraits are better than anything I was drawing when I started to pursue art full time 5 years ago. The first thing I did was a drawing of a gargoyle with these big mechanical wings. It took me 40 hours to draw and ink. And it was just a line drawing!

Anyway, I'm 30 years old now and I've been at the whole art thing for just 5 years. Check out my website and you can see what I'm doing now. 29 is not "old" and it's not too late to start. There are tons of great resources for learning to draw and paint on the web, and you'll find out about many of them from this forum.

Definitely look for the Andrew Loomis books online, starting with "Figure Drawing for all it's Worth." You should be able to download it for free at:

http://www.fineart.sk/anat.htm

Keep practicing and keep posting. You'll be amazed and what an old man like yourself can accomplish with a little effort.

Dave

[yolegas]

Nice going,

it's very intimidating that many talented artists see you're work here..You are a brave soul..bravo!!

And don't worry about the time you spend at it, that doens't matter.

-yo-

[John P.]

Thanks for the nice comments, guys. :)

I do think I can do better than this though, with just a little more practice.

I see now that one of the errors I made with this one was to use some pretty generic Photoshop filters, although I did fiddle a lot with them. Kinda makes it look more childish/amateurish. And actually added to the time spent on it, 'cause I had to go the trial and error route with the effects.

Probably would be better just to draw/paint it all.

Plus I made the background and the ground he stands on plus the rocks "on the fly", using the lasso selection tool, and filling in the selections with texture effects(on different layers of course. I didn't just fill them in with "rock texture" though, it was made from scratch too, from combining effects/adjustments/filters). And 'cause of that, the perspective went a bit off. I should of course have drawn the landscape out first. But by then I was kinda tired of the thing and wanted to finish it. :erm:


Right now I'm having computer trouble, so I don't dare to draw while I'm waiting for my hard drive to fail. But when that's fixed, I'll surely post some more stuff here.

Well, maybe not here, but probably in the Work in progress section first.

I'm amazed by the things you people do in Painter, so I'm thinking of getting that too.

But I guess it pays off to have the basic rules of painting down, even if the software is good. And I have never painted in my life, only drawn with pencils and 'coal sticks'(heh; don't remember the actual english word :D).

Some of the drawings at my site are from 1987/88 though, so remember I was like 15 back then.

Ok, see ya around. :)

[Starknaaaked]

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.....and listen to people critiqing other people.....you will get better with time...just keep at it.......:p