help.. human mecha..please

[N3W8I3]

well.. ive gone back to work.. less time to draw, but im still workin on my comic character.. kind of a devilish knight..
wouldnt mind any suggestions for how to work into this.. these are all just sketches but i plan for the finished piece to have him pulling a bone sword from his spine like in the topmost sketch.. C+C would really be apreciated thanks

http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/drawingsword.jpg

http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/undermask.jpg

http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/nohelm.jpg :beer:

[ODIN SIX]

You should color key the sketches with differnt color Schemes
and See what you come up with,,,, They look good so far

[N3W8I3]

okeydokey.. i tried colouring some sketches lol here goes.. only partially done though to try and get some basic colour down
http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/colorised.jpg

[N3W8I3]

im having reaalll trouble colouring.. dunno why.. just alot going on elsewhere i guess.. i might port through to painter, and giver the pallette knife a go
heres some more... i want to get this finished
http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/stage2.jpg:evilbat:

[N3W8I3]

detail of another pic... i screwed up the first one... http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/detail.jpg

[jng]

Hey N3W8I3, if you're having trouble colouring, I suggest picking a good base colour and fill the whole canvas with it and work from there. That way it gets rid of any white space and adds to the cohesion of the whole image. It looks like you are trying to work each individual area of your drawing which can be a painfully long process.
Try to treat it like a painting, with blocks of colour and build them up using your linework as a guide.

I hope my advice is helpful, as for your design, I think it's great! I especially love the linework in the image displaying the person inside the armour. The design for the upper torso and neck area are beautifully detailed yet not cluttery or over done. Good stuff :D

[ODIN SIX]

The point of color keying is to get a good color scheme down
before you actually go and start painting it ... That you can
have it planned out pretty well.

What I do is make a grey layer above the canvas or line art ,,
then start adding other layers as needed.. Keep the grey
layer off til you are ready to fill in the gaps..... It makes it
so much more easier... hope this hepls :D

[N3W8I3]

hmm.. im still new to this. im reminded everytime i try painter :P
but odin.. i was actually planning on going with a different colourscheme . just plain black and silver. I cant find the pic anywhere.. he
but well heres my latest pic.. just working some form in..
only thing is, im kicking myself for not thinking of putting in a background.. i mean i dont even understand masking yet.. im sure i will one day.. anyway enough moaning heres the latest
http://www.btinternet.com/~johnpaulwilliams/nearly.jpg
hee yes this is taking a very long time to do..
:beer: