Rendering Problems.

[Belligergerum]

ive been looking around at guys like wes9000 and wondering how he acheives the rendering that he does. anyway i never really considered what rendering actually meant and tried to apply it to my style. ive always just used a stub to get my renders and shadows ect. however i think that i would be able to achieve a much better picture if i applied a new rendering technique. this is one of my first attempts to try this new way. im wondering if im headed in the right direction and would like some critiques and help on how to get better at rendering.

i'd like to turn this thread into a learning process for me and plan on posting progress as i go.

thanks a lot for looking.

reference.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/belligergerum/gallery679.jpg

here ya go.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/belligergerum/rendered-girl.gif

[Su]

doing well so far....the eyes needs to be closer to the middle and not as round....erm concentrate more on the upper part of the eyes also...

erm.....lower lip needs to be thinner as u can see compared to the refference you've got...

have more detail to the hair too, rather than a lump....

shade the darker areas more to show the depth...

keep up the good work!!!!!

.....hope this helps :teeth:

[Belligergerum]

ya, now that i start to look at it i can see some of my problems.

would it help if i established my darks as much much darker than the lights? maybe my darks and lights are too close.......

[sodomizer]

You've got a decent drawing so far, but it lacks in the contrast department, badly. Everything is the same value. In your dark area's try cross hatching as your shading technique. You might like it. gl.

[Belligergerum]

alright, thanks a lot. yup, cross hatching never really crossed my mind. thanks again

one thing that came to mind was my paper vs. pencil. my paper is just cheap ass newspaper..... keeps cost down. would it be consistent to say that better paper = better value and contrast quality?

i also went into photoshop is boosted like the contrast like you said. do you think it helped a little bit?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/belligergerum/rendered-girl2.gif

[sodomizer]

If you ask me, I'd ditch the newsprint, but I've had to use it many times in life drawing classes, but that's only for the pure reason that its cost effective.

Most of the time I carry a clip board with lots of typing paper. Sketchbooks with decent paper are only like 5-10$. Either one of these are cost effective, and better quality. Newsprint is just too thin.. and it gets beat up quite easily, and doesn't really hold too well.

[Belligergerum]

k. good deal. what do you think about the contrast now? is it an improvement? or were you going for something else?

[sodomizer]

Well, the contrast is much better at this point, because we can see a defined light source now. It makes your drawing really pop, and gives your viewer a better sense of depth.

Although you need to accomplish that with your pencil, not photoshop ;)

[Belligergerum]

hahahaha.... ya im with ya. i was just trying to get an idea of what your saying. haha. i wont use photoshop anymore. promise.

later.

[Su]

looking good.....done well!.....give yourself a pat on the back! :confident

if you're still having touble with darker shading, detail....etc etc.... i'd say....use variety of sketch pencils to do the job....

....just a reminder....get those details in...i'd like to see them as it make it look more realistic.... :bashful:

keep it up! :)

[look]

Nice job on the nose.
As for rendering, it might help you to see how dark you should shade by turning that image black and white. Since now you may not grasp the value of color with a pencil.
I don't know how you do the shading, but for me I usually lay down a light shades for the general area, then darken certain parts. Basically build up the intensity of the shading as I go along. But some artists will finish one area first then expand and move on to other areas (example shown here: http://www.deviantart.com/view/12462340/)

[Belligergerum]

holy crap. that is awesome. thanks, that helps. another question. i use mechanical pencils. i noticed you said sketch pencils. do you think traditional penicls work better?

[BMunchausen]

I think you can use either kind of pencil but for me, traditional pencils are better because I keep a selection of them near me, sharpened, in different hardnesses. That makes it easier to get a variety of values and line thicknesses.

[Belligergerum]

interesting. what are the best pencils in your opinion?

[look]

I don't think there's such thing as "best pencils". In that link I posted before, that artist used mechanical pencil too. Although I felt regular wooden ones are easier to shade with.
It may help if you get a few pencil with different hardness, 6B is the soft and dark one. 2B is generaly dark and soft, and Hs are hard ones. But normally a regular HB or 2B will do a decent job.

[Belligergerum]

ya ive got 3 different mech. pencils. 9 7 5, so i think ill be doing ok with thinkness etc.