Characters and such...

[johanerik]

These pics are made directly in Photoshop. I tried to do them fast to get speed. No sketchpad used only mouse.


http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/2844/emotionalhitmancopy3lm.jpg
This one about 15-20 min. A hitman with regret.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/4706/senselesscopy5mm.jpg
This one about 25-30 min. A "Fallout" inspired wasteland hero.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2816/zuul8ii.jpg
This one about 5 min. Some monster. reminded me of Ghostbusters..
Please give me some hints... :D

[johanerik]

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/8730/roboten4ff.jpg
Another unfinished but out of cathegory.. Spent a great time with this.

[N D Hill]

These pieces, in my opinion, are much stronger than the most recent pieces you've posted. The same advice regarding the figure applies here but I think they're more successful because you retain some looseness with your strokes. That's a good way to approach the modeling of the figure rather than gradation. A more deliberate approach to rendering light and shadow, based on what you actually observe, would be the next step. And it's okay to remain loose when you do this as it helps with your understanding of it. Think of light not only as what you actually see as far as how it casts itself upon a surface, but as an actual dynamic element with it's own direction, range and source.

As for my previous advice on photoshop, you've demonstrated a better use of it here but I'd still recommend that you concentrate on some traditional drawing discipline building. There's no better substitute for it. And the viewers won't be distracted by fills, poor cropping of scanned images and other variables that it potentially introduces if you're still getting used to it. All in all, drawing should be your first priority. Hope that helps.

[johanerik]

Helps indeed!! Thanks for the advice. I'll keep all this in mind..

[inspector Lee]

Another thing that might help your photoshop pieces look more finished, is to put at least 1 layer of paint under your line drawing before painting on top of it (you could even lay a solid, middle-value tone under it, if you want to keep it simple). I say that because you're getting a lot of little white spots peeking through from the background between the line and your paint (on the more finished piece here and the 2 in the "critiques" section).
It looks like you are colorizing your line and then painting on top of it?

[dogfood]

I'm just going to pad around behind Exo, saying, "Yeah! What he said!"

With the ability to import hand-drawn sketches, I don't know why anyone would try to draw with a mouse. The main reasons are because of the lack of responsiveness (no line weight variation) and you're having to relearn how to draw (the muscle memory of using natural media or tablets is totally counter to mousing). This, to me, is like going backwards. A used Graphire is not going to set you back too much (you should start saving now and draw up a storm until it comes). And defining the forms is more than dodging the highlights and burning the shadows. Prom created a great tutorial (http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm) regarding this.

As for the figures, especially the last one, it seems like you're going for some pretty complicated foreshortening prior to really grasping the basics. It's a very dynamic pose and I can see a lot of superhero comic in the style, but it would really help to get a reference. Get a shot of a buddy in this pose, or tape a carea up (ala Peter Parker) and pose yourself. Until you get a real handle on how the body moves and some solid anatomical experience, a lot of what you draw is going to be guess work and it's going to show.

I know you like your crits hard, but I hope that didn't overdo it. I can see a lot of motion and emotion in your stuff.

[johanerik]

I have now taken help from the tutorial dogfood linked in his post. In it it said that you should draw a picture from a photo so I did. In terms of shadow and light I really feel enlightened. Except from the back of the head at the right in the picture that I did'nt finish at all there is something about the right eye I cant put my finger on in terms of how reel it looks. I can see though that the eye is a bit missplaced.

http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/1335/ratchel4jj.jpg
http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/2046/rachelgraincopy4dj.jpg

[Jason Rainville]

Her nose also looks a bit to short and pointy, and her face is a tad thin, but great work!

[Cybergig]

thats pretty good work for a mouse.

[johanerik]

Thx Cybergig.. The robot though.. forgot to mention is scanned from a drawing.

[dogfood]

This is an absolute delight.

There are obviously some deviations from the original, but it is so head-and-shoulders ahead of what you posted earlier that I'm giddy for you.

Here's another way I've discovered to increase your rate of improvement for drawing without reference: draw something from reference, then draw it again without and compare the two drawings. Keep doing this for things you find difficult to draw.

Nice going.

[LucidSaint]

Very nice. I recognize mouse sketches a mile away..since I have to do them myself. The tear duct of her left eye seems a tad dark to me. Maybe I am just basing that off of the original though. Either way, you are on to something.

[JERI]

I think that portrait is a great success because you got the colors done so nicely. I'm particularly impressed with how you worked the light blue tint around her eye sockets into your portrait so well.

What programme did you use and how did you create that texture for her skin?

[johanerik]

Jeri.. It's Photoshop. The skin is made of the burn tool(size 1 and jerk around 71% exposure) right before I filmgrained the hole face.. That filmgrain felt like cheating but it did inprove. Before she looked like she was made of clay.

[JERI]

cool, thanks

[johanerik]

I need a tip. I'm trying to light this guy right. Something is not right...

http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/7171/sazavariantcopy26xe.jpg

[dogfood]

I like the pose and the feel on the cliff, but the anatomy could use a bit of work. The arms seem short and the musculature is off all over the place (check the latissimus dorsai). A good ref should cover this.

As far as the lighting, you seem to have a blue cast on the figure where the light should be strongest. Since the sun light is far more powerful than the dispersed light from the blue sky, it will overpower the blue and you will see a lighter local color instead. It's in the shadows that you will see the blue influence the color. You will also have the reflected green from the grass affect the shadowed side of the skirt.

Go over the tutorial again and see how it applies to this image. In fact you might want to do some simple shapes to really solidify your understanding.

Oh, and it's really too large to give a good overall crit on the composition.

[johanerik]

Great! I'll leave the anatomy just to remember for now.. Don't get that with the green reflection on the skirt.. I tried to make a autumn grass hill.. Why reflect in green? Well I'll just try and see..

[johanerik]

Tried to reduce the blue on the muscles and added green to the skirt shadows... "What now... ? What comes next?"

http://img304.imageshack.us/img304/1230/sazavariantcopy33mq.jpg

[Fellah.]

Hi dude, sorry for the late reply - had to get something to eat.
You got a good thing going here, but if i were you i would leave the painting for a while and do some hard anatomy studies. It will pay off fast. I like the last painting though and the char looks nice, but the anatomy needs work. Find some ref if you feel unsure about things before you start the heavy rendering. His cheast is too big and the arm isnt working yet. I made a little fast overpaint of the arm - it sucks, but i hope it helps abit. Anyway, keep up the good work and when you draw or paint, keep asking yourself; does this look right, are there balance etc.
The speedy overpaint of the arm -its no ref btw, so i might have gotten it wrong:P
http://www.siq.dk/Simon/over.jpg

[Iron Titan]

Wow, I like fellah's addition, some detail wouldn't hurt....I know I still have a long way to get to that point:P

[johanerik]

Jesus...! Puts things in perspective. Anatomy it was.. Thax Fellah!

[Aki]

Nice pic Johan, But I think you have to work more on the background. It will add more perspective into the piece.

Anatomy takes ages to learn, which I myself have big problems with. A tip is to buy "The Human Machine, By George B.Bridman" and study it hard. (That's what I'm currently doing)
"Constructive Anatomy, also by George B. Bridgman" is also a really good anatomy book. You can buy both at amazon.

Keep up the good job.

/Aki

[johanerik]

With anatomy as reference.. Please crit this!

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/9235/dude26eb.jpg