black centaur

[marco nelor]

a lil wip 4 u guys....trying to just use everything ivr learned. still have to blur and focus so i can help move the eye. still have to do hair, tail and background too

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3723/2144/1600/blacktaur.jpg
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3723/2144/1600/blacktaurpiece.jpg

there anyone who has a tutorial on how to do steel ?

[AshenWraith]

Metal without reflections is ez-just high contrast points on a base color.

The muscles look a bit too rocky. I would smoother out the edges and paint on top instead of doing that cheezy under paint with hardlines.

The angle of that quarrel or w/e on it's back looks weird. It's stealing the focal point and there is nothing interesting about it.

It's too intruding for something that just holds ammo and it isn't shifting naturally with his motions.

His arm also looks really odd for throwing spears/ stabbing things.
Try throwing a spear or stabbing things like that yourself.

It's usually best to get martial refs for things like this unless you watch people do it regularly and your memory is amazing. IE olympic throwers etc.

[marco nelor]

wow, does NO ONE like hard-lines anymore? im seriously like, the only guy in the world who likes hard lines now. prolly why i cant get a job huh....

[Elwell]

You have to decide whether you're doing a painting or a colored drawing. If you like the linework and want it to carry the weight of the piece, then you should be approaching color in a much flatter and/or harder edged manner. If you want it to read as a painting, then you need to work on understanding and defining light and planes. Either way, you've got to simplify what's going on with the color. You've got far too many small areas of different high chroma colors, none of which seem to relate to that purple-gray ground..

[marco nelor]

wait....im confused. isnt a colored drawing basically a painting? how do u differentiate between the two?

[marco nelor]

bah, its 248am here....im just gonna accept the fact that i suck and go to bed. im frustrated

[AshenWraith]

Painting can use blobs of color instead of lines to illustrate. Lines are only needed for the rough sketch, then you paint on top of them. It looks more natural because thing are not so sharply defined in real life - ie gradients.

Think of smoothing out your lines by smudging a drawing to get an idea - or better yet just go buy some paint and go at it.

Pencil to draw, paint to paint.

[AshenWraith]

Hey you can get around the odd spear throwing/stabbing thing by fixing the ammo holder thing so that it looks like he is reaching back to grab another one.

Then just put another spear in his other arm that lines up comfortably.

(sorry if my speech sounds weird, my key between c and b isn't working-ugh so i just try to skip works that use that key).

[AshenWraith]

You've got far too many small areas of different high chroma colors, none of which seem to relate to that purple-gray ground..

True, but he is a black tribal dude so i assumed he was going to be dressed like a jamaican fruit loop.

The radoiactie green light is kinda weird, but who knows with fantasy chars.

[marco nelor]

ok, so. how do you balance line with color, like this guy did, http://hawkprey.com/UTposting.jpg
is there a method, or a formula i can use to know when ive introduced waay to much color into a drawing? here he seems to balance it well. thing is, i just dont know :"why"

[Celvin H]

Sweet arts man! that centaur rocks. i dont understand Ashen wraith you can through things that way.

(sorry if it seem like i came out of nowhere i just joined)

[AshenWraith]

if youre using photoshop, just stick your lines on another layer and set the blending mode to mutliply.

Either way, i would start with blocking in solids first. IE, paint the guys skin one solid color using a hard edged brush, then his armor one solid color, etc etc.

Then go back and shade/detail on top with another layer with the type of brushes you are using now. Though the guy you reffed, looks like he just used hard edged brushes all the way- which is pretty popular nowadays, but I don't like for detailing.

[AshenWraith]

Sweet arts man! that centaur rocks. i dont understand Ashen wraith you can through things that way.

(sorry if it seem like i came out of nowhere i just joined)


hahaha, i'd lu\/ to see you try that in a \/ideo. To throw a spear it would ha\/e to be o\/er the same shoulder of his throwing arm.

[AshenWraith]

BTW, using hard edged brushes to detail can be kind of like using markers to shade/detail.

[marco nelor]

nah man, we black folks call that the cock-back method....u cock the spear WAAAAAY back, the force comes from the hand that is on the butt of the spear. front hand for guiding. i tossed javelin in track in highskool

[AshenWraith]

lol w/e you are the expert

It still looks weird.

Is it one of the tweened frames of the throw, ie not the begining of the wind up but as the windup comes out?

[marco nelor]

yea, the leading elbow is starting the motion of the spear being actually thrown out...after the motion where you cock it back. try it, put a broom handle in your right hand, with the butt of the broom in yer palm.

ps. i just realized something, HAHAHA. we are talkin about the fluidity of the colors in this painting, but its a wip, and i just realized, i havent even finished adjusting the hues/saturation of the image in its entirety. itll make more sense when i balance all the colors out, i promise

[AshenWraith]

That could be why it looks a bit weird. Sort of like how in comics they always draw that action before or after ie, if someone's going to throw a punch you always see them winding up or they already hid the guy.

All of the between frames make the punch look weird and weak.

[marco nelor]

:(

im guessing that means this one is weak

[marco nelor]

ok....i know i use a lot of lines, but i think i was convinced that my work couldnt exist without them...then i found this ....and its hard to explain, but i think this is exactly what i would "like" my work to look like.
http://zemotion.net/images/noah/jasmine.jpg

[Fellah.]

It takes a loooooong time to learn how to paint like that, but its a good goal! If you do it in your own style.
Study anatomy hard, study colors hard and draw like there is no tomorrow. But chill, enjoy the progress as it comes with the hard work and dont compare your work to artists who have done art longer than you. Btw look at how hawkpreys(?) linework looks painted and works so well with the colors. Gives it a rough yet refined look.
Good luck, dude - just work hard and dont sleep:)

[AshenWraith]

That looks like something recent bobo the seal would do.

[Carnifex]

that's by noah.hk(or something like that).
anyways,care to show your lines?
then do some flat colours and show us that.
*waits*

[marco nelor]

sure thing, carnifizzle. sorry , i just woke up. leme go get the file of my original lines for it

[marco nelor]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b374/thurdeye/blacktaur.jpg

[Carnifex]

ok,that's quite clearly comic-style. which means you need clean,sharp colours. the way you coloured it previously is too muddy. did you paint under the lines i assume?
apply some general colours first. like,horse body brown,human body lighter brown etc.
let's see that first.

[marco nelor]

oh god, i havent read american comics in years! this is gona actually be hard

[marco nelor]

basically, if im gona use a comic style, i should stick to the method i used to color this one then...i dont think the lines compete too much with he color in it.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3723/2144/1600/mard3.1.jpg

[Elwell]

Nice job on the linework, although the solid black areas imply a strong lightsource that isn't consistent withth rest of the piece.
wait....im confused. isnt a colored drawing basically a painting? how do u differentiate between the two?
Actually, the two artists you've posted are a good illustration of my point.
ok, so. how do you balance line with color, like this guy did,
Answer:If you like the linework and want it to carry the weight of the piece, then you should be approaching color in a much flatter and/or harder edged manner.


ok....i know i use a lot of lines, but i think i was convinced that my work couldnt exist without them...then i found this ....and its hard to explain, but i think this is exactly what i would "like" my work to look like.
Answer:If you want it to read as a painting, then you need to work on understanding and defining light and planes.

[marco nelor]

thanx mister elwell...that opened up my mind alot. I guess i bounce from style to style, cuz i just got outta college, and im lookin for a job....in art...and we all know how hectic that can be. one place says "we dont want ya, cuz we wish yer art looked a lil more like this..." the next place says, "we dont want this, we want that..."

[evildragonfire]

thanx mister elwell...that opened up my mind alot. I guess i bounce from style to style, cuz i just got outta college, and im lookin for a job....in art...and we all know how hectic that can be. one place says "we dont want ya, cuz we wish yer art looked a lil more like this..." the next place says, "we dont want this, we want that..."


Ya.....THAT's the trick isnt it?

[AshenWraith]

Best thing to do is find the biggest company you want to work for, and copy their stuff until you got it down.

Then worst comes to worst you can go work for a smaller company wanting to do a knock-off. The big guys always ha\/e the wannabes to contend with.
It's not always that bad, ie quake and unreal - unreal is now huge.

But there are a lot of common ties. Like for fantasy art dungeons and dragons and warhammer are hea\/ily emulated in games, ie unreal, starcraft, warcraft, e\/erquest, bioware (though bioware is the only company to license).

Mo\/ies like aliens 2 ha\/e also influenced most sci fi combat soldiers. IE, starship troopers, halo, and a bunch of other games/films.

[marco nelor]

so true. yo ashen. u goin to montreal?

[AshenWraith]

so true. yo ashen. u goin to montreal?

No, i've never really been interested in conferences or workshops, but this time around I actually was. I might catch one of them sooner or later.

I'm mostly self taught, so I have an aversion to things like that - though it would be cool to just go and hang out.

[Carnifex]

here'd be a crappily coloured attempt(with mouse) to show you how you could do the colouring.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b363/siansaar/alien1.jpg
:bashful: