tangwistel
February 11th, 2007, 10:01 AM
Well, this is gonna serve as a general introduction thread as well as a request for help, I think :P
I've been reading CA forums for a good while (snooping on you all, ehehe) but was reluctant to register. You see, my dirty little secret is I'm a fanartist. Nearly everything I could possibly post here would be dull, boring, unoriginal fanart. I hope to move away from the fanart thing, but right now I lack the technical ability to design original characters (i.e. knowing nothing about clothes, for a start), so I'm doing these derivative things to learn really. I'm 100% self-taught, sort of blundering along.
Anyway I'm more or less past the stage of "OMG I wanna draw Ash from Pokemon just how he looks in the cartoon!!1one", and starting to try and get a handle on things like perspective and composition and form and color. Operative word being "try".
I was so fed up recently of digital fuzz
http://www.tangwistel.com/files/ca_fuzz.jpg
"NiGHTS and the Wind Guardian" close-up
and awful awful skin-tone failures
http://www.tangwistel.com/files/ca_skin.jpg
"The Thunder God" close-up
(due I think to a lack of understanding of form and how to achieve it, and light and how to achieve that) that I quit art FOR EVAH in a fit of pique. And then I came to my senses, realized I actually had to TRY in order to improve, and started drawing again but went right back to using 100% hard colors like a toddler. I'm eccentric that way; I figured I was getting bogged down in rendering when my problems were much more fundamental.
http://www.tangwistel.com/gallery/albums/metara/donnie.jpg
Original character
I think this weird discipline has already made me a bit better at the composition end of things. But I still have so far to go.
When put to it I can do a halfway decent still-life
http://www.tangwistel.com/gallery/albums/metara/banana.sized.jpg
"Nasty Banana on Epson Printer"
and I know I should do more of them but my room where the computer is is north-facing and has almost no natural light. Don't even suggest traditional media; right now if I tried to paint anything I'd probably end up impaling myself on the brush. I've never TOUCHED a paintbrush XD Which end do you use? How do you turn it on?
Anyway I have severe weaknesses with basic drawing (perspective confuses AND terrifies me), composition, and picking appropriate color without sampling it off a photo (cue Psycho shower music). I know these weaknesses. I intend to work on them. And some day, SOME DAY, I will come up with an original concept. And have the skills to realise it the way I see it in my mind.
On to the "help me" part of the post:
I have to do a thing for Valentine's Day. I want a peachy-pink soft soppy look. There'll be two characters looking out over a city and hills. But I CANNOT find the right colors/tones/whatever to use (Forgive my ignorance of the artistic vocabulary). I have such trouble picking colors that work together; I'm still struggling with the grass-is-green sky-is-blue mindset. Here's my thumbnail concept:
http://www.tangwistel.com/files/valentines-day-thumb.jpg
Sky choices ok, I think. (That is obviously not the final sky!!!) City ok, it's white but lit all peachy-like. It'll be more than just a blob later on. Tower wall will need to be dark as it is shadowed, I like the sort of lavender gray I've got in there. That darker purple strip thing is to be a river and I suppose I'll be putting reflected light of some sort on it. The problem is those hills. The color/depth/whatever isn't right is it??? I want atmospheric depth, but keeping the light in mind. I've been looking at pics of mountains on Google but haven't found anything appropriate. How do I do it?
Also, advice about the composition would be very gratefully received at this very early point.
Help..?
I've been reading CA forums for a good while (snooping on you all, ehehe) but was reluctant to register. You see, my dirty little secret is I'm a fanartist. Nearly everything I could possibly post here would be dull, boring, unoriginal fanart. I hope to move away from the fanart thing, but right now I lack the technical ability to design original characters (i.e. knowing nothing about clothes, for a start), so I'm doing these derivative things to learn really. I'm 100% self-taught, sort of blundering along.
Anyway I'm more or less past the stage of "OMG I wanna draw Ash from Pokemon just how he looks in the cartoon!!1one", and starting to try and get a handle on things like perspective and composition and form and color. Operative word being "try".
I was so fed up recently of digital fuzz
http://www.tangwistel.com/files/ca_fuzz.jpg
"NiGHTS and the Wind Guardian" close-up
and awful awful skin-tone failures
http://www.tangwistel.com/files/ca_skin.jpg
"The Thunder God" close-up
(due I think to a lack of understanding of form and how to achieve it, and light and how to achieve that) that I quit art FOR EVAH in a fit of pique. And then I came to my senses, realized I actually had to TRY in order to improve, and started drawing again but went right back to using 100% hard colors like a toddler. I'm eccentric that way; I figured I was getting bogged down in rendering when my problems were much more fundamental.
http://www.tangwistel.com/gallery/albums/metara/donnie.jpg
Original character
I think this weird discipline has already made me a bit better at the composition end of things. But I still have so far to go.
When put to it I can do a halfway decent still-life
http://www.tangwistel.com/gallery/albums/metara/banana.sized.jpg
"Nasty Banana on Epson Printer"
and I know I should do more of them but my room where the computer is is north-facing and has almost no natural light. Don't even suggest traditional media; right now if I tried to paint anything I'd probably end up impaling myself on the brush. I've never TOUCHED a paintbrush XD Which end do you use? How do you turn it on?
Anyway I have severe weaknesses with basic drawing (perspective confuses AND terrifies me), composition, and picking appropriate color without sampling it off a photo (cue Psycho shower music). I know these weaknesses. I intend to work on them. And some day, SOME DAY, I will come up with an original concept. And have the skills to realise it the way I see it in my mind.
On to the "help me" part of the post:
I have to do a thing for Valentine's Day. I want a peachy-pink soft soppy look. There'll be two characters looking out over a city and hills. But I CANNOT find the right colors/tones/whatever to use (Forgive my ignorance of the artistic vocabulary). I have such trouble picking colors that work together; I'm still struggling with the grass-is-green sky-is-blue mindset. Here's my thumbnail concept:
http://www.tangwistel.com/files/valentines-day-thumb.jpg
Sky choices ok, I think. (That is obviously not the final sky!!!) City ok, it's white but lit all peachy-like. It'll be more than just a blob later on. Tower wall will need to be dark as it is shadowed, I like the sort of lavender gray I've got in there. That darker purple strip thing is to be a river and I suppose I'll be putting reflected light of some sort on it. The problem is those hills. The color/depth/whatever isn't right is it??? I want atmospheric depth, but keeping the light in mind. I've been looking at pics of mountains on Google but haven't found anything appropriate. How do I do it?
Also, advice about the composition would be very gratefully received at this very early point.
Help..?