1252 réponses à ce sujet

[Teshayel]

Well, I can tell you this much - Charlie is part of my family I watched him grow from a tiny kitten to a big, beautiful cat

 

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As for men... When I decided to not give a damn about 'em, I met my hubby O_o So... yeah

 

Using lots of layers to begin with is pretty common. That's how I started as well. With time, I found my own style, and most comfortable approach. What works for me, might not work for someone else, however. That's why the most important thing is to do what feels right

[Vorathrad]

@Tesh Aaaaw Charlie is so beautiful!!! My Pandora is completely black, they would make a nice photo together

 

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I completely understand you, my three furry girls are part of my family, even our two guinea pigs. I agree with Ceru though, sometimes they are better to have around than my bf... but shhhh don't tell him

 

Thank you for your advice on the painting, I'll keep that in mind as it's important; sometimes I'm so intent in making everything look vibrant that I forget to leave a point that draws the eye 

[Teshayel]

Beautiful Pandora My parents have a black cat as well, but she has very long hair. She is adorable. 

 

Anyway, I should probably get back to the topic

 

It is a good idea to plan out your focal point before you start colouring. Even with digital art, it is a good idea to do so, despite the extra flexibility that you get on the computer. But Ghilan'nain is shaping up beautifully Keep it up!

[Cerulione]

OMG you girls are killing me!!! I WANT A CAT!!! And I can't have one because of a certain guy who can't breathe if there's a cat around... Grrrrr...

 

Charlie & Pandora are adorable... meow... WANNA WANNA WANNA!

[Vorathrad]

Poor Ceru... did you consider buying him a portable oxygen bottle?

 

@Tesh Thank you for your kind words! The mask is meant to be the focal point; the colours on the crown have put it a bit forward, but when I'm finished with the highlights and detail I think the mask will draw the eye again. I'm quite happy with how it's going, I already have the white gouache so I will go on working on it as soon as I have time (near the weekend, most likely) In the meantime, I have my little Borderlands steampunk mage couple. Feeling sooooo artsy! 

[Teshayel]

Poor Ceru... did you consider buying him a portable oxygen bottle?

 

@Tesh Thank you for your kind words! The mask is meant to be the focal point; the colours on the crown have put it a bit forward, but when I'm finished with the highlights and detail I think the mask will draw the eye again. I'm quite happy with how it's going, I already have the white gouache so I will go on working on it as soon as I have time (near the weekend, most likely) In the meantime, I have my little Borderlands steampunk mage couple. Feeling sooooo artsy! 

 

What I would like to try someday is coffee and gouache  

 

I am sure both Ghilan'nain and your steampunk couple will turn out great

[Vorathrad]

What I would like to try someday is coffee and gouache  

Really? That sounds like it would give interesting results; I know there are people painting with tea, the colours are beautiful but I don't know if it would work for me. I love tea so much, it'd probably end being tea + tears Using naturally pigmented drinks is a nice idea to get playful.

How would you use the coffee + gouache? Just using brewed coffee instead of water?

[Teshayel]

I've no idea how the technique works, but the results are beautiful. It's just one of those things I have on my bucket list

 

Here's a lovely example by RubisFirenos:

 

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[Vorathrad]

Wow, that is some gorgeous art I've browsed RubisFirenos gallery a bit and it has some amazing works. Certainly inspirational!

[Cerulione]

Wait wait wait, are you guys crazy??? Coffee??? But who will throw away coffee for drawing??? I mean it's coffee!!! Best drinks on earth...

 

 

Jokes a part, I think that I've just put a watch on that artist...

 

@Vor: I don't get it, you are putting the gouache after or before watercolour?

 

@Tesh: speaking about Borderland... where are you & Ab on the Borderland Cass & Izzy art trade? I'm looking forward to see how it goes

 

Whew, finished rough-charting Seb's major face planes for this lighting... I think that I might try light from below (another clair obscur) and contre-jour lightings (or edge lightings?)... I really can't decide between the four of them so... probably I'll try rough shading on each and see which one is best.

 

I'll have to find references, this one's reference is not exactly on the same angle. So it's more or less a guesswork based on Loomis' face planes chart...

 

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[Teshayel]

Ceru, I really like the lighting on Seb. It's very strong Are you going for a comic-book look, or are you going to push for realism?

 

As for painting with coffee - just use something really cheap. Like Nabob. I hate Nabob... I like Jacobs and Gevalia

 

I'm going to be cycling between Izzy and Timebean's drawing. So, next time I post a WIP, it'll be Izzy

[Cerulione]

That's coffee brand right? It's not the same here we get Jacques Fabre, Malongo & Lavazza & there's also Illy (IIRC it's known in the states).

 

Hehe the lighting rather makes me think of... film noir. Hmm... Especially with that trench coat. I guess that I'll do both realism & comic. The black & white for realism (if I managed to make him look more realistic...), and coloured for comics. Love the lines but it's not working well with that lighting & shading.

 

So Ab's still making Cass right? I saw few draft and she looks badass!

[Teshayel]

Yep, Ab is still working on Cass. There's no rush, though. I actually worked on Izzy a bit this evening, and ended up completely redesigning her outfit. I'll probably post an update in the next couple of days. 

[Vorathrad]

Wow Ceru, that's some dramatic lighting, I love It. But I'm sorry to tell you that the best drink on earth title already belongs to tea Coffee retains the most necessary drink title, I couldn't make it through the morning without it

The gouache goes after the watercolour, once it's dried (maybe you can use it on wet, but no experiments with Ghilan'nain) As it's thicker than watercolour, it should form white lines or splashes that won't let the watercolour under it be seen. And that will be the highlights of metal surfaces :-)

[Cerulione]

Wow Ceru, that's some dramatic lighting, I love It. But I'm sorry to tell you that the best drink on earth title already belongs to tea Coffee retains the most necessary drink title, I couldn't make it through the morning without it
 

*snip*

 

... you need Andraste Mythal. And coffee. Lots of coffee

 

 

Ah I never worked on traditional medium so I don't have any idea how things work. So actually that's lots of layers you put right? Do you have to "prime" them first like some people do on oil? There's people saying that it's good to prime the canvas with venetian red or sienna before painting green on it. Is it the same with watercolour?

[Vorathrad]

I'm new to watercolours, but as far as I know there is no need to prime, watercolour paper is already treated. It is important to stretch the paper as water can cause creases in it; watercolour papers often come in pads with the sheets glued to each other at the corners, so you don't need to stretch the paper. I have one of those and find it very practical; I had to remove the sheet for Ghilan'nain to transfer the skecth, and now I have it stretched onto a cardboard and held with clips and adhesive tape, as a serious crease was forming on the left side.

 

What is often done is put a first layer of clear water and then watercolours over it, it's called wash and it can be done to fill the entire paper, graded to paint sky... I'm sure there are other techniques I don't know about, but those are the basics. And yes, several layers are used The mask and crown of Ghilan'nain have three layers of colour (or were they four? ), the skin and hair two. It's likely advanced artists use more layers. I don't usually apply washes because my pigments don't respond very well to it; I put a layer, let it dry, and then another one on top of it until I'm satisfied with the colour and shape (and as long as the paper allows it) You can play with the amount of pigment and water to get different looks. There is also a technique called wet in wet, which is applying a colour on top of one that didn't dry yet. It can produce amazing effects, but I don't feel confident enough to try it yet.

 

Sorry for the wall of text, I hope I clarified things a bit! 

[Cerulione]

Wow... That's seem super complicated, I can hardly imagine how the colour will be if several different layers of different colour must first be laid before the real colour show up... Ouch.

How can you decide which colour added to which? Do you premix-them first and then just build up layers or (for example) if you want to make green you put blue layer then yellow?

 

Lunch break colouring: Seb. Trying quick cell shading with 4 shades per area... WIP.

 

[Vorathrad]

Nice Seb, Ceru! Will you be trying that dramatic lighting in colour as well? You know, I wouldn't even know where to begin if I had to colour it; I have very basic notions of drawing with Photoshop, but I can't do anything much more complicated than that mouse for Charlie

With watercolours, for me at this stage, it's mostly trying. I have 24 colour pads, at this point it's a good palette with the variations I can get using more or less water. You can also pre-mix colours, couple ones on Ghilan'nain were pre-mixed. And finally you can mix them on paper using layers: for instance, with my first Lavellan I wanted the reddish blonde hair she has in game, so I first put a yellow layer and then a washed orange. Ghilan'nain's mask was looking a bit too "neon", so the last layer was a very washed dark blue.

Layers also don't have to be uniform, you can work different layers on different parts of the drawing to get the result you want. The first layer on Ghilan'nain's face covers the whole face; the second one only the parts I wanted to shade.

To know beforehand how it would look, I first try on a scrap paper. Here is the poor paper test for Ghilan'nain. The colour of the mask is on the top left corner, I tried the blue wash there first to see how it would look.

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[Cerulione]

@Vor: So you actually put several layers of different colours then? Are you still using those solid cubes or you've got the paste in tubes now?

 

I sell my soul to satan and burn coffee bean at the middle of the night as offering

 

actually I often "lurks" around when some artists I really like works. That colouring for Seb is from looking at Emegustart's working on livestream. She was making a colour tutorial & she always put great music & answer to questions. And shamelessly kidnapping Tesh, Sephirona & therealmcgee for answers

 

I know that each person's supposed to find the methods that's best for him/herself but sometimes watching others work I pick one or two things.

 

Personally I believe that it'll be much harder with you on traditional medium since there's no undo button. On digital it's "undo" until you get it right. After that it's trying the whole bunch of brushes and just go crei crei. You're courageous to do it on traditional

 

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[Teshayel]

Watercolours are a difficult medium, but you can get beautiful results if you plan things out carefully, and you are patient in your approach Can also be combined quite nicely with coloured pencils.

[Vorathrad]

@Ceru I'm still using the solid cubes, they're good for practicing and colours can be quite nice. Yes, I used several layers of different colours; for instance in the mask of Ghilan'nain, the first two layers are of the same colour (lavender-y) and the third a different one (dark blue) Because watercolours let the bottom layers show, what you see is the combination of all layers.

 

Many times I wish there was a Ctrl+Z on traditional media, the "Oh sh*t!!" moments are much worse When I see video tutorials that are often made with digital, I think "I wish I could do that!" But I love the organic feeling of traditional media, when I rub the graphite with my finger to soften the edge of a shadow or put a little more water on the pencil. I love digital drawing as well and I want to try it in the future, but for now it's one step at a time

 

Where do you see other artists working? Picarto? I find it very useful to see other people work, as you say you can pick up tips and then apply them to your own style.

 

@Tesh I completely agree, watercolours require patience but the results are so beautiful. I love them combined with pencil, both coloured and grey I think watercolours can be quite easily combined with other media, so there's a lot of room to play!

 

I began shading on the steampunk couple; if I had a digital eraser, I would make the lines softer to tone down a bit the cartoon look and make the shadows more realistic. Alas, I have to take it into account for the next drawing. You'll notice there's a certain point where I stopped because I'm afraid to work on it 

 

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[Cerulione]

@Vor: That girl look badass. What's she holding on her hand?

 

Still tbh I don't get it, where the light is coming from? Why the shadow is on the left of the guy and on the right of the girl? Or you haven't finished shading?

 

About the skirt, how about using a calque paper (idk how it's called in English)? Put it on the real drawing, trace the outline, and try shading there first?

 

And about the eraser, how about knead bread eraser (gomme mie de pain)? I tried to used them last week on pencil & charcoal drawing and it's working quite well to blur shadings. Or that blending stick. They are not so expensive (I got my eraser for less than 3€ and the blending stick was like 2€ for 4)

 

[Teshayel]

@ Vor - The light source is from the magic that is between them, right? Just make sure to make the guy's shadow go higher than he is, because the light comes from below. As for the skirt, here are a few references by mizzd-stock. Browse through her gallery to find something that might be even more to your liking

[Vorathrad]

Thank you for your advice! Helpful as ever :-) Tesh yes, the light source is from the magic between them :-) Good point about the shadow higher than the guy, I only took into account the shadows on his body but not the one he's projecting. I still didn't finish the shading, I stopped at the skirt. I will use the pics of mizzd-stock as reference; if I don't get it, I will follow Ceru's advice and put the paper over it and trace it. Btw, mizzd-stock is an amazing stock artist, the kind of vintage pics she has is perfect for what I usually draw.

 

Ceru, in fact I have a kneaded eraser I am incredibly lucky, for I still have a badass Faber-Castell pencil set that was given to me as a gift many years ago. It has pencils of several hardness, graphite crayons and stylus- It's this one in case you're curious. Funny thing is, it has been almost untouched for years as I didn't know how to use it, and I spent years wondering what that grey thing was until Google told me a few weeks ago Down to the point, now I know how to use the kneaded eraser, but I don't want to use it to erase the lines because erasing and then shading all over them will make the end result weird. 

 

And the girl is holding... magic! 

[Cerulione]

Aaah OK! I didn't know it was something luminous (need more lighting practice!).

 

About blending, probably cotton bud? Or blending stick. It's made for that purpose & have sharp edge so you can do it as precise as if you're holding a pencil no?

 

Umm i did a forbidden thing, I retouched my Seb drawing... any opinion on which version is better?

 

Original

 

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Modification 1: lower breastplate position

 

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Modification 2: No Breastplate

 

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