Ok, so this is a veeery early (like, less than an hour of drawing) WIP for Kaidan. I was mucking about with his expression, though I think I will end up redrawing it. I want him to look fierce. So, challenges for this drawing: perspective and facial expression 
Really interesting foreshortening!! I guess he's badassing with his biotics? I love badassing Kaidan drawings 
Edit: I took a little notebook with blank pages (meaning no lines) I bought years ago and a mechanical pencil with several colour leads I got for scrapbooking decoration, and I'm making small silly sketches with quick and light lines as you recommended. It's difficult getting used to these quick lines (I feel I don't control them enough and my hand wants to stop and give it the slow, careful treatment) but I think it will really pay off in the end.
I have a bit of a creative block, but this evening I managed to do these sketches in colour pencils and DA4 format. I know proportions are funny in both drawings, that's what happens when I try to draw faster 
Kaidan looks great, and so do your sketches For your portrait, Vor, you just need to become confident with the placement of the features. Drawing a circle with a vertical line can really help
Vor, if you want to draw fast, then do not worry about how correct the drawing is. The focus should be to capture the energy/spirit of your subject
Well then. It was harder to get to this stage than I had originally anticipated. Not sure whether it was the angle of the head, but it devolved into something very ugly. I had to start from scratch...
The angle of the head and the expression seem to make it a bit tricky, but you pulled it off wonderfully Badass Kaidan is hot!!
Also, you nailed the shape of the chestplate.
My last try: Myfanwy Amell (yep, since boyfriend's playing it, I dug in all my screenshots 
)
The hard part begins now: colouring :/ Every time I try, her skin is too yellow, or too orange, or too dark, too light...
Hi Mor! So nice to see your lovely drawings again, and yourself of course 
On the tips thread there was a tutorial for digital painting realistic skin tones, I think it was on the first pages.
I found this page, artprompts.org, that... well, is a prompt generator I tried a couple times and got some interesting results after browsing a bit:
First one I tried said something like "Short haired girl with brown hair, pale skin, with a ragged leather jacket that contrasts with the pink bow on her hair" I did a quick sketch on colour pencils, but it seems I'm too fabulous for ragged jackets and couldn't for the life of me do anything more grunge looking than this.
I loved the prompt I got today; it just said "Her eyes have stars". So I tried to do a face with a very sweet expression and "shiny", laughing eyes. It's based on a Gibson Girl style illustration that I copied once adnd can't find on Google anymore 
And here are the first splashes of colour on my reading Lavellan, along with a small view of my lovely mess of a working table. I'm mostly testing, this is the bad quality paper, and then I'll go on to the final version on high quality paper. I wanted to try how colours look, and for instance I think that the dress would look better in a light blue than in pink.
@ Mor: Your Lady Amell looks really great. If you are working digitally, and you are having issues with skin tones, I would recommend Navate's skin tutorial. She includes the colour palette for a variety of skin tones. Another approach (which I am trying to adapt to right now) is to build your tones in black and white, and then add colour through PS layering.
@ Vor: I really like the idea of art prompts. It can really get the creative juices going I especially like the portrait. It's a tricky angle, but you got it pretty well. Her lips would need to be a little bit plumper from that perspective however, especially the upper lip. Great job, though Keep at it
Worked a bit on Kaidan's features and adjusted the armor:
Thank you, Tesh! I'll remember about the lips for next time I think you don't realize how tricky lips can be until you try to draw them properly
The prompts are great; I didn't know what to expect, but as you said they are great to get the creative juices flowing. The day after finishint the portrait I spent the whole morning painting Lavellan, which I had been putting off for days (I'm usually lazy about setting up the painting camp plus down mood from RL issues)
That same day I also did a little gif animation that is the silliest thing in the history of silly; it's for the Abelas thread 100 pages celebration and it's kind of an inside joke of the thread, but you can see it here if you want.
@Tesh your Kaidan is looking good! Is it me or you changed his face texture? Also, is it going to be greyscale with a splash of colour like Cullen?
Hehe That gif is pretty funny I have only done one full playthrough of DA:I, so I only got the chance to meet Abelas once, but I really liked his character. And the design
Yup, Kaidan will be greyscale with a splash of colour. I am trying to practice placing my values correctly. The face has been changed significantly since last week. More details, etc. The only thing different since yesterday is an overlay layer that changes the highlights and shadows a bit.
That's some progress, Tesh! Kaidan's biotics are an excellent chance for colour splashing, I'm sure it will look great
About values, some weeks ago I watched a vid about getting values right in colour with traditional painting, and at the end of the vid the man said "to know if you got them right, you squint" I thought it was very funny, high-tech checking for us traditional painters
I'm glad you like my gif! Funny thing, I didn't notice Abelas very much in game (other than thinking he was hot in looks and voice ); but the Solas thread got me thinking about him and I started to really like the character. His design is great, but lots of laugh are being had on the thread because of his knee faces 
The squinting trick is actually legit, though it does sound really funny, as you've said Another trick to use to help while painting traditionally is looking at your drawing in the mirror. This way, you can easily pick out irregularities.
And, yes, I know about the knee faces. I love it when certain design elements are unintentionally funny
Ooh all the art looks great! 
Kaidan looks great, and Vor I agree on making her dress blue rather than pink. And the Abelas gif is so funny! The thighs must return...
Mor, I can't wait to see the colors but I totally understand what you're saying about realistic skin coloring... it's so tricky to do properly, but when you do it looks amazing. 
Pfiouuu, Kaidan is not my type (Like I said, don't hit me for that ^^) but he looks really good Tesh
I tried the link you gave, but, it's too hard for me :/ I mean, I do not have the skill to do THAT (I tried but it looked so ugly ^^). I need more practice, and one day, I will be able to do it 
... As for the black and white, I'm not sure I understood how to do it.. I tried greysale, but it looks flat (graphite pen & paper are far much easier for me me ^^).
I finally pick a skin palette on Deviantart, and it looks, let's say, better than what i've done by myself (unless I wanna draw Marge Simspon ).
I still have issues with the blend tool on SAI: it is not as smooth as I want. Somehow, I find the blur tool better for that (From what i read, I have to use the blend tool, or the olwater tool, but I can't :/)
@ Mor: Your character is shaping up very nicely. Make sure to vary the skin tones a little bit by adding some blues and purples in there. Looks like your shadows are warm, so your highlights should be cooler - light blue is a good colour to have. I do not use a special tool for blending, but paint with the hard round brush and colour pick a lot from the image until I have a smooth transition. That requires working with low opacity. I find that it creates a more natural colour variation.
As for painting in greyscale first, here is an example by CubeBrush.
I am glad you found a colour palette that is a bit easier for you to handle. I got so comfortable working from Navate's palettes that I did not realize they might not be the best point to start from when just beginning to work with colour... O_o
Hello everyone! It's been so long!
You are all doing so well it looks great.
I have been busy and haven't had time for painting 
But now I am back. and I am not empty handed.
Just one of my elf DA:I characters, since this is grayscale I might try that tutorial later on Tesh!
Heyhooooo!!! Sorry for abandoning you guys for so long
I find a new job accross the country so since last August I've been moving to Paris area, do some travel for works & no internet until last week. Didn't manage to draw at all because things were so crazy but at least things had settled down for now.
So I got a drawing class in the local art school & we're going to do live drawings once a month, and I also get schoolism subscription
In the mean time it's been so many drawings around here lately and gosh, how all of you had improved
Welcome back, Ceru and Shantia! Good to see you again
@ Shantia: Your character is shaping up well. I really like how her lips turned out. You can definitely use PS layers to add colour, or you can keep things in greyscale, but add one colour to an element in the drawing. The eyes, jewelry, or magic are some examples
@ Ceru - Yay for Schoolism Bobby Chiu is one of my favourite artists
Started refining Kaidan's armour. It's slow going, but I'm getting there
Retour en haut
