This may kill your eyes (Just looking for some help with my artz.)

[Promise]

Hey everyone. So I've recently gotten seriously into the whole "Art" thing. Like many young blokes, I am suddenly dreaming say and night about being a concept artist. Now, while I do not think that is at all likely to happen, I can certainly still try to become a little less crappy, yes?

Now what I currently do is draw out my image on paper give it VERY light shading, almost non existant. I upload it onto photoshop, trace over the lineart with the pencil tool, then begin coloring and shading. I've created quite a few images by now, and once again, I've found myself stumped. I am quite easily capable of creating an un-realistic "cartoony" image. But I that's not what I want. I would very much rather create a more realistic looking image.
I know, I know, don't aim so high when you first start off. But.. (I don't wannnaaaa) I haven't -just- started off, and I think it's about time to aim higher.

http://i47.tinypic.com/dcbm7l.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/34xgy77.jpg <---- This one's in pencil, just so that you can see my lineart isn't -horrible- until I use my freaking mouse to make the outlines :smallannoyed:

Now, you are free to make comments on proportions and such, as I am fairly sure I have gotten them wrong here and there. However what I am actually asking for is advice on the shading of the image, so as to make it realistic.

But Promise, it's a naga! They aren't real! How could you make it, "realistic"

Mermen aren't real, right? This is still realistic. (Or atleast the level of realism I'm aiming for.)

http://i47.tinypic.com/35ba42v.jpg

Note: I did not create this image, obviously, it is from the game, Battle For Wesnoth.

[Promise]

Did some more work.
With Lines
http://i49.tinypic.com/2en6bzt.png

Without
http://i46.tinypic.com/2r7tukg.png

Besides still asking for crit and help, which do you guys think looks better, and why? Non artist opinions are also appreciated!

[flyingchicken]

Basically you should be able to "see" the simple shapes your drawring is made of and know how light interacts with that shape (correspondingly, the strength, number, directions, and colors of the lights in your drawring)

If the light is behind that figure, how is there a bright highlight on its right shoulder for instance, is something you have to think about

Figuring out the construction of organic figures is haaard (construction is haaard (drawring is haaaaard)) though and what I find works for me is just straight up imitating life and digesting and reflecting what I just imitated; what I found works for me in this regard is just looking for extant paintings to copy, or just getting photos from the interwebs and imitating them.

Here's a quickie I made for this thread to demonstrate that last thing:

http://i.imgur.com/ftYON.png
0) you find a photo you like, here I used one of the first Google image results for "Lexi Belle"
1) you increase the contrast so it's easier to distinguish the different values (plus that particular photo had terribad lighting so it's a plus plus)
2) get all the different values, not too many, and just slap them on; you can try eyeballing the colors, or just dropper tooling them; wrt shading it's good to have a feel for the different levels of values, and to have a program that supports that (a good video on this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIDrGT07GBA)); just move the colors around based on your source photo and you'll get some hands-on experience on the different bumps and lumps on a figure; here I didn't exactly capture her and it is very very ruff but whatevs it's just for shading demonstration
3) so we can get to here, where you can apply your new experience to more cartoony things

The good thing about most drawrings is that you can keep them around as visual notes for this sort of thing, so if you copy enough photos, paintings, movies stills or whatever, you'll soon have a collection of personal notes on how to shade certain things in certain lighting, plus all the hands-on practice you got from making them in the first place.


However what I am actually asking for is advice on the shading of the image, so as to make it realistic. Try to think that you're asking for is advice not for realism or shading per se, but how to add some depth to drawring; aka, the very fundamentals of drawring, how to represent 3D objects in space in a 2D thingie


I know, I know, don't aim so high when you first start off. But.. (I don't wannnaaaa) I haven't -just- started off, and I think it's about time to aim higher.I think to start off you have to have the right thinking as well as dedication and ambition lest you waste your time honing all the wrong practices; aiming for better is always good, but first you have to know what better is.

For instance, how can you learn proper shading if your figures are all flat and wonky, not 3D figures in a 3D space but the superficial scribblings of a child imitating comics and cartoons? At some point I believe you could bend and maybe even break those rules, once you know them, but not before; even if you do achieve an attractive result then, independent of all external merits (somehow (very doubtful)), it would not be out of any skill or understanding of pretty things but mere accident.

Not that I'm very good (yet, I hope), but from time to time I like to share my opinions to fellow-travelers in the road of amateur art-ing, as a sort of catharsis and reflection I suppose, so I apologize if this was a bit wordy.

[Promise]

The lighting is not meant to be behind the figure, but the top right and slightly infront OF the figure. Which is why (besides the belly buttom) all the exposed and right orientated areas have light hitting them, while the area on the left is more dark.


For instance, how can you learn proper shading if your figures are all flat and wonky, not 3D figures in a 3D space but the superficial scribblings of a child imitating comics and cartoons?

I understand what you mean here, however this is really what I am trying to learn, how to represent this. I understand that, because of this, I should rather be trying to exactly copy some one elses work (or a still life photo, etc) but I then I tend to get frustrated and just.. Not finish. I know that sounds immature, but there you go.


Not that I'm very good (yet, I hope), but from time to time I like to share my opinions to fellow-travelers in the road of amateur art-ing, as a sort of catharsis and reflection I suppose, so I apologize if this was a bit wordy.

No problem at all! I actually really appreciate the help! :smallsmile:

[BraveSirKevin]

I definitely agree with what FlyingChicken said. The most important thing in a drawing is that the viewer is able to read the shapes and make sense of what's going on in the scene.


The lighting is not meant to be behind the figure, but the top right and slightly infront OF the figure. Which is why (besides the belly buttom) all the exposed and right orientated areas have light hitting them, while the area on the left is more dark.

The reason this is a problem is that you've put a sun in the scene behind him over his left shoulder. If the sun wasn't in the picture at all, then your highlights and shadows would probably be just fine.

I think the bigger trick is that you're not really creating your figures as if they're composed of 3d elements that connect together in a logical way:
• Your character's head is actually pretty good, but the way it connects to the shoulders doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not clear that it connects between the two shoulders and instead it looks like it's growing out of the right one.
• I can see that you mean for the tail to be a long snake-ike tail, that's coiled up like a spring, but only because I have the extra info in the written description and because I've taken the time to try and make sense of it. Without that, I would have just seen it as a weird sort of dress made of thick hoops because there is no clear indication that the tail is an extension of the body.

Just out of curiosity, what is the process you go through in creating a figure like that? Do you sketch in the silhouette first? Or do you construct it out of simpler 3d shapes like spheres and cubes?