Saturday 20 September 2008

Digi-Paint Practice




Posting again???? What’s going on? Well for the last week I’ve been ill with flu/Took Thursday and Friday off work. I’ve been too ill to do anything. Even watching DVDs was too much work. I woke up this morning feeling a lot better. I cleaned my space, did some washing, cooked and relaxed. Felt strong enough to colour up one of my work doodles based upon some advice given to me once again, by Kenny. I definitely have a now found respect for you painters out there. The girl in the green is my second attempt (lion o being the first). I have painted before, but in college, and it was pretty much a cel shading technique.

Anyway, with the green girl I sent it to Kenny for some advice and he emailed me back with notes and painted one of them (left pic with brown backing). Even though it’s just the head (and I’m guessing it took him about 10mins), already it looks a lot better than mine (DAMN YOU MR ANDERSON!!) He also gave me a link to a site with lots of helpful hints. I’m just trying to learn one thing at a time. I just have to be really observant. Not that I wasn’t before, but now I’m just adding to the things I’m currently observing. I think my mind is ready for it now. The approach I took with the girl in the red was to paint the values with black on a separate layer in Photoshop (top layer), multiply the line art (middle layer) and add hues (bottom layer). Once that was done, I merged the layers and continued on one layer. I’m quite please with my progress. I don’t like the picture much, but I like what I took from it. There are many approaches I want to try so I think it will take some time for me to find myself in this. Years in fact, but that’s what makes it exciting right? This is new territory for me so crits are welcome.

Thanks to all who commented or visited on my last post.

And Again....

Wes

PS: Does anyone know how to set up painter so that it responds to varying pen pressures? Default settings make it difficult, and I really would prefer to use painter to er.....paint! (Duh)

PPS: New link added, friend and colleague THE MIGHTY REZA!!!! :)

17 comments:

Ken said...

dude I think theres a big improvement here, how do you feel about working on a darker background? Are you using soft brushes here? Personally I would avoid them as much as possible - they can be useful for blendin later on. Oh, and try adding some subtle orangy reds between the shadows and the tone of her face - it will bring the skin to life man. Good work tho man! Talk more in work. Hope your feelin better!

RAWLS said...

Hoooray!! You live!!! Good to see you're alive and well my friend...sort of well that is... I missed ya! Yea, Ken is the man for sure. Make sure you get lots of Vitamin C! Get better.

L Rossi said...

dude, I like em! I'm like you, go for the two tone styley normally - but keep it up, tis looking good!
L

"TORI CAT" said...

Hey Wes,
Thanks for checking out my blog.... sorry for the late reply. Im rubbish at that. Im really glad you like my stuff.... I thinks your painting is looking great. Colour is such a tough thing to get right, but stick at it.... your doing really well and it looks like kenny is teaching you some great tips too.... i look forward to seeing more.
Hope to see you soon,
Big hugs,
Tori cat.z

"TORI CAT" said...

.x (i woz meat to sign off with a kiss X not a snore!! Z) I dont think your booring...... its just big fat Homer fingers r too big to button bash!! Do'h!!! ;)
xx

DINTOONS said...

lovely drawings n sketches here... great work libra bear!!

LOVE that cartoony lady with a sword in "what shall i post" post... supercute!! :)

EL GRANDE said...

Ok, so now I'm the bad friend for not commenting back in a minute:)

Sorry for the delay brother. Graduation, and getting a full time gig are kickin me in the bollocks. I'm working at a sculpture studio in Atlanta now called Cherry Lion. I'm doing a ton of casting and sculpting, and it's super fun, but also really laborious, so the end of my days usually start with a beer or four:)

These new posts are amazing as usual. I really like the painting that was sent back to you with notes. Really good advise. It's always nice to have a mentor to light the way.

Anyway, I'm off to set up for a group show I'm in next week, but I'll try and shoot you a longer email with tons of details and pictures later.

peace brother,
Joe

messytimbo said...

bangin man! keep these posts coming!

Nick said...

Mate, there's some serious drawing going on there. Keep it up there's areal awesome 3D feel to the shading on those, it feels kind of thick and gooey like oil paint.

Might have to get that WACOM and kick your ass at drawing as well as animation - NOT!!!!

gemini82 said...

checkout
http://artdemonstrations. com/

Good site for painting techniques.
-----------------------
looking good man an can you post the link that ken gave ya

Daniel M.C. Alvite said...

hey wes.
long time, Im glad to see you are always keen to practise, over and over, cool.
I like the light on the red girl, first draw.
nice to see also the workflow of your paint.

L Rossi said...

Thanks man - Yeah, I wanted to do it painterly, but realised i couldnt! so i guess at some point ill do it in the alvin lee styley!
Have a good time in L-town!
Peace

Matt P said...

I've been checking out your blog for a while now dude, so I thought I'd drop a bit of encouragement this time - these look awesome! Which brush are you using here?

Javier Burgos "Javas" said...

very nice Wesley!

maarten said...

i have not commented yet?!! impossible! i have seen this post a thousand times now.

as always your drawing skills amaze me. i cant stop looking at your drawings... post more! i especially like how you colored the top girl.

by the way... how long are we gonna have to wait for a photo of that sculpture!!

Carlos Fraiha said...

Amazing drawings! From time to time I look at them to inspire me to go back and do some more life drawing =D
How are things going up there? I haven't given up on applying at Ink, I'll probably do it early next year.

Things here are a bit difficult, but I managed to do some work here and there. There's this project I did for the Charlotte Street Agency, 2 minutes of Flash animation in two weeks =S not much sleep during those weeks hehe it's on my blog if you'd like to look at it later.

Take care!

Ken said...

In order to get your fundament in gear and hopefully post something no matter how minuscule... I have given you the privilege of being tagged by me! Rather!!!

Now do check out my bloggy blog for the rules on these tagging shenanigans - I guarantee a hell of a lot of fun! Spiffing!

Toodle bye!