hippiechos

Thank you, @Pixey!

Kitty dragon! I've heard of feathery dragons before, rather than scaly ones. Maybe it's one of those? Oooh! Or maybe it's like the winged lion on the cover of A Spell for Chameleon!

Your swirl reminds me of sorbet. Yum.

I decided to try my hand at digitally painting some of my hand-drawn images. I don't have a scanner, so I had to tweak the levels of the photos I took of the sketches before using the black and alpha tool. It gave it an interestingly grainy look for my outline. The background I made years ago, using a tutorial that's now in the graveyard. I'm only in the beginning stages of learning how to digitally paint and still looking to improve, so I'll happily take suggestions. These are all characters from my current writing work-in-progress. I do have guys as well. I just haven't colored them yet. Naomi is the only full human of this bunch.

Great start to a gallery! I particularly like your weapons, and your hobgoblin brings a smile to my face. Good job!

@Eli - It's all good. It introduced me to a new tool, one that looks pretty awesome and I'll be using in future projects.

@Red ochre - Thanks! It looks like that will do the job for me. @Woodsy - Thanks for the suggestion. I had tried the smudge tool, but it pushed the pixels around rather than spread and thin them like I'm looking for.

Thanks for the suggestion, @Eli. While poking around the tool, I couldn't see how to build a brush that just applies a blur. I saw how I could apply a colored, stylized brush, but I'm not sure about something that blurs instead of applying color. Would you be able to point me in the direction of accomplishing just the blur brush?

I like the effect of Gaussian blur. I was wondering if there's something that I don't know about that can create a Gaussian blur effect, but allow me to control where it's applied like you do with the paint brush. I've tried moving the hardness of the eraser tool down to 0% and running along the edges to create the blur, but it's still not soft enough for what I'm looking for, unless I make the brush size huge and then it overlaps areas I don't want to erase. I can work around this by cutting things from one later and putting them on another so that I can create the blur, and then merge them back down, but I was hoping there might be an easier way. Thanks for any suggestions!

@Beta0 - You did well with both, though I'm particularly drawn to the girl. I like the style. As far as critique goes, I find myself distracted by the white blurring centered over her hands. I understand it's supposed to be a glow coming from her heart, but the washed out circle seems a bit off. Like maybe it should be rays of golden glowing light coming out from between her fingers or something. The only other thought would be to tilt the heart slightly, so that the point of it is more aimed at the girl, like it's coming from her. The bird is a bit too blurry for my tastes, but that's a matter of preference of style rather than a need to correct something within the image. I did want to say I love the colors and how they're blended. It's very eye-catching.

I really like the brushed metal look of the side profile, and the last stage of the heart sigs. Very nice and great job!

Your planet is very cool! And like Beta0, I can't see your starship either.

Thank you, @Beta0, @Ishi, and @Scooter! @Ishi - I used Shangri La for the title and Berylium for my name and subtitles on the Ninier series and Euphorigenic for This World Bites. @Scooter - You are absolutely correct. It's something I was aware of myself that the symbol doesn't interact with the stone. What I've tried and failed to do several times is embed the symbol into the stone. I got a bit of an engraved effect in one of my rejected versions, but what I truly want to do is embed it deep like staring down into a crevice to see it buried within the cracks. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to do that. Every thing I can think of to give it depth requires viewing it at an angle, rather than straight on. Or you can't see part of the symbol because stone blocks it. Or it requires shadows that makes the symbol too dark to see. I've tried moving the cracks up so that they're spread over parts of the metal, but then the symbol disappears too much. I haven't tried a drop shadow, but I figured I'd have to add more dimension to the symbol in order for it to make sense. One of the ideas I've been toying with is to change the direction of the light and maybe cast a shadow from the symbol and have it look like a clawed hand. I thought that might be a bit too much though.

She's got some bounce in her step!

Very nice! I like the corners and depth.

Thank you, @MJW, @Pixey, and @Seerose!

As I went hunting through my files for a parchment background I'd created long ago, I came across some old paint.NET images I'd made way back when (2012). They still make me smile, so I figured I'd add them to my gallery.

Nice animation. It's fun!

Amazing work! I love the amount of detail.

Thank you, everyone. I'm glad you guys found this useful! I'd love to see what works you create with the technique. @LionsDragon - Thank you. I tend to agree about her adorableness. We were having fun playing dress-up and doing a photo shoot, so I could practice taking pictures.

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it A few fellow forum members suggested I make a tutorial after giving shading tips on a different thread. No plug-ins needed. This will work on colored images as well to accent the highlights and shadows, but I tend to play with it the most on my sketches. First, start with your base image. Add a new layer for shadows and set the Blending Mode to Color Burn Add another layer for highlights and set the Blending Mode to Color Dodge Using a dark gray on the Dodge layer, color where you want highlights. The lighter the color, the brighter the highlight. If it looks too bright, try a darker color. Black will probably not show up at all. I like to lower the hardness of the brush to get a softer edge to help with blending later. If you want distinct highlights, you can try a harder brush. Using a light gray on the Burn layer, color where you want shadows. The darker the color, the deeper the shadows. Use Gaussian Blur to smooth out the shadows. Play with the slider to see what works best for your image. Do the same to the highlights. Using the eraser tool, clean up the edges of the highlights and shadows so they don't creep beyond the borders of your image. If you find a section that needs a bit more adjustment, you can color where needed, use the selection tool to choose just that area, and then blur again to smooth it out. Another option is to reduce the hardness of your brush and adjust the opacity to make it slightly transparent, if you want just a subtle change. And then, you're done! You can adjust the opacity of the Dodge and Burn layers if the highlights and shadows are too bright/dark. This same technique on a colored photo (done quickly for this tutorial, not because my daughter needed any dramatization to her face):

Use the Line/Curve tool and hold down the SHIFT key while you drag.

@LionsDragon @Maximilian - I think I will make a tutorial. My first!

@Humility - Another trick, which does take some trial and error and a bit of patience, is to use dodge and burn. I like to draw on paper, take photos of the pictures (since I don't have a nifty scanner), and then play with depth using dodge and burn. Once you understand the direction of light, you can try these methods to see if you like the results. First you have your base image. Add a Burn layer Add a Dodge layer Choose dark gray to add highlights to the Dodge layer (the lighter the color, the brighter the highlight) and a lighter gray to add shadows to the Burn layer (the darker the color, the darker the shadow) Use Gaussian blur to smooth out the edges (play with the levels to see what works best for your image) Then erase around the edge of your base image to clean up shadows and highlights that extend beyond it Play with the Opacity slider on the dodge and burn layers to adjust if they are too bright/dark. Unfortunately, I have no talent for drawing background for my people, so I have no advice there. But since these past few posts were about shading, I figured I'd chime in.

@Pixey - Thanks! I'm a lurker by nature, silently learning and observing. I was actually poking around these forums since before then, but I had to register to ask a question. It wasn't until recently that I coaxed myself to take the plunge, post my pieces that all of you helped me create through tutorials and examples, and start interacting with other people.