I would like advice on how to improve my images.

[Humility]

One of my players made this comment about it.

 

it would be hard to find something not disturbing there

The way it's colored is just strange and i mean a lovecraft kind of strange, gives an otherwordly look in a bad way. More than half the image is just unintelligible, i mean other than the guy with the deranged face (and my goodness, i can tell that was not the intention) and what i can assume are minotaurs i really could not get an idea of what is going on or what i am seeing, other than a collection of colors,filters and pseudo-shapes. I mean jesus what the hell is going on in the bottom left and top left/right.
I mean you got the hellish acid trip dimension right. you got it too right in fact

 

He didn't like it.

[Humility]

I don't know why but I seemed to have a real regression in quality with this image. But its my first modern image and my first attempt at a detailed face.

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Humility

[Humility]

I can't get the upper right wing to look like its leaning against the wall. Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong there?

 

Also I just don't like how the angel turned out.

 

[IRON67]

51 minutes ago, Humility said:

Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong there?

 

You failed in drawing it in the right perspective. It should look more like this:

 

 

Maybe that helps you...

Edited February 16, 2017 by IRON67

[Humility]

Thanks, I had tilted it straight backwards but I guess I should have angled it as well. Not sure how to do the shadow though as the wall is the light source.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Humility

[IRON67]

If the wall is the light source, the shadow must point in the opposite direction. In general your shadows are in my eyes to soft. BTW: Shadows must follow perspective too (nearer=bigger).

Edited February 17, 2017 by IRON67

[Humility]

I think I'm going to have to just give up and call this image a failure. I tried angling the wing, drawing the shadow on the wing itself and even redrawing the feathers so their overlap pattern was going the opposite direction.(Feathers don't overlap like that and it became very clear very quickly) It now looks like the wing is being bent in the middle and that its tiny. And now I'm sick of this picture and am just washing my hands of it and calling it a total abject failure. Also I think beveling the blood was a mistake.

 

 

My Final attempt.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by Humility

[IRON67]

Well, it's your decision, but I think, you should try it again. You can't learn anything, if you give up. Redrawing the feather wasn't neccessary (for perspective) in my opinion - at most, because they look a little bit like fish scales. And beveling the blood is better then such a light beveling of arms and legs. It's mostly a question of the right perspective - nothing else.

 

Here 2 little examples, what I mean:

 

 

I see two options:

1. You draw the blood or other more or less flat objects directly in the right perspective.
2. You draw like before and use then Layers -> Rotate/Zoom.

Additional an alternative wing:

Edited February 17, 2017 by IRON67

[Humility]

Well this is certainly useful advice if I can figure out how to apply it. Thank you. Maybe I should have drawn the entire image first then done textures and stuff instead of creating each object seperately then copy pasting it into the larger image.

Edited February 18, 2017 by Humility

[Humility]

I've been doing too many angel pictures. My campaign sure has a lot of angels in it. I wonder when I'll do something else.

 

 

Okay I think I did pretty well on this one. I had sworn off ever doing large crowds again, but hen I thought, "Maybe its because I try to make generic characters in a crowd, maybe if I made each character in the image, an actual person, I wouldn't be bored and I would be able to do the whole image well." So I tried it. Using a random generator to decide just about everything about the crowd. And it helped a bit I suppose. But when I finished the Angel, I felt no interest at all in finishing the restof the image well and just rushed it.

 

So I think the lesson there is I should stick to just drawing the parts I want to draw, focusing on that. But in spite of that, I think this is still one of my better images.

[BoltBait]

Comparing this image to the first image you posted in this thread, your images have GREATLY improved.  Good Job!

[Beta0]

@Humility With this new image, I feel like the focal point is the angel. Also, the colors are varied.

 

By the way, I've seen your older works in this thread. You have improved.

[Eli]

I agree, there has been an improvement in your work and you are consistent with your style of doing things. I would just suggest to not overuse the "bevel' effect.

[Humility]

Thanks!

 

What would you suggest as an Alternative to Bevel? It seems to make everything better.

[Humility]

Actually I think of the tools I use, I mostly just use gaussion blur, motion blur, crystalize, glass blocks, distort, lighten, liquify, furblur, add noise, render clouds, the gradiant wand and bevel object. I could probably use suggestions for more tools that do different things.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Humility

[Eli]

Gaussian Blur helps softening lines. Bevel gives objects a 3D look but it does not look good on all objects. You may want to try to "paint" shadows and highlight areas. It is a lot of work and you will need plenty of patience. Have you tried using @AnthonyScoffler's Brush Factory? It can be a substitute to "bevel" but as I said you will need to actually paint your shadows and highlights but the endresult will be more natural.

[Humility]

Does the brush factory work with line tool? My images are too large for the brush tool. The brush stutters. And it will cost my around $1,500 for a computer that can handle that. So thats years away.

[Woodsy]

Indeed, I agree with Boltbait, your images have improved! I also agree with Eli, don't overuse the bevel plugin.

[Beta0]

@Humility I suggest looking for tutorials that will help you understand the basics of light and shadow. Using bevel, when I saw some of the images, looks like pillow shading. I used to have problems with shading, which led me to look for tutorials (a lot of them.) One of them was made for MS Paint art (it was more related to cel-shading.) The author showed three ways of shading that weren't good; pillow shading was included. Some of them, which were more oriented to realistic/semi-realistic art, advised about including fore-lights (a light that appears were the shadow is, but it's weaker compared to the main light.) Test them and see which one might work for you.

[Humility]

Could you give me links to 5 of these tutorials that actually helped you? So I dont have to reinvent the wheel. Please? Right now other bevel, all I can do for shading is splotch out roughly shaped black spots, then gaussoon blur them then change the layer transparety.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2017 by Humility

[Beta0]

@Humility Okay.

• Improve Your Artwork by Learning to See Light and Shadow, by Monika Zagrobelna: This tutorial will help you understand how we see light and shadows in real life.
• Redline- Notes on Cel Shading, by ThirdPotato: While it's more about cel-shading (or 'toon shading'), the author gives an insight about the color of shadows and thinking of the object as a tridimensional one.
• Tutorial-Cel-shading, by ThirdPotato: This one is for understanding shadows in real life, too.
• Tutorial-Shading Hair and Form, by ThirdPotato: Another one about cel-shading.
• Tutorial-Understanding Shadows, by ThirdPotato: Another tutorial, similar to the third one.

Bonus: This is another one of the tutorials that advised against pillow shading, which was written by Zemael.

 

While the last one is for MS Paint, I always thought it's knowledge can be used for other programs (except the part about the background.)

[Seerose]

 @Beta0! Thank you so much, and "happy easter"!     

[Beta0]

@Seerose You're welcome. And thanks. :]

[Maximilian]

All those shading tutorials are very helpful, Beta0. Thanks for them!

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Shading is covered in this excellent tree tutorial by Jonathan Roberts http://www.fantasticmaps.com/category/tips-and-tricks/

I know the tut is based on trees, but you can learn a lot from professionals like Jonathan. He makes it look so natural and easy. I love the way he explains his techniques so simply (and also his neat use of Overlay).