Learning Digital Art - Update -3

[Winterfire]

Used the base color as a mound of clay and did the outlining at last (Do point me out if this is a bad way to do things/practice , Which it might actually be).

It's 100% bad.

Sketch -> Outline -> Coloring


The way I do it is sketch with a green color (Bright, very visible), then lower the opacity to 50% and outline it black.
Some people want the outline to be gentler (not black, so a darker shade of the color), but that's easily fixable by making a child layer of the outline and painting it with the chosen color.
Once the outline is done, you can disable the sketch and do the coloring (use magic wand to select the areas, then expand by the width of the outline - 1).
Once you have the coloring (Each element should be a layer imho), you can do the shading and other stuff on child layers so you won't risk them going out of the bounds.

 

[Winterfire]

And this part , Well , My brain is in this weird situation of wanting to do different styles , I color one thing in one style then the second in another , It is easily resolvable , I guess . As you said I'll stick to the "anime" style as my main goal and maybe learn semi-realism or realism someday down the path.

"Anime" style is already quite vast of itself, take these two images for example:

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

Both anime, but the latter is very overly stylized.
There are much different ones too, even those where some extra time is given to the eyebrows (which in both of the cases above, they are just 1 shade), but none of them are overly textured above all other elements to make them stand out like sore thumbs.

But yeah, the thing that kills the most your latest drawing is the bad outline, and now I know why. At that point, it would have been better without outline.

 

[Gunjira]

there are millions of ways to draw a leaf and everyone will tell you their way is the best, imho you should just find a style you want to mimic, learn how that specific artist do it and practice, and not just one head, I mean hundreds of pages of eyes and hands and dicks.

Used the base color as a mound of clay and did the outlining at last (Do point me out if this is a bad way to do things/practice , Which it might actually be).

it's a perfectly valid technique, it's called "alla prima" in painting, not everyone is ok working like that, but you're not everyone so do what works best for you.

but the problem is not just the coloring, and I suspect you're new at drawing altogether.

Back when I first started digital art (aeons ago) I had to scan paper drawing and then color them via computer (and it was ass), maybe you could do something similar, just practice like you would as a kid with a coloring book, there's no shame with that, just have fun and see what you can do.

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

Day 4
Today I focused on studying light and shadow along with a bit more blending. To depict the progress in that , I've attached a sphere I painted to better understand these concepts.

Secondly , Well , As I said I was exploring the last two days , I think I have found something I like , a style I would like to pursue.
Things I have started focusing more on are Outlines and the correct flow (Sketch -> Outlines -> Painting). I picked a character from the anime style I stated I have started to like and would like to pursue ,and ,made her . Today was quite productive If I say so myself and I actually learned a lot.

And yes Winterfire , I'll stick to the style now . And Gunjira , Thank you for mentioning the name of the style I talked about yesterday , I was looking for the name of it for so long.

Personal Note : Is she recognizable ? I've also mentioned a famous dialogue of her, Can you tell who she is? (I've made my mind halfway that she will be the female lead in my "future" game...maybe...)

Thanks!

 

[Winterfire]

Your outline is still bad, you are not using path which is pretty much a must if you don't have a tablet.

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

Your outline is still bad, you are not using path which is pretty much a must if you don't have a tablet.

Can you explain what "path" is? Are you talking about some kind of stabilizer? I actually do possess a tablet atm

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

Winterfire About the outline thing , I think brushes(Am currently using pen) do have a part in it , but according to my recent observation , It might actually be working on lesser pixels , for e.g. the image I posted recently is hardly 1000x1000 (I originally use 3000x2000 but crop to post). What do you think?

Plus , My choice of software is Krita , If that matters..

 

[Winterfire]

Oh nvm, if you have a tablet, that's a different type of workflow. You should look on youtube, many tutorials about it.

 

[Gone405]

Hello , I have some questions If you don't mind,
1.I would like to know what might be the reason behind your opinion on the specular effect? Is it my beginner level skills or some other reason?
2.Is it still necessary to learn realism first if am aiming for a more stylized or "anime" kind of art?
3.I hope am not wrong but Cel Shading (I hope am using the correct term) is about sharp and solid shadows, avoiding any soft shadows or blending , right?
Thanks for the feedback!

For the second question I would say still work off of real people because it will help you understand how the body moves and how to make your character have "weight" to them. Working off of real people will also help with natural poses.

 

[Gunjira]

hey buddy it's nice to see you're hanging on.

I think I've found the reference you've used and tbh it's not a really good one, beside that I'll repeat myself but I really believe it's not the coloring that's your main issue.

you really should work on your drawing, I'm not just talking about refining the line-art but just practice drawing first, before you start trying to color and shade etc.

just practice sketch, and the best way to do that is just look at videos of peoples dancing, doing sport, fighting etc, pause the video and draw that frame.

I believe it's the best way to practice.

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

hey buddy it's nice to see you're hanging on.

I'll take that as a compliment

I think I've found the reference you've used and tbh it's not a really good one

Well... I did notice that ,but , pretty late. From what I think it's the "not so good" lighting making things hard in the reference. But , thanks for mentioning and confirming my suspicion.

you really should work on your drawing, I'm not just talking about refining the line-art but just practice drawing first, before you start trying to color and shade etc.

Winterfire had mentioned the line art issue multiple times . and everytime I post , I just hate the fact that am not improving at it and kinda dissapointing y'all back to back. TBH , I think it's the "good enough" mindset pulling me back , along with the low canvas resolution making things (especially outlines) pixelated and kinda ugly. That said , I'll keep working on it till I fix it eventually!

just practice sketch, and the best way to do that is just look at videos of peoples dancing, doing sport, fighting etc, pause the video and draw that frame.

Aye , Amen to that! Will do .

 

[Winterfire]

Winterfire had mentioned the line art issue multiple times . and everytime I post , I just hate the fact that am not improving at it and kinda dissapointing y'all back to back. TBH , I think it's the "good enough" mindset pulling me back , along with the low canvas resolution making things (especially outlines) pixelated and kinda ugly. That said , I'll keep working on it till I fix it eventually!

Just watch a few tutorials about it:

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

(Random examples I saw on youtube).

Vector/Pen tool is not something I'd suggest for tablet since it kind of defeats the advantages of a tablet imho, but it has its advantages. For once, vector looks beautiful even if you scale it up a lot. It's also easier to manage, and more accurate (and very similar to what I use when I am talking about "Path" or "Pen tool"). However, it's a must for me due to the fact I don't have a tablet, just a mouse.

All of those people use a minimum of 3000 x 3000, however I use 7680 x 4320 (16:9) when making CGs or 7680 x 7680 when making sprites with a brush size of 3, and soft. Very tiny and almost hard to notice, but that's on purpose. I do want my artwork to have outline, but it shouldn't play a big part. Once I resize it down to 1920 x 1080 to be used in my games, the outline becomes "antialiased", even smaller and smoother.

You don't have to use the same settings, just play around with what feels good, I experimented a lot too. In the past I used a brush size of 5 for example, and it was also pretty good.

-edit-
Also notice the vector video. They have a semi-transparent sketch. Very similar to my workflow, except mine is green.

 

[Gunjira]

Winterfire had mentioned the line art issue multiple times . and everytime I post , I just hate the fact that am not improving at it and kinda dissapointing y'all back to back. TBH , I think it's the "good enough" mindset pulling me back , along with the low canvas resolution making things (especially outlines) pixelated and kinda ugly. That said , I'll keep working on it till I fix it eventually!

I know it can seem discouraging, and I can tell you one day you'll look at your drawing and think that you haven't improved in a decade, and you should be picking up garbage instead of trying to have any artistic aspirations, but eventually you will feed from the pain and become a reclusive misanthrope, so not all is doom and gloom, you see !

Jokes aside, come here, post your drawing, just simple sketch, try to make them in less then 10 minutes each (that's what I used to train on models in academy) then come to me with your sketch AND the reference and I'll try to help you with it.

drawing is mostly observation, if you look well you should be able to draw well too.

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

Day 5 - Head Sketches

All of those people use a minimum of 3000 x 3000, however I use 7680 x 4320 (16:9) when making CGs or 7680 x 7680 when making sprites

This helped a lot , I made the canvas 7680 x 4320 and voila , It's a "bit" better , right?

you really should work on your drawing, I'm not just talking about refining the line-art but just practice drawing first, before you start trying to color and shade etc.

I did exactly what you said , I've become somewhat okay-ish with drawing faces , If I say so myself. But , Yeah , focusing more on drawing made me look into the minor details creating mild if not major issues as the work gets closer to completion . Hell , I didn't even knew about the fact that the outer lines have to be stronger and thicker than the one's on the inside which'll affect the work in term of detail in the further stages.

Edit : Regarding the bodies Gunjira , Am having some trouble breaking down people into easy shapes (Which I do for faces and it's working wonders) , that's why I haven't uploaded any full body sketches yet. But , Am on it and watching some tutorials , I may or may not upload another sketches post having body poses (3 or 4), today.

 

[Winterfire]

Day 5 - Head Sketches

This helped a lot , I made the canvas 7680 x 4320 and voila , It's a "bit" better , right?

I did exactly what you said , I've become somewhat okay-ish with drawing faces , If I say so myself. But , Yeah , focusing more on drawing made me look into the minor details creating mild if not major issues as the work gets closer to completion . Hell , I didn't even knew about the fact that the outer lines have to be stronger and thicker than the one's on the inside which'll affect the work in term of detail in the further stages.

Edit : Regarding the bodies Gunjira , Am having some trouble breaking down people into easy shapes (Which I do for faces and it's working wonders) , that's why I haven't uploaded any full body sketches yet. But , Am on it and watching some tutorials , I may or may not upload another sketches post having body poses (3 or 4), today.

You made those? it's really good

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

You made those? it's really good

I finally made Winterfire senpai proud?!
I think low resolution was the actual killer for the outlines and line art overall. Am not too sure still cuz I haven't made a full colored piece with the "newly" discovered techniques . I gotta focus more on anatomy now!
Peace ,and, thanks again for the compliment!
Edit : I think hair is something I should study more when it comes to the face cuz it's still kinda choppy..

 

[Gunjira]

It's not what I suggested but it's still a good exercise, keep doing that, eventually you'll have a feel of how the artist just "do things" and why he put lines the way he does.

eventually you should also do side profile and full frontal (all the heads you've made are 3/4), keep practicing and at some point you should be able do draw them without references, just with muscle memory.

try doing that with other references from other artist as well, even if you don't want to "do that style" you can connect the dots and see that they all pretty much fallow the same base line.

you should also do that with body parts, heads, legs and arms, hips, character in action (as I initially suggested) and the more you practice the more it will print into your brain.

the next step after you've done that will be coloring, but not "full scale render with crazy dodge color etc" but just FLAT base colors, and only that.

Am having some trouble breaking down people into easy shapes

post them we will look at that together.

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

eventually you should also do side profile and full frontal (all the heads you've made are 3/4), keep practicing and at some point you should be able do draw them without references, just with muscle memory.

As I initially started learning , I took 3/4th as my priority as I heard that it's the most common to be used in games , My brain had got into this "Gotta.draw.3/4th" mode only but yeah ,I will make a sheet of same characters in frontal and side profile asap(if my smooth brain can comprehend it ).

try doing that with other references from other artist as well, even if you don't want to "do that style" you can connect the dots and see that they all pretty much fallow the same base line.

I do get your point , And ,am glad I took the advice on "learn/draw whatever you want but still learn realism" because , I've slowly started to understand that realism is the core idea off of which one can make their own interpretations/styles, yeah?

you should also do that with body parts, heads, legs and arms, hips, character in action (as I initially suggested) and the more you practice the more it will print into your brain.

Regarding the bodies, Am able to break down faces into efficient and effective shapes from reference to make the process easy for me , But when I tried doing it for the body , It was quite a different case. So , Am focusing on studying anatomy now(At least just enough to draw things that make sense and are not abominations.) That said , I believe I'll have something substantial to present tomorrow (I hope.)

the next step after you've done that will be coloring, but not "full scale render with crazy dodge color etc" but just FLAT base colors, and only that.

post them we will look at that together.

On it , I might share the colored piece of this one with just the "flat" colors asap. Thank you for being such a consistent guide and mentor.

 

[Deleted member 7330341]

Day 6 - Post 1 (AOT Characters Headshots - Base colors)

Hello , I've painted the base colors in for the sketch I posted yesterday. What do you think Gunjira and Winterfire

 

[Winterfire]

Day 6 - Post 1 (AOT Characters Headshots - Base colors)

Hello , I've painted the base colors in for the sketch I posted yesterday. What do you think Gunjira and Winterfire

1 and 2 inner hear shade is too dark, the rest is very good