Shadow's Art :) New work pg 13

**Shadowsfade** · 04-21-2012, 07:22 AM

Thanks a lot

I see what you mean about the hat - it doesn't quite match up with the head! thanks for pointing it out, i'll edit that

and i'll try and play around with the lips a bit (i'm not very good at drawing proper lips, just line smiles lol!)

Anyone that's worked with paint tool sai, do you have any tips on how to shade? having some trouble figuring out the best method - is airbrush best? or pen on a low opacity? or something else? help would be appreciated

I've done some editing of my amumu picture - taken a long time as the layers merged so i had to seperate them all out >.> still a WIP, i need to add more to the background sand, and add in shadows for the tree and redo the shading on the character to match with my new light sorce - but i've done some rearranging in line with toast's suggestions, so if any of you have any thoughts of it's new composition / not amazing shading let me know aha

**Shadowsfade** · 05-02-2012, 01:01 PM

After being ill for a week and putting drawing on hold, I finally finished my drawing which was inspired by one of Rio's inspiration of the day (number 12). This is the result:

**spidergoth** · 05-04-2012, 12:16 PM

I love her shoes ^_^ Her upper legs should be longer and her arm a bit shorter but I think its a pretty piece especially the outfit

**Sylux** · 05-05-2012, 09:43 AM

Practice your facial planing

**Shadowsfade** · 05-06-2012, 12:59 PM

What kinda thing in relation to this pic sylux? ^^ not sure 100% what ya mean

and thanks spider

**Shadowsfade** · 06-15-2012, 09:53 AM

Soo after a long break I'm back, in need of some mega background advice!

I've been focusing more on practicing my colouring (shading) and backgrounds, and whilst I havent had much time to draw coz of exams, I've read and watched a million tutorials on backgrounds, but none of them have seemed to improve my skill at all! When I do attempt them, they look flat and 2D, and as there aren't many Sai specific background tuts (mainly photoshop) I'm not sure if I'm even using the right tools or settings to make decent backgrounds!

So here are a few of my pics, and any tips and pointers would be really appreciated...

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SPOILER! :

Any tips and advice on how to make my backgrounds even slightly better would be great.. I know closer objects are darker than those further away, but when I tried that with the woods it didnt really work o.O

**Demonfyre** · 06-15-2012, 04:53 PM

Sorry, I'm terrible with backgrounds and probably won't be much use

but I will let you know that your backgrounds are profoundly better than my attempts and as long as you keep practicing they will slowly increase in epicosity :P the last one you did looks really good

my favourite is the second one though

if you wanted to get good at backgrounds, now I'm not sure if this will work or not but maybe it's worth trying out, just go out there and sketch a scenery, don't worry about colour or specific details but just build it up from sketches and add the detail as you go along

and do what I do: make sure you complete at least one sketch a day (whether you post them up or not is your choice personally it helps keep a steady flow of information hence why I have daily uploads) now sorry if what I'm saying is complete rubbish but that is how I would have worked on it so I hope this suggestion helps you somehow

**Rubisko** · 06-15-2012, 05:33 PM

The water and the sand on the amumu piece is rendered really nice

The thing about backgrounds is that they are not just supposed to look nice, they are supposed to work with the rest of the drawing/painting. A fundamental rule of visual art is that an image needs a foreground, a middle ground and a background. Generally the subject matter is placed in the middle ground, the foreground is quite often used as a frame, and the background is perhaps most important to establish the setting and strengthen the composition. Next time you draw a character in an environment, try putting them in the middle ground. If you want to know more about this stuff, go to ctrlpaint.com and check out the "principles of design" video tutorials. The last part came out yesterday, so you can watch it all in one go now if you like :3

**Shadowsfade** · 06-16-2012, 10:20 AM

@Demon - that still helped

ive nearly finished all my exams for the summer, and I plan to get drawing much more, so if the British weather manages to stay reasonably sunny maybe I can get out and do some sketches from real life rather than photo references - if I get a bit better on paper (or maybe try with watercolour) then I'm sure that'll help my digital ones to some degree! So thanks

@Rubisko - thanks

I have to say I was pretty proud of how the water turned out in the end! And I guess that's true - most of the pictures I've actually drawn I havent added a background to, I've tended to do them seperately, so part of what I'm missing is probably a main subject to focus on. I hadn't thought of using the foreground as a frame, despite seeing it done several times, so definitely next time I get drawing I'll try putting the character in the middle ground. And I'll have a look at those videos - thanks a lot

Thanks both for your comments, and once my exams are finished hopefully I can post up lots more practice!