Matt's Art (p34: Hey, I finished something!)

[Matt]

@Seefy - The self portrait was like, "Okay, that looks good--but the eye is open in the corner, and it looks like anime. I'll just fix that real quick--oh crap, it looks more like anime now! Maybe if I outline it and--DERP."

*Sigh*

@Bacon - Sorry, I'm kinda seeing what you mean on Atemi's tits, but it looks right to me. Do you have some way you could draw over it show me what you mean? It looks right to me, but the fact that you see something wrong means there's most likely something wrong. Also, you're completely right about the girl's (Flandre's) arm. I wanted her to be resting her arm on Sanae's head, but that doesn't work in the way I drew it.

-

Also, guys, I need help:

I need to get a digitally shaded or colored version of this done by sometime later this month. How can I go about doing that? I have very little experience in value and all that, but I've seen people on Conceptart do this kind of stuff like it's child's play.

The actual canvas is 5000x3625 so I can safely scale it down and still have a large print.

[nisaren]

Hmm here's how I would approach doing this.

1) Start with around a 40-50% gray background. It allows you to be able to see where you're blocking in shadows and isn't too light to prevent highlights from standing out.
2) Start large and then refine as you go. Block in the major shapes and keep adding details. This way your piece maintains coherency through out and you don't have two ultra defined places while the rest is scribbles.
3) I would suggest starting with shadows and dark areas. You don't need much detail or hard edges in these areas since there isn't much light. After defining the shadows then bring out the highlights.
4) Continue refining the shading and add in details as you see fit.

I would also highly recommend not using a soft brush much. I only use soft brushes to provide some value leveling (meaning I may use it to lighten and saturate the background and bring out the subject)

[Celestial-Fox]

I generally take a black value and use pressure sensitivity on top of a grey BG to shade. Then I work with a 20-30% grey with pressure sensitivity for highlights. Yeah, I don't do much value selection by hand, sorry. :X I just carefully control my pressure on my stylus.

It looks like you've already done Nisaren's #1 suggestion. I also agree that #2 is a big one to keep in mind also. (Do you remember that Zhuzhu wip on DA that I showed you on page 2 of this thread?)

I might be able to help out more specifically by sitting down at my computer, but I'm really low on time lately with university things, so I'll see.

[SuperKasey]

Nisaren is very right about that process. The only thing I would watch out for is depending on the lighting in the piece sometimes 40%-50% is too dark. Depending on the time of day and the surroundings you may either want to go lighter or darker with the starting tone.

[Celestial-Fox]

Oooookay, Here's a little quick thing I cooked up before bed last night:

SPOILER! :

Basically, you have a tendency to place hands on the torso in spots where they wouldn't comfortably rest. Usually the hand rests on or above the iliac crest (the tall rounded part up top) of the hip, so in poses like Sierra's you'll want to watch out for that.

Iiiii have English homework, but I'll be back later with some redlines/overpaints. :>

[Matt]

@Nisaren - Wow, thanks. I've seen that method around, but too many times it just takes a simple explanation for me to get it. *is kinda slow*

@Kasey - Ooh, a fight in the night with the angels' wings glowing would be pretty awesome. Then I could still keep the 40-50% shading. Now that I think of it, glowing wings is canon in the story that picture came from.

@Seefy - Yup, I remember that. Till now, I haven't even tried it out. Yeah, I'm bad at hand placement and all that. I just got a Bridgman book on anatomy, so that should help out a lot. Also, thanks for the skeleton dude. The way I keep placing my characters' hands "on their hips" makes it look like they just got stabbed or something and are trying to hide it.

I haven't made as much progress on the angel fight as I wanted, so here's Atemi doing some advertising for Sutari. She's grateful to him for drawing her cute little sister in such an awesome way.

[Obitual_Crow]

I haven't made as much progress on the angel fight as I wanted, so here's Atemi doing some advertising for Sutari. She's grateful to him for drawing her cute little sister in such an awesome way.

As far as advertising goes...I think you need to start researching on poses and angles and the lieks

[ram]

Her arm looks like it's going through her stomach.
Maybe because of the elbow is far too low, Not really sure though
Torso seems to be in a wrong angle but it's not that obvious cause you can just say that there's pillows on her back or something.

Btw, Have you read my message? I can't actually register on mediafire and give you the fourth book OTL (I seem to have an account before but forgot about it)

[Bacon_Barbarian]

Her arm looks like it's going through her stomach.

I completely disagree with this. The worst thing I see is the way she's holding the book. It's not that the pose is impossible or uncomfortable, I've just never seen anybody hold a book that way.

[Matt]

@OC - I think I need to research poses too. I just got a Bridgman anatomy book, so that'll hopefully help a bit.

@Ram - My inbox was full. Sorry 'bout that. Could you re-send it?