Lana's Sketch/WIP Thread oh noes!

[aumortis]

It doesn't look bad to me.. [I know it's not a good sugestion, duh]
Maybe just shadow is too saturated.. and I think that shoulder is okay :)

[eishiya]

I actually fixed a few things since initially making that post and replaced the image xD;

The shadow is saturated because that color was never meant to be the shadow. I had in my mind an image of a girl with pale skin and bright fingertips, elbows, and such... but when I started drawing it, I needed to separate the various areas, so I did so with shading, but I used my "fingertip" color. If I work on this more, I plan to add more of the saturated reddish color but then add a blue-ish shadow. I hope what I said makes sense x_x

I should go work on it instead of slacking xP I'm a bit stuck, can't really decide on who this person is. I had some ideas but none of them worked, and until I come up with something, it's hard to get anything done, since all the colors will depend on who she is. ...I think too much.

[eishiya]

An update. Added a second layer of shading, and a quickie background. I ended up not being able to come up with a new background idea and used a slightly modified version of my original concept. I like this better, but it's rather boring.

I don't know about those foreground branches :/

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/blue05.jpg

[Salubri3i]

the branches look fine except the one on the right. it covers the girl which is the main subject of your painting. i suppose you can paint the branches in the foreground just as long as you avoid detailing it. keep it blurry so as to leave the focus on the subject. I think the misty part of the painting adds a nice touch. also about the pose... you may want to give her something more relaxed and natural. that might help the image more. ;)

[eishiya]

I want to make the branches blurrier than they are now, very out of focus, with a hint at shading/volume, but no detail.

I'm not really sure if a relaxed pose is what I need here... the pose doesn't seem painful, but at the same time it's not comfortable enough for her to be sleeping, which I think is what I need. ...but, I really don't know. I don't really know how to make her seem more "natural" without completely repainting the body.


Started working on the background a bit:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/blue06.jpg
The actual canvas I'm painting on is wider, so I keep forgetting that it'll be cropped and painting the best branches out of the boundaries x_x And I'm getting trees nearly tangent to the borders. Not good. I think I should also move the tree that "crosses" her head.

...I think is is actually my first real attempt at drawing trees x_x Before I either drew a few branches, or forests/trees from a distance, never needed detail. I wonder if the big branch she's sitting on will end up being fun or torture xP Okay, sleepy time now :sad:

[CyborgJA]

Ohh well, first of all, next time, scale your original image and post it all so we will able to se how composition work.
For the moment I really love how you are managing it. Her anatomy is good, maybe you only have to fix shadows on her left shoulder, make them fading softly to her back. I really love the touches of reds you applied on feeet and right hand, they work perfectly. Same for the soft fog of the wood. It adds tons of depth. For trees I suggest you to look at several photo and use them as reference. I've to add only one thing: remember to use different saturation and hues between foreground and background. As example, trees in the background should be composed by "basic color of trees in foreground + color of background's light". This will enhance image's depth too :thumbsup:

Well, it's an incredible good start, can't wait to see more updates!

Serena.

[eishiya]

I've been posting the "final" crop (more or less, I'll probably chop some off from the top), the extra space I have is just so that what I draw extends outside of the canvas, so that stuff isn't distorted. I keep a little "frame" though to help me remember where the intended edges are.

Between today (and reading your comment) and my last post, I worked on the background. I haven't done any "tree work" of this type before. I've done close-ups of individual clumps of leaves and such, and distant forests... but this is something in between that I'm a complete nub with. I'd like to take a break on the background for now and work on the girl, I'd hate to get burned out on something I don't even like x_x
http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/blue14.jpg
The trees are probably weird, but I haven't really been in a forest in years, so this is how I remember it. They are probably so warped they don't look like trees, but I guess that makes them fantasy trees xD Well anyway. I tried. Failed, but that's just another reason to get some photos of trees and just practice. After this though... and I don't think I'm ever drawing this type of leaves again. Aside from not being natural (I personally know of only about three or four types of trees that have clumped up leaves like that), they're annoying and look ugly. Next time I'm drawing either dead trees or pines. I spent so much time around pines when I was little, I still remember them.

I'm not sure about the resolution... I made my original sketch about 5000px wide for refining, but then for the background/leaves, I made a copy that's 2500px wide. I don't know if I should flatten and upscale the background (with some refinements of course), or just keep working at a low resolution. I think the original plan was to have it big enough for print, but I doubt it'll be good enough even for anything I make.

Shall start on the girl when I get home from school today (ah, the time waster).

[CyborgJA]

Simply copy all the layers of your background to the bigger image and then scale them = same layer organization but bigger ^_^


I think you are making a good work but remember that leaves usually are not so 'compact' as a wall. Leave here and there some 'holes' from which the viewer can see what there's behind leaves. >>reference : sky through leaves<< (http://www.webdolomiti.net/galleria/images/dintorni-bl/albero-cav-autunno-g.jpg)


Good work and good study!:thumbsup:

[eishiya]

Making the background bigger/smaller was never an issue, I know how to do it. I made it in a separate image just to keep the overall layer count down, after I finished it, I flattened and upscaled it, and then copied it into the larger file.

When I was describing the leaf clumps as unnatural, the compactness is exactly what I meant. When I draw trees I usually leave spaces and such in, but for these I wanted to make them clumpy and weird. If there was a brighted background I'm sure parts of it would shine though, but with this one I want to keep it from showing through. Kinda felt weird to have the branches showing through in some places, even. I might add a few "empty" spots though... not sure.

Personally, I'm starting to get tired of this. I think that if I take a break, I could get some renewed energy, but that's simply not an option. My "breaks" are to go to school, which is more damaging than just getting burned out. After school, I just can't paint or sketch at all. Right now I just got back from school, and despite all the usual misery, I was hoping to get some work done... but apparently I have a crapload of work and assignments due soon that I really need to work on. If I feel up to painting after all of those are done (this weekend, I guess), I definitely will. Otherwise, I'll just go be boring and draw more portraits. I love portraits, they're pretty much the only thing that doesn't bore me to draw... but sadly, most people find portraits very boring to look at. everybody wants background and full bodies and action ~_~

[Lybra]

Dunno why people think portraits are boring to look at, maybe they don't look close enough ;)
Well, one point might be, that there truly is more motion on full figure images with a background and all this stuff, but what makes portraits fun to look at for me is, that you can put so much detail in it, more than anywhere else. And detail can also mean, emotions, mood and so on.

Regarding your time problems ... you are not alone ;)

Can't say more than "keep it up". I like what you have so far, the pose is very good. Some lightning and more detail and you surely get a nice result.

[CyborgJA]

Ok, perfect! What really matters is the consciousness of what you are making.

I do not know in which kind of school you are studying but remember that the study by itself is the base of our life so do not be sad for school :sad: Try to enjoy with it even if it's hard and do not use colors only to 'produce a pic" but also to relax yourself. Colortherapy !:thumbsup:

[eishiya]

It's just regular high school, and really, all the classes I have now are meaningless, except for my two AP courses (the only two classes I really like), which might help me skip some stuff in college.

I worked on the hair some, but it's not finished and I don't have a decent screenshot. All I have is this:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/hairlink.jpg
It's a link banner thing for the video I recorded of painting the hair, hopefully I'll finish it soon. Still much more coloring to go, all I have now is the base, which needs to have some erasing done on it and detailing. It was enough to post at a different forum though, since it's not super-basic, and thus was of use.

Fighting windows right now, it's not saving my hibernation data x_x I wish I could use Linux, this is the only Windows PC in the house... but tablet support doesn't work with the windows emulator I'd use for PS.

[CyborgJA]

Oh well, I don't know USA's courses at all :scream:

Well, I'll see the finished hair but take care of skull's roundness as you did in the sketchy-step :thumbsup:

[eishiya]

Yah, as I said, lots of work. The shape of the head isnt right, and I need to mess with the midtones and highlights to give it some form.

[aumortis]

Just use wacom drivers [there are wacom drivers for Linux] and wine for photoshop ;p it worked for me but I had to change back to windows because it's so hard to live without any sound x_x I've never believed in that hibernate thing, I prefer ol' good suspend :)
Anyway, back to image: I thought you will go into a bit erm, different way with this drawing, but, well, you're the artist here :D leaves are awesome! [teach me to draw them like that *_*], hair looks very nice but saturated parts of her skin are still bugging me xD

P.S.: I wish I could have some time to draw lately @_@

[eishiya]

Suspend is troublesome because it gets cancelled if the mouse moves... and that happens a lot here. For the last couple of years there's been a lot of really weird air traffic here and they fly so low that everything shakes. Feels like living near an airport or... war or something.

I thought I'd go a different way with the image too. What did you think I'd do? I don't know what I wanted to do, but I know it wasn't this.
The saturated skin parts... I hope to only keep the toes and fingers saturated, and maybe the nose... but I'll see how it turns out when I work on it more. Hopefully it'll be soon. I'm kinda... doing other things now. Procrastinating on school work by relapsing back into watching anime and reading manga, things I've been free of for about a year ;_; Fortunately I only have one show to watch and it's short. ...and then I need to read all of Berserk that I have... 31 volumes ;____;

After that, I think I'll continue taking a break from this image, I want to work on another project of mine, which has lots of stuff done in my head, but nothing on paper. I should really write down some notes before I forget everything. It's a world I've been working on for about 5-6 years, one of my three major ones. I'm thinking of making a resource book or at least a collection of maps and concept art and such... and a short comic set in it, though I'm not sure what story to draw... there are a bunch x_x The one I really want to draw... would span two pages max, and is best as an into... but after that, I don't know what to do with it.

[CyborgJA]

The project sounds great! I think you should start it quickly if you are "in the mood" :)

[eishiya]

I was distracted for all of yesterday, but I'm sketching now... but it's not right x_x I think I'll bring some paper with me when I go to do my school project at someone else's house in a few minutes, and do some pencil sketches for the comic pages first. The thing I have now... I love the colors, but the environment looks really weird. I didn't plan it enough. Oh I know what I did wrong now! I was planning to have smooth stones with carvings but doodles rough stuff. *fixes*

Oki off to prounce around in a toga now.

[eishiya]

The stupid page did it's "I'm going to go back a page randomly now, k?" thing and my post is dead, my dear little post that I spent about ten minutes writing.

Anyway, to summarize... finalized-ish sketch from a few days ago. My most feminine character, difficult to paint in anything but very sharp light without making him inditinguishable from a woman, and here the light is just about as soft as it gets xD;
Painted from random blobvs of paint in which I found a human shape. Boring pose, but I wasn't thinking about that when I first found that human shape.

http://www.eishiya.com/art/matter.jpg

Close-up of the face. I don't remember if this is the full zoom xD; It might be. The veins were fun.
http://www.eishiya.com/art/matter_detail.jpg

I also did a half-hour value and texture study from reference a couple of days ago, but I can't post it because the reference was a photo from a forum and was not meant to be used as a stock photo. Usually I don't even save studies like that, but this one I liked ._.;


Edit: Forgot about this sketch. Did this before the one above, also started with random brushing. I wanted the towers to look like they are huge and impressive, but build by inexperienced hands, so I avoided making them perfectly smooth and the stairs are nice and crooked.
I've been meaning to do enrivonment-type stuff but I can't seem to get started. I have lots of ideas, but I just can't sit down and actually paint them for some reason.
http://www.eishiya.com/art/towers.jpg
Oh yeah, there are actually people on that bridge, they're very hard to see. Two of them are in my site's thumbnail for this, and it's 100%. The other two are even smaller, about 3-4px high, they're on the other side.
http://www.eishiya.com/art/towerst.gif

[eishiya]

I joined a friend's charity auction on Gaia Online to hlep her get an item she wants, and today, after two days we were autobought (someone came along and decided to just give her the item she wanted, rather than bidding a lower price). This is one of the two pieces I'm doing, the other will be a coloration of someone else's lineart.

This picture is 50% zoom, I'm working very small for this so that I don't get lost in the details. I don't want to spend too much time on it since I'm not getting paid for it. Nope, not even fake Gaia money.

http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/betrayed2206.jpg
The jacket/vest thing is supposed to be similar to Cloud's in FFVII:AC, but I'm making a few changes, particularly to the width of the shoulders, height of the collar, and the overall length. Not sure if I should add the vertical pattern Cloud's jacket has, or just leave it.
The fires are obviously placeholders. I'll probably not make them fire-looking, but instead just add red/orange clouds, swirlies, and sparkles. Still says "fire magic" so I think it should be okay. I'll add some faint lighting from them onto the body as well. If I remember. I tend to forget fun stuff like that ;___;
Tomorrow when I get back from school I'm going to work on the hair, which is annoying meeee. I usually love painting hair, but this guy's hair is just evil. The commissioner (if that's the right term) wants it to be based on the hair of his avatar, but most Gaia hair is weirdly drawn (in my opinion) and I can't seem to reproduce it with any degree of realism. Not even the rough shape. I'll probably just start over and make it generic messy short-ish hair xD;

Oki, off to bed for now, need to get up in 7 hours.

Edit: Fixed the lower hand a bit so it looks less like a bent fork. No time to upload though ._. *runs off*

[CyborgJA]

Well, with order...
The feminine-char is REALLY beautiful. In my opinion you only have got to add few lights-touches in hair in order to obtain the 3D effect you painted for the "kimono".
Same for your magician :thumbsup:


For the quick-sketch, what doesn't fitt the scale of towers are trees. They seems to be too big if compared to the scale of the tower you want to obtain.

Take care !

[eishiya]

The magician's hair is just a blue blob, I'll work on actually making it look like hair after school today. Ah, if only school didn't take 8-10 hours of my life each day.

The highlights on the clothes for Kyou were added later only to separate the hand from the sleeve xP But yeah, I agree that his hairs looks really flat. I've always avoided painting highlights on his hair, and shadows, usually I just leave it as a flat blob, unless there's some sort of magic-ish source in the image. I guess it's sort of a story-based physical property of it? I really don't know xD; I suppose I could add a few little sharp ones just for the sake of volume.

Edit: I think for the towers it's not the tree size but the way I didn't define them. Really, each of those highlights is a tree or two, but since I didn't make the edges of the brush strokes neater, it looks like they highlight clumps of leaves instead. Yey for laziness ruining everything xD

[eishiya]

The finished image of the fire dude. The hair isn't the way the person wanted it, but I can't stand to paint hair that makes no sense to me, so this was as close as I got. It was longer on the sides before. I hate this image, this is the sort of thing that makes me wonder why I ever bother with Gaia auctions. Hate. But I'm posting it here anyway to hurt people's eyes and just for the sake of completion. I hope I never have to draw anything like this character again, for many reasons. And it's not his gender.

http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/betrayed.jpg

[eishiya]

This is attempt #5 to paint this character, all 5 are from yesterday. I'll probably try again today. I just can't get it right. As a human, the anatomy is wrong and all, but more importantly, I can't get his nose right. It's anatomically wrong (the nostril is placed wrong and is too round, not long enough), and I'm not sure about the nose shape. Too pretty and boy-ish I guess. Not sure if the bright lips are the way to go, either... he's supposed to look enough like a (western classical) vampire to be confused for one, but I'm not sure how much to push it.

...I did get his eyes right though. The color at least. The shape doesn't seem too weird, either. The sort of brown that seems almost red compared to the pale skin.

It's sad, but of the five this is actually the best. The first four were even worse, so horrible that they were never even saved xD;

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/herrlacurul.jpg


In even worse news... my laser mouse (insert "chargin' ma lazr" joke here) is dying ;_; I don't use it to paint, but I use it for navigation online and such... I tried using my tablet mouse but that's weird because my tablet is never in a position natural for a mouse x_x
Any suggestions for a nice laser mouse that's cheap? Bonus points if it's good enough for Halo, but really anything will do x_x Just needs to be cheap because I haven't had a commission in many many months.

[pap87]

I thought he was a she before reading the description.
I guess to make him more western vampirish darken the area around the eyes a bit, and pale skin is usually more translucent than tanned or darker skin so you might see some veins elspecially around the eyes.

Those are my measly suggestions.
Hope you find a mouse quickly, I can't imagine having to play Doom or Warcraft or in your case Halo with a tablet!

[eishiya]

I still have a girly-dude problem xP I reffed myself for the lips and eyes for this one, so in this case that's my excuse xP Always always always, if I use any sort of ref (myself usually), the picture ends up suffering horribly in some way.

Thanks for the tips, though. I used myself as reference for the pale skin (he's less pale than I am x_x), and around my eyes it's not darker but rather redder/bluer. I tried to have that above his eyes but neglected it below because I got carried away with the little pouch.

I won't focus as much on the facial details for the next one, then he should look more like a he (what a miracle that would be!) and it would also be closer to the style of the project he will be in if I get the opportunity to do it. In the comic (shhhh <3), I'll be limiting myself to about 3 minutes per frame, so I won't have time to add details. For the style I'm aiming for, two minutes should be more than enough because my previous project had a more detailed style which took about 5 minutes per medium-sized frame.

Edit: Oopsie note: I originally intended this to be a female character, actually. However, to connect with some other events that take place in this world about 200 years after "her" story, "she" would have to be a male who is able to carry the name. One of these days I need to make a story completely unrelated to Eishiya... with a female main character.

[eishiya]

DSCG 987, Daydream.
http://www.eishiya.com/dsg/987.jpg
Posting it here because this is all I've saved in a while, I've mostly been sketching really weird things and not saving them because I couldn't really show them to anyone anyway o_o; Anyway, this is just a collection of my daydreams over a two-hour period. I'd paint something, go back to what I was doing, start daydreaming again, paint it, go back to stuff, and so on. All while listening to a few songs on repeat xP One of the songs is on FFR, hence the arrows. Then thinking of arrows made me daydream of Tetris...
I really like the arrows, might use them for something else later. And if I ever make that Tetris game everyone's been telling me to make, I think I'll use hand-drawn pieces like those >D

...anyway. More serious things? I touched up the pale person a bit, might post that if I ever get around to uploading it. Tossing around a new character right now, might try painting him, and perhaps some secondary ones, once I get some better visuals. My character never start with a visual, it's always personality and perhaps a few details like how their skin reflects the light or how much blood is under their fingernails >_>;

[CyborgJA]

well, each artist has got his/her own way of 'painting' but if you set up a chara, in your mind, with specific details, why don't you do the same in your pics?
As example...put a simple grey body-shape in the pose you want and then add the things you've got in mind. The rest will come more easy, no?

[eishiya]

My mind works differently, so it doesn't work xP And naturally, the painting methods are also different. In my mind, I don't see the visual detail exactly. When I paint a character for the first time, only a few things will be from my mind (perhaps a specific type of material for their clothes, the way their face looks), but most things will just "happen" as what I've drawn dictates what I will draw later. A recent example, I was thinking up a character who had only an eye color, hair color, and was European. I remember wanting to give him somewhat wider eyes to show his ancestry (eastern europe), and a small, roundish nose to show a different side of the famly (northern europe). He also had this calm superiority about him. So, with a vague nose shape and eye type in mind, I set about sketching him. Random pose that seemed relaxed, simple, but battle-ready. Exaggerated the limbs, made them spidery in a way, he suddenly seemed strong and agile. His hands developed into sharp black claws, and I decided to leave them there. After a bit of thinking, I came up with his entire backstory and filled in gaps in his personality, only from a rough sketch. That's how it works for me. I cannot develop a character fully in my mind because I don't see a character as purely a visual or a fully developed individual. The visuals and personality/etc develop as I draw them. Often, I'll redraw them until I'm satisfied, since the first few drawings will usually make me change things.

Yey I talk too much. ...and that sketch, I should finish it.

[CyborgJA]

Well, it's an interesting "work-flow" I love to read how the other artists approach a new pic. Yes, finish it and show us...better..show us it now, so we will see how you'll paint it ! ^_^

[eishiya]

That's a really good idea, actually xD; I rarely post here because I just simply don't have time for really complex works (and I can't spread it over a few weeks/months because I just lose the feeling), and I finish simple things before I even get a chance to get a reply xP
I'm messing with Free Transform right now to make his proportions slightly less exaggerated and after school I'll upload it. OH GENIUS. I'll take the file with me and work on it during lunch >D;

[CyborgJA]

Well this is a wip forum...doesn't matter if your wip is simple or complex. Share ^_^

[eishiya]

That's the thing, they're not really WIPs by the time I decide that they're okay to be posted xP So I just save them and forget them. I'm trying to turn this thread into a WIP thread rather than a sketch thread, because with WIPs I can get more focused and useful help. Sketches are usually either ignored or asskissed. The rare times when there is an actual crit, I've often already addressed it in my next sketch. WIPs just work better, and in more serious paintings, mistakes show up more clearly. /endminirant

Oki time to stop yapping and get to some random brush strokes on this thing. Finished messing with the proportions, now I need to add detail to the solid black shape that is the body >_<;

[eishiya]

Added some texture at school after making my last post.

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/hermes11.jpg

My teacher saw me showing how I managed the layers to my friend and after a short conversation we decided that I should leave it as is, the simplicity works. I'm not sure if I should add detail to the silhouette itself or not. Corrections too. Might just leave it.

[CyborgJA]

Well, from what I can see, the face is perfect, but in my opinion is too little if compared to arms and legs' lenght. Mmm it depends upon inspiration but the first thing I can suggest you is to work a little on the bg, also with quick and easy digital airbrushes, then, why don't you add few dark greens on his body to render the idea of a 3D thing?

Looking for new updates!

[eishiya]

I wanted to add some dark teal reflections to suggest a shape, but decided not to since it made no sense in my head. Really, even coloring the face was a mistake I think.

Messed with his limbs a bit.
http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/hermes12.jpg
Damn JPGs dulling colors >_<; The face has better colors than the small JPGs of it. But in large ones you can see how bad it actually is >_>;

Didn't do anything to the background because 1. I lack brushes (I have three standard brushes, a couple of speckled ones, a couple scattered speckles, and a few texture brushes which are all small and useless), 2. Dark things are distracting and really low opacity just looked ugly, 3. I think a background should suggest something, but there's nothing here to suggest. So unless there's something more you think I should fix with the body, I think I'll call this done and move on to the next thing.

[eishiya]

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/alive04.jpg
The beginnings of a little something for a possible direction for an RP I'm in to take... sadly, I think that RP is already dead ;_;

Anyway. I hate that angle of the face. I hate to paint it, to look at it, to be seen from that angle... Just hate. From above it's fine, from the front, oki... but from slightly below... ugh >_<; So naturally, I'm not good at it at all. I tried using ref, but it came out so bad. I did borrow the lighting from said ref though, even though I did repaint just about everything after I decided not to use it. He looks asian, bleh. He's supposed to be white. Also, his hair is supposed to be dark brown (I'd think after two years all the dye would have brown out), but I kinda forgot about that, since I'm used to painting him with dyed hair. Shall fix later. Need to repaint the shirt too, it's horrendous.

The mouth... the shaded part of the lower lip blends with the skin and makes it look skewed. I don't know what to do x_x Pausing work on this for now to go slack (mmm, FFR), but I'd like to work on it more. Any suggestions are welcome ;_____;


Edit: Forgot to mention. I don't know what to do with the background. I want to keep it in that general color, but it can't be like that. ...but I don't want to draw four other people in there, either. He's supposed to be in jail or something similar, so perhaps some cinderblock or some illegible sign... x_x

[CyborgJA]

OOOK do what you want with the red :)


In my opinion this angle is incredible and is incredible your ability to paint the face in a so 'quick and easy' mode. What hurts me a little is hair, too much blocked for the polished face, and of course, the bg. If you don't know what to place in the bg...simple leave it an empty wall. But place her shadow on the wall and at least few strokes. Custom brushes arenot so necessaries ! :)

good work !

[eishiya]

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/alive06.jpg
Cropped the shirt because I did no work on it.
Made the eyes smaller (laterally) because his eyelashes were too long before xP Dulled the lips, but it made no difference in anything. Added a little bit of extra hair-ness to the hair, but it doesn't seem to show up in the jpeg :/ And it probably looks like a black blob to anyone with a monitor darker than mine >_<;

Texture is... texture. No shadow because it's just a background texture rather than an actual wall behind him. Though if I decide to crop the bottom of this, I'll be able to make it into a wall. There's stuff there now that stops me xP I was dumb enough to flatten the background layers before being sure I liked it.

And something else I'm working on that takes precedence over everything:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/back_new.jpg
The copyright text is a placeholder, since "eishiya" isn't registered as a company, and the game doesn't really exist. I'll probably keep it like that, though, unless I get the chance to actually have this made professionally xP
The title text isn't a placehlder exactly, but I would like something better... that is sadly the best thing I could come up with, and everyone else was lazy.
Not showing any of the fronts for now because the design is still missing some things. I also don't have any art specifically for this yet, though I probably will soon. Drawing art for cards has always been fun, since you can draw pretty small and sketchy and it'll still look okay. The entire card is 2.5x3.5", and the art is less than half of that xP

[CyborgJA]

Good work on the bg. Maybe adding few 'highlights' on hair can improve the "roundness feeling" of skull.

Mm...better that you do not place copyrights in the middel of image and, of course, use your real name.

[eishiya]

I probably won't have the copyright at all. It's on the other side, but even there I doubt I'll have it since it's not an "official" sort of thing. Though it doens't matter... I accidentally overwrote the original PSD file for that and all that's left of that image is that little jpg. Also, the "eishiya" thing was never meant to represent me in that image. It never represents me. Eishiya isn't even a person, but a place xP I only use it as my username on some forums to kinda link it with my site.

Some other stuff:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/emblems.jpg
Each circle will be about 4mm across when printed, so these aren't detailed at all.

Full-size of the sword and magic thingie:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/emblems_ws.jpg

Off to school ;_;

[eishiya]

Haven't had time to sketch really, but I did get a sketch done.
... I tried sketching using lines again. It's kind of weird after working in blobs for months.

http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/kds001b.jpg

And colored, with many of the sketch lines left in:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/kds001l.jpg

[aumortis]

That kimono [it's kimono, right?] looks a bit flat too me but other that that it's really good. Nose is great :D [I always have problems with them -.- ]

[eishiya]

I'm not really sure if it's a kimono or not. Technically anything is a kimono ("thing to be worn") but what defines the article of clothing known as kimono, I have no idea xP I think the thing he wears might not actually be one.
I'm not really sure how to make it less flat. I guess I could make the farther half of it darker like I did with the face and make the drop shadows darker? I dunno D:!!

I have trouble with noses too ._.; Especially from this angle, and that's the primary reason I drew the sketch for this.


Edit:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/gaia/kds001m.jpg

[CyborgJA]

It's a matter of the deco : it's too "straight". Try to make it following the shoulder and collarbone volume.

You did a gooooodd work !

[eishiya]

Yeah, I seem to have gotten used to drawing women wearing kimono of 6~8 layers, forgot that two layers is much more flowy xD; I doubt I'll fix it in this image (since I'm probably not going to do anything with it, too crappish), but I'll make sure to keep in mind that he's wearing thin clothing from now on. Thanks <3

[CyborgJA]

Can't wait to see news !

[Vyoma]

Hey eishya, great going there. It is amazing how you capture realism and still keep the background have a painterly feel. There is like a gradual transition between the background and subject.

PS: Been lurking on this thread a while, ever since you started helping me out. This time, I thought I would leave a mark. :P

[eishiya]

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/sss02j.jpg

I'm back! Sort of. Still don't have much time to really do anything. Just two more weeks of this shit to go, though, and then I'll be free for a little under two months.
Anyway. This is part of my SSS sketch series (the previous was DSS, the Daily Sketch Session, which lasted about two months but wasn't entirely daily, as for some I'd spend 3-4 days on one sketch, and SSS is a variation of DSS and I don't know what it really stands for, possibly Some Sketchy Stuffs or whatever). it's not daily, it's more like back-to-back sketches. As soon as I'm tired of one, I move on to the next. No time limit, but so far this is the longest time-wise, about 2 hours maybe? No ref, anatomy and proportions are terrible. I don't really mind though, especially since I can't really tell. If something's terribly bad though, please tell me, this is stuff I really should learn.
It looks really weird zoomed out like this, especially the pinky and the eye. They're not that ugly ;_;
Anyway, it's not finished yet, but I don't plan to spend too much time on this since it's a sketch. Need to add the rest of the hair and the other arm... and of course, fix terrible mistakes that might be pointed out. I know the arm and torso are completely crap, but no one has told me how yet :/

And... apparently I'm back to a warm period. I didn't post anything I've done recently before this, but most of those pictures were dark blues and teals. It's odd, I always thought I worked better in warm colors, but those cold sketches are probaby the best ones I've done.

[CyborgJA]

so post them, no? :)

[eishiya]

They're old now. I post here in hopes of getting some feedback so that I can improve the pieces I'm working on or general mistakes I always make, and with those old ones, I'm done. They're no longer relevant (as art anyway). I do need to start posting more stuff though. Should have posted those sketches as I worked on them x_x

I'd really like to do something for Exotique 3, but... I just don't have the refining skill for it, I think. Nor the ability to create really stunning beautiful characters. I draw almsot exclusively my RP characters, and most of them are pretty average. Sometimes cute, maybe interesting... but definitely not stunning. At least outside of their world they aren't xP Maybe one of these Ea sketches will eventually improve and be good enough, but not by the looks of it :/

This is one I was working on for a couple of days about two weeks ago, rather liked the colors and face, but couldn't think of a body so I ditched it:
http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/sth4.jpg
This is actually SSS01, but it's file name is "sth" ("something" xD) so the filename "sss01" went to something else and crappy. I hate to admit it... but this guy's more fun to paint than Kyou, probably because he's less perfect. Not my favorite kind of chin, a whiter nose, eyes that aren't quite as large or pretty... but he still has some sort of feel to him that I really like.
If I could continue this for Exotique, it'd be great. It's currently the only large image I'm working on (the crop above is a bit over 6x6" at 300dpi, but the whole thing is bigger). The warm nekkid one could easily be blown up and detailed to be good at 300dpi, but I don't think it really has anything going for it :/

[eishiya]

A half-hour sketch to illustrate something I was telling my friend. Same character, RP-related. Figured I'd post it here. Added it to my site too, I really need to update that more >_>;

http://www.eishiya.com/art/server2.jpg

I tried using brushes for trees but it was terrible so I just deleted those layers and painted the trees like I always do. So much more fun, and it looks better :D The standard round brush is the best thing in the world~!

[Vyoma]

Nice environment there. Wow. I like it how you deal with the 'kind-of' volumetric lighting. I am pretty bad at forest scenes. Heck. I am pretty much bad at most of the things - but we are not talking about that.

Just one doubt, should not the faint light on the hair (to our left), be somewhat more tinted to the general color of the environment? May be the color of the light?

[eishiya]

I noticed that the hair was too blue while I was drawing the yellowish light, but that was the original idea and making it green was kind of weird. I didn't realize that I don't have to deal with the dark blue though, and could just redo the highlights. Thanks xD;
I updated the image above. It was kinda hard because I painted all the blue on the same layer, so I couldn't just recolor them. A little bit of yellow on Overlay and a bunch more hairs helped though. And since I added more hairs, it looks better... but only in the full version, they all blend together in this one.


I'm actually pretty bad with forests too. I can sketch a few bare trees, but adding foliage... ugh >_<; I can draw it from afar, but when it's a tree nearby where I actually have to draw the leaves and really think about the underlying branches, it just gets too tedious and I can't stand it. This is why I mostly draw tall trees with dead branches at the bottom >_>; Plus, I atrually prefer them this way in most cases. I kinda like really tall trees with foliage only at the top xP

[eishiya]

I haven't had much time to draw, I've been working on my little game. having sleeping trouble too, most likely because of it. Need to make sure I fix my sleeping hours... by tomorrow.
So, today before going back to coding after waking up, I decided to sketch even if it killed me. So, 25-minute doodle:

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/rot.jpg
The mouth and nose are pretty bad D: Still, I did a little better than expected, I thought I'd revert back to stick figures after all that time off.

The core system-type coding for my game will be done soon (only a few bits left) and after that it'll probably be concept art time so that I can redo all the sprites, backgrounds, etc... and so that whoever works with me on the graphics can have something to work from (my friend said she'd like to help me with a few things, which is great because it's a lot of work). I guess that's something to look forward to, I'll be able to draw AND work on the game at the same time :D!

[eishiya]

Firefox kept crashing on me >_<; No idea why. Restarting helped, but it doesn't seem to be a virus because the process lists are identical pre-restart and post. I hate Windows, but Photoshop doesn't work very well on Linux.

Anyway. Nothing awesome, just some screenies from the game that's been draining my creative energy. It's far, far from done. The graphics will likely be completely redone in the future. Sprites definitely, tiles very likely. These aren't all the screens, but these are the exemplar ones, I guess. Didn't post the start screen because it'll be changed completely eventually.

http://www.eishiya.com/random/cgtalk/garascreens.jpg
Clarification just in case: All the graphics were done by me, with the exeption of the battle screen at the top left. The background for that is a modified painting a friend of mine did. Fun fact: She did most of the original graphics-related coding for this game, but I have since rewritten everything but the start screen from scratch. The start screen will be rewritten later.
Fun fact 2: The character portraits in the menu... erm. The Seki one is three and a half years old. The Makoto one is a few months old and is not Makoto at all, but some guy I was asked to draw. Binchin's isn't her either, but that sketch I did earlier that's of someone else entirely.

I know this isn't the right place for this stuff, but it's not awesome enough to warrant its own thread in the game wip forum (nor is it really the type of stuff you usually see there). Felt like posting it, though.

[JordanRoots]

I think you could shade a bit darker on the right to helpo define more the shapes of the arm and back.
I like her pose, and the feet and hands are very well done anatomy wise.
I like the blue shadows, but I feel the overall image is too cold. perhaps you could add a bit of yellowish green on the left side of the picture, where the lighting is coming from. Maybe it would even help bring the eye more towards the main subject. what about some rays of light coming through branches? adding some warm color in her skin tones would make the character pop out of the picture.

[JordanRoots]

oh, I hadn't notice the thread had more pages!!! my comment was for the girl on the tree. I guess it's too late...

[eishiya]

Thanks for the comments, but yeah... I don't even have that file anymore D:

[VincereCaos]

I love your coloring, is very painting-like!
on the game you're doing, I really like the monsters graphics, specially the kitty coming out from the ground.

[eishiya]

Oh I forgot about this thread D: I should update >_>;;;
Thanks and I wish I could take credit for "the kitty" but Longcat is not my creation and the sprite is based on a photoshopped image of him as the Chestburster from Alien, so the only contribution I really made was the pixelwork and the fact that he's huge and coming out of the ground (but those two facts are homages to other shops of Longcat too).

I've been doing (non-digital, sadly) thumbnails for a card game that takes place in the same world as the RPG game, I hope to have time to add some color to those and post them, and perhaps make sprites of some of those characters as well.

[VincereCaos]

ohh I see.
yes please updates! :bounce:

[Gisaiagami]

hey hey friend
work work...liked all sketch
=)
more work please ;)

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