Strange Behavior (Illustration) Entry: wesley leblue

[blue80boy]

I'm just learning how to digitaly paint, I'm use to coloring for my comic books. Any helpful suggestion or constructive critism, this form stuff in new to me as well.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blue80boy/HoneyFace.jpg

[blue80boy]

Just added color by selecting part and color hue.

Add lighting effect filter, for general light direction.

Sample color from picture to start shaping.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blue80boy/HONEYFACE1.jpg

[Thaldir]

Welcome, Wesley!

If I may make a general suggestion, right now the thumbnail of your thread doesn't show any updates, most folk would just assume nothing is going on here.

To have your images appear as thumb you have to go to the main 'illustration forum' page and click on the 'submit entry' link. You'll be asked to login again and then be able to upload your steps so that they count 'officially' so to speak.

Hope this helps.

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190404673_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190404673_large.jpg)

sketched in photoshop

[blue80boy]

Thanks for the help Thaldir.

[Thaldir]

You're welcome!
Very interesting sketch, BTW. I'm curious to see the development of your idea.

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190427354_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190427354_large.jpg)

I've added more detail to the skin, and some color to the sees.

Is there any good techniques for producing store lighting effects?

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190533683_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190533683_large.jpg)

More lighting added to the face

More detail in the neck.

Any suggestion on how to get a good swarm effect?

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190605595_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190605595_large.jpg)

Added detail to the face, vains and defined teeth.

Started hair, blocking and layering.

[L8n]

Hi

I think its looking great especially the vein detail on the forehead. I do think I preferred the hair in the earlier posts though - all lank and greasy, now it seems a little too well cared for - but still very well drawn.

I was giving some thought to your earlier question about creating a swarm effect and thought that the best thing to do (for the background at least) is to create a brush from some of your bee drawings and then play around with the spacing, size and scattering of this to create a quick and natural looking swarm. Patrick Reilly did a really interesting article entitled '25 custom brushes' over at ImagineFX where he covers this type of thing -
http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754333461721512/25-custom-brush-tips.html

His example was a swarm of bats (do bats swarm?), but you may need to alter the settings that he gives as your dealing with bees. Same principle though. Good luck.

[blue80boy]

L8n thanks for the feed back I'll give that custom brush a try.

[abscnth]

Hello Wesley, this is looking quite interesting... question, is it honey thats actually on his face, if it is I think I would expect to see a sharper highlight and some translucency, ie being able to see his rotten flesh underneath the honey, however I may be wrong as the colouring you have used suggests what we are looking at is his actual flesh rather than a golden honey.

In your latest post you have 'fluffed' up and lightened the hair, I have to agree with L8n that earlier post with the darker, lank and greasy hair was far more fitting and gave a slightly creepier look.

Well I am looking forward to seeing how you get on with the bees, don't forget to give some thought to your background aswell my friend.

Good Luck

[tarekmax]

I like that (trash style) and I am wonering who its gonna be at the end ;) .

[blue80boy]

Thanks for the feed back everyone.

I'm new to this digital painting stuff how would you fix the hair other than repaint it if you've mereged it down already. I know, I didn't mean to merge it down on purpose and I already save it this way. The bees just live underneath the skin, so no honey actual for right now.

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190706159_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190706159_large.jpg)

Well I've done some work on the bees and adjusted some of the color.I'm alomst calling it done, unless I can get some more feed back on some C&C.

I've learned a lot from these two weeks at digital paint from entering this contest, is fun to see all the talent out there. Can't wait for the next contest, always more to learn.

Thanks for all the help out there,any tips on how and what to fix please post it.

Also good luck to everyone that entered, I would hate to be the jugde of the contest, like being a kid in a "eye candy store!"

[r1-381]

yep, i feel like my throat is swelling shut after looking at this.

great movement w/ the blur on the bees.

would be neat to see one bee that is either entering a hole or coming out of one on his neck.

looks like you duplicated some of the bees....maybe add a bit of variation. perhaps move the legs in different postions, or the wings.

just a thought.

i like it, though.

[SteevieWoo]

Mmmmh... separating the hair again will no be so easy, But I'd suggest to go with the magnetic lasso and go around the edge the best you can, but if that last motion blur effect is definitive in the layer then it won't work as well and you might want to redo the blurry parts rather than try to separate them.
Oh. and I was going to suggest too that only some of the bees have the blur effect, that'd be the ones on first plane and the ones on the background, keeping the middle ones sharper will add dept to the image and tthe general feeling of the swarm, I think. Also bees walking on his face would add to the chills!

Wow some creepy work, Eddie would be proud.

[blue80boy]

Thanks for the feed back I'm just starting out with this painting stuff honestly, but I'm learning.
I'll try and make some changes to it before the contest close, this is really a great forum for learning.

I have a question about how do you get a CGsociety award, I'm look forward to my fisrt one when I get the hang of this art form?

[blue80boy]

Thanks for the feed back I'm just starting out with this painting stuff honestly, but I'm learning.
I'll try and make some changes to it before the contest close, this is really a great forum for learning.

I have a question about how do you get a CGsociety award, I'm look forward to my fisrt one when I get the hang of this art form?
And who is Eddie, SteevieWoo?

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190881902_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1190881902_large.jpg)

Changed the hair color to see if it looked all right? Which color looks better?

Added a few trees in the background.

I tried the bee entering and existing but it didn't come out to well.

Any tricks to add some detail like the bee, it was hard matching the color even when I sample form the pic.

Also it was hard find a good space to apply the bee and not take away from the detail in the face.

Any other C&C is welcomed.

[SteevieWoo]

Oh I meant Iron Maiden cover's Eddie, I love that nasty zombie since I was a kid. And the honeyface here brings back that eerie feeling for me!:applause: Just great!

[abscnth]

Heya Wesley... lookin good man! The hair colour is looking back on the right track though I think still a little light compared to that early concept, I reckon at the moment what made the earlier piece look better was the impression of the hair being caked in grease (or honey he he).. but If you look at your latest version the ends of the hair are all soft and wispy, whereas in the earlier one the hair is like a solid clump, making it look much more gruesome. Sorry to hear about your layers my friend, my work always has dozens of layers, I never flatten anything! I always save as a new version when I am about to make some major changes then reduce the layers down to a manageable level in the new file knowing that I still have a file with all the necessary layers if needed... of course the older file eventually becomes redundant as more changes are made.

I was thinking about the bees living inside the face, if you are finding the task of painting a bee coming out the face to a satisfactory level difficult why not hint at the inner activity by removing a couple of teeth and painting some honeycoming at the back of the throat, just a thought. Whilst on the subject of the teeth I also have the older and newer versions of your pic side by side and I have noticed that the earlier version had some quite grisly yellow colour for the teeth... you may wanna lassoo the teeth and play around with the hue saturation to get that fetid look back.

Well I hope all this hasn't rambled on too much and obviously only take my suggestions in the spirit they are intended. Like Steve I too spent my youth copying pictures of Eddie... an icon of the eighties so you may wanna check out some old maiden album covers - or Derek Riggs who was the artist, for some inspiration.

Well done buddy and very best of luck

PS: Steve I just knew you was gonna be a metal head... rock on my friend!

[blue80boy]

Thanks for the feed back I'll give some more thought to the pic.

[mummey]

Hi Wesley.

To repeat what a previous poster method. The blur on the bee's is a bit confusing. If you reduce the blur on the bee's that are at the same depth as the face, if helps produce a depth-of-field effect that makes your piece appear more 3D.

The lighting and hair are looking good.

-b

[Hiun]

Hey Wesley, I really like your progression throughout and your image has come a long way, especially being new to the medium:thumbsup: I have a big suggestion for you, just something to try. You may be looking at your image for so long that you haven't realized that there is absolutely no depth at all in the bees. Steeviewoo mentioned it and mummey has also, but apart from the blur effect all your bees are of the exact same value. I believe you are using photoshop... so go to image...adjustments... levels. I assume you already know how it works. When you start adjusting you will notice that your image at this point is very muted. Most importantly you will be able to see clearly that the bees are all the same. Once you adjust the levels and your image pops out you will know how to adjust the color depth on your bees. Give it a try and let me know:thumbsup:

[blue80boy]

Thanks for that info everyone, I'll try and fix the bees any other suggestions.

Hiun I checked out your work I like your style we might have to collab one day. After I get this art form down I'm working on my own comic book company, hopefully you could spare sometime and work on a cover with me.

[Hiun]

Thank you for the kind thoughts. I can definately spare some time to collab. It would be an honor:thumbsup:
I wish you the best of productivity and a great week!:bounce:

[Hiun]

Hey Wesley, I figured I would show you what I had in mind with the image. I hope this helps a bit.:D

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/15/382229/Files/Wesley-Edit.jpg

I adjusted the levels and quickly altered the bees to give a basic example. For the bees I just did some quick hard light passes and color passes with a simple brush. You can take it much further and the skin may get more shiny than you intended, so knocking that back down after adjusting the levels is probably necessary. Let me know if this helps man!:thumbsup:

[Ferx]

Hey Wesly, nice honey face design mate!! cool!! and like the expression. :thumbsup:
Perhaps some bees that are near of the face without blur to emphasize the concept, a bit more contrast on the honey colour eyes and golden honey reflects on the hair. You cloned some bees, try to rotate and stretch with perspective some of them to gain variation on the bees, only a comment :) (and a more contrast like suggest Hiun, maybe works well) Again, nice work Wesly. Cheers! :beer:

[blue80boy]

Hiun, did you use the dodge and burn tool to adjust the light after the levels or applied color with brush? Thanks for the feedback everybody.

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1191820516_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1191820516_large.jpg)

Ok I've worked on the bee some more as you guys suggested and I hope it's better, if not let me know.

I'm trying to get that I've been stung a hundered times haze effect going with some what of blurred doubled vision. Did I get the effect? Any other techniques for this effect?

C&C welcomed.

[SteevieWoo]

Wow! it is becoming dizzing indeed! those bees look wild and rambling...
with the double vision effect I could suggest to blur those layers a bit and even try distorting 'em a little in the liquify plug-in for wavy goodnes, just try and see if you like it, who knows :shrug:

and you can play with the transparency too... maybe make the eyes abit more notorious (since they are so creepy ) and fade more the teeth area, it has a lot of vertical lines that obstruct the hair detail.

Going really well!!:thumbsup:

[Hiun]

Nice update!:thumbsup: As Gabriel (SteevieWoo) said, blur and distort the haze layers to really give that feel of dizzyness. If you can... try warping the neck of the duplicates from the original (so it is slightly diagonally coming from the center) instead of having it exactly straight and beside the middle head (which makes it look like an obvious duplicate)... the liquify tool is great for that job.
To answer your question... For the bees I used a simple brush, nothing fancy, but I set the brush to Hard Light and I also set it to Color, even pin light I believe. I chose only colors from the image itself, I didn't dodge or burn.
Very Nice work Wesley:bounce:

[painpainting]

Very nice idea, it reminds me (in a positive way) a little bit of the Candyman by Clive Barker. Of course just on a very, very basic level... I always loved this tale about a sinister soul reigning over thousands of bees :)

Some thoughts from my side:
I love the flying/moving effect of the bees, but I would add more of them, just going more crazy with them (really using the complete range of sizes for giving more depth - I miss some middle sizes between the larger ones in the foreground and the small ones in the background). And I would try to give the bees in the foreground (especially the one at the right bottom) more details, using some photos as reference to give them a very realistic look (with a little bit less movement)....

Personally I wouldn't duplicate the face in the background. For me it changes the whole image from a more "realistic" to a more "dreamlike" look. In this case I would try to go for a more realistic background, f.e. some texture like walls or wood or something like that. Maybe giving the person a shadow. Maybe drawing a bee-hive in the background .... I always love the combination of surreal and realistic elements, so don't take me to serious about that... :D

Honey, honey, honey!!

Arne


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Strange Behaviour (Illustration)- Thread (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=225&t=518556)

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1192170514_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1192170514_large.jpg)

Worked with the haze effect more, it still looks a little like a dream effect. I might turn the effect horizontail it may work better. what do you guys think?

?the pen tool how do you use it to draw straight lines one after the other without the lines wanting to connect?

[Hiun]

I believe those are on their own layers, so you can keep experimenting until you feel like it's just right. Try erasing some of the edges of the haze with a soft edge eraser so it's not so constant all the way through. I think the effect you want is something 'shaky' and to get shaky you need jitter and breaks to show that it's not flowing. Right now the haze lines are flowing with each other, there needs to be some disturbance in the flow to get a shake effect.

As for your question about straight lines... you can't use the actual pen tool for that, you use the line tool for single straight lines. The line tool is a variant of the pen tool, but they happen to put them in different places on the tools box but when you select the pen tool, if you look up on the tool property bar you will see other options like, freeform pen, shapes, and a straight line (line tool).

Your piece has come a long way and it gets better everytime. I like where the image is right now, except the bees still have no depth:) . I hope you achieve that shake effect, it will take a little time and experimenting.
You have my best wishes Wesley, keep it going!:thumbsup:

[blue80boy]

Thanks very much Hiun for that info, good looking out. Some artist are afraid to help other artist for the fear of them being better then them one day which is a real shame, good thing your not like that and I'm sure you'll go far in life with a positive attitude that you have.

[blue80boy]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1192338722_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/14030/14030_1192338722_large.jpg)

Update on the haze effect well anymore suggestion for color and contrast?

I'm thinking it's almost to dark but you guy might like it?

C&C welcomed

[SteevieWoo]

Hi! I see you you got the effect all wavy now!....Wow !!
This is good, but it I think the blurred bees have a hazy effect on the piece already, this new waves blend with the bee's motion blur and both effects get confused and fight each other, If you have the bees on a separate layer then try the haze layer behind that one, so the bees are not altered by it, only the guy and the background...

Is looking really disturbing, in the very good sense, I mean.:buttrock::buttrock::buttrock:

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