/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

Honestly the best advice I've gotten is the image tutorials shared here and round the internet that help you visualise how to learn a new technique step by step. And books, ofc, anything that teaches you a satisfying simplification/abstraction of whatever you're learning to draw. That's all gold for me, they all usually have little nuggets or even 'hacks' for getting those results. Pic kinda related

>>4915633
>>4915653
I thought it would be something like that, you didn't follow your reference at all except for the body.

Values are pretty much non existent, you only have jet black and a mid tone for the skin, and then highlights. There are basically two colors in this painting yellow and salmon, which are the complete opposite from the cool colors in the original. There's no rendering, everything is flat except for that well done lasso tool in the armpit.
The rays of light are terrible in general, they don't give the illusion of light, they just make the drawing messy, specially since they are coming from the windows in the background and shining on her face in the foreground.

If you want to actually study colors, first read a bit about color theory and painting (where you learn in the first class that you should pretty much never use pure black), then take paintings, photos, movie stills you think have great colors and copy them.
And the same for rendering, actually get a photo of what you want to learn to paint and copy it, pay attention to it's textures, how light affects the surface. Starting in black and white might be better for you by the way, and lastly, that reference sucks for studying anyway.

You definitely could start taking commissions, if people see value in your art they'll pay for it, doesn't matter the quality.

>>4758533
>>4758537

>>4738662
I do the same because that's what pic related and the guy from Ctrl+Paint seem to do.

>>4657089
huh, I hadn't known about her until Deadpool, but yeah it seems she was on that show

>>4657127
you're right! i was scared of doing her nose too big, haha, but the eye does need a fix. thank you.

>>4657143
thanks anon. I think most of the skill I have comes from drawing with pencil and paper through out high school, that helps with paying attention to different shapes and values (this was done from reference btw, something like Keys to Drawing should cover this to some extent). I remember watching Ctrl+Paint videos when I started with digital painting (the let's paint series and the first one from the basic photoshop rendering).
Do a lot of value sketches, that's great to get comfortable with the tools and workflow, they're like the gesture drawing of rendering. I only use a hard round brush with flow jitter and do all the blending with that and the color picker.
https://www.ctrlpaint.com/videos/brush-technique-blending
https://www.ctrlpaint.com/videos/sketching-value
This might be obvious but I didn't start doing it until recently: draw on a canvas bigger than the dimensions you intend your drawing to have, so you can zoom in and use a smaller brush size when working on things like the eye. I like working on a single layer but I do follow the process from pic related, start with big shapes and shadow and keep refining and blending them.
I don't think my construction is that good, I still rely heavily on observation, but I read Hampton and Huston's chapters on head drawing, and have been watching Huston's beginning head drawing lectures. Try drawing their construction over your reference before drawing it yourself to make sure you can find the landmarks/corners/planes. Good luck anon!

>>4211417
exactly what this guy said >>4211477

You didn't even block in the sole of the boot and you're already painting highlights and stitching

>>4045980
Don't you have a favorite artist or something? Someone you want to imitate? They probably have a video tutorial.
There are many different ways to render, it can be done in one layer, it can be done with lot of layers, filters and tricks in general, some people do a black and white layer and then apply color on top of it. Most artists use many layers and flatten these layers into one many times during the process of dozens of hours.

How well do you know basic fundamentals of art? Do you know about values and all that?

I could recommend some process videos I know, but they may be too cartoony for your tastes

>>4039411
not mine, but if youre trying to copy a ref try to stick with straight lines. The pic I post follows a method similar to copying bargue plates

>>3957848
You certainly should do monochromatic studies to learn to place values before tackling colors, but as for actually doing illustrations starting from grayscale, it's kind of a preference thing.

Painting with grayscale removes the complexity of colors at first, but it makes the painting kinda bland with dead colors, and you have to add an extra step of painting over everything to make it more vivid.
So, if it works for you, go for it, but the ideal is to learn to work directly from colors eventually.
Here's a great video on the subject:
https://youtu.be/lJitss58XKc

Cool study by the way. Go easy on the airbrush, though. Try out some color blocking with a hardbrush instead of super blending everything.

>>3957881
No problem, I know exactly what you mean.

>>3936140
Interesting ideas, but your fundamentals are really lacking.
Have you read about symbol drawing? Right now it's clear you don't quite get how the 3D shapes are supposed to be interacting with the lighting, the light source direction is not clear, light and shadow are distributed kinda randomly. That's making the painting look flat.

Also, colors and rendering are muddy. I think I know the rendering style you're going for, something like how Ruan Jia renders stuff sometimes where he punches rough looking brushes and weird colors on the canvas until they magically look coherent and beautiful, but without the previous knowledge of light and form it just makes your painting look messier. Focus on studying stuff like pic related, study faces and anatomy, how to properly block paint, all while you experiment doing your thing on the side, applying those studies to your art.
It seems like you're studying color, trying those opposite colors, balancing warm and cold, a few saturated spots here and there, but that's the last stuff to worry about, if you nail the basic stuff, you'll see these other things falling into place easier.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHFRfdirLJKk822fwOxR6Zn6

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL39135B8D190B7C97

Does anyone have any image macros about doing value studies?
pic related

>>3315846
In another note, your rendering is kinda random, the values, the placement of shadows, the random highlights strokes on the hair specially show you aren't really thinking about what you are doing there. I have to admit I'm still figuring this part out myself, so I can only recommend what I'm doing which is studying photos.

Obligatory rendering tutorial

>>3294568

>>3278451

can someone explain each step further to me in this image, i'm fucking retarded

>>3198220
this can help you, don't give up!

>>3197417
are you trying to figure out how to paint in values?
Start simpler. Start with simplified geometric forms. Pic is a very pared down step by step, there are hours of tuts on YT about painting. Sinix, among others, has good tips about how to think about approaching this.

>>3165304
you start with a base, mid tone. Then you can push with darks and pull with lights. Never put a full white on it unless you use it as a super highlight. This image might help

>>3135064
has anyone done that before? if not i'm curious as to why

>>3134956
get a tumblr and make a commission post with examples of your work. use paypal that's what everyone uses. get all or at least half the money upfront and secured.

>>3134124
you're gravitating to vg because they're electronic skinner boxes. the progreess is clear, the work is solid, and you get instantly rewarded with a level up or whatever. whereas with drawings the progress is less clear cut
set yourself clear goals. remind yourself that you can only waste your life on so many things

>>3134694

how long does it take to wrap your brain around values? i can draw gud, but values are kicking my ass

>>3122030
i mean is it an ipad pro or just an ipad? if former, procreate.

>>3016973

>>2587986
Perhaps this will help.