[Macros]

That sounds awesome!

I haven't been getting drawing every night like.planned because im simply too tired by the time I get home from work and sort out either shopping/cooking or gym then eating and showering its nealry bed time.
But only two weeks of the big hours left, whoop.

I was working on and entirely different take on Kulp, but I've realised now that I set the resolution far too low when I started and some lines that need to be super thin, just aren't
Its not really that far along and it was still a great learning experience so I'm a start it again with a decent canvas on Saturday evening after work.

[Dolmen 2.0]

Some progress on the ST piece. I gave ,em more space and made the entire page darker to give me more play across the values. still haven't started refining it but I'm almost there. I overhauled Gear, made him look a bit spookier. popped Shan forward and upped her size. Also did plenty of clever things to the landscape and ST. I'm not sure if I went a bit too far with the astral plane? anyways I like where its going but I'm a bit tired of dark and broody. will try something lighter and feminine. just did a piece on superman and powergirl and I forgot how fun it was to draw women!

 MAGES Shadow Throne s.jpg (107.98K)
Number of downloads: 8

This post has been edited by Dolmen+: 01 September 2012 - 07:02 AM

[Macros]

Only prblem for me is shans stance.
I dunno, the pectoral.muscles and front legs posiioning almost looks... Human or something

[Isa]

I think the superficial pectoral muscle should run back toward the abdomen (shaped slightly like a narrowing pair of lungs), and protrude more downwards than upwards (but flatten as it reaches beyond the armpits), at least when the animal is standing. It's hard to find a good pic ref because dogs chest muscles generally aren't very protruding, but a horse like this one might not be too far off. You might also want to bring up the elbows a bit.

Other than that it looks epic. I like dark and broody.

This post has been edited by Isolde: 01 September 2012 - 09:48 AM

[Dolmen 2.0]

Yes I agree with both of you, I want to make Shan look stocky but the refs I used were anthropomorphic so there is an almost human feel to her anatomy that I also didn't like. Will try polish up her phisique.

I'm gonna take the next few days to work on the dogs and edgewalker. Cottilion and ST I'll save of for now as I know exactly what I want them to look like. Might lose the sleeveless look on Cottilion. I'm of two heads about it. Thanks again for your input mac and Is. Are you guys working on anything at the moment?

[Macros]

Restarted my kulp pic, relatively happy with the background for it, have a day off todayso going to take a stab at kulp himself in the picture, I'll put up whatever it looks like by this evening but id say I'll not be overly happy, haven't really tried a person yet.

[Macros]

when I started on the boat and kulp I realised that the res was still far too low for my liking
What kind of resolution do you set and what kind of a size of canvas when you're trying out ideas?

the 2 bits of lightning are from two different tutorials, I prefer the look of the one striking at kulp but but it harder to blend in and looks too vivid for the rest of the picture.

My intent was kulp being beaten down whilst a storm rages, with lighting striking at him as well as randoml around the background, with kulps shell of protection cracking as the assualt is too great for him.

it ended up somewhat less than my grand ideas but as my first sort of completed drawing I'll say I'm satisfied.
I'd like to tihnk that with a better resolution I could have details kulp himself considerably better but thats wishful thinking

Still, another great learning experience for me and total time I'd say only around the 3 hour mark, quite a bit of which was spent looking at methods and gratuitous use of the eraser tool

 oi2.jpg (35.05K)
Number of downloads: 2


ETA I just realised my use of the eraser tool did not extend to putting kulp inside the boat, hes jsut a floating torso

This post has been edited by Macros: 02 September 2012 - 09:51 AM

[Isa]

I like brighter lightning, it looks really neat! Take a look at the paint-over Dolmen did on one of my paintings, it illustrates quite well how contrast can add drama. With your painting, you could easily use it to bring Kulp into focus.
I mostly stick with a 72 pixels/inch resolution.

[Macros]

cheers isolde. I see what you mean about the effects of the light in that paint over.

I was going to try somethinng else next, but I think I'm gonna start this from scratch again, want to try and make the water look like actual sea water remotely, and a proper kulp and maybe try light him up a little.
Maybe go with a totally differnet approach to his warren than a pink bubble

[Dolmen 2.0]

looks good macros!

I cant really see it too well on my phone but my first impression is that the lighting bolt to the left is doing too much and the bolt on the right is doing too little. I actually like the greenish hue to the bolt on the right.

Isoldes link to her silchus thread has a lot of the same advice I'd offer here but I'm very interested in that pink bubble protecting kulp. Why pink? Are you trying to portray safety? Its a good safe colour, as is yellow, light green, white and silver. If you're going for an invisible bubble of protection i'd look at some of the artwork on the net depicting Harry Dresdens shield. Most give it an almost glass like veneer which is basicly like putting kulp in a beer bottle. I really would like to see your next wip...

[Macros]

Well it ended up pink.
Initially I wanted kulps warren shield to be red for some reason.
Mainly because I figured it would be a good contrast for the blue of the lightning, but also I sort of associated Kulp with fire and stuff in my head.
Then I thought red might have been too harsh so picked a pale pink, had I been remotely switched on I would have taken the red and dropped the opacity a bit further. But still, the learning curve, its a steep one
I wanted (in my head) a cracking glass look, but that's simply well beyond what I've tried or even looked at yet, so I just went forms simple roundy shape and coloured it in a bit.

The bolt on the right Was made using the cloud differernce filter then playing about with the settings. I really can't figure an easy way to turn that into a forked lightning. So if I could.take the ease of shape, source and destination of the simple left hand bolt and apply it too the right hand bolt technique Id be quite happy.
But that's likely a bit down the line
I'm gonna take another run at it, but it may be a week or so till I have time, but I really want to try make the sea look like an actual sea and the boat look more wooden and less brown or something this time round. If that works out I'll worry then about old kulp

[Macros]

I'm trying this one for a third time.
Massively unhappy with the water at the minute, but im gonna try make kulp be a real foreground item so hopefully my dodgy sea won't be so noticable.
Aboutan hour in so far, but only have internet via my phone so can't post it here to ask a few questions

One thing basically, i want to fully draw the lightning instead of using the filter trick. How do youmake things look vividly bright? Like make them look like a light source and really bright like in my last.try?

[Dolmen 2.0]

Ok, basicly you set opacity to 100% then select white. Use the square brackets to find a size that suits you. After that draw your lightenings path. Then set your brush to 20% opacity, pick a soft edge brush for best results and select a bright colour of your choosing. Use the brackets to in reduce the size of your brush by another 25%. Then 'dust' the colour 'haze' along both sides of your initial lightening bolt. Dust more the closer you work to the bolt and less the further away you get. Have a look at digitaly drawn light sabers for a good feel of what effect you're trying to create.

[Macros]

I feel like this thread is turning into help macros, other people need to post stuff damnit!

also, I'm going drining today but tomorrow I'ma try this dolmen approach to the lightning and draw kulp, much closer to the foreground.
I have the sea kind of done but it still looks wick and I have a mage in the background, but i wanna make his eyes glow blue!

[Isa]

I can contribute from my pile of abandoned WIPs.

This is from last year (evidently, I have a thing for QoD). As I was getting tired of sketching I decided to take a brake and do some coloring. And then I discovered that sketching in B&W is a lot of wasted work if you intend to color. At least I learned something. My sketches are very crude these days.

 Gardenhalf.jpg (94.05K)
Number of downloads: 1


This is a more recent lost cause (excuse the nudity, had half a plan to cover up the boobies). You can probably see where I was going with it but I couldn't get the 'bleeding darkness' effect I was after..

 MDTAKE2.jpg (47.53K)
Number of downloads: 1

This post has been edited by Isolde: 17 September 2012 - 02:37 PM

[Dolmen 2.0]

I like both pieces...you seem to have a really dark colour pallette. Can I suggest mixing in purples or blues into the darkness? I hope you continue with 'em at somepoint. Really like the second one. Very sexy in a night time sex kinda way.

[Isa]

Dolmen+, on 17 September 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

I like both pieces...you seem to have a really dark colour pallette. Can I suggest mixing in purples or blues into the darkness? I hope you continue with 'em at somepoint. Really like the second one. Very sexy in a night time sex kinda way.

Very dark, can hardly see it with my normal settings Did you mean the background or the figure or both?

[Dolmen 2.0]

Isolde, on 21 September 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

Dolmen+, on 17 September 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

I like both pieces...you seem to have a really dark colour pallette. Can I suggest mixing in purples or blues into the darkness? I hope you continue with 'em at somepoint. Really like the second one. Very sexy in a night time sex kinda way.

Very dark, can hardly see it with my normal settings Did you mean the background or the figure or both?

Both! I think the background could use more tonal value to help it seperate from the foreground.

The figures I think could do with subtle touches of ambient colour but really its up to you how you want to treat them. Is this in Kurald Gallain? If it is there are no light sources but maybe you could create one? like maybe an orb or sphere of magic...? I dunno, let me research more drow pics and get back to you.

Heres where I'm at with high house shadow...

 MAGES Shadow Throne7-3s.jpg (349.31K)
Number of downloads: 7

[Sibylle]

Dolmen+, on 24 September 2012 - 03:14 PM, said:

Isolde, on 21 September 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

Dolmen+, on 17 September 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

I like both pieces...you seem to have a really dark colour pallette. Can I suggest mixing in purples or blues into the darkness? I hope you continue with 'em at somepoint. Really like the second one. Very sexy in a night time sex kinda way.

Very dark, can hardly see it with my normal settings Did you mean the background or the figure or both?

Both! I think the background could use more tonal value to help it seperate from the foreground.

The figures I think could do with subtle touches of ambient colour but really its up to you how you want to treat them. Is this in Kurald Gallain? If it is there are no light sources but maybe you could create one? like maybe an orb or sphere of magic...? I dunno, let me research more drow pics and get back to you.

Heres where I'm at with high house shadow...

 MAGES Shadow Throne7-3s.jpg (349.31K)
Number of downloads: 7

Hey, first post in this forum Hello guys.

I really like your work with house shadow. The only addition i'd like to see is some sort of rope on Cotillion, acros his chest maybe.

I've started on a drawing of the Anomander fighting T'iam. Just begon yesterday so it'll be a while. Any tips or suggestions are welcome. I'm not sure about the size, but if i compare Silanah with Reast in the drawings of GotM then I would say Anomader is about the height of T'iams head. Which makes for a very awkward fight, so maybe I have to put in some more Tisti Andii
I am reading Reaper's Gale now, and I don't now whether I forgot or didn't read it yet. Does Anomader have to sword when fighting T'iam for the first time (before drinking her/his blood)?

[Sinisdar Toste]

well, we really have no idea how anomander fights tiam in the first place, but he owns a sword before he becomes soletaken eleint, and it's a pretty deadly one.