34 replies to this topic

[MaRaMa-TSG]

I'M SO SORRY! >_<

I haven't been here since...forever. Let's see... I'll give you a recap.
I started studying Paramedic in August last year and since then I pretty much stopped being active everywhere, only sporadically posting to DeviantArt. however, my muse continued to go down and even there I wasn't on much. (Will write more about my absence in another thread)

But I finally did something worth scanning again! Something Sonic related and I like it! So, wanted to share.

Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, more will come and this will just be my new gallery Thread for 2010.

So here's the first!


DA Link: http://marama-tsg.de...-2010-153191192

[Morgan]

Beautiful artwork as always, Mara!

[randomizer]

I find that Tails' face can be interpreted in several ways.

"I am trying really hard to look cool"
"I am cool!"
"Why am I standing behind Sonic? This is kinda awkward."
"Trying really hard to smile... don't want to be here...

Very nice work

[MaRaMa-TSG]

Well, I was trying to make Tails seem a bit shy.

[chalcara]

Ooooh, I love the way you've drawn Sonic's chest. It truely looks like a runners build, well done!

I've got to swipe that for my own non-SatAM Sonic art. It looks great!

And Tails' a cutie-pie.

[wildfire]

I faved this on DA when I saw it, always like to give props to good art. Awesome work Mara.

[randomizer]

And Tails' a cutie-pie.

He's floooofy.

[MaRaMa-TSG]

Ooooh, I love the way you've drawn Sonic's chest. It truely looks like a runners build, well done!

I'm glad somebody thought of it because that was my intention, though his chest might be a bit too broad and so makes him look too bulky for most.

And yes I love Tails being floooofy~



And now more art!

It seems like my muse's still going! I hope it lasts! Here's something I spent all afternoon in. My first all digital pic with background and all!


Da link: http://marama-tsg.de...ctice-153432464

CRITIQUE ENCOURAGED!

It looks like my muse is back and at full throttle too!
Done throughout 6 hours more or less

So this is my first fully digital painting with a background. I'm really experimenting so I'd like some tips about how to make it better. Do ignore the grass and leaves, those were with a preset brush so I don't consider it effort. just a bit of cheating. I rushed that. But Sonic was done from scratch, lineart done in Open Canvas and then colored in Photoshop. The water, rock, tree trunks and sky were done from scratch too.
To color Sonic I did the same kind of shading I used in the water and then smudged it up with a special brush. It's sort of hard but it works. So please if you know any tips on how to color like a painting, realistically, tell me and if you could direct me to tutorials it would be nice too. The ring was a pain to color right.
I really wanna color more like this and be able to do it more easily so I can do it more often.

About the style. Here I went with a mix of the Sat-AM Sonic style with just 3 quills but keeping some realism making them 3D and not just a flat buzzsaw. Inspired by the topic of the Sea3n comic short and wanting to 'warm' up to see if I give a try to one of those shorts in the future so will keep practicing colors and keep playing around with making Sonic look Sat-AMish but with personal touches. This one still looks more SEGA.

So bring the comments with as much critique as you can!

[chalcara]

Too much detail in the grass and tree foliage, they distract from the pretty, pretty Sonic and bring way to much variation and detail in the background - and that's not where you want the viewers attention.

Bad Mara. Texture Brushes are like lenseflares - they are useful and can be pretty, but only when used sparringly.

That aside: Retro Sonic, yay! I love his face!

[MaRaMa-TSG]

Too much detail in the grass and tree foliage, they distract from the pretty, pretty Sonic and bring way to much variation and detail in the background - and that's not where you want the viewers attention.

Bad Mara. Texture Brushes are like lenseflares - they are useful and can be pretty, but only when used sparringly.

That aside: Retro Sonic, yay! I love his face!

...Do ignore the grass and leaves, those were with a preset brush so I don't consider it effort. just a bit of cheating. I rushed that....

Let's try again.
But now that we're on it. Is there any way, or tip to draw repetitive things like those without having to go one by one? I'm sure sometimes I make things a lot more complicated than they are.

Oh and something else I forgot to ask. I had trouble deciding how to deal with Sonic's lineart. Is it ok to color it like that or should I leave it black or use some other colors? I'm still on the the level of removing it yet, though I've tried.

[chalcara]

...Do ignore the grass and leaves, those were with a preset brush so I don't consider it effort. just a bit of cheating. I rushed that....

Let's try again.
But now that we're on it. Is there any way, or tip to draw repetitive things like those without having to go one by one? I'm sure sometimes I make things a lot more complicated than they are.

Oh and something else I forgot to ask. I had trouble deciding how to deal with Sonic's lineart. Is it ok to color it like that or should I leave it black or use some other colors? I'm still on the the level of removing it yet, though I've tried.

Blah. you can't expect me to read. Sorry.

Anyway, the trick is that you don't HAVE to draw every detail, just hinting is enough. Grass and foliage clump together visually, so you just have to draw the clumps with their shadows and highlights. It's kinda like with hair - draw each hair separatly, and you end up with a nasty, fugly mess. Draw a the clumps of strands with shadows and highlights, and it will look like hair, despite you haven't drawn a single hair.

Look at grass and foliage, I mean, really look at it, and you will see that you CANNOT see the blades and leaves unless they're catching highlights. Your mind knows they're there, hence you try to draw them, but you cannot actually see them. It's just shapes and patterns of greens.

This guy has EXTENSIVE tutorials about how to draw trees (and other stuff), here are three of the tree series I personally found very helpful.
http://stapletonkear...s-of-trees.html
http://stapletonkear...les-part-1.html
http://stapletonkear...ky-holes-2.html
http://stapletonkear...me-kittens.html

I freely admit, I don't have the raw skill to implement all this stuff, but I've learned alot.


sonic's lineart looks okay, a little bit jacked IMHO but on the other hand, I'm a sucker for ultrasmooth linearts. I do like the colouring. Something you could try is not to outline the white with black, but with a light blue instead.

[MaRaMa-TSG]

Those look great! I'll look into them as soon as I get a chance. *bookmarks* Thanks for the advice!

[MaRaMa-TSG]

More digital color practice...


Da Link: http://marama-tsg.de...ctice-154179751

[chalcara]

More digital color practice...


Da Link: http://marama-tsg.de...ctice-154179751

Ooooh nice! Like the background and the way you actually shaded. Tip: Don't use black or grey for shading, it makes the colours look dirty. Try a dark, blueish and low-saturation violett instead.

...

( "Black's only for design, yes ma'am. Black in a painting is evil, it's only for design. *hides* ... I think my art teacher traumatized me. )

[MaRaMa-TSG]

"Black is the absence of light. A HOLE in the picture." is what my painting teacher used to say. He hated when I used black, I had forgotten about that. But actually... I didn't shade with black or gray, well just in the eyes I used grey. I used the darker color with the "L A B" sliders in PS. Another Sonic artist told me about that. I think it was Cionex/Lock-on... Perhaps I made them too dark?
I even added some red to the shadows and purple to the midtones just to see how it looked. I've always liked paintings where they added pure colors here and there. Dunno if I used them right.

I needs MOAR experimenting! And with another subject that doesn't have so much blue... ;

[chalcara]

"Black is the absence of light. A HOLE in the picture." is what my painting teacher used to say. He hated when I used black, I had forgotten about that. But actually... I didn't shade with black or gray, well just in the eyes I used grey. I used the darker color with the "L A B" sliders in PS. Another Sonic artist told me about that. I think it was Cionex/Lock-on... Perhaps I made them too dark?
I even added some red to the shadows and purple to the midtones just to see how it looked. I've always liked paintings where they added pure colors here and there. Dunno if I used them right.

I needs MOAR experimenting! And with another subject that doesn't have so much blue... ;

The darkest part of Sonic's spine do look black to me - could be monitor settings though. Or yes, they could be to dark. I found that shadows work bests if I use complementary colours (either to the light or to the base color) in them, but I guess that depends ALOT on the colouring style. Most horrible picture I ever did was actually coloring a red dragon - until I thought about using GREEN in the shadow. Then it finally turned out usuable.

White got similiar issues like black - it's a non-colour too, and rarely seen in nature. I mean, not even snow is white - it's either blue or yellow depending on the light.

And I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one whos art teacher flipped at someone using black. Mine was a scary, scary lady. Nice as kittens, but if you used black in a painting...

[MaRaMa-TSG]

--NOT SONIC RELATED--


My first digital landscape painting.


Da link: http://marama-tsg.de...scape-154296112

Paste from DA:

Playa Santa (Holy Beach) is a popular beach in the town of Guanica, Puerto Rico.

This is my first ever digital painting of a landscape. Today we were at the beach with my class group and family. In the evening, after getting tired of swimming so much I decided to try and paint the view with the tablet, again, to warm up my renewed muse and also to keep practicing using the tablet and painting in general.
It was more of a speed painting really because I didn't add too many details and the brightness outside wasn't letting me see the screen as clearly.

Here's a picture of the place at an earlier time and slightly different angle

I did not use this to paint it. I did it by looking at the landscape myself a late in the afternoon. Picture was taken before noon.

Also, yes, the sky was THAT bright only I actually added clouds. It was so bright and clear is was one plain color and you either couldn't see the clouds or there wasn't any. I looked around the entire sky looking for one and couldn't find them. ;
Had trouble picking the colors. The water was sort of greenish and I even noticed some of the sand shadows were sort of bluish gray.

Anyway, tell me what you think and tips to improve. Not much critique since I know there's a dozen things wrong. It is my first after all and after a really long time of not painting or doing art in general.

[randomizer]

I added Julian to a Firefox persona (top right). Now every time I search for something I'll be looking at his rage Of course I can remove it if you don't want me to use the image like this, I was just looking for something... different to use for a persona.

[MaRaMa-TSG]

How can you do that?! Is it an add-on or something?

I don't mind. Is it accessible to others or just you? I'd mind if it spread without saying who the artists are. If it's for personal use you can do anything you want with it. If you share just remember to credit both myself and Ali for the colored version. :]

[randomizer]

After some time (due to the fact that everything is moderated) it's been made available publicly here: http://www.getperson.../persona/103328

Just click on "wear this persona" and it will change your browser accordingly. It's not really a theme per se, as it simply changes text colour and adds an image to the header and footer of the browser. Themes change buttons and things too. I'm the only one using this persona it seems, as the current active users count is still 0, although it doesn't update very often. I made sure to credit you and Ali in the persona details (shows under under the preview thing on the linked page), but as I didn't realise it was Ali who did the colouring I just used her the dA name. I've edited that now but it will take time to show, due to moderation having to ensure I don't submit hardcore porn

I can remove it if you don't want it publicly available. I don't need it there to use it myself, but I thought you might want to use it as well so that's why I put it there It's simpler to change your persona when it's an online one (point and click) than doing it with locally stored images, although the latter is not difficult by any means.

Oh, and you need to be using Firefox, or perhaps any Firefox spin-offs, for it to work.