Darkjedi

Personally, I prefer a new thread per piece. New threads mean new dialog. When there's an art dump going on that's 16 pages long, I rarely pop into them.

"Artistic Talent - Can it be learned?"

I'm going to re-state your question in the way I believe you intended it, "Can anyone learn to draw?"

Yes, anyone can learn to draw (barring physical limitations, etc). While some people possess more aptitude, or practiced more, or were encouraged more, I strongly believe ANYONE can learn to draw.

The above techniques are good, but extremely meticulous. Hand-selecting with the lasso tool is beyond my personal patience level.

Assuming the background is a solid color (such as white), there's a method that uses only a couple clicks.

1 - Create a new image the size you desire.
2 - Copy/Paste your target image into the new image. It'll appear on it's own layer.
3 - Using the magic wand, select the background and hit 'delete'
4 - (THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP) Select Image > Matting > Defringe. I usually use a setting of 1 pixel. This will remove the little white specks that a magic ward can't always select.

All told, compositing will take about 20 seconds per image.

I always saw Inspirations as a hero thinking back to a past victory or particular success and gaining inspiration - like a momentary boost to their moralle. It seemed to make sense that way since you gain them when an enemy falls, thus allowing you to think back on that particular opponent and gain courage from your victory over him.

I'm open again. I'm swamped, but I could prolly handle a few months out.

My commissions page, including loads of clicky samples.

Wow. Nice. There's a TON of detail in there!

I gotta agree... those 3 images look vastly different in very fundamental ways, from lighting to anatomy, from composition to coloring. I don't mean to call your friend into question or anything, but those sure look like different artists.

Here's what I was talking about regarding the grass. It's a basic Photoshop brush that randomizes the color on a scale between any two you chose. Then, you just 'paint' back and forth and the grass blades are drawn in. I like to start in the back and move forward as I paint to help blend it all together. I also vary the colors to add seperate planes as I move forward.

Total time - 3 minutes.

Keep in mind, however... since Pyrria is clearly happy, this is all academic =)

Grass Sample

I'm impressed you bothered with the dynamic cloth simulation. I've messed with it a little and never got the results I wanted, and considering the time it takes, I gave up on it.

I'd recommend some post-work on the ground. A couple of minutes in Photoshop can turn the flat plane into a nice, grassy field. There's even a 'grass blade' brush that will do all the work =)

Link must be down =(

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Too bad you're not on Justice...

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Justice is where all the real Art-freaks hang out.

=^_^=

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Bah. You and your your elitist Justice culture!

Victory ftw

I try to do a piece a week.

Usually, it starts out with an idea that bounces around in my skull for a couple of days. Once I get a strong feel for what I want and have hammered out much of the concept, I'll sit down to work. In general, I start with my ideas on monday... plan the stages throught the week... and then do the art on the weekend. By the following monday, I'm ready to tackle the next image.

Because my mental image is usually well-formed, I break the work into 1 or 2 steps as needed and divide the work into 'chunks', depending on how much free time I have. For example, I might approach a piece thinking "Pencils today, inks tomorrow"... or in the case of 3D work, "model the character today, the environment tomorrow, and Photoshop fixes the hird day". Something like that.

If I complete a step I planned and end up with extra time, I'll very rarely start the next step until the time I planned... meaning, if I'm fast enough to get through a step, I get to play COH =)

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Nice stuff Doug! Might have to look into getting one of my characters done.

Btw, have you seen this show coming to SciFi next week? You had the hero first if I remember correctly.

Stan "The Man" Lee ripped you off. j/k

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Funny you mention that.

I've played "Light-Speed" for 2 years, and now there's a show coming of the same name. Right after I made Light-Speed, I made a scrapper called "Battle-Angel" whom I've played for almost as long. Then, someone in my SG showed me this...

Battle-Angel

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"...Every last line and shading is done with my lasso+brush..."

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Day-am, dude! You got a LOT more patience than I do, or will ever have. I'm gonna look at your work with a whole new appreciation for the craft you're utilizing - I just assumed you were drawing large size and scaling it down.

I can't even imagine selecting every single line, one at a time, and coloring it in.

Wow...

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I'm not sure what ambient occulsion means but that 2nd attempt look FANTABULOUS!!!

Great job Sartori! !! ! ! !

Now... got a fur texture? *snickers* KIDDING!

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"Ambient Light" is the light that bounces around in a room and give a general illumination without a direct source. Light is always reflecting off things and hitting areas indirectly, so everything in a room has a little light on it.

"Ambient Occlusion" is when this indirect light is blocked out. A good example is when you put a cup or pencil down on your desk; there might not be any direct light source (and therefore no direct shadow), but there's still a darkness nder it. The mere existance of the object still causes darkness. It's "Occluding" the ambient light.

Got it? Good =)

Class dismissed.

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And currently I'm using my mouse Aaron.


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You named your Mouse 'Aaron'?

Very nice inks. I've been known to go from rough to finals on most areas of the figure, but I generally like to do a very tight pencils on the face before I ink it (I have this bad habit of making my eyes too large).

Well that's wierd, it's working for me. I'm even trying it on a system that hasn't been there before so I'm not loading a cached version.

Give it time and hopefully my ISP will clear up.

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I really like the fun link in your sig, DJ. I wish they'd make an animation of that. BTW, what are light-speed's powersets?

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Light-Speed is classic Fire/Fire Blaster. She runs fast and burn hot =)

Re typo; Thanks for the catch. I'll fix that shortly.

Re past requests; Yes, I'm running through my commission log and keeping in mind those that have been remarkably patient. Still, it doens't hurt to let me know you're still interested to make sure your name pops in my memory cells.

I have a small notepad next to my drawing table that I scribble a number of figures on before every project. They're usually just a couple circles and a few swishy lines, but it's a complete language to me.

So when I looked at that first rough sketch, I immediately saw TA kneeling atop a building (seen from the corner, camera looking upwards), one hand down as he gripped the bricks, the other supporting his weight in a tight grip on the staff. I can see what I thought were bats in the back (but later described at angels), a full moon, and even the shape of his legs.

Is any of that correct, or just my mad impression of your mad rough sketch? =)

After several months of downtime to re-tool my samples, better describe my offerings, and clarify some details, I'm finally re-opening to take commissions.

I have a list already built up so I expect to take a day or two to get things together. I also have a few more bits on the site to take care of, but those are mostly just additions to my gallery and such.

For those that aren't familiar, my site is located here; DouglasShuler.com

A few of my pieces are in my sig. I'm updating my website tomorrow ( DouglasShuler.com ) to include a ton more samples and more info on commissions.

Here's mine;

DONNA MATRIX

*EDIT* - I drew her a while back as a treat to myself.

DONNA MATRIX in Pencils

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When learning to draw, does tracing help?

Cosmic

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I don't see the point of tracing, frankly. Now, copying, where you're recreating a drawing free-hand, is a time-honored technique that I think yields great results if you do it correctly. But I'm not sure that tracing really helps you understand the logic behind the lines, how the underlying structures of objects work together. I don't see much harm in it, but I wouldn't use it as a primary method of learning.

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I agree with PMD completely; when you trace, you copy someone else's mistakes and bad habits. While you might feel you're learning anatomy, you're also limiting yourself to what someone else does and doesn't know.

If you want to learn to draw human forms, I'd recommend copying rather than tracing. Plus, if you want to learn REAL anatomy, copy from magazines and photographs and NOT comics. Comics are exaggerated on purpose and you won't learn properly. Once you can copy from a magazine with some degree of success, you'll start to see where certain features can be exaggerated into a comic-style without losing the believability of the human figure.

Tracing is 'lazy'; you assume it's all correct and don't think about what you're drawing. If you copy something instead, you're forced to think about the lines and proportions. Thinking about the forms leads to understanding and mastery, while tracing only leads to methodic duplication of an existing style.

So... does it help? Well, yes, you can make a decent drawing if you trace. Will you ever learn to do it on your own? It'll be a lot harder in the long run.

Overall, it's a cool piece. You got the costume pretty close to the in-game textures and it's obvious there was work put into that. Also, placing her indoors helps pull off the lighting since Poser doesn't do lighting well at all.

A few suggestions;

1 - You're advanced enough that you should probably photoshop her shoulder. Poser's models are horrible in the joints (particularly the shoulder, elbow, and knee) and her shoulder is ruining the illusion. If it were corrected, the piece would increase inquality by several steps.

2 - Be aware of Poser's craptacular shadows. It's very noticable under her hand on her leg, where there should be some ambient occlusion, but there isn't. A slight shadow would help place her hand on her leg nicely.

3 - Other patrons? It would be cool if there were other people in the background. Maybe make them blurry, or dark. Maybe even have them be just a reflection in the wall.

Just my 2 Inf.

Very nice. I love the nod to the GL-Corps.

There's enough raw comic-talent on these boards, I wonder why Top Cow is handling the comic? This piece looks tons better than the Top Cow stuff.