SlaveDawg

You are very welcome.

And I know you were looking to commission someone, so don't let this stop you from doing such. there are so many great artists out there. I was just inspired by all the thought and referrences you included in your post that I couldn't help myself.

I just hope that I was able to capture some of what you were looking for. And besides, this is good practice for me because I am contemplating doing actual commissions and I need to get a feel for what I am able to do and offer - so maybe I should be thanking you for letting me use your character

But in the end, your thanks was what made it worth it. And I am glad you like it.

Well, I know you didn't commission me to do anything for you, and you probably have no idea who I am, but I thought that I would help you celebrate hitting level 50.

Congratulations Nurse White!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

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LOL! Late, late last night, I also produced one because I was kind of peeved that someone would say 'couldn't' regarding the lovely character generator we have... (lol - it's always a fun challenge, anyay)
So it was 2 am and I didn't have the energy to crop it then.

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That is sweet!!!!

You even got the pose down.

THANKS!

I really like this picture. I think you nailed the lighting and mood perfectly. Good job!

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based on the final product its not obviously a COX character so you sort of grew past the limitations.

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While you may, or may not, be right with this statement I decided to offer this:

Burning Demon

This is my new character based off my drawing. He is a Fire/Thermal Corruptor.

Also, thanks for the feedback!

I was just playing around with my Wacom tablet and this is what I ended up with:

Demon on a Rock

Anyway, the character was based on options found in the CoX costume creator.

Enjoy!

78

Just one small thing to mention... The name of the character in the painting that I submitted is All Hollows Eve, and not All Hallows Eve (there is an "O" in the name and not an "A"). The name was based on the Hollows zone and mixed with Halloween. Anyway, just a small thing...

...but THANK YOU for including my piece in the Scoop!

Keep up the good work.

Anyway, here is what I was trying to explain:

Costume Example

Try using the Skin/metal option for top and bottom in black with a skin color like dark purple,blue or gray. Then accesorize to taste.

I will try and post a picture of what I mean if I get the chance.

I found this: Paint Shop Pro Tutorial

It has information about the brushes, layers and other things that you may need to know. I think it could be a very good resource to help you get started with the program and get you familar with the tools.

Paint Shop and PhotoShop are different programs, although they are designed to do about the same things. I don't know much about PaintShop except to say that my brother likes it better than PhotoShop for his photo editing needs.

Now for my advice...

Using a computer to do artwork is just an extension of all artwork, and so almost all the same rules apply when it comes to creating a piece digitally. This is why people tell you to "Draw from Life" and to take drawing classes. The better you can draw with a pencil (or chalk, or whatever) the better you will do on a computer. Just remember that the computer will not make you better because it is only a tool, and will only be as good as you are at using it.

Drawing with a mouse is actually pretty hard to do effectively. I know that there are some people out there that are real pros at it, but for most of us it is just not natural enough to use effectively for painting in programs like PhotoShop and Paint Shop. I would still suggest drawing by hand first and then scanning it. Use the lasso tool to create major blocks of color. You can then create layers, use the magic wand tool to create a selection of a color block, and do your shading on the new layers so you don't mess up the original blocks of color. This will allow you to use the mouse to do all your painting without too much trouble.

Again, I don't know if the tool names I listed above are what they are called in Paint Shop, but I am almost certain they are available. And with a little practice you could be creating some nice arts using just a scanned image and a mouse in Paint Shop.

Actually, that soulds like something fun to experiment with... making a digital painting without using my tablet, and only using the mouse... hmmm, I will have to look into this.

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Yarrrrr

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Ashcraft, that has to be one of the funniest avatars I have seen in a long time. Kudos.

<QR>

Get a digital camera (borrow one if necessary) and take pictures of hands in the angles and poses that you need. Then use that as your referrence for the drawing. This is also good practice because if you are anything like me, I struggle with hands and feet and have a hard time getting them to look right.

Also, even if you are drawing in a cartoonish style, you will *want* to know how to draw real hands. by knowing what a real hand looks like you will be better equipped to morph it into a cartoonish style and have it look believable.

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Honestly, the hardest thing I normally drink is Diet Coke, so me and mine don't do alot of that stuff.

I know some do - there's a 'drink' based SG that started recently.

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How the hell did you end up on Pinnacle then? I can understand one person slipping through the cracks, but two? That's unpossible.

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You know, that is how the world works... one slips through and that becomes a precident, and then the next thing you know the whole server is sober. And then as a follow up everyone stops smoking, no drugs, no wild parties, no se.... ok wait, that was going a little to far. Anyway, that is how I explain the unpossible.

Dang! I figured as much... I guess it is time to move to Champion then.

I started on Liberty, almost all my high level characters are on Liberty, I still call Liberty home, but I don't have any characters in the Envisionaries SG. Maybe I need to change that.

I teamed with LJ during one of the Rikti Invasions in Talos, but that is the extent of my Envisionaries contact.

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I have become sober and am no longer welcome on Pinnacle.

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I have always been sober... maybe that is why I never get team invites when I play my villains on Pinnacle. Or is that bacause there just isn't anyone else playing villains on Pinnacle?

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I really likee. As far as making it look more "underwater", two thoughts come to mind.
One, for the particles, try drawing some shapes, and dots, keeping them fairly indistinct, and maybe at a low opacity. That might simulate the effect of water between them and the viewer.

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Thanks. I will give it a try.

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Also, I might try making the water more blue, and less green. Underwater colors come in a variety of hues, but I think most people associate water with the color blue.

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As for the water color, that was just a personal choice based on some underwater images that I have seen. But, I can understand how adding some blue might help, I will experiment some with it and see if I like it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Just to prove that I am still working on this, and that I think it is coming along nicely, here is another update:

Freddy and Amphora WIP 4

If anyone has any suggestions on how to make it look more like it is underwater, like how to add little particles for depth and more realism, I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

Otherwise enjoy!

I would like to submit the following for addition in the City Scoop. This is a digital painting I did of my Spines/Inv Scrapper.

All Hollows Eve

I have found that Andrew Loomis is a good starting point.

Also, I always suggest that people get magazines like Swimwear Illustrated and Body Building magazines and draw the people in them. This is good for seeing muscle tones and how the muscles look in real life.

There are also some good anatomy books, like Artistic Anatomy, by Paul Richer.

Also, the web has lots of little tutorials, like This one for learning to draw and understand the human body.

Me, I just take classes at school. I am taking a figure structure class this semester, and while I am still not great at it, it is helping me see where my problems are and work to correct them. This is one of the reasons why I have started doing my quick sketches, because they help me work on structure.

Anyway, hopefully some of that helps.

congratulations, that is a very nice piece.

This is a quick sketch I did of my friend's Fire/Fire Blaster, Sir Bronco.

I messed up when drawing it and forgot to put my lines on a different layer than my rough sketch and so that is why you can see all the blue outlines around him. Also, because of that mistake it took me longer than I was trying for to complete it.

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Hmmm... You know, I've been pondering an avatar change, and I think this would be perfect. >_> But do I have to re-size it or somethin? =O_o=

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I have deleted the one I posted.

AAAhhhhahhahhaaaaahhhhh....

Who let SirBronco out of his cage? The forums are DOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!