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Cthu1hu
Level 75
Collector of Souls
Joined: 8/23/2020
Threads: 2
Posts: 94
Posted: 6/1/2022 at 10:35 AM
Post #51
I love it thank you
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,854
Posted: 7/4/2022 at 5:39 PM
Post #52
5/7/22
Commission - For Unstaeble
Look at that lighting! That background! Those colours (even though I cheated a bit with overlay)! Yesssss, I am quite proud of this piece, especially considering it's a full scene and I typically don't draw full scenes - too much stress. The shading of the clothes, while they may not be entirely accurate, look fairly good and my attempt at highlights went very well. And dang!! Look at those fairy wings!! I am very happy :D
As for improvements, colour balance continues to remain a challenge, and so do pose and anatomy as well. But I think I am getting better!
Happy Anniversary to these two~
Edited By Aphelion on 8/26/2024 at 2:24 PM.
Vampory
Level 75
The Carver
Joined: 3/31/2017
Threads: 47
Posts: 2,992
Posted: 7/4/2022 at 7:01 PM
Post #53
THEY'RE LOVELY AND GORGEOUS AND I LOVE THEM VERY MANY!!! I absolutely adore the way you draw Kallistos <3 <3
And I want to eat your style.
I'm particularly staring at the one purple flower in the foreground. Why? I don't know it's just Good.
As soon as Uns sent it to me I knew it had to be your art--
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,854
Posted: 7/5/2022 at 1:33 AM
Post #54
Omgggg I'm so happy you like it <333
Thank you for the kind words!
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,854
Posted: 8/31/2022 at 9:53 AM
Post #55
31/8/2022
Commission - For Raidenei
[Image Lost, rip :(]
Sylesti: Raiden Ei
Woooo! Finally managed to get back to a commission after a super long hiatus. Looks more like a fox than a ryori, but I'll take it. Still haven't figured out composition yet but we'll get there.
Hope you like it, Raidenei :>
Edited By Aphelion on 8/26/2024 at 2:25 PM.
Eid0lon
Level 75
The Kind-Hearted
Joined: 10/18/2019
Threads: 54
Posts: 4,424
Posted: 8/31/2022 at 11:11 AM
Post #56
OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT
I mean I like foxes so I'm not complaining and the detail is soooo amazing! Thank you so much!
Would I have permission to put it on my about me with credits?
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,854
Posted: 8/31/2022 at 2:53 PM
Post #57
Feel free to! Glad you like it!
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,854
Posted: 10/30/2022 at 3:41 PM
Post #58
2022 Fall Festival - Pumpkin Carving (Digital) - 30/10/2022
My submission
>> Static Image <<
Happy All Hallow's Eve to everyone! Also happy halloweekend, as a friend put it so succinctly!
I've done it! I've actually animated something smoothly instead of doing the choppy animation like last year - definitely an improvement in my book. I'm not as satisfied with this piece as I was with last year's because of some composition, colouring, and animating issues but I am still very proud of this!
I can't believe I learnt how to use an animating software specifically for this project lol. Although evidently I wasn't very good at it, as originally I intended to use warp meshes to move the skeleton limbs but I couldn't flip those kinds of animations properly. Rotation was the only substitute I could find which is why some of the paws crisscross instead of staying together.
-----
Brainstorming Sketches
[Image Lost, rip :(]
I didn't have multiple concept sketches this time - by the time I started sketching, I was already sure of the general final product I wanted to achieve, although that's not to say I didn't have other ideas. My other idea was a dragon guarding some wizard's worktable full of books and candles and herbs and potions and what have you. I thought about it for a while and then realised a) I can't draw dragons, then b) I really do like drawing skulls so here we are! (I'm not that good at skeletons either but I am persistent, and that persistence resulted in some dubious anatomy.)
The things that gave me most trouble during the sketching process was composition. Most of it was alright, just there were some blank spaces that felt strangely empty without anything there, such as the areas above the skeleton's heads and the space in the triangle formed by their limbs. I ended up experimenting a bit, which resulted in three options: ghostly cat ears as shown in the image above, and the two floating crown designs as follows:
The cat ears ultimately felt weird and I couldn't think of a way to work the lighting (they were supposed to be transluscent) so I scrapped that. Between the two crowns, I eventually dropped the smoother one because even though it matched the scrollwork designs of the frame, it was too flat for lack of a better word and didn't fill up the empty space in front of the moon as the sharp crowns did.
As for the triangle bit I tried putting a pumpkin in at first, but then realised pumpkins weren't very triangle-y, which is how it got relegated down to be the connecting centerpiece of the scrollwork/roses frame. I then tried random small circles (mini moons?) but those didn't work out either. In the end I must thank my good friend Echosing who suggested a moth, which now remains in the final work.
After that I fixed some minor issues like the curves of the spines, as well as the designs of the scrollwork to ensure none of the 'leaves' were too thin or weirdly placed, and moved on to lineart.
-----
Process GIF
I'm not sure why the vines are weirdly coloured in the gif but everything else looks alright. I did end up adding a bit of random filler rosebushes in the background because it started to look empty without the flames coming out of the ribcages in the original sketch. All in all, pretty cool!
Edited By Aphelion on 8/26/2024 at 2:29 PM.
Moderation Team
Level 9001
Protector of the Forums
Site Moderator
Posted: 8/26/2024 at 11:13 AM
Post #59
This thread has been unlocked.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,854
Posted: 8/26/2024 at 4:35 PM
Post #60
Draw the Avatar Above You! - 25/8/24
For Echosing
Well, well, well... It's been a while, hasn't it! Breaking my hiatus status with a bang this time, tryharding on a thread that's been dead for 5 months.
This one's quite exciting. I haven't done a fully rendered piece in a while, so this was definitely fun to do, especially when I'd been suffering from lack of motivation for a while. I'm very proud of how this came out, and despite some things that can be improved upon, I'm gonna go ahead and say that yes, this is good. The recipient liked it as well, so that's even better :)
--
Process
I made an effort to use composition rules this time. In the thumbnail sketch I drew the grid of thirds, and tried to centre a focal point (the eye) on one of the intersections, and then tried to form the rest of the body into a triangular shape. In the colour blocking stage, I tried my best to maintain these choices through the use of colour and value while still attempting to adhere to the reference colours. It looks... fine, though without a doubt the skin is far too dark and melds with the background, which I tried to fix in the actual piece somewhat successfully.
After blocking in the colours, I felt that there was still a lot of empty space in the background, something I have always struggled with. As a result I decided to add some magic paint-smoke streaming from the character's brush as a nod to the reference image's background with golden clouds. This bit was hard because I couldn't figure out how to place the smoke properly in a way that looked nice and didn't clash with the rest of the composition.
I tried several designs, and liked the first one best. However, I didn't quite like the look of yellow/orange against the rest of the painting, although now in retrospect I think it looks alright as well. Anyway, at the time I then decided to try rainbow smoke since the reference image's brush has rainbow paint on it, and that looked a lot better.
Initially I was going to go with the simple curve in the 4th thumbnail below but I really did like the shape of the smoke in the 1st, so I decided to combine them. The 5th thumbnail is me giving it a try but that definitely did not work out as well. Regardless, I moved forward to working on the actual piece and trusted future me to deal with it. (Future me did deal with it, and did a fair job although they didn't make the shape completely right which is why it looks a bit wonky in the final.)
Now to the actual piece!
I've always felt that my lineart was very thick in the past, which interfered with the colours of the rest of the piece, even when I tried to colour it, so this time I tried to use thinner lineart. As I described it looking at my lineart WIP, "fighting my instinct to do thick lineart and losing". Thankfully the canvas was larger this time and I was using a smaller brush, so even if I was pressing as hard as I used to, when I zoomed out it still looked much better than before.
Colouring is now so much easier because Krita is apparently cracked at this art app game. It has a built in enclose and fill tool! (Among other very helpful tools.) I don't have to outline areas and then fill for flat colours, because the program will do it for me. Love it. Why didn't I switch to Krita earlier. (Also it has excellent pressure sensitivity and sensitivity curves that I can actually adjust. Amazing stuff.) All I had to do was fill in some missed corners or erase between sharp angles, and flat colours were done, just like that.
When it came to rendering I tried to be more confident this time. I was never good at clothing folds and I still am not, but I had many references up and tried not to stress out too hard about it. The trick seems to be in simplicity and shapes; in the past I'd be overzealous with my folds, putting them everywhere, and then using colours that had way too small of a contrast to really stand out as cast shadows. It's definitely not perfect, and it's messy, but I actually like it this way. There are hard edges and forms that I can point to.
I've been using a different way of colouring hair recently and it worked for this. Hair in some of my older pieces actually look kind of similar in effect, though not execution, so one could say it's a natural progression toward this point.
The lighting on the skin is definitely something I can improve on. I had to redo it completely because I was trying to shade something that was already dark, making it merge even more into the background. On my second attempt I decided on applying highlights instead of shadows, and as of the final piece I think it's acceptable, though the shapes could use some work. In the future I'll definitely be more careful with colour selection. Part of why the lighting is weird is because the flat colour itself already merges with the background, making it hard either way.
All the effects were very fun to do! I love rendering gold and I got to do that, and then there was the rainbow cloud and shattered light effect around the brush - the latter I had to look up a tutorial for, but the end result was good. The iridescent effect on the wings was a huge challenge. I've had difficulties with iridescence in the past, with several examples in this thread alone, but again I tried to be more confident, trying to do more with less, and stick to simplicity without giving myself the time to overthink it. It looks great, I think. And the cool smokey trail behind the feathers too, that was fun.
A thing I tried out this time was allowing myself more space than the actual canvas to draw. In the process gif it's apparent with the white frame around everything, and extra space the dark background takes up that doesn't make it into the final. Most notably the cloud at the end of the smoke ends fully instead of being cut off. This turned out to be a good decision as it allowed me more space at the edges and flexibility for cropping when I was saving the final piece, so I think I'll continue doing that in the future. There is the downside of messing up the initial composition, but eh, with a final piece like that, can't really complain.
Compression got to the gif so it's a bit crunchy :(
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