It's remarkable how expressive tentacles can be.
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It's remarkable how expressive tentacles can be.
The expressions are turning out very... expressive. I'm surprised at how much you can convey with just the tentacles.
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Day 166:
Just more stuff.Time: an hour and a half, maybe two
Music: Odd combo of Pony, Mumble, and video game ambiant
This is good, but it makes me feel like you should start moving towards inking, heavier/more distinct outlines, or some style/equipment shakeup because you're reaching the range of what your pencils can distinctively convey. I'd actually really like to see you take what you've learned to a tablet.
Pencil singular. I suppose I could get an actual sketching set, rather than the generic 5mm mechanical one I'm using now.
I've thought about buying a tablet. The transition to not being able to see what I'm doing on the interface itself has me a bit afeared though; it will take some getting used to. Plus I don't think I'd be able to get one until mid-January anyways, so it looks like I'm sticking with graphite for the immediate future.
Or pens... hmmmm. Something to look into maybe.
Oh god, you've been working all this time on a single mechanical pencil?
Take my word, go out and buy a set ranging from 3H to 6B. It'll set you back $10, tops. A good set of pencils will add +2 to your art score straight up.
Not gonna lie. The first thing you draw on the tablet is gonna look like this.Quote:
I've thought about buying a tablet. The transition to not being able to see what I'm doing on the interface itself has me a bit afeared though; it will take some getting used to. Plus I don't think I'd be able to get one until mid-January anyways, so it looks like I'm sticking with graphite for the immediate future.
Or pens... hmmmm. Something to look into maybe.
Sooner or later the transition will click and you'll never, ever, ever want to go back.
Hence why my shadows were sort of an all or nothing thing when I first tried them. Yeah, I'll go pick up some masterwork tools if I can find an art store during my vacationing. I'll do some research on a magic pen and board when I get home.
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Day 167:
I have to say I'm really liking these Warmachine books for art to try and copy. They seem to do a good job with the lighting and shadows, even if the occasional person still suffers from Massive Pauldron Syndrome.Time: 1h15m
Music: Pony
It's almost making me want to actually play the game, if I had the time or money to wargame.
Darn, I was considering suggesting this yesterday but got distracted and then Thanqol stole my thunder!
Yeah, I would agree with the suggestion to upgrade. Consider getting at least one pen and maybe some tracing paper and then transferring a drawing over in pen. You'll discover that sometimes something that works in pencil needs tweaks when the lines become more definite, or it looks subtly off. It's a good lesson to learn early.
So many faces. So many.
Still five left to go.
Thrilled :smallbiggrin:.
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Day 168:
More Starswirl, not as good as the last, but it is Monday.Time: 45 minutes.
Music: Pony
Leg position looks awkward. Use this:
Actually applies incredibly accurately to MLP movements.
Yeah, I had a bunch of running horse pictures for reference. It didn't seem to help, though it does look better than when he was running like a human. It's one of those times I wished I had the ability to digitally adjust it instead of redrawing the legs over and over.
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Day 169:
Despite basically living out of a suitcase for the last eight months, it's still somehow difficult to pack. Took half the evening just for one little piece of luggage. :smallannoyed: So, I grabbed my pen, and drew stuff, without learning how I should. It will come back to bite me I'm sure.Time: Less than an hour
Music: Pony
It's definitely interesting. Since I'm just using my usual fine ballpoint, I have to hold it as if I were writing, since it doesn't work at more than a small angle. Not being able to erase wasn't actually as disconcerting as I thought it would be, possibly since I always prefer pen for writing when I can. It also means everyone gets to see all the little lines I do quite plainly. The whole thing felt very much more "cartoony" than pencil (though I know it is possible to achieve similar effects with ink).
Another great advantage is that the high contrast made taking a picture a breeze, compared to the usual 5-10 shots I need for a pencil drawing (the camera on my phone has difficulty with 2D stuff apparently). I can't wait to get home so I can actually scan.
Out of curiosity, how do you usually hold your pencil while drawing? Do you typically shade with the side of it? That will also change if you ever decide to switch to digital, just so you know.
The cartoony look probably has something to do with the fact that most of the drawings are line-only. For a lot of reasons (time constraints, reproducibility, tool limitations, etc.) cartoons usually rely heavily on line to convey ideas, and don't have the sort of subtle shading you would see in, say, a still-life. In real life by contrast, we actually piece together a lot of information about the objects we see through value changes, which is why something carefully shaded/colored tends to look more 'realistic'.
I return after one of my usual chronic absences. End of the year blues, general tomfoolery, and triflingness.
This is very good, but I must play the part of the parrot. You really should get darker pencils to make your dark parts darker. Ink is nice, but lacks those subtle hues, but that's just all opinion.
C-15 or, "Trying to Color a Scene in SAI".
Spoiler
Trying to color that request Scoot werewolf type picture I posted three weeks ago,
It looks like something now I guess, but what, that is the question.
I picture of blue, yellow and orange/red, I had a disastrous run in with a primarily red picture. It was funny. I need to work with red.
The background is less ambitious then the sketch, now I feel tempted to go back and trying to color the old one.
A strange mixture of color and using the pen tool for some of the lines. Perhaps this isn't for the best.
http://i.imgur.com/ae8km.jpg
Scene is looking pretty good, generally speaking. If I recall, in the original sketch Scoots was very de-emphasised in comparison. Eye region looks a bit strange, maybe, though. Probably just an unavoidable consequence of the angle.
So, yeah, I was musing a while back on how I hadn't ever drawn a canon pony.
More recently, I went all overboard mentally speaking,discussingmaking up stuff about the Mushroom Ponies for Dirtytabs amusement in Ponythread.
And then Anarion starts making with the Apple-Ponies are Background Ponies jokes.
So I figure, preliminary plan is, finish the ABC meme. Seriously, I don't care how much I've stalled on V for Violent, I've only got 5 faces left to do. After that though, I'm going to consider doing an Applejack in the land of the Mushroom Ponies type picture, just because. The idea I have in mind is complex, clever and involves an intricate background as well as several ponies at least one of which has to look a certain way and may even require some basic linework at some stage.
So it'll almost certainly never get anywhere. Still, that's the plan, for now.
Hope the blues are clearing up; I know how those feel and it isn't great.
I think the picture's got legs, but something seems missing? One thing I would suggest is to add in some more brush strokes to define Scoot's fur. It looks good around the arms and cheek fuzz, but some areas without the same texture look flat by comparison.Quote:
C-15 or, "Trying to Color a Scene in SAI".
Spoiler
Trying to color that request Scoot werewolf type picture I posted three weeks ago,
It looks like something now I guess, but what, that is the question.
I picture of blue, yellow and orange/red, I had a disastrous run in with a primarily red picture. It was funny. I need to work with red.
The background is less ambitious then the sketch, now I feel tempted to go back and trying to color the old one.
A strange mixture of color and using the pen tool for some of the lines. Perhaps this isn't for the best.
http://i.imgur.com/ae8km.jpg
This sounds like it will be full of "why did I want to do this again" moments. It also sounds like an excellent learning experience. As such, I encourage you to tackle it full-bore!
And I totally want to see your version of AJ, so this isn't a selfish request at all, noooo...
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Anyway, here's my work for today - a Pinkie Pie. Goal on this one was to try and get some more motion in the pose and set out toward shaded ponies a bit. I think it's largely successful, although still very much the beginning phase of something hopefully larger.
Pencil drawing I do mostly with a slightly relaxed normal grip, but about halfway up, so it forms an angle of roughly 30 degrees with the paper.
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Day 170:
So Rome is pretty cool (both senses of the word). Travel and sightseeing also means I ended up drawing only during the half hour before midnight. I started the Pantheon in pencil, tried lining it it pen, and ran out of time, so it's kind of crap. This situation is unlikely to improve for the remainder of my vacation (I have to remember to try and find some pencils too). My long lines are wavy as well, and the whole picture kind of ran off the edge of my page. :smallsigh:Time: 25 minutes
Music: None
Took an artistic detour for the night, due to remembering I'd said I'd make art to represent my Eidolon in the pathfinder game that starts tomorrow.
Spoilerhttp://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...pe-d5nz4at.png
It's basically a mildly nightmarish looking day-glow muppet. Because why not? I'm playing a Halfling summoner with quite low wisdom. I've named him Peck, because he is a stupid peck.
No name for Eidolon yet. Probably going to be something over the top, using some inspiration from the concept of the Servants in Fate, having the Eidolon claim to be some kind grand beast of legend or something.
Maybe give it Create Food and Water as an SLA?
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Day 171:
After seeing the ancient Roman graffiti on the walls of the Colliseum, I felt a little upstaged. So I drew a murmillo.Time: ~45 minutes
Music: None
The pose came out a little less aggressive than I was intending too.
I am so close to done, on this.
Of course, by this point and so many faces in, I'm nearly burnt out on trying to come up with novel expressions.
Just two left to do.
xoxoxoxoxo
How long roughly does it take you to do one?
This strip raises so many questions. What do the gloves do? Why are they fantastic? Why are they only "gloves"? Who is the shadowy figure? Pretty sure you could come up with something (alternatively, you could draw a fanfic or something as a comic if you are looking for story).
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Day 172:
A mimic. Are they ever any other shape besides chests?Time: Under an hour.
Music: None
Some as little as half an hour. Some...more. Mostly the difficulty is concieving of the expression in the first place, which wasn't too hard for the first half or so, but with so many done, it gets harder not to repeat yourself too much. I redrew Violence entirely differently at least twice before the third and final version there.
The only other problem is keeping motivated over such a time period when you are so far out of the habit of actually doing stuff.
Poni poni poni
Scribbles
Yes, I know of the eye. Can't think of any good way to fix it though... This is my least favorite pony angle.
Scoot was de-emphassised when I was trying to color it more with a night/twilight red type scheme (don't ask!), I realized Scoot's colors came out better on blue.
:smallsigh:
More AJ is always a good thing. This is a fact.
Mostly it's of The-year-started-out-so-awesome!-Where-did-I-go-wrong?! variety.
One of the things is that I realized had went wrong was that I should have drawn more. Nothing to do but prepare for the next year I guess.
I tried adding more textures and I also tweaked the shadow to be more consistent.
These are very lively! Especially the dancing and drawing ones.:smallbiggrin:
But for some strange reason, I don't fully comprehend the top left two though... Is she bucking the Pegasus pony off of her or is the Pegasus pony throwing the earth pony?
As a side note, I've been trying to get some quick lively scribbles in daily for practice, but I always seem to fall short sometime after five or so days. Consistent practice escapes me.
If it's just something that you just drew are you going to finish the story? I really want to know who's gloves those are.
C-16, or "Yellow Moon"
Spoiler
Added some shading and fur texturing to the head. Made the shadow more consistent throughout.
Now I can't help but think Scoot would be better if she were pushed to the right a bit more.
OH WELL.
Is the shading area better then the last? Worst?
http://i.imgur.com/nC6qv.jpg
Best thing to do about that one is move forward, I think. Good luck on drawing in '13!
Thanks! I've been doing lots of gesture drawing lately and trying to build up my human anatomy bit by bit. The spillover has been improved efficiency at decomposing ponies into forms, and combining those into more action-y poses. It's actually a bit easier than with humans because their simplified lines are really easy to tie together into motion curves.Quote:
These are very lively! Especially the dancing and drawing ones.:smallbiggrin:
But for some strange reason, I don't fully comprehend the top left two though... Is she bucking the Pegasus pony off of her or is the Pegasus pony throwing the earth pony?
Also, in regard to the pegasus question, that's actually an accident more than anything. The two were originally drawn on separate corners of the layer and were completely unrelated, but to make more room for later drawings I shifted the pegasus over, so it looks like there's some interaction there, although it wasn't by design :smallwink:
I really recommend gesture drawing for this. You learn a ton from it, and you can get a drawing per minute, or even more once you get confident. I'm currently on a schedule that's shooting for about 400 poses per week, not counting pony drawings, etc. and that only takes an hour each night or so. In connection with that, I really have to recommend the conclusions of this video.Quote:
As a side note, I've been trying to get some quick lively scribbles in daily for practice, but I always seem to fall short sometime after five or so days. Consistent practice escapes me.
EDIT: If you are interested in good tools for the gesture stuff, you can look here and here for sites with images that you can set on a timer to force you to stick with a schedule.
I think the fur looks better overall. I also pinpointed what struck me as odd about the face: since she's in wolf-transition, I would expect Scoots to have a longer/more pointed snout, and to have a visible canine-type nose. Without that, her face looks a little off, at least to my eyes. Keep up the good work though; I'm confident you can pull it off!Quote:
C-16, or "Yellow Moon"
Spoiler
Added some shading and fur texturing to the head. Made the shadow more consistent throughout.
Now I can't help but think Scoot would be better if she were pushed to the right a bit more.
OH WELL.
Is the shading area better then the last? Worst?
http://i.imgur.com/nC6qv.jpg
Hmm. It does seem to pop a little more, or something.
On reflection, I think I've figured out one of the things that is weird about the eye. (Other than the strong linework, which is fine but does stand out quite a bit).
I think it might simply be too far round the head. I wonder if it might feel different if the eye was further forward, closer to the other eye. Especially if she's mid-transformation, it might make sense. (I often find, personally, that I've done the eyes a little too small if I'm not paying attention as well, though with it closed, that's less of an obvious thing to check.)
Bookmarked. I should really do more of this stuff.
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Day 173:
Started out as a circle and a square. Ended up trying to draw a wood pattern, which I think worked well but doesn't match the small rest of the image. The original was also quite small, so when its blown up by the computer like this you see a lot of unwanted detail.Time: 30 minutes
Music: Pony
Also, hot damn are some of these renaissance guys good. If you ever get the chance to come to Rome and see the frescoes and stuff, I highly, highly recommend it.
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Day 174:
Tried out one of those gesture links above, giving myself an ample minute and a half for each.Time: 30 minutes
Music: People talking on Mumble
Still looking around for those pencils (not actively), but haven't found any stores selling such things while walking around. Might actually have to look one up.
I'll also be without much internet for the next week and a bit, so we'll see how much my uploading is interrupted (you guys get a break! :smallbiggrin:).