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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
the_druid_droid
As a robot, I approve this sentiment wholeheartedly!
Awesome! Any excuse to draw robots is good enough for me :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kyouhen
He seems to have a druid staff there, he a relative DD?
Also if you don't like working on backgrounds, have you tried colouring/shading them instead of just doing lines? I find that using shapes instead of just outlines in backgrounds tends to result in them looking a lot better and doesn't really take any more time. That and they tend to be more fun to work with.
He might be, actually!
Colors? Sh...apes? >n> That sounds like such a great idea, but... bluh, I don't know the first step really of doing that. More or less a shot in the dark. Any words of how to get going with that? It does sound much better than spending a long time making meaningless filler doodles, only in the background.
Day 89 - Nominal doodle skills
Tonight's picture goes without comment, aside from this one. And this one expressing my undying love for lil Bright Eyes.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Best way to get used to painting backgrounds is to try and imitate someone else's work. Preferably someone who knows what they're doing. Take a look at the backgrounds in some of the scenes for FiM, especially the outside ones since they tend to have less details. Note the shapes and lines they use to create the background, and how simple they tend to be.
Example:
That mountain is really easy to do. Just a generic mountain shape, a few lines to suggest rocks and crevices, and a bit of snow to suggest platforms. Working with rocks is actually really good practice, because they're nothing but simple shapes.
Another Example:
I went and did this scene myself not too long ago. Take a good look at those rocks. How many colours do you see? 3, maybe 4 if you want to include the small bits really far back. Just by using a lot of straight edges and 3 colours you can create a nice rocky cliff, and it really doesn't take long to make something like that.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
^Response to that very insightful piece of advice tomorrow.
Day 90 - Access Granted
Just banging out a mostly abstract piece. This is totally something, but it's easier to not explain, and try and show a fast sketch for its merits alone. By the sisters, I'm tired lately TT__TT
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Okay! So I haven't posted a super lot, but it's weird, I basically don't realize that I'm not posting because I've been drawing like a mad beast for the last week.
As several of y'all know, I went and started a pony askblog, and I've been spending a lot of my time recently practicing that particular style and form to get to a presentable level that I felt comfortable posting to an audience even larger than this one (that is to say, the entire internet).
I'm not really sure how I should call my progress and day count, because while I haven't posted anything, I've actually been spending multiple hours a day cranking out many many drawings and practice sketches, to the tune of a roughly three to four hundred percent increase in drawing activity in all seriousness.
What I'm going to do then, is just call it three day's of in thread work, and call myself even to balance out the fact I've made more drawings and in fact doing them daily, with the reality that through various reasons both legit and otherwise I haven't actually posted any of them.
Days 91, 92, 93 - Derpy Replies
Look, proof of my not failings!
The trick now is to find that sweet spot of being able to maintain my daily work here (without drowning the thread in Ponies, as that's not fair to everyone or my general practice in drawing Anything Else) while finding a steady or semisteady schedule to update the tumblr (while still maintaining a certain level of quality of work that above all *I* am satisfied with).
All I can say is: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Day 94 - Solitude
Not a pony drawing! Today's one of those days where an exact image sticks in my head, and I sincerely hope that I can put it to paper. This ended up being lots of little things and a big thing, namely color work. I kinda like it?
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
D'awww, the little Enderman wanted to watch the sunrise over the ocean.
...Wait, can those things even swim? How did he get out there? How's he getting back?! :smalleek:
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Capt. Ido Nos
Day 94 - Solitude
Not a pony drawing! Today's one of those days where an exact image sticks in my head, and I sincerely hope that I can put it to paper. This ended up being lots of little things and a big thing, namely color work. I kinda like it?
I have had art days like that. I find that going with the feeling and trying to express it is deeply enjoyable, especially when it turns out nicely!
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Huh, that's pretty good actually. Bonus for the motive. :smallamused:
(Endermen can't swim. They die in water and rain. But they can teleport.)
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
(replies pending)
Day 95 - [Testificate]
One of the best parts about minecraft is how easy it is to throw a layer of realism over all the blocks that permeate the world, so that even though my eyes are seeing blocks and cubes, my mind is seeing a world teeming with life and personality. Sometimes though, that is the personality of squidward.
So it turns out these monstrosities are pretty amusing to draw too! Not feeling color tonight though, otherwise that'd basically be just browns, and that would get boring all sorts of fast.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Day 96 - Centurian
Feeling a little sketchy today, so I decided to try my hand at Garrus! Everybody loves Garrus, right?
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Day 97 - (m)Air Mail
I freehanded this! In only about an hour from start to finish! I can't believe it! http://i.imgur.com/Dy4NS.png
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Such a happy pony! http://i.imgur.com/jaolo.jpg
Your Derpy blog looks really great!
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kyouhen
Best way to get used to painting backgrounds is to try and imitate someone else's work. Preferably someone who knows what they're doing. Take a look at the backgrounds in some of the scenes for FiM, especially the outside ones since they tend to have less details. Note the shapes and lines they use to create the background, and how simple they tend to be.
Example:
That mountain is really easy to do. Just a generic mountain shape, a few lines to suggest rocks and crevices, and a bit of snow to suggest platforms. Working with rocks is actually really good practice, because they're nothing but simple shapes.
Another Example:
I went and did this scene myself not too long ago. Take a good look at those rocks. How many colours do you see? 3, maybe 4 if you want to include the small bits really far back. Just by using a lot of straight edges and 3 colours you can create a nice rocky cliff, and it really doesn't take long to make something like that.
So: watch more pony, taking a good hard look at the backgrounds and see how they did it. Got it! I wonder if my backgrounds would get easier if I actually started using color... http://i.imgur.com/2lTPE.png
I do like those rocks in the second picture, I tend to make scenes in rocky areas, but I can't actually draw rocks. Kind of a lose lose for me, to date... http://i.imgur.com/0bxcP.png
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kyouhen
D'awww, the little Enderman wanted to watch the sunrise over the ocean.
...Wait, can those things even swim? How did he get out there? How's he getting back?! :smalleek:
He's not going anywhere for a while, but at least he can appreciate the view! And his little flower buddy. :3
Quote:
Originally Posted by
the_druid_droid
I have had art days like that. I find that going with the feeling and trying to express it is deeply enjoyable, especially when it turns out nicely!
I knowww, it's so great. Even more so when my feeling is not one of mopiness. I've made more sad and grey sullen drawings than I'd ever care to admit. Oh high school...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Domochevsky
Huh, that's pretty good actually. Bonus for the motive. :smallamused:
(Endermen can't swim. They die in water and rain. But they can teleport.)
:smallbiggrin:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kyouhen
Thanks, and thanks! It's been a pretty rewarding experiment so far! http://i.imgur.com/xJr4u.png I just wish I had even MORE time to dedicate to all this. Man, why do I have to have WORK that I have to be at?
(now that I'm caught on that, it's time for...)
Day 98 - THE GREEN BOLT
Time - 1.5 hours
Music - Deadmau5, SDP, Pendulum
Taking another crack at an actual human being. Of course, this means I'll just go for TF2 for character references instead. I think I've redrawn his right arm about ten times over. Also? Turns out flames are kinda hard to get right... I feel like this is one of those affairs where I'm going to hate this in the morning? We'll see what happens.
Hey, so turns out that Day 100 is coming up, and I need to do something big to celebrate it... hm......
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Cross-posted from Ponythread:
Day 99 - Four time's a charm
Time spent:t 3 hours
Spent a bit of a marathon session tonight cranking out as many of these as I could for a tumble. I have a series of these in mind, which will end up being six or seven panels in total. This is the result of the first three hours. Technically I guess I put out seven drawings if I could the base sketches, I never know how to count that and the re-inking. Either way, four panels done/touched on in three hours isn't so bad, I think?
I really would have preferred to get these all done in one night, but I'm still feeling under the weather (the reason for no post yesterday, the cold meds were not treating me well) and I would like to not only give a good night's sleep some justice, but also this update :)
Speaking of which, I may do something screwy with Day 100 proper, because I sincerely doubt that I can both finish this update, and push out a Day 100 that is worthy of Day 100. I may just skip to 101 and hop back when it's done, that would probably be for the best. Say what you like, I like to celebrate the milestone numbers!
Well, my nyquil's kicking in even as I write this, time for sleeps and more drawing tomorrow evening! Thanks for watching and tolerating, all.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
What are you using for inking the lines in your Derpies? I really like how they're coming out. I haven't figured out the best settings for the ink pen tool in ArtRage yet.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trazoi
What are you using for inking the lines in your Derpies? I really like how they're coming out. I haven't figured out the best settings for the ink pen tool in ArtRage yet.
Surprisingly enough, I'm just using the paintbrush tool in Photoshop Elements, currently just the regular hard edged brush with pressure turned on. I keep waffling on the brush size, though. For a while I was running 40px or larger, but now I'm tired of that and finding that 25 or 30 is suiting me better, though to be honest that depends a lot on the size and resolution of the canvas, which I keep forgetting >_>
To be honest, I haven't changed too far from the brush I've been using this whole time, what I have really been focusing on is improving on the brush strokes themselves. I try to visualize the line I need, and then try to put it down in one swift, broad motion. I end up using undo a lot, especially at the start, but I'm finding that I'm getting the lines I want the first time more and more.
Another small thing that's been fun to play with is the colors of the lines themselves. Black's nice, but greys, reds, and blues are fun too!
I am actually looking forward to picking up Photoshop proper (a thing long in the works) when I'll be able to have actual control over my brushes. Elements is nice, but doesn't have anywhere near the customization that I remember PS having :\
<<<General update!>>>
So that four hour draw-a-thon for day 99 ended up being a poor decision in the end. My previously manageable cold reared its ugly head and knocked me into a state completely unable to maintain creative output. TL;DR, I pushed myself too hard and got too sick to draw. Going to restart updates again tonight. Please to be not stealing my hat?
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
And we're back!
Day 101 - Human Interests
Time: 45 minutes
Music: Richard Cheese
Reference: <=
I have suddenly been hit with the desire to work on drawing people again, especially faces. Mass Effect's been on the brainpan lately, so I decided to draw my most favorite human squadmate, Jacob. I think all I've managed to do is affirm my suspisions that I still can't draw people. Oh well, I'll call this a warmup-slash-reminder.
Please, tear into me fellow artists. Hit me with your best shot.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Capt. Ido Nos
Please, tear into me fellow artists. Hit me with your best shot.
Eyes. Just bust open a page and do dozens of different eyes and eye styles. Eyes are really fun, often the most fun part of the entire face, and an empty circle is the most dull way to do them. Play with colour, cybernetics, highlights, and everything else; it's amazingly rewarding and will be useful for everything you do.
There's other stuff, but that's what I want you to do next.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Thanqol
Eyes. Just bust open a page and do dozens of different eyes and eye styles. Eyes are really fun, often the most fun part of the entire face, and an empty circle is the most dull way to do them. Play with colour, cybernetics, highlights, and everything else; it's amazingly rewarding and will be useful for everything you do.
There's other stuff, but that's what I want you to do next.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Day 102 - I see what you did there
Time: 50 Min
Tunes: Smilex3
Guide: <=
Doing some of the prescribed eye drawing practice. Doesn't seem so hard, in hindsight? I'm not really sure why this all was so hard to do on regular faces. I'm guessing with drawing two eyes and integrating them with the layout of the face is where I run into problems. That and the standard confidence problems?
Please note: this page was increasingly disconcerting to fill as I went along.
So! Any obvious problems? Inobvious problems? Poke my eyes, please :smallsmile:
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
And now for some application.
Day 103 - Boom,
Time: 45 minutes
Tunes:
So drawing super realistic eyes all day all the time for every drawing isn't going to work out, since I'm not really drawing super realistic things all day all the time. Obviously, being able to do this if I wanted to is a good thing, but somewhere in the middle is where I need to also figure out, that is, how I would draw normally when I'm having fun. So, might as well start with my own mug. I feel like there are a lot of inherent flaws going on here, but I mostly was focusing on the eyes tonight. Interesting exercise?
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Wow, okay. I don't even know how I let five days go past without an update. I seriously wasn't even aware of the time.
Day 104 - The state of things
Time for a quick step back for reflection and a brief announcement, I guess it's only fair to everyone. This drawing exercise has been great. I've seen my motivation grow tremendously, my confidence has shot up (not to "will show everyone" levels, but we're working on that), and additional things my brain won't allow me to process into words. However, it pains me to say that these past few weeks have been tough to get proper, full drawings out with my 100% effort for hours and hours of dedicated time. My job has been pretty stressful, and my time has been too short to fully make my time. This month is only going to get worse, as I will literally be out of town for more than half the month, for various reasons, spaced out evenly throughout March. It will legitimately be impossible for me to post in the usual manner for very long stretches of time for this month, and in light of this, I am instituting emergency measures: SKETCH MONTH.
SKETCH MONTH will proceed from this moment until I have fully recovered from work and my travels, hopefully the final week of march should everything go according to plan, Lord willing. SKETCH MONTH requires that any and all doodles, no matter how insignificant, will be catalogued by myself via scanner, tablet, or phone and posted in single batches upon my return from my various trips. Should I be in town, I have to at least spend ten minutes just putting some scribble to paper and post it. The idea here will not be elaborate or detailed pieces, but attempting just to get some shapes down, keep my hand and fingers loose, work on speed, and all and all blow off some steam. I cannot afford the time I feel like this needs, but I vow that I will at least dedicate some time, instead of ignore it completely for 30 days. This will be a messy month, but at least it will be here. I'll say when I'll be out of town and when I've returned.
TL;DR SKETCH MONTH, Ido posts lots of doodles due to attempted dedication in light of minimum time.
PS: Thanks everyone, posters and lurkers alike to my humble little thread. Love you all, you are the greatest. <3
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
As far as I've always been concerned, it should be sketch month every month. Scale up when you've got the time and do a detailed drawing, scale down to quick and dirty sketches when you're busy and on fire. Good luck with it.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Thanqol
As far as I've always been concerned, it should be sketch month every month. Scale up when you've got the time and do a detailed drawing, scale down to quick and dirty sketches when you're busy and on fire. Good luck with it.
Fair enough! I suppose I could have called this DOODLE MONTH instead to better get the feel for what I meant. With little quick sketches, I don't often feel like I'm doing right by them, even if I am. I just don't see the thought, love, and care getting poured into something that I've spent so little time on. It makes me feel careless and lazy to just slop something down and call it a day.
I'm not good enough to do something quickly, though I feel myself getting there. There will come a day when I can throw down half a dozen derpys in an hour and be pleased with them, but until then I will do what I can. A big part of this month will be to take advantage of the time I have, and to learn speed, as well as control. And to get over my neurosis over posting doodles.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Day 105 - Leap Day Lurking
This one was interesting to feel out. For just throwing shapes and scribbles, I the proportions didn't come out that poorly. The pose feels alright to me, too?
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Capt. Ido Nos
Day 105 - Leap Day Lurking
This one was interesting to feel out. For just throwing shapes and scribbles, I the proportions didn't come out that poorly. The pose feels alright to me, too?
Hmm, only thing I'd note is that he seems angular. Was that intentional?
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
the_druid_droid
Hmm, only thing I'd note is that he seems angular. Was that intentional?
Angular in which way? The answer is probably no, but I just want to make sure.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Day 106 - Mad Stunts
SKETCH MONTH continues with another look into the inner workings of my mind.
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
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Re: Capt. Ido learns to steal thread ideas (and also draw)!
Whelp, time to get a good look at that hat again, i suppose. :|