zeb|art

jake

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helloo i am zebraiken and this is my art thread.

the plan is that i have a new piece or at least make some significant progress on something at least once every two days - i'd really like to get seriously good at making art since i'm having a lot of fun doing it, so i hope forcing myself to keep rather frequent updates will keep me in the business of working on my arting abilities.

i don't have a lot of experience with art in general; i took an art class in 8th grade and attempted to make some monstrosities of fakemon sprites for a pokemon hack i was making five or six years ago (link, don't click if you value your eyes), but otherwise i've never touched it. i don't remember what exactly inspired me to jump into drawing but i felt the urge to make something awesome, and ium was a big help and inspiration to getting me started and hooked me up with some basic techniques. i draw mostly with a tablet, and i use paint tool sai for my arting purposes. i'd like to branch out into different forms of art and using different materials as i (hopefully) improve upon my current set of skills, so any and all advice is welcome!!

p.s. on all of my sketches that i used puush to link, my cursor is going to be in the top left corner and i'm too lazy to do anything about that so sorry :(

basically, i started with this



then it became this



then it became this (today)



and hopefully i'll keep getting better!!

art by date, for progress. bolded full colored pieces of art, noted sketches that i'd like to finish someday. these are the only significant attempts at art that i have made.​
03/23/13 | sharpedo / sketch
03/25/13 | victreebel sketch
04/01/13 | exeggutor / sketch (ps this is really bad)​
04/03/13 | magnemite sketch
07/25/13 | pikachu + togekiss
08/02/13 | ambipom lineart
09/17/13 | weird color-y sketch-y amoonguss
10/11/13 | cubone lineart
11/17/13 | charizard logo-esque thing (top of this thread)​
03/04/14 | numel / lineart / sketch
03/06/14 | exeggutor / lineart / ...sketch
03/12/14 | clefable
04/18/14 | pikachu
05/26/14 | poliwag
05/27/14 | mareep
05/29/14 | teddiursa
05/30/14 | fennekin
06/26/14 | xatu
07/08/14 | hippopotas sketch / coloring
07/08/14 | feraligatr sketch
07/08/14 | tauros / lineart / sketch
07/08/14 | nidoking sketch
07/08/14 | landorus sketch
07/08/14 | combusken / lineart / sketch
07/12/14 | cacturne
10/16/14 | metagross
 
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jake

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i made a clefable. i don't really like the shading especially on the hand but i've tried to make it better over the last few days and just can't so eh moving onto a new project
 

Oglemi

Borf
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I would like one: Simisear

also v. cute stuff zeb :>

also it reminds me a lot of KG's art, are you doing the art in Word or actually using a tablet or something???
 

jake

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your art is simple, but it has a detailed and unique flare to it. keep it up!
thank you agous, that's very kind :)

I would like one: Simisear

also v. cute stuff zeb :>

also it reminds me a lot of KG's art, are you doing the art in Word or actually using a tablet or something???
mmkk, sures & thanks!! and nope i'm doing it entirely in paint tool sai, using a tablet. i just try to get really mechanical, clean lineart (plus i'm doing some pretty straightforward poses while i'm practicing) so i could see that giving a similar impression.

the project in the screenshot will be done in the next few days if i can get the goddamn legs right which i really can't seem to do so i'll tinker around with it and maybe start on a new one in the meantime.

edit: good tool names yn
 

jake

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i got a little busy, also a bit tired of working on drawing because i kept messing up on the pieces i wanted to make, so i drew a pikachu to get something nice and easy done. i just figured out how to mess with some of the line weights / pressures so some are a little exaggerated (still learning how to work my tools ;-;). i also was aiming to do this much more quickly than one of my usual pieces; it wasn't really fast (still a few hours), but i did quite a bit faster than normal for something that size which is good. n_n
 

jake

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i haven't posted in a little while but i wanted to work on making art pieces more efficiently since they were taking buttlong to do and it got sort of frustrating. so i made a doodle and tried to color it differently than i normally do, and it turned out o_k. i don't like how easy it is to see my strokes or the bg as a whole, but this was also my first time trying to do all of the coloring on one layer / using a bunch of tools that were new to me. i'd like to start churning out art more frequently but yeah, i kinda liked this one. :)

5/26 - 45 min
 
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jake

underdog of the year
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started this late yesterday, finished today. i'm not fond of the angles of the feet but it's not too bad, i think. trying to be a little less conscious of "perfection" with lineart, and it's really helping me produce stuff more quickly (even though i'm still really fckn slow considering the simplicity of the piece).

hopefully i can continue this pace of making at least one new piece a day! i want to improve a lot, haha

5/27 - ~1h30, took a bit longer because my computer restarted in the middle of refining
 

Andrew

beep boop
is a Top Artist Alumnus


i haven't posted in a little while but i wanted to work on making art pieces more efficiently since they were taking buttlong to do and it got sort of frustrating. so i made a doodle and tried to color it differently than i normally do, and it turned out o_k. i don't like how easy it is to see my strokes or the bg as a whole, but this was also my first time trying to do all of the coloring on one layer / using a bunch of tools that were new to me. i'd like to start churning out art more frequently but yeah, i kinda liked this one. :)

5/26 - 45 min
i like the visible lines and strokes, gives it personality n_n
 

jake

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ty andrew :> i hope to be able to make more interesting backgrounds in the future!

in the meantime, trying to pump out at least one drawing every day in an effort to improve (along with user skylight!). i was busy until late last night, so here's one for yesterday.



i spent a long time screwing around with the outline on this guy since i wasn't super fond of my sketch and the position it'd be in. still not very fond of the positioning of the feet but i like it more than before. i'm also getting a little more comfortable with my shading (i especially like the mouth here), so i hope i can keep improving with that. i'll probably venture out of "adorable" pokemon sometime in the near future too :>

hopefully expect another drawing l8r today

"5/28" - 1h45 ("way too long")
 
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jake

underdog of the year
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this is still "later today", right??



i really liked the lineart for this one! experimented with some stylistic stuff + spent a long time trying to perfect the lineart and i'm pretty proud of how it turned out, honestly. it's getting easier for me to make a pose work altogether and i'm more comfortable with experimenting, which is super nice. took probably ~4 hours even for such a small piece since i'm a slow worker :(

edit: fixed for quality

5/29 - 4h
 

jake

underdog of the year
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not the best i've made, but i did this in about three hours tonight and was trying for a more dynamic position than what i'm used to. i like how i did the shading on the wings kinda, as well as both sets of eyes. additionally, i made a lazy bg for this (here) and have my original sketch (here). i don't like how the left wing doesn't feel proportional, and i think that xatu's "vest" thing or w/e looks awkward the way i drew it.

expect more posted shortly, i've done a bunch of sketches and other work that ive just been too lazy to post
 
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Lemonade

WOOPAGGING
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Heyo, cool piece. I really like the pose.

About the left wing, you mean left from the viewer's perspective right? Now I'm not 100% positive, but I messed around with the pose IRL in a mirror and I think the place of attachment to the body should be a bit lower. The tops of the wings (the flat part) form a line, and if you move it down the attachment points don't meet. Also, the attachment point of the left wing has an extra thick line that makes it look bigger than the right-side counterpart, but the left should be slightly smaller.

As for the vest, I'm not entirely sure how it goes since there is not a lot of art where Xatu has his wings up, but it looks to me like it's actually more of a form fitting thing than an actual piece of clothes. EX: http://www.smogon.com/forums/attachments/xatu-gif.12838/ Note it isn't loose. Also, it looks to me like yours is more straight downward, rather than curving around the face thing on Xatu's chest.
 

Andrew

beep boop
is a Top Artist Alumnus
I actually think the perspective on the wings is spot on, or at least as close as you can get on an angled pose. I'm not the best at perspective since I was recently really struggling with some aspects on a piece, but it looks pretty natural to me. His right wing is slightly smaller than the left, which shows that it is farther away and that his left wing is closer to the viewer. The only thing that I see that might help this illusion more is changing the very top notch on his right wing to curve straight, like the bottom 2 notches. as it currently is it kind of curves back. this might help, idk, but overall i really like it :)
 

jake

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sorry for the late responses :[ i've been pretty busy as of late

Heyo, cool piece. I really like the pose.

About the left wing, you mean left from the viewer's perspective right? Now I'm not 100% positive, but I messed around with the pose IRL in a mirror and I think the place of attachment to the body should be a bit lower. The tops of the wings (the flat part) form a line, and if you move it down the attachment points don't meet. Also, the attachment point of the left wing has an extra thick line that makes it look bigger than the right-side counterpart, but the left should be slightly smaller.

As for the vest, I'm not entirely sure how it goes since there is not a lot of art where Xatu has his wings up, but it looks to me like it's actually more of a form fitting thing than an actual piece of clothes. EX: http://www.smogon.com/forums/attachments/xatu-gif.12838/ Note it isn't loose. Also, it looks to me like yours is more straight downward, rather than curving around the face thing on Xatu's chest.
thank you! i think the thicker line was just neglect on my part and not purposeful whatsoever, and i agree with you that the place of attachment should be a bit lower. i don't think i'll fix it on this particular piece because i was lazy when making it w/ my layers and such and that makes going back to fix things hard, and i'd rather move onto projects where i can improve even more. looking back over it, the most disappointing part about it is really that "vest" - i really could have taken some more time to polish up the shape and make it as accurate as i can (what's especially funny is that i even used that particular sprite as a reference to make sure i was doing the legs / bottom properly). i really appreciate the criticism, thank you. :>

I actually think the perspective on the wings is spot on, or at least as close as you can get on an angled pose. I'm not the best at perspective since I was recently really struggling with some aspects on a piece, but it looks pretty natural to me. His right wing is slightly smaller than the left, which shows that it is farther away and that his left wing is closer to the viewer. The only thing that I see that might help this illusion more is changing the very top notch on his right wing to curve straight, like the bottom 2 notches. as it currently is it kind of curves back. this might help, idk, but overall i really like it :)
i think that the curved line on the wing was also the fault of neglect and a lack of polish, since i was doing that one pretty late at night and rushed through it. thank you very much for the compliments, too!


additionally, i have a little art dump from a few things that i had been working on (some not complete).

molk was asking around for guys to draw pokemon for his RMT, and i said i'd work on a hippopotas (though ultimately it was never done because i got dissatisfied with the coloring).



this was the initial sketch after a bit of refinement, and i was reasonably happy about it.



i attempted to color it differently than i usually do (ie without using heavy black lines to define each section), and while i was happy with some bits i was ultimately not satisfied by the majority of it. in particular, i like how the nose/snout turned out and some of the front legs. this is a style of painting i'd like to try more in the future, but i think this is a failed project for the time being.
my little sister asked me to draw a feraligatr for her a little while ago, and while i'm fairly happy with the sketch, i haven't worked on it in a while. i want to develop it into a full art piece with scenery and everything (not just a single poke), so i might just approach it from a different angle when i feel like going back to it.



the following is my sketch of one way i envisioned developing it (vs infernape).

i had several pokemon in mind that i might have used for the logo i wanted to make, but it didn't really get finished. the ones i had in mind were: nidoking, landorus, and tauros. concept-y sorts of sketches to follow (don't mind the one of central stomping on east shhh...).



only the tauros logo got an additional sketch, finalized linework, and coloring.

this is the piece i am most happy with, and it's the one i made most recently. i'm particularly proud of how organized i was when making this throughout its entirety, to the point that it's super simple to fix a small thing on it or even just to change the coloring of the shading.

i started with some relatively shitty sketches that gradually got a bit more refined...



when i was happy with the pose, positioning, and general proportions, i spent a good hour of work refining the outline until i felt i was really happy with it (then colored it black).



i don't really want to show every time i colored, but i ended up blocking in my solid colors, doing a decent job with my shading for once, and actually coloring my lineart appropriately (which i think turned out pretty okay).



and a link to one with a silly bg i tinkered around with, gonna get better at those!
 
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spent a few hours making this today. it's using dark pulse or something



messed around with some effects b/c silly but i think i did a better job with the shading this time around
Ok yeah thats really fucking cool. When i get my laptop back that will be my new ava
 

Audiosurfer

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hi zeb, my request is a piece of art based offa my ps sprite that looks cool and makes for good avatar art (since i'd like to replace my current avatar with somethin). if you could make this that would be very cool

edit: don't need this anymore
 
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Genesis7

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Hey man, you are my fav artist that I've seen on here, I just like your style I guess. Could you draw me a Feraligatr please? I would like to use it as my avatar. Thanks in advance.
 

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