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Hen's Digital Art

I have noticed quite a lack of art appreciation for the last couple. So let me just say that... I loved the mario one! :D The rest are wonderful too and I especially liked the Poliwrath (one of my faves). Also, the milk-loving dog is VERY well done.
 
:) Thank you very much.


Alright, I've got 2 new things to add today. One of them was a quickie I drew last night. I'm trying to get back to my project (will I ever really get into it and FINISH it?) of drawing the whole pokedex @.@

Here ya goooooooo:

2ivysaur.png




Seperately from that I've taken some time to experiment with vectoring. Now, keep in mind my laptop is ANCIENT so once this got over 60 layers everything was a labor to get it down and in place. OY. 120+ layers later here's David Tennant.

davidtennant.png



I'm proud of this as my FIRST vectoring piece. I'm sure a lot can be done to spruce it up but.. not with this laptop!

Hope you enjoy. :)
 
Hen, you are growing by leaps and bounds with every piece! Your continued experimentation with digital art tools is really paying off.

Some comments on your last several pieces:

The puppy is beautiful. I suspect this was done from a real life reference or photo reference, because the detail and body proportions are perfect. If you did it freehand, then I'm even more impressed with the piece. Great color and brushwork.

The general posing and perspective of the Metagross piece was off, which is something I've noticed on some of your other works too. It's not bad or anything, it's just a little off. Familiarity with perspective and proportion is easily trained through practice sketching. Also, invest some time in learning the technical aspects of perspective and maybe some anatomy study. It's amazing how much that can help your freehand quality, even when doing "cartoons" like pokemon.

The coloring on your Metagross was good. I noticed you seemed to "wander" with your light source on this piece. For example, the front claws of Meta's lead hand are casting very obvious shadows that indicate that your light source is lower left. This part of the drawing is very large and the shadows are long and dark, therefore you are making a big visual "commitment" to this light source. However, elsewhere your highlights indicate a light source from upper left, and even upper right in a few places. Non-artists will rarely notice this stuff directly. But, it contributes to an overall artisitic impression that something is not-quite-right.

Your color blending on Meta was very good. It's obvious that you spent some time on this drawing, and it paid off. Despite my specific critiques, I think this Meta is one of your best works yet. Good job.


Boo Mario is great. Your blocking on this is very good. Nice use of foreground and background components. Your light source on Mario wanders around a bit here too, so it's something to keep in mind on future works. Another good job with color. It's obvious with this piece, that you have started getting comfortable with digital painting. The overall quality of this is much higher than earlier works.

Chatot is another good brushwork piece. Like the previous two, it shows increasing mastery of digital painting techniques and tools.

The Tennant piece is where you really took a big leap into a new form of digital art. You started tackling vectors. I do almost everything in vectors, so I can appreciate the work that goes into these kinds of digital renderings.

If that piece took 120 layers, I'd say you are going a little overboard with the layers. But, over time, you will develop your own sense of what things to keep on a single layer and what layers should be merged when they are "done". Merging layers is also nice on your PC, if you have CPU or memory constraints. I'm a "layer freak" too, in that I make new layers for damn near everything. But, just by looking at that piece, I'd say I probably would render that with 10-20 layers max on the finished product.

Great job on making nice well-formed vectors all over. I know they take a lot of time, but the clean lines are SO worth it, IMO. You'll get faster the more you do it. If you haven't already learned them -- keyboard shortcuts are your friend when doing vectors. Learn the keystrokes blindfolded. You'll soon be making vectors very fast and clean.

I don't know what you did different on the Tennant piece, but your light source was flawless on it.

The Ivysaur is very well-done and looks like another vector study. Particularly good work on the leaves on its back. Very nice, very clean. The posing isn't too ambitious, but I doubt that was really your focus. I suspect your continued experimentation with vectors was the main goal.

I love that you are fearless in trying out new things. I hope you continue to update your art thread. I can't wait to see what you do next.
 
WOW, DJD. Thank you for taking so much time to reply so thoroughly. I appreciate it!! :D


DougJustDoug said:
Hen, you are growing by leaps and bounds with every piece! Your continued experimentation with digital art tools is really paying off.
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Thank you. I have yet to have any formal training for digital media. I glean info from deviantArt & friends to try new things.

Some comments on your last several pieces:

The puppy is beautiful. I suspect this was done from a real life reference or photo reference, because the detail and body proportions are perfect. If you did it freehand, then I'm even more impressed with the piece. Great color and brushwork.
Click to expand...
I spent an insane amount of time on this piece. It was drawn for my mentor @ work whose service dog (the doberman) had recently died.. I think of a heart attack? I had a photo reference for this one.

The general posing and perspective of the Metagross piece was off, which is something I've noticed on some of your other works too. It's not bad or anything, it's just a little off. Familiarity with perspective and proportion is easily trained through practice sketching. Also, invest some time in learning the technical aspects of perspective and maybe some anatomy study. It's amazing how much that can help your freehand quality, even when doing "cartoons" like pokemon.
Click to expand...
I have been doing some anatomy practice as well. Most of it either doesn't get posted online or it gets put in my scraps on dA. Reason could be the quality is meh and/or it contains nudity. I agree. I have a looooong way to go. Perspective is something I am shy on.. but attempt at times. Metagross imo was a partially failed attempt on it. I'm glad you liked it though. :)
Proportion has ALWAYS been my bane. I just keep redrawing & retrying till I come up with something satisfactory.


Boo Mario is great. Your blocking on this is very good. Nice use of foreground and background components. Your light source on Mario wanders around a bit here too, so it's something to keep in mind on future works. Another good job with color. It's obvious with this piece, that you have started getting comfortable with digital painting. The overall quality of this is much higher than earlier works.
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Yaaaaay. :D

See, with this piece in particular I was on a ROLL. You know how that goes.. the inspiration strikes you and you go sit in front of photoshop till it's done? Yea. I loved drawing this one.

I think I was a little lazy with the finishing up details on boo mario.

How *does* one shade a boo? Lol. I was not sure, and I guess that showed :P

The Tennant piece is where you really took a big leap into a new form of digital art. You started tackling vectors. I do almost everything in vectors, so I can appreciate the work that goes into these kinds of digital renderings.

If that piece took 120 layers, I'd say you are going a little overboard with the layers. But, over time, you will develop your own sense of what things to keep on a single layer and what layers should be merged when they are "done". Merging layers is also nice on your PC, if you have CPU or memory constraints. I'm a "layer freak" too, in that I make new layers for damn near everything. But, just by looking at that piece, I'd say I probably would render that with 10-20 layers max on the finished product.
Click to expand...
The mentor I had for vectoring told me that I was NOT to unvector *any* of the pieces. So I had every single shape on it's own layer.

I don't know what you did different on the Tennant piece, but your light source was flawless on it.
Click to expand...
I took a picture of Tennant and vectored it over the top of it. That was what I was told to do. Probably why it was so *on* with anatomy and light source :P

The Ivysaur is very well-done and looks like another vector study. Particularly good work on the leaves on its back. Very nice, very clean. The posing isn't too ambitious, but I doubt that was really your focus. I suspect your continued experimentation with vectors was the main goal.
Click to expand...
With this one I used the pen tool & filled in instead. Vector inspired but not actually a vector. I *love* his pose. To me it's like, when you first meet. He's like "should I glomp you or should I vine whip yo' ass?" Of course, I suppose that's more of the look on his face than the pose of his body.


I love that you are fearless in trying out new things. I hope you continue to update your art thread. I can't wait to see what you do next.
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With someone like you visiting this thread I will most defintely keep it updated. <3

Again, thank you for the long detailed response!
 
*Hen* said:
The mentor I had for vectoring told me that I was NOT to unvector *any* of the pieces. So I had every single shape on it's own layer.

I took a picture of Tennant and vectored it over the top of it. That was what I was told to do. Probably why it was so *on* with anatomy and light source :P
Click to expand...

Sorry, now I understand. Ignore my comment about reducing layers. I thought you were using the Pen Tool and Shape Layers simply as a means to get clean shapes that you can tweak and color. If your goal is to have a completely vectorized picture, then yes, keep all your layers separate and NEVER rasterize them. And yes, you will end up with LOTS of layers. When I do "pure" vector art, I end up with hundreds of layers in my PSD file. 300+ is not uncommon.

Normally, I use vectors and paths as a means to getting a "perfect" shape or line while doing original art, and then I rastersize it and merge it onto my main canvas. Of course, I have no desire to maintain a fully resizable digital graphic, so I don't need to carry the overhead of all those little layers.

Good luck with your vector projects. That style is very popular these days. I'm not really into that, since I find it to be "digital tracing". But it's a fantastic way to learn, as you are forced to break down color and shapes into all the base components. Ultimately, that will give you a keen understanding of art fundamentals. And it does produce very cool-looking pictures!
 
Yea, I hear what you mean with the whole tracing thing. Tooooooootally feels like CHEATING. Which a deep part of me rawrs at. RAWR.

I'm doing a vector piece right now, but it's fully from my mind. Well, I mean.. it's pokemon so really it's someone else's creation but I'm not using any photo references :P
You know what I mean, right?

Anyway, it'll probably be done within the next couple days. I'll post it when I'm done. :)
 
Ahem. Turns out I stayed up and finished it up regardless of this damn headache :P

psyducksummer.png


Like I said, totally vectors. Only things on here that aren't vector layers are the signature and the watermark. :)


no references.
 
*looks around the deserted place*

Ah well. It has been almost 2 weeks since I updated anyway. Another post just by me won't hurt :P


Here's some Castform Forms. :) Too big to pictofy.
 
Thanks much! Just an anatomical tip: Porygon's legs are a bit "taller" than that, and the torso a tad less "long".
 
Mmmmmmmm I see. I suppose it's pretty obvious I never used a porygon myself. I dig porygon-z though.

Ah well. I hope that incorrectness didn't ruin the pic for you.
 
For some reason, I totally missed the links to your comic strips earlier. As a father of small children, all of those really hit home with me -- particularly the Band-aid strip and the bit about Crabby Patties. Those look like they came straight out my own household. I doubt the average Smogoner can truly appreciate that humor, but I laughed hard.

I also really like the Pory2. Perfect pokemon for a digital drawing. Well done!
 
:D Thanks guys.

Yay, finally someone checked out Chicky & Rew. I had no idea you were of the parental type, DJD. Keep checking back, I'm starting on the mapping out of the next Chicky & Rew so it'll probably show itself in the next week or two. >.> yea, since I have to fit in drawing when I'm not at work or 'mommying' it takes me quite a while to get things done.

OH! Also, I just did a big update to the first post. Some images that I hadn't posted are here now annnnnnd everything is now thumbnailed.
 
*Hen* said:
chibibulbasaur.png

Aaaand a toothless bulbasaur. Lol.







Animal Crossing:






Made for animalxing.com

Click to expand...

I Loved bulbasaur, mind if later I crop it and use it as my avatar? With credit of course.

And damn I hate that resetti, my ds runs out of battery and all of a sudden I'm a criminal >.> lol. And I loved K.K.

Digsetti was just plain ownage.

EDIT: Hen I say your comics. I loved the second one where you slap the husbands ass and you blame it on rew. (its the pink girl right?)
 
Nice job. The Mario picture looks cool and cute. No wonder it won :P. I like how you did the Pokemon look awesome like Bulbasaur.
EDIT: <3 the Porygon.
 
Jujomi, you're definitely welcome to use Bulbasaur. I should probably give him teeth :X And yes, I'd appreciate a credit somewhere visible. :)

Alex is the significant other chicken, I'm the purple one, Rew is the blue one and Chicky is the pink one. I'll go ahead and link to the profiles too.

Character Profiles:
Chicky, Rew, Hen, Alex

Comics:

1: Bandaids

2: Saturday Outing

3: Icky


Thanks Metal Force. :)
 
*Hen* said:
Jujomi, you're definitely welcome to use Bulbasaur. I should probably give him teeth :X And yes, I'd appreciate a credit somewhere visible. :)

Alex is the significant other chicken, I'm the purple one, Rew is the blue one and Chicky is the pink one. I'll go ahead and link to the profiles too.

Character Profiles:
Chicky, Rew, Hen, Alex

Comics:

1: Bandaids

2: Saturday Outing

3: Icky


Thanks Metal Force. :)
Click to expand...
You're welcome and I ROFLed at Icky. :P
 
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