Acyl Art Redux

[Acyl]

sweno wrote:

---

That said, I have figured out the one thing that keeps bothering me.


Their heads all line up (roughly), but their hips do not. Unless they are standing on very uneven ground, this does not compute.


well that, or Terr is sagging his pants something fierce

A bit of column A, a bit of column B - I did assume those pants were hanging low.

The crotch line on Terr is a bit higher in the final inked version, however. It may also be possible to move Rhea's entire figure downward with minimal
disruption to the final image (somewhat harder to relocate Lisa or Terr, but Rhea is in the foreground) - that would place her more in line with Lisa at least.

I probably need to drop Rhea's position slightly anyway, owing to how the skirt lines up visually.

EDIT: yeah, the fact I'm talking about a 'final inked version' - yes, it's mostly inked, except for Rhea's head and arms.
-- Acyl

[Acyl]

A look at my work process, since, uh...you were amused by the margin notes?



I sketch with pencil/paper, but I do my inking and colouring in Photoshop. Getting good clean lineart is probably the most important step in the process.

I've tried scanning black line drawings, but that doesn't work as well...I'm not a very good inker with regular pens. I have experimented with vector tracing, but that's too fiddly for me to bother with...and I don't really have the right software for it.

As you can see, at this point I've only done flat colours, no three-dimensional shading or highlights. Shading is done on a multiply layer, and highlights on a screen layer. I typically use a fourth layer for extreme hilights (like gloss on hair, or little reflective shiny bits at the edge of things). If it's a single character portrait, I may take the time to set up shading/highlight layers for each colour - ie. green shades, red shades, blue shades, etc. But for more complex pictures that's kinda impractical, so I make do with fewer layers.



I do art stuff on a laptop. It's a small screen, but I can tilt and angle it as I need to, and it's easier to squeeze my tablet alongside. More portable, too - I've done colouring work while watching TV or at the dining table, f'instance.

Of course, I'd probably have more desk space if I got that old monster of a CRT monitor off my tabletop.
-- Acyl

[Rev Dark]

Great work Acyl!

It is always cool to see the 'behind the scenes' work that goes into the production of one of your finished images.

I like the way that the trio does not look completely wholesome in this pic.

Cheers,

Shayne

[dark seraph]

cool Acyl, what sort of Tablet do you use?

[Acyl]

I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. That precise model comes in three sizes; I use the medium one, which is about the size of an A5 sheet of paper.

The Bamboo range is Wacom's version of an entry-level consumer art tablet - it's better than the bare-bones Graphire interface tablets, but less
sensitive than the high-end Intuos range. Granted, that much should be obvious from the price-point alone.

I intend to upgrade to an Intuos someday - one of my buddies has one, and it is truly awesome. I got tablet envy just standing next to his desk. But probably
only in, hell...2011 or so. Those things are expensive.
-- Acyl

[Foxboy]

Poor as I am, I Have an intuos 3... never mind that they're up to 4 or 5 by now...

I seldon drag it out though, as it is too big for where I have my lappy and my dad has commandeered the desktop since forever in his usual Essay cycles
><

Also, I've got this motivation problem for a while
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[dark seraph]

Acyl wrote:

---

I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. That precise model comes in three sizes; I use the medium one, which is about the size of an A5 sheet of paper.

*looks at own Tablet* same as me..... and by the looks of it, i still have alot to learn with mine

[Sofaspud]

On closer examination (and in color, which helps, dunno why), myself, Julia (my wife), and Uni have all independently reached the same conclusion: Terr is a
gorilla.

Er, wait, no that's not it.

Terr's right arm is too long, we think. As drawn, the wrist line appears to be on the same level as the bottom of Terr's crotch*, which -- using
myself and two other guys we know as a model -- is inaccurate. The fingers or fingertips line up on that level, in that pose; not the wrist..

In addition, and this might just be me, the hand looks to be too large. Granted it fades out just past the wrist, but looking at it and projecting the lines,
it seems to me that Terr's hand would reach to his knee and be able to span a good-sized dinner plate.

It also occurred to me that, if drawing the arm is a problem, you could always hide it behind Lisa, much the same as Terr's other arm is hidden behind
Rhea. Because, dude, you've got the girls *nailed*, in my opinion.

At any rate, the problem is not a show-stopper by any means, but I get the impression you prefer honest critiques, so I'm offering it in that vein.

(* gah, there's a phrase I never thought I'd type)

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Acyl]

Criticism? Yes please! Proportions are NOT my strong suit. I TRY hard, but there's things I miss. Therefore I appreciate this sort of feedback, especially when it's something that can be corrected.
The arm issue - yeah, it's more of a problem precisely because I moved Terr's pants lines up in an earlier iteration of the sketch, after it was pointed out he was almost flying the flag at half-mast.
Solutions? There are some - I can shorten the arm on the ink layer; simply slice the ink layer lines and move them upwards at a few points (mainly, I'd do above and below the elbow separately), then erase any troublesome overlap.
That refit should let me shift at least the ball joint of his heavy grasper in line with his underbelly turret mounting. That would still be a long armature, but more acceptable. Within 'normal' bounds.
(now you understand why I get really loopy with metaphor when describing anatomy; if I had to describe things in relation to crotch and hand placement...)
Anyway. Easy to do at this stage; photoshop the ink layer, as I said, then erase and redo the colours beneath.
Better that this was caught now rather than before shading/highlighting; if it'd proceeded that far I'd probably say 'to hell with it', because redoing shades/highlights would be a much bigger pain in the ass. But I can address this now.
The width of the arm is intentional, however; it is supposed to appear massive. I make no apologies for that...the length ratio is a different thing. I'll see what can be done, it should be a relatively easy fix.
EDIT: DarkSeraph, if you're using a Wacom and not achieving good results yet - don't worry, it takes some getting used to if you're new to tablets. My first attempts were pretty poor - the second image is better, but you can tell that the lines are very rough and uneven. I ended up overcompensating with very very thick lines, and ruined my first nib with way too much pressure before I really got the hang of things. You need to find the right touch on the tablet for you, and the ideal brush setting that works for your style.
-- Acyl

[Rev Dark]

When discussing anatomy with metaphor; or similar tasks, I like Christopher Hitchen's description of the undeniable proximity of the manual to the genital.