Ramdragn's Sketchbook

[Ramdragn]

Hi-

Welcome to whom apply. I am a novice Graphic Designer and Illustrator. Although I have some skill, I like to learn from wherever possible.
-No knowledge is waste.
Also, I may add, I can take critics very well, so don't hold back. Also, don't let me hanging. It seems many people just say it looks good or bad but doesn't point out. And, I do not mind if all you can find is mistakes (that means I can learn more and I like it), but don't tell me it's perfect(for nothing ever is).
-Without mistakes there is no learning.
Finally, my art can be slow sometimes. Please be patient.


What I know I lack
------•Proportion
------•Anatomy
------------•Color choice & manage
---• Light & Shadow
-----•Weight & Gravity
---•Depth

Best skills
----•Focal Point Mathematically
-------•Clothes Movement and Distortions
-----------•Plants Anatomy & Movement
--------•Landscaping

-Thank you  

[Ramdragn]

Hi-

This is where I am right now as of anatomy and light/shadow concern.
Ram D3

-Thank You  

[Ramdragn]

Hi-


Working on villain for a story. This is my concept 3 Really trying to fix some mistakes but they seem to keep coming every time.
Crow Mask C3

Also working in my shadow and light.
Nature Light and Shadow

Please, tell me what you think.



-Thank You  

[apiyo]

You should work on your computer shading, in Ram D3, the shading seems muddy (for lack of better term), like a strange cross between soft shading and cell shading. What tool are you using to blend?  

[Ramdragn]

Hi-

Although my idea was to make it pastel copy like, I agree it ended confusing. I am still browsing the Guild, but is there a tutorial to determine where the shadow and light is supposed to hit?

I use the basic brush tool. However, I play and modified the opacity, flow, and some brush modes specially Multiply and Color Burn

Edited: I'm actually always practicing cell shading since is the most common on digital artwork.
Crow Mask C3 Color Shading

-Thank You  

[Orockthro]

Ramdragn

Hi-

Although my idea was to make it pastel copy like, I agree it ended confusing. I am still browsing the Guild, but is there a tutorial to determine where the shadow and light is supposed to hit?

I use the basic brush tool. However, I play and modified the opacity, flow, and some brush modes specially Multiply and Color Burn

Edited: I'm actually always practicing cell shading since is the most common on digital artwork.
Crow Mask C3 Color Shading

-Thank You

Hey there. heart
I like what you've done so far. I really like the Crow Mask piece - the feathers look wonderful and the colored version is shaping up nicely. Feathers can be tough to get right and you did a great job with them. You might want to think about having more than one shade of shadow. Right now you have your first skin tone and then one shade darker, but if you study how things look in reality, there are lots of different colors floating about. 3nodding

On that note, you expressed some concern about shading: shadows come from the fact that an object is blocking the flow of light. The part exposed to the light source is 'highlighted' and the part hidden is 'shadowed'. 3nodding

Errol posted this for someone else and it's amazingly helpful.

One thing to keep in mind: for shading and highlighting, it's best to actually choose your own colors and not use the color burn tool. Actual shadows are made of lots of colors depending on the ambient light and all sorts of other factors but the color dodge and burn tools only add black and white. They're easy, but they don't give you the results you really want.

The best way to figure out where light and shadow hits is to actually figure it out for yourself. Tutorials are great, but the visual experience can be very helpful too. Just grab a golf ball (or anything else) and a lamp and move things around. Then, grab a Barbie doll (or the more masculine GI Joe) and do the same.

Another thing to think about: cell shading is a great thing to learn but keep in mind that it's a simplified version of normal shading, so it's best to learn the original before deviating to the more stylized.

^___^ You have a great start.
heart
Keep working at it!  

[Ramdragn]

Hi-

Oh very nice tutorial. Very interesting.
I see. So You say it is better to learn the realistic shading first than the cell shading? (My mind tries to simplify every thing I learn lol)

-Thank You  

[Mogtoats]

I'd go for realistic shading.

For your current piece, just a suggestion: ink your lines with the pen tool, or at least ink them by hand. They are a bit quite messy right now.

But if you are going for realistic shading or painting, you won't even need the lines.  

[Orockthro]

Good question:
It's important to understand realistic shading and figure out how it works, but that doesn't mean you can't do cell shading at the same time. Figure out why a shadow casts a certain way, try and do it realistically, and then replicate that in cell shading. 3nodding
Some people have gone straight to cell shading. A disadvantage of this is that they don't really have a grasp of why things do what they do and so they tend to get stuck and have a hard time progressing. 3nodding

The Martian makes an interesting point about inked lines. Many digital artists (and anime artists) use "line art" for their drawings. But, not all. There are quite a number of artists who just use clean pencil lines that they color too. And, as The Martian mentioned, some artists choose to use no lines at all!
Here are some examples (though I'm sure you know what I mean):
No lines
"Inked" lines
Pencil lines

However, you can realistically shade with lines, as the "inked" example illustrates.

I recommend playing around with light and shadow and figure out how things work. then worry about the other stuff.  

[Ramdragn]

Hi-

Wukon
Ok, here is a modern poor Wukon. I have two major questions. One, It seems the right arm went extremely elongated or the left is extremely short. I tried to keep it very edgy as of the distance. What do you think?

Also, I find something very wrong on the legs, beside the bad drawing, but can't quiet figure it out.

Edited: I also made some light studies with my little godchild.
Gurito 4 Months old
I was wondering how to make the football surface more football like using charcoal.

-Thank You  

[Errol McGillivray]

I think that that you show the most promise when you step away from the computer. The light studies will of course, help you a lot with your digital paints.

As far as anatomy and all that go, I would focus on that rather than trying to take anything to rendered works. There's a lot of sites that offer n***s that you can draw. It would be a good idea to start there and just familiarize yourself with the human form from the support structure (skeleton). Everything builds on that.  

[Orockthro]

Hey there.
heart

I agree with Errol: you show a much better understanding of shapes and light when drawing with real mediums. 3nodding The charcoal drawing of your godson is wonderful! Keep practicing like that and you will improve, no doubt about it.
There isn't really a trick to make 2D surfaces more like the 3D ones you're drawing from (unfortunately). The only advice I can give you is to stay as true as possible to the thing your drawing from and really study its shape and shadows.

The Wulkon is good. You have a distinctive style going on which is nifty. heart
As you mentioned, yup, the right arm is very elongated. This is partially due to the fact that his shoulder is in a sort of limbo. I find it's helpful to sketch in circles and lines and simple 3D shapes to figure out where I want to place bits of anatomy. It might help you to do the same thing, as well as drawing little "thumnail" studies. Having a plan can make a big difference in the final outcome of a drawing.

3nodding

You are showing a lot of improvement, especially with that charcoal drawing. I'd love to see some more of that! heart

Keep practicing, drawing, and having fun. heart  

[Ramdragn]

Hi-

With Outlines
Wothout

Ok. I have been doing some hard media work (will try to upload soon) Meanwhile, I have been working on some digital. I found a way to hide the actual color blend behind hard lines, however, it is weird when I try to go line-less. It seems easy in hard-media but not in digital. my question: How can I convert these hard lines into color?

Also, I have been working in my color blend (without using blending tools nor opacity) using color layers over layers.

Any thoughts?

-Thank You  

[Anpu the black Seraph]

I think your wukon is drawn pretty well actually. I like the pose. For the arms, it seems to me the right arm is rather long, but with primates you kinda want that. I think you might wanna make the left arm a little longer. The right arm does seem to be floating, you might wanna identify his shoulder joint, where it connects to the body. The feet don't look too bad either. The right is somewhat off, but not too bad. You want a right hand, palm to the ground look I think.

The piece of your nephew was down really well.

I like the overhead view of the dragon/dino. The use of shading and lines gives it a real feel of texture.

Keep up the good work.  

[Orockthro]

Congrats on figuring out how to use the layers to color under your lines! heart That's a very popular coloring trick and it's great you learned it.

Keep in mind: color blending is tough and there's nothing wrong with using the tools you have available to you. Opacity is one of my favorite shading methods and I rarely have it set above 25%. 3nodding Why did you decide not to use opacity and the blending tools? Are you worried about over-using your digital aids?

I like how you're exploring line and no line options. It's good to keep yourself open. One of the reasons you're probably having trouble working without lines is that you're coloring with the lines and then taking them off once you're done. What this means is that all your choices of where to shade and what to do were made while the lines were still there.
When you draw things in real media you first sketching things out and then slowly build onto the the sketch, using it as part of your final drawing, but not necessarily keeping the sketch lines. Try setting your line layer to a low opacity and turning it off and on while you work so you can see how things are progressing. Or, build your colors onto layers above the lines. 3nodding

Also, since you only used one shade for shadows and one shade for highlights, without the lines, the viewer is confused about what's what. Try using lots of different colors and variations and build up the volume of the dragon. A good way to practice building up volume is to work in black and white. Then (if you're in Photoshop) you can simply change the "hue saturation" levels to make it colored again.

You're doing great work!
I hope you upload your real media work, I'd love to see that. heart

I hope this was helpful.

Good luck.
mrgreen