Don't mean to double post, but the colors are REALLY dark and wrong in the PNG before on this forum. Here's the JPG. Colors should be much better. (and lighter)

Painted this is Photoshop this afternoon. About 4-5 hours.

Here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHHbSeGB-dg

Not sure what I was trying to go for, but here's the start of a small piece I'm working on. More humans, more structure and anatomy. I'm trying to not hold back and go for poses that are harder. Any advice or red pen is more than welcome.

Got base color and line art done. Hopefully my color choices aren't clashing. I wanted her to be a bit "spunky", so I gave her blue hair. I didn't plan for this piece to get so methodical (was just supposed to be training), but I thought if I'm going to draw a human female after all these damn cats, I might as well really try. Besides, it's a good testing bed for other styles and tricks once I return to cats. :P

I've noticed a recurring trend in your illustrations, particularly backgrounds - They tend to be clustered with busy, vibrant colours and filled with large contrasts. In this landscape painting there are large areas of pure white and pure black, some of which are right next to eachother, creating a very stark contrast.

Generally when making compositions you'll want to be able to lead the eye of the viewer in such a way that they're seeing your world as you envisioned it. I suggest that you look for ways to practice composition, and how to apply it in your own works. Specifically, Conceptart has a free workshop sample with an introduction to the subject, and FZD school has nearly a hundred free videos with in-depth explanations and examples

The first change I made was to establish a hierarchy of values (the brightness of things). This was in order to create a better sense of space and separate the objects from eachother. While doing this I added the house on the right side to create a point to fixate on. I made slight changes to the trees, and fence in order to make their rythm flow towards that house.

After that I recoloured the painting with a palette made from some colours extracted from the original. I used less colours that blends more to eachother to create unity in the colours.

I hope you don't mind the repaint!

At 7/17/14 09:24 AM, Havegum wrote: I've noticed a recurring trend in your illustrations, particularly backgrounds - They tend to be clustered with busy, vibrant colours and filled with large contrasts. In this landscape painting there are large areas of pure white and pure black, some of which are right next to eachother, creating a very stark contrast.

Generally when making compositions you'll want to be able to lead the eye of the viewer in such a way that they're seeing your world as you envisioned it. I suggest that you look for ways to practice composition, and how to apply it in your own works. Specifically, Conceptart has a free workshop sample with an introduction to the subject, and FZD school has nearly a hundred free videos with in-depth explanations and examples

The first change I made was to establish a hierarchy of values (the brightness of things). This was in order to create a better sense of space and separate the objects from each other. While doing this I added the house on the right side to create a point to fixate on. I made slight changes to the trees, and fence in order to make their rythm flow towards that house.

After that I recoloured the painting with a palette made from some colours extracted from the original. I used less colours that blends more to eachother to create unity in the colours.

I hope you don't mind the repaint!

Thanks for the detailed response! I do appreciate it! :D I have in fact sent a critique of this over to conceptart.org a week ago and have had some advice as well. That's a great site when you need some real brutal feedback and I've learned to enjoy it (although it was a self-esteem blow the first time lol).

One thing I didn't outline is that I am purposely trying to go for a more Disney-esque Thomas Kinkade style, so absolute realism isn't my 100% goal, but I still agree with many of your points. I also like what you did with the paintover using different color values and the extension of the horizon, in which I think it does help lead the viewer and create more space. I'll admit I was a bit directionless when I started the piece. I just sort of hammered it out with the idea of it being a low light piece, but even then I strayed far from that.

You've made some good points, along with other replies I've got. It'll be interesting the next time I do one of these, although I still have a soft spot for that surrealist Disney color crap. XD

I realized some weeks ago something about your paintings, i usually don't give critiques because i'm very insecure about my own knowledge on art theory, but like Havegum already said it, i'll just reinforce his critique. You need better composition on your paintings, i swear if you watch the composition tutorial over at Conceptart.org, learn the priciples of composition and practice a bit, your drawings will get 300 times better. And believe me, it's not that hard to learn and put in practice, watch what this guy does with the thumbnails, that's probably the most important step to creating an image. Also you can keep the unrealistic colors and everything, you just gotta know how to make them work, it just looks caotic with extreme values all over the place and oversaturated colors.
Anyway, hopefully this comment didn't sound too harsh, wasn't my intention, good luck man :)

Also, i wouldn't recommend using pure white or black on your paintings, because you don't normally see those in nature, it looks off.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely be taking notes. :D Anyway, here's my next small piece, which is finished now. Larger version and description on my page.

Welp, I guess I'm drawing wolves now. This is actually for someone else and is their design and idea (colors, clothes, titled ear, arrowhead, no shoes, etc). I was able to get this all down in one evening after work, so I suppose that's progress. Although I think 3 hours is still too long for something like this. Next step will be line art, base color, and shade. No background on this one, just a simple portrait. :P

All done. Twas my first wolf, and for someone other than myself. 1920x1080 on my page for more detail.

• 

  Crook

  by fxscreamer

  Illustration

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  (Everyone)

At 7/26/14 02:51 AM, fxscreamer wrote: All done. Twas my first wolf, and for someone other than myself. 1920x1080 on my page for more detail.
http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/fxscreamer/crook

Looking good Fx. :D

Thanks man! :p

Here's the next character I'm doing for someone. I'd like to say it's about ready for line art and paint, but something feels amiss on it. I've been trying to think in volume and keep track of perspective when drawing this, and even started with shapes. I also acted out the pose, so it CAN be done. It's only the right leg I'm really wondering about. I put the shadow on the ground to show the foot WASN'T in the air.

Any pointers or confirmations are sure as hell welcome. :P

Finished my second request for someone's character. 1920x1080 on my page.

Getting drunk and watching some Ghost in the Shell. This is what I sketched in Photoshop. This pose and character is somewhat in the realm of a piece I've been planning for months, but am not sure if I'm ready yet. It would be a full finished piece, tilted on axis with an epic battle scene. Whatever, I stretched some lines trying to pull more cartoony flair for my character Arlo.......... too many vodka tonics...jesus.

I don't mind drinking when I draw but if I have to much I go to sleep.

I cleaned it up a lot and just kept playing around. This picture is just sort of naturally happening for me. The whole time I've been thinking Saturday Morning Cartoons. I'll be shading it too, and am deciding if I should make it a finished piece. :\

Arlo kind of looks like a pirate here lol.

Got the shading and stuff done. I could technically release it this way, but it was a long night. I want this to be a full piece with him fighting outside in a courtyard at the Academy, with classmates and onlookers. We'll see how that goes. This is what I got done today. :P

Ok, I'm really starting to get ambitious. I got Archer drawn as he's judging Arlo's technique and fighting style. I threw the background together in about 15-20 minutes for the general layout, but 90% of the background is getting completely re-worked. I think I've lost my sanity enough to try and draw a bunch of his classmates watching him, along with a crowd of hundreds of people. We'll see. This is probably my biggest piece of the year so far, and I started it drunk. :P

I think I'll be titling it "Final Exams"....not sure yet.

At 8/6/14 03:10 AM, fxscreamer wrote: I think I've lost my sanity enough to try and draw a bunch of his classmates watching him, along with a crowd of hundreds of people.

Damn, that's a lot of of people to draw. xD
Good luck!

At 8/6/14 03:20 AM, 123mine123 wrote:

At 8/6/14 03:10 AM, fxscreamer wrote: I think I've lost my sanity enough to try and draw a bunch of his classmates watching him, along with a crowd of hundreds of people.

Damn, that's a lot of of people to draw. xD
Good luck!

What a great excuse to draw lots of LOTS of cats over and over again. A main issue of mine is spending too much time on post production, and not the actual drawing. Now I get the best of both worlds, and will help my illustration get better. :D

Still getting further. I polished a good portion of the background, and added some foreground smoke and effects. I also started mapping and sketching the crowd a little more, but damn that's going to be a big hurdle.

Things I'll try to fix tonight are Arlo's right knee (needs extended), and also needs some reshading on his body. I also need to add MORE detail to the background. More banners, emblems, flagpoles, party crap, etc. I want this courtyard bustling with life and energy.

Welp, I working on the extras (aka the students). These are very rough and haven't done any line art, color, or shading on them. They should clean up a LOT after the line art. I know they aren't perfect and there's some issues that I already see. I'll do when I can in post clean up, but there's a reason they're extras and not the main attraction.

I tried keeping the cartoony / Disney spirit with diverse personalities and interactions.

All done! I'm going on vacation now. GAWD

1920x1200 res on my page so you can see more detail.

At 8/15/14 05:30 PM, fxscreamer wrote: All done! I'm going on vacation now. GAWD

1920x1200 res on my page so you can see more detail.

oh dammmmmn this is on point!!! this looks so good yo

At 8/16/14 05:09 AM, Spac3case916 wrote:

At 8/15/14 05:30 PM, fxscreamer wrote: All done! I'm going on vacation now. GAWD

1920x1200 res on my page so you can see more detail.

oh dammmmmn this is on point!!! this looks so good yo

Well thank you very much! I also noticed your NG join date was on my birthday (pointless fact yay!) :P

At 8/17/14 01:54 AM, fxscreamer wrote:

Well thank you very much! I also noticed your NG join date was on my birthday (pointless fact yay!) :P

no way : )))))) because your join date is October 22 and my birthday is october 23 : )))

craziness

Took another shot at Daphne and tried more design decisions. I keep thinking "Do you want to build a snowman?" when I look at this. LOL

At 8/21/14 07:15 PM, fxscreamer wrote: Took another shot at Daphne and tried more design decisions. I keep thinking "Do you want to build a snowman?" when I look at this. LOL

daaaaaaw. soft, sweet, and cute.

At 8/21/14 07:21 PM, Spac3case916 wrote:

At 8/21/14 07:15 PM, fxscreamer wrote: Took another shot at Daphne and tried more design decisions. I keep thinking "Do you want to build a snowman?" when I look at this. LOL

daaaaaaw. soft, sweet, and cute.

Thanks! :D However, what you may not know about her character is that she can be a bit of a cunt. Yes, she's smart and sweet, but she's also a bipolar train wreck sometimes and flies off the handle. :3