Thighs like... what? What? WHAT!?

[Onyx Tanuki]

Okay, let's try this art dump thing again. First, refer here for my other images. Second, please don't cause drama... I don't need to be creating more topics. Especially since that's the only lyrics of the Thong Song that I remember. Thirdly, I'm also going to include a few oooooooold pics, just so ya'll can see where I've come from as far as anatomy and color theory.

Spoiler: Chibi Lulu (Warning - Shitty coloring abound)

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/985/chibiluludoneix1.gif[/img]
This is probably the first image I ever colored on Photoshop. The BG was supposed to be like the Ultima spell, but ew. Ew ew ew.

Spoiler: RO Thanksgiving (Warning - Even shittier coloring)

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2252/vedgetlsol1.jpg[/img]
The "wood" texture is crap, and the color is nothing but dodge and burn. I still like it for the lineart, though.

Spoiler: RPGWorld Fanart - Diane

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2074/vedianerv7.jpg[/img]
A fanart from Diane from RPGWorld. Old old. But I still kindasorta like it. Although she does sorta look like a transsexual who forgot her tape.

Spoiler: RPGWorld Fanart - Hero (For the ladies ;D)

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/7592/herolounginghg6.jpg[/img]
Don't ask. Please, for the love of everything holy in this world, do not ask.

Spoiler: Manga Face Tutorial

Back in the days of .net (and the web magazine that was being made for it) I contributed a tutorial for drawing manga faces. Here's the steps I included:

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4299/step1tm0.gif[/img] http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1421/step2fr8.gif[/img] http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6149/step3ve7.gif[/img] http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/464/step4as2.gif[/img] http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3985/step5tm4.gif[/img] http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6414/step6xf2.gif[/img] http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/9846/step7sp0.gif[/img] http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1251/step8bd8.gif[/img]

I'm still pleased with how the finished result looks, even though it's three years old.

Spoiler: Eye Studies

Some of these worked out, but some... not so much. I was attempting to convert different people's eyes into manga style.

Aaliyah - http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/5639/aaliyahky8.gif[/img]
Angela Basset - http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6645/angelabassettym4.gif[/img]
Bette Davis - http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/3792/bettedavislj5.gif[/img]
David Beckham - http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3757/davidbeckhambb7.gif[/img]
Gackt - http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/3607/gacktno5.gif[/img]
Hikaru Utada - http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/795/hikaruutadaro3.gif[/img]
Jude Law - http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5692/judelawxb7.gif[/img]
Me - http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/3730/veridianedgelq3.gif[/img]

Okay, fine. They were all epic phailures. Shut up.

Spoiler: Captain Obvious

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/169/captainobviousdb0.png[/img]
This could possibly be used in a motivational or as a 4chan image or whatever if I wanted to color it...

Spoiler: Cliche RPG

Again, back in the day of .net, someone asked me to draw characters for a parody RPG that poked fun at the cliches that show up in RPGs. Here's my three favorite designs from there:

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/1922/boltejv3.gif[/img] http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6533/marisfn0.gif[/img] http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3731/syreenlx0.gif[/img]

Spoiler: Animation Test

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6647/veaxxk4.gif[/img]
It would've looked so much better if I'd done a few traces of the stationary character himself. That would've given the whole thing a sort of Hotel Dusk feel to it. And then there's that one frame where the lineart gets all thick...

Spoiler: Color (Note: Lineart isn't mine)

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8347/comm038colorvz2au4.png[/img]
This is not my lineart, so don't judge that part. It's a pic I commissioned from a really good artist who goes by the handle Humbuged, and I decided to try coloring myself. This should hopefully show where I am now in terms of color theory. (Also, the artist mostly does NSFW stuff, so if you want to look his stuff up, do it at home. If any mods want me to delete it, let me know and I'll edit it out.)

 

[Makasu]

YAOI!!!!

Just kidding but this is seriously dope stuff. Nothing in here is short of amazing. Even the old stuff!

I've got nothing to complain about really except the way you draw faces sometimes. But other than that this is ace work mate :thumb: but you gotta give credit to the artist of the last pic. Just because you have to.

But yeah your anatomy as well as the eye studies are superb.

 

[Venetia]

It looks like you're doing facial studies, which is good, however you're not, (or haven't yet) applied them in the character drawings. They all seem to possess a very quick semi-manga style of expression. That halfway happy but a little tired look. You put a lot of emphasis on the torsos but then neglect the faces, which is always the main focal point of ALMOST any character design, so it's important that you try and focus harder/spend more time on that.

Your hair generally lacks a lot of detail, and if you're going for an anime look (or, really, any look outside cartoony), you'll want to try and work on that.

For the colored piece, it kinda screams "first time at photoshop :D". Lots of solid colors, whites, blacks, and soften tools. When you color something in photoshop, develop a palette (much like you would pixel art, but not necessarily as rigid). Work in interesting colors, like blues or browns or reds into things. Remember that light bounces off almost any surface, so "halos" of light will appear on the edges of surfaces or curves.

Check out a few youtube vids that follow an artist painting in photoshop. It really offers some nice insight. If you don't have a tablet however you'll find it rather impossible with a mouse.

 

[Onyx Tanuki]

Makasu - Yeah, I went ahead and added the credit for the last pic. Anyway, much obliged for the thoughts, although really I don't think half of the stuff I posted here is all that good :P

Ven - Yeah, I'm trying not to do that so much. Most of the stuff here is from 2+ years back, so I think I've at least gotten a little better with expressions... unless you're also taking the stuff into the other topic into account (which is from 4 months to 2 years ago). But yeah, I usually end up focusing on the body a lot, and don't really have a lot of focus on the face because I don't have as much room to get details in. And which colored pic were you referring to? Because I was trying to do pretty much what you said with the Humbuged pic, although I perhaps could have put a little more contrast into it. Then again, it's a night scene... gha, confuzzlement.

And I don't have a tablet. Not enough moneys. :sad:

 

[Venetia]

Oh, sorry, I was talking about the last pic. The one where the line art was done by someone else =)

 

[Onyx Tanuki]

Dang. Then I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I didn't use pure white or black on anything at all, I used palettes, I have colors reflecting off the surfaces... Geez. That's what's so confusing, because I did exactly what you said I didn't do.

 

[Venetia]

Well for starters, DEFINITELY lay off the smooth tool, or the blur tool. And if you're not using them, then set your brush sizes much smaller with a much much higher hardness

There's no texture, and no interesting color blends. The browns range from dark brown to light brown. There's no color play to draw the eye or connote life. (Almost nothing is only one hue throughout!)

 

[Makasu]

While I agree with V on the photoshop one I don't think photoshop is a good method of doing digital colors [[but thats just because I can't get pressure sensitivity to work with it.]] anyways set your brushes flow and opacity to 60 and 40. It'll give you a more paintery feel. At least thats what I set mine to when I actually do do [[lol]] something in photoshop regarding color. Again though thats my personal setting. You may want like 30 80 or 55 40 or something. Play around with it until you get a style similar to the way you would want to see a picture digitally painted.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Bugmeyer

this man's videos will give you an effect that you'd want to attempt. Give it a shot and see what works best.

And I don't use a palette when I paint V. I just slap colors down. If I'm doing skin tone I lay down a dark brown and then just go from there. I think palettes just get in the way. I don't know thats me. Its probably why I'm not a professional. Hahaha.

 

[Mascarpone]

Aw I miss the fury stuff.

 

[Onyx Tanuki]

I'll have to give that a shot later. I've been using default settings for the brushes, since that's pretty much what I'm used to using. I've done altering the opacity and flow before, but it ended up looking like utter shit. I don't see how changing the hardness of the brush would help... wouldn't that make things look cel-shaded? I'm not at all a fan of cell shading unless it's gonna be for animation.

Ven, what you're talking about with changing hues... I did that too. With my palette I tweaked everything to have more blue in its shadows than highlights, with the exception of the skin tone (which I'll agree wasn't very varied in hue from light to dark). I guess probably the shift was too subtle or something. Should I try something more like what's in the leaves, with the yellow-green becoming dark green becoming blue?

 

[Stardust]

The background in the last picture bothers me.  It's extremely realistic, and then, in the foreground, everything has a thick outline.  It creates a strange clash that I didn't notice at first.

It's good that you're experimenting with things.  Even the eye drawings can provide a lot of insight.  I think I said this before, but I like the details you put into the clothing.  Your stuff is very good (much better than I can do :P), so I hope you keep working on your art skills.

 

[Venetia]

If you are, in actuality, pushing hues, then you need to make it much more pronounced. A tiny tinge of blue isn't what I'm talking about, I mean that you should actually USE BLUE as a color in your palette. What you'd be shooting for is blue with a tinge of skintone or whatever, honestly.

Increasing the hardness doesn't make things look cel-shaded at all. I almost always use 90-100% hardness. When you lower the hardness you're softening the image, when it's sharpness that brings pictures to life. (I'm talking about the brush tool, not the pencil tool, remember!) It's probably because you're not used to changing the sizes of the brushes based on the volume/proximity, or maybe you're not zooming in close enough when you get down to it. Or maybe you're working with images that are too small. I find that I have a much harder time painting things that are smaller than 800pix in height or width (typically I do 3000x3000, 300dpi). Though some people (like Wumpi) do well with small images so IDK.

A good rule of thumb is, never use default anything.

And you're not going to be good overnight. You need to watch, learn, practice, and adapt your skills. It takes a long time. I myself am still learning. But the payoff is huge.