This was the original image. I added some color after deleting the lines. Took a while even in Photoshop. I'm probably going to use a different style of paper from now on, but I dunno. Those lines might actually help me! I liked the colors, however, the monster (Well, Cthulu, if you want to call him that) looked like the same color throughout, even with lighting filters on. Also, the Black flame was hard to color, because I wanted it to glow, and give off a dark aura as well, like it was some sort of black magic. I also added a moon, but the lighting it gave off didn't look natural, so I went to the next step: In this one, its a bit darker in other areas, with burn strokes here and there to make shadows and varying degrees of green on Cthulu, to make him look a little more natural in color tone. The moon's lighting is a bit more realistic as well, and I think I got the Black flame's aura looking the way I wanted it to. I think I may have found a new PC hobby.:icon_bigg Any art critics out there to give me some pointers?
Well, I think PC coloring is the only way I'll be able to color my images. Right now I'm coloring another image that I scanned in. Warning: HUGE image I shaded beforehand, kinda darkly, because the Lizard man picture was going to be black in color. So it made prepping it to be colored a bitch, but I'm liking so far what I've gotten out of it: And just in case anyone is wondering, some of my sketches are ideas for monsters or characters in a book series or maybe RPG series that I'm thinking of making. I also thought about making a graphic novel, because I want to be able to illustrate what the things look like. This particular creature is a Mutant lizard barbarian race that lives in the Desert, and scavages for scrap metal and weapons, as well as pirating stuff. I've had the idea for them ever since I was in grade school, so thats why they're a little bit cartoony, but I like the semi-cartoony style.
I like it. It'd be more effective with a contrasting background though, rather than the bluey green thing. It will make him stand out more.
Yeah, they look good, I didn't mean to say they look bad or anything Casual hehe. I just like computerless art more when it comes to drawings.
the pictures are very dadaistic, and it reminds me of what kids drew in 4. grade (when I was young) , so MR. Casual, please don´t try to live off it. Since you need some serious practice, and if you get that. Then you would probably become a better painter and drawer. I suck at drawing and painting. So I just don´t make them.
Pointers, hmmm.... Well, first thing I would say is when you scan something in, set the resolution high, min 150 dpi (most people use 300, but that can lead to very large file sizes while working with it. Usually 150 is good for me.) This will make the original line art seem less jaggy and such. Second, it looks like you're scanning in penciled work, but set as greyscale, hence it gets rid of all the grey hues. Try scanning it in as a full color photograph, and save as jpeg. In photoshop go to image--> adjust--> levels, which allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, etc (sort of like "burning" the entire image at once.) This will let you clean up the line art all at once, and get good contrast between light and dark. One bit of advice I would give to you is your line art looks a bit jaggy close up, before actually coloring try giving it a very slight Guassian blur (under filters --> blur,) set it at like .02 or .03. This will get rid of the jagginess along the edges. To actually beging coloring, set your line art layer to Multiply, then color on a layer beneath it. Some people make a seperate layer for each color, (called the "Flats," becasue it's the flat, base color.) I usually do one for each particular bodypart or item of clothing (pants, skin, legs, armor, face, etc.) When it comes time to add shadows/highlights, there are several different methods. - Some people will make a duplicate layer of the Flat color, set it to multiply, then erase on this layer to create highlights. - Some people use the burn and dodge tools, which works rather well but has a tendency to change the actual colors when you may not intend it. Usually I use burn/dodge/sponge along with the blur and smudge tools. - Of course you can just manually select the highlight and shadow colors and paint them on seprate layers, then blend them with the blur and smudge tools, which looks real good in the end but takes a hell of a long time. Anyway, keep it up, and remember it's all about fun.
Hawanja, your pointers really helped a lot! I just did a few edits to the original picture, and now it looks better than I could ever imagine! The lines don't look nearly as jagged, I got the lighting to look a bit more natural, and made his eyes more octopus-like. And WDK, I know this will sound like a shitty excuse, but this is just my style. I pictured those Lizard people pretty much JUST like that in my mind, and I'm glad I got it down on paper. I don't intend to make money with this, but its more of a hobby, really.
MR: Casual, then enjoy your hobby. Since my father enjoys painting too. And I like his pantings too, but he also edges , and other stuff in the artistic corner.
Never read the books, but I'm interested in the creature Cthulu himself. I read a little on the other bad guys and older aliens and such on Wikipedia. I think I found a site or two that thinks they actually exist!
I've read some lovecraft, it's pretty good stuff. A bit dry in the way that he uses arcane language sometimes, and also all of his characters tend to be bookwormy scolar types. Also they're a bit racist, but in the way that it reflects in the attitudes of the times. For instance, nowadays we would refer to a subuman monster as "mutated" or whatnot, he however frames it in terms of race, i.e. "corrupted bloodline," or "Inferior stock." Thus it seems more like that general, institutional type racism that everyone back then was guilty of becasue they didn't know any better, however some of it can come off as a bit out there to someone more sensitive to being offended by this type of thing. You want to read something really old fashioned, check out Robert E Howards work (Conan, Solomon Kane, etc.) This guy seriously does have a problem with anyone who isn't white - which really sucks becasue his stories are actually pretty good if you can look past it.
