Fatal-Exit In reply to paulSHpenguin [2017-02-12 16:13:56 +0000 UTC]

No Problemo Your art is awesome.

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Fatal-Exit In reply to dikeruan [2016-03-19 15:09:01 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome

I like the style of your Homefront competition piece, stylistically I reckon it blows away many of the others. Hope you get somewhere with that competition.

 I scrapped my entry last week, cause it was coming out terribly. I guess I'm not very good at drawing epic scenes with guys with guns. Oh well, there will be more competitions in the future to have a go at. And at the moment I'm seriously trying to improve my practical skills of applying the fundamentals of art in my own pieces, so by the time of the next competition, I might have worked things out a bit better..

Just looking at your gallery, I'm really impressed. Especially by your black & white work. On my old account basically all my work was black and white, mostly ink sketches and drawings, so I like that style a lot.

 Just watched you, cause I'm looking forward to seeing more from you

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dikeruan In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-19 17:59:57 +0000 UTC]

Ehi thanks you so much, really. hope to see you in the future contest!

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Fatal-Exit In reply to tsuanimechan [2016-03-18 14:22:01 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome

You've an impressive gallery, and a cool variety of art, I especially like the character and environment pictures

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tsuanimechan In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-18 14:25:47 +0000 UTC]

You are so kind. Thank you ^_^

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Fatal-Exit In reply to R9A [2016-03-15 00:01:10 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome Your artwork is amazingly detailed, and I really respect the fact that you use a lot of open source art software I'm a huge Krita fan myself and I used to use mypaint, so it's nice to find people making really good art in free software.

Your face paintings are amazing Some are somewhat creepy looking but I think the amount of fine detail work on most of them is staggering. They must have taken an awful long time to fully refine.

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

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R9A In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-15 16:37:40 +0000 UTC]

Thanks a ton! That's great to hear!

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Fatal-Exit In reply to RichardVatinel [2016-03-12 23:00:53 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome And thanks for writing this comment, cause now I've just checked out your gallery and --- wow. Watched

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RichardVatinel In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-13 15:47:50 +0000 UTC]

Thank a lot!

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Fatal-Exit In reply to relhom [2016-03-08 22:23:46 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the llama.

I love your abstract wallpapers, they're so cool

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relhom In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-08 22:55:05 +0000 UTC]

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Fatal-Exit In reply to Gold3nDiamond [2016-03-08 05:04:32 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome I'm seriously impressed by the 3d stuff you do

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-06 15:33:16 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome I think your character art is really cool

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-07 15:39:34 +0000 UTC]

I'm really glad you like it! Which character art especially? :] 

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-07 19:33:21 +0000 UTC]

I would say most of it It's kinda like the style, you know. Some of your stuff is really dark themed and others stuff the opposite, and that's interesting.
All the character work looks particularly well done, which is something I kinda struggle with.

I really liked your speedpaintings, I think the time constraint adds an extra way of thinking about them, like how you managed to get them looking so finished and complete within the constraint.
I also thought your Irri portrait came out very nice. And your latest piece was quite nice as well.

That's not to say I'm not a fan of the rest, I just find it hard to pick favorites

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-08 01:07:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for the comment! I really wasn't expecting one so detailed but I'm happy you thought it was worth the time to send me one. :] 
Speedpaintings are a great exercise and I highly recommend them~ I think the most challenging part is how they force you to make artistic decisions quickly. :] 
Thanks again so much for the comment! 

Btw, exactly what do you struggle with when it comes to character work? Just curious

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-08 05:18:03 +0000 UTC]

Well a few things actually. "Realism" in a sense , anatomy (kinda) and emotion.
When I say I struggle with characters I'm mainly referring to humans, at least realistic ones.

I tend to draw a lot of undead and fantasy creatures, mainly because they reduce the need for such focus on some of the areas above. You can do your own thing a bit more and they still look decent.

Drawing a "living" looking human from nothing I find incredibly hard. With reference it is not as impossible though.

I guess a lot of my issues revolve around me avoiding using reference and doing studies on things.

Anyway, that's enough of my difficulties, for now.


Speed-paintings are awesome, as you say

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-08 05:23:29 +0000 UTC]

I think I get what you mean. o wo Really though, I rarely ever work without reference--I use several for a single painting tbh, and I tend to do studies in order to "prepare" for a painting. Usually this means that for the next pieces I need less references. 
Good luck with your own work though! 

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-08 22:34:40 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it

Most of the time I just treat digital painting as something fun to do to wind down after rough days. So much of the time I just can't be bothered to go to the deal that say, a painting has to look realistically like another picture.

One question for you:
When you are working on drawing humans, where do you get the references that suit the positioning/posing of your painting's characters?

Because recently I decided to skip going through photo reference, and download a 3d posing program called Design Doll. It basically gives you a 3d humanoid, which you can pose in any way, then render out the image as a totally unique piece of character reference unique to you. And the best thing about it is the free version is time unlimited and while it lacks a few features, it's still capable of being used as a pose renderer. I've been using it in a few WIPs so far, I'm looking forward to having something completed.

That's my way of referencing humans if I need to. Hope you may find that interesting

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-09 14:44:24 +0000 UTC]

No prob! 

I see though! Yeah painting usually means something different for every artist--as someone trying to become a professional, I try to put as much work as I'm able into a piece. ; w; But I still have plenty of respect for artists who take the time to draw even as a hobby. 

I decided to look up the program Design Doll you talked about and it's pretty interesting! A lot of work was definitely put into creating that program and I can see how it would be useful. :] Would you mind showing me some of the WIPs you have so far? 

When looking for references though, I don't worry too much about getting references that look exactly like the pose I want. Usually the things that help me are: 
1) doing quick 60-second gesture drawings on www.quickposes.com/gestures/ch… (as a warm up) 
2) doing a few studies from books by Burne Hogarth (to look at muscles and how they operate under the skin) 
3) looking at and sketching references more or less similar to the pose I want 

But these days, I can usually skip to 3)--I use references for tiny details like skin folds etc, but I've accumulated enough basic knowledge that I can get the general pose down. 
Basically, I use a process similar to the one described in this tutorial: fav.me/d48cakt

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-09 18:12:20 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for this

I've only had Design Doll for mainly a week, so I've not much to show you really. Actually one of the pieces I've made was based off a five minute DD job. The dancing zombie.



Not a great painting, but the most proportionally correct humanoid I've painted in awhile.

Thanks for telling me the process you use though. And that tutorial was definitely worth reading.

The reason I try not to take art too seriously was I used to, while I was in school.
Then I got burned out, got incredibly depressed then ended up dropping out for a number of reasons.

Since then I've been  putting my life back together and taking things seriously is painful sometimes.
I prefer to be more casual with my hobbies at this point in my life.
I'm the same with my music work, I've a decent presence on Soundcloud, but I try not to take that too seriously.

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-13 03:51:29 +0000 UTC]

Ohhh I see! Then I hope this program continues to help you with that. :] It really does seem to be useful. 

Mmm I see. It's true that art (any kind of art) is more easily pursued when other aspects of your life aren't too stressful; I'm hoping if you continue it though, it's something more enjoyable and not so stressful. > w< Take it easy yeah? 

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-13 04:12:20 +0000 UTC]

Thanks.

Yeah I'm trying to get aid from a multitude of sources software wise. I just also started messing around with Google SketchUp, an easy to use 3d program, and I want to experiment with using it to construct base forms for backgrounds. I enjoy experimenting with a variety of software, especially if it's free/very cheap. Gotta say Krita, a free Photoshop alternative, is my favorite thing ever IF you don't mind me asking, what's your personal software of choice?

Sometimes I think art is strange when it comes to stress and the like. Sometimes it feels impossible to do anything. Other times it's like art really helps to remedy stress, and like you say, can be quite enjoyable. Again it helps if you're not taking it too seriously. At least that's how it works for me.

I'm doing my best to keep up my creative endeavors, either through producing art for DeviantArt, music for SoundCloud, and sometimes even writing to publish for free on Wattpad. All of these things can help me deal with trouble and personal difficulties depending on the situation.

Right now I'm having a hard time though, a classmate of mine got killed in an accident earlier this week and it's really making me feel incredibly depressed. There's not much I can really do to deal with this at the moment though, hopefully I'll be able to return to my course next week and get back into working. Life really sucks sometimes.

But I'm sure I'll get through it. Eventually.

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-13 12:15:01 +0000 UTC]

I'm terribly sorry for your loss; there's not much I can say to cheer you up, but it's good that you're finding comfort in the things you love to do. You and I are 2 different kinds of artists (with me aiming to go professional and you being a hobbyist), but I I hope art, music, and writing continue to help you through hard times--it definitely does that for me. :]

On software tho:
I think it's cool you've tried out a bunch of different programs! At this point I'm not very experimental, but I'm hoping once I get into design school I'll be introduced to all sorts. Right now I'm using Paint Tool SAI because it's a very stripped-down painting software, and I find it helps me concentrate on the actual painting without being distracted by all the bells and whistles, but I'm planning to switch to Photoshop pretty soon just because a lot of jobs require one to be photoshop-fluent, yknow? Haha. Krita's been recommended to me too, but I've yet to really sit down and try to learn it. 

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-13 17:05:33 +0000 UTC]

Thank you, I really appreciate it
I've heard good things about SAI from a multitude of artists, for the exact same reasons you list. Though I've never used it myself, I understand that it's the basis for a lot of good art from all sorts of people.

Going for design school, that's awesome. To tell you the truth I'm interested in pursuing multimedia or graphic design in college myself, when I'm finally old enough to qualify as a mature student. I hit a bit of a brick-wall in a way because I left school before getting my final exams done, and it's coming back to bite me now.

To tell you the truth, I've considered taking fine art stuff more seriously, but I honestly find myself better at design and technical work, which I excelled in while I was in school. Because I don't know if I'd be a good enough fine artist to really get anywhere. Over the last year I've been focusing on design skills, ranging from 3d work, to album and book cover designs, banners and avatars, and game sprites. Most of that work isn't here on DA though.

When it comes to graphics software it's difficult to know what to do. I see positives and negatives in photoshop, I use it more as a design tool now than a painting program. Because I used to use Corel Painter, loved the way brushes worked with the engines, and never liked the Photoshop way. Kinda why I like Krita so much. That said, others produce awesome art all in Photoshop. Still, it's a very valuable tool to learn for a skills portfolio.

Personally I think photoshop & gimp are better as tools for design than Krita and Sai and the like. However I feel that if you're actually doing painting or even better, concept art, Krita is hugely more useful than PS. In my opinion.

I personally recommend that you take a look at the latest stable version of Krita at some point, if only to look at some of the crazy features it offers. It's been referred to as a blend of the good parts of PS and SAI, and I understand that. Even by using Krita, you'd learn some of the advanced features photoshop has to offer, like the vector tools and layer styles (dunno if SAI has them.) Also you'd have access to some of the most useful concept art tools including multi axis symmetry, and the sketch and alchemy brush engines.  It';s just so fun to play around with

Anyway, I hope things work out alright for you, and you get a place in design school and that sorted out. You should definitely gain access to a wide variety of software. What areas do you think you will try to focus on when you get in?

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-14 06:45:19 +0000 UTC]

Hang in there. :] 

Ahh there are all sorts of artists out there; I don't see why you shouldn't pursue more technical work if you feel you do well in it! There's still plenty of time to branch out in the future, and if it exists there's a market for it. :]  

I remember when I was starting out tho, a lot of my work was done in GIMP--tbh I found it rather clunky and difficult to work with and the switch to SAI really sped up and smoothed out my painting process. Krita has been recommended a lot, especially by this artist whose work I really like: r9a.deviantart.com/
Like I said tho, I've really got to one day sit down and learn how to use it. :] 

I understand the design school course I'm entering covers mostly illustration and concept art, but also touches on 3D and graphic design. I know in the end I'll go back to illustration, but it would be nice to learn a little bit of everything. I know the software we'll need should be provided as well; more than anything tho, I'm excited to go back to fundamentals because my knowledge of that is still pretty scattered haha. 

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Fatal-Exit In reply to oshRED [2016-03-14 13:38:50 +0000 UTC]

Wow, that artist you showed me has some really brilliant work. Thanks

If you want to look up another really good artist who uses Krita, check out David Revoy's work. deevad.deviantart.com/ . He's a professional illustrator, concept artist, comic artist and he was also the main artist on some of the Blender foundation short films. He's one of the main artists associated with Krita and his brush packs are basically legendary amongst the Krita community.

I had a similar process when starting out, I began with a program called Paint.Net which is a reasonably powerful image editor, but for painting, not so much. Back when I was in school though, I used it to design a board game for our class business project, and we won our county competition and ended up visiting our capital city and competing on a national level. So I didn't do too bad a job. Was a fun experience. But back then I knew nothing of painting. I hated traditional painting, the only forms of traditional art I was good at were detailed pencil drawings, and crazily intricate line art. I was more into the technical graphics classes in school than the art projects we were doing at the time. This was a good while before I even had a tablet.

Now I'm incredibly lucky to have the hardware setup I've got now. I got a new tablet last month, a Ugee 19 inch pen monitor. It's no Cintiq, but it certainly feels much more fun than messing around on my old 6x4 inch Wacom small tablet. And it cost me less than half the price of the cheapest Cintiq. A real bargain if you can set the drivers up.

I do feel as if I've better knowledge of some technical things, but as you say, I've plenty of time to revisit other things later. Maybe even sooner than expected.

Speaking of studying art, I just found this incredibly awesome website. It's called CTRL Paint ( www.ctrlpaint.com ) , and it's basically an online art training website, focusing on digital art, with a big focus on concept art and illustration. It features tons of free videos, as well as a big series of cheap paid courses, which I bought a couple of and I'm working at right now. They're based around the fundamentals of both digital painting, and also around learning how to do concept design, from basic concept work through to planning out and producing large scale, portfolio worthy pieces. The guy who runs it uses photoshop, but most of the stuff is transferable to other software. He spent the last 5 years making the videos for it. You might want to check that site out, it's been recommended quite highly.

I feel that this might be a good start in improving my paintings

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oshRED In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-15 12:14:09 +0000 UTC]

Ah I know David Revoy's stuff actually! Didn't know he had a dA tho, thanks for sharing. :] 

I also used Paint.NET starting out! Yay Paint.NET babies~ 
Also, ctrlpaint is a great site. I remember studying from the vids and doing the exercises every morning while I was university. That was lots of fun~ I haven't made much time to go back to those vids for fundamentals and I honestly don't know if I will after starting in design school but they're definitely great. The internet is amazing yeah? I hope you'll improve a lot learning from those. :] There's so much great software (and hardware xD ) to pick from to further our artwork, but there's no replacement for good old study imo. 

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Fatal-Exit In reply to Shroomer83 [2016-03-04 11:24:19 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome. I love your fractal art

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Fatal-Exit In reply to TheObliviousOwl [2016-03-04 01:51:10 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome I really enjoyed looking through your gallery, even as briefly as I did.
You've made some awesome paintings

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TheObliviousOwl In reply to Fatal-Exit [2016-03-04 02:11:59 +0000 UTC]

Hey, thanks so much. That means a lot to me! T____T

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