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gurrilla In reply to gumate [2008-01-16 23:08:30 +0000 UTC]

Kudos to you for knowing the Greek gods, serves me right for coming up with a name after being up all night, never mind. Hmmm, I wonder if its possible to retroactively fix the title....?
I shall have to run future titles past you .

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gurrilla In reply to FataL- [2008-01-11 22:45:22 +0000 UTC]

I am flattered by people not being to tell if this piece is digital or real. Its digital but I strive to simulate realism whilst utilising the artistic licence digital art provides.

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FataL- In reply to gurrilla [2008-01-11 23:04:35 +0000 UTC]

well, now you made me touch myself.
wonderful piece you've done here, guess you earned a +watch right now
one thing though: everything looks absolute realistic only thing is: it's nearly impossible to get such nice and fine patternlines in the background.
other than that: <3

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gurrilla In reply to FataL- [2008-01-11 23:54:51 +0000 UTC]

Thats the artistic licence you have when creating it artificially, there's no way you'd manage to get those wings done in real life, they were design to be like a screen rather than a stencil as it looked nicer. Although I do often try too hard to make things look real and it can ruin the effect as it makes it look more contrived and less real, its like the more you mess with it the more you can pick out that its not really random.
At some point when I can actually afford all the colours and materials I'd need to pull of a design I'd be happy with I'll give it a go. Also when I'm in London with people I know who can participate in my nefarious activities. At the moment I know no one where I live and its not the sort of area were anyone would even appreciate the work involved.

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gurrilla In reply to truemarmalade [2008-01-11 17:39:29 +0000 UTC]

Got you again mr marmalade, as always sorry to disappoint that it is not a real world stencil, the wings were made as if they were a screen but I had in mind your half-tones and the idea that it would be possible to cut and spray them if twer a real job. But I have done a fair amount of screen printing in the past and that was my inspiration, that and a crazy talented friend of mine who was always skint and would screen print onto any old piece of wood or crap he found laying about on the street.

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truemarmalade In reply to gurrilla [2008-01-11 17:56:51 +0000 UTC]

Much more efficient way of doing it, your way.

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gurrilla In reply to truemarmalade [2008-01-11 18:13:00 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, it'll take me a few years to get full blown carpal tunnel through RSI. Whereas you probably already have it now with all your scalpel work .

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truemarmalade In reply to gurrilla [2008-01-11 20:08:05 +0000 UTC]

My wrists do get sore when I cut for a couple hours!

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gurrilla In reply to CrisisProject [2008-01-11 11:03:34 +0000 UTC]

Hi cheers for some constructive crit, don't always get that. Its all separate layers, sprayed in corel painter somewhat like real stencils, so I can punch up or dial down contrast and pretty much make them all whatever colours I want.
I did have the pink one heck of alot brighter to the point of being almost day-glo but it felt a little aggressive when teamed with the subject matter, maybe is was wrong. May I ask in particular which areas you think need the contrast?
The wings kind of need to stay as they are as when I had them any brighter they jumped forward ahead of the layers they are supposed to be behind in terms of visual depth.
I think the birds could use a bit more colour maybe, particularly the small ones.

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CrisisProject In reply to gurrilla [2008-01-11 17:32:30 +0000 UTC]

I thought this was a physical stencil, the fact that it isn't is awesome, and thought provoking *scratches chin*

I agree with your decision about the pink, anything more vibrant would take away from the piece entirely. I also agree with the wings, but not the birds, I think they are great the way they are.

My suggestion would be to darken the blacks in the pilot, in one of two ways. If the skull is presented to be blurred as if it was behind a glass mask, I would leave it. However, darkening the eyes of the skull would draw you deeper into the piece. They are 'the windows to the soul' remember

The other suggestion would be to darken the blacks on the character altogether. Possibly a bit different here and there in terms of opacity, but the contrast not only will bake the entire piece 'op', but will also differentiate the foreground, from the middle, and background.

Can you give me more into on this Corel Draw spray painting thing you got goin on? Or did I read that wrong.

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gurrilla In reply to CrisisProject [2008-01-11 17:54:03 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for that, I couldn't place what it was, I think you are definitely right with the eyes, I tend to get too into simulate age and distress which fades the black, forgetting that its digital and I can take liberties with reality.

To answer how I do it:

1.) I start with doing a comp mock in photoshop and make the stencils as many people do using the cutout filter, with lots of back and forth tweaking. To do this I usually divide it up in to separate sections for a piece this complicated, in this case on the main figure I had the helmet area, gas mask area and coat area each with 3 colours in it. This alows me to play around with colours and use hot and warm colours to push things back and forward.
2.) When the stencil in photoshop is done I take into illustrator and vectorise it so I can resize at will.
3.) Back to photoshop with all the many layers.
4.) Then here is the magic bit, I open it up in Corel PAINTER which is a cool real media simulating program that works a bit like photoshop, I do the spray painting in here with a number of custom air brushes made to simulate various elements of spray painting. I use a wacom intuous tablet to work in here as it senses tilt so you can use it like a real can of paint which is cool, I used to use an wacom graphire which worked just not as well.
5.) Once I'm done I go back to photoshop which I'm much more comfortable using than any other prog, here I can apply layer styles to change colours, bevel, drop shadow etc. to add realism, I also use the mask tool quite heavily to break up flat areas a bit and simulate more surface texture.
6.) Once I like the composition and effects I mess around applying lighting effects to make it less flat and also apply a lens blur to the top and bottom (sometimes edges) as this really helps create a sense that its in the real world and has been photographed.
Hope all that helps an it is really only a rough guide, the piece took me 3 or 4 days so you can guess I've left out an awful lot of the nitty gritty of it.

Oh and I think you'd love the Mister Retro Machine Wach actions for photoshop
([link] )
I use them extensively particularly when simulating print, if you apply them to the various colours, add a faint bevel and shadow in layer styles of photoshop and drop it over a paper background you can really make it look like you've screen print a piece without leaving the comfort of you computer.

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CrisisProject In reply to gurrilla [2008-01-12 16:10:02 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for all that info. Wicked to see the process typed out, almost seems easy (j/k)

I gotta be honest, I've never used the cutout filter, I couldn't find it in photoshop so I am guessing this is an add-on of sorts? Or maybe I'm just blind. I checked on that tablet of yours, and it looks pretty badass. Pricey too. I've tried using them before, and I didn't like it. Maybe if I gave it a good college try I'd be into it more.

And thx for the recomendation for Retro Machine Wash, I'm grabbin it now. Any more recomendations? Also, make sure I see the final "Ares et Thanatos" if you make any changes.

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CrisisProject In reply to CrisisProject [2008-01-11 17:32:49 +0000 UTC]

silly smiley face - its supposed to be POP

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