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Tattered-Dreams — Aftermath

#fanart #fandom #newt #thomas #mazerunner #deathcure #newtmas #mazerunnerfanart #deathcurefanart #digitalpainting
Published: 2018-02-08 02:26:39 +0000 UTC; Views: 1215; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 0
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Description So this is what I've been attempting to do the past two days.

Never have I been quite so happy or quite so pissed off with how my attempts at faces have come out. Its a weird sensation.

All will be explained in a bit. Maybe some of you can guess who these guys are in the meantime?

EDIT: Okay, yep, the more I look at it, the more pissed off I get. I'm okay with Thomas, but Newt...I really kinda hate it. Why are humans this difficult? Anyway, it'll just stay here. This was MEANT to be Thomas and Newt from The Maze Runner (their movie incarnations because that's my current obsession) and this specifically is based on what was stoLEN from us (no spoilers for those of you who haven't seen it and care). So that's all I'll really say. I just love these two characters and its no longer even the littlest bit funny how much I want them to be happy. That is all.

And I reduced viewing size because I really, really fucked up with the face -dead-

Refs used were of the actors faces only. The rest I had to BS
Art copyright to Tattered-Dreams
I do not own the characters or the series they're from
Do not take, copy, edit, redistribute or manipulate.
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Comments: 17

z0mbiequeen [2018-03-02 13:18:52 +0000 UTC]

H'okay, I promised a critique, so here we go. Firstly, this is wonderfully emotional and I don't even know who the characters are, so great job on that. The emotion really pours out of it wonderfully.

The character nearest to us (Thomas, I'm guessing?) has a great face shape, with shade and light all hitting mostly the right places for the light source, and it's a good tonal range as well considering the firey light. I think the orange strands in the hair mostly look great, but I'd rethink the ones round the back in the darkest areas away from the fire - same for the clothing lineart, it only partially makes sense, and may stand out a little too much when compared to the more subtle/tonally blended lines of the faces and hair (on both characters). With a strong light source like that when the rest of the scene is dark, the areas away from the light are unlikely to have any kind of highlighting at all, and you could take the strength of the lighting much further in general - example: i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/…

The first thing that strikes me about Newt's face is the thinness/sharpness of the nose, I feel you have overshaded around the edges, making it appear as though he has grooves between his nose and cheeks and I think that may be the thing that's throwing you off the most, as the nose appears to be the same 'height' as the cheeks with the sides indented, if that makes sense. Given the strong difference in light between the 'back' and 'front' of the characters, I think there could be a larger tonal range in Newt's face shading, and possibly some stronger lighting to this side as he is leaning more toward the fire with one side whereas both cheeks are quite a similar shade. The shape of his neck looks really good, and the shading there is (in my opinion) spot on. The shape of the face in general is good, you just need to lift the nose outward a bit.

I think the finger closest to us on Newt's right hand (on Thomas' leg) is a little long as that would be his little finger which, typically, is the length of the first 2 thirds of the ring finger next to it. The left hand being on Thomas' upper arm is a somewhat unnatural position for that pose (try it) and is more likely to be on his lower arm or shoulder/back where the wrist isn't as twisted.

Lastly, with the light source being at floor level (assumingly) and quite close, there would be strong shadows behind their legs and feet cast on the floor and on the log they're sitting on.

I hope something in here is useful to you! I'd love to see more art like this <3

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to z0mbiequeen [2019-06-24 10:35:28 +0000 UTC]

Z0mb this is amazing thank you so much! Sorry its taken so so SO long to reply - I've had my head down a fandom hole and wanted to respond properly. Really appreciate this!

- Glad the emotion comes across even though you don't know them!
- Yes, Thomas is the closer of the two and its awesome you think he works for the most part. I had a good reference picture to go with for that and it already had very similar lighting to what I wanted, so it was a huge help considering my human anatomy is still in need of work.
- Totally agree with you on the highlights/outline at his back. I was messing around with that a bit, if I remember right and somehow had it in my head that taking away all outline looked weirder but yeah, it absolutely doesn't make sense with the light source where it is.
- As for Newt. oh boy. I could find no good reference pictures of the actor at the right angle/with the right expression, or with the right lighting so this is a result of me attempting to use multiple images and it definitely failed. I just kept struggling with what was wrong and making it worse. What you said helps so much! I didn't even consider I was making his nose look sunken/pressed back but it really is - and the tonal difference given the way he's half on to the light source is definitely out of whack too. This helps so much and if I ever feel like opening this psd file again definitely it gives me a place to start with an attempted fix.
- Haha you know I was too busy killing myself over their faces and then deciding that I wanted Newt's hands in view as like this tangible comfort thing that I spent no time considering how natural their placement is. WOW. yeah its a really weird angle so that would have to go too.
- (I think I always tend to screw up finger proportions and get them a bit too long but thank you for pointing that out as well!)
- I see what you're saying about the shadows from their legs too. I did consider that one but figured with the fire not being static and more of a softer light that the shadows wouldn't have a hard outline either, hence the very soft darkness, but true its probably not dark enough. I think half of that was me messing up perspective because their legs are apart, light would get between them to the log, but then the viewpoint is side on, so the line of the shadow would be off? I'm probably explaining that badly. Basically where there is some highlight right behind Thomas' left leg would be the part of the log that is between them if you were face on from the fire. I just screwed up the execution so thank you for pointing it out!

This was hugely helpful! Definitely with the faces which I just couldn't suss how I was making it worse and worse. And some bits I didn't consider as well Thanks for taking the time to write it all out and I'm sorry it took me so long to respond to it. I read it last year but just was out of an art headspace for so long. It would be fun to try to do more human-oriented art at some point, though

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Volt-Draws [2018-02-08 14:54:31 +0000 UTC]

Totally amazing work!
I wish I could draw humans that good! XD

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to Volt-Draws [2018-02-12 14:29:17 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much! It means a lot you think so much of them, but I still have a lot to learn. Just practice and you'll be fine - that's all I do

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Volt-Draws In reply to Tattered-Dreams [2018-02-12 14:41:03 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I'll do my best!

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decors [2018-02-08 13:30:58 +0000 UTC]

lighting is awesome sauce... my "humans" or "potatoshaped head-fotters" usually look like poop...Ive come to rely on a grid to at least make them look somewhat like humans....aliens...things....from the black lagoon...

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to decors [2018-02-12 14:28:35 +0000 UTC]

I'm so sorry for replying late, but just thank you so much Its great to hear you like it and think the lighting works

Honestly grids make me worse, I think - I worry too much about fitting into the boxes that I forsake naturalness and it just looks really rigid, but it works wonders for some people. I find that just starting really rough and slowly building up levels of detail in the sketch, shifting things into the right place works best for me. But as you can see - it doesn't work wonders. They kinda look like people, but definitely not exactly as intended. Newt's face annoys me more and more haha.

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decors In reply to Tattered-Dreams [2018-02-12 15:42:11 +0000 UTC]

psh I say it looks good - Swede rules ! JA!

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sprite-light [2018-02-08 07:20:56 +0000 UTC]

You're way too harsh on yourself!
this looks amazing!!

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to sprite-light [2018-02-08 11:01:01 +0000 UTC]

I always am XD I think maybe moreso this time because I utterly failed a specific target/aim, but also generally because I struggle with faces XD

Thank you so much, though! Glad you think so

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sprite-light In reply to Tattered-Dreams [2018-02-08 11:39:27 +0000 UTC]

I wish I could draw humans like you DX

No worries I love all your art

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KAHarder [2018-02-08 02:31:26 +0000 UTC]

Is ittttttt Dylan O’Brien and Thomas Brody Sangster??

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to KAHarder [2018-02-08 03:16:11 +0000 UTC]

...It might be

Haha, yep, that was the idea anyway. I'm really happy with how Dylan/Thomas worked out and I had a good ref for it, but Thomas/Newt...that was so tricky. I painted over most of the first attempt and started again for this, and its an improvement but still not quite right. TBS is difficult to paint.

I saw the Death cure nearly two weeks ago and its still ruining my life, in short.

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KAHarder In reply to Tattered-Dreams [2018-02-08 08:03:43 +0000 UTC]

Dylan was very easy to identify, you did a very good job capturing his features! I can tell that you struggled a bit with Thomas but he’s still very good -a lot better than what my attempt would look like currently- and I applaud you for stepping outside your comfort zone.

I still haven’t seen the movie yet, I’m not even sure if it’s still in theatres! It seems like it’s done a number on a lot of people. I’m hoping it doesn’t end the same as the book because I may have read the synopsis on it and I’m not too happy with what happens to certain characters coughcoughnewtcoughcough >.>

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to KAHarder [2018-02-08 11:10:50 +0000 UTC]

A friend on tmr discord/tumblr found me a really good picture of Dylan in profile, and it had just the right lighting I was looking for, so that really helped. But I searched for ages and I couldn't get a picture of TBS at the right angle, in the right lighting (or even with quite the right light source) so I ended up needing to use way more pictures for him and sort of meshing things from each, so its about 4 kinds of inbetween XD I'd honestly start again and keep playing with it if I didn't think I honestly would make it worse haha. But thank you so much for the kind words ^^

And ommmmmgggggg. I don't want to say anything to spoil you but nggghh. You gotta see it. It's definitely wrecked a lot of people, though. And if you do see it and want a community to vent to, there's a huge fandom on tumblr and a whole bunch of us started up a discord chat. Everyone can just go there, meet people and scream about the series. I never really spoke to anyone on tumblr until it was set up...less than a week ago, I think, and I already have a group of amazing friends with all the same trauma and there's great content and posts flying around.

Just in case you wanted a community if/when you watch the film ^^

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KAHarder In reply to Tattered-Dreams [2018-02-10 20:17:33 +0000 UTC]

That’s great! I could’ve used a group like that after Civil War, my friends and family didn’t understand why I was so upset that I ended up furiously cleaning XD I’ll have to check out the groups and maybe start my tumblr back up when I see it, keep your eyes peeled for me!

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Tattered-Dreams In reply to KAHarder [2018-02-11 05:01:06 +0000 UTC]

Sounds awesome!! Yeah, its great having people to chat to. There's so many people on there now, though, that the chats can get wild and veer way off topic, but it is a group of people that love it

you should be able to just find most tmr posting blogs and ask the main ones about the discord and they could get you a link (I'm not sure if its open to non tumblrs but I really don't think it would matter. I can check tomorrow, though. You shouldn't feel pressured to be on tumblr just to chat to other fans, but at the same time, we do talk a lot about posts on tumblr. Its up to you. I'll check anyway).

And if all else fails, I'm seaselkie over there and you could send me a message and I can drop you the link ^^

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