[Jason Manley]

youre welcome.

if any of you have any additional comments to what I have said please feel free to add them. I think we can all help each other.


jason

[red com]

way cool

[yoshi]

thanks a lot, i will try to use that.

[Fred Flick Stone]

Jason. THis is a very nice image. Do you use line art for your underlays, or do you just go straight to paint?
YOu have a beautiful style developing.

Another quick question, are you doing these in photoshop or in painter? I really like the painterly look you have going on in the image, and all your other images. Very strong style to say the least.

[garthmidgley]

Thanks a lot for all your acvice Jason, very helpful. I'm trying to adopt a more real feel in my pictures and get away from the comic style, a bit of diversity is what I need. Between you and Spooge, as well as many of the other great artists here, I think I may get there eventually.

Also, I tried a while ago to find a gallery of your works, does one exist? I couldn't really find much on the icewind site either.

Keep up the good work, and keep the comments coming.
Thanks,

------------------
blah blah blah ...

[Jason Manley]

hi

well, I do no line art at all...I start with a large brush and just blanket the canvas with color strokes and shapes that tell me the pose, time of day, focal placement, and general composition of value and color. I then pick at them with gradually smaller brushes til my large forms and compositional shapes start looking right to me. Once I get the image to read as a whole I render out the focal areas and call it done.

I work general to specific. and I dont use any small brushes except to sharpen edges etc...til I am near the end of the piece.

I will see if I still have my saved images so I can put up a process page for you to see.

I worked only with painter for this pic. I used to toy with the colors in photoshop but I have found that the only real way to get all the colors exactly how I want is to get them right as I go and to paint them myself.
Painter works for me this way...plus I get that watercolor and chalk tool that are staple tools for me.

jason

[Jason Manley]

I just noticed that the link to the frazetta that i mentioned above didnt take you all the way to the image I was pointing out.

if you go in the warriors section and go down to the third row...fourth from the left...it has a group of four armed apes capturing a beautiful woman and a hero going in to kick some ape booty.

that has such great composition...beautiful color placement and beautiful shape design as well as action. yum.


jason

[yoshi]

sounds like a good idea to put light sources and some bg first. I haven't though of that, so far i've been doing basic shapes first.

BTW is it possible to paint with overlays in Painter 6, anyone ?

[yoshi]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jason Manley:
youre welcome.

if any of you have any additional comments to what I have said please feel free to add them. I think we can all help each other.


jason

---

yeah, how to find opposite colors ? That belongs to a color theory i guess ?

The image has nice mood.

[Jason Manley]

opposite colors ......or compliments


red/green

yellow/violet

blue/orange

all the colors between will have their opposites as well

red orange/blue green

yellow green/red violet

etc...

but the trick is in the subtle temperature of the colors....

warm red/cool green

cool blue/warmer orange

warm green/cool red

warm violet/cool yellow.

jason

complimentary colors are those that are directly opposite from each other on a traditional color wheel...they are the colors that are farthest apart in the color spectrum....that is the easiest definition.

[Jason Manley]

I dont know about painting with the overlays...that is a question for someone else. I use layers sometimes if I want to paint a new head without losing the old one etc.. but I mostly paint directly.

yes ...when you do a block in of large shapes it helps to think of lighting as you do it. that is what the large shapes are usually...light and dark shapes...warm and cool shapes...bright and dull shapes..


jason

[immi]

Hi Jason

I just bought the new PCGamer today, and theres a really sweet ad in there for Icewind Dale, of a guy with an axe fighting a dragon. I recall you mentioning Justin Sweet doing an ad, but I'm not sure if you said ID or BGII. In any case, I know that he tends to do a lot of the ads....but is this particular image one of yours?

Its a great image. You wouldn't happen to have a high res picture of it would u that I could use on the site?

Also...thanks for the email...looking forward to what you've got in store.

[SporQ]

quote

Quote:

if you go in the warriors section and go down to the third row...fourth from the left...it has a group of four armed apes capturing a beautiful woman and a hero going in to kick some ape booty.

hehe, the thumbnails tile dependant on rez. i found the image you meant though, he sure is inspirational.

SporQ

[Ko]

Immi: Isn't the axe-wielding-dragon-fighter done by Jeff Easley??

Ko

[BooMSticK]

amazing picture, Jason. Would really love to see those progress pictures...(please?)

;B

[yoshi]

Painter v5 has overlay brush, but it doesnt allow to pick colors.

Question about copying masters.. Should i do a detailed drawing of a painting i'm going to copy on paper first and then paint over it or don't bother with drawing at all ? Also, i got a book about Bouguereau, would that be a good material to start with, maybe that's too difficult ? Thanks,.

[Jason Manley]

thanks

the pic is done by justin sweet here at black isle. it is not mine...but it is a good one....can you see the frazetta compositional theory in his work?

he and frazetta both like movement arcs across the format that peak in a focal area...tension tension tension...very nice indeed.

I will see if i can get a high res version for you all to see.

As far as master copies....It might be best to just start with value so you can see all the subtle variation of forms and spaces...as well as edges and such. If you copy the entire thing exactly as you see it and pay attention to the kinds of marks he makes you will learn a lot about his visual language and I guarantee you that your work will improve. But...take you time and enjoy it.

Bouguereau is a tough master to copy...they all are..but his level of finish is very high and will be challenging to duplicate. But if you are gutsy and want to try it...go for it. You will respect him after for sure.

He started with a linear drawing and filled in his color as he went. His placement drawings were very accurate so that he didnt have to work out proportion and such while painting...that was all done in the sketches before hand. He did fully rendered figure drawings before he finally painted them.

good luck..and paint paint paint paint paint ....

jason