[Blindside]

Hola,

T'was wondering whether someone knew of a good technique to render water, and grass with graphite. I've barely done any landscape type drawings before(which i intend to remedy) so any useful tips would be appreciated.

This first sketch started out as a doodle but I tried my hand at finishing it, without much success.. it looks too flat.

The second one is something I cooked up for a pal. The backgrounds a bit rough. Anything else I could improve on?

[Andrew Crocker]

the grass on the first one looks good to me. all i can suggest for water is to make a b&w pic of water and use that as a refrence.

who's hat guy in the second pic? he looks like a pirate from outlaw star.

[Blindside]

Yeah, finding a decent coastal ref pic has been kinda difficult. I'll look around some more.

The guy in the 2nd pic is supposed to be Vega, from Street Fighter 2. Pirate? LOL.. Yeah I guess he does look fairly "swashbuckling".. if thats a word..

[Novacaptain]

Hmm...nice I guessed it was Vega right away (though i recollect him as a skinnier character). The little trickling bloodflow on the guy's hand looks a little unrealistic. A friend of mine once got a glass shard stuck in his hand and it was almost immideately covered in a generous red coating of blood. Imagine having it slashed by 3 sharp metal blades.

The grass on the edge of the cliff looks a bit too neat. The grass itself (on the plateux) looks freshly mowed...but then again we all know that those brutal pirates are really a tidy bunch of individuals... :P

Look in the "right way to start a painting?" thread. There you'll find quite a nice overpainting of a sketch i did with nice wavy water .

or here, but it's hardly the same thing:



I hope it helped.

[Blindside]

Cool, thanks for the tips Nova.. I'll check out the pics you posted and see what I can glean from there..

Yeah, Vega usually is a bit skinnier, although hes been portrayed even more muscular at times.. You recognized him though, so thats what counts

As for the blood on the hand, it does seem a bit fake. I find it difficult at times to get the same "looseness" that painting strokes have when using graphite. They make painting fluid objects much easier. I'll see if i can revamp that somewhat..

'Preciate the help..