[jerO]

again, i'm missing the thumbnail, so i'll start with the Paintchat sketch i did.
STAGE 2: thumbnail
STAGE 2:
STAGE 3:
STAGE 4:
STAGE 5:
STAGE 6:
STAGE 7:
STAGE 8:
STAGE 9:

[ February 21, 2002: Message edited by: jerO ]

[Gimbal8]

Now that is exactly what I'm trying to do process wise but somehow it never turns out right. My stage 3 is still my hangup.

Compositionally I like this one much better then the Eldar one already.

[jerO]

well it helped that i snuck in and out of your "far as i get" thread and used what Craig said to try and get it blocked in.

and thanks. i think it's much deeper than the pathfinder one. more dynamic too.
but then, the other one's supposed to be kind of stiff i guess. *shrug*

oh... and you said at one point in that thread:
>>Sell to White Dwarf? Heh, I'd just be happy if they even printed something of mine...no charge.<<
*grin* check it.

[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: jerO ]

[Gimbal8]

Oh sure. Rub it in why doncha?

Getting some peice of artwork printed somewhere has been part of my last 3 new years resolutions. I've been very lazy the last 3 years as far as art goes. I want to say this year will be different somehow. Part of the reason I've been getting more involved here at Sijun. Keeps me on target.

So where is the next step. Hurry up, I need more inspiration.

[jerO]

man, i got shanghaied by a free food offer and so couldn't do my daily lunch pass.
I'm going to try to do another tonight though, so at least i can get an hour a day in.

As far as publishing stuff, finish something and send it in. Or try to find any kind of local gaming newsletter or something... no pay but exposure.

[jerO]

GSTAGE 4: See Above ^^^
AH! i'm all bummed. I was out sick yesterday so i didn't do anything over lunch AGAIN. So much for "finish it in a week". well, "week" would mean i could do stuff on it until Monday again.
ANYway...

[Gimbal8]

Me again. I'll give your pic a bump and hope someone can give some helpful advice. I can't. I don't see anything wrong with it so far. The only thing I can think to say is something about the depth. I can't put my finger on it but something about the one hound in the background being as light as the ones in the foreground I think ?

Man, I need at least an hour just to think about getting started on something. I wish I could make my lunches as productive.

Anyhow, keep at it. I don't know what is up with ICQ but you are the only one on my contact list who doesn't get any of my messages. I'll have to see if I can't sort that out sometime later.

[jerO]

>something about the one hound in the background
>being as light as the ones in the foreground I think ?

hmm... hope i didn't just make it worse.
Check stage 5 above.
the biggest noticable change (only like 15-30mins this time) is in the hound on the left. I need to make sure that i don't bring him too far forward, but i wanted to crisp him up a bit.

I'm such a slacker, could've worked on this more over the weekend if it weren't for the WarCraft III beta and a 40k CCG tournament
-jerO

[Gimbal8]

"I'm such a slacker, could've worked on this more over the weekend if it weren't for the WarCraft III beta and a 40k CCG tournament"

Yeah, yeah. Excuses, Excuses.

That's ok. I just found out that I have the Discovery Wings channel now, much to my wife's dismay. Good thing there have been quite a few repeats or I'd get nothing done myself.

The hound on the left still looks about right. Probably as long as you keep the edge where the hound in the foreground meets up with the hound on the left on some level of contrast it will keep the sense of depth/distance in place.

[jerO]

Stage 7: went to Baja Fresh and spent another half hour ruining aforementioned tree, tightened up the fore Hound and did some BG stuff that'll probably get thrown away

[jerO]

stage 6: 10 minutes on the tree.

[Gimbal8]

Yeah, I'd ditch the light streaming in the forest. Although a coool idea, it conflicts with the light source shown in the front. Other then that it look likes it is shaping up nicely.

Do you have the colors planned out yet?

[jerO]

y'know... i started laying in some tinting last night, and with a bit of yellow on it, the sunbeam doesn't look as bad.
I'll post it at lunch today.

[jerO]

Oh, so you're saying the lightbeam thing makes sense now? hehe.

check the top for todays tweak.
so i guess i'm spending TWO WEEKS per image rather than one at this point.
*sigh*

I started laying in some color on another layer just to see how things may work... the purple spines _won't be_. i still have some value work to do, but i think it's progressing okay.
jerO

[Gimbal8]

I like the way you show the light filtering through and hitting the tree trunks in the background. I'm no good with color stuff so I don't know what to tell you about the steps you take after this.

Do you think of a color palette when you paint or do you just pick colors based on what you think looks right?

[Gimbal8]

D'oh!

Now that I'm looking at it I realized that I was assuming a light direction even though now shadown have ever really been presented. I always thought for some reason that the light was coming in from the high left side, behind the viewer. But looking at it now I realize there is nothing to say that the light could be cast from a different direction like the way it is streaming in back there.

Now you know the danger of listening to me.

[jerO]

well, i actually grabbed a swamp photo and picked some colors from that, but then ended up dorkin' around with the color picker after that.
so hard to stick to a source palette.

[jerO]

did some more work during lunch.
wasn't i supposed to be done with this thing over a week ago?
time to start another i guess.
I'm trying to find some balance between styles here, the hatched look of inking and the highly rendered ... whatever.
i don't know what the frak i'm doing. heh.

[Gimbal8]

I think you are starting to loose your dynamic range of lights and darks. Needs some more stuff like the light in the background to balance things out. I think. I dunno. I'd be stuck long before this point so I'm just talking out of my ass at this point...and nothing good can come of that.

[Gimbal8]

Did an overpaint. Learned that the jpg comes out a bit darker with the darks then what I had going on in photoshop. Plus I went too far with the highlights to begin with, so now the contrast is going to look a bit too much. Oh well...another good idea gone bad.



Edit: I fixed the dark jpg issue somewhat.

[ February 21, 2002: Message edited by: Gimbal8 ]

[jerO]

YOU BASTARD!
j/k
yeah, i'm going to have to find some way of either bringing the values on a higher layer and doing a screen or hard light or something.
The way i'm doing the color is on a multiplied layer and yanking the opacity around until it looks okay before i save out a jpeg. When i'm done, hopefully, i'll have the same value range as when i started.
Your overpaint really helps me see where i need to make the necessary changes, thanks.
jerO

[jerO]

wow, so i have to actually start a new section
exceeded my picture/post limit at the top
STAGE 10:

[jerO]

and i say i'm done.

[Yacobs]

Between Stage 10 and the final pic, you took out the grass detail in the foreground (to the right of the log).

Why? Without it, the ground looks pretty blurry and unfinished. Otherwise, awesome picture!

- Yacobs

[jerO]

thanks.
hmm... if you think it helped it that much, i could put it back in. i was just concerned that it looked too scribbly.