[Fred Flick Stone]

The one thing I am noticing right away in the image is that you are using a very small brush tool to color large areas in, this is braking up the form in some strange ways. Use as large a brush that you can think of, and just paint carefully. For a 640 x 480 image, I might start off with a paintbrush, round tool, set at 100 pixels, and work with that for a while. I also have a wacom, and my pressure sensitivity is set so I can vary the brush size as I paint. What the larger brush does though is simplify form, making it more distiguishable, if you are using your values correctly, and you can knock alot more out, much quicker by doing this.

Manara's art is fun to look at, but harder to color, he is so intricate with his detail. I like the simple image you found to start with. Not so time consuming...

Good Luck and keep em rollin' in...

[lanzo]

i've just started my personal painting bible with your suggestions
i'll try to make another time that layer with a larger brush but i have to reduce dpi because my scsi hd is broken and with win98 and this hd takes some seconds every brush stroke :P
thanks !

[AliasMoze]

Lanzo,
Just wanted to comment on what Fred said. In the beginning, before Fred was around, Spooge said (more than once) to use a big brush, block in the whole thing, etc. I resisted, as most people do. It's tough to break through the urge to start painting details. But now I've learned that, when you paint with a big brush, painting big values, you are doing the right thing. Using a smaller brush from the start is wrong. Took me a long time to get it. Now I take everything Spooge and Fred say about painting as gospel. I do lots of little speed paintings for practice. My recent stuff looks so much better than my older stuff, because of the way I start. The results are better, bolder, quicker, and simpler. Messing with details too soon turned a 15 minute blocking stage into a 30 minute ordeal. If you'd like to join me in doing little speed pics, I'd like to get something going in the forum.

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AliasMoze

"That activates my hilarity unit."

[This message has been edited by AliasMoze (edited July 30, 2000).]

[CyberArtist]

Reminds me of a story (the previous post from AliasMoze, not the picture). One day, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (ok. ok. a couple blocks down the street), my dad decided to paint our house. My Uncle offered to help, which was great for my dad since he had a full time job. Just as my dad is leaving for work, my uncle arrives to start painting the house the next day. When my dad arrived home, my uncle had finished a small corner of the house and was using an old tooth brush to paint the house with. My dad walks up to him and asks politely, "What the fuck are you doing painting the house with a paintbrush." My uncle turns around, looks down from his ladder and says something along the lines of liking to be perfect. My dad walks away for a momment into the garage and comes out with a large roller and hands it to my uncle. He says. "Use this. Do the edges when you've done the rest of the wall, not the entire wall with a small brush!"

The moral of the story? Don't ask your perfectionist Uncle to paint your house with your tooth brushes where he can find them. Er, wait, no, that's not it. Do the large blocks of color first, then do details.

See! It works in all areas of life! (wait, it's still painting, damn.)



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-CyberA(rtist) aka Ben Golus

Cyber...

[lanzo]

I use photoshop from september and i can do good graphics for websites and simple designs.
But i see this forum often and i love your "paintings" and designs of real people, so i tried to follow sijun tutorial then..

I took one comic of Manara (i love it) i "copied" in one piece of paper one pic of a chick with a pencil, i scanned it and adjusted levels.
I've added a new level in multiply mode and painted with flat color,
used color dodge and burn to make dark and light areas and smudge tool as described in the tutorial ...

this is the result after 2 hours (lol i know most of you can design the Eiffel tower in this time...)

this is reduced 72 dpi!



Original 200 dpi (jpeg 40% 150Kb) clic this link:
--- http://www.digital-finger.com/private/lanzo/varie/angelo.jpg
---

Ok it sucks :P
but i have a lot of questions in my mind now ,i want to finish it and i'm thinking if i had to use a straight airbrush with a darker color because i think burning this pink can't result in shadows but only a bad red.
I want also to made it less flat, i want to add dimension on the arms and hands and i want it more clean and contrasted
My problem is that i have only this b/w comic and i can't imagine how can be textured in a right technique..

Well i know some of you can look at this pic and instantly see the problems and "view" in your mind how to correct those, or know a totally different way to texturing my chick :P

thx for the time and don't flame me for my bad english :)

[Rinaldo]

Bring on the little speed pic thread

[AliasMoze]

Lanzo, sorry for talking over your subject

Rinaldo, allrighty then. You want me to post up some stock photos?

P.S.: Here's the most recent one I did. I started doing four a day, but it's hard to keep that pace. I try to do a few a week, though.

[This message has been edited by AliasMoze (edited July 31, 2000).]

[micke]

He he, i recognised Manara right away. He draws gorgeous girls
I think the colouring on the skin could be sharper in some areas like the cheek.
Making the shadowing too soft could ruin the whole impression of the shapes. Did that make any sense?

-Micke


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-Mikael Noguchi-

http://www.katode.org/noguchi/

[lanzo]

Your tips are very important for me, i begin holydays on 4th and start to have some serious practice! (hope to get the new HD)

But i can see in your speed drawings that you don't use dodge and burn tool but you choose different opacity of the colors and paint straight with airbrush, is this true?

thx another time :)

[mantis]

how do you reduce DPI?

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Arpan . B
[email protected]
www.stikik.com/koma
Halo 9 Studios

[SushiMaster]

Go to the Image menu and click on Image size. You wanna understand what dpi actually are, though, first.

Daniel

[AliasMoze]

Lanzo, I use the paintbrush, almost never the airbrush.