[notic]

did this little drawing when i had nothing too do, how can i make it better? please comment this picture
http://213.65.198.8/pirate.jpg

[EviLToYLeT]

The drawing itself isn't bad at all. But, I'll tell you right off the bat that you may want to drop a few bad habits.

1.) Try not to use the dodge and burn tool.. It gets your pictures looking plasticy and lumpy, and that is usually not the desired effect. Don't ge me wrong, the dodge and burn tools can be used effectively, but don't attempt to use em until you have a firm grasp of color.

2.) Try to determine your light source first. By simply taking a shape, shading the sides darker and the middle lighter just doesn't work. It may provide a .. small hint of 3d, but in the end the image ends up looking 2d and does not have a lot of life. I'd recommend that you study how light casts lights and shadows on objects. The easiest way to do this is look at other peoples paintings or set up lighting experiments on your own with flashlights. Using a flashlight to help you get the lighting right is a great tool!

And last but not least, don't be discouraged. Just keep your head high and keep trying.

[roundeye]

quote

Quote:

Try not to use the dodge and burn tool.. It gets your pictures looking plasticy and lumpy

where do people learn this? ive been using PS for as many years as its been around and i never once thought of using this tool for shading until i got here a month ago. are there sites that promote this? anyways yes, it does appear hard to do right.
i love the pic by the way. can you post the original pencils?

[Flinthawk]

roundeye: Actually, within my first month of using PS I started using the Dodge/Burn tool to do a lot of my highlights and shadows. I hadn't seen any sites or talked to anybody doing this...just spent hours each day fooling around with the tools and thought that'd be an easy way to do things. I pretty much taught myself to do images like Dhab's old tutorial tells you to.

That being said, notic, DON'T use the dodge/burn tool. Really, listen to what Eviltoylet is saying and just do your best not to use them. Pick the colors that should be there and paint them in instead. You'll have much better results and you'll be a better artist for it...if only I'd learned that sooner...

[edit] after clicking reply I thought in the interests of not teaching the wrong thing that maybe it would be best for Dhab to take that tutorial down already or hurry up and post his updated one =P But there's your answer, roundeye...there is at least one site that promotes that useage of the tool, heh

-Flinthawk

[This message has been edited by Flinthawk (edited April 10, 2001).]