[Dangeruss]

Another attempt. I tried more contrast with the lighting. Still not where I'd like to see it. I guess I need better references.

[Petra Pan]

I like.....

[warbaby]

I think it wold help you if you study the demo Craig gave at artcenter, someone posted a few screenshots of his progress, check them out, its a great way to work on lighting and contrast. Your method looks too constrained and artificial. If you do something more freeform you can alwyas cleen it up, but right now it looks more like you gradient filled most of it.

[LordArioch]

I liked the first one better. I think it can sometimes be a mistake to try to put too much photorealistic 3D shading on to relatively stylized 2D lineart. But then, that's just my opinion.

[Manik Monkei]

Keep in mind that, awesome as it is, not everyone is trying to emulate Craig's style. Although I agree there is tons to be learned from that demo.

Dangeruss - I like the crisp coloring job of this. My comment would be that the character looks placed "on top" of the background instead of in the scene. The shadow starts to place her, but down near her feet the "drop shadow" effect makes her look like she's floating. I'd suggest trying to define the ground plane a little more.

(unless she's supposed to be floating hehe)

Nice work though, keep it up! I'd like to see some colorings of your own linework

[Dangeruss]

Thanks guys. It's a technique thing, I'm sure. I'm comimg from a precise technical illustration and 3D modeling background. It's almost disturbing to work "fast and loose" for me. Craig's stuff looks great, but it's probably not ever going to be a style I adopt.

You're 100% correct about the background and shadow, she's rather weightless - I'll work on that. As far as my own stuff, it's mostly mechanical in nature and GUI skins oriented. (link below)
Figure drawing is still quite elusive for me. I figured I'd work on a few of these to get a feel for the whole digital painting media before overwhelming myself with character design, and all the rest.

nullDangeruss-Industries

[Akolyte]

Although I admire Craig's style very much, your style also has a place in art. This very clean, extremely detailed render is pretty damn appealing if you ask me. Good work.

[Collosimo]

I like this, it's pretty cool. Nice rendering. You say it is missing something.

Values. I think that you have been reluctant to use black or dark values for the shadow areas. Apart from that you have kind of coloured in each 'area' with roughly the same values.. and saturation.

Midtone Hair...
Midtone Green clothes...
Midtone Boots...
Midtone Gun...
Midtone canisters...
Midtone skin...

Thats a lot of midtones.. and therefore it doesn't create a full sense of form. You need some variation from 255 to 0. The darkesk areas I am seeing is the lines. With any artwork if the lines dominate.. then it will flatten the image (they dont dominate here, but are directly affecting). In this particular case, because the lines act to clarify the individual shapes, then the whole shape/form is not as clear. I think that you can keep all those little lines, but in order to achieve a whole sense of form, you need to work on the values. Thats what everyone has been saying in relation to craigs work. The basics are so powerful and important for the development of the artwork.

You are being a little 'controlled' IMO and this is to be expected from your background in 3d or for that matter anybody else. Who says what is right and wrong though... All I can suggest is that you consider the fact that hand drawn art has its certain advantages over a photo, or 3d model or technical rendering. The most obvious thing to me is the simple fact that it is hand drawn. There is a wonderful feeling and understanding you get from seeing something that you can recognise as coming directly from another humans hand. The expressive lines, the economy of lines, the small discrepencies, you can actually relate to the process of production and recgonise starting points right through to final details. That feeling is for me the reason that I like hand generated artwork.

It has something that a photo or 3d model doesn't.

Well thats my $00.2 cents on the debate.

Overall I do like your picture. It has some really cool areas of rendering. Sorry to ramble, I just thought I would try to clarify the debate. Hope I did.

"Take your own direction, Nobody is always right, or always wrong. Pick and choose like a buffet."

[ART]

Nothing like a chick holding a big gun!