[Bg]

It's been like forever since I posted some new stuff.. I've not been lazy though, it's been more about things that I had no control over. Mandatory military service for one.. oh boy was it a hell or what!? You wouldn't believe the amount of bullying that went over there and there was nothing you could do about it because their rank was higher, absolutely nothing.. "SIR YES SIR!" hell yeah.. But hey, as Nietzsche said "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". On the plus side I got to shoot a lot, learned a good deal about weapons, their firepower, human strenght, nature etc. so hopefully all that shit wasn't for nothing.

I'm finally back to painting, it feels so good after such a long break.. there's like trillion images in my head that I want to put on paper and I don't exactly know where to start.. That other thread of mine (with the god awful frog in it) gave me an idea that I could do a quick (3 hours) tutorial painting before I go to sleep.. It's not ambitious, it's one of those "I know I can make this work" images. You know, basic composition, basic lighting, basic pose etc. very simple overall.


"I'm bloody drowning" This sentence was basically my inspiration. Also I knew it needed to be fish with cartoony characteristics. (Love that word... it's so long and difficult )





1. Here I've found something that MIGHT have potential for full scale painting.. at least some elements of it..

2. I keep playing around with the parts that look interesting, eyes, mouth, teeth, eyebrows.. Doesn't seem to pay off..

3. This is as far as this sketch will go, the concept has many problems but there's few parts I like. Then again it's a fish, it won't be too complicated to start all over again.. At least I have an example of what DOESN'T WORK




1. Looking ok.. I'm actually finding shapes that read.. unlike in the previous which was like a mess drawn by 3 years old.

2. Let's try some shading shall we..

3. The shapes seem to respond quite well to shading so it's quite easy from now on.

4-5. At this point it's basically "done" because the rest is just refining and tweaking, not actually creating. I did add little things here and that tell the story better but big elements are in and won't change.




Refine, refine... it is getting late and I'm getting tired, let's just say it's finished. TA DA:





The depressed fellow here is exactly in the same situation that I was a few months back.. he just wants to go the deepest part of the ocean, lay on the sea-bed and sleep away.


If anyone likes to critique the image itself be my guest.. overpaints, repaints, anything, all welcome! My head isn't completely tuned to "painting mode" after the break so there might be REALLY big things I'm forgetting or doing wrong. I was on a week long holiday in Copenhagen and when I walked into a museum called Glyptotek I was almost knocked off my feet, the first thing I saw was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! It was a painting by Bouguereau and it was so good it's depressing. There's tons of stuff I'm doing wrong with my own work because it looks so damn embarassing next to his


Luv you all, great to be back! Till tomorrow..
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www.TimoVihola.com
www.MountainSheep.net

[Misc]

Yeah, I know what you mean.. The army sucks in many ways..
Those fishes look great! Reminds me of Finding Nemo. The second one I think looks better before the "flip and tweak". It has more depth in it, and the lighting on the fish looks more realistic (because the water seems more shallow, and can let more light through?).

[Max]

Hey, finally some new stuff!! I really like that tutorial. You explain it in a nice way...nearly entertaining
I like your first painting better though.
The greenish look and high contrast of the image is wonderful.

military service...damn...I have to go there next year...
I should better start to practise faster...

anyways, keep it up man, you're a huge inspiration for me!!!!

[Matthew]

hehe yea military service, did that back in 96 and I agree no fun at all and constant arguing with some weird dudes. Weird, I also like to shoot, we used AK 5 back then which have a high and bright sound. What weapon did u use?

About bougerau, I also feel this and I have lately had hell with progress, seems like I am stuck sometimes. But, I think I am gonna try to learn that rembrandt tecnique seems to be a good foundation to build on.

Hey thank you for the nice tutorials and I like the progress, the last frame has a very nice mood.
welcome into the posting again.

keep it up
Matthew

[xeNusion]

nice that youre back

[jr]

hey timo, nice to see you back here again.
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[ExonGep]

great tutorial. What program did you used?
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Keep Walking

[AndyT]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[Sukhoi]

Goddamn BG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You where in Copenhagen and I didn't know....... (Yeah, that's right, I live here!!!..)

....That said, it's good to have you back, I've missed you man. And regarding the military situation, Jeez I have nothing but compassion for you. But like you said, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Hopefully.

Good luck with the re-training. I feel that way aswell these days.


Have a better one.

Sukhoi

[Bandados]

wow, another amazing artist I didn't know about. Thanks for sharing the process, I like how you always seem to give a 'mini tutorial'

I'm glad i'm lucky enough to live in a place where military service isn't mandatory. anyway, now you can look back at it and think about how good it is too be free and painting again

[Frost]

Bg: Welcome back. Hope you find the time to do more visually appealing artwork =)

[Bg]

The reason why I like the "finished" image better than the rest is that it tells a story, the first sketch is just that, a mindless sketch.. The greenish version doesn't really give the impression of a deep ocean (I think the green colour has something to do with it ) more like a few feet deep lake. Blueish version gives you the impression that it's a deep place because it's so ... blue. So in terms of storytelling the last one is the best, and frankly that's what I like doing the most - telling a story. Hope that answers some questions regarding my choices..


Sukhoi, oh man I didn't know you're from Copenhagen!! Actually before the trip I thought I would post in the random musings and ask if somebody lives around there... shiiit why didn't I!?! Would have been great to meet you!
There should be clinique for re-training artists, it's wierd how many things one can forget

Misc: Thanks!

Max Kulich: The reason why I like the last one better is that there's more story to it.. The military service ain't too bad if you don't go to special forces like paratroopers, combat divers etc..
I was in special forces and the people who go there tend to be a bit "serious" about it, they wanted to be there.. I didn't want to be there but that was the only place near (means more free time - that's worth gold in times like that if you like to use your own brains every once in a while.. it's so lovely to be under the direct command of guys whos IQ is less than the room temperature, only for let's see... 12 hours a day) and the only place that had ONE free place.. my service would have started a year later if I didn't take the chance.

Matthew: We used RK-62 (Variant of AK-47), also got to shoot with Dragunov and another sniper rifle. Dragunov has a really nice scope. btw. Have you seen big B's paintings in real life? I had to just stand there for 2 hours in front of that masterpiece.. one of the museum guards made like 8 rounds through the area and was shaking her head and probably thinking I'm mad but it was just so pretty.

xeNusion: Thanks!

jr: Thanks pal!

ExonGep: Photoshop 5.5

AndyT: but I love darkness

Bandados: Thanks for the encouragement, actually when I'm feeling down I just recall some of the "great army memories".. after that even something like reading a newspaper feels great! haha

Hey Frostie! where are you working now-a-days? Any new work you can show, I would love to take a look!!


atm I'm saving progress pics of a speedy I'm working on, I'll post them when it's done...
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www.TimoVihola.com
www.MountainSheep.net

[Bg]

Too tired to write comments.. I'll add them later if I feel like it.. the composition is horrible but there's some aspects I'm quite happy with.














Final:



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www.MountainSheep.net

[Bg]

Reworked an old painting of mine, I did the old pic after playing a few games of Metal Slug so the sprite graphics influence shows clearly. The other, more obvious inspiration was Terminator. The idea was to show that killing is like a day job for machines, no big feelings involved.


The old picture, won't comment it other than "I'm not really fond of it".. would be too much writing to go in greater detail:





Learned a good lesson from a Disney character designer Chen Yi Chang.. This is what he basically said: (picture in this case tells a lot more than thousand words)





It's the same character in two different poses, see how much a simple variation adds up. The pose influences the entire composition, because figure silhouette takes really big chunk of the screen space. So it's better to make the mistakes with the stick man, too late to go fixing that stuff when there's meat on the bones.

(HPX, this was probably what you tried to tell me when I was doing that Terminator 3 contest painting)





Flat ground like I have here is already quite dull setting so you really have to work the pose, see how I tilted the head.





Shaping the form.. Colours were from that older pic so this didn't take long.





Added elements, zoomed in and detailed important areas etc.





Changed the cropping to a more tighter one, gives more focus for the gun.





refining, refining but avoided touching the legs, I have no idea what to do with them. Tried to work on the foreshortening.

Painting videos would be more helpful but they're harder to make
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www.TimoVihola.com
www.MountainSheep.net

[Bg]

Mario is suffering from bad hallucinations after mushroom overdose and starts making pizza..
"Luigi, could you please hand over the carrots"





Using Photoshop CS now, felt a bit wierd at first.. brush options have changed quite dramatically from version 5.5, too bad my computer isn't exactly "cutting edge" so I can't see the potential the advanced brush settings might have. It crawls if I turn any of them on.

Progress pics will follow later, I'm too tired to sort them out now..
_________________
www.TimoVihola.com
www.MountainSheep.net

[Lunatique]

Well, you know that I think you're talented. But I mostly want to comment on how I think your military service has had a wonderful effect on your personality. You're now more, shall we say, energetic and fun? I think Dr. Bang would approve. LOL!

[faB]

[Naeem]

Bg, i love ur work sir. great job. u have a great sense of color, anatomy and getting the mood right. every picture holds a story

[Max]

Woah, that's cool man!! These tuts are really interesting.
I wish I could paint half as good as you, seriously, awesome stuff mate!!!

[Bg]

Max, annisahmad, faB: Glad you like it!

I had another Mario themed pic in mind but it involves Princess Peach and angry octopuss (also known as Mr Tentaclos.. he has lots of them).. so it might be too "graphic" for sijun haha... I swear I didn't invent that monstrosity, it was in the game (Mario Sunshine).. seriously

Lunatique; where's mosieur bang anyway? Haven't seen him around here..


Trying to get hold of my values, hours and hours of hard work needed.. it's easy to list 50 rules on paper but keeping them in mind simultaneously is the tricky part.. plus I have tendency to paint stuff stylized (even when I don't mean to)



_________________
www.TimoVihola.com
www.MountainSheep.net

[Bg]

Might as well post the progress shots..








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www.TimoVihola.com
www.MountainSheep.net