[astigma3]

This is my first attempt at digital art. Got any tips? I want to make the hand glow or something. Also i was planning on adding jewelry, necklesses, bracelets and stuff. but i dont know how. Also maybe some runes. if anyone could give me help with any of these i would appreciate it.




-- thanx--

[zapman]

Yo Astigma,
good work for your first attempt at something.

I can give you some tips,
Shadow to bring out the face and Neck, And to make it so hes on a Ground, if hes not on the Ground Then place a shoadow under the image like 1in down the guy?

ok Hand well its big? you trying to make it look like the hands coming Forward?
or is he waving? or just saying HI?

HEHEHEH! goofy ears! HAH!
yah fix the ears hehe sorry =)

But the Shading is Lovely!



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ZAPmAn
http://www.digitizedesign.com
art, fart, and be smart.

[Tinusch]

That hand is perfect. Proportionally it may be a bit off, but anatomically, that hand is great.

As for the shading, it's pretty good, it just needs to be more defined. I can't really tell where the light is coming from. The face suggests it's coming from the left, but the body suggests it's coming from above. Maybe add some lighting and highlights to the clothing too. (Did you use the Gradient tool on his clothing?)

But the thing that's bugging me the most is that nasty jagged gray outline. I don't know how you went about coloring the pic, but here's how to eliminate pixelliness and nasty outlines:

1) Draw your sketch. Either make your sketch a solid line drawing with no shading, or simply create a layer over the sketch and draw in the solid outline.

2) Make a new layer on TOP of the solid line drawing, and set it to Multiply.

3) Color in right on top of the sketch on the new layer you made.

4) Shade in as you see fit (airbrush, paintbrush, dodge-n-burn).

5) Flatten the image, and do what you want with the black outline (smudge it out, color over it, or leave it as is).

You've definitely got a knack for digital art. The sketch is great, and the shading is pretty freakin' nice, despite a few minor flaws. Once you start getting more familiar with the tools and more comfortable with using them, you'll be AWESOME. Nice job on the pic.

[A.Buttle]

No, the hand is too small if it's supposed to be coming out at arm's length. Remember, the real human hand is about as big as your face. Also, if it is at arm's length, then you wouldn't be able to see the elbow as prominently as you can now. Most of what you'd see would be his sleeve bunched and hanging.

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And remember, gravity is not your friend!

Joe Dillingham
[email protected]

[zapman]

Keep this in Mind when Drawing the HEAD, its the side of your Face area, (upper ear to Bottoms of Chin.)

ANd the hand you have there is Big as the face

------------------
ZAPmAn
http://www.digitizedesign.com
art, fart, and be smart.

[astigma3]

the hand is not coming straight forward it is forward but bent at the elbow. this is why the elbow is visible.

[Sergenth]

Yeah, like Zap and Tinusch said, that's very good for first time digital. I was so overwhelmed by Photoshop when I started using it! You got skillz.

I've done something to help you, not knowing if it will go over well on the art board here. I took your image and put some glow on it and magical coloring and drew a simple bulb earring and made a screenshot of stuff and put it all into a semi-explanatory Photoshop 4 PSD file.

First, for the pink coloring around the hand, I just swathed some transparent pink around the hand in a new layer. I think the opacity was 10% or something. Then I used the eraser at 100% and with different brush sizes to "punch" holes into the magic coloring to give it that bubbly fire look (hehe) and erased the pink over the hand (no masks used!

Then I drew a new "layer" of identical pink over the hand and ran some down the arm... I then set this second layer to color dodge to make it BRIGHT! Color dodge is my favorite filter :P oh, then I clicked the mouse in the palm a few times to make it even brighter (by adding more paint)

The earring is just a big gray dot with a layer of shadow and highlight. I erased with a soft-edged eraser to make it follow the contours of the sphere ot just to fade the shadows and highlights. Then I adjusted the transparency of the gray dot layer to make it more see-thru (and hence, brighter). I'm not a wiz at metal shading whatsoever... someone else explain good technique for that!

I hope this isn't too much :P

shift-click to get:
www.tcnj.edu/~buczyns2/sorceror/sorceror2.zip

[astigma3]

thanx for all the tips. Yes, the hand is supposed be coming forward but it is a bit too big, i think i need to shrink it. Those jagged gray outlines are because i got a little lazy in the "cleaning up" phase, i'm going to work on getting rid of them. For the shading, Sergenth got what i was talking about. The weird shading is because the light source is actually coming from his hand, although i still dont know if i did it right. I used lighting effects.

-- thanks again for the help