Darkholme's Art

[Darkholme]

I'm trying my first digital painting, but im doing it with self imposed limits to improve my abilities.
- only allowed to use brush on normal, and only one layer.

normally I use a million layers and use masks for everything. so I figure it will be helpful. also normally I block out a huge number of tones and hues of color with the masks, often on separate layers and then smudge as necessary. it works, but highly inefficient. so I'm trying to do it with just a brush to improve my brushing skills. Also, I usually start with either a photo or something i sketched on paper.

Here's my raziel painting. It turned out pretty well. next skin i make I'm gonna do like this, just to test. if you do it this way it actually kindof feels like painting.

 

[Gilles]

It looks really good, although I'm not a huge fan of this kind of art. It's very similar to Wulf's style, whatever you call it.

 

[ike_ike]

Is this more mouse stuff?

 

[~Void~]

I don't really like this kind of stuff either. It looks like it was drawn with pastels or something, but on the computer. Photoshop art in my opinion should be realistic and not look like an oil painting.

 

[Darkholme]

Mouse stuff yes, but I was going for making it look like an oil painting. Normally I draw stuff like it comes out of a comic book, so this was an attempt to do things differently. The next time I put stuff up it will likely be in a much less sketchy style.

EDIT: unless they're pencil sketches

 

[Mc_Flurry]

I dont like painting although ur good at it

 

[Darkholme]

I dont like painting although ur good at it

Thanks. I think it turned out well for my first attempt at freehanding in photoshop.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Nice. I think that the random brushes of blue on the cloth and hair look a little weird though.

 

[Darkholme]

Nice. I think that the random brushes of blue on the cloth and hair look a little weird though.

It was a combination of me trying to do like in the old oil paintings where some of the colors were strange, and me trying to make the picture have bluish lighting. Maybe it didn't work though.

 

[Magoo 111]

Being a fan of LoK, I love that piece. It's a very good piece of work. And I, personally, like the style

+rep(my pathetic addition..ha ha ha!)

EDITang thing won't let me yet...

Your rep addition if pending.

 

[Darkholme]

Being a fan of LoK, I love that piece. It's a very good piece of work. And I, personally, like the style

+rep(my pathetic addition..ha ha ha!)

EDITang thing won't let me yet...

Your rep addition if pending.

When my current projects are done for WC3 the first thing I'm going to do is make a Raziel Hero Model for WC3. Then Kain. Then if I make a couple more and it spawns a LoK project it will kick so much ass, but I'll be happy with just having the heroes.

I want a LoK MMO. Without Levels, using a LoK/GoW style combat system.

 

[skeptis]

wow that looks awesome!

 

[Darkholme]

Appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Darkholme]

Here's my first attempt at doing anything with vector art. I started with the blurry pixelated sketch on the left (which I found online, but it had no credits listed) then I drew over it and drew in the details.

The colors were done in photoshop afterwards. also the first time ive used layer masks for any real purpose.

 

[Pyritie]

Uhh

Is that really vector; 'cause it don't look like vector.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Uhh

Is that really vector; 'cause it don't look like vector.

Yeah, it isn't classified as a "vector".

Vectors are more flat and cell-shaded rather than brush shaded. (whatever you'd call that)

A great example:
Vector Invader Zim

But it does look pretty sweet though.

 

[Pyritie]

You can use gradients in vectors, you know.

 

[PurgeandFire]

You can use gradients in vectors, you know.

Lol, your point? Vectors do use gradients sometimes, but a lot of times they use cell-shading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_shading

 

[Darkholme]

I said i colored it in photoshop.

The line art is vector. Then I did the base colors as vector art

then I did the shading and highlights in photoshop. on a shading layer, and then a highlight layer.

I could have gone straight gradients and done the shading and highlights as vector art too, but it seemed like an unnecessary amount of pain-in-ass.

and I really didn't feel like using cel shading. cel shading is lazy, and doesn't look as good. and only works in a limited number of situations without being crappy (such as in an animated series, or if you're copying an animated series)

It looks like crap when used on 3d models(zelda for gc anyone?), and looks worse than detailed shading (which is why I didn't use it here) it's only real advantage is the huge amount of time saving, which is what makes is perfect for simple animation. That's why most modern television cartoons that are 2d are made in flash. If I was going to be making 30 drawings per second, and then making a 24 minute episode, I wouldn't want to detail everything that much and would cel shade/use gradients.

I used Layer masks for this though. I made a normal flat color layer, then did an all highlighted layer, an all shaded layer, and then used the layer masks to put the shading and highlights where I wanted them.

I normally have not used layer masks much, and this is my first time using illustrator for anything. so this piece was an experiment. (well, there is another all vector piece I did in illustrator that I was gonna shade like this one that I did immediately before, and freehand) which I'll put up now.

I determined how much time layer masks save over how I used to do shading and highlights, where they were on the same layer as whatever color I was shading or highlighting andI would have dozens of layers and everything would take me forever..

Edit: I suppose my last post was possible to be misunderstood. The final product wasn't all vector, I did vector art and then did brush art over it.

Totally freehand(no references or sketches) and ALL vector Art (no shading at all!):

Setzer Gabbiani!

And here's blink again. this time with more completed shading/lighting. This time I put the vector art next to it (pre-shaded).

 

[Darkholme]

Woo! I got my Wacom Tablet! now I just have to get used to using the pen and such. it shouldn't take too long. it even came with a nifty cordless mouse that sits on the pad and doesn't use any batteries! how does that work? I have NO idea! magnets maybe?

I got a new videocard and when installing it saw that the fan on my cpu was 50% covered in dust (so i cleaned it)

also, i have a splitting headache, for no real reason, and im really hungry. im gonna go eat now. hmm. maybe the hunger is related to the headache. or maybe the headache is related to adrenaline with nothing to do with it. I hate when you get an adrenaline rush cause your instincts tell you something is about to get violent in an argument and then the argument ends civilly and you have nothing to do with the adrenaline. you can't concentrate clearly on anything, youre agitated , and you dont want to do anything but get rid of the adrenaline - but you have no way to spend said extra energy.

and I can't use it sexually (I wonder if that would actually work, or if id just be still agitated after the sex) cause my girlfriend is out of town for her friends birthday, and even when she gets home, her new place has no phone and she doesnt have a cell, so id have to bike for 30 minutes to even find out if shes there. which is a bit annoying. . .

 

[PurgeandFire]

Woo! I got my Wacom Tablet! now I just have to get used to using the pen and such. it shouldn't take too long. it even came with a nifty cordless mouse that sits on the pad and doesn't use any batteries! how does that work? I have NO idea! magnets maybe?

I got a new videocard and when installing it saw that the fan on my cpu was 50% covered in dust (so i cleaned it)

also, i have a splitting headache, for no real reason, and im really hungry. im gonna go eat now. hmm. maybe the hunger is related to the headache. or maybe the headache is related to adrenaline with nothing to do with it. I hate when you get an adrenaline rush cause your instincts tell you something is about to get violent in an argument and then the argument ends civilly and you have nothing to do with the adrenaline. you can't concentrate clearly on anything, youre agitated , and you dont want to do anything but get rid of the adrenaline - but you have no way to spend said extra energy.

and I can't use it sexually (I wonder if that would actually work, or if id just be still agitated after the sex) cause my girlfriend is out of town for her friends birthday, and even when she gets home, her new place has no phone and she doesnt have a cell, so id have to bike for 30 minutes to even find out if shes there. which is a bit annoying. . .

You are the master of long and on-going posts that eventually turn off topic.

Congrats on the wacom, I hope I can get one soon. D';

 

[Darkholme]

You are the master of long and on-going posts that eventually turn off topic.

Congrats on the wacom, I hope I can get one soon. D';

Wow! I never noticed just how off-topic I can get in a single post.

Not surprising though, I tend to be able to have multiple conversations about a number of things at once, and then like 2 weeks later, in the middle of another conversation about something totally unrelated, switch back to the original topic. It confuses the hell out of most people. they often say "what the hell are you talking about" and then I have to bring them up to speed and remind them of the conversation from before. it's also a gift though, cause I have another friend who tends to do the same, and we both understand eachother perfectly. my mother claims i have ADD. she's probably right, but I'm in university and I don't know if there's any reason why I should bother getting checked and or diagnosed since I'm already in university. Even if I DO have ADD, I don't see myself taking ritalin or anything, so unless it means some sort of government money for having to try harder to pay attention in school (which it may) then im not sure there's a point.

when I was installing my new videocard i cut my finger while removing the little pci cover from my pc case. they aren't supposed to be sharp!

and now back on topic...

My first wacom doodle on my new 200$ piece of equipment!!! It's a moogle! there was a smaller tablet which was cheaper but I wanted the one thats the size of a sheet of paper.

My second Wacom Doodle! it's wolverine! I now use my wacom instead of my mouse for everything. I figure it'll get me more accustomed to it.

 

[Darkholme]

More Wacom goodness.

A half-dragon, and a fae.

 

[Sheeva]

I wouldnt say i really like digital art.. but that was good
The pencil is like a mouse/electronicpaintbrush to me, besides that looked kinda weird.. oil painting, i think, also a little unnatural looking. I prefer pencil .