Thanqol Learns 2 Draw: Every Step Is The First

[Silviya]

I have. I think I got told to start in season 2 and watch S1 last, which I disregarded. I feel like the show should be able to stand on it's own merits. So far it mostly has.

I'm very glad that you disregarded that advice. I know that some people think that that's the best way to watch it, but I enjoyed season one, it just isn't as awesome as the rest of the series. I personally think that it's absolutely necessary to watch season one, and I know that I would have enjoyed the later seasons less without having seen it.

I'm finding in general, though notably with this picture, that single coloured paintings look wrong and flat. It's worth splashing down a variety of random colours across a painting and blurring it until it's just a hint purely for the little edge of texture it gives you.

This is a very important thing to learn if you want to make your art realistic. This is why I try to never use the dodge and burn tools, since they just darken or lighten the colors, when more realistic highlights and shadows change around the saturation and the tone of the colors, not just how light or dark a color is. One of the big rules of art is that if you're going to darken a color, don't just do it by adding black, and if you're going to lighten a color, don't just add white.

That kind of strayed off of what the original point was, though. Which is that yes, art looks flat and boring and unrealistic if it's all one color, just at different values. Something that you should be aware of for more detailed art pieces is that light reflects off of objects onto their surroundings, which changes the color of the surroundings. If you put a bright red box into a blue room, there'd be a bit of red on the walls of the room. Similarly, if you had a character wearing a green scarf, a little bit of green would reflect off of the scarf onto the edge of their chin, if the light was going in the right direction. This is easy to overdue, and you probably won't want to do this for quicker, simpler color jobs, but just a little hint of the surrounding color can add a lot to the realism of a piece.

Day 381: Protector

Some angels beat you to death with a 2x4.

Phoe's character for Changeling. Going to colour this tomorrow!

Links

Time: 1 hour 15 mins
Music: Dream

This looks really cool. I like her expression and attitude, and her hair looks nice. The only things that jump out at me as wrong is her left shoulder, which shouldn't stick out that much given the angle that she's turned at, and her right forearm, which looks a bit too long. Other than that, looks good. I'm looking forward to seeing this colored.