Art: Easy

[rowyn]

I didn't do much art this vacation. Usually I do a lot of drawing when I'm with John, because he likes to draw, but this trip we ended up doing tons of other stuff and not a lot of drawing.

However, when I got home I decided to work on this picture. I did the pencil sketch several months ago in my sketchbook that's supposed to be for full-color drawings. I wasn't happy with the sketch (I did a thumbnail sketch of him first that I like much better, which is always frustrating). Usually I don't spend time coloring sketches unless I love them, but for whatever reason I went ahead and colored this one. On the bright side, I do like it better in color, even if I did a pretty crappy job on the shoreline. The background is based on the shoreline of a beach shaterri took us to while we were in Washington. So it's sort of a trip picture in that respect.

The character is Easy, koogrr's Naga from jordangreywolf's tabletop Warcraft RPG.

Comments

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

I like it.

The one problem that kind of jumps out at me is the lack of "contact" between the Naga and the beach. There's no shadow at the junction between Naga and pebbles/sand. The result is that it kind of looks out of place -- almost like it was pasted on top of an unrelated picture.

Other than that it hangs together quite nicely.

You might try printing it out in color, and then taking dark colored pencils and experimenting with shadows to figure out what looks best before taking the plunge and laying a shadow on the original. I do that kind of thing a lot these days.

--Howard

[ltwarhound.livejournal.com]

After she scanned it, I overheard her lamenting that same lack of shadow.

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Oooo, you're right, it does look much better in colour.

Good job on the arms and tail, nice expression also. Strangely, I don't think of Easy smiling much. :)

Hmm, I guess some darkening of the area immediately around Easy would work, as a shadow, though I agree there wasn't a lot of shadows out on the beach when we were. My icon isn't the greatest representation, but should demonstrate for others what it was like there.

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

When there is diffuse light there are no sharp shadows -- this is true. Still, there would be shadows in the deeper spaces between the Kaga and the sand. No matter how diffuse natural light gets, it's always coming from above, and there will still be shade somewhere.

If you've got a photo album, go through it for examples where people are standing or sitting in diffuse light outdoors. Look around their feet or butts, and you'll see what I mean about shadows. Photoreference is always useful for learning stuff like this.

[rowyn]

Yeah, the first thing I noticed after scanning it was that I should've shaded the stones around Easy more. Ah well. That's a lot more fixable than the shoreline problem, at least. :)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Very nice work! I think adding a shadow in after the fact shouldn't be too hard - but I'd actually suggest darkening it in such a fashion so it looks like he's putting weight into the ground, and leaving a slight trail.

That's Some High-Quality Naga Hide

[krud42.livejournal.com]

We just avoided a bunch of those things in a game I'm playing every other Saturday, though it's not Warcraft-related. (I didn't even know there were Naga in the Warcraft world. Or is it a homebrew tabletop game?)