Starbreaker's Sketches.

[Starbreaker]

Hey guys. I'm fairly new to working in photoshop, but after seeing many a digitally painted masterpiece I've convinced myself it's time to learn. I've never painted traditionally, So I feel like I'm a bit behind on some of the more lighting and blending aspects, but I'll try my best to improve and take any critiques you fellas might have!

Posting these in chronological order from oldest to newest. I'd love for some feedback as to what I should really focus on improving, or things I could try to make the process of learning a bit quicker. Thanks in advance .

[brettamatowski]

Awesome work, mate! Love the first one especially.  Great style.

Keep it up.  Try and snag yourself a coder and make a game?  Unless you have already.  Good shtuff.

[Snowman]

I like the illustration of the guy leaping off the cliff, haha. However the horizon line is kind of distracting, there seems to be a wall of water blocking those islands.

[Alcaknight]

Impressive stuff. I like the style of the cliff/water one.

[Starbreaker]

Hey thanks you guys! In regards to the cliff one - I haven't done a lot of environment study; I suppose it would've been in my favor to reference google images or something. Making the horizon line seem less apparent and have it mesh better with the island off in the distance. Next time I do a background-focused piece you can bet I'll definitely gather some material to eyeball while creating it.

@Brettametowski: Funny you should mention that. I've got a few quick games that I've completed with coders .

[ASP]

Wel... LINK us, please?

Great art there, I love the first picture. The man that's jumping off the cliff needs no blur whatsoever, since to the camera he's moving slowly (even though in reality he's moving faster). And what I'd suggest for the horizon is to have it fade off in about 1 or 2 pixels... it'll take the strength off and possibly make it blend. Also, the island might need a little bit of reflection in the water (not too much).

[Snowman]

A little blur to it would be appropriate, this is what I was getting at though



This pictures perspective is pretty similar to yours. You can definitely see the horizon line to the left there, and notice how that island actually appears above and below it. The closer the landmass is, the further down it will become (in this particular perspective). And judging by the trees, and other little graphical hints, your island appears close yet is situated like it's really far away.

[Starbreaker]

A little blur to it would be appropriate, this is what I was getting at though



This pictures perspective is pretty similar to yours. You can definitely see the horizon line to the left there, and notice how that island actually appears above and below it. The closer the landmass is, the further down it will become (in this particular perspective). And judging by the trees, and other little graphical hints, your island appears close yet is situated like it's really far away.

Wow, that's crystal clear in terms of where I went wrong. Thanks a lot for taking the time to gimme a few pointers as far as environmental views go.

[Pieter]

Kind of reminds me of my old stuff...
Hope you keep posting, the more sketchbooks the better!

[Starbreaker]

I plan to do an environmentally driven piece soon, but here's a painting I did of someone's character last night.

I'm still currently trying to figure out the whole "coloring after you've established values" technique in PS. But I actually like this one gray scale.

[Snowman]

His forefingers look kind of dislocated, are they supposed to be like that? I like the rest of the drawing, and totally understand where you're at in regards to "coloring after you've established values." Ravenseye gave me a tip which I've tried to implement, which was to do a little bit of rendering in grayscale and start adding color sooner. I'm not really photoshop savvy yet so I don't know if this is good for those who are still sort of new to it, but I thought I'd mention it for you to try. It's his technique so he could probably elaborate for you if you have questions.

[Pieter]

I like to add a multiply layer on top, you might want to use levels to soften the darks so it doesn't get too dark. Then I use overlay or soft light layers to add saturated areas and finetune with adjustment layers.

[Snowman]

Do you do the whole illustration first in grayscale Pieter? And then fine-tune with multiply and overlay layers?

[Pieter]

Depends. I usually just work straight in color when I want color, sometimes it's grayscale sketch and color finish, and sometimes it's just a colorized greyscale painting. Tough I tent to tweak allot as I go along, so there's always some straight painting on top afterwards.
Curves, channel contrast tweaks and gradient map overlays can work wonders too.

You can download the robot PSD on this page, it's below the robot image. Might show you some tricks.
http://www.biteycastle.com/smf/index.php/topic,895.135.html