Digital Painting

[ringtail1592]

This here is a digital painting that I have been working on for a couple of weeks. It's taking some time because I've been changing this and that on it and trying to work with my small Wacom 6x5" tablet. I call the work The Traveler. It'll be a pretty good size picture for printing and planning on putting up the finished piece on DA.

Comments

[stauros]

I'm no artist, so take that into account ...

The picture so far says "all-digital art" very plainly. That's not a bad thing, unless you're trying to make it look like something done on paper.

I like the effort you've put into capturing light and shading on the varying colours of fur.

The gauntness of the face is striking, especially in contrast with the muscular neck and shoulders. It looks like there's a "thick" part of the face behind and below the eye, down to the jaw. Or am I mistaking darker fur for depth?

My work phone just rang, so I shall spare you further babblings ...

[ringtail1592]

Well, at least I am doing my best at it, whether it's all-digital art or not. Hee Hee! =))
That's really the least of my worries. It's actually a lot larger than this both in resolution and depth.
I never noticed that his face looked "gaunt" till you mentioned it. Toning down his cheek bone might help that ... which can be done since it's on a separate layer. Cutting down the layer's opacity can probably fix that.
Thanks! =)

Jeff Ringtail

[stauros]

Jeff, your best is very, very good. Don't sell yourself short. I've liked your art for years and I look forward to the finished version of this piece.

btw my daughter the budding artist saw that cheekbone the same way I did.

[ringtail1592]

I am doing a few things to bring the cheekbone down a bit and fleshen up the face.
There are several different ways to flatten the layers of an image in Gimp and the one I choose to flatten this takes off all the light opacity of a layer and makes it into full opacity. Which, brings out all the light shades back to dark shades. But, as I said, I am learning. =)

[xianjaguar]

Looks pretty cool so far. I know it isn't finished, but you might want to tone down the saturation in the red around the eyes. It's pretty bright right now. Otherwise, looking good. I love the color pattern on him.

[ringtail1592]

I'll probably will have to darken the tear ducts around the eyes to dull the red down. I'm slowly getting the character done, though. He still needs the eagle feathers dangling from his ears and his staff (his hands are not in the picture because they are not completed yet).
Then the background.
All in all it's kind of grueling for me doing this. I really wish I had the money for one of those Wacom Cirque tablets. They would really be handy! But I don't have the 1000 to 2000 dollars for them.

Jeff Ringtail

[xianjaguar]

What are you using now? I have a Wacom Graphire tablet. It was only 99 bucks and it works great. Why does everyone want one of those expensive Cinque tablets? What do they do that's so different from the 99 dollar tablets? 0_o

[stauros]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but where did you get a Graphire for $99? I'm asking on behalf of my eldest daughter, the artist. She hasn't made the jump from traditional media to digital yet.