Beginner in Digital Art

[Waldhari]

Hi everyone !

I'm just entenring the Digital Art field, also the community and I am aiming (Trying to) improve myself so I can become much more confident about my drawing, my paintings, my lines.
To begin with, please find the three followings drawings below. I would be happy to get your thoughts and feedbacks.

I find them quite satisfying at first, but the more I look, the more I dislike them.

There are mistakes on light and shadow controls (especially on the first one)
For the second one I felt proud, but then I find it very flat somehow.
The last one seems fine to me… but I find it too much detailed. There are too many informations I believe.

[brohawx]

Great start!

Looks like you are using the dodge and burn tools a little bit. They are great tools but you cant rely on them to do all the work for you in the areas of color and light. If you still want to use them, try it just a little bit to pull out a new color and paint with that color/tone.

What this ends up doing is making all your light sources white. If you want a similar process, use the brush tool, and change the setting of the brush to overlay or color dodge and choose a bright color.

Simplifying a few of your forms will make them easier to read for the viewer. These are quite busy with a lot of detail in the forms. Once again, If you look at masters there are only details in the focal points of the entire piece. Use two tones to start by seperating your lights and darks on the forms, then add your third tone for detail.

After you simplify your forms a little bit focus on your detail. All that detail you have is great, but where do you want your viewers to focus? The focal point will deserve all the attention for details.

In these quick paintovers here I added light sources in the form on rim light, because we lose the edge of the figure in the dark background. Your characters have light sources in them like the first one, and light sources are the only reason for color.

Your concepts are great I really like the second design.

The third one seems to have been lost in your brushes. Stick to a few that can make you master form. Airbrush, pastel or chalk brush , pen/pencil brush, and a chisel. I only use about three or four, because when I experiment I lose the painting sometimes.

On the second one here I believe the shirt having sharp edges and being one tone overall seems flat, here I pushed it back into the background with some lost soft edges and darkening it down. This gives us some depth and doesn't attract our eye as much, which leads us back to our focal point, the gooey cool face!!

I hope that helps. If you have any questions let me know. I try to be as clear as possible for critiques. Keep up the good work and lets see more!

[Waldhari]

Oh man… I am absolutely thankful to your comment and the time you took to answer my post. There is a lot informations and benefits to get from it, besides, the fact that you have added some of your "skill" on my drawings to make your point, allows me to see the next level I should aim.
Adding a new light source does totally change the atmosphere of my drawings. I feel so dumb not thinking about it as I had been taking lightning design courses…

Your review on the third drawing meets my thoughts… there are far too much details and I rely to much on that "intricate brush"

Thank you very much…

Man, you nailed it ! my faceless man does look more powerful with this raging inner colour.

[Waldhari]

Back again with two digital paintings. I hope I was able to apply what you told me. I was really focusing on not using crazy brushes to spoil my drawings, and also use overlay color/brushes to making things poping out without relaying to much on color dogde.

For this one I have tried differents approaches. I wanted first to have an inner light within the hands, but it ended up to be to smooth. Then after removing it, I was quite satisfied by the dark spot from inside.

My focus should be more on sketching anatomy I believe (especially when I pay attention to the fingers). I struggled with the neck attached to the rest of the body, because its clavicles were so wrong.

I find very hard to paint edges. When I see some artworks, there is no edges, I mean, when one pays attention to real life, there is not edges at all, and it is all determined by the light around us. However for my drawings, I either find my edges to sharp / thick or to blurred and smooth.

What do you think ?

[Shia]

Wow! You've improved so much! Your work is improving!
Good to stay away from colour dodge too, you don't need it.

[Waldhari]

Thank you for your feedback and for sharing my pieces.
I guess I was too much influenced by Ross Draws "COLOR DODGE" glowing power

here is the last piece reworked a little bit

By the way, I have really appreciated the time you took to teach me few tips @brohawx.

[Shia]

You're welcome!
Following tips and tricks you get from other artists is great but don't forget that not every method works with every piece or a whole piece and style. It's great that you see this yourself. You'll only get better!

[Shia]

If I were you I'd take a look at a greyscale version of your painting and adjust it a bit.
Right now it looks like this:

You could add more contrast to make your painting pop more. Look into the light source as well. I wanted to paint over the flesh tones but because there isn't much contrast, I wasn't sure where all your light sources were.
I worked on these areas because that should be your focal point? (correct me if I'm wrong)
The hands could use more contrast too.

Added more shadows to show you what I mean with the focal point. Flesh is a little bit more red in some places too. With more shadows and proper highlights, you'll also create much more depth in your painting which really brings it to life and makes it creepier!
Would have loved to work more on the shadows of the flesh but yeah, here ya go. ^^"

I hope this made sense.

I over did the darker areas to show what I meant. Don't copy it. ^^"
On my phone the painting looks almost completely black. Not on my pc...

[Waldhari]

I see what you mean, and I did use B/W layer to see Greyscale version. To be honest I was a bit less confident adding too much contrast because I would definitely have darken my work too much, and I was afraid that as I used to much color dodge before, having too much dark areas would have been a reason to hide parts of my drawing I could not achieve.

I does pop out though. I hear you when you tell me not using too much dark.

What about the composition of my drawing (If there is any. It should have one)
I'm not good enough to notice how it is

[Shia]

I think the composition is great. Painting just needs to pop more to create more depth. (:

[brohawx]

Dude!! Miles and miles ahead! Your'e obviously a great listener and learner!

[kigerneko]

Here's my paintover. Thought I'd add to Shia's. I think your idea is good but I'm not sure what the focal point is, so I chose the centre of the face and the fingers. And a stronger and dramatic light might really give this character more creepiness!

Edit; is that an eye in the middle???

[Shia]

Yess!! his is what I meant

[Waldhari]

I hear what you say, and I really appreciate the paintover.
I just feel there is too much color dodge once again, am I mistaken ? And I did not wanna fall for it regarding previous feedbacks.
I can see you add a kind of atmosphere to my drawing with more saturated colour, is it not too much saturated ?

Is it correct if I say that my focal point is mostly based on the upper Hand ? as it does have an direct top light on it ? And that my eye does a triangular move with the three hands ?

There is no eye. It is mostly a Faceless man along with the others.

I take all your feedbacks and try to find a balance with them. Thank you very much for that

[kigerneko]

I didn't use colour dodge, it was just a more saturated green and a one of your dark colours painted with a semi transparent brush. ; ) I don't think it's too saturated, but the green will look better if you add more contrast and saturation to your character. Right now, your character's colours look a bit washed out. I think with more saturation, contrast, a clear light source and a clear focal point you'll get an amazing illustration!
When I first looked at the painting my eyes were drawn to the middle finger but there isn't much going on there, so that's why I think a more dramatic light with more contrast could help a lot.

A few examples I found.

[Waldhari]

Hey, I'm back with a new piece.
I've tried to put in practice what I have learnt from Arts School tutorials, especially since I've been following and studying anatomy videos. I don't know wether I shall post some of the practice here, or create a new topic. Anyway, please find the following, it's a torn being with heads within. My goal here was mostly to work drapery and anatomy while having some fun applying your tips.

edit : I feel the red corpse on red background seem a terrible Idea… but somehow It kinda work to me… shouldn't it ? Also, I got lazy drawing his left arm.

[brohawx]

My goal here was mostly to work drapery and anatomy while having some fun applying your tips.

All I can say is keep it up. Your'e paying attention to form and light and composition and anatomy and that is hard to do while just learning basics. But the improvement is great form your first pieces to now.

but somehow It kinda work to me… shouldn't it ?

Yes. Your opinion matters.

The composition can be all red. Composition and color choice is limitless once you get out of studies and assignments so it can be daunting. You dont have to have all contrast colors every where all the time. Sometimes you don't want things to "pop". But you do want to remember, light figure on dark background, or dark figure on light background. Your's is the latter, in this case.

At this point you might see critiques start repeating themselves. So a lot of times at this point I just say, "Yes, spend some more time here or there."

But if you really need some help on a piece and don't know what happened or where to go let us know. Get that art blog forum post going

I personally think the hard part is being your own absolute worst critic and still trying to have fun.

[aegilrod]

Ha love your concepts
I'm no pro, but from what I can notice in your works you could work more on the focal points. While everything in the concept is interesting, I find it also reaches the same value range everywhere, so I'm with Kigerneko on adding a more dramatic lighting, which brings more contrast to the more important areas and a smaller value range where it's not so important. So I'd say work more on your values, for me, and as many advice, it really helps painting in grayscale first to understand and apply the values better. As brohawx said, keep it up! you are doing great!