Lowboll's Artsy thread

[Minimized]

New Name. Also haven't made any sigs for ~5 months, so consider this a warm-up one.
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/2144/minimizedsomesig.png


New Drawing!
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3408/darkladycolor.png

Signatures!
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/1891/skullkidsotw3.png

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2037/sigpyrothingfinal.png

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3002/lowbolllineagesig.pnghttp://img264.imageshack.us/img264/3002/lowbolllineagesig.png
Two different versions, different text. Trying something new with the top/left one.

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/1200/shirroooengineersig.png

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1874/lineagesig.png

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9640/lowbollscarecrowsig.png

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8269/lowbollassassinsig.png

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/8020/lowbolldarkmetroidsig.png

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/623/lowbollanimesig.png
Ah, almost forgot how fun it is to put Brush size to fade and swirl away. This one I like.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6459/dullichigosignature.png
Boring. Wanted to make it fragmented, but it didn't look right, so now it's just dull.

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/4931/lowbollbigswordsig.png
I'm not a huge fan of purple... Also, I love the effect on the right, by the text, but kinda dislike the ones on the left by the sword. I planned out the flow differently at first.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/9605/lowbollwarofgenesissig.png

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/4188/bloodaxearmadonsig.png

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/2219/aionsigu.png

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/7595/ainelectriciansig.png

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2751/warchampsandwraithsig.png

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7826/bjrnenzephyrsig.png

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9826/snupidpestilencesig.png

Fullsize Drawings!
Madman!
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7281/madmanfinished.th.jpg (http://img69.imageshack.us/i/madmanfinished.jpg/)

Maliken!
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/8519/malikendrawing1.th.png (http://img513.imageshack.us/i/malikendrawing1.png/)

[krytical]

your sigs are really awesome dude.

would you like some crits on this piece?

[Minimized]

your sigs are really awesome dude.

would you like some crits on this piece?
Constructive crits is always welcome.

[Desirable]

Looks a bit dark. Could do with a bit of detail on lighting depth.
Nice stuff nonetheless! :)

[Glorify1]

The hilt on the sword could use some detail.

Arm holding the sword looks like hammerstorm's silly arms. :P

[TheDarkerOne]

Remember when Maliken totaly beefed it?

[Minimized]

The hilt on the sword could use some detail.

Arm holding the sword looks like hammerstorm's silly arms. :P

Wasn't sure what to do with the hilt, and I suppose I missed a muscle in the arm :<


Remember when Maliken totaly beefed it?

Just before posing for the picture, dude.

[krytical]

Constructive crits is always welcome.

cool dude. just wanted to make sure. before i really go into this, what program did you use, and how serious were you?

[Epoks]

Use bigger brushes, otherwise you get that scratchy-paint-esk look.

[Whitesock]

Use bigger brushes, otherwise you get that scratchy-paint-esk look.

Stole the words right out of my mouth. If you limit yourself to small brushes for shading your paintings will always look sketchy instead of rendered (which is what you want).

Also, Try to keep your lighting consistent (the light on the armor pad and the rest of the piece is different). Some muscles are off in shape like the forearms and abs, but those can be changed easily. Also, try to work some more color into there. Block colors with slightly lighter or darker colors aren't as realistic as using the complementary colors rule for shading.

[krytical]

Use bigger brushes, otherwise you get that scratchy-paint-esk look.

yup, that's where i was going with my question. if this was just a little time killer you did in ms paint i don't want to spend a lot of time giving you in depth critique, lol.

[Pathard]

Looks pretty cool, man. A bit dark, but great non-the-less. Also, I don't blame you. I'm getting pretty tired of making signatures as well. There are just way to many requests.

[Minimized]

cool dude. just wanted to make sure. before i really go into this, what program did you use, and how serious were you?

Photoshop, and I was pretty serious, but I'm still very much learning.

The anatomy was pure guesswork, and the "scratchy-paint-esk" look was just something I 'accidentaly' did and then went with.

I like drawing, but I haven't really learned alot about it (especially digital). This one is one of the first I've finished (got a shitload of WIPs on my computer, though).
Thank you all for the criticism, I'll take as much as I can from it (gonna see if I can't find something on how to use complementary colors for shading).

[krytical]

cool, then here we go:

as mentioned, everything (other than the sword) is much, much too dark. your grasp of basic color theory is apparent in your sig work (top notch,) but you've all but abandoned that here entirely. you've got 4 or 5 colors in the background and none of them really go together, leading to further eye confusion by fighting each other. look at your sigs, one of the things that makes them so great is the color coherence. if you can apply that to your digital paintings as well, so much the better.

your brush/scratch marks all over don't really lead the viewer's eye anywhere specific, and in fact, they make it hard for the eye to focus on any part of the image without great concentration. generally you want to lead the viewers eye to one focal part (with several points of interest) - for example, here you could have gone all out on maliken's face and used brush work and colors (and the image itself) to lead the viewer's eye to maliken's eyes... see what i mean? also, generally, it's good to use a bigger brush than you think you need, as laying down thicker shapes lends itself to a more coherent image/silhouette. you can most certainly zoom in later and go in with a 1px brush, but as you're getting the basic idea for your image you want to be sketching in bigger forms.

basically in each image you want to have lows (shadows) mid tones (natural color of X object) and highs (highlights/lightsource) but here your lows are basically darker tones of your mids (which is ok if theyre done as more than scratches and in more than one value) and your highs are basically white scratch marks (white highs are generally considered a no-no, kinda like lens flares.)

you've got anatomy issues all over, but most of us struggle with that, so all i can say is keep looking at musculature reference and practicing. once you get the general idea down it gets a bit easier to put down proper anatomy, and from there you can begin doing stylized anatomy. you have a couple of perspective issues as well, but that stuff can only be cleared up with reference and practice also.

i hope you will take these observations / critiques as motivators, and not as disrespect or unneeded harshness. something tells me once you get some of these basics down, you'll be a beast of a digital painter. let's see some more! i'll be posting some of my originals before long also, upgrading to W7 before i offer anything new tho :P

[Minimized]

cool, then here we go:

as mentioned, everything (other than the sword) is much, much too dark. your grasp of basic color theory is apparent in your sig work (top notch,) but you've all but abandoned that here entirely. you've got 4 or 5 colors in the background and none of them really go together, leading to further eye confusion by fighting each other. look at your sigs, one of the things that makes them so great is the color coherence. if you can apply that to your digital paintings as well, so much the better.

your brush/scratch marks all over don't really lead the viewer's eye anywhere specific, and in fact, they make it hard for the eye to focus on any part of the image without great concentration. generally you want to lead the viewers eye to one focal part (with several points of interest) - for example, here you could have gone all out on maliken's face and used brush work and colors (and the image itself) to lead the viewer's eye to maliken's eyes... see what i mean? also, generally, it's good to use a bigger brush than you think you need, as laying down thicker shapes lends itself to a more coherent image/silhouette. you can most certainly zoom in later and go in with a 1px brush, but as you're getting the basic idea for your image you want to be sketching in bigger forms.

basically in each image you want to have lows (shadows) mid tones (natural color of X object) and highs (highlights/lightsource) but here your lows are basically darker tones of your mids (which is ok if theyre done as more than scratches and in more than one value) and your highs are basically white scratch marks (white highs are generally considered a no-no, kinda like lens flares.)

you've got anatomy issues all over, but most of us struggle with that, so all i can say is keep looking at musculature reference and practicing. once you get the general idea down it gets a bit easier to put down proper anatomy, and from there you can begin doing stylized anatomy. you have a couple of perspective issues as well, but that stuff can only be cleared up with reference and practice also.

i hope you will take these observations / critiques as motivators, and not as disrespect or unneeded harshness. something tells me once you get some of these basics down, you'll be a beast of a digital painter. let's see some more! i'll be posting some of my originals before long also, upgrading to W7 before i offer anything new tho :P

Thank you very much for the serious critisism, I don't have much more to say than that I'll think about it next time I draw something.

[Minimized]

ALRIGHT Here's something I finished (started about 2 weeks ago, just haven't been working very intensely with it)
Better this time, I'd say, hope you guys like it.
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7281/madmanfinished.jpg
And no, his claws doesn't look like that, but I got lazy.

[FrEEz902]

I have to say, your madman one is much much better than maliken. Maliken has no highlights, and i'm sure he has anatomy issues (I can see them - he looks odd, but I don't draw anatomical characters as of yet so i'm not sure how to fix them.)

Also madman's pose is much more interesting and dynamic. It also has depth, and a foreground and background.

To comment on the madman one, I would say darken the hair a bit maybe at the edge of the mask, as the mask is casting a shadow on the hair (unless you take into account a light source coming from the bottom pointing towards the hair, but even then it would look different)

Also, when drawing something like this, think of the silhouette. Atm if you got madman's silhouette, the left arm would get lost in the right leg. If you leave a tiny bit of 'air' which shows the background, it greatly helps the eye when you look at it.

Also, try adding some scars :) I'm not sure if madman really does have scars but it would make it look better imo. But this isn't really necessary.

In addition, the claws. I like the blood splatter effect, but i'm not sure why you have it only on one side of the claws. The blood splatter should be around the whole claw imo, not just one side of it (unless you're trying to say that he slashed so quickly and left a blood trail, in which case the blood should be more directional and sharper, instead of a soft haze. Also if you wanted to do that, you could've had some faint lines to show the slashing of the claws, although that's not really necessary). Other than that the claws are a little to 'clean' for me. They should be bloodstained a bit more.

The background is quite good. They blend well with each other and with the whole theme itself (unlike in maliken's case)

Overall, good job :) Keep practicing and you will get better.

EDIT: OH and one more thing. When colouring, take into account never to use pure black or pure white. Use a very dark blue/brown/red for example, or a very light pink/light blue/yellow. Pure black or pure white kind of kill the picture (if you're looking for a realistic drawing)

[Minimized]

I have to say, your madman one is much much better than maliken. Maliken has no highlights, and i'm sure he has anatomy issues (I can see them - he looks odd, but I don't draw anatomical characters as of yet so i'm not sure how to fix them.)

Also madman's pose is much more interesting and dynamic. It also has depth, and a foreground and background.

To comment on the madman one, I would say darken the hair a bit maybe at the edge of the mask, as the mask is casting a shadow on the hair (unless you take into account a light source coming from the bottom pointing towards the hair, but even then it would look different)

Also, when drawing something like this, think of the silhouette. Atm if you got madman's silhouette, the left arm would get lost in the right leg. If you leave a tiny bit of 'air' which shows the background, it greatly helps the eye when you look at it.

Also, try adding some scars :) I'm not sure if madman really does have scars but it would make it look better imo. But this isn't really necessary.

In addition, the claws. I like the blood splatter effect, but i'm not sure why you have it only on one side of the claws. The blood splatter should be around the whole claw imo, not just one side of it (unless you're trying to say that he slashed so quickly and left a blood trail, in which case the blood should be more directional and sharper, instead of a soft haze. Also if you wanted to do that, you could've had some faint lines to show the slashing of the claws, although that's not really necessary). Other than that the claws are a little to 'clean' for me. They should be bloodstained a bit more.

The background is quite good. They blend well with each other and with the whole theme itself (unlike in maliken's case)

Overall, good job :) Keep practicing and you will get better.

EDIT: OH and one more thing. When colouring, take into account never to use pure black or pure white. Use a very dark blue/brown/red for example, or a very light pink/light blue/yellow. Pure black or pure white kind of kill the picture (if you're looking for a realistic drawing)

Actually, I only used pure black in the hair by mistake. Other than that, the entire body is dark shades of purple, background dark shades of red and some brown.
I drew some more concetrated stripes of blood around the claws, might get around to upload it later. I also darkened the area around the mask and hair as you suggested, but I think I should probably make all the shadows a bit darker tbh. That'll be for the next painting, though.
Thanks for the criticism, I'll keep it in mind!

[FrEEz902]

Actually, I only used pure black in the hair by mistake. Other than that, the entire body is dark shades of purple, background dark shades of red and some brown.
I drew some more concetrated stripes of blood around the claws, might get around to upload it later. I also darkened the area around the mask and hair as you suggested, but I think I should probably make all the shadows a bit darker tbh. That'll be for the next painting, though.
Thanks for the criticism, I'll keep it in mind!

My pleasure :) It's always an opportunity for me to help others in their art

[Minimized]

Added some signatures and reorganized the first post.

[Desirable]

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/2219/aionsigu.png
Liked that one the best.

I see you are a great fan of smudging. How about experimenting with other styles? ;)

[Minimized]

Outside of my safe little bubble? D:
Yeah, probably should... where can I find C4Ds?

[Desirable]

Outside of my safe little bubble? D:
Yeah, probably should... where can I find C4Ds?
I get them along the way on my journey in cyberspace, passing the various art sites I go to.

Alternatively, Google serves me well too.

[Minimized]

Added about 3 new signatures today, be sure to check them out. I'd say atleast one of them goes a bit away from my normal style :P

[Avunaos]

I love your style..

[Minimized]

Thanks man, have been 'developing' (aka using it ._.) it for like 2 years now, ever since I got my first pen tablet :D

[Avunaos]

I wish I had one pen tablet :)

[Minimized]

I uploaded some more, check them out.

[Varmint]

not all sigs need a border, dont apply one if it doesnt make it look better.

btw theres a strange hard edge on top of the char's head
ur text needs work as well

[Minimized]

So, two more with a (for me) new style... kinda, still alot of smudge involved, but alot of other stuff aswell.

[jusatin`]

Nice art there mate, but I gotta say, most of your sigs are way too dark, but otherwise good job :)

[Minimized]

New one added, feedback appreciated
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2037/sigpyrothingfinal.png

[Minimized]

Added my sotw winner :)

[takeyouhome]

best artist here hands down, clear winner mate, but your maliken picture is so...different to your normal style and its hideous :p

[Minimized]

Difference between signatures and drawings, ya know.
I tried something different :P
Check the madman drawing for something a bit more relevant.

[Minimized]

Updated with a new drawing. Full size can be found on page 1 (or by clicking the link).
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3408/darkladycolor.th.png (http://img716.imageshack.us/i/darkladycolor.png/)

[Jaycoob]

everything looks cool! and could that be ur version of Dark Lady? :)

You should make some more HoN Hero arts! your version of them are good! :)

[Minimized]

everything looks cool! and could that be ur version of Dark Lady? :)

You should make some more HoN Hero arts! your version of them are good! :)
Thanks alot, and that's indeed my version of DL :)
I am currently trying to get started on a Valk drawing, will post it here if I get done with it.

[Jaycoob]

They should have used your version of DL as her Model currently, it's more fitting to her theme! can't wait to see your Valk! :)

[RyDeRz666]

very good
keep on going

[Lx]

Your colors in each sig are fantastic
Lighting in some of your sigs could use a little bit of work and sometimes the renders dont blend in all that well. but at least you arent brushing in the background and plopping the render in :)
I like your text it goes well with the flow in each render, maybe try making it a little bolder? Oh and id say work with less contrast (it goes from white to black too quickly in some of your sigs)

[Sayko]

nicer diser! love your work man keep it up :p

[BRussian]

Sir can I have the render for this 2 Signatures.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/623/lowbollanimesig.png
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/2219/aionsigu.png