[Visual] Matt's Art

[Gracie]

Want me to make you one?

[Matthew]

Yes. That would be amazing. I've been trying to find tutorials all over the place. I found the Imagine FX magazine, and it looks extremely promising, but it's WAY too expensive (in America).

Thank you in advance.




1. The result of playing way too much Skate 3.
2. Miri.

[Gracie]

I'm on it. I'll try to recreate the background, and send you a PSD file. Looking at what I've done will help you a lot.

I'll send instructions too when its done.

EDIT: If you like this I'll give you instructions. its a really quick, easy background.

[Matthew]

If you have the instructions handy, that'd be awesome. The picture itself is a lot better than my attempt. Thanks for doing this for me.

[Gracie]

Right-o, give me a minute or two.

[Gracie]

Here is how I made each layer:

Leaf Shadow:
Use the leaf brush. with both foreground and background colour set to black. Paint wherever you want there to be shadow, and make sure its on a seperate layer to everything else. Once you're happy, on the layers box, select the leaf layer, and where it say opacity on the layers box set that to anything you like - I think it was a bout 30 on mine. This will add a nice shadow over anything beneath it, creating the illusion of a leaf canopy.

Tree trunk:
Using a preset, 100% hardness brush (one of the first ones), paint a tree shape. Neaten it out, so it looks good. Now, you are going to lock the layers transparency. You may have noticed on the layer box, the word "Lock:" followed by several symbols. CLick the first one, the one that looks like a tiny gray and white checkered box. You should notice that you can now no longer paint over transparent areas. This means you can recolour entire layers without going over what you have already drawn.
Now, add areas of shadow and highlights. Don't worry about being neat, just splodge the colour on. Once you're happy you have the shadow and highlight colours in the right place, use the smudge tool on 50% strength to blend the colours together. Once satisfied, move onto the final layer.

Grass:
By far the easiest. Choose a nice yellowy dark green. Paint the entire layer that colour. Now, as we did for the tree layer, add colours of varying greens and yellows, and smudge them together. Maybe have browns beneath the tree trunk, like in real life where grass has died away.

[Matthew]

*Saves previous post*

Thanks a bunch, Stocking. It's really hard to find easy tutorials out there.


--

Here are some crappy draft pages for a manga I have to do for art class. I've never actually inked and toned a page before, mind you. I'm too lazy. If I ever became a mangaka, I'd be one who relied heavily on assistants.

[Matthew]

A doodle I did in Sai this morning. Left it unfinished 'cause it looked kinda cool that way. Plus, I didn't have the time before class to get everything in--or out.

[Matthew]

My OC, Miri:

[Matthew]

My character from Angel Hunters, Akiria:

[Matthew]

Rocks.

They fail.

[Gracie]

They just need to be more defined

[Matthew]

I agree. I did a lot more rocks after that (I dunno why), and they turned out a little better.

For now, here's Miri:

[Matthew]

Another picture. Grayscale shading practice in Photoshop, now with 50% less manga, 100% less loli, and 95% less aesthetic appeal.

[Gracie]

The eyes are still mangaish

[Matthew]

I'll get better eventually.

[Matthew]

I'll do some cleaner drawings next time . . .

[Matthew]

@Gracie - Sorry I didn't reply earlier. I've gotten into the habit of dropping art and running, since I use, like five forums on a regular basis. On the picture you commented on, yes, the eyes were still sucky. The only part I liked was the fact that I started with a background that wasn't white, like the pros do. It made me feel cool for all of a minute.

[Matthew]

My realism sucks:

[Matthew]

I just realized that I very, very rarely use reference from anything other than anatomy books and real life. So, while I obviously take influence from manga (no-brainer), I think that the stuff I've posted here is genuinely my own style. I say that because a lot of people on ConceptArt post on my thread just to say that anime sucks, or something of the like. But even if anime had never existed, I think my style would have turned out something like it is now anyway, maybe with smaller eyes. Somewhat like this:

*First guy-only picture in, like, forever. Drawn in Artrage 2 with the paint roller, paint brush, and pencil. I know it sucks, but it was practice, so that's okay. Eventually, I want to be able to draw any style I want, whether it's anime, Scott Pilgrim, X-men, or complete realism. I've been doing a ton of anatomy and perspective studies recently, mainly focusing on one thing at a time (feet were the latest). I feel I'm learning a lot, but I'm not applying it like I should.

[strike]

Matt what happened with that famas it's like you had a reference for the upper reciever but not for the entire rear of the gun?  With gun's it's really always best to have a reference picture of the whole thing.

[Matthew]

I agree. I know I screwed half of it up, because I was using a reference from Counter Strike: Source. I looked at a Famas some guy had dropped while my brother was playing, and he didn't look at it very long. Someday I'll rip some of the models from that game and look at them in 3DS or Maya or Lightwave or something for reference.

And here's some new stuff:


http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/044/6/4/writing_meme_by_boriol-d39gwut.jpg

[Matthew]

Another meme:

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/045/f/a/oc_meme___completed_by_boriol-d39k73a.jpg

[Matthew]

Lately, I've been working on making things less sketchy by making less strokes to finish a picture. It ends up saving time and lead, and therefore I think I'll keep working on it. Also, I'm working on a fighting game for a final project in my game design class, and made two basic character sketches last night:


Yes, there WILL be male characters. These are just the first two I did. Probably gonna change the first girl up a bit in the pixel stage.

[Matthew]