Pash's Art Spot

aisiodoxos-megaleio:

abovecloudsart:

I really want to work on these today, but I’m just so freaking frustrated with my coloring that I simply can’t. I’m starting to realize that I overshade and overhighlight EVERYTHING. EVERY. THING. The more I try to get away from it and add midtones, the worse it gets (see: dumb dragon portrait). Ugh. Does anyone have any tips on shading with actual midtones? This just… isn’t going away for some reason.

Also, I kiiiiind of hate shading dragon faces because I don’t know what to do with them. >.> I just…. don’t understand the planes of a dragon’s face… at all. I mean, I try to look at dinosaur skulls and junk but I have a really hard time translating that over to a muscled face. At least with humans there are resources like Loomis’ books which I can look at. When it comes to dragons, I’m on my own. It kind of sucks because I DO like dragons - I’m just no good with them. (mostly it’s that indented part on the muzzle that drives me batty)

This is more of a vent than anything else, but I am cool with critique. Now I’m gonna leave before I break my tablet in half. XD

The technical stuff I can help with.

Frankly, I don’t have much of a problem with the “overshading” of either piece. What you call “overshading” I call “good contrast”. It gives the piece a more dramatic feel, as though there is more going on.

For the first one, with firelight, you have sharp, strong contrasts and very few midtones. The fire will illuminate the things nearest it, turning it a very light color, while things farther away will have a toned down, desaturated midtone as the highlight. The shadows will be really dark.

For the second one, “overshading” is actually helpful in this stage of the painting. It is easier to see the form of something with super-strong contrasts, and then you can tone them down as you go.

However, as you go, if you need to tone things down, it is easier to work with around 5 colors: a light, a mid, and a dark of the main color, a highlight (color of the light) and a shadow (a really dark version of a single color - dark warm colors give warmer feels to the piece; dark cool colors give cooler feels to the piece). The highlight and shadow are going to be constants for the entire piece, as that brings a sense of unity across.

When you are trying to get the colors you want, always use at least 3 of the 5 colors. For instance, a light will use a highlight, the light main, and the mid-main in the mixture. Change up the opacity and just go back and forth between the 3 until you get the value you want. The more colors you bring in, the more “real” and “complex” the color will appear, and the more midvalues you will get.

Generally, the highest contrast areas should be focal points; lowest contrast areas should be backgrounds. However, you have to make sure that even you low contrast areas have enough information to understand what it is.

I hope this helps with your midtones. (Another thing you might want to do is amp up the brightness of your computer. It helps you realize that some of your darks aren’t actually “darks” but midtones. I personally work on low brightness, amp up the brightness, then push my darks darker.)

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll keep all of your tips in mind as I continue to work on the first one. Your tip about my monitor’s brightness was especially helpful. ^^

The second picture (dragon) is already done, but I am going to post an update on the first picture shortly. Maybe you could check it out and let me know if I’m going the right way.

sciroccopteryx:

abovecloudsart:

I really want to work on these today, but I’m just so freaking frustrated with my coloring that I simply can’t. I’m starting to realize that I overshade and overhighlight EVERYTHING. EVERY. THING. The more I try to get away from it and add midtones, the worse it gets (see: dumb dragon portrait). Ugh. Does anyone have any tips on shading with actual midtones? This just… isn’t going away for some reason.

Also, I kiiiiind of hate shading dragon faces because I don’t know what to do with them. >.> I just…. don’t understand the planes of a dragon’s face… at all. I mean, I try to look at dinosaur skulls and junk but I have a really hard time translating that over to a muscled face. At least with humans there are resources like Loomis’ books which I can look at. When it comes to dragons, I’m on my own. It kind of sucks because I DO like dragons - I’m just no good with them. (mostly it’s that indented part on the muzzle that drives me batty)

This is more of a vent than anything else, but I am cool with critique. Now I’m gonna leave before I break my tablet in half. XD

I can give you absolutely zero tips on shading, sorry.  : / However, dragon and dinosaur anatomy I can help with!

First of all, that depression is called the anteorbital fenestra (=window in front of the eyesocket) It’s a sign of archosaurs like dinosaurs, pterosaurs, birds and crocodilians, but most ornithiscian dinosaurs and some crocodiles have it closed up.

Other animals have fenestrae too! Mammals have orbital and nasal fenestrae, and a temporal one on top of the head that’s full of jaw muscles. Lizards have these, plus a postorbital fenestra (mammals have a pf too, but they’ve stuck their jaws through it, meaning that its lower edge of the hole forms the cheekbone (this image shows the evolution). Compare an anole skull, and its living counterpart. Note the faint depression behind the eyes.

Second, most people who draw dinosaurs (and dinosaur-inspired dragons) probably overemphasize the anteorbital fenestra. It’s kind of a bad habit in paleoart, and is referred to as “shrink wrapping”. It’s kinda difficult to tell what they looked like, because nothing today has quite a comparable skull to say Tyrannosaurus rex, and the other fenestrae have nasal tissue, eyes or muscles in them. However, there are some naked-faced birds that demonstrate an appropriate depth for that fenestra.

Here is a Lappet-faced vulture skull. Note the triangular anteorbital fenestra between the beak and the lacrima (the funny-shaped bone in front of the eye)

Here is the living vulture, with the flesh on. If you look between the eye and the beak, you’ll see the fenestra, though not strikingly (it’s covered with little bristles). You can also see the hollow over the eye formed by the discontinuity of the brow bone and the upper parts of the skull, but not the fenestrae on the back, which are covered by folds of skin.

Which leads very neatly to the next point:

Living animals vary quite widely in what features they display, and very frequently you won’t be able to see anything at all. It looks like the bottom dragon may have some fur? You can cover a fenestra in fur pretty easily. Or just smooth it down with scales and hide for streamlining purposes. (for comparison’s sake, you know what a bear looks like—right?)

Finally, keep in mind that birds, lizards and crocodiles (and therefore dinosaurs) don’t have much in the way of facial muscles. If the dragon has an archosaur-inspired face, it may not make sense to have facial muscles, at least not ones that extend from lips to the top of their head, nose to eyes. Birds and reptiles have a lot of different ways of making expressions—utilizing colorful crests, bobbing motions, head-tilts, etc. Conversely, a mammalian dragon (it has mammlian ears, at least? and the nose looks mammal-inspired) would not have an anteorbital fenestra.

I’m sorry if I’m recommending changes you can’t make again. XD

On a more general note, to get an idea of planes, look for skulls you can see from multiple angles. Best ones would be dinosaurs, lizards, ancient crocodiles and birds with naked faces, so you can compare the still-living ones to their living counterparts. (don’t necessarily trust paleoart for life reconstructions!)

I can try to draw you up a planes reference for some of the nicer dinosaur skulls I’ve got in my reference folders, but be aware that I am the worst at shading.

Hope this helps! :D

A planes reference sounds pretty awesome! I built a crappy dragon/dinosaur skull in Sketchup, and it could use some refinement.

Oh, and if you’re interested, here’s the final dragon picture: http://aboveclouds.deviantart.com/art/Icon-Into-the-Blue-367625752 The character was described as being a Chinese long dragon, but since it didn’t have any of the typical features of a long dragon (camel-like face, deer-like horns, eagle claws, etc.) I just went with what looked nice. :P

Thanks again for all of your help!

Also, I kiiiiind of hate shading dragon faces because I don’t know what to do with them. >.> I just…. don’t understand the planes of a dragon’s face… at all. I mean, I try to look at dinosaur skulls and junk but I have a really hard time translating that over to a muscled face. At least with humans there are resources like Loomis’ books which I can look at. When it comes to dragons, I’m on my own. It kind of sucks because I DO like dragons - I’m just no good with them. (mostly it’s that indented part on the muzzle that drives me batty)

This is more of a vent than anything else, but I am cool with critique. Now I’m gonna leave before I break my tablet in half. XD