Lesson 1: An Introduction

[ratcharmer]

Howdy.

here's my WIP changeling:
(http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd108982/Mimic002)
It's coming out a little more "mimic" than "changeling", but I figure the card copies item abilities so it sort of fits. It's only half colored, and there's no background yet. I think I'm also going to crop off some of the left side of the image, it isn't really adding much

As to who I am, I'm a microbiology grad student. I don't have much background in art- I took one class in undergrad and a couple in high school. My preferred medium is ink, and I've only recently began coloring my images using GIMP, so I'm still very amaturish at that part. I have a lot of images I'm trying to make for cards etc. that I feel are close, but not quite there. I get to a certain point and then I get stuck trying to improve them any further.

[pepokish]

Oh boy, lots of great looking sketches to be seen, here!  c:  I see some really brilliant concepts, too... 

I have been a bit busy lately, so I sincerely hope you guys can forgive my lack of presence, so far...  I will be a lot more present from here on out.  (: 

ratcharmer:  Very interesting concept!  I like how you left some of it as a sketch, so far.  I'm not going to give a lot of critique, as this is only the introductory lesson -- but I did want to point out a few things, if you don't mind?  c:  Firstly, the nearest fang on the side of the mouth is considerably smaller than the farthest one -- it makes the image feel a bit lopsided. 

Secondly, be mindful of your lightsource.  It's nice to see that you have begun putting in highlights and such -- however, not all of them agree with one another.  Of course you can have multiple lightsources, but when starting out I find it best to use just one.  Basically, an object that we see is made up of values -- light, and dark.  Parts of the object that are hit full-on by light are brighter and more saturated with sharper contrast, while parts of the object that are not hit by direct light (shadowed) are darker, with duller colours and less contrast.  Light can only move in straight lines -- so decide where your lightsource is coming from, and try to imagine your Changeling as a 3-D object in your mind.  Keeping your decided lightsource in mind, what parts will be hit directly by the light?  What parts will be shadowed?  It's not an easy thing to explain, but with practice it's something that just sort of 'clicks'.

Anyway, I'll stop with my senseless rambling.    Let me know if you can't make sense of what I've said, and I'd be more than happy to clarify.

Again, great job so far, guys!  Keep up the hard work!

[RavingRabbid]

Here's my sketch.

It should represent a puddle morphing into a druidic staff.
In my imagination, a changeling is something slimy, and liquid. I represented it as a puddle of a strange and *black* floyd.

I don't have much experience in digital drawing, but I'm better at hand drawing, and there, I'm still nothing awesome.
The one in the spoiler is my last drawing, and it should resemble an Ulitharid floating.

[ArtCrusade]

Current state:

Just a finishing touch on the creature and some background and I'm ready!

[vrt]

patchx94: I'm terribly sorry! Trust me; this wasn't intentional, but rather a mix-up between pepokish and myself. When it comes to defining shapes, I'd personally suggest using the brush tool and painting it in. Of course, it's easy for me to say, considering I have a tablet, but I know from experience that it's very possible to do this with a mouse, as well - it'll just take longer. The advantage over using a pen tool, gradients or overlays, is that it's much more flexible. With overlays, colour control is incredibly difficult; and gradients would give a very unnatural look.

When you want to proceed from the basic shapes, the best thing would be to start on the lighting. As light hits a surface, it follows its shape, and thereby defines how it sits in 3D space. Let's take the toes of the rightmost kid as an example: Under the tip of a toe, is a little indentation. You can define that by adding a bit of shadow there, following the shape below the bottom of the toe. Of course, this is but a tiny example, but you can apply this logic to pretty much anything (that isn't abstract madness).

RavingRabbid: I think your piece right now looks very still, very lifeless. I'd strongly suggest to rething the angle you're using, because it does have some good potential. I took the liberty of creating an alternate sketch for you, you can find it here: http://www.vrt-designs.com/stuff/artclass/l1_ravingr.png As you can see, by dictating the shape using a base movement line, shown in red, a much more dynamic look can be created. This is just an example, though. If you have some spare time; just take a piece of A4 paper, draw 10 different movement lines, and try to make a version of each one - no matter if you think it's good or bad. It'll be a great way to learn!

ArtCrusader: I like where you're going with the textures so far, but play with the levels a bit, because your changeling could use some more contrast in colours and value. As for the sword; if you ever hit a point where you don't feel like you're achieving the look you want; look for reference images! I just googled 'sword' and came up with this image , which gives a good idea of where to go: Overall grey, but strong contrasting area's around the highlights and shadows. Also note that highlights are pretty quickly created on the uneven parts of its surface; a little bump is enough to produce a strong highlight.  In order to incorporate this into your image without it looking too bad, I'd start off with my first suggestion of bumping up the contrast a few notches.

[RavingRabbid]

Clicked post before post was ready.

[FredTheCat]

A Bit about myself:
Soooo, i'm 14 years old, live in Denmark, and i like geeking around on the interwebz
Tried to make flash games when i was younger, but failed at the art, and thats why im here, to learn how to draw simple stuff that doesn't look retardish

Okay, first of all im retarded with a pencil and simply suck at drawing sketches, so i simply try to make draw what i want directly without a sketch.
For this one i had no mouse, so i was mainly trying to learn the tools instead of trying to get the perfect shape, and i didn't really use the brush either.

And for the changeling i kind of imagined a dark form of ditto from Pokémon. Some kind of creepy dark slime thingy.

But enough talking, heres my drawing:

Really enjoyed the Bevel function

[ArtCrusade]

First finished version:

[TimerClock14]

*snip*

ArtCrusader:

*snip*

Just realized I didn't have a post to keep tabs on this .

I do believe it's ArtCrusade, not ArtCrusader.

If I may:
@ArtCrusade, I really like what you have there, but I really have a hard time adjusting to the harsh contrasts (?) of that background. Perhaps tone down the brightness a bit? I also understand what vrt and pepokish are trying to get at with the light source thing. I'd suggest adding some more depth to the shadows on the jagged stalagmite and stalactite.

[pepokish]

RavingRabbid - Nicely done!  I see some much more interesting dynamics going on, here.  Getting movement in a piece of artwork is something that I personally struggle with -- I find myself focusing on getting the technical aspects correct, and end up with something that looks technically nice, but altogether not very interesting.  Using movement lines is a great way to add interest to art, because I think we have a tendency to gravitate towards making something straight up-and-down, right in the center of the paper.  And.. well.. that tends to be pretty boring.    So, great job with that little exercise, and thanks for posting it!  I'm sure we will go more into depth about movement lines, composition, and perspective later on.


--

FredtheCat - Ooh, awesome colours.    Jumping right in without a sketch is definitely a-okay.  That's actually a technique that I know vrt prefers.  I personally always start with a drawn sketch, but there's really no right or wrong way to make art (well... maybe there is, but I'm sure you get my general meaning, right? Heehee...). 

So, I love the background.  It looks like an acid trip.    The backgrounds used for Elements card art tends to be pretty abstract, so I see no reason to worry about having any kind of scene or anything going on.  I also like where you're headed with your creature, but unfortunately the bevel function makes him pretty flat.  If this was your intention, that's not a problem -- but personally, I think the image could be a lot more interesting if the creature had a bit more depth.  Using the same technique that you used to draw the facial features, you can add highlights and shadows to the creature yourself.  This will make him more interesting to look at, and more believable as a creature.  It's up to you to decide, as you work on the shading: is he lumpy, goopy, gaseous, shiny, furry, etc?  Simply adding highlights and shadows to an object have the ability to translate these types of characteristics to your audience.

Anyway, I know you specifically said that you didn't use the brush much, because you're just getting used to the tools and such -- and that's perfectly fine!  This is a really casual lesson, vrt and I won't be getting too deep into feedback or anything for this lesson, but I did want to mention how even a few simple highlights and shadows can work wonders for translating textures and shapes.  C:

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ArtCrusade - I have to say, I love the furry texture of your creature!  Sadly, the texture seems to get lost a bit when you add such a dark background...  I'm going to agree with TimerClock here, and say that I think solid black may not be a wise choice for the darker parts of the cave.  Maybe a really dark blue-grey, instead?  I do like your concept, though!  And you have quite a lot of really nice textures going on, here.  It looks like you've really put a lot of effort into this. 

One little thing I wanted to point out, is that the texture of the rocks in the background sort of compete for the attention of the main figure.  This is problematic, as you really want your creature to be the main focus of the artwork, for this purpose.  One thing that would really help, might be to up the contrast on the creature (brighter highlights, deeper shadows) and lower the brightness of the highlights on the rocks in the background.

May I ask what program you're using, right now?  (:

[ArtCrusade]

Thanks for the advice, Timer and Pepo, I'll be happy to follow it

@pepo: Using PS CS5

[SunnyGreens]

It has been a day of false starts, frustrations, and mistakes as I figure all this stuff out. I also just realized I drew the darn thing in landscape which isn't very useful for a card. Sigh. My hand is cramping, so I will leave it at this sketch for today.

Basic idea: Changeling as a mass of black goo shifting into a skull masked thing holding a crappy version of the vampiric dagger. The new shape is still only half formed in the image and rising from the goo. I shall spend tomorrow figuring out how to paint it halfway decent and post again.

Why I am doing this: I need something creative to do. I had been making things for the competitions, but have wanted to pick up drawing again. An art class is a great way to keep myself from getting lazy and the feedback/suggestions would help me improve. I have done some art with charcoal drawing, but not really all that much. Zero with digital, so this is all new to me.


Edit: Now that I look at it again, I think it needs a chin.