@laiba_mushtaq Thank you 
@YRH Thanks. Yeah I think the darker tone of the story is what got me interested in the show. I read the manga but never fully watch the anime, only snippets of it from youtube clips. Drew both the Elf Ranger and the Priestess quite a lot, but I think this one is the furthest I get. Sometimes knowing exactly the amount of work needs to be done to finish things really eats up on your willpower 
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Thanks, hopefully the new CPU helps with some of the drawing process.
Gonna put this here, and start running away out of embarrassment.
On serious note even tho I can read refs decently, I think… I have no clue on how to use textured brush effectively.
What I see on environment Artists’ IG timelapses, they use multiple brush to create surface texture after building the shape of the object with immediate shading. How they chose which texture to layer on top one another? I have no clue.
Gif making test on shotcut. I screwed up the setting, but not sure which one.
I don’t think it is a skill issue, more like disheartened before the project can be finished.
When I am stressed I draw random stuff.
Reina from Tekken
I really really love your work. I get what you said about returning to the familiar - that which you know you can do. I would love to learn environment but I always return to faces because I can relax and do them comfortably.
Knowing that the amount of effort needed to learn something I am not familiar with, made me stressful. Sometimes I wish I can find small study group that tried to tackle the same problem (Environment), Not necessarily to help each other learn the subject, but more like mental support since everybody is trying to draw the same stuff and kinda have fun and suffer together
That makes a lot of sense.
Rinotuna study,
2B - Figure pose study, but I hate what I came up with, was trying to turn it into cutout animation study but too lazy to recut and separate the parts in layers.
Testing some shading to indicate thickness
Wow! Very cool dedication shown here in this thread. Mileage is the best teacher, keep at it!
Relatable. Irl group where you can meet up with each other can be nice. I have one around, but everytime we meet up, we end up just chatting and back to practice alone in the bedroom after . Not really complaining though, the chatting itself is good.
But back to this forum, it’s the reason we post and look around each other’s posts in this forum, yeah? To see the struggles (and successes, of course) of others and reconfirming that we are not alone in facing difficulties (and sometimes winning too, bit by bit by bit). So… having said all that, nice to meet you!
Thank you, nice to meet you too. I have anxiety when talking to people, not really apparent when writing in comment, but it took me a while to type stuff since my mind jumps a lot, sometimes I can’t figure out what I was trying to say. But yes, I do learn a lot from people here.
A post was merged into an existing topic: Monthly Art Challenge WIPs and Discussion Thread – March 2024
Continuation of Depth making practice from the post that got moved to other thread.
Timelapse:
Yes I suck at background but I have to start somewhere. Most of the landscape concept artist I watch use stacking textured brush, problem is it is hard to find the logic, like priority of importance, the sequence, and the brushes used from youtube public videos.
People might feel that I talk nonsense since some of the videos show exactly those things I mentioned, but I’d argue what I see is just a showcase of specific technique to draw specific landscape. I probably just need to search more videos, someone bound to explain the fundamental/basic concept.
The closest I get is mr Stephen Travers’ channel, but he is a pen artist, I have no clue how to transfer his explanation to my painting process. Edit: Well I actually have some clue but I still feel there’s some leap of logic or I think more of leap of skill to implement the explanation well.
Glad I’m not the only one struggling with backgrounds…
And my experience with videos is much the same, for example David Revoy shares his brushes and does tutorial videos with them, but somehow I never can get it to work quite like what he demonstrates…I also concluded that the secret is not so much the brushes, but the proper technique when painting.
Though I feel I improved at least a tiny bit by finishing the Yin & Yang Challenge piece, sometimes it’s fascinating how things just start to work even with the most basic brush as the picture in your mind becomes more concrete and you found the proper hand full of colors and the right order to use them.
Then it also starts showing nice brush patterns, but then you still need to get a feeling which patterns are effective at mimicking various surfaces and structures.
But how to properly learn that other than just lots of try & error, I don’t know.
This is hard to grasp from videos for me too…
Yeah I think trial and error is kinda the best way for now. Can’t understand why some brush works better than the other for certain surface if I haven’t try it myself. Just listening to someone explain how it suppose to go don’t really work for me.
What is this Yin & Yang Challenge you mentioned, if I may ask? At this point I’ll take any pointer from any source and test it to see if it works for me.
Looks like King from AOF!. Nice!
I break focus again, 2 weeks left. Need to regain control somehow before the agreed date. Can’t work if I have no confidence and optimism. I know I shouldn’t write something like this in public, but I am also being honest to them, in front, about my condition and my rate reflect the higher risk of hiring somewhat unstable artist. Saw comment on a forum post somewhere years ago, said most artist is unstable because of one thing or another. Probably just trying to calm the other person in the thread.
I’ve read somewhere that people who are perfectionists about a subject are like that because they care a lot about said subject!
When getting more experience in a domain, I guess we all do the same; we forget (or refuse) to look behind ourselves, to look back to see how far we’ve come. We only look ahead, to look at others who have more experience. But let’s not forget about the other ones who were in front of us, that are now behind us.
I’m sure if you look back, let’s say, five years before, your skills weren’t as good as they are today. Never forget the path you walked, the difficulties you faced, and that feeling you got when overcoming them!
Anyway, I realize it is very hard for me to stray from ref or to draw from object that I haven’t drawn before. The safe bet is 70% ref - 30% new. For example adding new object will confuse the heck out of me on the light and color. I know Guweiz said to pull the local color of the object to the color of the surrounding environment, but well you know… I am not that good. Something to practice more I guess.
Hmm, it’s always the detail that is the problem for me when drawing more from imagination / less ref. Anyway got some work that needs me to draw what I consider a more complex lighting. 3 light source including backlit/rim lighting, and this is the test bed. 2 light first… ooh this gonna be interesting.
Random practice idea from lurking around the forum. Also, just realized the right horn has wrong shading curve. I’ll try finding some good Deathclaw image for ref in the future.
Your work is pretty awesome, Nora! Fantasy feels. 
