Megumiko

Hiya.

I thought I'd share some superhero sketches that I've done recently.

These are all digital and include that messy blue sketch layer that I've recently been toying with.



Sky Police

Some Famous Hero Lady

Another Famous Super Lady

Patriotic Star In An Aerial Battle

<waves at everyone and runs off>

<hug back!>

I am very glad you've got a great mentor to teach you!

I agree, Alex, being able to resize the canvas, move the image on the layer, rotate something that's off, are all wonderful tools that digital drawing can bring you.

Also, I highly recommend an Intuos tablet with a large size (mine is 9 x 12) because they have have 1024 levels of pressure and that's very important for any deeply involved digital artwork.

As for the learning curve, in my experience, the hardest learning curve to over come is the fear of using the tablet. The best thing to do is to jump in with drawing and/or painting. It's like any medium, it takes getting used to.

Man, Sorah, your coloring has imporved from when you used to post on CoH Guru. Nice work!

Ooo! Those look great! I can't wait!

[ QUOTE ]
when I first found out I was like "woah!!!111"

I shudder to think what awesomeness he will unleash when he gets a tablet

[/ QUOTE ]

I have wondered that myself.

Good stuff there Veikira. (Dang it, you went back to the name I can't spell!) Love the colors!

[ QUOTE ]
What brush do you guys use for digital inking?

[/ QUOTE ]

I use a non-airbrush with the opacity set to 75% or so. The size varies, depending on the line width but, on average, it's usually 10-12 pixels in size.

Like Rowr, I am usually zoomed in quite close, 200 to 400%.

Yeah, I learned sometime ago this was the most pleasant, fun and generally courteous forum of all the official CoH forums.

I can think of only two incidents of truly obnoxious behavior since I have been visiting/lurking here. But I might have missed a few.

Still, that's nothing like the flame wars that erupt when power discussions are involved.

[ QUOTE ]


After the tutorial, I wanted to transfer some influence, so I asked a 5th lvl player named "Sonic Sparkz" for help. My antenna should have been up when he replied, "transfer what?". Little did I know this was his stupid act hoping to gain my confidence.



[/ QUOTE ]

I have a suggestion... get your spouse to play then with two accounts you always transfer with no worries.

That's what I do, at least.

Sorry for you trouble, though.

Currently I ink in Photoshop. If it's a pencil drawing I am "inking", use the level tool until it's fairly dark and then just clean it up, through use of the polygonal lasso, the eraser and the brush tools.

That's fairly time consuming, however, so I think I will trying putting a layer over the pencil drawing and just trace it.

If I start with a digital sketch, I have a sketch layer and the line art layer over it. THis is a very new thing for me so it could change.

I used to used traditional pens. I used rapidograph pens and a variety of fairly cheep drafting pens.

If you do not like hoding a pen straight up and down because the position is too stiff, I wouldn't recommend the rapidograph pens for you then. That's why I stopped using them. Felt bad, too, because they weren't cheap.

Poison, those Guildwars pieces look great. I love how you are putting more and more texture into your pieces.

Reminds me of why I love the male monk models, depite their fatness... they have a very, cool, tai chi like dance!

Welcome back!

Very, very, nice, Graver! (Arrr!)

It may have taken longer than the others, but I think it is your best piece yet. (They seem to be getting better with each one. How odd. It's like practice makes perfect or something. )

I love how moody your pieces are. And I just realized the zombies are also Longbow. Nothing scarier than having your zombified friends trying to eat your brain!

Excellent work!

[ QUOTE ]
Everything I've seen here, every piece of incredible art has just continued to make me more and more jealous of people's talent.

Does anyone know of any resource showing tricks, proportions, etc to drawing people? I've tried on my own to replicate some basic things, but I constantly fall short, especially on faces.

Tutorials, resources, etc. I'll take any of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

There two real important things that most practiced artist will agree upon.

First: learn the basics. That is, learn the use of line, light and shade. Understand perspective for making the illusion of a 3 dimensional space on a 2-D surface. Learn direction forces, the way the image draws a viewer's eyes around the page. Do life studies, draw people in various poses to get a better understanding of how the body works.

If you can, I would do what Rowr is doing and take a class or two. But all good artists have learned those things regardless of whether they are self-taught of if they went to school.

Second: practice, practice, practice. Even if what you are doing is going well, keep going. And, above all, learn from your mistakes.

Finally, many artists agree on this fine book: [u]Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain[u] by Betty Edwards. It's a very good book that helps you train eye to hand coordination for drawing, among other things.

There is one other thing: Do not be offened by critiques that tell you what's wrong with your picture and how to fix it. Critiques like that aren't meant to make you feel bad, but are inteneded to help one grow as an artist.

When you take an art class, your teacher will very likely have everyone critique each other's work. This helps a student see the flaws in works so that they can better see the flaws in their own works.

Anyway, good luck!

Aye Laddies! That'd be one fine piece by Cap'n Cyberlynx!

Any one who disagrees will be walkin' the plank, says I!

PMD, that turned out great! I love the background, and I don't have a problem with the cape being up like that. It accentuates the idea that he is moving down vert fast towards the veiwer.

Two minor nit picks, though. There is a weird line in the upper left coner that doesn't seem to belong to anything. It looks like a seam in a wall or something.

Second, the clouds flow up and around the lower part of the moon but do not obscure it at all, and they should at least have some wispy presence over it, in my opinion.

Still, excellent job! A very nice addtion to TA's collection.

I also agree with Xenophon's reference picture suggestion. That last image is the kind of pose you are looking for.

And Graver makes a good suggestion about posing sketches.

Finally, I would add that friends and family are wonderful for use as models, not to mention yourself with the help of a mirror.

But I think I am going to book mark that website. Thanks Xenophon!

The line art has a lot of character, and the colors look great, too.

Graver and TA, thank you! Yeah I hope to color this one some day.

Scarf_girl, SuperMaoriFulla, thank you for the compliments! I tried to do them justice. Fearghas has specfic descriptions on their appearance and attitudes towards each other and I worked hard to portray those things.

I was very happy to help with Cruse's birthday.

Foo, thank you as well. I think it's very clean line art because it's digitally drawn and inked. I was often zooming in to 400% to make sure it was clean. You'd be surprised how much a few out of place pixels can mess up an image.

I'd also like to thank Wacom for making such a nice art tool with their Intuos line of graphics tablets. My line art would never be so sharp and clean with pen and ink and a mouse to clean it up.

[ QUOTE ]
It's been killing me that someone with the name "Thor's Assassin", looks neither like a viking nor an assassin... okay more so the latter, but being a closet D&D freak, here's my take on what if TA played World of Warcraft.

TA WOW

LJ

[/ QUOTE ]

I rather like your style on this image, though I must say that WoW human males are fatter and have MUCH bigger hands, and the weapons make Final Fantasy weapons look small sometimes.

Thank goodness you took creative license and didn't draw TA like that!

Nice line art there, LadyJudgement!

[ QUOTE ]
Well guys, I just received an email from Arctic Sun and it looks like they won't be adding my piece to the gallery after all. They don't like the fact that my logo is displayed on it and I refuse to remove it because just like my signature it represents myself personally and my art. I don't understand or agree with their hypocritical position at all as it is a FREE gift that I spent a LOT of time on from both myself and W00T Radio (which is why their logo is on the piece as well, it was their event). But hey, if that's their attitude about artists who take the time to support one of their own then they can shove it lol.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, it was a nice piece, despite the official stance about it.

Fearghas, you are quite welcome. I enjoyed this piece a lot. And I am glad everything worked out well for you.

[ QUOTE ]
Very nice! Megumiko did you dink that?

[/ QUOTE ]

Gill, actually I drew this piece entirely in Photoshop. No pencils or paper were harmed in the making of this drawing.

I drew a sketch, and then made a layer above it, and drew in darker lines, cleaning and re-working as I went.

I've realized that this process is much faster than drawing first with pencil and then inking digitally.

Everyone, thanks for the kind words.

[ QUOTE ]
Something about this kind of pose, no matter how dangerous the characters... we all love it when they hug and kiss their sweeties...

especially when someone like Megumiko draws them, she's gooood!

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, ProfessorBlues. Thank you so much for the compliment!

And Lush and Maiden of stell, I let my girlish notions of romance take over, and I think it helped the picture.

Thanks again, every one, especially you Fearghas, for your wonderful compliment!

[ QUOTE ]
Yay Megu's back! *big hugs!*

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes... the rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated.

*returns big hugs*

We even picked of CoV so we can rework costumes that have been giving us a fit for a while. (Both Patriotic Star's and Templar Ivonis' main costumes have been driving me nuts from the day I made the characters. It sucks to make a character that you like a lot, but that you can't get their look just right.)

Rowr, how far buried is your digital painting thread?

[ QUOTE ]
I thought this was new news...maybe another piece in the next comic?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you very kindly for the compliments and htoughts, Whiteperegrine and everyone.

Kat, it's possible. Though rather unlikely. A few comics away in the future, perhaps.

As for giving artists ideas about TA.... I've noticed there've been a fair number of artists who get creative all on their own.

*does an innocent whistle and points at Graver*

Hey there's some great stuff in here! And it's cool to see how folks have grown.

Okay, here's some old stuff of mine, and when I say old, I mean old.

This one was completed around the same time as another image that I actually bothered to sign and date so, it's circa 1986, which was while I was in junior college.

Strange Monkey Man

Here's my comic strip from the college newspaper, from 1989 or so:

Doc Crock's Guide to Studenting

I really like your drawing style, Atomic Knight, and Battlewraith, nice coloring.

Kat, congrats on yet another wonderful addtion to your collection!