Mercury_Blue

There are a number of small little things in your example that really lend it it's depth. Beside just shading, notice that the artists lines follow the contour of the surface he's shading. That can help a lot. Also, in the area's of interest take note that there is not only a high level of contrast, but a great number of shades between the darkest and lightest and that everything except the lightest areas have some pencil work done on them. There is also a fine use of atmospheric perspective used. It's not overly noticeable like it would be in a landscape, but if you look for it you can see that the cheek, eye, and mouth planes are all in fine focus, but the nose loses focus as it comes out and the side of the head and ear lose focus as they recede into the background. They both become a bit fuzzier as they move out of the focus point. Finally is how the level of detail is distributed. The area's of interest, namely the front plane of the face have much more detail then the other parts of the drawing. As the areas become less important the level of detail lowers as does the crispness. A Leather Jacket has just as many if not more fine details then a human face, but the depiction puts it closer in detail to his hat, something with very few innate fine details.

That's all I can pick out about it when I'm half asleep. I'll edit this if I notice anything else when I'm more awake.

Alright, I really am starting to bury myself in sketches now and as I can only work on two pieces at a time right now if only count my work that I'm doing for myself (as in not class related) everything that's new is staying in sketch form until I finish my Mercury Blue portrait and my Scorching Gale piece. Those sketches are going to go here from now on, and I'm starting right off with two.

Deep underground, far below the streets of Nerva Archipelago, sits a king among the imps at ease among his court . Truly there is rest, even for the wicked.
This one is still in a very rough stage. It's of my highest level, a fire/fire dominator and Scorching Gale's half brother.
Abyssal Imp

As the physical embodiments of their demon ancestry war in the wreckage of Siren's Call, two siblings clash in the sky above. Their rage is palpable, a feeling that can only be invoked by the worst of sibling rivalries.
Scorching Gale vs. Abyssal Imp

Since I mentioned this in my Scorching Gale WIP post, I thought I'd give an update on this. Still getting used to digital painting and most of my time has been spent working on my animation stuff for my classes. Still, this is about 8 hours of work

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...NFINISHED-.jpg

Next time I get a chance to work on it, first thing I'm doing is toning down the light on his arm and his stomach. They're to jarring right now.

Definantly think I'm going to rethink my approach with Scorching Gale though. Don't know why I didn't just treat this like I was doing an acrylic or oil painting, but I seem to do this "focus on one part" thing whenever I start a new medium.

Amazing as always. I love the colors in this one, and the Hellion actually looks dangerous. You've even managed to capture more then enough personality in the pose of the main figure to get a real feel for the character even behind a full face helmet, which is probably the most impressive thing in the entire piece.

I'd actually like to see more of your stuff follow this one in how much color you lay down. As awesome as your other stuff is I've always wondered what they'd look like if the color was stronger, and now I think I actually have an idea.

I have a theory on that Hellion. You see, from his knives it's actually quite telling. He was a boy born to a KoA and to avoid scorn and keep him close, she disguised him as a girl and thus he learned the style of the Knives. When he was eventually found out was cast out and had no choice but to become a hellion.

There's also the theory that he was raised by Red Caps...

I need to stop drawing so much in Art History, it's starting to swamp me in my own work Still haven't finished my Mercury Blue piece...

But, I started drawing and couldn't stop. I blocked out the pose, and liked it to much to just dump it in with my forgotten sketches and used my fire/storm controller, Scorching Gale, in her second costume as the model when I started throwing in some detail. Well, enough with the small talk, on to the art...

Scorching Gale

Alright. Changed the title as it seemed appropriate. The main question's been answered and now this really is a true WIP with the help of everyone who's posted in this thread so far. This may be the last update on this before I start painting this. I'm barrowing a friends tablet for the weekend and this may be the best time to get this and another piece painted as with the new console releases this wiikend... er... weekend I may forget about for my art for a while

Alright, so on to the update. I put a face on him. I fixed the hand resting on the hatch, darkened and improved a lot of lines, placed the right decals on his chest and cape, did some work on his resting left hand, and did a little work on the interior of the mech. I also moved the leg a smidgen to try and get to line up like was suggested, but I think it looks right so it was a really subtle change.

Amazing. Perfect thing to watch after 2 hours of mind numbing lab work.

The hand's not lifting the hatch. He's just got his hand there, like when some people get out of the car and the put thier hand on the top of the door opening. If he was opening it he'd probably have his hand on the underside of the top plane rather then on a side one. Of course it's possible that it doesn't look quite right for that either, so if there's still a suggestion about it feel free to give it.

I think that's more then a full time job actually. If it's in full color and each is 13 pages that's atleast two weeks, maybe three per comic depending on how many people you have working on it.

I'd love for you to give Anakim a try when you get the chance. He's a inv/ice tanker. I'll give you the one from live though so you don't have to hassle with wings if you don't want to (he's a nephilim, half human/half angel).

Reference:
Picy 1
Picy 2
Picy 3

Alright, quick update as the chest thing has come up again and I think I may have fixed it, but the left arm now looks too small so I'll put some work into that as well. I also made him looking up a bit. Thought it might make a decent compromise between not changing the perspective and fixing it to look up at him (which, despite how cool that would be, seems like it would be enough work to just justify another piece entirely). I've also started work on the machine he's stepping out. The back tooth is too high right now though.

Update!

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Japan Hero, from Go Rangers to Kikaider, I love this site.

-CJ

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Holy cripes! That's getting bookmarked.

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The hand holding up the panel should have the fingers bent back if it is flat.

The left hand's thumb is over his index fingers. That is a ver uncomfortable pose.

Perspective is a bit off. The foremost lines on the ship do not meet correctly (Off page).

For a scene like this, a normal, head-on view is not always the best bet. Try slightly looking up for a more dramatic, poerful feel.

Tone down the muscles unless it is intended.

Keep it up. Practice is it's own reward.

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Thanks for all the crit. I see what I did with the lines for the perspective, easy fix. The musculature is so prevelant right now mostly as a marker for when I paint it. It'll me more subtle in color. I referenced the way my hand falls when I make a relaxed fist for the left hand and it's accurate to my hand, but maybe my hands just fall weird. I'll get my roommate to do the same fist and see if he does it different.

I don't understand the thing with the hand holding up the panel though. Unless there's a seperate drawing problem that made you think the plane that the hand is on is tilted outwards from the center.

From Aaron123
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Also, unless your character is a kid or in his teens, you may want to try making the chest a little larger.

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Ack, the torso, my bane. My kryptonite. I'll work on that as well. Thought it looked a bit small, but wasn't sure. I'll try pulling the chest down and making it a little larger. Should help with the placement problem I'm seeing with the chest emblem as well.

Thanks everyone.

*EDIT* I've changed the title. The pencils are much closer to finished down in my newest post*EDIT*


I'm drawing my main hero Mercury Blue. He's a Sentai styled hero (think Power Rangers or Viewtiful Joe if you don't know the term) and I have him stepping out of a sentai vehicle/mech. Now, the problem comes in that I have absolutly no idea what reference to use for it. Any suggestions would be helpful. Don't need to post a pic if you don't want, I'll do the research myself if need be.

Here's the drawing *Drawing Here* I'm going to paint this in photoshop once I finish the sketch and buy a tablet.

Also, don't feel shy about picking apart the drawing itself. Any help I can get, even criticism, will only make this piece better in the end.

Dear lord, how could I have forgotten? I click that link almost everytime I see one of your posts

Wow, your work is amazing Doug. I'm heading to your site right now to see what's there.

*edit after visiting*

O.o Dear lord I hope I'm any where close to as good as you are once I get some years into illustration. Jaw dropped on more then a couple occasion (especially seeing that you did the work on a couple of cards that were at one point or another signature cards in my Magic decks...)

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Garv101 - I only have the one scrap so far

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Journey of a thousand miles and all that. Everyone starts somewhere

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I am! Though I don't do alot of Co art, just comic art in general, WonderWoman and StarWars are my main drawing interests.

My Gallery.

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Yah, I don't have a lot of CoX stuff on my deviant. I find myself mostly drawing my characters during class when I've got the lined paper out. I may have to start saying that I just do all my notes in my sketch book just so I can have some decent paper to draw on

Every now and then I'll see a link to a deviant art gallery in someones signature and it's got me wondering just how many deviants we have. So, all you deviant's out there stand up, raise a hand, and post a link to your gallery! I'd love to see what you've got.

I'll get things rolling with mine

Yah, only time you can actually see quality of supplies is in painting with Oil, Acrylic, and Watercolor and even then a true artist can still make even crudy stuff work. McFarlane (as much of an [censored] as I think he is) I've heard used discarded acrylics that he found in the trash for many of his early comics because he was so dirt poor.

For drawing though I still haven't seen what makes a full set of "professional quality" pencils any better the cheapos you can get from a hobby store, and there's still a certain magic that I've found just can't be replicated by anything other then the old reliable number two pencil, whether it be wooden or mechanical.