SteelRat

Brilliant!

Almost sickeningly so

Thanks for your comments Swissy, they mean a lot.

One thing that I found with the fist, was something mentioned in my "Art for Noobs" book, and that is that a common mistake with people that are starting out is to try and interpret what they're drawing rather than just drawing what it is they see.

If you draw a fist, you have certain unconscious preconceptions about what a fist is, and what it is composed of, so that when you try and transpose those preconceptions on to paper, it all goes horribly wrong!

OK, as promised here are three stages of my work - from first attempt to latest.. be gentle!
Not great
Better - playing with faces and a fist
Overjoyed! Wooo!

LOL I'd have trouble drawing it the right way up, let alone upside down

Excellent! I actually think it's good to practise tasks which you're not naturally gifted at - perhaps it helps develop over all intelligence because it taxes parts of your mind that you might not otherwise use? I'm strongly left brained, so I work in IT. It would be interesting to see if practising the perfection of something that I'm not "wired" to do, will improve my overall intelligence, and in turn the things that I am "wired" to do?

I'm not for a minute suggesting that becoming able to draw my CoH characters is suddently going to give me insight into the true Origins of the Universe, but given the fact that working on something that doesn't come naturally would require more cognitive effort, it seems logical that it would improve things generally, not just in that specific area?

Any brain surgeons on? [img]/uk/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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You're slightly proud of your AT, because it's the first time you've seen a "You know..." thread that uses the correct word, "you're."

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.. that also knows the difference between their, they're and there, AND can spell "definitely" [img]/uk/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Seems to be the case though, people are either strongly left or right brained. Right brained people are artistic and intuitive, whereas left brained people are scientific and logical.

I'm more likely to be left brained because I'm better with science and numbers - so for me the learning curve for creativity is a steep one heheh. Interestingly, I think I'd rather have the ability to draw than to complete a Sudoku in under 10 minutes.

However I think both challenges are learnable if you want to do it badly enough (me to draw, and you to do Sudokus)

I never forget seeing a documentary about the ability for the brain to heal itself after a serious trauma, and the lady who'd suffered a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. She'd been a high ranking neurosurgeon, and so knew exactly what was happening to her. So severe was the stroke, that simple things like dialling someone for help became impossible; the part of her brain that recognises numbers had been damaged, and therefore she had no way of working out the phone numbers to dial in the first place.

The really fascinating part was her recovery. Her left brain had been damaged, but her right one had compensated and become the more dominant hemisphere. She described the way that her entire perspective of the world around her had changed from a relatively logical and scientific viewpoint to a more abstract and emotional one.

She gave up her career as a doctor, and instead turned her hand to her newly discovered artistic talent. She makes "stained glass brains" in 2D.

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You feel you HAVE to wear either a Purple/Black costume, or Baby Blue/White

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... with firestripe pattern

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My Cl / Reg 50 does not have stamina, and doesn't really have any end troubles at all. The only thing that hogs endurance is Instant Healing, Follow Up, Eviscerate and Shockwave. Stick end reds in those powers (3 in IH, 1 each in the rest), make sure you take Conserve Power from the body mastery epic power pool, use that in conjuction with Instant Healing, and if you have 3 or maybe 4 slots in Quick Recovery, you're laughing.


[/ QUOTE ]...IH an end hog? Definitely not after it was changed to clicky...

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Not sure I agree with you. In 22 levels of IH loveliness, endurance was more of an issue with it running and not slotted for end rdx, than it was when it wasnt running - an issue which I solved by adding endrdxs and using it in conjuction with Conserve Power (tho' I accept CP saves endurance on ALL powers, not just that one)

Just checking Hero Builder and looking at Instant Healing, the description says, "Instant Healing uses a great deal of endurance when running", and displays a cost of 10.4 (which I'm assuming is the activation cost), although in the recovery figures, there is no "EPS", which would suggest there is only that initial end hit.

Hmm test server time me thinks.

.. the only keybind you ever make is one asking your compadres to kill the Quant / Void you've spotted

... you look forward to the odd number levels for slots than you do the even ones for powers...

(add yours here!)

My Cl / Reg 50 does not have stamina, and doesn't really have any end troubles at all. The only thing that hogs endurance is Instant Healing, Follow Up, Eviscerate and Shockwave. Stick end reds in those powers (3 in IH, 1 each in the rest), make sure you take Conserve Power from the body mastery epic power pool, use that in conjuction with Instant Healing, and if you have 3 or maybe 4 slots in Quick Recovery, you're laughing.

With long fights (soloing Anti Matter at EB level was a breeze for example) end was never a problem for me. Even with Tough, Integration and Combat Jumping running together.

Saying all that - I DID have stamina up until about level 35, but respecced out of it with the freespec that came with i7.

As with all "I wonder if this build will work" questions, the best thing is to try it out on test first [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Yeah I appreciate everyone has to start somewhere - I guess I was asking "Could you draw to an extent before, and have used the books to perfect your skills, or have you started from 'can't draw to save my life' and progressed from there."

Additionally, is it fair to say that a lot of keen artists start relatively young, because they display a natural talent for it a younger age. Someone like me (in their 30s) had no flare for visual art at all in his teens (but was an enthusiastic musician), and have only come into it through being inspired by the likes of Douglas Shuler (DarkJedi on the US forums) Gill Bates (MMOArt) and comic art in general.

I suppose I'm trying to guage the "average speed of progress", which is completely daft because it has so many different variables.

You're right though, ultimately whether you're any good at it isn't what's important, it's whether you enjoy it or not that matters.

How long have you been drawing Scarlet? You mentioned that you'd found the Marvel book invaluable, had you also been a complete n00b in the artistic sense?

Oh don't worry Leif, not only do I have a "generic art for Noobs" book which covers first principles like bowls of fruit and sunflowers, but in addition all three of the "draw in this style" type books that I have, cover the basics of anatomy and stress that fantasy and comic characters are just exagerated versions of that. Essentially, with fantasy (including comic) characters of any sort, you have to know and be able to use the rules before you can bend or manipulate them [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Swissy, what's keeping me going is the progress that I'm making, and the fact that every time I draw something, I surprise myself. I'm sure this will flatten off eventually, but suffice to say, I'm enjoying the process which I think is the important thing [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Bought a couple of other books as well (or at least my gf did - she seems to want to encourage my creative side hehe).. "Anatomy for Fantasy Artists" and "How to Draw Fantasy Figures: From the Imagination to the Page". Both highly recommended for the Artistic Novice. Granted the style is geared more towards fantasy art than comic art, nevertheless, the priniciples and ideas are the same. In particular there is a whole section on musculature and skeletal topography which are the bits I find the most difficulty with.

I had a look through my sketch book the other day, and I'm pleased to say that there is a MARKED improvement from my initial attempts to my more recent ones. Will be posting scans up soon [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Brilliant advice there Scarlett - you make it look so easy as well heh.

Out of interest, do you use a mouse for drawing in PSP or have you got a graphics tablet of some kind?

In addition to the "How to" for comic drawing, I've also bought myself a basic drawing techniques book as well - seems a good idea to get an idea for "first prinicples" as it were before I try and draw in a specific style. I'm hoping drawing more mundane items like jugs, vases of flowers and the odd fruit bowl or two, might give me a better eye, for more complex forms like peoples faces!

I'm actually really enjoying this learning process a lot more than I thought I would, and I'm finding myself just doing the odd little sketch at work. Sketched out my clenched fist on my notepad this morning, and pretty well surprised myself on how good it turned out. I thought adding a couple of claws, scrapper stylee would be a nice touch too hehe.

Will have to get round to setting my scanner up so I can show you what I've been up to so that you can offer your critique [img]/uk/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Definitely up for this one - Friday or Sunday probably the only nights I can guarentee I'll be there. Saturday is highly likely, but guarenteed if it IS a saturday, it'll be the one saturday in the month that I go out :P

I blame Microsoft - since they enforced password complexity by default on Windows Server 2003, we have a generation that types in P@55w0rd, and believes it to be a real word!

I remember this before even knowing about the forums! A lowly lvl 6ish scrapper - wandered back from a mish to see a shed load of heroes standing on the steps of the town hall. And b*****r me there I am! Left most hero orange top and black tights [img]/uk/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/uk/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Have ordered both "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" and "How to Draw Better Looking Comic Women" (or something) from Amazon this morning.

*dribbles in anticipation*

Further inspiration for me to keep practising. Nicely done [img]/uk/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I'm sorry but I'm firmly in the "use of txt speak too gratuitously should be a criminal offence" camp.

Abbreviations are fine - even comic phonetic spelling to illustrate a mode of speech or accent as in "Jeeziz mush wossat all abaaht nen?"

However, describing "ne1 hu spks lk dis al da tym n finks deyr ndastd" as an "evolution of language that should be embraced" is pushing the boundaries a little imo. Far from being an EVOlution of language, it's far more a DEVOlution of language proliferated by a wannbe gangsta rap culture, where dropping out of school or being an illiterate narrow minded idiot is considered "da way of da street innit".

Very nicely done - the camera angles feel "right" and that adds to the whole comic feel.

Looking forward to issue 2! [img]/uk/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]