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QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:07 am
by Solarkid
Hey guys, Dave here. Right basically i wanted to show you all my original plans for the fan art compeition. I wanted to post something completely my own with a very different style to the colourings i've done in the past, but due to impeding school work i was forced to submit my best colourings of Lady Pyro's beautiful sketches instead.
People on this forum have helped me incredibly and that is the main reason i post this here today, I'm no Timo or Pyro, but i can assure you all i would NEVER have managed to create something like this had it not been for the helpful criticsm i recieved on these forums from many, the inspiration from the mouth watering art of others, and the enthusiastic praise i recieved from Eriq Chang, Gronager, Lady Pyro and more.
Not to mention the artistic advice i recieved from Timo and Pyro which was invaluable.

At 16, i have studied very little art, and next to nothing on painting, but i REALLY wanted to paint something, because i feel that any skill i might have lies with colours. So, over the last few days I have painted and edited this recreation of a main scene from Quest for Glory 1, and if it is of any merit at all i hope you all recognise the scene.

Don't get me wrong, i don't think these are particularly good, but I really just wanted to post them to show my gratitude to everyone here, including the makers of the forum and game!

Here is the original unedited painting.

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And here is my photoshop edit (A work in progress)

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Dave

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:21 pm
by Lady Pyro
I like the unedited one better, but both look fantastic. And I'm glad to hear you've been getting tips from Timo, because when it comes to colouring you've already passed me!
Wish I could do that at 16! :)
Keep up the good work. You've got some talent and if you stuck too it, I know you'll do great stuff.

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:43 pm
by gargin
Good Job Dave! I have to agree with Lady Pyro, I feel the original picture is not only more recognizable but the colors seem to work better. When looking at the photoshop edit I feel like the colors are rather harsh in certain places. Personally I feel this detracts from the picture but it's a great start!

Gargin

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 10:37 am
by Boogeyman
I prefer the first as well. The second seems too bright.

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:00 pm
by KQartist
Wow Dave! That's a fantastic painting there! I haven't done a real painting in years, and the majority of the work I do is digital, so I find this really impressive. Since you're only 16, you're likely to really advance quickly if you keep on practicing as you get older. :D

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:39 pm
by TimoVihola
Very nice Dave!

Here's some pointers about perspective and sky color (which is usually the brightest part of any image if there are no man made lights. I realized it myself when I started doing photography seriously, which is to say that photography can improve painting knowledge as well ;)) http://www.timovihola.com/gallery3/qfg1overpaint.jpg

Putting something into locked perspective can make things dull sometimes so I don't follow it 100%, but it works as a nice base to construct your final work. It gives better understanding of the structures and location.

In Photoshop I use HSB sliders for color selection and palette, it short of Hue, Saturation, Brightness. The cool part about it is the fact that you can see brightness as a concrete number, eyes can be deceiving because there's so many optical illusions. http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelso ... usion.html Regular RGB (Red, Green Blue) slider is much harder to read because it tells you three brightness values and you would have to calculate an average in your mind. HSB does the math for you.

If you want to read more about perspective this site has some good info: http://www.khulsey.com/perspective_basics.html

Can't wait to see what you can come up with a Wacom! :)

Cheers,

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:14 pm
by Solarkid
Thank you everyone for all of you comments and encouragement. It's honestly people like you that make this forum so welcoming and inspirational (not forgetting the game makers of course who do a large amount of that too). I wanted to wait until i'd finished another before reposting but i recieved far more replies than expected and just wanted to show my appreciation.

Timo-Those links were invaluable! Though i doubt it was good enough the perspective was far better when the painting was just a sketch, when i started painting lines got a bit skewed :) However the khulsey site was so useful, especially the lines drawn on top of the three figures showing clear perspective lines. Also that optical illusion is fascinating! I must confess though, i find it REALLY hard to believe that those two squares are the same colour. :0 Finally, the pointers on lighting were very helpful, i definatly see what you mean about the sky being the brightest part. I think the photoshop edit was a bad idea, should have stuck with just a painting, i think i really need tto either do basiclly all of it digitally or all of it by hand.

KQartist-Thankyou for the encouragement! You should definatley post some of your stuff here on the forums. And i hope to practise but i have a lot of school work to keep up with and it's quite hard sometimes to fit in the time to do a painting.

Lady Pyro and Gargin- Thankyou very much and i agree, the edit is probably best to leave.
Oh and LP, honestly I may never have got anywhere without being able to learn from colouring your creations, all i can say is I apologise for how poor the original colourings were! :L But really, thank you.

More soon if i can! I'll try to make the next one better based on the feedback here.

Dave

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:38 am
by Lady Pyro
Solarkid wrote: all i can say is I apologise for how poor the original colourings were!
Oh no you don't! You're not allowed to become on of those apologetic artists, there are enough of us out there as it is! You worked hard on those, you learned from doing it and we enjoyed getting to see your style and your progress.
I'm sure every other apologetic artist in the world can back me up here: It's hard to get started, people expect the best right from the get go which (with the exceptions of a rare few) is not how it works. I've been at this for a almost a decade and all the while I've been hiding my work from others, apologizing and making excuses. And let me tell you, once you start down that road it is a HARD habit to break, and it slows your progress and destroys your self esteem.
So no! Bad Solarkid! Stay confident and proud of your work! Even when you look back three years from now (or even three months) and decide that what you once thought was your greatest piece now looks terrible to you just think: That's how much further I've come since then. And there's nothing to apologize for in that!

Re: QFG Art Competition Original

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:39 pm
by Blackthorne519
Solarkid,

I think your art is great. You have a long and illustrious road in front of you. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.


Bt