Small Experimental Digital Paintings - TELL ME HOW TO DO THEM BETTER
- Thread starter Bugaboo
- Start date
RobotGentleman
kiwifarms.net
Ehh, the legs are kind of thick for a bird. Either way, it's a lot better than I could have done.
That's intentional to make him more "cutesy wootsy"
E
ES 148
Guest
kiwifarms.net
The hat's a little off, like it's resting on the back of its head. I'm no artist so I can't advise you, but that's the biggest thing I notice.
This, and the beak should probably be a bit thinner. I have the artistic ability of a chimp mind you, so I can't really comment much further than that.
Your midtones are good but your highlights and shadows need work. Also, it's good to get in the habit of identifying the temperature and level of your light source and how that plays with the colors in your subject. The light bouncing off of the ballcap is different than the light bouncing off of the kiwi.
Warning long art general shadow/color theory ahead
Alright so the first thing i would say is that you should always try to visualize your art in black and white, the easiest way to do this is ofc to put saturation at 0%
Then you should look for the contrast and see if your shadows still have the same effect
Now this looks quite a bit flatter than the colored image, as the blue and red you used as shadow and highlight have the same brightness as the base, this is a pretty easy fix, all you really need to do is make sure that the shade you use is at least a few tones darker, and the highlight brighter
I tried to do a brief color correction here (dont mind the rendering this is about the color value)
Which in black and white becomes
Now there is an even clearer light source and gradient within the image, and also as a rule of thumb your values should reflect where you want your eye to land, try to cluster the bright items on the focal point, while less important items tend to be desaturated/dark
Next up i would try to create more volume, you should always view objects in 3d, and then keep in mind the light source, think in spheres, not circles, though you already seem to be getting this, i would still make the face a bit rounder and not have quite the edged shadow on the chin, though. I do like the edged shadow under the hat,
A shading tip i often use, is to make bouncy lighting where i often create slightly brighter shadows further away from the “edge”
like the edges here, i dont know i just think it creates a nice illusion of volume and makes it pop a bit more. Though thats an artistic choice. You should still take notice of bouncy lighting in art though
The last thing i would keep in mind is source of light, this is a bit tricky here, as your art does not have a background, though generally its a good thing to chose highlight and shadow color from objects nearby/context
Here the blue of the sky is reflected in the dark brown fur, the more glossy or shiny an object, the more The “context colors” will reflect opon it
When you have a single item like yours, you can create an imaginary light source and go wild tho, bless. It’s also good that you used the warm saturated colors as highlights and the cold blue as shadow! Things on the opposite side of the spectrum usually look good in contrast. Overall a cute piece, the values, volume and composition needs a bit of work but otherwise not bad!
I hope this was to some help
Alright so the first thing i would say is that you should always try to visualize your art in black and white, the easiest way to do this is ofc to put saturation at 0%
Then you should look for the contrast and see if your shadows still have the same effect
Now this looks quite a bit flatter than the colored image, as the blue and red you used as shadow and highlight have the same brightness as the base, this is a pretty easy fix, all you really need to do is make sure that the shade you use is at least a few tones darker, and the highlight brighter
I tried to do a brief color correction here (dont mind the rendering this is about the color value)
Which in black and white becomes
Now there is an even clearer light source and gradient within the image, and also as a rule of thumb your values should reflect where you want your eye to land, try to cluster the bright items on the focal point, while less important items tend to be desaturated/dark
Next up i would try to create more volume, you should always view objects in 3d, and then keep in mind the light source, think in spheres, not circles, though you already seem to be getting this, i would still make the face a bit rounder and not have quite the edged shadow on the chin, though. I do like the edged shadow under the hat,
A shading tip i often use, is to make bouncy lighting where i often create slightly brighter shadows further away from the “edge”
like the edges here, i dont know i just think it creates a nice illusion of volume and makes it pop a bit more. Though thats an artistic choice. You should still take notice of bouncy lighting in art thoughThe last thing i would keep in mind is source of light, this is a bit tricky here, as your art does not have a background, though generally its a good thing to chose highlight and shadow color from objects nearby/context
Here the blue of the sky is reflected in the dark brown fur, the more glossy or shiny an object, the more The “context colors” will reflect opon it
When you have a single item like yours, you can create an imaginary light source and go wild tho, bless. It’s also good that you used the warm saturated colors as highlights and the cold blue as shadow! Things on the opposite side of the spectrum usually look good in contrast. Overall a cute piece, the values, volume and composition needs a bit of work but otherwise not bad!
I hope this was to some help
The shadows & highlights are pretty dull & the blue shading (or lighting?) looks off; use a colour that contrasts with the fur, like a dark purple or pink. The lighting should probably be some type of yellow, and much lighter... the lighting on the hat is also completely different than that of the bird itself. If you're struggling with light sources, maybe sketch a "light source" on the page for reference (ie a lightbulb or the sun or something). @Benine Bovine summed up a lot of things you could work on pretty well, though.
Otherwise, this is cute!
Otherwise, this is cute!
Thanks guys these are really useful critiques!
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