an old art thread

[Foreverfox]

I love your art so much. I wish I had the same dedication to the individual components and fundamentals that make up a solid piece. I’m just over here cranking out cartoonish pieces so that I can justify not working on my realism and basics.

 

[Kitsuragi]

Dude your art goes so ****ing hard, I adore your style so much

 

[Drawdler]

Major thing first !! Last time I hadn’t decided on a name for my lemur villager and I forgot to ask for suggestions. I decided on Nadia; from a quick google search, it can mean hope or fragile. Lemurs are endangered and all originate from Africa, so the hope part can represent travelling beyond there, yet the population is still fragile. It can also be a reference to the hope diamond since her eyes are very gemlike (you even got “dia” in there - too bad the diamond is from India so this pun isn’t coming full circle) and above all else… she looks like a Nadia, man.

Honestly, while I said snooty I think she could work as sisterly or normal too, she’d be more on the chill side of snooties anyway (NH rather than WW snooty, for example). Or if she was more of a rude snooty, it’d be more “I’ve gone through things in the past, jerk with a heart of gold” sort of snooty. Hope to change yeah yeah. Either snooty or sisterly can fit the travelling part, naturally. I don’t think normal is as tight a fit here, for such a rare gal.

I do need to make some sort of back and side view reference for her, ‘cause honestly, I didn’t put a lot of thought into where the crown patch would end. Just procrastinating on that part. If I designed a whole town of villagers and made some oneshot comics for them it’d be pretty fun. I always wanted to do something like that but never settled on a series as an outlet (sorry Skylanders).

It’s been another HECTIC week trying to wind down from the last two so I just have a few mon doodles and a silly watercolor test today…

Spoiler

Might have already posted the flat color of this one but it was time for me to go experimenting with the available brush types. Friend My boyfriend asked for Slither Wing with a collar a few weeks ago and this is the best I delivered so far. Always surprising how TALL it is. Also fun fact (or creepy to some): moths have scales, it isn’t fur. They knew what they were doing making a moth into a dinosaur, it has to be intentional. Then again the whole dinosaurs having patches of feathers thing, so I guess it works anyway…
Very interested in applying textures with the premade brushes but working out how to make them look less like they’re just 2d patterns printed on… I had something goin here. The tag should be gold but I got my usual patches of uncolored stuff going there whoops. Also really liking the “turn base sketch into color dodge layer” technique I came up with but from there you could certainly rework it into actual edge lighting instead of shiny outlines.

Alternate Gliscor form. This was a quick 15min. Firstly as for the shadow textures I had the idea of reflecting a rocky environment in its shadow and I think reflecting environments in shadows could be a fun thing on something more fleshed out. I know there’s some insect (I think it’s a spider) that looks like a hand so I had that in mind. I forget what it’s called unfortunately. The function of three tails here is improbable. Two tails clamping into a spiky back like jaws might work better but three means the middle intersects. Maybe it’s fine anyway. I also think you could have a spiky exoskeleton back in general and treat it kinda like a spiky turtle shell with a tail it drags enemies into. Wanna be extra creepy it could even drag enemies into its shell later. I came up with a lot of Gliscor ideas I wrote down so likely going to draw more of them soon. Typing? I dunno, ground/flying is incredible functionally and hard to top, maybe you could go ground/poison here. It could use the tails like a shovel-catapult thing to claw up the ground behind it? Spikes on the back of the tails to function like a spiky back shield and it hides in them?

Here are the watercolor tests literally kinda just did these in the background while watching some stuff and to get some inch of practice in there. This was on the wrong type of paper to really do anything and I just wanted to test stroke shapes. Been seeing a lot of fun watercolor tutorials and starting to seriously warm up to the idea of that medium but at the time I didn’t feel like dragging out my set. Also PSYCHE this is actually gouache 100% because again I didn’t feel like bringing out the watercolor set. The closer you keep something to you the easier it is to just pick it up and actively engage with it.

I caught a shiny Growlithe on HeartGold after hunting it in four different games after the years! Next target is Scyther which I insist on catching wild and it’s an unmoving 5% encounter so that’s going to take ages. Tried drawing Growlithe to celebrate though. Want to rework the face if I continue it, but tried a lot of stuff on the tail. Tried to give it the look of some actual brush strokes visible within. Tried a couple different colors on it. I‘d like to come back to this one some time though some stuff needs more problem solving. Here are various color layers and a closeup of the tail to see the original stroke effect (which got a little maligned in later layers but at least not entirely- they were super necessary this time to flesh out the values, some of the stroke dimensions in later layers don’t make much sense but they all end up more visible anyway and I can say the same for the original so I think I’m splitting hairs here).

 

[Drawdler]

Drawings for camp TBT 2023, more TBA later

Spoiler

Floating Celeste I drew just before the event started which still isn’t quite finished, I was drawing and doing stuff for other parts of the event as well as irl stuff since. Unfortunately the rest of this will be a bunch of rendering busywork (shading is still very scratched-on and needs blending) but I’m not sure when it will be completely done and I want the pick-me-up of posting something and seeing some progress here. I’ll make it clear when it’s finished. I don’t know if the eyelashes actually make this better by the way!

Signature I tossed together for the space theme in about 20 minutes, did it alongside Celeste taking a break from that.

Flag entry for my crew, the ISC. I think this was 2nd place (though I didn’t keep a really close eye on the votes, and I don’t feel like going to double-check), there were a bunch of submissions I would have been happy to see win so I can’t really complain.

Wanted to draw the Space Whale as a villager / special visitor so I did that and explored a lil more just in pen sketches. The first one is a real Switch screenshot though I promise you guys

Not strictly for TBT but incidentally sorta fits

Spoiler

lil sketch for my boyfriend of us on the overlook in my New Leaf town

I guess this also counts! Always loved the designs of this line and was happy people found out their potential competitively

Gonna post the other random fav of the week + at the bottom is an old thing I found lying around by surprise, it’s a Skylander. Honestly on the random fav the collarbone looks more like a turtleneck or something given the hard edges on the top but oh well! I’m usually in the rose-printed jacket on my NH main but at the time I didn’t feel like looking for reference so I went yolo.

I forgot the other bird aw mann

In the future this thread will be updated with a tutorial on a holo screen / holo text effect iykyk

 

[Kitsuragi]

Holy hell that Celeste... The way you work with light sources... So damn good

 

[Drawdler]

Needing a break from the internet right now because I’m feeling discouraged and still really sick but it’s time for post-camp dump first

Remaining camp stuff

Spoiler

Pencil Passports entry

For security reasons this would never, ever happen (I hope) but you know- in space, it’s awful dark, but they still have checks out there. So how do you see? Well, some get a digital passport. We’re in the future, it’s got all you need to travel- your info to actually pass through, travel brochures with photos to view, a calendar organiser and a spot for notes. You can even make audio notes. On the right edge, obscured in these photos are the power button, charging slot and even a headphone jack. Not only convenient for those who need to look and check, but the traveler themselves.

Some of the the easter eggs: serial number is WW’s japanese cart serial number, Celeste’s birth date is accurate (2005 because WW release date), themed the passport loosely after NH’s space crew set. There are some small ones peppered in this, nothing really obscure other than the serial number.

Anyway yeah Celeste was just on my island just two artists hanging out and she just got this job ;]

Cosmic Canvas entry

Celes Cephalopoda, or: Cosmo the Single-Eared Space Cephalopod

Though Cetaceans have recently been the topic of much adoration and fascination, they are far from the only familiar marine creature to have an interstellar counterpart. One wonders wether the specimens on Earth or those in the stars came first, but according to legend, constellations would have come after both. These stories claim that though some stars existed long beforehand, many constellations in the sky were drawn by Space Cephalopods. Poetic considering earthen cephalopods’ association with inks. One of the most famous Space Cephalopods is the “Single-Eared” Cosmo, and though not literally single-eared, they apparently lost a part of themselves fighting another interstellar creature. There are many mysteries surrounding Cosmo, their origin, and their legendary fight- but the symbolism stands: even through such uncertainty and hardship, one can shine bright.

Gift to teammates

Random mostly test stuff

Spoiler

Hologram screen tutorial

Spoiler

Use this layer setup (Procreate):

It’s hard to see so the “Grid” layers are literally both the grid pen- Grid 1 has a bit of gaussian blur iirc. Having it slightly off-kilter from Grid 2 helps making the effect look more natural, an imperfection on a rudimentary display. For the Scanline layers, likewise, 1 is a copy with a bit of gaussian blur applied.

[the grid pen is just one of the default brushes available, I think it’s in the “textures” section]

Clip Base has 82% opacity and Overlay has 20% opacity. Honestly though I could have adjusted the Overlay opacity again or you could ignore it, it’s hardly doing anything at all here, I just copied the vfx stuff I had on the first page. When more opaque, the Overlay layer affects the scanlines, mostly making them more vivid.

For Clip Base however I strictly recommend something around 80% opacity, as full opacity with this setup literally looks too opaque to achieve the holo effect.

Wherever you want less FX (for clearer text and images, as well as generally darker background patches - keep mind of what is in the background) you should be erasing on Clip Base.

The bottom layer on this setup should be the image you want to give the screen effect to, but with slight noise applied (7% on Procreate). For the sake of neater layers I would recommend just copying or inserting your base image, hence this being an Imported Image (I 100% drew it myself but copied it for layering purposes).
The noise has a very minor effect- it just makes areas that are not covered by the blur layer and clipping masks more consistent with those effects, as well as text effects I am going to go over. I honestly think I forgot to apply noise to the page with Celeste and I have to carry that for the rest of my life now. Also, if you didn’t catch it, Clip Base is actually a chopped-up and blurred copy of the base image!

Yes, the text is missing. It’s added above these layers. The text is a lot more simple -

Bottom layer: desired readable text
Middle: two layers with steadily more gaussian blur, slightly more on upper-mid layer (I don’t think it really matters, but that’s how I did it), % blur varies with text size and potentially background
Top layer: no blur, copy base text layer - adjust to warmer / brighter HSB and add just under 2% halftone. Adjust HSB to hit desired FX

[on Procreate you can find all of gaussian blur + noise + halftone adjustment under the wand menu, sliding across the screen changes the strength of those effects]

To fix the halftone effect covering the entire screen, select your underlying image (which should make up your base shape), invert selection, and delete the excess halftone. Your holo screen is now finished and you can draw whatever sort of frame you want on top (if any).

Note: in this particular case, extra work was also done on layers above FX, to achieve desired opacity on the map and add buttons.


Before and after, animated:

 

[wrenbow]

I only just looked through this thread but all of your art is amazing??? Your use of colour is really unique and every piece is so lively and creative. I'm especially obsessed with your line work and your use of hatching.

 

[Drawdler]

Minor update/kinda simpy lol

Spoiler

Some small sketches of Bateman with reference to practice proportion observation

And my granddad is in the hospital so I painted this. I’ll admit I traced the blocking in from my reference for the sake of proportion, but I really wanted this done today because I didn’t know how long I had. It’s kinda shiny and I got some things wrong, I would have done better with more time but I gotta get this one out.

 

[Drawdler]

I think at this point it’s better to link my sketchbook post cause I would just be reposting from there … https://www.belltreeforums.com/thre...y-random-doodles.605481/page-21#post-10544221

+ 1 new sketch, it really bothers me Tiny Tiger isn’t in the new Crash games so I tried to feel out a redesign to fit TFB style, would want to add more storytelling and I know the proportions are absurd even for cartoon but I like how most of the shapes came out,

also, with the cat study, I did a version with another light layer and it breaks the style because lines but it still looks sort of cool. I think those values balance it out more, but to make it fit the style i feel pressured to be pretty careful with brushstrokes, and i think the spontaneous lines look so fun. So it’s just an idea scribble on top.

Spoiler

 

[Drawdler]

Baby bird. I want to make a 3d platformer. Trying to do art again.