[Gooch]

Let me know two things:

1. Your general opinions on the pic

2. What colors should I use to bring life to it?

[sh4de]

cant really say anything about coloring, 'cos I noticed that I can't color anything =)
but the sketch is _great_ =)

[hennifer]

nice sketch there. the creature looks really interesting, and i like the perspective you've used on the front limb to make it pop out.

two things i think would change this from a "good" drawing to a "great" one:

1) research cliffs & rockfaces a bit more, and try to get a more rocky feel to the cliff in the background. right now it looks too smooth, and too organized. the cliff looks kind of pre-fab.

2) don't be afraid to use heavier lines, especially on the creature. the areas that are closest to the viewer should have thicker lines than the parts that are farther away. this will make it look even more 3d, and it will look a lot more smooth.

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hennifer

[mantis]

I would do somehting like this. Just follow this as far as the colors go, this is very rough and done in 5 seconds.


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Arpan . B
[email protected]
www.stikik.com/koma
Halo 9 Studios

[This message has been edited by mantis (edited August 05, 2000).]

[Gooch]

Thanks for the suggestions on color, Seeing as how I've never colored any of my drawings before, I hopefully now have somewhere to start. I'll try to post what I come up with, after trying to mimic Dhabih's tutorial.

Your comments got me thinking. When I drew this, about 3 years ago, I didn't do any planning. I didn't measure anything out, I had no idea how I really wanted to compose the piece...really no ideas at all. The idea for the creature came from a job hunt by Ion Storm. The whole sketch (like all of my drawings that I consider to be presentable) just fell into place. Your suggestion about researching rock faces is appreciated, and a valid point. I had no idea what rock faces looked like when I drew this (well, yeah, I suppose that I have seen them before, but I wasn't thinking about what they look like), I was just laying down swipes of lead on a piece of paper, and miraculously they came out looking like something at least recognizable.

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this, but I have a love/hate relationship with drawing. I love it when I produce work that satisfies me (which happens rarely), but I hate the fact that the only time it comes out is when I don't apply formal methods. To that point, I don't apply any methods whatsoever...I just draw. The clean lines that you see above are how I draw from start to finish, and that really pisses me off. If I ever want to block out a scene, or establish composition in any way, I usually don't end up doing too well, and get frustrated with the whole process. When I draw, I have no real idea where I'm going. I will have a general idea of what I want to render (I'm talking drawing from my head, not from reference), but when the pencil starts moving, I have no clue where it's going to take me, and I hate that. I can spend what I consider to be too much time producing what starts to turn into crap. Things just won't come out right, and after I go through the process, my extremely small blue glass ball of drawing mana (to borrow from Dhabih) is tapped out, and it takes forever for me to regenerate. I guess the thing that disappoints me most is that I need to be able to do that if I want this as a career (which by the way is the furthest thing from what I do right now).

I am really at a loss for what to do to increase my endurance, and not get discouraged. I know that I can't be this way and do this for a living, and am just wondering if there's a way out of this rut.