Doodles and Finished Pieces

[Maxpphire]

Just got Photoshop CS5. I like it.

[LeleleleMAXIMUM]

thanks guys, i might have to redo the colors and shading. good thing the colors are all on different layers. ;D

I'm working on something but it's just a piece of shit.
<large image>
I'm trying to go for a painting style in photoshop ala Murderbeard but I just have no clue how to do it. I'm using a soft brush with opacity set on pen pressure and it just ain't working, help?

it's not half bad, and you've got the right idea.

this is how i do it, you can shange things to your liking:
1. underneath the sketch layer, what i do is i use a 100% opacity, no opacity jitter brush to make a palette of colors (you can see it in my last image).
2. and then i use that same brush to cel-shade the whole thing, like i'm just spriting on a large canvas (this is important, you can see the cel-shaded bits in my last image).
3. and then i blend the colors together, using a 50% opacity, no opacity jitter, size pressure brush. if you want to blend INTO the lighter areas, ie pushing shadows, use ALT to color pick the darker color and blend it towards the lighter color. don't overdo it, and remember that you can color-pick the resulting halftone, and push the shadows further. if you want to push the highlights, then color pick the lighter color and shade towards the darker areas.
4. ZOOM INTO YOUR IMAGE, and use 50% opacity, opacity jitter, size jitter brush to fill in the details. wrinkles, fur, etc. all my attempts at fur sucked, so this step isn't much help.

a little note on shadows:
don't blend and blend just anywhere. think about the cast shadows, or shadows created by something else in the image obstructing the light. these are usually hard shadows, and you won't need too many transitions or blending for these kinds of shadows (this you won't see in my previous image, i actually forgot about this little fyi i read about)

basically, hard shadows for cast shadows, soft shadows for shading volume.

wow, that got a bit long. sorry. i'm just learning stuff myself, so. >__<

[Mabelma]

Woow, that's really helpful. I think I get what you mean but when you say "opacity jitter" what are you referring too? Thanks so much it's really helpful. Hopefully I can come up with something at least half descent.

[LeleleleMAXIMUM]

oh sorry, i get my terms mixed up

when i say opacity jitter, that means check "other dynamics" in the brush settings, and put opacity to pen pressure, when i say no opacity jitter, it should be unchecked. for the size jitter, just check/uncheck size dynamics. :-)

also, i think i should be working on bigger canvasses. :-))

[Mabelma]

Oh yeah, that might have been my problem, thanks for clarifying, also how would I go about blending? Would you by any chance have any videos that could help me or you have made?
-------------EDIT-------------
Could I be up to something?
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3781/...bentry.jpg

[Drinks]

In space, no one can hear you suck.

[LeleleleMAXIMUM]

it looks like snow because some stars/galaxies are in front of the speech bubble.

[Devicho]

Nothing special but it's about all I planned to do anyway.

[LeleleleMAXIMUM]

to be honest, i am in no position to be teaching, haha.
but for starters, for larger areas, a larger palette is used. how about using two darker shades and one highlight?

i think the first one was better, better shading, except a bit loose. with this one, it looks embossed.

look what you did with his right hand, this is closest to blending. just keep on building volume with low opacity brushes.




retry, i think it's a bit better.

[Mabelma]

to be honest, i am in no position to be teaching, haha.
but for starters, for larger areas, a larger palette is used. how about using two darker shades and one highlight?

i think the first one was better, better shading, except a bit loose. with this one, it looks embossed.

look what you did with his right hand, this is closest to blending. just keep on building volume with low opacity brushes.




retry, i think it's a bit better.

I get what you mean, I'll try again then. That does look way better than the first one.

[LeleleleMAXIMUM]

30-minute doodal


tried a larger size than i'm used to. at this size, it's harder to blend because most of the time i don't know how the hell to fill all those large areas of color (for example, i dunno wtf is up with his forehead). but it helps to imagine a lightsource, and think in 3d. and think of the material you're shading. this straightforward shading is usually for lead or clay.

another note about shadows: the farther away a shaded area is from the object that cast it, the softer it becomes. like the area below his nose (which looks too much like a nose, and not a mask). keep this in mind when blending.

[Mabelma]

Oh thanks, well this is what I came up with before I saw yours but I'll get back to it.
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3781/...bentry.jpg
---------EDIT--------------
Some more work on it. I think it's coming out really better this time around. Hope you like it. I still need to do the hair and blend everything.
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/3781/...bentry.jpg

[LeleleleMAXIMUM]

swords

[Mabelma]

Another small update before I go jogging, I hope you like it.
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3781/...bentry.jpg

[Mabelma]

Almost done!

I want to thank Murderbeard for all of the help he has given me, this as gone so far from the first one and every time it looks better, I hope you like it and can give it some C+C