D_What's would-be art thread :|

Your artwork is amazing!!! I wish I could do stuff like these too :'(

I have one problem tho, I tried to use the Darkrai/Blaziken pic as my desktop background, and a few blue things appeared in the sides :/
Any idea how to fix this?
 
Your artwork is amazing!!! I wish I could do stuff like these too :'(

I have one problem tho, I tried to use the Darkrai/Blaziken pic as my desktop background, and a few blue things appeared in the sides :/
Any idea how to fix this?

I think so! The image has transparent edges because of the irregular border. A lot of desktop backgrounds can't handle transparency well, hence the blue shapes. You'll have to crop the image so that everything in the crop is painted, it shouldn't be a massive change.

E: The lines I used for Thundurus are pretty clean. I think later I'll upload them with a few other clean-ish sketches if any other budding painter wants to play with a miniature poke-colouring book, digital-style. GET READY FOR THE MSCIZORPOCALYPSE
 
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As I said above! If anybody is passing by and they are feeling moderately creative and up to a gentle challenge, here are some of my pre-paint sketches for practicing on! They look kinda... sketchy, though... And believe me, these are my cleanest ones. But they are definitely detailed enough to paint!

There's not gonna be any contiguous spaces, so using the magic select tool or the fill bucket isn't gonna do the job - grab those brushes, people! :V I'll attach a higher res version with each of the images on separate layers later, but for now, this one is transparent so you can paint above it, behind it, or directly on it! Hell use the sketch as a base and then throw it away afterwards, I do that more often than not :V If anyone is up to the task, post your works here :D ((I won't critique unless specifically asked to, btw - just have fun with it them.))
 
doodled a bit using those sketches ^ to try out a new/old-but-unused technique. Not so much of a technique, really, I just wanted to try using this *one thing* that a *certain other artist* does and see what happens afterwards. Free internet points if you can figure out what it was I did differently. There's no real detail or rendering though, they're basically thumbnails. I'll have to come back to the process in the future.



also included are the greyscale versions of the thumbnails to see if I was on the right track. And I was! The greyscales are fine.
 
Round 3. This time I limited myself only to a palette from Paletton.com... it was fun, but too limiting. The contrast between the lights and darks is just too low, and it was much, much worse before I doctored it. I could've done more with some darker and lighter shades. Was still good craic tho :V
 
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BOOM I did it again! Es muy zippy today. Another coloured sketch using a palette from that website whose name I've already forgotten ^. Spoilered for SM stuff. Sketch still included as part of the image because a) it was quick to compensate for the two parts and b) I didn't have an already refined sketch to work with.

 
Entirely unrelated to Pokemon, and to my progress as an amateur artist...

Some of my online friends and I have been doing this thing lately where we come up with detailed superpowers for each other based on a complicated consensus/randomisation process, based on the worldbuilding in the web serial Worm. We haven't got to the final stages of it yet, and we're not allowed to have any input on our own powers while they're in development... and my friends have saddled me with a possible doozy of a power:
"Control over diseases, bacteria and viruses. Optimizes their functionality, growing and strengthening them through compulsive breeding. Also creates a constant field of diseases around them, infecting those around easily. 60/40 Shaker/Master mix. Downsides: Unable to turn off the field, only reduce it in size to about a meter-radius sphere. No direct attacking methods besides infecting others."
Bollocks! If I'm not shot on sight, I figured I'd have to immediately "give myself up" to the local heroes; and on the basis that I can *somehow* limit damage done, I figured I could at least get a neat costume out of it. Silver lining and all that.

So I googled a few inspiration things and put together a rough draft of the kind of outfit I'd commission if I had access to a small government budget. It was fun! I don't think I've designed an outfit since... I was 15, maybe?? And it was basically a hoodie with straps. I'm not really very fashion conscious tbh.

[[e: spoilered old version]]




But I am practical, which is why this was fun to design. So many practicalities to consider! Plenty of pockets, flexible lightweight armor covering key areas, thematically appropriate spikes and yellow warning markings to emphasise a "stay away" impression to both enemies and civilians, (although the spikes on the shoulders would be rubber tipped to prevent catching, they're purely aesthetic), no warning markings on any vital areas, wasp/dart frog/hazmat themed outfit. But not so sinister that I'd be an obvious bad guy. Early draft of course, though I doubt I'll be coming back to it :V

Depending on how the guys decide to roll the details of the power, I might get absolutely fucked on the "downsides" half, meaning I probably wouldn't be able to fight with the good guys with this particular superpower :( So that would mean a villainous outfit. But idk, I think that would be too easy? Just go all out on the toxic motif. There's plenty of other powers in the mix ATM too, maybe I'll get the opportunity to do a couple of those this week - my other possible option involves me "spraying concrete from [my] skin", so that's gonna require a very different kind of costume :I

E: added second costume
e2: last one + minor aesthetic changes

E3: my best friend said middle guy had a pretty huge crotch. My thoughts on this were as follows: "wait, what??" "If it were me I'd wear a cup anyway" and "awww Sean you have my sympathies :'( "
 
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I jumped into the FB thread to try my hand at doing something random :D Most of the stuff was taken so I went with Mega Gyarados! And it's going great :D

This is still intended to only be a semi-speedpaint (insofar as I can do that with moderate rendering), not a full-scale, all-details painting, but I reckon I could do it that way instead if I wanted to pump more hours into it. But this particular painting is resonating a LOT with me for a very specific set of reasons. It's reminding me of me at my peak, because it's totally drawing inspiration from three older paintings I did way back when! See for yourselves!






Thematically, it's drawing more from the first much more so than either of the others combined. But it rings a lot of bells all the same :D


I've plenty left to do on it. There's not a single area that doesn't need a significant amount of work, and I can't wait to get into the texture and lighting edits. But I'll enjoy the painting while it lasts!
 
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Absolutley amazing. So much atmosphere in each picture. I can see your art in an epic novel. I'm imediatley a huge fan
Haha thanks :D I think I'm actually pretty weak at atmospheres; hardly any of my pictures use proper backgrounds and those that do trend towards the weird or shoddy. Plus I'm pretty bad at subtle lighting. But I think that's something I can learn to improve on. So thanks!
 
doot



Changed the composition because it was a little sucky before. Negative space sure is interesting, isn't it?

On mega gyarados: There are few megas I dislike and Mega Gyarados is NOT one of them. But from a creative design standpoint, I personally feel the best megas are the ones that keep the charm or the best traits of the original, while adding a new visual dimension; if I still see the Mega as being a form, but can also see the Mega *artistically* posing or doing something that only the mega could do, then I like it. (Coincidentally, Mega Lucario I feel is pretty weak for this reason. It's... Lucario, with more stuff. Although Pokken showing off its aura lines did it a lot of justice, so YMMV.) Mega Gyarados loses a lot here. Because of the drastically increased size of its front segments, it loses a lot of the flexibility that regular Gyarados was kind of iconic for; this painting, pose-wise, would have been a lot more interesting and dynamic with a regular gyarados. As it is I basically had to dislocate its neck to make the pose work. On the other hand, the dorsal fins/spines are freaking awesome and the red/black aesthetic works. There's little question as to MGyara's Water/Dark typing in this picture!
 


FB thing. I'm not happy with it, for several reasons. Primarily; it was rushed. But also because it's a great example of what happens when you have an idea, which is a bad idea, and rather than scrap it or rework it, you force through in the hopes that the flaws in the underlying concept can be diminished or hidden. Spoiler alert: They can't. I should have started over.

BUT AT LEAST IT'S GOT MY TABLET PLUGGED IN :V
 
Minor stupid update. I've been HELLLLLLA busy for the last couple of months, Q4 is always crazy at work, holidayprep stuff, I've been hardcore househunting (which is a drain on energy reserves if it isn't a drain on the bank account) and most recently playing SM which obviously takes priority over basically everything else. But I've got a painting in the works requested by Nerina (I swear I haven't forgotten!!) and after that I really want to try my hand at painting an Alolan Marowak. I strongly suspect there's something *really* cool I can forget out of the conjunction between ghosts, fire, and lightning rod... not forgetting datColourscheme.jpg B|
 
Another stupid update incoming.

I've been ramming my head repeatedly against what can only be called the Platonic Ideal of Art Block, and I'm only really realising it now. The thing I'm trying to get drawn mentioned in the above post; every time I open SAI to work on it, I shudder - it looks awful, and I *know* it looks awful, so I spend a fruitless half day adjusting things to make it look... a different kind of awful, ad nauseum. This wasn't working. So I decided to step back a bit - why is it awful? Because I didn't have a solid foundation. Why didn't I have a solid foundation? Because, to be frank, I don't have a lot of experience or practice drawing people, and I was relying on my colouring to shore up the gaps in the lineart. Then, recognising this, I threw myself at something else entirely, which was tangentially similar - which is actually a great way to get around an art block, but it doesn't necessarily aid productivity.

Anyway, I have that "something else" entirely done now and it looks f'ing great (if I may say so!) - but I'm not going to post it yet. I tried out some new stuff with the "practice" painting and having done so I'm scaling back my "progress" on the request and coming at it from a similar angle.


Lessons learned:
  • Recognise art block

  • A strong lineart makes for a a strong painting

  • Kill your babies (Honestly! This means "realise when the thing you're working on is non-viable, and be willing to scrap it and start fresh". Of course, it also means "and then make a new baby" which is where I tend to struggle.)
----------------------------------------------------------

Semirelated.

For everything I post that is some variation on "finished", there's easily about 8-12 different things that I've let rot that nobody ever really sees. Usually it's because I've recognised they're non-viable on a very basic level/there's something terribly off about it that spoils the rest. Although, sometimes it's because I've realised my current skillset doesn't include the tools and aptitudes I need to get something looking how I want it to look, and other times it's because I've lost interest in the concept. Very often these reasons will overlap.

See the examples below for stuff I am unlikely to ever work on again! (Excepting possibly the Marowak.)

 
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Max. Optimizer

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Stupid update? I beg to differ.

While it's definitely not uncommon for an artist to have a creative blockade I still wanted to welcome the opportunity to applaud you for overcoming it yourself and working your away around it.
Sometimes it's important to take a step back and reflect on where you've been to help you gain new momentum, allowing you to head for a new direction by taking two steps forward.

I'm sure that your post will both help your fellow artists overcome their own creative blockades and it also lets them know that they're not the only ones struggling with that problem.
In my opinion sharing experiences and advice like this is just as beneficial to Smeargle's Studio and its community as the showcased works.

Who knows? Maybe you and a couple of other Smogon artists can join together (on Discord for example) and gather tips and tricks to avoid this kind of problem?
Maybe it could be interesting to add the knowledge and pieces of advice you guys and girls gathered as a team to the FAQ thread and inspire new artists in the process?

As Salvador Dali said: "A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others".
Please bear in mind that this is just my humble opinion as a non-artist though.

Other than that, keep up the great work as always!
 
Productivity has been squarely shot since December, as I kinda sorta broke both my legs when a van fell on top of me

just thought I'd mention that :v

Anyway. Just prior to the accident, I scrapped Nerina's painting AGAIN (I just cannot get the face to not look weird and creepy, graaaaaah) and did a few warmup sketches. May as well post the poster I drew prior to that in prep for the commish - I'm pretty proud of it (and it's one of the few times I've been able to pull off a face to a decent standard).

jb2rwvnyjqxy~02.png


It's Amy Dallon/Panacea from Worm (mentioned above). As seen on /r/Parahumans! Seriously, guys, read Worm. It's amazing. I printed this out on canvas professionally too, and it looks pretty sweet, though I haven't found a frame to fit it yet.


Also, have a notepad sketch I doodled while waiting to have my wound dressings changed last week - Mad Anxiety/Chris, from Worm's sequel, Ward.

IMG_20180307_131600~01.jpg


I'm in a weird place right now where I have the *time* to draw, but not the energy. Recovery/Physio/being limited to a bed constantly is way more draining than I ever thought it would be - it's actually a bit like depression. Wanting to sleep all the time, losing interest in the things that you'd normally enjoy - except I know depression and this isn't it. It's just my body saying "shhhh bb is ok now sleep", yeesh. Still. When I'm back to normal (read: capable of walking and working) Nerina's thing is next followed by either Pokemon-themed concept tests or revisits of older things I painted years ago.


EDIT: Oh yeah, another thing. Was kind of keeping this on the d/l since it was just an exercise to keep the aul' creativity going, but I invented a fictional species a while back and then populated the species with a bunch of nameless individuals to prove that I could. The interesting part is that I didn't stick to a single approach when painting them - the way I approached my methodology, brushes, lighting etc changed from thing to thing. Some of them I like more than others and those are probably the ones whose "style" I gravitate to most naturally. L O N G

 

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brightobject

there like moonlight
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I read Worm a couple months ago partially due to seeing your post. It was indeed amazing and destroyed my schedule for a week while i binge read the entire thing. Sucks about the accident...It's a weird thing but hearing you talk about the weird battle with your body over wanting to draw versus resting reminds me of how much they overused the word "headspace" in the serial. Utmost respect for you, and wish you best of luck with physio and everything else. Can't wait to see what you'll come up with next visually*

*your art is fucking amazing
 

Bummer

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Kickass poster, haven't checked out Worm myself but I just might given your recommendation. Jaw dropped once I reached the part about the van, I wish you the swiftest recovery and that your creative juices will get restored while recovering.
 
I read Worm a couple months ago partially due to seeing your post. It was indeed amazing
yes

haven't checked out Worm myself but I just might given your recommendation
almost yes

*your art is fucking amazing
Says you! In a sense I'm incredibly lucky that I'm into competitive Pokemon at all - there's so many great artists here who all have an interest in the same subject matter, but also all have different approaches to it and different histories to how they got where they are, artistically. I've definitely benefited a lot from having access to an environment where so many people can post their development. (Not that you can tell with the frequency of things I do, but honestly, all of the things I've done in the last couple of years have come in part from the smogon forums.) Seeing the likes of yourself or Bummer or literally everyone here spurs me on, moreso than anything else can. I see people improving in their threads and it reminds me of the times I was capable of it too, or I see people's specialties and that says "hey, yeah, this is actually something you're pretty weak at and could use practice on/sheesh I'm hella jelly rn". Like, details and amazing crosshatching aside, your thread has all these neat portraits that I am just absolutely incapable of right now. I don't know where I'd start and it's a glaring weakness because dammit if I could draw people easily I'd have that old commission done by now. Can I ask: did you get a classical training in drawing, like with a degree or something? The last time I saw so many life drawings it was in a friend's university portfolio, which is why I'm wondering. Once I'm back on my feet I'll probably look into taking up some proper art classes, if I can find good ones near where I'll be living.



-------------------------------------------

I opened .Sai for the first time in ages and got to doodling. I, uh, clearly have some ongoing issues since the first thing I gravitated to was drawing the scene of the accident, and... things kind of went on from there. Um. It got darker than I thought it would. So without further ado, (?) here's a (melo)dramatic reenactment of the day I broke my legs. Yeah.





EDIT: I keep finding stuff I forgot to share. Before the accident (around October-ish) my friends and I started to plan a newbie D&D session (none of us have ever played before) - I doodled my character on the back of the character sheet and coloured it later. He's a Kenku!
 
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