Working on developing my artistic side

[Voidus]

I'm an aspiring indie game developer and I've got quite a bit of a programming background, I studied it at uni for a while and I've been coding since I was about 12.

Now the problem comes in in my artistic side, 3D modelling is something I'm not terrible at since I've had a bit of practice at it but in terms of 2d art I haven't studied it since I was about 14 and even then I was both terrible at art and also incredibly uninterested.

Now I'm steadily improving some of the basic skills in digital artwork (Using photoshop at the moment and slowly working stuff out with the help of some online tutorials) and trying to practice sketching (Though I'm just absolutely horrible at it, my dominant hand has an intermittent tremor which can make things difficult if it starts acting up) but finding progress to be pretty slow, which is frustrating since I usually pick things up pretty darn fast.

Anyway I've seen plenty of really awesome artwork on the Shard so I figured I'd seek the advice of those more artistically inclined for any tips, suggestions, practice methods, tutorials, web series or basically whatever you think might possibly help.

[Haelbarde he/him]

What sorta programing have you done? What sort of games do you want to make? Have you done much procedural generation, or generated VFX?

What suit sorta art do you want to be able to create?

[Voidus]

What sorta programing have you done? What sort of games do you want to make? Have you done much procedural generation, or generated VFX?

What suit sorta art do you want to be able to create?

Bit of everything really, mostly been doing UIs and combat mechanics in Unreal Engine lately (So C++).

All kinds of games (Ideally open-world RPGs but in the meantime smaller scale RPGs for the most part)

Not much procedural stuff but I've done a fair bit of particle effects and such.

Textures and concept pieces mostly, I've been getting better at texturing in photoshop but I could definitely improve and my concept art is pretty terrible, especially character pieces. So at the moment I'm mostly working on anatomy and practicing some environmental pieces and doing any exercises I can find in the meantime.

[Brightness Enna she/her]

I'm gonna put a little bit in here: Photoshop isn't for creating art! Illustrator is! Photoshop edits photos! (I'm done.)

 

If you're trying people, the trick that helps me the most is this: get the skeleton down. Not the little ball-joint-and-line things, but real skeletons with skulls and rib cages, though maybe not incredibly detailed. Get the proportions right - that will help a lot in getting people to look like people. Arms have a tendency of being the wrong length, especially when they're drawn at angles. Heads are often too big and shoulders not wide enough. There are differences in genders and body types, too. A skinny male will still have more shoulder than a skinny female, an athletic girl will usually have less hip than other girls, and a short and stocky boy has a shorter torso than a taller boy.

 

Once I figured out the proportions, everything else just kinda worked for me. Except for eyes - those have always been strange. I also have a harder time varying faces. I have certain facial features that I know work, and it's hard to get away from that. 

 

Make a lot of art, even if it's not good to you. Most of my stuff I despise for one reason or another, but people like the pieces. The more you practice getting people from your head to a paper, although the paper version doesn't quite work, the better you'll be at it when it all finally does work.

 

I dunno... did I help at all? I admit that I'm not all that great at this, but I've realized that sometimes bad advice is better than no advice.

[Kestrel she/her]

I'm gonna put a little bit in here: Photoshop isn't for creating art! Illustrator is! Photoshop edits photos! (I'm done.)

False. I do most of my work in Photoshop, despite the fact that I still use AI. Although PS' main function isn't art, you can still make some spiffy stuff in it if you know what you're doing.

I can't help much with anatomy (because mine is crap for people) but I've been working out plans for a series of value/coloring tutorials, if that helps.

I can give advice for anatomy in general, however.

- trace photos. Yes, trace them. But only for practice, don't post them online. But tracing photos helps immensely when you're starting out.

- if you want digital, invest in a tablet. Wacom makes incredible products; I've been using them for all six years of my art.

- use references when you're doing a piece you want to publish. "But lark i think i get it" shut. Use references. Trust me, you don't get it, and you will heck up the anatomy. I make this mistake all the time.

- try to draw a variety of creatures, don't just focus on people, a specific animal, etc. Another mistake I made.

- don't try to develop a style right off the bat. Yours will come. Anatomy is more important.

Coloring things

- start out in black and white to get values down. I found a tutorial for coloring that I use when I do this, and I'll post it here eventually.

- NEVER shade in black. God, this looks absolutely terrible. Use colors from your background. Trust me, it looks sooo much nicer.

- on that same note, don't use pure white either.

On a side note, if you notice something you don't like about an image, fix it right off the bat. Don't wait around because it might be unfixable later.

[Voidus]

I'm gonna put a little bit in here: Photoshop isn't for creating art! Illustrator is! Photoshop edits photos! (I'm done.)

 

If you're trying people, the trick that helps me the most is this: get the skeleton down. Not the little ball-joint-and-line things, but real skeletons with skulls and rib cages, though maybe not incredibly detailed. Get the proportions right - that will help a lot in getting people to look like people. Arms have a tendency of being the wrong length, especially when they're drawn at angles. Heads are often too big and shoulders not wide enough. There are differences in genders and body types, too. A skinny male will still have more shoulder than a skinny female, an athletic girl will usually have less hip than other girls, and a short and stocky boy has a shorter torso than a taller boy.

 

Once I figured out the proportions, everything else just kinda worked for me. Except for eyes - those have always been strange. I also have a harder time varying faces. I have certain facial features that I know work, and it's hard to get away from that. 

 

Make a lot of art, even if it's not good to you. Most of my stuff I despise for one reason or another, but people like the pieces. The more you practice getting people from your head to a paper, although the paper version doesn't quite work, the better you'll be at it when it all finally does work.

 

I dunno... did I help at all? I admit that I'm not all that great at this, but I've realized that sometimes bad advice is better than no advice.

It does indeed help, especially since as it's game art drawing a decent skeleton can work as a concept piece plus if it helps me get better with drawing people as well then it's twice the practice.

I mostly only use photoshop because I'm more familiar with it but I have messed around with Illustrator a bit as well so maybe I'll try and have another attempt at practicing at it.

Much appreciated advice.

 

 

False. I do most of my work in Photoshop, despite the fact that I still use AI. Although PS' main function isn't art, you can still make some spiffy stuff in it if you know what you're doing.

I can't help much with anatomy (because mine is crap for people) but I've been working out plans for a series of value/coloring tutorials, if that helps.

I can give advice for anatomy in general, however.

- trace photos. Yes, trace them. But only for practice, don't post them online. But tracing photos helps immensely when you're starting out.

- if you want digital, invest in a tablet. Wacom makes incredible products; I've been using them for all six years of my art.

- use references when you're doing a piece you want to publish. "But lark i think i get it" shut. Use references. Trust me, you don't get it, and you will heck up the anatomy. I make this mistake all the time.

- try to draw a variety of creatures, don't just focus on people, a specific animal, etc. Another mistake I made.

- don't try to develop a style right off the bat. Yours will come. Anatomy is more important.

Coloring things

- start out in black and white to get values down. I found a tutorial for coloring that I use when I do this, and I'll post it here eventually.

- NEVER shade in black. God, this looks absolutely terrible. Use colors from your background. Trust me, it looks sooo much nicer.

- on that same note, don't use pure white either.

On a side note, if you notice something you don't like about an image, fix it right off the bat. Don't wait around because it might be unfixable later.

Thanks for these tips too!

My best pieces so far have come from using references so I definitely think I'll keep using them. I've only just started to experiment much with values but it's one of the things I think I'm better at since I seem to pick it up and notice my mistakes fairly quickly.

If you do make a tutorial series I'd love to get a link.

[Brightness Enna she/her]

False. I do most of my work in Photoshop, despite the fact that I still use AI. Although PS' main function isn't art, you can still make some spiffy stuff in it if you know what you're doing.

Yeah, I know. I'm not saying it doesn't work, I just am of the opinion that Illustrator is more attuned to creating art, though many people might understand PS a little bit better. All these products... Just make one!! (Just kidding. That might be even more confusing.)

[Kestrel she/her]

They both have their perks. AI has absolutely no blending/painting capabilities; its a vector program and acts as such. Good for cartooning and block color. PS is better for painting because it has more brushes (that I've found, I've admittedly not spent much time in AI because of how much it annoys me) and blending options.

And then there's Flash, aka Odium itself.

[Voidus]

They both have their perks. AI has absolutely no blending/painting capabilities; its a vector program and acts as such. Good for cartooning and block color. PS is better for painting because it has more brushes (that I've found, I've admittedly not spent much time in AI because of how much it annoys me) and blending options.

And then there's Flash, aka Odium itself.

<Has more experience in flash than both the others put together.

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

AI has absolutely no blending/painting capabilities...

 

Really?

 

 

<Has more experience in flash than both the others put together.

That's sort of ideal, considering what you want to do.

 

In general, I advise you to start by copying things you like. That should allow you to get a feel for how the images fit together.

Try out different a few different styles and find which one works best for you.

 

And the anatomy thing, that is indeed really important. More so than the style you eventually settle on.

 

I also suggest starting off on paper. No matter how good you are with a computer, it's still slower than a pencil. So with pencil and paper you'll probably make more progress, at least at first.

Edited December 9, 2015 by EagleOfTheForestPath

[Kestrel she/her]

Really?

that looks so... yuck. I like having the control with the brush, not letting the computer do it for me.