Hello - long time user, and promoter of MyPaint, out there in the wild - first time posting.
This is just me sharing art struggle (we all always want to be better), and a thanks to the producers of Mypaint. Still the best go to and get it done paint program out there - IMHO. I do mix it with other programs for more brush variety, and or adjusting when working on more then one machine (calibrating color). But even then - I always take it back to MyPaint 96% of the time. I attached a recent practice piece - which is Mypaint only. My first full multi person scene. I also have seldom painted horses so added bonus challenge. The figures are drawn and rendered off the top of my head - anatomy studies challenge. Only referencing was a google look up of horses. I looked at the thumbnails to re-familiarize with general horse geometry. I don’t seem to fit a style group (Animae, Comic Book / Marvel, Frazetta style impressionism, or the photo realism of those using models for photo shoots, etc.), but grew up looking at a mish mash of the aforementioned, and classic art from Pre Raphaelite era. I had to compromise a bit - but don’t we all
Awesome! Very nice mood and dynamics. It has that feel of 70’s action comic cover art (the non-superhero kind). I especially like the hue shifts in the metal head gear.
Very cool, lots of efforts can be seen and the general picture look consistent in shading and perspective. Though I’m not big fan of medieval wars, I could see this as a magnificent background for a 80-90’s arcade game cabinet (or related game art), or at least it reminds me of that kind of artworks.
Just one think, out of pickiness, but not so important: the clouds horizon shows a light source that I suppose to be dusk (or dawn), but the castle shows another light source coming from the left as the shadows go right (while with the Sun behind it should be dark inside, casting the shadow on the front… even covering the whole scene in darkness). It would have been cool if the helmets reflected such additional light sources just to guess where they’re coming from (torches? a burning village ?etc… as I see there’s a white reflection, it kinda looks unnatural for that age tha such kind of light existed, unless it’s the moon but isn’t too early for the moon to show up at dusk ?)… also more violence, I mean, some blood here and there (just to make it a like real war scene) could have worked as well, the helmets look like they’re brand new and it all looks kinda too polished to reflect the violence of a battle. I hate to say this because the artwork is indeed magnificent, but it feels like it lacks of roughness or too soft and curvy, maybe… just my impression, though.
Anyway, the lone warrior against the many… has my esteem.
Hello and thanks for the comments!
jpll, and Emanuale: This was truly a compromised practice piece. I was looking at art from various eras, and stumbled across a Conan painting. It struck me that I had never managed to do a barbarian painting. So I did a web search for Conan art and got a lot of Frazetta, Ken Kelly, and Boris, plus some more contemporary artists. I have been familiar with the three named artist for a long time. So I decided to do a barbarian piece. I did three actually (two were Ken Kelly tributes - his quirky layouts and color schemes I find jarring - but like) - doing them inbetween freelance technical art. So I had to compromise. You both pegged the retro look. This piece was Bob Ross-ed (PBS artist from a while back). I just started painting without a planned sketch. Started with the double axe wielding rider with a couple guys in the foreground. Then I added figures here and there. As it progress I added more figures as I had never done a battle scene. Not a good way to paint - but I was more interested in just getting practice in. On the lighting - I absolutely broke all kinds of rules. Instead of natural environment type lighting, I imagined it as stage lighting (like a play) - just for the experiment of it. I also wanted to see if I could go from warm background color to cool blues in the middle and then get warm in the foreground.
If you knew me, you would laugh, as I figured out perspective raytracing way back - so I can literally map out accurate lighting. This was indeed a whole lot of cheating Interestingly - if you read interviews from artists like Frazetta - they admitted to breaking lighting and anatomy rules regularly - so in a way - it makes this piece more true to the retro era. That said - I sort of like the layout - and have thought about doing it more serious - really working the figures more - and more realistic lighting, and get a much better castle in there.
bleke: I only have a hap hazard website that has a mix of freelance work samples and some of these: uberzillaart.biz.nf
There are two sampler pages with fantasy, sci fi, and horror paintings.
There is a page where I post latest tinkerings - oft in progress - working them when I can: http://uberzillaart.biz.nf/Latest/Latestone.htm
Thanks again for the comments - not sure how this got here as I posted at Deviant art.
You mean ArtStation 2.0 ? That place is a troll fest… there’s more art evaluation in Twitter than in Deviantart nowadays… geez, just let me stop talking about that lol
Anyway, yeah I understand, practice is a good thing and I think it gave the good results, I just felt that it could have looked a bit more authentic if you added some realism to it (like, you know, violence, not necessarily blood and gore, but something that really made it look like there’s a war and not just people screaming and taunting at each other… and more coherent shading, but I see what’s the development process now and I understand that even if I wouldn’t reccomend you to tribute those pro’s who admitted to cheat on light-sources… if you want a direction for a more “honest” approach, I give you two names: Caravaggio and Bouguerau) . Just telling you this because it feels like 9/10, that coherence would have made it perfect.
I was referring to the stylistic plagiarism of the new, over-hyped (and under-functional) " Eclypse " ( or “E-Stypsis”) layout… I know ArtStation came later, and that actually makes DA’s aesthetic copy-paste decision more suspicious (like if that place wasn’t heinous enough…). What can I say ? Social trends, what do you have to do in order to gather more teenagers, lol! Other than this… own currency ? Disneyland, (or let’s say Thieftyland, according to the outraging number of art-thieves lurking in there) lol.
/ offtopic, really, let’s quit this or I’ll have nightmares tonight lol
I think it’s a beautiful piece. Your sense of anatomy is on the par. Not to mention the colors. I like how you broke the rules there and there. I think that’s what being an artist is about. You create your own world. Sure, in general, it’s a good idea to follow the rules, but if you know what you’re doing then nothing will stop ya.
Bouguerau - - no need to give me that name - I have been a fan of that individuals work for a long time. I have heard the other name - not familiar. I have no set genre I favor. I like all kinds of art - from the Pre Raphaelite era all the way up to some of the Anime being done today.
In fact I have been torn much of my life over direction (I stated out painting traditionally and sculpting - sculpting came first) - I like cartooning and full on serious fine art realism like Bouguerau. But when you work without models - doing realism - even to the degree I incorporated here - takes a long time (which of course is why so many illustrators doing realism resort to trace up).
On Deviant - I really have been out of the loop for a long time. I haven’t checked in to see which art sites remain good - which have gone bad, or even which have disappeared.
Finally - you are not helping …I look at the piece and feel the tug to hunker down and go all out - damn every thing else - I have the knowledge to do it … but paying bills - keeping other skills that pay the bills up to speed - my circumstances are not ideal. So - to sum up - I appreciate the feed back - as knowledgeable! Unfortunately I might not be able to push it to that kind of level.
bleke - only a few. I am an endless tinkerer. In most cases I now use a combination of MyPaint (for its just get it open and going ease of use - and that unlike other art programs - you can even use an old Dell D430 - or other really old computers for easy sketch tools - if you have one sitting around), Krita (for some of it’s brushes - and sometimes for radical changes when working a freelance job - say a client wants an arm in a different position - i sometimes resort to editing technique to speed things along), Art rage (for its oil brush mostly, but have used some of the others). But MyPaint is king. It starts there and ends there (if I jump it to another program), and sometimes it never leaves Mypaint. I have tried other programs like Painter, and SAI (or whatever it is called). MyPaint just fits my personality - so I am hoping continued success - or more success for the MyPaint team.
Dm7: Thanks much. As mentioned - I tinker and experiment a lot. There is some old fine art that I like - where it looks like a painting of a stage play - rather then natural environment. It is though the artists had models set up in front of a stage play backdrop - and painted from this. I like that off realism look. So that was part of the consideration here. I do this kind of experimenting quite a bit, when I get to do my own stuff.
That level is not easy for anyone really. Maybe if I play the lottery and win a chunk of money to float me - so as to be able to go all out
Though the thought of shooting for the top was in the background - I have been in drafting (early on though about engineering), technical art - for a while in front end web, and at times not in the field. A lot of time away from the easel (far more time away then art).
But I am going to take that compliment and run with it
My art training was 98% commercial art. No art history and only a couple of fine art classes. My exposure to fine artists was simply my random curiosity. That is probably why I am all over the map - liking artists like Boris, Joe jusko, and other fantasy, sci fi, and comic book artists, Bouguereau, Frederic Leighton, and other classic painters, Robert Bateman, and other wildlife, and landscape artists. Then there are sculptures.
I will check out Carvaggio.
Cool, I have always seen Caravaggio as the best artist ever existed as he was practically a photographer. His approach on painting is extremely realistic. He was so into it he got even in a fight against another artist (and killed him). So he’s kind of an hardcore character in the history of painting for me lol (not that killing another artist would mean bigger praise for him, not at all, just a fact to underline his… “dedication” or “mania” ). Of course, I wouldn’t even dare reaching his level (both artistically and criminally lol).
Well I understand that, after all, I also feel the “urgency” when it comes to finishing a piece, can’t focus on the same thing for too long, that’s why I cheat on background and use Blender… but it’s not a big repention for me, to be honest. I mean, digital painting is already sort of cheating as it doesn’t require all the responsibility that real, academic, traditional painting requires (including making your own colors, from powders and various liquid substances). They look like the same thing, but to become a digital artist you just need a tablet… to become a traditional artist you need a talent for alchemy.
But still, if the rounded surface is difficult and you still want to try it out… I don’t know why am I thinking about Escher ?
Funny that you bring up mixing your own traditional mediums. I recently started tinkering with real paint again - acrylics for no muss no fuss - but if I want to get more serious I will have to get some basic water soluble oils. Anyway - I am in a starving artist position - and Gesso has become expensive and cheap stuff is so diluted that I have tracked down recipies for making my own using calcium carbonate.
On your art - any artist today. Things are so different socially - I don’t think many comparisons are valid. Today everything is rush rush rush - unless you are born into some wealth and can buy time - you are most likely on a treadmill - which makes it very difficult to compare to past masters. But that is only one variable. As you pointed out - they had to mix there own mediums and such - not as a choice - but as a necessity. Digital is simply advantageous for the commercial stuff - making client changes far easier then pre-digital painting. For fine art - I still think traditional mediums have the edge - a physical piece as opposed to digital data that can easily be lost or corrupted. Plus there is nothing quite like layers of transparent glazing - seeing real light penetrating and bouncing around …or for those who like to slap on chunky paint creating heavy paint texture.
p.s. - all the best with your efforts!!! Given what you have written - you also sound like a slave to art - a compulsion that grabs some of us.
Well, if things are expensive and rare today, imagine how difficult it would have been in the 16th century, when there were no industries, no factories, no distribution chains as we see nowadays
I think that’s why older art is rare (beside the expensive “prestige” collectors and critics seem to look for). But yeah, all comparisons seem to fail, like comparing Skateboarding to Fingerboarding, they do look like the same thing, but they’re so different.
Hello, due to some prodding I opened this back up and tinkered more on the figures. I sought to add some more dynamic highlights and make some anatomy better. Could keep going - but the question is always - when do you just move on. In this case - had I the time I would probably work it out more and then do a real painting of it - around 4ft x 6ft.
To the MyPaint crew - look forward to using version 2.1 on Linux as soon as I can get to installing it. I tried the windows version but it wouldn’t recognize my UGEE M708. No biggy as the tablet works perfect in Linux. The updating looks awesome!
Interestingly - if you read interviews from artists like Frazetta - they admitted to breaking lighting and anatomy rules regularly - so in a way - it makes this piece more true to the retro era. That said - I sort of like the layout - and have thought about doing it more serious - really working the figures more - and more realistic lighting, and get a much better castle in there.
I opened this back up and tinkered more on the figures. I sought to add some more dynamic highlights and make some anatomy better. Could keep going - but the question is always - when do you just move on. In this case - had I the time I would probably work it out more and then do a real painting of it - around 4ft x 6ft.
