So, showing off...

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

So, I got a Wacom Intuos 3 A5 (USB) today, and it totally rocks my world. Since a picture says more than a thousand words, I'm going to turn a ramble that would otherwise have spanned approximately two thousand words into two e-e-e-emages.



Sketchy goodness.



One of Shyriath's dragons (or, more precisely, a dragon from the Avishraa universe of Shyriath's), probably with its anatomy canon-slaughtered. Though, to avoid one specific criticism, for those in the know: I got lazy on the forepaws. There're three fingers, but I didn't want to squeeze a hint of a third digit in there, since it would've been barely a line.

My god, I love my tablet.

[hypatias mom]

That is awesome!! I didn't know you were such a good artist!

[benkern]

Fantastically amazing. Niftilicious.

God, I love your tablet.

That's some really l33t skills you have there. I hope they serve you very well, because these two pictures have pretty much made my day.

[EriShadowMoon]

Awsome. Makes me wana clean out the cobwebs and reopen the Lunaris Art Gallery....

[hypatias mom]

I would love to see a lot more artwork posted here in the Escher Hall. The walls have been nearly bare far too long.

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad it's thus far unanimously liked.

For the record, if I'd tried to draw humans, you would all be laughing right about now. In fact, if anyone can point me to a nice online tutorial for drawing people, I'll be forever thankful. I never seem to get them right.

[hypatias mom]

Fantasy can look just as you choose it to look. People require a touch of realism that is hard to achieve. That is why I limit my artwork to quilting and rubber stamping. I can paint with fabrics and paint, but I don't have to actually draw anything. Good luck finding a tutorial. You may have to break down and take an actual class in rendering realistic human forms and faces. That is what my mom did--she became an expert at drawing in pastels from live models.

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

The only thing I have real issues with, in humans, are faces - and I've tried the standard tutorials. Realism isn't an issue for me, by the way - I've only in the past years begun to drift to more "cartoon" styles. Could it have something to do with my bad memory for faces? (I rarely recognise people (but I'm not faceblind, just unskilled) - I have more luck identifying them by hairstyle!) So I guess what I'm looking for is tips to "anchor" looks into place. As such, it's a very specific inquiry.

I might try to organise myself classes, mind, though I won't have any time for that for a whole while. Thanks for the tip!

[Kaiser Letifer III]

Those are indeed spiffy.

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

Thanks.

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

First productive thing since getting the tablet:



Eye texture for a 3D project. It's missing the dark rim of the iris (especially necessary, really, given that the creature it belongs to is a dinosaur, as such it should be at least as prominent as a bird's), but I can't for the life of me get that to look right, so bah. Can't be arsed. It's only going to be about ten pixels wide in the final renders anyway. <.<

I also can't say if the fake shading will be a blessing or a curse later on. Thankfully, that's on a seperate layer in the XCF, so I can just axe it out if I have to.

(If you want to see something really awesome, check this out: Subsurface scattering for eyes. Not by me, obviously. That spells levels of awesomeness I just don't have. :P)

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

These days, I use my drawing skills to maintain a mascot for my team at work.

His name is Darwin, because my team is the software security team, and if that fails, the project's extinct. He grows with the project.

The first sketch of him is a bit amateurish:



This one's from today and I like it a lot more:



The jewellery's there because the security team's made a pretty(!) portal in the project-internal wiki. :3 Otherwise he's meant to be identical, but obviously isn't, mostly because of the fail first picture. Oh well. I'll just pretend the wiki portal is so awesome he grew a bit.

Edit:

Oh, by the way! He's a dragon because the apartment I've moved to has a view of the Drachenfels. Obviously this dragon will just eat any Siegfrieds that come too close. :3

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

Did my first attempt at spriting off that picture:



Shading is off but it's late, I'm tired, and I lost interest. XD But it's good to know spriting isn't as scary as I thought it would be.

[Andreas the Wise]

I do quite like the second dragon. You have a real talent for this.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Oh, woah. I hope you're in the mood for negative criticism when you come back to this thread, because the stuff that you posted in the first post there really was pretty bad >_>...

... which is why I guess it's a pretty good thing that you just posted this new stuff, which is a whole different... dragon? Sorry, I came back to this post hours after writing that "whole different" thing and wasn't quite sure what fancy random simile I'd use . The second sketch especially nice with the cute pose, and I do like the number of forelimbs on this specimen

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

Oh, woah. I hope you're in the mood for negative criticism when you come back to this thread, because the stuff that you posted in the first post there really was pretty bad >_>...

You know, since I'm in IT, I've actually reached the point where I don't care. It's a bit sad, I guess, but I've got no time to seriously dedicate to art, so neg crit is a bunch of "Meh." to me. Well. On my good days. On my bad days I curl up in a corner and cry.

With that out the window: Yeah, I know. It was the first stuff I ever drew on my tablet (see first post). I think it's pretty damn swell given that, but on its own without that elaboration it doesn't shine a lot. Though the shading on Shahrivrath continues to make me proud, but I never even finished the full picture on that one! (Missing claws and such.)

[...] and I do like the number of forelimbs on this specimen

*highfives* Agreed. Wyverns for the win.