Sijun Forums :: View topic - Pro, painting a lion's mane...details inside

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 6:31 pm

Greetings
I have picked up another quick study of the lion here. As you can see, I simply can not find a way as of yet to paint mane or hair that also portrays fine details without running into the chaos look. Pro, or anyone, isn't there an easier rule of thumb when painting hair or mane with fine detail? I am trying different ways to accent the lighting here and mane. If you have a little bit of time, please paint-over with correct method.
Thank You

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 6:37 pm

P.S. if you want to throw something together with this to demonstrate and need it a bit larger... I will provide a larger scale upto 2000X1800@300PPI.

geoman2k · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 6:42 pm

hey if anyone can post a mini tut on how to paint hair... that would be helpful.

just letting people know that this guy is not the only guy who needs help with hair- a good tut from a pro would help a lotta people i'm sure

Pro · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 8:47 pm

Hi Indian Prophet-

Here is a paint over on your lion piece. You have a very good start, but you need to pay attention to the drawing. Find the center line of his face. You'll see that he is facing slightly three quarters. It is subtle but you will have a better picture by paying close attention to these minor things.

As for hair, well, again I think I said this before and I'm sorry to repeat myself.....SIMPLIFY!!!!.....mass your lights and darks and work the edges. Don't worry about every little strand of hair it's too much to deal with. Go for the big overall shape. Good luck!

G. Pro

[ January 07, 2002: Message edited by: Pro ]

wigin · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 9:00 pm

its amazing how a professional artist like you find the time to NOT only explain but actually illustrate what you mean...

Thanx alot. Your an Inspiration to me.

jr · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 9:14 pm

that looks really good mr pro.

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 9:16 pm

Thanks Pro for the help. I remember you saying something about simplify but I am still trying to implement that into my style of painting and sometimes need a second example as you have provided. Man, this explains it all. You've made it almost like the reference photo and you don't even have a copy of it. Only thing is that the lion is partially in the light and the mane fades into total darkness...his mane is way fuller than what one can see and there are various spots where the light hits of a few strands of hair but of course you couldn't know this without the photo. I see you have painted a few lions in your day. Well I'm off to study where to start with my revisions.

wigin, agreed.

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 9:28 pm

Pro I sent the reference photo by email hope you don't mind.

geoman2k · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2001 11:57 pm

just woundering pro- what types of brushes did you use in this? it looks like photoshop if i'm not mistaken. di you use the air brush, or the paintbrush? use any custum brushes? or did you just use a normal round one and then smudge em? i've had a lot of people tell me that smudging is not a good tool to use in digital painting- but you seem to have used it well.

thanks

Pro · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 11:04 am

Hi again-

Thanks for the kind words wigin and Jr. geoman2k- I use all of the brushes in Photoshop 6. Rounds, flats, airbrush try them all there great for various effects. I made some small custom brushes too. This is very easy to do as you know. You can even take a favorite shape and turn that into one. And yes I love the smudge tool I use it all the tme.

Mr. T · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 2:48 pm

it's nice to see someone use the smudge properly... usually people overuse it

misssakura · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 3:10 pm

It truly is beautiful. Would you use that technique just for that kind of picture, what other pictures would you apply that to?

Pro · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 3:27 pm

misssakura- Remember it's not the technique that's important; it's how you think of the form being affected by the light. I would use my tongue if I thought I could get the same effect.

cayne · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 3:59 pm

Hey Pro, thanks for all of the insights. I've been reading your other posts and I think that I'm catching what your trying to say regarding how light reveals what is seen and the rules about the 4 edges (good stuff).

Just starting to think along those lines has improved my painting. Here is a little painting of a tree limb that I did after reading your posts. This is a lot less detailed than I would like to do because I'm relying on the light to convey the form rather than a drawings hard lines.

It seems a little too impressionistic to me, but I think that finding that balance between impressionism and realism is what painting is all about- or at least it seems that way at this point.

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 4:13 pm

Wow, having Pro illustrate corrections draws a massive flock of artists to my thread...a nice marketing tool indeed...now if I can only get people to comment on my stuff..lol.
(kidding) you guys carry on...I've done the same before too.

Pro...did you see my reptile update? Am I heading the right direction?

Thanks

cayne · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 4:26 pm

Hey Indian,

Sorry about that. Didn't mean to hedge in on ya. It's just that so many of the things that I have been able to learn from Pro have come from your thread. Your asking all the right questions... and a lot of people are learning with you.

Thanks.

Ian Jones · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 4:43 pm

Seems like im missing the..."THE FOUR EDGES RULE" <<??????????

what the heck is that? I have never heard of it before. Intruiging.

Magicman · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 4:52 pm

hope you don�t mind me, greg...

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 5:07 pm

cayne, I was just kidding. Feel free to post whatever you like...

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 5:12 pm

[Moved Thread] : http://www.sijun.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=002791

[ January 01, 2002: Message edited by: Indian_Prophet ]

[ January 01, 2002: Message edited by: Indian_Prophet ]

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 5:18 pm

or you can just click on the link and comment if you'd like...

Pro · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 9:08 pm

Who's having fun here? cayne- I'm on a tight job deadline at the moment, when I get a chance I'll take a look at your work. In the meantime ask yourself some questions about this tree. Where is it? What kind is it? Is it outside? Or is it just laying flat on this piece of board? These questions may help you move to the next step.

lookitsfrank · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2002 9:39 pm

wow pro. I'm impressed. heh. thanks for taking the time to help all of us. (all though it seems Indian is hogging all the help. :P)
anyway, here's a few things I decided to bring out for you IP (by the way, you've progressed so much in the past 2 weeks!) I think thinking of things in simple shapes and how they overlay helps alot. like pro says "simplify, simplify, simplify!" it's so true. think of things in planes and think of how they interact and how they connect. then begin thinking of how the light molds them. I'll do a little paint over of my own (for personal pleasure, the drudgery of the darth maul I'm working on is horrendous. I'm sick of it already and I've only put 3.5 hours of work in it in the past week. I think I'll stop.) ok. I'll stop ranting. ready to do a paintover.

frank

misssakura · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2002 3:56 am

I'm finding all GG programs frustrating, Photoshop and painter, although the latter I don't use often, in fact I did one thing in it and well...lets never mention that again. I have no idea where to start and how to build up the techniques. :/ Where does everyone else start?

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2002 5:41 am

Hehe, well frank...perhaps it's because I have been on this board for a couple of weeks and can't get much help from others.
So I am bit thirsty for know-how, but clearly these demonstrations benefit everyone as stated several times by others.

On with the sHoW!!
Lets see if we can get some instructions on painting metal...anyone else have problems with that?

Frank, thanks for comments and did you get a chance to see my reptile update...go and critique that if you got a minute. And don't worry, I have learned as much as I can from Pro on painting organic subtance, the rest is up to me. But if YOU know how to paint metal...please demonstrate the ins and outs of it if you have the time...cool?

I've put this lion on the back burner for now...but i have not abandoned it.

Indian_Prophet · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2002 5:46 am

Oh P.S.

Frank, whats up with your website, most of the graphics are not loading...I admire your talent and would like to see more of it...
Did you do that "tonight I Dream" graphic at your site under book one?

[ January 02, 2002: Message edited by: Indian_Prophet ]

lookitsfrank · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2002 2:51 pm

the "tonight I dream" picture was for photo manipulation assignment. most of the website is not painting, in fact, it's design work. I decided to put all that stuff on the backburner and focus more on painting and traditional art medians. I figure you have to learn concept and the bare bones before you can move on to all that. I'm thinking of taking that down and putting up a measly site with all of the partial paintings and sketches I can and then archive some of the usefull information I've gained here. I've been wandering around here for about a year, and I've learned alot from Ron Lemen, Craig Mullins, and now Pro without saying a word. I figure I should archive all the usefull knowledge for everyone incase they miss a thread. Anway, I didn't draw the Charles Dickens

and I'm off to search for this reptile. (Is it perchance the yoda thing?)
frank

Pro · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2002 9:20 am

Hi cayne-

I posted your critique here:

click here,click here,click here