Oh please. It's not always about competing. Sometimes it's just about having fun, regardless of skill. And if you think you can't compete now, the more you continue to draw, the more you'll be able to compete later. So, anyway, I got bored, didn't really know what to do, so I ended up doodling this:
I drew a nice alice in wonderland-like picture, and that's the only good thing I produced from my 11 years of trying to draw.
This androgynous ginger person has another face indistinguishable from everyone else: I'll get to that later. What I was just trying to was experiment more with softer shading.
You could probably try a few more passes using varying opacity brushes. It would help get a smoother transition. And something you might want to look into is colour zones of the face: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com.au/2008/05/color-zones-of-face.html Add some of these hues into the flesh tones in the appropriate areas, and it will be good. It just doesn't make sense having the hair shaded with so nuch colour, but then having the face so flat. You deffinitely seem to be breaking away from the Atlus style with your colouring... do you have any particular influence for your colouring now? As for the face... those eyes look too far apart. They look like they're right on the edge of the head.
It seems like I've seen a bunch of "fluffy" things similar to what I was going for, but there aren't any specific examples that come to mind. Thanks so much for those tips, I'll keep them in mind. And thanks so much to everyone else for all of the other tips and point-outs given before. You all are probably much more helpful with your criticisms than anyone at DeviantArt might be.
My latest picture is of the goddess Kali, of which there are several interpretations (but most notable is that she is often depicted with skulls and blood). I'm planning on doing a short comic of about 5-6 pages about her ever since I saw a Disney animator named Sanjay Patel's Hindu Deities books/posters. Here is his version of Kali
So I have this dude yet again, with a more distinct face from everyone else, a slightly more colorful face at that, and a bunch "out-of-place" coloring in the hair: I was going for a bit of a Skyward Sword/El Shaddai look. But not as heavy.
I'm assuming you're making shades by adding black to the colour... that's what it looks like at least. You should try moving away from that. Mix in a bit of a complimentary hue of a cooler, darker tone. Black tends to just make things look muddy. How much do you know about colour theory?
Pretty much. I shade by coloring black in a few half-transparent layers over the color layers. So instead of adding just more darkness, I should add some saturation too? I can't say I know a whole lot about color theory.
You actually want less saturation. A shade should be less saturated then the base colour. Otherwise it will draw unnecessary attention. Adjusting the actual colour of your shades and highlights can help add some more depth. It all depends on the lighting. Under normal conditions, "warmer" colours (yellows, oranges, etc,) generally appear closer, while "cooler" colours (blues, purples, etc,) recede into the distance. Just keep it subtle. Yeah, colour theory is a pretty big and complicated thing. There's a lot to it. You might want to have a look at this. It gives a few little tips and ideas for working with colour. http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf Deffinitely have a go at using a limited palette of 2-4 "primary" colours, and literally mixing them to make anything else you might need. It will help to tie everything together better. I'd recommend starting with complementary, split, or triadic colours. Practice colouring in one layer. It's better to have a good foundation in more traditional techniques, than just jumping straight in with all the digital stuff.
I work in real paint, and never ever use black. Black is a tool of the devil. I use warm red (scarlet), cool red (crimson), warm blue (royal), cool blue (navy), warm yellow (ochre) and cool yellow (lemon). They're the only colours you need. Very often I don't end up using half of them, too, depending on how the light sources play out.
