Help on my Venom art please...

[webhead731]

I drew this Venom.

I worked 5 hours on it. (And that's freakin' terrible for how it looks)

It was making the backround that took the longest.

Someone brought up a good point. He looks flat. I don't want to work that long on something and then having it look like crap.
I have PhotoShop, how do I make him look unflat? Can anyone help me on that, and anything else to make it better? Like really soon? Tonight hopefully?

Thanks.

 

[webhead731]

Anybody? Please?

 

[Mr. Smash'n Bash]

Anybody? Please?

Try to get rid of the lines around his body. Also I would go in and highlight he areas of his body that are catching light, and shade the areas furthest away from the light source.

 

[webhead731]

How does this look?
I re-did the veins that dissapeared when I scanned it and added more lighting and stuff with the dodge tool.

Thanks for the help by the way.

 

[Soundwave88]

i dont think it sould be in day light

 

[webhead731]

I'm just trying to make it like the Spider-Man movie posters. It's actually more of an evening. I would never do a Venom with a blue sky picture.

I have a Venom one at a rainy night holding Spider-Man's skull. I figured daytime would be better for the second picture.

 

[starwars22097]

do you have good photo shop skills

 

[webhead731]

I guess.

I don't know if I can judge myself but I've been using it since May 2006 and I've been told I've gotten better alot.

 

[webhead731]

Would you guys say it's done? I have to print it out tonight for some friends.

I just changed a few little things in it just now.

Does it look good?

 

[starwars22097]

use some bevelers, plastic wrap, and some glass efeects, it was hard to blend it in to look like that tho. blue dragon from the spidey 3 fan art and manips made a good pic with these effects i would go look at to make sure its what ya want

 

[webhead731]

I'm tryin' not to use any filters. Sorry.

 

[The Last Meatbag]

There's still an outline, you need to get rid of his outline and use about three different shades

(black, very dark grey, light grey)

to color him...and that should help a bit

 

[Machx72]

I would also work on my foreshortening if I were you. Venom's face looks very flat, when his jaw is usually protruding from his body.

 

[webhead731]

I actually like the black outlines. It makes it look comic booky.

I don't really do Venom's jaw all out from his mouth like that. I like it when his jaw lines up with his face better.

Thanks anyways though.

 

[Mrh7448]

Okay...first you don't have to get rid of the line work, but having it all the same thickness puts it on the same plane. Try varying the line weight between thick and thin. The thick lines will help bring things forward while the thinner lines will make it recede.

Also you have coloured Venom in pretty much all black with a few highlights. You need to look into colour theories using warm and cool colours. Adding cool blues into the shadows and having against a warm highlight it will help bring the highlight forward well pushing the shadow back. The highlights are basically the same hue and tone with black in between which is flattening venoms form.

you can see I've added in some blues, reds and yellows to help give the image a little more form. Whenever you use straight black it will automatically flatten the image. (This is just a small sample.)

Hope this helps.

 

[Mr. Smash'n Bash]

If you're going to do outlines, vary the line weight then.

 

[Machx72]

Not to be an ass, but it's not just the lower jaw either. The, the upper jaw, torso and right [Venom's left] arm have a few foreshortening problems with them too.

If you have the sketch [if you did one], I'd like to see that.

 

[webhead731]

I have the original picture uncolored. Do you mean that?

 

[webhead731]

Better?

 

[Machx72]

No, haha... I just meant if you sketched it, scanned it, then colored it with photoshop... Then I wanted to see the sketch.

But I guess not.

 

[webhead731]

It's not much of a sketch. It's Venom colored black.

Do you think that looks better though?

 

[StrainedEyes]

It's not much of a sketch. It's Venom colored black.

Do you think that looks better though?

Dude, listen to the advice that's been given. GET RID OF THE OUTLINE. Not the black outline, the outline of white you placed on most of his body. Light from behind him would not act like that on his body. Especially his collar bones. That is why he looks flat, you colored him one color, then put a white outline around the color, which just makes it flat.

Also follow whats been said and use more than one shade of black. Define the shapes of his body.

That said, the anatomy is off

 

[Anita18]

Okay...first you don't have to get rid of the line work, but having it all the same thickness puts it on the same plane. Try varying the line weight between thick and thin. The thick lines will help bring things forward while the thinner lines will make it recede.

Also you have coloured Venom in pretty much all black with a few highlights. You need to look into colour theories using warm and cool colours. Adding cool blues into the shadows and having against a warm highlight it will help bring the highlight forward well pushing the shadow back. The highlights are basically the same hue and tone with black in between which is flattening venoms form.

Word. Total word.

Yes, your most recent version looks better, but I think you could follow Mrh7448's example and use some cool tones in it too, for some contrast. Shadows are usually cool, while highlights are usually warm.

Highlights and shadows also aren't about putting in an arbitrary light or dark line and calling it done. Every tone and value of a drawing represents a certain plane in a shape, and something will only look 3-D if the edges of these planes meet up correctly. The human body is made up of very complicated shapes that produce equally complicated planes, and it greatly helps if you know anatomy. I'll try to help with part of your drawing:



I've only used two tones (and a lot of smudging t: ) , but I've got my arm anatomy guide in front of me, and thus I know how those planes should look, and thus what should be lighter and darker. (Don't quote me on the lower arm though. The lower arm looks funky. I hate lower arms...)

Just a tip - if something doesn't look 3-D, it probably isn't your rendering technique. It's most likely an issue with general planes and lack of anatomy knowledge.

Oh, and as a general tip, if something is round (like a deltoid), try to accentuate the roundness when smudging the color. Here's something quick and dirty for a comparison:



Which looks rounder?

 

[Habakkuk]

Actually, you've got the harder of the elements nailed. The hands, the muscle structure, the posture, even the freakin feet. All look GREAT. The only place you seem to be lacking is in the drawing of facial expression. Look at other peoples examples. Spend a couple hours drawing only heads. Once you think you've mastered that a lil better, come back, redraw your pic, scan it into photoshop and give it a lil eyecandy, which can be done by using the ACTUAL eyecandy filter t:

 

[antmanx68]

As others have said I think the "flatness" comes from the fact that in the original drawing you just colored him all with a pencil. That doesnt match the environment his in (back-lit with a general sunset/haziness quality). So here is my advice, at this point just hazing it up a bit and adding highlights and shadows as others have said is your best bet.