fortis's Dump box.

Hey @Kyllorac! Thanks for your suggestions. You're right, the leaf in that image does look diseased, but honestly, it was supposed to, and I didn't want to spend tons of time on it. But you're also right in that I shouldn't just use dodge and burn to shade, but they're so eaaasssy and faassst. Usually I make them work better than in the leaf image. My style isn't to make super-realistic things, but to mix lines and colors and textures to a way that please me. Most of my digital work is very cartoony, with super bright colors, and lots of shine, like a metal or a very sweaty animal. for example: or or

But as you can see, I don't pay much heed to actually drawing it realistically. This is mostly because I just don't have the time to do Mona Lisa-type art, and the way I do it pleases me.
There's an option on the dodge/burn tool that's something like "keep hues" or something, so I'm not using straight black (I'd like to think anyway).
I also haven't taken any real art classes, so I'm pretty much reinventing how to shade correctly. XD
and yeah, I'm basing it on how I *Think* the light should reflect off of things, but y'know, I've never actually seen a dinosaur. ^^
But thanks for your comment, I'll definitely try to take what you said into account.

@fortis

Easy and fast don't always produce the best results. ;P There's also a difference between something looking as intended, and something looking like it was unintentional. In the case of the diseased leaf, it looked like the disease was an unintentional result of the coloring, rather than something you intended.

I'm not saying you have to draw realistic images. However, knowing the principles behind more realistically rendered art will really improve your stylized artwork as well. Let's take the dino, for example:



I drew arrows to see where the light is coming from. Turns out it's coming from everywhere. Generally, you want to stick to one major light source and shade accordingly because consistent shading make images look more pleasing. You can have multiple light sources, but that makes shading more difficult.

Once you have a light source established, it's much easier to figure out where shadows and highlights go. If we picked a light source from the upper right and take a look at the general shapes, we get something like this:



And the basic layout of the darkest shadows and brightest highlights would look something like this:



Having a clear idea of where your light is coming from and where your shadows are going can really make a picture pop and also make it feel like it's more complete, since everything will feel like it belongs where it is in the picture.

Being able to pick out the basic shapes of things also helps you draw them more accurately. Stylization can only go so far before whatever it is you're stylizing becomes unrecognizable, and additionally, knowing the basic shapes can help you to stylize something more effectively.

These are all things that will help you to draw more pleasing pictures.

While I was working on learning how that darn light works, I took a few pictures.

These were some icicles outside the window. The longest one is about as long as my arm.


This... is art. (and no, I don't play Portal, this was for someone else.)


And then this. It's a collage.

I'm really just playing with this picture of my face now... >.>

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You are so good! *Looks at awful drawings and sighs*

Thanks. ^-^

You think this is like, a photoshopped picture, but it is just that they're all dead and pinned down. XD


doodle from math class...


*made a gif*


I've been doing several drawings like this.

I got to use my fancy water colors to make this!
It's Cyrano, Christian, and Roxanne in the balcony scene. I love this book, I think it's my favorite play.

Did I ever post my easter pictures?
We experimented with colored pencils this year!
Dad did this one:


I thought I was so funny.


And again: (deviled egg)


Then I decided to get deep.


That's paper up there btw.
This is probably my favorite one:



Also around this time I spent some time with the magnolia.

Ain't she purrddy?

Also, I went to my brother's graduation and the sky was SO blue and the leaves were so green and it was perfect!
#nocolorcorrection

Also, dunno if this is art but whatever.

I found a toad! ^_^

ART UPDATE
yay!

So. Recently I've been doing a few watercolors. I think it might be out of stress.

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"September Moon"

Acrylic Dandelions

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Photo-edited Flowers

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That's it for now, but I know I have more somewhere... hrm.

leaves:

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(I hope these are legible)
I have more on the way as well.

Another hand:

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That's it for now...

:0 can I steal your leaf idea?

I'm sure I'm not the first one to have it, @magpie. Go right ahead.

I painted a pumpkin! Yay for seasonal art things!

(This totally was not supposed to look like sawsbuck but life happens sometimes.)

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Winter:

Spring:

Summer:

Fall:


Also, yes those pictures were taken in the bathroom, but hey, it has the best light!

Also, a couple more leaves:

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