Sometimes I do things [Sorta art]

[T-RexWithTourettes]

That dude looks awesome!
And, oh hell, animals are so hard for me for some reason unless we're talking fish, or...well that's about it

[Amara]

Seem to have lost my art mojo. So much stress. I did manage to do this, last night.

Lately I feel like I've been chasing ghosts.

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...but they're so much faster than I am.

[T-RexWithTourettes]

WILL 'O WISPS! D: Don't follow the lights!
Also I forgot to ask, (very late) isn't the uncanny valley where it looks kind of human but not quite and so it ends up looking creepy? I think that's what a friend said at least.

[Amara]

It is. Basically, as simplification or stylization approaches realism, there is a chasm / gap / valley before realism is achieved; the stylization or simplification end, or the realism end are comfortable. The 'uncanny valley' is uncomfortable.
It's the sense of something being human but 'not quite right,' and it's actually a big part of what makes zombies (and humanoid robots) creepy to a lot of people.

[Amara]

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Today I did some hand practice. Joined Wysp, and they've a lovely practice tool. My hands are unforgivably weak, I learned. I'll need to work a lot on fixing that...

T-Rex, your avatar suddenly animating SCARED ME YOU SCOUNDREL.


I'm hoping to do some Ryan sketches tonight, too. With luck I'll manage something decent.
No sketches sadly, but I do have a preview of the sim I'm working on for Ryan/Rían.

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He needs a new skin (that one unfortunately has painted on abs, something I didn't learn prior to making Ryan, and oh boy does it ever look terrible on heavier dudes like him,) and I'm not completely happy with his face yet. The facial weathering cc I made (assigned as blush) helped to contour his face a touch so he looks less baby faced now, but I think he still looks too young. Like a child with stubble. It's scary. I need to fix his eyes / brow region to age him a bit, but the biggest thing is I need to make (or find + DL ) a slider to shrink the forehead, because Sims gives everyone a monstrous hydrocephaly forehead.
I dunno. What do you guys think?
His traits are good, good sense of humor, heavy sleeper, brave, and natural cook. Lifetime wish is culinary librarian.

Finished the Ryan sim (for now.)

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I think he looks pretty nice, now. Managed to fix the forehead (a big part of it was apparently the older hair,) and found him a new skin that looks a lot better.

[Amara]

Torie, back when I played him in D&D, was a contortionist.
...who specialized in silk dancing. I rather miss him. Anyway, some pose thumbnails. Nothing special. Most of my art time and juice is taken up by a regrettably NSFW commission that I will thus not be displaying here.

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[SamWiser]

Looks awesome. I envy people who can dance, especially like that.

[BeanDip]

All you got to do is move, Sam.

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The pictures are amazing as always, Amara

[Amara]

Ahhh thanks ;-;

I haven't danced in years, myself. I kinda miss it, haha. I'm not too amazing. I can....dance to electronica, and otherwise know how to waltz. Therein lies the limits of my actual experience.

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So, I'm still without my actual computer and will be until Thursday, but I've been doodling. It was brought to my attention that I haven't given myself a ref sheet in around 3 years now, and so my HRRRRDURRRMURSONA may get a new ref sheet. Maybe. I guess.
I'm not thrilled with the face/feet, but this will get lots of work and digital polishing and finishing and colour stuff eventually, hopefully. I'm bad about abandoning things.

Presently I'm fighting another Vicodin coma off.

[Amara]

ALL YOUR FAULT.
ALL YOUR FAULT.
ALL YOUR FAULT.
You know who you are.

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[T-RexWithTourettes]

Mwahahahah.
I'm not at fault but seeing this still extorted a hearty chuckle outta me :')

[Amara]

Well.

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Ordinarily I'd prefer not to post notebook doodles, but lately I have little else to show.

[Amara]

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So, that happened.

Yay maybe games thing.
Horribly wonky anatomy, but at least I drew something. Haven't been drawing much lately.

...but games seem to result in me drawing dumbs.

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Super dumbs.

[Amara]

Tiny, useless wings. ...the anatomy is terrible, but I'm trying to work my way through this slump.

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[LAYF]

I actually like it.. It reminds me of the Deva from DnD but with hair...

Anatomy wise only 2 thinks "pop out" the right arm (left from out view)'s elbow bend is a bit to much.. and the chest looks a bit like its hanging...

but those two points aside, I love it... would wish i could make anything even close to that quality...

[Amara]

If he reminds you of a Deva with hair, I'm at least doing something right, there.Cough. I mean, he's a completely normal moon elf.

Hnm. I'll need to take a look at it again once I'm not exhausted, I think. Though, it's a very small doodle, and there's not much more point fiddling with it.

[LAYF]

winged moon elf... hmm... reminds me of http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Avariel

[Amara]

Haha, well, not quite, but I suppose it's likely he could be mistaken for one.

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It's still wonky, but I was forced to add colour quickly for roll20 reasons. Such tiny, useless wings.

[Amara]

Well... I made Isaac in sims. Modern setting, so hipster clothes happened. Oops. End result: Isaac = photogenic and he basically poses by himself. His brother, Sasha, has a permanent grump face and I failed to get a single decent shot of him.

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And actual sorta painted things... the DM made the mistake of saying one of his mages looked kinda like Christopher Lloyd with a beard.
So this happened. It's not really art being that it's a partial paintover (to get proportions before I actually used the ref to get shading right,) but I don't have much else to show, and it was a rush job because everyone was sad that day and I wanted to cheer them up.

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I've now been assigned another GMNPC to paint... and I'm hoping he'll go well. x-x

[Amara]

Said GMNPC has been painted.. our resident Oracle, Rufio. I'm not as happy with this one, but it's better than I expected it to come out. I jokingly used a screenshot of McFly as an early reference, and the DM didn't notice. :B

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Otherwise I drew a bit of derp earlier, but it's just a pretty terrible doodle. Half the party was sucked in to a pocket dimension contained within a book...

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Isaac (my cleric) is in a weird spot because one of the kobold party members decided to write "Isaac's wings grow to full size" in to the book, and thus it happened. Isaac then proceeded to fall off of a balcony in the process of trying to get to his brother who he spotted below, but was given a graceful landing via a flight check and said kobold writing more.
....welp.
"Graceful."

Said brother does at least have a game portrait now.

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3d model + painting and heavy use of liquify and paint over to fix anatomy before even starting on the rest to fix lighting, etc...but it's much faster than a straight start to finish painting and gives a nice result.

[Nerre]

I do! I have an aging intuos 3 9x12.
Haha, animals are in some ways easier than people. You can avoid the uncanny valley entirely.

What would you suggest now for somebody who had not tablet yet?
Do good ones come with software or can they be used with - for example photoshop?
I am not bad with pixel graphics or vector graphics, hand drawn ink pictures, but drawing with a tablet is totally new to me.

[Amara]

I would suggest getting a less expensive tablet first if you aren't certain how you'll feel regarding it. It definitely takes time to adjust to drawing at a tablet while looking at a screen. For their price, Wacom's bamboo series is actually quite nice, if you're not sure if a tablet will be for you.

Tablets do sometimes come bundled with art software. My tablet came bundled with Painter 9 when I purchased it, and I do periodically see Photoshop Elements being bundled, but not full Photoshop.


The biggest thing is that tablets are typically slick surfaces, and when drawing, most are used to feeling resistance. One trick I've seen a few artists do is tape a lightweight paper to their tablets to mimic the 'resistance' feel they're used to.

[Amara]

Wow I haven't uh...posted here in a while.

Isaac eventually got a portrait much like his brother's, but it didn't turn out well and that game ended horribly anyway. (That, and Isaac is honestly far less attractive than his older brother anyway, haha)

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I also did a bunch of doodles of Ruathimaer, Elevar's raven familiar.

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Perhaps too many.

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There were a few more residual images of Isaac, too...like this one.


I also did an art trade with a buddy (he drew Elevar for me!) and I drew his kobold wizard, Ya'snitch Popov. He was from the same game as Isaac. I rather liked Snitch.

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Then Starbound ate me for a while

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Finding chickens as an avian race was a surreal moment.

Dumb phone doodle of (I guess) Isaac's eye that I did while I was overseas.

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And doodled Sarai, Isaac and Sasha's mother a bit.

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They came out a bit derpy but it was also like...4 AM when I doodled this. Eh. (Despite giving Ensailalaith the nickname Isaac, despite Sasha's real name being She'alti'el, and despite their mother being Sarai and their father being MIKAEL, no one evvvvvvver caught on to the naming covention.)

...then it was joked that Elevar would make a hot chick.
Then we realized that since the campaign went in an alt reality direction ANYWAY, there was a reality somewhere where he was a chick. So that happened...

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This one's pretty sloppy and messy anyway.

A doodle of Sasha's face I never finished or painted

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Done to cheer up a friend

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Weird floating fox I doodled while queueing for ranked in LoL

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[LAYF]

Sasha's face
ehm....

that... that looks like me... especially from the time I played an elf in an live rpg... thats.... ehm....

that aside... love your art.. and your sketches makes me jealous (the good kind) would love to have half the talent...

[Amara]

Haha, didn't mean to spook yah!

Ahhh thanks ;-; I've been going through a frustrated bit of stagnation lately, and I feel I haven't improved so much.

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Doodled my avatar. Going through another thing in my headspace and ehghhh there may be weird vent art coming. Dont know if I'll post it. Bad picture of this doodle though. I need to get a scanner.