They've been showing a lot of Bob Ross during lockdown in UK. I wasn't consciously aiming for a Ross style piece, but I think he'd approve of this approach nonetheless! I'm calling this "Joy of Bongo". It's even got a happy little tree, and countless "happy accidents"! Lol.

I did get a bit carried away and smashed my stylus to pieces when I beat the devil out of it.

Thanks to all those that helped in the forums, much appreciated!

"Legend tells of a mythical creature that plagues the swamplands to the East. Many brave adventurers have sought to slay it, none have been seen again."

Thanks to all in the forums for their help, always very much appreciated.

My Take on Isolation - A shipwrecked Pirate Rat (or Pi-Rat - ahem) who in his madness and boredom has built himself a little social scene. Now, however, he cant help feeling his new coconut friends are having a better time than he is!

@Lee-White i would just like to say i think you personally deserve a lot of credit in your handling of this matter, ive seen a couple of your Youtube comments on the video, and despite conversing with seemily very unreasonable irrational people, you always conduct yourself with the utmost decorum. Not easily done given the circumstances, so fair play to you, as they say round here!

Hi all,

I've finally managed to put Red Dead Redemption down and get working again, enjoyed the month off though! I thought I'd try for a darker tone for this month, something like a 'Card Art' style image, definitely not a children's illustration, try and be a bit more realistic.

So this image is meant to feel as though the viewer has just stumbled into the dragonfly's lair and disturbed him, there's a skeleton half in the swamp in the foreground, roots and stuff growing over him, whilst the dragonfly is about to eat a dead warrior.
I know the drawing is rubbish, and he looks like a muppet, hopefully i will come up with a decent character design, just trying to get an idea down at the moment.

If anyone has got any thoughts/ideas on composition, value, anything else, id be grateful to hear 'em! Thankyou!

He said he was closed!

Ultimately does it really matter? Its just a bit of fun. Everyone has the opportunity to use this forum to get a ton of feedback, so who really cares who wins the contest? The judges give their opinions, take 'em or leave 'em.

@Griffin hi, i love this vibe, its a classic idea, trio of ragtag misfits off on some quest to kick ass! i think the characters could use some more dynamism though. Im assuming theres about to be a battle or some kerfuffle, otherwise why has the archer drawn? The other two look far too relaxed. One word of advice i heard was that a pose should either be at the start or end of the action. So maybe hammer guy should be leaping with one hammer behind his head ready to smash it down, and sword guy maybe crouched, ready to pounce or something. Maybe hammer guy leaping to the left front, and sword guy leaping to the right front, jumping over the archer who is crouched in the middle, aiming at the viewer. Maybe.
Perhaps the hammers should have longer handles too, i know its fantasy but they look too unbalanced to me, it'd be really difficult to use that weapon.
If you lower the camera angle so you are looking up at the characters, this'll make em look more powerful.
Cool piece though, look forward to seeing how it turns out.

@EliaMurrayArt if you put this stuff on youtube, bit of timelapse and commentary etc, you'd clean up, Its really cool!

@dafoota I think that the first decision should always be what your light source is, what colour it is, how many light sources etc. Then you can think about all those other things. If your main light source is a green neon light, then the characters white t shirt isnt going to be white, your hues are essentially chosen for you by how the light interacts with the local colour of the subject.
If most of your art is daylight images, then bear in mind colour schemes when choosing hues, you dont want to just randomly pick colours, they should work to complement the other colours. Think analagous, split complementary, etc.
Saturation should still adhere to rules of physics, generally close up objects are more saturated than far away. But also, if everything on a page is super saturated, and you put a greyscale character in the middle of the scene, its likely this will be the focus. Thats contrast at work right there.
Ultimately, i try not to think of them as seperate topics, just colour and light. Sounds simple, If i ever the hang of it ill let you know! Lol.

@Matthew-Oberdier ask 10 people this question and you'll get 10 different answers. Perhaps be more specific with your question. To me, it doesnt look like bobo lost his yoyo, he knows exactly where it is, its just outside his house from when he threw it out the window. Tell him to go downstairs and get it.

@deborah-Haagenson no, i never get a message, i just notice it doing strange stuff, also when my graphics card needs updating the tablet plays up. I think they program this stuff in to ensure you keep updating. Or it could be a hardware clash, i dunno, it all gets very complicated.

@KGatto ive got the 15.6 artist pro (red spinny wheel). Far as i can tell the displays great, the only issues i run into are that when ever there is a driver update due, the tamblet starts playing up untill you update it. And then when you update it, you lose all your hotkey configurations, but you can set up the tablet and save all the presets, so you just have to reload it. There is also a bit of parallax when you use the tilt function of the pen, but its not an issue for me in everyday use. Basically, for the money, its good, but its never gonna be as good as a top end display tablet.

@ajillustrates Yeah i can really see how a piece like this would have tested your resolve, plenty of people have probably attempted something like this then quit on day 3 when the enormity of the task becomes apparent. But to just say you stuck with it doesnt do you justice. Its so well executed. The whole thing holds together as one shape, there's levels of contrast, depth, everywhere you look theres something cool going on. Its hypnotic. This should be used as an example to people on how to approach inktober, rather than forcing themselves to produce a pile of throwaway tat for a month. I notice you said initially you were planning on painting it, i dont think anyone would blame you if you left it as it is, indeed it may well not even need painting. If you do paint it up though, you should definately get some prints made up, this is quality.

@ajillustrates hi mate, i just want to say i love this. This is genuinely the most impressive piece of art ive ever seen come out of inktober, by a country mile. Im not a massive fan of what inktober has become, i dread it coming round, it just seems people enjoy spamming every available forum on the internet with bucketfulls of ill concieved, badly drawn shite for a month, but this is a wonderful piece! A breath of fresh air. It must have taken its toll on you, but this was a very worthwhile venture sir, take a bow!

@Shyam-Sailus thats actually quite a patronizing response to what was a helpful and considerate piece of advice from @Heather-Boyd.

Keep working hard, you will definately improve. But without structure, you will improve more slowly, thats all she was saying. Im ok though thanks, i dont need a motivational allegory sent my way.