Hello all!
I'm Kelvin, an illustrator who've stumbled upon this awesome forum. After watching a series of amazing courses here at SVS (especially the Composition course), I've decided to take the jump into this place and introduce myself. My goal is to perhaps befriend at least a few folks here, improve my craft and build an awesome portfolio.
All in all, I'm glad to be here. 
Cheers!
Kelvin
Inspiring and amazing!
Congrats.
Hello all!
Here is a piece that I'm working on at the moment (pure lineart and another one features a rough sketch layer in which you can kind of see the background sketch). Environmental and perspective art are my weaknesses, and so I'm taking this opportunity to practice during my spare time. In addition, I'm trying out new concepts (tonal "checkerboard" pattern, tones, etc, etc) that I've learned from SVS. But you'll see more of these concepts appear as I get closer to completion of this piece.
So, feel free to be as honest as possible and offer your two cents if you wish.
Thanks!
Kelvin
This is actually pretty interesting and I'm liking it!
I wonder what if you can show the floor? I think that will help a bit. Also, maybe you can make the girl's purple dress into a more earthy/muted color like you did with the rest of the picture? It might make the alien's green pop out a bit more in this way and draw attention. If not, then you could explore the possibility of lowering the tone of everything but the alien/box to make it pop out. Also, perhaps add a light source/shadow too.
All in all, I think this illustration is headed in the right direction!
Greetings all,
Had a chance to work on this piece a bit more and here it is! Not sure if I'm done yet but I'm looking to possibly expand on the cake a bit more (and possibly the center character). Thoughts?
Also, I'm working on switching gears as an artist by being a painter in Photoshop. My style is usually flat by default as I start out by sketching then detouring to Illustrator to do lines, then switching back to Photoshop to slap on shapes and etc. But at the end, everything seems too flat and cold, unlike actual paintings. This is the one critique that I have of myself at the moment that I'm trying to answer to. In addition, I feel like I have this intermediate skillset as when I see all of these other more seasoned painters around here and throughout the internet, I'm blown away but inspired.
Anyways, ramblings aside, here's my stuff and thanks for reading!
Greetings all,
Had a chance to work on this piece a bit more and here it is! Not sure if I'm done yet but I'm looking to possibly expand on the cake a bit more (and possibly the center character). Thoughts?
Also, I'm working on switching gears as an artist by being a painter in Photoshop. My style is usually flat by default as I start out by sketching then detouring to Illustrator to do lines, then switching back to Photoshop to slap on shapes and etc. But at the end, everything seems too flat and cold, unlike actual paintings. This is the one critique that I have of myself at the moment that I'm trying to answer to. In addition, I feel like I have this intermediate skillset as when I see all of these other more seasoned painters around here and throughout the internet, I'm blown away but inspired.
Anyways, ramblings aside, here's my stuff and thanks for reading!
Man, these are great!
I have to practice on my painting abilities, too. However, I heard that if you make small brush strokes instead of big ones -- like, start with small strokes and gradually work your way to bigger strokes (if using big strokes later in your painting), you'll have an easier time of painting, in digital that is.
And I wonder if you can start grayscale, which will force you to work on drawing, values, tones then apply color as some sort of "frosting on a cake"-kind of thing?
@JiÅ™Ã-Kůs Ah, that's great advice as I've tweaked up the line art a bit. Thanks! And I'm going to Photoshop for a bit and maybe do some detailing on the cake. Either that, or beam the light on the yelling guy. Maybe I'll add a chair as well.
Hey guys,
I'm working on another illustration that involves cockroaches and a slice of cake! I've gotten to the line art and roughed in some tones and shading. But before I go any further, what are your thoughts on this project so far? The more I look at this potential illustration, the more I ponder about what's missing or needs to be tweaked. However, I'm going to attack this project at another day when my eyes "refresh".
Anyways, thanks guys!
This is pretty neat, especially the drawing style. Reminds me a bit like Magic School Bus.
I think you're in the right direction as I'm curious to see how it all turns out!
Practice with some tones and shading and make it look good in grayscale first then add colors at last, I think.
Haha, this is pretty neat!
I like how this helicopter even looks like a whale in a sense. Color it blue? Maybe some fog or sense of visible air emitting from the exhaust somewhere from the helicopter (if possible) and from the fish gills too, to kind of symbolize breathing underwater.
Anyways, I can't wait to see how it all turns out and good luck!
I think this piece has a lot of potential and I like what others have suggested.
As from me, I have the same problem when I illustrate things; it's natural for me to instantly draw characters doing nothing (like staring into empty space, behaving like statues, etc). I think your character may have the same problem, so always draw your characters doing something, even drinking water or walking somewhere. This will add a sense of liveliness to any illustration. Illustrating is essentially storytelling, anyways as you wouldn't want to read about characters doing nothing. If she was fiddling around with the toys in her crib, reaching for something that's out of picture, etc, this would help, I think.
Hmmm, I wonder if this is why it's important for us to grab our sketchbooks and pen, go out in the community, and draw people. I think this would allow us to shake off this bad habit.
Anyways, good luck!
@Lee-White I wonder why schools rarely provide these sort of inside information for illustrators about business especially when students are paying thousands of dollars for the education? Anyways, thanks so much for your words!
This is actually pretty interesting and I'm liking it!
I wonder what if you can show the floor? I think that will help a bit. Also, maybe you can make the girl's purple dress into a more earthy/muted color like you did with the rest of the picture? It might make the alien's green pop out a bit more in this way and draw attention. If not, then you could explore the possibility of lowering the tone of everything but the alien/box to make it pop out. Also, perhaps add a light source/shadow too.
All in all, I think this illustration is headed in the right direction!