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Estonia4644 Posts
Hi!
Long time, no blog. I'll try and keep it short and sweet as usual and let the art do the talking for me! New schoolyear has started, and I'm still in the process of chasing a Bachelor's degree. While doing that, I'm working on a ton of projects, preparing for a choir trip to N.Ireland in October and generally keeping myself as busy as possible. Since it's been so long since my last blog, I don't even know what else to say regarding #lyf, so ask away.
Illustrating
Ah yes, the point of this blog. So earlier this year I realized that I've not really done any personal projects in a long time. And I've been wanting to pick up illustrating and improving my digital painting skills for a while. After the school year ended and all the assorted summer travel shenanigans concluded, I retreated back to my summerhome on an island off the west coast of Estonia for 2 months and started crafting away at a series of illustrations. First of which is here, finally complete months later! I have many ideas and sketches about where to take the project next, but baby steps and no promises!
MIRANA X SAGAN BIKES
The concept behind this illustration (and perhaps a series of illustrations) is to imagine the lovely ladies of Dota 2 in a modern context, while keeping their appearance as distinctive as possible compared to their ingame counterparts. So a hipster Mirana on a fixie it is 8)
It's a great learning experience so far, illustrating is hella difficult and while I'm not fully satisfied with this one, I'm just gonna take what i learned and move onto next ones, now that I've finished something. Something I usually don't do with my projects.
So without further ado, and since I've already wasted too much space on words and not images, here you go!
Click on the image above for a slightly bigger version!
Please let me know if you'd like to have this as a print, and I'll put it up for sale on society6 or something
similar!
And as usual, here's some wallpapers as well!
Enjoy and til next blag! Disclaimer - Since this is my first blog on LD, theres probably many of you who don't me - I'm one of the TL & LD GFX guys, feel free to ask me questions about almost anything and enjoy the imagery
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did you draw the vector sagan face yourself or is that copied from somehwere i like it
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On September 22 2014 07:54 FinestHour wrote: did you draw the vector sagan face yourself or is that copied from somehwere i like it i like the bike more
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Estonia4644 Posts
On September 22 2014 07:54 FinestHour wrote: did you draw the vector sagan face yourself or is that copied from somehwere i like it
drew it myself, I used the minimap icon for inspiration
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5/5 because of the chucks
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does that bike even have brakes?
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her face reminds me of a milf, honestly seems a little out of place lol but it looks great man! im surprised you would post it if you didn't feel fully satisfied as most artists i know hide everything they make unless they are 110% happy with it. i hope to see more blogs like this in the future! plenty of dota girls to choose from :~)
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On September 22 2014 13:10 Kupon3ss wrote: does that bike even have brakes? who needs brakes when you can leap
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So much of the lower half is so clearly and beautifully rendered. Some of the whole image falls apart in terms of composition, but overall it's fucking incredible. Really looking forward to seeing anything that comes out of future efforts, always wonderful to see a talented artist do stuff!
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On September 22 2014 13:10 Kupon3ss wrote: does that bike even have brakes?
I guess someone isn't a hipster.
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
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pretty cool, but why isnt the bike white? :D The coloring of the pedals, of her skin and of her clothing (especially her trousers and her shoes) is really great.
I'm 100% sure that she can't stand like that on that point of the bike, she will fall over towards the viewer immediately. Not that it's important, just saying.
PS with tablet?
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Estonia4644 Posts
On September 22 2014 10:50 icystorage wrote: 5/5 because of the chucks If you look closely, you might notice the TL logo on them
On September 22 2014 13:10 Kupon3ss wrote: does that bike even have brakes? Yes, V-brakes up front, hence the polished lip
On September 22 2014 13:22 BongChambers wrote: her face reminds me of a milf, honestly seems a little out of place lol but it looks great man! im surprised you would post it if you didn't feel fully satisfied as most artists i know hide everything they make unless they are 110% happy with it. i hope to see more blogs like this in the future! plenty of dota girls to choose from :~) You're not the first one to mention that. I guess the face is a bit too well defined... FACES R HARD OKAY And thanks, I appreciate it! It's always difficult to offload a project instead of tinkering on it for more months and never finishing it.
On September 22 2014 14:00 Fleetfeet wrote: So much of the lower half is so clearly and beautifully rendered. Some of the whole image falls apart in terms of composition, but overall it's fucking incredible. Really looking forward to seeing anything that comes out of future efforts, always wonderful to see a talented artist do stuff! Thanks! Could you perhaps detail your concerns about composition further? The disparity in rendering styles and working on it for months probably looks slightly weird, I guess. The idea to keep the bike very clean and simple in its shading was there from the beginning, to counter the somewhat more elaborate and smoother shading of Mirana herself
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Estonia4644 Posts
On September 23 2014 00:15 Blackfeather wrote: pretty cool, but why isnt the bike white? :D The coloring of the pedals, of her skin and of her clothing (especially her trousers and her shoes) is really great.
I'm 100% sure that she can't stand like that on that point of the bike, she will fall over towards the viewer immediately. Not that it's important, just saying.
PS with tablet? Because blue fit the composition better :D!
And while the pose is heavily referenced, the logic is that her weight is divided between the her straight leg and the point on which shes sitting on the bike frame on the near side, The bike itself is stabilized by the fact that the front is turned slightly towards the viewer. I hope that makes sense. The pose is slightly... unconventional but makes sense to me
And yes, PS + tablet
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On September 23 2014 00:24 fusefuse wrote:Show nested quote +On September 23 2014 00:15 Blackfeather wrote: pretty cool, but why isnt the bike white? :D The coloring of the pedals, of her skin and of her clothing (especially her trousers and her shoes) is really great.
I'm 100% sure that she can't stand like that on that point of the bike, she will fall over towards the viewer immediately. Not that it's important, just saying.
PS with tablet? Because blue fit the composition better :D! And while the pose is heavily referenced, the logic is that her weight is divided between the her straight leg and the point on which shes sitting on the bike frame on the near side, The bike itself is stabilized by the fact that the front is turned slightly towards the viewer. I hope that makes sense. The pose is slightly... unconventional but makes sense to me And yes, PS + tablet Thank you. Can you recommend a good tablet for less than 200€?
But... but... the tiger is white :'(
I dont think the front wheel will be enough to stabilize her. There is zero weight on her straight leg because she leans away from it, which means that all her weight lies on the bike and her closer (to the viewer) leg, which in this position cant support any weight. A bike can't support her ~55 kg pushing to one side even with the front turned. Try it out in rl, i guarantee that you will fall.
But since i am the only one who pointed it out, nobody noticed, so it's fine :D
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Estonia4644 Posts
Haha I guess I'll happily disagree with you but take note 8)
I'm personally running a cheap & tiny workhorse of a tablet, a wacom bamboo pen (ctl-470, A5) that cost me 60€ 2 years ago. For starting out, a current Intuos Pen (they rebranded Bamboo as Intuos and Intuos as Intuos Pro now @_@) would set you back 70€ on their official site, and probably less elsewhere.
Huion and Monoprice are climbing up to be proper Wacom-killers in a market which Wacom has dominated for years. I don't have personal experience with them so I can't really suggest them though. A cheaper Wacom will work wonders for starting out with digital art!
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On September 23 2014 01:08 fusefuse wrote:Haha I guess I'll happily disagree with you but take note 8) I'm personally running a cheap & tiny workhorse of a tablet, a wacom bamboo pen (ctl-470, A5) that cost me 60€ 2 years ago. For starting out, a current Intuos Pen (they rebranded Bamboo as Intuos and Intuos as Intuos Pro now @_@) would set you back 70€ on their official site, and probably less elsewhere. Huion and Monoprice are climbing up to be proper Wacom-killers in a market which Wacom has dominated for years. I don't have personal experience with them so I can't really suggest them though. A cheaper Wacom will work wonders for starting out with digital art! Thank you very much for the information
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On September 23 2014 00:21 fusefuse wrote:Thanks! Could you perhaps detail your concerns about composition further? The disparity in rendering styles and working on it for months probably looks slightly weird, I guess. The idea to keep the bike very clean and simple in its shading was there from the beginning, to counter the somewhat more elaborate and smoother shading of Mirana herself
Sure! There's too much competing for attention. Logo, face, cleavage, and everything leading down to the bike / leg being the most in focus... For the most part, I find myself settling on the bike/leg, but nothing on the top half of the image feels comfortable.
There are also some value issues affecting the composition, most notably with her hair and shirt both drawing attention to her face / cleavage (high contrast demands attention!), but also with her shorts missing the value range displayed in the rest of the things, making them an unsettling anomaly in the middle of the image.
Lastly, and by far the most nitpicky - pose! Is she going to fall over? (Just noticed this was already pointed out, and sadly I have to agree with Blackfeather - if you tried this pose for real, you'd fall over. Or perhaps there's just an illusion of her leaning toward the viewer?)
Thanks again for posting <3 If anything still doesnt make sense, and you think edits would help, please lemme know - though do be warned, I'm a few steps down the artist scale
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On September 23 2014 01:55 Fleetfeet wrote:Show nested quote +On September 23 2014 00:21 fusefuse wrote:Thanks! Could you perhaps detail your concerns about composition further? The disparity in rendering styles and working on it for months probably looks slightly weird, I guess. The idea to keep the bike very clean and simple in its shading was there from the beginning, to counter the somewhat more elaborate and smoother shading of Mirana herself Sure! There's too much competing for attention. Logo, face, cleavage, and everything leading down to the bike / leg being the most in focus... For the most part, I find myself settling on the bike/leg, but nothing on the top half of the image feels comfortable. There are also some value issues affecting the composition, most notably with her hair and shirt both drawing attention to her face / cleavage (high contrast demands attention!), but also with her shorts missing the value range displayed in the rest of the things, making them an unsettling anomaly in the middle of the image. Lastly, and by far the most nitpicky - pose! Is she going to fall over? (Just noticed this was already pointed out, and sadly I have to agree with Blackfeather - if you tried this pose for real, you'd fall over. Or perhaps there's just an illusion of her leaning toward the viewer?) Thanks again for posting <3 If anything still doesnt make sense, and you think edits would help, please lemme know - though do be warned, I'm a few steps down the artist scale Just out of interest: what do you mean with value range?
Also I am not trusting my abilities enough to criticize composition or coloring, sorry if that let to criticizing the most nitpicky thing (which I can just try out though).
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On September 23 2014 02:26 Blackfeather wrote:Show nested quote +On September 23 2014 01:55 Fleetfeet wrote:On September 23 2014 00:21 fusefuse wrote:Thanks! Could you perhaps detail your concerns about composition further? The disparity in rendering styles and working on it for months probably looks slightly weird, I guess. The idea to keep the bike very clean and simple in its shading was there from the beginning, to counter the somewhat more elaborate and smoother shading of Mirana herself Sure! There's too much competing for attention. Logo, face, cleavage, and everything leading down to the bike / leg being the most in focus... For the most part, I find myself settling on the bike/leg, but nothing on the top half of the image feels comfortable. There are also some value issues affecting the composition, most notably with her hair and shirt both drawing attention to her face / cleavage (high contrast demands attention!), but also with her shorts missing the value range displayed in the rest of the things, making them an unsettling anomaly in the middle of the image. Lastly, and by far the most nitpicky - pose! Is she going to fall over? (Just noticed this was already pointed out, and sadly I have to agree with Blackfeather - if you tried this pose for real, you'd fall over. Or perhaps there's just an illusion of her leaning toward the viewer?) Thanks again for posting <3 If anything still doesnt make sense, and you think edits would help, please lemme know - though do be warned, I'm a few steps down the artist scale Just out of interest: what do you mean with value range? Also I am not trusting my abilities enough to criticize composition or coloring, sorry if that let to criticizing the most nitpicky thing (which I can just try out though).
It's not that nitpicky, and besides, if you hadn't seen it as well, I might just think I was crazy :D
A colour's value is how light or dark it seems/is. For example, a lime green is a very high value, whereas purple is a low value. So, the mirana's shorts have a fairly narrow breadth from the darkest to the lightest shade, and compared to the rest of the image, many of the other "darks" are much lower value than the shorts. It makes them look muted / faded / less pronounced... which, mind, isn't always bad.
A decent way to check the values is to go into photoshop and ctrl+u, then drag the "saturation" slider all the way to zero. It'll make the image greyscale - in which case, you're looking only at values without having to be confused by hues :D
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