Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Techhead]

Very nice! If you need any more real-life pictures for inspiration let me know, I'd love to send in mine!

Haha - if I start doing this, I'm pretty sure I'd become inundated with pictures. Maybe someday Alex will run some kind of contest or something? (But I bet Alex hates contests -- they'd just distract him from working on Starsector!)

I believe the obvious solution is charging customers for the privilege.

[korda]

"Draw me like one of your Hegemony officers."

[Linnis]

Haha, I love your work. But I do like the interation before you did the touchups. The one in the gif of the blog.

[Thaago]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

I really appreciate that the faces of Starsector aren't all white models.

[mendonca]

You mention Caravaggio, but I think Rembrandt nailed the Starsector vibe - in a temporally implausible manner.

Especially with his self-portraits. I mean, he might have been a jolly good painter - but he didn't half look like he's spent a few too many shifts hauling volatiles without the necessary PPE.

[Gothars]

but he didn't half look like he's spent a few too many shifts hauling volatiles without the necessary PPE.

Haaa Though, you talking about Rembrandt made me realize what is really missing from Starsector portraits: Fancy hats. I mean, look at this:

Spoiler

[close]

I want this.

[Bastion.Systems]

Haaa Though, you talking about Rembrandt made me realize what is really missing from Starsector portraits: Fancy hats.

I second this notion.

[CrashToDesktop]

@Gothars
Well, the second one really isn't a fancy hat, more just a limp piece of felt molded into something the guy wearing it likes to call a hat, but really isn't. We all know it.

[Gothars]

What is this, my fancy hats are not fancy enough for you, sir!? Then take this added fanciness!

Spoiler

[close]

[Az the Squishy]

Well, this certianly helps me get an idea of what to do for portraits.
YAY~!

[mendonca]

"Just hold this stick and pop this hat on ..."

"No you look great"

"Don't worry about it no one else is going to see this"

"Hold on, just put this false moustache on ... now where did I put that fur coat ..."

[kazi]

Huh, I've been painting things completely backwards haha (lineart -> color in the lines -> refine).

I'll have to try the opposite approach sometime, this was fairly informative. I'd actually really like to see a post on doing the Starsector interaction images sometime, as large scale paintings are definitely an area I definitely need to improve on.

[David]

"Draw me like one of your Hegemony officers."

HAhahah.

You mention Caravaggio, but I think Rembrandt nailed the Starsector vibe - in a temporally implausible manner.

Especially with his self-portraits. I mean, he might have been a jolly good painter - but he didn't half look like he's spent a few too many shifts hauling volatiles without the necessary PPE.

For some reason I've had less exposure to the work of Rembrandt, but having a look .... yup, yes. Right on.

Huh, I've been painting things completely backwards haha (lineart -> color in the lines -> refine).

I'll have to try the opposite approach sometime, this was fairly informative. I'd actually really like to see a post on doing the Starsector interaction images sometime, as large scale paintings are definitely an area I definitely need to improve on.

I don't think it's wrong at all to start from highly constructed line-art -- it's just not what I do.

Part of why I've developed the approach I have is from not wanting to feel like I have to be attached to any previous decision made. It's not that I don't want to commit: quite the opposite, I want to commit to everything as it happens! AND I want to feel like I am able to revisit any previous commitment if I feel it will serve the work to do so.

Another thing I do that will drive people insane is I flatten the entire painting periodically (though I retain backup layers usually, though never return to them). When I was art directing, I had one of my artists do this to try to help him stop being paralyzed by questioning himself - he'd sit there with four different variations on a rendering and not be able to decide which one he wanted to use. I told him, no! Flatten those layers and force yourself to deal with the results! If you don't like it, re-draw it!

My thinking is: if ever I'm unhappy with part of the painting, I should be able to simply redraw it because I'm an artist and I have the artistic ability to do it. There is no perfection, and if one small part of the image feeling "perfect" keeps me from completing the entire image, it's better to remove that "perfection" because the point of creating a work is to make the whole of the work good, not some small perfect piece of it good.


As for an interaction illustration, hmm, we'll see!

[kazi]

And see, if I don't get something that looks good immediately, I tend to throw things out haha... Usually I lack the patience required to stick with some paintings, so I need some nice looking lineart to stay inspired. Ah well, such is life.

I have been doing that single layer thing a lot though lately (or two layer: lineart + everything else). Really makes things easier to paint and more flexible. Compared to my old method of 80+ layers, it's a major relief haha