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Luthrai — Just the Spot - WIP
Published: 2007-03-11 07:33:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 551; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 12
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Description
I think... I think I need to call this done before I kill it or spend too much more time on it.Final Size: Error - Hard Disk Failure (252 MB)
# of Layers: A Bazillion (25)
# of Hours: Eternity (??)
# of Elements I Hate Working With: EVERYTHING.
Let this serve as a lesson to me. A lesson for what, I'm not exactly sure. But there's got to be a moral wrapped up in there, somewhere.
Oddly enough, I hate every single part of the background. Not "hate" as in "dislike." More like "I hate drawing that."
Yep, I hate drawing rocks (at least in colour), water, trees and clouds. Hatehatehatehatehate.
Re: H2O
I found a tutorial for how to render water in Photoshop. Right off the bat it told me that Photoshop was stupid when it came to water. So I used it anyhow. Sure enough, I got to the final step and went, "Dude, that is so totally not what I want."
I then proceeded to take the tutorial about thirty steps further to end up with this.
Re: Trees
I hate drawing trees. So I cheated. I had a forrested-island-shape block of colour. I made a new layer, took a very small brush and made a medium sized batch of leafy treetop shapes. I cloned them to get a bigger batch. I copied and pasted like there was no tomorrow and filled in the gaps myself. I cloned all that to get more texture in. I then took the dodge and burn tools and went nuts, and threw a few smears of colour down, too. Then I went around the edges with the eraser to make leafy shapes.
Re: Rocks
...Let's just not and say we did? I made rock shapes. I threw down textures I made. I added about 5 layers of shading and said, "screw it."
Re: Dragon(s)
Fun parts! So many layers that it took my computer nearly 5 minutes to save the image!
Funny how I say I'm gonna be disappearing and instead get active, yeah? Bad me.
I'm not exactly positive if this is done. But if it isn't done, the changes I'll make will be relatively minor.
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Comments: 26
This looks really awesome, and so does the dragon! 
I hope that this can help you a bit and I wasn't trying to bash your piece. I'm a newby myself at Adobe and I still think you did an awesome job on this one! And even without black lines! 
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Horizon- Yep, that's a point, though it also depends on the elevation and angle of the viewpoint...
(Translation: [lame excuse]I wanted the horizon to have a presence above the wingline so it wouldn't blend as much and I didn't want plain ol boring sky..... so "shhh" 
Lighting- Also point. I'm going to delegate the blame to my computer screen, which seems to be lighter than most everyone else's. So what's somewhat illuminated to me is still completely not to others. That aside, yes, there should be more light on the back. It's even the section I'm currently working on. >^.-.^<
Thanks for the help! (Really like your new avatar, too, by the by.)
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i don't think you should stop quite yet. the detail in the head is great. i'd love to see it spread over the rest of the body.
i love the fact that you left it large so we could really take a good look. fantastic work.
if you ever feel impatient though, don't always call it done. just call it a process or break
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Y'know what? Essentially, that was exactly what I was thinking.
Unfortunately, I do need to call it done soon, though. At least, done enough that I can submit it with the rest of my Plan art. So pretty much by the end of this week at the latest... But whatever, right? A week's plenty of time to work on it.
(And if I'm not completely happy with it, I can still keep chipping away at it after Plan).
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just remember that you need patience. that is the biggest thing. i've destroyed so many things of mine that i became bored with just because i had a set deadline or wanted to be done.
i know it'll end up great, whatever you decide to do
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Really? Okay, I'll feel better about them, then. I really liked them for a while, and then I started not liking them so much. Likely because I didn't much know what to do with them.
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Oh Wow! I know you said you spent forever on it but seriously, that is so worth it! Really, I am in awe!
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I really enjoy looking at your work...I don't know why...but no one has mentioned the second dragon in the trees or the third one by the waters edge....Very nice detail.....The world that these dragons live in is very nice...."Clean"
It almost looks like you placed a real photo of water behind this dragon....I did read all the comments so I know how hard it was to make it look like real water....PS rocks
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PS does rock, when it's not being a rock, that is.
I'm glad you picked out the other two dragons. I was starting to worry that they blended in a bit too much with the trees.
Thanks!
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Wow, this is awesome! The dragon looks great, as always, and I love the rocks. The only thing I can think of that you might change is the texture in the trees - I think it looks a bit too uniform. But I don't know how difficult/aggravating it would be to change that, and it still looks good as is.
I also think this would make an awesome print, especially the way you have it bordered.
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Hmm... Changing the trees at this point... would likely be more trouble than I can afford. But I agree, they are a bit uniform. Alas.
Once my art prof okays it, it'll be a print. After all, that'll be the only feasible way I can submit/present it with the rest of my artwork. ^.-.^
Thanks!
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That's an awesome picture! You rock at realism
Photoshop is stupid with water, I've tried making water in it before and it was just.... ew. D:
But, you made it so well -envies-
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Photoshop is amazingly stupid with water, it's just... crazy. The solution! Filters. Filter upon filter upon filter and some perspective-ing to boot. And the smudge tool.
(Well, I admit that the furthest section of water, the bit just under the trees, is me with a brush I made. Everything else was filtered into submission, though.)
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Wow, it's amazing! 
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you did this in photoshop? you may say it sucks, but to my eyes it's amazing. I'm horrid at digital art, no clue on how to do any of it.
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I shouldn't complain, and I know it. I've also just been staring at it for far too long.
I'm still learning digital art, too. It definitely requires a... a knack, is all I can say, and one that I'm still trying to pick up. How? Trial and so much error. 
Thanks. ^.-.^
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Yeee! Go you!
Wow, you worked a long time on this, and it came out very well! Great work with everything!
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Thankee. ^.-.^
CAKE!!! SUGAR-HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHEEEEEEEEEE!
(Observe the pressure of school reduce a poor, young dragon to the mental/emotional capacity of a five-year old with a vocabulary.)
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Stunning piece! I love the head frill detail, it really makes a difference. Background is pretty too
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Thanks. ^.-.^
I won't tell you how much of a pain that frill was. Particularly because halfway through I forgot the settings on the dodge/burn that I was using and it took awhile to figure them out again. 
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