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Maeix2 — Wherever I roam
Published: 2013-10-24 14:56:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 804; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 0
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I've been doing so many test works and quick drawings lately that part of me felt as if I'd completely lost touch with the kinds of paintings I usually do, so this was a bit scary to work on, since I wasn't sure I hadn't gotten rusty. Think all those quickies have done me good though, picked up on a few things I couldn't do before.Still struggling with the whole 'fading out' in backgrounds, but that's improving too. Grass will forever be my number one enemy. I so admire those who can do grass and make it look so easy.
Meant for the horse to be a portrait of the ref so I've tried to keep it as exact as possible, though I got carried away with the tail and missed a bit with the spacing between the backlegs. Very happy with how it turned out though
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Comments: 53
I know, I'm hard on myself too, but hearing that someone likes your work is one of the best feelings in the world and i thought you need to hear that your work is amazing.
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Agreed on all counts 
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Aww...that is inspirational to hear. Like so many of us I'm far too hard on myself when it comes to these paintings in terms of seeing all the things that 'didn't turn out as intended. Hearing that this one is captivating really gives me a boost to do more 
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Thanks 
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When I first saw this image that we get to critique, I really thought it was a picture. I'm in love with the background. The depth and colors that you got in it is, in one word Amazing!. I love the differnt color grasses and styles that you used. There are only a few things that I think that could be tweaked. One: the front leg that is lifted off the ground; the forearm looks like it should be a little longer. Next the neck I think should be a little shorter, it looks to long compared to the body. Lastly, the face area is small again compared to the body, if you enlarged the nose area and ears it would fit more the body.
I love the tail, the movement that you captured is spot on. Also I love the just enough shine on the horse that it does not over power the picture. Wow. If this picture is you rusty I can not wait to see one when you are on your element.
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Yay 
I definitely need to pay more attention to those things...but I know what the problem with the neck is, it's too thin, that's why it looks too long.
I seem to improve in a sort of stop and go motion when it comes to art, which can get really confusing. Glad you like it though - I see a lot of things wrong with it but it's still one of my all time favourites
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this was one of my favorites! I love the texture or the piece.
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Oh this picture is so yummy! I love the use of so many colors and shapes, it really makes this background pop!
Even the horse is gorgeous! I am in love with your knees/hocks, I don't think I've ever seen so much definition before. Seriously sitting her drooling over those legs.
I did notice that the head is too small, even for an Arabian and the tail is overpoweringly tall which accentuates the small head. The shadow under the horse went almost unnoticed, perhaps a bit darker would help it stand out.
I also noticed the ... I can't even begin to guess at what is in that right corner. Is it sand? Shark fins? very distracting and dark.
Goodness the very back of your background, where the mountains become invisible to the sky, I think that is the smoothest part of this image and it's absolutely gorgeous.
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Glad you like it. I had plenty of battles with those colours, so knowing they came out ok is a huge relief.
I love details (more at risk of getting too many than too few, not that it's good in either direction), so happy you saw those. I'm getting better along with legs than I did last year, good that it's beginning to show, when I make an effort
Oh yes...those little 'errors' are painfully obvious aren't they 
Ah, yes...those. Shark fins 
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My goodness, what a magnificent image! I absolutely love that painterly style. Your anatomy is awesome, but i feel that the head should be just a touch bigger, and perhaps the neck is too long. The tail is so pretty, although it seems a little thin to me. The shading on the horse is awesome, but there should be a shadow cast by the horse on the ground. As it is, the horse looks almost pasted on, not really a part of the image. I really love that background, but the trees are a little odd looking to me. I'm not sure why, maybe too sparse? Those are the only things I see that could be better, but this is an amazing piece. The colours all compliment each other nicely, and this seems like a fantastical scene that could be real. Keep up the good job! I'm totally king to watch you, so I can see more of your epic art.
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Yup, you called it. Head's too small compared to the photo (whish I'd checked that 'before' I merged the layers 
Haha...there is a shadow on the ground under the horse, it's just really, really umm...invisible? Well, almost, I painted more grass over it and forgot to touch up on the shadow itself. I struggle with shadows, so that's another thing I need to pay more attention too 
Thanks. I was hoping for somewhat of a fantastical look which you could stumble across when the light was right
Aww
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Awh, I hate when I do that lol.
Ahhh, that's it. I couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but thinner does make sense for the neck. And I understand why the tail looks like that now, thanks.
Haha it's okay, I struggle with shadows too. Hey, they're better trees than I could do lol.
I love places like that.
Keep it up, I'm sure you'll get humans down awesomely
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Yup...it's ok when you realize right away 'before' you hit the save button, the 'undo feature is a treasure. But when you only notice when next you open the file *hits head against desk* Still, we can't do everything right all the time
I'm glad I'm not the only one trees disagree with. We just have to keep on practising...and remembering to keep them out of the most important artworks
Well, I figure I at least can't get worse
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Yep, I go start ranting every time I do that XD
Bingo! That right there is my motto
True enough haha. Np
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When I saw this piece pop in my inbox, I was like .. omg ! This is almost photo like ! I really love your style. It reminds me of some old painting you see in museum sometimes. And the background is simply gorgeous ! I want your skills !
The only down side I see is your horse's back. He feel too long to my eyes .. or maybe it's the head that is too small compared to the rest ? I don't know but I see a disproportion somewhere around.
But overall it's a magnificent art piece !
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Yay - that sounds like music to my ears. I'm still working hard on the 'old style painting' feel, so glad some of it has managed to come across
It's the neck...it's too thin...that's why the back looks longer
Glad you like it though. Hopefully the inaccuracies in the anatomy doesn't distract too much...
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Honestly, the piece is so beautiful the inaccuracies are not a distraction ! I could stare at every details for hours
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Wow... You have certainly not gotten rusty. 
I think you've done a wonderful job with the details in various bits of the background, from the grass to the faded hills and mountains further on, and it really draws me in. That grass might have given you grief but I think you wrestled it into submission quite well. Even if you didn't get the spacing between the hindlegs spot on like the reference, I still think the anatomy there still works well. I'd just keep an eye on the length of necks in the future though it doesn't take away from this piece in particular. You really nailed the shadows and highlights on the horse's coat as well... and I so envy your skills there in the contrast.
Also, I think this environment is my new vacation spot! As long as it's right beside the very gorgeous "Dragon Spire" environment (plus dragon watching!).
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Thanks 
Hehe...you and me both. Though I think I'll prefer running around the landscape
Grass is getting easier, but it's still a pain. Glad the errors don't take anythign away from the pciture as a whole 
Hehe...yeah, me too. Who knows, there might be all sorts of interesting things around the corner
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Aww, well you most definitely didn't ruin a thing!
I was about to list all the environmental aspects I find a pain... then I realized I feel almost all of them are to me. 
Ah, to live in the worlds in our heads... minus the toothy things that might eat us... it would be lovely.
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It's the difference between grass at difference distances that's a real killer. My min insists that I should either draw them all the same size (which looks silly) or different ones (that I usually mess up). Some people get a wonderful result with a grassbrush, but so far that one is even messier. Guess I'll just have to keep doing it the old way for now.
Aww...that's too kind of you to say
Haha...well...if I was actually able to sit down and do something from start to finish quickly I could always do one of those join me sessions. Unfortuntaley I don't think anyone would be interested in drawing ten minutes, go do something else, draw 15 minutes...do something else and so forth that is my usual modus operandi. I suppose that for something that's not finished in one go it would still be managable though 
Definitely minus the 'I'm gonna gnaw your face off' part
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Oooh... bird study, eh? I've always found avians a little tricky, at least with their heads, but they can be some really pretty creatures to doodle.
Too true, you mean? 
... Unless they were really cute and we can persuade them to gnaw off the faces of our enemies instead of our own.
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Same here...but figured it made sense to branch out. Very fast ones though...if they go well, maybe I'll do a more detailed one later
Tell me about it
I'm not saying anything *whistles*
Definitely good for eyes and wrist...not so kind to the muse
I suspect that preparation is key when it comes to join me sessions...at least for folks like us.
Wouldn't be holding my breath on that one...I know what lives there 
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That's a good way to go about it though. I've always found it easier if I doodle an unfamiliar subject several times before I ever try adding it to more detailed piece... if only because detailed pieces are already such work, adding in a factor that I've never or rarely practiced is just adding on the frustration. ... Not that I don't do that but your strategy is definitely the wiser choice.
Was it Paint Shop Pro that had the weird 3D-looking grass blades? They weren't brushes, I think they were stamps or some such thing... I just remember how strange they looked in comparison to the rest of my drawings.
... It's so wrong that instead of striking fear in me, that statement has made me more curious, isn't it?
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Well, your doodles are a bit more detailed then mine to begin with
Some brushes require 'a lot' of fiddling with their settings to produce decent results while others it's just a matter of how you use them. That weird 3D effect works...as long as the rest of the painting's the same
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Depends which doodles, I have scrappy "idea" doodles, working doodles, and "I spent more time on this than I'd like to admit" doodles.
It's fun to have so much variety though to play with (even if that amount is a bit overwhelming at times) but some of them definitely work better for certain styles than others. I might be able to make that 3D effect work now but when I first picked up PSP, no chance.
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Ah, I think maybe your 'scrappy' doodles are what I think of doodles...though yours still make more sense than mine does.
Very true
We'd be in trouble if they weren't there...even if they have their infuriating moments
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You know, I might have to forcefully change my terminology. I think I'm starting to see what you mean. The doodles you've shown made fair enough sense, I think we've been told too often by people without an artistic eye that our doodles don't make sense... so we now assume they don't.
Tell me about it! I keep trying to remember to write settings down but do you think I'd manage? Nope. I did learn that photoshop doesn't register pen pressure if you plug-in the tablet after the program is opened... weird and took me way too long to figure out that's why the brush I was using "wasn't doing the same thing as usual."
Certainly we would be! We can hate to love them, love to hate them, but definitely can't do without them.
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True, I've heard that often enough about nearly finished paintings too 
I change them around far too much, even during the course of a painting session - I'd go mad trying to write them down. Mind you, writing down good ones from tutorials and the like, I really should do that, because I never seem to find them again. there was a really nifty one on getting the magic brushes to glow, which involved different settings on different layers and that's all I remember
Hear Hear
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That's true, there are certainly some things I tweak around way too much for it to be worth writing down, but some things I really should... or, you know, finish a painting in the course of a couple of weeks instead of a couple of months. When I returned to a piece recently that I had half-coloured before the holidays, I couldn't remember how I got the smooth look the first time so it's either going to have two very different looks... or I'm going to have to restart.
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Oh yes...when right in the middle of a painting it's a) probably not going to make sense anyway and b) disheartening to hear and a motivation killer to finish it especially if you loved where it was going yourself.
Mhm, certain 'tricks' if you like. As remembering 'where' the dratted setting is and what it does...even if you tweeak it every time you use it...
Yikes....that's happened to me too
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Mostly it only makes me want to eat their faces... but yeah, largely for reason B.
I guess it means my colouring style will be ever-changing. Ha. 'cept for the quick, cel-shading style I've picked up since it requires no settings at all.
I wanted to but that was at the time my old PC died. Didn't leave me much of a choice. I'm going to keep your advice in mind for the future though - at least finish the bit I'm working on before leaving a piece alone (heaven knows I may walk away for quite some time... no fault of a poor memory either, hehe).
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Too much face nibbling adds to the hips...so does chocolate for that matter, but at least it tastes better. Imagine what a critic would taste like, even with chilisauce... Urk
That's a style all in its own. Or you could pick a very basic brush and remember it. If you've got lots of brushes (or even just the basic ones but haven't organised them), I discovered, thanks to another deviant, a very VERY handy way to organize them in the brush pallet that makes is SO much easier to find what you're looking for.
Ah, yes...PC death does tend to curb all things PC related...for a time 
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I've been trying to find brushes that I enjoy as my, I guess, "main" brushes. It took me awhile just to find a brush I liked for line work and the celshading.
Most definitely. It's been great getting the creativity out in short bursts as well instead of having to wait for a completely free day even if all I'm doing is flat coloured sketches, it's way more than I was doing before!
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Yup
Here you go: sta.sh/0vk69phh9vz This is how I've gotten mine sorted thanks to the wonderful suggestion by a deviant artist which I really should have saved because it was a video of how to do it. Saves a lot of scrolling as well.
Yay
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Oh my goodness, thank you!
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Exactly...it's s sketch...not a finished painting. Do they just think paintings appear out of thin air without any pre-work at all? Abra Kadrabra and voila, a finished painting... 
Oh yes... I've never used 'sets' at all...everything in one place and now that you have a new powerful beastie, it'll be fine with scrolling through it without any lag
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You know, I bet some of them do think paintings just magically appear. 
I have quite a few brushes but it's slowly getting organized once I figured it all out! Thankfully I already knew how to make new brushes (for the fillers and titles) and googled how to save everything into one library.
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They seem to do it about everything else, so sure...anything creative is brought to life by magic fairies and little bits of pixiedust *rolls eyes* though in my eyes, that'd still qualify as 'work' .
Hey, that's great to hear. I think you'll find it a lot easier to use PS after this. It's a real timesaver
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Could you imagine having to wrangle a host of fairies and pixiedust? Never mind keeping them on task... Yes, I'd consider that work too.
At least now, any new brushes I download, will be sorted right away.
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Fairies and pixies are notoriously fickle...distracted by every new bit of shiny that comes their way
...that's the way to go...wish it was that easy. If it was I'd have written a whole host of novels by now...
Haha...no worries. It was such a good idea that I just had to share it around
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Aye! We'll get there though and at least folks like us will understand the effort put in, though I do like to think a little magic is involved.
It's definitely one I'm going to keep with me and share when I can too!
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oh wowwww this is beautiful!! ;u; the background looks so good! and i love the soft, muted colors yo used. 
you've improved a lot with this! the shading on the horse is so crisp and his warm colors stand out sooo vibrantly against the background without clashing or jarring the eyes at all. i love this. and i love how spacious the background appears to be.
the only tip i have is that the horse's head appears to be attached to his neck a little bit too high, either that or the head is too small in general, giving him a bit of a llama-neck effect. also, like Kiwiaa mentioned, he's running around with his back hollowed, which, while still anatomically correct, makes him look less proud and noble and more stiff and uncomfortable, like he's flailing around rather than striding out confidently. if you're going for perfect portrait accuracy, don't be afraid to overlay the photo over your initial sketch to make sure your proportions are right
this is phenomenal and i definitely feel like you've made a big leap in improvement while at the same time maintaining your classic style. 
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Yay...classical painting
I took your suggestion and did a quick overlay comparison. Some things are in proportion, to eachother, and others are, well...not. I feel terrible about using it when actually painting though, always feels like cheating, but afterwards like this is a good chance to see how close your eye managed to get. I think the head issue might be the neck actually, it's supposed to be a lot thicker than I drew it, it turns out. oops
Yes...translating the different 'anatomy position' in my head to what the horse is actually doing is something I still need to work on. A bit like my hand's insistence of drawing all horses slightly araby regardless of breed. Just practice, practice, practice there really.
Great to hear that you think I've made a leap forwards. Sometimes it's so hard to see yourself.
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I really love your style, I would swear it's a traditional painting instead of a digital! Great use of colours in the background! For the horse, you can clearly see that it looks very simmilar to the refference, though I have some remarks, if I may. When I look at the horse I see all the parts coming back, but for me it looks a bit like he's falling apart. When you look at the back of the horse on the photo you see an almost straight line, and his butt going down, on your painting it goes up a bit. That makes the horse look less powerfull and 'collected'. It's good that you also look at the space between the legs, and that you noticed it yourself. Also the front legs are standing a bit too close to eachother, what makes him trot less powerfull. Anyway, great work, and I'm glad you used my stock as a refference. It's awesome to see that i'ts usefull for works like this
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Aww...glad you like it. That's the highest form a compliment for a former oil-painter like me
Oh yes...I'd forgotten about the croup going up when it shouldn't
The horse was a wonderful model to work from. Very clean and sharp shot.
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You're welcome
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Knowing your weak spots is a good thing. Doing something about them, now that's much much harder
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