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Pastiche-X — High Winds
Published: 2008-01-13 23:16:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 2177; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 0
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Description
The background is NOT a photograph. It is a paintover. I still had to detail literally every single thing you see in the background and it took me close to four days to do so. If you call the background a "photograph" in your comment, it WILL be hidden.This is the trade with ~Kuraime .
I decided to be more "original" with it and draw her without the wings.
About this picture. Well, it took me a helluva lot of time (about a week). That rock was absolute torture. I HATE trying to render pebbles. If I ever do anything with rocks/stones again, I'll avoid little pebbles at all costs. DX
Oh, about the dragonflies. I call them "darkanflies" (you get it, Kurai?).... I know I shouldn't be creating characters in other people's mindworlds but I couldn't resist. They're a species of huge dragonflies (about 8 foot wing span in an adult) which lives in dense forests located in the mountains. There they feast upon birds and other (also large) insects. They occasionally leave the woods and fly into open air to breed or when the food supply is low. They are seen as good luck omens and are also a GREAT food source: they're considered quite the delicacy, actually.
Darkanflies are sometimes kept as pets and are commonly referred to "High Winds." There's a story where a darkanfly with an 100-foot wing span helped out a town in a horrible drought by blowing rainclouds in from the ocean with its wings.
Uhm..... yeah.
Anyway.......
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Artwork © ~Pastiche-X
Character © ~Kuraime
Stock art used as reference for the background: [link]
Do NOT copy, trace, reuse, redistribute, alter, or use in any way, shape or form without my permission!
EDIT: 1-20-08. Darkened Kuraime and added more shadows. Made the clouds more transparent and added a texture to kuraime.
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Comments: 38
I love the lionbeast's pose, and the eyes are great. The darkanflies are a lovely touch, especially the 8ft wingspan XD (that must be a big lion o-o)
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Thank you!
It's actually not a lion: it's *Kuraime 's character. You can see more pictures over in her gallery.
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I must say, that looks excelent
the background looks so real. Great job with it
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The background is amazing, it looks so real. But I know you wouldn't draw over a photograph.
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Hiya, just a little message to let you know this piece of work has been featured in Issue 32 of the art blog Devious Dragons [link]
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Cool!
Thanks for adding my piece.
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Wooohoooo Awesome! This looks so damn good! I also checked out the details
This is soooooo earning you a watch
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The background is not a photograph, it is a paintover. It took me 3-4 days to make because of all of the little details. ><
If you compare my picture to the original photo, you'll see a lot of differences. Such as that the rock is more purple-ish in a lot of places, there's a lot of detail lacking in the pebbles because I tried to create a ground texture rather than actual pebbles, etc.
If you look near her foot, you'll see a section which I didn't finish and which shows the first step of making the ground texture.
Thanks for the comment.
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I'm terribly sorry for being an ignorant fool, I didn't realize... On a 1600 x 1200 resolution the image doesn't appear so big. If I had viewed the original photo, of course I could've told the difference... Oh well, I'm a farsighted, four-eyed sucker anyways.
In that case I can only congratulate for the excellent job with the background. I know I wouldn't have the patience to create nearly as much detail!
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Nah, it's not that big of a deal. It just gets to me when EVERY comment starts becoming like that. D:
>.>
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Actually, the background is still technically a drawing. I just did a paint over for the background. (if you put them over eachother, you'll see that I left out a lot of the pebble details, etc. 
Ah, thanks.
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I agree that the background is much more realistic than the beast. I actually thought you had used a stock photo and just placed your drawing on it And I personally find that very awesome. How often will people think your drawings are actual photos?
Still, tThis drawing is amazing, I really love it
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Thank you!
It's great to hear that considering it took me, like, 3 days to make the rock. Arg. You'd think having the reference there would make it easier but it probably made it harder than it should have been. Since it showed me how off I was from real-life. ;.;
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I know how it is 8[ I spent two days coloring a skull without a reference and I thought it looked good. Until I saw a photo of a skull.
Now I'll be drawing the entire thing from the scratch. Again. >>
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I see the texture >w>
Definitely looks a lot darker now c>
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I adjusted my other monitor's settings.
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That fly should of zigged instead of zagged. lol.
However, you gave their character a regal look despite the fact its about to be dinner time. You can see the effort you put into this. Be more proud of it, looks like everyone else is. ^.^
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Wow!!
I agree both with ~Hyunthesosarian and *Kuraime
YOU ARE A LEGEND!
I like background! It looks so real!
And how *Kuraime 's character is posing looks awesome.
When I first saw the dragonflies on your artwork
I thought they were real looking and
if they were real I would freak out..they look scary. o_Oll
To I read they're darkanflies and they're your characters.
I wish the weekend didn't end either... =____=
*rans off and do my chemistry homework*
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Yeah, it sucks when the weekend ends. Oh wells, there's always another one five days away.
Thanks for the awesome comment.
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Yeah.. xP
At least there's a 3 day weekend where I live!
Your welcome!
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you're doing good with the background renderings and getting better at drawing. Glad you are referencing
But the backgrounds is really throwing it off. It's too realistic compared to the beast itself. It feels like you're focusing more on the background than the main subject itself. Keep studying anatomy (by the way, animal anatomy by eliot goldfinger is a must have, I think you will absolutely love it and it is cheap) and study photographs of real animals to get a sense of shading, anatomy, depth, etcetc.
It all comes down to the style you truly want..to truly make the subject feel it exists in it's own world, the rendering must be the same style in a sense, otherwise, it will feel fake, not convincing. I had a conflict where in Commission 20, the face was looking copy pasted because the rendering of the body was not well defined and a different style...so I had to compensate.
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You know, the lack of detail on her was bugging me as well. I may go back and add more texture to her but I'm not fully sure how. She was described as being "mostly bare skin, but covered with fur in some places." Sure, I can detail fur somewhat okay, but I fail at detailing skin. :<
What do you do to add more texture/detail to skin? Is it merely a matter of taking up my contrast in the shading and adding more shading detail....or does adding more hues to the base color itself come into play?
Thanks for the all the critiques, Pearly. You've really been super-helpful to me.
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its np
I just use texture brushes or create my own texture with the hardround brush. highlighting and shading effects this greatly
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OH-MY-GGOOOODDDDD!!! I AGREE WITH HYUNTHESOSARIAN!! U ARE A LEGEND!!! I thnk ur the first person who draw me without the wings XD! And I'm LLLUUUVVIIINNGG EEEEEETT!!!! The strike-full pose, the anatomy detail, hair detail, shading and lighting, that awesome-rock-of-heavens and and ...OMG!! DARKANFLIES XD !!! THATS ABSOLUTLY COOL!!
I don't mind that you invented a creature in my mind's world XD! I think its inspiraring as to the developement of the Darkan univers! AND THE'RE PURPLE-AWESOMNESS!! I'm like having this gore picture in my mind with Kurai coming out of the darkness and all around are Darkanflies just like in those horror movies 8D-- - i should try to make that pic someday.
Dude i could go on for like hours but i wont XD but one things for sure...THIS IS AWESOME AND I LOVE IT THANK YOU LIKE SOOOO MUCH!!
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That's awesome that you like the darkanflies. 
Dude, that sounds like a WONDERFUL picture. You should totally draw it sometime. It would be especially cool if you had the darkanflies' eyes glowing and reflecting against Kuraime's skin/the darkness, etc. I even thought up different species of darkanflies which were green with blue eyes, or yellow with black eyes(which glow a dark purple color).
GLEE! It makes me so happy that you like it so much. I've gotta say this, man, thank you for making such an awesome character. Kuraime has got to the best character I've drawn in a long time.
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Yeaahh sometime like...in a couple of months. School starts in a week and..I'll be so freakin' busy again TT_TT
Cool darkanflies 8D ! I wanna make one of my own: black with red eyes (duh) lol.
harrr I'm glad u like Kurai's design X3. i wasn't sure about it cuz she's a black dragon ya know. not much too it for colors lol
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LEGEND! YOU ARE A LEGEND! [/ddr announcer guy]
No, seriously, when I saw the ground I was like "that's familiar" but you painted it D: Wish I was that devoted to a picture to do something like that. And I don't know who this Kuraime is, but I'm sure she'll be spiffed out to see her character drawn like this. Great job with the lighting on the undersides, I'm impressed with the anatomy and lemme say that I wouldn't wanna run into one of those darkanflies in a dark alley.
Critiques: If the snow'd be blowing that hard in the wind, then there'd be dust about Kuraime's feet, too. The mane looks like it got a heavy hair-gel treatment, too; it's well-detailed, but doesn't look three-dimensional. Probably has to do with the way it just reaches that bottom edge and cuts off abruptly. Otherwise, be proud of this and slack off for a while :B You've deserved it.
Now, off to do my AP art... >>;
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It's actually not snow, it's meant to be clouds being blown past by the high-altitude winds. I just.... didn't take the opactiy down quite far enough for that to be more obvious (and I need to soften the edges, damn).
I'm happy to hear that you like the final piece so much, Hyun. I agree with you totally, I wouldn't want to meet a Darkanfly anywhere...ever. D:
Thanks for such an awesome comment.
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Oh damn, I love the dust on this. I can't even tell if the background is pasted or not, which means it's pretty damn good. Nice job!
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8'D You colored that whole rock? Pssh it was worth it, it looks real. xP I thought you had used stock or summat 
Your Darkanflies are cool c8 You should make more headplace species~
and yes, Ku looks awesomesauce, being all RAWRSOMEto the Darkanfly c>
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I have a ton of headplace species. I just never talk about them because no one cares.
Aw, thanks Arfy.
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WHAT D8< I CARE DAMMIT
-beats you with book-
you must tell me MORE D;|
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I mostly talk about stuff like that over at LJ. I friended you over there, but you didn't friend me back. ;.;
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;A; but it never told me, and I don't see you. ;_; what's your sn on there, I'll go friend ASAP
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