Better than Duchamp's "Fountain", at least...

[shirenomad]

I've been meaning to teach myself at least the basics of Photoshop CG work for some time, but I had three things holding me back: no tablet, no scanner, and... no Photoshop. The first roadblock was a bit annoying but there was nothing stopping me from using the mouse (less precise, but oh well). And I could get plenty of pre-scanned line art from various sources, so the lack of scanner wasn't really a problem either. That left Photoshop, which there was no way in hell I would be able to afford a copy of. So imagine my pleasure at discovering a freeware CG program. Has a lot of Photoshop features, and although it's a bit of a hassle in places, I couldn't argue with the price.

So I downloaded and installed the sucker, opened up a few web tutorials that still seemed to apply, and then spent the afternoon practicing on Shade's B&W drawing of my alter-ego. Here's the result. I still don't like the shading (or lack thereof) on and around the wing, and in hindsight I wish I'd done some work on the horns too, but otherwise I think it's not half bad for my first try. Any advice/pointers/criiticism from the more experienced artists out there are always welcome.

[update: And in case you haven't noticed yet, I made an appropriate alteration to my default image.]

Comments

[thunderphoenix.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's pretty good!

I didn't know that you were supposed to be grey, by the way.

[shirenomad]

Thanks. And read my bio again. :p (I was aiming more for silver, but I couldn't pull it off.)

[shadeykins.livejournal.com]

Hey, not bad!
I think adding some whitish highlights might make him look a little more "silvery".

[shirenomad]

I still suck at highlights.

Re:

[shadeykins.livejournal.com]

It's not any different than shadows though, just a different color...

Ah well, it still looks good. :)

[shirenomad]

I figured as much. But I just don't have the instinct about where to add them like I do for shading. (Comes from doing all my past artwork with a pencil.)