Anicent Gateway art!

[deludeddaybreak]

Got inspired by the Tuesday art stream, which was the first art stream I ever tuned into. I liked the little angry face Jesse drew on the ancient key, so I went and used that design for my pic. I did the whole thing with a track pad!

If anyone could tell me how to improve details and shading, I'd appreciate the constructive criticism!

[ResettePlayer]

8 hours ago, deludeddaybreak said:

If anyone could tell me how to improve details and shading, I'd appreciate the constructive criticism!

The image isn't loading here at the moment, but I can see it on the art stream thread.

The thing with shading is that you need to know where your light source is. The Ancient Gateway is difficult because the light source is mostly from the floor and is also strongly coloured. I see that you have used gradients to give it a bit of a glowing effect, which is good--it would probably look more like a light source, however, if the flagstones were darker in comparison. The flagstones appear to be lighter than the purple, and they draw as much attention from my eyes. Looking at the glowy things you have up top, they certainly look more glowy than the purple stuff you have on the floor since they are surrounded by darker colours.

My main point is that you shouldn't be afraid to go super dark with this piece. The Ancient Gateway is situated in an underground cavern, after all. Even going solid black for the background and using darker grey for the objects in the foreground may not be a bad idea.

Take a look at this screenshot from the game:

Spoiler

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dont-starve-game/images/5/5d/Gateway_explosion.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170325105205

It's super dark! The flagstones are indeed lighter than most of what's in there, but still fairly dark compared to what you have now. The glowing effect is also accomplished by colouring the flagstones in various reddish-greys rather than using gradients. You can use either method.

 

Drawing the Ancient Gateway is pretty hard! I might give it another pass myself.

[deludeddaybreak]

4 hours ago, ResettePlayer said:

The image isn't loading here at the moment, but I can see it on the art stream thread.

The thing with shading is that you need to know where your light source is. The Ancient Gateway is difficult because the light source is mostly from the floor and is also strongly coloured. I see that you have used gradients to give it a bit of a glowing effect, which is good--it would probably look more like a light source, however, if the flagstones were darker in comparison. The flagstones appear to be lighter than the purple, and they draw as much attention from my eyes. Looking at the glowy things you have up top, they certainly look more glowy than the purple stuff you have on the floor since they are surrounded by darker colours.

My main point is that you shouldn't be afraid to go super dark with this piece. The Ancient Gateway is situated in an underground cavern, after all. Even going solid black for the background and using darker grey for the objects in the foreground may not be a bad idea.

Take a look at this screenshot from the game:

  Reveal hidden contents

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dont-starve-game/images/5/5d/Gateway_explosion.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170325105205

It's super dark! The flagstones are indeed lighter than most of what's in there, but still fairly dark compared to what you have now. The glowing effect is also accomplished by colouring the flagstones in various reddish-greys rather than using gradients. You can use either method.

 

Drawing the Ancient Gateway is pretty hard! I might give it another pass myself.

I'm trying out your suggestions and I'm surprised by how much more the glow effect pops! In the process of recoloring the flagstones, I found that leaving the sides lighter rather than darker made them appear more as if they're being illuminated from below. Thank you so much!

By any chance would you also have advice on texturing and shading objects? I don't kn ow how to go about that and make it look realistic.

[ResettePlayer]

15 minutes ago, deludeddaybreak said:

I'm trying out your suggestions and I'm surprised by how much more the glow effect pops! In the process of recoloring the flagstones, I found that leaving the sides lighter rather than darker made them appear more as if they're being illuminated from below. Thank you so much!

By any chance would you also have advice on texturing and shading objects? I don't kn ow how to go about that and make it look realistic.

Whoops, sorry, I just realised that the reference link I gave you wasn't very helpful--so I'll just link to the wiki: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Ancient_Gateway

Adding texture can depend a lot on what software you're using. If your software has layers and a chalk brush, you could lightly cover your stones in a layer under the purple light and lineart and that would make the stone look grainy. If your software doesn't allow that, though, you'll most likely have to rely on line and splotches of flat colour.

Spoiler

 Using this as an example...

Having the colour splotches be very close to the base colour, but not quite matching should work well. Having the splotches uneven will ideally make the stone look older and rougher--if it's too clean and regular, it'll look polished. 

Using light, quick line strokes can help make something look textured as well. Be careful to make them thinner and/or less black than the outline, so that it looks more like the surface of the object that's facing you. Having the lines be less clean-looking than your outline may help as well. Even drawing little shapes that resemble chips or chunks taken out of the object can help too.

Sorry if this is unclear--texture can be hard to explain sometimes.

[deludeddaybreak]

9 hours ago, ResettePlayer said:

Whoops, sorry, I just realised that the reference link I gave you wasn't very helpful--so I'll just link to the wiki: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Ancient_Gateway

Adding texture can depend a lot on what software you're using. If your software has layers and a chalk brush, you could lightly cover your stones in a layer under the purple light and lineart and that would make the stone look grainy. If your software doesn't allow that, though, you'll most likely have to rely on line and splotches of flat colour.

  Reveal hidden contents

 Using this as an example...

Having the colour splotches be very close to the base colour, but not quite matching should work well. Having the splotches uneven will ideally make the stone look older and rougher--if it's too clean and regular, it'll look polished. 

Using light, quick line strokes can help make something look textured as well. Be careful to make them thinner and/or less black than the outline, so that it looks more like the surface of the object that's facing you. Having the lines be less clean-looking than your outline may help as well. Even drawing little shapes that resemble chips or chunks taken out of the object can help too.

Sorry if this is unclear--texture can be hard to explain sometimes.

I've tried a few suggestions but I'm still having trouble getting the face of the gateway to look the way I want it to. Am I on the right track at least?

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by deludeddaybreak
updated artwork

[ResettePlayer]

40 minutes ago, deludeddaybreak said:

Am I on the right track at least?

I'd say so. Feel free to use lots and lots of colour and lines. Old stone is especially rough; there is not one square centimetre that isn't rough. If you look at some of the official art, they got the look by adding a paper texture digitally. If you can't do that, you kind of have to do the work yourself.

[minespatch]

I have two recommendations if your paint program can do what I can suggest:

1. Look up some lomography tutorials so the area surrounding the portal/gateway is dark so it gives a emphasis to the gateway.
2. Try looking up digital noise tutorial for the rock/mineral so you can mess around with noise to give some natural rock specks. Especially if your program has guassian blurring.

I hope you continue posting in this thread to post more of your work. Thanks for asking for help, you got friends here.

[deludeddaybreak]

2 hours ago, minespatch said:

I have two recommendations if your paint program can do what I can suggest:

1. Look up some lomography tutorials so the area surrounding the portal/gateway is dark so it gives a emphasis to the gateway.
2. Try looking up digital noise tutorial for the rock/mineral so you can mess around with noise to give some natural rock specks. Especially if your program has guassian blurring.

I hope you continue posting in this thread to post more of your work. Thanks for asking for help, you got friends here.

Thanks for the suggestions! I actually realized that I posted an intermediate version of my art earlier. I did have some rock texturing and grit filter on the picture, though I used a different technique than what you suggested (I used a translucent overlay of post-consumer paper).