The Thread Crasher's Crash Pad

**ChesCa** · March 18th, 2010 02:31 PM

The AP Forums Acting Troupe Presents:
Thread Crashers (a Castle Crashers Parody)
Old, original draft of Chapter 1-1 (up to the Banquet):

Hidden:

Chapter Red 1-1 'The First Day on the Job':

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Random Art:

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'Movies':

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(Critique Section)
First up: Bill's Been Drinking (fiery background experiment)

Spoiler:

Also, here's the link to the character pic, if that's alright to post (mature rating for a flaming skeleton--didn't want to take chances.)
http://chescahans.deviantart.com/art...king-157637228

**DartG** · March 18th, 2010 07:01 PM

The first thing I'd do is get a better composition, it's a font end view, which isn't really interesting. Possibly work it at a different perspective.

Corel Essentials is a good program for beginners, but I'd ignore the other brushes and stick with the basic brush.

Background art works a lot, and I mean, a LOT in perspective. Don't just have it basic, play with the size of the background, try doing thumbnails of the same piece, but with varied views.

Try to learn a bit of color theory to get a more dramatic, or realistic approach to the whole piece, Also try to avoid using white as much as possible. Add some values, shadows, etc in the piece.

Do some studies from photos, doesn't have to be well refined, it's just to get used to drawing scenery more. Do studies of everything you see, draw what you see, and not what you want it to be. If you want a house, get the basic mechanics of what keeps a house up and work from there. Don't try to squash everything in, draw the entire object then crop from there if you haven't already.

For other things like texture, don't try to work with the actual contour of the texture, work with the value. Something like grass or hair, don't draw the individual strands until you have all of the values completely done. Get the lights, darks, mid tones, and final highlights in before moving on to contour.

Finally, that last thing I'd suggest is to try to stick with the same medium. If you make something to sharp, you automatically get someone to focus more on that then the rest of the piece. I'm focused more on the window, since the white makes it stand out so much, that my eye doesn't notice the fire until afterwords.

**ChesCa** · March 18th, 2010 07:19 PM

Yeah, a beginner. That pretty much describes me. (Heh heh...heeeeh....)
I get doing things from different perspectives, but what exactly does 'font end view' mean?
Also, by basic brush, do you mean the regular brush? Because that tends to smear onto the canvas more than anything. When it comes to solid color, I find that the fine point pen is most reliable, and that everything else is just for effect and texture.
Drawing things from photos sounds like a good idea, especially since I based the houses on a photo I looked up online (this is supposed to be a Scottish village burning down).
I'm practicing something like the contour thing right now (I'm trying to do a fan piece on Chrono Trigger's Flea, and Toriyama's hair styles seem like a good thing to practice on).
I'll try and make everything the same medium--I just needed the glass to look sharp, and thought that pen would be the best way to do so.

**Mokenda_mint** · March 18th, 2010 07:26 PM

Looks awesome :>
One thing I'd suggest though would be to put some lighter greys throughout the smoke to give it a more textured look.

Another suggestion I'd make would be to look up and download a variety of photoshop brushes. They're really good for adding details to pictures and also great for texturing things :D

I can try uploading my collection to megaupload if you'd like

**DartG** · March 18th, 2010 07:33 PM

http://concept-on-mac.deviantart.com/
This guy has a bunch of landscape/effects type brushes. Even if you can only get the trial of photoshop, I'd greatly recommend it over corel.

If you don't have a tablet, never mind what I said about the basic brush, as I was expecting it to be put on pen pressure, so it doesn't smear.

It's better to get a sharp look using value, rather than actually using a sharp tool. Glass can look sharp, with just a hint of highlight. But too much will make it look flat, or out of place.

**ChesCa** · March 18th, 2010 08:02 PM

Thanks for the input.
I do have tablet. Maybe the problem is that I'm putting on too much pressure.
I actually have a trial version of Photoshop (CS4), but for some reason...none of the brushes are really labeled (I put the mouse icon over it, but it doesn't quite highlight. Also, there's no paint bucket or any choice in brushes. It's weird...). Maybe I got a bad version.
Anyway to download the brushes elsewhere?

**Mokenda_mint** · March 18th, 2010 11:21 PM

On deviantart under where it says category (on the left hand side of the screen) click "resources & stock images", from the sub categories it creates click "application resources", then choose "photoshop brushes". From there you can type into the search for a category of brush you might like (ie clouds) and have a lot to choose from :>

Another good site is: http://www.brusheezy.com

I use both deviant and brusheezy a lot, so I highly reccomend them :>

**ChesCa** · March 20th, 2010 03:14 AM

So hey. Just thought I'd drop in to give you a status update on how taking on this art business seriously is working out.
First off, it turns out that if I have to do the same thing over and over, trying too hard to make something perfect, I panic. When I was doing the Flea fan pic, I finished the background (of which I only had a youtube vid to copy from

), then moved onto doing Marle and Flea doing that Waltz move Flea does.
Turns out that when it comes to how the human body moves, knowing physics is a must. After spending, like, one to two hours trying to get Marle's position and shape down, I was still too dissatisfied with the final product that I tried to move onto something else. In this case, scenery (like DanielG suggested).
...It's funny, how easily frustrated one can get when trying to draw a village street.
Any of you guys have this problem of hitting what feels like an artistic roadblock? Like trying to ram down a brick wall with your head?
The good news is that after taking about a day to calm down, I managed to take another approach. I think that for future pics, I'll try to start off with sketching and pen and THEN use the brushes. I'm also practicing drawing Flea (as Toriyama drew him) to get used to sketching.
From this, I've found out that when I take it easy, my art doesn't improve per se, but it becomes a lot easier to handle. It's probably why doing my comic is fun: I only have to worry about getting the story across and not how much shading there should be.
Anyway, this week I'm going to try to take your guys' suggestion and draw that scene from an aerial angle, and try to simplify the houses a little.
About the brushes, though...at the moment, they're a lot more than I need, so I'm going to save the pages and look for any brushes I need as I go.
I'll also save that guy's DA page.
Just so you don't feel like you read all this for nothing, here's the original Flea fan art in progress (I thought I saved a background only image, but unfortunately the mediocre looking Marle is there):

Spoiler:

...Did I mention it was a low quality Youtube vid?
Also: Shoot, can't seem to get the image to show up this time. Oh well...
EDIT: Double shoot--uploaded it as a thumbnail by accident. Are you guys able to resize it for yourselves? Or should I try and reupload again?

**Mokenda_mint** · March 20th, 2010 10:30 PM

You're going to have to provide the fullsized image, there's no way I can resize it and retain the image quality ^^;

**ChesCa** · March 20th, 2010 11:37 PM

http://i40.tinypic.com/21ccxdv.jpg
This should be good.
...Just ignore that Marle, if you would kindly.

**ChesCa** · March 23rd, 2010 12:23 AM

Here's an update: Didn't work on that aerial pic as much as I wanted, but it's coming along. I also have to get back to work on my comic.
I've tried practicing shading with a scene from my story, and I just wanted your opinion: Do you think my drawing looks better with or without lines on the characters?

http://i41.tinypic.com/15wn02.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/mv10mh.jpg
I also have a question, but unfortunately I don't have a pic, so it's alright if you can't help:
I was watching One Piece, and I noticed that during the scene where Crocodile is talking to Vivi and Cobra, his hook is shaded in the front with a black line, when the source of light is coming from the front. I'm thinking that the creator's created that black line to give his hook's metal a rounded look, but I'm not quite sure. It's most noticeable when he holds the hook in front of him during a close up of his face/upper half.
EDIT: I almost forgot--my next background involves a tornado on a flat field. What do you think the best perspective (for practice or otherwise) for the scene? I'm thinking the 'Dead Man Perspective,' the perspective one would achieve if they lied down on the ground as the tornado came on top of them.

**ChesCa** · March 25th, 2010 12:46 AM

Here's my aerial perspective, done only with the scratchboard tool (don't know what the hell that is, but I love it!)
It looks a little cleaner, but not as good as the first pic...

Spoiler:

Now I have to draw this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...of_War_III.png
by this Saturday for my employer. *sob* Have mercy...
At least after this, I can go back to drawing the stuff I like...

**ChesCa** · March 31st, 2010 09:00 PM

Well, two weeks are up.
Here's my tornado picture:

Spoiler:

EDIT: Here's the complete picture, if you're interested.
http://chescahans.deviantart.com/art...mNom-159128890

**Mokenda_mint** · April 1st, 2010 12:08 AM

One suggestion I would make would be to soften the edges of the lightning bolts. If you look at photos of real lightning you'll notice its a thin bold line in the middle surrounded by softer light :>

**ChesCa** · April 1st, 2010 06:31 PM

Thanks. I'll try drawing a smaller pic to practice that.
That lightning is actually based on memory, and when you see it strike the ground behind a mall, it looks REALLY solid.

**Mokenda_mint** · April 1st, 2010 10:20 PM

Haha idk, I've grown up in the desert and used to watch lightning with my parents.
Also I've seen a lot of lightning photography

If you do a google image search on lightning photography you should find some good references :>

**ChesCa** · April 2nd, 2010 03:44 AM

Well, I did practice some lightning, and in this case, what better example to use than Atomic Robo and his badass lightning gun?

Spoiler:

Also...I think it's about time I drew my own avatar image.
See the freaky guy on the left? That's one of my characters done by another artist. However, I want to do two things differently:
The blood vessels don't meet in the middle in mine (they weren't supposed to), and I'm trying to give them a green, static-y glow (when he hacks something, the red changes to green and sparks fly from his veins).
As such, I'm wondering if I can put up what I did so far and ask if you think it's good enough to show around. Here it is:

Spoiler:

And with that, I ask two questions:
On deviantart, how do you link up comic pages? (First, Next, Previous, etc.)
Also, my next background needs and 'Earth' theme, but I can't think of anything good. Any suggestions? (Not a desert)
Thanks for all the input so far.

**ChesCa** · April 16th, 2010 02:26 AM

Well, it's been two weeks again.
I forgot to make the picture smaller. Sorry.
Around 2-4 hours, used grainy chalk for the rocks, soft pastel for the moss, brushes for the hair, and used 20% transparency for the shadows (this pic is daytime, as opposed to the nighttime ones).
Shit, I think I actually got worse (did get to look at some beautiful pics of mountain goats, though).

Spoiler:

Only one more elemental pic to go. One that I've been looking forward to, actually.

**Mokenda_mint** · April 16th, 2010 11:24 AM

Awww! What cute goats!
I really like this one :>

My only suggestion would be to see about adding depressions into the rock to make it more rugged. Other than that, awesome :D

**ChesCa** · April 16th, 2010 01:28 PM

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you like the goats.
Here's the complete picture, with some more depressions and my character Stein (no, not the one from Soul Eater) in 'goat mode.'
http://chescahans.deviantart.com/art...oats-160943048

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