Alexandru Munteanu's Artsy Soup
polycounter lvl 4
Hello everyone, my name is Alexandru Munteanu, aka Andyweasel, I'm currently working at an indie gamedev studio in Romania and I decided to start posting my work here. Here are some digital paintings, I will post concepts and other stuff soon, including pieces form the game I'm working on at the moment.
I will begin posting regularly on Twitter as well, for those interested @MunteanuAlexan1
I'm looking to improve and I appreciate any kind of feedback.
I will begin posting regularly on Twitter as well, for those interested @MunteanuAlexan1
I'm looking to improve and I appreciate any kind of feedback.
Replies
Very cool work. The floating skull is definitely my favorite
I struggle with colors (being a colorblind fellow) and have found two styles that work.
1
-lineart
-value pass
-color overlay pass
-final rendering
2
-lineart
-solid color blocks
-shadow pass
-highlight pass
-final rendering
what do you think?
The easiest and safest way for me to paint would be:
lineart - black&white values - introducing color through blend modes (color/hue) - adding flat color and detail.
What I don't like about the above method (this is entirely subjective, I know) is the fact that it's so digital, artificial in a way and that you can't reproduce it in traditional painting, so most of the times I would approach a painting like this:
lineart - blocking out desaturated colors with value - slowly introducing light, shadow and saturation - detail.
This method, to me personally, is more fun however it comes with drawbacks, the biggest one being that its harder to control value and color at the same time compared to value and adding color afterwards. If you enjoy this and if you are willing to itterate enough, even without impecable color control, you can pull it off. There is a benefit in individually picking every color with value when blocking the painting, just like in the traditional scenario, making your brain get used to utilizing the whole spectrum of color and value and training your eyes to see color. Part of this is lost when using color blend modes over black and white paintings.
I'm not equipped enough to advise someone with colorblindness but perhaps you would have an easier time painting if you would focus on the value at the beginning and later on the color through blend modes and adding solid color. Getting the values right is more than 60% of the victory. Having said that, I wouldn't exclude the other method, if you enjoy both, use both of them, try out different stuff and have fun doing it. Whats important is that, while painting, you constantly ask yourself "does this color need to be darker/brighter and whether it needs to be more desaturated/saturated or warm/cool". The more you ask yourself these kind of questions, the easier it will become to make such decisions out of instinct in the future, gaining more chromatic control. I'm not an expert painter, still figuring this out for myself so take what I said with a grain of salt, that's my take on it but don't be afraid to experiment and share a link with your work, hope this helps (this reply got a bit long, ey?)
As primarily a pencil artist and 3d modeler i have little experience with coloring my stuff.
Whenever i try i always seem to get hung up on the transition from lineart to colorfill.
I habitually start with lineart like many other artists, and you recommended next doing values then colors, but i find that if i keep the lineart it looks like i filled in a coloring book, but if i remove it an simply leave the coloring layers it kindof looks formless, lacking in detail or hard edges. How much, if any of your initial lineart do you leave in your scene, and how do you go about making sure that the coloring remains crisp?
If you can help me on that one i would appreciate it. thanks.
(ALSO SUPER COOL ART BY THE WAY IF I DIDNT SAY THAT ALREADY)
Moving from the lines to the color was my major problem as well, the drawing part was ok, but when I started adding color, it went so slow and I would spend more time looking at the damn work thinking what to do instead of actually doing it. Morale takes quite a hit when you freeze like this so I know very well what it's like.
When I say that I start a painting with lineart, I dont mean that I start drawing in tight lines with detail (unless I'm going for a comic book type of illustration like the 5th piece at the top of the page with the demon holding the bow), but instead loosely painting a compositional sketch with big brush strokes. This is something that helped me a lot because when I cover that sketch with value and color, I'm not afraid of doing it compared to when I have really nice drawing that I like, but then I'm petrified when it comes to adding color because I dont want to mess it up. So this for me is more of a painterly approach, in which I add the details using color towards the end, instead of doing it upfront.
It comes down to your intention as well. Are you aiming for painting? In that case having too many polished lines early on can make you rigid and hold you back from fully expressing yourself in brush strokes of color. Are you going for an illustration that uses more linework? If thats the case, don't be afraid of keeping that linework, you can experiment and cover up parts you dont like, but it's nice to see bits of the structure showing at the end when the work is finished.
I believe that too many artists nowadays cover up their sketch entirely and that's a shame because those sketches have a charm, strength and add style. Feng Zhu and other established artists talk about this and recommend not covering up the linework. If you look at the pros, you will notice that many of them keep part of the linework, they try not to be tight and they avoid having everything crisp. One of the best examples that comes to mind is Sergey Kolesov (https://www.artstation.com/artist/peleng), fearless artist that doesnt cover up everything, leaves muddy brushstrokes and his work is just incredible. If you check his blog (http://pelengart.blogspot.ro/), you will find videos of his painting process, I recommend watching those.
Try not to keep everything crisp, dont cover up every line or brushstroke and keep painting, the more you paint, the more comfortable you will be using color. You can have so much fun playing with color and experimenting with different types of contrasts (if you haven't already, look them up at some point and try to consciously incorporate them in your work, that will also build confidence). Hope this helps and keep painting!
and no, it could not be too long of a response, ha.
I think I agree with you that its the values/colors/rendering technique that would work best.
Even as I was typing my post I could sense that.
I remember painting in solid colors being extremely cumbersome.
But it is actually closer to my traditional way of painting as well.
I'm still awkward at getting the colors to match the values properly (I go in and adjust the contrast on my value layers for years).
I'll try to remember what you said about asking myself certain questions while painting.
thanks again.
About the photoshop brushes, you don't need fancy ones to be able to paint. I actually believe that the default ps ones help you grow faster because they are simple and If you can work with those, you can work with any brush. That doesn't mean you shouldn't experiment and try new brushes or other tools, but I think it's important to know and believe that you really don't need anything else either than the default brushes.
Keep up the good work!
Milo - commission work for an rpg book
I had a nasty cold these past weeks, but because of that I got to spend some more time on personal work when I wasn't blowing my nose. I played a bit of hearthstone as well, loved the kobold expansion art so I thought of trying out a card design. It started as a "soul of the aspects" dragon pet from wow but I messed around with the design a bit.
A sleepy sketch from 2017
2016 study after a Nigerian copper head sculpture
Sometimes I just listen to some of my favorite music and draw whatever, this was one of those cases.
Keep it up!
a monkey from this years #inktober2020
I watched the Chernobyl series on Netflix and I really enjoyed it. Its surreal how familiar most of the show images are since I grew up in post communist Romania which has an identical vibe. It keeps fading but the residue is still there.