[Artz] Moar Tezkat Artz (2008-11-03 RAW! RAW!)

[Tezkat]

Um... I guess this is now an index post.

2008-11-03:
Raw! Raw! Fight the powaa!

2008-10-30:
So... it's already been a year since my last artz posting, and I figured Edge could use a makeover.



I tried more casual dress this time. It took me forever to make the shirt work--clothing folds are my artistic nemesis! I was almost ready to scrap the damned thing and just leave him nekkid.

[Tapewolf]

That is fabulous.  The texture of the hair is quite interesting, I'll have to see if I can pull something like that off someday.

There are two things which do strike me as being a little off, though and unfortunately those are to do with the clothing.  On the arm, the cloth folds come off quite well, probably better than mine, but given that he seems to have quite burly arms, the shirt sleeves don't really seem to reflect it.  Might be worth adding a little extra shading to follow the contour of the muscles.
The other is the front.  The top of his shirt seems to billow out slightly making it look a little bit like he's got breasts.  I'm probably going to get shouted down for that as it's likely one of those things you only notice if it's pointed out 

Nonetheless, I'm quite tempted to ask if you do commissions.

EDIT:

I'm also thinking the wrists and hands might be a little small in proportion to the rest of the arm.

[Tezkat]

That is fabulous.  The texture of the hair is quite interesting, I'll have to see if I can pull something like that off someday.

Thanks! It's essentially the same technique used to colour my old Edge pic, only with an extra year to practice. Quite easy to do with a tablet, actually. Basically, put your colours (or shadows/highlights/whatever) on seperate layers and just stroke them out with the smudge tool.

Tezkat loves the smudge tool.

The technique should be more obvious in the fur than the hair, because the strokes are much shorter and the colours don't overlap. For the hair I used a set palette in four layers (base coat, two lowlights, and a highlight).

There are two things which do strike me as being a little off, though and unfortunately those are to do with the clothing.  On the arm, the cloth folds come off quite well, probably better than mine, but given that he seems to have quite burly arms, the shirt sleeves don't really seem to reflect it.  Might be worth adding a little extra shading to follow the contour of the muscles.

I spent hours trying to figure out how to do that. See... my shading technique is just a variation on the one that Amber uses for the comic--base coat and hard shadow layers--only with a zillion little strokes in the shadow layers to give them that fuzzy look. But shirts aren't fuzzy--or at least this one isn't--so I wound up with a shirt that looked really flat against the neat faux texture in the fur and hair. But I just couldn't find a way to add more shape without it becoming unpleasantly noisy and unrealistic. I finally decided that less is more and removed most of the shadows, leaving only enough to hint at the shape of the cloth. It was a passable compromise that allowed me to stop torturing myself and just post the damned thing.

Gawd... I suck at shading cloth so very, very much...

The other is the front.  The top of his shirt seems to billow out slightly making it look a little bit like he's got breasts.  I'm probably going to get shouted down for that as it's likely one of those things you only notice if it's pointed out 

Dunno... I'm not really seeing that. Obviously, he's supposed to have fairly well developed pectorals, but...

Nonetheless, I'm quite tempted to ask if you do commissions.

Um... maybe? It depends. I haven't really been doing commissions for furry stuff.

EDIT:

I'm also thinking the wrists and hands might be a little small in proportion to the rest of the arm.

Hmm. I tried to size the fingers against the head and torso rather than the arm. Hands don't grow just because the arms do. I didn't originally plan on making the arms quite that large, by the way. It just sorta worked out that way. Edge has put on a little weight in the past year, it seems.

As for his left wrist... well... you're looking at it from the side, with most of it tucked behind his other arm.


EDIT:

I spent a lot of time modelling for this picture in front of a digital camera on a timer. Mainly to try to figure out the clothing folds thing, but also to reference the poses and lighting. That's probably why Edge got a bit bigger; I've put on nearly 20 pounds since my last artz thread, and his growth tends to parallel mine (only with the... ahem... additional padding magically transformed into muscle ). But using myself as a basis point has more subtle effects. For instance, I have fairly small hands with long, slender fingers. A lot of guys associated with those levels of muscularity have much heavier bone structures and thicker fingers. So, yes, his hands could be a lot bigger, but instead they wound up about the same size mine would be. I think.

[WhiteFox]

The three things that throw me off about this pic are the folds of cloth, the hand, and the eyes.

I don't really mind the size of the hand, so much as the fingers have a regular look to them. They're all the same length and mass.

As for the cloth, with that much muscle the fabric should be pulled taut. I'd pare the folds back to two or three coming up from the armpit. More folds could be used as long as the fabric looked taut, i.e.,  allowed to fold vertically but stretched horizontally. Or vice versa.

I'm... not a big fan of the hair. I like the technique, but it'd work better with realistic hair rather then an anime style. Real hair doesn't bunch and gather like that, as far as I know, unless it's curlier or gelled. I prefer a small airbrush and one layer for hair, but I do use the smudge tool for blending and shaping flames in a similar way.

The eyes , compared to the rest of him, look really flat. The face has a great sense of structure to it, but the whites of the eyes look really two dimensional to me.

I really like the structure of his head overall, and he's really expressive. His posture and the positioning of the shoulders is convincing. Pretty cool, all considered.

[Tezkat]

The three things that throw me off about this pic are the folds of cloth, the hand, and the eyes.

I don't really mind the size of the hand, so much as the fingers have a regular look to them. They're all the same length and mass.

I had thought I fixed that. I probably should have made the middle finger even longer and/or pulled back the pinky and index finger more.

As for the cloth, with that much muscle the fabric should be pulled taut. I'd pare the folds back to two or three coming up from the armpit. More folds could be used as long as the fabric looked taut, i.e.,  allowed to fold vertically but stretched horizontally. Or vice versa.

I was sorta kinda basing the folds on reference pictures. I tried out a half dozen or so shirts, some of which were extremely tight. What I tended to get with those were lots of very thin folds spidering out from the armpit, even more curving across the shoulder, and a bunching between the pecs when I crossed my arms. The horizontal bunching at the lower pecs comes from the hands pressing against the material rather than the muscles underneath it.

I'm... not a big fan of the hair. I like the technique, but it'd work better with realistic hair rather then an anime style. Real hair doesn't bunch and gather like that, as far as I know, unless it's curlier or gelled.

Real hair does separate like that, especially with product in it. Someone who cares as much about as his appearance as Edge would never leave home uncoiffed. I was going for more the more natural separation you get with texturizing creams and pastes rather than the thinner clusters that gel produces. Back when my hair was longer in front, I pulled off a similar look using moulding mud.

I wasn't really going for anime style hair. Certainly not DBZ spikes. I just wanted it relaxed and slightly messy. Maybe it would look better without those little cowlick things on top.

The eyes , compared to the rest of him, look really flat. The face has a great sense of structure to it, but the whites of the eyes look really two dimensional to me.

Hmm. Is it just the whites, or the whole eye? They have the same two-layer shading as the rest of him. Maybe I shaded it incorrectly...

Another possibility is that the pure white base stands out too much. White eyes are fine for toony characters, but maybe I should have picked a more natural tone given the way I textured the rest of the image. Perhaps my little texturing tricks have inadvertently dipped into a sort of uncanny valley territory--too realistic to stand next to the flater shading but still too toony to be truly lifelike.

I really like the structure of his head overall, and he's really expressive. His posture and the positioning of the shoulders is convincing. Pretty cool, all considered.

Thanks.

[Tezkat]

FIGHT THE POWAA!!!



I know y'all have your hearts set on Abel as Viral, but this just felt so right. Or was that wrong? I always get those confused.

[Zedd]

FIGHT THE POWAA!!!



I know y'all have your hearts set on Abel as Viral, but this just felt so right. Or was that wrong? I always get those confused.

[Tezkat]

[Ren Gaulen]

D:

Also,   Great picture!

I have to get back to "Tengen Toppa Gryphon-Lagann" project.

[Mao]

 

[Tapewolf]

Well, I refrained from commenting as I don't get the reference, but the likenesses and the colourwork are all good.

[Jairus]

Well, I refrained from commenting as I don't get the reference, but the likenesses and the colourwork are all good.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TengenToppaGurrenLagann
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurren_Lagann

Ren's working on his own version. He already posted Dan Kamina, Jymon Sirras, and Jymon on the Gryphon-Lagann.

Also, looks great, Tezkat.

[Tezkat]

Thanks guys! It took me a while to put that one together.

Well, I refrained from commenting as I don't get the reference, but the likenesses and the colourwork are all good.

Aw... you shouldn't feel left out. I'd hope the art's moderately interesting even if you don't recognize the parody.

I'd definitely recommend Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, though. I'll admit that I almost didn't watch it, myself; the first episode was just so puerile and over the top. Given the show's popularity, however, I decided to go back and give it a chance. And I discovered that they were quite prepared to take puerile and over the top to a whole new level of win. Like... waaay over 9000. By the end of the series, they're using small spiral galaxies as throwing weapons.

The music rocks, too. I had all versions of the rap (including "Libera Me...") on an endless loop while I was colouring this picture.

[Jairus]

The music rocks, too. I had all versions of the rap (including "Libera Me...") on an endless loop while I was colouring this picture.

...
Awesome. Sheer f*cking awesome. *applauds* Also, forgot to mentioned that I love Gryphon-Lagann's sunglasses.

I'd like to make it clear that "Libera me" is the ONLY rap song in my collection.

[Nikki]

0-0

I give 5 stars.

[WhiteFox]

And once again all Able makes my brain shrivel up, crawl down my neck, and hide somewhere under to my lower intestine. And all he has to do is wear clothes.

Well played. Well played indeed.

As for giant mecha, I've always been partial to Macross. I like the military-industrial look.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an exception. Should I worry that I could make sense of the entire NGE series, including the last episode,?

[Tezkat]

I'd like to make it clear that "Libera me" is the ONLY rap song in my collection.

I'm not even sure I'd consider Libera Me to be rap. It's got that operatic techno feel that I've been in love with since that diva dance from The Fifth Element. Why does nobody make that stuff?

And once again all Able makes my brain shrivel up, crawl down my neck, and hide somewhere under to my lower intestine. And all he has to do is wear clothes.

Oh? What happens when he's not wearing clothes?