Not necessarily behind him: since he has a lot of muscles there's a lot of shine. Not only that, but the outfit looks like it is made of fabric similliar to leather. And leather is a very reflecting material. Shade the blue on his legs, arms, abbs... Everywhere that suggests shape. If you have the shadows, the highlights and the reflections it can really improve an image. I forget to tell earlier, you may want to lessen the opacity of the white behind him too, if it is meant to give the impression of speedlines it is a bit too sharp at the moment. I hope this helps.
Welcome to the forum, dude. :3 From what I understand you've already lurked around the place, so you probably already know the rules of the forums and all that jazz. Have a great time, Oki? Let me just say this right here and now, I really like your avatar. :>
Wow, this is fun! X3 Already this forum is addicting, it's passed 4 AM at the moment.. This probably means that I fit in here, hehe. :3 Also, thanks for answering my question regarding images, Mish.
When I see this, I imagine he's jumping out of some sort of different parallell universe. (I don't quite know how to phrase that in English right now, sorry) Now, what I would suggest to you is to let the background reflect on the object nearest to the viewer. That is something I have learned will always happen, not much is needed to fix that. :3 A really low opaticy should be enough. So it is something like your 1st version, just not that strong blue colour - letting it follow the shape of the character adds to the reflect effect.
Thanks, I appreciate your oppinions. :3 XD Oh wow, that gave a smile on my face.. About my art history, I started drawing for reals about the age of 15..? Then the W.I.T.C.H comic came to Norway and I was pretty interested in the "new" style it had since we didn't have mangas published here yet. That's when I decided I wanted to work with art and took the Arts and Crafts line at what is concidered high school I think - I have learned a lot from the school, especially concerning traditional tools and how to colour. But at the same time I probably wouldn't have gone this far had it not been for the many artists that has inspirered and helpes me with suggestions on the internet, especially when there's tutorials. I am forever grateful for that. :) Though I still have a lot to learn. I hope this was what you wanted to know.
Hope you'll enjoy yourself in this forum, man. :3 A good source for facts I believe, what more can a fan ask for?
I definatly love the one you use now (Cloud?) - red and green elements has always been a great combination for especially signatures I think, they oppose eachother in a harmonic way. The parts connecting him with the background is a real nice touch, it is my favourite part about the sig.
By the looks of it you can post a thread for everytime you have an update of art, rather than a single thread for all of your art. So I'll start with that this site is all about, Kingdom Hearts. ;3 Oldest first.... Click the links to see fullsize, I don't know what the image size limit is here so I just shrink for preview purpose. :> Monkey buisness link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Monkey-buisness-KH2-42671266 This is my first finished KH art, any other were only scribbles. It was coloured on a simple sketch paper with colour pencils, so that's why there's bulges someplaces - I have a bad habbit of relying on sketch paper too much.. And this was also before I played the first game so I didn't even know they did a Trinity move then! XD Disney characters are harder to draw than I first thought, but there's not enough fanart of them out there. Roxas and friends comic link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Roxas-and-friends-comic-KH2-44621279 And this... started like most of my comic like art starts with - random thought of stupidity. The whole reason for this one was just to see Roxas immitating a dusk nobody. :3 It was first drawn on a sketch paper with normal pencils, scanned in only black and white (another bad habit of mine is to rarely clean up the lineart, especially with ink/pen) and then just coloured quickly on PaintShopPro7. I realized my mistake too late when I have saved it unknowingly as a jpg file during the progress... Meh. Christmas with Sora and Jack Skellington link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Christmas-with-Sora-n-Jack-06-44949546 As you may have noticed, this is my first real KH picture, it's really big.. The size on DA is honestly the smallest size I could allow myself to make. I really love to go to Hallowentown, and imagine what it would be like if Sora and co actually celebrated Christmas in that world, and if Jack actually got to be.... Santa Claus. X3 I spent a while on the lineart (again, sketch paper), but I had a time limit to colour it all since the next day I had to leave and not have any access to the internet.. This is coloured in Corel Painter IX, it's the program I mostly rely on for colouring since it immitated traditional tools quite well. Sora vs Xigbar - the outcome link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Sora-vs-Xigbar-the-outcome-48802166 Well, yeah.. This happened to me all the time. X3 Yet Xigbar is among my favourite characters. I got more angry at Demyx but that is another story... I had this idea in my mind ever since I (finally) defeated him, and drew it months later. Like with the other comic, coloured with PSP7 for simplicity but only in greytones this time. I kinda like this comic, heh. On the Interceptor link:http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/On-the-Interceptor-KH2-50796922 My second big project, sort of speak. I also love to visit the Port Royal world, Sora and pirates just doesn't match sometimes. X3 (he always ends up captured, hehe) It was a real struggle to sketch it, especially Jack's pose had me redrawing him a lot. This is a combination with traditional and digital tools, the ocean/sky/Isla de Muerta background were painted with watercolours, the rest is coloured in Painter IX. A friend recommended that I colour and shade on the same layer, so this picture turned out as an improvement of my digital colouring. Chilling Roxas link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Chilling-Roxas-new-ID-51087727 This drawing turned out to be one of my most successful drawings ever.. I just drew without really thinking. Starting at 3AM. To try to improve myself I often draw with ballpoint pen only to try to limit my common mistakes, this was one of those times. It was meant to be only headshot practices but it ended up as you can see here. Liked it so much that I decided to colour it and use it as an ID on DA. ^^ Irony of Chaste link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Irony-of-Chaste-KH2-entry-54153148 Stupid title? Of course it is. This was an entry to a contest held by a DA member (musical challenge), and the theme I went with is a battle theme from Guilty Gear Isuka. I wanted something dramatic so I went for Roxas batteling Axel in the fake Twilight Town. This is all traditionally done save for the text which the contest required, with various watercolour equipment. I even used olive oil, lol. The contest has ended now and I got 3rd place, yay! X3 The original painting has been sent to the contest holder. Organisation Waha link: http://cocohints.deviantart.com/art/Organisation-Waha-58794442 Another random stupidity thing that started sometime during Christmas on MSPaint.. I drew the chibis there and then after some people requesting it had it coloured on Painter IX. The Waha part is just some internet humour.. X3 I wanted the expressions of eyes, mouth, pose etc repeat itself but still be combined dirrerently. I didn't clean up the lineart though, you may spot that. That's it for now - should you have any suggestions of what to have in mind the next time I draw something then by all means please tell. Or even if you have a suggestion of what to draw next! If I like it I may draw it... ;3 Can't promise it though. Also, if the previews are too much I'll remove them and leave only the links. I don't know how much images are allowed in an art thread, sorry if I have missed any rules.
<3 I'll behave, I promise. :3 I usually read the main rules before joining anything, I think I got them. I don't know if showing images in threads not related to art is allowed? Sometimes certain threads allow random images to reply to a post, but not every forum allows that, I know.
Well, like some people mentioned - the background pattern is pretty much too repeative. If anything, making it fade away in a gradient way could be a solution. So that it would follow the light that you have added. If you add highlights on the character (Sasuke, I believe?) caused by said light it would blend more into a harmonic image. We learn from mistakes, so keep experimenting with the possibillities people suggest to you, the more different advice/tutorials you come over the more interesting result your future work may become.
Sometimes simplicity is the best solution, and seeing from what I read that you currently only have MS Paint (I think that's what you meant) you won't have all of those useful tools yet. But you have potential, should you want to continue with images when you get Photoshop. I particullary like the lucky charm signature - there's something extra about it since it is a simple setup, it has a simple colour scheme, yet it is open at the same time. I don't really have any crits for you at this time, though keep experimenting to find the style you suit the best. I believe that Photoshop will give you plenty of opportunities to play around with when you get it.
I'm pretty used to forums, but this particullar one looks rather promising from what I've seen today. (I was lurking while waiting for my account to be fully activated.. X3) And KHvids' name has poped up on youtube and DA so yeah - being the KH geek that I am I hope I will be an active member here. For any user of DeviantArt - you may have seen me there. I'll make an art thread in a minute. For the others - heya, I'm cocohints but is often called coco for short. Obviously, I really love to draw a lot and I always try to expand my trade of tools: digitally, traditionally... manga-style, realistic-style... pencils, paint... Most stuff in the book. X3 I also like to read comics and mangas, but there's so much out there that is hard for me to get since my country is pretty new to the whole manga buisness. But oh well, I learn from fellow peeps. And I'm a fan of the Harry Potter books too, it's one of the main reasons I ever started using the internet in the first place. XD This is starting to become a long post, so I'll just stop there - if there's anything you guys are curious about then fire away and I shall answer the best I can. :3 And sorry if I make any grammar mistakes, there's still some tricky words I can't memorize.. ^^;
Ooh, never seen a thread like this before in any forum! A question from the newbie: What was it that made you interested in the Kingdom Hearts games/manga/whatever you found first?
