Liveinabin's scribbles

That's looking better on my CRT

 

BTW: It seems Indianas arm is much more hairy on the right side of it, almost fluffy (Or is that called peach fuzz or so? Damn dictionary...)

With all those details, somehow the plain background behind the snake doesn't fit. It looks like a vacuum too me.

Good points both.

 

@Manuel: Yes, it does seem that, now I've added lighter colour to the linework, it suggests light passing through hair. Well spotted, I'm going to tone that shading down a bit later on.

 

@Thomas: In my mind, the darker section is a much larger chamber. Perhaps I've brought the brightness level up a little too much for screen viewing. However, printing always makes it a touch darker so I'm a little reticent to drop the levels again. When I'm done on the title surround (which does encroach on the black space a little) I'll print it out and maybe fiddle with it a bit more then.

I like the black behind the snake. It does suggest a larger, mysterious area I think. Not to mention it allows the snake to be seen better and possibly provides area for logos and other copy.

 

I'd be interested in seeing it without the line art layer though. I think you have enough detail in there now to dump the lines as the shading has pretty much defined all the shapes and areas. In fact if you squint it blurs together a little bit and you can get an idea of what it may look like without the black outlines. If you eliminate them you may have to increase contrast a bit to compensate but it may enhance the mood.

I like the black behind the snake. It does suggest a larger, mysterious area I think. Not to mention it allows the snake to be seen better and possibly provides area for logos and other copy.

Agreed.

 

Probably its just my LCD, which displays the area not in all black but in very dark red and green.

It's not your LCD. First rule of painting - NEVER use black. All of the dark areas in this painting are reds, greens, blues etc.

Using black flattens the space and ruins the depth of the picture. See, a dark blue space recedes while a warmer red space suggests foreground. Black is flat and, in any case, if this were a photograph there wouldn't be any black in it as the presence of any light source negates the presence of true black.

 

That was a longer answer than anyone needed.

 

As for the line work, while this picture could exist without the linework layer, I want to keep a level of comic-art style. Not just in this painting, the same ethos runs through pretty much all my work. In fact, the linework used to be much more prominent on my older stuff (see Gunfight and StarFire). When I used to do it in 'real' paint, I'd have a sheet of acetate over the acrylic board with the linework in black pen. Glad those days are gone. Real paint is expensive, never does what you want and has no undo command!!

That was a longer answer than anyone needed.

Actually, I liked that answer just fine. I tend to use black, and really need to try to get away from it for the very reasons you mentioned.

 

Glad those days are gone. Real paint is expensive, never does what you want and has no undo command!!

I've always admired people who could use watercolors well, but to me it was more like alchemy. (Painter has amazing watercolor brushes, by the way.)

 

As for the Undo command - when I have been using the computer a lot, then switch back to pencil and paper, I find my left hand reaching for command-z when I make a mistake instead of an actual eraser.

Haha! I totally do that as well.